The Popular science monthly

ESTABLISHED BY EDWARD L. YOUMANS.

THE

POPULAE SCIENCE

MOI^THLT

EDITED BY JVILZrA3I JAY Y0U3IANS.

VOL. XL.

NOVEMBER, 1S9J^TQ APRIL, 1892.

NEW YORK :

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, AOT) 5 BOND STREET.

1893.

R

DONATED nv Twa

COPTEIGHT, 1892,

bt d. appleton and company.

JAMES CURTIS BOOTH.

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THE ~K *

POPULAR SCIEN0¥
MONTHLY.

NOVEMBER, 1891

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION".

By C. HANFOED HENDEESON.

ONE can scarcely fail to notice, in the intellectual life of
America, how very rapidly a new thought sweejDS across the
continent. It travels with almost the speed of the whirlwind.
The storm center is commonly Boston or New York or Philadel-
phia, and progress is toward the westward. At once the impulse
is felt in Chicago and Denver and San Francisco. A new book,
a new creed, or a new social ideal easily gains the popular ear.
Like the Epicureans and Stoics, we delight to hear a new thing.
It can not be said that this interest is always, or even generally, a
profound or fruitful one. But it has at least this advantage, that
it secures a speedy hearing for such ideas as are put in a form
suitable for assimilation, and this alone is no inconsiderable gain.
The educational movement known as university extension is
an admirable illustration of this national alertness and versatility.
It is a movement capable of very definite presentation and of
calling up equally definite mental images. As a result, it is now
familiar in name at least to the majority of our people, and it has
become so in a surprisingly short space of time. Returned trav-
elers from England have whispered the name in private for sev-
eral years past. Certain phases of the movement, such as the
Toynbee Hall experiment of planting a colony of culture-loving
men in the arid district of London, have for some time attracted
attention on both sides of the water. But, as a distinct object of
public interest and discussion in America, university extension is
hardly two years old. It was not until the winter and spring of
1890 that the movement took rank as a question of the day. Out-
side of the larger and more interested cities, and possibly even
within their borders, it may still be that the name of the move-

TOL. XL. — 1

31769

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment is more familiar than tlie idea for which, it stands. It is the
purpose, then, of the present article to state briefly — as becomes
the importance of the subject — just what university extension is,
somewhat of its history, and what claim it has for a permanent
place in our intellectual life.

University extension has been well defined as a university
education for the whole nation by an itinerant system connected
with established institutions.

I confess that this sounds ideal, the proposition to educate the
whole nation on higher lines, but that is precisely what the move-
ment means. It means that any one in any place and at any time
may take up advanced work in any department of human knowl-
edge, and that qualified men stand ready and willing to help him.
I feel that this is a most significant statement — so significant.
Indeed, that I may be pardoned for having said the same thing
twice.

Our people as a whole are not intellectual and are not culture-
loving. They are not given to what Emerson calls the reasonable
service of thought. The majority of them are the servants of a
much less noble master. It can not be expected, therefore, that so
large an idea as forms the germ of university extension will meet
with anything like immediate fruition. But it is a leaven which
is well worth setting to work. The success of the movement is
already well enough assured to demonstrate that in any com-
munity there are unsuspected numbers with a turn for higher
education, and such an attitude of mind is apt to spread.

That is the end — to permeate the nation, the whole American
people, with a taste for culture, and then to provide means for
satisfying it. It is admitted that such a taste does not generally
exist, but it is believed that it can be brought into being. No
right-minded person, I think, will quarrel with this purpose, pro-
vided it can be shown that the proposed culture is genuine and
not merely a veneer. The method, too, is correspondingly simple,
and it seems to me quite adequate. It would be an impossible
task to civilize all America at once. The Philistine element is
much too strong for that. If the movement attempted such a
task it might well be regarded as overly optimistic. But it is
really as practical in its methods as a paper-box factory. It is
going to attempt no regeneration in the lump, nor to force its
wares where they are not wanted. What it is doing and going to
do is simply this, to put the higher education within reach of
those who care for it, and through these to stimulate others also
to want the same thing. It might be well described as a mission-
ary movement conducted on scientific principles.

Unharnessed to events, the scheme would read somewhat like
a dream. It will be better, then, to give an account of it by telling

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 3

just wliat is being done in England, and what is being done and
planned in America. It is well to begin with England, as being
the older and better organized field. For my knowledge of the
work there I am indebted to the conversations of friends who
have attended the Oxford meetings, and to various reports and
pamphlets, but most of all to an admirable little book on Uni-
versity Extension by Messrs. Mackinder and Sadler, which I
would strongly commend to those who care to go further into the
details and history of the English movement.

The work in England is divided among four organizations:
the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching,
the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and
Victoria University. While there may be some friendly rivalry
as to which shall most abound in good works, it must not be
thought that the organizations are in competition with one
another. This would indeed be impossible in the case of the
London Society, since its staff of lecturers includes those of both
Cambridge and Oxford as well. The chief business of these
central offices is to provide lecturers and to arrange courses. It
must be constantly kept in mind that they are essentially teach-
ing organizations and by no means mere lecture bureaus. It is
true that university extension does not disdain to present knowl-
edge in an attractive form. It makes an admitted effort to be en-
tertaining. But this is only a means to an end. The main object
is more serious, and consequently no course is ever given on mis-
cellaneous topics. The unit consists of twelve weekly lectures on
one approved subject. Such a course, therefore, covers three
months and constitutes one term in the extension work. There
are two a year, the fall and spring terms, separated by the Christ-
mas holidays. Now that the movement is well established, a
strong effort is being made to bring the studies into close educa-
tional sequence, and to have the work of succeeding terms con-
tinue what has been done previously. This is not always pos-
sible, for university extension studies are strictly elective and
are never administered in prescribed amounts. But it represents
the ideal and the more intelligent students clearly see the ad-
vantage of continuous and related work in place of indiscrimi-
nate browsing.

The central offices do not, however, assume the initiative.
They are the agents and inspirers of the local ■ centers. The
movement generally starts in any given neighborhood by the in-
terest and effort of one individual, or perhaps by the concerted
action of several. The known friends of education in the locality
are called upon, and the question of forming a center discussed.
If the scheme seems feasible, a public meeting is arranged, great
care being taken that it shall have no religious, political, or class

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

coloring. A speaker goes to tliem from one of the nniversities
and explains the extension plan. If the impression produced be
favorable and the question of ways and means do not hinder, the
meeting results in the formation of a local center, and a per-
manent secretary and a board of managers are aj)iDointed. A
subject is then chosen, and application made to one of the central
offices for a lecturer. In many cases a particular lecturer is
asked for, as the extension men are coming to have pretty widely
known reputations, and the public naturally selects the most
popular. The question of finance now comes in. The universi-
ties supply qualified lecturers, arrange courses, and hold examina-
tions, but the expenses must be guaranteed by the local centers.
The work does not pay for itself, but then no scheme for higher
education ever does. The receipts from the sale of lecture tickets
may generally be counted upon to meet half the expenses of the
course. The rest must be provided for in some other way, com-
monly by subscriptions or by some larger benefaction. The uni-
versity fee for the twelve lectures is about £45, and the local ex-
penses will generally amount to about £20 more. This is for a
single course. Where more than one course is taken, the propor-
tionate expense is somewhat less.

In most cases the local center is an outgrowth from some
library association or institute, and has already much of the
needed machinery in the way of hall and books. The course is
duly advertised and as strong a local interest enlisted as possible.
The audience is made up of all classes, the more miscellaneous
the better. The extension movement recognizes no class distinc-
tions. It includes the gentry, mechanics, school-teachers, bar-
risters, tradesmen — all, indeed, who will come. The work differs
from that of the school, as it is primarily for the education of
adults, and its methods have men and women in mind as the
material.

And now the lecture begins. It lasts for about an hour, the
lecturer endeavoring not so much to present the whole of the
subject-matter of the evening as to give a distinct and helpful
point of view from which his hearers may look at it for them-
selves. It seems to me that this is a most hopeful feature of the
extension work, and one which brings it into direct line with
the best of modern educational practice. It is the spirit of the
new education to proceed always by appealing to the self-ac-
tivity of the taught rather than simply to their capacity for
receiving.

If the lecturer be skillful, the hour seems very short, for the
feeling is abroad that here is a man thinking out loud and suggest-
ing a whole lot of new thoughts which will make one distinctly
the richer. It is a pleasant sensation, recalling the very cream of

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. . 5

bygone school days, and it shows itself in rows of flashed and
grateful faces. An essential part of the lecture scheme is the
printed syllabus, which is supplied at merely nominal price.
This gives the systematic outline so needful to the student, yet so
uninspiring in the lecture itself. In addition, the syllabus sug-
gests a careful line of home reading in connection with each
lecture. The lecturer also gives out one or more questions which
are to be answered in writing and mailed to him some time before
the next lecture. This home paper work is regarded as of the
utmost importance, since it brings out the thought and original-
ity of the student in a way that a simple lecture never could.

When the lecture is over, a class is formed of alL those who
care to enroll themselves as students, the other hearers withdraw-
ing. The class lasts for about an hour, and also ranks above the
lecture in educational importance. It is here that the personal
intercourse between lecturer and students comes into play. It is,
indeed, very much like the college seminar, and is as conversa-
tional in its tone as the bashfulness of the students will allow.
The lecturer develops his points a little further, and explains any
difficulties that may have arisen. He also uses the occasion to
return the written exercises, and makes such criticisms and com-
ments as he thinks best. Often, misapprehensions are to be cor-
rected, and false views pointed out. Frequently there is the more
agreeable task of reading some particularly good answer, and
acknowledging the justness and perhaps the originality of a stu-
dent's comment. In all cases no names are mentioned, and great
care is taken not to wound the sensitiveness of any one. The
sharper tools of irony and satire are always contraband.

One can readily see how much depends upon the personal
qualities of the lecturer. He must, indeed, be a man out of a
hundred, a well-qualified specialist, a brilliant speaker, and, above
all, a man of much fine tact and discretion. Each organization
has its regular staff of lecturers, who hold, in most cases, some
other appointment, and give only a portion of their time to exten-
sion work. A few, such as Mr. R G. Moulton, of Cambridge, and
Rev. W. Hudson Shaw, of Oxford, devote themselves exclusively
to the movement, and are its most successful exponents. But
many promising young men have also been attracted to extension
work — some through a genuine missionary interest in the spread
of culture, and some for less disinterested motives. It is not,
however, a proper field for experimentation. The work is diffi-
cult and needs men of known ability. The universities try to
guard against failure by duly testing the capabilities of all young
aspirants for lecture appointments. While it is most unfortunate
when the wrong man does get into the work, the mischief is soon
remedied, for his lack of success leaves him in a very short time

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

quite without engagements. In the lecture world there is a mani-
fest survival of the fittest.

When the course ends there is a formal examination, open to
all students who have attended a specified proportion of lectures
and done the requisite home work. Certificates are awarded to
the successful candidates, the results depending upon the term
work as well as the examination. I have not myself much faith
in academic labels, but these certificates have a certain value in
stimulating the students to carry their work to completion.

Where university extension is still untried, half courses, of six
lectures each, are sometimes given by way of experiment, but in
this case no examinations are held and no certificates are awarded.

The statistics of the movement show that it is still increasing
in popularity. All of the numerals which sum up its activity,
attendance, lecturers, courses, have much more than doubled
within the past five years. The figures of 1889-'90 show that
nearly four hundred courses were given, and that these were
attended by over forty thousand people. During the winter of
1890-'91 the attendance was over forty-five thousand. It is esti-
mated that about ten per cent take the examinations. A num-
ber of new and interesting developments have attended this
growth. Besides the regular fall and spring terms there are also
summer meetings at both Oxford and Cambridge, which have
been a most pronounced success. One can scarcely overestimate
the advantage of even this brief residence at the universities
themselves. It is no inconsiderable education simply to be in
Oxford. The tastes which are thus encouraged make possible
better things in the winter courses following. The Cambridge
summer meeting is, on the whole, more scientific in its scope,
and the numbers in attendance are consequently small, but are
increasing as the opportunity becomes better known.

At Oxford the meetings have always been of a more popular
character. The students are numbered by hundreds and even of
late years by the thousand. The meetings only began in 1888,
when the session lasted for but ten days. Yet there were nine
hundred students present. Since then the sessions have length-
ened and the attendance has likewise grown. For obvious reasons
the students are largely drawn from the teaching class, the greater
number being women. The opportunity of hearing such men
as Max Miiller brings even an increasing company of Americans
to these summer meetings.

While the expense is kept as small as possible, the question of
ways and means is too much for many of the poorer extension
students, and scholarships are being founded to enable these to
taste Oxford for at least a few weeks.

There are many other features of the English work, such as

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 7

students' associations, home reading circles, traveling libraries,
and the like, which are doing much to extend its influence and
render the movement permanent. One of these features, the
scheme of affiliating students to the universities, deserves special
mention. What the universities have been working for all along
is the promotion of serious and continued study. Where this
was out of the question, they did what they could, and tried to
stimulate the neighborhood to something better. The work has
now progressed far enough for them to offer a systematic course
of study covering four years, and having a definite end in view.
The students who take eight unit courses in related subjects ap-
proved by the management, and who do the home work and pass
the examinations successfully, receive the title of S. A. — affiliated
student — and have the privilege at any subsequent time of remit-
ting one year's residence at Cambridge, and so completing their
studies there in two years. In the majority of cases two years
would be quite as prohibitory as three, since the students are no
longer young, and are already pledged to some career in life.
Yet affiliation is held to be a great good, for it brings system and
continuity into extension work, and makes a closer and more vital
bond between the universities and the people.

If we come now across the ocean to our own country we shall
find, considering the newness of the movement here, a develop-
ment of the university extension idea even more surprising than
in England. It is a large tribute to the catholicity of this idea
that it stands transplanting so admirably. The needs of the
human spirit are much the same in all countries. What is deep-
est in us and best is essentially cosmopolitan. The extension
scheme is distinctively English in its origin, yet it has needed
surprisingly little adaptation to fit it to American conditions.
Perhaps the chief differences in condition are geographical. Life
is more concentrated in England than with us, and the main
changes will have to be in deference to our magnificent dis-
tances.

In certain quarters the importation of a British idea is resented
almost as warmly as if the article were a steel rail or a durable
cloth. In others, again, it is said that we have had university
extension in America for many years, and we are pointed to the-
lyceums of New England and to Chautauqua. These institutions
have undoubtedly done admirable work, but they are not uni-
versity extension, and it is no discredit to them to say so. I have
no particular desire to represent the movement as unique. It
would be seriously misrepresented, however, if the impression were-
allowed to become current that university extension is simply a
duplication of educational machinery already in successful opera-
tion. It is not. It is a movement with a new end, the popular!-

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

zation of higher Tiniversity education, and it proceeds by a new
method, the personal carrying of this teaching from the universi-
ties to the people. It is held to be more practical to take one man
to a hundred students than to take a hundred students to one
man. It is important to keep this object and this method free
from any confusion with other organized work, for the usefulness
of university extension lies in these lines, and not as a competitor
with already established agencies of culture.

It is somewhat difficult to tell the story of university exten-
sion in America, for the idea sprang into action in a number of
different localities. Without attempting to present the full his-
tory of the movement, it may be said that three distinct ideals
have been advanced — the local plan, represented by Baltimore
and Buffalo ; the State plan, represented by New York ; and the
national plan, represented by Philadelphia.

The local plan is the oldest. Its first home seems to have been
at Johns Hopkins University. Several years ago popular lecture
courses were given by Dr. Adams and his colleagues at various
centers in and around Baltimore, and as time went on the move-
ment assumed more and more the form, and finally the name, of
university extension. Several such courses were given during
the winter and spring of 1888. The method was quite similar to
that followed in England. The course consisted of twelve lect-
ures, followed by the customary extension classes at their conclu-
sion. The students were supplied with printed syllabi of each
course. Dr. Adams also rendered a most important service to the
movement by his interest in making it more generally known
outside of his own city. Similar initiatory work was done by
Dr. Bemis at Buffalo. In the fall of 1887 he gave a course
of lectures on economics, which were quite in the extension
spirit.

The State plan is, I believe, peculiar to New York. It would,
indeed, be less possible elsewhere, since New York is the only
State which has a department created and maintained by statute
to " encourage and promote higher education." The movement
has had the constant interest and support of the best element in
both the city and State. The State Librarian, Mr. Melvil Dewey,
has been particularly active in its promotion. According to this
plan , the State assumes the direction of university extension,
working by means of an established central office at Albany, and
operating through existing institutions for higher education. The
Legislature has recently granted an appropriation of ten thousand
dollars for carrying on the enterprise. Already much good work
has been done in the way of lecture courses and printed syllabi
and text books.

The national plan has been a slower evolution. It is an out-

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. g

growth of tlie local society at Philadelphia. The history of this
organization is sufficiently typical to warrant its statement in
some detail, the more so as its aims are now national. The idea
of university extension was not known to the city at large until
the winter and spring of 1890. It aroused so much interest, how-
ever, that the public discussion of the question led to the forma-
tion of a society on the 1st of June. Dr. Pepper, the Provost of
the University of Pennsylvania, became its first president, and
Mr. George Henderson was chosen secretary. The society at once
went to work in a most practical and business-like way. It was
recognized that two things were wanted — more definite informa-
tion in regard to what was being done in England, and also the
interest and co-operation of educators connected with neighbor-
ing teaching bodies. Accordingly, the secretary was sent to
Europe, and in the fall presented a report of what had been accom-
plished there. Further, a circular letter addressed to the availa-
ble teachers of the locality assured the society of a sufficient staff
of lecturers. These ends gained, the work of the society began
last fall in earnest. The first local center was at Roxboroiigh
and was organized in connection with St. Timothy's Working-
men's Club and Institute, which was already provided with an
excellent hall and well-selected library. The subject chosen was
chemistry, the first lecture being given on November 3d. The
formation of centers and the announcement of courses soon
became epidemic. By spring it was a rare thing to find any one
among the more thoughtful classes who had not attended at least
one extension lecture.

In the one season forty-two courses were given, numbering
about two hundred and fifty lectures. The total attendance was
about 55,500, a result unparalleled even in England.

Numbers alone are a very bad standard for an educational
movement, but figures such as these indicate at least a wealth of
teachable material. The success has indeed been beyond the
most sanguine expectation. The idea is, I believe, due to Dr.
Pepper that so vast a movement as this should properly be a
national interest, and without local bounds. In December, there-
fore, the society changed both its name and its purpose, and
became the American Society for the Extension of University
Teaching.

The work in England, it will be remembered, is divided among
four organizations, and there are advocates of this separation as
well as of unification. Here in America the movement is just
beginning, and we are called upon to choose. It must not be un-
derstood that the three plans mentioned are in any way antago-
nistic or are meant to compete with one another. They are the
natural products of the different conditions under which they

lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

have grown up. The only question is as to which plan will best
serve the cause of culture. There is much to be said for all of
these ideals, but it seems to me that the balance is indisputably in
favor of the national plan. Already the American Society has
extended its operations outward from Philadelphia as a center
for upward of one hundred and fifty miles, and its purpose is to
reach from ocean to ocean. A large step toward nationalization
has been taken in the West. The extension work in Colorado,
centering about the University of Denver, and perhaps the im-
mense work planned for Chicago, will become branches of the
American Society. It is also hoped that association may be
brought about with the New York work. By bringing all these
movements into one organization there will be greater adminis-
trative economy and greater system in the educational results.

What has been already accomplished by the National Society
makes entirely reasonable the large plans which it has in mind
for the future. The acting president of the organization is now
Prof. E. J. James, who has associated with him educators of fore-
most rank from all sections of the country. It is proposed to
utilize every feature which experience in England has shown to
be helpful. The success of the American Society is indeed largely
due to the fact that it has done little useless experimenting. The
first season is always critical, but the movement had the large
advantage of the constant service and counsel of Mr. Moulton.
His many years' experience in the English work made him in-
valuable here. During nearly the entire season he lectured after-
noon and evening in Philadelphia and its suburbs as well as in
other American cities. He will be followed winter after next by
the Rev. Hudson Shaw.

Now that university extension is well launched in America, it
is hoped to offer more thoroughly systematized courses of study
than was possible during the first season. A journal known as
University Extension has been established, and issued its first
number in July. Summer meetings will also be arranged, pref-
erably at different university towns throughout the country. It
is further proposed to introduce the plan of affiliating students
to the universities, or even to go further than this, and finally to
offer full courses leading to university degrees.

A most important and indeed an integral part of the work
will be in the line of encouraging home stiidy, and a well-thought-
out plan has already been adopted. This provides a systematic
course for that vast number of solitary students who can neither
attend a university nor even form an extension center, but who
are well worthy of the attention of a society committed to the
cause of general culture. As at present arranged the courses
cover four years of seven months each, or twenty-eight months

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. n

of study in all, and are strictly along university lines. It is true
that these students lose the large gain which comes from jjersonal
intercourse with the teacher, but they are in constant communi-
cation with him, and by his letters and printed notes he can be an
immense help in the way of stimulating and directing. At the
end of four years a regular examination will be held. Those who
pass it successfully and whose progress during the course has
been satisfactory will be awarded a certificate which it is the pur-
pose of the society to make of recognized value.

It is, then, an almost realized dream that any one in any place
whatsoever may have the advantage of university education. It
is a mistaken idea altogether, and one that has robbed the race
of much progress, that education ends when maturity begins. By
that time one has only gathered a few of the materials of culture.
A grown-up man or woman with a book in hand for the purpose
of serious study is in too many American communities almost an
anomaly. But we have now fallen, it is hoped, upon better days,
and the education of men and women has become a national
purpose.

When a rich man founds an institution, erects substantial
buildings for its accommodation, and bestows his name upon it as
well as his money, public attention is arrested, for there is some-
thing visible and tangible for comment to spend itself upon. But
right here, in our very midst, there is growing up a university
more vast, I am bound to believe, than any of these extensive
benefactions, and one destined to make a more profound impres-
sion upon the intellectual life of America than has yet been made.
It is a university whose strength lies in this, that its students are
as miscellaneous as society itself ; that it is bound to no creed, no
class, no party, but is committed only to the service of truth — not
truth as you or I see it, or as any particular body of men see it,
but to that increasingly transparent vision of truth which comes
to humanity as a whole. Nor is the purpose of this university
defeated by distance and railroad fares. It is the guest of every
man or woman who will make it welcome. Neither does it
demand what so often can not be given, one's entire time. Its
duties may be fulfilled at odd moments, at any time as well as at
any place.

To carry out so vast a purpose as this is going to take a pro-
portionate number of men. And to do it thoroughly, on the high
plane which is promised, is going to take thoroughly equipped
men. It is still an open question as to just how this need shall
be supplied. All the lecturers so far, with the exception of Mr.
Moulton and possibly one or two others, have been men holding
positions in established institutions, and this has had its advan-
tages. The men bring the experience and the discij^lined spirit of

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the class-room with them and teach as well as lecture. And the
effect upon the men is good too. The human element in them
grows, and this without loss of scholarship. But so large an un-
dertaking as this can not obviously take second place in the con-
sideration of its agents. As time goes on, the staff of lecturers
will probably include an increasing number of men who give
their entire time to extension work.

It might be well if a man could alternate between resident and
itinerant duty. Perhaps this would save him from that intellect-
ual stagnation which is one of the chief dangers of the professo-
rial chair. At present it seems to me that our universities are too
much the asylum of men who nurse rather than use their scholar-
ship, or who give their best energy to original research and throw
only an occasional crumb to those who are pleasantly called their
students. In all but the largest institutions one man has gen-
erally to teach several branches of his subject. If he did both
university and extension work, he might devote himself to one
particular branch and get better results in both fields. Prof.
Johnson used to say that he wished there might be a professor
for each chemical element, and he would like to be Professor of
Iridium. But this is a matter which may safely be left to expe-
rience.

Besides the men, money is needed. So far, the work of the
society has been paid for by the annual membership dues of five
dollars, while each local center has met the expense of its own
courses. The lecturer's fee is always fifteen dollars a lecture.
This is paid to the central office by the local center, the lecturer
having no direct business relations with the people to whom he
goes. The incidental expenses of the course, varying with the
locality, are met by the local management. Extension work may
thus be undertaken by any university which will devote a little
of the time of its secretary to the purpose, and by any local center
which can raise the fee for a course of six lectures, ninety dollars,
and provide for incidentals. It will thus be seen that very little
money is required to make the experiment of an extension course.
In some instances the local centers have had a considerable bal-
ance at the end of the season. But this has been due to the fact
that only popular subjects have been chosen. It has been the
experience in England, and it will undoubtedly be the experience
here, that the more systematic and satisfactory work will not pay
for itself. Some outside revenue must be looked to.

In England, several plans have been tried and proposed. In
some cases a fixed subscription, as with the American Society,
supplies the needed funds. In others, associations are formed and
shares offered for sale, while still others depend upon private
munificence. But all these resources are transient, and place the

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.

»3

work much at the hazard of changing fortunes. A better finan-
cial basis is wanted. It has, therefore, been proposed to attempt to
secure endowment, through personal benefactions, by the definite
assignment of university funds, or through state aid.

Sooner or later the same problem must be met here in Ameri-
ca. Sufficient funds have been forthcoming to start the move-
ment and carry it through a highly successful season. That
was the main thing. The good gained is now to be secured and
extended. To do this it is very desirable that the revenues shall
not be precarious. The present source of income, by subscrip-
tions, will keep the movement alive, but it will not allow that
more comprehensive policy which seems so desirable. Private
endowment has already done something and will probably do
more, as the opportunities for good become known.

The possibility of enlisting Government aid opens a larger
question. University extension is a national movement which is
intended to reach all classes and to promote the most vital inter-
ests of the nation. It has, then, as large a claim upon the national
pocket-book as any interest which the Government can recognize.
The States provide for primary and secondary education; the na-
tion might well provide for the higher culture. It seems to me a
possible and in many ways a highly desirable scheme that with
the unification of university extension into one national society,
and the division of the country into suitable districts, the work
should assume a truly national character and should be brought
into close relation with the Department of Education at Wash-
ington. The commissioner might have his representative in each
extension district, and the local office thus organized would not
only be the center of the extension work in the district, but it
could also render material service in the collection of educational
statistics, and in bringing the department into more vital touch
with the schools of the country. In this way we should have a
university coextensive with America, a truly national university,
since it would include the entire people, and one which would be
a much greater power for good than the elaborate institution
which is dreamed of for the capital city.

It is a commonplace that the most vital interest of America
is the education of her citizens, and that her greatest danger lies
in the disintegrating force of ignorance within her own borders.
But this largest interest, both in point of power and of danger, is
given secondary place in the national councils. We have a Sec-
retary of War, of the Navy, of the Treasury, and of such material
interests, but we have no Secretary of Education. With the ele-
vation of the commissioner to the place of a cabinet ofiicer, the
new portfolio would be well charged with power if it had linked
to it the destiny of a work of such magnitude and promise as uni-

14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

versity extension. We should then be committed as a people in
very practice to what we now profess only in theory, to the en-
lightenment and elevation of the whole nation. There are doubt-
less difficulties and objections in the way of carrying out the sug-
gestion here brought forward ; but, when the evidence for and
against is duly considered, I believe that the balance will be
found much in favor of such a nationalization of the extension
movement.

As I set down in formal order these statements concerning the
achievements and potentialities of university extension, I feel
again the deep enthusiasm which was aroused by a first acquaint-
ance with that large idea for which the movement stands. The
attempt to realize this idea has had mixed with it somewhat that
was unworthy. There has been a manifest tendency to estimate
its worth by the common American standard of numbers. That
thousands should listen to a popular extension lecturer was count-
ed success ; and men have gone into the work for the admitted
purpose of advertising themselves and their branches. But these
are the accidents of the movement. Under them there is an es-
sential principle, a working idea, which has in it immense
promise.

As a people we greatly need the leaven of a higher purpose.
The ideal of life most current has in it much that is sordid and
mercenary. Here is an opportunity to present a more worthy
ideal, to substitute for the popular self-assertion a spirit of greater
teachableness. We have not yet reached a point where we can
impose our ideas upon the world-spirit, however vaingloriously
we may try. They are not worthy. They must needs be reno-
vated and transformed before they deserve permanence. The
greatest claim which the extension movement can have upon
thoughtful people is that it is an organized crusade against that
current Philistinism which devotes the social opportunity known
as America to lower motives and ends than are worthy of it. It
is a mistake to suppose for an instant that the public schools of
the country will ever save us from the utterly commonplace, or to
fancy that the higher education is an expensive luxury which we
can quite as well do without. On the contrary, it is just as much
a necessity as the elementary training. It is essential to have
good foundations, but, if we all went to building cellars and
stopped there, we should never have any cities. We need the
higher education in America, and we need it in large measure, for
we are a people with a large opportunity. And we need it par-
ticularly now, for the grave problems which press upon us for so-
lution will demand a tolerance and large-mindedness which come
only when the human spirit is well disciplined. We have here a
great and busy people, but a people too unimaginative and too

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 15

unideal. We need the infusion of a spirit of culture into tlie
national thought and life, if we are to realize the destiny which
seems possible to us.

The preaching of Peter the Hermit aroused all Europe. The
present occasion is less picturesque, but the crusade which it
preaches stands for interests much more vital than the recovery
of Jerusalem.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES
SINCE COLUMBUS.

IX. THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL. {Concluded.)
Br WILLIAM F. DURFEE, Engineer.

WHILE the Englishmen, Bessemer and Parry, and the Ameri-
can, Martien, were experimenting in England, the germ
which they were trying to develop into vigorous life had been
discovered in America; for the evidence is unimpeachable that
the late William Kelly had been for several years experimenting
in the same direction as his English contemporaries. We are
indebted to Mr. James M. Swank for securing a description of
these experiments from Mr. Kelly himself; and the reader who
desires to s§e the most complete account yet published of them
will find it in Mr. Swank's Iron in all Ages.

Mr. Kelly and his brother bought the Eddyville Iron Works,
in Kentucky, in 1846. Their product was pig metal and charcoal
blooms. As a result of close study, the idea occurred to Mr. Kelly
that in the refining process fuel would be unnecessary after the
iron was melted, if powerful blasts of air were forced into the fluid
metal, for the heat generated by the union of the oxygen of the
air with the carbon of the metal would be sufiicient to accomplish
the refining. He first built a small blast-furnace, about twelve
feet high, in which to test this idea. The furnace had two tuyeres,
one above the other, the upper one to melt the stock, and the
lower to convey the blast into the metal. He began his experi-
ments in October, 1847, but was interrupted by other work, and
did not find time to take them up again till 1851. Finding that
this furnace was not capable of melting the iron properly, he de-
cided to separate his refining process from the melting operation,
and take the metal already melted from the blast-furnace. In
these experiments he was endeavoring to produce malleable iron.

" With this object in view," says Mr. I^elly, " I built a furnace,
consisting of a square brick abutment, having a circular chamber
inside, the bottom of which was concave like a molder's ladle.
In the bottom was fixed a circular tile of fire-clay, perforated for

i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tuyeres. Under this tile was an air-chamber, connected by pipes
with the blowing-engine. This is substantially the plan now
used in the Bessemer converter. The first trial of this furnace
was very satisfactory. The iron was well refined and decarbon-
ized— at least as well as by the finery fire. This fact was ad-
mitted by all the forgemen who examined it. The blowing was
usually continued from five to ten minutes, whereas the finery
fire required over an hour. Here was a great saving of time and
fuel, as well as great encouragement to work the process out to
perfection. I was not satisfied with making refined or run-out
metal ; my object was to make malleable iron. In attempting
this I made, in the course of the following eighteen months, a
variety of experiments. I built a suitable hot-blast oven ; but,
after a few trials, abandoned it, finding the cold blast preferable,
for many reasons. After many trials of this furnace I found
that I could make refined metal, suitable for the charcoal forge
fire, without any difficulty, and, when the blast was continued
for a longer period, the iron would occasionally be somewhat
malleable. At one time, on trying the iron, to my great sur-
prise, I found the iron would forge well, and it was pronounced
as good as any charcoal forge iron. I had a piece of this iron
forged into a bar four feet long and three eighths of an inch
square. I kept this bar for exhibition, and was frequently asked
for a small j^iece, which I readily gave, until it was reduced to a
length of a few inches. This piece I have still in my possession.
It is the first piece of malleable iron or steel ever made by the
pneumatic process."

Although not giving up the idea of making malleable iron,
Mr. Kelly now proceeded to utilize his invention so far as it was
a complete success. He built a converter, five feet high and
eighteen inches inside diameter, with the tuyere in the side. In
this vessel he could refine fifteen hundred-weight of metal in
from five to ten minutes, effecting a great saving in time and
fuel. After a few days' trial, the old, troublesome " run-out "
fires were entirely dispensed with. " M}^ process," says Mr. Kelly,
in the account above quoted, " was known to every iron-maker in
the Cumberland River iron district as ' Kelly's air-boiling pro-
cess.' The reason why I did not apply for a patent for it sooner
than I did was that I flattered myself I would soon make it the
successful process I at first endeavored to achieve — namel}", a pro-
cess for making malleable iron and steel. In 1857 I applied for a
patent, as soon as I heard that other men were following the same
line of experiments in England ; and, although Mr. Bessemer was
a few days before me in obtaining a patent, I was granted an inter-
ference, and the case was heard by the Commissioner of Patents,
who decided that I was the first inventor of this process, now

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 17

known as the Bessemer process, and a patent was granted me
over Mr. Bessemer."

There has been a feeling among metallurgists in both hemi-
spheres that William Kelly's claims as an originator of a process
similar in all its essential features to that invented by Henry
Bessemer rest on a very unsubstantial foundation of experi-
mental facts and experience. This impression is entirely errone-
ous, as was proved in the interference proceedings before the
Commissioner of Patents, pending the issuance of a patent to
Kelly (June 23, 1857) ; and again in 1870, when the question of
granting an extension of Bessemer's patent (of November 11,
1856) was before the United States Patent Office, the commissioner
refused to grant such extension, holding that the patent should
not have been issued, as William Kelly was the prior inventor ;
and still again, when in 1871 William Kelly's patent was extended
for seven years, it having been proved to the satisfaction of the
commissioner that he had not been sufficiently remunerated for
the invention ; and yet again, by the fact of royalties having
been regularly paid by the manufacturers of steel during the
whole of the seven years for which Kelly's patent was extended,
for the right to use his invention; and so unimpeachable was
the evidence on which his claims were founded, that there was
no attempt to set them aside during that time.*

The plain, straightforward statement of Mr. Kelly above quoted
is an additional proof that he was no mere schemer or dreamer.
It is evident that he had a definite end in view — the making of
malleable iron — and had he possessed more. capital and been situ-
ated where he could have availed himself of the best facilities, it
is quite probable that he would have arrived at that end by the
employment of methods and apparatus which would have left
little to be desired ; but, located in a small community (Eddyville
had not five hundred inhabitants), in a part of the country re-
mote from the best mechanical appliances and with limited
means, it is remarkable that he carried his invention as far as
he did before the heavy hand of bankruptcy crushed alike his
ledgers and experiments.

As matters stood when Kelly's patent was issued, Bessemer
had received a patent for the same invention, and at a later date a
number of patents for apparatus the design of which was clearly
very far in advance of anything accomplished by Kelly. Joseph
G. Martien also had obtained a patent (February 24, 1857) for sub-

* In this connection it is proper to note that all the profits which the owners of the
patents of Bessemer, Kelly, and Mushet ever received were earned and divided during the
seven years covered by the extension of the patent of William Kelly ; and had not that
extension been granted, the parties who had put their money into the purchase of these
patents would never have received one cent for their investment.

VOL. XL. — 2

i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stantially the same claims as he had patented in England ; but^ so
far as can be ascertained, he made no attempt to work his process,
having become convinced that the inventions of Bessemer and
Kelly were mnch more practical and really of an earlier date.*

On May 26, 1857, Kobert F. Mushet, son of David Mushet, the
famous Scotch metallurgist, obtained an American patent for the
addition of a compound of iron, carbon, and manganese to cast
iron in the process of making malleable iron and steel. Previous
to this invention neither Bessemer nor Kelly had secured uniform
product ; and in fact Kelly had in only a few instances been able
to make a malleable metal, Mushet's invention, therefore, became
at once of controlling value as respects the new method of manu-
facturing steel.

Early in the year 1860 the attention of the late Zohetli Shear-
man Durfee f was attracted to the Bessemer process. Having
become convinced of the great value of the process claimed alike
by Bessemer and Kelly, he induced the late Captain E. B. Ward,
of Detroit, to join him in obtaining control of Kelly's patents, and
of the American patents of Bessemer's apparatus and process,
and of Mushet's manganese mixture. In 1861 Mr. Durfee went to
Europe and spent several months in studying the practice of
making " Bessemer steel " in England, France, and Sweden. After
his return he and Captain Ward, in May, 1863, organized " The
Kelly Process Company,^' admitting Daniel J. Morrell, of Johns-
town, Pa., and William M. Lyon and James Park, Jr., of Pitts-
burg, Pa,, to an interest in the enterprise. J Although Mr. Kelly

* Under date of May 29, 1357, Martien wrote to Messrs. Munn & Co., the solicitors of
William Kelly, a most generous letter, in which he abandons all claim to precedence in
the invention. The following is an extract from this letter: "I have found and have
been made perfectly satisfied, from the ample testimony laid before me in the case, that Mr.
Kelly is honestly the first and original inventor of the said process of manufacturing iron
without fuel. I find, moreover, that he has quietly been and is making improvements and
advancing with his invention in a very praiseworthy manner, and of which the public will
be put in possession in a short time."

f The late Z. S. Durfee was born in Fall River, Mass., on April 22, 1831, and died in
Providence, R. I., June 8, 1880. He was a practical worker in iron and steel, and I claim
that he was the first business man in America to fully appreciate the great value of the
new process. He manifested the faith that was in him by a persistent effort to secure its
adoption, and, had his views been supported by his business associates, the manufacture of
steel by the pneumatic process would have been both a technical and commercial success
in the United States many years earlier than it was.

X These gentlemen were selected because of their well-known business ability and
their influential association with or ownership of some of the largest and best-appointed
iron and steel works of the country, and it was confidently expected that they would take a.
lively interest in the new process by promptly employing it in the works with which they
were identified, and that their example would be very generally followed by the larger iron
and steel works of the United States. In this expectation Captain Ward and Z. S. Durfee
were greatly disappointed, as neither Mr. Lyon nor Mr. Parke ever adopted the process in
their works, and Mr. Morrell only succeeded in overcoming the objections of his associates

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 19

was not included in this company, a certain interest in any
profits which it might make was guaranteed to him. Mr. Z. S.
Durfee soon went to England again to arrange for the control of
the rights of Bessemer and Mushet in America. He was unsuc-
cessful in the former case, but obtained, October 24, 1864, control
of the American patent for the use of spiegeleisen, as Mushet's
triple compound was called, on terms which admitted Robert F.
Mushet, Thomas D. Clare, and John N. Brown, of England, to
membership in the company ; and on the 6th of September, 1865,
it was further enlarged by the admission of Charles P. Chouteau,
James Harrison, and Felix Vallt^, all of St. Louis, Mo.*

While Z. S. Durfee was on his first visit to Europe, the writer
of these papers was invited by Captain Ward to design and erect
an experimental plant to determine the possibility of making a
good steel by the new process from Lake Superior iron. I ac-
cepted the invitation, and reached Detroit, Mich., on the morning
of July 1, 1862. It was decided to construct a blowing engine,
and a converting vessel large enough for producing steel on a
commercial scale, with reference to their use in a works properly
planned for economical administration and production should the
experimental works justify such an enterprise. As to the rest of
the plant, it was decided to construct it as cheaply and simply as
would answer the purpose of the experimental works only, and it
was further decided that the experimental plant was to be located
adjacent to, and partly in, the building of the Eureka Furnace
at Wyandotte, Mich., about ten miles from Detroit, where Cap-
tain Ward had extensive rolling-mills. The metal for the ex-
periments would be taken direct from the blast-furnace, and the
spiegeleisen was to be melted in crucibles.

As soon as this general scheme was fixed upon, I began my
plans for carrying it out. But very little guidance was obtain-
able in this task. I had never seen any apparatus for the manu-
facture of steel by the method proposed, and the description of
that used by Mr. Kelly convinced me that it was not suited for
an experiment on so large a scale as was contemplated at Wyan-
dotte. As it was confidently expected that Z. S. Durfee would
be able to purchase Bessemer's American patents, it was thought
only to be anticipating the acquisition of property rights to use
his inventions. I accordingly procured copies of his patents,

in the Cambria Iron Company (of which he was general manager) in such time as to enable
him to commence making steel eight years after he was admitted as a member of " The
Kelly Process Company."

* These gentlemen were owners and operators of large iron-works ; and, although their
admission as members of " The Kelly Process Company " was with the expectation that
their example and influence would promote its interest, they did not erect steel-works, and
the company was in no way strengthened by their connection with it.

20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which, together with the description contained in the first edition
of Fairbairn's History of the Manufacture of Iron, embraced all

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the information then accessible to me relative to the European
practice of the new art.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS.

21

Difficult as my task was, it was made almost insupportably
burdensome by the outspoken opposition of nearly every influ-
ential person in Wyandotte. Nevertheless the work progressed,
so that on the return of Z. S. Durfee from England in September,
1862, I was enabled to show him the "converter" nearly com-
plete, and was greatly pleased to hear him say that it " looked

Fig. 61.— ('iMss-f^KCTioN of the Casting-house at Wyandotte.

very like converters that he had seen abroad." In the winter of
1863-63 the blowing engine was commenced, but owing to various
interruptions it was not completed till the spring of 1864.

The plan (Fig. 60) shows the general features of the arrange-
ment adopted, save that over the casting-pit was a single-track
traveling-hoist for handling ingots and molds. This hoist was op-
erated by a winch located at lu, the space allotted me in the cast-
ing-house not permitting the use of a crane of ordinary form.

The reverberatory furnace for melting pig iron was not in-
cluded in my original programme ; but in the summer of 1864,
before the first conversion was made, it was decided to erect it in
order that we could experiment with a variety of brands of pig

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

iron sent us by parties interested in the works. A hearth was
made near the base of the chimney for melting spiegel ; and sub-
sequently a small furnace (located at S, Fig. GO) was constructed
for melting spiegel when the metal for conversion was taken
direct from the blast-furnace.*

Continuing our description of the works, Fig. 01 is a view of the
machinery in the casting-house as it apj^eared to a person standing
in the " pulpit " (see Fig. 60) and looking toward the converter, V.
This converter is represented on a larger scale in sectional ele-

Section of Tuyere on line A.B-

Lower end of Tuyere

Fig. 62.— Section or the First American Steel Converter.

vation by Fig. 62 ; and to the right of this figure is seen a longi-
tudinal section and end views of one of the seven tuyeres used in
the converter. This vessel was made with its upper part in two
separate sections, and it was supported on its trunnions by two

* It was at these works, in the summer of 1865, that Z. S. Durfee made the first
attempt to melt pig metal in a cupola for use in the converting vessel. At that time the
practice abroad was to melt the metal in a reverberatory furnace. Owing to the small size
of the eupola and its distance from the converting vessel, the experiment was not entirely
successful ; but Mr. Durfee did not abandon his belief in the usefulness of this process.
I claim for him the origination of the idea of cupola melting, which has contributed so
much to the rapidity and economy of production in the steel-works of the world.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 23

tall cast-iron standards, and was turned by worm-gearing arranged
to be driven either by band or power. The engine which supplied
the blast to the converter is represented in front elevation by Fig.
G3 ; it was constructed from original working drawings made by
the writer. It was intended to produce a pressure of blast of six-
teen pounds per square inch, which was regarded as very heavy ; in
fact, I was informed, at the time of commencing the plans for this
engine (the winter of 18G3-'63), that the pressure used for blowing
steel in England and Sweden was but eight pounds. I adopted
the higher pressure with a view to shortening the time required
for a " blow," but I soon became satisfied that this was a mistaken
departure. I found myself in most excellent company, however,
for, before my engine was finished, steel was blown in England
with a blast pressure of twenty-five pounds, a practice which
has continued until the present time. The engine had three
upright cylinders of the same internal dimensions (twenty-four
inches in diameter and thirty-six-inch stroke), the middle one
being the steam cylinder and the outside ones the blowing
cylinders.

Very soon after entering upon the study of the new process it
became evident to me that an accurate knowledge of the chemical
constituents of the metals and other materials employed was
essential to its successful conduct ; for, after we had found by
working them that certain irons were, and others were not, suited
to our purpose, analysis would in future enable us to determine
whether any offered brand of iron was of suitable quality. These
considerations, with others, determined the addition of a chemical
laboratory to the works.*

As late as 1868 a large establishment for the manufacture of
steel (in which over a million dollars was invested) commenced
operations in western Pennsylvania, and at the end of one year
it was abandoned and dismantled, the whole of the investment
having been utterly lost in consequence of attempting to use ma-
terial which an analysis costing not over fifty dollars would have
shown to be absolutely unfit for the purpose intended. American
" iron-masters " (so called) were not alone in their contempt for
chemistry. I have in my possession a pamphlet published by a
well-known firm of steel manufacturers in Sheffield, England, as
late as 1870, for the purpose of attracting attention and trade, in
which the following sentences occur : " The various articles on the

* At this time there was no such thing as a laboratory in connection with a steel-works
in America: to the so-called "practical steel-makers" chemistry was an unknown and
unappreciated science, and no sneer was too cynical for them to bestow upon those who
advocated its employment. The laboratory at Wyandotte (which was derisively called
"^ Durfee's 'pothecary-shop ") was ultimately destroyed by the influence of incarnate ma-
licious ignorance.

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

manufacture of cast steel in encyclopaedias and other works are
for the most part out of date or are written by scientific men hav-
ing little or no practical acquaintance with the subject, and con-
sequently are not of much value. . . . The steel manufacturers of
Sheffield are not chemists. The application of chemistry to the
manufacture of cast steel has not yet met with any success. The

Fig. 63. — Blowing-Engine of the Wyandotte Works.

analysis of steel is a very difficult process. It has frequently
been attempted in Sheffield, but never with any practical success."
It is possible that the triumphs of chemistry during the past
twenty years, as illustrated by the Thomas- Gilchrist and many
other important improvements in metallurgical practice, may
have convinced the worshipers of the ultra-practical — American

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 25

as well as English— that there are possibilities in chemistry not
dreamed of in their philosophy.

The need of a laboratory was fully appreciated by Mr. Z. S.
Durfee, and in the spring of 1863 he secured the services of Mr.
Emil Schalk, a native of Germany, and a graduate of the Ecole
Centrale of Paris, as chemist. On his arrival in Detroit, at the
request of Captain E. B. Ward, he accompanied an exploring
party to northern Wisconsin. The result of this expedition was
the discovery of a number of deposits of excellent iron ore.

On Mr. Schalk's return in October, 1863, he commenced some
original investigations with a view to determine the influence of
nitrogen upon steel, which promised to develop very interesting
and valuable results ; but, unfortunately, circumstances for which

Fig. 64.-

w w

-Chemical Laboratory at Wyandotte.

he was in no way responsible caused his resignation in December,
1863, before they were completed. Of Mr. Schalk's abilities I had
the highest estimation, and I very much regretted his departure
from Wyandotte.

I will now describe the arrangement of the laboratory. The
main building shown in the plan (Fig. 64) was about twenty-four
feet square ; it was divided by a partition into two rooms, A and
B, of equal size, and each about eighteen feet high. At the rear
of this building was a lean-to shed, C ; cZ is an entrance to this
shed from without ; x, a door communicating with A ; and y is
the main entrance to the building. The room A was used for
general analytical work, and was provided with furniture and
VOL. XL. — 3

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

apparatus, as shown in the plan. The furnishing of the room B
is also indicated.

The *' melting-hole,'' in the corner of the lean-to shed C, was
large enough to receive a pot which would hold seventy pounds
of melted metal. Space will not permit a detailed description of
the apparatus used in this laboratory,* but it would be regarded
at the present day even, as thoroughly adequate for its purpose.

In the works at Wyandotte, on one of the early days of Sep-
tember, 1864, was produced, under the supervision of the writer
of these papers, the first " Bessemer steel " f made in America.

* This description of tlie Experimental Steel Works of Wyandotte is, owing to space
limitations, much curtailed ; but any interested reader will find in the Transactions of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, vol. vi, p. 40, and in the Transactions of the
American Institute of Mining Engineers, vol. xii, p. 223, papers by the writer hereof in
which much more attention is given to details than is here permissible.

f I adopt here and elsewhere in this article the popular designation, for the reason
that I believe it to be the just and proper one ; for, while there is no room for a doubt
that the late WiUiam Kelly anticipated Bessemer by several years in the discovery of the
fundamental idea of the process, he did not carry it out to its ultimate possibility as a
means for the manufacture of steel ; and while there is no reason to believe that Besse-
mer ever heard of what Kelly was doing, it is pretty certain that had not Kelly noted the
granting of a patent to Bessemer he would never (owing to his unfavorable location sup-
plemented by pecuniary embarrassment) have been able to procure such attention from the
iron trade of this country as would have insured him any reward for his invention. Fur-
thermore, although in Kelly's stationary " converter," it would have been, under proper
management, quite possible to make a satisfactory quality of steel (stationary "con-
verters " were used in Sweden with success for many years), it was quite evident from the
first that the highly original and ingenious apparatus invented by Bessemer (especially
the tilting " converter," and the " casting ladle " having a tap-hole in its bottom) was far
superior to anything proposed by Kelly. It is also quite evident that had not Mushet (or
some one else) suggested the use of spiegeleisen, neither the ideas of Kelly nor Bessemer
would have been of value except in the direction in which they were practically carried
out by Kelly as a substitute for the refinery-fire, or in the special case of iron containing a
notable quantity of manganese (as was the fact in those used at first in Sweden) ; but it is
not at all probable that Kelly would have discovered what was necessary to perfect the
process, as he had no knowledge of spiegeleisen (in 1857 no iron was known in the com-
merce of America by that name) and was not a chemist or an employer of chemists — but,
judging from the fact that Bessemer availed himself of the aid of chemistry at an early
day in his investigations, it is not at all improbable that he would have himself discovered
the value of spiegeleisen had not Mushet anticipated him. I think all the facts warrant
the naming the discovery The Bessemer-Kelly-Mushet Process ; but as Bessemer, by his
ingenuity, persistence in methodical endeavor, and business sagacity, is clearly entitled to
the first place, and if the process is to bear but one name, the popular verdict of over
thirty years is fully justifiable in calling it " The Bessemer Process."

While we are thus considering the relative merits of the chief actors in this metallur-
gical drama, it is but just that we should award due praise to Martien, the American, and
Parry, the Englishman, for ideas of great originality, which, had they been followed out to
their logical conclusion, must have developed similar results to those attained by Besse-
mer. These metallurgists evidently were standing, as it were, on the " delectable moimt-
ains " of discovery, and seeing dimly and afar some suggestions of the practical glories
of the metallurgy of coming generations.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 27

This event was a great disappointment to all those who had filled
the air with predictions of failure, and they immediately turned
their attention to a general depreciation of the results attained,
and the persecution, with renewed vigor, of all who were respon-
sible for them.

The first steel rails produced in America were rolled at the
works of the Chicago Rolling-Mill Company (now a part of the
Illinois Steel Company's plant, but then under the superintend-
ency of O, W. Potter, Esq., late President of the Illinois Steel
Companj^), at Chicago, on the 24th day of May, 18G5. These rails
were successfully rolled in a " twenty-one-inch three-high train,"
whose rolls were intended for rolling iron rails, and this fact is
indubitable evidence of the excellent quality of the steel. There
were three rails rolled on the 2-l:th, and on the 25th three others.*
Various experiments were tried to test the ductility and work-
ing qualities of the steel produced at Wyandotte ; some of the
early product was sent to Bridge water, Mass., and there rolled
into tack plate and cut into tacks, which were pronounced to be
very much superior to any previously made of iron.f In order
to test the welding qualities of the steel, John Bishop, the black-
smith of the works, made a tobacco-pipe, the size of an ordinary
clay pipe, the bowl and stem of which were welded up of Wyan-
dotte steel, and when perfectly polished there was no visible evi-
dence of a weld. I have now two jackknives and a razor made
from this steel ; the knives are rather soft, but the razor was used
regularly by my father for fifteen years, to his entire satisfaction.

When it had been shown that the pneumatic process was a
qualitative success, instead of carrying out the original under-
standing and erecting new works arranged with especial refer-
ence to rapid and economical w^orking, the parties in interest in-
sisted that I should put a second converter into the experimental
works, and attempt to make it a commercial success. Knowing
that such an attempt could only result in utter failure, I resigned
my position (June 1, 1865). Nevertheless, the proposed plan was
carried out, and the works were permanently closed after about a
year's unprofitable experience.

While the experimental works were being constructed at Wy-
andotte, the firm of Winslow, Griswold & Holley was formed
for the purpose of purchasing Bessemer's American patents, and
manufacturing steel under them. Negotiations with Bessemer
were concluded in the spring of 1SG4, and an experimental plant
at Troy, N. Y., was started on February 16, 1865.

* These rails were laid in the track of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, and it is
known that they carried the traffic over ten years, but unfortunately there is no record of
the time when they were taken out and discarded.

f It is believed that these were the first tacks made of steel.

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The purchase of the American patents of Bessemer by this
firm at once challenged the right of the Kelly Process Company
to employ the jjrocess invented by Kelly, and to the use of the
apparatus invented by Bessemer ; but, at the same time, the Kelly
Process Company having purchased the Mushet patent for the
use of spiegeleisen, was in a position to challenge the possibility
of Messrs. Winslow, Griswold & HoUey's making steel by the
" Bessemer process " at all. The validity of the Bessemer patents
for apparatus was, from the first, conceded by the Kelly Process
Company, and arrangements were made, as soon as it was ascer-
tained that they could not purchase the American patents of
Bessemer, to dispense with the use of the machinery protected
thereby ; for they could avail themselves of that used by Kelly,
which, although not nearly as convenient, was still, with some
obvious improvements, capable of doing good work ; or, rather,
what the practice of the time called such.*

In view of these facts the Kelly Process Company was clearly
the master of both the legal and commercial situation ; and had
it been governed by an enlightened business selfishness it would
have profited by the advantageous position in which (thanks to
the indefatigable labors of the late Z. S. Durfee, its secretary) it
was placed ; but in order to do this the law had to be invoked,
and to the majority of the members of the Kelly Process Com-
pany the law was a terror! Lawyers must be paid! Experts
would not testify gratuitously ! Costs of court would accumu-
late ! Judges were doubtful ! Jurors were uncertain ! And then,
if victorious, what would they gain ? And if defeated, utter ruin
would overwhelm them ! Never before or since has a party of rep-
utable business men been so needlessly alarmed and so utterly ob-
livious of the first principles of a sound business policy. The vari-
ous bugaboos and hobgoblins which their terrified imagination
conjured up of the horrors of the life to come among courts, judges,
lawyers, experts, witnesses, and obstinate jurors, in case they
ventured to assert in a court their manifest right, at last drove
them into making a proposition to Messrs. Winslow, Griswold &
Holley looking to a combination of the interests of the two com-
panies, and to their final acceptance of an agreement under which
they surrendered rights which were of great value to Messrs.
Winslow, Griswold & Holley, and obtained practically no rights
in return save that of receiving but thirty per cent of the royal-
ties earned by the combination, and that of leaving to Messrs,
Winslow, Griswold & Holley the remaining seventy j)er cent.

* In the early days of the Bessemer process, three " blows " in ten hours was thought
to be a very creditable performance, but at the present time a works that could not make
that number in an hour would be regarded as a fit subject for an inquest.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 29

In the whole history of business affairs it would indeed be hard
to find a more perfect illustration of " the tail waggling the dog "
than this. It is only justice to the late Z. S. Durfee to say that
he opposed this compromise and its unjust disposition of the
rights of himself and associates with all the energy of which he
was capable ; and the fact that all the royalties the combination
ever earned were received under the operation of an extension of
the patent of William Kelly is quite sufficient to justify his busi-
ness sagacity and foresight.

The experimental works erected by Messrs. Winslow, Griswold
& Holley at Troy were used for nearly two years for the pur-
pose for which they were designed, and their proprietors " ex-
tended every facility to blast-furnace owners in all parts of the
country to have their irons tried for steel ; . , . many were tried
and most were found wanting." * It does not aj)pear that any
effort was made to compare the chemical composition of the irons
that made good steel with that of the irons that would only make
bad steel ; and what was " good metal " seems to have been decided
by actual treatment in the converter. Notwithstanding the nu-
merous failures in the Troy works to make good steel out of poor
iron (all tending to discredit the process), there were a sufficient
number of successes and enough " good metal " discovered to en-
courage the firm in the erection of new works (called the five-
ton plant) on a manufacturing scale. January 1, 1867, the late
A. L. Holley left the Troy works to take charge of works at
Harrisburg, for which he had furnished the plans. f For a short
time after the departure of Mr. Holley the Troy works X were
under the charge of Mr. John C. Thompson. He was succeeded
by Z. S. Durfee, who " built the forge and made some alterations
both in plant and details of manufacture. Among other things,
he adopted for the small or experimental plant the practice of
melting the recarburizing metal in crucibles, and obtained most
excellent results. . . . Mr. Durfee resigned his connection with the
works in 1868, and Mr. Holley once more became the manager."

Up to January, 1871, the ingots produced in these works were

* Paper by R. W. Hunt, Trans. American Institute of Mining Engineers, vol. v, pp.
201-216.

f The phenomenal development of the " Bessemer process " in America during the
fifteen years preceding the death of Mr. Holley in 1882 was largely due to his efforts. For
a full account of the life and labors of the late Alexander L. Holley, C. E., LL. D., the
reader is referred to a memorial volume published in 1884 by the American Institute of
Mining Engineers, and to an able address delivered by James Dredge, Estj., Honorary
Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in Chickering Hall, October 2,
1890, on the occasion of the unveiling of the Holley Memorial Statue, in Washington
Park, New York.

X These works are still running, the company owning them now being known as the
Troy Steel and Iron Company.

30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

either hammered in the forge, or " bloomed " from nine-inch ingots,
at the Rensselaer Rolling Mill in Troy, N. Y., or the Spuyten
Duyvil Rail Mill at Spuyten Duyvil, N. Y., and then rolled into
rails at these establishments, but on the above date Mr. Holley
had a thirty-inch blooming mill ready to run. This mill was the
joint invention of James Moore, William George, and A. L. Holley,
and was built by James Moore, at his Bush Hill Iron Works,
Philadelphia. The mill was provided with front and back lifting
tables raised by hydraulic power. The tables carried loose rolls,
on which the twelve-inch ingot (heavy enough to make two rail
blooms) was placed and pushed into the rolls by men. Eight men
were required to attend the mill. This mill proved to be a great
advance over previous practice, but in the fall of 1873 improve-
ments were added (invented by George Fritz, of Johnstown, Pa.)
which reduced the force required at the mill to three men and
a boy.

It is manifestly impossible in these pages to give in detail the
history of the several Bessemer steel-works now in operation, and
I have been thus particular in sketching at length the inception
and development of the plants at Wyandotte, Mich., and Troy,
N". Y., because they were the genesis of the Bessemer steel indus-
try in America, and their history admirably illustrates the mani-
fold obstacles which the promoters of all ultra-novel and radi-
cally revolutionary inventions have always had to encounter. I
well remember the sneers which greeted my statement that the
time would come " when a steel rail could be made cheaper than
an iron one " ; and now that time having arrived, it is no small
compensating satisfaction to know that the faith delivered thirty
years ago to the workers at Wyandotte and Troy has expanded
with the years and by " works "' has been made perfect : mount-
ains have been removed,* and the metal of their ores now in our
railways binds the nation together with bars of steel, along
which glide shuttle-like, to and fro, the steam-propelled carriers
of the commerce of a continent ; interweaving it with the warp
threads of agriculture and all arts, and producing a fabric of
national prosperity and happiness that shall wear through the
ages and continue to clothe this people while time endures.

A modern establishment for the manufacture of steel rails is
vastly different from those ancient " plants " in which bar iron
and iron rails were made forty years ago. Works that would
turn out seventy tons per day then were thought to be remarkable
both in size and in administration, but at the present time there

* The " Iron Mountain " of Missouri, which at one time was supposed to be inex-
haustible, has had all its ore passed through the " furnace " and converted into iron and
steel ; and it is only a question of a few years when other great deposits now regarded ag
" mountains of ore " will share the same fate.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS.

3»

are many mills in the United States that can produce more than
ten times as much in the same time. In the more perfectly ar-

ranged steel-works the molten metal is taken directly from the
blast-furnace to the converter, and, after being " blown," is cast

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

into an ingot suflSciently heavy to make four rails ; this ingot is
taken from its mold while it is red-hot on its outside and still
liquid internally, and put into a " soaking pit " * or a reheating
furnace to prevent loss of heat, and as soon as possible, it is sent
to the " blooming train " and rolled into a bloom ; this is at once
automatically conveyed to the " rail-train " and rolled into a con-
tinuous rail about one hundred and twenty-three feet in length,
which is carried on rollers driven by power to the "" cutting-off
saws," which divide it into four rails of thirty feet in length, and
the two extreme ends of the original rail, called " crop ends," are
about eighteen inches long. The four rails, while still red-hot,
are carried by machinery to the " cambering machine," and thence
to the " hot-bed." f They are next taken to the " cold straightening
presses," and any crookedness is removed by powerful pressure ;
the bolt-holes for "fish-plates " are then drilled in their ends, after
which the rails are turned over to the " inspectors " rej)resenting
the railway for which the rails are intended.

Fig. 65 I is a very spirited night view of a scene outside the
casting-house of one of the furnaces of the Illinois Steel Com-
pany. A portion of the furnace itself and one of its supporting
columns are seen through the left-hand arch. In the left fore-
ground are two " slag-buggies " being filled with liquid slag ; on
the right is a locomotive ready to pull them to the dump. In the
center of the picture are two large " ladles " (numbered 14 and 10)
capable of holding ten tons each of fluid metal, which is con-
veyed to them by the " runners " or " gutters " whose ends are seen
projecting over the " ladles " ; these gutters receive the molten
metal direct from the "blast-furnace," and as soon as the
" ladles " are filled they are drawn away by a locomotive which
takes them up an inclined plane on to an iron bridge or platform,
which extends across the converter-house in front of the converters.
This bridge is plainly shown in Fig. 60, and a small locomotive is
seen on the left-hand end of it.

Beyond this bridge, and between it and the back wall of the
building, are the three converters, each intended for the conver-
sion of ten tons of iron into steel at one operation. The left-hand

* This is a pit but little wider than the ingot, lined with fire-brick. The lining prevents
the heat of the steel from radiating into space, and hence the internal heat of the ingot is
diffused uniformly through its mass ; and after being in the " pit " a certain time the ingot
is apparently hotter than when it was put in ; it is then taken out and rolled immediately.
" The soaking-pit process," invented by John Gjers, is the most important improvement in
the manufacture of steel that has been brought forward in the last eight years.

f This term is the reverse of descriptive. The " hot-bed " is a huge gridiron, on which
the rails are placed to cool.

:): I am under obligations to E. C. Potter, Esq., late Vice-President of the Illinois Steel
Company for the very effective views from which this and the three following engravings
have been reduced.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS.

33

converter is shown " turned down," pouring its contents of liquid
steel into a casting-ladle ; the central converter is upright, and a

dazzling white volcanic flame issues roaring from its mouth, dis-
charging itself though the open archway in the wall of the build-

34

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing — a " blow " is evidently under full headway. The third con-
verter is seen on the extreme right of the picture, with its
mouth downward, its bottom having been removed for repairs.

In front of this bridge are a number of cranes, all operated
hydraulically, but, unlike the ordinary " hydraulic press," whose

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 35

movement is usually very slow, these cranes are very rapid in
their action, more so than any other form of crane ; were this not
the fact, it would be impossible to handle the vast quantity of
hot materials — "ingots," and their "molds" — that must be dis-
posed of with great promptness in a modern steel-works. These
cranes are veritable giant arms, lifting and conveying with a tire-
less strength, insensible alike to heat and weight, such masses of
steel as have only come to the knowledge of man since the in-
vention of the Bessemer process.

The various operations of the " converting-house," embracing
the turning of the converter, the regulation of the blast, and the
movement of the cranes, are all directed and controlled by means
of proper " hand-gear " located upon the platform called " the
pulpit " represented in the foreground of the picture.

The general aspect of the interior of a converting-house at
night is at once startling and grandly impressive. Here heat,
flame, and liquid metal are ever present ; locomotives whistle
and puff, dragging with clatter and clang huge ladles of molten
iron; the lurid light, flashing and flaming, that illuminates the
scene, throws shadows so intensely black that they suggest the
"black fire" of Milton, for in such a place it is impossible for
a shadow to be cool ; half-naked, muscular men, begrimed with
sweat and dust, flit about ; clouds of steam arise from attempts
to cool in some degree the roasting earth of the floor ; converters
roar, vibrate, and vomit flames mingled with splashes of metal
from their white-hot throats ; at intervals the scorching air is
filled with a rain of coruscating burning iron ; ingot molds lift
mouths parched with a thirst that can only be appeased for a
short time by streams of liquid steel that run gurgling into them ;
the stalwart cranes rise, swing, and fall, loading scores of tons of
red-hot steel upon cars of iron : all these conditions and circum-
stances combine to make an igneous total more suggestive of the
realms of Pluto than any other in the whole range of the metal-
lurgic arts.

The ingots of steel are taken from the " converting-house " as
promptly as possible after they are cast, and carried on iron cars
to the " blooming-mill " (Fig. G7), where they are put into gas-fired
furnaces (the end of one is seen on the right of Fig. 67), where
their heat is maintained, and thence they are taken to the
" blooming train " and rolled into blooms. The steel-rail bloom
is a rectangular bar of steel, long enough to produce four or even
six rails.

In the cut (Fig. 67) on the left is seen a white-hot ingot of steel
being carried on an iron " buggy " to the rolls of the blooming
train, which occupies nearly the center of the picture. On the
right of this train is seen a bloom about to pass through the

36

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS.

37

" finishing groove." The blooming train has a heavy fly-wheel
driven by an engine of great power. In the farther part of the
building is seen a cloud of steam which marks the location of the
" rail train/' to which the finished bloom is conveyed by mechan-
ical means. Fig. (JS is a very spirited view of that portion of the
rail-mill beyond the rail train (which is seen in the distance on
the left of the picture). In the left foreground is shown one of
the saws which cut the rails into lengths, and near the center
of the picture a man is seen dragging out one of the " crop ends."
In all these views the small number of men employed in pro-
portion to the work performed is very noticeable. By comparing
one of these cuts with Fig. 47, the great difl'erence between the
practice of the present and that of thirty-six years ago in this
respect is very evident. In 1855 a very large proportion of the
work of a rolling-mill was performed by the strong right hands
of a multitude of workmen ; but in our day much more and heavier
work is accomplished by powerful machinery — the crystallization
of ideas emanating from the strong right head of some mechan-
ical engineer, who had the ingenious courage to devise hands of
iron, and muscles of steel, to do the required work of the present.

'Fig. 69. — View of Plate-mill.

Fig. 69 is a view of a plate-mill at the Homestead Steel Works
(Carnegie, Phipps & Co.) near Pittsburgh, Pa. This mill is what
is known as a "three-high plate-mill." The train of rolls is
driven at the rate of fifty revolutions a minute. On the delivery
side of these rolls is a roller table five feet in width and 363 feet
long, the rollers being driven by power. This mill can roll plates

38

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

three inches thick and 115 inches wide, or sheets 3=^ of an inch
thick and 117 inches wide, and of course any intermediate dimen-
sions of any length, and of a weight not exceeding six tons. This
mill can turn out five thousand net tons per month.

Fig. 70 * is a view of
the hydraulic shears in
the " slabbing-niiir' of
the Homestead Steel
Works.

The men in the pict-
ure will assist the mind
of the reader in form-
ing a correct idea of the
magnitude of this pon-
derous piece of mecha-
nism, whose purpose is
to cut into the required
lengths the "slabs" as
they come from the
" slabbing rolls." The
lower knife is station-
ary, and the movement
of the upper knife in a
vertical plane is insured
by guides on the " hous-

FiG. 70. — Hydkaulic Sheabs.

ings" of the machine. The upper knife is actuated by a water
pressure of about three thousand tons, and the shears are capable
of cutting a section 24" X 48" of hot metaL The^slabs" are taken
to the plate-mill, reheated, and rolled to the required dimensions.
The above description of some of the machinery in use m the
Illinois Steel Works and in the Homestead Steel Works must
serve for illustrating the ponderous character of the mechanism
of a modern " steel plant," as it is plainly impossible m this paper
to speak of details which would require a volume to adequately

^""^ The ""Bessemer process," as for many years conducted, could
only deal successfully with iron which contained a very small
quantity of phosphorus; this being the case, a very large propor-
tion of the world's make of that metal was useless for the manu-
facture of steel; and therefore it was evident that any improve-
ment bv which such iron could be made available would have
great value. This fact stimulated inventors to endeavor to dis-

*ric.s 69 and TO are reduced from photogravure engravings illustrating a paper by
W Richards and J. A. Potter, descriptive of the Homestead Steel Works, which was pub-
lished in vol. XT, No. 3, of the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS.

39

cover some means by whicli pig iron high in phosphorus could be
used m the '' converter " or " open-hearth " furnace. Success was
finally achieved in this by two English chemists, Sidney Gilchrist
Thomas and Percy C. Gilchrist, of London, who secured patents
for their invention November 22, 1877.* Their modification of
the " Bessemer process " consists in the employment of lime as
the chief constituent of the lining of the "converter" or "open-
hearth furnace," and the action of this "basic lining" (hence the
process is commonly called the "basic process") is to remove the
phosphorus from the metal as a " phosphate of lime " in which
condition it is found in the "slag" produced. There are a num-
ber of claimants, English, French, and American, for the discov-
ery of the value of lime as a lining in "Bessemer converters "
and "open-hearth furnaces" for the treatment of iron rich in
phosphorus, who have caused so much litigation as to retard great-
ly the use of the "basic process" in this country; but, never-
theless, there were made during the year 1890 about ninety thou-
sand tons of " basic steel " in the United States. The " basic pro-
cess" IS very largely employed in Europe, and fairly deserves
recognition as the most important improvement in the metal-
lurgy of steel that has been practically developed within the past
dozen years.

In recent years there have been a number of alleged improve-
ments m the manufacture of steel patented, most of them havino-
no value. ^

It will be remembered that some of the early American experi-
menters, who "with great pains and cost found out and obtained
a curious art by which to convert, change, or transmute common
iron into steel" (in Connecticut, 1728 to 1750), succeeded in mak-
ing somewhat more than half a ton of steel" in four years
This seed of the steel industry on this continent has year by year
and generation after generation increased and multiplied until
for the year 1890 the production of steel of all kinds in the United
States reached the enormous total of "4,277,071 gross tons" an
amount larger than was produced in that year by any other'coun-
try m the world.

. .T'^??*^'^^-^ y®^^^ ^^o ^l^ere were but two Bessemer converters
m the United States, and it is not at all probable that in the year
18(Jo there were more than five hundred tons of "Bessemer steel"
made therein; but this germ product has so wonderfully devel-
oped that m the year 3 890 the total production of "Bessemer
steel m this country was 4,131,535 net tons, or 8,263 times the

th.?' 'f T- ^'"'' •' ''^''''' *^'* "'' " ''"'^' P™^*^^^ " ""^ <^ond"Cted in Europe involves
the use o the invention of Messrs. Thomas and Gilchrist, in connection with those of G. J.
Snelus of Workm^ton, and Edward Riley, of London, whose inventions have contributed
materially to its success.

40

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tonnage of 1865. This enormous output was made in eighty-five
" converters " owned by forty steel-works, which were distributed
in eight States, viz., Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Colorado.

In 1772 the American manufacturers' price for steel was equal
to $180.60 per gross ton. Steel of better quality can be purchased
of the American manufacturer of to-day for thirty dollars per
gross ton, a decline of eighty-four per cent in one hundred and

nineteen years.

Twenty-seven years have elapsed since the first Bessemer steel
was made in America, and that time, improved by the labors of
skillful men from among our engineers, metallurgists, and chem-
ists, has wrought wondrous changes in the construction and man-
agement of our furnaces, steel-works, and rolling-mills. To-day
the tendency of all metallurgical manufacturing enterprises is
toward concentration, not only in commercial and administrative
afeairs, but in their machinery as well. Giant engines, ponderous
roll-trains, colossal hammers, crushing forging-presses, stalwart
cranes, furnaces whose "fervent heat" destroys all doubt of the
possibility of the fusion of worlds, ore piles rivaling mountams
in magnitude; enormous stores of coal, suggesting yet more
enormous mines ; a vast entanglement of railways to all parts of
the works ; a water-supply sufficient for a town ; miles of subter-
ranean pipes bringing gaseous fuel to the roaring mills— are but
the common details of a modern establishment for the manufact-
ure of steel. Practices once condemned as criminal extravagances
are now regarded as essential economies ; things once deemed im-
possible by men of little faith are but the familiar occurrences of
to-day. Buildings, machinery, methods, have all been touched
by the spirit of progress. Science has become better acquainted
with art, and art has a better appreciation of science, and their
united forces are marching forever forward. Before their steady
advance difficulties vanish, obstacles are surmounted, and seem-
ing impossibilities are overcome ; sound principles are established
in place of empiricisms, and educated skill replaces laborious ig-
norance. Verily, " old things are passing away and all things are
become new."

Eyidence is given in the Rev. Thomas Parkinson's Yorkshire Legends and
Traditions of the survival of the belief in fairies to a late date. An old man told
the author a few years ago that his father, when young, had seen a dance of fames,
and that they were " of nearly all colors." A similar statement has been made to
Mr Parkinson's reviewer in the Athenaeum, who suggests that such visions may
be misinterpreted facts, not mere mental illusions. The birds called ruflPs dance
in the moonlight much after the fashion of the round dances of yore, and some
of these dances may have been mistaken for those of fairies.

DO WE TEACH GEOLOGY? ^^

DO WE TEACH GEOLOGY?

By EOBEET T. HILL.

n^HE late Prof. Alexander Winchell, who did so mucli to
J- popularize geology in this country, asked, " Shall we teach
geology ? " and our educational institutions have answered the
question in the affirmative by expending liberal sums for the en-
dowment of chairs in schools and colleges. The question now is,
not shall we teach, but do we teach geology ?

No modern science has been so vaguely understood and so in-
definitely represented as that of geology. Our text-books, as a
rule, are from fifteen to twenty years behind in the presentation
of the vast results of the army of investigators in the field ; and
even among the working geologists there are wide differences in
regard to fundamental definitions and theories. This great study,
which has done so much for the advancement of knowledge and'
for industry, is still in a chaotic condition ; and even its element-
ary definitions, as given in our text-books, are confiicting.

In the popular mind, in consequence of the mighty throes into
which^ geological interpretation precipitated religious thought,
the science is usually considered an irreligious inquiry into the
history of the earth, or a useless study of curious fossils and
pretty minerals To the practical investigator and student, how-
ever, geology has but one meaning, and that is, the science which
treats of the structure of the earth and its changes.

A glance at the curricula of our universities will show that
few of them teach the subject on this basis ; they deal with the
science either in the old-fashioned historical way, or devote their
energies to some narrow branch— for example, paleontology, mi-
croscopic petrography, or economic mineralogy.
^ Geology can in many ways be compared with architecture
inasmuch as it is a scientific art, requiring a knowledge of many
special arts and sciences. The architect must have a knowledge
of mensuration, carpentry, masonry, materials, chemistry, physics
decoration, and other specialties pertaining to house-buildino-'
Likewise the geologist or student of earth-structure must have a
knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, mineralogy, mensura-
tion, and all the sciences which are useful in interpreting this
structure. Although we would never mistake a house-painter
for an architect, we are overwhelmed by paleontologists, micros-
copists, and theologians who assume the title of geologists, and
teach their narrow specialties under the broader name. An' eth-
nologist who studies primitive dwellings is not an architect, yet
how many astronomical data concerning pre-nebular hypotheses

TOL. XL. — 4

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and pre-geological speculations are taught as geology, as if to
mystify the minds of students !

I well remember a young man who went from one of our great
universities a few years ago with particular mention upon his
diploma that he had attained special excellence in geology ; in later
years he found himself face to face with some of the greater prob-
lems of earth-structure, and slowly it dawned upon him that he
had no conception of what the study really was. He knew the
names of many fossils and minerals, could enumerate the histori-
cal sequence of the geologic time-epochs, but when required to
report upon a new and strange region he found himself ignorant
of the four necessary geologic rudiments— determination, defini-
tion, distribution, and delineation.

There is hardly a college in the land in which the study of the
structure of the earth is not made subservient to the study of its
history and composition, and in which the student does not learn
to consider the extraordinary instead of the ordinary, by being
taught to begin away back in Archaean time, and thence to trace
the history of life-epochs. But the working geologist regards
time-nomenclature as a secondary consideration, and the word
Archeean means to him only a common dumping-ground for all
older terrenes whose structure has not been differentiated.

Geology is not a science of the past, but a grand study of the
present structure of the earth, its contour, composition, and read-
justments. Geology has nothing to do with the origin or begin-
ning of the globe— a field of inquiry purely astronomical— but
takes the earth where astronomy leaves it, a completed mass of
matter, and investigates its changes. Although Hutton a hun-
dred years ago presented this thought in his saying that in the
economy of Nature there is no trace of a beginning or evidence
of an ending, still much of our geologic instruction is wasted on
these subjects.

The cultural aspects of civilization are due to geologic struct-
ure, but in how many of our institutions are students taught to
appreciate the topography or configuration of the earth's surface
and its relation to structure, or to observe with inquirmg eye the
forms and contours of the landscape ? The student usually learns
the chemistry of certain nicely arranged hand specmiens of hard
rocks, and memorizes the names of leading fossils or the crystal-
lography of minerals under the guise of economic geology. As a
result, the study is supposed to be merely the study of hard rocks
and curious fossils. Although the student knows these by sight,
he can not trace a rock-sheet above the ground or below it, or see
the great soft terrenes void of fossils and rocks which make up
the larger area of our country, and can not appreciate the broader
relations of structure to agriculture, hygiene, climate, and civih-

BO WE TEACH GEOLOGY? 43

zation. Hence the great iinfossiliferons terrenes are unknown ;
for example, the non-monntainous regions of the West and South,
over which in places one may travel from the Rocky Mountains
to the Gulf of Mexico without finding a fossil, a crystal, or a
building-stone.

There is but one geological laboratory, and that is the great out-
of-doors ; and no student should learn a fossil or a mineral until
he has first studied the landscape and is able to distinguish one
stratum with its topographic form from another as strata, and not
as fossil beds or chemical compounds. A field-glass and a quiet
seat upon a commanding eminence, where the local surroundings
can be studied, are worth to the beginner miles of traveling about
with hammer and specimen-bag ; and a thorough curiosity aroused
as to why one hill is flat, another round, or one stream broad and
sluggish while another is narrow and raj^id, is more valuable
than a cabinet of curios. An inquiry as to the origin of sediment
in a river, whence it came, and what will become of it, will lead
to a grander conception of earth-stripping and formation-making
than the memorizing of all the specimens in a laboratory.

It is not my wish to discourage the study of paleontology or
petrography, but is it not a serious error to teach these first and
geology later ? They are to geology as trigonometry is to mathe-
matics, something that follows the fundamental arithmetic and
algebra.

Some one has said that geology begins and ends with the rain-
drop. If not literally true, the saying is worthy of consideration ;
and if the teacher begins with it, his students will soon be familiar
with the grand facts of the erosion and distribution of earth-mat-
ter, and the origin of the rock-sheets that make the whole, and
the life-history of our earth's great cycles can be read.

When we lay by our icthyosaurians and useless crystals for
advanced study, and teach the ordinary and not the extraordinary
features of the earth, geology will be appreciated, and every
farmer, every builder of homes, every drinker of water, will learn
that upon a knowledge of its simple laws his success depends.

To the high-school student a knowledge of the structure of
the earth is as important as chemistry or foreign languages ; but,
until some simple text-book is written dealing with the subject
on these lines, it is not to be expected that geology will be gener-
ally taught.

The principal acbievement recorded in Dr. Hugo Zoller's recent explorations
in New Guinea consists in the ascent of the Finisterre Mountains to a height of
8,700 feet, and the discovery of a still loftier range inland, which appeared to
be covered with snow. Comparative vocabularies are given of forty-four lan-
guages, most of which were collected by the author himself or under his super-
vision.

44

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTRLY.

DRESS AXD ADORNMENT.

III. ORNAMENT.

By Prof. FREDERICK STARR.

THE savage loves finery. Anything bright and showy has for
him remarkable attractiveness. Traders have often been
blamed for their unequal trades with unsophisticated savages
whereby they get a large return for articles of little value. Yet
it must be admitted that often they could do little else. Truly
useful and desirable articles are often passed by, and tawdry or-
naments, beads, and tinsel are sought with avidity. The writer
himself has frequently found, if cash payment is offered, that
Indians demand preposterous prices for objects of ethnological
interest ; a few handfuls of beads or some yards of bright rib-
bon will bring about a quick and mutually satisfactory bargain.
Early travelers found no peoi:)le on some of the islands of the Pa-
cific who would give anything for new kinds of fowls, domestic
animals, or useful devices, but " a few red feathers would buy the

whole island." " Ne-
cessity is always sec-
ondary to luxury " is a
remark that will bear
frequent c|uotation.
Ornament is univer-
sal. The barbarian
will go naked, unjjro-
tected, hungry, but he
will have his orna-
ments.

The beginnings of
ornament lie far back
in antiquity, but they
may also be seen in
savage life of to-day.
The incentive that de-
velops it is personal
vanity — the desire for
self - individualization.
A man wishes to mark
himself off from his
neighbor by some external sign. If he kills a savage beast, what
is more natural than that he should use its skin, its teeth, its claws,
as a trophy ? Wearing these, he is known as a mighty or success-
ful hunter. Possibly the oldest decoration we know is a necklace
from Duruthy Cavern, in France. Under a stone, apparently

Fig. 1. — American Indian with Necklace of Claws.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

45

fallen from the roof, was found part of tlie skeleton of a man.
He had been crushed probably by the descending mass. Scattered
about in such a way as to show that they had been strung to-
gether, were some forty large canine teeth of the cave bear, an
animal now extinct. The teeth
were perforated, and several
were carved — not poorly —
with animal and other de-
signs. This necklace must
have been originally a fine
affair, and it is a good exam-
ple of trophy-wearing. Nat-
urally, what happens in hunt-
ing life may also occur in war.
There, too, parts of enemies
slain in battle may be worn
as trophies. In the Louisade
Archipelago, bracelets made
of the jawbone and clavicle
of foes killed in war were
worn by warriors. Nearly all
North American tribes for-
merly took scalps, which were
worked up as fringes for gar-
ments, head-dresses, or other
articles of ornamental dress.
Trophies of the chase or of
war were, we firmly believe,
the first objects of decoration,
and their only purpose was to
render conspicuous the indi-
viduality of their wearer.
Later the idea of beauty in
ornament arose, and with it a f kj. 2.-0rnamental Apron made of Tofcan-

host of objects which were not bones. Mundurucu Indians, South America.

trophies came to be worn.

In examining the objects of ornament worn by savage, bar-
barous, and civilized tribes, we find a marvelous varietj^ of mate-
rials and designs. We are amazed at the ingenuity displayed in
making the most unpromising materials into things of beauty.
Through this impulse of personal vanity — the wish to emphasize
his individuality — man has been led to make many interesting
discoveries and to develop many important arts. A dude is not
a pleasant object ; but, after all, the motive which has produced
him has been of vast service in the world's progress. We will
consider some instructive examples of ornament. The animal,

46

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vegetable, and mineral kingxloms have all been laid nnder tribute
for materials. Teeth, claws, shells, jjearls, bone, hair, ivory, feath-
ers, beans, seeds, grasses, leaves, fibers of all kinds, crystals, metals
— these are but a few of the many substances that man has
learned to use, more or less effectively, in self -adornment.

Necldaces are universal. Very simple are the garlands of red
and yellow flowers, so popular throughout Polynesia. The whale-
tooth necklaces of Samoa and the neighboring islands were really
attractive, and were so highly valued that only kings and the
most powerful chiefs could afford or dare to wear them. They
consisted simply of the natural teeth perforated for stringing.
They are now rare and seldom seen. Those at present used in the
same district are lighter, more slender and artistic, but are made
in England and sent out to the islands for trading. An interest-
ing neck ornament was the xxdaoa of the Hawaiians. It consisted
of a carved and i^olislied piece of bone and ivory attached to an
elaborately braided decoration of black hair. This ornament was

worn only by chiefs of
high rank and had some
talismanic virtue. Among
the necklaces from Aus-
tralia are those consisting
of kangaroo-teeth strung
on thread, and the careful-
ly made and really beau-
tifid ones composed of cas-
sowary feathers. Neck-
laces of trophies of dan-
gerous hunting, analogous
to that from Duruthy Cav-
ern already mentioned,
are made by Indian huiit-
ers from claws of the roy-
al Bengal tiger. From the
same materials the skillful
goldsmiths of India make
marvels of beautiful work.
Such a one lies before me.
The claws are perfectly
cleaned and polished, mounted in gold settings, and strung on a
chain of gold ; pendent at the lower end is a pretty tiger and a
charm, both of gold. Hundreds of years of time and generation
of art development lie between the necklaces of Duruthy and Ben-
gal ! One of the most instructive lessons in culture history is shown
by two South African necklaces described by Wood. The lesson
is this ; in any art developuieiif, as new materials are gained, the

Fig. 3. — Necklace of Whale's Teeth. Samoa.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

47

old types are copied in the new material. One of these necklaces
consists of beads and teeth. Six or seven fine leather thongs are
strung with black beads of small size ; rows one and a half inch
long being made, a single bead of larger size, and in color white
spotted with blue, is added ; then follows another inch and a half
of black beads ; then comes a cluster of leopards' teeth three to five
in number ; this arrangement is repeated. The other necklace
copies this in general plan. Rows of white beads are followed
by a brass tooth ; then come ruby-red beads with white spots ;
then another brass tooth, white beads, etc. The necklace with
real teeth is of an older type than the other, and it is interesting,
even after metal has been introduced and the ornamental and not
the trophy idea prevails, to see the old trophy pattern carried over

into a new and artificial material. Patterns survive.

Arm-bands and bracelets occur in great variety, but little need

be said of them. Two

African forms only will

detain us. Among the

Kaffirs, and in the west

of Africa as well, a plain

ivory arm-ring, in a sin-
gle piece, is in common

use. Such are easily

made. The tusk of the

elephant is hollow save

near the small end. To-
ward the larger end the

ivory sheath is thin and

irregular, but it thick-
ens and becomes solid

toward the tip. All that

is necessary to make

arm-bands is to remove

the soft, vascular inner

part and then to cut the

ivory into cross-sections,

two or three inches wide.

The rings thus made

vary, of course, in size.

After being cut they are

carefully polished. With

such rings the whole arm from wrist to elbow is often covered.

Schweinfurth describes a pretty ornament of metal rings — the

dagobar — as in use among White Nile tribes. The individual rings

are of iron and are narrow and neatly made. They are worn so

closely together upon the arm as to make a continuous metal

Fig. 4. — Paloa. Hawaiian Islands.

48

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sheathing. Very curious are the arm-coils from Bouka Bay, New
Guinea, which consist of one spiral strip of bark. Ear-rings are
found in all times and among almost every people. They range in

•Necklace of Tiger-claws. India. (Miss Abbie M. White.)

size, material, and elegance from the brilliant solitaire in gold set-
ting, worn by our ladies, to the bird-skins worn in the ears in New
Zealand or the immense ornaments of shell with carved ivory in-

DEESS AND ADORNMENT.

49

Fig. 6. — African Arm Ornament. The Dii'nibar.

laying, from New Guinea. King Munza's sister begged lead bullets
from Schweinfurth and hammered from tliem bright ear-rings.
From New Zealand come very pretty ear-rings of grfeen jade in
the shape of sharks' teeth. Is it not certain that we here have
another example of the law of copying an old form in a new ma-
terial ? Did the New

Zealanders not wear real
sharks' teeth, as some
Alaskan and British
Columbian tribes do
now, before they made
these more beautiful
ones ? Waist - girdles
are interesting, not only
in themselves, but also
because of their influ-
ence upon dress devel-
opment, already traced.
In Australia they are

often made of finely twisted human hair. Unique in material and
really attractive in appearance are the Hottentot girdles made by
stringing concave-convex disks of ostrich-egg shell. Such cords
looked like a rope of ivory, and sometimes passed quite around
the body. Nose ornaments and labrets were spoken of in the lect-
ure on Deformations, and we care little to add to what is there
said. Mr. Kunz recently showed us some interesting labrets made
by the old Mexicans from jade and amethyst that show skillful
work. These are all of the hat-shaped pattern, and the one of
jade is very large. Were not some of the oldest ornaments
known supposed to be hair-pins, we should hardly refer to these.
From the lake dwellings of Switzerland we have a large number
of these objects very neatly made, in a variety of large and orna-
mental patterns, from bronze. Vast quantities of bronze orna-
ments of all kinds — rings, arm-bands, wristlets, hair-pins, pendants,
etc., have been found on these sites. Feathers are often worked
up into wonderfully beautiful decorations. Some Upper Nile
peoples use the " supple breast-feathers of the gray pelican, mak-
ing them up into close perukes, which form excellent imitations
of a luxuriant crop of gray hair." The head-dresses of bird-of-
paradise feathers from the South Seas are beautiful in colors
and graceful in form. The New Zealander made an elegant
head-dress of pelican feathers, arranged in white bunches as
wings on each side of the head, meeting above. The " war-bon-
nets " of eagle feathers, and the single, neatly wrapped and dec-
orated feathers worn by American tribes, are well known. In
this connection we may see how ornaments may indirectly en-

5°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

courage art. Such delicate and perishable ornaments need espe-
cial protection from dust and injury. Receptacles of some sort
must be provided, and usually sucli would themselves be dec-
orated. In buying war feathers from the Sacs and Foxes, we
found them kept in neatly made wooden boxes with slide covers.
These boxes were usually carved and painted. The New Zea-
lander for his choicest feathers made, with an infinity of toil and
pains, elegant carved boxes of hard green jade.

Pendants have been used from an early date and are much
prized by barbarous people. Akin to them are all sorts of breast-
plates, brooches, etc. Wood describes the dibbi - dihhi of the
Australian. This is ordinarily fan-shaped and made of shell.
It is also, however, at times crescentic and nearly as large as a
cheese-plate. They are ornamented with drilled and engraved
designs. Very much like them are the shell gorgets that have
been found in the mounds of Tennessee, Georgia, and Missouri.

They are among the finest
specimens of art from the
mounds. From two to five or
six inches in diameter, these
are disks, neatly carved from
shell. The upper surface is
concave and usually bears a
carved design, often conven-
tional but always well done —
a spider, a rattlesnake, com-
binations of circles, spirals,
and dots, a human figure, etc.
While speaking of ornaments
of this shape and size we may
refer to the salcalion of the
Sacs and Foxes. These are
still made by the native jew-
elers from German silver.
Those worn by men are pen-
dent ; those for women have
a pin for attachment, form-
These scikalion are ingeniously
made and are worn in great nuinbers — one little girl's dance-
waist bore two hundred of them. They are usually about an
inch and a half in size. Among our Iowa Indians these pin-
ning sakahon are only used by women, but Mrs. Harriet Maxwell
Converse has a great numlier of very small ones, of silver, not
more than a half-inch in diameter, which were formerly worn by
the famous Iroquois orator Red Jacket. Beads are highly prized.
The earliest were made of shell or stone, and later these were

Fig. 7. — Nose Ornament. New Guinea,

ing what is called a fibula.

BEESS AND ADORNMENT.

51

copied in glass and metals. Glass beads liave gone the world
over. They have replaced many old materials, and have wrought
great changes in many lines of aboriginal art Avork. But, there
are beads and beads ! Fashion changes as often among savages
as with ourselves,
and the bead so
highly prized to-
day may be worth-
less to - morrow.
In Africa iron
beads are always
good, but glass
beads fluctuate.
One author tells
us " they prefer as
beads the * mand-
yoor' — long poly-
hedral prisms as
large as a bean
and as blue as
lapis lazuli." But
woe to the trader
who took a stock
of ma n dyoo r
there to - day !
They might be a
drug on the mar-
ket. It may seem
as if we have
been too detailed
in describing all
these savage and
barbaric decora-
tions. We have
simply aimed to
show how varied in material and how diversified in form and
use such ornaments may be. To show the profusion of ornament
worn in some cases, and to illustrate the amount of discomfort
which one will willingly endure for the sake of display, we quote
a few descriptions :

Livingstone describes the sister of chief Sebatuane as "wear-
ing eighteen solid brass rings as thick as one's finger on each
leg ; three of copper under each knee ; nineteen brass rings on
the right arm ; eight of brass and copper on the left arm, and a
large ivory ring above each elbow. She had a heavy bead sash
around her waist and a bead necklace. The weight of rings upon

Fig. 8. — Head-dress of Bird-of-Paradise Feathers.
Islands.

South Sea

52

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

her ankles was so great as to necessitate wrapping these with
rags." Nubian women are particularly fond of silver, often
wearing several watch-chains, three pairs of bracelets, bangles^
ankle and leg ornaments, hair-pins, etc. That things were not
much better in olden days is shown by Isaiah's remarks regarding
the Jewesses : " Moreover the Lord saith. Because the daughters
of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and
wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tink-
ling with their feet. ... In that day the Lord will take away the
bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their
cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the brace-
lets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs,
and the headbands, and the tablets and the ear-rings, the rings and
nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel and the mantles, and the
wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and

the hoods and the veils" (Isaiah,
iii, lG-23). King Munza, whose
state dress we spoke of in the
last lecture, had an extensive
wardrobe of ornaments. It oc-
cupied several apartments. In
one room there was nothing but
hats and feathers, especially
those of the red parrot, arranged
in great round tufts. In one hut
were bundles of tails of civets,
genets, patamochoeri, and gi-
raffes, with skins and thousands
of ornaments. There were also
long strings of teeth of rare
animals, one of more than one
hundred lions' fangs. Surely it
would seem that he had enough.
An even more striking illustra-
tion of discomfort endured for
the sake of display than that of
Sebatuane's sister is the African belle who wore copper arm-rings
which became so hot in the sun's rays that she was obliged to
have an attendant with a watering-pot who would from time to
time drench her to cool the metal.

We have already said that the desire for ornament has led to
much material progress. We believe that to it must be attributed
the origin and development of metal-working. The evidence of
this will be found in an examination of the metal-work of various
primitive peoples. The bronze relics from the Swiss lakes are
exceedingly various, but much the larger number of them are

Fig. 9. — Samoan Chief with Ornaments.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

53

ornaments — not weapons or instruments. So in Africa, although
it is true that the natives make wonderful assegai-blades, we
believe that they use both copper and iron far more for leg-bands,
arm-rings, and other decorations, than for articles of utility. As
due to the ornament-search of man, metal-working possesses a
special interest for us, and its beginnings deserve consideration.
The first steps are well shown in North America. Here not only
the recent tribes but also the builders of the mounds used native
copper from Lake Superior. This was not smelted, but was beaten
into shape with hammers
of stone. Thin sheets were
also beaten out between two
stones and used for covering
wooden forms. Prof. Put-
nam has found some very
interesting spool-shaped ear
ornaments of copper in Ohio
mounds. These are not easy
to describe, but they are very
ingeniously made. They con-
sist of two convex-concave
disks of beaten copper, from
an inch to two inches in di-
ameter, held together by a
narrow column of rolled
copper - sheet. Such have
been found in other metals
as well as in copper. In one

altar mound of the Turner group were found two bushels of
ornaments of stone, copper, mica, shells, teeth, pearls, etc., nearly
all perforated for suspension. Several copper ornaments, viz.,
bracelets, beads, and ear ornaments, were coated with beaten sil-
ver ; one copper pendant was covered with beaten gold ; one ear
ornament of copper was covered with meteoric iron, and half
of one of these ornaments was composed entirely of this latter
metal.

Just how smelting arose we do not know. It may have been
an accidental discovery, but, if so, the accident must have occurred
in different places and at different times, as there is good evidence
that the art has independently originated at several centers. In
western Europe bronze preceded iron. In the heart of Africa it
seems as if there had been no bronze age before the iron age.
The Africans are often remarkable smiths, producing an excellent
quality of iron with a very primitive outfit. The bellows consist
of two wooden or pottery bowls with bladder tops, or of leather
sacks ; from these run pipes made of wood or of antelope horns ;

Fig. 10. — Nubian Gikl with Nose Ornament.

54

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the tips of these are incased in a clay tube. Wooden sticks
are fastened to the middle of the bladder covers or to the
upper end of the skins. By working these handles up and down
air is forced through the pipes into the tube and through the fire.
This is built in a hole dug in the ground. The heated iron is
worked hot between two stones used as anvil and hammer. Asse-
gai-blades are made with this poor outfit of such excellence that
they may be sharpened so as to be used as razors, and so pliable
that they may be bent double and then straightened after reheat-
ing. This is iron working, not smelting. Schweinf urth describes
how the Dyoor get the iron from the ore, and the process is x)i'acti-
cally the same throughout Africa, In March, just before seeding-
time, he says, they go to the woods to smelt iron. In the shaded
center of a very wooded spot they make groups of furnaces of
clay. These are cones not more than four feet high, widening to
a goblet shape. A cup-shaped cavity at the top communicates by
a small throat with the main cavity of the furnace, which is filled

Fig. 11. — African Smiths at Work.

with charcoal. The upper receiver is filled with fragments of ore
about a cubic inch in size. The hollow tunnel extends lower than
the ground-level, and the melted ore, finding its way down through
the fire, collects below. Openings here admit air and allow the
withdrawal of slag. The iron has to be twice heated, and when
taken out is in small bits which on reheating are beaten into
one mass.

Metal-working had doubtless an exceedingly slow develop-
ment ; but it is remarkable how some people, strangers to the art
as originators, acquire it as imitators. Thus the Sacs and Foxes

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

55

smelt no ores, but a dozen men in the tribe make from German
silver neat and tasteful bracelets, armlets, rings, sakahoii, and
ear-rings. The jeweler's outfit consists of a square block of wood
for an anvil, a hammer, a pair of shears, compasses, and a set of
rude punches made from scrap iron, steel nails, bits of old files,
etc. To make a finger-ring, the workman selects a piece of German
silver and cuts from it a narrow strip long enough to encircle the
finger. A square, rectangular, or oval piece of copper may be cut
for a setting. This is marked with a neat design worked on with
punches tapped by a hammer. The strip of white metal is bent
into ring-form, the setting is laid upon it at the junction where
the ends meet, and the two are firmly held together by a brass
wire passed around them. A drop of solder is put upon the junc-
tion inside, a small stick is thrust through the ring to support it,
and it is held in an open fire until the solder melts, flowing into
the junction and cementing the whole firmly. After cooling, the
ring is smoothed with a file and polished.

Sometimes we find the same object serving at once ornamental
and useful purposes. The arm-rings of metal or ivory with which
the African delights to cover his arms to the elbow are a useful
protection against weaj)ons. The metal rings worn by Latuka
warriors on their right wrists are set with four or five sharp-
edged knife-blades and are terrible weapons. The Isenga wear
rings of considerable weight and sharp-edged ; usually these are
incased in leather sheaths, but, when uncovered, they become
horrid weapons for hand-to-hand fighting. The very heavy arm-
bands of the Wakamba are of triple use, serving at once as orna-
ments, parries, and striking weapons. Ornament often becomes
money. The Nubian woman or the Hindoo frequently carries the
family wealth on her person as silver ornaments. The important
influence of ornament upon dress has already been considered in
a preceding lecture.

We know of only one paper which treats at all fully of orna-
ment. It is by Mougeolles, Although we do not concur in all
the conclusions of this author, we wish to call attention to some
propositions that he lays down. With the statement of these and
of one or two additional, we shall close :

(a) With the growth of dress, ornament declined. If our view
as to how dress developed is correct, this is natural. If dress
began as ornament, the ornamental idea would gradually disap-
pear as it passed into a modesty-covering and a bodily protection.
As dress develops, the sort of ornament must change: ornament
at first attached to the person, gradually passes into ornament
attached to the dress. We notice here again an example of wom-
an's conservatism. Man in civilization wears little ornament, and
what he does wear is fastened to the dress ; woman wears more

56 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ornaments, and these are frequently attached to the person. Man
in civilization still wears ornament " when he is a warrior, an offi-
cer, or a courtier." In all these cases we simply have survival of
ornament in these conservative relations.

(b) The search for ornament is as universal as the social ine-
quality from wliicli it has been derived. We have seen that in its
very beginnings ornament was a distinction. It was intended to
mark a man from his fellows as one who had done what others
had not accomplished. As the mark of social inequality it will
exist wherever class distinctions are recognized.

(c) Jeivelry in ornament tends to grow more and more delicate
ivitli advancing civilization, and finally disappears as social dis-
tinctions vanish. The first part of the proposition is shown by
history. Ornament may be traced in Egypt, Greece, and Rome,
and wherever there is actual progress toward true civilization
ornament dwindles. The proposition as a whole grows out of the
preceding. There is no place for ornaments in a true democracy
where equality prevails. A revival of ornament indicates the
retardation of democratic ideas.

{d) In our first lecture we referred to mutilations made to
admit of ornament-carrying. We saw that ears, noses, cheeks,
lips, and other parts are or have been pierced for insertion of orna-
ments. These mutilations tend to disappear with advancement, and
those tuhich are most painful disappear first. The least painful of
these is ear-piercing, and we know that it still lingers in many
cases where all other mutilations have disappeared.

(e) In orjiament as in dress we find much in the way of sur-
vival that is interesting. Mougeolles claims that in the various
head ornaments used as emblems of rank or power we have bits
of history. He maintains that in very ancient Egyj^t masks were
worn by hunters and warriors of the heads of slain animals. These
are represented upon gods and goddesses in the bas-reliefs. The
most commonly represented are made from heads of lions, jackals,
etc. Isis wears a beef's head. Dog-headed figures are common.
These animal head-dresses copied in other material continue in
use, and, gradually conventionalized, lose their original form. He
believes the crown was derived from a lion's head, the miter from
that of a jackal, the Greek helmet from a horse's head.

(/) Notice the importance, in its results, of ptersonal vanity.
Without it we believe that man would have remained low in civ-
ilization. To the desire to mark himself off from his fellows by a
visible sign we owe dress development ; to it we owe a long list
of important arts, chief among tliem perhaps that of metal-work-
ing ; to it we owe much of the scientific method of studying the
world around us : for, impelled liy it, man first began to investi-
gate Nature, beyond what was necessary to secure a food-supply

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 57

and bodily protection ; to it we owe the development of our
sestlietic sense in large degree. It may be true that to-day in a
civilized democracy there is no proper place for personal orna-
ment and decoration ; but we can forgive much of weak display
and many a useless survival of the past on account of what per-
sonal vanity has done for man's progress.

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ECO:NrOMIC
BOTANY.*

By GEOEGE LINCOLN GOODALE.

/^UR Association demands of its president, on his retirement
V^ from office, some account of matters connected with the
department of science in which he is engaged.

But you will naturally expect that, before I enter upon the
discharge of this duty, I should present a report respecting the
mission with which you intrusted me last year. You desired me
to attend the annual meeting of the Australasian Association for
the Advancement of Science, and express your good wishes for
its success. Compliance with your request did not necessitate
any material change in plans formed long ago to visit the South
Seas ; some of the dates and the sequence of places had to be
modified ; otherwise the early plans were fully carried out.

I can assure you that it seemed very strange to reverse the
seasons, and find midsummer in January. But in the meeting
with our brethren of the southern hemisphere nothing else was
reversed. The official welcome to your representative was as
cordial and the response by the members was as kindly as that
which the people in the northern hemisphere would give to any
fellow-worker coming from beyond the sea.

The meeting to which I was commissioned was held in Jan-
uary last in the cathedral city of Christchurch, New Zealand,
the seat of Canterbury College.

Considering the distance between the other colonies and New
Zealand, the meeting was well attended. From Hobart, Tas-
mania, to the southern harbor, known as the Bluff, in New Zea-
land, the sea voyage is only a little short of one thousand miles
of rough water. From Sydney in New South Wales to Auckland,
New Zealand, it is over twelve hundred miles. If, therefore, one
journeys from Adelaide in South Australia, to Christchurch, New
Zealand, where the meeting was held, he travels by land and by

* Presidential address delivered before the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, at Washington, August, 1891.

VOL. XL. — 5

58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sea over two tliOTisand miles. From Brisbane in Queensland, it
is somewhat farther. Although certain concessions are made to
the members of the Association, the fares by rail and by steam-
ship are high, so that a journey from any one of the seats of
learning in Australia proper to New Zealand is formidable on
account of its cost. It is remarkable that so large a number of
members should have met together under such circumstances, and
it speaks well for the great strength and vigor of the Association.
The Australasian Association is modeled rather more closely
after the British Association than is our own. The president
delivers his address upon his inauguration. There are no general
business meetings, but all the details are attended to- by an exec-
utive committee answering to our council ; none except the mem-
bers and associates are invited to attend even the sectional meet-
ings, and there are some other differences between the three
associations. The secretaries stated to me their conviction that
their organization and methods are better adapted to their sur-
roundings than ours would be, and all their arguments seemed
cogent. Although the Association has been in existence but three
years, it has accomplished great good. It has brought together
workers in different fields for conference and mutual benefit ; it
has diminished misunderstandings, and has strengthened friend-
ships. In short, it is doing the same kind of good work that we
believe ours is now doing, and in much the same way.

Your message was delivered at the general evening session
immediately before the induction of the new officers. The retir-
ing president. Baron von Mueller, and the incoming president.
Sir James Hector, in welcoming your representative, expressed
their pleasure that you should have seen fit to send personal
greetings.

In replying to their welcome, I endeavored to convey your
felicitations upon the pronounced success of the Association, and
your best wishes for a prosperous future. In your name I ex-
tended a cordial invitation to the members to gratify us by their
presence at some of our annual meetings, and I have good reason
to believe that this invitation will be accepted. I know it will be
most thoroughly and hospitably honored by us.

On the morning of the session to which I refer, we received in
the daily papers a cable telegram relative to the Bering Sea
difficulties (which were then in an acute stage). In your stead, I
ventured to say, " In these days of disquieting dispatches, when
there are rumors of trouble between Great Britain and the United
States, it is pleasant to think that 'blood is thicker than water.' "
This utterance was taken to mean that we are all English-speak-
ing kinsmen, and, even before I had finished, the old proverb was
received with prolonged applause.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 59

The next meeting of the Australasian Association is to be lield
in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, under the presidency of the
Governor, Sir Robert Hamilton. The energetic secretaries. Prof.
Liversidge, Prof. Hutton, and Mr. Morton, promise a cordial wel-
come to any of our members visiting the Association. Should
you accept the invitation, you will enjoy every feature of the
remarkable island, Tasmania, where the meeting is to be held.
You will be delighted by Tasmanian scenery, vegetation, and cli-
mate ; but that which will give you the greatest enjoyment in this
as in other English South Sea colonies is the fact that you are
among English-speaking friends half-way around the world. You
will find that their efficient Association is devoted to the advance-
ment of science and the promotion of sound learning. In short,
you will be made to feel at home.

The subject which I have selected for the valedictory address
deals with certain industrial, commercial, and economic ques-
tions : nevertheless, it lies wholly within the domain of botany.
I invite you to examine with me some of the possibilities of eco-
nomic botany.

Of course, when treating a topic which is so largely specula-
tive as this, it is difficult and unwise to draw a hard and fast line
between possibilities and probabilities. Nowadays possibilities
are so often realized rapidly that they become accomplished facts
before we are aware.

In asking what are the possibilities that other plants than those
we now use may be utilized we enter upon a many-sided inquiry.*
Speculation is rife as to the coming man. May we not ask what
plants the coming man will use ?

There is an enormous disproportion between the total number
of species of plants known to botanical science and the number of
those which are employed by man.

The species of flowering x^lants already described and named
are about one hundred and seven thousand. Acquisitions from
unexplored or imperfectly explored regions may increase the ag-
gregate perhaps one tenth, so that we are within very safe limits

* The following are among the more useful works of a general character dealing with
the subject. Others are referred to either in the text or notes. The reader may consult
also the list of works on Economic Botany in the catalogue published by the Linnaean
Society.

Select Extra-tropical Plants, readily Eligible for Industrial Culture or Naturalization,
with Indications of their Native Countries and some of their Uses. By Baron Ferd. von
Mueller, K. C. M. G., F. R. S., etc., Government Botanist for Victoria. Melbourne, 1888.
Seventh edition, revised and enlarged.

At the close of his treatise on industrial plants. Baron von Mueller has grouped the
genera indicating the different classes of useful products in such a manner that we can
ascertain the respective numbers belonging to the genera. Of course, many of these

6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in taking tlie number of existing species to be somewhat above
one hundred and ten thousand.*

Now, if we should make a comprehensive list of all the flower-
ing plants which are cultivated on what we may call a fairly-
large scale at the present day, placing therein all food f and for-
age plants, all those which are grown for timber and cabinet
woods, for fibers and cordage, for tanning materials, dyes, resins,
rubber, gums, oils, perfumes, and medicines, we could bring to-
gether barely three hundred species. If we should add to this
short catalogue all the species which, without cultivation, can be
used by man, we should find it considerably lengthened. A great
many products of the classes just referred to are derived in com-
merce from wild plants, but exactly how much their addition
would extend the list it is impossible in the present state of
knowledge to determine. Every enumeration of this character is
likely to contain errors from two sources : first, it would be sure
to contain some species which have outlived their real usefulness ,
and, secondly, owing to the chaotic condition of the literature of
the subject, omissions would occur.

But after all proper exclusions and additions have been made

genera figure in more than one category. Ee has also arranged the plants according to the
countries naturally producing them.

Useful Native Plants of Australia (including Tasmania). By J. H. Maiden, F. L. S.,
Curator of the Technological Museum of New South Wales, Sydney. Sydney, 1889.

See also note (*), page 71.

Hand-book of Commercial Geography. By Geo. G. Chisholm, M. A., B. So. London,
1889.

New Commercial Plants, with Directions how to grow them to the Best Advantage.
By Thomas Christy. London, Christy & Co.

Dictionary of Popular Names of the Plants which furnish the Natural and Acquired
Wants of Man. By John Smith, A. L. S. London, 1885.

Cultivated Plants : Their Propagation and Improvement. By F. W. Burbage. Lon-
don, 1877.

The Wanderings of Plants and Animals from their First home. By Victor Hehn, edited
by James Steven Stally brass. London, 1885.

Researches into the Early History of Mankind, and the Development of Civilization.
By Edward B. Tylor, D. C. L., LL.D., F.R. S. 1878.

* The number of species of Phwnocjamia has been given by many writers as not far
from 150,000. But the total number of species recognized by Bcntham and Hooker, in
the Genera Plantarum (Durand's Index), is 100,220, in 210 natural orders and 8,417
genera.

f Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, to whose kindness I am indebted for great assistance in the
matter of references, has placed at my disposal many of his notes on edible plants, etc.
From his enumeration it appears that, if we count all the plants which have been culti-
vated for food at one time or another, the list contains 1,192 species; but if we count all
the plants which either " habitally or during famine periods are recorded to have been
eaten," we obtain a list of no less than 4,090 species, or about three and one half per
cent of all known species of plants. But, as Sir Joseph Hooker has said, the products
of many plants, though eatable, are not fit to eat.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 61

the total rmm'ber of species of flowering plants utilized to any-
considerable extent by man in his civilized state does not exceed,
in fact it does not quite reach, one per cent.

The disproportion between the plants which are known and
those which are used becomes much greater when we take into
account the species of flowerless plants also. Of the five hundred
ferns and their allies we employ for other than decorative pur-
poses only five ; the mosses and liverworts, roughly estimated at
five hundred species, have only four which are directly used by
man. There are comparatively few algae, fungi, or lichens which
have extended use.

Therefore, when we take the flowering and flowerless together,
the percentage of utilized plants falls far below the estimate
made for the flowering alone.

Such a ratio between the number of species known and the
number used justifies the inquiry which I have pro^Dosed for dis-
cussion at this name — namely, Can the short list of useful jDlants
be increased to advantage ? If so, how ?

This is a practical question ; it is likewise a very old one. In
one form or another, by one people or another, it has been asked
from early times. In the dawn of civilization, mankind inher-
ited from savage ancestors certain plants, which had been found
amenable to simple cultivation, and the products of these plants
supplemented the spoils of the chase and of the sea. The ques-
tion which we ask now was asked then. "Wild plants were exam-
ined for new uses; primitive agriculture and horticulture ex-
tended their bounds in answer to this inquiry. Age after age
has added slowly and cautiously to the list of cultivable and
utilizable plants, but the aggregate additions have been, as we
have seen, comparatively slight.

The question has thus no charm of novelty, but it is as prac-
tical to-day as in early ages. In fact, at the present time, in view
of all the appliances at the command of modern science, and
under the strong light cast by recent biological and technological
research, the inquiry which we propose assumes great impor-
tance. One phase of it is being attentively and sj^stematically
regarded in the great experiment stations, another phase is
being studied in the laboratories of chemistry and pharmacy,
while still another presents itself in the museums of economic
botany.

Our question may be put in other words, which are even more
practical. What present likelihood is there that our tables may,
one of these days, have other vegetables, fruits, and cereals than
those which we use now ? What chance is there that new fibers
may supplement or even replace those which we spin and weave,
that woven fabrics may take on new vegetable colors, that

62 ' THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

flowers and leaves may yield new perfumes and flavors ? What
probability is there that new remedial agents may be tound
among plants neglected or now wholly unknown ? The answer
which I shall attempt is not in the nature of a prophecy ; it can
claim no higher rank than that of a reasonable conjecture.

At the outset it must be said that synthetic chemistry has
made and is making some exceedingly short cuts across this
field of research, giving us artificial dyes, odors, flavors, and
medicinal substances of such excellence that it sometimes seems
as if before long the old-fashioned chemical processes m the plant
itself would play only a subordinate part. But although there is
no telling where the triumphs of chemical synthesis will end, it
is not probable that it will ever interfere essentially with certain
classes of economic plants. It is impossible to conceive of a syn-
thetic fiber or a synthetic fruit. Chemistry gives us fruit-ethers
and fruit-acids, and after a while may provide us with a true arti-
ficial sugar and amorphous starch ; but artificial fruits worth the
eating or artificial fibers worth the spinning are not coming m

our day. „ ,i ,• i

Despite the extraordinary achievements of synthetic chemis-
try, the world must be content to accept, for a long time to come,
the results of the intelligent labor of the cultivator of the soil
and the explorer of the forest. Improvement of the good plants
we now utilize, and the discovery of new ones, must remain the
care of large numbers of diligent students and assiduous wOTk-
men. So that, m fact, our question resolves itself into this : Can
these practical investigators hope to make any substantial ad-
vance ? . 1 . 1 ^•^^A
It will be well to glance first at the manner m which our wild
and cultivated plants have been singled out for use. We shall m
the case of each class, allude to the methods by which he selected
plants have been improved, or their products fully utilized.
Thus, looking the ground over, although not minutely, we can see
what new plants are likely to be added to our list. Our illustra-
tions can, at the best, be only fragmentary. ^ ^. . . , ,, ^
We shall not have time to treat the different divisions of the
subject in precisely the proportions which would be demanded by
an exhaustive essay; an address on an occasion like this must
pass lightly over some matters which other opportunities for dis-
cussion could properly examine with great fullness. Unfortunate-
ly some of the minor topics which must be thus passed by possess
considerable popular interest ; one of these is the first subordinate
question introductory to our task, namely. How were our useful
cultivated and wild plants selected for use ?

A study of the early history of plants employed for ceremonial
purposes, in religious solemnities, in incantations, and for medici-

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 63

nal uses shows how slender has sometimes "been the claim of cer-
tain plants to the possession of any real utility. But some of the
plants which have been brought to notice in these ways have
afterward been found to be utilizable in some fashion or other.
This is often seen in the cases of the plants which have been sug-
gested for medicinal use through the absurd doctrine of signa-
tures.*

It seems clear that, except in modern times, useful j^lants have
been selected almost wholly by chance, and it may well be said
that a selection by accident is no selection at all. Nowadays the
new selections are based on analogy. One of the most striking
illustrations of the modern method is afforded by the utilization
of bamboo fiber for electric lamps.

Some of the classes of useful plants must be passed by without
present discussion; others alluded to slightly; while still other
groups fairly representative of selection and improvement will be
more fully described. In this latter class would naturally come,
of course, the food-plants known as

I. The Cereals. — Let us look first at these.

The species of grasses which yield these seed-like fruits, or, as
we might call them for our purpose, seeds, are numerous ; f
twenty of them are cultivated largely in the Old World, but only
six of them are likely to be very familiar to you, namely, wheat,
rice, barley, oats, rye, and maize. The last of these is of Ameri-
can origin, despite doubts which have been cast upon it. It was
not known in the Old World until after the discovery of the New.
It has probably been very long in cultivation. The others all
belong to the Old World. Wheat and barley have been culti-
vated from the earliest times ; according to De Candolle, the chief
authority in these matters, about four thousand years. Later
came rye and oats, both of which have been known in cultivation
for at least two thousand years. Even the shorter of these pe-
riods gives time enough for wide variation, and, as is to be ex-
pected, there are numerous varieties of them all. For instance,
Vilmorin, in 1880, figured sixty-six varieties of wheat with plain-
ly distinguishable characters.J

If the Chinese records are to be trusted, rice has been culti-
vated for a period much longer than that assigned by our history
and traditions to the other cereals, and the varieties are corre-
spondingly numerous. It is said that in Japan above three hun-

* The Folk Lore of Plants. By T. F. Thiselton Dyer, 1889.

f In Dr. Sturtevant's list, 88 species of Graminece are counted as food-plants under
cultivation, while the number of species in this order which can be or have been utilized
as food amounts to 146. Our smaller number 20 comprises only those which have been
grown on a large scale anywhere.

X " In Agricultural Museum at Poppelsdorf 600 varieties are exhibited."

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

dred varieties are grown on irrigated lands, and more than one
hundred on uplands,*

With the possible exception of rice, not one of the species of
cereals is certainly known in the wild state, f Now and then speci-
mens have been gathered in the East which can be referred to the
probable types from which our varieties have sprung, but doubt
has been thrown upon every one of these cases. It has been
shown conclusively that it is easy for a plant to escape from culti-
vation and persist in its new home even for a long time in a near
approximation to cultivated form. Hence, we are forced to re-
ceive all statements regarding the wild forms with caution. But
it may be safely said that if all the varieties of cereals which we
now cultivate were to be swept out of existence, we could hardly
know where to turn for wild species with which to begin again.
We could not know with certainty.

To bring this fact a little more vividly to our minds, let us
suppose a case. Let us imagine that a blight without parallel has
brought to extinction all the forms of wheat, rice, rye, oats, bar-
ley, and maize now in cultivation, but without affecting the other
grasses or any other form of vegetable food. Mankind would be
obliged to subsist upon the other kindly fruits of the earth — upon
root-crops, tubers, leguminous seeds, and so on. Some of the sub-
stitutions might be amusing in any other time than that of a
threatened famine. Others would be far from appetizing under
any condition, and only a few would be wholly satisfying even to
the most pronounced vegetarian. In short, it would seem, from
the first, that the cereals fill a place occupied by no other plants.
The composition of the grains is theoretically and practically al-
most perfect as regards food ratio between the nitrogenous mat-
ters and the starch group ; and the food value, as it is termed,
is high. But, aside from these considerations, it would be seen
that for safety of preservation through considerable periods, and
for convenience of transportation, the cereals take highest rank.
Pressure would come from every side to compel us to find equiva-
lents for the lost grains. From this predicament I believe that
the well-equipped experiment stations and the Agricultural De-
partments in Europe and America would by and by extricate us.
Continuing this hypothetical case, let us next inquire how the sta-
tions would probably go to work in the up-hill task of making
partially good a well-nigh irreparable loss.

The whole group of relatives of the lost cereals would be passed

* E. L. S. in letter, quoted from Seedsman's Catalogue.

•)■ The best account of the early history of these and other cultivated plants can be
found in the classical work of De Candolle, Origine dcs Plantcs Cultivees (Paris), trans-
lated in the International Series, History of Cultivated Plants (New York). The reader
i:houId consult also Darwin's Animals and Plants under Domestication.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 65

in strict review. Size of grain, strength and vigor and plasticity
of stock, adaptability to different surroundings, and flexibility in
variation would be examined with scrupulous care.

But the range of experiment would, under the circumstances,
extend far beyond the relatives of our present cereals. It would
embrace an examination of the other grasses which are even now
cultivated for their grains, but which are so little known, outside
of their own limit, that it is a surprise to hear about them. For
example, the millets, great and small, would be investigated. These
grains, so little known here, form an important crop in certain
parts of the East. One of the leading authorities on the subject *
states that the millets constitute " a more important crop " in India
" than either rice or wheat, and are grown more extensively, being
raised from Madras in the south to Rajputana in the north. They
occupy about eighty-three per cent of the food-grain area in
Bombay and Sinde, forty-one per cent in the Punjab, thirty-
nine per cent in the central provinces," " in all about thirty
million acres."

Having chosen proper subjects for experimenting, the cultiva-
tors would make use of certain well-known principles. By simple
selection of the more desirable seeds, strains would be secured to
suit definite wants, and these strains would be kept as races, or
attempts would be made to intensify v/ished-for characters. By
skillful hybridizing of the first, second, and higher orders, tenden-
cies to wider variation would be obtained and the process of selec-
tion considerably expedited.!

It is out of our power to predict how much time would elapse
before satisfactory substitutes for our cereals could be found. In
the improvement of the grains of grasses other than those which
have been very long under cultivation, experiments have been
few, scattered, and indecisive. Therefore we are as badly off for
time-ratios as are the geologists and archaeologists in their state-
ments of elapsed periods. It is impossible for us to ignore the
fact that there appear to be occasions in the life of a species when
it seems to be peculiarly susceptible to the influence of its sur-

* Food-grains of India, A. II. Church, London, 1886, p. 34. In this instructive work
the reader will find much information regarding the less common articles of food. Of
Paiiicum frumentaccum. Prof. Georgeson states in a letter that it is grown in Japan for
its grain, which is used for food, but here would take rank as a fodder-plant.

f In order to avoid possible misapprehension, it should be stated that there are a few
persons who hold that at least some of our cereals, and other cultivated plants, for that
matter, have not undergone material improvement, but are essentially unmodified progeny.
Under this view, if we could look back into the farthest past, we should see our cereals
growing wild and in such admirable condition that we should unhesitatingly select them
for immediate use. This extreme position is untenable. Again, there are a few extrem-
ists who hold that some plants under cultivation have reached their culminating point, and
must now remain stationary or begin to retrograde.

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

roundings.* A species, like a carefully laden sliip, represents a
balancing of forces within and without. Disturbance may come
through variation from within, as from a shifting of the cargo, or
in some cases from without. We may suppose both forces to be
active in producing variation, a change in the internal condition
rendering the plant more susceptible to any change in its surround-
ings. Under the influence of any marked disturbance, a state of
unstable equilibrium may be brought about, at which times the
species as such is easily acted upon by very slight agencies.

One of the most marked of these derangements is a consequent
of cross-breeding within the extreme limits of varieties. The re-
sultant forms in such cases can persist only by close breeding or
by propagation from buds or the equivalents of buds. Disturb-
ances like these arise unexpectedly in the ordinary course of
nature, giving us sports of various kinds. These critical periods,
however, are not unwelcome, since skillful cultivators can take
advantage of them. In this very field much has been accom-
plished. An attentive study of the sagacious work done by
Thomas Andrew Knight shows to what extent this can be done.f
But we must confess that it would be absolutely impossible to
predict with certainty how long or how short would be the time
before new cereals or acceptable equivalents for them would be
provided. Upheld by the confidence which I have in the intelli-
gence, ingenuity, and energy of our experiment stations, I may
say that the time would not probably exceed that of two genera-
tions of our race, or half a century.

In now laying aside our hypothetical illustration, I venture to
ask why it is that our experiment stations, and other institutions
dealing with plants and their improvement, do not undertake
investigations like those which I have sketched ? Why are not
some of the grasses other than our present cereals studied with
reference to their adoption as food-grains ? One of these species
will naturally suggest itself to you all, namely, the wild rice of
the lakes, t Observations have shown that, were it not for the

* Gray's Botanical Text-Book, vols, i and ii.

f A Selection from the Physiological and Horticultural Papers published in the
Transactions of the Royal and Horticultural Societies, by the late Thomas Andrew Knight,
Esq., President of the Horticultural Society, London. London, 1841.

X Hlustrations of the Manners and Customs and Condition of the North American
Indians. By George Catlin. London, ISTe. A reprint of the account published in 1841,
of travels in 1832-'40. " Plate 278 is a party of Sioux, in bark canoes (purchased of the
Chippewas), gathering the wild rice, which grows in immense fields around the shores of
the rivers and lakes of these northern regions, and used by the Indians as an article of
food. The mode of gathering it is curious and, as seen in the drawing, one woman
paddles the canoe, while another with a stick in each hand bends the rice over the canoe
with one and strikes it with the other, which shakes it into the canoe, which is constantly
moving along until it is filled." Vol. ii, p. 208.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 67

difficulty of harvesting these grains, which fall too easily when
they are ripe, they might be utilized. But attentive search might
find or educe some variety of Zizania with a more persistent
grain and a better yield. There are two of our sea-shore grasses
which have excellent grains, but are of small yield. "Why are not
these, or better ones which might be suggested by observation,
taken in hand ?

The reason is plain. We are all content to move along in lines
of least resistance, and are disinclined to make a fresh start. It
is merely leaving well enough alone, and, so far as the cereals are
concerned, it is indeed well enough. The generous grains of
modern varieties of wheat and barley compared with the well-
preserved charred vestiges found in Greece by Schliemann,* and
in the lake-dwellings,t are satisfactory in every respect. Im-
provements, however, are making in many directions ; and in the
cereals we now have we possess far better and more satisfactory
material for further improvement, both in quality and as regards
range of distribution, than we could reasonably hope to have
from other grasses.

From the cereals we may turn to the interesting groups of
plants comprised under the general term

II. Vegetables. — Under this term it will be convenient for
us to include all plants which are employed for culinary purj)oses,
or for table use, such as salads and relishes.

The potato and sweet potato, the pumpkin and squash, the
red or capsicum peppers, and the tomato, are of American
origin.

All the others are, most probably, natives of the Old World.
Only one plant coming in this class has been derived from south-
ern Australasia, namely, New Zealand spinach {Tetragonia) .

Among the vegetables and salad-plants longest in cultivation

* Schliemann's carbonized specimens exhumed in Greece are said to be " very hard,
fine-grained, sharp, very flat on grooved side, different from any wheats now known."
American Antiquities, 1880, p. 66. The carbonized grains in the Pcabody Museum at
Cambridge, Mass., are small.

■)• Prehistoric Times as illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs
of Modern Savages. By John Lubbock, Bart. New York, fourth edition, 1886. " Three
varieties of wheat were cultivated by the lake-dwellers, who also possessed two kinds of
barley and two of millet. Of these the most ancient and most important were the six-
rowed barley and small " lake-dwellers' " wheat. The discovery of Egyptian wheat
{Triticum turgidum), at Wangcn and Robenhausen, is particularly interesting. Oats were
cultivated during the bronze age, but are absent from all the stone age villages. Rye was
also unknown " (p. 216). "Wheat is most common, having been discovered at Merlen,
Moosseedorf, and Wangen. At the latter place, indeed, many bushels of it were found,
the grains being in large, thick lumps. In other cases the grains are free, and without
chaff, resembling our present wheat in size and form, while more rarely they are still
in the ear." One hundred and fifteen species of plants have been identified (Ileer,
Keller).

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

we may enumerate the following: turnip, onion, cabbage, purs-
lane, the large bean (Faha), chick-pea, lentil, and one species of
pea, garden pea. To these an antiquity of at least four thousand
years is ascribed.

Next to these, in point of age, come the radish, carrot, beet,
garlic, garden cress and celery, lettuce, asparagus, and the leek.
Three or four leguminous seeds are to be placed in the same cate-
gory, as are also the black peppers.

Of more recent introduction the most prominent are the pars-
nip, oyster-plant, parsley, artichoke, endive, and spinach.

From these lists I have purposely omitted a few which belong
exclusively to the tropics, such as certain yams.

The number of varieties of these vegetables is astounding. It
is, of course, impossible to discriminate between closely allied
varieties which have been introduced by gardeners and seedsmen
under different names, but which are essentially identical, and we
must therefore have recourse to a conservative authority, Vil-
morin,* from whose work a few examples have been selected.
The varieties which he accepts are sufficiently well distinguished
to admit of description, and in most instances of delineation, with-
out any danger of confusion. The potato has, he says, innumer-
able varieties, of which he accepts forty as easily distinguishable
and worthy of a place in a general list, but he adds also a list,
comprising, of course, synonyms, of thirty-two French, twenty-
six English, nineteen American, and eighteen German varieties.
The following numbers speak for themselves, all being selected
in the same careful manner as those of the potato : celery, more
than twenty ; carrot, more than thirty ; beet, radish, and potato,
more than forty ; lettuce and onion, more than fifty ; turnip, more
than seventy ; cabbage, kidney-bean, and garden pea, more than
one hundred.

The amount of horticultural work which these numbers repre-
sent is enormous. Each variety established as a race (that is, a
variety which comes true to seed) has been evolved by the same
sort of patient care and waiting which we have seen is necessary
in the case of cereals, but the time of waiting has not been as a
general thing so long.

You will permit me to quote from Vilmorin f also an account
of a common plant, which will show how wide is the range of
variation and how obscure are the indications in the wild plant
of its available possibilities. The example shows how completely
hidden are the potential variations useful to mankind :

* Les riantes Potagh-cs, Vilmorin, Paris. Translated into English under the direc-
tion of W. r.obinson, Editor of the (London) Garden, 1885, and entitled The Vegetable
Garden.

•)• Loc. cit., English edition, p. 104.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 6g

Cabbage, a plant wbich is indigenous in Europe and western Asia, is one of
tbe vegetables which has been cultivated fi-om the earliest time. The ancients
were well acquainted with it, and certainly possessed several varieties of the head-
forming kinds. The great antiquity of its culture may be inferred from the im-
mense number of varieties which are now in existence, and from the very impor-
tant modifications which have been produced in the characteristics in the original
or parent plant.

The wild cabbage, such as it now exists on the coasts of England and France,
is a perennial plant with broad -lobed, undulated, thick, smooth leaves, covered
with a glaucous bloom. The stem attains a height of from nearly two and a half
to over three feet, and bears at the top a spike of yellow or sometimes white
flowers. All the cultivated varieties present the same peculiarities in their inflo-
rescence, but up to the time of flowering they exhibit most marked differences from
each other and from the original wild plant. In most of the cabbages it is chiefly
the leaves that are developed by cultivation ; these for the most part become im-
bricated or overlap one another closely, so as to form a more or less compact head,
the heart or interior of which is composed of the central undeveloped shoot and
the younger leaves next it. The shape of the head is spherical, sometimes flat-
tened, sometimes conical. All the varieties which form heads in this way are
known by the general name of cabbages, while other kinds with large branching
leaves which never form heads are distinguished by the name of borecole or kale.

In some kinds the flower stems have been so modified by culture as to become
transformed into a thick, fleshy, tender mass, the growth and enlargement of which
are produced at the expense of the flowers, which are absorbed and rendered abor-
tive. Such are the broccolis and cauliflowers.

But til is plant lias other transformations.

In other kinds the leaves retain their ordinary dimensions, while the stem or
principal root has been brought by cultivation to assume the shape of a large ball
or turnip, as in the case of the plants known as kohl - rabi and turnip-rooted
cabbage or Swedish turnip. And, lastly, there are varieties in which cultivation
and selection have produced modifications in the ribs of the leaves, as in their
couve troDchuda, or in the axillary shoots (as in Brussels sprouts), or in several
organs together, as in the marrow kales and the Neapolitan curled kale.

Here are important morphological changes like those to which
Prof. Bailey has called attention in the case of the tomato.

Suppose we are strolling along the beach at some of the seaside
resorts of France, and should fall in with this coarse cruciferous
plant, with its sprawling leaves and strong odor. Would there
be anything in its appearance to lead us to search for its hidden
merit as a food-plant ? What could we see in it which would give
it a preference over a score of other plants at our feet ? Again,
suppose we are journeying in the highlands of Peru, and should
meet with a strong-smelling plant of the nightshade family, bear-
ing a small irregular fruit, of subacid taste and of peculiar fla-
vor. We will further imagine that the peculiar taste strikes our
fancy, and we conceive that the plant has possibilities as a source
of food. We should be led by our knowledge of the potato, prob-
ably a native of the same region, to think that this allied plant

70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

might be safely transferred to a northern climate ; but would there
be promise of enough future usefulness, in such a case as this,
to warrant our carrying the plant north as an article of food ?
Suppose, further, we should ascertain that the fruit in question
was relished not only by the natives of its home, but that it had
found favor among the tribes of south Mexico and Central Amer-
ica, and had been cultivated by them until it had attained a large
size ; should we be strengthened in our venture ? Let us go one
step further still. Suppose that having decided upon the intro-
duction of the plant, and having urged everybody to try it, we
should find it discarded as a fruit, but taking a place in gardens
as a curiosity under an absurd name, or as a basis for preserves
and pickles ; should we not look upon our experiment in the in-
troduction of this new plant as a failure ? This is not a hypotheti-
cal case.

The tomato,* the plant in question, was cultivated in Europe
as long ago as 1554 ; f it was known in Virginia in 1781 and in the
Northern States in 1785 ; but it found its way into favor slowly,
even in this land of its origin. A credible witness states that in
Salem it was almost impossible to induce people to eat or even
taste of the fruit. And yet, as you are well aware, its present
cultivation on an enormous scale in Europe and this country is
scarcely sufficient to meet the increasing demand.

A plant which belongs to the family of the tomato has been
known to the public under the name of the strawberry tomato.
The juicy yellow or orange-colored fruit is inclosed in a papery
calyx of large size. The descriptions which were published when
the plant was i^laced on the market were attractive, and were not
exaggerated to a misleading extent. But, as you all know, the
plant never gained any popularity. If we look at these two cases
carefully we shall see that what appears to be caprice on the part
of the public is at bottom common sense. The cases illustrate as
well as any which are at command the difficulties which sur-
round the whole subject of the introduction of new foods.

* According to notes made by Mr. Manning, Secretary Massacbusetts Horticultural
Society (History Massachusetts Horticultural Society), the tomato was introduced into
Salem, Mass., about 1802 by Michele Felice Cornc, an Italian painter, but he found it diffi-
cult to persuade people even to taste the fruit (Felt's Annals of Salem, vol. ii, p. 631).
It was said to have been introduced into Philadelphia by a French refugee from Santo
Domingo in 1798. It was used as an article of food in New Orleans in 1812, but was not
sold in the markets of Philadelphia until 1829. It did not come into general use in the
North until some years after the last-named date.

f " In Spain and those hot regions, they use to eat the (love) apples prepared and
boiled with pepper, salt, and olives ; but they yield very little nourishment to the
bodies, and the same nought and corrupt. Likewise they doe eat the apples with oile,
vinegar, and pepper mixed together for sauce to their meat even as we in these Cold
Countries do Mustard." (Gerard's Herbal, p. 316.)

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 71

Before asking specifically in wliat direction we shall look for
new vegetables I must be pardoned for calling attention, in pass-
ing, to a very few of the many which are already in limited use
in Europe and this country, but which merit a wider employment.
Cardon, or cardoon; celeriac, or turnip-rooted celery; fetticus,
or corn-salad ; martynia ; salsify ; sea-kale ; and numerous small
salads, are examples of neglected treasures of the vegetable
garden.

The following, which are even less known, may be mentioned
as fairly promising : *

1. Arr acacia esculenta, called arracacha, belonging to the
parsley family. It is extensively cultivated in some of the north-
ern states of South America. The stems are swollen near the
base and produce tuberous enlargements filled with an excellent
starch. Although the plant is of comparatively easy cultivation,
efforts to introduce it into Europe have not been successful, but
it is said to have found favor in both the Indies, and may prove
useful in our Southern States.

2. Ullucus or ollucus, another tuberous-rooted plant from
nearly the same region, but belonging to the beet or spinach
family. It has produced tubers of good size in England, but
they are too waxy in consistence to dispute the place of the better
tubers of the potato. The plant is worth investigating for our
hot, dry lands.

3. A tuber-bearing relative of our common hedge-nettle, or
Stacliys, is now cultivated on a large scale at Crosnes, in France,
for the Paris market. Its name in Paris is taken from the locality
where it is now grown for use. Although its native country is
Japan, it is called by some seedsmen Chinese artichoke. At the
present stage of cultivation the tubers are small and are rather
hard to keep, but it is thought that, '' both of these defects can be
overcome or evaded." f Experiments indicate that we have in
this species a valuable addition to our vegetables. We must
next look at certain other neglected possibilities.

Dr. Edward Palmer, J whose energy as a collector and acute-

* Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth Century. By John R. Jackson, A. L. S.
Cassell & Co. London, 1890. Mr. Jackson, who is the Curator of the Museums,
Royal Gardens, Kcw, has embodied in this treatise a great amount of valuable information,
well arranged for ready reference.

f Gardener's Chronicle, 1888.

X Department of Agriculture Report for 1870, pp. 404-428. Only those are here copied
from Dr. Palmer's list which he expressly states are extensively used :

Ground-nut {Apios tubcrosa) ; Aesculus californica ; Agave amcricana ; Nwpliar
advena ; prairie potato (Psoralca esculenta) ; Scirpus lacustris ; Sagittaria variabilis ;
kamass-root {Camassia esculenta); Solanum Fendlm-i (supposed by him to be the original
of the cultivated potato) ; acorns of various sorts ; mesquite [Algarohia glandulosa ;
Juniperus occidentalis ; nuts of Carya^ Juglans, etc. ; screw-bean {Slrombocarpus pubescens) ;

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

iiess as an oloserver are known to you. all, has brought together
very interesting facts relative to the food-plants of our North
American aborigines. Among the plants described by him there
are a few which merit careful investigation. Against all of them,
however, there lie the objections mentioned before, namely :

1. The long time required for their improvement, and —

2. The difficulty of making them acceptable to the commu-
nity, involving —

3. The risk of total and mortifying failure.

In the notes to this address the more prominent of these are
enumerated.

In 1854 the late Prof. Gray called attention to the remarkable
relations which exist between the plants of Japan and those of
our Eastern coast. You will remember that he not only proved
that the plants of the two regions had a common origin, but also
emphasized the fact that many species of the two countries are

various cactacefc ; Yucca ; cherries and many wild berries ; Chenopodium album, etc.
Psoralea esculentaz= prairie potato, or bread-root. (Palmer in Agricultural Report, 18Y0,
p. 402). The following from Catlin, he. dt.., i, p. 122: "Corn and dried meat
are generally laid in in the fall, in sufHcient quantities to support them through
the winter. These are the principal articles of food during that long and in-
clement season ; and, in addition to them, they oftentimes have in store great quantities
of dried squashes, and dried ' pommcs blanches,' a kind of turnip which grows in great
abundance in those regions. . . . These are dried in great quantities and pounded into
a sort of meal and cooked with dried meat and corn. Great quantities also are
dried and laid away in store for the winter season, such as buffalo-berries, service-
berries, strawberries, and wild plums. In addition to this we had the luxury
of service-berries vv'ithout stint ; and the buffalo bushes, which are peiarulc
to these northern regions, lined the banks of the river and the defiles in the
bluffs, sometimes for miles together, forming almost impassable hedges, so
loaded with the weight of their fruit that their boughs everywhere gracefully bending
down or resting on the ground. This last shrub {Shepherdia), which may be said to be
the most beautiful ornament that decks out the wild prairies, forms a striking contrast to
the rest of the foliage, from the blue appearance of its leaves by which it can be distin-
guished for miles in distance. The fruit which it produces in such incredible profusion,
hanging in clusters to every limb and to every twig, is about the size of ordinary currants
and not unlike them in color and even in flavor ; being exceedingly acid, almost unjjalata-
ble, until they are bitten by frost of autumn, when they arc sweetened and their flavor
delicious, having to the taste much the character of grapes, and I am almost fain
to think would produce excellent wine." (George Catlin's Illustrations and Manners,
Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, p. 72, vol. i.) For
much relative to the food of our aborigines, especially of the Western coast, consult
The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By H. H. Bancroft. New
York, 18Y5. The following from vol. i, p. 538, indicates that inaccuracies have crept into
the work: " From the earliest information we have of these nations" (the author is speak-
ing of the New Mexicans), " they are known to have been tillers of the soil ; and though
the implements used and their methods of cultivation were both simple and primitive,
cotton, corn, ivheat, beans, and many varieties of fruits which constituted their principal
food were raised in abundance." Wheat was "not grown on the American continent until
after the landing of the first explorers.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 73

almost identical. It is to that country, wliicli has yielded us so
many useful and beautiful plants, that we turn for new vegetables
to supplement our present food resources. One of these plants,
namely, Stachys, has already been mentioned as rather promis-
ing. There are others which are worth examination and perhaps
acquisition.

One of the most convenient places for a preliminary examina-
tion of the vegetables of Japan is at the railroad stations on the
longer lines — for instance, that running from Tokio to Kobe. For
native consumption there are prepared luncheon-boxes of two or
three stories, provided with the simple and yet embarrassing
chopsticks. It is worth the shock it causes one's nerves to invest
in these boxes and try the vegetable contents. The bits of fish,
flesh, and fowl which one finds therein can be easily separated and
discarded, upon which there will remain a few delicacies. The
pervading odor of the box is that of aromatic vinegar. The
generous portion of boiled rice is of excellent quality with every
grain well softened and distinct, and this without anything else
would suffice for a tolerable meal. In the boxes which have
fallen under my observation there were sundry boiled roots,
shoots, and seeds which were not recognizable by me in their
cooked form. Prof. Georgeson,* formerly of Japan, has kindly
identified some of these for me, but he says, " There are doubtless
many others used occasionally."

One may find sliced lotus roots, roots of large burdock, lily
bulbs, shoots of ginger, pickled green plums, beans of many sorts,
boiled chestnuts, nuts of the gingko tree, pickled greens of various
kinds, dried cucumbers, and several kinds of sea-weeds. Some of
the leaves and roots are cooked in much the same manner as beet
roots and beet leaves are by us, and the general efi^ect is not un-
appetizing. The boiled shoots are suggestive of only the tougher
ends of asparagus. On the whole, I do not look back on Japanese
railway luncheons with any longing which would compel me to
advocate the indiscriminate introduction of the constituent vege-
tables here.

But when the same vegetables are served in native inns, under
more favorable culinary conditions, without the flavor of vinegar

* Pickled daikon, the large radish, often grated. Ginger-roots — shoga. Beans
( Glycine hispida), many kinds, and prepared in many ways. Beans {DoHrhos culfratus),
cooked in rice and mixed with it. Sliced hasu, lotus roots. Lily bulbs, boiled whole and
the scales torn off as they are eaten. Pickled green plums (ume-boshi), colored red in the
pickle by the leaves of Perilla arguta (shiso). Sliced and dried cucumbers, kiuri.
Pieces of gobo — roots of Lappa major. Rakkio — bulbs of AUium Hakeri, boiled in
shogu. Grated wasabi — stem of Eutrcma toasabi. Water-cress — midzu-tagarashi (not
often). Also sometimes pickled greens of various kinds, and occasionally chestnut-kernels
boiled and mixed with a kind of sweet sauce. Nut of the gingko tree. Several kinds of
eea- weeds are also very commonly served with the rice. Prof. C. C. Georgeson in letter.

VOL. XL. — 6

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and of the pine wood of the luncheon-boxes, they appear to be
worthy of a trial in onr horticulture, and I therefore deal with
one or two in greater detail.

Prof. Georgeson, whose advantages for acquiring a knowledge
of the useful plants of Japan have been unusually good, has placed
me under great obligations by communicating certain facts re-
garding some of the more promising plants of Japan which are
not now used here. It should be said that several of these plants
have already attracted the notice of the Agricultural Department
in this country.

The soy bean {Glycine hispida). This species is known here
to some extent, but we do not have the early and best varieties.
These beans replace meat in the diet of the common people.

Mucuna {Muouna capitata) and dolichos {Dolichos cuUratus)
are pole-beans possessing merit.

Dioscorea; there are several varieties with palatable roots.
Years ago one of these was spoken of by the late Dr. Gray as pos-
sessing "excellent roots, if one could only dig them."

Colocasia antiquorum has tuberous roots, which are nutri-
tious. 1 • T, • V J

Conophallus Konjak has a large bulbous root, which is sliced,
dried, and beaten to a powder. It is an ingredient in cakes.

Aralia cordata is cultivated for the shoots, and used as we use

asparagus. . i i. vi

CEnantlie stolonifera and Cryptotc2nia canadensis are palatable
salad plants, the former being used also as greens.

There is little hope, if any, that we shall obtain from the hot-
ter climates for our southern territory new species of merit The
native markets in the tropical cities, like Colombo, Batavia, Singa-
pore, and Saigon, are rich in fruits, but, outside of the native plants
bearing these, nearly all the plants appear to be whol y m estab-
lished lines of cultivation, such, for instance, as members of the
gourd and nightshade families.

Before we leave the subject of our coming vegetables, it will
be well to note a na/ive caution enjoined by Vilmorm m his work,
Les Plantes Potag^res.*

"Finally," he says, "we conclude the article devoted to each
plant with a few remarks on the uses to which it may be applied
and on the parts of the plants which are to be so used. In many
cases such remarks mav be looked upon as idle words, and yet it
would sometimes have been useful to have them when new plants
were cultivated by us for the first time. For instance, the giant
edible burdock of Japan [Lappa eduUs) was for a long time
served up on our tables only as a wretchedly poor spinach, be-

* Loc. cit. Preface in English edition.

LUSSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 75

cause people would cook tlie leaves, whereas, in its native country,
it is only cultivated for its tender, fleshy roots/'

I trust you are not discouraged at this outlook for our coming
vegetables.

Two groups of improvable food-plants may be referred to be-
fore we pass to the next class, namely, edible fungi and the bever-
age-plants. All botanists who have given attention to the matter
agree with the late Dr. Curtis, of North Carolina, that we have in
the unutilized mushrooms an immense amount of available nutri-
ment of a delicious quality. It is not improbable that other fungi
than our common " edible mushroom " will by and by be subjected
to careful selection.

The principal beverage-plants — tea, coffee, and chocolate — are
all attracting the assiduous attention of cultivators. The first of
these plants is extending its range at a marvelous rate of rapidity
through India and Ceylon ; the second is threatened by the pests
which have almost exterminated it in Ceylon, but a new species,
with crosses therefrom, is promising to resist them successfully ;
the third, chocolate, is every year passing into lands farther from
its original home. To these have been added the kola, of a value
as yet not wholly determined, and others are to augment the
short list.

[To be concluded. '\

LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS.

Br CAEROLL D. WEIGHT, A.M.,

TTNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR.
II.

TO my own mind, the Federal census system is faulty in many
features. It is bungling, unwieldy, and unproductive of sci-
entific results. It is the legitimate growth of time and the honest
endeavor to secure broader and broader results to satisfy the
growing demand for information concerning all the conditions of
the people, and it is perfectly natural that the additions from
time to time should have resulted in the present system. The
system should be changed radically before another census period
comes around.

To be specific in the condemnation of our system, attention
should be paid, first, to the method of enumeration. Vicious as it
is, it is a vast improvement upon that existing prior to 1880.
There are four methods of enumeration, or rather four methods
of enumeration have been tried on pretty extensive scales. The
English method consists in securing all the facts called for under

-^e THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the law in one day. For this pnrpose a vast army of enumerators
is appointed from the central office.* The organization under the
British Census Act is under the control of the Local Government
Board, and the immediate chief is the Registrar-General. Local
registrars of births and deaths must divide their subdistricts
into enumerators' divisions, in accordance with instructions from
the Registrar-General, and subject to his final supervision and ap-
proval. Every registrar of births and deaths must furnish to his
superintendent registrar lists containing names, occupations, and
places of abode of a sufficient number of persons qualified, accord-
ing to instructions, to act as enumerators within a subdistrict,
and such persons, if approved by the superintendent registrar,
shall be appointed enumerators for taking the census. The
board causes to be prepared a table of allowances to be made to
the several enumerators, registrars, superintendent registrars, and
other persons employed in taking the census ; and such table,
when approved by the Treasury, is laid before both Houses of
Parliament for their action. Under the act' the schedule compre-
hends eleven inquiries, relating to the members of the family,
visitors, boarders, and servants who slept or abode in the dwell-
ing on the night of Sunday, April 5, 1891, and the schedule was
called for on Monday, April 6th, by the appointed enumerator,
whose business it was to see that the schedule was properly filled
by the head of the household, and, if not, to cause it to be so filled.
This method seems to be the one that attracts the attention of
statisticians as the ideal method. Under it, however, much com-
plaint exists in Great Britain, not only as to the processes of
carrying out the law, but relative to the inaccuracies in the re-
turns ; and I have been informed that much difficulty is experi-
enced in obtaining well-filled schedules. It is unreasonable to sup-
pose that in a population varying widely in the intelligence of its
individual members a schedule can be properly filled or so well
filled as to secure a reasonably scientific result. The English cen-
sus has been extolled for its accuracy. I do not believe it is any
more accurate than any other census taken by other methods. I
have before me a discarded schedule — that is, an improperly filled
one — left with an intelligent mechanic, well educated, of wide ex-
perience, a machinist by trade, and perfectly competent to write
an article for a magazine ; and yet he could not, or did not,
properly fill the schedule left with him, and on an examination of
it it is not strange that he did not. When the difficulties of fill-
ing the simple English schedule are considered, it becomes pre-

* In an article in the North American Review for June, 1889, I stated that the English
census was taken through the constabulary. I made this statement on most excellent
authority. It was, however, an error.

ZUSSOJ^S FROM THE CENSUS. yj

posterous to suppose that the expanded schedule under the Fed-
eral system could be filled under the English method. This has
been tried, and in a State where the population has been taught
to consider the value of statistics — the Commonwealth of Massa-
chusetts. In 1875 the English method was adopted ; the sched-
ules, comprehending all the inquiries at that time called for by-
law, were left with the heads of families, with clearly defined in-
structions, sample sheets, etc., all in accordance with the recog-
nized English method ; and from that community, which, it is
reasonable to suppose, could fill the census schedules if any com-
munity could do it, but thirty-seven per cent of the returns were
in a condition for use. The balance had to be corrected or made
entirely by the enumerators. That method was therefore aban-
doned in subsequent censuses for the State of Massachusetts.
With the sparsely settled population of the United States, and
with the broad schedule of the Federal census, covering as it does
twenty-four inquiries, it would be absurd to attempt to take the
census under the English system.

In Germany the labor of enumeration is performed by persons
who, in consideration of the public utility of the work, do it with-
out compensation.* It has been thought that this feature could
be embodied in the United States census to a certain extent, or at
least supplemented by the employment of school-teachers in the
enumeration. The German method involves, of course, the crea-
tion of exceedingly small enumeration districts, after the English
method, a block in a city or a portion of a street in a town or vil-
lage being allotted to some patriotic citizen who would without
compensation see to it that the schedules were properly filled. It
is doubtful if this method could be made useful in the United
States. Our people are too busy — at least those competent to take
charge of such work — to induce them to enlist. The great difii-
culty even now is to secure men for a week or a month's service
under the Census Office.

The third method of enumeration is that practiced in the State
of Massachusetts, and certainly the scientific results of the cen-
suses of that State would indicate the value of the method em-
ployed. Since 1845 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has
taken a census regularly, on the mean year of the Federal cen-
suses. It started its census work in 1837 by an account of its
manufactures, etc. ; but its first enumeration on any broad scale
was in 1845, through the assessors of cities and towns. In 1875
the field work was done by enumerators appointed by the census
authorities and paid by the day, and they were instructed to secure

* The History, Theory, and Technique of Statistics, by August Meltzen, Ph. D., pro-
fessor at the University of Berlin. Falkner's translation.

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

full and complete results without regard to tlie time taken. For
the population the English method was used, as already stated.
The manufactures and agricultural products were secured on in-
dividual schedules, statements being certified to by proprietors.
In 1885 the card schedule for population was successfully intro-
duced, the other features of the 1875 system and per diem com-
pensation being retained.

Under the Federal system, which I have said is so faulty, all
data are collected, so far as population, agriculture, and the gen-
eral statistics of manufacture are concerned, by enumerators se-
lected by the supervisors and appointed by the Superintendent.
The supervisors under the eleventh census are fairly compen-
sated ; the enumerators are not. The compensation for enumer-
ating the population under the existing law is in most of the
country two cents for each living inhabitant, two cents for each
death reported, fifteen cents for each farm, twenty cents for each
establishment of productive industry enumerated and returned,
and five cents for each surviving soldier, sailor, or marine, or
each widow of a soldier, sailor, or marine returned. In some
subdivisions the allowance for each living inhabitant may be in-
creased, but the comi^ensation allowed to any enumerator in any
difificult district shall not be less than three dollars nor more than
six dollars per day of ten hours' actual field work, when a per diem
compensation shall be established by the Secretary of the Interior
instead of a per capita ; nor, where the per capita rate is increased,
shall it exceed three cents for each living inhabitant, twenty cents
for each farm, and thirty cents for each establishment of produc-
tive industry ; nor shall claims for mileage or traveling expenses
be allowed any enumerator in either class of cases, except where
difiiculties are extreme, and then only when authority has been
previously granted by the Superintendent of the Census. The
allowance relative to inhabitants and deaths is the same as under
the tenth census. There is an increase of a few cents in the com-
pensation for enumerating farms and establishments or productive
industry. It may not be possible nor wise to change this method,
but it is possible and wise to make the compensation fair and just.
Under these rates it is almost impossible for an enumerator to
earn a fair day's wage if he does his duty. In localities where
the population is dense, he can earn three or four dollars per
day. His ambition is — and human nature prompts it — to se-
cure as many names as possible, and in too many instances he
will do this at the expense of accuracy ; for accuracy consumes
time. Furthermore, he may be inclined, in the very worst locali-
ties, in the slums of great cities, to omit, for personal reasons of
convenience or otherwise, to enumerate all the peojDle, being con-
tented with taking the population in sight ; in other words, two

LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 79

cents a name miglit not induce him to enter all the dens of the
slums of a great city for the sake of accuracy. In sparsely settled
localities even three cents a name (the per capita rate, it must be
borne in mind, covers all the multitude of facts called for on the
population schedule) will not enable an enumerator to earn a
living for the time employed, and he is often inclined to take the
statements of neighbors rather than to travel a mile or two to
secure accurate statements relative to half a dozen persons. In
enumerating establishments of productive industry, the compen-
sation allowed by law will not enable an enumerator, either hon-
estly or dishonestly inclined, to secure any very valuable results.
It is quite impossible to fill out a manufactures schedule com-
pletely and with fair accuracy for twenty cents. A man could
not earn one dollar a day if he did his duty, and on the enumera-
tion of farms he could not earn seventy-five cents a day. The
complete agricultural statistics under the census of Massachusetts
in 1885 cost about one dollar per farm, instead of fifteen or twenty
cents.

The difficulty which Congress would have to meet in adjusting
this matter of compensation is twofold. If a very large body of
enumerators, like that employed under the elventh census, nearly
fifty thousand, should be enlisted on a per diem compensation, the
fear would be that there would be men enough in that vast army
who would delay their work for the purpose of increasing their
earnings to swell the cost of enumeration to enormous propor-
tions^ although reasonable accuracy would thereby be secured in
every direction. On the per capita basis the question would be
whether accuracy should be sacrificed for the sake of a lower cost.
The evils of the present system are so great, however, so far as
compensation is concerned, and the results of the census vitiated
to so large a degree, that it would seem to be wise to adopt a sys-
tem of compensation which should secure fair accuracy in the
results^ even at an increase in the expense The country grows
so rapidly, and the wealth and business increase so largely, that
the total expense of a census should not be considered when the
accuracy of the same is at stake.

Another fault of the present system, to my mind, lies in the
organization of the field forces. It is perfectly natural that the
Census Office, and that Congress, even, should seek a speedy
enumeration of the people ; but it is submitted that if an instan-
taneous enumeration can not be had — and it is clearly demonstra-
ble that it can not in this country — then whether it take a week or
two weeks, or even three or four, to complete the enumeration be-
comes a matter of lesser consideration. It might, therefore, be
wise to make larger districts aiid use a less number of enumerators
rather than to extend the method by decreasing the size of the

8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

districts and increasing the number of enumerators, as is the
present tendency. An enumerator, working for a few days, ac-
quires speed a7id accuracy as a matter of experience, and his
second week's work is of vastly greater value than his first few
days' service. It might he well, therefore, to so subdivide the coun-
try into enumeration districts that each enumerator would have
at least four or five thousand people to enumerate, instead of an
average of two thousand, as under the present method. If the
districts were enlarged, the number of supervisors should be
greatly increased. The present law provides for one hundred and
seventy-five supervisors ; that of 1880 provided for one hundred
and fifty. It would seem to be a prudent measure to provide for
at least one thousand supervisors, which body, with a reduced
number of enumerators, could take greater pains with all parts of
the enumeration ; and if supervisors could be selected with special
reference to their fitness and enumerators could be tested by the
use of a preliminary schedule relating to their own families and
perhaps one or two neighboring families, results would be secured
which would defy criticism. With such changes there should
come a change of date for the enumeration. The count of the
people is now made as of the 1st of June — under the present
law, the first Monday in June. The changes in the habits of the
people necessitate a change of date. More and more every year
people leave the town for the country, and this change occurs
about the time of the enumeration. The date should be changed
to a period of the year when the population is more thoroughly
fixed or more thoroughly housed in permanent homes. Could
the date be carried forward to the autumn, a great gain would be
made in the accuracy of the enumeration — not perhaps in the total
for the whole country, but in the total for each State and city.
Certainly the results would be far more satisfactory to all con-
cerned, even though the change in the total population of the
United States did not exceed a few thousand. Each State wants
its own: political and social reasons demand that this should
be so.

Perhaps the very worst form of the present system is the tem-
porary nature of the service. As the census year comes in sight
each decade, a Census Office is created by law, the organization
to be taken entirely from new material, from the head to the foot.
Of course, the aim always is in securing a superintendent to select
some one who has had more or less experience or is supposed to
be more or less competent in census work ; but then comes the
greater difficulty, the selection of the forces. A good business
man at the head of the Census Office — one of excellent adminis-
trative and executive abilities, without knowledge of statistics —
would handle a census, in all probability, as well as or better

LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 81

even than a statistician without business qualifications ; but the
organization demands skillful men at the head of divisions and
skillfid and trained statisticians as assistants. Every superin-
tendent endeavors to draw into his service a certain number prop-
erly qualified, statistically speaking, for the service required ; but
everything must be drawn together hurriedly — a great bureau,
the largest in the Federal Government, created in a brief period,
and the work carried on with the greatest rapidity. With the
vast expansion of census inquiries, in connection with the neces-
sarily speedy organization, it is absurd, without regard to the
qualifications of the head of the office, to expect valuable results
for the money expended. It is not in the power of any superin-
tendent, no matter what his experience, no matter what his quali-
fications may be, to take a very satisfactory census under the con-
ditions involved in our Federal system. The attempt is made to
create a vast official machine, and then to at once collect material
involving in its collection answers to thousands of inquiries by a
force of nearly fifty thousand men in the field and an office force
of five thousand, the whole work to be completed within a year or
two, and the data to be collected under a system of compensation
which does not allow, or certainly does not induce, accurate work.
The result is that the Census Office is, within a few months after
the date set for enumeration, literally " snowed under " with raw
material collected by crude and, in a large majority of cases, in-
efficient forces, to be digested and compiled for printing by an-
other force nearly as crude as the field forces. It is not in the
power of human capacity to carry out scientifically the work of
the Federal census. It never has been done ; it never can be done
until the system is changed. This does not involve any criticism
as to the growth of the system nor of the men who have so ably
administered it. The point I make is that the census system has
grown to be unwieldy in natural ways, and that it is time to cor-
rect it, and the very first step toward correction lies in the direc-
tion of the establishment of a permanent Census Office, under
which there ought to be a constant force of trained and experi-
enced statistical clerks, and the collection of facts distributed over
the ten years instead of being crowded into a few months. This
change of itself would correct many of the faults of the present
system. The facts relating to population and agriculture might
be collected in the fall of the census year^ when the new agricult-
ural crops would be considered instead of the old, as under the
present system, and then the data relating- to manufactures and
all the other features necessarily involved in the census could be
taken up year after year and carried each to a successful conclu-
sion. This would involve the employment constantly of a much
reduced office force, and a field force, except for the enumeration

VOL. XL. *?

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the population, gradually becoming more and more skillful.
The exjDense during the whole ten years would be somewhat larger
than is now involved, but the results would be of such infinitely
greater value that the increased expense would not be a matter
for a moment's consideration. My suggestion, then, for future
census work would be, first, a permanent Census Office, involving
an efficient field force, under the most liberal provisions as to
supervision, and an organization of an office force so adjusted
that it could be made elastic and yet preserve the functions re-
quired to secure accuracy and completeness; second, an adjust-
ment of compensations for field work that would secure complete
and accurate returns in all the departments of census work.

It may be argued that there would be nothing for a permanent
Census Office to do a great part of the time. In answer to this it
can be said, that if the regular work of the census should leave the
force in comparative idleness, it might be employed in tabulating
some of the results of previous censuses which it was found neces-
sary to abandon ; for instance, in 1880, although the facts were
secured by the regular enumeration, no tabulation was made of
the single, married, widowed, and divorced. The questions now
agitating the public mind relative to marriage and divorce are
only half discussed, because the facts for the whole country can
not be ascertained. This is only one feature. A tabulation of the
facts relative to conjugal condition, as indicated, for the year 1880
would be vastly more valuable, even now, than it would have been
in 1880. And so of other features. By picking up such aban-
doned results, a reasonable force in the Census Office could be
constantly and profitably employed, with increasing skill, so that
when the results of new enumerations came into the Census Office,
a trained force sufficiently large to influence the whole body of
new appointees would be in readiness.

If, in addition to the changes suggested, the several States
could be induced to co-operate with the Federal Government, a
great advantage would be gained. The States might undertake
the collection of the statistics of population, manufactures, and
agriculture on as extended a basis as individually they might
choose, but guaranteeing to furnish the Federal Government with
certain clearly defined and uniformly collected data, for which
the Federal Government should provide reasonable compensation.
Under some such adjustment the statistical work of the United
States Government and of the individual States could be brought
to a very high state of perfection, with the burden of expense so
divided and adjusted that it would not be considered as a stum-
bling-block in the way of progress.

One of the most encouraging movements of the present day is
that of the trade and business organizations of the country to

REEF-KNOT NETS. 83

secure a perfected and scientific statistical service in tliis country.
This movement commenced during the closing days of the last
Congress^ through memorials from boards of trade, presented by
the National Board of Trade, asking that the question of the es-
tablishment of a permanent Census Office be considered by the
Secretary of the Interior and a report made to the Fifty-second
Congress. The matter is therefore open for consideration by the
public and by Congress, and, whether a permanent statistical serv-
ice is provided for or not, great good must come from the discus-
sion, and ultimately the faulty features of the present system be
removed.

REEF-KNOT NETS.

By WILLIAM CHUECHLLL.

AT the bottom of textile industries net-meshing appears to
precede even such simple weaving as the making of mats of
grass and bark. Not only is it the earliest of the textile arts, but
it is even more prominently an unchanged art through all the
stages of development which have culminated in the Jacquard
loom. Ancient or modern, laboriously made by hand or the
product of intricate machinery, the mesh knot is practically un-
modified in the nets of the steam trawler and the naked savage.
It seems, indeed, one of the few contrivances of human ingenuity
which came early to perfection and have not proved susceptible
of any improvement in all the succeeding ages.

It may, then, be not without interest to present a radical vari-
ant of the common mesh knot as noticed in general use among a
considerable people in the western Pacific, together with such
notes as are available to show a wider distribution of this knot.

In Avestern New Britain, on the coast of Dampier Strait, facing
New Guinea, where the Papuan characteristics are most strongly
impressed upon the Melanesian type, the writer noticed the net-
ting of a large seine and was attracted by the unfamiliar motions
of the old women engaged in the work. Closer examination dis-
closed the fact that every knot in the mesh was of the sort known
as the reef or square knot, in which the four ends come out in
pairs, each pair on one side of the bight or loop of the other pair.
As nothing could be more widely dissimilar from the ordinary
mesh knot, an effort — and a successful one — was made to induce
the netters to communicate their art, which is here presented
with figures which may aid to a clear comprehension of the
method of manufacture employed. These figures give a view of a
net in process of construction, with detailed drawings of the foun-
dation knot and of the successive stages in forming the mesh knot.

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Besides the netting-cord (commonly coir, the fiber of the cocoa-
nut husk, which is very durable in the water), the only tool used
is the mesh-block (E, Fig. 4). This is a thin block of hard wood
rasped into shape, and, since these tools are treasured as heir-
looms, together with interminably long rhythmical recitals of the
wonderful takes of fish made by nets fabricated on each block,
the wood most commonly employed is the very dense and hard
iron-wood {Casuarina equisetifolia). It is highly polished and
usually ornamented upon the ends with property marks, showing
the exogamous marriage class and gens of the owner, which here
take the place occupied by tribal distinctions among the endoga-
mous races. The blocks are commonly of uniform size. Their
length, which is practically a constant quantity, is determined by
the length (about five inches) which may be held between the
extreme tips of the fingers and the ball of the thumb, for that is
its position when in use and to secure it against slipping the
edges are carefully brought to a true right angle. The height of
the block is, of course, determined by the width of mesh desired,
but a height about equal to the breadth of the hand across the
palm is most frequent, since the mesh made upon that gauge is
found most satisfactory in taking the fish usually seined for. In
width the blocks seldom exceed a half-inch, and have an oval
section. Smaller hand-nets, in which accurate meshing is not de-
sired, are commonly knotted over the finger with much nicety.

The net is started on pegs driven into a beam, corresponding
in number with the number of meshes in a tier which it is de-
sired to put into the net, and these netting -beams are a promi-
nent feature on every village green. At a distance from the end
of the cord somewhat greatei .than the proposed width of the net,
a bowline knot (A, Fig. 4) is turned in and cast upon the first peg
toward the right. The two unequal parts of cord issuing from
this knot may, for the sake of distinction, be denominated the
ball part and the free part. The latter is carried taut to the sec-
ond peg, and there stopped close to the beam by a light lashing,
and at the top of the peg is passed into an eye or narrow cleft.
The mesh-block is now laid against the row of pegs ; the ball i3art
is passed first below and then above it from the bowline knot to
the second peg, forming the first half-mesh (B, Fig> 4) ; it is then
cast over the second peg, and the free part of the cord attached
thereto with a pair of half -hitches (C and D, Fig. 1). The free
part is then withdrawn from the eye in the peg, drawn taut
through the two half-hitches, and half-hitched back upon itself
(E, Fig 1). It is now carried from the knot just formed (C, Fig.
4) to the next peg and there made ready for further use ; the ball
part is again carried around the mesh-block and hitched and
bound as before. Upon the last peg in the row this knot is made,

REEF-KNOT NETS.

is

and in the remainder of the free part close to the peg there is
turned in a second bowline knot (D, Fig. 4). These two bowline
knots serve as clews to the net. This selvage and first tier
of half-meshes are invariably made from right to left, on the
ground that it is the custom of the country, and any variation
therefrom would be attended by consequences as unpleasant as
they are ill-defined.

The second tier of meshes is made from left to rigbt, and here
the peculiar mesh knot makes its first appearance.

Holding the mesh-block in her left hand, so that its upper
edge just touches the bottom of the meshes already formed, the
operator passes the ball of cord from the last knot down in front
and up behind the mesh-block (F, Fig. 4), making due allowance
for the difference in size of this exterior mesh necessary to keep
the tier uniform. The ball is held in the right hand, gripped be-
tween the ball of the thumb, the palm, and the third and fourtli
fingers, thus leaving the thumb and two fingers free to work

/?

^i;h

*^

7S

Fig. 1. — Selvage Knot. Fig. 2. — Mesh Knot, Fig. 3. — Mesh Knot, second titrn.

first tukn.

with. A loop (C, Fig. 2) of any convenient size is made in the
netting-cord, between the block and the ball, passed up through
the bight of the mesh (A) from below, and drawn through the
bight sufficiently far to draw taut the part which passes about
the mesh-block, in which position it is stopped by the left thumb
on the block. The ball (E) is passed through the loop (C), also
from below upward (as shown at D), returned to its place in the
palm of the right hand, and the part drawn taut and stopped by
the left thumb. This completes a single turn of the knot as
shown in Fig. 2, where the relation of the several parts is ex-
hibited before they have been pulled taut and stopped, which in
practice will be found essential to the success of the operation.

The second and final part of the knot is illustrated in Fig. 3.
A second loop (F) is made in the cord between the ball and the
part stoppered by the left thumb. This loop is passed from
above downward through the bight of the mesh (A), drawn taut,
and stopped at the mesh-block by the left thumb as before.

86

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Through this loop (F) the ball (E) is passed also from above
downward (as shown at G), and pulled taut to the left thumb,
where the knot is felt to turn part way around, and is found to be
a perfectly formed square knot as shown in Fig. 4, at G.

This second tier of meshes completed, the operator shifts the
ball to the left hand and the mesh-block to the right, and makes
the third tier from right to left. The final tier with its clews and
selvage are made by reversing the process described for begin-
ning the net.

Fig. 4.

This method of meshing, though unfamiliar, has several dis-
tinct advantages over the more usual method ; of which one in-
heres in the knot itself, two in the line of greater simphcity m
the mode of manufacture, and one in the possibility of easily pro-
ducing irregular designs for particular purposes— that is to say,
of netting pockets and pounds without interruption of the thread.

The advantage in the knot is one which will immediately
be apparent to those who have given attention to the study of
knots for the reef knot is incontestably the simplest and most
secure means of joining two parts of cord. The advantages m
tlie mode of manufacture are that one implement, the nettmg-
needle, is dispensed with, and that the net may be made of a
single cord continuous throughout, and thus is of equal strength
in every part. It would be tedious to go into the details of mak-
ing pounds and pockets in a net ; it is more simple than appears,
and the thread continues without a break through the net and
insert-piece as well. It is possible that some one skilled m me-
chanical arts may find in this device the suggestion of a mode of
simplifying the machinery at present used in the manufacture ot
nets for commercial purposes.

THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS.

87

In connection with the several obscure but remarkable in-
stances of correspondences between the American shores of the
Pacific and the remoter islands of Melanesia, it is interesting to
note that the only other well-defined discovery of this mesh was
made in British America upon the Pacific shore. Prof. George
Davidson, of San Francisco, a most accurate student of the life
of the native races with whom he had to deal, in prosecuting the
survey of that coast, found nets of this peculiar mesh manufact-
ured by the Tchin-cha-au Indians of British Columbia in the
vicinity of Port Simpson, and described it in the proceedings of
the California Academy of Sciences, of which body he was for
many years the president. The writer has been informed that a
similar mesh has been noticed in the textile remains of the la-
custrine period of Switzerland, but he has been unable to identify
the reference in any of the figures contained in the usual authori-
ties upon that prehistoric society.

THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS.

By WAEKEN G. BENTON.

TN former papers on the Chinese religions I referred to Confu-
-L danism as a religion, following the generally accepted view
of the matter. But in this paper I shall treat it as in no legitimate
sense a religion, but simply and purely a system of moral or
ethical philosophy.

^ Religion has to do primarily with the existence of a deity and
with the question of man's immortality, and the relationship exist-
ing between the two. Morality may grow out of man's effort to
sustain an acceptable relationship to the Deity and the future life •
but if so, it is incidental to and not a part of religion. The ao-es
most noted for religious enthusiasm, and in which human fife
and liberty were most freely sacrificed for orthodoxy in religious
opinions and forms, were notoriously immoral. And at the pres-
ent day, in many countries, the most religious are not the most
moral^ communities. At Panama, a few years ago, I went to a
cockpit on a Sunday afternoon, and among the spectators were
several gentlemen in clerical cloth ; and after the various battles
were ended I observed that these clerically clad gentlernen were
exchanging coin on the result. During the same afternoon, while
"taking in" the sights of that town of cathedrals and churches, I
saw more than one woman, around whose neck was suspended an
image of the Virgin Mary, but whose manner of life indicated
that a less appropriate symbol could not well be imagined. It is
equally significant that rarely does a criminal ascend the gallows

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in this country that he is not accompanied by a clergyman, and
he dies with the professions of piety and religious faith on his
lips. Our penal institutions are filled with religious believers,
and it is rare, in fact, that such men are not nominal members of
churches, or at least have been at some time in their lives. I do
not mention this fact to intimate that religious education or belief
tends to promote immorality, for it does not ; but rather to show
that religious belief does not necessarily promote morality, no
more than does the absence of such belief tend to promote immo-
rality

If a system of ethics and morality founded upon a purely
human basis, and having no reference to any deity or future life
whatever, is a religion, then Confucianism is a religion. But I
do not know of any definition of the term that would include such
a system.

The simple assertion, by those claiming authority on a subject
that lies beyond the sphere of demonstration or proof one way or
the other, has either to be accepted as a fact or repudiated as not
proved. In the realm of religious dogmas it has been held to be
good logic that when a proposition can not be disproved that it
stands as proved. By this logic religions have been established.
But in the matter of ethics the case is different. This comes
within the scope of experience and demonstration, and is the out-
growth of experiment. There is no absolute standard of morality,
what is construed as such being a relative condition, and re-
garded as good or bad, according to the state of civilization and
educational standard by which actions are measured. What is
regarded as perfect conduct in one age or under one environment
may be rightly condemned under a higher development of the
moral sense as a feeble attempt at morality.

What is called conscience can not be set up as a guide in the
matter, for it is but the result of the mode of education. One
man's conscience will approve of a given course, when another
under a better social and political education will repudiate it as
vicious. Among the lower orders of savages and uncivilized men
there is apparently no moral standard observed. With the lower
animal kingdom questions of priority and individual rights are
settled, not by any tribunal in equity, but by the measure of
physical strength. And what are considered the cardinal points
in moral and ethical systems, as set forth in the decalogue of the
Jews and in the corresponding codes of other ancient religions,
are but the embodiment of the results of experience in the earlier
developments of civilization When men first began to acquire
property by industry or cunning, they found it inconvenient to
have others appropriate the results of such thrift, and perhaps
the first moral obligation recognized was the right to property ;

THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 89

and tlie law against theft was among the first formulated codes :
" Thou shalt not steal/^ Before such institutions as police courts
were evolved, the only tribunal for adjusting personal difficulties
was to fight it out ; and the stronger combatant, other things
being equal, was proved in the right because he vanquished his
foe. But, as societies or community of interests began to be
formed, it was found better to have boards of arbitration to settle
disputes, and, as is shown in the controversy over the ownership
of a certain herd of cattle in biblical times, the method of settling
intricate problems partook largely of the plan of tossing up of
pennies, yet it indicates that progress was being made over the
fighting era. " Thou shalt not kill," especially a fellow-tribesman,
was an early section of the moral code.

The custom of mating which obtains among many species of
birds and some quadrupeds, and which, as man advanced in civ-
ilization, resulted in the establishment of the marriage relation,
led to the edict against adultery. As tribes increased in numbers,
it was found necessary for purposes of offensive and defensive
warfare that some sort of organization should be observed, and
this implied a division of labor and function. Political organiza-
tion implied that some one or more of each tribe be designated to
direct the operations of the rest, and the greatest warrior was
naturally selected as the first chief ; and the first chief used his
power and position to install his sons as his successors, and thus
were the first royal families evolved and succession to rulership
established. National or tribal lines of jurisdiction followed the
introduction of agricultural and breeding pursuits, and states and
national boundaries were surveyed or designated. Territorial
limits being established, tribunals or international bodies were
necessary to regulate conflicting interests. The first resort was
the war-club, and the enslavement of the vanquished. This
method of arbitration has not yet been fully eliminated, but
progress is being made in that direction, and international tri-
bunals for arbitration now endeavor to supersede the sword.

Thus were governments evolved and written constitutions and
statutes enacted, and codes of laws with penalties for restraining
the criminal classes from violating the rules experience has found
to be essential to good government and good society. None of
these primary laws have been created by the makers of religions,
but all such have found these in force wherever man has reached
a sufficient degree of civilization to receive a religion.

This is why in all the various systems of religion we find the
same essential basal moral laws inculcated. One has not copied
from another, as is sometimes asserted. The fact that the same
moral laws are found in two or more systems of religion does not
indicate that the younger has copied the older, but that both ap-

TOL. YL. 8

90

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

propriated existing well-defined and primal elements of moral
law which had been evolved in preceding ages.

Confucius followed this principle, and did not lay claim to
having originated the principles of his philosophy, but to have
simply undertaken to revive laws which the ancients had laid
down, but which had become practically obsolete through non-
observance. He undertook to induce his fellow-men to observe
the essential laws of good government and good society, not be-
cause of attached penalties, but because it was necessary to good
society and the promotion of virtue. He recognized with sorrow
that political intrigue, infidelity to the trusts of men in all rela-
tions, and crime of all kinds prevailed in spite of the laws in-
tended to regulate such things, and to the task of restoring the
righteous rules of his ancestors he set himself. He knew that
penal codes were powerless for good when there was not a moral
sense to enforce them. Modern prohibitive legislation is a par-

All the prohibitive statutes that our Legislatures have so far
enacted have failed to do away with drunkenness, for the reason
that there is lacking sufficient personal sense of obligation to en-
force them. The Chinese statutes, or the writings of the fathers,
the classics so called, set forth the means to virtue and morality ;
but neither the legal authorities nor the people recognized any
need for enforcing or observing them. He sought by precept
and example to revive the moral sense of the people ; but at the
end of a long life he died in poverty and disappointment, having
apparently produced no impression.

Kung-f u-tse (Latinized into Confucius) was born about 550 B. c.
His father was descended from one of the many royal families
which had figured in the past as rulers of tribes or provinces.
Most likely these ancient Chinese royal families were little more
than the Indian chiefs in our day, and their claim to royalty was
recognized only in a very narrow limit. But he was not in power
when the Sage was born. He had been married two or three
times, but had no son, except one cripple, which did not count.
At an advanced old age he married a young wife, and Kung, Jr.,
was the result. The father died when the boy was about three
years old, and left his family in poverty. But, under the class
distinctions into which Chinese society was divided, Kung in-
herited at least the class instincts of a gentleman, and managed
in some manner to obtain a good education as Chinese education
went. He was married when about twenty years old, and soon
after his marriage his mother died. According to the custom of
his country, this event required that he retire for three years
from all business relations, and it is supposed that he spent this
period of mourning in the study of the classics. When he again

THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 91

appeared in public he engaged in teaching school for some years ;
but, being imbued with the desire to effect a reformation among
his people, he gave up teaching and sought and obtained employ-
ment in a government position under the ruler of his native prov-
ince. His life as a civil officer enabled him to observe the
methods of official conduct, and still further intensified his desire
to restore a more righteous rule. He decided to seek the co-opera-
tion of some one of the many claimants to royal prerogative,
and, by enlisting such sympathy, he calculated that by inaugu-
rating a model reign, under whose influence men would turn
again to the correct paths, he would absorb all contiguous prov-
inces, unify the government of the race under a common flag,
and see virtue and peace again among men. But he failed, after
wandering from one province to another, to enlist the sympathy
or co-operation of any one in a position to assist him ; and he
eventually gave up in despair, and, gathering a small following
of disciples about him, he retired from public view, and passed
the remainder of his days in teaching his chosen few and lament-
ing the evil days upon which his peo^jle had come. To fully appre-
ciate the great task he had set out to accomplish, the reformation
of China upon a strict ethical basis, it is necessary, as far as pos-
sible, to picture the condition of his people at that time. If we
allow for some advance in civilization during the past twenty-
five hundred years^ and contemplate the China of our day with
what in his day it must have been, we must concede that he had
a very unpromising, crude material to work upon. From what
he wrote on the condition of things, and also from the writings
of Mencius a century later, we conclude that it was indeed a dark
picture for the idealist to contemplate. Mencius states that in
his time men had reached a state of degradation in which they
denied that there was any distinction between good and evil,
virtue and vice. All moral restraints were thrown off, and pub-
lic or private morality was unknown. But, notwithstanding the
philosopher was dead, his name and writings still existed, and
had their influence on a few minds. Among these was Mencius,
who seems to have been a more able man than Kung himself, and
who espoused the cause of reform. He was wise enough to see that
nothing might be hoped for in the way of co-operation of the
rulers, who were as bad as the common people, but he set to work
to gather and put into form the writings of Kung-fu-tse. Per-
haps but for this work the very name of the Sage would long ago
have been forgotten ; for his writings were left in a fragmentary
and scattered shape, and even do not take high rank in point of
literary merit. The Confucian Analects, as compiled by Mencius,
and with added comments by the latter, have been translated into
English by Rev. Mr. Legge, an eminent Oriental scholar, and the

92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

work comprises in many large volumes about all that is known
of the writings of the Sage.

The bulk of this extensive work consists in obscure allusions
to things no doubt familiar in his time, but now obsolete ; and in
meaningless fine distinctions and references to the " Rules/'
" Forms/' and such things that have but little significance to the
modern reader. But the gist of the matter may be summed up
in one short sentence : " Walk in the old paths." And when we
come to define the old paths we find what he called the " Five
Relations/' under which he defines every known duty of man.
These " Relations " had been defined and enforced ages before, in
the books called the Classics, perhaps for the reason that they
were so old that no one knew when or by whom written. It is
these five propositions that have called forth dozens of folio
volumes to elucidate and enforce. And it is these that constitute
what is known as Confucianism, although he never originated
them nor claimed to be other than a teacher of the faith of the
ancients.

These five relations have in them an entire code of political
and social economy of the highest order.

First Relation; King and Subject.— Kung, in harmony
with the established form of government under which he lived,
was an advocate of absolute monarchy. The fact that he had a
tinge of royal blood in his own body may have unconsciously in-
fluenced his judgment on this point. At all events, he left no in-
dication of any disapproval of the system. He favored paternal
government, both for the nation and in the family. The patri-
archal plan has always been followed out in China to the fullest
detail. The Emperor is as the father of the big family, and there
is no appeal from his authority. The question of how the reign-
ing monarch attained his position is not taken into consideration.
The fact that he is on the throne is sufficient to secure the most
absolute and abject obedience to his mandates. Kung set forth
certain wholesome rules which should control his actions in the
belief that the subject as well as the ruler had rights. He sought
to supersede kingship by force with kingship by fitness. The civil
government being a counterpart to the family government, the
rules or principles obtaining in one should be equally applied in the
other. The subject should love the king as the son loves the
father, not for the enemies he might have made, but because of a
righteous administration of the affairs of the country. He gave
no countenance to a divided household. No rival political parties,
appealing by bribes of office, nor threats of non-support at the
next election, could disturb the serenity of the rulers or ruled.
No penalties for treason, where a government was so good that
none could find fault, were needed ; and, in the event of Individ-

THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 93

ual remonstrance, the recalcitrant was to be dealt with as a 'father
would treat a disobedient son. The rod has always been the chief
instrument of enforcing discipline in the political household as
well as the domestic household ; and cases that will not submit to
this primitive method of chastisement are visited with the guil-
lotine.

The fact that no one could be found willing to undertake to
put in force his method of conducting government is due to the
strict conditions he sought to enforce. Rulers were accustomed
to hold the people in check by force of arms, and subaltern petty
ofi&cers were appointed by the crown and held their position by
carrying out the desires of their creator. Confucius declared
that political appointments in the civil service should be made on
the basis of individual merit, rather than simply the standard of
subservience to the dictation of the throne. He was the first ad-
vocate of civil-service reform, and his success in that line is not
calculated to create very high hopes in those of our day who would
substitute a similar test for office.

It is commonly understood in this country that China has
long practiced competitive examinations of candidates for office.
They do go through such a form, but it is a mere farce. For
appointment to a position in the customs service, for example, the
examination is conducted by testing the candidate in his pro-
ficiency with the bow and arrow, and by having recitations from
memory of certain portions of the classics. The man who can hit
the bull's-eye the greatest number of times in a given number of
shots with the bow, and can recite the greatest number of pages
from some book, of the meaning of which he may be utterly igno-
rant, is considered the best fitted for the position. It may be that
they consider that a man who is skillful with the bow, and whose
memory will absorb a long list of trite sayings in a book, will also
be capable of acquiring useful knowledge in his chosen position in
the civil or military service ; but certainly the attainments tested
are of no practical benefit in the work to be done. Running and
jumping and other athletic attainments are also tested. This
is more useful, especially in the military service, than the other
tests appear to be. A good runner in the army may be an im-
portant foresight in the selection of soldiers or officers who are
thus selected. China's experience in her recent wars with Euro-
pean armies has taught her the need of a fleet-footed soldiery to
enable them to get out of the way of the enemy.

It is, of course, difficult to estimate what part the teachings of
Confucianism have had in forming the national character of the
Chinese. Some powerful influence must have been required to
secure such a condition of contentment under such an arbitrary
government to hold together in apparent submission to one reign-

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing house for so many centuries. True, that country has been
the scene of many bloody civil conflicts in her history. At the
time of Confucius the country was not, as now, one united em-
pire, but was divided into many smaller jurisdictions. The politi-
cal unity of China was brought about several centuries after his
death, and was the result of a long period of tribal or provincial
conflicts.

Then later the Tartars subjugated China, and absorbed the
original China proper, as it is spoken of, into the present bound-
ary, and the Tartar dynasty has held the control of the govern-
ment ever since. The only attempt of any importance made since
that conquest to restore Chinese rule was the Taiping rebellion.
This revolt promised to be successful, until the British and French
Governments interfered in aid of the Tartars, and under Chinese
Gordon put down the rebellion. Now every precaution is taken
to j)revent another rebellion. Guns and gunpowder have been
declared contraband, and are not permitted to the ownership of
the natives.

The Chinese contingent in the army is equipped with bows and
arrows, spears, and old-fashioned muzzle-loading blunderbusses
of the most primitive pattern. All native regiments are also
officered by Tartars, and Tartar regiments are equipped with
modern rifles, and drilled under European tactics, to give them
an advantage in the event of any future uprising.

Local magistrates and governors of provinces and districts
are all appointed by the Emperor, from the Tartar contingent,
and hold their offices at the discretion of the throne. They
assume to judge of what is beneficial, and decide the policy of the
Government entirely on their own judgment, without consulting
the wishes of the populace. There is no appeal to the people for
approval or disapproval of the Government's action on any sub-
ject. The masses submit to the inevitable, not apparently so much
from any recognition of wisdom in its administration, but rather
as an inevitable result of their inability to help themselves.
Taxation is laid in a most summary and arbitrary manner, and
collected by the officers appointed for that purpose, and there is a
continual struggle between the tax-collectors and the tax-payers
to try to outwit each other. Duty is assessed upon every article
of domestic production, as well as all imports. Farm products
have to pay duty at every thirty miles they may have to traverse
to reach a market. A cargo of tea leaving Hankow for the sea-
board for export, if carried in native bottoms, must pay taxes
every thirty miles of the distance. Under treaty stipulations,
cargo carried under foreign flags is assessed only at the point of
departure. This has created a lucrative business for many Ameri-
cans and others, who ostensibly buy boats and cargoes, and fly

THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 95

the American flag over them, for a fee from the real owners.
Merchants of all classes are taxed five per cent on gross sales, and
liave to submit their books for inspection freely to the tax-collect-
ors ; and detected efforts to get around the tax, other than by
bribing the collectors, which is not at all difficult to do, results in
the confiscation of their entire possessions. Once I witnessed the
novel transaction of a foreigner who wanted to purchase a milch-
cow, and the farmer drove the cow to the outside limits of the
tax station on the outskirts of the town, and tied her there and
came for the buyer to accompany him outside to complete the
purchase. He could pass the cow without taxation, but the native
owner could not. This is why the Chinese in California show
such skill and fertility of resource in smuggling in opium. Their
past training in subterfuges to beat their own tax-collectors has
trained them in the business. And they do not regard it as any
crime to beat the Government if they can. In this freak they are
not wholly unlike many of our own race, as our custom-house
officers are aware.

"We can not, of course, determine what would have been the
condition of China, in the matter of the relationship between ruled
and rulers, had Confucianism never impressed its doctrines on
the subject, but certainly he has not achieved any striking success
in this first of the five relations.

Second Relation : Husband and Wife. — The husband is
regarded as holding much the same relation to the wife as the
Emperor to the people — that is, he has absolute authority over
her. But that authority must be exercised with justice and sym-
pathy. The wife shall obey the husband, but he must be worthy
of obedience. Polygamy is now practiced in China, but it seems
not to have been at the time of Confucius. At least I have ob-
served no reference to the matter in his treatise on the second
relation, which seems probable would be the case if it was recog-
nized at the time he wrote. His plan elaborated the most minute
provisions for the conduct of married people, and, were his ideal
carried out, a most happy state of married life would result ; but,
judging from appearances, he has more signally failed on this
point than on the first relation. Chinese marriages are not con-
ducted on the plan most conducive to harmony. Their matches
are not made in heaven, as poets sometimes declare of this matter,
but in a broker's office. They are not the result of a personal
courtship between the parties to the compact, but are a matter
of barter and sale. Fathers negotiate for wives for their infant
sons, and infant betrothals are in reality infant purchases. Both
husband and wife being entirely passive in the matter, there can
not be anything approaching to personal attachment between
them. Marriage being a matter of purchase, there is no provision

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for divorce required. If a husband is not pleased with the wife, he
can sell or trade her ojl. If the wife is not satisfied, she can drown
herself. The so-called slavery of women in Chinese communities
in this country is simply the lawful marriage arrangement of that
country. It sometimes transpires that women bought as wives
are treated as merchandise, which they really are as a matter of
fact, and are subjected to immoral and degrading uses. This is
especially the case in this country, where the women are few in
comparison to the number of men of that race. In China women
are treated with perhaps as much consideration as in other coun-
tries, .They are not accorded full recognition as the equal in
rights with man, but there are those even in our own country
who declare that this is true of our women also. In China
they are not treated as being personally responsible for
their position in society, and are guarded with a more jealous
care than with us. Here, a wife or daughter, growing weary of
the restraints of the home, may go to another city, change her
name, and enter upon a life of entire freedom from all restraints
with impunity. With them it is impossible. Women there sus-
tain more the position of domestic animals, which have a material
value, and, if they stray from home, some one is interested in look-
ing after them, much as an estrayed horse or ox. It is a matter
of fact that, from whatever cause, there is not to be found in
Chinese cities the class of abandoned and immoral women as in
all European and American cities. The laws of the land forbid
them, and their laws are more strictly enforced in this regard than
in any other country I know anything about. Polygamous mar-
riages and the concubinage system j^revail, however, and, while
this may be as bad as the other, it is not so apparent and obtrusive
upon the public notice as are the Whitechapels of London or New
York. But, view it as one may, it is apparent that the condi-
tion of Chinese women is far from what Confucius thought it
should be.

Third Relation: Parent and Child. — In this relation the
greatest stress is placed upon filial obedience. Under the patri-
archal family economy, the eldest male living is the acknowl-
edged head of every family, even though the family, as it often
does, contains three and four generations. The father of the
family is the established authority on all matters of policy in
business and otherwise, yet each son owes special allegiance to
his own father. ISTor is this duty ended with the death of the
father, but is perpetual. Once a year the grave must be visited
and the little mound rebuilt and kept in repair by the dutiful
son. The wine and food that are left by the grave in connection
with this ceremony of rebuilding graves are not a part of Confu-
cianism, but the point of contact with Taouism. This custom of

' TEE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 97

honoring tlie dead lias created the impression among foreigners
that the Chinese worship their dead. "Ancestral worship" is
commonly spoken of as an established fact ; but it is entirely a
mistake. They do not worship their dead in any legitimate sense.
The ceremony of restoring the graves is not unlike in nature and
answers much the same sentiment as our annual Ceremony of dec-
orating the graves of our soldier dead. We strew flowers upon
graves and construct monuments in marble or bronze over the
tombs of our distinguished dead, and yet we do not worship them.
If a Chinaman, witnessing these observances with us^ wrote to
his friends that the Americans worship their dead and erect idols
over their tombs, it would be a similar error to that we perpetuate
in our books regarding the Chinese ceremonies in honor of their
dead. Ancestral tablets are hung upon the walls of Chinese
homes much as painted portraits are upon ours, not to be wor-
shiped, but to keep in perpetual memory the departed. The
desire to be thus honored after death is why Chinamen are so
anxious to leave sons. It is also why those dying in foreign lands
are so careful to have their bones taken back to their native homes.
They wish to be remembered when they are gone, and only sons —
dutiful sons — will see that the graves of their fathers are kept
green. It is the most striking feature of Chinese character —
their great respect for their fathers. In all business enterprises,
in poverty or in wealth, the Chinese look to their fathers for
counsel and example. This amounts with them to a positive pas-
sion, and is the greatest obstacle in the way of the introduction
of modern methods and appliances. What was good enough for
their forefathers is good enough for them. If anything new is
offered, they dismiss it with the belief that, if it had been neces-
sary, their fathers would have had it. They are not an inventive
people, and use to-day the same pattern of plow and hand-made
goods of all sorts they did a thousand years ago. The same cut
of coat, build of boats, architecture, everything remains now as it
was at the time when history with them first began. Filial affec-
tion is deep-rooted in their natures, and no one questions the pro-
priety of it. Here, at least, Kung has impressed himself upon his
people.

Fourth Relation ; Brother to Brother. — The patriarchal
plan of family government leaves but little scope for individuality
in the members of a household. Estates are entailed from one
generation to another intact. All the members of a family par-
take of the resources in common, and are supposed to perform
their share of the labor. But they own nothing in severalty.
This removes the most fruitful source of fratricidal conflict. No
quarreling over division of property, and no cutting off of one in
favor of another heir at law, for all remain in equal possession of

VOL. XL. — 9

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the property, and each subsists upon a common treasury. All the
sons work in the same business, shop or store, with the father.
This is why for a hundred generations the Chinese follow the
same calling. A shoemaker's sons are shoemakers, for the reason
that they are put to work at the bench as soon as they can drive
a peg. Shifting from one employment to another is rare with
them. They do not take freely to learning a new trade, because,
if they have any property in the family, it can not be divided and
sold by the heirs, unless the sale is by consent of all the heirs,
and then, of course, a mutual distribution is made. In business
pursuits, the profits of the enterprise are not drawn out by the
members of the firm, which in almost all cases means the family ;
but, after meeting current expenses, the accrued surplus goes into
the accumulated assets. Thus, unequal wealth is not a source of
family quarrels. I never knew two brothers where one was poor
and the other rich. They are all poor or rich together. The trait,
thus developed, of intimacy between brothers and all members of
the household has left its imprint upon Chinese character in gen-
eral. Clannishness is one of their national marks.

Fifth Relation; Man to Man. — In this proposition is the
province of ethics. It is a far wider field for the philanthropist
and reformer to deal with than any of the foregoing. Here all
ties of *kinship and fear of authority are removed, and the ques-
tion of the equality and rights of man comes in. The same senti-
ments in our Constitution are lauded as the climax of humanity
and civilization. The same sentiments were promulgated by a
pagan philosopher five hundred years before the Christian era ;
and he founded his arguments upon what had been written so
long before his time as to be ancient history.

Men have always been in each other's way Conflicting inter-
ests of tradesmen and fellow-workmen of the same crafts always
have and always will exist. The harmonious co-operation of Bel-
lamy will probably require more than twenty centuries to materi-
alize. Labor unions seek to regulate the matter by restricting
apprenticeships. Merchants try by underselling each other to
drive the weaker ones to the wall. Manufacturers and capitalists
enter into trusts, hoping to freeze out the smaller competitors and
destroy competition. But all alike fail of their purpose, and con-
flicting interests as old as the human race itself continue, and
always will, in all likelihood. In times past unwelcome competi-
tion was checked in a more violent manner. Walking delegates
and boycott committees were armed with daggers and clubs, and
the stronger tribes annihilated the weaker ones or enslaved them.
It is certainly a high testimonial to the pagan reformer that he
sought to inculcate the doctrine that one man had any rights that
another was under obligations to respect.

THE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 99

The golden rule of the Christian religion is regarded as tlie
climax of excellence. Five centuries before Christ, Confucius
wrote page after page to inculcate this same principle. One half
of the decalogue of Moses is devoted to enforce the rights of
man between man. Thou shalt not steal, nor bear false witness
against thy neighbor, nor covet anything that is his. One man
shall not tear down or injure another, in order to promote his
own interests, is a doctrine hostile to the nature and practices of
men in all ages, and yet a principle essential to the perpetuity of
governments and social progress. Animals by instinct devour
and destroy each other in their j)ursuit of life. Men in uncivil-
ized states do the same thing in effect ; and it is quite clear that
we have not yet fully outgrown the animal instinct in this direc-
tion. But we all understand that it is right to do so, and, if we
do not, we at least pretend that we do, and only eat each other
metaphorically.

Nature has wisely provided that, when a man has lived for a
few years, he shall give place to his successors. But as long as
one remains on the earth, other things being equal, he is entitled
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in his own way, pro-
vided his way does not interfere with the rights of others. There
is room on the earth for all that are likely to occupy it at any one
time, and, when the numbers reach an excess, disease or famine
or war relieves the surplus. And under all circumstances every
man should be protected in his life and interests from unequal
advantages being taken of him by his neighbors. So taught Con-
fucius. So teach all systems of sound social and moral philosophy.

In conclusion, I wish to say that, judged by what it has prob-
ably accomplished, the Confucian system has done much toward
creating whatever of good is found in Chinese character and in-
stitutions ; and what it has failed to accomplish is not due to
any defects in the system, but rather to the inherent tendency in
human nature to seek its own way. Men have been slow to ask
what is the better and wiser course to pursue, and have inclined
to follow their more brutish instincts.

At the present day, however, Confucius wields but little in-
fluence over the Chinese. In most cities are temples, or, more
correctly speaking, halls known as Confucian halls. They are
entirely void of any appearance of idolatry. His name is revered
as a wise and good man, but he is not worshiped, nor has he in any
legitimate sense been deified by the people. As Washington in
America is venerated as the father of his country, and as Abra-
ham Lincoln is spoken of in history as the savior of his country,
so likewise is Confucius spoken of among Ms people as the wise
philosopher, and patron of letters, and promoter of good govern-
ment, but not as the founder of a religion, nor an object to be

100 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

worshiped. Educated Chinamen all profess to he disciples of
him and to read his works, and to be guided by his instructions.
In some respects they perhaps do, -but they put their own inter-
pretation upon the import of his teachings. There are no special
teachers to expound his works, and every one is free to place such
construction upon his teachings as his intelligence or impulses
may lead to.

I am convinced that the power of the philosopher over his
people has been overestimated by foreigners generally, and that
the real nature and scope of his work have been largely misappre-
hended.

I

THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING.

By M. LAZAE POPOFF.

T is said repeatedly, as of course, that Egypt was the cradle of
the arts. Yet archaeologists like Lartet, Garrigue, Cristi, and
others have shown that the first artistic manifestations go back
to epochs far anterior to the ancient Egyptians. According to
these authors, these first manifestations were contemporary with
the presence of the reindeer in the south of France— when the
mammoth had not yet quite disappeared, and when man, ignorant
of the metals, made all his instruments of stone, bone, and wood.
In fact, the first works of art, and particularly the first efforts at
drawing, date from those prehistoric times. In France, the oldest
remains of these works of art have been found, in the shape of
drawings engraved with a flint point as ornaments on articles of
reindeer-horn, in caves by the side of the fossil remains of animals
which, like the mammoth, have since disappeared, or, like the rein-
deer, have abandoned those regions. Other drawings have been
found on tablets of stone, horn, or mammoth-ivory.

It is not our intention to insist on the simply linear rudiment-
ary designs of which these ornaments consist. We rather invite
attention to more perfect and characteristic works, in which, ac-
cording to the words of Carl Vogt, the spirit of observation and
imitation of Nature, and especially of living Nature, is remarkably
manifested. An image of a mammoth, found in the cave of La
Magdelaine, in the Dordogne, is engraved on a tablet of mammoth-
bone. Very striking are the ungainly attitude of the animal's
massive body, its long hair, the form of its elevated skull, with
concave forehead, and its enormous recurved tusks. All these
traits, characteristic of this extinct type of pachyderm, are repro-
duced by the designer with a really artistic distinctness. The
mammoth was already rare in Europe when this primitive artist
lived ; and this, perhaps, is the reason why only two of the numer-

THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING. loi

OTIS designs found in the caves of France are of this animal.* The
second of these drawings, found in La Loz^re, represents a mam-
raoth's head sculptured on a staff of command. The images of the
chamois, bear, and ox are found more frequently ; hut figures of
the reindeer are most numerous. Some are engraved on plates of
bone^ and others serve to ornament various objects. Sometimes
groups of animals are represented, or, on the other hand, the ani-
mals are only partly drawn, and merely the head or head and chest
are visible.

The larger part of these drawings do not excel in execution the
figures which our school-boys make on walls ; but the figures of
the reindeer are generally superior on account of the remarkable
care with which the characteristic lines of the animal are traced,
and also, in examples that are otherwise very rare, by the addition
of a few shadows. We conclude that the artist of the caves was
particularly interested in the reindeer, which furnished his con-
temporaries with their principal food, as well as with clothing
materials, arms for hunting, and household implements. We
know, in fact, that the cave-dwellers lived on reindeer-meat,
dressed themselves in its skin, made thread of its tendons, and cut
their arrow-points from its bones. In other words, as the reindeer
had not yet been domesticated, it stood to those primitive men as
a valuable game, and the hunting of it occupied the larger part
of their existence. We thus explain why that animal haunted the
imagination of the artist of those times. The drawings of the
chamois, the bear, and the ox were also often surprisingly exact
and really valuable.

Besides these designs of mammals, there have been found in
the caves of France a number of drawings of fishes, tolerably cor-
rect, but very uniform. According to Broca, they can all be re-
ferred to the salmon.

All these relics of the primitive arts of design prove abun-
dantly that the men of that prehistoric age observed carefully the
forms and attitudes of animals and were capable of representing
them in an exact and elegant style, attesting, according to Broca,
a real artistic sense.

Nothing like this has been observed in the reproduction of the
human figure, and drawings of that kind are extremely rare.
There are two such deserving mention, one of which represents a
naked man, armed with a club and surrounded by animals ; the
second, a fishing scene, a man lancing a harpoon upon a marine
animal — a fish according to Broca, a whale according to other
authors. The whole of the design is puerile and out of shape, and

* Similar linear ornaments have been found in the caves in Belgium, and are referred
by Dupont to the age of the mammoth.

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the proportions are outrageously violated. This is not an excep-
tion, for the examination of all the drawings of this kind shows
that skillful as were the men of those times in their drawings
of animals, particularly of those which were important to them,
they were bad delineators of the human figure. "I do not
know," says Broca, " what prevented them from reaching perfec-
tion on this point, but the fact is indisputable and is certainly
characteristic.''^ Another no less characteristic point is the entire
absence of designs representing plants. No design of a tree has
been found, or of a bush or a flower, unless we regard as a flower
the " three little rosettes " engraved on a handle of reindeer-horn,
which some authors actually regard as a composite flower. This
exclusive taste of the artists of the caves is evidently not acci-
dental, for chance exj)lains nothing ; and we can not assume, with
Carl Vogt, that primitive drawing originated in a general tend-
ency of man toward imitation of living Nature. "We believe that
the object of these artistic productions was of a different charac-
ter, and that they were intended, not for ornamentation of objects
or for imitation pure and simple of Nature, but for the production
of an instrument to be used in the struggle against Nature. We
shall endeavor to substantiate this proposition in what follows,
and shall have occasion to say something on the origin of painting
in general.

We remark, first, that there is nothing to prove that the man
of that time was intellectually superior to existing savages ; and,
if we observe these, we shall find that their drawings have usually
a totally different significance from that which art has among
civilized peoples ; and that they have nothing in common with
ornamentation and Eesthetics in general. Indeed, numerous facts
go to show that human thought, in the lower degrees of its devel-
opment, distinguishes but poorly between subjective representa-
tions and objective reality, and that both give rise to the same
ideas. For example, a savage seeing one of his family in a dream,
can not imagine that the image is independent of the organic sub-
stance of the person in question ; and he will see the same relation
between the two as between a body and its image reflected by a
surface of water. Thus the Basutos believe that if the shadow of
a man is projected upon the water, the crocodiles will be able to
seize the man himself. A like identification may be pushed to
the point that tribes are known which use the same word for the
soul, the image, and the shadow.

It is necessary to take this fact into consideration in order to
appreciate the real sense of the primitive design, and to re-estab-
lish the conditions under which it originated. If we suppose a
material relation between the image and the object as well as
between the shadow and the object, it becomes evident that the

THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING. 103

savage would comport himself similarly toward the image, the
shadow, and the object. From his point of view the image and
the object are in close relation, and an action upon one wonld
operate in the same way upon the other. By this way of looking
at things, as Sir John Lubbock says, the savage is convinced that
an injury done to the image is inflicted upon the original ; or, to
use the words of Mr. Taylor, he thinks that by acting upon the
copy he will reach the original. The evidences are many that
demonstrate the importance attributed by savages to this mode
of action on the original. Waitz relates, after Denghame, that in
a tribe of western Africa it was dangerous to make a portrait of
the natives, because they were afraid that by some kind of sor-
cery a part of their soul would pass into their image. Lubbock
also speaks of the same fear as existing among savages ; and the
more like the portrait, the greater the danger to the original ; for
the more life there is in the copy, the less must be left in the per-
son. One day, when some Indians were annoying Dr. Kane by
their presence, he rid himself of them very quickly by telling
them that he was going to make their portraits. Catlin tells a
story, at once sober and comical, that when he was drawing the
profile of a chief named Matochiga, the Indians around him
seemed greatly moved, and asked him why he did not draw the
other half of the chiefs face. " Matochiga was never ashamed to
look a white man square in the face." Matochiga had not till
then seemed offended at the matter, but one of the Indians said to
him sportively : /' The Yankee knows that you are only half a
man, and he has only drawn half of your face, because the other
half is not worth anything." A bloody fight followed this ex-
planation, and Matochiga was killed by a bullet which struck him
in the side of the face that had not been drawn. A still more
characteristic incident is communicated by M. Brouck concerning
a Laplander who had come to visit him from motives of curiosity.
He having drunk a glass of wine and seeming very much at ease,
M. Brouck took his pencil and began drawing his portrait. AlZ
at once our subject's humor changed; he drew on his cap and
started to run away. Explanations being had, the Laplander
made the rash artist understand that, if he had let him copy his
figure, the artist would have gained a dangerous influence over
him.

Charlevoix said, in the last century, that the Illinois and In-
dians of some other tribes made little figures representing persons
whose lives they wanted to shorten, and pierced them in the
region of the heart. A custom still exists in Borneo that consists
in making a figure in wax of the enemy whom one wishes to be-
witch, and setting it before the fire to melt ; it is assumed, accord-
ing to Taylor, that the person aimed at is disorganized as fast as

104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his image disappears. The Peruvian sorcerers still proceed in the
same way, except that their figures are made of rags. In the
Indies, according to Dubois, they knead earth collected from a
very salt place with hair or pieces of skin, and make a figure on
the chest of which they write the name of an enemy, and then
stab it with needles, or mutilate in some way, in the belief that
the same harm will be suffered by the person represented.

Traces of this primitive superstition are also found among
civilized people, for Grimn reports that in the eleventh century
Jews were accused in Europe of having killed Bishop Ebergard
by a sorcery of the kind. They were said to have made a figure
of wax representing the bishop, hired a priest to baptize it, and
put it into the fire. As soon as the wax was melted, the bishop
was attacked by a mortal disease. The famous adventurer, Jacob,
chief of the Pastorals, in the thirteenth century, seriously believed,
as he says in his Demonology, that the devil taught men the att
of making images of wax and clay, the destruction of which
brought on the sickness and death of the persons they repre-
sented. It was a custom in the time of Catharine de' Medici to
make such figures of wax, and melt them slowly before the fire or
stab them with needles, in order to bring suffering to enemies.
This operation was called putting a spell upon them. We may
also mention the opinion of the earlier Christian writers, who be-
lieved, according to Draper, that painting and sculpture were in-
terdicted in the Scriptures, and were consequently evil arts. It
may be questioned if this oj)inion did not have its roots in the idea
of primitive peoples that the art of drawing was an instrument of
sorcery, by means of which one acquired the power to act upon
a person. Mussulmans still have a horror of images, and the Koran
forbids having one's portrait made and possessing any image
at all.

We would not exhaust this evidence if we did not cite all the
facts that go to prove that, in the mind of primitive man, it was
sufficient to possess anything — a piece of the garment, hair, a bit
of a nail — that had belonged to a person to have power to act
upon him and do him harm. The belief in the efficacy of this
means is still so strong among some backward peoples, that per-
sons who have any reason to distrust others hide their clothes so
that they shall not be robbed of any part of them. Others, when
they cut their hair or nails, put the cut parts on the roofs of their
houses or bury them in the ground. So peasants in some coun-
tries bury the teeth which they pull from themselves.

We should add, to complete the picture, that writing to the
savage enjoys the same magic power as drawing. This is easily
understood when we recollect that writing by figures preceded
writing by letters or any conventional signs, and is still met

THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING. 105

among some savage tribes. In these -writings by figures, the fact
tliat the man or animal represented is nnder the influence of an
evil lot is indicated by an arrow directed from the mouth toward
the heart. A sign of this kind is considered equivalent to a real
possession of the animal or person represented.

"We could hardly give more convincing proofs of the special
significance attributed by the savage to drawing, regarded by him
as an instrument of power over another ; and while the examples
which we have just brought together relate chiefly to man, we
may assume logically that the same process — that is, a figured
representation of animals — plays a like part in the struggle of
the savage against his natural enemies. Other facts exist con-
firmatory of this hypothesis.

According to Mr. Tanner, the North American Indians, to assure
success in their hunting expeditions, made rude drawings of the
animal they were pursuing, and stabbed them in the region of the
heart, under the conviction that they would thereby obtain power
over the desired game. Taylor relates, according to an old ob-
server among the Australians, that the natives, in one of their
festival dances, construct a figure of the kangaroo with plants, in
order that they may become masters of the real kangaroos of
the forest. An Algonkin Indian, going out to kill an animal,
hangs up a figure of it in his lodge ; then, after giving it due
warning, shoots an arrow at it. If the arrow hits, the animal will
be killed. If a hunter, having touched a sorcerer's rod with his
arrow, succeeded in hitting the track of the animal with the ar-
row, it would be stopped and held till the hunter could come up
to it. The same object could be attained by drawing the figure
of the animal on a piece of wood and addressing suitable prayers
to the image.

Such was the function of drawing at its origin. An Indian
song admirably explains this function, in the words " My draw-
ing has made a god of me ! " Faith could hardly be more vigor-
ously expressed in the power of the art of drawing as an instru-
ment by the aid of which primitive man obtained a supernatural
power over his enemy or his game. Regarding the works of the
cave men in the light of these facts, we perceive that the purpose
that inspired them had few points in common with the sense of
the beautiful or the tendency to imitation ; and it is clear that if
there existed in the mind of the primitive man a material relation
between a being and its shadow or its image, that man thought
that the same relation was preserved between the being and its
image when transferred to any object whatever. The purpose to
be reached was to possess the shadow of the coveted object, and
the only means of accomplishing it was to fix upon something or
another the silhouette of that shadow.

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

This, in our opinion, was the origin of drawing, and, conse-
quently, of painting. It is worthy of remark that all works of
this kind derived from the embryonic period of the arts of de-
sign betray the same lack of proportion and absence of symmetry
characteristic of the silhouettes of shadows. The uniform im-
pression given by the drawings is that they relate, not to the
objects themselves, but to their shadows. It is further interest-
ing to note that some contemporary savages, some Australians,
for example, are still incapable of grasping the meaning of exact
images, while they readily comprehend a crude, disproportioned
drav/ing. Thus, to give them an idea of a man, you have to draw
him with a very large head ; a feature with which precisely cor-
responds a drawing representing a fisherman that has been found
in a cave in France. He has a greatly reduced body, but his
hand, armed with an enormous harpoon, is the hand of a giant.

In his struggle with surrounding Nature, a struggle of which
he can not form an exact conception, primitive man had especial
need to possess every means that could give him confidence in vic-
tory. In starting for the hunt he took with him, as the North
American Indian does now, and as some players in our most civil-
ized circles do under another form, the fetich that would insure suc-
cess— that of an image of the animal to be killed. By engraving
on the handle of his knife the image of a reindeer or some other
animal, he did not think of ornamenting his weapon, but of exert-
ing some magic power over his prey. And his belief in this mys-
terious jDower, by giving him boldness, energy, and sureness of
movements, would often procure him success. Confidence does
thus in all things. Just like the modern savage, the cave man
would believe that the greater the resemblance between the image
and the animal, the greater also would be the chance of acting
upon the animal. Hence the care that was applied to the repro-
duction of the animals especially coveted and with which the con-
test would be hardest ; and hence those perfect designs of the rein-
deer, that magnificent game of our ancestors.*

Very different are the characteristics of the drawings of hu-
man forms ; and, to account for these differences, we should con-
sider the fact that all the archseological data relative to the epoch
of the reindeer testify that the disposition of the man of that age

* In this I differ from the students who find in some of these drawings evidence that
the reindeer was a domesticated animal at that time. A representation of two reindeer
has been found at Loz^re, one of which wears what is regarded as a kind of haher. But
the absence of fossil remains of dogs, without which domestication of the reindeer is im-
possible, pleads, as Carl Vogt remarks, against the existence of the domesticated reindeer.
In my opinion, this supposed halter represents rather the emblematic line of which I have
spoken, proceeding from the mouth to the heart, indicating the enchantment thrown at the
animal by the hunter.

THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING. 107

was pacific. Broca calls these raen " peaceful hunters/' and at-
tributes a gentle character to them. He remarks that an examina-
tion of their arsenal very rarely brings out warlike arms, and that
we can thus satisfy ourselves of their peaceful character. The
Belgian archaeologist, M. Dupont, observes that the cave-dwellers
of his country had no idea of war. And, if we have a right to
compare the existing savage with primitive man, we find that the
Eskimo, who is nearest like him, is quiet and peaceful. The Eski-
mo whom Ross met on the shores of Baffin's Bay could not be
made to understand what war is, and possessed no warlike weap-
ons. Wliile, then, we may believe that the cave men rarely raised
their hands against one another, it nevertheless remains deter-
mined that they waged a bitter and relentless war against animals.
Hence they rarely had occasion to exercise themselves in drawing
the human form ; and hence the imperfect character of their hu-
man images as compared with those of animals. As to the forms
of plants, it may be remarked that the boreal flora of that epoch,
not being at all threatening, could furnish little food for supersti-
tion ; and no drawings of plants are found in the caves.

In short, the condition of the art of drawing with primitive
man seems to be in complete harmony with the meaning which
we have attributed to drawing itself, of its being inspired by be-
lief in the existence of a material relation between a being and its
image and in the possibility of acting on the first through the sec-
ond. Consequently, the principle of painting can not be found in
a natural tendency of primitive man to the artificial imitation of
living Nature, but seems rather to be derived from the desire of
subjecting that Nature to its needs, and of subjugating it. In the
course of its progressive improvements, the art of drawing has
gradually lost its primitive significance and original meaning, till
it has become what it is now. It does not differ much, however,
from what it was originally ; for, while the primitive man expected
to reach the living being in its image, it is still life which the civ-
ilized man seeks to-day in works of art. — Translated for the Popu-
lar Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique.

Dr. Peters, the African traveler, believes that the Waganda, or people of
Uganda, are descended from the ancient Egyptians; and some color is apparently
lent to his view by the burial of their kings in mounds, the custom of embalm-
ing, and the existence of ancient rock excavations. But the Waganda might
have borrowed these things from their northern neighbors. Dr. Peters observes
that they undoubtedly excel every other African nation in the development of
llieir intelligence, and that, in contrast to all other negro tribes, they feel the need
of progress. It is believed that in the oldest of the burial mounds are interred
records of the dead sovereigns that will explain the origin of the race; but at
present the "Waganda will not allow a search to be made.

io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

HIGH LIFE.

EVERYBODY knows mountain flowers are beautiful. As one
rises up any minor height in the Alps or the Pyrenees, be-
low snow-level, one notices at once the extraordinary brilliancy
and richness of the blossoms one meets there. All Nature is
dressed in its brightest robes. Great belts of blue gentian hang
like a zone on the mountain slopes ; masses of yellow globe-flower
star the upland pastures, nodding heads of soldanella lurk low
among the rugged bowlders by the glacier's side. No lowland
blossoms have such vividness of coloring, or grow in such con-
spicuous patches. To strike the eye from afar, to attract and
allure at a distance, is the great aim and end in life of the Al-
pine flora.

Now, why are Alpine plants so anxious to be seen of men and
angels ? "Why do they flaunt their golden glories so openly be-
fore the world, instead of shrinking in modest reserve beneath
their own green leaves, like the Puritan primrose and the retiring
violet ? The answer is. Because of the extreme rarity of the
mountain air. It's the barometer that does it. At first sight,
I will readily admit, this explanation seems as fanciful as the
traditional connection between Goodwin Sands and Tenterden
Steeple. But, like the amateur stories in country papers, it is
" founded on fact," for all that. (Imagine, by the way, a tale
founded entirely on fiction ! How charmingly aerial !) By a
roundabout road, through varying chains of cause and effect, the
rarity of the air does really account in the long run for the beau-
ty and conspicuousness of the mountain flowers.

For bees, the common go-betweens of the loves of the plants,
cease to range about a thousand or fifteen hundred feet below
snow-level. And why ? Because it's too cold for them ? Oh, dear,
no ; on sunny days in early English spring, when the thermome-
ter does'nt rise above freezing in the shade, you will see both the
honey-bees and the great black bumble as busy as their conven-
tional character demands of them among the golden cups of the
first timid crocuses. Give the bee sunshine, indeed, with a tem-
perature just about freezing-point, and he'll flit about joyously
on his communistic errand. But bees, one must remember, have
heavy bodies and relatively small wings : in the rarefied air of
mountain heights they can't manage to support themselves in the
most literal sense. Hence their place in these high stations of the
world is taken by the gay and airy butterflies, which have lighter
bodies and a much bigger expanse of wing-area to buoy them up.
In the valleys and plains the bee competes at an advantage with the
butterflies for all the sweets of life, but in this broad subglacial

HIGH LIFE, 109

belt on the mountain-sides, the butterflies in turn have things all
their own way. They flit about like monarchs of all they survey,
without a rival in the world to dispute their supremacy.

And how does the preponderance of butterflies in the upper
regions of the air affect the color and brilliancy of the flowers ?
Simply thus : Bees, as we are all aware on the authority of the
great Dr. Watts, are industrious creatures which employ each
shining hour (well-chosen epithet, " shining ") for the good of the
community, and to the best purpose. The bee, in fact, is the Tjon
bourgeois of the insect world : he attends strictly to business, loses
no time in wild or reckless excursions, and flies by the straightest
path from flower to flower of the same species with mathemati-
cal precision. Moreover, he is careful, cautious, observant, and
steady-going — a model business man, in fact, of sound middle-
class morals and sober middle-class intelligence. No flitting for
him, no coquetting, no fickleness. Therefore, the flowers that
have adapted themselves to his needs, and that depend upon him
mainly or solely for fertilization, waste no unnecessary material
on those big, flaunting colored posters which we human observers
know as petals. They have, for the most part, simple blue or
purple flowers, tubular in shape and, individually, inconspicuous
in hue ; and they are oftenest arranged in long spikes of blossom
to avoid wasting the time of their winged Mr. Bultitudes. So long
as they are just bright enough to catch the bee's eye a few yards
away, they are certain to receive a visit in due season from that
industrious and persistent commercial traveler. Having a circle
of good customers upon whom they can depend with certainty
for fertilization, they have no need to waste any large propor-
tion of their substance upon expensive advertisements or gaudy
petals.

It is just the opposite with butterflies. Those gay and irre-
pressible creatures, the fashionable and frivolous element in the
insect world, gad about from flower to flower over great distances
at once, and think much more of sunning themselves and of
attracting their fellows than of attention'to "business. And the
reason is obvious, if one considers for a moment the difference in
the political and domestic economy of the two opposed groups.
For the honey-bees are neuters, sexless purveyors of the hive,
with no interest on earth save the storing of honey for the com-
mon benefit of the phalanstery to which they belong. But the
butterflies are full-fledged males and females, on the hunt through
the world for suitable partners: they think far less of feeding
than of displaying their charms ; a little honey to support them
during their flight is all they need : "For the bee, a long round
of ceaseless toil ; for me," says the gay butterfly, " a short life and
a merry one." Mr. Harold Skimpole needed only " music, sun-

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shine, a few grapes." The butterflies are of his kind. The high
mountain zone is for them a true ball-room ; the flowers are light
refreshments laid out in the vestibule. Their real business in life
is not to gorge and lay by, but to coquette and display themselves
and find fitting partners.

So while the bees with their honey-bags, like the financier
with his money-bags, are storing up profit for the composite com-
munity, the butterfly, on the contrary, lays himself out for an
agreeable flutter, and sips nectar where he will, over large areas
of country. He flies rather high, flaunting his wings in the sun,
because he wants to show himself off in all his airy beauty ; and
when he spies a bed of bright flowers afar off on the sun-smitten
slopes, he sails off toward them lazily, like a grand signior who
amuses himself. No regular plodding through a monotonous
spike of plain little bells for him; what he wants is brilliant
color, bold advertisement, good honey, and plenty of it. He
doesn't care to search. Who wants his favors must make himself
conspicuous.

Now, plants are good shopkeepers; they lay themselves out
strictly to attract their customers. Hence the character of the
flowers on this beeless belt of mountain-side is entirely determined
by the character of the butterfly fertilizers. Only those plants
which laid themselves out from time immemorial to suit the
butterflies, in other words, have succeeded in the long run in the
struggle for existence. So the butterfly-plants of the butterfly-
zone are all strictly adapted to butterfly tastes and butterfly fan-
cies. They are, for the most part, individually large and brill-
iantly colored ; they have lots of honey, often stored at the base
of a deep and open bell which the long proboscis of the insect
can easily penetrate ; and they habitually grow close together in
broad belts or patches, so that the color of each re-enforces and
aids the color of the others. It is this cumulative habit that ac-
counts for the marked flower-bed or jam-tart character which
everybody must have noticed in the high Alpine flora.

Aristocracies usually pride themselves on their antiquity ; and
the high life of the mountains is undeniably ancient. The plants
and animals of the butterfly-zone belong to a special group which
appears everywhere in Europe and America about the limit of
snow, whether northward or upward. For example, I was pleased
to note near the summit of Mount Washington (the highest peak
in New Hampshire) that a large number of the flowers belonged
to species well known on the open plains of Lapland and Finland.
The plants of the High Alps are found also, as a rule, not only on
the High Pyrenees, the Carpathians, the Scotch Grampians, and
the Norwegian f jelds, but also round the Arctic Circle in Europe
and America. They reappear at long distances where suitable

HIGH LIFE. Ill

conditions recur ; they follow tlie snow-line as the snow-line re-
cedes ever in summer higher north toward the pole or higher
vertically toward the mountain summits. And this bespeaks in
one way to the reasoning mind a very ancient ancestry. It shows
they date back to a very old and cold epoch.

Let me give a single instance which strikingly illustrates the
general principle. Near the top of Mount Washington^ as afore-
said, lives to this day a little colony of very cold-loving and
mountainous butterflies, which never descend below a couple of
thousand feet from the wind-swept summit. Except just there,
there are no more of their sort anywhere about ; and as far as the
butterflies themselves are aware, no others of their species exist
on earth ; they never have seen a single one of their kind, save
of their own little colony. One might compare them with the
Pitcairn Islanders in the South Seas — an isolated group of Eng-
lish origin, cut off by a vast distance from all their congeners in
Europe or America. But if you go north some eight or nine
hundred miles from New Hampshire to Labrador, at a certain
point the same butterfly reappears, and spreads northward toward
the pole in great abundance. Now, how did this little colony of
chilly insects get separated from the main body and islanded, as
it were, on a remote mountain-top in far warmer Nevv^ Hamp-
shire ?

The answer is, they were stranded there at the end of the Gla-
cial epoch.

A couple of hundred thousand years ago, or thereabouts —
don't let us haggle, I beg of you, over a few casual centuries — the
whole of northern Europe and America was covered from end to
end, as everybody knows, by a sheet of solid ice, like the one
which Frithiof Nansen crossed from sea to sea on his own ac-
count in Greenland. For many thousand years, with occasional
warmer spells, that vast ice-sheet brooded, silent and grim, over
the face of the two continents. Life was extinct as far south as
the latitude of New York and London. No plant or animal sur-
vived the general freezing. Not a creature broke the monotony
of that endless glacial desert. At last, as the celestial cycle came
round in due season, fresh conditions supervened. Warmer
weather set in, and the ice began to melt. Then the plants and
animals of the subglacial district were pushed slowly northward
by the warmth after the retreating ice-cap. As time went on,
the climate of the plains got too hot to hold them. The summer
was too much for the glacial types to endure. They remained
only on the highest mountain-peaks or close to the southern limit
of eternal snow. In this way, every isolated range in either con-
tinent has its own little colony of arctic or glacial plants and
animals, which still survive by themselves, unaffected by inter-

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

course with their unknown and unsuspected fellow-creatures else-
where.

Not only has the Glacial epoch left these organic traces of its
existence, however ; in some parts of New Hampshire where the
glaciers were unusually thick and deep, fragments of the prime-
val ice itself still remain on the spots where they were originally
stranded. Among the shady glens of the White Mountains there
occur here and there great masses of ancient ice, the unmelted
remnant of primeval glaciers ; and one of these is so large that
an artificial cave has been cleverly excavated in it, as an attrac-
tion for tourists, by the canny Yankee proprietor. Elsewhere the
old ice-blocks are buried under the debris of moraine-stuff and
alluvium, and are only accidentally discovered by the sinking of
what are locally known as ice-wells. No existing conditions can
account for the formation of such solid rocks of ice at such a
depth in the soil. They are essentially glacier-like in origin and
character ; they result from the pressure of snow into a crystal-
line mass in a mountain valley ; and they must have remained
there unmelted ever since the close of the Glacial epoch, which,
by Dr. Croll's calculations, must most probably have ceased to
plague our earth some eighty thousand years ago. Modern
America, however, has no respect for antiquity ; and it is at pres-
ent engaged in using up this palseocrystic deposit — this belated
storehouse of prehistoric ice— in the manufacture of gin slings
and brandy cocktails.

As one scales a mountain of moderate height— say seven or
eight thousand feet — in a temperate climate, one is sure to be
struck by the gradual diminution as one goes in the size of the
trees, till at last they tail off into mere shrubs and bushes. This
diminution — an old commonplace of tourists — is a marked char-
acteristic of mountain plants, and it depends, of course, in the
main upon the effect of cold, and of the wind in winter. Cold,
however, is by far the more potent factor of the two, though it
is the least often insisted upon ; and this can be seen in a mo-
ment by any one who remembers that trees shade off in just the
self-same manner near the southern limit of permanent snow in
the arctic regions. And the way the cold acts is simply this : it
nips off the young buds in spring in exposed situations, as the
chilly sea-breeze does with coast plants, which, as we commonly
but incorrectly say, are " blown sideways " from seaward.

Of course, the lower down one gets, and the nearer to the soil,
the warmer the layer of air becomes, both because there is greater
radiation and because one can secure a little more shelter. So,
very far north, and very near the snow-line on mountains, you
always find the vegetation runs low and stunted. It takes advan-
tage of every crack, every cranny in the rocks, every sunny little

EIGH LIFE. 113

nook, every jutting point or wee promontory of shelter. And as
the mountain plants have been accustomed for ages to the strenu-
ous conditions of such cold and wind-swept situations, they have
ended, of course, by adapting themselves to that station in life to
which it has pleased the powers that be to call them. They grow
quite naturally low and stumpy and rosette-shaped; they are
compact of form and very hard of fiber ; they present no surface
of resistance to the wind in any way ; rounded and boss-like, they
seldom rise above the level of the rocks and stones whose inter-
stices they occupy. It is this combination of characters that
makes mountain plants such favorites with florists ; for they
possess of themselves that close-grown habit and that rich profu-
sion of clustered flowers which it is the grand object of the gar-
dener by artificial selection to produce and encourage.

When one talks of " the limit of trees " on a mountain-side,
however, it must be remembered that the phrase is used in a
strictly human or Pickwickian sense, and that it is only the size,
not the type, of the vegetation that is really in question. For
trees exist even on the highest hill-tops; only they have accom-
modated themselves to the exigencies of the situation. Smaller
and ever smaller species have been developed by natural selection
to suit the peculiarities of these inclement spots. Take, for ex-
ample, the willow and poplar group. Nobody would deny that a
weeping willow by an English river, or a Lombardy poplar in an
Italian avenue, was as much of a true tree as an oak or a chest-
nut. But as one mounts toward the bare and wind-swept mount-
ain heights one finds that the willows begin to grow downward
gradually. The " netted willow " of the Alps and Pyrenees,
which shelters itself under the lee of little jutting rocks, attains
a height of only a few inches; while the "herbaceous willow,"
common on all very high mountains in western Europe, is a
tiny, creeping weed, which nobody would ever take for a forest
tree by origin at all, unless he happened to see it in the catkin-
bearing stage, when its true nature and history would become at
once apparent to him.

Yet this little herb-like willow, one of the most northerly and
hardy of European plants, is a true tree at heart none the less for
all that. Soft and succulent as it looks in branch and leaf, you
may yet count on it sometimes as many rings of annual growth
as on a lordly Scotch fir tree. But where ? Why, underground.
For see how cunning it is, this little stunted descendant of proud
forest lords : hard-pressed by Nature, it has learned to make the
best of its difficult and precarious position. It has a woody trunk
at core, like all other trees ; but this trunk never appears above
the level of the soil : it creeps and roots underground in tortuous
zigzags between the crags and bowlders that lie strewn through

VOL. XL. — 10

114 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

its thin sheet of upland leaf-mold. By this simple plan the wil-
low manages to get protection in winter, on the same principle as
when we human gardeners lay down the stems of vines ; only the
willow remains laid down all the year and always. But in sum-
mer it sends up its short-lived herbaceous branches, covered with
tiny green leaves, and ending at last in a single silky catkin. Yet
between the great weeping willow and this last degraded mount-
ain representative of the same primitive type, you can trace in
Europe alone at least a dozen distinct intermediate forms, all well
marked in their differences, and all progressively dwarfed by long
stress of unfavorable conditions.

From the combination of such unfavorable conditions in arctic
countries and under the snow-line of mountains there results a
curious fact, already hinted at above, that the coldest floras are
also, from the purely human point of view, the most beautiful.
Not, of course, the most luxuriant : for lush richness of foliage
and " breadth of tropic shade " (to quote a noble lord) one must
go, as every one knows, to the equatorial regions. But, contrary
to the common oj)inion, the tropics, hoary shams, are not remark-
able for the abundance or beauty of their flowers. Quite other-
wise, indeed : an unrelieved green strikes the key-note of equa-
torial forests. This is my own experience, and it is borne out
(which is far more important) by Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, who
has seen a wider range of the untouched tropics, in all four hemi-
spheres— northern, southern, eastern, western — than any other
man, I suppose, that ever lived on this planet. And Mr. Wallace
is firm in his conviction that the tropics in this respect are a com-
plete fraud. Bright flowers are there quite conspicuously absent.
It is rather in the cold and less favored regions of the world that
one must look for fine floral displays and bright masses of color.
Close up to the snow-line the wealth of flowers is always the
greatest.

In order to understand this apparent paradox one must re-
member that the highest type of flowers, from the point of view
of organization, is not at the same time by any means the most
beautiful. On the contrary, plants with very little special adapta-
tion to any particular insect, like the water-lilies and the poppies,
are obliged to flaunt forth in very brilliant hues and to run to
very large sizes in order to attract the attention of a great num-
ber of visitors, one or other of whom may casually fertilize them ;
while plants with very special adaptations, like the sage and mint
group, or the little English orchids, are so cunningly arranged
that they can not fail of fertilization at the very first visit, which
of course enables them to a great extent to dispense with the aid
of big or brilliant petals. So that, where the struggle for life is
fiercest and adaptation most perfect, the flora will on the whole

HIGH LIFE.

"5

be not most, but least, conspicuous in the matter of very hand-
some flowers.

Now, the struggle for life is fiercest, and the wealth of Nature is
greatest, one need hardly say, in tropical climates. There alone
do we find every inch of soil " encumbered by its waste fertility,"
as Comus puts it ; weighed down by luxuriant growth of tree,
shrub, herb, creeper. There alone do lizards lurk in every hole ;
beetles dwell manifold in every cranny ; butterflies flock thick in
every grove ; bees, ants, and flies swarm by myriads on every sun-
smitten hillside. Accordingly, in the tropics, adaptation reaches
its highest point ; and tangled richness, not beauty of color, be-
comes the dominant note of the equatorial forests. Now and then,
to be sure, as you wander through Brazilian or Malayan woods,
you may light upon some bright tree clad in scarlet bloom, or
some glorious orchid drooping pendent from a bough with long
sprays of beauty; but such sights are infrequent. Green, and
green, and ever green again — that is the general feeling of the
equatorial forest ; as different as possible from the rich mosaic of
a high alp in early June, or a Scotch hillside deep in golden gorse
and purple heather in broad August sunshine.

In very cold countries, on the other hand, though the condi-
tions are severe, the struggle for existence is not really so hard,
because, in one word, there are fewer competitors. The field is
less occupied ; life is less rich, less varied, less self-strangling.
And, therefore, specialization has not gone nearly so far in cold
latitudes or altitudes. Lower and simpler types everywhere oc-
cupy the soil ; mosses, matted flowers, small beetles, dwarf butter-
flies. Nature is less luxuriant, yet in some ways more beautiful.
As we rise on the mountains the forest trees disappear, and with
them the forest beasts, from bears to squirrels ; a low, wind-swept
vegetation succeeds, very poor in species, and stunted in growth,
but making a floor of rich flowers almost unknown elsewhere.
The humble butterflies and beetles of the chillier elevation pro-
duce in the result more beautiful bloom than the highly developed
honey-seekers of the richer and warmer lowlands. Luxuriance is
atoned for by a Turkey carpet of floral magnificence.

How, then, has the world at large fallen into the pardonable
error of believing tropical nature to be so rich in coloring, and
circumpolar nature to be so dingy and unlovable ? Simply thus,
I believe. The tropics embrace the largest land areas in the world,
and are richer by a thousand times in species of plants and ani-
mals than all the rest of the earth in a lump put together. That
richness necessarily results from the fierceness of the competition.
Now, among this enormous mass of tropical plants it naturally
happens that some have finer flowers than any temperate species ;
while as to the animals and birds, they are undoubtedly, on the

ii6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

whole, both larger and handsomer than the fauna of colder cli-
mates. But in the general aspect of tropical nature an occasional
bright flower or brilliant parrot counts for very little among the
mass of lush green which surrounds and conceals it. On the other
hand, in our museums and conservatories we sedulously pick out
the rarest and most beautiful of these rare and beautiful species,
and we isolate them completely from their natural surroundings.
The consequence is that the untraveled mind regards the tropics
mentally as a sort of perpetual replica of the hot-houses at Kew,
superimposed on the best of Mr. Bull's orchid shows. As a mat-
ter of fact, people who know the hot world well can tell you that
the average tropical woodland is much more like the dark shade
of Box Hill or the deepest glades of the Black Forest. For really
fine floral display in the mass, all at once, you must go, not to
Ceylon, Sumatra, Jamaica, but to the far north of Canada, the
Bernese Oberland, the moors of Inverness-shire, the North Cape
of Norway. Flowers are loveliest where the climate is coldest ;
forests are greenest, most luxuriant, least blossoming, where the
conditions of life are richest, warmest, fiercest. In one word.
High Life is always poor but beautiful. — Cornhill Magazine.

SKETCH OF JAMES CURTIS BOOTH.

THE life of Prof. Booth is divided by Mr. Patterson Dubois,
in his memorial address, into three periods : that of his pre-
paratory student life, or the formative period, which closed in
1835-'36 ; the creative period, so named " because it called into
being a method of technical education which has, probably more
than anything else, resulted in establishing chemistry as a factor
in commerce, and in gaining for the chemist a recognized place
in the economy of the world's work," 1836 to 1849 ; and the period
of his official life as melter and refiner at the United States Mint
in Philadelphia.

James Curtis Booth was born in Philadelphia, July 28, 1810,
the son of George Booth, of New Castle, Del., and Ann Balton,
of Chestertown, Md. ; and died in Philadelphia, March 21, 1888.
He was taught in Philadelphia, at the seminary in Hartsville,
Pa., and at the University of Pennsylvania, whence he was
graduated in 1829. He then spent a year at the Rensselaer Poly-
technic Institute at Troy, N. Y. He had a decided preference for
the study of chemistry, of which he very early realized the capa-
bilities and the practical value. Seeking opportunities and facili-
ties for the performance of laboratory work in connection with
his studies which America could not afford, he went to Europe

SKETCH OF JAMES CURTIS BOOTH. 117

for them, and was tlie first American student who visited Ger-
many for that purpose. He spent the year 1833 .in Wohler's pri-
vate laboratory in Cassel ; then practiced for nine months in the
laboratory of Prof. Gustav Magnus, in Berlin ; and employed the
rest of three years abroad in attending lectures in Berlin and
Vienna, and in visiting manufacturing establishments on the
Continent and in England.

Having returned home, Mr. Booth established, in 1836, a stu-
dent's laboratory — " the parent of all our existing laboratories for
students in applied chemistry " — and became a teacher, " But it
■was no part of Mr. Booth's idea," Mr. Dubois says, " to make the
laboratory course usurp the rightful position of the text-book
and the lecture. He saw the great want of a supplementer rather
than a supplanter. How truly he discerned what the scientific as
well as the commercial world required, and how fully he met that
requirement, needs no explanation here. The student's labora-
tories all over the country — if not beyond — as well as the throng
of students who have come into and gone from his own laboratory
during the past half-century — all attest the foresight, the judg-
ment, the energy of a scientist and a business man."

In 1836 Mr. Booth was appointed Professor of Chemistry ap-
plied to the Fine Arts, in the Franklin Institute. In this capacity
he delivered, between 1836 and 1845, three courses of lectures, of
three seasons to each course. From 1842 to 1845 he was also
Professor of Chemistry in the Central High School of Philadel-
phia. He interested himself in mineralogy and geology, and en-
gaged in the Geological Surveys of Pennsylvania and Delaware,
concerning which Prof, J. P. Lesley has written : " Prof, Booth
and John Frazer, then a young man, were appointed by Prof,
Rogers, in the spring of 1836, his two assistants in prosecuting the
work of the first Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, From
spring to fall they traveled along the Susquehanna and Juniata
Valleys, blocking out the order of the great formations. Prof.
Booth was sent by Prof. Rogers up the Potomac to make a section
which could be compared with the Juniata section ; and, when
these three met at Huntingdon, he announced, to the astonishment
of Mr. Rogers, that the mountains which fill the middle belt of
Pennsylvania were made by two separate formations, now known
as No. IV and ISTo. X. Mr. Rogers was unwilling to accept this
conclusion, and instructed Mr. Frazer to go to the Huntingdon
Bedford line and make a cross-section from the Broad-Top coal
down to the limestone of Morrison's Cove. At the end of the
week the three met again in Huntingdon, and Mr. Frazer con-
firmed the statement of Prof. Booth. Mr. Rogers was still dis-
satisfied, and then went himself to repeat the section made by
Mr. Frazer, finding it correct, and then accepting Prof. Booth's

ii8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Potomac section. Thus the grand column of our Palasozoic for-
mations was established, and the credit of it is due to Prof.
Booth. . . . Both Prof. Rogers's assistants resigned at the end of
the year ; and Mr. Booth was then appointed immediately, or not
long thereafter, State Geologist of Delaware. His work in Dela-
ware was published in his report, an octavo volume, now so rare
that it is impossible to obtain a copy. My belief is that Prof.
Booth abandoned field work very early in his career, and devoted
himself to his chemical laboratory. At all events he is known
in science altogether as an accomplished chemist, with a great
reputation for diligence and accuracy, especially in the field of
mineral analysis." The Delaware survey was under Prof. Booth's
charge in the years 1837-'38; and a summary of the results to
which it led was published in the Annual Report of the Survey
in 1839, and in a memoir on the subject in 1841.

The act providing for the geological survey of Delaware
required that an equal portion of the appropriation should be
expended in each county. But the several counties did not all
need the same attention. The geologist, however, was expected
to spend an equal portion of his time in each county. He im-
proved the time, when the geological work did not demand the
whole of it, by traversing different parts of the counties, and im-
parting to the people such knowledge relative to agriculture as
lay within the sphere of his information ; and he embodied agri-
cultural essays in his report. Pertinently to this instance of a char-
acteristic weakness of law-makers. Prof. Booth remarked in his
report on the unwisdom of allowing local interests to sway so
much in legislation, when more could be gained in the long run
by taking broader views. Believing that the wealth of the people
could be promoted by their employing their own resources, how-
ever limited, he directed much time to the development of such as
deposits of shells and decomposed organic matter, glass-making
materials, potter's clay, iron, and copperas.

In explanation of the admission of theoretical matter into the
report, when the work was designed to possess a practical charac-
ter, he said : " In all probability the number of those who may
peruse these pages is large, and their attainments are of a varied
nature ; some being purely practical men, others again having
made considerable attainments in literature and science; and
hence it was deemed advisable to adapt the memoir to the various
demands of the community. ... I am well aware of an opinion,
too generally prevalent among men devoted to practical pursuits,
that an attention to theories is rather prejudicial than otherwise
to the successful pursuit of business. Whatever grounds they
may have for such views, they are not valid when applied in a
general way to theoretic investigations; for, independently of

SKETCH OF JAMES CURTIS BOOTH. 119

other proofs of the incorrectness of their conclusions, it may be
shown that many valuable practical results have either originated
with or were improved by theorists, by those who have experi-
mented with a view to establishing, maintaining, or refuting.
Now in regard to agriculture, it may be observed that it had al-
ready made considerable advancement when it began to assume a
scientific form ; but from that period to the present, by deriving
assistance from other sciences, and particularly from chemistry,
its progress toward perfection has been constant and rapid." ^

Prof Booth's attention was drawn to the subject of refining
cobalt, concerning which little or nothing was known outside of
the commercial refineries, by the ill-success of an experiment m
mining the metal which was begun in 1845. It was at the Mine
La Mott, in Missouri, where he mined a large amount of cobalt,
which was sent to England. It was returned as impure ; where-
upon Prof. Booth at once set to work to discover the best method
of refining the metal— and succeeded.

Of Prof Booth's qualities as an instructor Dr. Alexander
Muckle, a pupil of his, as also of Wohler and Bunsen, and after-
ward his assistant at the Mint, is quoted as saying : " With this
experience of teachers and means of comparison, I can say that
Mr Booth had few if any superiors as a teacher of practical
chemistry; that he kept abreast of the times by constantly secur-
ing the best and latest scientific books and periodicals. A high
value was placed upon a course in his laboratory, which soon be-
came widely known and in great repute as a place for learning
chemistry ; and his teachings are believed to have had a potent
influence in developing and disseminating the knowledge of the
science and its practical applications."

Prof. Booth was appointed Melter and Refiner of the Mint by
President Taylor in 1849, and entered that service on December
10th of that year. The time corresponded closely with the discov-
ery of gold in California. The influx of gold from that source,
already heavy, increased rapidly, and added greatly to the work
of his office, while the quality of the metal increased considerably
the difficulty of dealing with it. The new gold was alloyed with
silver in excess of the amount admissible in the coinage, and this
had to be extracted. The provisions of the Mint, which had been
adapted for the treatment of the bullion which had been previously
sent there, were not suitable to the refinement of this gold.^ New
methods had to be adopted, and the whole plan of the parting ap-
paratus had to be reconstructed. It was Prof. Booth's duty to
make this adjustment. The process already known in the labora-
tories had to be expanded and used on a manufacturing scale. " To
this work, as well as to all the other labors of his department," says
Mr. Robert Patterson, Mr. Booth "brought the full knowledge of

120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

theory and practice derived from former professional experience,
and further showed, what is not always the case with chemists, a
capacity to apply his knowledge in the larger way required for
commercial results." There was delay at first in disposing of the
gold that came to the Mint, and some impatience on the part of
consignors, but the capacity of the Mint was soon enlarged to
meet promptly every demand. In the course of five years the
pressure of gold at the Philadelphia ofBce was relieved by the
creation of a Government Assay Office in New York and a
Branch Mint at San Francisco. Then came a change in the
standard of silver coin, causing an immense recoinage in small
pieces ; and then the issue, in place of the old copper cents, of
copper-nickel pieces, and, after these, of bronze ; each calling for
other processes of assay and involving additional work.

An improved process for refining gold was described by Prof.
Booth, in a letter to the Wastage Commission, as follows : " I re-
fine usually to 993 and 995 m., and sometimes, to make a finer
gold, I heat the alloy of gold and silver with parting acid, so as
to nearly separate them, and then heat the residue with oil of
vitriol and saltpeter, at a steam-heat, by which I have brought
the gold to 998 m. The process is my own, and not known out-
side of the Mint." A paragraph from an article in the Journal of
the American Chemical Society for June, 1885, on The Smelting
Furnace of the United States Mint, is quoted by Mr. Dubois as
characteristic. " My last improvement," Prof. Booth says, " which
is still practiced, consists in the very simple operation of melting
all the iron residues from the furnaces, even including grate-bars,
and keeping them in a quiet melted state, so as to allow the heavier
gold and silver to settle out of the iron. When the mass is cold,
the precious metal is knocked off the bottom by a hammer as a
single tough king, with scarcely a trace of iron in it, while the
iron mass above it has never yielded a trace of gold or silver to
the assayer. Instead of spending three weeks of annual vacation
from melting in hammering tons of accumulated iron, we now
melt through the year, whenever convenient, from five to fifty
pounds of iron residues at a time. We gathered in one melting,
last autumn, a cake of a few ounces of gold and silver from a mass
of over fifty pounds of iron in a part of a day, and the latter was
entirely free from the precious metals. When I first succeeded
with this process, I could hardly believe in the perfect separation
from iron, and the late Mr. J. R. Eckfeldt, the best assayer in the
United States, doubted it, until, by numerous tests made from a
piece of some thirty pounds of iron, he found a total absence of
gold and silver."

The difficulties met at the Mint in adapting processes to the
various kinds of metallic impurity that came in with the gold

SKETCH OF JAMES CURTIS BOOTH. 121

and silver, and the responsibility of managing so large amounts,
for which he was accountable in law to the full value, weighed
heavily and constantly on his mind, and told severely upon his
physical constitution, and, according to Mr Dubois, in his later
years a painful anxiety " seemed to be ineradicably seared into his
very life." His noticeable failure is traced by Mr. Dubois from
the great " wastages " of 1872, together with subsequent difficul-
ties in the recoinage of seventeen millions of our gold coin in
1873. Prof. Booth himself wrote upon this subject in a private
letter in October, 1887 : " The whole truth is that the constantly
increasing business of the Mint beyond its own capacity for bull-
ion storage has been increasingly weighing down my anxious
thoughts for its safety, and you may add to that the consciousness
that I was personally responsible for every ounce of bullion re-
ceived, and then you will readily perceive sufficient ground for a
constant anxious care, which I sometimes imagined to be as the
square or cube of the extra quantity of bullion constantly poured
in. . . . It was that constant and constantly augmenting ounce-
for-ounce responsibility that finally affected my mind, and I rather
think broke me down. I went home quite sick from the Mint
early in April, and lay on my back for about three months. I
suppose that such a statement will be quite sufficient to explain
my present position. I am glad to say that I had sufficient strength
to resign from my place in the Mint " (he resigned in August, 1887,
after thirty-nine years of service), " although no one is yet ap-
pointed to take my place. However, I do not go more than once
a week to the Mint, and shall be glad when the string of union is
severed. . . . From my age, over seventy-seven, I hardly expect
restoration of full strength, and am satisfied with Avhat Provi-
dence designs." His successor was not appointed when he died.

Prof. Booth had a variety of side-pursuits, and was especially
fond of linguistic studies, among which he took a particular in-
terest in phonetics, short-hand writing, and the reform of English
orthograxjhy. He regarded phonography as important in element-
ary education, and thought it should be required as an essential
branch. Having mastered Pitman's Phonography, he perceived
the defective character of the text-books on the subject, and him-
self published an elementary work upon it in 1849 — the Phono-
graphic Instructor. The Instructor was republished, with a key,
in 1850 and in 1856. The book was a successful one.

Most of Prof, Booth's writings bore upon the special field of
his studies and his work. Having become a member of the Amer-
ican Philosophical Society in 1839, he, in connection with Prof.
Martin H. Boy^, communicated to the eighth volume of its trans-
actions, new series, a paper on the Conversion of Benzoic Acid
into Hippuric Acid. A considerable number of the reports of

122 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Franklin Institute Committee on Science and the Arts were
of his writing. In co-operation with Campbell Morfit he pre-
pared a report on Recent Improvements in the Chemical Arts,
which was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1852. The
conservative, ijractical spirit that presided over the composition
of this work is illustrated in the preface, where the authors say :
" We have freely exercised discrimination in the selection of sub-
jects, and have omitted much that we found in ap]3lied chemistry,
because novel views need, in many cases, further confirmation to
render them reliable in practice, and, if presented too earlj^ to the
artisan, may be productive of more evil than good. We have
kept in view the benefit of the practical man, the manufacturer or
worker, and, while we have not avoided scientific terms where
they were more convenient, we have generally used words of de-
scription intelligible to every one. We have confined ourselves
to such foreign improvements in the chemical arts, whether pat-
ented or not, as we believed the American artisan might avail him-
self of, frequently offering critical remarks on them, and some-
times pointing out where improvements were likely to be made."

In the Journal of the American Chemical Society are papers
on some methods of toughening gold and silver (September, 1884) :
A General Method of toughening Gold and Silver in the Melt-
ing Crucible (June, 1884) ; and The Smelting Furnace of the U. S.
Mint (Juno, 1885), from which we have quoted. Other papers,
the media of publication of which are not given by Mr, Dubois,
are: On Beet-root Sugars (1842) ; Chrome Iron Analysis (1842);
Constitution of Glycerin and Oily Acids (1848) ; and a Report on
the Water-supply of Philadelphia (18G2). His most conspicuous
effort in literature was the Encyclopsedia of Chemistry published
in Philadelphia in 1850, which was written chiefly by him, but on
the last half of which Dr. Campbell Morfit assisted.

Prof. Booth received the degree of LL. D. from the University
of Lewisburg in 1867, and that of Ph. D. from the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in 1884. He was made a member of the
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1842 ; of the Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Sciences in 1852 ; ci the Maryland Institute
for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts in 1853 ; of the Philadel-
phia Society for Promoting Agriculture about 1859 ; and of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1884. He was President of
the American Chemical Society in 1883 and 1884, and declined re-
election for a third term ; and was interested in the diocesan
work of the Protestant Episcopal Church and in various philan-
thropies. He is described as having been personally a gentleman
of refined manners, pleasing address, and a cheerful disposition,
which was often obscured, however, by his nervous intensity.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

123

EDITOR'S TABLE.

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.

THE article by Prof, C. Hanford
Henderson on University Exten-
sion, which a|)pears in the present num-
ber of the Montlily, is one which de-
serves and doubtless will receive a wide
and sympathetic attention. Prof. Hen-
derson states his case well, and no in-
telligent reader can fail to be impressed
with the importance of the movement
which he describes and advocates. For
our own part we think its importance
can hardly be over-estimated. It aims
at nothing less than an intellectual revo-
lution— at placing within the reach of
thousands in every part of the country
educational advantages which hitherto
have been confined to university stu-
dents. Useful as the colleges and uni-
versities are in their way, we incline to
the opinion that what is known as uni-
versity extension holds out a promise
of yet greater usefulness. The former
are often spoken of as " seats " of learn-
ing, and the expression is appropriate;
but, in the extension movement, learn-
ing leaves its seats and goes forth to
find its disciples in the highways and
byways. This simple fact is a pledge of
a more living adaptation to the practical
needs of the community than is to be
expected in the case of the older and
more permanent educational establish-
ments. The reactive effect upon the
colleges themselves will doubtless be
also very beneficial. The theory of the
movement is that college professors will
do extra-collegiate work ; and it is cer-
tain that, in addressing more miscellane-
ous audiences than are wont to be
gathered within college walls, they will
learn new methods of instruction and
discover new springs of influence. Col-
lege students form a more or less select
class, and they are expected not only to
follow in an unquestioning manner the

lines of study indicated to them, but to
accept in the same way whatever may
be the special educational views or tra-
ditions of the institution they attend.
The extension classes will be at once
more fluid in their composition and
more favorable to initiative and origi-
nality on the part of the teacher. There
will thus tend to be developed a new
type of teaching and new conceptions
of the possibilities of intellectual growth.
Science will learn — what it has never
yet thoroughly learned — to dwell among
the people and mingle its life with
theirs.

Taking another point of view, we
might dwell upon the great need that
exists for something that will bring
home a touch of true culture and of ex-
act knowledge not so much to the
" masses "' as to the " classes." Among
the latter the fields are " white to the
harvest." We are often told that the ig-
norance of the working classes is a source
of danger to the state, but we are by no
means persuaded that the ignorance
of a somewhat higher social stratum
is not a more serious danger. A couple
of years ago the most popular clergy-
man in the United States, addressing
his own congregation, recommended
those of his hearers who were wealthy
to spend their money freely upon every
form of expensive luxury — to clothe
themselves in the richest fabrics and
most expensive furs, to ornament them-
selves with the costliest jewels, to make
their houses gorgeous with everything
that was most sumptuous and elegant,
to feed themselves with splendid liber-
ality, to conduct themselves in gen-
eral—so he actually said — as God's fa-
vored children, for whom nothing could
possibly be too good. In olden times it
was said that the poor had the gospel
preached to them, and that they heard it

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gladly; to-day good news of a slightly dif-
ferent tenor comes to the rich, and how
sweet it must be to be told that, being
rich, you are presumably a favored child
of God, and that in living a life of lux-
ury that might make Dives turn green
with envy you are simply carrying out
his fatherly designs ! But the eloquent
preacher told his wealthy hearers more :
he assured them that, in thus heaping
indulgences upon themselves, they were
helping the poor by furnishing them
with employment. Of course he be-
lieved it, because the whole class to
which he belongs, with only here and
there an exception, believes it ^ and that
is just where we see the great need for
the missionary work of the university-
extension system. Here are thousands
of high-feedmg, richly dressed, gospel-
taught people, who, in matters economic,
are sitting in the outer darkness of ig-
norance—silly enough to think that the
more they consume on their pleasures the
more benefit they confer on the world,
the more they lighten the toil of the poor.
But it is not upon economic subjects
only that the talk of the so-called edu-
cated classes betrays a woful lack of in-
formation and of coherent thought.
Upon scientific and historical subjects
it is mucli the same. By this time the
main axioms connected with the doc-
trine of the conservation of energy ought
to be the common property of all de-
cently educated persons, but we con-
stantly hear well-dressed people talking
as if electricity, for example, were a mys-
terious something derived from a mys-
terious nothing, and thus constituted a
boundless source of energy to be had for
the asking. It is needless, however, to
multiply examples ; the world, in spite
of all our educational institutions and
perhaps a little through their fault, is
full of ignorance in places where one
would think ignorance ought not to be;
and we may well, therefore, hail with joy
the introduction of a scheme which
seems likely to bring light and knowl-
edge to many thousands of minds.

Upon one point, however, we find
ourselves unable to agree with our con-
tributor. After making out a strong
case for the usefulness of university ex-
tension, he is disposed to draw the con-
clusion that the national Government
should take it under its protection and
sustain it by subsidies. From our point
of view this would tend to mar the whole
scheme. Its success will depend mainly
on the individual zeal and public spirit
with which it is conducted; but if there
is anything that is fatal to zeal and pub-
lic spirit, it is a subsidy. "What is the
cause of the paralyzing lack of vitality in
our public schools if it is not that they
are part and parcel of a pcjlitical sys-
tem ? It may be granted at once that a
national subsidy would greatly acceler-
ate the movement ; but we are con-
vinced that what would be gained in
rate of growth would be more than off-
set by deterioration in the ethical and
intellectual quality of the work done.
If people do not get knowledge to-day
it is not for lack of pecuniary means ;
it is because they prefer to spend the
means they might apply to the pur-
pose to less worthy objects. If there
is one feature more than another of
the university-extension movement that
awakens our interest and commands our
sympathy, it is that it offers an oppor-
tunity for a true crusade against igno-
rance and folly. But the crusader and
the subsidy-seeker are very different per-
sons. The former may be mistaken, but
he is enthusiastic; the latter is rarely
mistaken, but his enthusiasm is of a low
quality. Now, as we have said, here is
a grand opportunity for a crusade — an
opportunity to show that those who
possess the keys of knowledge are will-
ing to unload their stores for others, and
that those who have means in abundance
are willing to contribute freely to raise
the intellectual and moral standard of
society. All the elements of a great
movement are present if only we can
count on enthusiasm — on some small
share of that feeling for duty and that

EDITOR'S TABLE.

125

regard for others which bring Salvation-
ists into the streets with their drums
and tambourines. But the opportunity
would be thrown away, and the move-
ment would assume a thoroughly com-
monplace and almost mercenary char-
acter, if it were to be fed with the pro-
ceeds of taxation. "We trust that the
leaders of the movement will resolve to
have nothing to do with politics save to
purify and elevate them by the direct
action of sound instruction on the pub-
lic mind. It will not help our politics a
bit to have university extension hang-
ing round the Capitol for an appropria-
tion.

A GROUP OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS.
The meeting of the American As
sociation was held this year in the
midst of the meetings, beginning Au-
gust 11th and closing September 1st,
of a number of societies cultivating
special fields of science, which have
grown up out of and around it. The
multiplication and division of socie-
ties in tliis way is a natural result of
the increasing expansion and speciali-
.zation of scientific studies in the United
States, and one of the most certain signs
of them. The fields which one society
was able to cultivate have become too
large and too many to be adequately
tilled by it alone, and it has been found
convenient to distribute the details
among separate workers, while the old
Association remains the central organi-
zation and chief, under which the whole
is unified. This grouping of meetings
promises to be a permanent feature, and
to make our annual scientific conven-
tion an event of larger and growing in-
terest. The meetings held in advance
of the larger meeting were those of the
American Microscopical Society, the So-
ciety of Official Chemists, the Associa-
tion of Agricultural Colleges, the Socie-
ty for the Promotion of Agriculture, a
body which is limited to forty mem-
bers ; and the Association of Economic

Entomologists. The discuss* ons in these
assumed, to a large extent, a practical
shape, and aimed directly or indirect-
ly at the advancement of agricultural
interests. Among the important feat-
ures of the meetings were the arrange-
ments that were made for the fusion of
the chemical societies of the United
States into a single body. Eight socie-
ties were represented in the Union, viz. :
The American Chemical Society, the
Washington Chemical Society, the As-
sociation of Official Chemists, the Chemi-
cal Societies of Cincinnati, the Brook-
lyn Institute, the Franklin Institute,
the Association of Manufacturing Chem-
ists, and the Louisiana Association of
Sugar Chemists. Under the terras of
union, which have yet to be approved
by the societies separately, the new or-
ganization will be called the American
Chemical Society, and each local society
will retain its identity as a branch. The
name of the general society is the best
that could be chosen for a body repre-
senting the whole country, and gives,
besides, a fitting recognition to the old-
est and one of the most efficient and
active of our chemical associations.

The meeting of the American Asso-
ciation itself was one of the largest and
best that have been held in recent years.
The number of members reached 653,
and was greater than had been recorded
since the New York meeting of 1887,
when 729 members were registered.
Three hundred and seventy -one new
members were elected, and 235 papers
were entered to be read. Permanent
Secretary Putnam has been quoted as
saying that the papers read were above
the average in interest and importance,
and this opinion appears to be well
founded. Among the subjects inform-
ally talked of as things to which the
Association should give the support of
its approval and influence were those
of the establishment of a fund for the
encouragement of scientific research,
which was supported by Prof. Brash-
ears and President Prescott ; the with-

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

drawal of certain public timber lands
from entry and their protection as for-
est reserves ; and the utilization of the
"Weather Bureau and the agricultural
experiment stations in forming a service
of water statistics and the survey of
vpater-supplies to serve as a basis for the
application of proper principles of wa-
ter management. On the invitation of
the Australasian Association represent-
atives were appointed to serve on an In-
ternational Committee to prepare a uni-
form system of biological nomenclature.
The meeting of the American Asso-
ciation was immediately followed by
that of the American Geological So-
ciety, which was followed in its turn
by that of the International Geological
Congress. The former meeting also
took on somewhat of an international
character, for several of the European
geologists were present, and such of
them as chose to take part in the pro-
ceedings were given the first places.
The meeting of the International Con-
gress was the fifth of the triennial series,
and was attended by about two hundred
members, nearly half of whom were
foreigners from Austria, Belgium, Chili,
France, Mexico, Peru, Roumania, Rus-
sia, Switzerland, Canada. Germany,
Great Britain, and Sweden. Profs.
James D. Dana and James Hall were
designated honorary presidents of this
body and Prof J. S. Newberry presi-
dent; but he not being able to attend
on account of age, the sessions were pre-
sided over by one or another of the vice-
presidents. Prof. Joseph Leconte pre-
siding at the opening session. The
Congress was welcomed by Secretary
Noble, in a happily phrased address,
in which he spoke of the importance
of geology in its scientific and economi-
cal aspects, the activity with which its
study is pursued in the United States,
and the liberality with which it is as-
sisted by the Government. The meet-
ings were varied by the usual number
of excursions, ending in a grand excur-
sion of the International Geologists to

the Yellowstone Park, the mining dis-
tricts, the Colorado Cafion, and other
points of geological interest in the "West,

The American Association has se-
lected Rochester, N. Y., as the place for
its meeting of 1802, and the following
ofBcers have been chosen for that oc-
casion :

President, Prof. Joseph Le Conte, Berke-
ley, Cal.; permanent secretary. Prof. F. W.
Putnam, Cambridge, Mass.; general secre-
tary, Prof. Amos W. Butler, Brookville, Ind.;
council secretary. Prof. T. H. Norton, Cincin-
nati, Ohio; treasurer, William Lilly, Mauch
Chunk, Pa.

Vice-presidents of sections : A, Prof. J.
R. Eastman, Washington, D. C; B, Prof. B.
F. Thomas, Columbus, Ohio ; C, Dr. Alfred
Springer, Cincinnati, Ohio ; D, Prof. J. B.
Johnson, St. Louis, Mo.; E, Prof. H. S. Will-
iams, Ithaca, N. Y.; F, Prof. S. H. Gage, Ith-
aca, N. ¥.; H, W. H. Holmes, Washington,
D. C; I, Prof. S. Dana Horton, Pomeroy,
Ohio.

Secretaries of sections : A, Prof. Wiuslow
Upton, Providence, R. 1.; B, Prof. Browne
Ayres, New Orleans, La.; C, Prof. J. L.
Howe, Louisville, Ky.; D, Prof. 0. H. Lan-
dreth, Nashville, Tenn.; E, Prof. R. D. Salis-
bury, Madison, Wis.; F, Prof. B. D. Halsted,
New Brunsvvick, N. J.; H, Dr. Stewart Culin,
Philadelphia, Pa.; I, Lester F. Ward, Wash-
ington, D. C.

Auditors ; Dr. H. Wheatland, Salem,
Mass.; Thomas Meehan, Germantown, Pa.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Question of Copyright. By George
Haven Putnam. New York : G. P. Put-
nam's Sons. Pp. 412.

This convenient and timely book con-
tains a summary of the copyright laws at
present in force in the chief countries of the
world, together with a report of the legisla-
tion now pending in Great Britain, a sketch
of the contest in the United States, from
1837 to 1891, in behalf of international
copyright, and certain papers on the devel-
opment of the conception of literary prop-
erty, and on the probable effects of the new
American law. To the author's view, the
American act of the present year, providing
copyright for aliens, can hardly be accepted

LITERARY NOTICES.

1 27

as final legislation, and will doubtless at
some no distant date call for further consid-
eration as to some of its provisions. It
leaves us still, in recognition of the claims
of literary workers, very much behind the
other nations of the civilized world. The
result of fifty-three years of effort, it brings
this country to the point reached by France
in 1810, and by Great Britain and the states
of Germany in 1836-'37. Under the pro-
visions of the Berne Convention of 1887 —
which probably represents the final stage of
international copyright in Europe — by fulfill-
ing the requirements of their domestic copy-
right laws, authors can now at once secure,
without further conditions or formalities,
copyright for their productions in all the
states belonging to the International Union.
This union comprises nearly all the countries
of Europe, with Tunis, Liberia, and Hayti.
" It is not probable," says Mr. Putnam, " that
another half-century of effort will be re-
quired to bring public opinion in the Ameri-
can Eepublic up to the standard of inter-
national justice already attained by Tunis,
Liberia, and Hayti."

The Prison Question. By Charles A.
Reeve. Chicago: A. C' McClurg & Co.
Pp. 194. Price, $2.

This book gives a theoretical and philo-
sophical review of matters relating to crime,
punishment, prisons, and reformation of con-
victs ; considers mental, social, and political
conditions as they bear upon these things ;
and presents the author's views about the
causes and the prevention of crime and the
production of criminals. We do not have to
accept the author's views specifically to rec-
ognize that he has thought carefully and
deeply on the subject, and has reasoned
upon it without undue prejudice. The fun-
damental principles of the book were first
presented by him in a public lecture, about
twelve years ago, and have been urged in
various papers read before the National
Prison Congress. The purpose of the book
is to group some important well-established
facts and apply them to the subjects of
prisons and reforms, in such order as will
interest so much of the general public as can
be reached, and so aid in creating a public
opinion that can intelligently and practically
deal with and dispose of the defective classes

and the causes that produce them. The
author believes that an impractical theology
on the one hand, and a blind agnosticism on
the other, alike operate to prevent a true so-
lution of the problems of criminality. From
a false position no step can be taken in ad-
vance without plunging into falsities. The
only practical steps are such as lead to a
true position. These the author tries to
point out, by studying the criminal's mind
and the factors that operate upon it — among
which are physical and mental energy,
theology, natural forces, marriage, society,
and other surrounding influences — as they
tend to develop, restrain, perpetuate, or pro-
create criminal tendencies. A very impor-
tant place is given to heredity, and, by con-
sequence, to such regulation of marriage as
will best prevent the transmission of crimi-
nal appetites. The relations of government,
legislation, punishment, and prisons to the
criminal are considered ; reformation re-
ceives a hopeful word ; but the measures to
which real importance is attached are those
that appertain to prevention.

The Sturgeons and Sturgeon Industries
OF the Eastern Coast cf the United
States, with an Account of Experi-
ments bearing upon Sturgeon-culture.
By John A. Ryder. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-office. Pp. 50, with
Plates.

The studies embodied in this monograph
were made by the author in the spring of
1888 at Delaware City, Del., a very impor-
tant center of the sturgeon-fishery. Not-
withstanding the results of the effort were
in some respects unsatisfactory, a number
of novel facts were collected and experi-
ments were carried out which must be of
great significance in any further attempts
at the artificial propagation of these fishes.
The embryological data have been drawn
partly from the author's own experiments
and partly from the work of other authors.
The embryos of the common sturgeon here
illustrated are believed to be the first of that
species that were ever figured. The irppor-
tant fact was determined that the common
sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) is the only spe-
cies which is at the present time of com-
mercial value in the fishery of the Delaware.
A few specimens of Acipenser brevirostris
were obtained — a species which has not been

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

certainly recognized since Le Sueur's time.
The only profitable fishery of the common
sturgeon — unless the Florida sturgeon should
prove to be of the same form — is on the
eastern coast of the Delaware River and
Bay. A considerable amount of capital is
invested in the business. The experience
of the dealers and fishermen shows that a
steady falling off has occurred in the catch
within a few years. This and other facts
prove that it is high time that something
was being done to stay the extinction of the
fish. The only means of maintaining and
increasing the industry is through artificial
propagation ; and the author has every rea-
son to think that this may be successfully
accomplished at a comparatively insignifi-
cant outlay.

The Diseases of Personality. By Th.
RiBOT. Chicago : Open Court Publishing
Company. Pp. 157. Price, 75 cents.

The idea of personality is easily handled
by metaphysicians who assume an ego. The
school of experimental psychology, however,
which claims M. Ribot, views this as no sim-
ple task, but rather the reward of arduous
research. In the present volume, therefore,
the author seeks through investigation of
those cases in which the sense of person-
ality is disorganized to discover a clew to its
nature. In order to kn(3w human personal-
ity we must analyze it, but it must be re-
membered that the phenomena separated
for purposes of analysis are interdependent.
The various disorders of personality may be
classified as organic, emotional, and intel-
lectual. The sense of individuality in the
normal body, its fluctuations dependent upon
alterations in general or local sensibility, the
egoistic sense in monsters and twins, show
"as the organism, so the personality."
Emotional manifestations peculiar to im-
paired nutrition, sexual aberration, and per-
version of the higher instincts are found to
confirm the same proposition. Intellectual
vagaries of all kinds, due to sensorial de-
rangement, hallucinations, the phenomena of
hypnotism and of mysticism, furnish the
corollary that ideas are only a secondary
factor in changes of personality.

Regarding personality as " the highest
form of psychic individuality," the nature of
consciousness and the individual is involved.

Instead of the subjective notion that con-
sciousness is '' a basic property of soul," M.
Ribot finds it " a simple phenomenon super-
added to activity of the brain, appearing and
disappearing according to circumstances."
States of consciousness are coincident with
disassimilation of nervous tissue, so that we
may predict that they depend upon a certain
state of the nervous system But we do not
yet understand all of the physiological con-
ditions of consciousness.

If individual be defined as that which is
not divided, we are obliged to descend very
low in the organic world to find an example.
" Every protoplasmic mass which attains a
few tenths of a millimetre spontaneously
divides itself. Protoplasm in the individual
state is therefore limited in size." Scientists
may find a rudimentary consciousness in the
unfolding, absorbing, and dividiag of the
lowest organism ; but M. Ribot considers this
an irritability common to living beings,
which is developed into the general sensi-
bility of more complex forms. In colonies
of Hydradinia, or in Agalmidce, where loco-
motion is centralized, we meet with a co-
ordination which is the germ of personality.
Gradually, as the nervous system becomes
more prominent, psychic individuality is
constituted. In any given time the sum of
nervous actions in man will far exceed the
sum of the states of consciousness. Thus
conscious personality is but an abstract of
what takes place in the nervous centers.
" Why certain nervous actions become con-
scious, and which are they ? " is yet unan-
swerable. Different states of consciousness
succeed each other and depend upon nerv-
ous activity. Pathology confirms the fact
that the feeling of tlie ego changes with the
bodily condition. The problem thus becomes
biological, and psychologv must wait, there-
fore, for a fuller knowledge of the genesis
of organisms.

Studies i\ Evolution and Biology. By
Alice Bodivgton. London: Eliot Stock.
Pp. 220. 50 cents.

A PERUSAL of this book shows exten-
sive reading on the part of the author, and
a clear conception of the principles of evo-
lution. Some of the chapters are very in-
teresting. It is difficult, however, to see
the purposes of the book : as a help to the

LITERARY NOTICES.

129

working student it is far too meager, and
lacks references to original material ; as a
popular book for the uninformed it is too
condensed to be of much use. At the out-
set a list of books is given for consultation,
and this will strike one as a curious collec-
tion for the purpose. In the preface the
author says, " I am at a loss to imagine
why it is considered almost wrong to write
about physical science without having made
original experiments." The advantage of
having made original experiments leads a
writer to greater exactness, and, above all,
to appreciate the relative value of state-
ments and facts. Her allusions to the fixed
ascidians as being comparatively free from
vicissitudes and dangers in contrast with
locomotive forms derived from the same
stock, is misleading. The helpless creature
nibbled at by fishes, infested by extraneous
growths, unable to fight or flee, is seriously
handicapped in the struggle for existence.

We know of no evidence to show that
the duration of life of a species is gov-
erned other than by the law of natural
selection. An interesting article, by Prof.
"Verrell (Science, vol. i, p. 303), would have
given the author some hints as to the prob-
able cause of the rapid disappearance of
the larger vertebrates in past times. An
allusion is made to the divergence of the
Ainos from the Japanese, whereas the
Ainos covered the islands of Japan before
the Japanese were crystallized into a nation.

Silly flights of fancy are quite out of
place in a serious work of this nature ; but
the attempt to enliven a dignified discourse
by lugging in extracts of poetry or non-
sense is peculiarly English, and so must be
endured.

The Progress Report on Irrigation in tlie
United States, prepared by Special Agent
Richard J. Hinton, on account of the short-
ness of time during which the survey had
been at work when it was made (sixty-one
days), does not include results of the investi-
gation itself, but only the returns of corre-
spondence with experts and persons inter-
ested in the subject, invited in order to show
the conditions and development of irriga-
tion as applied to the soil for the purposes
of cultivation. The large number of letters
received shows how extensive and growing

VOL. XL. — 11

is the interest in the subject, and promises
that the oflBce of the irrigation inquiry will
soon have a record of all that has been done
about it. As among our own people, prac-
tical irrigation appears to have begun with
the Mormon settlement on the Great Salt
Lake ; but has been practiced by the Indi-
ans in Arizona and New Mexico for five
hundred years. General irrigation really be-
gan in the United States with the founda-
tion of the colony at Greeley in Colorado, in
ISvO, which was successful at once. Its de-
velopment, slow till 1880, has been more
rapid since then. One of the sequences of
its adoption is the appearance of a tendency
toward division of large holdings of land
and its more or less rapid disposal in small
bodies. Another incident is a movement
among land, mortgage, and trust companies
to form syndicates for developing the water-
supply of the plains country, for the pur-
pose, of course, of improving the security
for their loans. Horticulture in California
is said to be in great part the result of irriga-
tion, as is illustrated in the great fruit farms
at Riverside, iluch stress is laid upon the
value of the " undersheet water " of the
Arkansas and Platte and other valleys, the
results of the survey of which, by Chief-
Engineer Xettleton, are noticed below. The
curious fact is mentioned concerning this
water that cultivation tends to draw it up.
Thus at Fresno, where the first cultivators
had to dig fifty feet for it, they now get
it at from eight to twelve feet below the
surface.

The Report of Artesian and Underfow In-
vestigation between the ninety-seventh degree
of west longitude and the foot-hills of the
Rocky Mountains, presented by Edwin S.
KeffletoT), in response to a call by the Senate,
is also a progress report, and relates to work
done in November and December, 1890, in
parts of Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado,
covering particularly the valleys of the
Platte and the Arkansas. Valuable features
of the report are the plan and profiles show-
ing in detail the location and relation of
the surface of the underground water, as
found in rivers, wells, springs, and pools, as
well as the elevation of the surface of the
country along the line surveyed. There ap-
pears to be usually sufficient rainfall in this
region during the whole year, if it were

130

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

properly distributed throughout the cropping
season, to make agriculture reasonably cer-
tain without the aid of irrigation ; and the
people of the country believe that the hot
and dry winds have more to do with short-
ages of crops than lack of rainfall. The
capacity of the surface streams being limited
(the Arkansas and South Platte are already
made to give up most of their water before
leaving Colorado), a valuable other resource
for irrigation is derived from the use of the
subterranean or "undersheet" water, with
which the sand and gravel deposits in the
river valleys of considerable width and
unknown depth arc charged. Much of this
is obtained by means of open subflow
ditches. In other cases it has to be pumped.
In regions where this is not available, the
people must depend upon deep wells of
limited capacity, the storage and immediate
use of storm waters, and the flow of artesian
wells.

The Journal of the College of Science of
the Imperial University of Japan, \o\. IV,
Part I — published by a committee of four
professors, three of whom are Japanese —
cohtains seven articles on subjects of biol-
ogy and physiology, all by Japanese writers.
All are distinguished by great merit, but
are of too technical a character to be sus-
ceptible of detailed notice in a popular
journal. Prof. K. Mitsukari offers a study
on the embryology of the turtle, in which
many notable features hitherto overlooked
are presented. Mr. Kamakichi Kishinonge
describes the pulmonary lamellae of certain
genera of spiders and their development,
which he suggests may be from some aquat-
ic arthropod, as limulus. Mr. A. Oka de-
scribes a new species of fresh-water poly-
zoa. A new fungus enemy of the mulberry
tree is described by Mr. Nobujiro Tanaka.
The Irritability of the Stigma is shown by
Mr. M. Miyoshi to have a relation to cross -
fertilization. A paper by Mr. Masamaro
Inaba on the Development of Suprarenal
Bodies in the Mouse contains much of in-
terest to physiologists. All these papers
are abundantly illustrated in the highest
style of lithographic art, with colors.

In his lecture on Les Proges de V Anthro-
pologic (Paris, De Saye & Son, printers), the
Marquis de Nadaillac endeavors to refute
the theory of evolution. It is no slight tes-

timony to the solid foundation on which that
theory has been established in our modern
philosophy that so learned and earnest a
writer has not been able to add one to the
arguments which English students met and
answered long ago.

Two studies of general interest in the
Amm-ican Journal of Psychology for April
are those of Dr. E. W. Scripture on Arith-
metical Prodigies and Mr. Ilerbert Nichols
on the Psychology of Time. In his paper
on Arithmetical Prodigies, Dr. Scripture first
gives an account of the persons themselves,
with a bibliography of the subject; and
afterward undertakes to make such a psycho-
logical analysis of their powers as will help
in the comprehension of them, and furnish
hints to the practical instructor in arith-
metic.

The most important paper in Part XYIII
of the Proceedings of the Society for Psy-
chical Research is that of Jlrs. Henry Sidg-
wick on the Evidences for Clairvoyance.
Other curious studies are those of Baron von
Schrenck-Notzing on Thought-transference ;
Mr. Thomas Barkworth on Automatic Writ-
ing ; and M. Leon Marrilier on Apparitions
of the Virgin in the Dordogne. Prof. Will-
iam James's Principles of Physiology is re-
viewed at length by F. W. H. Myers. London.

Dr. William W. Parker, of Richmond,
Va., endeavors, in a paper on Instinct in Ani-
mals and Intelligence in Man contrasted, to
show that there can be no comparison be-
tween the two, but that the matter is one of
contrasts and antitheses : that in the ani-
mal, intelligence is limited ; in man unlimit-
ed ; that man's highest qualities or percep-
tions have no existence even in embryo in
animals ; and that " not one, not a thousand,
links can bridge the chasm between the in-
telligence of animals and the intelligence of
man."

Insects and Insecticides, a practical manual
concerning noxious insects and the methods
of preventing injuries, is designed by the
author, Clarence M. ^yeed, who is also hia
publisher (Hanover, N. H.), for the use of
the farmer, fruit-grower, floriculturist, and
housekeeper. It has been prepared to fur-
nish these persons with a concise account of
the more important injurious insects with
which they have to contend, together with a
summary of the latest knowledge concerning

LITERARY NOTICES.

131

the best methods of preventing or counter-
acting the injuries of the pests. For this
the author has drawn from the investiga-
tions of our leading entomologists. He has
tried to make the discussions of life-histo-
ries and remedies plain and simple. The
insects are classified according to the plants
or parts of plants on which they ravage — as
those affecting, severally, the larger fruits,
the smaller fruits, shade trees, ornamental
plants, and flowers, vegetables, cereal and
forage crops, and domestic animals and the
household. Price, $1.25.

In Los Animales Pardsitos introducidos
por el Agiui en el Organismo (London, Burns
& Gates) a full account is given by Dr.
Rafael Blanchard of the parasitic animals
introduced into the organism by water. The
work is of convenient size, is neatly printed
and abundantly illustrated, and will be of
great value to the Spanish readers for whom
it is intended.

Mr. Edward Trcvert, author of several
hand-books on electricity, batteries, and
dynamos, has prepared a manual on Elcc-
tricitif and its Applicatiojis, which is pub-
lished at Lynn, Mass., by the Rubier Pub-
lishing Company (price, $2). It is written to
supply a demand which the author finds to
exist, particularly among amateurs and stu-
dents, for more information relating espe-
cially to the practical part of the science. It
treats (giving facts rather than theories, and
avoiding technicalities) of voltaic batteries,
dynamos, the electric arc and arc lamp, elec-
tric motors, field magnets, armatures, the
telegraph and telephone, electric bells, the
induction coil, incandescent lamps, electrical
mining apparatus, the electric railway, elec-
tric welding, plating, and gas-lighting ap-
paratus, other electric inventions, electric
measurements, and gives resistance and
weight tables and an illustrated dictionary
of electrical terms and phrases.

In his Introduction to Dynamics (Long-
mans) Mr. Charles V. Burton has included
kinematics, kinetics, and statics, because of
the difficulty, in writing a book for young
students with no previous knowledge of the
subject, of making a satisfactory division of
it. Absolute systems of units have been
used, and the C. G. S. system has been given
the most prominent place. Price, $1.50.

In Optical Projection (Longmans) a trea-

tise is given of a practical character by
Mr. Lewis Wright on the use of the lantern
in exhibition and scientific demonstration
through its entire range. The author has
practiced optical projection as a hobby for
many years, and in his experiments has dis-
covered many ways of improving the appli-
cation of the art and enlarging its scope.
His treatise is comprehensive, and includes,
besides an exposition of the philosophy of
projected images, descriptions of the parts
of the lantern, and of the lights susceptible
of being used with it, and accounts of the
demonstrations of the apparatus in repre-
sentations of experiments in molecular and
mechanical physics, physiology, chemistry,
sound, reflection, refraction, dispersion, and
color of light, the spectrum, interference,
polarization, heat, and electricity. Price,
$2.25.

A series of studies in History, Economics,
and Public Law has been begun by the Uni-
versity Faculty of Political Science of Co-
lumbia College, to be conducted under the
editorial direction of Prof. Edwin R. A. Sehg-
man. The monographs are to be chosen main-
ly from among the doctors' dissertations in
political science, including only such studies
as form direct contributions to science and
are works of original research. They will
appear at irregular intervals, and will be
paged both consecutively and separately.
The first of the list to appear is a study by
Walter F. Wilcox on The Divorce Problem.
The argument of it is that legal provisions
of whatever sort have little direct and per-
manent influence on divorce. The whole
ideal and tendency of our modern civiliza-
tion are to teach every individual self-direc-
tion and self-government. No legal reform
can do such work. The main work of the
state should be as an educator of public
opinion; and law may contribute by holding
up a standard of morality in advance of the
average standard. Other correctives may be
sought in education and the Church, or ethi-
cal society. The second paper in the series
is The History of Tariff Administration in
the United States, from Colonial Times to
the McKinley Bill, by John Dean Goss. The
author suggests that if our tariffs had been
simply for revenue the problems of the best
methods and rates would have been solved
long ago ; but the adoption of the policy of

132

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

protection, the very logic of whose honest
application compelled the taxation of an
almost innumerable list of articles and the
general introduction of ad valorem rates,
vastly complicated the problem. It has
brought in devices to deceive the Govern-
ment, and " this seems to be the legitimate
outcome of any system of ad valorem duties,"
while the introduction of the consignment
system has thrown the business of import-
ing largely into the hands of unnatural-
ized foreigners. But there has been, on the
whole, a steady development toward more
stringent supervision, regulation, and control
over the importer.

The Hon. Andrew S. Draper, State Su-
perintendent of Public Instruction of New
York, desiring to get a view of the workings
of the Prussian educational system from the
obsei'vations of an expert, commissioned Mr.
James Russell Parsons, Jr., an experienced
oflScer of the public schools, on his being ap-
pointed United States consul at Aix-la-Cha-
pelle, to examine the schools of the country
and report upon them. The fruits of Mr.
Parsons's observations arc now published in
the volume Prussian Schools through Amer-
ican Eyes, by C. W. Bardcen, Syracuse, N. Y.

Problems of the New Life is the title of
a book of essays on social and labor ques-
tions by Iforrison I. Swift, and published
by him at Ashtabula, Ohio, The author
writes with much ability from the point of
view that the social organization is wrong,
and a remedy is to be sought by agitation.
The first paper is on The Social Ordeal of
Christianity, and the burden of it is that
the Church has failed to regenerate society.
The ethical culture organization is contrasted
with it as having recognized the progressive
tendency of the time and placed itself in the
current with it. In the paper on The Old
and the New Life exception is taken to
the attention given to mental culture as at
the expense of physical development, and
the accepted criterions of social esteem are
decided to be wrong. Other essays concern
Education and Power, The Extension of
Culture, Nationalism, The Awakening of the
Farmers, The Growing Eevolution, etc. The
conclusion of the last is that " the death of
the old order is declared."

In Politics and Property, or Phronocracy
(G. P. Putnam's Sons), a compromise is pro-

posed by Slack Worthington between de-
mocracy and plutocracy. Causes are recog-
nized for the existence of discontent and
strife, but it is also seen that they can never
be entirely annulled ; that poverty can never
be eradicated from society any more effectu-
ally than disease from the human body. But
it can be ameliorated by the timely enact-
ment of intelligent laws. The author op-
poses both plutocracy on the one hand and
socialistic tendencies of all kinds on the oth-
er, and advocates a reasonable or conserva-
tive position between the two, which he calls
Phronocracy, or the rule of reason, prudence,
and understanding. He holds that the prop-
erty rights of men shall, to a reasonable ex-
tent, be fully recognized and sedulously pro-
tected, but that the masses have grievances
that must not be ignored. He further ad-
vocates the curtailment of the elective fran-
chise by property and educational qualifica-
tions.

Tlie American Citizen (D. C. Heath & Co.)
is intended by the author, Mr. Charles F.
Dole, to supply in part the growing demand
for the more adequate teaching of morals in
schools, especially with reference to the mak-
ing of good citizens, and to show- in this case
the practical application of the precepts to
the duties of life. It aims, not merely to
state the facts about the government of our
country and our social institutions, but also
to illustrate the moral principles that under-
he the life of civilized men. The work is
intended for youth in the higher schools, and
for adults who may wish to make a begin-
ning in the study of citizenship ; and the au-
thor hopes to leave such an impression as to
lead his more thoughtful readers to take up
a more thorough course of study.

The publication (by Macmillan) of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica's article on War in
a separate volume gives the author, Colonel
F. Maurice, opportunity to insert a few re-
marks on the probable influence on tactics
and warfare generally of the latest improve-
ments in destructive agencies, of which the
most important are smokeless powder and
the introduction of " high explosives " into
shells. The general efPect of the former ele-
ment will probably be to render a defensive
position more difficult to approach, while the
assailants will continue to be completely ex-
posed to view. The effect of high explosives

LITERARY NOTICES.

133

will be to put it within the power of field
artillery to demolish permanent fortifications
in all their forms ; and even field defenses,
earthworks, and the like, are destined to
lose much of their value from this new de-
velopment. But there are inconveniences
in the use of these agents that will to a cer-
tain degree compensate for the advantages
their possessors will enjoy. Strategy will
be affected by the application, because it will
be possible to carry out great movements
with less regard to the influence of for-
tresses than was formerly necessary. But
the difficulties involved in the constant re-
placement of material will also seriously af-
fect the system of supply of armies in the
field. The change in tactics will tend to
favor offense rather than defense. To the
amended original article of the Britannica
are added an essay on Military Literature —
a subject which is declared to occupy a field
almost unknown to most English readers —
and a list of books " of which it may be
useful to know the correct titles."

The little book, Stumhllng-stones removed
from the Word of God (Baker k Taylor Co.),
is addressed by its author, the Rev. Arthur
T. Pierson, not so much to those who accuse
and assault the Scriptures as to believers.
It is acknowledged that " even the most
candid and reverent believer finds in the
English Bible some difficulties or hindrances
in the way of his understanding, if not of
his faith." But, assuming that the error in
this case lies in what he mistakes for the
truth, as a mirage is mistaken for reality,
or in his own vision, the true believer is
advised that he " runs no risk in calmly and
resolutely examining into any alleged diffi-
culty or discrepancy in the Bible. If one
encounters a supposed ghost on a dark
night, the best way is to walk up to it and
look it squarely in the face. To flee from a
supposed apparition may leave a lingering
doubt whether the ghostly illusion was a
reality or not : a bold touch would have dis-
pelled both the illusion and the doubt."

An edition of Eight Books of CcEsar''s
Gallic War is published by the American
Book Company, undgr the editorial care of
Dr. William Ravaey Harper and Dr. Herbert
Curling Tolman. Regarding Cesar's Latin
as not excelled by that of any Roman
writer in richness and purity, and therefore

as of that which most deserves to be studied,
the editors have endeavored in this edition
to present the facts of the language and
illustrate the subject in a manner different
from the traditional method. Among the
new features of the edition are the indica-
tion of the first occurrence of every word
by putting it in full-faced type ; the inser-
tion of " topics for study," based upon the
portion read, after the several chapters ;
examples of inductive studies and list of
topics for investigation ; and others touch-
ing points of less prominent importance. A
life of Caesar, history of Gaul, Germany,
and Britain, and a sketch of the method of
Roman warfare, are given in the introduc-
tion in continuous narrative.

TJie Quarterly Register of Current His-
tory is a new pubUcation, the purpose of
which is to collect, arrange, and preserve
notices of all current events of importance,
as they are given in the newspapers, for fu-
ture reference and information. Such mat-
ter is of the very kind that every one who
would keep himself informed of current
events would desire most to have at hand ;
and yet it is just this kind of knowledge
that, immediately its day is over and the
newspaper containing it is thrown away, is
soonest and most irrecoverably lost. The
Quarterly Register is intended to remedy
this evil and supply the want. The first
number contains a review of the whole year
1890. The succeeding numbers will give
simply quarterly records. Evening News
Association, Detroit, Mich. Price, $1 a year.

Geografia per Tutti (Geography for All)
is the name of a fortnightly journal for
the diffusion of geographical knowledge,
published at Bergamo, Italy, by the Brothers
Cattaneo, under the editorial direction of
Prof. A. Ghisleri. It is a popular journal,
intended to reach the entire reading public
and keep them abreast of the latest discov-
eries. Among the articles in the opening
number are some bearing on the interests of
Italians in America, as that on New Orleans
and the Italian Emigration, and one by Elisee
Reclus on the Delta of the Mississippi.
Sketches and portraits are also given of the
famous Italian travelers, Gaetano Casati and
Romolo Gessi.

A Journal of Amei-ican Archeeology and
Ethnology^ edited by J. Walter Fewkes, and

134

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bearing the imprint of Houghton, Mifflin &
Co., comes to us from the Hemenway Ar-
chasological Expedition. The present num-
ber, which is marked Vol. I, contains papers
on A Few Summer Ceremonials at Zuui
Pueblo, with seventeen illustrations ; Zuni
Melodies, with the music transcribed from
the phonograph ; and a Reconnaissance of
Euins in or near the Zuui Reservation, with
eleven maps, plans, and illustrations.

In Educational Papers by Illinois Sci-
ence Teachers it is stated that science is not
taught in the country schools, for two rea-
sons. The average teacher holds a second-
grade certificate, which does not represent
any scientific acquirement ; and the rural
tax-payer is afraid that scientific instruc-
tion may cost. In larger villages and cities
outside of Chicago an elementary training
may be found in high-schools, and occa-
sionally a graded science course is provided
from the beginning. A Xatural Science
Section was formed by the Ilhnois State
Teachers' Association in 1888. The papers
published include those read at the sessions
of 1889 and 1890. It is emphasized through-
out that elementary science can not be taught
by memorizing the zoological and botanical
classifications of text-books. A natural ob-
ject should be the first study, and generali-
zation can be learned from the attempts
to classify actual specimens. Among those
easily obtainable are domestic animals, in-
sects, common flowers, leaves, and table-salt.
Elementary physics is best studied in the
uses of the lever, cord and pulley, wheel,
axle, and ventilation of rooms. In the clos-
ing essay upon the material for science
study it is urged that the phenomena of life,
as exhibited in familiar animals, are more
interesting to the child than any facts of
structure.

PDBLTCATIONS EECEIVED.

Abbe. Cleveland. A Plea for Terrestrial Physics.
Proceeding's of A. A. A. S., 1S90.

Agricultural Experiment Stations : New Jer=ey,
Keport of the Botanical Department. — Ohio, Bulle-
tin, Vol. IV, No. 8.— Wyoming. Bulletin No. 2.

Anderson, E. L. The TTniversality of Man's Ap-
pearance and Primitive Man. E. Clarke & Co. Pp.
2S. 2.5 cents.

Bacteriological "World. Monthly. Paul Paquin,
M. D., Editor. Columbia, Mo. %'i a year.

Bohm-Bawerk, E. von. The Positive Theory of
Capital. Translated by W. Smart. Macmillari &
Co. Pp. 42S. $4.

Boston Society of Natural History. Proceedings.
Vol. XXV, Part 2.

Egleston, T., Ph. D. Catalogue of Minerals and
Synonyms. J. Wiley & Suns. Pp. 378.

Fernow, B. E. What is Forestry ? United States
Department of Agriculture. Pp. 52.

Freelance, Frank. Eum is Eight. Freelance
Publishing Co., New York. Pp. 156. 50 cents.

Gaceta Cientifica. Monthly. Vol. VII, No. 7.
Lima. Peru.

Griswold, "W. M. Descriptive List of Eomantic
Novels. Cambridge. Pp. 165-31S. $1.

Hammond, Major Harry. Eeduetion of the Cot-
ton Crop. Beach Island (S. C.) Farmers' Club.

Jaques, W. H. Eecent Progress in the Manu-
facture of Heavy Armor. Illustrated. Bethlehem
Iron Co., South Bethlehem, Pa. Pp. 24.

Kinmont, A. The Natural History of Man. J.
B. Lippincott Co. Pp. 835. $1.

Langley, S. P. Experiments in Aerodynamics.
Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 115. Ten Plates.

Lewis, T. H. Cupstones near Old Fort Eansom,
North Dakota. Eeprint from American Naturalist.

Lord & Thomas, Chicago. Calendar, lS!)l-'92.

Metal Worker Essays on House-heating. David
■Williams, New York. Pp. 2SS. .112.50.

Missouri Medical College. Fifty-first Annual
Catalogue. St. Louis.

Muter, J. Short Manual of Analytical Chemis-
try. Pp. 205.

Quarterly Eegister of CcuTP.nt History. Vol. I,
No. 3. Illustrated. Evening News Association.
Detroit. Pp. 213-;?44. $1 a year.

Eandall, J. E. A Practical Treatise on the In-
candescent Lamp. Illustrated. D. Van Nostrand
Co. Pp. 82. 50 cents.

Eichter. V. von. Chemistry of the Carbon Com-
pounds. Translated by E. F. Smith. Second Amer-
ican edition. P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 1040.

Eickoff, A. J. First Lessons in Arithmetic.
American Book Company. Pp. 150. 36 cents.

Silver Bills. Addresses, Interviews, etc., by W.
P. St. John, F. E. Newlands, and others, in favor of
Free Coinage. Four pamphlets.

Smith, J. W., M. D. Sulphuring or Bleaching
Dried Fruit a Mistake if not a Crime. From Trans-
actions of the American Public Health Assoc. Pp. 3.

Smithsonian Institution. E. A. Andrews. Eeport
upon the Annehda Polycha-ta of Beaufort, N. C.
Pp. 26. — C. Bendire. Directions for collecting, pre-
paring, and preserving Birds' Eggs and Nests. Pp.
10. — G. K. Cherrie. Description of New Genera,
Species, and Subspecies of JBirds from Costa Eica.
Pp. 10.— T. Gill, un Eleginus of Fischer. Pp. 8.—
F. n. Knowlton. Directions for collecting Eecent
and Fossil Plants. Pp 46. — F. A. Lucas. Notes on
the Preparation of Eough Skeletons. Pp. 11. — E.
E. C. Stearns. List of Shells collected by Dr. \V. H.
Jones. Pp. 20. — L. Stejneger. Directions for col-
lecting Beptiles and Batrachians. Pp. 13.— Descrip-
tions of Three New Lizards.

Smythe. G. C, M. D. Influence of Heredity in
producing Disease and Degeneracy. From Trans-
actions of the Ind. State Medical Society. Pp. 24.

Society for Psychical Eesearch. Proceedings,
July, 1801. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.,
London. 2«. 6d.

Stewart, S. T. Plane and Solid Geometry.
American Book Company. Pp. 406. $1.12.

Studies from the Kindergarten. Educational
Monographs. No. 19. New York College for tho
Training of Teachers. Pp. 46.

Tavlor, P. M., Ann Arbor, Mich. The Eight of
the State to be. Pp. 109.

Terr}', .1., American Museum of Natural History,
New York. Sculptured Anthropoid Ape Heads.
Pp. 15. 4to. Five Plates.

Te.xas. Eeport of the Geological Survey, 1890.
Pp. 756.

United States Board on Geographic Names. Bul-
letin No. 3. Pp. 10.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

135

United States Department of Agriculture. North
American Fauna. No. 5. Pp .127.

United States War Department. Charts show-
inff the Averag-e Monthly Cloudiness in the United
btates. Twelve c;harts, folio.— Charts showing the
Probability of Eainy Days. Twelve Charts, foHo.

University Extension. Monthly. Philadelphia :
J. H. Shinn. $3 a year.

Whelpley Dr. H. M. A Course in Microscopical
Technology for Colleges of Pharmacy. From Pro-
ceedings of American Pharmaceutical Assoc. Pp.3.

Wiley, John, .t Sons. Catalogue of Text-books
and Industrial Works. Pp. SO.

Wilson, Sir Daniel. The Pvight Hand : Left-
handedness. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 215. $1.25.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Irtesian Wells and their Flow.— That
part of the definition of an artesian well
given by the Department of Agriculture
that includes all subterranean waters which,
on being reached or opened from above,
are found to flow by pressure to a higher
level than the point of contact, is accepted
by Mr. R. Ellsworth Call, in his preliminary
paper on Artesian Wells in Iowa, as complete
in itself and as properly defining artesian
water. Artesian flows may be variable, that
is, may exhibit sometimes increased and at
other times decreased flows of water, but the
artesian characters are still very marked.
Originally all artesian waters are meteoric,
that is, are all waters which reach the earth
by precipitation as rain. That they shall
percolate to lower strata, be included between
impervious sti-ata or layers of clay or close-
textured rock, is a necessary condition. But
the total water thus held in confinement has
a definite relation to the catchment basin on
the one hand and to the total annual rain-
fall on the other. It is easily seen, then, that
artesian waters may vary with the season ;
that in dry seasons, when the wells are shal-
low, they will soonest show decreased flow ;
that in a series of years when the precipita-
tion is far below the normal the artesian areas
may entirely fail, again to present good wells
whenthefallof meteoric waterreachesthe nor-
mal or rises above it. Wells may then, in a
certain sense, be temporary and still be arte-
sian. In the case of the deep wells, those
that lie far below the range of variation from
causes connected with the variable factors of
annual character that mark shallow wells, ar-
tesian flows are apt to be more constant ; but
even here there are certain variable features
which show differences through longer inter-

vals of time. No artesian basin exists any-
where, but it will be found necessary, sooner
or later, to control, by mechanical means, the
total flow or " output " of the several wells.
The waters are bound to be exhausted in the
long run if there be no well-planned govern-
ing relation between the consumption and the
known sources of supply. The deepest and
the largest flowing wells will sometimes be
taxed beyond their " life," and then, for a
time at least, they must be allowed to rest.
No owner of artesian wells in the glacial
districts, where the wells are shallow, can
afford to allow his well to flow and the
water to be wasted.

Different Effects of Denndation, — De-
scribing the old, or abandoned, fields of the
south. Prof. W J McGee spoke, in the Ameri-
can Association, of the different aspects pre-
sented by the results of denudation accord-
ing to the situations of the fields. When the
tracts are low or gently undulating, they are
quickly clothed with vegetation ; but when
they are hilly and high, the ravines or deep-
ened gullies invade the hill slopes and up-
lands, until in some cases the entire soil is
washed away and the verdure-clothed sur-
face is transformed into a glaring sand, while
the bottom lands, once the most fertile of
cotton fields, are clogged with the sand swept
from the hills until they, too, are ruined for
agriculture. The reasons for this accelerated
denudation may be sought for in the rela-
tions which geologists have found to exist
between the elevation and the configuration
of lands, their climatal conditions, and the
character of their vegetation. An area stand-
ing high above the base level for a consider-
able period assumes a rugose configuration.
There is also a configurative characteristic of
the prairie and another characteristic of the
woodland, the latter being more rugose ; and
the geologist trained in this line of investi-
gation can discriminate at a glance between
the lands cleared of forests by human agency
and those that are naturally grass-covered.
The configuration of Mississippi and other
parts of the southern United States indicates
considerable altitude above base-level and an
originally forest-covered condition. The sur-
face slopes are too steep to withstand the
action of. the storms and streams when the
forest coverinK is removed. It is true that

136

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

during the palmy days of the plantations the
fields were not eroded, but that was because
of the constant use of concentric cultivation,
hillside ditches, balks, and other protective
devices; but when the fields were abandoned
the waters gathered on the hillsides, ran down
the slopes, and quickly destroyed the surface.
In many cases the destruction has gone so
far that to check it would cost more than the
value of the land ; but when not too far ad-
vanced it may be checked by planting Ber-
muda grass on the steep slopes and locust
trees about the heads of the gullies, and by
other preventive measures.

The Travels of Weeds.— The term
" weed " is a relative one, and, as defined
by Prof. Byron D. Halsted, means "only
plants that are able to assert their inborn
rights above all others and wage a close
warfare with man for the possession of the
earth. There is nothing in structure, form, ;
or substance that distinguishes a weed from
other plants. It hrcs, grows, and reproduces
its kind like all others of its class, and
therefore the methods of migration are the
same as obtain with those of its kin. The
rapidity may be greater because of the
dominant weed nature, but the difference is
only in degree and not in kind." A large
number of our worst weeds came to us from
foreign countries ; just how they emigrated
will never be known in every case. " Some
came as legitimate freight ; many were
stowaways. Some entered from border
lands upon the wings of the wind, upon
river bosoms, in the stomachs of migrating
birds, clinging to the hair of passing ani-
mals, and a hundred other ways, besides by
man himself. Into the New England soil
and south along the Atlantic seaboard the
weed seeds first took root. Also, there are
wild plants of that region, with a strong
weedy nature, developed into pests of the
farm and garden. As civilized man moved
westward the weeds followed him, rem-
forced by new native ones that soon vied
with those of foreign blood. Not satisfied
with this, the natives of the interior ran
back upon the trail and became new ene-
mies to the older parts of our land. The
conditions for the development of weeds have
increased with the development of our
country, until now we are literally overrun.

Weeds, usually as weeds, go and come in
all directions, no less as tramps catching a
ride upon each passing freight train than in
cherished bouquets gathered by the wayside
and tenderly cared for by transcontinental
tourists in parlor cars."

The Scharf Library of Johns Hopkins.—

The library presented by Colonel J. Thomas
Scharf to Johns Hopkins University includes
books, pamphlets of great value, and several
hundred unpublished manuscripts. Most of
the works are historical. The manuscripts
include ten by James D. McCabe, formerly
of the Confederate War Department ; many
on revolutionary history, and a large number
of a miscellaneous character. Other depart-
ments consist of a collection of materials for
the history of New York city and vicinity ;
a collection on early Missouri history ; the
most valuable of Thompson Westcott's books
on Pennsylvania ; materials on almost every
phase of Maryland history, and more varied
and complete materials for the history of
Baltimore ; a rich mass of documents on
southern history, and covering the whole pe-
riod of the rebellion ; about three thousand
" broadsides," covering many departments
of Revolutionary history, and including speci-
mens of almost every one written or printed
in Maryland during the last and the early
part of the present century ; Confederate and
Revolutionai-y autographs, with the letters to
which they are attached, some of them inter-
esting in themselves ; and various miscellane-
ous articles.

Japanese Playing-cards.-^-The Japanese
playing-cards are more distinctly original,
according to Mrs. J. King Van Rensselaer,
than any others, and show no marks of com-
mon origin with them. They are oblong,
and are made of pasteboard, with the backs
painted black. The designs seem to be
stenciled, and are brightly and appropriately
colored and then covered with an enamel or
varnish, which makes them slippery. They
are much smaller than our cards. Forty-
nine in number, they are divided into twelve
suits of four cards in each suit. One card
is a trifle smaller than the rest of the pack,
and has a plain white face, not embellished
with any distinctive emblem, and is used as
a " joker." The other cards are covered

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

137

with designs that represent twelve flowers
or other things appropriate to the months
of the year. Each card is distinct and dif-
ferent from its fellows, even though it bears
the same emblem; and they can be easily
distinguished and classified, even if they
bear the same emblem, by the symbolic
flowers they bear, and also by a character
or letter that marks nearly every card, and
seems to denote the plant that represents
the month. The only month that has no
floral emblem is August, and that suit is
marked by mountains and warm-looking
skies.

The Monkey Language. — The results of
experiments in the language of monkeys are
published by Prof Garner in the New Re-
view. Most of them were made in the
United States. He had long believed, he
says, that each sound uttered by an animal
had a meaning which any other animal of
the same kind would interpret at once ; and
had observed, as most of us have done, that
animals soon learn to interpret certain
words of man and to obey them, but never
try to repeat them. When they reply to
man it is in their own peculiar speech. The
author began his studies by visiting the zoo-
logical gardens of the United States and
watching and listening to the monkeys in
their prattle. By permission of Dr. Frank
Baker, of the National Zoological Garden,
two monkeys which had been caged together
were separated and placed in different
rooms. A phonograph was arranged near
the cage of the female, into which she was
made to speak. It was then made to re-
peat her " words " near the cage of the
male. His surprise and perplexity " were
evident. He traced the sounds to the horn
from which they came, and, failing to find
his mate, he thrust his hand and arm into
the horn quite up to the shoulder, withdrew
it, and peeped into the horn again and again.
He would then retreat and again cautiously
' approach the horn, which he examined with
evident interest. The expressions of his
face were indeed a study." This satisfied
Prof. Garner that the monkey recognized
the sounds as those of his mate. He then
managed to get some sounds from him
which the mate in her turn recognized. The
ne.'ct recorded interviews were with two

chimpanzees, from which a fine, distinct
record was secured, and with a capuchin
monkey in the Cincinnati garden. The au-
thor spoke to the monkey in his own tongue,
using the word supposed to stand for milk.
The monkey " rose, answered me with the
same word, and came at once to the front of
his cage. He looked at me as if in doubt,
and I repeated the word ; he did the same,
and turned at once to a small pan in the cage,
which he picked up and placed near the
door at the side, and returned to me and
uttered the word again. I asked the keeper
for some milk, which he did not have, how-
ever, but brought me some water. The ef-
forts of my little simian friend to secure
the glass were very earnest, and the plead-
ing manner and tone assured me of his ex-
treme thirst. I allowed him to dip his
hand into the glass, and he would suck his
fingers and reach again. I kept the glass
from reach of his hand, and he would re-
peat the sound and beg for more. I was
thus convinced that the word I had trans-
lated milk must also mean water, and from
this and other tests I at last determined
that it meant also drink and probably
thirst. I have never seen a capuchin who
did not use these two words. The sounds
are very soft and not unlike a flute, very
difficult to imitate, and quite impossible to
write." Other sounds were detected for
solid food or the hunger for it, pain and
sickness, and for alarm. On the utterance
of the last, the monkey sprang to the high-
est point in his cage, and on repetitions of
it became almost frantic with dread — so
that the sound for food would for the time
have no inducements for him. These sounds
Prof. Garner regards as the constituents of
a monkey language which has a variety of
dialects, according to the species addressed.

Famous Japanese Swords.— A Japanese
short sword exhibited by Mr. Inman Homer
before the Numismatic and Antiquarian So-
ciety of Philadelphia is distinguished by
an inscription on the blade. Mr. Benjamin
Smith Lyman said that this inscription was
in Japanese characters, and appeared to be
the name of the sword. " It is not usual,"
he said, " for swords to have a name in
Japan, but it is sometimes the case, as in
Europe. Two famous swords are recorded

138

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in Japanese history — one, called Hizamane
(the knee-sword), from its being tried upon a
convict, and at one stroke severing the knee
as well as the neck ; and another, called
Higekiri (beard-cutting), from its cutting
through the beard when similarly tried.
Another sword is mentioned in the cele-
brated romance of the memoirs of the Eight
Dogs of Satonu and called Murasame (Au-
tumn Showers), because it had the magical
property of shedding water that kept it free
from blood. The sword now exhibited is
inscribed with Osoraku, which appears to
mean 'fearful,' so the sword probably
bore the not inappropriate name of ' The
Fearful.' Being a short sword, it has no
guard, as the short sword was sometimes
worn beneath the robe, where a guard
■would be in the way. Long swords usually
have an inscription under the wooden han-
dle, giving the name of the maker and the
date. This bears none, but the maker's
name is found upon the blade of the small
knife inserted into the same scabbard, which
is inscribed Morju Shiro Kanekiyo. Ka-
nenga was the name of a famous sword-
maker, some of whose works are dated from
1321-1323 A. D. A successor of his was
Kaneyoshi (1492-1500), and from certain
parallel inclined lines which Kaneyoshi
used as a distinguishing mark, and found
on the part of the present sword concealed
by the handle, it seems probable that the
maker, Kanekiyo, was a pupil of his, or a
not very distant successor, making the
sword, therefore, probably over three hun-
dred and fifty years old."

A Chinese View of it.— The Chinese lit-
erati have now come to the conclusion, ac-
cording to the North China PIcrald, of Shang-
hai, that "Western science has been built up
from the leaking out of the knowledge pos-
sessed by their ancestors to Western men,
who cultivated it, improved upon it, and de-
veloped it. Hence they argue in favor of
accepting foreign science and inventions in
China, saying : " We wish to make use of the
knowledge of Western men, because we know
that what they have attained in science and
invention has been through the help that our
sages gave them. We have a good right to
it. What Europe has done she has done
through the help we gave. If wc did not

exactly give science to Europe, we gave it
the fruitful germ which produced it. They
have the science of optics, but in our Motsz
we find that reflection from mirrors was
known in the days of Mencius. The men
of the West hold that the earth is round.
This was believed also by our poet Chii Yuen,
who, in his ode on astronomy, announces this
doctrine ; and this was not many years after
Mencius. This being so, we ought not to
be ashamed of the study of Western science.
We are the rivals of the Western kingdoms,
and it is good policy to use their spears in
order to pierce their shields. We ought to
train our youth in Western science, so that
we may know how best to meet them in the
struggle to resist their encroachments."

The Birds of the Fame Islands.— The

Fame or Fearne Islands of the coast of
Northumberland, England, famous by associ-
ation with Grace Darling, " the wrecker's
daughter," are more noted as the home of
countless sea birds which resort there to
nest and rear their young. The variety of
their features of " cliffs, stacks, and crags,
rabbit-warrens and land thickly covered
with vegetation, rocks, and sloping beach,"
admirably adapts them for this purpose.
They arc not inhabited, except by the light-
house keepers and their families, so that
the birds and the rabbits have them all
substantially to themselves. They are at-
tractive spots to visit, and this is best
done in the second week in June, when the
breeding season of the birds is at its height ;
in addition to the eggs, which are practically
countless, the visitor then has the pleasure
of seeing many newly hatched birds. As
" the Pinnacles " of the islands are ap-
proached, the guillemots are seen occupying
in thousands the flat tops, sitting on end,
and packed so closely together that to all
appearance there is not room for another ;
" indeed, so dense are the masses, that one
can not help wondering how each individual
bird can recognize its own egg — for the
guillemot lays but one — or, having left it,
can force its way back to it again when it
has recognized it, more especially as the
eggs are placed on the bare rock, without
the faintest vestige of a nest. They are
pear-shaped, very large for the size of the
birds, and the color and markings vary in

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

139

different specimens in a most extraordinary
manner." Nearly every shelf or projection
cf the rock, both in the Pinnacles and in
the rest of the islands, is occupied by the
kittiwakes, whose well-built nests, with their
spotted, brown eggs or speckled, downy
young, can be easily seen from the tops of
the cliffs. " Walking about," says a writer
in the Saturday Review, " it is hard to avoid
treading on the gulls' eggs, which are
placed in rather loosely made nests among
the coarse herbage or on the rocks them-
selves. As the center of the island is
reached it is easy to see the nests of the
cormorants, which are large, slovenly con-
structions, composed principally of sea-weed,
mixed with pieces of drift-wood, corks off
fishing-nets, and other such flotsam and
jetsam, the whole covered and made filthy
both to sight and smell by the droppings of
the birds and remnants of fish. The eggs,
which are bluish-green in ground color, are
covered with a white, calcareous matter ;
but, except where freshly laid, look as dirty
as the nests. ... In a comfortable hol-
low between two rocks we find the nest of
an eider duck, and then, within a very short
distance, one or two more. These nests are
most cozily lined with the brown down
which the bird picks from her breast from
time to time during the process of incuba-
tion, and in which the large, greenish-gray
eggs, from five to eight in number, are al-
most covered." These birds are very tame
and approachable. The light and peaty soil
of the interior of the island is full of bur-
rows, which are divided between numberless
puffins and a few rabbits. " Many of the puf-
fins, curious, pompous-looking little fellows,
with large, brightly colored bills, may be seen
sitting about on the rocks or flying and
swimming round the island, while their part-
ners are below the ground, sitting each on
the solitary egg which she has laid at the
end of the burrow. In the campion-covered
centers of the islands the terns are num-
berless, and the beach down to high-water
mark is covered with their eggs, so that
very great care has to be used in walking
to avoid treading on them. They are also
to be found in large numbers among the
sea campion ; many are laid on the shingle
with little if any pretense of a nest ; while
others have slight nests, made of bents and

pieces of sea-weed. The list of birds breed-
ing on the Fame Islands includes twelve
species, and others may be occasionally seen
there as visitors. The birds and eggs, which
had been exposed to danger of destruction
and extermination, have had their existence
more and more secured under the wild
birds' protection acts passed since 1869 ;
and in 1888 an association of gentlemen in-
terested in ornithology was formed, which
has secured a lease of the islands, keeps in-
truders off, and takes care of the birds.

Wild Life in the Snow. — Snow, remarks
in the London Spectator an observer of
wild life, generally catches our animals un-
prepared, and they are put to all kinds of
shifts to find food and escape their enemies.
The more open and exposed the districts,
the greater their difficulties. Where there
are thick woods and hedgerows, and, above
all, running water, birds and beasts alike
can find dry earth in which to peck and
scratch, or green things to nibble and water
to drink. But on the great chalk downs a
snow-storm seems to drive from the open
country every living creature that dares
to move at all. For the first day after a
heavy fall, the hares, which allow the snow
to cover them, all but a tiny hole made by
their warm breath, do not stir ; only toward
noon, if the sun shines out, they make a
small opening to face its beams, and per-
haps another in the afternoon, at a differ-
ent angle to the surface, to catch the last
slanting rays. But soon hunger forces the
hares to leave their snug snow-house, and
they find their way to the cabbage or tur-
nip gardens. Squirrels, which are often sup-
posed to hibernate, retire to their nests
only in very severe and prolonged frosts.
A slight fall of snow only amuses them, and
they will come down from their trees and
scamper over the powdery heaps with im-
mense enjoyment ; what they do not like is
the snow on the leaves and branches, which
falls in showers as they jump from tree to
tree, and betrays them to their enemies, the
country boys. During a mild winter they
even neglect to make a central store of nuts,
and, instead of depositing them in big hoards
near the nest, just drop them into any con-
venient hole they know of near. Rabbits
also seem to enjoy the snow at first. They

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

require a dry, bracing atmosphere, and sea-
breezes and frosts suit them ; and in the
morning after a snow-fall their tracks show-
where they have been scratching and play-
ing in it all night. But after a deep fall they
are soon in danger of starving. If there is
a tucnip-field near, they will scratch away
the snow at the roots and soon destroy the
crop ; if not, or if the surface of the snow
is frozen hard, they strip the bark from the
trees and bushes. While all the harmless ani-
mals are obliged to spend the greater part of
the day and night seeking food, their enemies
profit exceedingly. The stoats and weasels
find that they have only to prowl down the
stream-side to catch any number of thrushes
and soft-billed birds which crowd the banks
where the water melts the snow, and little
piles of feathers and a drop or two of red
on the snow show where the fierce little
beasts have murdered here a redwing and
there a water wagtail, or even a water-hen.
Water-shrews, water-rats, and otters all
dislike frost and snow, more, perhaps, be-
cause the streams are frozen and food is
more difficult to obtain along the banks,
than from any inconvenience the snow
causes them. Otters, even if the rivers do
not freeze, have a difficulty in finding the
fish, which in cold weather sink into the
deepest pools, and in case of some species
burrow in the mud. So they go down to
the sea-coast for the cold weather, and,
making their homes in the coast caves or
old wooden jetties and wharves, live on the
fish of the estuaries. Rats also often emi-
grate to the coast in snow-time and pick up
a disreputable livelihood among the rubbish
of the shore. Of all effects of weather,
snow makes the greatest change in animal
economy in the country- side, and weeks
often pass before the old order is restored.

Where Women rule. — At the opening of
a paper on the political domination of wom-
en in Eastern Asia, Dr. Macgowan refers
to the condition of the aboriginal peoples
whom the Chinese found on Yellow River on
their arrival from Akkad. The Chinese then
possessed the rudiments of civilization, of
which the aboriginals were then destitute.
That this irruption of the Chinese was ante-
rior to the invention of cuneiform writing in
Akkad was probable, because of their use of

quipos or knotted cords in keeping records.
These quipos, the author said, and not mere
tradition, were the base of Chinese archaic
annals, and from them the earliest form of
Chinese written characters was evolved.
Anterior to these quipos, judging from
certain neighboring tribes, notched sticks
were employed. As to the tribes which the
Chinese found existing when they reached
their future home, the philosopher of
Universal Love, Motzu, enunciated views
on the evolution of the state and family
which are in accord with those of modern
anthropologists. Men at first were in the
lowest state of savagery ; there was no
golden age, as depicted by sages and politi-
cal philosophers, until men felt a necessity
of a I'emedy for the anarchy that prevailed.
Some of the practices of self-deformation
were remarkably curious — as, for instance,
those of drinking through the nostrils, ex-
tracting front teeth and substituting dogs'
teeth, head-flattening, etc. ; the most striking
was the attempt to raise a polydactylous race,
by destroying all children who came mto
the world with the usual number of fingers
and toes. The author described a number
of instances of rule by Amazons, and ob-
served that it is mostly among the aboriginal
inhabitants that the chieftaincy of women
obtains to this day. There is seldom an age
of which one tribe or another does not
afford examples ; the more primitive the
condition of these tribes the slighter is
sexual differentiation as regards public gov-
ernmental affairs. The fables and myths in
Greece respecting Indo-Scythian Amazons
arose chiefly from rumors respecting tribes
of this kind.

The Tonrouks. — The Yourouks of Asia
Minor, according to a paper by Mr. 11. Theo-
dore Bent in the British Association, are a
fair race of nomads of Tartar origin, from
the north of Persia. They wander on regu-
lar lines of pasturage, live in goat's-hair
tents, occasionally showing a tendency to
sedentary life, and build miserable hovels
out of the ruins of the cities. The Yourouk
has very little religion, and refuses to adopt
the measures desired by the Turkish Gov-
ernment. The people have sacred trees hung
with rags, say prayers over their dead, and
practice circumcision, but do not carry out

P OP ULAR MIS CELLAXT.

141

the elaborate svstem of prayers and washing
inculcated by the Koran. They are polyg-
amous, and have wives, or rather slaves, each
having her separate occupation in the family
life — one minding camels, another the flocks,
another the tent arrangements, etc. They
have regular communication with the outer
■world. Greeks from the towns lend money
to start them in flocks by what is called an
" immortal contract." Merchants for wool
and cattle pay regular visits to the different
encampments. Tinkers, the public circum-
ciser, and other periodical visitors go among
them spring, summer, and winter. Their
utensils are principally of wood — wooden
mortars, wooden gloves for reaping, wooden
musical instruments, etc., are used. They
are clever at getting food from mountain
plants and herbs. An excellent substitute
for cofiee is produced by a species of thistle ;
and a sweet, somewhat like chocolate cream,
is made out of the cone of a juniper tree.
Formerly they were very clever in making
dyes from mountain herbs, but the introduc-
tion of aniline dyes has greatly destroyed
their taste.

Animals in the Desert of Gobi. — In re-
spect to its fauna, the Desert of Gobi con-
stitutes a zoological district by itself, with-
out its animal world being rich in species.
Animals may be found in considerable groups
in certain places, as in the mountains and
along the rivers and lakes, but they are com-
paratively rare in the desert itself, where one
meets hardly anj-thing but innumerable hz-
ards gliding under his feet- Birds as well
as quadrupeds lead a nomadic life, being
forced to seek food at places a considerable
distance apart. The animals of the desert
are, however, not very particular, especially
with respect to drink, and some of the small
mammals probably do not drink, but satisfy
themselves with succulent plants, or the lit-
tle snow that falls in winter. Among the
mammals the wild horse and camel and the
argali sheep are worthy of mention. Preje-
valsky discovered in Zungaria the horse which
has been called by his name, the Kirghiz
kantaff, the Mongol make. It lives in the
most inhospitable regions, in groups of five
or six individuals. While the existence of
a wild horse in central Asia was unknown
till the present time, it has been understood

from the days of Marco Polo that a wild
camel lived there ; but none of the authors
who have mentioned it, on the authority of
the Chinese, had ever seen it, and its exist-
ence was doubted by Cuvicr It also was
seen by the Russian explorer in the neigh-
borhood of Lake Lob and the Desert of Zun-
garia. The camel prefers sandy spots more
or less inaccessible to man. It spreads over
a considerably larger area than the wild
horse ; for, while the latter is cantoned in a
single locality of Zungaria, it inhabits the
lower Tarrin, the country of Lake Lob, Kha-
mi, and the Thibetan Desert of Zaidam.
Prejevalsky calls this animal the wild Bac-
trian camel. While the domestic camel is
usually timid, stupid, and indolent, the Gobi
camel is distinguished by its vigilance and
the extraordinary development of its senses
of sight, hearing, and smell. It can run a
hundred kilometres without stopping a mo-
ment, and can climb mountains with an agil-
ity comparable to that of the chamois. Its
voice is rarely heard, but is more like that
of the bull than that of the domestic camel.
The argali sheep is common in the mount-
ainous parts of the Gobi, whence it descends
in the spring to feed on the herbage. It ad-
heres to the places it has once chosen, and a
mountain spur is often the permanent abode
of a whole flock. As it is not troubled by
the natives, it has not yet become afraid of
man, and passes indifferently by the Mongol
camps on its way to water. Among the car-
nivorous animals of the Gobi are the tiger
and the wolf, but the bear has not been seen
there, although it is found in the Thian Shan
Mountains.

Stolidness of Eskimos. — One of the most
remarkable peculiarities of the Eskimos of
Cape Prince of Wales, as described by Mr.
n. r. Payne, of the Meteorological Office,
Toronto, is their sensitiveness to ridicule.
It is necessary to put on the gravest expres-
sion in dealing with them, else they will
refuse to work for or with you, and sulk.
While, as a rule, the Eskimo looks upon the
white man as born to do him favors, those
the author met would sometimes offer pay-
ment for their services. If an Eskimo was
given an unusually valuable present, he would
immediately turn round and ask for the
most impossible things, as though he thought

142

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

you were now in a good humor and it was
the time to get all he could from you. As
far as it could be seen, it appeared to be the
general belief that all property, especially in
the way of food, belonged to everybody in
common, and therefore, if you held more
than another, it was only because you and
your family were physically strong enough to
protect it. Few men would, of course, steal
from one another when food was plentiful,
and thereby make enemies for themselves ;
" but when food is scarce, might is right,"
and all make note of the position of their
neighbors' caches before the winter snow cov-
ers them. The Eskimos are exceedingly free,
and never consider a man their superior un-
less he or his family are physically stronger
or are better hunters than they. These
superior men are treated with little defer-
ence, though they are usually sought for in
the settlement of difficulties, and act as pub-
lic executioners.

Ccn!ral Asian Plienomena. — M. Gabriel
Bonvaldt and the Prince Henri of Orleans
were received by the Geographical Society of
Paris on the last day of January, on the
occasion of their return from a journey
through the heart of central Asia from the
frontiers of Russian Turkistan to Tonquin.
They claim to have discovered ranges of
mountains, lakes, extinct volcanoes, geysers,
and a pass at a height of 6,000 metres,
never before explored. Yaks, antelopes,
wild horses, and other animals were numer-
ous below 5,000 metres, but birds had disap-
peared, and there was no vegetation. The
travelers and their men and animals suffered
greatly from " mountain-sickness." The par-
ty went by what is called " the little road "
from Thibet to China, which they believed
had never been explored. They found well-
wooded valleys full of game — meeting twen-
ty-one bears in three days — and often well
cultivated and studded with villages ; and
they crossed the upper waters of several of
the rivers of eastern Asia, including, as they
supposed, the Yang-tse-kiang. Among the
more important features of the country was
a hitherto unknown volcanic region. Two
isolated volcanoes were named the Pic de
Paris and Mont Reclus. A group of other
volcanoes gave them reminders of the craters
of Auvergne, appearing like tunnels with a

small cone in the center. Lava-blocks were
numerous, some of them being two cubic
metres in dimension. From a distance they
might have been taken for yaks. Hot sulphur
springs and frozen geysers were numerous.
Many minerals were found, including iron
and lead. Curious gray monkeys with long
hair and short tails were found living among
the rocks at the foot of Mont Duplex, but
nowhere else.

The Fntnre of the Lobster-fishery. —

The experiments begun a few years ago for
improving the lobster and cod fisheries of
the coasts of Newfoundland promise to
be successful. Besides 15,000,000 lobsters
hatched and placed in the waters at the
Dildo hatchery, 432 floating incubators have
been established, at which more than 390,-
000 lobsters have been hatched. All these
would have been lost except for these oper-
ations. Lobsters arrive at maturity in five
years ; and if the useful work now going
on is continued year after year, it is evi-
dent that the threatened destruction of the
lobster can be averted, and the stock in
the waters maintained and extended. The
cod-hatchery has not been quite so success-
ful, but still the results have been very sat-
isfactory. Fishermen in the neighborhood
of Trinity Bay are said to have recently
observed large shoals of small cod, which
they have not noticed before, from one to
two inches long ; and this, it is claimed,
would be the present size of the fry placed
in the waters in June and July last.

NOTES.

A REMARKABLE metcof, fouud in Arizona,
was described by Prof. A. E. Foote, in the
Geological Section of the American Associa-
tion. It was extraordinarily hard, so that a
number of chisels were destroyed in cutting
it, and the emery wheel used in polishing it
was ruined. Cavities were reached in cut-
ting it, which were found to contain dia-
monds, small and black, and of little com-
mercial value, but of the greatest mineral-
ogical interest. Granules of amorphous
carbon were found within the cavity, in
which a minute white diamond was revealed
by treatment with acid. The general mass
of the stone contained three per cent of
nickel. Diamonds were previously observed
in a meteorite by two Russian mineralogists
in ISST.

NOTES.

H3

In the Anthropological Section of the
American Association, Mr. William 11. Sea-
man read a paper on the Essentials of Edu-
cation, with a new classification of knowl-
edge, in which he set forth the changes or
modifications in present systems of educa-
tion required to adapt them to modem ideas.
Mr. Walter Hough described the custom
of cava-drinking among the Papuans and
Polynesians ; Major Powell exhibited his
linguistic map of North America ; Mr.
Thomas Wilson described the jade imple-
ments from Mexico and Central America,
and a collection of ancient gold ornaments
from the United States of Colombia; Mr.
J. Owen Dorsey discussed the onomatopous
types and phonetic types of the Siouan lan-
guages ; Mr. J. H. Perkins described a col-
lection of stone pipes from Vermont; and
Mr. M. M. Snell enforced the Importance of
the Science of Comparative Religion.

A CONNECTION between tariffs and the
distribution of life in the districts which they
effect has not hitherto been supposed, but,
according to the late D. H. Graham, of lona,
it was free trade brought the rooks to that
island. Thus : " Since the ports were opened
to the importation of foreign cattle, the rear-
ing of black cattle has been abandoned in
those parts of the Highlands ; consequently
sheep have taken their place, and in lona,
where two years ago you could hardly find a
sheep, now you will sec scores of them ;
and whereas two years ago not a rook came
to the island, now the hill-pastures are black
with them."

A cuRiocs trial has recently taken place
in London, in which an American named
Pinter was prosecuted for an attempt at
cheating by pretending to manufacture gold.
The accused man set up in defense that he
really possessed a secret by which he could
increase the bulk of a mass of gold. It was
alleged by the prosecution that he once did
increase a piece of gold by placing a black
powder in a crucible, and it was asserted that
the powder must have contained gold. The
accused asked the magistrate if he had ever
known gold to float. Some of the powder
being tested on water floated. This result
was afterward said to have been produced
by mixing lampblack with the powder and
making it too greasy to sink quickly. The
accused pretends to more power than the
old alchemists, for they only assumed to
turn other substances into gold, while he
pretends to make it outright.

Dr. Carl Peters relates in his book on
Africa that he came to a place where the
natives on one bank of a broad river com-
municate with those on the opposite side
by speaking with voices hardly raised, " and
yet each side can perfectly hear what the
other says." Dr. Peters says that Bishop
Ilannington was killed, not because he was
a Christian, but because he insisted on ap-

proaching Uganda from the east. The Wa-
ganda have an old prophecy according to
which an expedition from the east is to
" eat up " the land and make an end of the
dynasty of the Wakintu. Accordingly the
approach from the east has been strictly for-
bidden.

The Philadelphia Zoological Gardens
were visited during the year ending in April
last by 211,884 persons, or S.^IO fewer than
visited them in the previous year ; giving an
average of 581 daily admissions. The su-
perintendent's report embodies the important
remark that the attention of all institutions
devoted to zoological pursuits is being di-
rected more strongly each year to the rapid
destruction of many of the more valuable
and important animals of our native fauna,
and to the need for immediate adoption of
every means that can be employed to save
them from complete extinction. In further-
ance of this object increase in the capacity
of zoological gardens is important, in order
that room and facilities may be provided for
their increase and growth, secure against
improper crossing and inbreeding.

Besides the active enemies which are
continually seeking to destroy earth-worms,
these animals have a habit of seeking de-
struction on their own account. On any
wet morning the shallow puddles in the
roadways and elsewhere are often occupied
by the dead bodies of earth-worms, or by
individuals at their last gasp. Have these
worms voluntarily sought a watery grave ?
or do they represent, as Darwin thought,
merely the sickly and dying individuals that
have been washed out of their burrows by
the rain ? Darwin's explanation is probably
true, but it is also credible that the heating
of the puddles by the sun's rays has some-
thing to do with the great mortality of the
annelids. Cold fresh water seems to be
practically harmless, though salt water is
rapidly fatal to earth-worms.

An illustrated account of the drawings of
aboriginal origin that are found in caves in
different parts of the United States, prepared
for Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia for 1889,
has been sent us in a separate pamphlet by
the author, Mr. T. H. Lewis. The designs
include figures conventionalized from the
forms of man, the hand, fishes, serpents, an
elk, a face, birds, and combined figures. It
is suggested by the editor of the Annual
Cyclopedia that one of them may be intended
to represent a family or tribal ensign.

In a paper read before the Medical Soci-
ety of Virginia, Dr. W. W. Parker, of Piich-
mond, favors burial rather than cremation
on grounds of convenience and economy ;
natural sentiment, whereby we cling to every
vestige of the body in which dwt4t the soul
of the dear one; the .=entiment of affection,
which wants to know the exact spot where
the body lies ; and religious motives.

144

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The reports of the United Kingdom Tem-
perance and General Provident Institution
are regarded by Dr. J. J. Ridge as affording
evidence of increasing weight and conchisive-
ness to the value of temperance as a factor
in longevity. For the last year the actual
claims upon the Institution for relief were,
in the temperance section, 71 "06 per cent;
in the general section, 100*2 per cent of the
expected claims. A summary of five quin-
quennial returns, or for twenty-five years,
shows that while in the general section the
deaths have fallen short of the expected
number by 242, in the temperance section
the deaths are 1,470 fewer. The fact that in
the general section the deaths are below the
healthy male average proves that the dif-
ference between the two sections is not due
to excessive drinking on the part of any
considerable number of the general section.
The comparison is therefore fairly between
abstainers and moderate drinkers, and goes
to show that the use of alcoholic liquors
produces degeneration of the tissues and
shortens life.

Some habits of crocodiles are described
by M. Voeltzkow, who observed the ani-
mals in Vituland. Seventy-nine newly laid
eggs were obtained from a spot six paces
in diameter which had been cleared of
plants, apparently by the crocodile having
wheeled round several times. The eggs lay
in four pits, dug in the hard, dry ground,
about two feet obliquely down. According
to the natives, the crocodile, having selected
and prepared a spot, makes a pit in it that
day, lays twenty or twenty-five eggs in it,
and covers them with earth. The next day,
it makes a second pit, and so on. It re-
mains in the nest from the beginning, and
sleeps there till the young are hatched, in
about two months, at the setting in of the
rainy season.

A PAPER by Prof. William Frear, in the
American Chemical Association, dealt with
differences in composition in the European
and the American chestnut. European chest-
nuts transplanted to this country lose their
peculiarities in some degree, but American
chestnuts also exhibit wide differences in
different years.

Tre question of the relative influence
of animal and vegetable diet on the animal
temperature has never, according to the
Lancet, been investigated in the human
species on a sutficiently comprehensive scale
to be of any value ; hvX such comparative
facts as throw light on the matter tend to
indicate that vegetable feeders, among the
lower creation, have a high temperature. The
evidence, however, does not seem to be uni-
form to this point, and it is suggested that
some of the apparent discrepancies may be
due to the nature of the clothing of the skin.
A correspondent of the Lancet and his wife
have for about three years been living chiefly

on fruit and vegetables, with a little milk
and its products, eggs and cheese, and with-
out alcohol, and find that they live as health-
ily as before, at a lower expenditure of
energy. If it be proved that a minimum
of animal diet will support life efficiently
under reduced combustion and reduced waste
of material, " a valuable as well as curious
fact will be added to our practical knowl-
edge."

The limit of a man's power to do with-
out sleep has been the subject of curious
experiments. Lord Brougham once tried it
on himself, and, beginning Monday morning,
kept awake till Tuesday night, when he fell
asleep on seating himself while trying to
dictate to an amanuensis. The recent com-
petition of six men in Detroit, in trying to
postpone sleep for seven days, is in point.
Beginning on Monday noon, March 80th, four
of the men failed before Thursday. A fifth
kept up till Sunday moining, had a hard
struggle with his sleepiness all through the
day, and succumbed at midnight. The sixth
completed the time and was conducted to
the stage and introduced to the spectators,
but was sound asleep before the introduc-
tion was over. It is said, however, that
these men were allowed to sleep in fifteen-
minute naps at the end of their several
vigils, and it is added that they suffered no
permanent ill.

According to Brandis's Wald in der
Vereinigten Staatcn von Nord America, for-
est vegetation is much richer in North Amer-
ica than in Europe, and comprises 412 spe-
cies— of which 176 are native to the Atlan-
tic region, 106 to the Pacific, 10 are common
to both, 46 to the Eocky Mountain region,
and 74 are tropical species near the coasts
of Florida — as against 158 species in Eu-
rope. Six North American species of forest
trees — the red-bud or Judas tree, persim-
mon, hackberry, plane tree, hop hornbeam,
and chestnut — are also indigenous in Eu-
rope, all now growing there naturally south
of the Alps. And since many American for-
est genera existed in Europe in Tertiary
times, while only five European forest gen-
era (Cera/onia, Laburnum, Olca, St/yin(/a,
and Laurus) are not found in America, it is
possible that other species formerly common
to both countries were destroyed in Europe
north of the Alps by the Glacial epoch.

A PARLIAMENTARY rcport shows that ether
is now used to a considerably large extent
in Ireland to produce intoxication. It is
preferred to whisky because it is cheaper
and more effective. Its effects are described
as arousing combative instincts and produc-
ing a high state of exhilaration accompanied
by shouting and singing and the use of pro-
vocative words. Even children are accus-
tomed to it, and come to school smelling
of it.

DMITRI IVANOWITSH MENDELEEFF.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

DEGEMBEE, 1891

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY.

By EDWIN ATLEE BAEBEE.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE
COLUMBUS. X.

FOREIGN writers would have the world believe that the
United States can boast of no ceramic history. Even our
own chroniclers have, singularly enough, neglected a branch of
our industrial progress which is not altogether insignificant nor
devoid of interest. On the contrary, it can be shown that the
fictile art is almost as ancient in this country as in Great Britain,
and has been developed in almost parallel lines.

The first European settlers found the American natives pro-
ficient in the manufacture of earthen vessels, and we would not
be justified in supposing, even in the absence of documentary
evidence, that our ancestors were more ignorant of the useful
arts than the Atlantic Coast Indians, who, less cultured than the
prehistoric mound builders and the Pueblo races of the West,
were in possession of rude, but often ornamental, utensils made
of baked clay and sand.

Primitive potteries for the production of earthenware on a
small scale were operated in the provinces at an early period, but
as only the coarser grades of ware were needed by the simple
inhabitants of a new country, no extended accounts of them
appear to have been written by the older historians. As early as
the year 1649, however, there were a number of small potteries
in Virginia which carried on a thriving business in the communi-
ties in which they existed ; and the first Dutch settlers in New
York brought with them a practical knowledge of potting, and
are said to have made a ware equal in quality to that produced
in the ancient town of Delft. Prof. Isaac Broome, of the Beaver

TOL. XL. — 12

146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Falls Art Tile Works, informs me tliat the remains of an old
kiln fire-liole, saved from the ravages of time by being thoroughly
vitrified, still exist a mile or two below South Amboy, N. J.
This is a relic of the earlier pottery ware made on this continent,
and was most probably established by the Dutch to make stew-
pans and pots.

Dr. Daniel Coxe, of London, proprietor, and afterward gov-
ernor, of West Jersey, was undoubtedly the first to make white
ware on this side of the Atlantic. While he did not come to
Anierica himself, he caused a pottery to be erected at Burlington,
N. J., previous to the year 1690, through his agent, John Tatham,
who, with Daniel Coxe, his son, looked after his large interests
here. It is recorded that in 1691 Dr. Coxe sold to the " West New
Jersey Society " of London, consisting of forty-eight persons, his
entire interests in the province, including a dwelling-house and
"pottery-house" with all the tools, for the sum of £9,000 sterling.
We are indebted to Mr John D. McCormick, of Trenton, N. J.,
for calling attention to the following reference to this pottery,
supposed to have been written about 1688, in the Rawlinson
manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England: "I
have erected a pottery att Burlington for white and chiney
ware, a greate quantity to ye value of £1200 have beene already
made and vended in ye Country, neighbour Colonies and ye
Islands of Barbadoes and Jamaica where they are in great re-
quest. I have two houses and kills with all necessary imple-
ments, diverse workemen, and other servants. Have expended
thereon about £2000." * It is possible to gain some idea of the
nature of this " white and chiney ware " by examining the state-
ments of Dr. Plot, a contemporary, who published his Natural
History of Staffordshire two years before, as quoted by the late
Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, in his Ceramic Art of Great Britain :
*' The greatest pottery they have in this country is carried on at
Burslem, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, where for making their
different sorts of pots they have as many different sorts of clay
.... and are distinguish't by their colours and uses as fol-
loweth : —

" 1. Bottle day, of a bright Avhitish streaked yellow colour.

"2. Hard fire day, of a duller whitish colour, and fully inter-
sperst with a dark yellow, which they use for their hlach u-ares,
being mixt with the

" 3. Bed Blending day, which is of a dirty red colour,

" 4. White day, so called it seems, though of a blewish colour,
and used for making yellow-colour'd ware, because yellow is the
lightest colour they make any ivare of." f

* MS. Rawlinson, c. 128, fol. 896. f Page 97, vol. i, London, 1878.

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 147

In 1G85 Thomas Miles made a white "stone-ware" of pipe-
clay procured at Shelton. A few years after this, it is said that
a potter named Astbury made " crouch " and " white stone " ware
in the same town, on which he used a salt glaze.* It is probable
that the "chiney" of the Burlington pottery was in reality a
cream-colored ware or a white stone-ware somewhat similar to
that made about the same time in England. It is not unlikely
that the clay was brought from South Amboy, as Dr. Coxe owned
considerable land in that vicinity. This clay has since been ex-
tensively employed in the manufacture of fine stone- ware.

Among the immigrants of the seventeenth century were pot-
ters who had learned their trade in the mother country, and
Gabriel Thomas, who came from England, states in his Descrip-
tion of Philadelphia, published in 1697, that "great encourage-
ments are given to tradesmen and others. . . . Potters have six-
teen pence for an earthen pot which may be bought in England
for four pence."

It has heretofore been generally believed that the first bricks
used in the erection of houses in this country were imported, but
it is more than probable that by far the greater proportion were
made here. Daniel Pegg and others manufactured bricks in
Philadelphia as early as 1685, and within a few years after that
date numerous brick-yards were in operation along the shores of
the Delaware. Many residences throughout the country, particu-
larly in certain sections of Pennsylvania, were built of brick
early in the eighteenth century. The cost of importing these
supplies from England and transporting them to the rural dis-
tricts, far removed from tide- water, would have been prohibitory.
That building-bricks were extensively manufactured here pre-
vious to 1753 is indicated by a statement of Lewis Evans, of Phila-
delphia, who wrote to a friend in England in that year : " The
greatest vein of Clay for Bricks and Pottery begins near Trenton
Falls, and extends a mile or two in Breadth on the Pennsylvania
side of the River to Christine ; then it crosses the River and goes
by Salem. The ivhole world cannot afford hetter bricks than our
town is huilt of. Nor is the Lime which is mostly brought from
White Marsh inferior to that wherewith the old castles in Brit-
tain were formerly built."

When burned, as formerly, in "clamps," the bricks formed
their own kiln, piled on edge, a finger's breadth apart, to allow
the heat to circulate between. Those which came in direct con-
tact with the wood-fire in the kiln were blackened and partially
vitrified on the exposed ends ; while the opposite extremities,

* This was made of tobacco-pipe clay mixed with flint, and was superior to anything
produced before.

148

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which were farthest from the heat, were only partially burned,
and consequently too soft for external use. The other bricks in
the kiln which were uniformly surrounded by heat came out red.
To utilize all the bricks produced, the black ends of the former
were laid outward in the wall, thus combining utility with orna-
mentation. Many of the older houses were constructed in this
manner. An old building on the Brandywine, near West Chester,
erected in 1724, was built of bricks made on the property from
clay found in the vicinity. The structure was considered an
imposing one in its day, and the walls are still standing, in an
excellent state of preservation. The annexed drawing will con-
vey a good idea of the manner of laying the bricks in a wall
where the red and black varieties were used, known as the Flem-

FiG. 1. — Flemish Bond.

ish bond, in which the binders and stretchers alternated, each
layer breaking joints with that above and below.

Roofing tiles were also manufactured in this country more
than a hundred years ago. Plain tiles were made of ordinary
brick clay, about five eighths of an inch in thickness and six
and a half to seven inches wide by thirteen to fourteen in length.
They were fastened to the rafters of the roof by means of a clay
knob or hook at the upper margin of the under side. The sur-
faces were broadly and shallowly grooved to carry the water off.
Such tiles are still found in the debris of an old smithy which
was built in 1799 at Cope's Bridge on the Brandywine. Other
examples, made in Lancaster County, Pa., one of which bears the
date 1769, have recently come to light.

A stone-ware factory was started in New York, at " Potter's
Hill," near the " Fresh- water Pond," back of the City Hall, in or
about 1735, by John Remmey, who came from Germany. The
business passed through three generations, all of the same name,

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY.

149

and was discontinued about 1820. Later on, John Remmey, great-
grandson of the above, moved to South Amboy, N. J., and estab-
lished a pottery there.

Previous to the middle of the last century, and before the
manufacture of porcelain had been attempted in America, Eng-
lish potters were using

china clays procured in 'P b lilllllllllllilll!'i!llti^lillllill|lllli:i

this country. Mr. Jewitt,
in his Ceramic Art of
Great Britain, informs us
that a patent was taken
out in 1744, by Edward
Heylyn, of the parish of
Bow, in the county of
Middlesex, merchant, and
Thomas Frye, of the par-
ish of West Ham, in the
county of Essex, painter,
for the manufacture of
china-ware ; and in the
following year they en-

FiG. 2.

-Ameeican Roofing Tiles (eighteenth
century).

rolled their specification, in which they state that the material
used in their invention " is an earth, the produce of the Chirokee
nation in America, called by the natives unaker."

In 1878 and 1879, Mr. William H. Goss, proprietor of the ex-
tensive porcelain works at London Road, Stoke-on-Trent, con-
tributed to the English Pottery and Glass Trades' Review a series
of notes on Mr. Jewitt's work. In December of the former year
he wrote : " The specification of this patent is of startling interest.
Who would have thought, until Mr. Jewitt unfolded this docu-
ment to modern light, that the first English china that we have
any knowledge of was made from American china-clay ? Let our
American cousins look out for, and treasure up lovingly, speci-
mens of the earliest old Bow-ware after learning that." Then
follows the specification in full as given by Mr. Jewitt, and Mr.
Goss continues : " This ' unaker,' the produce of the Chirokee
nation in America, is decomposed granitic rock, the earth or clay
resulting from the washing being the decomposed felspar of that
rock. It is curious that it should have been imported from among
the Chirokees when we had mountains of it so near as Cornwall;
unknown, however, to any ' whom it might concern ' until Cook-
worthy discovered it twenty-four years later than the date of the
above patent." William Cookworthy was acquainted with Ameri-
can clays as early as 1745, for in a letter to a friend dated fifth
month, thirtieth, of that year, quoted by Mr. Jewitt, he writes :
" I had lately with me the person who hath discovered the china-

150 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

earth. He had several samples of the china-ware of their making
with him, which were, I think, equal to the Asiatic. 'Twas
found in the back of Virginia, where he was in quest of mines ;
and having read Du Halde, discovered both the petunse and
kaulin. 'Tis the latter earth, he says, is the essential thing
towards the success of the manufacture. He is gone for a cargo
of it, having bought the whole country of the Indians where it
rises. They can import it for £13 per ton, and by that means
afford their china as cheap as common stoneware. But they
intend only to go about 30 per cent under the company."

We must not conclude from this statement that the ware which
Cookworthy had seen had been made in America. It is much
more probable that the pieces were some of those produced at the
Bow works, within the year that had just passed, from the re-
cently discovered American materials.

Not until 1769 was there any serious attempt made to manu-
facture fine porcelain on this side of the water. In Watson's
Annals of Philadelphia we find the brief statement that "the
desire to encourage domestic fabrics gave rise, in 1771, to the
erection of a flint-glass manufactory near Lancaster, by which
they hoped to save £30,000 to the province. A china factory, too,
was also erected on Prime Street, near the present Navy Yard,
intended to make china at a saving of £15,000." In a foot-note
the author adds : " This long row of wooden houses afterwards
became famous as a sailors' brothel and riot-house on a large
scale. The former frail ware proved an abortive scheme." Mr.
Charles Henry Hart, of Philadelphia, made the interesting dis-
covery, a few years ago, of some old advertisements in the news-
papers of that time which threw considerable light on this early
American enterprise, and he has kindly placed at my disposal the
results of his investigations. The first of these announcements,
which appeared in the latter part of the year 1769, is as follows :

New China-ware. — Notwithstanding the various diflBculties and disadvan-
tages, which usually attend the introduction of any important manufacture into a
new country, the Proprietors of the China "Works, now erecting in Southwark,
have the pleasure to acquaint the puhlic, they have proved to a certainty, that the
clays of America are productive of as good Porcelain, as any heretofore manu-
factured at the famous factory in Bow, near London, and imported into the colo-
nies and plantations, which they will engage to sell upon very reasonable terms;
and as they purpose going largely into this manufacture as soon as the works are
completed, they request those persons who choose to favor them with commands,
to be as early as possible, laying it down as a fixed principle, to take all orders in
rotation, and execute the earliest first ; dealers will meet with the usual encour-
agement, and may be assured, that no goods under Thirty Pounds' worth, will be
sold to private persons out of the factory, at a lower advance than from their
shops. All workmen skilled in the different branches of throwing, turning, mod-
elling, moulding, pressing, and painting, upon application to the Proprietors, may

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 151

depend on encouragement suitable to their abilities ; and such parents, as are in-
clined to bind their children apprentices to either of these branches, must be early
in their application, as only a few of the first offering will be accepted, without a
premium ; none will be received under twelve years of age, or upwards of fifteen.
All orders from the country, or other provinces, inclosed in letters, post paid, and
directed to the China Peopeietors in Philadelphia, will be faithfully executed,
and the ware warranted equal to any, in goodness and cheapness, hitherto manu-
factured in, or imported from England,

Subsequently the proprietors advertised for bones, offering
twenty shillings per thousand " for any quantity of horses or
beeves shank-bones, whole or broken, fifteen shillings for hogs,
and ten shillings for calves and sheep (a proportionable price for
knuckle bones) delivered at the china factory in South wark " ;
concluding with the announcement that the capital works of the
factory were then completed and in full operation. The pro-
jectors of this enterprise were Gousse Bonnin, a foreigner, who
had most probably learned his trade at Bow, and George Anthony
Morris, of Philadelphia. In January, 1771, they applied to the
Assembly for pecuniary assistance, in the form of a provincial
loan, the petition being given in full by Colonel Frank M. Etting
in his History of Independence HaU. In their address it is stated
that the petitioners " have expended great sums in bringing from
London Workmen of acknowledged Abilities, have established
them here, erected spacious Buildings, Mills, Kilns, and various
Requisites, and brought the Work, we flatter ourselves, into no
contemptible Train of Perfection." Whether they were successful
in securing the loan does not appear, but later in the same year
they advertised for zaffer or zaffera, without which they could
not make blue ware. In April, 1772, they advertised for appren-
tices to the painting and other branches, and shortly after for
flint glass and " fifty wagon loads of white flint stone." The at-
tempt, however, proved a failure in a financial point, and in the
latter year the proprietors made a public appeal for charity for
the workmen who had been brought to a strange country and
were left without means of support. After running about two
years the factory was closed, the real estate was sold, and Bonnin
returned to England.

Little is known of the ware made here. The fact that zaffer
was used shows that blue decorated ware was made. The Bow
works at that period turned out little but blue and white china,
as was the case with all of the early English factories, which em-
ployed lapis lazuli and zaffer to color beneath the glaze.

The terra-cotta works owned by Mr. A. H. Hews, at North
Cambridge, Mass., were founded by his great-grandfather,
Abraham Hews, at Weston, Mass., some time previous to 17G5.
At first only the ordinary household utensils of earthenware were

152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

made and sold in exchange for general mercliandise. After
several changes in the firm name, the business descended to the
present proprietor in 1865, and five years later was transferred to
its present location, where it is said that more flower-pots are
produced than at any other factory in the world. Here also are
made the usual line of fancy garden terra-cotta and a large
variety of art pottery for decorators.

Toward the latter part of the last century potteries for the
manufacture of earthen and stone ware had become numerous
throughout the States. During the Revolutionary period con-
siderable china was imported from India, Holland, and England
for the use of the wealthier citizens, but pewter utensils were also
much in vogue. The common people used earthenware, generally
red pottery, on which the first attemi)ts at decoration were made
with yellow slip. Dishes and flower-pots, with pie-crust edge and
rude floral designs or dates, were common (see Fig. 17).

Before the beginning of the present century several stone-ware
and earthenware potteries were started in Connecticut. In 1791
John Curtis was making a good quality of pottery in Phila-
delphia from clay obtained where the brewery now stands at
Tenth and Filbert Streets, and his name is found in the directory
as late as 1811 in the same business. In the former year Andrew
Miller also made earthenware in the same town, and continued
the business until 1810, when it passed into the hands of Abraham
and Andrew Miller, Jr., who carried on the business jointly for
about six years. In 1824 Abraham Miller displayed, at the first
annual exhibition of the Franklin Institute, " red and black
glazed tea-pots, coffee-pots, and other articles of the same descrip-
tion. Also a sample of platinated or lustre pitchers, with a speci-
men of porcelain and white ware, all of which exhibited a grow-
ing improvement in the manufacture, both in the quality and
form of the articles." Quoting from the report of the committee :
*^ It is but a few years since we were under the necessity of im-
porting a considerable proportion of this description of ware for
home consumption, but since our potters have attained the art of
making it equal, if not superior, to the imported, and as cheap,
they have entirely excluded the foreign ware from the American
market." Miller continued to manufacture a fine grade of earth-
enware, such as plates, vases, and ornamental flower-pots, until
1858, but we can not discover that he carried the manufacture of
porcelain beyond some successful experiments.

John and William Norton established a pottery in Bennington,
Vt., in 1793, for the production of red ware, which was discon-
tinued about 1800, when the manufacture of stone -ware was
substituted. This ware has been made continuously ever since,
the business being now carried on by Messrs. Thatcher and Nor-

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY IXDUSTRY

153

ton, the latter a great-grandson of John Norton, one of the
founders.

A " china '' manufactory existed in Philadelphia ninetj^-one
years ago, but very little is known regarding it. A friend has
recently shown me a letter, dated August 14, 1800, written by a
merchant of that city to his wife, who was then visiting in New
Jersey, in which occurs the following interesting bit of news :
" On account of a man being murdered at the China Factory on
Monday evening last, a block maker by trade, a number of the
same profession, with Ro]3e makers and Carpenters, assembled and
on Tuesday evening began to pull down the buildings ; they con-
tinued at their work till yesterday mid-day, — it was pulled down
by Ropes in spite all the Squires and Constables that could be col-
lected— say every house, only leaving the Chimneys standing."
The writer, an ancestor of the present owner of the letter, was in
business at that time near Fourth and Chestnut Streets, and we
are led to infer that the factory was somewhere in that neigh-
borhood. All white ware at that time was known as china, and
the term was evidently applied
to queen's-ware — certainly not
porcelain.

Paul Cushman had a stone-
ware factory at Albany, N. Y.,
in the first decade of this cent-
ury, and some examples of his
ware are now in the possession
of Mr. S. L. Frey, of Palatine
Bridge, N. Y., one of which
bears the inscription, impressed
on the surface of the jar, and
twice repeated around the body,
" Paul Cushman Stone Ware
Factory 1809 Half a Mile West
of Albany Gaol."

In 1813 Thomas Haig, from
Scotland, established a pottery
in the Northern Liberties,
Philadelphia, where he made red and black ware. At the Frank-
lin Institute exhibition in 1825, articles made at this pottery were
considered, " in the opinion of the judges, better than goods of
the same kind brought from England." The pottery is still op-
erated by Thomas Haig, a son of the founder, wdio is now in his
eightieth year.

Queen's-ware was j^robably first made in the United States
about 1800. Eight years later the Columbian pottery, on South
Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth, in Philadelphia, was

VOL. XL. — 13

Fio. 3. — Albany Stone-ware. (Collection of
Mr. S. L. Frey. ) Made about 1809.

154

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

k§

- N

turning out white ware which was daimed to be ecjual in quality
and workmanship to the best made in Staffordshire. Two years
later Captain John Mullowney, brick-maker, was ojDerating the
Washington pottery on Market Street, west of Seventeenth ; and
in the files of the Aurora or General Advertiser, published in
Philadelphia in 1810, this factory advertised red, yellow, and
black coffee-pots, tea-pots, pitchers, etc, and called special atten-
tion to the decorating ])ranch, artists being employed who were
prepared to put any device, cipher, or pattern on china or other
ware at the shortest notice.

Daniel Freytag was making in Philadelphia, in 1811, a finer
quality of china-ware than had yet been produced in the United

States. It was made of various colors,

,:r^~' ' and was embellished with gold and

_^i^- ^ silver; and in 1817 David G. Seixas

fV' " ' > manufactured an imitation of the

Liverpool white crockery from native
American clays with great success,
continuing the business until 1822.

Porcelain was made in New York
city early in this century, probably
by Dr. Mead. How long this factory
was in operation is not known, but it
is believed that a fine grade of ware
^was made there from American ma-
terials. A vase over a foot in height,
of excellent body and exceedingly
white glaze, is preserved in the
Franklin Institute. This was " fin-
ished in New York in 1810," and is
supposed to have been made at that
factory. It is entirely devoid of gild-
ing or coloring, and is made in two
parts, held together by a screw and
nut, after the French manner.
In 1823 Henry Remmey, a brother of John Remmey, the last
proprietor of the New York stone-ware factor}^, wdiich was closed
about 1820, came to Philadelphia and embarked in the same busi-
ness, which is now continued by a great-grandson, Mr. Richard
C. Remmey, who now owns the largest stone-ware works in the
United States. Here are manufactured fire-bricks of superior
quality, and chemical stone and porcelain ware of every descrij^-
tion, some of the vessels having a capacity of two hundred to five
hundred gallons. In addition to these specialties, the factory pro-
duces a large line of household utensils, and the business has grown
to such proportions that the ten large kilns are taxed to the utmost.

Fig. 4. — Pokcelain Vase.
York, 1810.

New

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY.

155

No considerable progress was made in the manufacture of por-
celain in the United States until William Ellis Tucker, of Phila-
delphia, began his experiments. From 181G to 1819 his father,
Benjamin Tucker, had a china shop on the south side of Market
Street, at No. o24, then between Ninth and Tenth Streets, near

Fig. 5.— Tucker & Hemphill's China Factory. Philadelphia, 1832-'38. (From a vase
owned by Mrs. Thomas Tucker.)

where the new post-office building now stands. During this
period Mr. Tucker built a small decorating kiln in the rear of his
store for the use of his son, who employed much of his time in
painting the imported white china and firing it in the kiln. These
attempts were at first only partially successful. He then com-
menced experimenting with different clays, which he procured in
the vicinity of the city, to discover the .process for manufacturing
the ware itself. These experiments resulted in the production of
a fair quality of opaque queen's- ware. He then directed his atten-
tion to kaolin and feldspar, and finally succeeded in discovering
the proper proportions of these ingredients, in combination with
bone-dust and flint, necessary for the production of an excellent
grade of natural or hard porcelain. Having secured a translucent

156

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

body of great hardness, density, and toughness, capable of with-
standing extreme changes of temperature, he first seriously began
the manufacture of the ware for the market in the year 1S25. The
old water-works, at the northwest corner of Schuylkill-Second
(Twenty-first) and Chestnut Streets, were obtained from the city,
where the necessary glazing and enameling kilns, mills, etc., were
erected. His first attempts were fraught with many difliculties.
While the body and glaze of the earlier productions were good^
the workmanship and decoration were inferior. The decoration
consisted generally of landscapes painted roughly in sepia or
brown.

In 1828 Thomas Hulme was admitted to the business, but re-
tired in about one year. During this period great improvement
was made in decoration, the best productions being painted with
floral designs in natural colors. A number of pitchers made dur-
ing that period are marked " Tucker & Hulme, China Manufact-
urers, Philadelphia, 1838," the only pieces from this factory known
to have been signed.

Fig. 6.

-Tucker Creamer.

ration.

Sepia deco-

FiG. 7.— Hemphill Vase. (Collection of Hon.
James T. Mitchell.)

William Ellis Tucker died in August, 1832, but previous to this
Judge Joseph Hemphill had put some money in the enterprise,
and continued to carry on the business after his partner's death.

Messrs. Tucker & Hemphill purchased the property at the
southwest corner of Schuylkill - Sixth (now Seventeenth) and
Chestnut Streets, where they erected store-houses and three
kilns, and greatly increased the producing capacity of the fac-
tory. In 1832 they appealed to Congress for the passage of a
tariff law which would afford them protection from foreign com-
petition.

Mr. Thomas Tucker superintended the business after the de-
cease of his brother, which was carried on in the name of Judge
Hemphill for about three years, but in 1835 the latter entered

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 157

into negotiations with a company of Eastern gentlemen, and sold
the factory to them shortly after. In 1837 the factory was leased
to Thomas Tucker, who continued the manufacture of fine porce-
lain for about one year, when it was permanently closed. Under
the direction of Judge Hemphill, who had become interested in
the subject while abroad, great improvements were made in the
body of the ware as well as in the glazing and ornamentation.
French porcelain was selected as the model after which the
Tucker & Hemphill china was patterned, and skilled artists
were brought from France to decorate the ware. Pitchers and
vases were^ sometimes decorated with painted portraits of Revo-
lutionary heroes ; two of the former, with likenesses of Washing-
ton and Wayne, are still preserved. The later productions of this
factory were greatly superior to anything produced in the United
States before. They were characterized by smoothness of paste,
beauty of coloring, and rich-
ness of gilding — indeed, it is
said that the amount of gold
consumed in the decoration of
this ware was so great as to
cause a considerable pecuniary
loss to Judge Hemphill. It is a
matter of regret that the limit
of this article is not suSiciently
elastic to permit a more ex-
tended review of this interest-
ing factory and description of
some of its many beautiful pro-
ductions which have been re-
cently brought to light.

Isaac Spiegel, one of Tucker
& Hemphill's workmen, started
in business for himself in Ken-
sington, Philadeli)hia, about
1837. He made Rockingham
black and red ware of excellent
quality, including mantel orna-
ments, such as figures of dogs
and lions. Some of the ma-
chinery was moved to his pot-
tery from the Hemphill factory
on its closing, and he secured

Fig. 8.— Hemphill Vase (with painting of a
shipwreck).

many of the molds which had
been used for making ornamental porcelain pieces. In 1855 Mr.
Spiegel retired from active business, and was succeeded by his
son Isaac, who carried on the works until 1870. In 1880, John
Spiegel, a brother of the latter, resumed the business, and is at

158 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the present time engaged in burning magnesia for the drug
trade.

About the time that Tucker first placed his new ware on the
market a factory for the production of a somewhat similar com-
modity was erected at Jersey City, presumably by Frenchmen.
Later, under the title of the American Pottery Company, cream-
colored, white, Parian, and porcelain wares were made here. In
1843 an exhibit of embossed tea-ware, jugs, and spittoons was
made by this company at the Franklin Institute, the specimens
of Parian with blue ground and raised ornamentation in white
being especially praiseworthy. After several changes in proprie-
torship the business passed into the hands of Messrs. Rouse &
Turner in 1870, and the name of the factory was altered to the
Jersey City Pottery. Mr. John Owen Rouse came from the Royal
Derby Works about forty years ago. Mr. Turner died in 1884,
leaving the former sole proprietor. The plant at present consists
of four kilns, one of which has an interior diameter of nineteen
and a half feet, and numerous large buildings for manufacturing
and storage purposes. Here are now made large quantities of
white granite ware in table and toilet services and decorative de-
signs, a specialty of the factory being porous cups for telegraphic
uses, of which fully five thousand are produced every week.

After the year 1840 the number of potteries in the United
States multiplied rapidly. About that time Samuel Sturgis was
making, in Lancaster County, Pa., in addition to earthen and stone
ware, clay tobacco-pipe bowls, which he molded after the French
designs in the form of human heads. These were glazed in yel-
low, green, and brown, and supplied largely to the tobacconists of
eastern Pennsylvania. In 1843 there were one hundred and eighty-
two potteries in that State alone, few of them, however, of any
importance, whose aggregate productions amounted to $158,000.
In 1800 there were only about eighty potteries in the same State,
a falling ofi" of more than half. This diminution in number
does not by any means indicate a decadence of this industry,
because the establishments of half a century ago were mostly
scattered through the rural districts and were insignificant af-
fairs, producing only the coarser and cheaper grades of crockery.
Such potteries have almost entirely disappeared, while those of
to-day manufacture, for the most part, the finer qualities of
earthen, white granite, and porcelain wares. At the present time
there are over five hundred potteries in the United States, not in-
cluding architectural terra-cotta and tile works, of which some
twenty-five are in Trenton, K J., and about the same number in
East Liverpool, Ohio.

An exhibit of Rockingham was made at the Franklin Insti-
tute in 1846 by Bennett & Brother, of Pittsburg, which was

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 159

Fig. 9.— Rockingham Monument. Made at Bennington, Vt., 1851.

i6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pronounced by the judges superior to the English ware. A " tor-
toise-shell" pitcher, eight-sided, with human head molded in re-
lief under the mouth, which is still in the cabinet of the Institute
was awarded a silver medal. '

Messrs. Alanson Potter Lyman and Christopher Weber Fen-
ton embarked in the manufacture of yellow and Rockingham
ware m Bennington, Vt., about 1847. Three years later they
commenced making white ware. Their workshop was known as
the United States Pottery. In 1S51, or the year following, Mr
Fenton had a large monumental piece of Rockingham made, ten
feet m height, in which was placed a life-sized Parian bust of
himself surrounded by eight glazed columns, the work being sur-
mounted by figures of a woman and child in Parian. This was
modeled by Daniel Greatbach, formerly connected with the Jer-
sey City Pottery. The base of the monument is made of several
varieties of clay mixed together, having the appearance of un-
polished marble. It stands at present on the porch of Mr. Fen-
ton's former residence in Bennington, having been first placed on
exhibition at the New York Crystal Palace in 1853, with other
productions of this factory, including a group of "patent flint
enameled ware," which was probably analogous to the so-called
majolica of the present day. Common china, white granite, and
Parian were made here extensively. A limited amount of' soft
porcelain was produced also, but chiefly in small ornamental fig-
ures and statuettes. These, like the Parian pieces, were often
copied from old English works. A graceful pitcher of the latter
ware, in the collection of the writer, is molded with white figures
in relief on a dark-blue " pitted " ground, and is almost an exact,
though enlarged, reproduction of a sirup-jug from the Dale Hall
Works, England. The jasper- ware of Josiah Wedgwood was also
imitated in Parian. The art of the American potter had not yet
reached that point where competition and public demand stimu-
lated originality in body, design, or decoration. Fig. 10 shows a
group of pieces made at the Bennington factory between 1850
and 1855. In the center may be seen a large Rockingham figure,
beneath which are two small mantel ornaments of artificial por-
celain. The central pitcher above the dog and the two small
pitchers to the right are white granite, decorated in gold. The
three remaining pitchers and the small vase are Parian, with
ornamentation in relief.

The United States Pottery was closed in 1857, and two years
later Mr. Fenton, with Mr. Decius W. Clark, his former superin-
tendent, went to Peoria, 111., and there established a manufactory
of white and granite wares. After a period of three years this
experiment proved a financial failure, and the factory passed into
other hands. At present it is being successfully operated by the

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 161

Peoria Pottery Company, wliicli makes a fine grade of similar
goods.

Messrs. Haiigliwout, Dailey & Co. had a decorating establish-
ment in New York city in 1853, and employed a hundred hands
in painting French china for the American market. Mr. James
Carr, who came to this country in 1844, worked for the American
Pottery Company of Jersey City until 1853, when he went to South
Amboy, and there established a pottery for the manufacture of

t'ui. li). — Wakk mauk uy Lyman & Fextox.

yellow and Rockingham wares. In October, 1855, he started a
pottery in New York, under the firm name of Morrison & Carr,
where table-services in opaque china, white granite, and majolica
were made. He directed his efforts toward the attainment of
higher standards, and his experiments resulted in the production
of some artistic pieces of porcelain and faience, excellent both in
design and execution ; but as there was little demand for this
class of goods at that time, these attempts were discontinued. In
1888, owing to the close competition of out-of-town manufactur-
ers, the New York pottery was closed and the factory torn down.
Mr. Carr has recently built, on the premises in West Thirteenth
Street, several large stores, the rentals from which, he claims,
yield him better returns than potting.

The Philadelphia City Pottery of Mr. J. E. Jeffords, who came
from the New York establishment of Messrs. Morrison & Carr
about 18G0, includes two distinct factories, one of which turns out
a high grade of Rockingham, yellow, and white-lined blue ware,
while the adjoining workshop produces an excellent variety of
white and decorated earthenware for toilet and table use. In
Rockingham some of the old English designs are reproduced,
such as the "Toby " ale-jug and the cow creamer. A few years
ago a more elaborate ornamentation was attempted in the paint-

i62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing of bird and floral subjects above the glaze, but this was soon
discontinued owing to the expense. Printing from copper plates
is extensively practiced here at the present time, and competent
artists are employed to apply the gold in pleasing devices to the
rich dark glazes which characterize the better grades of ware
produced. Mr. Jeffords has fully equipped his factories with the
most approved modern appliances, and is one of the most pro-
gressive and successful of our modern potters.

Mr. Alexander William Robertson started a small pottery in
Chelsea, Mass., m the year 1866, for the manufacture of brown
ware such as was made in Great Britain, and of lava-ware simi-
lar to that of Germany. Two years afterward, Mr. Hugh Corn-
wall Robertson, a younger brother, was admitted to partnership
m the business, the firm name being A. W. & H. C. Robertson
when the production of brown ware was discontinued and the
manufacture of plain and fancy flower-pots was substituted. In
the following year porous cones or filters of a high grade were
made for chemical purposes. In 1872 James Robertson, a practi-
cal potter of wide and varied experience in Scotland, England
New Jersey, and New York, and recently from the East Boston
pottery, joined his sons, the firm name being changed to James
Robertson & Sons, when work of a more pretentious character
was undertaken. A red bisque ware, in imitation of the antique
Grecian terra-cottas and Pompeiian bronzes, was first produced
in 1875. The factory adopted the name of the Chelsea Keramic
Art Works. The red ware was characterized by a remarkably
fine texture and smooth finish, the clay being peculiarly adapted
to the faithful reproduction of the graceful classic forms, the fine
polished grain offering an excellent surface for the most minute
carving, showing the engraved lines as perfectly as on wood. In
1876 a pleasing effect was obtained by polishing the red ware with
boiled linseed oil. On a few spherical vases thus treated, Mr. F.
X. Dengler, the talented young sculptor who afterward died at
the age of twenty-five, modeled from life, in high relief, choosing
child and bird forms. The firm also received the benefit of ad-
vice from a number of capable artists, including, John G. Low, G.
W. Fenitz, and others. For lack of public support this branch
of the art was abandoned. The next venture was the Chelsea
faience, introduced in 1877, which is characterized by a beautiful
soft glaze. This ware soon attracted the attention of connoisseurs,
and carried the firm to the front rank of American potters. The
decoration consists of floral designs, either made separately by
hand and sprigged on, or carved in relief from clay laid directly
on the surface while moist. Some beautiful effects were produced
by hammering the surface of the faience before burning, and aft-
erward carving sprays of flowers in relief in clay applied to the

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY.

163

surface. This modeling was executed by Miss Josephine Day, a
sister-in-law and pupil of Mr. H. C. Robertson, and by Mr. Rob-
ertson himself. Being done by hand from original designs, no
duplicates were produced. On some of the hammered vases the
designs were cut into the surface and filled in with white clay,
forming a mosaic, the bases of the vessels being colored buff,
which offered a pleasing contrast through a semi-transparent

Fm. 11. ^Inlaid, Hammered and Embossed 1'ottert. (Clielsea Keramic Art Works.)

glaze. About the same time a variety of faience known as the
Bourg-la-Reine of Chelsea was produced, after the discovery of
the process of painting on the surface of the vessel with colored
clays and covering with a transparent glaze, on the principle of
the Limoges faience.

Mr. James Robertson died in 1880, after a long and useful life,
at the ripe age of seventy years. The firm continued under the
same name, and in 1884 A. W. Robertson retired from the busi-
ness. In that year the remaining partner, Mr. Hugh C. Robertson,
discovered a stone-ware somewhat resembling Parian in appear-
ance, possessing a hard, vitrified body, which he worked into a
variety of artistic forms.

From this time Mr. Robertson directed his efforts toward solv-
ing the secret of the famous Chinese Sang de hcsAif, and after
four years of sacrifice and patient investigaticm his labors were
crowned with success. This discovery is the exact treatment
necessary to produ(^e the true ox-blood red, which with the Chi-
nese was the result of accident rather than an established art.
The body is the true stone, perfectly water-proof, and capable of
resisting as high a degree of heat as any known ware. The forms
of the vases are simple, with curving outlines, and entirely devoid
of ornamentation which would tend to impair the beauty of
color, which is that of fresh arterial blood, possessing a golden

164

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lustre, whicli in the liglit glistens with all the gorgeous hues of
a sunset sky. In experimenting to obtain the blood- red of the
Sang de Imuf, varieties were produced of a deep sea-green,
"peach-blow," apple-green, mustard-yellow, greenish blue, ma-
roon, and rich purple. Specimens of this ware have been secured
by a number of prominent collectors throughout the United
States, but the demand for works of this character being limited,
the remaining examples which were produced still rest on the
dusty shelves in the Chelsea workshop. The history of the dis-
covery of this process is a repetition of the old story of genius

Fig. 12.— Plaque representing Spring. (Designed by H. C. Eobertson, 1879.)

After twenty-four years of devotion to art, Mr. Robertson finds
himself unable to prosecute the work further, and for over two
years the fires have not been lighted in his kilns. It is difficult
to explain the apparent indifference of Americans to works of
artistic merit which emanate from their countrvmen.*

* Since writing the above, word comes to us that a company has been incorporated
under the name Chelsea Pot.oiv V. S., and date July 17, 1891, of which Mr. Hugh C. Rob-
ertson will be the manager.

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY

165

Thus far we have attempted to review, in the briefest manner,
some of the earlier potteries in the United States. The space at
command has only permitted the bare statement of facts relating
to the condition of the ceramic industry down to the period just
preceding the Centennial Exposition of 187G. It has not been
possible to refer to many establishments whose record would be
necessary to a full history of the development of this art. Let
us now see what progress has been made in the methods em-
ployed in this country down to the present time.

The potter's wheel used well into the present century was a
clumsy and primitive affair. It consisted of a perpendicular
beam, generally about two feet in height, surmounted by a circu-
lar disk a foot or so in diameter. At the lower extremity of the
beam or axis was a horizontal wooden wheel, four feet across,
possessing four inclined iron spokes which extended from the
beam to the rim of the wheel, which the workman pushed around
with his feet. He sat on a framework behind the wheel, while in
front were piled the lumps of clay to be manipulated.

Fig. 13. — Old-fashioned "Throwing Wheel."

A great advance was made in potters' machinery a few years
later, or in the first quarter of the present century, when the
" throwing wheel " was introduced into the more prominent fac-
tories. This was composed of a plate or disk which was revolved
by means of a belt which passed around two spindles and ex-
tended to a large vertical wheel operated by a crank in the hands
of a second person. This upright wheel usually measured four,
five, or more feet in diameter, dej)ending on the rate of velocity
desired ; the larger the wheel, the greater the speed to be attained.

i66

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The revolving plate at which the potter sat was often ten or more
feet from the crank-wheel, and the apparatus was therefore
cumbersome, besides requiring the services of an extra hand.
This contrivance was a great improvement over the old method of
turning, as it secured uniformity of motion and enabled the
operator to devote his entire attention to his work. This style of
wheel, in time, was superseded by the more simple form which is
worked by a treadle with the left foot of the operator, and is still
used in many of the smaller potteries. The subjoined engraving

Fig. 14.—" Kick Wheel (now used).

represents one of these "kick" wheels, as made at the present
time by Messrs. Taplin, Rice & Co., of Akron, Ohio. This firm
also manufactures a power- wheel such as is now operated in the
larger factories, which is so constructed that the velocity can be
regulated by a foot-lever.

The old methods of grinding and mixing clays by hand have
given place to improved mechanical processes. In olden times it
was customary for one or two men to manipulate the clay, which
was placed in a square tank sunk in the floor, with a wooden
shovel or paddle. Now this work is performed much more effect-
ively and rapidly by special machinery known as "blungers,"
"pug" and "grog" mills, etc. Some of the improved grinding
mills have a capacity of twenty-five tons or more per day, and the
agitating and mixing machines perform the work of many men.

I have in my possession a drawing of the old-fashioned slip
kiln used by Messrs. Tucker & Hemphill in 1832. This con-
sisted of a long horizontal brick fire-box, at one end of which
were built three partitions or pans, one after the other. In these
the slip was poured, and flues passing around the sides furnished
the heat necessary to dry the clay to the proper consistency.
This drying process was necessarily a slow one. The contents of
the pan nearest the fire-box would be ready for removal first, and

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 167

the others in succession. A recent invention has simplified this
process very materially. This device is a clay press consisting of
a series of sacks in which the slip is placed. The moisture is
forced through the bags by strong pressure, and the clay is ready
for use Mr. A. J. Boyce, of East Liverpool, Ohio, has recently
perfected an improved hydrostatic press, which is being intro-
duced into many of the more progressive factories throughout
the country. The illustration will convey a clear idea of the clay

Fig. 15.— The Boyce Clat Press, with twenty-fouk Cfiambkrs.

press used in reducing the slip to a workable mass. In each
chamber is placed a sack made of ten-ounce Woodberry duck,
which, if of the proper quality, will last some time. The moist-
ure is pressed through the fabric, and the clay, on removal, is
ready for manipulation.

"Jiggers" and " jollies " now greatly facilitate the manutact-
ure of circular and swelled vessels, such as jars, jugs, crocks,
cuspidors, and umbrella jars. A " jigger " is a machine which
carries a revolving mold, in which the clay is shaped by a former,
which is brought down into the mold and held in place by means
of a lever We give here an illustration of one of the jiggers
made by Mr. Peter Wilkes, of Trenton, N. J. A is the jigger-
head or receptacle in which the mold is placed, which is screwed
fast to the revolving spindle. 5 is a stationary iron column on
which the frame or sleeve C slides up or down. D is an iron tork

i68

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

which i)re vents the frame C from turning. E is the former or
profile which shapes the interior of the vesseh The lever or pull-
down, above the horizontal bar F, gives a transverse motion,
and forces the former toward the side of the mold. 1 and 2 are
adjustable collars which are fastened by screws ; 1 regulates the

distance to wliich the col-
lar or frame C must be
lowered to give the prop-
er thickness to the bot-
tom of the vessel, while
2 acts as a stop to pre-
vent the frame from be-
ing thrown up too high.

A " jolly " is a some-
what similar contrivance,
consisting of a table on
which is a revolving
mold with a single or
double pull-down.

The construction of
pottery kilns has changed
but little in the past fifty
years. The glaze kiln of
the Tucker & Hemphill
factory was made on the
French plan. It possessed
six fire - boxes and the
same numT)er of flues,
eight inches in width,
which passed through
solid walls and met in
the center. Besides the
central space there were
two circular passages,
one extending around the
circumference of the kiln
and another midway be-
tween this and the cen-
ter. Modern kilns are
generally made about
fifteen to sixteen and a
half feet diameter inside, and measure about the same in height
to the crown, with usually ten fire-boxes. In some of the
Western kilns slight modifications have been made in the lat-
ter for the employment of natural gas, which is used instead
of coal.

Fig. 16.—" Jigger."

THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY.

169

Until quite recently each establishment made its own saggers
or fire-clay" boxes in which the ware is burned, but now they are
made in large numbers by machinery and supplied to the
trade by the Trenton Terra-Cotta Company at a very low price.
In the manufacture of earthenware formerly, " cockspurs " were
used to separate the pieces when placed in the kiln. These were
small four-pointed objects of clay formed somewhat like the old-
fashioned caltrop, three of the arms resting on the lower vessel
while the upper supported another above. Three sjjurs being
used, it is evident that the upper surface of the lower piece would
show nine marks after coming out of the kiln, where the points
tore away the glaze, as in old Delft plates. The bottom of the
upper vessel would show three. " Cockspurs " and " cones " were
superseded by "pins" and by "triangles" and "stilts," having
three horizontal arms, equidistant, with double yjoints projecting
upward and downward. These were for some time made by hand
at the factories where they were to be used, but recently they
have been made in assorted sizes by machinery, and sold to pot-
ters more cheaply than they could be made by hand.

Labor-saving machines have greatly simplified the work of
the potter. Steam pow-
er has to a great extent
taken the place of hand
and foot power in run-
ning wheels, lathes,
" jiggers," and " jollies."
Steam grinding - mills,
"blungers," sifters, and
clay-presses now grind,
sift, mix, dry, and pre-
pare the clay for the
workman. There are
many other problems to
be solved, however, in
order to still further
cheapen the production
of utilitarian articles.
The committee appoint-
ed by the United States
Potters' Association to investigate the subject of potters' ma-
chinery, in their report presented at the convention held in 1890,
used the following language : " We think we can see in the dis-
tance a cloud no bigger than a man's hand, which we trust will
speedily increase to such proportions that the industry will feel
the outpouring of benefits such as have not entered into the
imagination of the potter's mind. We require only to get thf

VOL. XL. — 14

Fio. IT. — Slip-decorated Pie Dish. Allentown,
Pa., 1826.

170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

American mechanical mind turned in tlie direction of our need,
and we will not fear for the future of our business.

" We would urge upon the manufacturing potters that more
thought be given to this subject, and that they come in closer
touch with the best machinists of our several centers. Let the
practical machinist know our need. Much can be done ; much
must be done if we expect to hold our own. And what is our
own ? The American market for American manufacturers."

Note. — Several of the illustrations which appear in this paper are from pen-and-ink
drawings made from the original porcelains by Mr. Vernon Ilowe Bailey, a student at the
Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, Philadelphia.

[To be continued.']

PROGRESS AND PERFECTIBILITY IN THE LOWER

ANIMALS.

By Peof. E. p. EVANS.

WHAT we call institutions are only organized and hereditary
instincts, and are common to man and the lower animals.
The original social character of animals, which forms the basis of
their institutions, is also the quality that renders them capable of
domestication. Man simply takes advantage of this quality, and
turns it to his own account by bringing the animal into his
own domestic circle and service and making it a member of his
household.

In birds, for example, the conjugal instinct is remarkably
strong, or, as we would say in speaking of human relations, the
institution of marriage, either in its monogamous or polygamous
form, is firmly established and highly developed, and forms the
foundation of a well-ordered domestic and social life.

The paternal fox trains his young with as much care and con-
scientiousness as any human father ; the beaver constructs his
habitation with the foresight of a military engineer and the skill
of an experienced architect; the bee lives in well-regulated
communities, forms states, and founds colonies ; and the ant not
only cultivates the soil, plants crops, gathers in the fruits of his
labor and stores them for future use, and keeps other insects as
domestic cattle, but shares also the vicious propensities and domi-
neering disposition of man, waging war on creatures of his own
species and holding his prisoners as slaves.

These habits or customs have the same origin and character in
the lower animals as in man, being in both cases products of evo-
lution and undergoing modifications from generation to genera-
tion. Animal, not less than human, societies are governed by

PROGRESS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS.

171

their laws and traditions, and preserve a sort of historical con-
tinuity by which past and present are bound together in a certain
orderly sequence. Bee-hives which suffer from over-population
rear a queen and send forth with her a swarm of emigrants to
colonize, and the relations of the mother-hive to her colonies are
known to be much closer and more cordial than those w^hich she
sustains to apian communities with w^hich she has no genetic con-
nection. Here the ties of kinship are as strong and clearly recog-
nized as they are between consanguineous tribes of men.

Again, the statement that animal habits are fixed, and human
customs variable and improvable, is true only to a very limited
extent. Closer observation has shown the latter to be more stable
and the former more mutable than is generally imagined, espe-
cially if we compare the highest orders of animals with the low-
est human tribes. In primitive society and among savage races
customs remain the same for countless generations, and seem to
be quite as persistent and incapable of change as animal instincts.

Not only do animals, often in the course of a comparatively
short period, undergo marvelous transformations both of mind
and body, through the force of natural selection or by careful in-
terbreeding, but they are also led by circumstances and through
forethought to make conscious and intentional changes in their
manner of life.

It is curious to note the variety of characteristics distinguish-
ing members of the same family or genus. Thus, the European
cuckoo lays her eggs in the nests of other birds, and leads the life
of a shiftless parasite and shameless polyandrous vagabond. The
American cuckoo, on the contrary, has not yet learned to shirk
her maternal duties and domestic responsibilities, but, like an hon-
est and thrifty housewife and conscientious mother, hatches her
own eggs and rears her own young. The South African and Aus-
tralasian representatives of the cuculincB follow, in this respect, the
habits of the European bird. There is also a species of moloihrus,
which sometimes begins but seldom finishes a nest, like the hy-
pothetical man in the parable, who would fain build without first
sitting down to count the cost. She is seized occasionally with a
spasm of virtuous endeavor in this direction, but soon yields to
the greater comfort and convenience of imposing upon others the
burden of brooding and nurturing her offspring. Evidently she
turns the matter over in her mind, and, like Rousseau, reasons
herself into the belief that it is better not to assume any family
cares, but to cast. her children as foundlings upon the bosom of
public charity. " There are the goldfinches, thrushes, fly-catchers,
cardinal grossbeaks, and other fussy motherly fowl," she seems to
say, " willing enough to undertake the charge ; why not gratify
their low philoprogenitive passion, and thus enable me to devote

172 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

myself to more congenial pursuits ! " Still another kind of molo-
thrus leads the life of a squatter, never building a nest of her
own, but brooding in the abandoned nest of some other bird.

Many birds have, within the memory of man, made consid-
erable advances in architectural skill, and adoj^ted new and im-
proved methods of constructing their nests. This progress has
been observed especially in California since the settlement of that
country, and in all cases the young profit from the knowledge ac-
quired by their parents, and the improvement becomes a perma-
nent possession of the race. In places where they are particularly
exposed to the attacks of pugnacious sparrows, they have been
known to close the opening in front of their nests and make the
entrance on the back near the wall. In some instances this purely
precautionary and defensive change of structure, after its efficiency
had been tested in a single nest, has been adopted by the swallows
of an entire district. Orioles, according to the observations of Dr.
Abbott, finding that the bough from which they have suspended
their nest is too slight to sustain the weight of the full brood, at-
tach it by a long string to the branch above, fastening it securely
"by a number of turns and a knot." It would be difficult to say
in what respect the mental process leading to the adoption of such
a mechanical contrivance differs from that which causes an archi-
tect to buttress a weak wall.

The Baltimore oriole also adapts the texture and structure of
its nest to the exigencies of climate. In the Southern States it
selects a site on the north side of a tree, and builds of Spanish
moss loosely put together and without lining, so as to permit a
free circulation of air. Farther north it seeks a sunny exposure,
builds more compactly, and uses some soft material for lining.
The impulse to build is instinctive, but conscious intelligence is
exercised in modifying the methods of building to suit circum-
stances.

The same bird now uses yarn and worsted instead of vegetable
fiber for its nest, but it always selects for this purpose the least
conspicuous colors, such as gray and drab ; and yet the bird's gor-
geous plumage is proof, according to the theory of sexual attrac-
tion, that bright colors are pleasing to it. -Here we have an ex-
ample of eesthetic pleasure being subordinated to considerations
of safety; the prudent oriole, notwithstanding its fondness for
resplendent hues, choosing those colors which render its nest less
visible and more difficult to discover, and rejecting those which,
in other respects, are more gratifying to its fancy.

The tailor-bird of East India used to stitch the leaves of its
nest together with fine grass, horse-hair, and threads, which it
twisted out of wool ; since the introduction of British manufact-
ures it uses sewing-thread and the filaments of textile fabrics,

PROGRESS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 173

except in remote regions, where the ingenious bird still works on
in the primitive way. So, too, in America, birds in constructing
their nests everywhere turn to their account the products of
human industry and keep abreast with the progress of the age.
The materials employed correspond to the contemporary state of
civilization, and mark the periods of industrial development
through which the human race has passed. The wagtails, in a
watch-making district of Switzerland, have learned to build their
nests of fine steel shavings ; a nest of this kind, if preserved,
would indicate to the inhabitants of that country a thousand
years hence the kind of industry that was carried on by their
ancestors. Sjjarrows, which usually build in chinks of walls or
under roofs, if forced to build their nests in trees or other un-
sheltered places, cover them with a sort of hood to keep out the
rain. Buffon, who records this fact, adds : Uinstinct se ma^iifest
done ici par un sentiment iwesque raisonne et qui suppose au
moins la comiparaiso^i de deux petites idees. In the presence of
such clear manifestations of thought and reflection, it seems ab-
surd to speak of a " sentiment almost reasoned," or to indulge in
condescending baby-talk about " two little ideas,"

Apiarists now provide their hives with artificial comb for the
storage of honey, and the bees seem glad to be relieved of the
labor of making cells as their predecessors had done. Instead of
gathering propolis from the buds of plants, the workers stop their
hives with the mixture of resin and turpentine with which the
arboriculturist salves wounded trees, and readily substitute oat-
meal for pollen if they can get it. These facts, and many others
which might be adduced, suffice to prove that animals avail them-
selves of new discoveries and easier methods in order to increase
the comforts and conveniences of life.

Even instincts, which seem firmly rooted and are regarded as
characteristic of the class, are by no means so persistent as is
commonly supposed. The individual inherits, but soon loses
them if they are not brought into early exercise. A duck or
gosling, if reared in the house until it is two or three months old,
has no greater liking for the water than a chicken, and' if thrown
into a pond will scramble out, showing signs of great fear of the
element to which its web-feet are particularly adapted. An arti-
ficially hatched chicken does not attach itself to a hen more than
to any other animal, but follows its first associate, a child, a cat,
or a dog.

Buffon denies that animals are susceptible of what he calls
" the perfectibility of the species." " They are to-day," he says,
" what they always have been, and always will be, and nothing
more ; because, as their education is purely individiial, they can
only transmit to their young what they themselves have received

174 ^^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from their parents. Man, on the other hand, inherits the culture
of ages and gathers and conserves the wisdom of successive gen-
erations, and may thus profit by every advance of the race, and,
in turn, aid in perfecting it more and more/'

This assertion has been repeated by scientists of the ohl school
as though it were an axiom of natural history, instead of an arro-
gant anthropocentric assumption refuted by scores of well-au-
thenticated facts. The whole j^rocess of domestication, which is
to the lower animals what civilization is to man, and the possi-
bility of producing and propagating desirable qualities in the
race, run counter to Buff on"s theory. The value of a horse's pedi-
gree depends upon the transmissibility of distinctive characteris-
tics which were originally peculiar to some individual horse,
idiosyncrasies which commended themselves to man as worthy
of preservation, or such as in the natural struggle for existence
would assert and propagate themselves.

If the descendants of blood-horses do not inherit the individual
training of their sires, neither are the children of scholars or
m.usicians born with a knowledge of books or the ability to play
on musical instruments. What is inherited in both cases is some
particular disposition or endowment, a superior aptitude for the
things in which their progenitors excelled. Indeed, this heritage
is handed down in horses with surer and steadier increase, or, at
least, with smaller loss and depreciation than in human beings,
since they are mated with sole reference to this result ; and there
is no room left for the play of personal fancy and caprice, or for
social, sentimental, or pecuniary considerations, which exert a
baneful influence upon marriage from a physiological point of
view, and contribute to the deterioration of the race. This is
strikingly perceptible in some portions of Europe, where the
struggle for existence, and especially for high social j^osition, is
exceedingly intense, and a large dower suffices to cover u^d all
mental and physical deficiencies in the bride.

The scientific swine-breeder keeps genealogical tables of his
pigs, and is as jealous of any taint in a pure porcine strain as any
prince of the blood is of plebeian contamination. In both cases
the vitiation bars succession, the one condition of which is purity
of lineage. It is by the selection not only of the finest stock, but
also of the choicest individuals for breeding, that animals are
" progressively improved " both bodily and intellectually. This
is, perhaps, most clearly observable in hunting-dogs and race-
horses, which have undergone quite remarkable modifications
within the present century owing to the extraordinary pains
taken to develop and perfect their peculiar characteristics. In
some instances unusual births or freaks of nature are preserved,
and by persistently propagating themselves form the starting-

PROGRESS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 175

point of new species. A striking example of tliis perpetuation of
individual peculiarities is the sliort-legged and long-backed An-
con sheej), a comparatively recent product of ISTature rendered
permanent by the care of man. A pointer, greyhound, or collie
inherits and transmits to its offspring not only race attributes, but
also acquired aptitudes in the same manner and to the same de-
gree as a human being does who is distinguished for some special
faculty. There are prodigies of dogs which do not beget prodi-
gies of puppies, just as there are men of genius whose children
are by no means eminent for their intellectual endowments.

If the conceptual world of the lower animals is limited and
fragmentary, so is that of savages and of ignorant and unculti-
vated men, who live for the most part in the present and the im-
mediate past, and have a relatively narrow range of thoughts and
experiences. Long-lived animals, such as parrots, ravens, and
elephants, have an advantage over short-lived animals in the de-
velopment of intelligence. Civilized man, however, not only lives
his own individual life, and profits, like other animals, from the
wisdom of his parents and the influences of his environment, but
also, by means of written records, lives the life of the race, of
which he enjoys the selectest fruits garnered in history.

It must also be borne in mind that dogs are and always have
been bred for special purposes, such as pointing, retrieving, run-
ning, watching, and biting, but not for general intelligence. Mr.
Galton, who calls attention to this fact, suggests that it would be
interesting as a psychological experiment to mate the cleverest
dogs generation after generation, breeding and educating them
solely for intellectual power and disregarding every other consid-
eration.

In order to carry out this plan to perfection and to realize all
the possibilities involved in such a comprehensive scheme, it
would be necessary to devise some system of signs by which dogs
would be able to communicate their ideas more fully and more
clearly than they can do at present, both to each other and to
man. That the invention of sucli a language is not impossible is
evident from what has been already achieved in the training of
dogs for exhibition, as well as from the extent to which they have
.learned to understand human speech by mere association with
man. Prof. A. Graham Bell believes that they may be taught to
pronounce words, and is now making scientific experiments in
this direction. The same opinion was expressed two centuries
ago by no less an authority than Leibnitz, who adduces some
startling facts in support of it. The value of such a language as
a means of enlarging the animal's sphere of thought and power
of conception, and of giving a higher development to its intel-
lectual faculties, is incalculable.

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Every dog trained as a hunter or herder is a specialist, and is
prized for one fine capacity attained in some degree at the expense
of mental proportion and symmetry ; in miscellaneous matters
outside of his province he may be easily surpassed by any under-
bred and mongrel but many-sided village cur. Modern scholarship
shows a like tendency to psychical alogotrophy or one-sided intel-
lectual growth. As science deepens its researches, each depart-
ment of investigation becomes more distinct, and the toiler in the
mines of knowledge is forced to confine his labors to a single lode
if he would exhaust the treasures it contains. He sees clearly so
far as his lantern casts its rays ; but all outside of this small
luminous circle is dense darkness.

If a race of superior beings had taken charge of man's educa-
tion for thousands of years and conducted it on the same princi-
ple as that which has guided us in domesticating and utilizing
the lower animals, what maimed specimens of humanity would
have been the result ! Slavery has always tended to produce this
effect ; but the slave, however degraded his condition, speaks the
same language as his master, thereby profiting from his inter-
course with those who are placed over him, and sharing in the
general progress of society more fully than any dumb animal
could do. So, too, the position which Christian intolerance as-
signed to the Jews for many centuries, closing to them all
branches of industry except usury, developed in them a peculiar
talent for finance, together with many hard and offensive traits
of character naturally growing out of money brokerage, and
finally becoming almost innate. In the middle ages they were
made to serve as sponges to suck ujd the people's substance in
order that it might be squeezed out of them at the convenience of
the rulers. King John II, surnamed the Good, issued in 1360 a
decree permitting the Jews in his realm to take, as compensation
for loaning money, " quatre deniers par livre par semaine,'' equiva-
lent to ninety per cent per annum, not from any feeling of favor-
itism for the Israelites, but, as he expressly stated, because " the
greater the privileges enjoyed by the Jews, the better they will
be able to pay the taxes levied on them by the king." This
" good " monarch was wont to confiscate periodically a large por-
tion of the pillage thus obtained in order to replenish his ex-
hausted exchequer, and was actually praised by his subjects for
punishing Jewish rapacity. It was a system of indirect taxation
Avorthy of modern tariff legislators.

In the early part of the thirteenth century, Frederic II, the
Hohenstaufen, ordained that the Jews should be permitted to dwell
in Nuremberg and to lend money on interest, stating that, "inas-
much as this sinful business is essential to trade and to the com-
mercial prosperity of the city, it would be a lesser evil to let the

PROGRESS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 177

Jews carry it on than that Christians should imperil the salvation
of their souls by such practices, since the former, owing to their
notorious obduracy, will doubtless persist in their religious per-
versity and be damned anyhow/' If the Jews now " take a breed
of barren metal " as naturally as a pointer takes to pointing or a
hound to the trail of a fox, this tendency is due in part at least to
circumstances which they did not create and could not control.
The chief accusation brought against them by anti-Semitic agita-
tors is that they are unwilling to follow industrial or agricultural
pursuits, in utter forgetfulness of the fact that until a compara-
tively recent date they were forbidden by Christian legislation
either to engage in mechanical employments or to own land.

The influence of domestication on the mental development of
animals depends upon the purposes which the domesticator has
in view. If he regards them merely as forms of food, and his sole
aim is to increase the amount of their adipose tissue and edible
substance and thus get the maximum of meat out of them, then
domestication tends to stupefy them. The intellectual training
of the pig would naturally diminish the quantity of lard it would
produce. So far as man is concerned, this latter function is the
chief end of the porker's existence, and it must not be tried and
found wanting in this respect, whatever may be its mental defi-
ciencies. It must be fat-bodied whether it be fat-witted or not,
and the natural qualities which do not contribute to its gross
weight and enhance its ultimate value as victuals are systemat-
ically discouraged and depressed.

In view of the treatment that the pig has received for centuries
at the hands of man, it is remarkable that the animal has re-
tained so much of its original cunning and love of cleanliness as
it now possesses. That a creature so fond of bathing in puie
running water should be condemned to a filthy sty is an act of
unconscious cruelty discreditable to human discernment. If the
sow that has been washed returns to her wallowing in the mire,
it is as a last resort in hot weather; she would much prefer a
clear pond or limpid stream if she could get access to it.

Being fed and protected by its owner in its domestic state, the
hog no longer needs to exercise the faculties which were essential
to the self-preservation of its wild progenitors. The stimulus
arising from the struggle for existence ceases, and, as it is reared
solely to be eaten, its association with man does not call forth
any new powers. In China and Polynesia, where the dog is
esteemed chiefly as food, it is a sluggish and stupid beast. On
the other hand, the pig can be trained to hunt, and not only
acquires great fondness for the sport, but also shows extraor-
dinary sagacity in the pursuit of game. It has an uncommonly
keen scent, and can be taught to point better than the pointer.

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Curiously enough, when the pig is used for hunting purposes, the
dogs, usually so eager for the chase, sullenly retire from the field
and refuse to associate with their bristly competitor in venery.
Possibly the hereditary and ineradicable enmity between the dog
and hog as domestic animals may be a survival of the fierce an-
tipathy which is known to exist between the wolf and the wild
boar. In Burmah the ringed snake is trained for the chase, and
is especially serviceable in flushing jungle-cock, since the reptile
can penetrate the thickest underbrush, where it would be impos-
sible for a dog or a falcon to go.

The tamability of an animal is simply its capability of adapt-
ing itself to new relations in life, and depends partly on its mental
endowments, but still more upon its moral character. It is quite
as much a matter of temperament and social disposition as of
quickness of understanding. The elephant, dog, and horse among
quadrupeds, the beaver among rodents, and the daw and raven
among birds, are, for this reason, most easily tamed, and show
the most marked and rapid improvement in consequence of their
daily intercourse with man. Intellectual acuteness without the
social affections and kindred moral qualities rather resists than
facilitates domestication. Of all domestic animals the cat was
the most difficult to tame, and it needed the patience and persist-
ence so strongly characteristic of the ancient Egyptians, sustained
by religious superstition, in order to accomplish this result. Even
now the cat, although extremely fond of its home and capable of
considerable attachment to persons, has never been reduced to
strict servitude and become the valet of man like the dog, but
has always remained to a certain degree what it originally was,
a prowling beast of prey.

Barking in dogs is a habit due to domestication. The wild
dog never barks, but only howls, like the Himalayan buansu, or
merely whines, like the East Indian colsum ; and the domestic
dog reverts from barking to howling when it relapses into its
primitive state. Wagging the tail is another mode of expression
which the dog has acquired through association with man. It is
well known, too, that a dog which has been reared by a cat adopts
many of the habits of its foster-mother, such as cleaning itself
with its paw; by continuously pairing such dogs and rearing
them under like influences it would be possible to produce a
canine species with feline traits, which should become jDermanent
and transmissible.

A recent writer. Dr. Leopold Schutz, professor in the theo-
logical seminary at Treves, who may be taken as an extreme
representative of the old orthodox school of zoopsychologists,
maintains that animals do not think, reflect, form purposes, or
act with premeditation of any kind, have no freedom, no choice.

PROGRESS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 179

no emotional or intellectual life of tlieir own, but that a higher
power performs all these operations through them as cunmng
pieces of mechanism. The bird sings, according to this theory,
without any personal pleasure or participation m its song ;_ it
sings at a certain time and can not help it, nor is it able to sing
at any other time. The living cuckoo is as automatic as the
wooden cuckoo of a Black Forest clock, and under the same
mechanical compulsion to sing its song when the appointed hour
arrives Altum, in his book on bird-life (Der Vogel und sem
Leben Miinster, 1868), infers from the fact that a bird smgs more
in the pairing season than at other seasons of the year, that its
sono- is a "natural necessity," in which it takes no individual
pleasure But this conclusion by no means follows from the
premises. The song is a means to an end, and has for its final
obiect sexual attraction and selection. One would snrely not be
iustified in inferring that a woman who dresses well, chieliy m
order to gratify her husband or her lover, finds no individual
aesthetic satisfaction in a fine gown ; or that a man goes a-woomg
from "natural necessity," and gets no entertainment out of court-
Prof. Schutz's doctrine that animals are mere puppets, whose
movements are determined by the direct intervention of higher
powers, seems to have been derived from what is recorded of the
relations of these creatures to holy men in the legends of the
saints, rather than from a scientific study of the book of Nature ;
his point of view is not that of the zoOpsychologist, but that of
the hagiologist.

The chief difficulty attending the investigation of mental
processes in animals is that they can not express themselves in
human language and explain to us their thoughts and feelings
and the motives underlying their conduct. We are thus liable
to misinterpret their actions and deny them many endowments
which they really possess, just as the first explorers of new
countries fail to discover in savages ideas and conceptions which
are afterward found to characterize them in a remarkable

degree.

We have happily rid ourselves somewhat of the ethnocentric
prepossessions which led the Greeks, and still lead the Chinese, to
regard all other peoples as outside barbarians ; but our percep-
tions are still obscured by anthropocentric prejudice which pre-
vents us from fully appreciating the intelligence of the lower
animals and recognizing any psychical analogy between these
humble kinsmen and our exalted selves.

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

TYPE-CASTING MACHINES.

By p. D. EOSS.

TN the composing-room of the New York Tribune some forty
-L type-casting machines have been used for several years. The
foreman informed me in October last that all the ordinary read-
ing-matter in the Tribune was being "set" by these inventions,
and expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the working of the
machines. As a rule, he said, not one of them was out of order,
and on the average each did the work of three fair compositors.'
In a printed circular issued by the patentees of the machine the
foreman, Mr. G. W. Shafer, declares that, compared with what
the same amount of setting would cost if done by hand by com-
positors, " the machines save the Tribune office sixty per cent—
probably more."

My object in visiting New York at that time was to look into
the type-casting process. The result of the visit was a conviction
that the problem of setting type by machinery has been solved.
Small printing establishments may not benefit from it for a
few years. Large establishments, particularly large newspapers,
may profit at an early date. The New York papers are looking
to this. The business manager of the World, Mr. G. W. Turner,
informed me that he had ordered one hundred machines. In
the composing-room of the Brooklyn Standard-Union I saw six-
machines working. I was informed that orders for machines had
been placed by the New York Sun, Herald, Times, and Mail and
Express. Outside of New York, the Louisville Courier-Journal
uses thirty machines, and says it saves fifty per cent of what
hand composition used to cost it. The Providence Journal uses
twelve machines, and claims to save two hundred and fifty dol-
lars per week. The Chicago News says it is saving fifty per cent
m the cost of composition. These are only some of the news-
papers which state that they have been using the machines
regularly and successfully during the past year. Four machines
ordered by the Canadian Government have been used in the Gov-
ernment Printing Bureau at Ottawa for some months, and, in
reply to a question in the House of Commons recently, the Secre-
tary of State, Hon. J. A. Chapleau, said that they were satisfactory
and economical.

^ All this goes to show that the type-casting principle has ob-
tained a practical footing in the market. In discussing the sub-
ject, I propose to confine myself as much as possible to my per-
sonal experience and investigations. If I state anything which I
do not know personally or have not been told at first hand by
disinterested persons, I will give the source of my information.

TYPE- CASTING MA CHINES.

181

What Type-casting is.— Before describing the type-casting
principle, allow me to review briefly the process of type-settmg

by hand. -.^ t .r -t «

In this process the operator, technically called a compositor,
has before him an oblong frame (or "case") divided mto a num-
ber of small open boxes. One box contains the a's, another tii^x
b's another the numeral I's, another the numeral 2's, and so on. >
In his left hand the compositor holds a little steel receivmg box,
called a " stick." With his right hand he picks out from the
« case " the letters he requires to form a word, and puts them one
by one in his " stick." The stick is the same width as the column
of his newspaper. Toward the end of each line in his stick he has
to pad out the line with lead slugs so as to exactly fill the width
of the stick ; this is called " justifying." When he has a certam
quantity of reading matter in his stick, say one tenth of a column
in length, he transfers the type to a "galley" or long_ stick.
By and by, when the galley is filled up, the type m it is. trans-
ferred to the large receiving form called a "chase," m whicn the
columns of the newspaper are made up to be placed on the print,
ing-press. Such, very roughly described, is the process ot type-
setting by hand. ^ • i ^. n
After the paper is printed the compositor must pick out all
the separate letters and numerals from the columns of type, and
put them back in the proper boxes in his "case." This is called
" distributing." The " distribution " occupies about one fifth of a
compositor's whole working-time.

In all this, civilization is to-day where it was five hundred
years ago, and almost where the Chinese were two thousand
years ag^'o. Alone of all the great inventions of man, type-setting
has stood still from its birth until now. In war and in com-
merce, on our farms and in our workshops, in travel and in our
homes, almost every mechanical process, once slowly and labori-
ously effected by manual or animal labor, has been quickened
generation after generation by new appliances or inventions, save
and except the work of type-setting. That is as slow now^ as
when Coster or Gutenberg did the first European type-setting
early in the fifteenth century. Printing has otherwise moved
with the rest of the world. Our printing-presses, our power, our
folding and pasting machines, all are wonderfully improved.
Nothing in all the world has developed more marvelously than
the printing-press. But type-setting has stood still. The ordi-
nary composing-room of to-day can work no faster and no better
than the composing-room of the fifteenth century.

With the type-casting machine should come a new era. The
operator needs only the intelligence which is required in a good
compositor. He does not require more than one tenth the tram-

182 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. .

in- Tims equipped, he can, I believe, do steadily and regularly
the work of three fair hand compositors. He does not handle
type; has no "stick-; is not required to do any justification nor
any distnbutiug. He sits in front of a machine and works a
key-board and a lever, and the machine does everything else

^ow to outline the working of the type-casting machine. A
key-board similar to that of a type-writer fronts the machine
There is a key for each letter of the alphabet. The operator
sits in front of the key-board. Let us suppose that he wishes to
set the word new." He touches the key n. The touch on the
key releases from a magazine in rear of the machine a mold
technically called a matrix, for the letter n. The matrix, which
IS of brass, slides down into a receiver near the key-board Next
the operator touches the key e. A matrix for the letter e is
released and slides down alongside the letter n. The operator
touches the key w. A matrix for w comes down and ranges itself
alongside e Now m the receiver we have, what ?-the word ne^o
m type ? No, nothing of the kind. We have three little brass
molds standing side by side, from which, if we poured molten
metal nito them, we would get the word new in a solid cast. But
there is no type. The machine knows nothing of type whatever,
tliough, for convenience' sake, we are calling it at present a type-
casting machine. -^

But the time is not come to put molten metal into the three
little molds or " matrices." An entire line should be set not
merely a word. Suppose the line is to be, "new things come to
pass." The operator proceeds to touch key after key for the suc-
cessive letters until the matrices for the whole line are ranged
side by side. Now at this point comes in what was for years the
great problem in type-casting by machinery. As the end of a
line of matrices or type is approached, it may not be possible to
fit m an even word or syllable. Padding, or " justifying," becomes
necessary. In setting by hand, the compositor does this with
little lead slugs, called " spaces," inserted between words. How
IS this to be done by a machine ? Inventors long stuck at it. But
they have found out how. The process is simple in action, though
difficult ^to describe without a model. Roughly speaking, the
" spaces " or slugs which are used between each word in the line
of matrices are compensating wedges, the bottoms of which pro-
ject below the matrices. When the line of matrices requires
justification," a touch on a lever by the operator causes the
bottoms of the compensating wedges to be struck by a cross-bar,
which forces the wedges up between the words until the line is
solidly filled out.

The line of matrices or letter molds is then ready to receive a
cast. Where is the molten metal ? It is in the machine. This

TYPE-CASTING MACHINES.

183

^Yonderful apparatus has a furnace for a heart and a melting-pot
for a stomach. The furnace, consisting of a series of gas-jets, and
the melting-pot, are in the lower part of the body of the machine.
In the pot, stereotype metal is melted. The pot is not very large,
because fresh metal may be put into it at any time when needed.
The same metal may be used over and over again as often as de-
sired ; it does not deteriorate.

A jet of molten metal is thrown into the matrices by a torce-
pump worked by the automatic action of the machine. The
metallic fluid, hardening almost in an instant, a property ot

The Typograph.

stereotype metals, forms a solid cast or bar, on the face of which
is the line "new things come to pass," and the machine automat-
ically ejects this cast or bar of letters into a receiver, into which
it is followed line after line by new casts with wonderful rapidity,
until in a short space of time a column of reading-matter m bars
is ready for the press. The speed of the machine is measured by

184 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the speed of the operator at the key-board. It can work as fast
as he can.

When a line of matrices has been utilized, the matrices must
be returned to their channels ready for use again. This is accom-
plished by ingenious contrivances as soon as the cast has been
made. The matrices being thus promptly returned, there is only
need for a few of each letter. Thus a few dozen of the little brass
molds do the work which in type-setting by hand needs a stock
of from forty to fifty pounds of type.

The Rival Patents.— There are two type-casting machines
on the market. These are the Mergenthaler or Linotype, and the
Rogers or Typograph. The Linotype weighs a ton, covers floor
space about six feet by six, stands seven feet high, and is sold for
$3,000, or rented for $500 a year. I have seen an expert operator
set at the rate of nearly eight thousand ems per hour on it from
a phonograph communicating with his ear. The proprietors claim
a regular practical speed of over four thousand ems an hour, which
is four times the speed a good compositor averages by hand, if
we include the time he must take for distributing. On the Lino-
type, the first time I ever touched a key-board, I set one hundred
and fourteen ems of strange copy in six minutes, or at the rate of
eleven hundred and forty ems an hour.

The Typograph weighs four hundred and fifty pounds, covers
floor space four feet by four, is four feet six inches high, sells for
$2,500, and rents for $365 a year. The proprietors claim a regular
practical speed of three thousand to thirty-five hundred ems per
hour. I have set one hundred and fourteen ems by the Typograph
in nine minutes. At the end of each line the operator at the
Typograph must stop to throw back the cap of the machine, a
movement which restores the matrices to their magazines. The
proprietors of the Typograph claim that it can work as fast as
will ever be practically possible on any machine. In other words,
they think that human beings will not be physically capable
throughout a whole working day of requiring as great a steady
speed as the Typograph can give.

The Typograph was submitted to a severe practical test in
September, 1890, by the New York World. An eight-page section
of the Sunday World, September 28th, was set by one machine
working continuously day and night for one hundred and nine-
teen hours and thirty-five minutes, or nearly a week. The object
of the test was to ascertain how the machine would bear a con-
tinuous steady strain. Three operators took eight-hour shifts at
the work. The machine— I was informed both by the business
manager of The World, Mr. Turner, and by one of the operators,
the foreman of The World composing-room— stood the test almost
perfectly. I measured the amount of setting done. It came to

TYPE-CASTING MACHINES.

185

one Imndred and fifty-six thousand ems of minion. As the ma-
chine was worked one hundred and nineteen hours, this shows an
average speed of only thirteen hundred ems per hour. At first
sio-ht this might seem disappointing. There were reasons why it
was not so. The three operators were compositors, and had had
only three or four weeks' practice on the Typograph. Owing

The Linotype.

to faults of the motor used to run the machine, it had to be worked
by hand-power one quarter of the time. The three operators not
only ran the machine, but they read the proofs, made the correc-
tions, set the headings, and made up the " forms " ready for the
press. Finally, the machine lost several hours' work through a
fault in a casting. Taken as a whole, it seems to me the test was
a conclusive proof of the practical success of the Typograph.

VOL. XL. 15

i86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Type-setting by Machinery.— Type-casting is quite different
from machine type-setting. Before contrasting type-casting with
ordinary hand type-setting, it may clear the way to outline the
principle of machine type-setting.

The type-setting machine has a reservoir of type, instead of a
magazine of matrices as in the casting-machine ; but, unlike the
matrices, which return to their magazine the moment a line is cast
from them, the type must go the whole way to the printing-press.
Otherwise, the action of the type-setting machine is somewhat
similar to that of the casting-machine. The type-setting machine
is also worked by an operator at a key-board. When the operator
touches a key, a type is released, just as a matrix is in the casting-
machine, and slides into a receiver, where it is joined by other
successive letters until words and lines are formed. As type is
directly used, there is no furnace or melting-pot about the ma-
chine. This is the only advantage it has over the casting-machine,
while compared with the latter it has serious drawbacks.

The type-setting machine seems to be a practical success, and
an improvement on type-setting by hand ; but, if for two reasons
only, it is doomed to be superseded by the casting-machine. 1. It
requires a heavy stock of type instead of a few matrices. 3. At
least two attendants are required to each machine, one to operate
the key-board, the other to justify the lines, attend to corrections
and superintend matters generally, and to distribute the type
again. Still, the business manager of the office in which the New
York Forum is printed, informed me that through their use he is
saving $1,700 a year in the setting of that monthly magazine,
which does not require in a year as much composition as a daily
paper in a month.

Comparison with Type-setting by Hand.— In any consider-
able quantity of straight reading matter, type-casting machines
as compared with hand composition should, if working success-
fully, effect a saving of from one fourth to one third the cost of
setting. Moreover, the setting is better. Perhaps this conten-
tion is best illustrated by figures. Those which I propose to
give are based on the conditions prevailing in Canadian news-
paper offices. Let us suppose an office in which one hundred and
twenty thousand ems of straight reading matter are set per day
in minion type. To fix ideas, we may describe this roughly as
equal to about twenty-five ordinary newspaper columns. Many
of the larger city papers in Canada print just about this quantity
of reading matter per day. The union rate paid compositors in
Canada is thirty-three and a third cents per one thousand ems.
One hundred and twenty thousand ems would cost, therefore, about
$40 for composition, apart from the cost of the type, foremen, office,
etc. Forty dollars per day would come to $12,000 per year of three

TYPE-CASTING MACHINES. 187

hundred working-days. Now, let us see what it would cost to do
the same amount of setting by the type-casting machines. These
are claimed by their proprietors to work at the rate of three thou-
sand to five thousand ems per hour in regular use. Making
allowance for the probability that operators could not keep up
such a speed all day, that mistakes have to be corrected, and ac-
cidental stoppages might occur, we may admit that the machines
can set an average of twenty-five hundred ems per hour during an
eight-hour day, or twenty thousand ems per day each, which is
little more than half what the inventors claim as practical. Six
machines could at this rate set one hundred and twenty thousand
ems per day. As already said, to set this by hand would cost
$12,000. The cost of the machine work would be —

Six machines at $500 rent each |3,000

Six operators at say $14 per week 4,308

Gas, say 1,000

Repairs, etc 500

Total $8,868

Or equivalent to a saving of $3,132 on the setting by hand, or
over twenty -five per cent. The estimate of $14 per week as
a fair rate for operators of the machines is not too low for a
Canadian ofiice. First-class compositors certainly do not aver-
age more.

As a further illustration, I may give the actual figures of cost
of a composing-room with which I am familiar. The setting
amounts to about sixty thousand ems in a nine-hour day, done
by ten to twelve comj)ositors. A number of the hands are paid
by the week, and the straight setting costs only about twenty-five
cents per thousand ; or, for sixty thousand ems, $15 per day — equal
for three hundred days to $4,500 per year. There is also a fore-
man at $14, an assistant foreman at $12, and a couple of lads at $3
each. These four, costing $32 per week, or $1,G64 a year, do all the
setting of space advertisements. There is $2,000 worth of type,
costing for interest say $140 per year, and requiring renewal at the
rate of say $400 per year, or complete renewal once in five years.
The cost of the composing-room is therefore somewhat as follows :

Composition by hand $4,500

Foremen, etc 1,664

Cost of type 540

Rent, heat, light, etc., say 500

Total $Y,204

To set sixty thousand ems in a nine-hour day, or six thousand
seven hundred ems per hour, would require say three type-cast-
ing machines, which at $500 rent would cost $1,500 per year, and.
the composing-room figures would be :

i88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Rent of machines $1,500

Three operators at $14 2,184

I'oremen, etc 1,C64

Gas for machines, say 500

Rent, heat, light, etc 500

Total $6,348

The saving would apparently be some $85G, or over twelve per
cent, while less room would be required, cleaner and better work
would be done, the labor better paid, and a higher class of opera-
tors employed. Later I will touch on some reasons why it might
not be safe to depend on type-casting machines in so small a busi-
ness. In a larger business there is little doubt in my mind that
the use of the machines is preferable to hand composition.

Finally, it is much easier to learn to operate the type-casting
machine than to learn to set type. To set type at the rate of a
thousand ems an hour requires two or three years of constant
practice. To set a thousand ems on the type-casting machine in
an hour requires no previous practice. It can be done the first
time a person touches a key-board. This seems a strong state-
ment to make, but I have the best of reasons for knowing it to be
true. I did it, as already described. Previous to making the at-
tempt I had never touched a key-board but once, and that was a
dummy-board. I had never touched a type- writer or any other
instrument the use of which might qualify one for operating the
type-casting machine. Being in the rooms of the Linotype Com-
pany in New York recently, I asked and received permission to
try the machine; and picking up a printed clii^ping from which
the operator had been setting, I went to work and in six minutes
set one hundred and fourteen ems, equal to one thousand one
hundred and forty ems per hour, stopping because the clipping
then ended. I repeated similar experiments on other machines
subsequently, with much the same average result. In short, I
was able to do with the machine at sight and without practice
what it would take me years to learn to do by hand. As to be-
coming expert on the machines, a number of operators whom I
have questioned agree that from three to six months' practice
enables one to attain a speed of three thousand to four thousand
ems from ordinary copy.

In fact, as I have stated, the only limit of speed on the Lino-
type is the rate at which the operator can move his fingers. He
can not work quite so rapidly as a type-writer, because at the end
of each line of matrices he must stop to touch the lever which
sends the line off to receive a cast. Supposing we allow twenty-
five per cent of his time for this, which is surely a large proj)or-
tion, we can get an idea of the possible practical rate of the ma-
chine by comparing it with the possibilities of a type-writer.

TYPE-CASTING MACHINES. 189

Upon a type-writer, a rate of sixty words per minute from dicta-
tion is not very higli. The Senate Hansard reporters of Canada
employ several type-writers who average from sixty to seventy
words and over for considerable periods of time. Allowing the
speed of the operator on the type-casting machine to be twenty-
five per cent less, we have at least forty-five words per minute as
the practical rate of the machine. This is equal to seven thousand
one hundred and five ems per hour. As alreadj^ said, I saw one
man at the Linotype set for half an hour from a phonograph at a
rate of nearly eight thousand ems per hour, and the setting was
as " clean " as that of the average compositor.

Summing up the comparison between hand setting and ma-
chine casting, I find : 1. The machine is much more easily learned.

2. No type is required. 3. Less space and fewer hands are needed
in the composing-room. 4. Setting is cleaner, and probably one
third cheaper. 5. Justification is automatic and perfect. 6. By
changing the matrices, which can be done in half an hour, a
different style of type becomes available. 7. " Leading " can be
done much more quickly. 8. There is no "pi-ing,^' or mixing up of
type. 9. Fewer typographical errors are likely. You do not
have inverted letters, nor mistakes due to the type having been
wrongly " distributed " in the case, which are a source of frequent
typographical blunders.

Drawbacks and Possible Complications. — It will be asked,
How is it that these remarkable machines have not at once sprung
into popularity ? — so cheap, so rapid, so easily learned, so econom-
ical ! How is it that so little has been heard about them ? Well,
the patents were only perfected last year, and the machines are not
yet being made fast enough to supply the demand. Meanwhile,
there are many possible complications, the fear of which must
cause the average printing-office to hesitate to try the machines. 1.
The machines require power to drive them effectively. The fail-
ure of power for any reason would seriously interfere with them,
although they can be driven by foot-power in an emergency. 2.
They require gas or gasoline for their furnaces; the failure of
the gas from leakage, or cold, or accident, would stop the machines.

3. The molten metal in the melting-pot must always be at a tol-
erably even temperature ; otherwise the casting is bad, perhaps
impossible. It is claimed that this difficulty has been overcome
in the Linotype, and that the temperature of the molten metal
is automatically kept at a temperature varying not more than
10° Fahr. A column of mercury is connected with the melting-
pot, and when the temperature causes the mercury to ascend
beyond a certain point, it lowers the gas-jets which supply the
heat. When the mercury descends below a certain point, it turns
on the gas more strongly. 4. The machines are composed of many

190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

parts, and if tliey get out of order in a town in which expert
mechanics are not at once available, their usefulness is gone
for that day at least. 5. They can set only straight reading mat-
ter, so that advertisements, display headings, cross lines, italics,
etc., must be set by compositors. 6. If a mistake of a letter is
made in setting by the machine, the whole line must be recast,
unless (which is not likely) the mistake is noticed the moment it
is made and the operator stops to rectify it by changing the
matrix. However, a whole line can be reset and recast almost
as quickly as a compositor can correct by hand a mistake in a
type letter. 7. It is a more serious drawback that if, in correct-
ing proofs, it is desired to insert additional words, a number of
lines may have to be recast. 8. The matrices in which the casts
are made are possibly liable to wear a little, and so to soon make
bad casts. Of course this can be remedied by getting new
matrices, which are not expensive. 9. In a small office where
two or three machines might be employed, there would probably
be only two or three expert operators ; if one took ill, the machine
would become almost useless for the time being.

Present Practical Availability. — A small printing-office
is hampered in many ways with regard to the use of machines,
nor can it safely, at present, take the chances of break- downs.
Where only three or four machines can be used, the stoppage of
one means a loss of twenty thousand ems of setting per day.
That is serious enough; but if the cause of stoppage should affect
all the machines, there must be a business dead-lock, because
small concerns, or rather concerns in the smaller centers of popu-
lation, can not at slight notice secure a staff of compositors to
replace the machines, or arrange for publication elsewhere. Even,
therefore, were the machines being manufactured as fast as
desired, it is questionable whether they would find a market at
present outside the large cities where expert mechanics can be
had to attend them at a moment's notice, and where arrangements
for special help or special publication can be made in an hour, if
necessary. But I think that in any office setting one hundred
thousand ems a day, or over, it would pay the proprietors to at
once procure machines sufficient to do at least half their setting,
retaining a certain number of compositors with them. I can see
no reason why this should not be a fairly safe experiment and a
financial success.

The machines are available on a very liberal basis. Either
company leases them at a moderate rental, agrees to take them
back if not satisfactory, to keep them in repair while used, and
to replace them with new machines in case of improvement of
the patent.

The typographical unions admit that the machines must be

TYPE-CASTING MACHINES. 191

accepted as a practical fact. The International Typographical
Union, at its last annual meeting in the United States, recom-
mended its subordinate unions, in cities in ^vlnch the machines
"me into use, to prepare a scale of prices for the -ork done, a.d
to urge that union compositors be employed as operatois. Ihis
is a sensible acceptance of a new order of things.

In conclusion, this is to be observed: There are heoretica
obiections to the machines in many small details which have no
been touched on in this article, partly because I wish to present
a clear general idea of the subject unencumbered by triviali-
ties- partly because to handle them would require complicated
and'technical descriptions likely to confuse those who have not
seen the machines, or who are not familiar with type-setting or
stereotyping methods and appliances. With regard to such
posdblf obiections, it should be remembered that the type-
casting principle scarcely now requires to defend itself against
fanciful opponents. It has been tried, and not found wantmg
As was stated at the outset of this article, a large number of
Linotypes have been successfully employed for ye^^s^^/;^
composing-room of a leading New York paper. I have tried to
deal with the chief possibilities of failure m the niachme and
it has been noticed that these possibilities seem to be chiefly m
connection with printing establishments of limited extent and
means Few of the drawbacks, it appears to me, would be seri-
ous in a large office employing machines, and located m centers
where the prompt assistance of expert mechanics can be had, and
my conviction of this is borne out by the New York Tribune's
experience. Such a test as the Linotype has received m that
office during five years is the most conclusive answer to technical
or theoretical objections to the principle of type-casting The
real problem with a publisher should be, not whether the ma-
chines are a success when used on a large scale, but whether his
own business is large enough to justify him in introducing them
into his own office. To use an exaggerated illustration, there is
no question but that a steam-locomotive is an infinitely more use-
ful powerful, and, on a proper scale, more economical affair than
a wheelbarrow; but a laborer building a bit of roadway may do
better with the wheelbarrow.

Mr Egbert T. Hill has observed, near the springs and water-holes of the
Cretaceous of central Texas, many workshops where the Indians manufactured
spears and arrow-heads. Near an old Comanche trail in Travis County almost
every flint seems to have been broken or tested. In evidence that the miplements
have been manufactured in the present century, the author adduces the facts that
they are always found on the surface, and that the Indians have actually used
them in their warfare with the white men.

192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

BREATHE PURE AIR.

By the Rev. J. W. QUINBY.

QNE of the saddest sights of our civilization is the spectacle of
w disease and pam which confronts us on every side It is
rare indeed to find even an individual perfectly well, to say noth-
ing of families and communities. But why is it ?

Barbarians and savages do not so suffer. May it not be in
part, because civilized communities do not sufficiently avail them-
selves of the sanitary influences of the air and light ^ It is in the
hope of helping to answer this question that the followino- notes
ot personal experience are herewith given.

A few years ago I read an article in i\^^ Popular Science
Monthly which seemed to prove the value of pure air as a pre-
ventive of ^ colds." The theory suggested was that colds may be
caused by the loss of a certain equilibrium between the oxyo-en in
the lungs and the carbon in the blood. It is true that this may
follow overeating, and so overcharging the blood with food ele-
ments ; but more frequently, it was thought, the lack of pure air
By acting upon this theory almost incredible results were said
to have been reached. The writer of the article alluded to
claimed that he had easily brought himself into a condition in
which It seemed impossible to take cold. He could sit in thin
clothing m winter at an open window. The ordinary causes of
colds, such as wet feet, overheating, and the like, seemed power-
less to produce their usual results.

With these statements in mind, I remembered some curious
facts of my own experience in the army in 1862 and 1863. I was not
strong, and indeed was hardly fit to be in the army at all. And
when I found myself exposed all day long to a steady rain,'and at
night to the outdoor air, with no fire, no change of clothing, no
shelter but a canvas covering open at both ends, through which
the rain dripped constantly, it seemed certain that the " death o'
cold '' so often predicted must surely follow. Why it did not
follow was more of a mystery then, however, than it is now. For
I was in a place where the art of man no longer excluded one of
the prime principles of health. I breathed pure air because I
could not help it. During a service of fifteen months, with severe
exposures, but fresh air constantly, the same immunity from colds
prevailed. I remembered, too, that when I came home from the
army the blessing and the curse— at least one of the curses of
civil life— came back together. I had comfortable rooms to eat,
breathe, and sleep in on the one hand, but very soon colds, sore
throats, and related troubles on the other. This was the se'cond
count in the argument for pure air.

BREATHE PURE AIR. 193

Finally, after nearly twenty years of suffering according to
the common lot of man, I resolved to try the pure-air cure, and
from that time to this the windows of my room have been open
almost constantly day and night. The result was immediate and
striking, and for the last seven years I have not had one serious
cold. My sore throats are wholly a thing of the past, and certain
other physical derangements not usually associated with colds
have also disappeared.

Like others, I have often to spend hours in crowded rooms.
It sometimes happens after such an " exposure/' as I prefer to
call it, that I suffer for a day or two from a " head-cold." But in
every case so far it has proved to be entirely superficial — a natural
and easy throwing off of the poison contracted in that crowded
room, followed by no serious effects whatever.

At this very moment in the house where I live there are twelve
persons, every one of whom, except myself and one other, is suffer-
ing from the effects of a cold. It certaiidy does look as if the ex-
emption I enjoy is due to the exceptional privilege of the pure
air to which I constantly treat myself. Perhaps it would help
the argument to state that nearly all of my father's large family
died of consumption.

It should be borne in mind that the difference between the air
of an ordinary room in which people live and that of the air out-
doors is far greater than is generally supposed. Do but think of
the emanations that constantly proceed from every object in such
a room — carpets, walls, and dra])eries. People say : " Oh, yes, we
believe in ventilation. We ojien the windows in the morning
and let the air draw through ; and at night we open the doors
of our sleeping-rooms. We believe in pure air." And I feel
like saying to them : " My dear friends, you know no more of
really pure air than the blind mole down in the ground knows
of sunlight."

I w^ould not by any means advise persons who have been liv-
ing in a close atmosphere to suddenly sit or sleej) in the draught
of an open w^indow. It is only by degrees that such changes can
be made with safety. But by degrees they can be made, and why
might not most i3eoj)le begin at least to make them ?

In the town where I live, in Massachusetts, a new system of
ventilation required liy the State has recently been put in opera-
tion in the high-school building. By means of it thirty cubic feet
of air, it is said, are furnished to every pupil every minute. It
seems to me this forward step in so vital a matter should be
heartily approved by every lover of humanity.

Meanwhile, it is painfully apparent that multitudes of people,
sick with constantly recurring diseases of the lungs and related
parts, continue to breathe the old foulness. Is it not worth while

VOL. XL. — 16

194

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to make some effort to change this condition of things ? Perliaps
half the money now spent on superfluities, if devoted to a better
system of ventilation, might very sensibly improve the health
and increase the happiness of the community.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

IV. EELIGIOUS DRESS.
By J'kof. FREDEKICK STARR.

UNDER this subject we shall consider a variety of different
matters — the dress of religious officers; the dress of wor-
shipers ; the dress of victims ; the garb of mourners ; amulets
and charms ; and the religious meaning of mutilations.

In any society we need io hnoiv four individuals only — the
babe, the woman, the priest, and the dead man. If we know these,
we know the community. The ethnographer usually seeks for
the average man in any tribe ; we believe he would better seek to
know these four. Of the four the priest is usually the most re-
markable. What
an influence the
shaman or the
m e d i c i n e - m a n
wields in every
community where
he exists ! His
power is largely
due to the terror
which he causes,
and to add to this
he makes use of
every auxiliary.
Thus in his dress
he aims at the
wild and gro-
tesque. By it he
seeks to mark
himself off as dis-
tinct from com-
mon men, and, al-
though it may often be rich and costly, it must at the same
time strike terror. The Kaffir sorcerer wears the ordinary kilt,
but puts a gall-bladder in his hair and winds a snake's skin
about his shoulders. A "queen of witches" wore large coils
of entrails stuffed with fat about her neck, while her hair was

Fig. 1. — Necklace of Sorcerer. Zululand.

DEESS AND ADORNMENT.

19:

stuck over in all directions with, the gall-bladders of animals
(Wood). In any collection of articles from. Alaska tribes a
large proportion of the specimens will be garments or parapher-
nalia of the shaman. A Tlingit shaman fnlly dressed for his
professional duties is a striking and terrible sight. Over his
shoulders he wears a neat robe of dressed skin, to which are hung

Fu;. 2. — Shaman's C^own. Alaska.

the beaks of puffins, ivory charms, and jingling bits of metal.
The charms are many of them neatly carved, and possess great
spirit power in the cure of disease and the driving out of witches.
A waist robe of the same material is adorned in the same way.
Upon his head the shaman wears a crown of horns. These crowns
are endowed with great spirit power. They are particularly in-
teresting also as an unusually fine example of our old law — that
old patterns are copied in new materials. The oldest type of these
crowns was made from mountain-goat horns. These were simply
carved with some design at base and were then attached to a head-
band— the upper ends of the horns being connected with one an-
other by a sinew cord. From ten to fifteen horns were used in
a single crown. Later this type was copied in mountain-sheep
horn and in wood — the material being carved out into little
bodies, like the horns of the mountain goat in size and shape.
Still later copper was rolled into horn-shajjed cones, which were
then connected in the same way. Over his face the shaman may
wear a wooden mask skillfully carved with grotesque designs.
These vary infinitely, but each part usually has its own mean-
ing and spirit power. Often there was worn a head-dress of
human hair. In the hands the shaman carries carved rattles

196

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wliicli make a loud noise, or carved wands of wood or ivory, pow-
erful in healing or in witchcraft. It must be noticed that here
every article has spirit power, and all or nearly all are calculated
to inculcate feelings of terror or dread. There are some special
articles, at times worn or carried by the shaman, which are very
interesting. Among them are the curiously carved hollow bone
tubes, used by the Haida shamans, into which the soul of a sick
man is tempted and kept prisoner until it is restored to him upon
his recovery to health. Every Tlingit shaman would carry also a
scratcher of stone or bone, carved neatly, which he uses in treating
the sick. It would be unlucky — disastrous — for him to touch the
patient with his hand, but the scratcher may touch him without
damage.

Turning from such savage garments to the dress of religious
officers in civilized communities, we no longer find the chief de-
sign to be production of ter-
ror, but rather to impress by
grandeur or magnificence.
Of course, the fundamental
idea in both is the same — to
mark off or distinguish the
priest from the layman. In
the vestments of priests we
find numerous cases of sur-
vival. What is meant by a
" survival " in religion is
well shown by the sacred fire
of various peoples. Among
the Sacs and Foxes matches
made by white men are com-
monly used for the produc-
tion of fire. On the occa-
sion of religious ceremonies,
however, the priest kindles
a fire by friction of pieces
of wood, using a sj^indle of
cedar rapidly whirled by a
bow between two boards of
the same kind. Such fire is
sacred, and is supposed to
come direct from heaven. It is, we think, perfectly certain that
anciently these Indians used the fire-drill as their only means of
kindling fire. As better means, such as flints, were found, the old
drill passed out of every-day use, but it lingered on in religious rite,
and still survives. In the same way, in Japan to-day, we are in-
formed by a Japanese friend, the Buddhist priests still use the flint

Fig. 3. — Dance-rattle. Alaska.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

19;

and steel in rites, although the common people use matches. What
the Indian medicine-man in Iowa and the Buddhist priest in Japan
have done in the matter of fire-making, the priests of the Roman
and Greek churches have done in the matter of dress. They have
brought down the past into the present. The garments of the
priesthood, of the acolytes and of the choir-boys in the cathedral,
is the civil dress
of ancient Rome
— modified, it is
true, and symboli-
cal in its modifica-
tion, but still rec-
ognizable. It is
the old southern
type of dress, pre-
served by the sec-
ond great con-
servative element
in society — the
Church — just as
it has been by that
other conservator,
woman.

In many parts
of the world men-
dicants and fakirs
are numerous.

They are men who on account of their piety expect to be sup-
ported by their more industrious but less pious fellows. Such
dress in a way to be readily recognized. In the garb they wear
two ideas are embodied : (1) individualization ; (3) extreme sim-
plicity symbolical of the poverty of the mendicant.

Another sort of religious dress is that worn by the worshipers
of some special divinity by members of religious orders and by
participants in some religious service. These are too numerous
and varied to be more than mentioned. In some of these cases
the dress is symbolical ; in many the symbolism has been lost.
Monastic orders have their characteristic dress, distinguishing
them alike from the world and from each other. Shakers, Quak-
ers, and Dunkards all present examples of this kind of dress.
The choir-boys in the cathedral and the acolytes might perhaps
be better mentioned here than in the preceding group. Matthews,
in his descriptions of Navajo ceremonies and dances, describes
carefully the way in which the participants dress or are painted.
Many of the masks from the South Sea Islands are used only in
religious or society dances, and are properly a part of religious

Fig. 4. — Carved Spikit-wands. Alaska

198

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

dress. The same is true of many of the masks of North Amer-
ican tribes. Similar in idea are the curious and often really beau-
tiful neck-girdles of red cedar bark worn by the secret religious
organizations of the Kwakiutl and their neighbors in the far
Northwest.

Somewhat akin to dress worn by worshipers and servants are
those garments worn by victims who are to be sacrificed to the
gods. At Teotihuacan in Mexico there have been and still are
found great numbers of neatly made little terra-cotta heads of
human beings. These are exceedingly various in design, the
differences being most marked in the head-dresses. There is con-
siderable uncertainty as to the purpose of these little heads, but
Mrs. Zelia Nuttall has written an article wherein is offered an
explanation that seems plausible. She suggests that they were
buried with the dead, and that the head-dresses represent those
worn by victims for sacrifice. That such victims were differently
adorned for different gods is certain, and it may be that these
pretty little relics really give representations of the way in which
they were dressed.

Some time perhaps civilized peoples will give up the wearing
of mourning for the dead. Why should any men or women force
their private griefs upon all about them ? Why increase the dole-
fulness of death ? No doubt many who wear black would say

that they do so from
respect for the dead.
Is it not in reality
because fashion dic-
tates it ? Mourning
dress is nothing new,
nor is it confined to
civilized races. Nor
is the color of mourn-
ing a fixed thing.
Black is very widely
used, but some peo-
ples use white. In
New Zealand old people paint themselves freely with red ochre
and wear wreaths of green leaves. Besides the wearing of a pe-
culiar garb or of a special color to show grief, the mourners may
disfigure themselves, or they may wear some relic of the dead
friend. The curious practice of cutting off joints of the fingers is
wide-spread. Among some American tribes, among Australians,
Africans, and Polynesians it is a sign of grief. The Fijians used
to chop off finger-joints to appease an angry chieftain, or for death
of a relative, or as a token of affection. In Tonga finger-joints
were cut when a superior relative was ill. In all these cases pres-

(.'.VRVEii St"NE Charms. Alaska.

DB^SS AND ADORNMENT.

199

■ent grief did not blind the mourner to future convenience, and
the joints cut were usually from the fingers of the left hand. In
the Andaman Islands, when a child dies it is buried under the
house floor and the building is deserted for a time. Finally, the
family returns ; the bones are dug up and the mother distributes
them among friends as mementoes. These bits of bone are gen-
erally worn as parts of necklaces. In Tasmania and Australia
portions of the dead are prepared
with some care and worn as sa-
cred and loved objects. Thus
the zygomata are broken from a
child's skull, sinews of kangaroo
are passed through the orbits,
and the whole is worn about the
mother's neck. A lower jaw
may be carefully and neatly
wrapped with sinew cord from
one condyle to the other and sup-
plied with a suspension cord.
Long bones, entire or partial,
were wrapped and worn in the
same way. These objects were
all highly prized, and Bonwick
says, " So many skulls and liml)
bones were taken by the poor

natives when they were exiled, Fig. fJ.—DANCE Ornament foe Arm. Made

that Captain Bateman tells me
that, when he had forty with
him in his vessel, they had quite a bushel of old bones among
them." These were in Tasmania, but similar relics abound
among the Andamanese. In Australia drinking-cups were made
from the skulls of the nearest and dearest relatives and car-
ried everywhere. The lower jaw was removed, the brain ex-
tracted, and the skull cleaned ; a rope handle of bulrush fibers
was added, and a plug of grass was put in the vertebral aperture.
All these may be considered as examples of mourning dress.
There has also been a great variety of dress for the corpse itself.
To describe such dress in any detail would be too much. Black
is often used for shrouds. In the Tales of Hawaii, as narrated by
King Kalakaua, frequent reference is made to the wrapping of
the dead in the black kapa. In the Society Islands the dead chief
is laid out in a special dress of shell.

In connection with relics of dead friends used as a part of cos-
tume, it may be pertinent here to refer to curious preserved heads
found among various tribes. They may be simply the heads
themselves, as trophies of war or reminders of friends, or they may

f^PaaMawBt^l^

• «(to>

I^My

^^^»

jB'«^g

IW^

^\

(

from human jaw-bone and empty nutshells.
New Guinea.

200

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be masks made in part from the heads of the dead. The former are
hardly a part of dress ; the latter are. Both kinds will be consid-
ered. The Dyaks of Borneo are famous " head-h^^nters/' and
often prepare their trophies with great care. Barnard Davis had
several specimens in his great collection, and he describes them
in his Thesaurus. One was a whole skull ; the lower jaw was
stained inside to a deep red ; it was fastened to the cranium by
rattan ; light, soft wood was fitted in the places of the teeth, into
the nostrils, and into the ear-holes ; other inequalities were filled
with red-brown resin. The entire skull was covered with tin-foil ;
two cowrie-shells made the eyes ; a small tuft of beard was made
of stiff black hair ; on the vertex and sides of the calvarium an
ornamental, regular, and symmetrical device was cut through the
tin-foil and painted red. These heads vary greatly in pattern and
treatment. They were kept in head-houses, and were looked upon
as treasures and as sacred objects. In the Solomon Islands, the
Marquesas, and New Zealand we find heads preserved for one or
another reason. Among the strangest of these most curious relics

are ihe heads prepared by
the Jivaros of South Ameri-
ca. These are trophies of
war. The heads are cut
from \.\\Q bodies of slain ene-
mies ; the brain and bones
are removed through the
neck ; the whole head is then
shrunken down. The result
is a strange, diminutive,,
black head, with abundant
and long hair, and with feat-
ures all preserved, but so
small as to be hardly recog-
nizable as those of a human
being. In all these Jivaros''
heads the lips are sewed to-
gether with cords, and in
some cases spiked together in
addition. If Bollaert is to be
trusted, this is done in order
that tlie head may not answer the abuse that is heaped upon it at
times ! In the same part of the world, among the Mundurucus,
are other interesting preserved heads. These are of full size %
they are partly shaved; ornaments of feathers are hung at the
ears; the eye-sockets are filled with black gum, into which are
inserted bits of shell. These heads are apparently those of friends,
not of enemies. In some respects akin to these real preserved

Fig. 7.— Dance-mask. South Seas.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

heads are the very curious skull-masks from certain South Sea
Islands. These are built up from parts of human skulls, pieced
out with wood, cements, hair, and ornaments into horrid repre-
sentations of faces. These are worn in dances and hence are true
objects of dress.

The subject of amulets and charms would, of itself, furnish
more material than could be used in our whole course of lectures.
Scarcely any trinket or odd
object exists that may not be
worn upon the person "for
luck," or to ward off danger
or harm. All jjeoples use
them. Savage, barbarian,
and civilized man are alike
here. Nubians are inveterate
wearers of charms. Theirs
usually consist of something
done up in a red leathern
case ; the contents must not
be known. For what will
charms not be worn ? I know
American mothers who buy
seeds — " Job's tears " — at
drug- stores, to string them
into a necklace to hang about
the baby's neck to ward off
eye troubles. The Bechuana
mother strings beetles of a
certain species and hangs them about the neck of her baby to lielp
it in teething. Prof. Putnam found metacarpal bones of birds
buried with babies in the little graves which he discovered under
the hard clay floor of old house circles in Arkansas and Missouri.
From analogy with modern Indian customs, he believes these were
charms to help the child in cutting its teeth. We can not find that
asafoetida is a specific for or a preventive of diphtheria, but we
did find a small Afro- American who wore a little bag of it about
his neck as a charm against the disease. Hundreds of Roman
Catholic boys do not take off the medals they wear about their
necks when they go in swimming, as these are a sure preventive
against drowning. One of the most precious and beautiful amulets
of history is that of which Moncure D. Conway tells us. It was
a treasure from the past, owned by the Emperor Louis Napoleon
III. It was set with a blaze of precious stones, the gifts of many
princes. It descended to the Prince Imperial, who wore it as a watch-
charm. He wore it when he was killed among the Zulus, and it
is gone, no one knows where. Ah ! if he had but known the rules

Fig. 8. — Dance -mask. South Seas.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of amulet-weuring among those people, and had worn it about
his neck ! No matter how precious it was, it would tlien have been
left untouched. The dead of battle may be stripped of every gar-
ment or ornament but that about the neck. No doubt the j)riceless
talisman of centuries is now the choicest decoration in some neck
ornament of claws and teeth and feathers. The most interesting-
charm of the American Indians is the " medicine." This may be al-
most anything to which the superstitious barbarian attributes some
supernatural jjower. Commonly it is the skin of some animal. In
many tribes, the boy who is approaching manhood withdraw^s to
the woods or to some lonely place, where he undergoes a long fast.
Weakened by his abstinence, he falls into a slumber, in which he
dreams of some animal. With recovered consciousness he hunts
for an individiuil of this species, kills it, and with great care re-
moves the skin. This is his " medicine," and to increase its power
various articles may be inclosed within it. To part with his medi-
cine would be most unlucky; worn or carried upon the person, it
serves as a powerful protector. We once purchased a medicine-
bag from a Fox Indian. Its
original owner was dead. It
was kept in a small pouch of
worsted, and consisted of the
skin of a mole, carefully tied
up and containing five different
kinds of roots and barks. One
of the most intelligent Indians
in the tribe refused to look at
the contents, assuring us that
it would cause him bad luck,
and was disrespect to the man
whose protector it had formerly
been. Among many Moham-
medans we find amulets worn
which consist of little pouches
containing strips of parchment,
on which are written jiassages
from the Koran. This suggests
certain practices of the Jews,
both ancient and modern. One
evening we had occasion to have a little Russian Jew boy try on
some garments. Several of his young friends came with him.
When he had removed his jacket and shirt, one of the boys eager-
ly called our attention to a queer little knitted garment worn over
the undershirt. At its four corners hung bits of blue worsted twist-
ed into a sort of tassel. The garment had little corner pockets into
which these blue twists might be tucked. " Did you ever see that

-Terra-cotta Ukai

J)Ji£SS AND ADORNMENT.

203

kind that Abraliam has on ? " asked Sammie. " No," we replied ;
" what is it for ? " Abraham himself replied that it was some-
thing he wore for luck and to help him, and that every morning
when he said his prayers he kissed these blue cords. We found
that most of the boys had these, though one said he had not, but
his father wore a large one which he let him kiss every day.
Sammie told us that he had a different kind which he wore on his
arm and on his forehead ; that it was made of leather. He volun-
teered to show us one, which
he did a few days later. Be-
fore he put this on for us he
washed his hands and face
and brushed his hair. He
also fasted until he took it
off, as he said he never wore
it except before breakfast.
Whatever the fringes of the
garments and phylacteries
may have been once, they
are now, with these children
and the more ignorant of the
adult Jews, nothing more
nor less than charms. It
will here be of interest to
quote some references to
these things. In Numbers,
XV, 38-41 : " And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying :
Speak unto the children of
Israel, and bid them that
they make them fringes [tas-
sels in the corners] in the borders of their garments throughout
their generations, and that they put upon the fringes of each
border a cord of blue : and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that
ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the
Lord, and do them. . . . That ye may remember, and do all my
commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord
your God, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be
your God."

As to the phylacteries, there is no such explicit direction as to
their making. The details were, however, very exactly arranged
by the religious teachers. The leathern boxes could be only made
of cowskin ; the thongs must be applied to the left arm and fore-
head in a particular way. The little box contains four passages
of Scripture — Exod. xiii. 'Z-\(), 11-14; Deut. vi, 4-9, 13-22 — written
on rolled strips of parchment. The ink used must be of a particu-

i. JO

Disks cut fkom Human Skui.l, uskk as
Charms. Illinois Mound.

204

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lar kind. Tlie purpose was to remind the Israelites of the " bring-
ing up out of the land of Egypt." The passages refer to that
event and also to the command, which forms the excuse for the
phylactery itself : " And these words which I command thee this
day shall be in thine heart : . . . And thou shalt bind them for
a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between
thine eyes,"

We shall close this rather rambling lecture with some sugges-
tions relative to the religious meaning of mutilations, some of
which were described in our first lecture, on deformations. We
must first realize how savage and barbarous man looks upon
blood. To begin with, he personally loves warm blood. He de-
lights to drink it, to eat flesh reeking with it, to dip his hands
into it, to splash his face and body with it. He has also some
curious notions regarding it. A Brazilian bathes his infant in
his enemy's blood, in order that the child may grow ujj a brave
warrior. In Oceania the warrior dips his lance-tip into the blood
of his slain foe to render himself invincible. In New Zealand the
body of the dead foe was eaten in order that his blood might
render the victor the heir of his bravery. Now, when savage and
barbarous man, with his love for and his notions regarding blood,
comes to think of higher beings, invisible but potent, whom he
wishes to ally to himself, how can he better gain their friendship

than by oft'ering to them blood ?
And the best sacrifice is his own
blood. Here we have the fun-
damental idea of every blood
covenant. There are of course
in any one instance other ideas
present. But whatever these va-
rious significant features may
be, in all we see a man trying
to establish an artificial rela-
tionship with a deity by the
shedding of his own blood. The
people of any one clan or family
worshiping the same god, the
peculiar mode of shedding blood
prevalent among them might
become a tribal mark or sign.
In Jewish circumcision — not
originally Hebraic, but Egyp-
tian— we see a good illustration of a blood covenant giving rise to
a characteristic tribal mutilation. We see, too, in it very clearly
a substitute for Iniman sacrifice (see Exod. iv, 24). In Gen. xvii,
7, 10, 11, 17, 23: "And I will establish my covenant between me

Fift. 11. — PoKTioN OF Human Skdll from
WHICH Chaems have been cut. Illinois
Mound.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT.

and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an ever-
lasting covenant ; to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
, . . This is my covenant : , . . Every male child among you shall
be circumcised ; . . . and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your
foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and
you. . . . And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were
born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every
male among the men of Abraham's house ; and circumcised the
flesh of their foreskin, in the self-same day, as God had said unto
him." We have no time, nor is it pertinent here, to consider all
that circumcision has to teach, nor to trace its wide-spread prac-
tice in varying forms. Enough to say that everywhere we find
underlying it the idea of sacrifice of one's own blood as a symbol
of compact with some deity, more or less clearly. The Jew and
the Egyptian circumcised, but many peoples do not do so. Such
may, however, have some other bodily mutilation; for instance, a
perforation as the
sign of a blood
covenant. Wher-
ever the part of
the body oper-
ated upon was
visible to every
passer, and the
operation itself
was a perfora-
tion, it might be
that some object
might be inserted
in the opening to
keep it open and
to render it con-
spicuous. In sucli
a way may have
arisen the use of
labrets and ear-
rings. These
plugs, at first
rude, may become beautiful. When tliis occurs, the original re-
ligious idea may be lost sight of, and tlie perforation may still be
made simply to admit of ornaments being worn.

The history of the ear perforation is particularly interesting.
In its origin this is no doubt as truly a sign of a blood covenant
as is the Jewish circumcision. It seems possible that the ances-
tors of the Jews were in compact with a god whose sign of cove-
nant was ear-piercing. After this god was renounced and Jehovah

Fig. 12.— Ceremonial Stone Adze with Carved Handle.
South Seas.

2o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

accepted, ear ]nerciiig among them was heathenism. Whether
this is so or not, it is certain that the descendants of Ishmael were
in covenant with such a god.

Judges, viii, 24, 25 : " And Gideon said unto them, I would
desire a request of you, that you shouhl give me every man the
ear-rings of his prey. For they had gohlen ear-rings, hecause they
were Ishmaelites. And they answered. We will willingly give
them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every
man the ear-rings of his prey." And the suggestion of the same
thing is very strong in Genesis, xxxv, 4 : " And they gave unto
Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all
their ear-rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them
under the oak which was by Shechem."

This sign of covenant with some other god than Jehovah crept
at an early day, like so many other customs of heathenism, into
the Christian Church. It has gradually disappeared. Lippert
says that in the early Church it was customary to have the ears
pierced, at the same time invoking the protection of saints against
disease. Gradually this dwindled to invocation of a single saint's
assistance against a single class of diseases — those of the eye. A
remnant of this still lingers among those people who, in our own
day and land, claim that they pierce their ears to help their eye-
sight. Such persons present us the last picture in a series the
first of which is a savage man, whose ears are pierced merely to
shed blood for the gratification of a deity whose aid he desires to
secure.

We have thus considered a large number of curious and inter-
esting points regarding dress and adornment. We have seen how
the curious deformations so widely practiced have arisen, and
how they are useful. We have queried as to the motives which
have led to dress development and its results. We have emj^ha-
sized the influence that the desire for adornment has exercised
upon man's progress. We have lastly shown how a large number
of articles of dress and ornament have come to have a religious
significance, and how many other deformaticms have begun in
connection with acts of worship.

The remains of an extinct species of swan are describeil by Mr. II. O. Forbes,
Director of tlie Canterbury Museum, New Zealand, as having been found in a
newly discovered cave near Christchiirch. Moa bones, with Maori relics — includ-
ing implements, carvings, a lock of hnir carefully done up, and other hair— were
found so associated as to "show incontestably " that the Maori and nioa were con-
temporaneous. Remains of various animals and other birds than the moa, which
had been used for food, were found, but no human bones. Some of the birds a]ipear
to have been of species now extinct in New Zealand, and not elsewhere described.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY, 207

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC
BOTANY.*

By GEOEGE LINCOLN GOODALE.
[Concluded.^

m Fruits. — Botanically sjjeaking, the cereal grains of
• which we have spoken are true fruits, that is to say,
are ripened ovaries, but for all practical purposes they may be
regarded as seeds. The fruits, of which mention is now to be
made, are those commonly spoken of in our markets as fruits.

First of all, attention must be called to the extraordinary
changes in the commercial relations of fruits by two direct causes :

(1) The canning industry, and —

(2) Swift transportation by steamers and railroads.

The effects of these two agencies are too well known to require
more than this passing mention. By them the fruits of the best
fruit-growing countries are carried to distant lands in quantities
which surprise all who see the statistics for the first time. The
ratio of increase is very startling. Take, for instance, the figures
given by Mr. Morris at the time of the great Colonial and Indian
Exhibition in London. Compare double decades of years :

1845, £886,888.

1865, £3,185,984.

1885, £7,587,523

In the Colonial Exhibition at London, in 1S8G, fruits from the
remote colonies were exhibited under conditions which proved
that, before long, it may be possible to place such delicacies as the
cherimoyer, the sweet-cup, sweet-sop, rambutan, mango, and
mangosteen at even our most northern seaports. Furthermore, it
seems to me likely that, with an increase in our knowledge with
regard to the microbes which produce decay, we may be able to
protect the delicate fruits from injury for any reasonable period.
Methods which will supplement refrigeration are sure to come in
the very near future, so that, even in a country so vast as our
own, the most perishable fruits will be transported through its
length and breadth without harm.

The canning industry and swift transportation are likely to
diminish zeal in searching for new fruits, since, as we have seen
in the case of the cereals, we are prone to move in lines of least
resistance and leave well enough alone.

To what extent are our present fruits likely to be improved ?
Even those who have watched the improvement in the quality of

* Presidential address delivered before the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, at Washington, August, 18E1.

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

some of our fruits, like oranges, can liardly realize how great has
been the improvement within historic times in the character of
certain pears, apples, and so on.

The term historic is used advisedly, for there are prehistoric
fruits which might serve as a point of departure in the consider-
ation of the question. In the ruins of the lake-dwellings in Switz-
erland * charred apples have been found, which are, in some
cases, plainly of small size, hardly equaling ordinary crab-apples.
But, as Dr. Sturtevant has shown, in certain directions there has
been no marked change of type ; the change is in quality.

In comparing the earlier descriptions of fruits with modern
accounts it is well to remember that the high standards by which
fruits are now judged are of recent establishment. Fruits which
would once have been esteemed excellent would to-day be passed
by as unworthy of regard.

It seems probable that the list of seedless fruits will be mate-
rially lengthened, provided our experimental horticulturists make
use of the material at their command. The common fruits which
have very few or no seeds are the banana, pineapple, and certain
oranges. Others mentioned by Mr. Darwin as well known are the
bread-fruit, pomegranate, azarole or Neapolitan medlar, and date
palms. In commenting upon these fruits, Mr. Darwin t says that
most horticulturists " look at the great size and anomalous devel-
opment of the fruit as the cause and sterility as the result," but
he holds the opj^osite view as more probable — that is, that the
sterility, coming about gradually, leaves free for other growth the
abundant supply of building material which the forming seed
would otherwise have. He admits, however, that " there is an an-
tagonism between the two forms of reproduction, by seeds and by
buds, when either is carried to an extreme degree, which is inde-
pendent of any incipient sterility."

Most plant-hybrids are relatively infertile, but by no means
wholly sterile. With this sterility there is generally augmented
vegetative vigor, as shown by Nageli. Partial or complete steril-
ity and corresponding luxuriance of root, stem, leaves, and flower
may come about in <>ther obscure ways, and such cases are famil-
iar to botanists.J Now, it seems highly probable that, either by
hybridizing directed to this special end, or by careful selection of

* Carbonized apples have been found at Wangen, sometimes whole, sometimes cut in
two, or, more rarely, into four pieces and evidently dried and put aside for winter use.
.... They are small and jrenerally resemble those which still ^row wild in the Swiss
forests ; at Robenhausen, however, specimens have occurred which are of larger size, and
probably cultivated. No trace of the vine, the walnut, the cherr}', or the damson has yet
been met with, but stones of the wild plum and the Primus padus have been found."
Lubbock, loe. cit., p. 217.

f Animals and Plants under Domestication (American edition), vol. ii, p. 205-209.

X Gray's Botanical Text Rook, vols, i and ii.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 209

forms indicating this tendency to tlie correlated changes, we may
succeed in obtaining important additions to our seedless or nearly
seedless plants. Whether the ultimate profit would be large
enough to pay for the time and labor involved is a question which
we need not enter into ; there appears to me no reasonable doubt
that such efforts would be successful. There is no reason in the
nature of things why we should not have strawberries without
the so-called seeds ; blackberries and raspberries, with only deli-
cious pulp ; and large grapes as free from seeds as the small
ones which we call " currants," but which are really grapes from
Corinth.

These and the coreless apples and pears of the future, the stone-
less cherries and plums, like the common fruits before mentioned,
must be propagated by bud division, and be open to the tendency
to diminished strength said to be the consequence of continued
bud-propagation. But this bridge need not be crossed until we
come to it. Bananas have been perpetuated in this way for many
centuries, and pineapples since the discovery of America, so that
the borrowed trouble alluded to is not threatening. First we
must catch our seedless fruits.

Which of our wild fruits are promising subjects for selection
and cultivation ?

Mr. Crozier, of Michigan, has pointed out * the direction in
which this research may prove most profitable. He enumerates
many of our small fruits and nuts which can be improved.

Another of our most careful and successful horticulturists
believes that the common blueberry and its allies are very suit-
able for this purpose and offer good material for experimenting.
The sugar^plum, or so-called shadbush, has been improved in many
particulars, and others can be added to this list.

But again we turn very naturally to Japan, the country from
which our gardens have received many treasures. Referring once
more to Prof. Georgeson's studies,! we must mention the varieties
of Japanese apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and persim-
mons. The persimmons are already well known in some parts of
our country under the name " kaki," and they will doubtless make
rapid progress in popular favor.

The following are less f amilar : Actinidia arguta and volubilis,
with delicious berries ;

Sfaunfonia, an evergreen vine yielding a palatable fruit ;

Mijrica rubra, a small tree with an acidulous, juicy fruit ;

ElcBagnus umhellata, with berries for preserves.

The active and discriminating horticultural journals in America
and Europe are alive to the possibilities of new Japanese fruits,

* American Garden, New York. 1890-'91. f Ibid. 1891.

VOL. XL. — 17

210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and it can not be very long before our list is considerably in-
creased.

It is absolutely necessary to recollect that in most cases varia-
tions are slight. Dr. Masters and Mr. Darwin have called atten-
tion to this and have adduced many illustrations, all of which
show the necessity of extreme patience and caution. The general
student curious in such matters can have hardly any task more
instructive than the detection of the variations in such common
plants as the blueberry, the wild cherry, or the like. It is an ex-
cellent preparation for a practical study of the variations in our
wild fruits suitable for selection.

It was held by the late Dr. Gray that the variations in Nature
by which species have been evolved were led along useful lines —
a view which Mr. Darwin regretted he could not entertain. How-
ever this may be, all acknowledge that by the hand of the culti-
vator variations can be led along useful lines ; and, furthermore,
the hand which selects must uphold them in their unequal strife.
In other words, it is one thing to select a variety and another to
assist it in maintaining its hold upon existence. Without the
constant help of the cultivator who selects the useful variety,
there comes a reversion to the ordinary specific type which is fitted
to cope with its surroundings.

I think you can agree with me that the p'rospect for new
fruits and for improvements in our established favorites is fairly
good.

IV. Timbers and Cabinet Woods. — Can we look for new
timbers and cabinet woods ? Comparatii^ely few of those in com-
mon use are of recent introduction. Attempts have been made to
bring into great prominence some of the excellent trees of India
and Australia which furnish wood of much beauty and timber of
the best quality. A large projDortion of all the timbers of the
South Seas are characterized by remarkable firmness of texture
and high specific gravity.* The same is noticed in many of the
woods of the Indies. A few of the heavier and denser sorts, like
jarrah, of West Australia, and sabicu, of the Caribbean Islands,
have met with deserved favor in England, but the cost of trans-
portation militates against them. It is a fair question whether in
certain parts of our country these trees and others which can be
utilized for veneers may not be cultivated to advantage. Atten-
tion should be again called to the fact that many plants succeed
far better in localities which are remote from their origin, but
where they find conditions substantially like those which they
have left. This fact, to which we must again refer in detail
with regard to certain other classes of plants, may have some bear-

* Useful Native Plants of Australia. By J. H. Maiden, Sydney.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 211

ing -upon the introduction of new timber trees. Certain draw-
backs exist with regard to the timber of some of the more rapidly
growing hard-wood trees which have prevented their taking a
high place in the scale of values in mechanical engineering.

One of the most useful soft-wooded trees in the world is the
kauri. It is restricted in its range to a comparatively small area
in the North Island of New Zealand. It is now being cut down
with a recklessness which is as prodigal and shameful as that
which has marked our own treatment of forests here. It should
be said, however, that this destruction is under protest ; in spite of
which it would seem to be a question of only a few years when
the great kauri groves of New Zealand will be a thing of the past.
Our energetic Forest Department has on its hands problems just
like this which perplexes one of the new lands of the South. The
task in both cases is double : to preserve the old treasures and to
bring in new.

The energy shown by Baron von Mueller, the renowned Gov-
ernment Botanist of Victoria, and by various forest departments
in encouraging the cultivation of timber trees will assuredly meet
with success ; one can hardly hope that this success will appear
fully demonstrated in the lifetime of those now living, but I can
not think that many years will pass before the promoters of such
enterprises may take fresh courage.

In a modest structure in the city of Sydney, New South Wales,
Mr. Maiden* has brought together, under great dilficulties, a
large collection of the useful products of the vegetable kingdom
as represented in Australia. It is impossible to look at the collec-
tion of woods in that museum, or at the similar and more showy
one in Kew, without believing that the field of forest culture
must receive rich material from the southern hemisphere.

Before leaving this part of our subject it may be well to take
some illustrations in passing, to show how important is the influ-
ence exerted upon the utilization of vegetable products by causes
which may at first strike one as being rather remote.

1. Photography makes use of the effect of light on chroma-
tized gelatin to produce under a negative the basis of relief
plates for engraving. The degree of excellence reached in modi-
fications of this simple device has distinctly threatened the very
existence of wood-engraving, and hence follows a diminished de-
gree of interest in box-wood and its substitutes.

2. Iron, and in its turn steel, is used in ship-building, and this
renders of greatly diminished interest all questions which concern
the choice of the different oaks and similar woods.

3. But, on the other hand, there is increased activity in certain

* Useful Native Plants of Australia. By J. H. Maiden, Sydney.

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

directions, best illustrated by the extraordinary development of the
cbemical methods for manufacturing wood-pulp. By the im-
proved processes, strong fibers suitable for fine felting on the
screen and fit for the best grades of certain lines of paper are
given to us from rather inferior sorts of wood. He would be a
rash prophet who should venture to predict what will be the
future of this wonderful industry, but it is plain that the time is
not far distant when acres now worthless may be covered by trees
under cultivation growing for the pulp-maker.

There is no department of economic botany more promising
in immediate results than that of arboriculture.

V. Vegetable Fibers. — The vegetable fibers known to com-
merce are either plant-hairs, of which we take cotton as the type,
or filaments of bast-tissue, represented by flax. No new plant-
hairs have been suggested which can compete in any way for
spinning with those yielded by the species of Gossijpium, or cot-
ton, but experiments more or less systematic and thorough are
being carried on with regard to the improvement of the varieties
of the species. Plant-hairs for the stuffing of cushions and pillows
need not be referred to in connection with this subject.

Countless sorts of plants have been suggested as sources of
good bast-fibers for spinning and for cordage, and many of these
make capital substitutes for those already in the factories. But
the questions of cheapness of production, and of subsequent prep-
aration for use, have thus far militated against success. There
may be much difference between the profits promised by a labora-
tory experiment and those resulting from the same process con-
ducted on a commercial scale. The existence of such differences
has been the rock on which many enterprises seeking to intro-
duce new fibers have been wrecked.

In dismissing this portion of our subject it may be said that
a process for separating fine fibers from undesirable structural
elements, and from resin-like substances which accompany them,
is a great desideratum. If this were supplied, many new species
would assume great prominence at once.

VI. Tanning Materials. — What new tanning materials can
be confidently sought for ? In his Useful Native Plants of
Australia, Mr. Maiden * describes over thirty species of " wattles "
or Acacias, and about half as many Eucalypts, which have been
examined for the amount of tanning material contained in the bark.
In all, eighty-seven Australian species have been under examina-
tion. Besides this, much has been done looking in the same direc-
tion at the suggestion and under the direction of Baron von
Mueller, of Victoria. This serves to indicate how great is the

* Useful Native Plants of Australia. By C. H. Maiden, Sydney.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 213

interest in this subject, and how wide is the field in onr own
country for the introduction of new tanning plants.

It seems highly probable, however, that artificial tanning sub-
stances will at no distant day replace the crude matters now
employed.

VII. Resins, etc. — Resins, oils, gums, and medicines from the
vegetable kingdom would next engage our attention if they did
not seem rather too technical for this occasion, and to possess an
interest on the whole somewhat too limited. But an allied sub-
stance may serve to represent this class of products and indicate
the drift of present research.

India Rubber* — Under this term are included numerous sub-
stances which possess a physical and chemical resemblance to each
other. An Indian Ficus, the early source of supply, soon became
inadequate to furnish the quantity used in the arts even when the
manipulation of rubber was almost unknown. Later, supplies
came from Hevea of Brazil, generally known as Para rubber, and
from Castilloa, sometimes called Central American rubber, and
from Maniliot Glaziovii, Ceara rubber. Not only are these plants
now successfully cultivated in experimental gardens in the tropics,
but many other rubber-yielding species have been added to the
list. The Landolpliias are among the most promising of the
whole : these are the African rubbers. Now, in addition to these,
which are the chief source of supply, we have Willughbeia, from
the Malayan Peninsula, Leuconotis, Chilocarpus, Alstonia, Fors-
teronia, and a species of a genus formerly known as Urostigma,
but now united with Ficus. These names, which have little sig-
nificance as they are here pronounced in passing, are given now
merely to impress upon our minds the fact that the sources of a
single commercial article may be exceedingly diverse. Under
these circumstances search is being made not only for the best
varieties of these species but for new species as well.

There are few excursions in the tropics which possess greater
interest to a botanist who cares for the industrial aspects of plants
than the walks through the garden at Buitenzorg in Java and at
Singapore. At both these stations the experimental gardens lie
at some distance from the great gardens which the tourist is ex-
pected to visit, but the exertion well repays him for all discomfort.
Under the almost vertical rays of the sun are here gathered the
rubber-yielding plants from different countries, all growing under
conditions favorable for decisions as to their relative value. At
Buitenzorg a well-equipped laboratory stands ready to answer
practical questions as to quality and composition of their products,
and year by year the search extends.

* See note (*), p. 11.

214 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I mention this not as an isolated example of what is being ac-
complished in commercial botany, but as a fair illustration of the
thoroughness with which the problems are being attacked. It
should be further stated that at the garden in question assiduous
students of the subject are eagerly welcomed and are provided
with all needed appliances for carrying on technical, chemical, and
pharmaceutical investigations. Therefore I am justified in saying
that there is every reason for believing that in the very near fu-
ture new sources of our most important products will be opened
up, and new areas placed under successful cultivation.

At this point attention must be called to a very modest and
convenient hand-book on the Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth
Century, by Mr. Jackson, of the Botanical Museum attached to the
Royal Gardens, Eew, which not only embodies a great amount of
well-arranged information relative to the new useful plants, but
is, at the same time, a record of the existing state of things in all
these departments of activity.

VIII. Fragrant Plants.— Another illustration of our subject
might be drawn from a class of plants which repays close study
from a biological point of view, namely, those which yield per-
fumes.

In speaking of the future of our fragrant plants we must dis-
tinguish between those of commercial value and those of purely
horticultural interest. The former will be less and less cultivated
in proportion as synthetic chemistry by its manufacture of per-
fumes replaces the natural by the artificial products, for example,
coumarin, vanillin, nerolin, heliotropin, and even oil of winter-
green.

But do not understand me as intimating that chemistry can
ever furnish substitutes for living fragrant plants. Our gardens
will always be sweetened by them, and the possibilities in this
direction will continue to extend both by contributions from
abroad and by improvement in our present cultivated varieties.
Among the foreign acquisitions are the fragrant species of Andro-
pogon. Who would suspect that the tropical relatives of our sand-
loving grasses are of high commercial value as sources of per-
fumery oils ?

The utility to the plant of fragrance in the flower, and the
relation of this to cross-fertilization, are apparent to even a casual
observer. But the fragrance of an aromatic leaf does not always
give us the reason for its being.

It has been suggested for certain cases that the volatile oils
escaping from the plants in question may, by absorption, exert a
direct influence in mitigating the fierceness of action of the sun's
rays. Other explanations have also been made, some of which are
even more fanciful than the last.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 215

When, however, one has seen that the aromatic plants of Aus-
tralia are almost free from attacks of insects and fungi, and has
learned to look on the impregnating substances in some cases as
protective against predatory insects and small foes of all kinds,
and in others as fungicidal, he is tempted to ask whether all the
substances of marked odor which we find in certain groups of
plants may not play a similar role.

It is a fact of great interest to the surgeon that in many plants
there is associated with the fragrant principle a marked antiseptic
or fungicidal quality ; conspicuous examples of this are afforded
by species of eucalyptus, yielding eucalyptol; Styrax, yielding
styrone ; Thymus, yielding thymol. It is interesting to note, too,
that some of these most modern antiseptics were important con-
stituents in the balsamic vulneraries of the earliest surgery.

Florists' plants and the floral fashions of the future constitute
an engaging subject which we can touch only lightly. It is rea-
sonably clear that while the old favorite species will hold their
ground in the guise of improved varieties, the new introductions
will come in the shape of plants with flowering branches which
retain their blossoms for a somewhat long period, and especially
those in which the flowers precede the leaves. In short, the next
real fashion in our gardens is probably to be the flowering shrub
and flowering tree, like those which are such favorites in the
country from which the Western world has gladly taken the gift
of the chrysanthemum.

Twice each year, of late, a reception has been held by the
Emperor and Empress of Japan. The receptions are in autumn
and in the spring. That in the autumn, popularly known as the
Emperor's reception, has for its floral decorations the myriad
forms of the national flower, the chrysanthemum ; that which is
given in spring, the Empress's reception, comes when the cherry
blossoms are at their best. One has little idea of the wealth of
beauty in masses of flowering shrubs and trees until he has seen
the floral displays in the Imperial Gardens and the Temple grounds
in Tokio.

To Japan* and China also we are indebted for many of the
choicest plants of our gardens, but th& supply of species is by no
means exhausted. By far the larger number of the desirable
plants have already found their way into the hands of cultivators,
but often under conditions which have restricted their dissemi-
nation through the flower-loving community. There are many
which ought to be widely known, especially the fascinating dwarf

* The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement. By Josiah Conder,
F. R. I. B. A., Architect to the Imperial Japanese Government. Yokohama, 1S91. See
also two other works by the same author : Theory of Japanese Flower Arrangements, and
Art of Landscape Gardening in Japan. (1886.)

2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shrubs and dwarf trees of the far East, which are sure to find
sooner or later a warm welcome among us.

X. Forage Plants.— Next to the food-plants for man, there
is no single class of commercial plants of greater interest than
the food-plants for flocks and herds. Forage plants, wild and
cultivated, are among the most important and highly valued re-
sources of vast areas. No single question is of more vital con-
sequence to our farthest West and Southwest.

It so happens that the plants on which the pastoralist relies
grow or are grown on soil of inferior value to the agriculturist.
Even soil which is almost sterile may possess vegetation on which
flocks and herds may graze; and, further, these animals may
thrive in districts where the vegetation appears at first sight too
scanty or too forbidding even to support life. There are im-
mense districts in parts of the Australian continent where flocks
are kept on plants so dry and desert-like that an inexperienced
person would pass them by as not fit for his sheep, and yet, as
Mr. Samuel Dixon* has well shown, these plants are of high
nutritive value and are attractive to flocks.

Eelegatiug to the notes to be published with this address brief
descriptions of a few of the fodder-plants suggested for use in
dry districts, I shall now mention the salt-bushes of various sorts,
and the allied desert plants of Australia, as worth a careful trial
on some of our very dry regions in the farthest West. There are
numerous other excellent fodder-plants adapted to dry but not
parched areas which can be brought in from the corresponding
districts of the southern hemisphere and from the East.

At an earlier stage of this address I have had occasion to refer
to Baron von Mueller, whose efforts looking toward the intro-

* Mr. Samuel Dixon's list is in vol. viii (for 1884-'85) of the Transactions and Proceed-
ings and Report of the Royal Society of South Australia. Adelaide, G. Robertson, 1886.
Bursaria spinosa : " A good stand-by," after the grasses dry up. Pomaderris racemosa,
" stands stocking well." Pittosporum phyllaeroides : " Sheep exceedingly partial to its
foliage." Casuarina quadrivalvis : *' Tenderness of fiber of wool would be prevented by it
in our finer wool districts." Acacias, the wattles : " Value as an astringent, very great,"
being curative of a malady often caused by eating frozen grass. Acacia aneura (mulga) :
" Must be very nutritious to all animals eating it." This is the plant which is such a
terror to the stockmen who have to ride through the " scrub." Cassia, some of the species
with good pods and leaves for sheep. The foregoing are found in districts which are
not wholly arid. The following are, more properly, " dry " plants. Sida petrophila : " As
much liked by sheep as by marsupials." Dodonwaviscosa, native hop-bush : "Likes warm,
red, sandy ground." Lycium amirale: " Drought never seems to affect it." Kochia aphylla :
" All kinds of stock are often largely dependent on it during protracted droughts."
Rhagodia parabolica : " Produces a good deal of foliage." Atriplex vesicaria : " Can be
readily grown wherever the climate is not too wet." I have transferred only those which
Mr. Dixon thinks most worthy of trial. Compare also Dr. Vasey's valuable studies of the
plants of our dry lands, especially grasses and forage plants (1878), grasses of the arid
districts of Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado (1886), grasses of the South (1887).

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 217

duction of useful plants into Australasia have been aided largely
by bis convenient treatise on economic plants.* It may be said
in connection with the fodder-plants, especially, that much which
the baron has written can be applied mutatis mutandis to parts
of our own country.

The important subject of introducing fodder-plants has been
purposely reserved to the last because it permits us to examine a
practical point of great interest. This is the caution which it is
thought necessary to exercise when a species is transferred by our
own choice from one country to another, I say by our choice, for,
whether we wish it or not, certain plants will introduce themselves.
In these days of frequent and intimate intercommunication be-
tween different countries, the exclusion of foreign plants is simply
impossible. Our common weeds are striking illustrations of the
readiness with which plants of one country make for themselves
a home in another, f All but two of the prominent weeds of the
Eastern States are foreign intruders.

There are all grades of persistence in these immigrants. Near
the ballast grounds of every harbor, or the fields close by woolen
and paper mills where foreign stock is used, you will observe
many foreign plants which have been introduced by seed. For
many of these you will search in vain a second year. A few
others persist for a year or two longer, but with uncertain tenure
of the land which they have invaded ; others still have come to
stay. But happily some of the intruders, which seem at first to
gain a firm foothold, lose their ground after a while. We have a
conspicuous example of this in a hawkweed, which was very
threatening in New England two years ago, but is now relaxing
its hold.

Another illustration is afforded by a water-plant which we
have given to the Old "World. This plant, called in our botanies
Anacliaris, or Elodea, is, so far as I am aware, not troublesome
in our ponds and water-ways, but when it was carried to England,
perhaps as a plant for the aquarium, it was thrown into streams
and rivers with a free hand. It spread with remarkable rapidity
and became such an unmitigated nuisance that it was called a
curse. Efforts to extirpate it merely increased its rate of growth.
Its days of mischief are, however, nearly over, or seem to be draw-
ing to a close ; at least so Mr. Lynch, of the Botanic Garden in
Cambridge, England, and others of my informants think. The
history of the plant shows that even under conditions which, so

* See note, p. 59.

f The weeds of German gardens and agricultural lands are mostly from Mediterranean
regions, but the invasions in the uncultivated districts are chiefly from America (such as
(Enothcra^ MimuJus, Ricdheckia). Handbuch der PJlanzengeograpJiie, von Dr. Oscar
Drude (Stuttgart), 1890, p. 97.

2i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

far as we can see, are identical with, those under which the plant
grew in its home, it may for a time take a fresh, lease of life and
thrive with an undreamed-of energy.

What did Anacharis find in the waters of England and the
Continent that it did not have at home, and why should its energy
begin to wane now ?

In Australasia one of the most striking of these intruders is
sweet-brier. Introduced as a hedge plant, it has run over certain
lands like a weed, and disputes every acre of some arable plats.
From the facility with which it is j)ropagated it is almost in-
eradicable. There is something astounding in the manner in
which it gains and holds its ground. Gorse and brambles and
thistles are troublesome in some localities, and they prove much
less easy to control than in Europe. The effect produced on the
mind of the colonist by these intruding pests is everywhere the
same. Whenever, in an examination of the plants likely to be
worthy of trial in our American dry lands, the subject was men-
tioned by me to Australians, I was always enjoined to be cautious
as to what plants I might suggest for introduction from their
country into our own. My good friends insisted that it was bad
enough to have as pests the plants which come in witliout our
planning or choice, and this caution seems to me one which should
not be forgotten.

It would take us too far from our path to inquire what can be
the possible reasons for such increase of vigor and fertility in
l^lants which are transferred to a new home. We should have to
examine all the suggestions which have been made, such as fresh
soil, new skies, more efficient animal friends, or less destructive
enemies. We should be obliged also to see whether the possible
wearing out of the energy of some of these plants after a time
might not be attributable to the decadence of vigor through un-
interrupted bud-propagation, and we should have to allude to
many other questions allied to these. But for this time fails.

Lack of time also renders it impossible to deal w^ith the ques-
tions which attach themselves to our main question, especially as
to the limits of effect which cultivation may produce. We can
not touch the problem of inheritance of acquired peculiarities, or
the manner in which cultivation predisposes the plant to innu-
merable modifications. Two of these modifications may be men-
tioned in passing, because they serve to exemplify the practical
character of our subject.

Cultivation brings about in plants very curious morphological
changes. For example, in the case of a well-known vegetable the
number of metamorphosed type-leaves forming the ovary is two,
and yet under cultivation the number increases irregularly until
the full number of units in the type of the flower is reached.

POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 219

Prof Bailey, of Cornell, has called attention to some further in-
teresting changes in the tomato, but the one mentioned suffices
to illustrate the direction of variation which plants under culti-
vation are apt to take. Monstrosities are very apt to occur in
cultivated plants, and under certain conditions may be perpetu-
ated in succeeding generations, thus widening the field from which
utilizable plants may be taken.

Another case of change produced by cultivation is likewise as
yet wholly unexplained, although much studied, namely, the mu-
tual interaction of scion and stock in grafting, budding, and the
like. It is probable that a further investigation of this subject
may yet throw light on new possibilities in plants.

We have now arrived at the most practical question of all,

namely— . j j 0

In what way can the range of commercial botany be extended .-'
In what manner or by what means can the introduction of new
species be hastened ?

It is possible that some of you are unaware of the great amount
of uncoordinated work which has been done and is now in hand
in the direction of bringing in new plants.

The competition between the importers of new plants is so
great both in the Old World and the New that a very large pro-
portion of the species which would naturally commend them-
selves for the use of florists, for the adornment of greenhouses,
or for commercial ends, have been at one time or another brought
before the public or are being accumulated in stock. The same
is true, although to a less extent, with regard to useful vegetables
and fruit. Hardly one of those which we can suggest as desirable
for trial has not already been investigated in Europe or this
country, and reported on. The pages of our chemical, pharma-
ceutical, medical, horticultural, agricultural, and trade journals,
especially those of high grade, contain a wealth of material of
this character.*

But what is needed is this, that the promising i^lants should
be systematically investigated under exhaustive conditions. It
is not enough that an enthusiast here, or an amateur there, should
give a plant a trial under imperfectly understood conditions, and
then report success or failure. The work should be thorough and
every question answered categorically, so that we might be placed
in possession of all the facts relative to the object experimented
upon. But such an undertaking requires the co-operation of many
different agencies. I shall venture to mention some of these.
In the first place— botanic gardens amply endowed for re-

* The list of economic plants published by the department in Washington is remark-
ably full, and is in every way creditable to those in charge.

220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

searcli. The Arnold Arboretum, the Shaw Garden, and the
Washington Experimental Garden are American illustrations
of what is needed for this purpose. University gardens have
their place in instruction, but can not wisely undertake this kind
of work.

In the second place — museums and laboratories of economic
botany. Much good work in this direction has been done in this
country by the National Museum and by the department in
charge of the investigation of new plants. "We need institu-
tions like those at Kew in England, and at Buitenzorg in Java,
which keep in close touch with all the world. The founding of
an establishment on a scale of magnitude commensurate with the
greatness and needs of our country is an undertaking which waits
for some one of our wealthy men.

In the third place — experiment stations. These may, within
the proper limits of their sphere of action, extend the study of
plants beyond the established varieties to the species, and beyond
the species to equivalent species in other genera. It is a matter
of regret that so much of the energy displayed in these stations
in this country, and we may say abroad, has not been more eco-
nomically directed.

Great economy of energy must result from the recent change
by which co-ordination of action is assured. The influence which
the stations must exert on the welfare of our country and the de-
velopment of its resources is incalculable.

In the last place, but by no means least, the co-operation of all
who are interested in scientific matters, through their observation
of isolated and associated phenomena connected with plants of
supposed utility, and by the cultivation of such plants by private
individuals, unconnected with any State, governmental, or aca-
demic institutions.

By these agencies, wisely directed and energetically employed,
the domains of commercial and industrial botany will be en-
larged. To some of the possible results in these domains I have
endeavored to call your attention.

The stock of diamonds, according to the calculations of Iron, has increased
enormously during the past fifteen years. The product of the African mines,
1,500,000 carats in 1876, was 4,000,000 carats in 1889. Still, the demand for
diamonds increases, and the price rises every year. The traffic in diamonds is
essentially different from all other trades in the single item that the product is
never consumed. While there is a perceptible wear even in gold and silver, a
diamond, once cut, is permanently added to the stock, and is liable to come upon
the market at any time. Yet a place and eager purchasers are found for all the
new ones.

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT. 221

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT.

By Pkof. WILLIAM MOEEIS DAVIS.

SEVERAL years ago, while walking down the lower Connecti-
cut valley with a party of students, we chanced upon a curi-
ous ledge of rock surmounting a low ridge hy the road that runs
from Berlin to Meriden, about half-way between Hartford and
New Haven. A scramble up the slope through a bushy growth
of young trees led to the foot of the ledge— a thick bed of gray-
greenish rock, not in layers like limestone or sandstone, not crys-
talline like granite or gneiss, but of a loose, structureless texture,
here and there carrying roughly rounded blocks of a dense, dark
rock which we knew to be an old lava, from its resemblance to
the rocks ejected from modern volcanoes. Although a ledge of
this kind is not of ordinary occurrence, its features were so well
marked that there could be little doubt of its nature and origin ;
it was a bed of volcanic ashes, interspersed with blocks or bombs
of lava that must have been thrown from some neighboring vent
long ago in the ancient time when the rocks of the valley were
made. The ash-bed lay upon a series of muddy sandstones that

Fig. 1.

had evidently been formed under water, for they were deposited
in layers, just as sand and mud are now when they are washed
into a pond ; and to all appearances the eruption of the ashes and
bombs had taken place during the accumulation of the sandstones.
The ashes had fallen into the water and settled down gently on
the soft, sandy mud at the bottom ; one of the dense lava blocks
was seen to have indented itself in the sandy layers, bending them
down on either side of it, just as if it had been an early product of

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the eruption, arriving here before the ashes, plunging down after
its lofty flight through the air, and sinking into the mud at the
bottom of the water. In this it recalls the reptilian footprints
that have made the sandstones of the valley famous. The old
reptiles walked over the mud-flats and left their heavy j)rints on
the surface to be buried under the next layer of mud ; the lava
block fell into the soft sandy mud and made its print, where it
still lies. Long may it rest undisturbed ! A poor indication of it
is presented in Fig. 1, copied from a photograph by a friend in
New Britain, Conn. All this was much more evident and more
easily interpreted than those who try to learn geology from books
are disposed to believe. Indeed, one of the students with me ex-
claimed : " This is the most realistic thing I ever saw ; I had no
idea that it could be so plainly made out." The ledge has been
visited by hundreds of persons from Meriden and the surrounding
towns, and a well-beaten j^ath now leads up to it from the road.
I have taken parties of students there every summer since then,
and hope to do my share toward beating down that path for
many years to come. But although the meaning of the ash-bed
is plain enough, there is a question suggested by it that is not so
easily answered. Where is the volcano from which the ashes and
bombs were blown out ?

The same question has arisen in other countries. For example,
in central France, in Auvergne, there are chalky beds that were
once a soft white mud, and in these lie bombs of lava, bending
down the layers on either side ; manifestly again the result of a
bombardment from some adjacent volcano. In the same district
there are beds of ashes and flows of lava, all indicating volcanic
outbursts in their vicinity ; but when the question is there asked —
Where are the volcanoes from which these products came ? — it is
easily answered, for many volcanic cones still stand up in plain
sight near by ; the lava-flows may be traced up to their bases, the
craters are still visible at the summits, and although no record
exists of their eruptions, it is manifest that at a relatively recent
prehistoric period these cones exhibited a brisk activity. I
walked over them a dozen years ago ; they make a delightful
strolling and sketching ground, and I remember well lunching
with a shepherd on one of their sunny slopes, and answering his
questions about distant America (Fig. 2).

We may look in vain for volcanic cones in the neighborhood of
our Meriden ash-bed bluff. There are hills and ridges all around,
butnowhere can we see the smooth and characteristic concave slopes
of a volcanic cone. To the south, there are several symmetrically
rounded hills, but they are convex, not concave, on the side, and
an examination of the road-cuts made in their slopes shows them
to be of anything but volcanic origin. They are " drumlins/' hills

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT. 223

o). They give no clew to the source
we 2:0 west or east of the ash-bed

COMt"^ _J.-^^-— ---

LAUCHADtCHC

of rubbish that were left there and given their even form when
the whole of New England was buried in a deep sheet of moving
ice, as Greenland is now (Fig.
of the bombs and ashes. If
ledge, there are high
ridges, six or seven
hundred feet above
the valley, with gen-
tle slopes on the east,
and bold, rocky cliffs,
descending to a long
stony talus on the
west. The one next
east of us is Mount
Lamentation ; it may
be well seen eastward
from the railroad be-
tween Hartford and
Meriden while the
train is passing a
pond. The ash -bed
ledge can be seen at
the same time under
the southern end of
Lamentation, but it is
not a conspicuous ob-
ject a mile away.
Lamentation and its
fellows are not the
least like volcanoes,

and yet they confirm the belief that volcanoes must have once
existed hereabouts ; for these high ridges are of lava, the edges
of great tilted lava-flows that were poured out at intervals during
the deposition of hundreds and thousands of feet of sandstones.
Our ash-bluff is indeed

only a part of one of
these parallel lava-
ridges ; when traced
north and south lava
may be found lying
on the ash -bed. Lamentation is higher, because its lava -flow
is much thicker than that in the ash-bed ridge, and therefore
has not been worn down so low. On the back of these flows, at
one point and another, may be seen the slaggy, bubbly surface
of the lava, like that poured out of Vesuvius or any other mod-
ern volcano ; but these ancient lavas have been deeply buried in

Fia. 2.

Fig. 3.

224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sands and muds, and tilted up and worn down, during the evolu-
tion of their present form. There is a quarry at Meriden where
one lava-sheet may be seen lying directly upon the scoriaceous,
ropy surface of an older one. Evidently, the region has witnessed
volcanic action, as the ash-bed implied. Perhaps we fail to recog-
nize the cone at the point of outburst because it has been partly
worn away. There are many volcanic regions where the eruptive
action is not so recent as in Auvergne, and where the cones are
consequently somewhat out of repair ; deep gulleys furrow their
sides and destroy their symmetrical form. Something of this may,
indeed, be seen in Auvergne, for the volcanoes there are not all
of the same age. Some are sadly wasted, and are recognized
as volcanoes only because their remnants of lava-flows and ash-
beds all slope away from a central lava-mass, which marks the
place of the vent. It is chiefly in this way that the Madeira Islands
differ from the Azores ; the latter possess many cones of regular
form, but the older volcanoes on the former are deeply dissected ;
so much so that it is difficult to reconstruct the original cones
from which the present rugged hills and ridges have been carved
out. The same contrast may be seen on a grand scale in the
Hawaiian Islands, as described by Dana. The most southeastern
of the group is the most recent. It is the largest, and is in the
best repair; not a volcanic cone of the usual steep-sided form,
indeed, but of long, smooth, gentle slopes, because its lavas were
too liquid when erupted to stand on steep slopes such as are
formed by heaps of ashes and cinders. Other islands farther to
the northwest in the same group are mere wrecks; their edges
are cut off by the waves, forming great sea-cliffs, their slopes are
scored by deep ravines and canons, and their once even profiles are
replaced now by sharply notched outlines. Yet nothing of even
those angular forms is to be found about Meriden. If the absence
of the cone from which the ashes came is due to wearing away,
it must truly have been worn out.

There is, however, another method of disposing of volcanoes
that has been practiced in Italy. The cone has either been blown
to pieces and scattered by violent eruptions, or has been allowed
to sink down by the withdrawal of lava from beneath its founda-
tions. In either case, a great basin, often holding a lake, marks
the site of the lost cone. There are several lakes of this kind in
Italy — Trasimeno, Bolsena, Bracciano, and others ; Sumatra pos-
sesses some huge basins of the same pattern ; but there are no
such basins in Connecticut. There are no lakes at all near Meri-
den, and the lakes in the back country are only old valleys ob-
structed by glacial drift.

There is an account of an old volcanic region out in New Mex-
ico that may, perhaps, guide our search. In the district of the

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT. 225

w^

Fig. 4.

Zuni plateaus, Dutton describes numerous relatively small iso-
lated buttes or sharply conical hills, steeper sided than volcanic
cones, of a different profile, and without the crater at the top.
They consist of dense lava, not in laj^ers spread out from a cen-
tral vent upon the surrounding surface, but in a solid mass with
columnar structure ; and
at their bases it is some-
times possible to see that
they are inclosed on all
sides by the country
rock. It is believed that
these buttes are nothing
more than lava - plugs,
frozen solid in the pipes up through which the lava rose at the
time of eruption from its deep source to the surface where it
overflowed ; but that the time of eruption is so long ago that the
cones and all the surface outpourings are worn away, and only
the stumps of the plugs remain to tell the tale. Fig. 6 attempts
to show the early and late forms, one below the other. Struct-
ures of the same kind are

known in the Black Hills, r^^^^

in Scotland, and elsewhere.
Perhaps this hint will help
us in understanding Con-
necticut.

There is one thing about
the ash-bed and lava-sheets
in Connecticut that is cer-
tainly favorable to the sug-
gestion given by the Zuni buttes. The lava-sheets are not now
level, as they undoubtedly were when they were poured out ; but
all the series of sandstones, ash-beds, lava-sheets, and the rest have
been lifted up together on the western side of the valley, so that
they slant down or dip to the eastward at a moderate angle. Stand-
ing on the bluff of the ash-bed, it is easy to trace its edge north and
south, and to perceive that it is continued slanting underground
on the east, and to imagine that it was once continued upward
into the air on the west ; for on this side the uplifting exposed it
to the patient, persistent attack of the weather, by which in the
course of ages it may have been greatly worn away. In the same
way, other lava-ridges in the neighborhood, such as Mount Lam-
entation and the beautiful Hanging Hills, are simply the worn
edges of lava-sheets that still plunge underground eastward, and
that once rose high into the air westward.

It follows from this new understanding that if the vent, from
which the ashes were blown and the lavas poured, lay to the east

VOL. XL. — 18

Fig, 5.

226

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Volcanic conS-

COMDVIT AND OVERI^Lg'*Vf.D *r THIS Lo/c ■

of the ash-bed ridge, it must be still underground and not dis-
coverable at present. It may be revealed to distant future ages,
but to us it is buried. But if the vent lay to the west of the
ridge, it may be discovered, not as the cone for which we looked
at first, but as a pipe or neck of lava. Indeed, it must in this
case be discoverable, for the lava and ashes must somewhere have

risen from a deep subterranean
reservoir, through the country
rocks, up to the surface ; and if
their point of escape lie west of
the ash-bed ridge, it must be in
sight somewhere. We may not
now hope to find the cone where
the lavas rose and burst out
through the body of water in
which the muddy sandstones
were accumulating ; we can not
now hope to discover the crater
from which the ashes and bombs
were scattered far and wide, and
from whose flanks the lava-floods
were poured over the low grounds
around about it ; but we may
hope to find a knob or hill where
the lava -pipe has been worn
down to an undetermined depth beneath the surface on which
its cone was built.

This seems to be the fact. Some ten miles southwest of Meri-
den lie the rugged Blue Hills, one of which is known as Mount
Carmel. These may be seen to the west of Wallingford, on the
railroad between New Haven and Hartford, or east of Mount
Carmel station on the New Haven and Northampton Railroad.
They consist of a network of thick necks and dikes of lava ; not
of loose texture like the ashes, not slaggy like the backs of the
lava-sheets, but dense and solid, as if they had been driven there
under great pressure. Mount Carmel and its fellows have not the
simple outline of the Zuni buttes; they are of irregular form,
corresponding to their complicated structure, as if a compound
fracture had been opened to give passage to the ascending lavas,
or as if repeated eruptions had forced their way surfaceward at
this point, every one increasing the size and complexity of the
lava pipes and cracks. There is no other vent of the kind to be
found so near to the ash-bed and lava ridges of the Meriden dis-
trict as Mount Carmel ; and while it is entirely possible that a
vent may exist at a less distance on the east, concealed beneath
the overlying strata in that direction, it is at least permissible

—

VV\fl

Sa HOT VET

EROoep. XHRO'

w

HI CM THE-

CONJ3U/T RIS£-S

"~"

F"RO/vi /SM

UAJKNOWN pEPTH.

J

Fig. 6.

THE LOST VOLCA.VOES OF CONNECTICUT. 227

and plausible to regard Mount Carmel and the Blue Hills as the
source of the ashes and bombs and lava-sheets over by Meriden
and up and down the valley.

The Blue Hills have rough slopes to climb, but the view from
their tops and the suggestion of ptist history that one gains there
pay for the labor of the scramble. It is easily understood that
the rocks are lavas and that they have ascended through the sur-
rounding rocks from some deep source. It is manifest that they
did not rise from below when the surface of the country had its
present form, for in that case they must have flowed down into
the low lands on all sides, and they must have had the slaggy
and scoriaceous texture characteristic of surface lavas. One can
not doubt that when the lavas of the Blue Hills were placed in
their present relation to their surroundings they were deep un-
derground, inclosed by rocky walls on all sides, and heavily
pressed upon by the mass above. They forced their way upward
from some deep reservoir of molten lava because the push upon
them was even greater than the heavy resistance from above.
They reached the surface at last, hundreds or thousands of feet
above the present summit of the Blue Hills, and there burst out
in true volcanic eruption, forming a conical island in the great
estuary in which the valley sandstones were formed. We can
hardly suppose that they built a grand cone, like Fujiyama, in
Japan, twelve thousand feet above sea-level ; perhaps they only
formed a small mound, like the little temporary volcanic island
that appeared in the middle Mediterranean in 1831, called Graham
Island, Isle Julia, and Nerita, by its various discoverers. But
the Blue Hills were undoubtedly in eruption more than once.
This may be safely inferred from the complex network of their
pipes and dikes, as well as from the repeated occurrence of lava
flows among the series of bedded rocks in the Meriden district.
In this respect, as in others, the Blue Hills were like volcanoes of
our times. Some of their outpourings were more plentiful than
others. Mount Lamentation is part of a lava-sheet whose thick-
ness must be from three to four hundred feet, and whose total
original area must have been at least two or three hundred
square miles. But the other sheets are not so massive as this
one ; they indicate eruptions of less energy. While the erup-
tions were going on there must have been a great scurrying
about of the old reptiles whose tracks are found on the sandstone
beds at various points in the valley ; perhaps the patient searcher
may some day find one of their skeletons buried under the ashes
of an eruption, just as the old Pompeians have been found buried
under the mud and ashes from the outburst of Vesuvius that
destroyed their city. During the intervals of rest between the
eruptions a luxuriant growth of tree-ferns may have clothed the

228

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

slopes of the volcanic island, for leaves of cycads are found in
the neighboring beds of shales. And yet all this is gone. The
volcanoes are only things of the imagination. The Blue Hills
mark the conduits through which they were fed with lavas, but
the cones are lost in the empty air above ; only the deep roots of
the structure are now preserved for us.

Perhaps the accompanying diagrams may aid the reader in
gaining a fuller understanding of the geological history of the
region. They are drawn from a wooden model that was prepared
for exhibition before the Geological Society of America at its last
winter meeting in Washington. The first (Fig. 7) represents a

block of the Trias-
sic formation, ly-
ing horizontally on
its deep crystalline
foundation, the
whole representing
a cube of about
ten miles on a side,
and hence showing
a hundred square
miles of upper sur-

— face. The oblique

lines across the top
need not be consid-
ered for the present.
The horizontal lines
around the sides
near the top are the interbedded lava-sheets, and all these, with the
sandstones and shales, lie on the upturned eroded edges of the
foundation of old crystalline rocks. The bedded rocks were spread
out in the old sinking estuary in deposits of great volume, aggre-
gating ten or twelve thousand feet in thickness at least, but al-
ways in shallow water, for they frequently show cross-bedding
and ripple marks, and sometimes mud-cracks and rain-drops,
and occasionally even foot-prints of various kinds. The famous
Hitchcock collection, in the Amherst College Museum, illustrates
all these features in great variety. During the period of accumu-
lation of the bedded rocks there were at least three epochs of con-
siderable volcanic activity. About half of the total thickness of
the strata had been deposited when the first outburst took place,
and this is the one that yielded the ashes and bombs at Meriden.
Its lava-flows spread many miles north and south, but gained only
a moderate measure of thickness, generally not more than a hun-
dred feet. These correspond to the bed marked A in Fig. 8,
which represents a magnified view of a corner of the block seen

Fig. 7.

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT. 229

in Fig. 7. When tliis first volcanic disturbance was over, the
accumulation of sandstones went on again, the sands were washed
in from the shores of the estuary and crept out over the back of
the lava-sheet ; the finer sediments settled down into the irregular
crevices in the surface of the flow, even filling little half-open
vesicles. A microscopic examination of specimens from these
contacts of lava and overlying sandstones brings back vividly the
condition of their deposition. Loose fragments of the lava, car-
ried a little way by the waves and more or less water-worn, were
mixed with the sands
for a few feet above
the lava, but they
were soon all buried.
Then things went on
for a long time about
as before the erup-
tion. The supply of
sediments seems to
have become finer
after a while, for a
bed of black shale is
found, with numer-
ous impressions of
fossil fishes and
plants, one of the
few traceable fos-
siliferous layers of
the entire forma-
tion. Then came

more barren sandy shales again. It is impossible to measure the
time of this quiet work in years, but after three or four hundred
feet of strata had been formed, another outburst of lava (M) took
place, and on a greater scale than the first. The lava-sheet formed
by this eruption is three or four hundred feet thick — thick enough
to have in all probability filled the shallow estuary wherever it
ran, transforming it into a level lava plain, like the plain of the
Shoshone River of to-day Bat the depression of the estuary
trough continued ; if the lava surface was at first above water
level, it was soon submerged and buried in sands and mud, repeat-
ing all the significant phenomena of contact that have been men-
tioned above. Then came another long period of quiet, broken by
a third lava outpouring (P) ; and after that, still more sandstones
and shales, until aqueous and igneous rocks had accumulated to a
thickness of perhaps two miles. At some time during this long
history a sheet of lava was driven in or intruded between the
sandstones near the bottom of the formation (marked I in Fig. 8) ;

Fig. 8.

230

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

it is easily known to be an intrusion by the dense texture of its
upper surface, and by the occasional brandies that rise from it
into the overlying beds, and by various other features in which
it differs distinctly from the overflow sheets or extrusions. But it
need not be further considered now.

In order to exhibit these relations of the igneous rocks to the
stratified deposits in a clearer manner, the model is constructed so
as to open on a diagonal section ( as in Fig. 9), and disclose the

Fig. 9.

pipe or chimney up through which the lavas rose from their deep
source. The volcanic cones, presumably formed at the surface
where the chimney opened at the three times of eruption, are here
placed in their proper positions in the series of stratified deposits ;
but even the topmost cone is supposed to have been entirely
buried by gradual submergence and by the accumulation of sands
and muds upon it. The intrusive sheet is shown near the bottom
of the stratified series. The whole series may then be named as
follows. First, a moderate thickness of bottom sandstones, often
conglomeratic ; then, the intrusive sheet ; next, the great series of
lower sandstones and shales, also sometimes conglomeratic ; then,
the three extrusive sheets, with their intervening sandstones and
shales. The first of the extrusions will be called the anterior sheet,
the middle one is the main sheet, the third is the postorior (for
reasons that will appear more clearly further on), and they are
separated by the anterior and posterior shales respectively. On
the top of all come the upper sandstones and shales. The whole
series is probably two miles thick, as already stated.

We may imagine in a general way that in time the estuarj^ was
filled with the detritus that was washed into it, and thus trans-
formed into a lowland plain, like that of the Po, between the Alps
and the Apennines ; or like the plain of California, between the
Sierra Nevada and the coast range. If it was not ultimately filled

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT.

231

up so as to form n land area, it was at least a subaqueous plain of
very even and level surface. The deeper layers of the formation
may have sagged a little toward the middle of the estuary on ac-
count of the progressive depression that the region had suffered
during the accumulation of the entire mass, but their departure
from horizontality was moderate. Yet at present the whole series,
with but trifling exceptions, inclines at an angle of twelve, fifteen,
or twenty degrees to the eastward. Evidently a serious disturb-
ance has affected the original attitude of the beds.

The eastward slant or dip of the series might be imitated by
tilting the model over
bodily, so that its up-
per surface should be
inclined to the east ;
but this fails to rep-
resent the dislocations
by which the mass is
known to be traversed.
The model was there-
fore made in several
parts, each of which
could be tilted inde-
pendently of its neigh-
bors, as shown in Fig.
10, the observer look-
ing southeast. It is

here made clear that while the dip of the beds is to the east-
ward, the course of the fractures by which they are dislocated
is northeastward ; this relation prevailing in a very constant
manner in the region of the Meriden ash-bed. The blocks into
which the mass is thus divided, five of which are shown in the
model, have been moved by moderate amounts on one another ;
the movement varies from a few feet up to two thousand. This
is called faulting, and its effect in this case is manifestly to break
up the continuous surface of the inclined plane that would have
been formed by simple tilting, and produce a discontinuous sur-
face, with steps from one part to another. If we may judge by
the angle at which the beds lie, the elevated edges of these dislo-
cated blocks must have once risen high into the air, producing
mountainous ridges of no insignificant relief. Yet at present
nothing of this ancient constructional form is apparent. The tilt-
ing and faulting were both done so long ago that no part of the
original surface remains. It has all been worn away. The best
evidence of the antiquity of the dislocations is found in another
State.

Down in New Jersey, the corresponding red sandstone forma-

FiG. 10.

232

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion is unconformably overlain by the Cretaceous strata of the
coastal plain, proving that the sandstones were not only tilted but
deeply eroded before the Cretaceous beds were laid upon them.
The formations in New Jersey and Connecticut are so much alike
that we may safely conclude that the period of dislocation was
the same in both ; hence we shall suppose that the Meriden sand-
stones and lava-sheets were tilted and faulted into the position
illustrated in Fig. 10 during the interval between Triassic and
Cretaceous time — that is, in the Jurassic period. From that time
to now their history is concerned chiefly with the erosion by
which their original constructional inclined planes have been re-
duced to their present surface of varied topography.

There is good reason to think that the history of the erosion is
a double one, comprehending first a longer cycle, and second a
shorter cycle of time. During the first cycle, the great relief of
the uptilted beds was reduced to a lowland of denudation, a sur-
face of a moderate relief close to the base-level of erosion, an
almost i^lane surface, a " peneplain " — the evidence of this being
found in the even uplands of the crystalline plateaus which now
inclose the Triassic valley on the east and west. No explanation
for the evenness of these plateaus can be found save the one which
regards them as having been reduced from some greater mass by
a long-continued process of erosion, at a time when the region

stood somewhat low-
er than now — low
enough to place the
present plateau-like
uplands close to sea-
level ; and the sand-
stones, shales, and
lava-sheets between
the two j)lateaus un-
doubtedly suffered
the same denuda-
tion. This is indi-
cated in Fig. 11, in
which all the ui:»per
part of the model as
shown in Fig. 10 has
been removed; the obliquely beveled surface of the beds now rep-
resents the lowland of denudation, or peneplain, to which they were
reduced. The effect of the oblique faulting is now rendered appar-
ent by the dislocations in the belts of the different outcrops. The
main sheet of lava, for example, is seen in each of the blocks into
which the formation is divided by the faults ; so is the belt of
shales lying under it, and so on with every member of the series.

Fig. 11.

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTICUT. 233

Indeed, the reader must perceive that it is only because the actual
facts of observation are thus arranged that the existence of the
faults is inferred. Most of the faults are of moderate displace-
ment; but just north of Meriden there is one whose movement
amounted to two thousand feet ; it cuts off the northern end of the
main lava-sheet in Lamentation and the southern end of the same
in the Hanging Hills group of lava-ridges. In following along
the line between these two dislocated portions of the sheet, every
ridge formed by the more resistant sandstones or conglomerates
is cut off in a most systematic manner, precisely according to the
pattern shown in the beveled surface of the model. The railroad
crosses this great fault about a mile above Meriden, but the trav-
eler will see nothing there to indicate the dislocation ; its con-
structional effects have all been worn out.

But the region is not now a plain. It is a rolling lowland
with occasional ridges formed on the resistant edges of the lava-
sheets. The cause
of this is found in
a moderate uplift of
the whole country
since it was reduced
to a peneplain, in-
troducing the sec-
ond chapter in the
history of its ero-
sion. After this up-
lift a new cycle of
erosive work was
undertaken, and we
now find ourselves
at a moderate ad-
vance in this division of the valley's history. The softer beds
have wasted away into lowlands, the harder ones still stand
up as ridges. In the adjoining crystalline areas on the east
and west, where most of the rocks are hard, the erosion of this
cycle has made comparatively little progress ; there the val-
leys are narrow and the interstream spaces are rolling up-
lands. In the Triassic belt, where most of the rocks are soft,
the erosion of the same cycle has made much greater prog-
ress and reduced the area nearly to a second peneplain, except
where the edges of the hard lava-sheets still hold up their crest
lines to give some indication of the elevation that the whole sur-
face once had. Here the valleys are broad and the interstream
highlands are reduced to narrow ridges. This stage is indicated
for our ten-mile-square area in Fig. 12, produced by removing
from the previous form of the model certain little slips by which

VOL. XL. 19

Fig. 12.

234

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 13.

it is transformed from a peneplain to a broken country. It is
practically in this stage that the region now stands. It has suf-
fered certain slight changes by glaciation, and by small vari-
ations of level ; but its main features are explained in accordance
with the scheme thus presented ; and from this general sketch we

may return to the
more especial con-
sideration of the lost
volcanoes.

Fig. 13 presents a
partial dissection of
the tilted and fault-
ed mass, in order to
show the relation of
the peneplain, pro-
duced at the end of
the first cycle of ero-
sion, to the volcanoes
from which the la-
vas were poured out.
The near corner
block is stripped down to the present stage of topographic form ;
the second represents the peneplain stage ; the other three retain
their constructional form. It is here made apparent that by rea-
son of the tilting, the volcanic cones were raised above the old
base-level of erosion, and were hence doomed to destruction in the
process of base-leveling. The further edges of their flows remain ;
the stump of the long chimney up through which their lavas rose
to the surface is still discoverable, but the cones, where the chim-
ney rose to the surface and gave forth the flows, are lost. Fig. 11,
which represents the completed peneplain, has no trace of them,
although the edges of the flows and the stump of the chimney
can be identified. Fig. 13. illustrating the present form of the
surface in a general way, shows no volcanoes, but it shows the
edges of the flows and the stump of the chimney better than be-
fore, because they, being hard rocks, have held up their edges,
while the surrounding weaker sandstones and shales have wasted
away. Thus the Blue Hills have been developed ; not by lifting
up their heavy summits above the surrounding surface, but by
holding hard to the form that they had at the end of the previous
cycle, while the surrounding rocks have lost it. Denudation has
not yet progressed deep enough to reveal the connection that
very likely exists between the chimney and the lower intrusive
sheet; this is still buried. Fig. 14 tells tlie same sequence of
events, but in very diagrammatic style.

The wooden working model from which several of these fig-

THE LOST VOLCANOES OF CONNECTLCUT. 235

Tires are taken is a very wooden affair ; it is rigid and straight-
lined, instead of varying in irregular curves after a natural fash-
ion ; yet it may serve to present concrete illustrations of the suc-
cessive stages through which the Meriden district has passed ;
and when thus viewed, the interest of the place grows wonder-

¥iQ. 14. — Diagrammatic View of a Faulted Monocline, between crystalline plateaus on
east (E. PI.) and west ( W. PL), to illustrate the general structure of the Connecticut Tri-
assic belt. Relative breadth much reduced. The supposed underground structure is
shown in a vertical section in the foreground, and the inferred overground structure (now
lost by erosion) in a vertical section in the background. A strip of actual surface lies be-
tween the two sections. The even peneplain, to which the whole mass was first reduced,
is shown by dotted lines at the level of the eastern (E. PI.) and western (W. PI.) crystal-
line plateaus.

fully. Its scenery is not grand or magnificent ; many other re-
gions exceed it in height of mountains or depth of valleys ; but
it has a fine story to tell about its lost volcanoes, and it tells the
story with great distinctness and emphasis when the listener
passes by.

Important literary discoveries have attended the labors of Egyptologists dur-
ing the present year. In January was announced the recovery of nearly a com-
plete copy of the lost work of Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens— a docu-
ment which throws new light on important events in Grecian history from the
time of Solon down to the age of Pericles. The examination of the papyrus
leaves of whicli certain coffins found at Tel Gurot, in the Fayoum, were made,
has resulted in the recovery of several fragments of ancient literature of greater
or less value; the most notable of which are a large part of a lost play, Antiope,
of Euripides, and of parts of the Pheedo of Plato, of a copy nearly contempo-
raneous with the authors, and furnishing a purer text than those from which the
modern editions of this work are derived. Much was expected from the ])apyri
found with the one hundred and sixty-three priestly mummies which were discov-
ered last spring at Deir-el-Bahari, near Thebes ; but, so far as they have been ex-
amined, they have afforded nothing more valuable than funereal texts.

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE TRAINING OF DOGS.*

By WEf^LEY MILLS, M. D.

AN analysis of our own psychic life, complex as mucli of it is^
- compared with that of the dog, shows that a great part of
our mental processes are not concerned with abstractions and
generalizations of a very high order, but with actual concrete
perceptions and conceptions; that we think in pictures rather
than words ; that our thoughts are the result of past associations ;
that the machinery of the mind or brain is so connected that
when one part is moved, so to speak, a whole series of connections
are established. Hence the psychic life of every creature must
be related essentially to its past experiences.

If this be true — and it can not be doubted — we think, then, the
puppy's intelligence, like our own, begins to develop, and con-
tinues to do so exactly in relation to its environment. We can
make that environment pretty much what we will ; and with the
dog, his master from the first, and always, is the principal factor.

Two extreme views have for a long period been entertained in
regard to the training of the dog ; the one that he is a wdld, way-
ward creature to be " broken," the other that he needs no special
correction if properly taught from the first. Neither is quite
correct.

A puppy full of life tends to do exactly as his impulses move
him, till the highest motive power, a desire to please his master,
is substituted. It follows that a puppy can not be too soon led to
understand that he has a master— kind, honest, intelligent, and
firm. He must be consistent with his puppy. All caprice i&
fatal ; it utterly confuses and demoralizes the dog.

Remembering that principle we laid down long ago, that the
dog is very like ourselves, we can indicate a few principles for
training that we think will meet the test of experience. The
puppy at one period is like a young infant, later like a two-year-
old child, and at the best most'dogs never get beyond the intelli-
gence of a young child in most respects, though in some qualities
the wisest man is far behind the dog.

For practical purposes the puppy may be treated as an infant,
but as a rapidly developing one. He gets his information through
his senses, and his training must be related to this, and to the fact
that he is a creature with strong impulses but little self-control.

It is a well-established law of the nervous system that what
has happened once is likely to occur again under the same circum-

* From advance sheets of the author's book. The Dog in Health and Disease, in prepa-
ration by D. Appleton k Co.

THE TRAINING OF DOGS.

^37

stances ; hence in the training of puppies first experiences are of
much importance, and all the arrangements of the kennel, and in
fact the whole environment, should be shaped in relation to this
principle.

The puppy should not be allowed to get into habits which will
later need correction. Let him from the first be encouraged in
cleanliness, self-respect, love of esteem, respect for the rights of
other puppies, his fellows, etc.

Very early begin to instill into him lessons of restraint, but
only for the briefest periods, for the creature is as yet weak in
brain and will power, though strong in instincts and impulses.

The master or trainer must not be associated in his mind with

The Smooth-coated Fox-Terkier Ch^^mpign The Belgraviak.

unpleasantness, but with the reverse. Do not, therefore, punish
him, but let him learn almost unconsciously that certain actions
and certain pleasures are connected.

He should soon learn his name, should always come when
called, but not be summoned too often, especially if playing. It
is well to carry a bit of biscuit, cheese, etc., to reward him for
coming at first. Later a pat of approbation will suffice.

238

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The trainer slioiild never undertake what he is not reasonably
sure of accomplishing; and the first aim should always be to
secure the dog's attention and interest, and to make the accom-
plishment pleasant. But he must know what is wanted, and if he
can not comprehend this, the lesson is unsuitable at this period.
He must, however, obey if he understands; gentle compulsion.

The Greyhound Fulleeton. Thrice winner of the Waterloo cup, the most valuable of all

coursing prizes.

when once the purpose is understood, may be exercised — e. g., if
he will not come when he is called, he must not be whipped, as
that will make the whole set of associations unpleasant, but he
must be gently dragged by the back of the neck or bodily carried
to where the trainer stood when the command was given ; he must
then be very gently reprimanded, then forgiven and made to feel
that he is forgiven, and the lesson repeated, always rewarding
obedience in some way.

Obedience to what is right pleasant, disobedience unpleasant,
is the rule for us all, dogs and men. On these principles yard
and house training is simple with well-bred dogs. They mean to
please if they can. Make obedience and right-doing understood.

THE TRAINING OF DOGS.

239

possilole, and pleasant, and it will be preferred, especially if the
wrong-doing is followed by the reverse experiences.

Dogs are not filthy in their habits, but some people who keep
them are, and others do not understand what is required to enable
a dog to follow his instincts of cleanliness. Where a dog has
once been to respond to Nature's call, he tends to visit again, and
this is a guide to enable us to avail of natural instinct to enable
us to maintain cleanly surroundings. The same general princi-
ples apply when dogs are taken afield to be worked on some sort
of game. At first the puppy may run toward almost every form
of life he sees. This is natural, and he would not be worth his
keeping if he did not show some such tendency to investigate the
world about him.

TAIL Sheep Dog.

But he must be restrained gradually. He must associate certain
acts with the approval and others with the disapproval of him he
respects, loves, and wishes greatly to j^lease if he only knows how.

But such is the strength of the impulses of some puppies—
now, we will suppose, six or eight months old— that they find it
very difficult to restrain themselves. In such case we must lessen
the stimulus or source of excitement rather than resort at once to
the application of the principle of making the act unpleasant, as
the use of a spiked collar or check-line.

240

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

These may later be useful in a modified form, but not at first ;
indeed, such methods are mostly quite unnecessary if a proper
course be pursued. To illustrate : Suppose that a brace of setter
puppies eight months old be taken to some wood where there is
but little game. If they tend to run wild without any reference
to the whereabouts of the trainer, and disregard his calls or his
whistle, it surely would not be wise to whip those puppies soundly
at once, attach a spiked collar or a check-line. To do so would
probably confuse them, humiliate them, and retard their develop-
ment in every way. Now, if the trainer secrete himself for a lit-
tle while, these puppies will probably get frightened a little, feel-
ing that they are lost, and will after this be more cautious how
widely they range. When they do come in they may be scolded,
but not whijDped at this stage.

The Pointer Champion Bbacket.

It should be pointed out that all dogs should be taught to come
in to whistle and to " down charge," or to drop at some word of
command or at the upraising of the hand. This applies to all
breeds, though more especially to dogs used in shooting, A dog
in the field should also be guided by the motions of his trainer's
hand. In learning this, the voice, the whistle, and often a long
cord will be useful.

But the author wishes to avoid giving the impression that

THE TRAINING OF DOGS. 241

there is only one way of accomplishing these things, as many
previous writers seem to have thought, with the result that many
who have attempted to follow these rigid rules have disgusted
themselves and spoiled their dogs.

It is to be remembered that all lessons require frequent repe-
tition. " Little and often " applies to training as a cardinal
principle.

The Bloodhound Champion Cromwell.

No one should undertake the training of a dog to work on
game who is not possessed of patience and good temper. Lack-
ing these, the puppy is apt to cause the trainer great worrj^ and
to get little good from him, if he be not actually spoiled. It is, in
fact, better to go afield expecting that the puppy will do nothing
as desired at first ; then one is prepared for the worst, and may
soon lay his plans to accomplish what he aims at, which must
always be done in relation both to the dog and the circumstances.

But with dogs example is strong for good or evil. A
steady, old trained dog is invaluable, while a disobedient, head-
strong one will most assuredly ruin the puppy. But it is clearly
foolish to expect a pappy under a certain age to work on game
with an older dog — indeed, to work on game at all — though rang-
ing, obeying the whistle, dropping, etc., should all be taught be-

Z4Z

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

fore the puppy is introduced to game. He must learn restraint
and obedience, though it must be confessed that a day's work on
actual game often quite transforms some puppies. But, as a
rule, ten or twelve months will be quite soon enough to introduce
a puppy to actual work.

Retrieving may be taught at home, using a soft ball of yarn,
etc. ; and if the puppy tends to bite on this, a few wires may be
pushed through it. He must always at first be rewarded, when
he brings the ball when thrown, with a little meat, cheese, etc.
The words " fetch," " seek," etc., may be employed. Soon he will

The Irish Water-Spaniel Champion Shaun.

understand, and seek when no ball is thrown. To get him to
"seek dead," some article msy be hidden, and at first some meat,
etc., must be employed, and the dog assisted to find it. Later a
real bird may be used, or a wing. The same word of command
should always be used. If the pujjpy will not bring the article —
will not retrieve — take him to the spot and place it in his mouth,

THE TRAINING OF DOGS.

H3

holding it there and obliging him to carry it and finally deliver
it to his trainer ; reward him, and then try him again.

Some dogs take to retrieving naturally, requiring no training,
while it is almost impossible to get others, often of high intelli-
gence, to learn this at all.

Most puppies need a good deal of attention before they are
perfectly steady on point, and to wing and shot, as their natural
tendency is to secure the game when they have found it. How
best to overcome this it is not always easy to decide. The dog
must be encouraged to remain steady while his trainer moves up.
Often the assistance of a second person to flush the bird will be

The Rough-coated St. Bernard Champion Sir Bedivere.

useful, while the dog is approached and encouraged but not
allowed to rush on. In this case a check-cord may be useful — to
be employed as little as possible. The examj^le of .a reliable old
dog is invaluable. Some form of check that will make the dog
defeat or punish himself is preferable to direct administration of
punishment by the trainer.

Gun-shyness is but an exaggerated form of fear of unusual
noises, and must be treated accordingly. Let the dog be gradu-

244 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ally introduced to louder and louder noises, never being allowed
to escape, but being made to see that no harm is meant liim or
can happen to him. As to whether it is worth while to attempt
to cure the worst cases will depend much on other circumstances,
as the dog's breeding, general intelligence, nose, etc. It may or
may not be inherited.

The author, in conversation with a very successful trainer of
horses, once asked : " Can you teach any horse these things ? "
^' I can do so, but it would not in many cases be worth while,"
was the reply. The same may be said of dogs : some of them are
not adapted for certain kinds of work, and acquirements by
nature to a sufficient degree, to make it worth while to persevere
in teaching them ; just as certain boys would never become expert
enough at certain vocations to warrant their pursuit. But before
abandoning a well-bred dog that seems to possess courage, " go,"
and fair general intelligence, it might be well to get the advice
of some second person of much experience. Many dogs, unprom-
ising at first, have become a great success afterward. The ability
to read dogs very thoroughly is given to but a few men, and
these, i:)rovided they have patience, good temper, and persever-
ance, must of course make the best trainers.

Though we have sjjoken chiefly of the training of hunting
dogs, it is simply because that is usually more elaborate. All
training is based essentially on the same principles, for the mind
of the trainer and that of the dog are relative constants, while the
circumstances are the variables.

In every instance the dog, from the earliest period, must know
the trainer as his master, as one who knows his own mind and
always is to be obeyed. But, in order to insure this, the princi-
ples we have already endeavored to enforce must be faithfully
and intelligently applied ; and it is very important, we repeat,
that nothing be undertaken that can not be performed, and every
advance in instruction approached by slight gradation and fre-
quent repetition. All sound training must constantly keep in
mind the individuality of the animal. The assumption that all
dogs can be treated just alike is as erroneous as that all stomachs
may have the same diet.

A dog kept constantly in a kennel can never attain his highest
psychical development ; and it is the author's experience that it
does every dog good to bring him into the house occasionally for
short periods and allow him to mingle with the family. It raises
the animal in his own estimation, and attaches him to his master,
for whom he will have increased respect.

SILK DRESSES AND EIGHT HOURS' WORK. 245
SILK DRESSES AND EIGHT HOURS' WORK.

By J. B. MANN.

THE remark occurs in a recent editorial article in a prominent
religious newspaper commending the eight-liour movement
that if all the women who want silk dresses could have work, all
the silk factories in the country could be set in motion and would
furnish employment to the many thousands of people then idle ;
or words of that import. The proposition at first sight seems
philosophical, but is it not reasoning in a circle ? Having work,
people will buy silks. If they buy silks, the factories will run. ^ If
the factories run, the people will have work. The old lady said :
" This snow will never melt until the weather is warmer, and the
weather can never be warmer until the snow has melted." Mak-
ing the statement does not solve the problem.

When we look at the matter with care we find, sorrowfully,
that the women who have no silks are the very ones who do the
hardest work ; and hence, as they are working clear up to the limit
of human endurance to get bread, they have no time left over to
put into silk dresses. This fact upsets the theory. Horace Greeley
had a theory that poverty in cities could be cured by getting the
poor to go West and engage in farming ; entirely overlooking the
fact that the next sixpence the poor man could get, and the next,
and so on, must go for bread, thus putting a trip to the West out
of the question.

But the imagining of philosophers in regard to the remedies is
of small account, because want of work is not in this country one
of the leading causes of poverty, as every careful observer knows.
There are at least a dozen things which are more potent causes of
the evil, and too much work, by which constitutions are broken
and health ruined, is one of them. Is the remedy, therefore, not
to be found in the eight-hour movement ? I answer, No. The
eight-hour movement does not approach the root of the evil. It is
assumed by the promoters of the movement that society has a
given amount of wants which require a given amount of labor to
supply, and hence it is inferred that if all the workers cut down
their hours from twelve to eight, the men now out of employment
will come up and do the work the others have relinquished. In
that way it is claimed that there Tvill be work for all. Another
theory is that men will accomplish as much in the long run in
eight hours as they now do in twelve. It is evident on the face
of it that both theories are not true, because if as much should be
done by the present workers after the change as before, no more
would be left for the others to do than they have now. And in
that case the present workers would come much nearer to ex-

246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

liausting their strength and injuring tlieir health for tlie same
money only that they get now. They would be no richer, and
would drive their muscles and frames at a wearing pace not con-
sistent with the laws of health.

But neither theory is true. Instead of there being a given
amount of wants, as alleged, wants are found to be largely the
result of means.

If the community have little, they require little, but as they
become wealthy they spread out in proportion. People can't hire
labor if they are poor, and hence to make a demand for labor
somebody must be rich enough to pay for it. This is perfectly
plain. Nobody goes in search of a poor man for employment,
only in the last resort. It follows that whatever tends to wealth-
making tends to want-making, and to an increase in the demand
for labor and the supply of employment. On the other hand,
whatever tends to a diminution of wealth tends necessarily to a
diminution of the means to pay for labor, and also to less dispo-
sition to hire others to do the work. I think that these positions
can not be successfully combated, and if not, we have a criterion
by which to determine in what direction to look for improvement
in the condition of the laboring man. Surely we shall never find
it in anything that tends to a diminution of resources.

What is stated above in relation to wants being increased in
proportion to the increase of wealth does not hold good in some
individual cases, but in general it does, and it holds good to that
extent that the common people everywhere accept it as a basis of
action without stopping to reason about it at all, it is so natural.
It is the reason why people leave a country like Ireland and come
here. They expect to find dollars so plenty that, according to the
old story, they do not deem it worth the while to pick up the
quarters they may see lying on the wharf where they land. The
same thing takes the smart boys from the poor country districts
and small villages to the large towns and cities. They feel that
they must get to places where there is an abundance of money.
They do not fail to note that a man who has ten thousand dollars
will build a three thousand dollar house, while the man with
thirty thousand will build a house costing twelve thousand prob-
ably," and that calls for four times the labor of the other. They
must get where such men abound, and where there are hundred-
thousand-dollar men and millionaires, men who will build palaces,
railroads, great warehouses, and ships. Poverty-stricken places
are given a wide berth by all sensible folk, and so universal is the
practice that we are not left in doubt as to the meaning of it.

Now wealth is principally the product of labor. Some get it
by their own labor, and some by the labor of others ; but however
got by the individual, it is the result of personal or machine ex-

SILK DRESSES AND EIGHT HOURS' WORK. 247

ertion and force. This necessitates the rule, therefore : More la-
bor, more wealth ; less labor, less wealth. This rule no one can
escape or ignore.

The question now comes up, whether working eight hours a
day tends to more riches or more production than working
twelve. That it does not, I have already stated is my belief, and
the belief is founded upon a long experience as a mechanic, farm-
laborer, employer, and observer. In twenty years of labor in a
shop, I never saw the time when I could do twelve hours' work in
eight hours, excej^t j^ossibly for a single day. I never saw the
man that could do it, and I never heard of one that could do it.

I never met one that said he thought it could be done for any
length of time. It is a well-established fact that most men that
pretend to work well have a working gait of their own, and can
not be hurried beyond that advantageously. If they are, they do
poor work or break down. This is so obvious that any pretense
that as much will be accomplished in the shorter hours in farm-
ing or physical labor of any kind borders on the ridiculous. So
obvious is it, that the principal advocates of the eight-hour move-
ment have ceased to put their case on this ground, and rely upon
the other theory, that less work will be done, and consequently
more work will be left to be given to the laborers seeking for
something to do.

If this latter view be adopted, it follows that the eight-hour
men are philanthropists, who have sacrificed, or propose to sacri-
fice, one third of their possible earnings for the good of their fel-
low-men who have no work. This is incredible. The laborers
themselves do not act from any such principle. They are think-
ing all the time that, instead of making a sacrifice, they are get-
ting more leisure and making more money. They think that,
Instead of the work they could do in the four hours they have
abandoned being done by the poor fellows who need help, it is
not done at all, and, not being done at all, wages have risen, and
thus they can get twelve hours' pay for eight hours' work.

In other words, they propose to increase the wealth of the
community by lessening the amount produced by the community,
thinking that, with a smaller amount to be divided as wages by
one third, they can get a bigger share. Not only do they suppose
this impossible thing, but they claim it has already been accom-
plished, and they say the advance in wages during the last thirty
years has been caused by the reduction of hours.

Assuming this to be true, it is perfectly legitimate to argue
that a further reduction of hours will work in the same way, and
they name eight as the next station on the scale, with an intima-
tion that soon six will be the point, and later four. I believe that
most concede that it is necessary to have some work done, not

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

perceiving tlie absurdity into wliicli tliey fall by the concession.
Logically, we say that if one can earn a dollar in one hour, he can
earn the same the next hour, and the next, and so on to the limit
of his endurance. But, if we begin at the other end of the line
of argument, and say that one can do as much and get as much
pay in ten hours as in twelve, and then say that he can get as
much pay in eight as in twelve, and then again as much in six,
there is no logical stop anywhere till the bottom is reached. The
stubborn fact of time is kicked out of the back door. It is the
same as saying that a man works six hours, earns three dollars,
and then works six more at the same work for nothing ; while the
same i)ersons who say it have to admit that, if the man worked
six hours in one day and six hours the next day, he would get as
much pay for the sebond six as for the first six. Time is too tough
a customer to be disposed of in that manner, and we must deal
with him as a fact that has come to stay.

I think the most stupid are now able to see that one's ability
to provide for his wants depends primarily upon his labor, and
that time is a principal element in the case. He must have it
and he must use it, and his j)rosperity, other things being equal,
will be much or little as time is wisely used or neglected. The
law of prosperity has not been repealed by any of the edicts of
the leagues and unions. Not a fact or princij^le has been abol-
ished or suspended. An hour lost is the loss of the product of
labor that might have been performed in that hour, and it falls
on the man who owned the hour, and not on another man or set
of men. He does not escape his loss by the absurd theory that he
lost it after four o'clock of Monday, instead of before ten Tues-
day morning. It is an absolute loss, whatever the day when it
was made. If the man worked for himself, as the saying is, he
would see it was a total loss and nothing else ; but, working for
another, he fancies the other man is the loser, or else, by some
hocus-pocus, it is shifted upon society. If men worked by the
piece they would see how it is. Let two men start together in
life as shoemakers, with a view to do their best in getting on in
the world, as Henry Wilson did sixty years ago. They are equal
in skill and endurance, and can work twelve hours at a fair stroke
without impairing health. Working by the piece, they find they
can earn sixteen and two thirds cents per hour, or at the rate of two
dollars a day. There is no dilTerence between them in jjuri^ose,
and only the small difference in the method of getting on, that
James thinks he will sooner get in comfortable circumstances by
working twelve hours a day, and John imagines that nine hours
will answer the purpose just as well. At the end of the year of
three hundred days they find that James has earned six hundred
dollars, and John has earned but four hundred and fifty dollars.

SILK DRESSES AND EIGHT HOURS' WORK. 249

They keep on at this rate ten years, and James has laid by two
thousand dollars, and John nothing. Now, the two thousand of
James earns ten dollars a month for him, and is better than a
good apprentice, because he pays the fund no wages and it costs
nothing for board. The reason why they are "now so wide apart
is that the extra hours of James have yielded fifteen hundred
dollars principal in the ten years, and five hundred dollars in in-
terest. John has nothing, because the expense of living of each
and support of the families has amounted to four hundred and
fifty dollars a year for each. In ten years more James will have
interest-money sufficient to meet the family expense of four hun-
dred and fifty dollars, and John will be with his nose still on the
grindstone. A company of ten such men would lose in ten years
twenty thousand dollars, and society would never make it up to
them. Society would not pay for one hundred pairs of shoes
when only seventy-five pairs were furnished, and the idea that it
would is a delusion. Many workingmen have gained in the last
half century, and the general condition has improved a great
deal, but no part of the money gain has been due to less hours of
labor. The people have grown rich during that time because
they have availed themselves of the increased means of production
which have been developed, and not because production has been
lessened by the laborer refusing to work the former number of
hours. Our riches are made up entirely of things produced, and
when we say we are richer, we mean that we have more things
which are the product of applied force. The increase of wealth,
as was stated before, has increased the disposition to build more
expensive houses and buy more elaborate furniture, and have an
endless variety of things deemed needless a few years ago, caus-
ing a demand for labor and an increase of wages that in a meas-
ure counterbalances the loss of time. This is what has helped
labor, and not the refusal to work more than ten hours. Had the
other two hours a day been worked, the laborer would have been
still richer by one sixth of the principal and all the interest on his
extra earnings during the whole time that the ten-hour rule has
prevailed. The workman, then, has simply exchanged the wealth
he might have got in the extra two hours for leisure of two hours ;
a very proper thing to do if he can afford it, but he hasn't had the
leisure and the money he might have earned in the lost time also.
The community is also the poorer to the same extent. It
misses just the amount of wealth that the laborer has failed to
produce in his idle hours. It finds on its hands a large body of
men advanced in years who might now be comfortable, but are
still struggling to meet the cost of increase in the style of living
consequent on the increase of wealth, when they are more than
one sixth short in possible resources.

VOL. XL.- 20

250 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The trouble with the eight-hour plan, however, is not here so
much as in the fact that so many men who can not get a decent
living on eight hours of labor are taught that they can earn as
much in that time as in twelve hours, and are made to believe it,
or else denounced as scabs and nobodies. If the laborer attempts
to work more hours, he is called an enemy of workingmen, an
enemy of progress, and so on, until he is forced to a life of partial
idleness, while his children are suffering for comforts which his
labor could furnish without injury to himself or to any mortal in
the world. There are hosts of men somewhat deficient in skill
who could partially make up in longer hours their lack of effi-
ciency were they permitted to, but as they are not, they are
forced to live on the verge of beggary all their days, and are
taught to curse society for not giving them a better chance in
the world. How many such there are in this country God only
knows, but that they are numerous there can be no doubt. The
evil is prodigious, and is not confined to this class entirely. Others
are affected in an unfavorable way. The idea is encouraged that
labor is an evil to be shunned like vice, and that there is a way
to enjoy the fruits Qf labor without its exercise. The consequence
of the prevalence of this idea is, that men are led to hope for the
impossible, to trust in its coming, and to neglect the golden op-
portunities for making their way which lie directly before them.
The man who thinks he is getting richer by three or four hours
of idleness every day is not likely to set much value on time, and
when he does not do that, he tends to unthriftiness, and in time
will become a good deal of an idler if not a downright loafer.
"When the whole community becomes thus affected, the conse-
quences will be serious. They are serious already.

That this is a remarkable age in which we live is the general
belief, but of the things that go to make up this belief nothing is
stranger than the fact that when all mankind were devoting their
best thoughts to the discovery of ways to increase resources and
add to the general and individual wealth of society, when schemes
of all sorts were being devised to save time in transportation of
goods and mails and persons, in planting corn and making hay,
in pumping water and feeding cattle, in tanning leather and mak-
ing whisky, in mounting flights of stairs and raising broods of
chickens — the workingmen as a body should band together and
contrive a scheme to compel all hands to throw away absolutely
one fourth of their chances to earn and lay up money, and provide
for that period sure to come to all who live out the allotted years
of man, when leisure will be not merely a luxury but a necessity ;
yet this is exactly what they have done. They have in a con-
siderable degree neutralized the gains to themselves to be derived
from the use of machinery, and thus have allowed the machines

DUST. 251

to stand on tlie pay-rolls for the one quarter of wages they might
have earned themselves. It was formerly supposed a wise saying
that " the hand of the diligent maketh rich/' but the proverb has
been strangely modified in these days.

We are now told that the proverb was only three quarters
true, and instead we must say, the man who works all of working
time makes his neighbors poor, and will spend his last days in
the work-house of the parish or on the highway as a tramp.
Time lost is money lost to the one to whom the time belonged,
whether he be rich or poor. The rich can lose some without
feeling it, but the poor, alas! have none to spare. When this
truth is fully appreciated by the destitute, a long stride will have
been made toward the extinction of poverty.

DUST.

Br J. G. McPHEESON.

SOME of the most enchanting phenomena in nature are de-
pendent for their very existence upon singularly unimpor-
tant things ; and some phenomena that in one form or another
daily attract our attention are produced by startlingly overlooked
material. What is the agent that magically transforms the leaden
heavens into the gorgeous afterglow of autumn, when the varied
and evanescent colors chase each other in fantastic brilliancy ?
What is the source of the beautiful, brilliant, and varied coloring
of the waters of the Mediterranean, or of the most extraordinary
brilliant blue of the crystal waters of the tarns in the Cordilleras ?
What produces the awe-inspiring deep blue of the zenith in a
clear summer evening, when the eye tries to reach the absolute ?
Whence come the gentle refreshing rain, the biting sleet, the
stupefying fog, the chilling mist, the virgin snow, the glimmer-
ing haze, or the pelting hail ? What raises water to the state of
ebullition in the process of heat application for boiling ? What is
the source of much of the wound putrefaction, and the generation
and spread of sickness and disease ? What, in fact, is one of the
most marvelous agents in producing beauty for the eye's gratifi-
cation, refreshment to the arid soil, sickness and death to the
frame of man and beast ? That agent is dust

And yet no significance is given to dust unless it appears in
large and troublesome quantities. It requires the persistent an-
noyance of dust-clouds to excite any attention. Dust, however,
demands to be noticed, even when not in that collected, irritating
motion known in Scotland as siour. The dust-particles floating
in the atmosphere or suspended in the water have a most impor-

252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tant influence upon the imagination, as well as upon the comfort
of man. Though so small that a microscope magnifying 1,600
diameters is required to discern them, they at times sorely tax
the patience of the tidy housekeeper and the skill of the anxious
surgeon. An aesthetic eye is charmed with their gorgeous trans-
formation effects ; yet some are more real emissaries of evil than
poet or painter ever conceived.

Until the famous discovery made by Mr. John Aitken, of Fal-
kirk, a few years ago, no one could reasonably account for the
existence of rain. It was said by physicists that cloud-particles
were attracted by the law of gravitation under certain conditions
of temperature and pressure. But this famous experimentalist
and observer found out that without dust there could be no rain ;
there would be nothing but continuous dew. Our bodies and roads
would be always wet. There would be no need for umbrellas, and
the housekeeper's temper would be sorely tried with the dripping
walls.

A very easy experiment will show that where there is no dust
there can be no fog. If common air be driven through a filter of
cotton-wool into an exhausted glass receiver, the vessel contains
pure air without dust, the dust having been seized by the cotton-
wool. If a vessel containing common air be placed beside it, the
eye is unable to detect any difference in the contents of the ves-
sels, so very fine and invisible is the dust. If both vessels be con-
nected with a boiler by means of pipes, and steam be passed into
both, the observer will be astonished at the contrast presented.
In the vessel containing common air the steam will be seen, as
soon as it enters, rising in a close white cloud ; then a beautiful
foggy mass will fill the vessel, so dense that it can not be seen
through. On the other hand, in the vessel containing the filtered,
dustless air, the steam is not seen at all; though the eye be
strained, no particles of moisture are discernible; there is no
cloudiness whatever. In the one case, where there was the ordi-
nary air impregnated with invisible dust, fog at once appeared;
whereas in the other case, the absence of the^ dust prevented the
water- vapor from condensing into fog. Invisible dust, then, is
required in the air for the production of fog, cloud, mist, snow,
sleet, hail, haze, and rain, according to the temperature and press-
ure of the air.

The old theory of particles of water-vapor combining with
each other to form a cloud-particle is now exploded. Dust is
required as a free surface on which the vapor-particles will con-
dense. The fine particles of dust in the air attract the vapor-par-
ticles and form fog-particles. When there is abundance of dust
in the air and little water-vapor present, there is an over propor-
tion of dust-particles ; and the fog-particles are, in consequence.

BUST. 253

closely packed, but light in form and small in size, taking the
more flimsy appearance of fog. But if the dust-particles are
fewer in proportion to the number of molecules of water-vapor,
each particle soon gets weighted, becomes visible, and falls in mist
or rain.

This can be shown by experiment. Let a jet of steam be
passed into a glass receiver containing common air, and it will be
soon filled with dense fog. Shut off the steam and allow the fog
to settle. The air again becomes clear. Admit more steam, and
the water-particles will seize hold of the dust-particles that pre-
viously escaped. Fog will be formed, but it will not be so dense.
Again, shut off the steam, and allow the fog to settle and the air
to clear. Then admit some steam, and very likely the condensed
vapor will fall as rain. If the experiment be often enough re-
peated, rain instead of fog will be formed, because there are com-
paratively few solid particles on which the moisture can condense.
When, then, dust is present in large quantities, the condensed
vapor produces a fog; there are so many particles of dust to
which the vapor can adhere that each can only get a very small
share— so small, in fact, that the weight of the dust is scarcely
affected by the addition of the vapor— and the fog formed remains
for a time suspended in the air, too light to fall to the ground.
But when the number of dust-particles is fewer, each particle can
take hold of a greater space of the water-vapor, and mist particles
or even rain-particles will be formed.

This principle that every fog-particle has embosomed in it an
invisible dust-particle led Mr. Aitken to one of the most startling
discoveries of our day — the enumeration of the dust-particles of
the air. Thirty years ago M. Pasteur succeeded in counting the
organic particles in the air ; these are comparatively few, whereas
the number of inorganic particles is legion. Dr. Koch, Dr. Percy
Frankland, and others have devoted considerable attention to the
enumeration of the micro-organisms in the air, and Mr. A. Wynter
Blyth, the public analyst in London, has done good service in
counting the micro-organisms in the different kinds of water in
the vicinity. Marvelous as are the results, still the process was
comparatively easy. By generating the colonies in a prepared
gelatin, the number of microbes can be easily ascertained.

But to attempt to count the inorganic dust seemed almost
equal in audacity to the scaling of the heavens. The numbering
of the dust of the air, like the numbering of the hairs of the
head, was considered as one of the prerogatives of the Deity. Yet
Mr. Aitken has counted the " gay motes that people the sun-
beams." Though he could not enlarge the particles by a nutritive
process, as in the case of the organic particles, he has been able
to enlarge them by transferring them into fog-particles, so as to

2 54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be within the possibility of accurate enumeration. His plan is to
dilute a definite small quantity of common air with a fixed large
quantity of filtered, dustless air, and allow the mixture to be
supersaturated by water- vapor; the few particles of dust seize
the moisture, become visible in drops, fall on a divided plate, and
are there counted by means of a magnifying-glass.

The instrument employed by Mr. Aitken has taken various
forms ; in fact, he has so far improved it that it can be carried in
the coat-pocket. But the original instrument, which we saw and
used, is most easily described without the aid of diagrams. But,
instead of his decimal system of measurements, we will use the
ordinary system, that the dimensions may be more easily grasped
by the general reader. Into a common glass flask of carafe-shape,
and flat-bottomed, of thirty cubic inches capacity, are passed two
small tubes, at the end of one of which is attached a square
silver table, one inch long. A little water having been inserted,
the flask is inverted, and the table is placed exactly one inch
from the inverted bottom, so that the contents of the air above
the table and below the bottom are one cubic inch. The observing
table has been divided into a hundred equal squares, and is highly
polished, with the burnishing all in one direction, so that during
the observations it appears dark, when the fine mist-particles, fall-
ing on it, glisten opal-like with the reflected light, in order that
they may be more easily counted. The tube to which the silver
table is attached is connected with two stop-cocks, one of which
can admit a small measured portion of the air to be examined.
The other tube in the flask is connected with an exhausting
syringe, of ten cubic inches capacity. Over the flask is placed a
covering colored black in the inside. In the top of this cover
is inserted a powerful magnifying-glass, through which the par-
ticles on the silver table can be easily seen and counted. A little
to the side of this magnifier is an opening in the cover, through
which light is concentrated on the silver table. This light, again,
has had to pass through a spherical globe of water, in order to
abstract the heat rays, which might vitiate the observations.

To perform the experiment, the air in the flask is exhausted
by the syringe. The flask is then filled with pure filtered air.
One tenth of a cubic inch of the air to be examined is then intro-
duced into the flask, and mixed with the thirty cubic inches of
dustless air. After one stroke of the syringe this mixed air is
made to occupy an additional space of ten cubic inches ; and this
rarefying of the air so chills it that condensation of the water-
vapor takes place on the dust-particles. The observer, looking
through the magnifying-glass upon the silver table, sees the mist-
particles fall like an opal shower on the table, and counts the
number on a single square in two or three places, striking an

DUST. 255

average in his mind. Suppose the average number upon one of
these squares were five, then on the whole table there would be
500; and these 500 mist-particles contain the 500 dust-particles
which floated invisibly in the cubic inch of mixed air above the
table. But, as there are forty cubic inches of mixed air in the
flask and syringe, the number of dust-particles in the whole is 40
times 500 = 20,000 ; that is, there are 20,000 dust-particles in the
small quantity of common air (one tenth of a cubic inch) which was
introduced for examination ; in other words, a cubic inch of that
air contains 200,000 dust-particles — nearly a quarter of a million.

By this process Mr. Aitken has been able to count 7,500,000 of
dust-particles in one cubic inch of the ordinary air of Glasgow.
We counted with him 4,000,000 in a cubic inch of the air outside
of the Royal Society Rooms, Princes Street, Edinburgh. Inside
the room, after the Fellows had met for two hours, on a winter
evening — the fire and gas having been burning for a consider-
able time — we found 6,500,000 in a cubic inch of the air four feet
from the floor ; but near the ceiling no fewer than 57,500,000 were
counted in the cubic inch. He counted in one cubic inch of air
immediately above a Bunsen flame the fabulous number of 489,-
000,000 of dust-particles. The lowest number he ever counted
was at Lucerne, in Switzerland : 3,500 in the cubic inch. On the
summit of Ben Nevis the observer, using Mr. Aitken's apparatus,
counted from 214,400 down to 840 in the cubic inch. But on the
morning of the 21st of July last there was a most marvelous ob-
servation made. Though at the sea-level the wind was steady,
and the thermometer did not vary, at the summit the wind sud-
denly veered round to the opposite direction of that below, blow-
ing out of a cyclone, and the temperature rose ten degrees. In
consequence the extraordinarily low mean of only thirty-four
dust-particles to the cubic inch was observed.

We now come to the most pleasant of the investigations in
connection with dust. The very brilliant sunsets which began in
the autumn of 1883, and continued during successive seasons with
gradually decreasing grandeur, have arrested the attention of the
physicist as well as of the general observer. What is the cause of
the brilliant coloring in these remarkable sunsets ? What is the
source of the immense wealth of the various shades of red which
have been so universally admired ? Gazing on a gorgeous sunset,
the whole western heavens glowing with roseate hues, the observer
sees the colors melting away before his eyes and becoming trans-
formed into different hues. The clouds are of different sizes and
of all shapes. Some float virgin-like in silver folds, others voyage
m golden groups ; some are embroidered with burning crimson,
others are like " islands all lovely in an emerald sea." And when
the flood of rosy light, as it deepens into bright crimson, brings

256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

out into "bold relief the circlet of flaming mountain peaks, it is
like a gorgeous transformation scene. Stranger still, when the
sun sinks below the horizon, and a dull ashen gray has possessed
the western heavens, what occasions the hectic flush on the east-
ern horizon ? Gradually the clouds are tinged with light red
from the eastern horizon all over the zenith ; whence comes the
coloring ?

It is a strange coincidence that these remarkably fine sun-
sets have been since the tremendous eruptions at Krakatoa, in
the Straits of Sunda. Along with the lava eruption there was
ejected an enormous quantity of fine dust. The decks of vessels,
hundreds of miles away, were covered with it. Mr. Verbreek
computed that no less than 70,000 cubic yards of dust actually fell
round the volcano. This will give an idea of the enormous quan-
tity of dust still floating in the atmosphere, and drifting all over
the world. In the upper atmosphere, too, there must always be
dust, for without the dust no clouds could be formed to shield us
from the sun's scorching rays ; and of cosmic dust there must be
a considerable quantity in the air, produced by the waste from
the millions of meteors that daily fall into it. Mr. Aitken has
ably shown that the brilliancy and variety of the coloring are
due to the suspended dust in the atmosphere.

Observers of the gorgeous sunsets and afterglows have been
most particularly struck with the immense wealth of the various
shades and tints of red. Now, if the glowing colors are due to the
presence of dust in the air, there must be somewhere a display of
the colors complementary to the reds, because the dust acts by a
selective dispersion of the colors. The small dust-particles arrest
the direct course of the rays of light and reflect them in all direc-
tions ; but they principally reflect the rays of the violet end of
the spectrum, while the red rays pass on almost unchecked.
Overhead deep blue reigns in awe-inspiring glory. As the sun
passes below the horizon, and the lower stratum of air, with its
larger particles of dust which reflect light, ceases to be illumi-
nated, the depth and fullness of the blue most intensely increase.
This effect is produced by the very fine particles of dust in the
sky overhead being unable to scatter any colors unless those
of short wave-lengths at the violet end .of the spectrum. Thus
we see, above, blue in its intensity without any of the red colors.
When, however, the observer brings his eyes down in any direction
except the west, he will see the blue mellowing into blue-green,
green, and then rose color. And some of the most beautiful and
delicate rose tints are formed by the air cooling and depositing
its moisture on the particles of dust, increasing the size of the
particles till they are sufficiently large to stop and spread the red
rays, when the sky glows with a strange aurora-like light.

DUST. 257

Tlie dust theory of the splendor of sunset coloring is strength-
ened by the often glorious afterglows. The fiercely brilliant
streaks of red have disappeared ; over the mountain ridge a flush
of orange hovers, and softens the approaching blue. The western
hills, that once stood out bronzed against the glare of light, are
somber-hued. But suddenly, as by a fairy's wand, the roseate
flush of beauty rises in the east, and stretches its beautiful tints
all over the sky. As the sun sinks, but before it ceases to shine
on our atmosphere, the temperature of the air begins to fall, and
its cooling is accompanied by an increase in the size of the
particles floating in it by the condensation of the water-vapor.
The particles to the east lose the sun first, and are thus first cooled.
Accordingly, the rays in that direction are best sifted by the
larger water-clad particles of dust, and the roseate coloring is
there more distinct than in the north and south. As the sun
sinks further, the particles overhead become cooler, and attract
the water-vapor ; thus they increase in size, and thereby reflect
the red rays. Here the red hues, at first visible in the east, slowly
rise, pass overhead, and descend in the west to form the charming
afterglow. Sometimes a flood of glory will roll once more along
the summits of the hills, entrancing the attention of the artistic
spectator.

All examinations of the volcanic dust lately collected from
the atmosphere show that a great quantity of it is composed of
small glassy crystals. An abundance of these would quite ac-
count for the peculiarity in the visibility of the first glow ; and
the evidence seems to indicate that the quantity of such crystals
is sufiicient to produce the result. When these are fully illumi-
nated, they become in turn a source of illumination, and reflect
their reddish light all around. In winter sunsets, the water-clad
dust-particles become frozen, and the peculiarly brilliant crimson
is seen, coloring the dead beech leaves and red sandstone houses,
and making them appear to be painted with vermilion.

If, then, there were no fine dust-particles in the upper strata
of the atmosphere, the sunset effect would be paler ; if there were
no large particles in the lower strata., the beautiful sunset effects
would cease. In fact, if our atmosphere were perfectly void of
dust-particles, the sun's light would simply pass through without
being seen, and soon after the sun dipped below the horizon total
darkness would ensue. The length of our twilight, therefore,
depends on the amount of dust in one form or another in our at-
mosphere. Not only, then, would a dustless atmosphere have no
clouds, but there would be no charming sunsets, and no thought-
inspiring twilights.

There is a generally prevalent fallacy that the coloring at sun-
rise or sunset is much finer when seen from the summit of a
TOL. XL. — 21

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mountain than from a valley. To this matter Mr. Aitken has
been giving some attention, and his observations point the very
opposite way, corroborative of his dust-theory. From the summit
of the Rigi Kulm in Switzerland he saw several sunsets, but was
disappointed with the flatness and weakness of the coloring ;
whereas in the valley, on the same evenings, careful observers
were enchanted with the gorgeous display. The lower dusty
humid air was the chief source of the color in the sunset effects.
His opinon is strengthened by the fact that when from the summit
he saw large cumulous clouds, the near ones were always snowy
white, while it was only the distant ones that were tarnished
yellow, showing that the light came to these clouds unchanged,
.and it was only the air between the far-distant clouds and his eye
that tarnished them yellow. On the mountain-top it required a
great distance to give even a slight coloring. The larger and
more numerous dust-particles in the air of the valley are, therefore,
productive of more brilliant coloring in sunrise or sunset than
the smaller and fewer particles on the mountain-top.

It is now admitted that the inherent hue of water is blueness.
Even distilled water has been proved to be almost exactly of the
same tint as a solution of Prussian blue. This is corroborated by
the fact that the purer the water is in nature, the bluer is the hue.
But though the selective absorption of the water determines its
blueness, it is the dust-particles suspended in it which determine
its brilliancy. If the water of the Mediterranean be taken from
different places and examined by means of a concentrated beam
of light, it is seen to hold in suspension millions of dust-particles
of different kinds. To this fine dust it owes its beautiful, brilliant,
and varied coloring. Where there are few particles there is little
light reflected, and the color of the water is deep blue ; but where
there are many particles more light is reflected, and the color is
chalky blue-green. Along its shores the Mediterranean washes
the rocks and rubs off the minute solid particles, which make the
water beautifully brilliant.

That this is the case can be illustrated. If a dark metal vessel
be filled with a weak solution of Prussian blue, the water will
appear quite dark and void of color. But if some fine white
powder be thrown into the vessel, the water at once becomes of a
brilliant blue color ; if more powder be added, the brilliancy in-
creases. This accounts for the changes of depth and brilliancy of
color in the several shores of the Mediterranean. In Lake Como,
where there is an entire absence of white dust-particles, the water
is of a deep blue color, but void of brilliancy ; but, where the
lake enters the river Adda, the increase of the current rubs down
fine reflecting particles from the rocks ; in consequence, there the
water is of a finer blue. When the dust-particles carried down

DUST. 259

by the Rhone spread out into the center of the Lake of Geneva,
the color assumes the deeper blue, rivaling in brilliancy any
water in the world.

The phenomenon called a haze puzzled investigators until Mr.
Aitken explained it on the principle of the condensing power of
dust-particles Haze is only an arrested form of condensation of
water- vapor. If one half of a dusty pane of glass be cleaned in
cold weather, the clean part will remain undewed, while the dusty
part is damp to the eye and greasy to the touch. Why is this ?

Fit up an open box with two pipes, one for taking in water
and the other for taking away the overflow. Inside fix a thermom-
eter. Cover the top edge of the box with India rubber, and fix
down with spring catches (so as to make the box water-tight) a
glass mirror, on which dust has been allowed to collect for some
time. Clean the dust carefully off one half of the mirror, so that
one half of the glass covering the box is clean and the other half
dusty. Pour cold water through the pipe into the box, so as to
lower the temperature of the mirror, and carefully observe when
condensation begins on each of the halves, taking a note of the
temperature. It will be found that the condensation of the water-
vapor appears on the dust-particles before coming down to the
natural dew-point temperature of the clean glass. The difference
between the two temperatures indicates the temperature above
the dew-point at which the dust condenses the water- vapor. Mr.
Aitken found that the condensing power of the dust in the air of
a smoking-room varied from 4° to 8° Fahr. above the dew-point,
whenever that of the outer air varied from 3° to 5-^°.

Moisture is, therefore, deposited on the dust-particles of the
air which is not saturated, and condensation takes place while
the air is comparatively dry. before the temperature is lowered to
the dew-point. The clearest air, then, has some haze ; and, as the
humidity increases, the thickness of the air increases. In all haze
the temperature is above the dew-point. And in all circum-
stances the haze can be accounted for by the condensing power of
the dust-particles in the atmosphere at a higher temperature
than that required for the formation of fogs, or mists, or rain.

But whence comes the dust ? Meteoric waste and volcanic
debris have already been mentioned. On or near the sea the air
is impregnated by the fine brine-dust lashed by the waves and
broken upon the rocks and vessel-sides. But the most active of
iall substances as a fog-producer in towns is burned sulphur. No
less than three hundred and fifty tons of the products of the com-
bustion of sulphur from the coal are thrown into the atmosphere
of London every winter day. But the powerful deodorizing and
antiseptic properties of the sulphur assist in sanitation ; and it is
better to bear the inconvenience of fogs than be subjected to the

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

evils of a pestilence. At the same time it should be known that
smoke-particles can be deposited by the agency of electricity. If
an electric discharge be passed through a jar containing smoke,
the dust will be deposited so as to make the air clear. Lightning
clears the air, restoring the devitalized oxygen and depositing the
dust on the ground. Might it not, then, be possible for strong
enough electrical discharges from several large voltaic batteries
to attack the smoke in the air of large cities, and especially
the fumes from chemical works, so as to bring down the dust
In the form of rain instead of leaving it in the form of mystify-
ing fog ?

Organic germs also float in the air. Some are being vomited
into the air from the pestilential hot-beds of the lowest slums.
In a filthy town no less than thirty millions of bacteria in a year
will be deposited by the rain upon every square yard of surface.
A man breathes thirty-six germs every minute in a close town,
and double that in a close bedroom. The wonder is how people
escape sickness, though most of these germs are not deadly. In
a healthy man, however, the warm lung surfaces repel the colder
dust-particles of all kinds, and the moisture evaporating from the
surface of the air-tubes helps the prevention of the dust clinging
to the surface.

From this outline the reader will observe the increasing im-
portance of careful attention to the influence of dust in the
economy of nature. As a sickness-bearer and a death-bearer it
must be attacked and rendered harmless ; as a source of beauty
unrivaled we must rejoice at its existence. The clouds that
shelter us from the sun's scorching heat, the refreshing showers
that clear the air and cheer the soil, the brilliancy of the deep-
blue sea and lake, the charms of twilight, and above all the glory
of the colors of sunrise and sunset, are all dependent upon the
existence of millions of dust-particles which are within the power
of man's enumeration. No more brilliant achievement has been
made in the field of meteorology than during the past few years
by the careful observation and inventive genius of Mr. Aitken in
connection with the importance of dust in air and water. — Long-
man's Magazine.

It appears, from the complete edition of the works of Huygens, now in course
of publication at The Hague, that as soon as he had succeeded in applying the
pendulum to the regulating of clocks, claims were set up for priority in the
invention. The best-founded claims were those of Galileo, which were cham-
pioned by Prince Leopold de' Medici. According to the formal statement drawn
up by Viviani, Galileo had conceived the idea, but failed to make the application
of it. He had a pendulum connected with wheel-work, but omitted to provide
any weights, springs, or other means of keeping the machinery in motion.

SKETCH OF DIMITRI IVANOVIGH MENDELEEF. 261

SKETCH OF DIMITRI IVANOVIGH MENDELEEF.

THE discovery of the periodic law in the atomic weights of
the elements has furnished chemists with a new standard of
accuracy and a new guide in research. While it must be regarded
as Mendeleef 's most conspicuous scientific achievement, the Rus-
sian chemist is the author of many othei labors of hardly less real
importance.

DiMiTRi IvANOViCH Mendeleef was born at Tobolsk, Siberia,
February 7, 1834, the seventeenth and youngest child of Ivan
Paulovich Mendeleef, director of the gymnasium there. Soon
after his birth the father became blind and had to resign his
position, leaving the care of the family upon the mother, a com-
petent and energetic woman. She established and managed a
glass-works, and brought up and educated her family upon its
profits. Dimitri was sent to the gymnasium at Tobolsk, and, at
sixteen years of age, to St. Petersburg, where he was to study
chemistry in the university, under Zinin ; but was transferred to
the Pedagogical Institute in the same building with the univer-
sity, where he entered the physico-mathematical department, or
that of the natural sciences. He studied chemistry, physics,
mathematics, botany, zoology, mineralogy, and astronomy, under
teachers who were most of them also professors in the university.
Having concluded his course here, he was appointed to the gym-
nasium at Simferopol, in the Crimea ; then, during the Crimean
War, to a gymnasium in Odessa ; and in 1856 he became a Privat
Docent in the University of St. Petersburg, where he had already
received the degree of Master of Chemistry. In 1859, having ob-
tained permission from the Government to travel, he became
engaged at Heidelberg in the determination of the physical con-
stants of chemical compounds. In 18G3 he was made Professor
of Chemistry at the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg,
and in 1836 at the university, where he received the degree of
Doctor of Chemistry.

Mendeleef had already^ before his engagement as a Privat
Docent^ entered upon the career of research and publication in
which he has so brilliantly distinguished himself. His first
paper, on Isomorphism, was prepared while he was still in the
Pedagogical Institute. He entered into the discussion of the
relations between the specific gravities of substances and their
molecular weights, and presented to the physico-mathematical
faculty of the university a number of theses or problems relating
to specific volumes ; and as early as 1856 he accepted Gerhardt's
mode of determining the chemical molecule. His researches on
specific volumes were continued till 1870, and in them, according

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to Prof. T. E. Thorpe, from whose memoir in Nature we derive
most of the material of this sketch, he extends Kopp's generaliza-
tions, and traces the specific volumes of substances through vari-
ous phases of chemical changes. In a paper on the thermal ex-
pansion of liquids above their boiling-points, he showed that the
empirical expressions given by Kopp, Pierre, and others are equally
applicable to much higher temperatures, and that the expansion-
coefficient gradually increases with the diminution in molecular
cohesion of the liquid, until, in the case of some liquids, it becomes
even greater than that of the gas. In 1883 he contributed to the
English Chemical Society a paper giving a simple general expres-
sion for the expansion of liquids under constant pressure between
zero and their boiling-points — a formula analogous to that which
expresses Gay-Lussac's law of the uniformity of expansion of
gases ; but which, like Gay-Lussac's law, however correct in the-
ory, is subject to deviations in application. These deviations
were shown to be related to the molecular weights of the gases.

Researches in thermal chemistry, made in 1882, showed him
that the data obtained by Berthelot, Thomson, and others, regard-
ing the " heats of formation " of hydrocarbons, stood in need of
correction, because allowance had not been made for the physical
changes involving absorption or evolution of heat which accom-
pany the chemical changes considered ; and he gave a table giving
the heats of formation from marsh-gas, carbon monoxide, and
carbon dioxide, of a series of hydrocarbons, for chemical reac-
tions that actually occurred, while the reactions given by Ber-
thelot and others were not realized in practice.

In the investigation of solutions, Mendeleef propounded in
1884 the law that in solutions of salts the densities increase with
the molecular weights ; but if we take, instead of the molecular
weights, the weights of their equivalents or those of the equiva-
lents of metals, the regularity of increase disappears ; and, though
his research was not yet finished, he submitted an equation as
preliminary to ulterior results promising to give a more general
formula. The results of the determination of the specific gravity
of aqueous ~ solutions of alcohol were applied, according to Prof.
Thorpe's memoir, toward the elucidation of a theory of solution
in which Dalton's doctrine of the atomic constitution of matter
could be reconciled with modern views concerning dissociation
and the dynamical equilibrium of molecules. "According to
Mendeleef, solutions are to be regarded as strictly definite atomic
chemical combinations at temperatures higher than their dissoci-
ation temperature ; and, just as definite chemical substances may
be either formed or decomposed at temperatures which are higher
than those at which dissociation commences, so we may have the
same phenomenon in solutions; at ordinary temperatures they

SKETCH OF DIMITRI IVAKO VICE MENDELEEF. 263

can be either formed or decomposed. In addition, tlie equilib-
rium between tlie quantity of the definite compound and of its
products of dissociation is defined by the laws of chemical equi-
librium, which require a relation bet"^een equal volumes and
their dependence on the mass of the active component parts,"

In 1881 Mendeleef turned his attention to experiments on the
elasticity of the gases, which he continued with the aid of several
of his pupils. They led to many interesting results, among which
was one showing that the deviations from Marriotte's law were
in opposite directions at pressures above and below that of the
atmosphere ; indicating that air, for instance, as well as carbonic
acid and sulphurous acid gases, experience a change of compressi-
bility at certain pressures.

The results of these experiments were used in studies of the
physical nature of the rarefied air of the upper atmosphere and
the application of aeronautics, and he attempted to organize
meteorological observations in the upper atmosphere by means of
balloons.

The principles on which Mendeleef based the periodic law
were first explained in a paper read before the Russian Chemical
Society in 18G9. As repeated by the author in his Faraday lect-
ure to the English Chemical Society, they declare that the ele-
ments, if arranged according to their atomic weights, exhibit
a periodicity of properties ; that elements which are similar in
chemical properties have atomic weights that are nearly of the
same value or which increase regularly ; that the arrangement of
the elements or groups of elements in the order of their atomic
weights corresponds to their so-called valencies, and, to some
extent, to their distinctive chemical properties ; that the elements
which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights ;
that the magnitude of the atomic weight determines the charac-
ter of the element, just as the magnitude of the molecule deter-
mines the character of a compound body ; that the discovery of
many yet unknown elements may be expected ; that the calcu-
lation of the atomic weight of an element may sometimes be
amended by a knowledge of those of its contiguous elements ;
and that certain characteristic properties of elements can be fore-
told from their atomic weights. The theory was founded upon
experiment, and assumed the adoption of the definite numerical
values of the atomic weights, and the recognition that the rela-
tions between the atomic weights of analogous elements were
governed by some general law, with a more accurate knowledge
of the relations and analogies of the rarer elements as necessary
for the completing and proving of it. In accordance with the
theory as thus developed, a table was composed by Mendeleef and
Victor Meyer, including nearly but not quite all of the elements

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

— for tliere were a few of which, not enough was yet accurately
known to determine their subjection to the rule — arranged in the
order of their atomic weights and in groups or periods showing
their relations and analogies. These periods might be said to be
self -constituted ; for, without departing from the orderly arrange-
ment which Mendeleef had declared to exist, they so fell in line
as to exhibit the very likenesses and differences which he had
insisted upon as a jjart of his theory. Arranging them in parallel
columns, it appeared that the several members of each period
were substances that showed no similarity or community of
chemical properties with one another ; but that the members of
the different periods showed an unmistakable parallelism with
the corresponding members of the previous period. The columns
also ex,hibited a regular gradation of electro-chemical properties,
the most electro-positive elements occupying the places at their
heads, and the extreme electro-negative elements the bottom
places. The results of later discoveries and more accurate
determinations have all been to confirm the correctness of the
tabulation and the periodic theory. Thus scandium, gallium,
and germanium, when discovered and examined, were found to
fit into vacant places in the table, and to possess the atomic
weights and the properties which the authors had predicted
should belong to the elements falling in those places ; and Men-
deleef was able to say, in his Faraday lecture, delivered twenty
years after the first suggestion of his theory, " When, in 1871, I
described to the Russian Chemical Society the properties, clearly
defined by the periodic law, which such elements ought to pos-
sess, I never hoped to live to mention their discovery to the
Chemical Society of Great Britain as a confirmation of the ex-
actitude and the generality of the periodic law." Up to the time
of the formulation of this law. Prof. Thorpe says in his article :
**The determination of the atomic value or valency of an element
was a purely empirical matter, with no apparent necessary rela-
tion to the atomic value of other elements. But to-day this value
is as much a matter of a 'priori knowledge as is the very exist-
ence of the element or any one of its properties. Striking exam-
ples of the aid which the law affords in determining the substi-
tuting value of an element are presented in the cases of indium,
cerium, yttrium, beryllium, scandium, and thorium. In certain
of these cases, the particular value demanded by the law, and the
change in representation of the molecular composition of the
compounds of these elements, have been confirmed by all those
experimental criteria on which chemists are accustomed to de-
pend. . . . The law has, moreover, enabled many of the physical
properties of the elements to be referred to the principle of peri-
odicity. At the Moscow Congress of Russian Physicists, in Au-

SKETCH OFDIMITRI IVANOVICR MENDELEEF. 265

gust, 1879, Mendeleef pointed out the relations ■wliic]i existed
between tlie density and the atomic weights of the elements;
these were subsequently more fully examined by Lothar Meyer,
and are embodied in the well-known curve in his Modern The-
ories of Chemistry. Similar relations have been observed in
certain other properties, such as ductility, fusibility, hardness,
volatility, crystalline form, and thermal expansion ; in the refrac-
tion equivalents of the elements, and in their conductivities for
heat and electricity; in their magnetic properties and electro-
chemical behavior ; in the heats of formation of their haloid com-
pounds ; and even in such properties as their elasticity, breaking
stress, etc." While one may be readily inclined and many have
been led to look for a connection between the periodic law and the-
ories of the unitary origin of matter, Mendeleef has not allowed
his studies in the subject to be embarrassed by any such pre-
possession. He said in his Faraday lecture : " The periodic law,
based as it is on the solid and wholesome ground of experimental
research, has been evolved independently of any conception as to
the nature of the elements ; it does not in the least originate in
the idea of a unique matter ; and it has no historical connection
with that relic of the torments of classical thought, and there-
fore it affords no more indication of the unity of matter, or of
the compound nature of the elements, than do the laws of Avo-
gadro or Gerhardt, or the law of specific heats, or even the con-
clusions of spectrum analysis." The periodic law is developed
in the author's Principles of Chemistry, which was first pub-
lished in 18G9, and appeared in a fourth edition, after a thorough
revision, with many important additions and modifications, in
1882.

In a lecture before the Royal Institution in 1889, Mendeleef
sought to apply a broader generalization and to discover a harmoni-
ous law regulating both chemical and astronomical phenomena.
The immediate object of the lecture was to show that, starting
from Newton's third law of motion, it is possible to preserve to
chemistry all the advantages arising from structural teaching,
without being obliged to build up molecules in solid and motion-
less figures, or to attempt to ascribe to atoms definite limited
valencies, directions of cohesion, or affinities. He supposed that
harmonious order reigns in the invisible and apparently chaotic
motions of the universe, reaching from the stars to the minutest
atoms, which is commonly mistaken for complete rest, but which
is really a consequence of the conservation of dynamic equilibrium
that was discovered by Newton, and has been traced by his suc-
cessors as relative immobility in the midst of universal and active
movement. The unseen world of chemical changes was regarded
as analogous to the invisible world of the heavenly bodies, " since

266 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

our atoms form distinct portions of an invisible world, as planets,
satellites, and comets form distinct portions "of the astronomer's
universe ; our atoms may therefore be compared to the solar
system, or to the systems of double or single stars. . . . Now that
the indestructibility of the elements has been acknowledged,
chemical changes can not be otherwise explained than as changes
of motion, and the production by chemical reactions of galvanic
currents, of light, of heat, or of steam-power, demonstrate visibly
that the processes of chemical reaction are inevitably connected
with enormous though unseen displacements, originating in the
movements of atoms in molecules."

When, in 1880, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences refused,
in the face of strongly signed recommendations, to elect Mende-
leef a member in its Chemical Section, other scientific societies
hastened to express their appreciation of him by making him an
honorary member. Among these were the University of Moscow ;
the Russian Chemical and Physical Society, which presented him
an address where it spoke of him as " a chemist who has no equal
among Russian chemists " ; the University of Kiev, the Society
of Hygiene, etc. From England he received the Davy medal of
the Royal Society in 1882, and the Faraday medal of the Chemical
Society in 1889.

Prof. Mendeleef is the author of a treatise on Organic Chem-
istry which was a standard work in its time, and which, accord-
ing to Prof. Thorpe, exercised a great influence in spreading
abroad the conceptions which are associated with the develop-
ment of modern chemistry. In 1863 he published a cyclopaedia of
chemical technology — the first really important work of the kind
produced in Russia. He has frequently been commissioned to
report on the progress of chemical industry as illustrated at the
various international exhibitions. His investigations and reports
on petroleum have been an important factor in the developing
of the trade at Baku, and in removing the monopoly which for-
merly dominated the market there.

We quote again, in concluding, from Prof. Thorpe : " No man
in Russia," he says, " has exercised a greater or more lasting in-
fluence on the development of physical science than Mendeleef.
His mode of work and of thought is so absolutely his own, the
manner of his teaching and lecturing is so entirely original, and
the success of the great generalization with which his name and
fame are bound up is so strikingly complete, that to the outer
world of Europe and America he has become to Russia what
Berzelius was to Sweden, or Liebig to Germany, or Dumas to
France."

CORRESP ONDENCE.

267

CORRESPONDENCE.

TA n

EIGHTING THE BICYCLE.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

SIR : The article What keeps the Bicycler
Upright ? in the Monthly for last April
was a very interesting one, especially to
wheelmen, but I think it needs a little supple-
mentary statement to make it comolete. Mr.
Charles B. Warring, the author, states that
the rider's lost equilibrium is restored by
bringing his point of support under him, and
gives the impression that this point can be
moved square to the right or left, like the foot
of Mr. Warring's A-frame, saying nothing
about the forward movement of the wheel.
While agreeing with the main part of this
statement, I think the righting of a bicycle
can be more clearly and accurately explained
as follows:

It is one of the elementary laws of phys-
ics that the center of gravity of a body must
be over some point in its base in order that
the body may stand
without outside sup- ^

port. Now, the base
on which a bicycle
rests is only a line
about half an inch
wide, which joins the
point B, in ray figure,
where the front wheel
rests on the ground,
with the point C,
where the rear wheel
rests. (I adopt Mr.
Warring's lettering.)
So long as a vertical
line dropped from the
center of gravity of
the machine falls on
some point of the line
B C, the bicycle is
in stable equilibrium ;
but, when it falls out-
side this narrow base,
as at the point D, the
equilibrium becomes
unstable. In order to
keep the machine and
rider from coming to
the ground, D must

be brought upon B C ; or, what is equiva-
lent, B C must be brought under D. The
latter is what is actually done. As the
rider can not slide his machine sideways
over the ground, he steers it obliquely
toward the side on which he tends to fall.
Thus, if the bicycle were running in the di-
rection C m, he turns it toward the right so
as to go in the direction B p. The center of
gravity of the machine and its rider, which
had been moving parallel to the course of

* 0

the machine, is now acted on by two forces :
(1) its acquired momentum, which tends to
carry it on in the direction D n, and (2) the
force constantly being received from the
moving bicycle, which tends to carry it along
the line D 0, parallel to the new course of
the machine. The result is, that it takes an in-
termediate direction, D p, in accordance with
the law of the composition of forces. Thus,
by being made to follow converging lines, D
and B C are brought together at the point jo.
As quick as this is accomplished the bicycle
must be turned again parallel to its original
direction, or D will pass over to the left of
B C and make the machine tilt toward that
side. Hence, it is seen that righting a fall-
ing bicycle in motion involves two move-
ments : first, a turn of the machine toward
the side on "which it tends to fall, then a
return to its original course. Gravity was
not mentioned among the forces considered
above, but its action does not vitiate ray ex-
planation. I will add that I ride a bicycle
myself, and so am acquainted with this mat-
ter on the practical as well as on the theoreti-
cal side. Very truly yours,

Fredekik a. Fep.nald,
L. A. W., 12,99G, N. Y. Division.

[Substantially the same explanation as
that given above has also been received from
Mr. Thomas Gary Welch, of Buffalo, N. Y.—
Editor.]

THE KELLEY'S ISLAND GROOVE.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Dear Sir: In this month's number of
the Science Monthly, under the " Miscella-
neous " head, you have a notice of the work
now in progress for the preservation of the
great glacial groove on Kelley's Island.

In that notice you speak of Prof. Wright
and Dr. Sprecher as having " surveyed " the
plot of land on which the groove is located.
In this statement you are in error. They are
not surveyors, and they did not survey the
plot, and the suggestion of such an occupa-
tion for them must seem to those who know
them very inappropriate. Prof. Wripht is
Professor of "New Testament Greek" at
Oberlin, and the author of that noble book.
The Ice Age in North America, published by
the Appletons in 1890; and Dr. Sprecher is
pastor of one of the largest Presbyterian
churches in our city. And in that notice
you make another error, which to me seems
very absurd. You give my name as Young-
hlood. It is not Y onn^blood, as you may learn
from your subscription list, where it has been
recorded from the time that the first number
of the Science Monthly was issued.

268

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The facts are just these : my invitation
to Prof. Wright and Dr. Sprccher to visit
the island with me was wholly a matter of
courtesy. While there I consulted them as
to the best method of protecting the groove
from the incursions of the Vandal curiosity-
hunters, and also as to the best form of
conveying the title, to be held in perpetuity
for the benefit of science ; and all of the sur-
veying that was done by those gentlemen
they did with their e)'es, as they stood ad-
miring that beautiful and wonderful work of
Nature's laws.

I take pleasure in saying that I have
completed the work of uncovering fifty feet
of the groove, leaving fifty feet still covered
to the depth of about twelve feet with clay,
gravel, and fragments of the lime rock, just
as it was left by Nature's laws when their
work was finished, and the tools with which
that work was done — granite bowlders — lie
scattered over the island, and on the main-
land, as far west as the Indiana line, there
to rest, imperishable and unchanged, until
Nature shall again take them up to do its
work.

Were yon to see that groove at this time
I feel sure that you w ould pronounce it to be
the most beautiful and wonderful evidence
of the glacial movement that has ever been
brought to the notice of civilized man.

On the 237th page of Prof. Wright's Ice
Age there is an engraving which gives an
iniperfeet view of the easterly end of the
great groove, as it appeared before it was
uncovered. And on the 238th page of the
same book there is an engraving of another
grooved rock, which is a little north of the
great groove, from which I had taken off
about a hundred feet before the photograph
was taken, and sent to various scientific in-
stitutions. This, too, you will see is a most

perfect and beautiful specimen of Nature's
work.

I beg that you will pardon me for troub-
ling you with this letter, for I feel that
it is due to my friends and also to myself
that the errors which I have noted should
be corrected.

And, now that I have nothing further fo
say on the subject which prompted this let-
ter, I will add a few words regarding The
Popular Science Monthly. I have been a
subscriber from the time of the issue of the
fii'st number, and I now have thirty volumes
bound ; and I take pleasure in saying that I
think that there are no other thirty volumes
to be found which contain such a vast and va-
ried amount of useful information, or which
are so well calculated to educate men in mat-
ters which advance our civilization, as those.

And more — they arc a most noble monu-
ment to "Edward L. Youmans," more beau-
tiful and enduring than marble or granite.
I am, sir, very respectfully yours,

M. C. YOUNGLOVE.

Cleveland, September 16, 1891.

[The paragraph noticed by Mr. Young-
love was compiled from a slip which was
sent to the Monthly from a Cleveland paper.
The language of the slip was followed, with-
out supposing that the word "surveyed"
was meant to be used in a technical sense,
but rather perhaps in its original sense of
looked-over, or perhaps as meaning that Drs.
Wright and Sprccher had the ground sur-
veyed. The change of our correspondent's
name to Youngblood was one that we much
regret ; but it was also one that might natu-
rally occur in transcription or type-setting
and be overlooked by a stranger to the per-
son concerned ; for to a stranger no sugges-
tion of error would be likely to occur.]

EDITOR'S TABLE.

TEE STRONG MAN.

FORTY years ago or less the apos-
tle of the hour was Carlyle, the
fashionable gospel was the gospel of
force, and the hope of the world was
supposed to lie in tlie advent of certain
heroes, strong, resolute men, who were
to heal our social and other diseases by
the prescriptions of a benevolent des-
potism. The gospel of force and all its
accompanying ideas have somewhat
fallen into discredit to-day. These latter
times have proved very unfavorable to
strong men, or at least to tliose who
have tried to pose in that character.

Louis Napoleon was a strong man : he
greatly dared on a certain 2d of De-
cember just forty years ago, and for a
time he seemed to be a living justifi-
cation of Carlylism ; but the sage of
Chelsea lived to see the Man of Destiny
cast down from his high pre-eminence
and every vestige of his rule obliterated
by an indignant people. Bismarck was
a strong man, full of an almost reckless
courage and utterly impatient of criti-
cism and opposition; yet how sudden
and complete was his fall ! Thiers
wished to play the part of the strong
man in France, and so did Marshal Mc-

EDITOR'S TABLE,

269

Mahon after Lira ; but the country put
both of them aside and passed on to
policies of which they disapproved.
Later Boulanger pranced across the
scene in the assumed character of a sav-
ior of society ; but as soon as the firm
hand of lawful authority was laid on
him he slunk into exile and dwindled
into insignificance ; finally, wrecked
alike in character and estate, he sought
death at his own hand. Balraaceda
was another would-be strong man, and
he too fills a suicide's grave. Lastly,
we have Parnell, a man whose courage
was indomitable, whose fortitude could
not be shaken, who by the sheer force
of his personality baffled the plans and
confused the policies of the ablest states-
men of Great Britain ; yet who, trusting
to his sti'ength to win him a personal tri-
umph after he had violated the essential
conditions of successful struggle, ended
his career in failure and disgrace.

Evidently there is something wrong
with the gospel of force. Heaven sends
the strong men in fairly liberal supply,
men who are quite prepared to fill tlie
Oarlylean requirements in the matter of
doing and daring, despising small scru-
ples and trampling on rights; but their
success is short lived, and their failure
points a moral which is hardly to be
found in the Carlylean philosophy. That
moral is that, while strength is a good
thing in itself, and courage and resolu-
tion are virtues, they need to be guided
by knowledge and a careful study of
conditions, if they are not to rush on to
disaster. Nay, more, we see that indi-
vidual strength is only weakness unless
it vibrates in unison with the greater
strength of true principles of action, the
strength that resides in the play of great
social forces. No man to-day can win
any great triumph except by being in the
right, and this is the great political lesson
which we should strive to impress on the
rising generation. To be sure, there are
many false lights — mostly, however, of a
minor kind — shining in the world and al-
luring men to a career of selfish advent-

ure. There are men who have climbed
to business or political success by means
that will not bear criticism. But the
examples afforded by those who have
tried such means to their own ruin are
more striking and impressive, if not
more numerous, than any that can bo
quoted on the other side.

Hero-worship is well if it simply
means sincere admiration for noble
qualities; but it is misleading in the
highest degree if it causes us to tru?t for
great results to the action of this or
that masterful individuality. To-day
the " common sense of most " is the
most potent factor in all social and
political progress, and no man is wise
who does not bear this in mind. There
is ample scope still for the exercise of
the highest moral and intellectual quali-
ties, and the true hero may yet win the
admiration and gratitude of society ;
only, what is required is that he should
know the structure and laws of the
society in which he lives, and seek
rather to give the best expression to the
tendencies of the time than to impose
his own individuality on his contem-
poraries. Only he who, in a profound
sense, obeys possesses the secret of rule.

The times are favorable, we think,
for the presentation of new political
ideals. Strong men of the old type,
iron-handed warriors, and stern legisla-
tors, are out of date ; on the other hand,
the want of firmness and principle in
connection with political affairs was
never more conspicuous. "We want a
new race of strong men in whom the
gamester element shall be wholly absent,
and who shall aim to accomplish their
ends not by personal tours de force,
nor yet by craft and flattery, but by
steady adherence to principle, and
patient efi'orts to awaken the public to
a sense of their true interests. The
strong man of the future will be strong
in knowledge and in social sympathy ;
and his strength will be spent, not in
efforts to perpetuate his personal as-
cendency, but in efforts to develop all

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that is best in the society of the time.
The true strong man as we conceive him
will have no greed for power; his greed,
if such it may be called, will be for use-
fulness; and he will show his strength by
his willingness to retire at any moment
from a public to a private position rather
than prove unfaithful to his convictions
or do anything unworthy of a man of
honor. Strictly speaking, a man who
with adequate knowledge and intelli-
gence tries faithfully to serve the public
can never be obscure, though oflBces
should not seek him nor caucuses make
mention of his name. The public at
large will recognize and honor his efforts,
and his influence may be greater in a
private station than that of a score of
average legislators. We do not, how-
ever, look to our educational institutions
to do much to develop this new type
of citizen ; we trust rather to general
educative influences that are abroad in
the world. We trust, we may say, in
a considerable degree to such writings
as those of Mr. Spencer, instinct as
they are with noble views of liberty
and of justice, and conveying at the
same time clear and enlightened ideas
regarding the nature and functions of
the state. It is possible that private
associations for the purpose of causing
more intelligent views of citizenship
and its duties to prevail might accom-
plish very good work ; and we hope
that something may be attempted in
this way in connection with the Uni-
versity Extension movement which is
now making so satisfactory progress.
We certainly do not at this moment
know of any more useful work in which
an intelligent man could engage, than
this of introducing a scientific element,
however feeble at first, into the chaotic
welter of our State and national politics.

POLITICAL JUSTICE.

It is singular what diflSculty many
intelligent persons experience in enter-
taining the idea tliat in a democracy
there can be political injustice. " What

possible means can you suggest," we are
often asked, " of deciding political ques-
tions save the vote of the majority ?
And what ground can any one have to
complain so long as he exercises the
franchise with the rest? The minority
can not expect to rule, can it ? " These
questions all proceed upon the assump-
tion that there can not be a moral ele-
ment in any political question ; where-
as, in point of fact, there is a moral ele-
ment in every political question. If
two partners were trying to arrange the
terms of a separation, and each in the
most shameless manner were to set at
naught all considerations of equity, and
strive only to get the largest possible
amount out of the business for himself,
we should scarcely approve of the pro-
ceeding. Every one feels that equity has
something to say in such a matter. If
any property whatever had to be divided,
and if, instead of bringing considera-
tions of right to bear, the parties were
at once to plunge into a squabble with
no guiding principle whatever save in-
dividual greed, we should think as
meanly of their intelligence as of their
lionesty. We all feel instinctively that
wherever moral principle can furnish a
guide it should furnish a guide — in oth-
er words, that to decide any question
without reference to moral grounds
which admits of being settled on moral
grounds is a gross offense against both
morality and common sense. Suppos-
ing, then, that some one who had band-
ed himself with others to carry by force
a decision involving injustice to a mi-
nority— say of stockholders — should im-
pudently say, " We had the votes and
we used them '" — our only conclusion
would be that he was a hardy and cyni-
cal villain. Things of this kind have
sometimes been done ; but for the most
part vice has at least paid to virtue the
tribute of hypocrisy.

To bring this home to the question
before us, the nation is a great corpora-
tion and the citizens are shareholders.
A general election is a meeting of the

EDITOR'S TABLE.

271

shareholders. There is an opportunity
for honest and well-meaning citizens to
consult and act for the benefit of the
great national corporation. There is
also an opportunity for others to plot
and plan for their private benefit, to be
secured at the cost and to the injury of
the corporation. A combination may
be formed to elect a corrupt directorate
or executive with the expectation that
it will be the submissive creature of
those who invested it with power.
Some will be prepared to imperil the
very existence of the nation in order
that they may carry certain selfish pur-
poses of their own into effect. Thus
every general election and, indeed,
every phase of political action affords
an opportunity for the practice of po-
litical justice or of political injustice;
and to say that any particular deter-
mination of the electors or of a legisla-
tive body is just because it commanded a
majority of votes is as absurd as to say
that in a physical encounter right must
rest with the conqueror.

" What are yon going to do about
it," say some, " if the people mani-
fest a complete indifference to these
considerations?" We can do nothing
about it, we reply, but uphold the true
principle, and trust that the apparent
" foolishness of preaching " may in the
end prove wiser than the wisdom of our
practical politicians who wield votes
precisely as they might wield clubs. It
is all a question of the moral growth of
the people; and we can not but hope
that the time will come when even the
average citizen will understand that
right is not made by majorities, but that
majorities are happy when they are able
to discover what right is, and pay it the
homage of their support.

TRAMP COLONIES.

There appears to be an epidemic of
schemes for reforming shiftless people
by wholesale. The latest reported is
a proposal by a Mr. Heller, of Newark,
N. J., to establish seven colonies, in as

many States, for the benefit of old and
unemployed people and tramps. The
chief feature of the scheme is to be the
reformation of tramps. Work is to be
provided for those who will work, and
Mr. Heller evidently expects that a large
part of them will. He doubtless actu-
ally believes what the tramps say of
themselves, and accepts the familiar
"can't get work" whine for absolute
truth. This belief is squarely contra-
dicted by well-known facts. Plenty of
work can be had now, without any
colony machinery, by those who will
work. During the past summer workers
have been called for all over the United
States, to gather in this year's bountiful
harvest. No tramp could extend his
travels to twenty miles outside any largo
city without coming across farmers who
would be glad to give him fifteen or
twenty dollars a month and board for
faithful work. In a recent book on
Crime and its Causes, the author, Will-
iam Douglas Morrison, who is an Eng-
lish prison official, puts the number of
vagrants who are willing to work at
not much over two per cent. To con-
firm his view he quotes the following
striking testimony from M. Monod of
the Ministry of the Interior in France:

According to M. Monod, a bcnfivolently
disposed French citizen wished to know the
amount of truth contained in the complaints
of sturdy beggars that they were willing to
work if they could get anything to do or any
one to employ them. This gentleman entered
into negotiations with some merchants and
manufacturers, and induced them to olFer work
at the rate of four francs [eijrhty cents] a day
to every person presenting himself furnished
with a letter of recommendation from him.
In eight months seven hundred and twenty-
seven sturdy beggars came under his notice,
all complaining that they had no work. Each
of them was asked to come the following day
to receive a letter which would enable him to
get employment at four francs a day in an
industrial establishment. More than one half
(four hundred and fifteen) never came for the
letter ; a good many others (one hundred and
thirty-eight) returned for the letter but never
presented it. Others who did present their
letter worked half a day, demanded two francs.

272

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and were seen no more. A few worked a
whole day and then disappeared. In short,
out of the whole seven hundred and twenty-
seven, only eighteen were found at work at the
end of the third day. As a result of this ex-
periment M. Monod concludes that not more
than one alile-bodied beggar in forty is in-
clined to worlv even if he is oflfered a fair re-
muneration for his services.

The idea of forming a community
with such material for its citizens is ab-
surd in the extreme. The tramp will
not work so long as he can find soft
hearted and softer headed people who
will give him a subsistence in idleness.
These self-satisfied charitable persons,
who give indiscriminately to save them-
selves the trouble of helping judiciously,
really entice more unfortunates into beg-
gary than tliey raise out of it.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Etolution in Science and Akt. Lectures
and Discussions before the Brooklyn
Ethical Association. Now York : D.
Appleton h Co.

The topics considered in these lectures
include not only the special unfolding of
each branch of science, but also sketches
of the leading evolutionists and outlines of
their methods. The first of the series is a
concise and excellent review of A. R. Wal-
lace and his work, by Prof. E. D. Cope. The
co-author with Darwin of the theory of nat-
ural selection is honored as a biologist, not
for researches in anatomy or paleontology,
but for his mastery of hexicology — the study
of the mutual relations of living objects.
Extensive travel tor twelve years in the
tropics furnished him with a storehouse of
zoological facts. From these resulted va-
rious papers on birds' nests, protective col-
oration, and mimicry ; while the theory of
natural selection was drawn from his obser-
vation of the variations of species. Besides
his works on evolution, he has written books
of travel and essays on political economy.
Prof. Cope regards Dr. Wallace as a fine
example of his own doctrine, that all force
is will-force, and pays another tribute to
him as typical of the intelligent spirit of
this century, determined to know and to use
the knowledge for the benefit of mankind.

His explanation of force and intelligence, as
caused by an influx of spirit, is deemed,
however, " an unnecessary interjection in an
otherwise continuous operation of known
and unknown causes."

As Dr. Wallace is so stanch a supporter
of the theory that variations are congenital
and environment a secondary feature, while
Prof. Cope holds as firmly to the opposite
view, several mooted points are discussed
oi passant, and in conclusion a synopsis is
given of the respective tenets of the Neo-
Lamarckian and Neo-Darwinian schools.

The famous zoologist and author of mon-
ism. Prof. Ernst Haeckcl, is the theme of the
second lecture, by Thaddeus B. Wakeman.
The life and enthusiastic labors of the great
naturalist are fascinating subjects. Whether
studying at " dear Jena," or diving in the
Indian Ocean, or waging war with Prof.
Vircbow, his zest for knowledge is unap-
peasable and magnetizes his followers. His
wonderful industry has given to the world
nearly a dozen valuable zoological works
and several charming books of travel. It is
his philosophy or religion, however, that es-
pecially attracts his biographer. Mr. Wake-
man is consumed by a monistic fervor ; and
it is questionable whether, in his anxiety to
rid the universe of " spooks," he does not
create some for iconoclastic purposes. The
" unknowable " of Herbert Spencer, or Prof.
Huxley's limitations of knowledge, need some
endowment of objectivity before they can be
properly exorcised as wraiths.

The Scientific Method is expounded by
Dr. Francis E. Abbot in the third lecture.
This, when tersely stated, consists of obser-
vation, hypothesis, and verification. A con-
firmed transcendentalist might oppose the
first step by questioning whether one could
observe an external world. So the lecturer
gives an imaginary controversy between the
realist and consistent idealist, and finally
drives the latter logically into the comer of
solipsism, where he is made to declare that
the universe is within himself. The actual
idealist always escapes this fate by allowing
an inference of the objective which we can
not know per se. As the idealistic individ-
ual shut up with himself can not know, so
he can not add to human knowledge. The

LITERARY NOTICES.

27?

scientific man, on the other hand, recognizes
an external world and positive knowledge,
and seeks to contribute some new grain of
truth if he may. He observes, hypothesizes,
and verifies, and finally submits his result
to verification by the race, the ultimate cri-
terion being the unanimous consensus of the
competent.

Notwithstanding Dr. Abbot's clear state-
ment of the scientific method, this final
standard of knowledge seems ambiguous.
The truth of a theory needs no further test
than its complete verification by all the facts
to which it applies.

To make a synopsis of the Synthetic Phi-
losophy of Herbert Spencer intelligible with-
in the limits of a leciure is a difficult task,
which Mr. B. F. Underwood has accomplished
extremely well. Not only this, but he has
given an introductory analysis of the oppos-
ing philosophical systems which preceded
the evolution hypothesis. The sensation
philosophy of Locke and Hume, and the
a prion speculations of Kant, representing
hoary antagonisms of thought, were by Spen-
cer's insight found to be different halves of
the whole truth that knowledge is derived
from experience, but the experience of the
race furnishes innate ideas to the individual.
Spencer's doctrine that we perceive only phe-
nomena, and from these infer the noumenal
existence which causes changes in conscious-
ness, is known as transfigured realism ; and,
though charged with idealistic leaning by
rank realists, is no more transcendental than
the views of Dr. Maudsley and Prof. Huxley.
According to the latter, " all phenomena are,
in their ultimate analysis, known to us only
as facts of consciousness." But it is the " un-
knowable reality " which proves a stum-
bling-block to many. Theologians dislike
this, since it excludes a knowledge of God,
and the scientific are afraid cf it because
Unknowable is printed with a capital, which
suggests another sort of deity. Disciples of
Ilaeckcl vainly impute dualism to Mr. Spen-
cer, while he declares, " I recognize no forces
within the organism or without the organism
but the variously conditional modes of the
universal immanent force." Whatever chis-
eling time may effect in the body of Spen-
cer's doctrine, there is good reason to believe
with Mr. Underwood that the leading prin-
ciples will remain intact.
VOL. XL. — 22

In the Evolution of Clumistry^ Dr. R. G.
Ecclcs has skillfully traced the growth of
chemical knowledge from the vague theories
of the ancients to the definite, complex sci-
ence of to-day. After the time of Aristotle
the elemental theory or doctrine of abstract
qualities saturated thought for fifteen hun-
dred years. The scales first used by the
young Scotch chemist Black weighed scho-
lastic dogma as well as fixed air, and proved
the hollowness of a priori reasoning. This
step in verification made progress possible.
Oxygen was discovered by Priestley, combus-
tion explained by Lavoisier, and the law of
definite and multiple proportions ascertained
by Dalton. The idea of continuous matter
was displaced by the atomic theory, and
Avogadro's law regarding the volume of
gases confirmed the hypothesis. The laws
of specific heat, crystallography, and Men-
delejeff's formula, each added its proof of
atomic weight. The study of the coherence
of groups of atoms resulted in the wonder-
ful synthetic productions of the laboratory.
The brilliant dyes, flavorings, perfumes, and
medicines made by the chemist excelled
those offered by Nature, and utilized hith-
erto waste products. Although the detail
of organic chemistry is now beyond the mas-
tery of any man, the outlook is infinite, and
problems whose solution promises the secret
of creation itself tempt the student. The
composition of the ferments, pepsin and
trypsin, or of the albuminoids, and the con-
version of starch into cane sugar, would
unlock incalculable benefits. The author
considers the development of chemical
knowledge, like the habits of atoms, closely
illustrative of evolutionary law.

Thales suggested electricity as a con-
dition of life, and the author of The Evolu-
tion of Electric and Magnetic Physics is in-
clined to agree with him. According to Mr.
Kennelly, "it is possible, if it is not at pres-
ent demonstrated, that electricity may be
the active principle in the processes of ani-
mal vitality ; . . . the relation between elec-
tricity and vitality may be so close as to
amount to identity." This is perhaps par-
donable in the chief electrician of Edison's
laboratory, but it is- doubtful if any emi-
nent physiologist or psychologist will allow
that nerve-fibers do more than artificially

274

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

resemble insulated wires, or that a dynamo
can confer any degree of immortality. The
growth of electric knowledge is recent ; for
twenty-two hundred years it was dormant.
The seventeenth century witnessed investi-
gation of electrical phenomena and of the
properties of magnets, but for two centuries
thereafter no connection was realized be-
tween them. It was only after Oersted's
discovery, in 1820, that a magnetic needle
is deflected by the electric current, that
electro-magnetism became a science. Its
subsequent progress was correspondingly
rapid, and its offspring are the crowning
inventions of to-day. Three propositions
are especially emphasized by Mr. Kennelly :
1. All electricity tends to flow in closed
curves or circuits. 2. The conductivity of
the surrounding ether. 3. The production
of light by electro-magnetic vibration.

The development of botany and the brill-
iant progress of electricity are as uniike as
a flower and an electric spark. In his lect-
ure upon the Evolution of Botany^ Mr.
Wulling shows that the accumulation of
botanic knowledge was nearly as gradual
as vegetable growth. The primitive needs
were food and clothing, and an acquaint-
ance with plants supplied these. Herbs
were also found to be noxious or healing,
and skill in remedies was sought and vener-
ated in the early ages. In time so many
species were described that various attempts
were made to classify them, and at length
the natural system of Jussieu prevailed.
Investigation of the structure and anatomy
of plants followed the introduction of the
microscope. The establishment of botanical
gardens facilitated the study of foreign
flora ; plant morphology and physiology
were differentiated as branches of research ;
and, finally, geological, paleontological, and
pathological botany constituted separate de-
partments of this complex science. Mr.
Wulling refers to the labors of many
American botanists, and applies the for-
mula of evolution to an analysis of botani-
cal history.

Each of the foregoing lectures is pre-
ceded by a list of collateral readings useful
to the student, and followed by a brief dis-
cussion of the subject by members of the
Ethical Association.

The Natural ITistort of Man, and the
Rise and Progress of Philosophy. By
Alexander Kinmont. Philadelphia: J.
B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 335. Price,
$1.

This book comprises a series of lectures
that were delivered and first published fifty
years ago, or before the present methods of
investigation were instituted, and before the
existing theories of development had begun
to prevail. Yet it is not antiquated, and the
claim of the editor is supported that " the
rapid movement of the world in all depart-
ments of thought, the changes of opinion and
sentiment in doctrinal theology, and in plii-
losophy, have not distanced nor superseded
the ideas herein presented." The author re-
gards the study of anthropology as chiefly
valuable as an introduction to the science of
Deity, and tries whether he can not trace
in man, " the image and likeness " of God,
" some of the more majestic elements of the
original." He does not attempt any formal
science of human nature, or any theory which
might deserve the name of anthropology,
"for such theory or perfect science, I im-
agine, would be premature still, by many
hundreds of centuries." Yet, while he ap-
proaches the subject from a wholly different
point of view than that from which contem-
porary philosophers regard it, and considers
a different side of it, his thoughts lead him
in the same direction as they take, and his
work presents many foreshadowings of the
doctrine of evolution. He might be de-
scribed as a theological anthropologist. In
the lecture on the origin and use of language
he says that " the arguments drawn from the
sacred scriptures, to establish a system of
unifonn sounds and modifications of voice to
designate ideas, are of a kin with the systems
of astronomy and geology drawn from the
same book ; all of which, after being fanati-
cally maintained for a time by arguments
supported by passion rather than philoso-
phy, are compelled by degrees to give place
to the sohd truths of observation and expe-
rience." Not that anything in science mili-
tates against the authority of the scriptures ;
" but these books do not purport to deliver
to us a system of science, but only to reveal
the Author of Creation, and the established
series of its epochs." Thus in the accounts
of events, as In that of the creation, the state-
ments are to be interpreted, not in the literal,

LITERARY NOTICES.

275

physical sense, but as condensed, emphatic
utterances of the theological truth — in this
case of God the Creator — which in the mind
of the author predominates over the scien-
tific truth. The labors of modern geologists
do not affect the truths, before announced,
in regard to the creation of the world, for
the simple reason that they refer not to the
workman, but to the physical characters of
the work. " This distinction now begins to
be understood, and will be so more and
more, as the truths of religion and the truths
of science are seen to be of different orders,
sometimes apparently blended, but never act-
ually confounded. . . . Three thousand years
ago or upward, Theology in the Eastern world
stood unconfounded with science, and men
heard from her, and were satisfied with the
response; that 'in the beginning God cre-
ated the heaven and the earth' — that 'God
said, Let there be light, and there was light ' ;
and they heard the number of the days of
creation also, and were satisfied ; and simi-
larly, in our times, it may be affirmed that
Science stands on her own ground, unoccu-
pied by theology, and expounds facts and es-
tablishes conclusions, no longer fearing or
being feared ; and men are now, in regard
to science, what they used to be in regard to
religion — free and unembarrassed, serving
bat one master. And this is the more worthy
of observation when we recollect the history
of the intervening period — how science has
been confounded with religion, and religion
with science, to the detriment and dishonor
of both. ... It is only when each pursues
that order and series of truths which are pe-
culiar to each that any mutual benefit can
arise; but, when they encroach on each
other's provinces, the most baleful effects
ensue." The presentation of this branch of
the subject, and the chapters on The Origin
and Perpetuation of the Natural Races of
Mankind, and Unity in Variety of the Human
Race, are followed by studies of certain par-
ticular nationalities.

An Introduction to Natcral Philosophy.
By Denison Olmsted, LL. D. Fourth re-
vised edition, bv Samuel Sheldon, Ph. D.
New York: The Baker & Taylor Com-
pany. Pp. 465. Price, $2.75.
It is nearly half a century since Olm-
sted's Philosophy was first published, and
although the progress of modern knowledge

in this period has made four revisions neces-
sary, the name and plan of the author arc
still deemed worthy of being retained. For
the present revision the whole book has been
carefully gone over, the chief efforts of the
editor being spent in rewriting the parts
treating of Electricity and Magnetism. The
subjects Force, Energy, Work, Wave-mo-
tions, Organ-pipes, Spectrum Analysis, and
Interference of Light- waves have also been
almost entirely rewritten. Extended descrip-
tion of apparatus has been avoided. A few
striking experiments have been described,
but the choice of demonstration has been
left largely to the instructor. Many new
drawings, chiefly in outline, have been made.
The work is adapted to college students. It
would be improved by the addition of an al-
phabetical index.

The Chapters on Electricity, written by
Prof. Samuel Slieldon for the above trea-
tise, are also published separately (Baker &
Taylor Company, $1.25). This volume is
intended for use in those colleges which de-
vote but thirty or forty hours to the subject,
and the principles presented in it are those
which the author thinks every liberally edu-
cated person should know. It has been the
desire of the author to present each part of
the subject in its most modern dress. This
desire, however, has been tempered by a
consideration of the intended functions cf
the book.

Chemistry of the Carbon Compounds, or
Organic Chemistry. By Vktor ton
RicHTER. Authorized translation by Ed-
gar F. Smith. Second American from
the sixth German edition. Philadelphia:
P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 1040.
Price, $3.

This work is sufficiently detailed to meet
the wants of advanced students of organic
chemistry, and to serve as a reference-book
for practical chemists. The present edition
differs considerably in its arrangement and
size from the first edition. The introduction
contains added matter upon analysis, the de-
termination of molecular weights, recent
theories on chemical structure, electric con-
ductivity, etc. The section devoted to the car-
bohydrates has been entirely rewritten, and
presents the most recent views in regard to
their constitution. The sections relating to
the trimethylene, tctramethylene, and penta-

276

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

methylene series, the furfurane, -pyrrol, and
thiophene derivatives, have been greatly en-
larged, while subsequent chapters, devoted
to the discussion of the aromatic compounds,
are quite exhaustive in their treatment of
special and important groups. The trans-
lator has had the hearty co-operation of the
author in preparing this edition.

Topics of the Timks. By Rev. Howard
MacQueary, Author of The Evolution of
Man and Christianity. New York : United
States Book Co. Pp. 238 + 51.
In this book the Rev. Howard MacQueary
shows that he is interested in and capable of
discussing other than theological questions,
for here he addresses himself to the vital
questions of the times, in which a larger
public will be interested than even the large
one which has read his former book. This
work is divided into two parts, the former
consisting of Lectures on the Conflict be-
tween Labor and Capital ; An Exposition of
Nationalism ; Truths and Errors of Henry
George's Views ; The Savages of Civiliza-
tion ; Popular Ideas of Poverty ; Reduction
of Hours of Labor; The Negro in America;
The Bible in the Public Schools. The sec-
ond part contains ten sermons, many of
them on most important and interesting
topics : Our Country : its Character and
Destiny ; The Sabbath Question ; Criticism
of the Bible; Did the Fish swallow Jonah?
What's the Use of Praying ? What is the
Evidence of Life after Death ? The God-filled
JIan ; Unshaken Beliefs ; Should we have
Creeds ? The Real Rights of Woman.

In his preface Mr. MacQueary defends the
pulpit for undertaking the discussion of
Topics of the Times. There are, he says,
two radically different ideas of the Church
and the pulpit. Some regard the clergyman
as a sort of religious policeman whose duty
it is to hold up before sinners pictures of
hell to scare them into doing their duty.
Others, however, hold that the Church and
the pvdpit have to do with the moral aspect
of every question, political, social, or scien-
tific, and that Religion and Morality are twin
sisters. This latter point of view is justified
by the example of the prophets of Israel,
who denounced the social and political evils
of their time. With regard to the papers in
the book, the author says that they " are in-
tended to be popular discussions of the great

problems considered," but not to be "ex-
haustive or original." He has evidently
succeeded in "casting the material in his
own mold," as he claims to have done.

The reader of these papers will find them
very interesting, stimulating to thought, and
helpful to all to whom the burning questions
of the day are serious problems. The author
has brought to his task wide reading, an
earnest consideration of the subjects treated,
and an easy and agreeable style. The views
of Henry George receive a pretty thorough
treatment, and the paper on the Savages of
Civilization is of thrilling interest.

There has been added to the lectures and
sermons a paper on ecclesiastical liberty,
which is the able defense of Mr. MacQueary
before the ecclesiastical court of the Episco-
pal Church of the Northern District of Ohio
against the charges of heresy. This paper
is of permanent interest, although the case
has now at length been definitely settled by
Mr. MacQueary's withdrawal from the Epis-
copal Church.

The Right Hanr; Left-Handedness. By
Sir Daniel Wilson. London and New
York: Macmillan & Co. Pp.215. Price,
$1.25.

This treatise includes data originally ac-
cumidated in a series of papers communi-
cated to scientific institutions in Canada, in
which the author sought to determine the
cause of left-handcdness by a review of its
history in its archfeological, philological, and
physiological aspects. To these, results of
later investigation have been added ; and
besides the effort to trace left-handedness to
its true source, the folly of persistently try-
ing to repress an innate faculty of excep-
tional attitude, and the advantages to be
derived from the systematic cultivation of
dexterity in both hands, are insisted upon.
In the former chapters of the book — on " the
educated hand," '' the willing hand," " palaeo-
lithic dexterity,"etc. — the prevalence of right-
handedness is shown to have been marked
from the earliest and even the prehistoric
ages of mankind. Its manifestation in chil-
dren appears by the weight of evidence to be
often spontaneous. The structure of primi-
tive implements, ancient weapons, etc., shows
it to have been the rule through the histor-
ical period. Philological arguments, refer-
ences in ancient literature to right-handed-

LITERARY NOTICES.

277

ness, and to left - handed exceptions, the
writing of ancient documents, and the posi-
tions of the figures in drawings, bear in the
same direction. Consideration of these evi-
dences precludes the idea of the origin of
right-handedness lying in any ancient custom,
or of its development and enforcement by
education into a nearly universal habit. The
conclusion is therefore inevitably forced on
the inquirer that the bias in which this law
originates must be traceable to some special-
ty of organic structure. This argument be-
comes stronger when we reflect that right or
left handedness is not limited to the hand,
but partially affects the lower limbs, as may
be seen in foot-ball, skating, the training of
opera-dancers, etc., so that eminent anat-
omists and physiologists have affirmed the
existence of a greater developmeat through-
out the whole right side of the body. The-
ories have been proposed assuming stronger
circulation, visceral predominance, or more
vigorous muscular growth on the right side,
but they do not seem to go to the root of the
matter ; while the theory of cerebral localiza-
tions on which many other human faculties
have been found to depend seems more am-
ple. It is understood that each hemisphere
of the brain affects the opposite side of the
body. In the majority of cases where the
hemispheres have been weighed separately,
the left hemisphere has been found heaviest.
This would give predominance to the right
Bide In the case of a single left-handed
patient, Dr. Wilson and an associated physi-
cian found the right hemisphere to weigh
the most. "No comprehensive indications
can be based on a single case, but its con-
firmatory value is unmistakable at this stage
of the inquiry; and thus far it sustains the
conditions previously arrived at."

Laroratory Practice. A Series of Experi-
ments on the Fundamental Principles of
Chemistry. By Josiah Parsons Cooke,
LL. D. New York : D. Appleton k Co.
Pp. 193. Price, $1.

Teachkrs who are striving against many
obstacles to teach science according to its
own proper method will be glad of the help
which the senior Professor of Chemistry in
Harvard College offers them through this
volume. It is a manual of directions for
experiments in which especial care is taken
that what the experiments teach shall not

be lost sight of. " The student should be
given to understand clearly," says Prof.
Cooke in his introduction, " that experiments
performed mechanically, without intelli-
gence, or carelessly recorded, are worth ab-
solutely nothing, and should be so estimated
in any system of school or college credits."
This book is designed as a companion to The
New Chemistry, by the same author, which
contains no experiments for the student, as
the present volume contains no extended
statement of chemical principles. The prin-
ciple that each experiment illustrates, how-
ever, is indicated by a heading, and in many
cases the conclusions that the teacher should
enforce are explicitly stated. Notes, ques-
tions, and problems are also inserted after
each experiment or group of experiments,
in order to direct the student's attention
upon the essential features of the investiga-
tion in hand. Ample cautions accompany
all experiments that would be dangerous if
carelessly performed. The present issue of
this manual has the value of a revised edi-
tion, for the book is an enlargement of a
list of experiments printed in pamphlet form
that has been used for several years in Har-
vard College and in a number of fitting
schools. In order to make the expense less
of an obstacle to the performance of these
experiments by school classes, the author
has sought to adapt to the purposes of in-
struction common household utensils, such
as may be made by a tinsmith or found at
any house-furnishing store. Two figures of
a kerosene stove applied to laboratory pur-
poses are given, and many other definite
suggestions in regard to apparatus are fur-
nished.

By the publication of Part IV, Dr. Michael
Foster, F. R. S., has completed the fifth edition
of his Text-book of Physiology (Macmillan,
$1.90). This part comprises the conclusion
of Book in, on the Central Nervous System
and its Instruments, and Book IV, on the Tis-
sues and Mechanisms of Reproduction. There
is also an Appendix on The Chemical Basis
of the Animal Body. In the portion of Book
III here presented the special senses and
the voice are briefly treated, and the account
of reproduction is also brief. A little more
than two hundred pages are given to the
topics here enumerated, bringing the whole

278

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

number of the pages in the work up to 1,856.
The author hopes to begin the publication of
a sixth and carefully revised edition of the
whole book early in the autumn. We would
suggest that he add an index to the forth-
coming edition.

Muter'' s Manual of Analytical Chemistry^
several previous editions of which we have
noticed, now appears, revised by an Ameri-
can editor, Dr. Claude C. Hamilton. This
revision is based on the fourth English edi-
tion. The editor has made only such changes
as were required to adapt the book to the
United States Pharmacopoeia except in the
chapter on urine analysis, which has been
enlarged, and to which cuts of microscopic
sediments and other illustrations have been
added. The chapter on water analysis has
been altered to correspond with Wanklyn's
methods, as those are most generally used in
America. Several other processes have been
added, such as estimation of chloral hydrate,
of fat in milk, etc., and various minor changes
in arrangement have been made in the inter-
est of convenience in using the treatise.

A volume of Elementary Lessons in Heat,
Light, and Sound has been prepared by
Prof. D. E. Jones (Macmillan, 70 cents). It
is an experimental book, intended for be-
ginners, and aims to bring out " one of the
chief advantages of science as an educational
subject — the training in the habit of obser-
vation, and of learning from things at first
hand." In the methods of reasoning, as
well as in the choice of words and subject-
matter, the author has endeavored to be as
simple and clear as possible. He has also
repeatedly tried and modified each experi-
ment so as to present it in a simple form,
and avoid the more usual causes of failure.
The book is illustrated.

Part III of the Short Course of Eorperi-
ments in Physical Measurements, by Harold
Whiting (D. C. Heath & Co., $1.20), deals
with principles and methods. About half of
its three hundred pages are devoted to some
fifty tables, and notes on their arrangement
and use. This material is preceded by ten
chapters, in some of which such matters as
Observation and Error, and Reduction of
Results are treated, while the others deal
respectively with the several departments of
physics.

A pamphlet is before us entitled The

Universe and its Evolution, being a trans-
lated abridgment of a five-volume work in
Hebrew, by S. J. Silbersiein. The author
denies the law of gravitation, and asserts
that Kepler's laws not only are not explained
by it, but furnish evidence against it. He
brings forward many arguments to show
that the planets could not have been pro-
jected from the sun into their present orbits.
He maintains, further, that they could not
continue their revolutions indefinitely, for
the attraction of the sun would draw them in
upon that body, unless, as he affirms, motion
begets motion. In another chapter some of
Spinoza's ideas of God are combated, and
the author then unfolds his conception of
the universe. He considers the source of all
to be the Absolute Intellect, whose offspring,
the absolute essence, brought the atoms into
existence, and the atoms are controlled by a
force that he calls " centrality." This force
resides in the center of every body, and main-
tains the chai-acter of the body. Several
other physical laws are laid down, and the
larger work is referred to for a full statement
in regard to them. The author apparently
has not considered the modern nebular theory.

The revision of The Chemical Analysis
of Iro7i (Lippincott, f 4) that has just been
made by the author, Andrew A. Blair, has
consisted in the correction of mistakes that
were apparent in the first edition, and the
adding of matter called for by the advance
in analytical chemistry during the past three
years. The Table of Atomic Weights has
been revised, and the Table of Factors has
been changed to correspond to the new val-
ues.

A report on The Pcdiculi and Mallophaga
affecting Man and the Lower Animah, by
Prof. Herbert Oshorn, has been issued as a
bulletin of the Department of Agriculture.
It describes the various kinds of lice found
on man, the monkey, dog, goat, ox, hog,
horse, the rodents, poultry, and various other
animals, giving illustrations of forty-three
species.

A pamphlet made up of Original Com-
munications of the Zymotechnic Institute has
been published by the director, Mr. /. E. Sie-
bel (2i2 Burling Street, Chicago). The papers
are reports of scientific investigations into a
variety of matters connected with the brew-
ing industry, such as the composition of the

LITERARY NOTICES.

279

acrospire of barley, yield of material in the
brewery, differentiation of subterranean wa-
ter-supplies, etc. There are six plates, show-
in'' different kinds of bacteria, of saccharo-
myces, molds, and starch, microscopic aquatic
life, and forced beer sediments.

An Address 011 the University Extension
Movement^ delivered by Richard G. Moulton,
A. M., has been published by the American
Society for the Extension of University Teach-
ing (1602 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia).
Mr. Moulton defines university extension as
*' university education for the whole nation
organized upon itinerant lines." He says
that university education differs from school
education in being unlimited, and that a uni-
versity fails miserably in its duty if it does
not give one those tastes and those mental
habits which will lead him to go on learning
to the end of his days. Not every person
will get the same thing out of university in-
struction. Each helps himself according to
his own capacity. The extension teaching
involves lectures, class-work, printed sylla-
buses, weekly written exercises, examina-
tions, and certificates. The interest that
has been aroused in England is shown by
the written exercises voluntarily sent in,
changes in the character of the demands on
the public libraries and of the conversation
at social gatherings, traceable to courses of
lectures, and similar indications Mr. Moul-
ton speaks of university extension as a mis-
sionary movement, and urges all who possess
the benefits of culture to assist in giving
culture to others.

The Iowa State Medical Society has be-
gun the publication of a bimonthly maga-
zine. The Vis Medicatrix._ which will serve
as the journal of the society (Des Moines,
$1 a year). It is edited by Woods Hutchin-
son, M. D., and the first number contains the
proceedings at the society's fortieth annual
session, the president's address, departments
devoted to diseases of animals, plant diseases,
medical colleges, notes and news, etc.

Mr. John A. Wric/ht, of Philadelphia,
has published a pamphlet on The Practical
Working and Eesulfs of the Inter-State Com-
merce Act, the purpose of which is to present
(1) the law of distribution of the returns on
all products that require transportation to
a market ; (2) the policy of transporters in
view of their duties as common carriers;

(.3) the difficulty of estimating the cost of
transportation; (4) a measure on which a
just rate of profit on the stock of transporta-
tion companies may be based. The author
points out provisions in the law which he
holds should be expunged as impracticable
and dangerous.

A treatise on The Principles of Agri-
culture has been prepared for common
schools by Mr. /. 0. Winslow, and is pub-
lished by the American Book Company. It
regards a knowledge of the subject as identi-
cal with a knowledge of the natural laws and
principles that underlie rural life and rural
pursuits, and considers it an important ele-
ment in the education of the young. Hence it
begins at the foundation with descriptions of
the substances of the earth, accounts of its
geological history, and the leading facts and
principles of the several sciences that bear
directly on agriculture and rural life. The
applications of the principles are then de-
scribed in the chapters on Plants, Fertiliz-
ers, Cultivation, and Animals. Minor and
subordinate topics are omitted, in the belief
that a thorough knowledge of the few main
points is worth more to the pupil than a
confused idea of the whole. Points not
definitely settled are avoided, or mentioned
only briefly. The book is designed, primarily,
for use in the public schools, and contains no
difficulties too great for ordinary pupils of
twelve or fourteen years.

A text-book on the Elements of Civil
Government, published by the American
Book Company, has been prepared by Alex.
L. Peterman for use in schools, and as a
manual of reference for teachers. It is in-
tended to supply what is a serious want in
many of our schools, which omit instruction
concerning civil government and the science
of citizenship. It begins with the family,
the first form of government with which the
child comes in contact. As his acquaintance
with rightful authority increases, the school,
the civil district, the township, the county,
the State, and the United States are taken
up in their order. In each case the nature
and purposes of the Government are ex-
plained, and its scope and methods. The
author endeavors to present the subject in a
simple and attractive way.

In a curious book entitled Beyond the
Bourn (Fords, Howard k Hulbert), Mr. Amos

280

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

K. Fi&ke records a dream of the future
world, and expounds his views on the des-
tiny of man. The fiction is sustained of a
person who was rendered insensible and to
all appearances dead for three days by a
railroad accident, and whose spirit sojourned
in the other world for that time. Recalled
to life and earth, he feels himself a stranger
among those who were of his kind, and is
impelled to leave a record of his experiences
and impressions in the abode of spirits.
Hints are given of the persistence of the
principle of evolution throughout the uni-
verse, and of the continued development and
perfection of the human race in the after-
life.

A collection of the Rev. Henry Ward
Bcecher's patriotic addresses, compiled a few
years ago by Mr. John R. Howard, contained a
review of Mr. Beecher's Personality and Influ-
ence in Public Affairs. This is now separated
from the original volume by the author, and
published by itself, by Fords, Howard & Hul-
bert, under the title of Henry Ward BeecJier :
a Study of his Personality, Career, and Injlii-
ence in Public Affairs. It is, in fact, an in-
teresting and critical biography of a man
whose influence on American thought and po-
litical tendencies has been second to that of
few if any others. The book is embellished
with excellent portraits of Mr. Beecher at
forty-three, at sixty-five, and at seventy-three.

•PTTBLTCATIONS RECEIVED.

Actuarial Society of America. Papers and Trans-
actions. 1S91. Pp. 119.

Afrrieiiltiiral Evperiment Stations, etc. Bulletins
»nrl Reports. Connecticut Fertilizers. Pp. 40. —
Massachusetts. Fertilizers and Feeding E.xperi-
Tnents with Cows. Pp. 16— Ohio. Wheat and
Whe.t Seedin?. Pp. 22.— United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, Forestry Division. Timber
Tests. Pp. 4.— New Tork. Nos. 3.3 to 36 Fer-
tilizers. Dairy-breeds of Cattle, Fungi and Insects
with Preventives Small Fruits. Pp. 112. — Potash
and Paying Crops. Pp. 39, with Plates.

B.ardeen. C. W. The Tax payer and the Town-
ship System. Pp. 1.5. — The Teacher as he should
be. Pp. 15. Syracuse, N. T.

Rrainard. F. R. The Sextant and other Reflect-
ing Mathematical Instruments. D. Van Nostrand
Co. Pp.120. 50 cents.

Branner, John C. Annual Report of the Geo-
logical Survey of Arkansas. Vol. TV. Wa.shintrton
C'O. Plant List. Little Rock. Pp. 262. with .Maps.

Bristol, Dr. E. L. M Before he was Born; or,
the Scarlet Arm. 3T3 "West-end Ave., New York.
Pp. 69. 50 cents.

Brooklyn Institute. Third Tear-Book, 1890-'91.
Brooklyn. Pp. 232.

Canadav. W. P., and West, Goldsmith Bernard,
Editors. Railway Law and Legislation. Vol. I,
No. 1. Semi-monthly. Washiii'.'ton. Pp. 20.

Oobb. John Storer. The Torch and the Tomb.
Boston : New England Cremation Society. Pp. 40.

Dake, Jabez P., M. D. 'Civil Government and
the Healers of the Sick. Philadelphia : The Uahne-
manniau Monthly. Pp. 19.

Darewin, G. 8., London. Lives of Victoria C.
WoodhuU and Tennessee Clatlin. Pp 38.

Davis, J. Woodbridge. Dynamics of the Sun.
New York : Woodbridge School. Pp. 97.

Emtage, W. T. A. An Introduction to the Mathe-
matical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. Mac-
mil Ian & Co. Pp, 22S. $l".90.

English, George L , & Co., New York. Supple-
ment to Catalogue of Minerals. Pp. 20.

Fall, Delos. An Introduction to Qualitative
Chemical Analysis. Albion, Mich. : V. J^. Tefft
Pp. 71.

Foster, Michael, and others, Editors. The Jour-
nal of Physiology. Vol. XII, No. 4. Pp. 100, with
Plates. 6«.

Gilman, N. P., and Jackson, E. P. Conduct as a
Fine Art. Houghton, Miffiin & Co. Pp. 230. $1.,')0.

Guillemin, Amedc'e, and Thompson, Sylvaniis
P., Editors. Eleotiicity and Magnetism. Macmil-
lan & Co. Pp. 976. $3.

Kolkin, N. Ethereal Matter. Electi-icity and
Akasa. Siou.x City, Iowa : J. M. Pinckney Co. Pp.
76. 50 cents.

Linnsean Society of New York. Abstract of Pro-
ceedings, 1890-'91. Pp. 11.

Merrill. George P. Stones for Building and Deco-
ration. John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 4.^3.

Missouri Geolngical Survey. Bulletin No. 5.
Age and Origin of the Crystalline Rocks (,by Erastus
Ilaworth), and Clays and Building-stones of West-
ern Central Counties (by G. E. Ladd). Pp. 86.

Mitchell. Ellen M. A Study of Greek Philoso-
phy. S C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 2S2. $1.25.

Oxonian, An. A Little Tour in Irel.and, with
Illustrations by John Leech. W. S. Gottsberger &
Co. Pp. 218.

Plympton, George W. How to become an Engi-
neer. D. Van Nostrand Co. Pp. 218. 50 cents.

Political Science Quarterly. September, 1891.
Ginn & Co. Pp. 190. 75 cents ; $3 a year.

Sadtler. Samuel P. A Hand-book of Industrial
Organic Chemistry. J. B. Lippincott Co. Pp. 519.
$5.

Schuchhardt. Dr. C. Schliemann's Excavations.
Macinillan & Co. Pp. 863. *5.

Sidsnvick, Henry. The Elements of Politics.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 623. %i.

Smith, E. F., and Keller, H. F. Experiments ar-
ranged fcr Students in General Chemistry. Blakis-
tons. Pp. 60.

Snlms - Laubach. H. Graf zu. Fossil Botany.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 401. U-

Stewart. John S., Philadelphia. Defects of the
Ocular Muscles. Pp. 7.

Thorne, R. T. Diphtheria: its Natural History
and Prevention. Macmillans. Pp. 266.

Tolstoi, Count Leo. Ivan the Fool New York;
Charles L. Webster & Co. Pp. 1T2. *1.

rniversity Extension Monthly. September.
1891. Philadelphia: J. H. Shinn. Pp. 82. 25
cents ; $3 a year.

Veeder. M A., Lyons, N. Y. The Zodiacal Light.
Pp. 10, with Plate.

Weismann. Dr. August. Ess.ays upon Heredity
.and Kindred Biological Problems. Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 471. $2.

Whelpley, Dr. H. M., St. Louis. Trichina Spira-
lis. Pp. 6.

Wilson. J., Newark, N. Y. Radic.il Wrongs in
the Precepts and Practices of Civilized Man. Pp.
413. $1.

Woman's Medical College of the New York In-
firmary. Catalogue and Announcement. Pp 25.

WoodhuU. Ziila Maud. The Proposal. A Dia-
logue. London : Norgato & Co. Pp. 32. 5 cents.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

281

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

issotiatioa of Official Geologists.— The

preliminary steps were taken at Washington
during the meetings of the International
Geolo<^ical Congress toward the formation
of an official organization of the directors of
State and national geological surveys. The
more important objects of the projected
society are the determination of the proper
objects of public geologic work, the unprove-
ment and unification of methods, the estab-
lishment of the proper relative spheres and
functions of national and State surveys,
co-operation in works of common interest
and the prevention of duplication of work,
the elevation of the standard of public geo-
logic work and the sustenance of an ap-
preciation of its value, and the inauguration
of surveys by States not having any now,
which CO- operate with the other State surveys
and with the national survey.

Changes ia Level of the Atlantic Coast.—

The fluctuations in height of the Atlantic
lowland coast-lands of the United States
were described by Prof. W J McGee in a
paper read before the American Association.
In the Pleistocene period the land stood
between three hundred and eight hundred
feet below its present level. Immediately
afterward the land rose to from three
hundred to six hundred feet above its pres-
ent height, and the shores of the Atlantic
and the Gulf retreated to from one hundred
to five hundred miles beyond their present
position. Afterward the land gradually
sank, and the waters readvanced until the
geography was much the same as to-day.
Then came another incursion of the ocean
and "Tilf, bringing sea-waters over nearly all
the area upon which Washington is built, and
over considerable portions of the North and
the South. During this period there was
deposited a series of loams and brick-clay
and bowlder-beds, upon which Washington
is located, and which has been named, from
the District, the Columbia formation. At
the close of the Columbia period the land
again rose one hundred or two hundred feet
higher than at present, and river channels
, were cut from fifty to seventy-five miles
beyond the present coast-line. It then began
to sink, and this movement is yet in progress.

South American Railroads.— Three of the

railroads that start from the Pacific coast of
South America and run up the valleys of the
Andes, says President Gardner G. Hubbard,
in his address to the National Geographic
Society, are among the most remarkable
roads in the world, ascend to a greater ele-
vation than any others, and reach a height
which in Europe and the United States would
be above the snow-level. They were intended
to reach the gold and silver mines between
the Andes and Cordilleras. The first, called
the Oroya or Central Railroad, one hundred
and eleven miles long, starts from Callao
and crosses the Andes at an elevation of
nearly fifteen thousand feet. It is intended
to extend it to the navigable waters of
the Amazon. Three hundred miles south-
ward of this, the second road runs from
Mollendo, Peru, by Arequipa to Puno or
Lake Titicaca, and thence northward on
the plateau four hundred and seven miles
to San Rosas, on the route to Cuzco. For
a part of the way it runs through a country
so destitute of water that the only supply
for the engines and stations is by an iron
pipe eight inches in diameter and fifty miles
long, running from an elevation of seven
thousand feet to the sea-coast. Seven or
eight hundred miles south of Mollendo a
line runs from Valparaiso, in Chili, to Buenos
Ayres, eight hundred and seventy miles. It
crosses the Andes through a tunnel two
miles long, at an elevation of ten thousand
five hundred and sixty-eight feet above the
sea ; after leaving the mountains it runs
over the pampas two hundred miles, without
a curve or a grade more than three feet
above or below the plain, and will soon be
completed from ocean to ocean. From Rio
Janeiro several roads have been construct-
ed over the mountains west of that city to
different parts of Brazil. There are now
from six thousand to seven thousand miles
of road in operation in the Argentine Repub-
lic, five thousand or six thousand in Brazil,
and three thousand or four thousand miles
in the other states, making a total of about
fifteen thousand miles of railroad in opera-
tion. The apparently most feasible route
for the proposed Pan-American Railroad to
run from the Caribbean Sea to the Argentine
Republic, and to connect with the others,
starts from Cartagena, follows the valley of

28z

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Magdalena River eight hundred miles to
Dividal, seventeen hundred feet above tlie
sea ; crosses the eastern Cordilleras at an
elevation of about six thousand five hundred
feet to the head-waters of the Caqueta or
Yapura, a branch of the Amazon, and runs
down that river three hundred and seventy-
five miles to the mouth of the Engarros, five
hundred and fifty feet above tide-water.
From the Caqueta River the route passes
through Ecuador to Iquitos, Peru, cross-
ing fourteen tributaries of the Amazon.
From Iquitos it ascends the Amazon and the
Ucayle five hundred miles to Napal, thence
continues across the Montana, and the nu-
merous valleys of the Amazon about six
hundred miles, to Santa Cruz in Bolivia, or
twenty-four hundred miles from Cartagena ;
while a branch will run up the Apurimac
to Cuzco. This road would run for two
thousand miles along the foot-hills of the
Cordilleras, in which is probably the richest
mining region in the world, and would
greatly facilitate the opening and working
of the mines. It would cross many branches
of the Amazon, and thus connect with fifty
thousand miles of navigable waters, at least
nine thousand of which are above Iquitos, and
it is claimed that the business from twenty
thousand miles of navigable waters would
find by this route a nearer outlet to Europe
and American markets than by Para. There
is every variety of climate on the route ; and
the country, under a wise government, is
capable of sustaining an immense population
and giving abundant support to a railroad.

Purification of Sewage.— The method of
purifying sewage at "Worcester, Mass., by
chemical precipitation was described by
Prof. L. P. Kinnicutt at the meeting of the
American Association. The sewage treated
contains a notably large quantity of the waste
products of various manufacturing establish-
ments, and an unusually large amount of free
acids and iron salts. The Carpenter process
is employed for purification. By adding lime
and the crude sulphate of aluminum the sus-
pended matter is all removed and the total
organic matter is reduced over two thirds.
The effluent water is clear and colorless,
without odor, and with only a slight alkaline
taste, and can cause no nuisance when run
into a stream of not more than five times its

volume. The precipitate, or sludge, is free
from bad odor, and when dried contains
nearly sixty per cent of iron oxide, ten per
cent of carbon, thirteen per cent of nitrogen,
and four per cent of phosphoric acid. Its
theoretical value is about forty-five dollars
per ton. If no use is found for it, it can be
disposed of by burning.

Evolution of Clocks and Watches. — The

beginning of modern clock-making may be
dated from 1656, when Huygens attached
the pendulum to the clock. This gave
horology a place in the exact sciences such
as it had not before held. The next impor-
tant advance was the invention of the watch
balance-spring, by Dr. Robert Hooke, of the
Isle of Wight. lie was the author of oth-
er valuable inventions and improvements,
among them the " anchor " escapement and
some ingenious tools for the making of as-
tronomical instruments. Previous to 1691
watches had only the hour-hand. Daniel
Ouare, of London, added the minute-hand.
Nine years later the horizontal escapement in
its perfect state was made public by George
Graham, F. R. S., and the device of jeweling
the parts most subject to wear was introduced
into England by M. Facio, of Geneva. The
English Government commission on a method
of finding the longitude, of which Sir Isaac
Newton was a member, appointed in 1714,
published the conclusion that an accurate
time-keeper would furnish the best means ;
and an offer was made by the Government for
the discovery of a method — fixed at £10,000,
if by it the longitude could be defined to
one degree; £15,000, if within two thirds of
a degree ; and £20,000, if within half a de-
gree. John Harrison, born at Foulby, near
Pontefract, in Yorkshire, in 1693, who de-
vised the gridiron compensation pendulum,
was stimulated by the offer to efforts to find a
similar regulator for a watch, and devised an
automatic regulator which Halley thought
might prove to be of some value. He ap-
plied it to a time-keeper, which, having
stood a test in a boat on the Humber, was
successfully taken to Lisbon. The Board of
Longitude advanced him £500. A second
instrument was not satisfactory to the board ;
but a third won for the inventor the gold
medal of the Royal Society. This instrument
was sent on a long voyage to Jamaica. After

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

283

being eighteen days out, a difPerence of more
than two degrees appeared between its indi-
cations and the shipmen's calculations. Har-
rison insisted that his time-piece was right,
and told the shipmen that, if they turned in
a certain direction, they would sight a certain
island the next morning — if the maps were
right. They did so, and the island was seen,
according to his prediction. Like results
were obtained as island after island was
passed. On arriving at Port Royal, after a
voyage of two months, the time-keeper was
five seconds slow ; and on returning to Eng-
land, after five months, its error was less
than a minute and a quarter. Harrison was
not allowed the offered reward till more sure
tests were made, but was given £5,000. The
watch was tested on a second voyage, with
triple precautions, and Harrison was allowed
£5,000 more, and promised the rest of the
£20,000 when he had taught others how to
make the instruments. Having fulfilled all
possible conditions, he was fully paid in
1767. His time-keepers are still preserved,
in charge of the astronomers royal, in Green-
wich Observatory.

Egyptian Identifieations. — Dr. Edouard
Naville, to whom the world owes the recov-
ery of the cities of Bubastis and Pithom, in
Egypt, gave a summary of the results of his
work in excavating other cities of Egypt
before a meeting of the Victoria Institute in
June. His explanations related principally
to places connected with the Exodus. He had
found that Succoth, whither the children of
Israel journeyed from Rameses, was not a
city, as some had supposed, but a district.
An inscription discovered at Pithom left it
no longer doubtful that that place was the
ancient Heroopolis, whence, according to
Strabo, Pliny, and other authors, merchant
ships sailed to the Arabian Gulf. This fact
coincided with the results of modem scientific
surveys, which showed that there had been
a gradual rising of the land, and that the
Red Sea once extended up to the walls of
Pithom. The identification of Baal Zephon
had been aided by some papyri, which
proved that it was not a village or a city, but
an ancient shrine of Baal and a noted place
of pilgrimage. Other places were Migdol
and Pi Hahiroth, in the identification of
which the author had again been aided by

a papyrus, and it seemed probable that the
Serapeum was the Egyptian Maktal or Mig-
dol. It was greatly to be regretted that a
bilingual tablet discovered there a few
years ago hud been destroyed before being
deciphered.

Forest Reprodnction in New England.—

The question whether our forests are dis-
appearing is answered in one way by Mr.
I. H. Hoskins, of Newport, Vt., who says,
in Garden and Forest: "In northern New
England they certainly are not. The farmer
has a constant struggle against the persistent
spread of seedling trees over his cleared land ;
and if man should abandon this region I
think in a hundred years it would hardly be
possible for a visitor to realize that it had
ever been inhabited by civilized man. It is
this constant back-pressure of the forest
upon intruding settlements that prevents
the average farmer from taking an interest
in forestry. He has to fight for his life
against the forest, and the idea that the
forests are likely to be extirpated seems to
him quite absurd. One of the largest and
finest sugar orchards in this towTi was seventy
years ago a wheat-field." While this is true
of some regions. Garden and Forest remarks,
there are other vast areas that will never
reforest themselves ; and the new forests are
of inferior quality to the old ones which they
succeed.

Astronomy and Nnmismatics. — A curi-
ous suggestion is made by Dr. A. Vercoutre,
of a way in which astronomical knowlediro
may be made of service to numismatical
science. Stars and members of the solar
system often figure on antique medals,
notably on coins of the Roman republic,
and they sometimes appear as heraldic al-
lusions to the magistrate by whom the coin
was struck. Thus, on a coin of L. Lucretius
Trio, 74 B. c, the seven stars in Ursa Major
— called by the Romans Septem Triones —
appear in evident phonetic allusion to the
name, Trio, of the magistrate. On a coin
struck in B. c. 43, Dr. Vercoutre noticed
five stars, one of which was much larger
and more brilliant than the others. As the
constellation Taurus contains the only
group of five stars, with one much the
brightest recognized by the ancients, the

a84

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

amhor attrfbut^d the coin to P. Clodius
l\irririu5, who u?ed the rame Taurus or
Tauriaus as a phonetic equivalent of his
own. A coin struci bv ilarius Aquillus,
B. c. &4, has figured on it ihe firs; four stars
of the constellaiion Aquila- Thev are shown
in nearly the same relative positions they
now occupy, and therefore contain the ear-
liesT known representation of a pan of
the celestial vault.

SatiTt J»ie in Europe. — Froni the oc-
currence of articles of jade in ancient
graves in Europe and America, while the
only known quarries of that mineral were in
Asia, are>h3?ologists hare conduded that all
the materials used by the prehistoric
artisans must have had an Oriental origin.
Prof. F. W. Rudler has shown that this
conclusion is no longer necessary. Within
the last few years Herr Traube, of Breslau,
has discorered nephrite, or true jade, in
places near Jordansmuhl and near Reichen-
stein, in Silesia. Pebbles of nephrite have
also been recently recorded by Dr. Ber-
werth from the valleys of two rivers in
Styria. A pebble believed to be of jadeite
has been found by if. Damour at Ouchy. on
the Lake of Geneva, and the same mineral
has been recorded from ilonte Tiso, in
Piedmont. Pr. G. M. Pa'n-son has recorded
the discorery of small bowlders of jade,
partially worked, in the lower part of the
Frazer Eirer Tailey ; and Lieutenant ?ioney
has obtained the mineral in place at the Jade
Mountains, in Alaska, 150 miles above the
mouth of the river Kowak. The present
aspect of the jade question is, therefore,
different from that which it presented when
the la:e Prof. Fischer and others favored
the view that the jade implements of
America and Europ>e were of exotic oricin.
I: seems now probable that in both conti-
nents the material of the implements b in-
digenous,

f3E«f$ of 6aldDe^$>. — The probable
causes of baldness are summed up by I>r.
Joseph Tyson as, in their order, insufficient
exposure of the hair; influence of hered-
ity ; excessive mental work and great anx-
iety ; venereal and alcoholic excesses ; and
constant washing and want of pomade.
IVTentive treatment is advised. Children

should, as much as possible, do without
caps, and their hats, when worn, should K'
of the lightest description. A stouter hat
may be necessary during the hot season, for
the prevention of sunstroke. Head-cover-
ings should not be warn indoors, in trains,
or in closed carriages. Straw hats are
preferable in stmimer and in still weather ;
in winter, hats made of light felt, well ven-
tilated and unlined. The ordinary tall hat,
or stove-pipe, and the thick, heavy, un-
ventilated top hat, can not be too strongly
condemned. The second cause does not
admit of practical treatment, while the
course to be pursued with the third and
fourth causes is obviously one of aroidance.
Too constant washing of the hair is un-
necessary as well as harmfuL Once a week
is enough for cleanliness and for maintain-
ing the strength of the hair. Excessive
brushing, especially with hard brushes,
should be avoided. The author advises the
application of some form of simple grease or
oil, after the hair has been washed; and,
when the head hair is becoming rapidly
thiimed, some stimulating material, such as
ammonia and cantharides. applied to the oil,
will increase its good effects.

The Mrs«]»«tuilui Desert.— The Meso-
potamian Desert, according to Dr. D. iloritz,
comprises two thirds of the southern part
of the country, forming an imbroken plain
with little or no vegetation, except in the
depressions where rain-water collects or the
inundations penetrate. Piles of ruins, or
dibris — which the inhabitants designate by
a name signifying " sigEs " — rise from
these perfectly level plains from the height
of a few yards to a hundred feet, and are
sometimes several miles in diameter. Some
of the walls and buildings still tower aloft,
and, in more recent ruins, lines of streets
can yet be traced; the dams of ancient
canals are still visible, and are sometimes
fifty feet high. The atmosphere is murky,
so that the highest hills are obscured at a
distance of a few miles. Dust-storms, for
which abundant material is furnished by
the old crumbled walls of brick, fiU the air
at times so that the sun is obscured ; and
in time they have changed the appearance
of the country by blocking up the ancient
canals and forming long, parallel lines.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

28!

They now threaten to cover up the few ex-
isting fields on the Tigris. While extensive
tracts in these regions have been lost to
cultivation from the lack of water, another
part is suffering from its superabundance,
and the land is swamp at the normal level
of the streams. Such is now what was
once the most populous region of the earth.

Tests of Woods. — A system of tests of
woods was described by Prof. Fernow at the
meeting of the American Association, which
have been undertaken at the Department of
Agriculture for the determination of the re-
lation of technical and physical qualities to
each other and to conditions of growth.
The method includes the selection of test-
material from as many essentially different
soil and climatic conditions as the species
may occupy; the examination of the struct-
ure and physical condition of the material
down to the minutest detail ; the usual test-
ing with special care ; and the compilation
and comparative discussion of the results of
the tests in connection wiih the physical
examination and the known conditions of
growth. Besides more reliable data than
have been hitherto obtained of the qualities
of our principal timbers, the investigation
promises to furnish us with a knowledge of
the conditions under which desirable quali-
ties can be produced by the forest-grower.

Phosphoras in Plants and inimals. —

In a paper presented to the American Asso-
ciation meeting in 1890, Mr. Walter Maxwell
showed that a vegetable organism, during
the initial stages of growth and under the
action of the ferments operating in germina-
tion, possesses the power of taking the phos-
phorus present in seeds or in soils as min-
eral phosphates, separating the phosphorus
from the inorganic combination, and causing
it to appear in the young plantlct in an or-
ganic form as a lecithine. In a second part
of his paper, which was read at the associa-
tion meeting of 1891, the author showed
that the lecithine bodies present in the ani-
mal kingdom revert to the mineral form un-
der the action of the ferments present in the
animal organism. The phosphorus contained
in a hen's egg, with which the investigations
were conducted — both in the forms of min-
eral phosphates and of organic phosphorus

compounds as lecithines — was first deter-
mined. Next, eggs were incubated, and the
products of incubation were studied. It was
found that the phosphorus contained in the
natural egg as a lecithine reappeared in the
incubation product as calcium phosphate,
forming the bone of the chicken. It thus
appears from the investigations that the
lecithine bodies are a medium through which
phosphorus conducts its circulation between
the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms
— passing from the mineral, through the veg-
etable, into the animal kingdom, where it re-
appears as a mineral compound.

Carpet- weaving in Persia. — Few ancient
carpets are to be found in Persia now, the
stock having been gatherel up by European
travelers, merchants, and cmio hunters.
It may seem almost incredible to many peo-
ple that among the ancient carpets ^o many
are still in good condition and comparatively
little worn. The secret of this is, accord-
ing to M. G. de Vries, that not only has
great care been bestowed on the weaving of
the carpets and on the quality of wool used,
but because of the custom prevailing in the
houses of Eastern people. While we enter
our own and other people's rooms with the
same boots with which we walk through the
muddy streets, a Persian never enters any
room without leaving his boots or shoes at
the door. The most important present man-
ufacture of carpets is carried on at Sultana-
bad. The weaving is done exclusively by
women. The only share the men take in the
work is, that to them the merchants give out
the designs, the colors, and the money re-
quired for the weaving. The loom is an in-
expensive and simple structure, consisting of
four wooden poles, which generally occupy
the whole length of the weaving-roora. When
weaving is going on regularly, three or four
women work at a carpet of fairly large size,
the weaver's wife being, as a rule, the prin-
cipal weaver, and at the same time superin-
tending the work of her daughters or hired
women. The rule is, that, at each end of the
board on which the women arc seated, there
shall be one female overseer. For carpets
of very large size, in the weaving of which
seven or eight women are employed, there is
also an overseer in the middle. At the age
of seven years girls begin to assist in the

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

weaving ; previous to that age they spend a
year or so on the board watching the other
women so that they may get accustomed to
the work. If a young woman who has been
brought up to the loom gets married, the
first thing she docs is to try and obtain an
order for a carpet, so that the weaving of
carpets passes from one generation to an-
other. Every stitch in the carpet is made
separately, and it is afterward clipped with
the scissors and beaten down. In a good
carpet there are about ten thousand stitches
to every square foot. The clipping must be
done every time with equal care, otherwise
when the carpet is finished the pile will be
short in some places and longer in others.
Upon the beating down depends tiie close-
ness of the texture ; the more a weaver beats
her stitches down, the finer, of course, the
carpet is. She knows how many stitches she
has to weave to every quarter of a Persian
yard ; but she generally makes less, in order
to save wool, time, and trouble. The designs
are the individual property of the weavers,
and are protected by law. The shades of
color are a matter of importance, and atten-
tion is paid to having them in harmony with
the varying tastes of the European mar-
kets. Besides woolen carpets, rugs are ex-
ported, woven entirely of silk. The weaving
of such rugs is done in the same way as the
weaving of carpets, but the labor is far
greater in proportion, as they are always of a
very fine make. Such rugs can be used as
table or sofa covers, portieres, etc., but, as
they are made of pure silk, they are very
costly.

Holy Stones of Ihc East and the West. —

A curious paper was read by Mr. Charles G.
Leland at the International Congress of Ori-
entalists concerning the salagrama stone of
India and the salagrana of the Toscana Ro-
mana, as a curious link connecting the East
and West. The Indian salagrama is a kind
of ammonite, the size of an orange, and hav-
ing a hole in it. According to the legend,
Vishnu the Preserver, when pursued by the
Destroyer, was changed by Maya into the
stone, through the hole of which the De-
stroyer as a worm wound his way. The Ital-
ian salagrana is a stalagmite, which is be-
lieved by the people, on account of its re-
semblance to the little mounds thrown up

by earthworms, to be such a mound petri-
fied. They carry it in a red bag, along with
certain magical herbs, and pronounce over
it an incantation to the effect that the irreg-
ularities and cavities in it have the property
of bewildering the evil eye and depriving it
of its power. The author was informed by
believers in such things that anything like
grains, irregular and confused surfaces, in-
terlaced serpents, or intricate works, blunted
the evil eye. Interlaced cords are sold in
Florence as charms. Even the convolvulus
is grown in gardens against the evil eye.
In the Norse mythology, Odin as a worm
bored his head through a stone in order to
get at "the mead of poetry." Hence all
stones with holes in them are known as
Odin stones, also as " holy stones," and are
much used at the North as amulets. Hung
at the head of the bed, they are supposed
to drive away nightmare. Possibly there is
a connection with the salagrana here. So
interlacings in decoration may be originally
designed to avert the evil eye and bad luck.
A recent traveler in Persia was told that
the patterns on carpets in that country were
made intricate so that the evil eye might
be bewildered. In the salagrana of Italy
the number of grains or protuberances must
be counted one by one before the witch
can do evil. In the Arabian Nights the
ghoul Amina must eat her rice grain by
grain ; and in South Carolina the negroes
protect a person who is bedridden or night-
mared by strewing rice round his bed, which
the witch, when she comes, must count grain
by grain before she can touch her victim.

Two Ancient Races. — Describing, in the
International Oriental Congress, his excava-
tion of the pyramid of Medum — the tomb of
King Senefru, of the third Egyptian dynasty,
and the oldest known building in the world
— Mr. H. Flinders Petrie spoke of the entire
skeletons which had been obtained of men
of that remote period (some 4000 years b. c.)
as providing an anatomical study of impor-
tance for ethnology. The peculiar mode of
interment of most of these persons shows
that a religious difference then existed. The
bodies of the highest class or race were in-
terred, extended at full length, with vases of
pottery or stone, and head-rests ; while the
greater number of the bodies were interred

NOTES.

287

contracted, with the knees drawn up to the
breast, even when the chamber was long
enough to hold them extended ; and they
were not mummified No pottery was in-
terred with them, except one or two rough
vases in one tomb. This treatment was not
due to neglect, for the deceased were always
placed with great care and regularity, with
the head to the north, the face to the east,
and the body lying on the left side. Such
essential differences in the mode of inter-
ment, and the provision for the deceased,
point to a difference of race. The contracted
interment may have pertained to one of the
prehistoric races, and the extended inter-
ment with provision of vases, etc., to the
dynastic race. The skeletons were well pre-
served, but tender and friable ; the bones lay
in their places, and the linen cloth wrapped
around the body was intact. Rheumatic
disease and other maladies of the bones
were already well known at that period.

Non-drinking Sheep and Cows. — The

facility with which animals can adapt them-
selves to altered conditions of existence is
illustrated by Dr. A. J. Crespi in an article
in the Gentleman's Magazine on Curiosities
of Eating and Drinking. He quotes from
Miss Betham Edwards's account of her ex-
cursions in the barren, stony, wilderness-like
region of the Gausses of France the de-
scription of some of the interesting facts
which it affords to evolutionists. "The
aridity, the absolutely waterless condition of
the Larzac has evolved a race of non-drink-
ing animals. The sheep, browzing the fra-
grant herbs of these plateaus, have altogether
unlearned the habit of drinking, whilst the
cows drink very little. The much-esteemed
Roquefort cheese is made from ewe's milk —
that of the non-drinking ewes of the Larzac.
Is the peculiar flavor of the cheese due to
this non-drinking habit ? "

NOTES.

Mr. H. a. Hazen maintained in the
American Association that the opinion that
tornadoes whirl is a mistaken one. Of the
two ways of learning the shape of tornadoes,
that of observing them directly is burdened
with difficulties, and is neither satisfactory
nor accurate ; while the study of them by
observation of their debris is easy, and will
lead to correct conclusions. Reports of such

observations of between two hundred and
three hundred tornadoes have been received
at the Weather Bureau during the past two
years, and the evidence from them is over-
whelmingly favor of the view that there is
no whirl.

A DESCRIPTION of the methods pursued
in the Geological Survey of the United States
was given, with graphic illustrations, by Ma-
jor Powell to the International Geological
Congress. The speaker explained that, in-
asmuch as the Survey is a national institu-
tion, supported by taxes paid by the public,
the results of its work are made intelligible
to the people, and are not prepared so as to
be understood only by men of science.

The Committee on Forestry in the Amer-
ican Association reported that, under a re-
cent law authorizing the President to with-
draw from sale or other disposal such public
timber-lands as he may deem fit, the bound-
aries of Yellowstone Park had been en-
larged. A necessary enlargement of the Yo-
semite Valley reservation was anticipated,
and a number of other reservations in Min-
nesota, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and Cali-
fornia, comprising several million acres,
would be asked for in a memorial prepared
by the American Forestry Association.

The next meeting of the International
Geological Congress will be held in Berne,
Switzerland, in 1894. The Geological Sur
vey of Russia, supported by the Czar, in-
vites the Congress to hold its meeting in
1897 in St. Petersburg.

According to a paper by G. L. Spencer
and E. E. Ewell, in the American Associa-
tion, wheat flour and bran mixed with mo-
lasses seem to be the favorite materials for
the manufacture of imitation coffees. It is
hardly prob.ible that the manufacturer se-
lects a good quality of flour, for a bad or
damaged article would be cheaper. Refuse
crackers and other waste of bakeries proba-
bly supply a portion of the material em-
ployed. A factory recently seized in France
employed a mixture containing 500 grammes
of ferrous sulphate, 15 kilogrammes of chic-
cory, and 35 kilogrammes of flour. With
the exception of such mixtures as this, imi-
tation coffee is not detrimental to health,
but especially affects the purse of the pur-
chaser.

A CDRious featu-e of old-time life is re-
called in Mr. Freshfield's paper before the
British Society of Antiquaries on the wrought-
iron sword-stands in the churches of the city
of London. These sword-stands, of which
two leading and various subordinate types
were described, appear to have come into
fashion in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; but
only one or two of the older ones survived
the great fire, and most of those now exist-
ing are of the eighteenth century.

288

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Prof. Pptnam announced, at •the last
meeting of the American Association, that
the Government of Honduras had granted
to the museum at Cambridge, Mass., the
exclusive right to explore the scientific re-
sources of the country for a period of ten
years.

A PAPER by Prof. A. N. Krassnof, read
at the meeting of the Geological Society of
America, traced the resemblance of the
black soils of the Russian steppes and the
prairies of America to their similar origin
in the layers of successive annual crops of
plants.

As described by Charles B. Thwing, the
results obtained with Lippman's process for
color photography, though not conclusive
at all points, seem to indicate that the mixed
colors may be reproduced with some fair de-
gree of accuracy. Modifications are intro-
duced by a change of thickness of the film
between exposure and final drying, and by
a shortening of the distance between maxi-
ma caused by the rays striking the reflector
at an angle other than the normal. A sec-
ond result is that an exposure long enough
to give a clear image of the red is certain to
obliterate the blue by over-exposure ; and a
third, that an over-exposure may completely
reverse the colors, causing the original col-
ors to appear on the reverse and the com-
plementary on the film side of the plate.

Prof. Jastrow describes some curious
tests which he made with a young man who
had been born without the sense of smell,
for the purpose of determining what things
are tasted when we cat and what are smelled.
It appears that many things which we relish
are not tasted, but only smelled.

A PAPER by Mr. John Watson, of Man-
chester, England, asserts that the redevel-
opment of lost limbs is not unusual among
insects. He has had three specimens in
which limbs have been redeveloped, and one
case of complete cicatrization. " Redevelop-
ment," he says, " can take place either in
the larval or the pupal stage of an insect's
metamorphosis."

OBITUARY NOTES.

Mr. William Terrell, an American me-
teorologist of world-wide reputation, died in
Kansas City, Mo., September 18th, about
seventy-four years old. He was graduated
from Bethany College in 1844, became as-
sistant in the American Ephemeries and Nau-
tical Almanac in 1857, and held the place
for ten years ; was then appointed on the
staff of the United States Coast Survey,
when he invented the machine for predict-
ing the maxima and minima of tides ; was
made assistant, with the rank of professor,
in the Signal-Service Bureau in 1882; and
retired from that position in 1886 to make
his home in Kansas City. He published

many works, large and small, of researches
on the tides or pertaining to meteorological
problems ; a volume on Recent Advances in
Meteorology (1888); a Popular Treatise on
the Winds in 1889; and contributions to
scientific journals and societies on such
topics as thermal radiation, cyclones, torna-
does, and related subjects of terrestrial
physics. His earliest scientific writings were
contributed in 1856 to the Nashville Journal
of Medicine and Surgery. He was a mem-
ber of the National Academy of Sciences,
and an honorary member of the meteoro-
logical societies of England, Germany, and
Austria.

Prof. Martin Duncan, F. R. S., whose
death has been recently announced, was a
special student of fossil corals and echino-
derms, and published some valuable mem-
oirs upon them. He was for a long time
Professor of Geology in King's College, and
there published an account of the Madrepo-
ria collected during the expedition of the
Porcupine, a description of deep-sea and lit-
toral corals from the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans, and a revision of the Echnoidea.
ITc also published many popular articles, in-
cluding Corals and their Polyps, Studies
among Amoeba?, Notes on the Ophiurans, or
the Sand and Brittle Stars, and a book on
the Sea-shore in the Natural History Ram-
bles series of the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge.

The death, by apoplexy, is announced of
Dr. L. Just, Professor of Botany at the
Polytechnicum, Carlsruhe, Director of the
Botanic Garden there, and editor of the Bo-
tanischer Jahresbericht.

Dr. Francis Beunnow, an astronomer
equally distinguished in America and Eu-
rope, has recently died in Heidelberg, Ger-
many, in his sixty-seventh year. He was
associated with Encke in Berlin, and there
had a part in the discovery of Neptune. He
investigated the motion of De Vice's comet
of short period, which, however, has never
been seen since. He also, at Berlin and
Ann Arbor, Mich., where he became director
of the observatory in 1854, calculated the
theory of some of the minor planets. He
published at Ann Arbor a periodical. Astro-
nomical Notices, which is now very rare.
His Lchrbuch der spherischen Astronomic
has passed through several editions. He
was appointed Professor of Astronomy in
the University of Dublin and Director of the
Dunsink Observatory in 1865. Retiring
from those positions in 1874, he lived the
rest of his life in private.

Dr. Barclay, who recently died in Simla,
India, was a specialist in cryptogamic bot-
any, and had acquired an extended reputa-
tion by his researches in the diseases of In-
dian plants He was engaged at the time
of his death with the commission for the
investigation of leprosy.

^.

\ ^

^^Rv

ELIAS LOOMIS.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JANUARY, 1892

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY.

By EDWIN ATLEE BAKBEK.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE
COLUMBUS. XL

THE revelations of the Centennial Exhibition set our potters
to thinking and stimulated them to greater competition.
Never before was such an impetus given to any industry. The
best productions of all nations were sent here and exhibited be-
side our own modest manufactures, and it was only too apparent
that America had been left behind in the race. Up to that time
there had been a few sporadic instances of attempts at originality,
but comparatively little had been accomplished of a really artistic
nature. The existence of a true ceramic art in this country may
be said to have commenced with the fair of 1876, because greater
progress has been made within the fifteen years which have
elapsed since that important event than during the two centuries
which preceded it. Let us see what rapid strides have been made
in this period.

At the United States Pottery in Bennington, Vt., was a young
man, Mr. L. W. Clark, son of the superintendent, Mr. Decius W.
Clark, who, on the closing of that factory, accompanied his father
to Peoria, 111., and remained with the firm of Fenton & Clark for
about two years, when he left to enter the army. In 1875 he went
to Boston, and, in partnership with Mr. Thomas Gray, assumed
control of the New England Pottery. This establishment was
founded in 1854 by Mr. Frederick Meagher, who made Rockingham
and yellow ware. It was afterward taken by Mr. William H.
Horner, from whom the plant was purchased by the present pro-
prietors, who now produce the usual lines of useful services in
cream-colored and white granite ware. For the past five years

VOL. XL. 23

290

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they have been making a decorated product in colored bodies, to
which they have given the name " Rieti " ware. This is a semi-
porcelain, finished and decorated chiefly after the Doulton, Adder-
ley, and Worcester methods. They also make true hard porcelain
of an admirable quality, and their goods are characterized by an
artistic style of decoration and excellence of glaze, their mazarine
blue and " old ivory " finish being especially praiseworthy. The
decorating branches are under the direct supervision of Mr. J. W.
Phillips, who originates and engraves many of the best designs
used in their printing processes. Most of their shapes are utilita-
rian rather than ornamental, but they have succeeded in impart-
ing to these a grace of outline and delicacy of coloring which
render them objects of great beauty. Tlieir chocolate-jugs, jarcZt-

nieres, and cuspidors com-
pare very favorably with
the imported wares, after
which they are to some ex-
tent patterned. Of the few
purely decorative forms
which they have attempt-
ed, a semi-porcelain vase,
twenty inches in height,
made in 1880, is particular-
ly meritorious. This is ar-
tistically j)ainted in natural
colors on raised paste, the
top and base being in sol-
id, dead gold. Mr. Bands,
of the Royal Worcester
Works, England, was the
artist.

The Ott and Brewer Com-
pany, of Trenton, N. J., now
operates the factory which
was built by Messrs. Bloor,
Ott & Booth, in 1863. Mr.
J. Hart Brewer, president
of the company, entered the
firm in 18G5, and, being an
artist himself of considerable ability, soon made his influence felt
in the improvement of methods and elevation of standards. Until
1876 the chief jiroducts of this factory consisted of white granite
and cream-colored ware. At the Centennial Exhibition the com-
pany made a display of a series of artistic Parians which had been
designed mainly by Mr. Isaac Broome, an American artist of re-
markable versatility and great jjromise. Of these special pieces,.

Fio. 18. — Semi-porcelain Vase.
New England Pottery Company, 1889.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 291

probably the most noteworthy are a bust of Cleopatra and a vase
with modeled figures of base-ball players.

The first attempts in the manufacture of " Belleek " egg-shell
china were made by Mr. Brewer in 1882, in conjunction with Mr.
William Bromley, Jr., but these early trials were not entirely
satisfactory. Encouraged by partial success, however, Mr. Brewer
induced Bromley to send for his father, William Bromley, and his
brother, John Bromley, who, with two or three other hands, came
over in the following year from the Belleek factory in Ireland.
Mr. William H. Goss, of Stoke-on-Trent, invented this body some
thirty years ago, at which time the elder Bromley was acting as
his manager. Messrs. David McBirney and Robert Williams Arm-
strong were then attempting to make first-class ceramic goods at
their recently established manufactory in the village of Belleek,
county of Fermanagh, Ireland. Mr. Armstrong induced Bromley
to take a number of Mr. Goss's best workmen to Ireland and
introduce the egg-shell porcelain there. The ware produced at
that factory has since become world-famous, being characterized
by extreme lightness of body and a beau-
tiful, lustrous glaze.

The ware now manufactured by the
Ott and Brewer Company is made en-
tirely from American materials, and is a
vast improvement over the body and
glaze first introduced by the Bromleys
eight years ago. In the rich iridescence
of the nacreous glaze it is fully equal to
the original Belleek ; in delicacy of col-
oring and lightness of weight it is even
superior. A dozen cups and saucers,
making twenty-four distinct pieces of
the ordinary size, almost as thin as pa-
per, weigh just one pound avoirdupois,
or an average of only two thirds of an
ounce each. A large variety of forms
of this porcelain are produced, in both
ornamental and useful designs. The
larger vases are usually simple in out-
line and of the same comparative light-
ness as those of smaller size. They
often possess pierced necks, feet, and handles, and are elegant-
ly decorated in enamels, gold relief, and chasing.

A triumph of the potter's skill is a Belleek ostrich-egg bonbon-
box, in two segments, which is exquisitely perforated or honey-
combed over its entire surface. We can not here reproduce more
than one or two examples of these beautiful fabrics. One is a

Fig. 19. — Belleek Vase.
Ott and Brewer Company.

292

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

large vase of the " Bourne " pattern, decorated in raised gold and
colors. The shape is graceful and the decoration is exceedingly
artistic (Fig. 1!»).

In addition to art porcelains, this factory produces a great
quantity of granite ware and opaque china, in dinner, tea, and
toilet sets, which are both print-decorated and hand-painted. A
jardiniere of white granite, which we here figure, is a refined
example of artistic decoration in quiet tones.

One of the most extensive establishments in the Eastern States
is that of the Willets Manufacturing Company of Trenton, N. J.

Fig. 20. — White Granite .Jardiniere. Ott and Brewer Company.

The present proprietors, Messrs. Joseph, Daniel, and Edmund R.
Willets, three brothers, succeeded to the business in 1879. The
factory was erected in 1853 by William Young and Sons, who at
first made Rockingham and common ware. At the Centennial
Exhibition William Young's Sons made a display of crockery
and porcelain hardware trimmings, at which time the plant in-
cluded only four kilns. The business has since grown to such an
extent, under the present management, that there are now thir-
teen large ware kilns besides those used for decorating. The prod-
ucts from these works include sanitary earthenware, plumbers'
specialties, white and decorated pottery, opaque china, white
granite, and art porcelain. A specialty in dinner and toilet serv-
ices is underglaze decoration on white bodies.

After the Ott and Brewer Company had perfected the body
and glaze of their Belleek ware and got it well under way, Will-
iam Bromley, Sr., went with the Willets Manufacturing Com-
pany and instructed them in the process. The manufacture of

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 293

white egg-shell ware, to which they are constantly adding new
designs, is another specialty of these works, and the company is
now competing successfully with the Dresden and other foreign
factories in supplying white art porcelain to decorators. In form
their pieces are graceful
and artistic, one of which
is represented in Fig. 22.

They also employ a
number of competent art-
ists to decorate their art
goods, many of which are
reproductions of the char-
acteristic shell and coral
forms of the Irish works.
Fig. 23 represents a large
Belleek vase with open-
work handles and chrys-
anthemum decoration in
delicate tints on an ivory,
gold- stippled ground.

The Ceramic Art Com-
pany, of which Mr. Jona-
than Coxon, Sr., is presi-
dent and Mr. Walter S.
Lenox secretary and treas-
urer, was established in
Trenton in 1889. The first i
named gentleman became
superintendent at the Ott
and Brewer Company's
works after Bromley left,
and the latter was former-
ly in charge of their deco-
rating department. Here
they learned the processes
of manufacturing Belleek.
Although they have at
present but one ware kiln
and two decorating kilns, they are rapidly making a name by
their constantly increasing patterns, many of which are exquisitely
conceived and show the touch of a thorough artist. They have
procured the best designers and painters that can be found and
employ both the overglaze and underglaze processes in decorating.
Their egg-shell ware is also furnished in the white to decorators.
Fig, 24 shows one of these undecorated pieces, a graceful lily-
shaped cup and saucer. In addition to vases and table pieces, they

294

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

make many fancy patterns, such as thimbles, inkstands, parasol-
handles, menu slabs, and candelabra.

The Phcenixville (Pa.) Pottery, Kaolin, and Fire-brick Com-
pany was organized in 1867, and a few years later was succeeded
by Messrs. Schreiber & Co., who made yellow and Rockingham
ware, and terra-cotta ornaments and wall-pieces. Heads of hounds

and stags in sev-
eral sizes, and large
boars' heads, were
made extensively
here, and twenty
years ago were in
demand for deco-
rating the interiors
of public - houses.
Many of these may
still be seen in coun-
try taverns. These
were considered
works of consider-
able artistic merit
when first produced.
The antlers and
horns of stags and
antelopes were made
separately and aft-
erward inserted.
Messrs. Beerbow-
er & Griffen took
the pottery in 1877
and commenced

the manufacture of
white granite. In 1879 the firm name was changed to Grifi^en,
Smith & Co., and in the following year the manufacture of " Etrus-
can " majolica was added. From 1880 to 1890 the factory produced
a good grade of white and decorated china, mostly in table services
and toilet sets. Through their majolica and " stucco " productions,
however, the firm became more widely known, and within the past
few years they have made many decorative pieces in shell and
dolphin patterns, after the Irish Belleek forms. Since the fire,
which destroyed a large portion of the works recently, the manu-
facture of majolica has been discontinued. Mr. Smith withdrew
from the firm in 1889 and erected levigating mills at Toughkena-
mon. Pa., near which place are large beds of kaolin. The firm
style was then changed to Grifi^en, Love & Co.

As early as 1882 experiments were commenced in the manu-

. — Shell anm> ('i'pih PiTriiK!; — Hklleek.
Willets Mauufacturing Compauy.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 295

facture of hard porcelain, and a series of sample pieces were made
for the New Orleans Exhibition. The quality and designs of these
trial pieces were creditable, and the experiment has shown that
this factory is capable of producing true porcelain of a high order.
One of the New Orleans pieces, a pitcher of thin semi-transparent
body, was also made in white earthenware, glazed and gilded, the
latter of which is reproduced in Fig. 25. It is in the shape of a can-
teen, the mouth representing the head of a Continental soldier. The
raised designs are flesh-colored, on a solid gold ground. The three-
cornered hat is black. Mr. Scott Callowhill, an English artist of
ability, was employed for a while in modeling and painting, but
recently left, to accept a position with the Providential Tile Works
of Trenton.

At the beginning of the
present year a change was
made in the proprietor-
ship, and a new company
has been incorporated, un-
der the title of the Griff en
China Company, which
will hereafter make a spe-
cialty of fine translucent
French china, in plain
white table services. The
company will also, at an
early day, manufacture
fancy tiles, under the di-
rection of Mr. A, D. Vitan,
a practical French potter,
formerly at Greenpoint,
Long Island. This gentle-
man has just perfected
an improved machine for
manufacturing art tiles,
and another for making
plates.

The Borroughs and
Mountford Company com-
menced business in Tren-
ton in 1879, in what was
formerly the Eagle Pottery. Their specialties are vitrilied, thin,
and hotel china, and underglaze printing on pottery and por-
celain. The mechanical application of decorations is the distin-
guishing characteristic of one line of their art potteries, which,
while closely imitating the more expensive methods of hand-paint-
ing, enables them to produce highly artistic effects at a greatly re-

FlCi. 23. LAKliK VaSK rnRYSANTIlKMUM DECORATION.

Willets Manufacturing Company.

296

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 24. — Egg-shell Porcelain— The "Engagement
Cup and Saucer. Ceramic Art Company.

duced cost. The bold ornamentation of their jardinieres, umbrel-
la-jars, punch-bowls, and vases, after the Doulton, Royal Worces-
ter, and Adderley methods, bears a striking individuality of its
own. Probably their most beautiful pieces are those on which
raised gold designs are applied by hand to an exquisite mazarine
blue. White tiles of the finest quality, with underglaze blue

printed devices, as well as
embossed and art tiles, are
also made to some extent.
The Greenwood Pottery
Company, incorporated in
Trenton in 1868, make a
specialty of the manufact-
ure of vitrified and trans-
lucent china for hotel,
steamship, and railway
uses. This pottery was
established in 1861, under
the style of Stephens,
Tams & Co. They are
also making, at the pres-
ent time, thin china table ware for domestic purposes, porcelain
hardware trimmings, and electrical, telegraph, and telephone in-
sulating supplies. Some years ago they added an art department

to their extensive establishment,
and their decorated productions
are characterized by elegance of
form, being decorated usually in
the Royal Worcester style, with
ivory finish and raised gold, sil-
ver, and bronze effects. The plant
of the company consists of seven-
teen large kilns, with an annual
producing capacity of over half a
million dollars.

Among the other important
Trenton establishments is that
of Messrs. Oliphant & Co., which
turns out large quantities of
plumbers' sanitary appliances, druggists' and jewelers' supplies.
About 1886 the late Mr. Thomas Connolly, a partner in the con-
cern, commenced experimenting in Belleek wares, having been at
one time connected with the Irish works. He succeeded in pro-
ducing some exquisitely thin trial pieces, and demonstrated the
fact that these works could manufacture egg-shell ware of the
highest grade. The few pieces which were produced, consisting

Fig. 25. — Whitk-ware Pitcher.
Phft'iiixville, Pa.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 297

of small ewers, cups and saucers, were fired in the large kilns
with the sanitary ware. For some unknown reason, however, this

Fig. 26. — Eweb Vase. Faience Manufacturing Company.

branch of the business was never developed beyond the experi-
mental stage.

The Knowles, Taylor and Knowles Company, of East Liverpool,
Ohio, have the largest works in America, their plant covering ten

298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

acres and including thirty-five ware and decorating kilns. Tlie
business was started in 1854 by Mr, Isaac W. Knowles and Mr.
Isaac A. Harvey, who, with a single kiln, made yellow ware and,
later, Rockingham, In 1870 Mr. Knowles, who had purchased the
interest of his former i:)artner, was joined by Messrs. John N.
Taylor and Homer S. Knowles, and in 187:3 they commenced the
manufacture of iron-stone china and white granite ware. The
business of the company has had a phenomenal growth, and at the
present time they employ about seven hundred hands in the |jro-
duction of extensive lines of white granite and vitreous hotel
china, which they supply to the trade.

The Faience Manufacturing Company, of Greenj^oint, Long
Island, prodiices white ware artistically decorated and, we believe,
a limited quantity of porcelain. The pieces are of ornamental
rather than of useful shapes. The engraving (Fig. 26) represents
a ewer vase from this factory with open-work handle and molded
figure of bird. It is unfortunate that the secrets of this factory
should be guarded so jealously as to deprive us of all knowledge
concerning the processes emj^loyed and the qualities of the wares
produced. Repeated inquiries have failed to elicit any rejDly.

To Mr. Thomas C. Smith, of Greenpoint, Long Island, belongs
the honor of being the first American manufacturer who has been
successful in placing upon the market a true hard porcelain as
a commercial article. His experiments, which extended over a
number of years, first commenced to bear fruit about 1865, when
he j)erfected a plain white ware, and a year afterward he com-
menced to decorate his goods. The Union Porcelain Works, of
which Messrs. Thomas C. Smith and C. H. L. Smith are the pro-
prietors, have produced many decorative pieces in addition to
their staple productions of true porcelain table ware.

This porcelain is composed in body of clay, quartz, and feldspar.
It is fired in biscuit at a low temperature, in the second story of
the porcelain kiln, using for its baking the surplus heat passing
away after having done its greater work in the first story or gloss-
kiln where the glazing is done. At this first burning the ware
receives only sufficient fire to make it jjroperly fasten together in
form. It is quite fragile, easily broken with the fingers, and por-
ous, not having yet had sufficient heat to commence vitrification.
In this condition it is what is termed porcelain biscuit, and is
ready for the glaze-tub. The glaze of porcelain is composed of
the same material as the body, and so compounded that those
elements which are soonest fluxed by the influence of the heat
are in greater proportion than they are contained in the body.
The porous, low-fired biscuit is dipped into a liquid puddle of
glaze. Upon being withdrawn its porosity quickly absoi'bs the
excess of water, leaving a dry coating of the glaze compound.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 299

which was held by the water in suspension, upon the surface of
the piece. This piece of porous biscuit covered with glaze is now
cleaned of glaze upon its foot, or that part upon which it rests, to
prevent its sticking or burning fast to the clay " sagger " or firing
case ; otherwise the glaze on the bearing parts would, at the time
of flowing, form a cement, fastening the piece and the sagger
together. The pieces are placed separately in the saggers. The
heat in firing hard porcelain is carried to such a high degree that
the ware touches the point of pliability, almost the melting-point.
At this point of heat the body is vitrified ; at the same time the
glaze, from its slightly softer composition, is melted into the body
of the ware, producing
a hard, vitreous, and
homogeneous material
properly known as true,
hard porcelain. This
is the process used at
Sevres, Meissen, Berlin,
and elsewhere.

The earthenware
method is just the re-
verse of this. The body
is composed of much the
same materials as a por-
celain body, but difiier-
ently compounded, and
it is baked in biscuit at
the first firing at a great-
er heat than is required
for porcelain biscuit,
and receives during that
first burning the great-
est heat to which it is
subjected in the entire
process of manufacture.
The glaze is composed
partly of the same ma-
terials as compose the
body, with the addition
of oxide of lead and boracic acid, which latter, being soft, fluxes
in the fire, enabling the glaze to flow at a low heat. It is fired
the second time in the gloss-kiln at a lower temperature than
it has previously been fired in biscuit. This results in flowing
the soft glaze over the surface of the ware, making sul)stan-
tially a lead-glass film or coating upon the surface of difi'erent
compounds and materials, not homogeneous, not a part of the

Fig. 27.

-BrsT or Edwin Forrest as William Tell.
Union Porcelain Works.

300

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ware by being fused into the body as in porcelain. Tbe body and
glaze being thus in constant antagonism to each other, produce
sooner or later what is technically called " crazing " or cracking
of the enamel, for the reason that the body is one thing, produced

at a higher temperature, and the glaze another, produced at a lower
temperature, and not as in porcelain, body and glaze produced at
the same time, and at the last and greatest heat.

Fig. 28 shows a tete<i4ete set, with head of Chinaman on the
cover of the tea-pot, a negro's head on the sugar-bowl, and goat's
head on the creamer.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 301

The Union Porcelain Works also manufacture largely hard
porcelain insulators and hardware trimmings.

The exquisite fabrications of the Greenpoint works have done
much to dispel that unreasonable prejudice which until recently
condemned all American productions, of whatsoever merit.

Beautiful as are many of the delicate productions of the pot-
ter's skill which are made in molds or by the aid of machinery,
clay is a material which yields the most subtle and satisfactory
results to the direct touch of the human hand. While prmtmg
processes are excellent in their way and indispensable for cheap-
ness where large production is an element to be considered, they
are inadequate to give that breadth and freedom of treatment
which constitute true artistic decoration.

While visiting the Centennial, Miss M. Louise McLaughlm, of
Cincinnati, was strongly impressed with the beauty of the then
novel faience from the Haviland potteries of Limoges, and on her
return home she determined to discover, if possible, the processes
of decoration. Her experiments, partially successful, extended
over a period of nearly three years, and in April, 1879, she gath-
ered around her twelve ladies who were interested m decorative
art, and the Pottery Club, which has since exercised such an im-
portant influence on the ceramic industry in Cincinnati, was then
organized. Miss McLaughlin being elected president and _ Miss
Clara Chipman Newton secretary. Experiments were continued
at some of the city potteries, where red, yellow, and white wares
were made. On the unburned ware colored clays were applied in
the manner of oil paints, and some satisfactory results were ob-
tained, . .

The ceramic display of Japan at the Philadelphia Exhibition
was, more than any other perhaps, the artistic impulse that in-
spired the venture which resulted in the establishment of the
Eookwood Pottery in 1880 by Mrs. Maria Longworth Nicholls.
Her experiments were continued at this factory, which, through
the liberal patronage of Mr. Joseph Longworth, her father, was
furnished with the necessary means for carrying it on until its
productions had found a market and it could stand financially

alone.

The ware produced here is a true faience, and while the shapes
employed are mainly reproductions or variations of classic Greek
forms, they possess a marked originality in treatment.^ The pot-
ter's wheel is used as far as possible, on account of giving more
freedom and greater variety to the outlines. Mr. Charles Mahar
is the only thrower employed at the pottery, and his graceful
creations have obtained a world-wide celebrity. The method of
casting in vogue is that which consists in pouring liquid clay into
plaster molds, which absorb the superabundant moisture from the

302

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

adjacent clay. The thin slip is then emptied from the center of
the molds, leaving a shell of uniform thickness, which is allowed
to stand a while longer before being removed.

The bodies are made of clays found mainly in the Ohio Valley,
though samples are being constantly sent to Mr. Joseph Bailey'
the superintendent, from all parts of the country. The clays
mostly used are a red variety from Buena Vista,' Ohio ; yellow
from Ironton, Ohio ; and a whitish or cream-colored clay from
Chattanooga— artificially tinted bodies being also used to some
extent. The glazing, however, is the most distinctive character-
istic of the Rookwood Pottery, which, when applied to the tinted

Fig. 29. -Group of Rookwood Vases.

bodies, produces the e£eect of rich tones of black, yellow, green,
red, brown, and amber, harmoniously blended, of great depth and
strength. A number of competent artists are constantly employed
m beautifying the wares, the decorations being entirely under-
glaze. Mr. Kataro Shirayamadani, a Japanese painter of the best
school, is doing some of the finest work in Oriental methods.
Mr. A. R. Valentien, Mr. M. A. Daly, and others rank among the
best American decorators in their particular lines. The above
engraving will give a fair idea of some of the forms of vases
produced, but no adequate conception of the great beauty of the
glazing can be conveyed in black and white.

It is not generally known that the Rookwood Pottery has
produced varieties of ware other than the richly glazed pottery
which has recently become so familiar through its exhibition in
the prominent art-stores of the country. In the earlier years,
commencing about 1881, cream-colored ware, with blue prints of

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 303

fishes and reptiles, was made. One of these early plates so deco-
rated is here figured. Yellow ware of the finest quality was also
produced ten years ago. The highest achievements in glazing
are the so-called tiger's-eye and gold-stone, which glisten in the
light with an auriferous sheen and all the changing hues of the
rainbow.

The Rookwood Pottery was the first in this country to demon-
strate the fact that a purely American art-production, in which
original and conscientious work is made paramount to commer-
cial considerations, can be appreciated by the American public ;
for financially this enterprise has recently proved successful, and
under the efficient management of Mr. W. W. Taylor, the entliu-
siastic president of
the company, experi-
ments are being con-
stantly prosecuted to
discover new bodies,
colors, and glazes.
At the present time
a new building, with
improved equip-
ments, is being erect-
ed on the summit
of Mount Adams,
which, it is expected,
will be ready for oc-
cupancy before the
end of the present
year.

Within the past
few years other pot-
teries have attempt-
ed in Cincinnati to make decorated ware, with varying success.
One founded by Mr. M. Morgan produced a faience modeled in
low relief, in Moorish designs, and the Avon Pottery commenced
the manufacture of a ware somewhat resembling the Rookwood ;
but both were closed after a brief existence.

The Cincinnati Art Pottery Company, Mr. Frank Huntington,
president, was organized in 1870, and for several years confined
its work to an underglaze faience after the Lambeth style. Later
it made Barbotine ware in applied work, but soon dropped this
and turned its attention to a more artistic style of overglaze deco-
ration. For a time the " Hungarian faience " was popular with
the purchasing public. We are enabled to give an engraving of
examples of this (Fig. 31). The latest style of work produced at
this factory is called the " Portland blue faience," which consists

Fig. 30. — EooKWO(ii) Platk, Printed Decoration.

304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of gold and colored decoration on a dark, rich blue ground, of the
color of the famous Portland vase. The name kezonta has been
adopted to designate the wares made here. The origin of the
word is interesting. The trade-mark used was the figure of a
turtle, and afterward learning that the Indian name for turtle
was kezonta, the proprietors added this name to the device which

Fig. 31. — " Hungarian Faience." Cincinnati Art Pottery Company.

was employed. Pottery in the biscuit and in blue and white glaze
has been sold largely to decorators, the forms being generally
modifications of the ancient Roman and Greek. It is with regret
we learn that this pottery has been recently closed, the stock of
ware on hand having been disposed of by auction.

This, in brief, is the history of the industry which in the past
few years has made Cincinnati noted as an art center. In the
city Art Museum are about eighty pieces of pottery and porcelain,
made between 1875 and 1886, commencing with a small porcelain
plate, in blue underglaze decoration, which was painted by Miss
McLaughlin in the former year and fired at Greenpoint, Long
Island. This collection of early experiments also includes a
number of interesting pieces made previous to the establishment
of the Rookwood Pottery, by its founder, Mrs. Bellamy Storer,
then Mrs. Nicholls.

Some original work of high merit is also being done at the
Hampshire Pottery of Messrs. J. S. Taft & Co., Keene, N. H. This
pottery was started in 1871 for the manufacture of red ware.
Lately the firm has been paying particular attention to art spe-
cialties, in new and graceful shapes and novel decorations. The
ware is a white, opaque body, covered with a variety of effective
glazes. About forty hands are employed, nearly half being deco-
rators. Prof. Edward S. Morse, of Salem, Mass., to whom I am
indebted for valuable assistance, first called my attention to these
productions.

The Chesapeake Pottery, of Baltimore, Md., was started about

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 305

ten years ago by Messrs. D. F. Haynes & Co., and was continued
without change until 1887, when the style was altered to The
Chesapeake Pottery Company, and again, in 1890, to Haynes, Ben-
nett & Co. Mr. Haynes, who is a practical potter of wide experi-
ence and an artist and designer of the highest rank, has invented
a number of new bodies and produced a wealth of beautiful de-
signs, which, because of the employment of the printing process
in decoration, are to-day beautifying the homes of thousands who
could not otherwise enjoy the possession of works of artistic
merit. Indeed, the engravings, which have been made especiallj'-
for these productions, possess so much excellence and are so pleas-
ing in their application to graceful forms that they stand as the ex-
ception which proves the rule that the best results can usually be
obtained without the aid of mechanical processes. Of the many
meritorious designs in high grade dinner sets and the one hundred
styles of toilet ware in underglaze printing and overgiaze decora-
tion made at this pottery,
among the most charming is
the Alsatian pattern, made
in the new Avalon china
body, embellished with the
heads of peasants, drawn by
Mr. Jesse Shepherd, or scenes
from Shakespeare, drawn by
Mr. A. Master especially for
this set, and printed in vel-
lum tints. The "Merchant
of Venice " set is particu-
larly attractive, in which, in
a panel on one side, the trial
scene is depicted, where Por-
tia says, " The quality of
mercy is not strained — it
droppeth as the gentle rain
from heaven " ; and on the
other the scene between An-
tonio, Bassanio, and Shy lock,
in which the latter exclaims,
" And for these courtesies I'll
lend you thus much moneys."

No less pleasing, though of an entirely different character, is
the Arundel ware, which is made entirely from American clays.
The body possesses no artificial coloring and is thoroughly vitre-
ous, of a rich olive-brown tint and susceptible of fine finish and
delicate relief work. Being made entirely of native materials, it
has been named after one of the titles and estates of Lord Balti-

VOL. XI,. — 24

■■ .Mi.i:( iiANT OF Venice '
Chesapeake Pottery.

3o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

more. This body is made into many useful and decorative shapes,
such as jugs, jmrlinieres, vases, etc. Pieces of this ware may be
seen in Fig. 33. In addition to these productions, the Chesapeake
Pottery has turned out ornamental flower-pots, Parian cattle-head
plaques in high relief, modeled by Mr. James Priestman, of Bos-
ton, from studies of typical animals in the noted herd of Mr.
Harvey Adams ; also two interesting has - reliefs representing
Winter and Summer, in Parian, the latter modeled by Mr. Priest-
man and the former by an English artist.

The Clifton ware from this manufactory belongs to the ma-
jolica family, and is said to equal, if not surpass, in body the

famous Wedgwood
ware of the same
class.

The ivory ware
possesses a body of
a soft ivory tint,
made from native
clays, without the
addition of coloring
either in body or
glaze, whose soft
, grain and texture
» render it peculiar-
' ly adapted for free
treatment and taste-
ful decoration. Me-
dallions in various
colored pastes, on
bodies of different
tints, which are
baked at one fir-
ing, have been com-
pared favorably with some of the fine Avares made at Etruria, the
result of years of intelligent study and experiment in American
materials. Many other bodies of equal merit have been invented
at this factory, but we have not the space to dwell upon them.

No one of our potters has done so much to beautify the wares
for daily use in the household as Mr. Haynes, or accomplished
more in the direction of elevating and refining the tastes of the
masses, which he considers of even greater importance than the
production of a few fine pieces which could only be within the
reach of the wealthy. That he has succeeded in this laudable
effort is am])ly demonstrated by the extent to which many of his
designs have been copied both at home and abroad.

Tiles. — The history of the ceramic art in America would not

Fig. 33. — " Arvnuel" Ware. Chesapeake Pottery.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 307

be complete without a brief review of the manufacture of orna-
mental tiles and architectural terra-cotta, which, although extend-
ing over only about two decades, furnishes an instance of marvel-
ously rapid development.

As early as 1832, or thereabout, plain fire-brick and tile were
made by the American China Manufactory in Philadelphia, then
operated by Messrs. Tucker & Hemphill. They advertised these
products as being " of a superior quality, manufactured in part
from the materials of which the china is composed. These have
been proved, by competent judges, to be fully equal to the best
Stourbridge brick," which have been celebrated for their excel-
lence for nearly a century and a half. The fire-clays of the Stour-
bridge district have been used for upward of three hundred years
by British manufacturers.

The European exhibits of fancy wall and floor tiles at the
Philadelphia Exhibition awakened the American ceramists to a
full realization of their insignificance in this broad field, and the
majority of ornamental tile works
in this country have been estab-
lished since that great industrial
event. With the exception of
roofing tiles, Americans made
there no exhibit of consequence
in this department of the fictile
art. As early as 1871 or 1872,
however, Messrs. Hyzer & Lewel-
len, of Philadelphia, had been ex-
perimenting in geometrical tiling,
and I have before me some in-
teresting examples of these early
attempts. Their first experiments
were directed to the manufacture
of encaustic tiles of geometrical
shapes — square, diamond, and tri-
angular— with natural and arti-
ficially colored American clays,
mainly buff, red, and black, the
designs being inlaid to the depth
of about a quarter of an inch.
While these efforts proved par-
tially successful, the wet clay
method employed at that time was unsatisfactory, because the
shrinkage was found to be irregular and the pieces came from
the kiln of different thicknesses. The next experiments were made
by the damp-dust process, which has been employed ever since.
The accompanying illustration will show two forms of geomet-

FiG. 34. — Some of the First Fancy Ameri-
can Tiles. Hvzer and Lewellen.

3o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rical wall tiles which, were made previous to 1870. They are plain
tiles of yellow clay, of great hardness, the glaze being also hard
and entirely free from " crazing," and fully equal to anything of
the kind which has since been produced. The hexagonal speci-
men figured is decorated with painted designs above the glaze,
consisting of a green vine on a buff ground, with a red center
outlined in black. The lozenge-shaped example is painted with a
black device on a lemon ground. Later, several patterns of em-
bossed unglazed mantel tiles, in conventional decoration, were
produced, but the manufacture of ornamental tiles was only car-
ried on a short time. At present they make plain geometrical
floor tiles of different colored bodies and of exceeding hardness.
The clay used is fine and homogeneous, and when burned almost
approaches stone-ware. The firm also manufactures fire-brick,
dental muffles, and stove-linings.

Furnace tests of the standing-up power of the best-known fire-
bricks, instituted by the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylva-
nia in 1876, at Harrisburg, showed that the productions of Messrs.
Hyzer & Lewellen were superior, in heat-resisting qualities, to all
others that were submitted for examination.

Scarcely two years after the Centennial, Mr. John G. Low, of
Chelsea, Mass., who had finished a course of several years in the
art schools of Paris, and had recently become interested in the
manufacture of pottery, formed a copartnership with his father,
Hon. John Low, and immediately commenced the erection of a
tile-factory in his native place. Less than a year and a half after
the works were started we find the firm competing with English
tile-makers at the exhibition at Crewe, near Stoke-on-Trent, which
was conducted under the auspices of the Royal Manchester, Liv-
erpool, and North Lancashire Agricultural Society, one of the
oldest societies in England. There they won the gold medal, over
all the manufacturers of the United Kingdom, for the best collec-
tion of art tiles exhibited. This record, probably unsurpassed in
ceramic history, serves to illustrate the remarkably rapid develop-
ment of an industry new in America, but old in the East, and
shows the resources at command of the American potter.

In 1883 Hon. John Low retired from the firm, and Mr. John F.
Low, son of the founder, became associated with his father, under
the style of J. G. & J. F. Low.

Mr. Arthur (3sborne, who has designed the majority of the
tiles produced here, is a talented artist of the older schools of art,
whose conceptions are chaste and classic and possess marked origi-
nality.

A novel method was resorted to by Mr. Low in the embellish-
ment of his earlier productions, which he has patented, and which
be calls the " natural " process. To secure accurate impressions

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 309

Fig. 35. — A "Low"
Tile, "• The Flying
Moments." By Os-
borne.

of delicate objects, such, as grasses, leaves, lace, etc., the article to
be represented was j^laced on the surface of the unburned tile and
forced into the clay by means of a press. Such intaglios, plainly
showing every small detail of marking, were
utilized as molds for forming the raised designs
on tiles, which were called " natural tiles,"

In the high-relief tiles the undercutting is
done by hand after the designs have been
stamped in the press. Among Mr. Osborne's
designs are ideal heads, mythological subjects,
portraits of prominent men, Japanese sketches,
and an almost endless variety of animal, bird,
and floral studies. His plastic sketches, on a
larger scale, are particularly meritorious, some
of the most pleasing being a group of sheep in
a pasture, a drove of swine, entitled " Late for
Dinner," a herd of cows wending their way
homeward, and " The Old Windmill." A beau-
tiful conceit is the " Flying Moments," in which
three Cupids hover around an hour-glass, one
being depicted in the act of winging his way up-
ward (see Fig. 35). These works also make stove tiles, calendar
tiles, clothes-hooks, paper-weights, inkstands, and pitchers in
plain colors, enameled, and glazed. They at one time also manu-
factured tile stoves.
Lately the Lows have
been making a spe-
cialty of the manu-
facture of art - tile
soda fountains, in
which work Mr. Os-
borne has found a
broader field for the
exercise of his tal-
ents.

The United States
Encaustic Tile
AVorks, of Indianap-
olis, Ind., is the out-
growth of the United
States Encaustic Tile
Company, which was
organized shortly after the Centennial. Five years ago the
present proprietors took charge of the works, and are now mak-
ing encaustic geometrical and relief mantel tiles. So rapidly
has the business grown in the past few years that the plant now

Fi(

-Pani:i, I 111; Son A Foix'!

.1. (;. cV' .1. F. Low.

310

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

includes six bisque and twelve muffle kilns, which are taxed to
their utmost capacity. The clays used for white bodies come
from South Carolina and Kentucky, and those for dark bodies are
obtained from Indiana, the burning being done by means of
natural gas. Miss Ruth Winterbotham, who is at present the
principal modeler of this factory, has produced many beautiful

designs, of which some three and six
section panels are probably the most
artistic. A series of three mantel pan-
els, representing Dawn, Midday, and
Twilight, are particularly deserving of
mention, the latter one being shown in
the annexed engraving. The method
employed in making embossed or relief
tiles is that used by all tile works in
this country, which was patented by
Richard Prosser, in England, in 1840,
for making buttons, and shortly after
applied by J. M. Blashfield to the manu-
facture of tiles, called the dust i:)rocess,
which consists in slightly moistening
the dry powdered white clay and sub-
jecting it to great pressure in dies con-
taining the designs to be impressed
upon them. They are then burned and
afterward glazed or enameled in deli-
cate colors. Mr. Robert Minton Taylor,
of England, was connected with these
works from 1881 to 1883.

The Beaver Falls Art Tile Company,
limited, of Beaver Falls, Pa., was organ-
ized in 1886 by Mr. Frank W. Walker,
the present secretary and treasurer.
These works make a specialty of rect-
angular and circular stove tiles and
manufacture largely fine art relief tiles
for wainscoting, hearths, and mantel
facings. The present designer is Prof.
Isaac Broome, a gentleman of rare artis-
tic ability, a thorough potter, and a sculptor of eminence, who be-
came connected with the works in 1890. In 1878 he was appointed
a special commissioner on ceramics at the Paris Exposition and,
in conjunction with General McClellan, made a thorough study of
the ceramic art as it exists abroad. The varied and extensive
knowledge which he has acquired through a life of study has
especially fitted him for the work upon which he is now engaged.

Fig. S7. — " Twii-ifwiT " Tile.
Uniled States Encaustic Tile
Works. Designed by Miss
Winterbotham.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY, -u

After leaving the Ott and Brewer Company he went in 1883 with
the Harris Manufacturing Company, now the Trent Tile Company,
as modeler, and afterward^ in 188G, was instrumental in establish-
ing the Providential Tile Works, of Trenton, N. J., and designed
many of their best works. Through his influence the Beaver Falls
establishment has made, during the past year and a half, rapid
strides in the development of decorative tile manufacture. A
complete ceramic color scale has been achieved and a series of
glazes produced, of soft, rich tones, a most important result
obtained being entire freedom from " crazing," which has already
given these works a high reputation Prof. Broome is an inde-
fatigable worker and a prolific artist, his sculptures being charac-
terized by exquisite conception and beautiful execution. While
he has produced many more pretentious works, some of his sim-

FiG. 38.— Hkavek 1-ai.ls Stove Tiles.

pie designs leave nothing to be desired. One of his most highly
admired pieces is a six-inch tile with a Grecian figure (Sappho)
leaning on a harp. Prof. Broome has also designed some twelve
by twelve inch tiles of great merit which will soon be submitted
to the public.

The American Encaustic Tiling Company, of Zanesville, Ohio,
is the most extensive establishment of the kind in the United
States. It manufactures artistic and encaustic tiles, and has placed
upon the market some fine pieces of relief work, twelve by eight-
een inches in size^ among the subjects of which we have seen
some female water-carriers of Grecian type. This factory also

312

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

makes an intaglio modeled tile, the effect of which, when filled
with glaze, is that of a photograph on a smooth surface of clay.
The different depths of the engraving regulate the degree of shad-
ing, and portraits of individuals have been executed with great
fidelity. It has been mainly through the intelligent management
of Mr. George A. Stanbery, the general superintendent, with the
assistance of Mr. Karl Langenbeck, the efficient chemist of the
company, that such marked success has been achieved. The

Fig. 39. — "Sappho." Beaver Falls Art Tile Company. By Broome.

modeling and casting of the dies are the work of Mr. Hermann
Mueller, formerly of Coburg, who studied in the Industrial Acade-
my and Preparatory Art School of Nuremberg, and in the Art
Academy of Munich. For geometrical designing of encaustic tiles
used in flooring and wainscoting the factory employs several com-
petent architects.

The works were projected in 1875 for the manufacture of floor
tiles, but in 1880 enameled tiles were added to the products of the
factory, and at the present time eleven large kilns are in operation.
The city of Zanesville has recently donated a tract of thirty acres
to the company, on which an extensive plant is now lieing erected
which will include twenty-eight kilns, to be ojierated in addition
to the present establishment.

The Trent Tile Company, of Trenton. N. J., established about
1883, is now making dull lustered tiles in aJfo-relievo, which pro-
cess has been patented. This style of finish forms a striking con-
trast to the glazed and enameled varieties also made here. Effect-

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 313

ive panels for mantel facings, six by eighteen inches, in one piece,
are also produced. One of these is a center panel in a pastoral
facing, which was modeled by Mr. William W. Gallimore, from a
sketch in black and white by an artist of the name of Cooper.
The scene represents a shepherd boy playing his pipes to his flock.

The peculiar treatment of this piece, in which the sheep in the
foreground are in relief and those in the distance in intaglio, is
particularly pleasing. Mr, Gallimore, the present modeler for
this company, was in his earlier days connected with the Belleek
potteries in Ireland, where he lost his right arm by the bursting
of a gun. He afterward modeled for Mr. William Henry Goss,
at London Road, Stoke-upon-Trent, where, under the supervision
of the latter, he produced some admirable Parian busts, including
that of the late Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, which serves as the frontis-

Vn,. 41. — I'asthkal I'ankl. Trent Tile Company.

piece to the latter 's Ceramic Art in Great Britain. Since the loss
of his arm, Mr. Gallimore has done his modeling with his left
hand, and he has accomplished better work with one arm than he
did when in possession of both. He has been with the Trent Com-
pany about four years. This comx)any has now six biscuit kilns,
and, in addition to the wares made for the general trade, is turning
out considerable work of a special nature.

3H

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Providential Tile Works, of Trenton, make glazed tiles,
plain and in relief. At one time tliey experimented in different-
colored glazes on the same piece, the raised portions being of a
different tint from the ground, and some good results were obtained
by this treatment. Underglaze decoration was also employed to

Fig. 42. — Tile Panel, " Indolence." rrovidenti

Works

some extent formerly, and some fine work in that line was pro-
duced, but both of these styles have been abandoned as unsuited to
the market. The present designer and modeler is Mr. Scott Callow-
hill, who came to this country about six years ago from the Royal
Worcester Works, England, where, with his brother, Mr. James
Callowhill, now of Roslindale, Mass., he had charge of two of the
principal decorating-rooms in which the finer class of decoration,
in raised paste and gold bronze, was done. He also, while in
England, worked for the Doultons, at Lambeth. Some of their
newest designs are relief tiles, measuring six by twelve inches,
and among their most popular pieces are hunting panels for
mantel facings, with such subjects as fighting bucks, stags' heads,
sportsmen, and dogs.

One of the most recent applicants for public favor is the Cam-
bridge Art Tile Works, of Covington, Ky.. which commenced
business in 1887. They are producing high grade enameled and
embossed goods of various shapes and in size from one half inch
square to six by eighteen inches. The glazes employed are re-
markably free from " crazing." The designer and modeler is
Mr. Ferdinand Mersman, who studied at the Academy of Fine
Arts in Munich. A pair of six l^y eighteen inch panels, which
have just been completed, are examples of exquisite modeling,
being copies of Hans Makart's celebrated paintings " Night " and
" Morning."

At Anderson, Ind.. the Colunilna Encaustic Tile Company is

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 315

producing inlaid and embossed art tiles, and at other points tile-
factories are in operation, but we must content ourselves with
this very incomplete sketch of the princij^al establishments in
this country.

In the manufacture of printed, inlaid, and relief tiles, America
has advanced rapidly, but in the production of hand-painted art
tiles she is sadly de-
ficient. This is a branch
of the art that must be
developed through the
influence of our me-
chanical art schools,
which are paving the
way for an early revo-
lution in the ceramic
industry in the United
States.

Various tile machines
have been designed for
the manufacture of tiles
from dust or semi-dry
clay, but we are unable
here to reproduce more
than one. Fig. 43 shows
a screw press, made by
Mr. Peter Wilkes, of
Trenton, for the Trent
Tile Company, and will
give an excellent idea of
the principle on which
the majority of such
machines are operated.
This forms tiles six inches to twelve inches square, the die being
placed between the "push-up" and "plunger." It can also be
used for making plates, oval dishes, and other ware.

Architectural Terra Cotta. — It is interesting to note
what the fifth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, published
in 1815, contains relative to this subject : " Worlidge, and others
after him, have endeavored to excite brick-makers to try their
skill in making a new kind of brick, or a composition of clay and
sand, whereof to form window-frames, chimney-pieces, door-cases,
and the like. It is to be made in pieces, fashioned in molds,
which, when burnt, may be set together with a fine red cement,
and seem as one entire piece. The thing should seem feasible."
And so we shall find that it was.

Terra cotta, the most enduring of all building materials, has

Fig. 43.— The Wilkes Scbew Tile Press.

3i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

been used to a greater or lesser extent from a liigli antiquity in
continental Europe, and in England terra-cotta trimmings were
used in building as early as the fifteenth, century. In the United
States this material does not seem to have been introduced until
after 1850. Experiments were made in this direction in 1853 by

P*^^

pr

24 * 6 S)»a.

Fig. 44.— Three Kilns. Perth Ambnv Terra Cuttu Coiuiiauy.

Mr. James Renwick, a prominent New York architect, but the
innovation was not received with favor by builders. In 1870 the
Chicago Terra Cotta Company brought over from England Mr.
James Tavlor. superintendent of the well-known works which

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 317

.- . /

I

/.

^

?.

/ /

f<iLi^''l

were established by Mr J. M. Blashfield in 1858. By the intro-
duction of the English methods, the Chicago establishment soon
turned out better work than had been produced before in the
United States,

The Perth Amboy '
Terra Cotta Company
was incorporated in
1879, and at once em-
barked in the manufact-
ure of large designs for
architectural purposes
from clay obtained from
the neighboring depos-
its. The plant of this
company has expanded
so rapidly that at pres-
ent it includes twenty-
two kilns, some of them
measuring forty - eight
and one third feet in
height and twenty-four
and one sixth in diam-
eter, which are said to
be the largest of the kind
on this continent, if not
in the world.

The company has in
its employ a number of
eminent artists in this
particular line, and has
furnished terra - cott;i
details for many promi-
nent buildings through-
out the country. Of
these we may mention
Young Maennerchor
Hall, Philadelphia;
Ponce de Leon Hotel,
St. Augustine, Florida ;
Biological Laboratory,
Princeton College ; and
Central School, Ironton,
Ohio. Fig. 45 repre-
sents a large panel in a
warehouse in Jersey City, and Fi
thony Club House, Philadelphia.

fd

■IG a bas-relief in the St. An-

3i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fk;. 46.

Since al)out 1880 the demand for architectural terra cotta has
rapidly increased, and to-day many mannfactories are in opera-
tion in various parts of the country. In the latter part of 1885

the New York Architect-
ural Terra Cotta Com-
pany was organized, and
the services of Mr. James
Taylor secured as super-
intendent. The works at
Long Island City have
furnished designs for
more than two thou-
sand buildings, scattered
throughout the principal
cities of the Union. They
have lately succeeded in
producing a pure white
terra cotta, which is said to be fully equal to the red in durability
and hardness, and at present are using this latest invention, in
combination with buff bricks, in the rebuilding of Harrigan's
Theatre, New York. The effect
is novel and pleasing. Other
architectural terra-cotta works
have also been experimenting
recently in the same direction,
and it is now only a question
of a short time when the more
perishable marble, as a build-
ing material, will be superseded
by this more enduring substi-
tute. Having eliminated the
red coloring matter from the
composition, it would seem
possible, by the introduction
of other tints, to produce terra
cotta in yellow, blue, or any
shade desired. The possibili-
ties in this direction appear
almost limitless.

The Indianapolis Terra Cot-
ta Company, located at Bright-
wood, Ind., commenced busi-
ness under its present manage-
ment in 188G. Mr. Joseph
Joiner, a gentleman of large experience in this field, and a highly
qualified architect, superintends the manufacturing department.

Fig. 47. — Panel in Eesidence of Mr. George
Alfred Townsend, Gapland, Me. New
York Arcbiteotural Terra Cotta Company.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 319

In the same year Messrs. Stephens & Leach started a factory
for architectural terra cotta in West Philadelphia, and later the
firm name was changed to Stephens, Armstrong & Conkling.

Fig. 48. — Finials. Indianapolis Terra Cotta Company.

During the five years of the works' existence it has furnished ma-
terial for hundreds of important structures in Philadelphia and
other cities, of which particular mention may be made of panels
and gable work in the library
of the University of Penn-
sylvania, and the Drexel In-
stitute, now being erected in
West Philadelphia. A series
of animal-head medallions, in
high relief, are particularly
excellent, and some bas-relief
portraits of eminent men,
modeled by such sculptors as
H. J. Ellicott, John Boyle, and
E. N. Conkling, are among
their best productions. A me-
dallion of Columbus by Mr.
Conkling, and a Cupid and
floral panel by Thomas Rob-
ertson, are here represented. Admirable work is also being pro-
duced by other establishments in Boston, Chicago, and most of
our larger cities.

Fi(i. 49. — Medallion of Columbus.

320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Recently considerable attention has been given to tlie con-
struction of brick and tile kilns on scientific principles. Many
improved kilns, lioth on tlie up-draft and the down-draft sys-
tems, have been invented. Art tiles and architectural terra cotta
are being burned in up-draft kilns with closed tops, or muffled
kilns, in which " saggers," or fire-clay boxes, are used to protect
the pieces from direct contact with the flames. Mr. W. A. Eudaly,

Fig. 50.— Floral Panel.

of Cincinnati, has j^erfected a down-draft kilii which is arranged
with compartments in the bottom, which are provided with two
separate and distinct sets of flues, one of which carries a portion
of the heat into the kiln, and the other conducts a portion from
the kiln to stacks or chimneys built in the main wall. The heat
is thus divided as it enters the kiln or leaves the furnace, a por-
tion going up through the liags to the ware at the top, while
another part surrounds the ware at the bottom of the kiln, secur-
ing uniformity of burning and perfect consumption of fuel and

BE CENT ADVANCES IN THE POTTERY INDUSTRY. 321

gases. By this method tiles and architectural terra cotta, as well
as enamel brick, enameled when green, and thus requiring only-
one firing, are successfully burned without the use of saggers.
Mr. Eudaly also constructs a square down-draft kiln on precisely
the same principles, but better adapted to the manufacture of
common brick, fire-brick, and sewer-pipe in large quantity, the
brick-kilns having a capacity of 80,000 to 300,000, the inside ar-
rangement being such that the heat can be driven to any part of
the kiln without altering the fire in the furnace. Thus all the
bricks are burned of equal hardness, a vast improvement over the
old-fashioned clamp kilns with open tops.

With the failure of natural gas supplies in the West, artificial
fuel-gas is destined to become the principal agency in the firing
of ceramic products. Its ex-
treme cheapness and perfect
adaptability to the needs of
the potter will insure its exten-
sive use in the near future.
There seems to be no reason
to doubt that it will, ere long,
supersede wood and coal as a
kiln fuel.

At the last convention of
the United States Potters' As-
sociation, held in Washington
in January, 1891, it was decided
to open a Pottery School with
the co-oi)eration of the Penn-
sylvania Museum and School
of Industrial Art, at Philadel-
phia, under the efficient man-
agement of Prof. L. W. Miller,
where designing, modeling, and

chemistry shall be taught, and the student fully equipped for
usefulness as a practical potter and artist artisan.

American potters have much to learn, but the day is not far
distant when, as is the case with other industries, we shall lead
the world in this, the oldest and most interesting of the mechan-
ical arts. The Columbian Exposition of 1893 will serve as a
powerful impetus toward this end, and the World's Fair Commit-
tee appointed by the United States Potters' Association, and com-
posed of such progressive potters as Messrs. J. N. Taylor, Homer
Laughlin, J. H. Brewer, James Moses, E. M. Pearson, D. F. Haynes,
and C. E. Brockman, will insure a creditable representation of
American goods in this branch of the Exhibition.

It is true that American manufacturers have excelled the Eng-

i^OL. XL. — 25

Fig. 51— The Eudaly Kiln.

322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lisli in branches of the art which tliey have seriously undertaken.
Our copies of certain European wares are fully equal to the origi-
nals, and in some directions are superior. It only requires the
proper appreciation and encouragement of the public to furnish
the incentive to a broader application of the principles which have
been mastered by American artists, in order to produce the best
that has been attempted by the older French, Italian, and German
schools. In our reproductions of the thin Belleek ware of Ireland,
the Limoges faience of the Havilands, and specialties of other
Continental factories, we not only equal them, but often excel
them, in delicacy of form and beauty of glaze and decoration.
Our relief tiles surpass in artistic merit anytliing yjroduced abroad
of a similar character, having won the first premium over British
wares long before we brought them to their present state of per-
fection. Our architectural terra cottas have, within the past few
years, left England behind, and, could the absurd prejudice against
home art and native work be overcome, America would soon lead
the world in ceramic fabrics of every nature. Auiericans are
commencing to discriminate between the meritorious and the
meretrici<)us, and to decide in favor of American goods. Having
the richest mines in the world, from which the best materials are

Fig. 52. — Militai^y Panel, 6. A. R. Memorial Hall, Wilkesbaree, Pa.
New York Architectural Terra ('otta Company.

procured, the most talented artists, and the most highly cultured
public, there is no reason why we should not compete with the
entire globe in the manufacture of artistic pottery and jjorcelain.
It has been repeatedly stated that our artists are imitative, rather
than inventive ; but while this may, to a certain extent, be true,
and some of our potters have been content to creditably reproduce
the well-known wares of foreign schools, others have directed
their attention to the perfection of distinctively original prod-
ucts, which, for richness of glazing, excellence of body, and
beauty of conception, will rank Avith the best productions of Eu-
rope. The inventive genius of American jjotters has a vast and
practically limitless field for experimenting, and the art schools
which have sprung up in our principal cities may in time produce
a second Robbia, a worthy successor to Palissy, or an emulator
of that prince of potters, Josiali Wedgwood.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 323

NEW CHAPTERS IN" THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.

XIV. THEOLOGY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

By ANDEEW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D., L. H. D.,

EX-PEESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVEESITY.

AMONG questions on which the supporters of right reason in
political and social science have only conquered theologi-
cal opposition after centuries of war, is the taking of interest on
loans. In hardly any struggle has rigid adherence to the letter
of our sacred books been more prolonged and injurious.

Certainly, if the criterion of truth, as regards any doctrine, be
that of St. Vincent of Lerins, that it has been believed in the
Church " always, everywhere, and by all," then on no point may
a Christian of these days be more sure than that every savings
institution, every loan and trust company, every bank, every loan
of capital by an individual, every means by which accumulated
capital has been lawfully lent even at the most moderate interest,
to make men workers rather than paupers, is based on deadly sin.

The early evolution of the belief that taking interest for
money is sinful presents a curious working-together of meta-
physical, theological, and humanitarian ideas.

In the great center of ancient Greek civilization, the loaning
of money at interest came to be accepted at an early period as a
condition of productive industry, and no legal restriction was im-
posed. In Rome there was a long process of development. The
greed of creditors in early times led to laws against the taking
of interest, but, though these lasted long, that strong practical
sense, which gave Rome the empire of the world, substituted
finally, for this absolute prohibition, the establishment of rates
fixed by law. Yet many of the leading Greek and Roman thinkers
opposed this practical settlement of the question, and, foremost
of all, Aristotle. In a metaphysical way he declared that money
is by nature "barren"; that the birth of money from money
is therefore " unnatural " ; and hence that the taking of interest
is to be censured and hated. Plato, Plutarch, both the Catos,
Cicero, Seneca, and various other leaders of ancient thought
arrived at much the same conclusion — sometimes, from sympathy
with oppressed debtors; sometimes, from hatred of usurers;
sometimes, from simple contempt of trade.

From these sources there came into the early Church the germ
of a theological theory upon the subject.

But far greater was the stream of influence from the Jewish
and Christian sacred books. In the Old Testament stood a mul-
titude of texts condemning usury, the term usury meaning any

VOL. XL. — 25*

324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

taking of interest ; the law of Moses, wliile it allowed usury in
dealing with strangers, forbade it in dealing with Jews. In the
New Testament stood the text in St. Luke, " Lend, hoping for
nothing again." These texts seemed to harmonize with the Ser-
mon on the Mount, and with the most beautiful characteristic of
primitive Christianity ; its tender care for the poor and oppressed :
hence we find, from the earliest period, the whole weight of the
Church brought to bear against the taking of interest for money.*
The great fathers of the Eastern Church, and among them
St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, and St. Gregory of Nyssa ; the fathers
of the Western Church, and among them TertuUian, St. Am-
brose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome joined most earnestly in
this condemnation. St. Basil denounces money at interest as a
" fecund monster," and says, " The divine law declares expressly,
' Thou shalt not lend on usury to thy brother or thy neighbor.' "
St. Gregory of Nyssa calls down on him who lends money at in-
terest the vengeance of the Almighty. St. Chrysostom says:
" What can be more unreasonable than to sow without land,
without rain, without plows ? All those who give themselves up
to this damnable culture shall reap only tares. Let us cut off
these monstrous births of gold and silver ; let us stop this execra-
ble fecundity." Lactantius called the taking of interest " rob-
bery." St. Ambrose declared it as bad as murder. St. Jerome
threw the argument into the form of a dilemma, which was used
as a weapon against money-lenders for centuries. St. Anselm
proved from the Scriptures that the taking of interest is a breach
of the Ten Commandments. Pope Leo the Great solemnly ad-
judged the same offense to be a sin worthy of severe punish-
ment, f

* On the general allowance of interest for money in Greece, even at high rates, see
Bockh, Public Economy of the Athenians, translated by Lamb, Boston, 1857, especially
chaps, xxii, xxiii, and xxiv of Book I. For view of usury taken by Aristotle, see his
Politics and Economics, translated by Walford, p. 27 ; also Grote, History of Greece, vol.
iii, chap. xi. For summary of opinions in Greece and Rome, and their relation to Christian
thought, see Bohm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, translated by Smart, London, 1890, chap,
i. For a very fuU list of Scripture texts against the taking of interest, see Pearson, The
Theories of Usury in Europe, 1100-1400, Cambridge (England), 1876, p. 6. The texts
most frequently cited were: Leviticus, xxv, 36, 37 ; Deuteronomy, xxiii, 19 and 26; Psalms,
XV, 5 ; Ezekiel, xviii, 8 and 17 ; St. Luke, vi, 35. For a curious modern use of them, see
D. S. Dickinson's speech in the Senate of New York in vol. i of his collected writings.
See also Lecky, History of Rationalism in Europe, vol. ii, chap, vi ; and, above all, as the
most recent historical summary by a leading historian of political economy, Bohm-Bawerk
as above.

f For St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa, see French translation of these diatribes in
Homelies contre les Usuriers, Paris, Hachette, 1861-'62, especially p. 30 of St. Basil.
For some doubtful reservations by St. Augustine, see Murray, History of Usury. For St.
Ambrose, see the De Officiis, lib. iii, cap. ii, in Migne, Patrologia, tome xvi ; also the
De Tobia, in Migne, tome xiv. For St. Augustine, see De Bapt. contra Donat, lib. iv, cap.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 325

This -unanimity of the fathers of the Church brought about a
crystallization of hostility to interest-bearing loans into number-
less decrees of popes and councils and kings and legislatures
throughout Christendom during more than fifteen hundred years ;
and the canon law was shaped in accordance with these. At first
these were more especially directed against the clergy, but we soon
find them extending to the laity. These prohibitions were enforced
by the Council of Aries in 314, and a modern church apologist
insists that every great assembly of the Church, from the Council
of Elvira in 306 to that of Vienne in 1311, inclusive, solemnly
condemned lending money at interest. The greatest rulers under
the sway of the Church — Justinian, in the Empire of the East ;
Charlemagne, in the Empire of the West ; Alfred, in England ;
St. Louis, in France — yielded fully to this dogma. In the ninth
century Alfred went so far as to confiscate the estates of money-
lenders, denying them burial in consecrated ground ; and similar
decrees were made in other parts of Europe. In the twelfth cent-
ury the Greek Church seems to have relaxed its strictness some-
what, but the Roman Church grew more severe. Peter Lombard,
in his Sentences, a great source of orthodox theology, makes the
taking of interest purely and simply theft. St. Bernard, reviv-
ing religious earnestness in the Church, took the same view. In
1179 the Third Council of the Lateran decreed that impenitent
money-lenders should be excluded from the altar, from abso-
lution in the hour of death, and from Christian burial. Pope
Urban III reiterated the declaration that the passage in St. Luke
forbade the taking of any interest whatever. Pope Alexander III
declared that the prohibition in this matter could never be sus-
pended by dispensation.

In the thirteenth century Pope Gregory IX dealt an especially
severe blow at commerce by his declaration that even to advance
on interest the money necessary in maritime trade was damnable
usury. This idea was still more firmly fastened upon the world
by the two greatest thinkers of the time: first, by St. Thomas
Aquinas, who knit it into the mind of the Church by the use of
the Scriptures and of Aristotle ; and next by Dante, who pictured
money-lenders in one of the ^jorst parts of hell.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century the Council of

tx, in Migne, tome xliii. For Lactantius, see Lact., Opera, Leyden, 1660, p. 608. For
Cyprian, see his Testimonies against the Jews, translated by Wallis, Book III, article 48.
For St. Jerome, see his Com. in Ezekiel, xviii, 8, in Migne, tome xxv, pp. 1*70 et seq. For
Leo the Great, see his Letter to the Bishops of various provinces of Italy, cited in Jus
Can., cap. vii, can. xiv, qu. 4. For very fair statements of the attitude of the fathers on
this question, see Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, London, 1884, and Smith and
Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Hartford, 1880, in each under article
Usury.

326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Vienne, presided over by Pope Clement V, declared tliat if any
one " shall pertinaciously presume to affirm that the taking of in-
terest for money is not a sin, we decree him to be a heretic, fit for
punishment." This infallible utterance bound the dogma with
additional force on the conscience of the universal Church.

Nor was this a doctrine enforced only by rulers ; the people
were no less strenuous. In 1390 it was enacted by the city authori-
ties of London that "if any person shall lend or put into the
hands of any person gold or silver to receive gain thereby, such
person shall have the punishment for usurers." And in the same
year the Commons prayed the king that the laws of London
against usury might have the force of statutes throughout the
realm.

In the fifteenth century the Council of the Church at Salzburg
excluded from communion and burial any who took interest for
money, and this was a very general rule throughout Germany.

An exception was, indeed, sometimes made: some canonists
held that Jews might be allowed to take interest, since they were
to be damned in any case, and their monopoly of money-lending
might prevent Christians from losing their souls by going into
the business. Yet even the Jews were from time to time punished
for the crime of usury, and, both as regards Jews and Christians,
punishment was bestowed on the dead as well as the living ; the
bodies of dead money-lenders being here and there dug up and
cast out of consecrated ground.

The popular preachers constantly declaimed against all who
took interest. The mediaeval anecdote books for pulpit use are
especially full on this point. Jacques de Vitry tells us that de-
mons on one occasion filled a dead money-lender's mouth with
red-hot coins ; Caesar, of Heisterbacho, declared that a toad was
found thrusting a piece of money into a dead usurer's heart ; in
another case, a devil was seen pouring molten gold down a dead
money-lender's throat.*

* For an enumeration of councils condemning the taking of interest for money, see
Liegois, Essai sur I'histoire et la legislation de I'usure, Paris, 1865, p. 78 ; also the Catho-
lic Dictionary as above. For curious additional details and sources regarding mediasval
horror of usurers, see Ducange, Glossarium, etc., article Caorcini. The date, 306, for the
Council of Elvira is that assigned by Hefele. For the decree of Alexander III, see citation
from the Latin text in Lecky. For a long catalogue of ecclesiastical and civil decrees
against taking of interest, see Petit, Traits de I'Usure, Paris, 1840. For the reasoning at
bottom of this, see Cunningham, Christian Opinion upon Usury, London, 1884. For the
Salzburg decrees, see Zillner, Salzburgische Culturgeschichte, p. 232 ; and for Germany
generally, see Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers im Deutschland, Halle, 1865, especially
p. 22 et seq. ; also Roscher, National Oeconomie. For effect of mistranslation of the passage
of Luke in the Vulgate, see Bollinger, p. 170, and especially pp. 224, 225. For the capitu-
laries of Charlemagne against usury, see Liegois, p. 77. For Peter Lombard, see his Lib.
Sententiarum, lib. iii, dist. XXXVII, 3. For St. Thomas Aquinas, see his works, Migne, vol.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 327

This theological hostility to the taking of interest was imbed-
ded firmly in the canon law. Again and again it defined usury
to be the taking of anything of value beyond the exact original
amount of a loan ; and under sanction of the universal Church it
denounced this as a crime and declared all persons defending it to
be guilty of heresy. What this meant the world knows but too well.

The whole evolution of European civilization was greatly
hindered by this conscientious policy. Money could only be
loaned in most countries at the risk of incurring odium in this
world and damnation in the next ; hence there was but little capi-
tal and few lenders. The rates of interest became at times enor-
mous ; as high as forty per cent in England, and ten per cent a
month in Italy and Spain. Commerce, manufactures, and general
enterprise were dwarfed, while pauperism flourished.

Yet worse than these were the moral results. Doing what one
believes is evil is only second in bad consequences to doing what
is really evil ; hence, all lending and borrowing, even for the most
legitimate purposes and at the most reasonable rates, tended to
debase the character of both borrower and lender. The prohibi-
tion of interest for the use of money in continental Europe pro-
moted luxury and discouraged economy, the rich, who were not
engaged in business, finding no easy way of employing their sav-
ings productively.

One evil effect is felt in all parts of the world to this hour.
The Jews, so strong in will and acute in intellect, were virtually
drawn or driven out of all other industries or professions by the
theory that their race, being accursed, was only fitted for the
accursed profession of money-lending.*

iii, Paris, 1889, question 78, pp. 586 et seq., citing the Scriptures and Aristotle, and espe-
cially developing Aristotle's metaphysical idea regarding the " barrenness " of money. For
a very good summary of St. Thomas's ideas, see Pearson, pp. 30 d aeq. For Dante, see in
Canto XI of the Inferno a revelation of the amazing depth of the hostility to the taking of
interest. For the London law of 1390 and the petition to the king, see Cunningham,
Growth of English Industry and Commerce, pp. 210 and 326; also the Abridgment of the
Records in the Tower of London, p. 339. For the theory that Jews, being damned already,
might be allowed to practice usury, see Li^gois, Histoire de I'Usure, p. 82. For St.
Bernard's view, see Epist. CCCLXIII, in Migne, tome clxxxii, p. 567. For ideas and
anecdotes for preachers' use, see Joannes de San Geminiano, Summa de Exemplis, Ant-
werp, 1629, fol. 493, a; also an edition of Venice, 1584, pp. 132 and 159; but especially
for multitudes of examples, see the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, edited by Prof. T. F.
Crane, of Cornell University, London, 1890, pp. 203 et seq. For the canon law in relation
to usance, see a long line of authorities cited in Die Wucherfrage, St. Louis, 1869, pp. 92
et seq., and especially Dccret. Gregor., lib. v, lit. 19, cap. iii, and Clementin, lib. v, lit. 5, sec. 2 ;
see also the Corpus Juris Canonici, Paris, 1618, pp. 227, 228. For the position of the Eng.
lish Church, see Gibson's Corpus Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani, pp. 1070, 1071, and 1106.

* For evil economic results, and especially for the rise of the rate of interest in Eng-
land and elsewhere at times to forty per cent, see Cunningham, Growth of English Indus-
try and Commerce, Cambridge, 1890, p. 189 ; and for its rising to ten per cent a month,

328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

These evils seemed so manifest, when trade began to revive
throughout Europe in the fifteenth century, that most earnest
exertions were put forth to induce the Church to change its
position.

The first important effort of this kind was made by John Ger-
son. His general learning made him Chancellor of the Univer-
sity of Paris ; his sacred learning made him the leading orator at
the Council of Constance ; his piety led men to attribute to him
The Imitation of Christ. Shaking off theological shackles, he
declared : " Better is it to lend money at reasonable interest, and
thus to give aid to the poor, than to see them reduced by poverty
to steal, waste their goods, and sell at a low price their personal
and real property."

But this idea was at once buried beneath citations from the
Scriptures, from the fathers, councils, popes, and the canon law.
Even in the most active countries there seemed to be no hope. In
England, under Henry VII, Cardinal Morton, the lord chan-
cellor, addressed Parliament, asking it to take into consideration
loans of money at interest. The result was a law which imposed
on lenders at interest a fine of a hundred pounds besides the
annulment of the loan; and, to show that there was an offense
against religion involved, there was added a clause " reserving to
the Church, notwithstanding this punishment, the correction of
their souls according to the laws of the same."

Similar enactments were made by civil authority in various
parts of Europe ; and just when the trade, commerce, and manu-
factures of the modern epoch had received an immense impulse
from the great series of voyages of discovery by such men as
Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, and the Cabots, this bar-
rier against enterprise was strengthened by a decree from no less
enlightened a pontiff than Leo X.

The popular feeling warranted such decrees. As late as the
end of the middle ages, we find the people of Piacenza dragging
the body of a money-lender out of his grave in consecrated
ground and throwing it into the Po, in order to stop a prolonged
rain-storm ; and outbreaks of the same spirit are frequent in other
countries.*

see Bedarride, Les Juifs en France, en Italia et en Espagne, p. 220. See also Hallam's
Middle Ages, London, 1853, pp. 401, 402. For the evil moral effects of the Church doc-
trine against taking interest, see Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, lib. xxi, chap. xx. See
also Sismondi, cited in Lecky. For the trifling with conscience, distinction between "con-
sumptibles " and " fungibles," " possessio " and " dominium," etc., see Ashley, English
Economic History, New York, 1888, pp. 152, 163. For effects of these doctrines on the
Jews, see Milman, History of the Jews, vol. iii, p. 179 ; also Wcllbausen, History of Israel,
London, 1885, p. 546; also Beugnot, Les Juifs d'Occident, Paris, 1824, B, p. 114 (on
driving Jews out of other industries than money-lending).

* For Gerson's argument favoring a reasonable rate of interest, see Coquelin and Guil-

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 329

Another mode of obtaining relief was tried. Subtle theolo-
gians devised evasions of various sorts. Two among these in-
ventions of the schoolmen obtained much notoriety.

The first was the doctrine of " damnum emergens " : if a man,
in order to loan money, was obliged to withdraw it from profit-
able business, and so suffer loss, it was claimed that he might
demand of the borrower compensation for such loss. Equally
cogent was the doctrine of " lucrum, cessans '' : if a man, in order
to loan money, was obliged to diminish his income from pro-
ductive enterprises, it was claimed that he might receive in return,
in addition to his money, an amount exactly equal to this diminu-
tion in his income.

But such evasions were looked upon with little favor by the
great body of theologians, and the name of St. Thomas Aquinas
was cited against them.

Opposition on scriptural grounds to the taking of interest was
not confined to the older Church. Protestantism was led by
Luther and several of his associates into the same line of thought
and practice. Said Luther : " To exchange anything with any one
and gain by the exchange is not to do a charity, but to steal.
Every usurer is a thief worthy of the gibbet. I call those usurers
who lend money at five or six per cent." But it is only just to
say that at a later period Luther took a much more moderate
view. Melanchthon, defining usury as any interest whatever, con-
demned it again and again ; and the Goldberg Catechism of 1558,
for which he wrote a preface and recommendation, declares every
person taking interest for money a thief ; from generation to gen-
eration this doctrine was upheld by the more eminent divines
of the Lutheran Church in all parts of Germany.

The English reformers showed the same hostility to interest-
bearing loans. Under Henry VIII the law of Henry VII against
taking interest had been modified for the better ; but the revival
of religious feeling under Edward VI caused in 1553 the passage

laumin, Dictionnaire, article Int^rSt. For the renewed opposition to the taking of inter-
est in England, see Craik, History of British Commerce, chap. vi. The statute cited fs
3 Henry VII, chap. vi. It is found in Gibson's Corpus Juris Eccles. Anglic, p. 1071. For
the adverse decree of Leo X, see Li6gois, p. V6. See also Lecky, Rationalism, vol. ii.
For the di-agging out of the usurer's body at Piacenza, see Burckhardt, The Renaissance in
Italy, London, 1878, vol. ii, p. 339. For public opinion of similar strength on this subject
in England, see Cunningham, p. 239 ; also Pike, History of Crime in England, vol. i, pp.
127, 193. For good general observations on the same, see Stephen, History of Criminal
Law in England, London, 1883, vol. iii, pp. 195-197. For usury laws in Castile and Ara-
gon, see Bedarride, pp. 191, 192. For exceedingly valuable details as to the attitude of
the mediaeval Church, see Leopold Delisle, Etudes sur la Classe Agricole en Normaudie au
Moyen Age, Evreux, 1851, pp. 200 et seq., also p. 468. For penalties in France, see
Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, in Master of the Rolls series, especially vol. iii, pp.
191, 192.

330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the " Bill of Usury/' In this it is said, " Forasmuch as usury
is by the word of God utterly prohibited, as a vice most odious
and detestable, as in divers places of the Holy Scriptures it is
evident to be seen, which thing by no godly teachings and per-
suasions can sink into the hearts of divers greedy, uncharitable,
and covetous persons of this realm, nor yet, by any terrible threat-
enings of God's wrath and vengeance," etc., it is enacted that
whosoever shall thereafter lend money " for any manner of usury,
increase, lucre, gain, or interest, to be had, received, or hoped
for," shall forfeit principal and interest, and suffer imprisonment
and fine at the king's pleasure.*

But, most fortunately, it happened that Calvin, though at times
stumbling over the usual texts against the usance of money, turned
finally in the right direction. He cut through the metaphysical
arguments of Aristotle, and characterized the mass of subtleties
devised to evade the Scriptures as " a childish game with God."
In place of these subtleties, there was developed among Protestants
a serviceable fiction — the statement that usury means illegal or op-
pressive interest. Under the action of this fiction, commerce and
trade revived rapidly in Protestant countries, though with occa-
sional checks from exact interpreters of Scripture. At the same
period in France, the great Protestant jurist, Dumoulin, brought
all his legal learning and skill in casuistry to bear on the same
side. A certain ferret-like acuteness and litheness seem to have
enabled him to hunt down the opponents of usance through the
most tortuous arguments of scholasticism.

In England the struggle went on with varying fortune ;
statesmen on one side, and theologians on the other. We have
seen how under Henry VIII interest was allowed at a fixed rate,
and how the development of English Protestantism having at
first strengthened the old theological view, there was, under
Edward VI, a temporarily successful attempt to forbid usance by
law. The Puritans, dwelling on Old Testament texts, continued
for a considerable time especially hostile to the taking of any
interest. Henry Smith, a noted preacher, thundered from the
pulpit of St. Clement Danes in London against " the evasions of
Scripture " which permitted men to loan money on interest at all.
In answer to the contention that only "biting " usury was oppress-

* For Luther's views see his sermon, Von dem "Wucher, Wittenberg, 1519, also the
Tischreden, cited in Coquelin and Guillaumin, article Inteiet. For the later more mod-
erate views of Luther, Melanchthon, and Zwingli, making a compromise with the needs of
society, see Bohm-Bawerk, p. 2Y, citing Wiskercann. For Melanchthon and a long line of
the most eminent Lutheran divines who have denounced the taking of interest, see Die
Wucherfrage, St. Louis, 1869, pp. 94 et seq. For the law against usury under Edward VI,
see Cobbett's Parliamentary History, vol. i, p. 596 ; see also Craik, History of British
Commerce, chap. vi.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 331

ive, Wilson, a noted upholder of the strict theological view in
political economy, declared : " There is difference in deed between
the bite of a dogge and the bite of a flea, and yet, though the flea
doth lesse harm, yet the flea doth bite after hir kinde, yea, and
draweth blood, too. But what a world this is, that men will
make sin to be but a flea-bite, when they see God's word directly
against them/'

The same view found strong upholders among contemporary
English Catholics. One of the most eminent of these, Nicholas
Sanders, revived very vigorously the use of an old scholastic
argument. He insisted that " man can not sell time," that time
is not a human possession, but something which is given by God
alone : he declared, " Time was not of your gift to your neighbor,
but of God's gift to you both."

In the Parliament of the period, we find strong assertions of
the old idea, with constant reference to Scripture and the fathers.
In one debate, Wilson cited from Ezekiel and other prophets and
attributed to St Augustine the doctrine that " to take but a cup
of wine is usury and damnable." Fleetwood recalled the law
of King Edward the Confessor, which submitted usurers to the
ordeal.

But arguments of this sort had little influence upon Elizabeth
and her statesmen. They re-established the practice of the taking
of interest under restrictions, and this, in various forms, has
remained in England ever since Most notable in this phase of
the evolution of scientific doctrine in political economy at that
period is the emergence from the political chaos of a recognized
difference between usury and interest. Between these two words,
which had so long been synonymous, a distinction now appears :
the former being construed to indicate oppressive interest, and
the latter just rates for the use of money. This idea gradually
sank into the popular mind of Protestant countries, and the
scriptural texts no longer presented any difiiculty to the people
at large, since there grew up a general belief that the word
" usury," as used in Scripture, had always meant exorbitant in-
terest. Still, that the old Aristotelian quibble had not been
entirely forgotten, is clearly seen by various passages in Shake-
speare's Merchant of Venice. But this line of reasoning seems to
have received its quietus from Lord Bacon. He did not indeed
develop a strong and connected argument on the subject, but he
burst the bonds of Aristotle, and based usance for money upon
natural laws. How powerful the new current of thought was, is
seen from the fact that James I, of all monarchs the most fettered
by scholasticism and theology, sanctioned a statute dealing with
interest for money as absolutely necessary. Yet, even after this,
the old idea asserted itself, for the bishops utterly refused to agree

332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to the law allowing interest until a proviso was inserted that
" nothing in this law contained shall be construed or expounded
to allow the practice of usury in point of religion or conscience."
The old view cropped out from time to time in various public
declarations. Among these was the book of John Blaxton, an
English clergyman, who in 1634 published his Usury Condemned.
In this, he defines usury as the taking of any interest whatever
for money, citing in support of this view six archbishops and
bishops and over thirty doctors of divinity in the Anglican
Church — some of their utterances being very violent and all of
them running their roots down into texts of Scripture. Typi-
cal among these is a sermon of Bishop Sands, in which he
declares, regarding the habit of taking interest: "This canker
that hath corrupted all England; we shall doe God and our
country true service by taking away this evill ; represse it by
law, else the heavy hand of God hangeth over us and will
strike us."

But departures from the strict scriptural doctrines regarding
interest soon became frequent in Protestant countries. They
appear to have been first followed up with vigor in Holland.
Various theologians in the Dutch Church attempted to assert the
scriptural view by excluding bankers from the holy communion,
but the commercial vigor of the republic was too strong: Sal-
masius led on the forces of right reasoning brilliantly and by
the middle of the seventeenth century the question was settled
rightly in that country. This work was 'aided, indeed, by a far
greater man — Hugo Grotius ; but here was shown the power of
an established dogma. Great as Grotius was— and though it may
well be held that his book on War and Peace has wrought more
benefit to humanity than any other attributed to human author-
ship— he was, in the matter of usance for money, too much en-
tangled in theological reasoning to do justice to his cause or to
himself. He declared the prohibition of interest to be scriptural,
but resisted the doctrine of Aristotle, and allowed usance on cer-
tain natural and practical grounds.

In Germany the struggle lasted longer. Of some little sig-
nificance, perhaps, is the demand of Adam Contzen, in 1629, that
lenders at interest should be punished as thieves ; but by the end
of the seventeenth century Puffendorf and Leibnitz had gained
the victory.

Protestantism, open as it was to the currents of modern thought,
could not long continue under the dominion of ideas unfavorable
to economic development, and perhaps the most remarkable ex-
ample of this was presented early in the eighteenth century by no
less strict a theologian than Cotton Mather. In his Magnalia he
argues against the whole theological view with a boldness, acute-

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 333

ness, and good sense wliicb. cause us to wonder that tliis can be
the same man who was so infatuated regarding witchcraft. After
an argument so conclusive as his, there could have been little left
of the old anti-economic doctrine in New England.*

But while the retreat in the Protestant Church was hence-
forth easy, in the Catholic Church it was far more difficult. In-
fallible popes and councils, saints, fathers, and doctors, had so
constantly declared the taking of any interest at all to be con-
trary to Scripture, that the more exact though less fortunate in-
terpretation of the sacred text relating to interest continued in
Catholic countries. When it was attempted in France in the
seventeenth century to argue that usury " means oppressive in-
terest," the Theological Faculty of the Sorbonne declared that
usury is the taking of any interest at all, no matter how little,
and the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel was cited to clinch this
argument.

Another attempt to ease the burden of industry and commerce
was made by declaring that " usury means interest demanded not
as a matter of favor, but as a matter of right." This, too, was
solemnly condemned by Pope Innocent XI.

Again, an attempt was made to find a way out of the difficulty
by declaring that " usury is interest greater than the law allows."
This, too, was condemned, and so also was the declaration that
" usury is interest on loans not for a fixed time."

Still, the forces of right reason pressed on, and, among them,
in the seventeenth century, in France, was Richard Simon. He
attempted to gloss over the declarations of Scripture against
usance in an elaborate treatise, but was immediately confronted
by Bossuet, the greatest of French bishops, one of the keenest
and strongest of thinkers. Just as Bossuet had mingled Script-

* For Calvin's views, see his letter published in the appendix to Pearson's Theories on
Usury. His position is well stated in Bohm-Bawerk, pp. 28 et seq., where citations are
given. See also Economic Tracts, No. IV, New York, 1881, pp. 34, 35; and for some
serviceable Protestant fictions, see Cunningham, Christian Opinion on Usury, pp. 60, 61.
For Dumoulin (Molinaeus), see Bohm-Bawerk, as above, pp. 29 et seq. For debates on
usury in British Parliament in Elizabeth's time, see Cobbett, Parliamentary History, vol.
i, pp. 756 et seq. The passage in Shakespeare is in the Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene
III : " If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not as to thy friend ; for when did friendship
take a breed for barren metal from his friend ? " For the right direction taken by Lord
Bacon, see Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers in Deutschland, Halle, 1865, pp. 497, 498.
For Grotius, see the De Jure Belli ac Pacis, lib. ii, cap. xii ; and for Salmasius and others
mentioned, see Bohm-Bawerk, pp. 34 et seq., also Lecky, vol. ii, p. 256. For the saving clause
inserted by the bishops in the statute of James I, see the Corpus Juris Eccles. Anglic,
p. 1071 ; also Murray, History of Usury, Philadelphia, 1866, p. 49. For Blaxton, see his
English Usurer ; or. Usury Condemned, by John Blaxton, Preacher of God's Word, Lon-
don, 1634. Blaxton gives some of Calvin's earlier utterances against interest. For Bishop
Sauds's sermon, see p. 11. For Cotton Mather's argument, see the Magnalia, London, 1702,
pp. 51, 52.

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ure witli astronomy and opposed the Copernican theory, so now
he mingled Scripture with political economy and denounced the
lending of money at interest. He called attention to the fact that
the Scriptures, the councils of the Church from the beginning,
the popes, the fathers, had all interpreted the prohibition of
" usury " to be a prohibition of any lending at interest ; and he
demonstrated this interpretation to be the true one. Simon was
put to confusion and his book condemned.

There was but too much reason for Bossuet's interpretation.
There stood the fact that the prohibition of one of the most sim-
ple and beneficial principles in political and economical science
was aifirmed, not only by the fathers, but by twenty-eight coun-
cils of the Church, six of them general councils, and by seven-
teen popes, to say nothing of innumerable doctors in theology
and canon law. And these prohibitions by the Church had been
accepted as of divine origin by all obedient sons of the Church
in the Government of France. Such rulers as Charles the Bald
in the ninth century, and St. Louis in the thirteenth, had riveted
this idea into the civil law so firmly that it seemed impossible
ever to detach it.*

As might well be expected, Italy was one of the countries in
which the theological theory regarding usance was most gen-
erally asserted and assented to. Among the great number of
Italian canonists who supported the theory, two deserve especial
mention, as affording a contrast to the practical manner in which
the commercial Italians met the question.

In the sixteenth century, very famous among canonists was
the learned Benedictine, Vilagut. In 1589 he published at Venice
his great work on usury, supporting with much learning and
vigor the most extreme theological consequences of the old doc-
trine. He defines usury as the taking of anything beyond the
original loan, and declares it mortal sin ; he advocates the denial
to usurers of Christian burial, confession, the sacraments, abso-
lution, and connection with the universities; he declares that
priests receiving offerings from usurers should refrain from ex-
ercising their ministry until the matter is passed upon by the
bishop.

About the middle of the seventeenth century another ponder-

* For the declaration of the Sorbonne in the seventeenth century against any taking of
interest, see Lecky, Rationalism, vol. ii, p. 248, note. For the special condemnation by In.
Decent XI, see Damnatae Theses, Pavia, 1*715, pp. 112-114. For consideration of various
ways of escaping the difficulty regarding interest, see Lecky, Rationalism, vol. ii, pp. 249,
250. For Bossuet's strong declaration against taking interest, see (Euvres de Bossuet,
edition of 1845, vol. xi, p. 330, and edition of 1846, vol. ix, p. 49 et seq. For the number
of councils and popes who condemned usury, see Lecky, Rationalism, vol. ii, p. 255, note,
citing Concina.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 335

ous folio was published in Venice upon the same subject and
with the same title, by Onorato Leotardo. So far from showing
any signs of yielding, he is even more extreme than Vilagut had
been, and quotes with approval the old declaration that lenders
of money at interest are not only robbers but murderers.

So far as we can learn, no real opposition was made in either
century to this theory, as a theory ; as to 'practice, it was different.
The Italian bankers and traders did not answer the theological
argument ; they simply overrode it. Nowhere was commerce car-
ried on in more complete defiance of this and other theological
theories hampering trade than in the very city where these great
treatises were published. The sin of usury, like the sin of com-
merce with the Mohammedans, seems to have been settled for by
the Venetian merchants on their death-beds, and greatly to the
advantage of the magnificent churches and ecclesiastical adorn-
ments of the city.

But in the eighteenth century there came a change. The first
effective onset of political scientists against the theological oppo-
sition in southern Europe was made in Italy ; the most noted
leaders in the attack being Galiani and Maffei.

Here and there feeble efforts were made to meet them, but it
was felt more and more by thinking churchmen that entirely
different tactics must be adopted.

About the same time came an attack in France, and, though
its results were less immediate at home, they were much more
effective abroad. In 1748 appeared Montesquieu's Spirit of the
Laws. In this famous book were concentrated twenty years of
study and thought by a great thinker on the interests of the
world about him. In eighteen months it went through twenty-
two editions ; it was translated into every civilized language ;
and among the things on which Montesquieu brought his wit and
wisdom to bear with especial force was the doctrine of the Church
regarding interest on loans. In doing this he was obliged to use
a caution in forms which seems strangely at variance with the
boldness of his ideas. In view of the strictness of ecclesiastical
control in France, he felt it safest to make his whole attack upon
those theological and economic follies of Mohammedan countries
which were similar to those which the theological spirit had
fastened on France.*

By the middle of the eighteenth century the Church authori-
ties at Rome clearly saw the necessity of a concession : the world
would endure theological restriction no longer ; a way of escape

* For Vilagut, see his Tractatus de Usuris, Venice, 1589, especially pp. 21, 25, and 399.
For Leotardus, see his De Usuris, Venice, 1655, especially preface, pp. 6, 1 el seq. For
the eighteenth century attack in Italy, see Bohm-Bawerk, pp. 48 et seq. For Montesquieu's
view of interest on loans, see the Esprit des Lois.

336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

must be found. It was seen even by the most devoted theologians
that mere denunciations and use of theological arguments or
scriptural texts against the scientific idea were futile.

To this feeling it was due that, even in the first years of the
century, the Jesuit casuists had come to the rescue. With ex-
quisite subtlety some of their acutest intellects devoted them-
seves to explaining away the utterances on this subject of
saints, fathers, doctors, popes, and councils. These explanations
were wonderfully ingenious, but many of the older churchmen
continued to insist upon the orthodox view, and at last the Pope
himself intervened. Fortunately for the world, the seat of St.
Peter was then occupied by Benedict XIV, certainly one of the
most gifted, morally and intellectually, in the whole line of Ro-
man pontiffs : tolerant and sympathetic for the oppressed, he saw
the necessity of taking up the question, and he grappled with it
effectually. While severe against exorbitant usury, he rendered
to Catholicism a service like that which Calvin had rendered to
Protestantism, by quietly but vigorously cutting a way through
the theological barrier. In 1745 he issued his encyclical, Vix
pervenit, which declared that the doctrine of the Church re-
mained consistent with itself ; that usury is indeed a sin, and
that it consists in demanding any amount heyond the exact amount
lent, but that there are occasions when on special grounds the
lender may obtain such additional sum.

What these " occasions " and " special grounds " might be, was
left very vague ; but this action was sufficient.

At the same time no new restrictions upon books advocating
the taking of interest for money were imposed, and the Pope
openly accepted the dedication of one of them.

Like the casuistry of Boscovich in using the Copernican theory
for " convenience in argument," while acquiescing in its condem-
nation by the Church authorities, this encyclical of Pope Benedict
broke the spell. Turgot, Quesnay, Adam Smith, Hume, Bentham,
and their disciples pressed on, and science won for mankind an-
other great victory.*

* For Quesnay, see his Observations sur I'lnt^rfit de I'Argent, in his OEuvres, Frankfort
and Paris, 1888, pp. 399 ef .teq. For Turgot, see the Collection des ficonomistes, Paris^
1844, vols, iii and iv; also, Blanqui, Histoire de I'^conomie Politique, English translation,
p. 373. For an excellent though brief summary of the efforts of the Jesuits to explain away
the old action of the Church, see Lecky, vol. ii, pp. 256, 257. For the action of Benedict
XrV, see Reusch, Der Index der Verbotener Biicher, Bonn, 1885, vol. ii, pp. 847, 848. For
a comical picture of the " quagmire " into which the hierarchy brought itself in the squar-
ing of its practice with its theory, see Dollinger as above, pp. 227, 228. For cunningly
vague statements of the action of Benedict XIV, see Mastrofini, Sur I'Usure, French
translation, Lyons, 1834, pp. 125 and 255. The abb6, as will be seen, has not the slightest
hesitation in telling an untruth, in order to preserve the consistency of papal action m the
matter of usury ; e. g., pp. 93, 94, 96, and elsewhere.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 337

Yet in this case, as in others, insurrections against the sway
of scientific truth appeared among some overzealous religionists.
When the Sorhonne, having retreated from its old position, armed
itself with new casuistries against those who held to its earlier
decisions, sundry provincial doctors in theology protested indig-
nantly^ making the old citations from the Scriptures, fathers,
saints, doctors, popes, councils, and canonists. Again the Roman
court intervened. In 1830 the Inquisition at Rome, with the
approval of Pius VIII, though still declining to commit itself
on the doctrine involved, decreed that, as to practice, confessors
should no longer disturb lenders of money at legal interest.

But even this did not quiet the more conscientious theologians.
The old weapons were again furbished and hurled by the Abb^
Laborde, Vicar of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Auch, and by
the Abbd Dennavit, Professor of Theology at Lyons. Good Abbd
Dennavit declared that he refused absolution to those who took
interest and to priests who pretend that the sanction of the civil
law is sufficient.

But the " wisdom of the serpent " was again brought into requi-
sition, and early in the decade between 1830 and 1840 the Abbate
Mastrofini issued a work on usury, which, he declared on its title-
page, demonstrated that " moderate usury is not contrary to Holy
Scripture, or natural law, or the decisions of the Church." Noth-
ing can be more comical than the suppressions of truth, evasions
of facts, jugglery with phrases, and perversions of history, to
which the good abbate is forced to resort throughout his book in
order to prove that the Church has made no mistake. In the face
of scores of explicit deliverances and decrees of fathers, doctors,
popes, and councils, against the taking of any interest whatever
for money, he coolly pretended that what they had declared
against was exorbitant interest. He made a merit of the action
of the Church, and showed that its course had been a blessing to
humanity. But his masterpiece is in dealing with the edicts of
Clement V and Benedict XIV. As to the first, it will be remem-
bered that Clement, in accord with the Council of Vienne, had
declared that " any one who shall pertinaciously presume to affirm
that the taking of interest for money is not a sin, we decree him
to be a heretic^ fit for punishment," and we have seen that Bene-
dict XIV did not at all deviate from the doctrines of his prede-
cessors. Yet Mastrofini is equal to his task, and brings out, as
the conclusion of his book, the statement put upon his title-page
that what the Church condemns is only exorbitant interest.

This work was sanctioned by various high ecclesiastical digni-
taries, and served its purpose, for it covered the retreat of the
Church.

In 1873 appeared a book published under authority from the

338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Holy See, allowing the faithful to take moderate interest under
condition that any future decisions of the Pope should he im-
plicitly obeyed. Social science as applied to political economy
had gained a victory final and complete. The Torlonia family
at Rome to-day, with its palaces, chapels, intermarriages, affilia-
tions, and papal favor — all won by lending money at interest
and by devotion to the Roman See — is but one out of many
growths of its kind on ramparts long since surrendered and
deserted.*

The dealings of theology with public economy were by no
means confined to the taking of interest for money. It would be
interesting to note the restrictions placed upon commerce by
the Church prohibition of commercial intercourse with infidels,
against which the Republic of Venice fought a good fight ; to note
how, by a most curious perversion of Scripture in the Greek
Church, many of the peasantry of Russia were prevented from
raising and eating potatoes ; how, in Scotland, at the beginning
of this century, the use of fanning-mills for winnowing grain was
widely denounced as contrary to the text, " The wind bloweth
where it listeth,'' etc., as leaguing with Satan, who is " prince of
the powers of the air," and therefore as sufficient cause for ex-
communication from the Scotch Church. Instructive it would
be also to note how the introduction of railways was declared by
an archbishop of the French Church to be an evidence of the
divine displeasure against country innkeepers who set meat before
their guests on fast-days, and who were now punished by seeing
travelers carried by their doors; how railways and telegraphs
were denounced from a few noted pulpits as heralds of Anti-
christ ; and how in Protestant England the curate of Rotherhithe,
at the breaking in of the Thames Tunnel, so destructive to life
and property, declared it from his pulpit a just judgment upon
the presumptuous aspirations of mortal man.

The same tendency is seen in the opposition of conscientious
men to the taking of the census in Sweden and the United States,

* For the decree forbidding confessors to trouble lenders of money at legal interest, see
Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, as above ; also Mastrofini, as above, in the appen-
dix, where various other recent Roman decrees are given. As to the controversy generally,
see Mastrofini ; also La Replique des douze Docteurs, cited by Guillaumin and Coquelin ;
also Reusch, vol. ii, p. 850. As an example of Mastrofini's way of making black appear
white, compare the Latin text of the decree on p. 97 with his statements regarding it ; see
also his cunning substitution of the new significance of the word usury for the old in vari-
ous parts of his work. A good historical presentation of the general subject will be found
in Roscher, Geschichte dcr National-Oeconomie in Deutschland, Miinchen, 18'74, under arti-
cles Wuchcr and Zinsnehmen. For France, see especially Petit, Traite de I'TTsure, Paris,
1840 ; and for Germany see Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers in Deutschland, Halle, 1865.
For the view of a modern leader of thought in this field, see Jeremy Bentham, Defense of
Usury, Letter X.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 339

on account of the terms in wliicli the nnnibering of Israel is
spoken of in the Ohl Testament. Religious scruples on similar
grounds have also been avowed against so beneficial a thing as
life insurance.

Apparently unimportant as these manifestations are, they in-
dicate a wide-spread tendency in the application of scriptural
declarations to matters of social economy which has not yet ceased,
though it is fast fading away.*

Worthy of especial study, too, would be the evolution of the
better modern methods of raising and bettering the condition of
the poor; the evolution, especially, of the idea that men are to
be helped to help themselves, in opposition to the old theories of
indiscriminate giving, which, taking root in some of the most
beautiful utterances of our sacred books, grew in the warm atmos-
phere of mediaeval devotion into great systems for the pauperiz-
ing of the laboring classes. Here, too, scientific modes of thought
in social science have given a new and nobler fruitage to the
whole growth of Christian benevolence, f

Prof. Riley's paper in the American Association, on the Use of Micro-organ-
isms as Insecticides, has a tone of warning. While much may be anticipated
from the new form of application, it is important to avoid exaggerated statements.
There is a tendency in the public mind to take as proved what has not yet passed
beyond the stage of possibility. In theory, the idea of doing battle against inju-
rious insects by means of invisible germs is very tempting; but it has unfor-
tunately been most dwelt upon by those who were essentially closet workers, and
had but a faint realization of the practical necessities of the case.

* For various interdicts laid on comraerce by the Church, see Heyd, Histoirc du Com-
merce du Levant au Moyen-Age, Leipsic, 1886, vol. ii,^asMm. For the injurv done to
commerce by prohibition of intercourse with the infidel, see Lindsav Historv of Merchant
Shipping, London, 1874, vol. ii. For superstitions regarding the iptroduction of the potato,
and the name "devil's root" given it, see Hellwald, Culturgeschrchte, vol. ii, p. 4*76; also
Haxthausen, La Russie. For opposition to winnowing machines, see Burton, History of
Scotland, vol. viii, p. 511 ; also Lecky, Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 83; also Mause Head-
rigg's views in Scott's Old Mortality, chap. vii. For the case of a person debarred from
the communion for "raising the devil's wind" with a winnowing machine, see Works of
Sir J. Y. Simpson, vol. ii. Those doubting the authority or motives of Simpson may be
reminded that he was to the day of his death one of the strictest adherents to Scotch ortho-
doxy. As to the curate of Rotherhithe, see Journal of Sir L Brunei for May 20, 1827, in
Life of L K. Brunei, p. -SO. As to the conclusions drawn from the numbering of Israel, see
Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laws of :\Ioses, 1874, vol. ii, p. 3. The author of this
work himself witnessed the reluctance of a very conscientious man to answer the questions
of a census marshal, Mr. Lewis Hawley, of Syracuse, N. Y. ; and this reluctance was based
upon the reasons assigned in 2 Samuel, xxiv, 1, and 1 Chronicles, xxi, 1, for the numbering
of the children of IsraeL

f Among the vast number of authorities regarding the evolution of better methods in
dealing with pauperism, I would call attention to a recent work which is especially suggest-
ive— Behrends, Christianity and Socialism, New York, 1886.

34°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

REMARKABLE BOWLDERS.

By DAVID A. WELLS.

THE calling of attention, in The Popular Science Monthly for
June, 1890, to the evidences of glacial action in southeastern
Connecticut afforded by the number and great size of the bowl-
ders in that section of the country, with accompanying illustra-
tions from photographs, has been instrumental in creating no
little popular interest on the subject, and in bringing to the atten-
tion of the public many other interesting examples of like glacial
phenomena that have hitherto almost escaped notice.

Accepting reported measurements, the largest erratic block, or
bowlder, as yet recognized in the United States, and probably in
the world, is in the town of Madison, N. H., and, according to
Prof. Crosby, of the Boston Institute of Technology, has the fol-
lowing maximum dimensions : Length, 83 feet ; width, in excess
of 45 feet ; height, 30 to 37 feet ; contents, 90,000 cubic feet ; and
probable weight, 15,300,000 pounds, or 7,050 tons.

Fig. L

Next to this in size is undoubtedly the great rock in the town
of Montville, New London County, Connecticut, generally known
by its Indian designation as " Sheegan," and also as " Mohegan "
(Fig. 1). In the opinion of some, this rock is an isolated granite
protuberance, and not a true " erratic " or bowlder ; but recent ex-
aminations have seemed to completely negative the first supposi-
tion. Its approximate maximum dimensions are : Length, 75 feet ;
width, 58 feet ; height, 60 feet ; contents, 70,000 cubic feet ; weight.

REMARKABLE BOWLDERS, 341

6,000 tons. If allowance be made for an immense fragment which
has fallen from its northeast side, the dimensions and cubic con-
tents of " Sheegan " would approximate more closely to those of the
Madison bowlder. One point that goes far toward substantiating
the claim on behalf of the " Sheegan "' rock that it is a true bowl-
der, is the number of undoubted bowlders of an immense size and
of the same granite which exist in comparative proximity. One,
about a mile northwesterly, measures 21 feet high, 25 feet long,
and 25 feet thick. Another, some three miles southeasterly, and
but a short distance west of the Waterford station, on the New
London and Northern Railroad (Fig. 2), and whose existence has

Fig. 2.

heretofore been only locally recognized, has almost the same
dimensions ; with the added peculiarity of a cavity, or rather tun-
nel, at its base, some five feet or more at the entrance, and extend-
ing with diminishing dimensions completely through the whole
mass of the rock, which is about 25 feet in thickness. This cav-
ity, which is somewhat imperfectly shown in the accompanying
picture, is of such capacity that it has been fitted up with a cook-
ing-stove, and has served a tramp family as a summer residence.

But one of the most curious and instructive examples of the dis-
ruptive and motor power of moving ice during the Glacial period
to which attention has ever been called, occurs on the line of the
New London and New Haven or " Shore Line " Railroad, about
midway between Guilford and Leet's Island stations, and about a
mile and a half from either place. Here, on the top of a narrow
ledge of rock, which might almost be characterized as a pinnacle,
rising (nearly perpendicularly from a salt marsh, or swamp, on
one side) to a height of about GO feet, rests a rectangular, sar-

VOL. XL. — 26

342

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

cophagus - looking block, 10 feet long, tapering from 7 feet 10
inclies in width at one end to 5 feet 10 inches at the other, with
an average thickness of 5 feet, and an approximative weight of
about (>0 tons (see Fig. 3).

The peculiarities of this block, which invest it with unusual

^..^.Vl

Fig. 3.

interest, are : First, its apparent artificiality ; second, the surface
on which it rests is so narrow, smooth, and rounded, that, were it
not for the blocking of a flat slab of rock (shown in Fig. 4), ap-
parently artificially inserted underneath in exactly the proper

Fig. 4.

REMARKABLE BOWLDERS.

343

344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

place, the block when released— i. e., by the melting of the ice—
from the power that transported and placed it must have slid
down and found a resting-place at the bottom of what is now a
contiguous salt marsh; and, third, the circumstance that all the
edges and angles of the block are as sharp and free from abrasion
—which last is also true of its entire surface— as if it were but
recently lifted from its original bed by the most modern and care-
ful system of quarrying. It could not obviously, therefore, in its
process of transportation have been rolled or tumbled about to any
great extent ; which conclusion in turn suggests that its move-
ment after the first displacement was a lifting up to its present
elevation, and that it was not subsequently transported to any
great distance laterally. The extension of the ledge on which
this great block rests having been largely broken up and removed
through its use as a quarry, what might have been evidence
confirmatory of this effect is now no longer obtainable. That it
would have been perfectly practicable, with the requisite labor
and machinery and large expenditure, to have quarried this block,
and then have lifted it up and blocked it in its present position'
is not to be denied ; but the idea that any such thing has been
done, and for no practical purpose, is perfectly untenable. The
surroimding country is very thinly populated, and the rock was
in position long before any quarry (for the obtaining of rough
stone for railroad construction) was worked in any immediate
vicinity.

To travelers on the New London and New Haven Railroad this
testimonial of the forces operative in a former geological age, by
reason of its close proximity to the track, is clearly discernible on
the right-hand side going west and the left-hand going east, and
constitutes a most striking and picturesque object. Its obvious
novelty, which has thus far undoubtedly saved it from destruc-
tion or displacement at the hands of workmen and vandals, may,
it is to be hoped, continue to constitute its protection in the
future, although as an object of attraction and interest to tourists
and scientific men it is eminently worthy of care by the managers
of the railroad company.

Figs. 5 and 6 are photographic reproductions of a huge bowl-
der, curiously disrupted on the land of Mr. Edward Atkinson, at
Mattapoisett, on Buzzard's Bay, Mass., and having the following
dimensions : Maximum height, 42 feet ; measurement through
the middle of the passage between the two fragments, from one
side to the other in a straight line, 36 feet ; average width of the
crack between the two fragments at the level of the ground, 3i
feet ; present surface area of the detached fragment, which has
in part been quarried away, 462 feet.

To the trained geologist, the foregoing and all similar accounts

REMARKABLE BOWLDERS.

345

Fig. 6.

346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and representations of bowlders possess but little interest other
than what pertains to peculiarities of size, shape, and location ;
while the agencies mainly concerned in the formation, movement,
and distribution of the bowlder, as well as of the ordinary pebble,
which is a miniature bowlder, have long ceased to be matters of
controversy. With those not versed, however, in geological evi-
dence and reasoning, the case is far different. To most of such,
the attributing of the phenomena under consideration to the
motor power of ice seems so fanciful and unnatural that the
agency of the Indian (as has come within the experience of the
writer) has appeared more reasonable. But if any one thus doubt-
ing will but acquaint himself with the present condition of
Greenland, where we have a continental area covered with a sheet
of ice of immense thickness — a mile or more, doubtless, in many
places — continually accumulating through almost constant at-
mospheric precipitations, and moving, through the weight and
pressure of such increments of snow and ice, with almost irresisti-
ble force from the center of such continent to its sea or coast line,
and then in imagination transfer and reproduce such conditions
(which are undoubted actualities) over the whole of the northern
United States and Canada, he will be abundantly satisfied that
the most striking of bowlder phenomena constitute but a very
small measure of the forces that were concerned in their produc-
tion and were concurrently exerted to modify the earth's surface
— even to the extent of removing mountains.

It will also widen the sphere of interest in this subject to refer
to the humbler but at the same time most instructive memorials
of the Glacial period, which are, as it were, associated with the
bowlders, and help to conceal the barrenness and desolation of
the " drift " ; namely, the pretty flowering plants like the " dan-
delion" and the "trailing arbutus," and others, which are be-
lieved to have come down in the Glacial period from their natu-
ral habitat in the far north to our present temperate zone, and
to have remained, after the disappearance of the ice, with the
bowlders as if to keep them company. Recent explorers of
Greenland tell us that wherever in little sheltered nooks upon
its dreary coast the ice and frost relax sufficiently in the brief
summer to admit of any vegetation, these j^lants grow and flower
most luxuriantly, while in their foreign homes they seem, as
every one knows, to choose those times and temperatures for
blooming and fruition — i. e., in the early spring — which are most
in accordance with the conditions of their origin and primal ex-
istence ; thus apparently reasserting their ferae, naturae, as did
the old vikings when associated with the more delicate types of
southern latitudes.

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN. 347

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN.

AFTER THE EESEARCHES OF DR. BARTELS, PROF. ECKEE, DR. MOHNIKE,
DR. OENSTEIN, AND OTHERS.

TRADITIONS of tailed men are very old and wide-spread.
Tailed races are told of in many countries, whose home is,
however, usually placed in some little-known region ; and the
stories of individuals who had tails can hardly be counted. A
number of legends on the subject have been collected by Mr. S.
Baring-Gould, and jmblished in his Curious Myths of the Middle
Ages. This author himself was brought up in the belief that all
Cornishmen had tails, and was not undeceived till a good Cornish
bookseller, with whom he formed a warm friendship, assured
him that this was not the case ; after which he satisfied himself
that the man had sat his tail off ; and his nurse informed him
that that was what happened to men of sedentary habits.

Certain men of Kent were said to have had tails inflicted upon
them in punishment for their insults to St. Thomas a Becket.
The story runs that Avhen the saint came to Stroud on the Med-
way, the inhabitants of the place, being eager to show some mark
of contumely to him in his disgrace, did not scruple to cut ofif the
tail of the horse on which he was riding ; and for this, according
to Polydor Vergil, " it so happened, by the will of God, that all
the offspring born from the men who had done this thing were
born with tails like brute animals. But this mark of infamy,
which formerly was everywhere notorious, has disappeared with
the extinction of the race whose fathers perpetrated the deed."
The story seems to have been applied, with variations, to other
Englishmen, now here, now there, so that John Bale complained,
in the time of Edward VI, " that an Englyshman now can not
travayle in another land by Avay of marchandyse or any other
honest occupyinge, but it is most contumeliously thrown in his
tethe that all Englyshmen have tails."

A Polish writer tells of a witch who transformed a bridal com-
pany, stepping over a girdle of human skin which she had laid in
the doorway, into wolves. She afterward, by throwing dresses
of fur over them, gave them their human forms ; but the bride-
groom's dress was not long enough to cover his tail, and he kept
it ; whence it became hereditary in his family. John Struys, a
Dutch traveler, who visited Formosa in the seventeenth century,
relates that a member of his party got separated from the rest and
was mangled and killed by a wild man, who was afterward caught
and tied up for execution, when, says the traveler, '' I beheld what
I had never thought to see. Ho had a tail more than a foot long,
covered with red hair, and very like that of a cow. When he saw

348

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the surprise that tliis discovery created among the European
spectators, he informed us that his tail was the effect of climate,
for that all the inhabitants of the southern side of the island^
where they then were, were provided with like appendag.es." The
cuneiform or Chaldean deluge tablet speaks of the gods, " with
tails hidden," crouching clown. A Culdee tombstone at Keills,
in Argyleshire, Scotland, bears among its figures one of hu-
man form, sitting down, and sleeking with his left hand a tail
that curls beneath his legs.

Various stories have
been told of the tails
of the Niam Niams
of Central Africa, who
have also been asserted
to be cannibals. Their
tails have been described
as smooth and as hairy,
as peculiar to the men,
and as possessed by the
men and women both.
The most interesting and
circumstantial account of
this feature is given by
Dr. Hubsch, of Constan-
:inoi3le, who examined a
tailed negress. Her tail
^vas abont two inches
Long, and terminated in a
point. The slave-dealer
who owned her said that
all the Niam Niams had
tails, and that they were
sometimes ten inches
long. Dr. Hubsch also
saw a man of the same
race who had a tail an
inch and a half long, cov-
ered with a few hairs ;
and he knew at Constan-
tinople the son of a phy-
sician who was born with
a tail an inch and a half long, and one of whose grandfathers had
a like appendage. The phenomenon, he said, is regarded gener-
ally in the East as a sign of great brute force.

The newspapers, many years ago, had a story of a boy, who
was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, with a tail about an inch and

Fig. 1.— Tah.i:i) .M,.i JJov.

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN. 349

a half long, which, when sucking, he wagged as a token of
pleasure.

Apparently well-authenticated instances of human tails are
that of a Moi boy, twelve years old, who was found a few years
ago in Cochin-China, and had a tail about a foot long — simply a
mass of flesh — containing no bony frame (Fig. 1) ; and the case
communicated to the Berlin Anthroijological Society in July,
1890, by the Dutch resident at Ternate, of two natives of New
Guinea, who had come on board his steamer in Geelvink Bay,
in 1880 — adult male Papuans, in good health and spirits, well
shaped and muscular, who had coccygeal bones projecting four
centimetres, or an inch and a half in length. Dr. O. W. Holmes
says, in the Atlantic Monthly for June, 1890, that Dr. Priestley,
of London, showed him, at the Medical Congress in Washington,
a photograph of a boy who had " a very respectable tail."

In The Popular Science Monthly for October, 1884, an account
was quoted from Mr. H. W. Eaton, of Louisville, Ky,, of a female
child that was hoxw in that city with what appeared to be a rudi-
mentary tail. It was visible as a '* fleshy peduncular protuber-
ance," about two inches and a quarter long, and measuring an
inch and a quarter round the base, shaped like a pig's tail, but
showing no sign of bone or cartilage, and was situated about an
inch above the lower end of the spinal column. It had grown
about a quarter of an inch in eight weeks.

The questions, whether there exists in the human body, in a
rudimentary state, a real homologue of the tail of animals, and
whether it may sometimes be developed into a member of some-
what similar outward form, have been much discussed by physi-
ologists in recent years. Besides notes on the subject in an-
thropological, ethnographical, and geographical periodicals, four
larger essays have been published \\\)o\\ it, viz. : Mohnike's pam-
phlet on Tailed Men (Miinster, 1878) ; two papers by Prof. A.
Ecker, in the Archiv fiir Anthropologie (vol. xii, 1879), and in the
Archiv fiir Anatomie und Physiologie (1880, No. 6) ; and a pa-
per by Dr. Max Bartels in the Archiv fiir Anthropologie (1880) ;
all of which go into a searching consideration of the subject. The
late German scientific journal Kosmos, reviewing these papers a
few years years ago, deduced the following conclusions from the
evidence then before the world :

The older anatomists treated the question in rather a matter-
of-fact way. They regarded the prolongation of the human back-
bone beyond the os sacrum, by three, four, or five vertebrae, with-
out much thought, as the analogous feature of the animal's tail,
and called it the tail -bone {os coccygis). The phenomenon was not
rare to them, nor did it seem wonderful that this part of the body
could, contrariwise to its general rule, escape being grown over.

350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and project free like an animal's tail, or that it might occasionally
be prolonged through additions to the number of vertebrae ; for
they had a deej^er insight into the normal agreement of the fun-
damental scheme in the structure of man and the animals most
nearly related to him than some of the physicians and anatomists
of our own time seem to have.

But after the great '' fall of man," as Ecker expressively calls
it, or after man had tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge
which Darwin offered to him, we apparently did not dare to call
the thing any more by its right name. We did not venture, ac-
cording to Prof. His, to speak of the tail of the human embryo,
although we could still speak without hesitation of its gill-arch.
Man was ashamed, as Ecker has humorously characterized the
prudery of the learned, only of his nearer, not of his more dis-
tant, cousins. The older anatomists and artists — we name here,
as typical representatives of these, only Harvey, Meckel, and
Goethe — found it natural that this taillet, instead of bending in-
ward, as usual, toward the pelvis, and being buried in the mus-
cular part, as though that were, of course, one of man's par-
ticular characteristics, should occasionally jiroject outAvard and
assume the form of an external tail. They did not regard it as
surprising that a formation of this kind should sometimes ajj-
pear ; and they found in the persons who possessed such growths,
not, like the men of the preceding age, the consequences of a
bestial intercourse or of a fault of the mother ; not even a mon-
strous formation in the common sense of the word, but rather
evidence of the adaptability of Nature and of a common type
marking all the higher animals. Thus Goethe wrote on the 12th
of September, 1787, from Rome : " The tailed men are no wonder
to me; but are, according to the description, something quite
natural. There are much more wonderful things before our eyes
which we do not regard, because they are not so nearly related
to us."

The brief essay of Dr. O. Mohnike is based on the fact that all
the forms of the backbone of man are related to his erect posture,
and that the prolongation is turned inward in order to afford a
support to the viscera, which is not needed in animals that go on
all fours. He therefore believes that a prolongation of the coccyx
outside of the periphery of the rump, analogous to the tail of an
animal, would be incompatible with the typical human form, all
the parts of which collectively point to the erect gait, and contra-
dictory to it.

A similar inversion is indicated in the anthropoid apes, that
have no external tail and sometimes go erect, and is believed by
Hyrtl to be produced gradually in dogs and bears that are taught
to dance on their hind legs. All this goes to show, if there were

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN. 351

any doubt on the subject, that the os coccygis of man is a real
analogue of the animal's tail-root, while it also makes clear to us
how the same has reached its special form. It is further confirmed
by the fact that the inversion in which the coccyx takes part is
not observed in the embryonal life of man nor in the earliest in-
fancy, but first appears when the child begins to carry its body
erect. The tail-like prolongation of the human vertebral column
is evidently a rudimentary formation — an inheritance from the
animal condition which, perhaps, persists simply because the in-
turned vertebra of the os coccygis has adapted itself to a new
function, instead of becoming useless.

There is found in the human embryo, in the first stage of its
embryonal life, just as in other vertebrates, a considerable and
conformable tail-structure, which it is not hard to interpret ac-
cording to biogenetical principles. The length of this taillet, in
proportion to that of the rest of the body, is at first considerable.
In embryos that have completed their third week the tail is, per-
haps, about twice as long as the lower limbs. It is one of the
pruderies that still live to vex us that some anatomists. Prof. His,
of Leipsic, for example, object to calling this
appendage a tail. But Prof. Ecker unequiv-
ocally upholds this designation, and in the
Archiv fiir Anatomie und Physiologie (1880,
No. 6, p. 442) formulates the following prin-
ciples in elucidation of the matter :

1. The name " tail " can only be applied to j.^^_ o._Lower Pakt of
the part of the hinder end of the body project- an Embryo 15-5 mi.
ing over the cloacum. ^°^^' ^ 7"" "^^^^

^ . From Ecker.

2. In embryos of the second class — that is,

those which are from eight to fifteen millimetres long — the "tail"
overtopping the cloacum appears as a free pointed projection
upward and forward.

3. This tail consists of a vertebra-containing and a vertebra-
free section, the latter of which contains only a chorda and a
marrow-tube .

4. Only the latter section suffers a reduction, by the chorda
dorsalis being mostly converted into a knot, while the rest dis-
appears.

5. The vertebra-containing section persists for a longer time
than the so-called coccygeal lump. The latter disaxjpears grad-
ually under the surface, chiefly in consequence of the gradually
stronger curvature of the os sacrum and os coccygis, and partly
of the more prominent development of the pelvic band and its
musculature.

We should also distinguish two processes in the gradual dis-
appearance of the embryonal tail of man : an atrophy of the tail-
voL. XL. — 27

552 ^ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

point and a shrinking of the tail-root. The former process, the
wasting of tlie hindermost section, takes place, according to the
later researches of M. Braun in Dorpat, not only in the human
embryo, but also in other vertebrates. " I find," says this natu-
ralist, in his Researches in the Development-History of Parrots
(Transactions of the Physico-Medical Society of Wiirzburg, new
series, vol. xv), " in the embryos of swine, cats, sheep, rabbits,
mice, and dogs, a long thread at the hinder end of the tail which is
sharply distinguished by its tenuity from the rest of the member.
The spinal or parted chorda end lies in it in the earlier stage ; later
it consists only of ej)idermis cells ; and finally it disappears alto-
gether. By this, proof is given that in mammalia as well as in
birds the chorda, if I may use the expression, has been carried
out too long, and no more vertebree are formed around its hinder
end. It is a striking fact that the long-tailed mammalia are also
in this category,"

According to Ecker, who confirms the other features of these
observations, this attenuated prolongation, designated as a tail-
thread, no longer appears in man ; * the tail is reduced, much more,

according to him, than appears in
^^' ^" the sketch, into a conical form.

The further wasting process has
proceeded so far by the seventh
week of the human embryonal
life that a tail can no longer be
fitly spoken of. Instead of it
there is to be seen on the hinder
end of the body only a roundish
process, the coccygeal lumjD (Figs.
o and 4), on which a few minute

Figs. 3 AND 4. -Embryos IN THE Coccygeal- excreSCences, perhaps rudiments
LUMP rEBioD. Fig. 3, 4-1 cm. long ; Y'm. ^ ,^ , , . t . , ,

4, 14-8 cm. long. From Ecker. o^ ^li© atrophied invertebrate

part of the tail, are visible. This
coccygeal lump retains to the end of the third month the form
of an acute isosceles triangle, the broad base of which rises
in the region of the coccyx without a clear dividing line, while
its point ends over the rectum. Two converging shallow fur-
rows define the lateral boundaries between the coccygeal lump
and the buttock, over the level of which it plainly rises. Beyond
the rectum begins in the continuation of the median line of
this triangle the suture, which in the male embryo extends as a
plainly marked selvage over the perinaeum. What is called the
coccygeal lump in the human foetus is a prominence so brought

* In mammals Ecker sometimes found the tip of the tail-thread so sharp and horny that
the name tail-spine seemed to be more appropriate, and he suggests that possibly the well-
known tail-spine of the lion is nothing else than the persistent embryonal tail-thread.

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN.

353

Fig. 5. — Coccygeal Hair-tuft. From Ecker.

forward that the point of the nearly straight-running coccyx is
pushed against the skin and lifts it up. Inversion has at this
time not yet taken place.

From the third to the fourth month the human foetus receives
its clothing of wool-hairs, which penetrate obliquely through the
skin, and form hair-lines converging against the tips of the coc-
cygeal lump, and represent there a vertebra. This vertebra — vertex
coccygeus — constitutes in sev-
eral cases observed and de- j^- ^ ' ''"*
scribed by Ecker and other
investigators (Fig. 5) an evi-
dent pencil of longer hairs^ a
real hair-taillet, such as Gre-
cian art gave at the same point
to fauns and satyrs. It has al-
ready been shown by Eschricht
that the converging hair-tuft
in the region of the coccyx is
analogous to the similar arrangement of hairs on the tails of the
mammalia. Chr. A. Voight has expressly noticed the same rela-
tion in his treatise on the direction of hairs on the human body
(Denkschrift of the Vienna Academy, 185G). " The parts of the
skin on which converging tufts are formed," he says, " are either
places which were quite bare in the earlier periods of development,
or they are spots that covered the prominent bones (or cartilages),
the strongly growing parts, like the coccyx, the elbows, and the
tip of the ear in animals, or every place toward which an exten-
sion of the skin was taking place or had taken place at the time of
the development of the hair." This author remarks especially
of the coccyx-tuft that, as the hairs become longer, they rise over
the surface and form spiral-shaped hair-tufts, like the brushes on
the tips of the tails of animals. There is thus again shown a
plain original connection between the formation of the tail-shaped
attachment and the coccygeal hair-tuft.

There is usually found in the human foetus, above the coccygeal
vertebra, a hairless spot, the glabella coccygea, under which often
appears later, and is even perceptible in persons of middle age. a
depression of greater or less depth, i\\e foveola coccygea, over the
origin and significance of which many and often curious hypothe-
ses have been set forth. It was described by Lawson Tait, in a
paper read before the Anatomical and Physiological Section of the
British Association in 1878. He had found from the examination
of several hundred persons that only fifty-five per cent of them
were without traces of the depression or "sacral dimple," while
it was faintly marked in twenty-two per cent, and well marked in
twenty-three per cent. But it seemed to become imperceptible

354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

again after the thirtieth year of age. Mr. Tait believes that the
hollow is associated with the embryonal process connected with
the neural canal and its closure. He referred to the tailless cats
of the Isle of Man, and tailless guinea-pigs which, like man, pos-
sess only an os coccygis with three pronged centra infolded in
the skin ; and thought that he might conclude from certain in-
dications that some of these animals, and perhaps also the pre-
decessors of man, may have lost the tail in consequence of a
malformation, probably in man through the not rarely appearing
spina bifida. We well know how such malformations tend to
become hereditary ; and the sacral dimple might be called the scar
of the lost tail. The hereditability of such malformations is well
marked. When Dr. Wilson crossed a Manx tomcat with a com-
mon cat, seventeen out of twenty-three kittens were tailless ; but
when female cats of the Isle of Man were crossed with common
tomcats all the kittens had tails, though somewhat shortened.
Prof. Ecker has suggested a less fanciful explanation of the origin
of the sacral dimple. He supposes that the later inward curving
of the tip of the much straighter coccyx in the foetus— which is
connected with the skin by the caudal ligament— draws the cor-
responding spot on the skin into a funnel shape of greater or less
depth. On the other hand, Ecker would rather regard the glabella
coccygea as the lower fontanel, or later point of closure of the
sacral canal.

The embryonal processes and normal conditions of formation
thus briefly sketched are sufficient in general to permit most of
the cases of so-called tail-formations in men, which occur with
tolerable frequency, to be recognized as easily explainable irreg-
ularities of natural growth. The case deviating least from the
normal condition concerns only the skin-covering, and exhibits
itself in an excessive hairiness of the sacral and coccygeal region
(frichosis sacralis). We have seen above that this spot in the em-
bryo reo-ularly bears a hair-twirl, which is not rarely prolonged
into a hairy pencil or taillet. We can hardly consider it an im-
portant variation if this hairy taillet is exceptionally not absorbed,
but endures and grows stronger after birth. In the so-called hairy
men we evidently have persons in whom, according to all appear-
ance, the wool-hair of the foetus has grown to a far greater extent,
or at least possesses the same properties of alignment and direc-
tion. The chief physician of the Greek army, Dr. Bernhard Orn-
stein, having observed several cases of extraordinarily abundant
hairiness in the sacral region among Grecian recruits, has given
continued attention to this phenomenon, and has determined some
very remarkable cases of it. The most striking of these cases was
that of the twenty-eight-year-old recruit Demeter Karus, of the
eparchy of Corinth. The whole sacral region appears to be cov-

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN. 355

ered with a thick, dark-brown hairy growth, about three inches
in length, which spreads over on to either side. The hairs lie
more smoothly on the border of the skin covering the sacrum,
while in the middle they curl out into two strong tufts. The man
is about five feet two inches high, and his yellowish-brown skin
shows elsewhere on his wdiole body less than the usual hairiness.
The recruit said that he was born with this unusual hair on his
back, and that he had even in youth suffered on account of it
from the curiosity of the people of his native village. He said
also that the growth had once been so strong that he had braided
the hair into queues and tied it in front, but that since then he
had preferred to cut it from time to time. To test the accuracy
of this assertion, Dr. Ornstein forbade his cutting the hair for a
considerable period; and eight months afterward (December,
1875) the sacrum-hair had grown to double its former length, or
to six inches ; so that the recruit's assertions respecting it were
shown not to be incredible.

Prof. Virchow accompanied the detailed communication of
this case to the Berlin Anthropological Society * with a few well-
chosen words prefacing the opinion that we have perhaps to deal
here with a spina bifida occulta, which is indicated exteriorly, as
occurs often in the case of moles, mother's marks, etc., by aug-
mented growth of hair. There has existed, he said, for a con-
siderable time, a doctrine — we might call it a superstition — in
pathological anatomy, which is called the law of the duplication
of cases. " On the same morning that I received the letter from
Athens, it was told me that there was a corpse in the Pathological
Institute which exhibited an unusual hairiness on the back."
Since we had to do in this case with a spina bifida occulta, there
might perhaps be a similar pathological cause in the case of the
Greek recruit. But the hair on the Berlin woman's back sprang
from a higher spot, and did not denote the more thickly haired
coccygeal region of the human embryo. In continuation of these
efforts of Virchow to follow up these abnormal formations in the
human body resembling animal shapes to their pathological
causes, and in order to learn how to obviate them, Surgeon-Gen-
eral Ornstein kept watch upon the parts of the body concerned in
the eruption, and in the next year (1876) succeeded in establishing
a second case of well-defined sacral trichosis, marked by thick,
dark-brown hair, extending to the coccygeal region. In the next
year (1877) ten other cases fell under his attention, by which it
became evident that this sacral hairiness was not rare in Greece
and the islands of the ^gean Sea ; and he was convinced that in
all the cases the basis of it was normal and there was no question

* Sitzungsberichte der Berliner ant')ropologiscliev Gesellsehaft in dcr Zeitschrift fur
Ethnologie, 1875, pp. 91 and 279.

356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of a spina bifida. Vircliow's law of the duplication of the cases
had not maintained itself under the first test. Of the various
other persons of this kind whose photographs Dr. Ornstein took,
we mention the recruit Q. G. Nikephorus, of Siphno, twenty years
old, in whom the thick brown hair of the sacral trichosis is very
sharply defined, and quite covers the sacrum. The hairs were in
this case from one and a half to two and three quarter inches
long, while no abnormal hairs were visible on the rest of his
somewhat slender body.

It requires no particular gift for adapting evidence or of divi-
nation to infer from these cases of sacral trichosis, so frecjuent in
Greece, which are easily explained by reference to the embryonic
hairy covering, that the representations of Silenus and the fauns
in ancient Grecian art, in which this part of the body is furnished
with a tail-tuft of hair, may be traced back to casual observations
of such cases in real life. A strikingly naturalistic illustration

of this view is afford-
/■;% . i A. ed by the Silenus with

the Bacchus child in
the Louvre, in which,
instead of the isolated
horse-tail-like pencil
rising from the sa-
crum, characteristic of
most figures of the
kind, the whole sacral
region is represented
as well haired, while
the central lock is sim-
ply more strongly
prominent (Fig. G).

What might be
called " hide - bound
tails," of which Dr.
Bartels describes a

Fig. 6.-PART of the Back View of the Silentts with the Well-marked case that
Infant Bacchus, in the Louvre. From a Drawing by occurred in llis OWn
F. Schilfer. t ^ . •

medical practice, in-
cline more decidedly to the order of real malformations. In a
three-days-old child, the skin over the coccyx formed a three-
sided lump of about the shape of the tail-termination of the em-
bryo. This lumpwas about seven eighths of an inch long, rose
several lines above the rest of the skin, and was separated from
it by a plainly defined groove. The pointed lower end of the
swelling seemed to lie directly over the anal orifice, which was
very narrow, and must have been operatively enlarged after the

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN.

357

point of the excrescence had been loosed from that part. The

formation did not contain any vertebra; the coccyx lay rather

beneath, and there was evi-
dently in this, as in a similar

case observed by Labourdette,

a question of a so-called in-

tercejited formation from the

coccygeal lump period. The

hide-bound tail offers an en- /:

larged copy of the embryonal i-'

coccygeal lump, and exhibits i <

that lump, which in the nor- -

mal development reverts and \

is merged in the buttock, ap- \

parently maintained and as- \^

sociated, as a rule, with an \'

imperfect development of the f|. -

anal orifice (Fig. 7). W^T

A third class is composed [^|.

of the " soft tails," which de- k^v

pend freely from the sacral i ■

and coccygeal region and are

the most frequent. They have

sometimes the form of a

swine's tail drawn out to a point; sometimes that of a thicker

fleshy appendage only slightly rolled at the end. Such soft tails,
which belong to the largest of their kind and are
both naked and hairy, have been observed and
described, among others by Blancart, Konig, Els-
holtz, Schenk, von Grafenberg, and Greve. The
last author sent a tail three inches long (Fig. 8),
which he had amputated from a boy eight weeks
old, to Prof. Virchow for a more thorough exami-
nation, and he found that it was not a simple
case of skin formation, but that there lay within
the inner cell-texture of the skin a fatty bundle
penetrated by large vessels. In this species of
malformation — to which the case delineated in
Virchow's Archiv fiir pathologische Anatomie,
vol. Ixxxiii, No. 3, seems to belong — we have to
do, not with a simple impeded formation, such as
the last-mentioned case is considered to be, but
with the outgrowth of a part existing in the em-
bryonic plan, which, however, disappears in reg-
ular growth, into a monstrosity i)er excessum, as was the old form

of expression. In many respects these cases are atavistic. The

TlIEEE-DATS-OLD BoY, WITH HlDE-BOUNI;

Tail. From Dr. Ma.\ BarteLs.

Fig. 8. — Amputated
Tail of a Boy
Eight Weeks Old.
From Greve,

358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

surplus length of chorda persists without there being any verte-
hrse formed upon it.

Real vertebral tails, in which the vertebra-containing part of
the embryonal tail remains without being grown over and the
coccyx preserves its original straighter direction, have been, if we
may trust the older anatomists and physicians, not very rarely
observed. Surgeon-General Ornstein, a few years ago, carefully
studied such a case in Athens in a Greek from Livadia, twenty-six
yeats of age. There was in this case a conical tail, free only at
the tip, about two inches long, within which three vertebrje might
be felt by pressing upon it. It did not, however, hang perpen-
dicularly down, but the coccyx was slightly, though less than in
normal cases, bent inward. Notwithstanding its apparent firm-
ness, this little movable tail was not distinguishable by the color
of its skin from its surroundings. It was hairless, although
the sacral region was very hirsute. The free part was not
half as long as the whole.* While only three shrunken verte-
bral fragments could be felt in this case, free tails of like char-
acter have been described by several of the older authors in
which the normal number of vertebrae appears to have been ex-
ceeded by four. Dr. Thirk, of Broussa, in 1820, described the fat-
tail of a Kurd, twenty-two years old, which formed a thick lump
and contained four surplus vertebrae. Tliomas Bartholinus, also,
told in the seventeenth century of a tailed boy who had more
than the regular number of vertebrae in the coccyx. Such cases
represent true atavistic formations, but have never been verified
with as much exactness as is desirable, altliough the possibility of
an appearance of the kind does not admit of reasonable doubt.
The phenomena might, in fact, be more frequently recorded were
it not that such formations, so long as they do not occasion dis-
tress, are carefully concealed for fear of reproach falling upon
those who bear them and upon their mothers.

Dr. Bartels makes some pertinent remarks concerning the
bearing of these exceptional but not at all rare tail formations
among men upon the myths of " tailed races " ; and Mohnike has
made a valuable collection of the travelers' stories on the subject
from the most ancient times. Mohnike believes that the older
myths generally relate to apes; but this is not very probable, for
the erect anthropoids, which most resemble man, are as tailless as
he. The derivation from the custom of many savages of wearing
animal skins with the tail hanging down upon the right side is
more probable. Schweinfurth also observed among the women
of the Bongos a custom of wearing a palm -leaf tail, bound on so
as to produce a naturalistic appearance.

* A fuller description may be found in the Zeitsehrift fiir Ethnologie, vol. xi, 1879.

TAIL-LIKE FORMATIONS IN MEN. 359

The myths of tailed human races constantly revert to the East
Indian islands; and the Dutch captain, L. F. W. Schulze, sent
communications to the Berlin Anthropological Society in 1877
concerning cases* partly observed by himself, which were re-
garded by Dr. Bartels as fully trustworthy. These communica-
tions tell us nothing new, for the phenomena occur in cultivated
Europe as well as in remote deserts and lone islands. Other
reports, like that, for example, of Julius Kogel concerning the
Dya,ks of Borneo, speak of the frequent occurrence of tailed indi-
viduals. Hence a low, beastly race has been supposed, in which
atavistic formations occur still more frequently than among'
higher races further removed from the original condition. Still
other reports, and more recent, mention fully tailed human
races.

Even if a phenomenon of this kind were established we need
not, as Dr. Bartels has justly remarked, conceive of a still living
middle form between man and bea"st. " We must consider," he
says, '''that we are all the time dealing with insular populations
who have been crowded out of the possession of their coast and
harbor regions by people of other races and driven into the
hardly accessible interior of the country, where they have been
compelled to practice, for a length of time we can not estimate, a
constant inbreeding — a regular series of marriages within their
own tribe. In this case there might, at some time in the past, as
has happened with other men, have occurred an external tail, as
a casual abnormity at first, but which might afterward, in the
course of generations, become transmitted to many persons by in-
heritance. For it has been shown by researches in this inter-
esting field of pathological anatomy that nothing is more easily
transmissible than malformations. In illustration of this fact we
need only mention here the well-known inclination to the in-
heritability of what are called mother's marks and hare-lips, and
the large teeth of the Melanesians of the Admiralty Islands and
the island of Agome, which have been described by Mr. Miklucho-
Maclay.f In a similar manner Lord Monboddo, in the last
century, explained the tailed men of Borneo as a people afflicted
with a hereditary malformation, and compared them with six-
fingered families. X

In agreement with this is what the Wesleyan missionary
George Brown related in 1870 con(;erning a formal breeding of a
tailed race of men in Kali, off New Britain. " Tailless children,"
he says, " are slain at once, or they would be exposed to general
ridicule." * A tailed family of princes have borne rule in Rajpoo-
tana and are earnestly attached to the ancestral mark. Dr.

* See Kosmos, vol. i, p. 166. % Kosmos, vol. v, p. 449.

f Bartels, p. 4. * Mohnike, p. 3.

360 THE POPULAR SCIUNCPJ MONTHLY.

Qaatrefages also speaks of the appearance of such varieties of men
as very probable. The care just mentioned as having been taken
of the malformation is all the more striking because the tail, as
has been shown in the European cases, is in sitting and riding no
very pleasant feature. They tell of canoes in the East Indies that
have holes made in the benches of the rowers. But it is not an
idle thought in this matter to sujjpose that the benches, like the
old German stools, were furnished with holes for ornament, or in
order that they might be more easily handled and disposed of,
and the incident can not be regarded as confirming the popular
legend. The result of these investigations is, as a whole, that a
formation, homologous even in outside appearance with an ani-
mal's tail, is originally present in the human foetus, and loses its
external characteristics at a later period of life through arrest of
growth, inversion, and waste. If these processes occasionally fail
to take place, the tail-feature is nevertheless not visible in the
grown man, and we can not draw from such malformations, even
if they appear frequently in a single race, any one-sided conclu-
sions respecting there having existed a former animal-like con-
dition. For it may be supposed with much more probability,
from the similarity of the forms in this feature of man and the
anthropoid apes, that their common ancestor had already shed
the external tail ; and hence that the 2:)rolongation of the chorda
in the embryo, wnth no vertebra contained in it, may be regarded
as a reminiscence of a still earlier ancestral form.

A DISCUSSION in the International Geological Congress at "Wasliington, on cor-
relation of strata, was opened by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of our Geological Survey,
who spoke first of local methods, where one rock lies upon another. Physical
continuity was a means of correlation, and perhaps the best method, but was sub-
ject to limitations. Traces were rarely possible for great distances. Indirect
methods must be resorted to. Beds of similar lithologic formation could be re-
garded as chronologically similar. Another method was the sequence with which
the deposits were laid. Layers following in sequence in different localities argued
the same conditions. There were limitations, however, to the use of both these
methods. Physical breaks afforded a fourth method of correlation, to which the
limitation would probably be distance. Simultaneous relations of bodies to some
physical event often afforded valuable evidence. Tliis method had been useful,
both at Salt Lake and on tlie Atlantic coast. Other aids in correlation were the
relation of deposits to some geological climate and the evidence of similar pliysical
changes. The similar action of gases in different beds showed chronological
similarity. This method was largely limited by local climatic changes, and gen-
erally the physical methods mentioned were all v.-duable at fhort range but of
little use at long range. The theoretical methods, in which floral and animal life
are called in, are perhaps more accurate. Of these are divergence from a status
at a fixed date, and the relations of the fauna contained in the deposits to cli-
mate. The value of a fossil species for purpose is dependent greatly on the length
of its life and the range of its space. Long life is a drawback, that makes the cor-

COMMUNICATION WITH THE PLANETS. 361

relation vague. Prof. Zittell, of Municli, did not think the method of correlation
by plants accurate. Of animals, those of the land were most valuable. He spoke
of the difficulty of correlation in some countries where vertebrate animals are not
found in many of the deposits. Prof. Marsh agreed with the other speakers that
vertebrate animals afforded the best and most accurate material for correlation.
Prof. Charles D. Walcott spoke of the advances that had been made in the study
of correlation, and illustrated his positions by reference to the Cambrian strata of
North America. Prof. James Hall begged tiiat geologists in search of correlations
should not neglect physical methods, and described an early attempt at correlation
made by himself in ti'ying to connect the rocks of western New York with the
deposits of the West.

COMMUNICATION WITH THE PLANETS.

By M. AMEDEE GUILLEMIN.

STRIKING discoveries in astronomy, of a character to excite
the public mind, have been rare in recent years. Those who
have kept in current with the work that has been done in that
science are not ready to believe that this is because progress has
not been made in it. As evidence of the new work accomplished
by its students, and potentially fruitful work, too, we cite the
preparation of a map of the sky, accomplished by the aid of pho-
tography, which gives the exact position of the stars to the four-
teenth magnitude. The co-operation of observatories certainly
assures the success of this immense work, which is now in process
of execution. La Nature has made known the beginnings and
has kept its readers in the current of the very minute and pro-
found preliminary studies, without which the undertaking of
operations of an extreme delicacy might have been compromised.
It has also made clear the importance of the results to be ob-
tained, and of the various consequences that would necessarily
accrue from them. The problems of parallax or of stellar dis-
tances, of the proper motions of the stars, of nebulae, the search
for minor planets and new comets, everything relative to the
constitution of sidereal systems, may, by an attentive study of the
plates of the new celestial maps, receive positive solutions. A
new horizon is thus opened to science. These are not sensational
novelties, like the appearance of a comet with a long, nebulous
tail, which attracts the attention of idlers to the sky ; but the im-
portance of astronomical observations is not measured by the
noise they make in the public ear. Yet, if the prize of a hundred
thousand francs, which an honorable lady has recently bequeathed
to the French Academy of Sciences, should be gained by some
one, the resultant emotion would be legitimate. To establish
voluntary and direct communication between the earth and a

362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

planet, or rather between its inliabitants and the inhabitants of a
planet, would be something to sharpen the curiosity of the whole
world. I do not see that astronomy or mankind would gain any-
thing by it, but what conjectures, what paradoxes, what high
fancies, we should enjoy if it were carried out !

The Academy is said to be disposed to accept the legacy, by
virtue of a clause like that which makes the Brdant prize an an-
nual recompense allotted to the authors of discoveries tending to
advance the solution of the problem of a cure for cholera. In the
same way, the income of the capital bequeathed by Madame
Guzman will work in favor of investigations relating to the con-
stitution of the heavenly bodies. I do not think I am hazarding
much when I assert that it will be a long while before the new
prize is awarded, in its totality at least. But this was doubtless
not the opinion of the testatrix. Without going deeply into the
question — for that would require a long discussion — the probable
correctness of my prediction can be shown in a few lines.

To any one well acquainted with the present knowledge pos-
sessed by astronomers concerning the physical aspect of the stars
of our system, it is evident that only two of the planets are in a
condition to encourage the hopes of those who believe in the pos-
sibility of interplanetary communications, to wit, the moon and
Mars — the moon especially. Its small distance of 240,000 miles,
the clearness of its disk, the facility with which minor features
can be distinguished upon it with the telescope, the absence of all
cloudiness that can conceal spots upon it, make our satellite an
eminently fitting body to which to send signals from the earth.
We must believe that the inhabitants of the moon have not
thought of this, or the numerous observers of its disk, the indus-
trious authors of the lunar maps, the Beers, Madlers, Schmidts,
at least, would have perceived the signals. But stop. Are there,
can there be, inhabitants in the moon, where air and water are
absent ? If there is any point generally admitted, it is the nega-
tive of this question.

Under these conditions, it seems idle for us of the earth to
trouble ourselves about means of answering the inhabitants of
the moon, or of ourselves provoking signals thence ; and this is
a pity, for the second heavenly body to be questioned, the planet
Mars, is infinitely less favorable for the establishment of an inter-
astral telegraphy. At its most favorable oppositions, Mars is still
43,000,000 miles from us, or a hundred and sixty times farther
than the moon ; while the diameter of its disk is only 25". Ac-
cording to Schiaparelli, the smallest objects visible on its surface
under the most favorable circumstances — such as a bright spot on
a dark ground, or a dark spot on a bright ground — must have a
diameter equal to a fiftieth part of that of the planet, or about

COMMUNICATION WITH THE PLANETS. 363

eighty-five miles. Tliis minimum can, it is true, be reduced by
using large objectives permitting stronger magnifying ; but even
then it is certain that luminous signals, for example, visible from
the earth on Mars, must have enormous dimensions.

The inhabitants of Mars, if more advanced in astronomical
knowledge than we, as one of our imaginative astronomers sup-
poses they are, would have, in case they should desire to start an
exchange of telegraphic communications with their earthly neigh-
bors, to give their signals diameters of miles in every direction.
But would they think of it ? The reciprocal question to this is
the one that puzzles me. The earth, during all the oppositions of
Mars, is in conjunction to it. It is lost in the rays of the sun,
and invisible from Mars, unless it .is in transit over the sun's disk.
Then it is a little black, round spot, on which we have every
reason to suppose the Martian astronomers will be able to distin-
guish nothing. The earth will be better situated at the quadra-
tures, but also at a much greater distance.

I stop here, not desiring to discourage absolutely the candidate
for the prize of one hundred thousand francs so generously and
so imprudently offered to investigators. But my conclusion,
which I have sufficiently foreshadowed, is, that the problem of
interplanetary communication is still far from solution ; and I
believe I shall never be contradicted by real astronomers. I have
faith in the indefinite progress of the science, while I am con-
vinced that there are limits to this progress ; but I believe also
that there is no profit in letting the imagination chase chimeras,
and I am free to avow that the desired communication is such to
my eyes. — Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from La
Nature.

The compilation of a digest of the literature of the mathematical sciences was
sugi?ested at the American Association by Prof. Alexander S. Christie. Tne
digest should contain everything of value hitherto done in these sciences logically
arranged, with each truth or method referred to its discoverer, and the whole
thoroughly indexed. Mathematicians througliout the world should be invited to
engage in the preparation of the work, and the co-operation of the British Asso-
ciation especially should be secured.

There is no doubt that a kind of perception of light exists even among beings
that have no visual organs, or where such organs can not be brought into play.
The property is perhaps not unlike that by which the growth and movemepts of
plants are largely determined by the relations of liglit. A number of cases of such
skin perceptions of light — which we might call dermatoptic or photodermatic —
have been collected and described by M. Victor Willem in a French journal.
Tremblay observed that hydras prefer the more illuminated parts of the medium
in which they move ; and the same has been remarked by Haeckel, Pouchet, Engel-
mann, and Loeb in Protozoa ; and other authors have observed in Bryozoa^ coelen-
terates, Spongiaria^ worms, larvas of arthropods, and isolated organs of mollusks

364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that they move or are retracted under the influence of light, and in a general way
indicate by their way of living the possession of some kind of a perception of light.
M. Dubois has studied the contraction of the siphon of the PJioIas, and M. d'Arsonval
has shown that the muscle of the frog is directly excitable by light. M. G. Pouchet
observed that larvae xii Eo-y stalls tenax tried to get out of the light; and as they
acted in the same way after their cephalic antennaiform organs had been taken
away, he asked whether these buds of future eyes were not ada[.ted to perct-ive
light, or whether the fore surface is not possibly sensitive to it. Engelmann found
that certain Protozoa moved or remained still according to the character and
intensity of the light— not on account of a direct action upon them, but because
of the want of oxygen. M. Graber, since Darwin, has shown that the earth-worm,
although it has no eyes, is sensitive to light and avoids it, and its sensitiveness
seems to reside in its whole body. Finally, M. Loeb has recently made a series
of important researches, whence he concludes in favor of a complete identity
between the heliotropism of plants and the influence of light on animals, and that
a number of blind forms are sensitive to light. The seat of this peculiar form of
sensitiveness has not been clearly determined, but is probably in a pigmentary
layer under the cuticle. We likewise know nothing certainly of the nature of the
sensation. Some think it may be akin to sight, but vague and rudimentary ; while
M. Forel would compare it with sensations of touch or of temperature." Photo-
dermatic sensibility reaches to the quality as well as the quantity of light, and M.
Graher has shown that blind animals prefer some colors to others. But the data
on this point do not all agree.

THE MUSK OX.

Br HORACE T. MAETIN.

|UR first introduction to the musk
ox {Ovibos moscliatus) carries us
back over one hundred and fifty
years, when M. Jeremie made his
voyage to the northern j^arts of
our continent, and, returning to
Paris, took with him a sample of
wool obtained from an animal he
V called the ha>uf musqiie. This
'/'^ name was also employed by
Charlevoix, writing from Can-
ada in 1744.

Scientists were thus made
aware of the existence of a large mammal,
which impressed them at once with its eco-
nomic value; yet has it refused to come
within the range of their keen observation
with a persistence unequaled by any animal of its size and im-
portance. It was many years later that the first scientific

THE MUSK OX. 365

description appeared, given by Thomas Pennant from a skin
sent to England by Samuel Hearne, and all acquaintance with
the creature was derived from the arctic explorers (Drage, Dobbs,
Ellis, Hearne, Parry, and others), who in general terms describe
its appearance and give meager accounts of its habits. Dr. Rich-
ardson, in 1829, sums up the available information, and adds a
few remarks of his own, which refer principally to the specimens
then exhibited in the British Museum. Audubon, in his valuable
history of the Quadrupeds of North America, published in 1854,
is confined almost to a literal copy of Richardson's account ; while
so late as 1859 Spencer F. Baird, in his ponderous volume, the
Mammals of North America, dismisses the subject with a refer-
ence of barely twenty lines. His words, however, are significant ;
for, while he admits that the animal furnishes a most interesting
study, he laments our scant knowledge of this sturdy arctic in-
habitant.

The special inquiry made three or four years ago by the Gov-
ernment of Canada, as to the resources of the Great Mackenzie
Basin, furnishes data of utmost value : the enterprise of the mod-
ern press in ferreting out and bringing to our notice every item
which concerns itself with the great questions of commerce and
social economy, and the progress made in polar research during
the last thirty years, contribute many facts in connection with
the study of the musk ox ; and we are enabled by the gathering
and arranging of these to give in a more complete form the his-
tory of this animal.

In systematic zoology the place accorded to the musk ox is
intermediate between those of the sheep (Ovis) and the ox {Bos),
and for its special accommodation a new genus has been created,
" Ovibos." Most writers notice its resemblance in many ways to
the buffalo or bison, and it undoubtedly has much affinity with
this species. A peculiar prominence is given in all early records
to the description of the horns of the musk ox, which, though
valuable to the Eskimos in the making of such commodities as
cups, spoons, etc., by no means seem to be of so much importance,
yet in every account the most minute particular of these append-
ages is repeated. Doubtless much of the character of the musk ox
depends on the horns ; still, it should be noted that the descrip-
tions above referred to apply only to the bull, whose horns meet
on the forehea.d, bend sharply down, and curve gracefully upward
and outward ; the cow's horns are more similar to those of the
bison, or even may be compared to the horns of our domestic cat-
tle. The skull of the bull musk ox is remarkable for the develop-
ment of the eye -orbits, which project sufficiently beyond the
plane of the frontal bones to compensate for the interruption the
horns would otherwise make in the range of vision. The musk

366

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

\x^

ox, however, does not seem to rely greatly on keenness of sight,
far less on acuteness of hearing, for the ears are of small dimen-
sions, and are completely covered by the heavy growth of fur
about them. The organs of scent are evidently more highly de-
veloped, and they exact of the hunter his greatest cunning. Vasey

says the hoof-prints resemble those of
the barren-ground caribou so closely
as to easily deceive the unaccustomed
eye, and concludes a short description
of the under parts of the foot with
the illustration here reproduced. The
external hoof is rounded, the internal
pointed.

Much diversity of opinion exists as
to the size and weight of the animal,
and it is evident some statements have
been made from very limited observa-
tion. Richardson compares the size of
the musk ox to that of a Shetland pony, while others assert the
dimensions to be quite equal to those of the bison; and whereas
the weight has been given as from three to four hundred pounds
in the one case, other records claim twice
and even three times these figures as the
weight of an adult specimen. The addi-
tion of from three to six inches of fur on
the back, with hair flowing from the flanks
to the length of from eighteen to twenty-
four inches, gives an appearance vastly
different from that of the bison, and the
disproportionate shortness of the legs also

tends to mislead ; but, notwithstanding this, the measurements of
the skin show the animal to be almost as large as the bison or
buffalo, hence the latter approximation of weight is more
correct.

In connection with the color of the hair, it should be observed
that, while the summer pelage is usually brownish and corre-
sponds with the descriptions generally given, in winter the ani-
mal's covering is a rich black on the head and shoulders, flanks
and tail, the color shading beautifully into the milky-white disk
on the back, known as the "saddle," while the face and the legs
are prettily relieved with the whitish color.

The musk ox is gregarious, and although all early statements
agree in estimating the herds as composed of from twenty to fifty
individuals, later information greatly increases these figures, and
frequent mention is made of herds numbering from two hundred
to five hundred.

THE MUSK OX.

367

As recently as 1850 Baird says that, owing to the extreme
scarcity of the musk ox, he knows of hut one specimen to be
found in all the museums of the United States. This scarcity,
however, might be accounted for more by the fact of obstacles
in the way of entering the territories inhabited by the musk ox
than by the actual rarity of the animal. From the evidence of
fossil remains, it is clear that the musk ox long ago roamed west-
ward to Siberia, and found its way eastward even to the British

Isles ; but the accompanying map, exhibiting the boundaries of
its present range, shows how restricted is its distribution. In the
regions of perpetual snow it wanders, making its way northward
in summer, being found at the highest points our expeditions
have reached, and returning in winter to its southern haunts,
which seldom touch latitude 60°. Over the rugged wilds the
creature loves to ramble, and, although its appearance indicates
awkwardness of locomotion, it is said to run fast and to climb
precipitous cliffs with wonderful ease. Its home is the " barren
grounds " wherein vegetation is limited almost to a few lichens
and the stunted spruce to which they cling. On this meager diet
the musk ox fattened and lived free from the assaults of almost
every enemy ; for the Eskimo alone penetrated its domain, being
urged thither by hunger and the desire to obtain the valuable
pelt.

The flesh is much coveted by the Eskimos, and explorers speak
in the highest terms of the relish afforded by the meat of the cow
and the calf, although the meat of the bull is pronounced as
offensively musky. Till within the last five years, in our markets,
the pelt was worth fifty dollars, and was accounted a rarity ; but

368 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the extreme demand has led to more systematic methods of ob-
taining it ; and whereas the total annual collection of pelts gath-
ered by the Hudson Bay Company had not exceeded a few dozens,

the figures have suddenly risen till the

annual collection now is counted by thou-
sands.

With the last remnants of the merci-
lessly slaughtered bison still in our mar-
kets, and the air filled with the protesta-
tions of theorists as to what 7night have
been done to preserve those noble herds
that thronged our prairies, we have history repeating itself under
our very eyes in the case of the musk ox, and it is not venturing
too rash a prophecy to state that the present ratio of increasing
the catch will exhaust the supply within a decade.

OUR POPULATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION.

LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. III.
By CAEEOLL D. WEIGHT, A.M.,

UNITED STATES COIIMISSIONEB OF LABOR.

THE population of the United States June 1, 1890, as ascer-
tained at the eleventh census, exclusive of white persons in
the Indian Territory, Indians on reservations, and Alaska, was
63,622,250. This figure, considering the imperfections of the sys-
tem under which it was ascertained, is quite satisfactory. It
bears out the reasonable estimates made prior to the enumer-
ation ; it does not bear out unreasonable estimates. Barring in-
adequate counts in a few localities, which will occur under any
system, I believe the statement of the population of the eleventh
census io be fairly accurate for the whole country ; it is certainly
within a very small percentage of accuracy— a percentage which
would largely disappear, but not wholly, under a census taken in
accordance with the system outlined in the preceding articles of
this series. Whether accurate or inaccurate, it is not worth while
to quarrel with it ; it must be accepted, and the political business
of the country and all considerations carried on in accordance
with it.

At the first census, taken in 1790, the population of the United
States was 3,929,214. The following brief table shows the popu-
lation at all the censuses, the positive increase during the inter-
vening decades, and the percentage of increase :

OUR POPULATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION 369

Ybab.

1790
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890

Population.

Positive
increase.

Percentage of
increase.

3,929,214

5,308,483
7,239,881
9,633,822

1,379,269

1,931,398
2,393,941

35
36
33

10
38
06

12,866,020
17,069,453
23,191,876
31,443,321

3,232,198
4,203,433
6,122,423
8,251,445

32
33
35
35

51
52
83
11

38,558,371
50,155,783
62,622,250

7,115,050
11,597,412
12,466,467

22
30
24

65

08
86

The regularity of increase from 1800 to 1860 is striking, and
tlien the influence of the war and of other elements is shown in
the serious break in the regularity which occurs between 1860
and 1870, the percentage dropping from 3511 in 1860 to 22*65 in
1870. With increased industrial and commercial activity the per-
centage rose again in 1880 to 30"08, but has now receded to 24"86.
The influence of immigration upon this great increase in popula-
tion, and the rate of natural increase since the decade from 1830
to 1840, are shown as follows :

Peeiod.

Natural.

Immigration.

Total percentage.

1830-'40

28-87
26 15
23-73
15-40
22-79
14-40

4-65
9-68

11-38
7-25
7-29

10-46

33-52

1840-'50

35-83

1850-'60

35-11

1860-'70

22-65

1870-80

30-08

1880-'90

24-86

Until the full data of the census for 1890 are available, it is
impossible to make any careful study of the reasons why the
natural increase of population should vary so greatly. The high-
est natural increase during the period of immigration, as shown
in the foregoing table, was between 1830 and 1840, it having been
28'87 per cent, the lowest natural increase being during the last
decade, when it was 14'40. It seems almost incredible that such a
variation could actually occur in the natural increase of popula-
tion ; but this matter must be left for future consideration. The
population at the last three censuses has been distributed over the
country, in accordance with geographical divisions, as follows :

Geooraphioai.

POPULATION.

INrEEASE FROM

1880 TO 1890.

INCEEA8B ntoM
1870 TO 1880.

INCREASE FEOM
1860 TO 1870.

D1TI810N8.

1890.

1880.

1870.

Number.

Per

cent.

Number.

Per
cent.

Number.

Per

cent.

The United States.

62,622 250

50,155.7a3

38,558,371

12.466,467

24-86

11,597,412

3008

7,115,050

22-68

North Atlantic

Bouth Atlantic

Northern Central

Southern Central

Western

17,401,54.5
8,a57,92()
22.362,279
10.972,893
3,027,613

14,507,407
7,597,197

17,364.111
8,919,371
1,767,697

12,298,730' 2,894,138
5,853,010 1 1,260.723

12,981,111 4.998,168

6,434,410 ' 2,053..522

990,510 1.259.916

19-95
16-59

2S-78
28-02
71-27

2.208,677
1,743,.587
4,383,000
2,484,961

777,187

17-96
29-79
33-76
88-62
78-46

1,704,463
438,907

3,884,395
665.752
371,534

16-09
9-11
42-70
11-54
60-02

VOL. XL. — 28

370 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

By this table it will be seen that the largest increase during
the last three decades has been in the Western division, consisting
of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah,
Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California. This divis-
ion increased its population from 18(J0 to 1870 by 60"02 per cent ;
in the next decade, 78-46 per cent; and from 1880 to 1890, 71-27 per
cent. It is natural that the greatest increase should occur in the
division named.

Some of the Southern States did not show as great a percent-
age of increase as they would have shown had the census of 1870
been more thoroughly correct ; but the imperfections of the census
of 1870, which imjDerfections showed an enumeration probably
much less than the real population, when compared with the
more accurate census of 1880, resulted in an exaggerated increase
between those years ; consequently, with the census of 1890 com-
pared with the exaggerated increase between 1870 and 1880, the
relative percentage of growth is apparently less ; yet, on the
whole, the Southern divisions show very satisfactory percentages,
as will be seen by consulting the last table.

The increase and decrease of population during the decade of
years from 1880 to 1890 show casually that in a very large number
of counties the population has really decreased, and an examina-
tion of the figures by counties gives proof that in four hundred
and fifty -five there has been an apparent loss of inhabitants,
arising from an actual decrease in poj^ulation or from a reduction
of territory, the latter being the case in fifty instances, consequent
upon the formation of new counties. A real loss occurred in only
about one hundred and thirty counties, such losses occurring
mainly in the central parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
New York, northern New Jersey and eastern Virginia, and some
localities scattered through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and
Kentucky. Considerable loss has occurred in southern Michigan
and Wisconsin, while eastern Iowa has largely experienced a
diminution in population. The ebb and flow of mining opera-
tions have resulted in a good deal of change in the totals of min-
ing counties, as, for instance, such counties in Colorado have very
generally lost in population, and with the exception of two coun-
ties the number of inhabitants in the entire State of Nevada has
decreased. The statement as to loss in mining regions is also true
of California. The increase, however, in our great Western do-
mains has been over one hundred per cent. The Great Plains
have increased rapidly, and so have the agricultural areas of the
Cordilleran plateau. Northern Michigan, western and southern
Florida, Arkansas, southern Missouri, and central Texas, exhibit
a growth that is really phenomenal, and the southern Appalachian
region has increased its population largely. Southern New Eng-

0^772 POPULATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION. 371

and, as well as the most of New York, Pennsylvania, and New
Jersey, show the results of commerce and manufactures, where
they are firmly established and constitute the leading occupations
of the people, which has to a large extent been withdrawn from
the country and been grouped in the suburbs of cities and large
towns ; so the population, which twenty or thirty or perhaps forty
years ago did not increase in such localities, is, under the activity
stimulated by profitable occupations, increasing rapidly ; but in
the central parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New
York, where the transition from agriculture to commercial and
manufacturing industries is still developing, population does not
gain with very great strides. The changes from agriculture to
commercial and manufacturing pursuits are indicative always of
a transition from a permanent to an actively increasing density
of population. This is evident in the upper Mississippi Valley
and in Virginia, where the transition is becoming apparent. The
areas known as the plains of the Cordilleran region are being
peopled rapidly. This is particularly true in the northern por-
tions. Cheap lands and easy tillage of the virgin soil are making
the competition of Eastern agriculturists unprofitable, and so the
farming population of the far Eastern States is recruiting the ter-
ritory embracing the rich lands of the West. In Nevada we wit-
ness the peculiar spectacle of a loss of population resulting from
the low condition of the mining interests. These facts as to in-
crease and decrease give an indication of the ever-changing feat-
ures relating to the density of population in great areas.

Taking the whole country, the progress of growth has been
along the thirty-ninth parallel of latitude. The center of popula-
tion, meaning thereby the center of gravity of the population of
the country, each individual being assumed to have the same
weight, was, in 1790, twenty-three miles east of Baltimore, Md,
In 1890 it was twenty miles east of Columbus, Ind., five hundred
and five miles west of the point at which it was located one hun-
dred years ago. The variation of the center from latitude 39°,
north or south, has been very slight, the extreme having been less
than nineteen minutes, while the movement in longitude has been
nearly 9^°, On the basis of a uniform movement on the thirty-
ninth parallel of latitude, the westward march for the first decade
after the census of 1790 was forty-one miles ; for the second, thirty-
six miles ; for the third, fifty miles ; for the fourth, thirty-nine
miles ; for the fifth, fifty-five miles ; for the sixth, fifty-five miles ;
for the seventh, eighty-one miles ; for the eighth, forty-two miles ;
for the ninth, fifty-eight miles ; and for the tenth, forty-eight miles,
or an average movement each decade of fifty-five and a half miles.
The position of the center of population at each census is accurately
shown by the following table and the map which accompanies it :

372

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Yeaes.

Approximate location by important towns.

Westward move-
ment during
preceding- decade.

1790..

1800..
1810..
1820..
1830..
1840..
1850..
I860..
1870..
1880..
1890..

41 miles.

40 miles northwest by west of Washington, Dist. of Columbia. .
16 miles north of Woodstock Virginia

36 "

50 "

19 miles west-southwest of Mooreiield, West Virginia

16 miles south of Clarksburg, West Virginia . . .

39 "
55 "
55 "

81 "

42 "

58 "

48 "

The official statements as to the center of population and as to
the distribution of population in other respects, as will be shown,
have been very carefully prepared by Mr. Henry Gannett, the
able geographer of the tenth and eleventh censuses ; but the state-
ments have been made in various bulletins, and are here brought
together in connected and compact form, with proper explana-
tions.

It becomes interesting to know how the population of the
country is distributed relative to what are recognized as drainage
basins, which may be classified as the Atlantic Ocean, the Great
Basin, and the Pacific Ocean. The classification of drainage areas
under the first great division, that of the Atlantic Ocean, as a pri-
mary designation, has for its subsidiary divisions the New Eng-
land coast, the Middle Atlantic coast, the South Atlantic coast,
the Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Great Basin, for
subsidiary divisions, has Great Salt Lake and the Humboldt
Kiver. The Pacific Ocean basin consists, secondarily, of the Colo-
rado River, the Sacramento River, the Klamath River, and the
Columbia River and their several great tributaries. The percent-
age of the total population, distributed over these drainage areas
or basins, at the last three censuses, has been as follows :

Divisions.

1890.

1880.

1870.

96-2
7-2

18-3
6-8

11-2

52-7
0-4
3-4

971

7-6
19-2

7-4
10-7
52-2

0-4

2-5

97

8
20

7
11
50

0

1

8

5

8

3

0

Gulf of Mexico

2

3

9

The table shows that more than ninety-six per cent of the in-
habitants live in the country which is drained by the Atlantic
Ocean ; that more than one half of the population live in the
region drained by the Gulf of Mexico, and that nearly forty-four
per cent of the entire population of the country are congregated

OUR POPULATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION. 373

in tlie drainage area of tlie Mississippi River ; tliat only four
tenths of one per cent live in the Great Basin, and three and four
tenths per cent on the Pacific coast. It shows further that the
proportion living within the region drained to the Atlantic is
steadily diminishing, while of this region the part drained to the
Gulf of Mexico is becoming relatively more populous, as is the
case in a still more marked degree in the Great Basin and the
region drained to the Pacific*

The tendency of population, as to topographical features, is
best illustrated by a short table which has been condensed from
the report of the census :

Coast swamps

Atlantic plain

Piedmont region

New England hills

Appalachian Mountain region. . . .
Cumberland- Alleghany plateau.. .

Interior timbered region

Lake region

Ozark Mountain region

Alluvial region of the Mississippi

Prairie region

Great Flams

North Rocky Mountains

South Rocky Mountains

Plateau region

Basin region

Columbian mesas

Sierra Nevada

Pacific Valley

Cascade Range

Coast Ranges . . . .

Density of population.

1890.

1880.

1870.

21-5

18-7

15-3

H

4

60

2

47

0

69

5

55

8

45

8

40

7

38

6

35

4

49

8

41

7

34

3

59

3

49

4

40

7

44

3

38

8

31

3

25

1

17

6

12

1

22

8

16

0

10

3

23

6

18

2

12

2

28

3

21

2

14

6

1

4

0

4

0

1

1

1

0

4

0

2

2

1

1

7

0

7

0

7

0

5

0

2

1

4

0

9

0

5

1

9

0

8

0

2

4

9

4

6

3

8

9

1

5

2

3

5

5

6

1

7

0

9

14

3

9

8

5

8

The greatest density, according to topographical features, is
found in the Atlantic plain, it being 74'4 persons to the square
mile, and the lowest density is in the Plateau region, it being 07
of a person, on an average, to the square mile. Four and three
tenths per cent of the entire population of the country is to be
found in the coast swamps area and the alluvial region of the
Mississippi River. This population consists mainly of the colored
race. Two and three tenths per cent of the entire population is
found in the desert and semi-desert regions of the country. The
mountain regions of the West hold 2'5 per cent, while about one
sixth of the entire population is to be found in the Eastern mount-
ain region.

If we examine the distribution according to altitude, it will be
found that more than three fourths of the population live below

* Census Bulletin No. 47, by Henry Gannett.

374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

1,000 feet above the level of the sea, and below 5,000 feet altitude
nearly ninety-nine per cent of tlie inhabitants of the country find
their residence. At great altitudes but few people are perma-
nently residing. One sixth of the people live less than 100 feet
above the sea-level. These, of course, reside along the seaboard
and in the swamp and level regions of the South. Those living
between 2,000 and 2,500 feet above the level of the sea are found
largely on the slope of the great Western plains. Mr. Gannett
finds that between 4,000 and 5,000 feet above the sea, but more
especially between 5,000 and 6,000 feet, the population is greatly in
excess of the grade or grades below it; and he attributes this
appearance to the fact that the densest settlement at high alti-
tudes in the Cordilleran region is at the eastern base of the Rocky
Mountains and in the valleys about Great Salt Lake, which
regions lie between 4,000 and 0,000 feet elevation. In this great
region the extensive settlements at the base of the mountains in
Colorado are to be found between 5,000 and G,000 feet above the
level of the sea. The mining operations above 6,000 feet, being
restricted to the Cordilleran region, largely located in Colorado,
New Mexico, Nevada, and California, account for the existence of
the population at the altitude of 6,000 feet and more.

The population of the country is increasing numerically in
all altitudes, but the relative movement is toward the region of
greater altitudes, and is more clearly perceptible in the regions
lying between 1,000 and 6,000 feet above the sea. The population
is densest along the seaboard, the narrow strip containing our
great seaports, as might be supposed ; but the density diminishes,
not only gradually but quite uniformly, up to 2,000 feet, when
sparsity of population is the rule.

If we examine the population relative to latitude and longitude,
it will be found that within those degrees in which are located the
great cities the greatest density of population occurs, as, for
instance, the area between 40° and 41° and longitudes 73° and 75°,
containing the great cities of New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey
City, with an aggregate population of 3,653,000 inhabitants ; the
single square degree between latitudes 42° and 43° and longitudes
71° and 72° degrees contains Boston and its suburbs, with 1,233,000
inhabitants, and that square between latitudes 39° and 40° and
longitudes 75° and 76° holds Philadelphia, with 1,414,000 people.
The square of latitudes 41° and 42° and longitudes 87° and 88°,
which contains the larger portion of Chicago, has a population
of 950,000. It is difficult to present the facts relative to the dis-
tribution of population in accordance with latitude and longitude
for the whole country in this summary statement of salient points.

The distribution of population relative to mean annual rain-
fall indicates not only the tendency of people to seek arable lands.

OUR POPULATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION. 375

but their condition as to general healthfulness. The average
annual rainfall in this country is 29'6 inches, but the variations
range from zero to perhaps one hundred and twenty-five inches.
Gauging the distribution of the population in accordance with the
average annual rainfall in different localities, some interesting
points are observable, not only as to the number of inhabitants in
the areas calculated, but as to the density of population. The
greater proportion of the people of the United States are living in
the regions in which the annual rainfall is between thirty and
fifty inches. Mr. Gannett calculates that about three fourths of
the inhabitants of the country are found under these conditions ;
and, further, that as the rainfall increases or diminishes, the
population diminishes rapidly. The density of population in
regions where the average rainfall is between thirty and forty
inches is 43*1 per square mile ; in regions where it is from forty
to fifty inches annually, the density is 59 per square mile; in
regions where the rainfall is from fifty to sixty inches annually,
the density is 25*1, and in the arid regions of the West, where the
rainfall is less than twenty inches, being two fifths of the entire
area of the country, less than three per cent, of the population
finds its home. The population has increased rapidly in the re-
gions having from thirty to forty inches average annual rainfall.

The importance of the knowledge of this distribution is sup-
plemented by that with reference to the mean annual temper-
ature, which is in the United States 52°, and the greatest density
of population, as might be expected, centers on this pivot, ranging
as it does from 50° to 55°. Either side of this range the density of
population rapidly diminishes, as it was shown that it decreases
rapidly outside the average rainfall between thirty and fifty inches.
More than one half of the entire population of the country exists
under a temperature between 45° and 55°, while seventy to seventy-
five per cent of the inhabitants come within 45° and 50°. Where
the temperature reaches 70° on the average, but a little over one
per cent of the population finds its home, and the number living
under a mean annual temperature above 75° is too trifling for
consideration.

This line of facts leads to the consideration of the distribution
of population in accordance with the relative humidity of the
atmosphere, by which is understood the amount of moisture con-
tained in it in proportion to the amount required to saturate it.
This amount varies with the temperature ; the higher the temper-
ature, the greater the amount of moisture which it is capable of
holding. The term is not a very exact one, but is relative and
fairly indicative of conditions. The climate having very great
influence upon certain classes of diseases, particularly pulmonary
and throat complaints, a knowledge as to the distribution of popu-

376

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lation in accordance with mean relative humidity becomes appar-
ent, and the Census Office is doing a great service in this census,
as it did in 1880, in ascertaining the density of population under
different degrees of humidity. A condensation of the report by
Mr. Gannett on this point will perhaps give as much valuable
information to those seeking healthful locations as can be gained
from any side of census statistics. It is well known that the
atmosphere is heavily charged with moisture in those regions
which lie along our coast, whether ocean, gulf, or lake. This is
markedly so on the coast of Oregon and Washington, where the
atmosphere is more highly charged with moisture than anywhere
else within our territory. The Appalachian Mountain regions,
and largely those of the Rocky Mountains, have an atmosphere
heavily charged ; but in the Piedmont region, east of the Appa-
lachian, and in the upper Mississippi Valley, the moisture is less,
while it diminishes still more on the prairies and the Great Plains ;
and in Utah, Nevada, southern Arizona, and southeastern Cali-
fornia the minimum amount is reached. Of course the atmos-
phere is charged with moisture relative to the increase and
decrease of the rainfall, as a rule ; but throughout the upper lake
region, while the atmosphere is as moist as that of the State of
Washington, the rainfall is much less, and the coast of southern
California has as moist an atmosphere as the Atlantic coast but a
deficient rainfall.

The following table shows the percentage of humidity, in
classified order, the percentage of the total population of the
United States in 1870, 1880, and 1890, living according to the
classification of humidity, and the density of population under
the same conditions for the same years :

GKorPS.

Percentage of total population.

Density.

1890.

1880.

1870.

1890.

1880.

18T0.

Below 50

0-49
0-69
0-46
1-39
36-68
64-40
5-34
0'55-

0-44
0-40
0-27
0-87
88-44
54-39
4-79
0-40

0
0
0
0
87
56
4
0

35
24
16
35
SI
76
49
84

1

1

1

2

31

40

14

5

14
44
35
89
46
07
21
55

0
0
0

1

26

32

10

3

80
67
61
46
41
10
22
22

0
0
0
0
20
25
7
2

50

50 to 55

30

55 to 60

28

60 to 65

45

65 to 70

26

70 to 75

74

75 to 80

86

Above 80

09

A glance at this table shows that nearly all the population
breathe an atmosphere containing sixty-five to seventy-five per
cent of its full capacity of moisture ; that is, the atmosphere is
from two thirds to three fourths saturated. In 1890, 57,036,000
out of 62,622,250 were found in this region ; in 1880, 46,559,000 out
of 50,155,783 ; and in 1870, 36,273,000 out of 38,558,371. The num-

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 377

ber of inhabitants living in a drier atmosphere was at each census
comparatively trifling, numbering in 1870 less than half a million,
and in 1890 less than two millions. In the moister atmosphere
were found larger numbers scattered along the Gulf coast and
the shores of Washington and Oregon. The most rapid increase
has been found at the top and bottom of the scale, and particu-
larly in the more arid region, where the population has nearly
doubled during each of the last two periods,* showing that great
areas that are not particularly favored by the elements are grad-
ually being redeemed through the enterprise that marks our
modern industrial era.

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION.

By MARY ALLLNG ABEE.
FIRST PAPER.

IN October, 1881, a primary department was added to a private
school in Boston, Mass., and the control of it given to me, for
the purpose of making an experiment in education. While it was
hoped the primary would sustain the usual relation to the higher
departments, the proprietor f guaranteed freedom of action for
three years, and generously furnished the means required. Grati-
tude is due to others also, especially to the teachers who assisted
in some part of the work.

The aim of the experiment was to see if the child may not be
introduced at once to the foundations of all learning — the natural
and physical sciences, mathematics, literature including language,
and history — and at the same time be given a mastery of such
elements of reading, writing, and number as usually constitute
primary education.

The experiment began with nine children between the ages of
five and a half and seven years. With scales and measuring rod
each child was weighed and measured, while such questions were
asked as — " Have yon been weighed before ? When ? What did
you weigh then ? How does your weight to-day compare with
that ? " The shyest children forgot they were at school, and chat-
ted freely while watching and comparing results. By questions
as to why a present weight or measure was greater than a former
one, the statement " Children grow " was obtained. Questions
about the causes of growth led to the statements " Children eat,''
" Children sleep," " Children play." A question as to whether any-

* See Census Bulletin No. 44.

\ The name of the proprietor is withheld, in deference to a request made while the
experiment was in progress.

378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

thing besides children grows started a talk about animals, in wbicb
were given the statements " Animals grow," " Animals eat/' " Ani-
mals sleep," " Animals play." In like manner similar statements
about plants were obtained. The children were easily led from
thinking of a particular child, animal, or plant, to the general con-
ception and the use of the general term. This was the first lesson
in natural science.

Recalling the first general conception reached in the science
lesson a child was asked, " Nina, what did you say children do ? ''
" Children grow," she replied. I said, " I will put upon the
blackboard something that means what Nina said," and wrote in
Spencerian script, " Children grow." In response to invitation the
children eagerly gave the general statements gained in the science
lesson. Each was written upon the board and read by the child
who gave it. They were told that what they had said and I
had written were sentences. Each child read his own sentence
again. This was the first reading lesson.

One by one each child stood by me at the board, repeated his
sentence, and watched while it was written. He was then taught
to hold a crayon, and left to write his sentence beneath the model.
When a first attempt was finished, the sentence was written in a
new place, and the child repeated his effort at copying. In this
manner each made from one to four efforts, each time telling what
his copy meant and what he wished his effort to mean. None of
this work was erased before the children had gone. This was the
first writing lesson.

The children were led to count their classmates, their sentences
on the blackboards, the tables, chairs, and other objects in the
school-room. It was found that all could use accurately the
terms one, two, three, and four, and the symbols 1, 2, 3, 4 were put
on the board as meaning what they said, and their power to
connect these symbols with the ideas that they represent was
tested in various ways. This was the first number lesson.

The children were shown a magnetic needle and led to note the
direction of its points when at rest, and the terms north and
south were given. This was the first geography lesson.

After recess each child read his sentence, wrote it once, and
then the subject of the science lesson was pursued further. After
special answers to the question, " What do children eat ? " the
general statement was obtained, " Children eat plants and ani-
mals." Similarly, the children were led to give "Animals eat
plants and animals," Then came the question, " What do plants
eat ? " One suggested the sunshine, another the rain, another the
air, others the ground or dirt, for which the term soil was given.
It was concluded that rain, air, and sunshine help plants to grow,
and that some of their food must come from the soil ; and the

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 379

general statement was given, "Plants get food from the soil."
Tlieu I asked, " Where does the soil come from ? " Before won-
der had given way to opinion, I said, " If you bring luncheons and
extra wraps to-morrow, we will go to the country and try to find
out where the soil comes from." A poem of Longfellow's was
read, and the children were dismissed.

On the second morning the children came bounding in before
nine o'clock, eager to find and read their sentences, which each
did without hesitation ; and until nine o'clock they amused them-
selves finding and reading one another's sentences, teaching and
challenging in charming style. A few minutes later we started
on our first field lesson in science. An hour's ride in street cars
brought us to the open country. We went into a small field
where a ledge of rock presented a bold front. " Children," I said,
" an answer to our question is in this field. I wish each of you to
find the answer for himself, to speak to no one until he thinks he
has found it, and then to whisper it to me." Soberly they turned
away, and I seated myself and waited. One child looked up at
the sky, another at the ground, one began to pull over some gravel,
another to dig in the soil — most to do some aimless thing because
they knew not what to do. After a while some began to climb
the ledge and to feel of it. Suddenly one of these darted to me
and breathlessly whispered, " I think the soil comes from the rock
over there." " Well, don't you tell," I whispered back. The sun
climbed higher, but I waited until the last child brought me that
whisjDered reply. Calling them together, I said : " You have all
brought me the same answer. Why do you think soil comes
from this rock ? " They turned to the ledge, picked off the loose
exterior, and showed me the same in masses at the base. A ham-
mer was produced, with which they picked away the rock until it
became too hard for them to break. I then said, " We see that a
kind of soil comes from this rock, but what kind did we come to
learn about ? " " The soil that plants get food from," they replied.
" How do you know that any plants can get food from this soil ? "
I asked. Instinctively they turned to the cliff ; there were grasses
and weeds growing in the talus at the base, and in crevices all up
its front and sides; these they pulled, and showed me the roots
with the rock soil clinging to them. Referring to the work with
the hammer and comparing what they picked off with the hard
mass underneath, they were led to . variously describe the process
of passing from rock to soil, and finally the statement was obtained,
" Rock decays to make soil." After luncheon and a bit of play,
the children were led to speak of rocks and soils seen elsewhere.
Telling the children to shut their eyes and try to picture what I
said, I told them that the earth is round like a ball, and is a mass
of rock with a little soil on the outside of it ; that if a giant could

38o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

take the earth in his hand, he might peel or scrape off the soil as
we take a carpet from a floor, only the soil would seem much
thinner than the carpet, because the earth is so big. All had
traveled in railway trains, and had such impressions of their
swiftness that this illustration was used : Suppose we start for
the center of the earth on a train. Traveling day and night, it
would take nearly a week to reach the center, and another week
from there to the surface again ; and all day while we watched,
and all night while we slept, we should be rushing through the
rock ; and if we came out through the thickest layer of soil, it
would take but a few seconds to pass through it. Then, telling
them to open their eyes, I took a peach whose rind was thin and
peeled smoothly from the pulp, spoke of the giant as I drew off
the rind, and told them that the soil is thinner on the rock ball
of earth than that rind on the peach. A few remaining minutes
were spent in observing some pine trees and barberry bushes
growing near.

On the third day, after reading the sentences already on the
board — of which each child besides his own read one or more oth-
ers— the following sentences were easily elicited : " Children eat
plants and animals. Animals eat plants and animals. Plants get
food from the soil. The soil comes from the rock. Rock decays
to make soil." These were written on the blackboard, read, and
copied by the children as on the first day. This was the natural
science, reading, and writing of the third day. In number, the
children added and subtracted ones by making groups and joining
and leaving one another. In geography the first lesson was re-
called, and the terms east and west associated with the appropri-
ate points.

On the fourth day, after the children had retold what they
had learned in the science lessons, they were shown a globe, and
asked to imagine one as large as the room would hold, and how,
to represent the earth, they must think it all rock, with only a
thin layer of dust to represent the soil. In geography they were
shown a map of the school -room, and led to see its relations to the
room, and the relative positions of objects in the room and on the
map. The next day, on another map, they traced their route to
the country, and located the field and ledge of rock where their
question was answered. In the fifth day's science lesson the chil-
dren were led to speak of rain and wind as washing and blowing
off the decayed rock and exposing fresh surfaces, and so increas-
ing the decay, and to give the following summary : " Without
decay of rock there would be no soil ; if no soil, no plants, no ani-
mals, no people." In reading they had seventeen sentences, which
they read without hesitation and wrote with some resemblance to
the originals. In number, none failed to count to ten and to add

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 381

and subtract ones to ten. Each, day a passage of poetry was read
at the opening and closing of the session ; little songs were taught,
gentle gymnastic exercises were introduced between the lessons,
and the free-arm movement in making long straight lines was
added to their lessons in writing. This work of the first week
is given to show how the experiment was begun. The classes
entering the second and third years were started with different
sets of lessons, but substantially on the same lines.

Throughout the three years reading was taught as in the first
week. When there were enough, sentences to make a four-page
leaflet of print, they were printed and read in that form. The
first transfer from script to print was made at the end of six
weeks. The printed leaflets were distributed ; the children mere-
ly glanced at them; as yet they were of less interest than the
objects usually distributed. I said, " Look at the papers ; see if
there is anything on them that you have seen before." Soon one
hand was raised, then another, and another. " Rosamond, what
have you found ? " "I think one of my sentences is here, but it
don't look just like the one on the board." In less than ten min-
utes, by comparison of script and print, they read the whole
leaflet, each pointing out " my sentences." After a few readings
the children took the leaflets home, the sent(3nces were erased
from the boards, and the same process repeated with the new
matter that was accumulating. The reader may think there was
great waste of time and effort, since the new vocabulary and the
written and printed symbols must have been forgotten almost as
soon as learned. I expected the children to forget much, and
was surprised to find that they did not. One morning in March,
a visitor who was looking over the accumulated leaflets asked to
have them read. I told her they had been read when first
printed only; but she urged the test, so I distributed them as
they happened to come. The first leaflet fell to the youngest girl,
and I think I was more amazed than our visitor when she read it
without faltering. The visitor asked her, " What does palmate-
ly- veined mean, where you read ' The leaf of the cotton-plant is
palmately-veined ' ? " The child replied, " I can show what it
means better than I can tell it." " Show us, then, Marjorie," I
said. The child drew on tbe board a fairly correct outline of a
cotton-plant leaf, inserted its palmate veining, and turning to the
visitor pointed to that veining. All the leaflets were read with-
out help, nothing was forgotten, neither ideas nor words, as the
visitor assured herself by questions.

No effort was made to use a special vocabulary, to repeat
words, to avoid scientific terms ; there was no drill in phonics or
spelling ; no attention was given to isolated words as words — a
thought was the unit and basis of expression. In the science les-

382 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sons tlie minds of tlie children were intent on the getting of ideas
and the expression of them. Direction to look or think again
usually sufficed to change vague, wordy expressions into clear,
terse ones by giving the child clear and accurate conceptions.
When the child's own vocabulary was exhausted, he was promptly
helped to words by classmates or teacher, the effort being to use
the speech of cultivated people.

At first the reading could by no means keep pace with the
science lessons : from the mass of expressions obtained some were
selected for the reading and writing matter. With increase of
power to remember forms and combinations of letters and words,
the number of sentences was increased, until what was gained in
the science lessons was reproduced in the reading lessons. This
increase was rapid. From the first field lesson two sentences —
eleven words — only could be taken, while a field lesson near the
close of the second year yielded ninety-seven sentences — over
eleven hundred words. In the former the sentences were written
on the board and read every day for five weeks ; in the latter
they were taken down in pencil by the teacher as the children
gave them, arranged according to topics, printed, and presented
in the printed form for the first reading. There was little hesita-
tion in that reading, so vivid were the impressions from such a
day out-of-door.

During the first year a little reading matter was drawn from
lessons in literature and history. This was gradually increased
during the second and third years. Still the sentences for read-
ing were taken chiefly from the science lessons, because there
could be more certainty of the child's having accurate and well-
defined ideas as the basis of each expression, and the sentences
could be more completely their own. In March of the first year
reading-books were introduced. At the first trial they took
Swinton's Easy Steps for Little Feet, and in twelve minutes read
a page-and-a-half story. Of their own accord they sought and
independently obtained from the context the meaning of all but
two of the unfamiliar words, and gave to express the meanings
either the exact words of the book or synonymous ones, for
which those of the book were substituted. After this they read
from books whenever such reading could be related to their other
work— not much otherwise. While the production by the chil-
dren of the bulk of their reading matter was a prominent feature,
this was not the object of the experiment but merely an adjunct
to the chief end in view. Nor were the science topics selected
with reference to the reading matter, but on their own merits,
mutual relations, and the capacities of the children.

As soon as a child's writing on the blackboard could be read
by his classmates— copy being erased— he began to write at his

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 383

desk with pencil on unruled, paper, tlie copy being still written
on the board. When all had reached this stage, concert arm and
finger movements were taught. During the second and third
years the forms of the letters and combining strokes were ana-
lyzed, and each drawn on a large scale to accurate measurements.

The children saw no misspelled words, and were not asked to
spell or write isolated words. During the first and second years
they usually had a copy from which they wrote. In the third
year they wrote original exercises. They were told to ask, when
not sure how to write a word. The word was written on the
board : no effort was made to have them think how a word should
look, no matter how many times they had seen it written and
printed.

Work in the natural and physical sciences, starting with broad
conceptions, was carried forward along various lines, care being
taken to show relations, and to lead the children to regard them-
selves as a part of nature. In mineralogy and geology, the pav-
ing, building, and ornamental stones most used in Boston; the
ores of the principal metals, and their products ; graphite and the
making of pencils ; gypsum and halite, were studied, each child
getting his knowledge from specimens before him. Each was
furnished with a testing outfit, including what a field geologist
commonly carries, except the blowpipe and reagents to use with
it ; and these children from six to ten soon learned to use the
outfit with as much skill as any adults whom I have taught.

In physics, lessons were given on extension and gravity ; on
the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter; on heat as the
force producing expansion and contraction ; on the evaporation,
condensation, and freezing of water, with results in dew, clouds,
rain, snow, and the disintegration of rocks ; on movements of air
as agents producing wind and storms ; on the thermometer ; on
magnets, and two of their uses. In chemistry, lessons were given
on air and its composition ; on combustion and its products ; on
iron rust as to formation, and effects on iron ; on CO3 as an ingre-
dient of calcite, and a product of breathing ; on acids as tests for
lime rocks containing CO2 ; on the distinction between physical
and chemical changes. In astronomy, a few lessons were given
on the relations of sun and earth as causing day and night and
the seasons.

Botany was pursued in the fall and spring months. In the
spring the children planted a window garden, from which they
drew plants for the study of germination and growtli. From
garden and wild plants they studied buds and their developments,
and the forms, parts, and uses of some leaves, flowers, and fruits.
A series of lessons on plants yielding textile fabrics and the man-
ufactures from them was projected ; but, owing to the difficulty

384 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of getting plants in proper condition, the only portion given was
that on the cotton plants. Fine specimens of these were received
from Georgia, which kept fresh nearly two weeks, and showed all
stages, from flower bud to open boll of cotton fiber. No work in
zoology was done, save the giving of a few lessons on silk-worms
and sheep, as yielding silk and wool. In physiology, lessons were
given on the general parts of the body : on the joints, skin, hair,
nails, and teeth ; on the chest, and the process of breathing and its
products ; on food and digestion — all with reference to the care of
the body, keeping the lungs from disease, and the true object of
taking food. Geography was connected with science, history,
and literature — the original habitat and migrations of rocks and
plants, and the location of events leading to imaginary journeys.
The forms of water and land, and a demonstration of the shape
of the earth by the positions and appearances of vessels at sea,
were gained in lessons to the country and the sea-shore. Boston
and its surrounding townships were studied in connection with
lessons in local history. Maps, globes, compass, and modeling
clay were used throughout the course.

While the work in mathematics was not so fully developed on
new lines as in other subjects, some work done in the first year
may be of interest to the reader. In a field lesson of the second
week, some distinguishing features of the apple, beech, pitch and
white pine trees were noted and branches obtained. These
branches furnished material for many days' number lessons. Ap-
ple leaves with their two stipules, pitch-pine sheaths with their three
needles, beechnut exocarps with their four sections, and white
pine sheaths with their five needles, were used by the children in
constructing concrete number tables, which — picking up the ob-
jects— they recited as follows : " In one sheath of white pine are
five needles ; in two sheaths of white pine are two times five nee-
dles," etc. When the concrete table was familiar, the same num-
ber relations were written on the blackboard with figures and
symbols. In this manner the children learned the four classes of
tables as far as sixes. Meanwhile the study of geometrical forms
and the plant lessons gave illustration and review. In January
work with money was begun, and continued through the remainder
of the year ; but other opportunities to give practice in number
were utilized — as, the six faces of the halite crystal, the six stamens
of the tulip, etc. To get unworn coins we sent to the Philadelphia
Mint. In two lessons the children learned the names and values
of one copper, two nickel, four silver, and six gold pieces ; in the
third, by placing piles of coin side by side, they constructed and
learned the table :

Two silver half dollars equal one gold or silver dollar.

Four silver quarter dollars equal one gold or silver dollar.

Ali EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 385

Ten silver dimes equal one gold or silver dollar.

Twenty nickle pieces equal one gold or silver dollar.

One hundred copper pennies equal one gold or silver dollar.

On the following day a new concrete table was prepared, and
the dollar sign, figures, symbols, and decimal point were sub-
stituted for the words in the written work. The relative values
of the lower denominations to one another were taught, and tables
constructed and written. The different denominations of paper
money up to the fifty-dollar bill were added to the coins; and
this money — about one hundred and fifty dollars — was used in
business transactions, which gave review of the number relations
already learned, and taught those necessary to the construction
and comprehension of the remaining tables. At the end of eight
months the children could use and write numbers to one hundred
and fifty, and the signs +, — , X, -^, =, $, and " (decimal point) ;
and understood the value of position in notation to three places
to the left and two to the right of a decimal point. Also, in
the oral work with money, they readily used the fractions one
half, one fourth, one tenth, one twentieth, and one hundredth ;
and most of them could write from memory thecusual tables from
one to twelve. In this first year no effort was made to do a de-
fined kind or amount of work ; the children spent from twenty to
thirty minutes each day at some mathematical work, but progress
and variety depended on their interest and capacities. A visitor
who had spent forty years in teaching sat through one of these
primary sessions. He expressed pleasure and surprise at the work
of the children in science, reading, and other branches, but was
incredulous, at first, about the work in number w^ith the money
at their desks, and the written work in figures and signs at the
blackboards. He went around among the children, tested them,
and watched to see if there were not some trick of parrot-like per-
formance. Finally, convinced of the genuine comprehension of
what they were doing by these children of six and seven, he said :
" I should not have believed it on the statement of any man or wom-
an whom I have known ; but I have seen it with my own eyes."

It is a matter of regret to me that growing burdens of care
forbade the development of the number work during the second
and third years on the lines begun in the first year. To spend
from a half-hour to an hour a day for ten years at mathemat-
ics, with no better results than the average boy and girl of six-
teen can show, looks like a great waste of time and energy. May
not the cause be twofold : First, that the beginning work is made
silly by its simplicity, and insipid by being related to nothing
interesting ; second, that processes like the subtraction of large
numbers and long division are pressed upon the cliild before his
powers are adequate to their comprehension ?

VOL. XL. — 29

386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tlie last fifteen minutes of each day were devoted to literature.
Selections with biography and anecdote constituted the materials
for these lessons. Advantage was taken of birthdays, anniversa-
ries, and natural phenomena. Storms furnished accompaniments
to Lowell's The First Snow-fall, portions of Whittier's Snow-
bound, Longfellow's Rainy Day, Bryant's Rain, Shelley's Cloud,
etc. Flowers brought by the children were related to readings
from Burns, Wordsworth, Emerson, Lowell, Bryant, Whittier, and
Longfellow. Emerson's Rhodora was committed to memory and
recited, a cluster of the purple blossoms being in sight. Selections
were made with primary reference to their value. Biography was
usually employed to heighten interest in literature ; for its own
sake when embodying noble sentiments — as Scott's struggle
against debt, Sidney's gift of water to the soldier. By such tales
of heroic effort and action it was hoped to develop courage, honor,
and devotion to duty.

Aside from clear language in narration, accompanied by pict-
ures of persons and places, and such reading as expresses the
rhythm and meaning, no effort was made to have biography or
selection understood. Many children have such an appreciation
of melody that a fine poem well read will hold their attention.
Just before Christmas, in our first year, I read a portion of Mil-
ton's Hymn on the Nativity, and said, " I hope you will some day
read the whole, and like it." " Please read it all now," said sev-
eral voices. So it was all read, and the children listened intently.
Milton's picture was put away, and nothing said of him for a year.
When his picture was again put on the easel, a hand was at once
raised. " What is it, Tracy ? " "I know who that is." " Who ? "
*' Mr. John Milton." " What do you remember about him ? "
" He gave his eyes for liberty " — an expression which, so far as my
knowledge of the child went, he had not heard from any one, but
was his own terse summing up of the narrative he had heard a
year before, when barely six years old. Most children have such
an appreciation of justice and heroism that they will even walk
more erectly after listening to a tale involving these qualities. I
shall not forget how gravely and proudly fifty children withdrew
from the school-room after listening to the story of Sidney's death.
An unspoiled child has usually a vivid imagination ; and it is as
pernicious to meddle with the formation of his mental pictures in
literature, as in science lessons to keep telling him what he can
get from his specimens. The child's mind should be brought into
direct contact with the realities in history and literature, and left
to work at them with the least possible interference and guidance.
If a child attempted to repeat a quotation or fact, accuracy was
required, but he was not urged to remember. Much in the litera-
ture lessons was above the children's comprehension ; but it was

Ay EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 387

thought well for each child to feel a breath from the mountains
above and beyond — a breath whose coolness and fragrance he
might feel without analysis or comprehension of its qualities. To
have felt was enough. So we paid no attention to ordinary poems
and tales for little children, but introduced the children at once
to Longfellow and Emerson, Wordsworth and Scott, Milton and
Shakespeare.

There was regular study of history for each year. Copies of
early and late maps of Boston were given to each child ; the older
one was drawn on transparent paper, so as to be laid over the later
one and show directly the changes and extensions into river and
harbor. Colored crayon maps and pictures were used to illustrate
the historical narrative. These narratives were drawn mostly
from local events — as the settlement of Boston, with certain old
Boston worthies as centers, about whom incidents were grouped ;
the beginning of the Revolutionary War with a visit to the Wash-
ington elm at Cambridge ; some incidents of slavery and the civil
war connected with Garrison. Extracts from diaries, letters, etc.,
were printed on leaflets and read by the children, who drew
their own inferences. These readings from original sources were
mostly confined to the third and fourth classes, as the language
used was too difficult for children of the first two years. Some-
times gratifying volunteer work was done ; as an instance, a boy
of eight learned the whole of " Paul Revere's Ride," and recited
it, standing at the blackboard and tracing on a colored map of
Boston and its surrounding townshij)s the route taken by the
rider. This work in history was done by Miss Nina Moore — Mrs.
F. B. Tiffany— who developed it with such skill as to fascinate
the children, and to lead to her publications on these topics. (See
articles in Common - school Education for September, October,
November, and December, 1888; and the books Pilgrims and
Puritans and From Colony to Commonwealth.)

The industrial part of the experiment was started at the begin-
ning of the third year. Each child was provided with a bench
and ten tools — ruler, try-square, scratch-awl, saw, vise, plane,
chisel, brad - awl, hammer, nail - set. The children of the two
younger classes made a box with the cover hinged on with strips
of leather ; those of the two older, a case with shelves fitting into
grooves. The work was divided into steps ; each was mastered
before the next was tried. All the children began with the use of
the ruler in measurements to an eighth of an inch. The try-square
came next. As soon as a true line was drawn, the saw was used
to divide the board. After the first day no two children were ex-
actly together, each one's position depending on his own results.
The third step — the cross-cut saw — detained most of the children
several weeks ; a true cut with its face at right angles to each

388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

face of the board was required. This the chihh'en tested for them-
selves. Often during the first work with saws a child would ask,
" Will that do ? " " Test it/' was the reply. Relactantlx the child
applied the test, and renewed his courage as Lest he could. After
a time the desire to use a new tool and to get on as some other
child did gave way to desire for perfection. This brings me to
the chief end of the work — not skill in handicraft or any finished
products, but to put before the children concrete examples of the
true and the false, in such a manner that the child himself should
judge his own work by some unvarying standard. As an instance
of the moral effects : One of the older boys was the first to finish
the shelves and both sides of his case, all but one groove. The
excitement of this eminence dizzied him, and that groove was a
failure — being too wide, it left an ugly crack above the shelf. No
one was more sensitive to that ugliness than he ; but the struggle
between his desire for perfection and the fancied humiliation of
making another side and letting some other child be the first to
complete a case went on for some time. Finally, with a manly
effort to keep his eyes from overflowing, he laid the faulty side
among the failures and began again. To give up the work of
many days, and the prospect of coming out ahead, was to win a
great battle not for himself alone but for his comrades. For use,
the rejected side was almost as good as perfection itself ; to ideas
of truth and beauty the boy's mind yielded obedience. Such
yielding of lower motives to higher ones, such discipline of pa-
tience and judgment as these lessons gave, were not reached in
any other line of work.

Most public schools for primary children have two sessions a
day for ten months ; in the exj^eriment there was but one session
a day for eight months. In the former, five hours or more a week
are spent in reading alone ; in the latter, less than five hours a
a week were given to the science lessons and to the reading drawn
from them. The saving of time in other studies was almost
equally great; and besides the large body of superior knowledge
opened to the children, the ordinary proficiency in all subjects
commonly taught in primary schools was generally reached. This
demonstrates the fallacy of the current opinion that children can
not be taught science, history, and literature, and at the same time
master the usual three r's allotted to them.

But the experiment aimed to introduce the child to the world of
real learning, with the idea that such introduction would produce
certain effects on his mind ; and it is by that aim and those effects
that it should be judged. As to the former, the reader has but to
examine the body of knowledge outlined, and judge whether it is
worthy to be called real learning and the foundation of knowledge.

AJV EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 389

Among the effects, j)erhaps the chief place should be assigned
to the general attitude toward study. Compare two children
trained in the two ways. On entering school both are equally
eager and happy. One is kept for the most part away from
learning, and laboriously taught to hold the empty wrappers of it ;
the other is taken at once into the shrine, where he soon becomes
at home ; and, while he gets wrappers as rapidly as the child out-
side, every one is full and overflowing. The former grows tired
of tasteless drudgery and longs to have school days over ; in the
latter, nearness to the central fires kindles the sacred flame, and
its shining through the fleshly covering makes his face a contrast
to that of the other child. One finds the school-room a prison ;
the other an enchanted land where all is " truly true." If both
leave school during the first six years — as so many do — the former
is likely to have vague notions about a large field of study, and
but little interest in its contents or faith in their value ; while the
latter will be as likely to preserve sympathy with learning, and
desire to advance it in himself and others.

Among other effects may be mentioned :

1. The children learned to ask serious questions. In a lesson
on clouds and rain, Emma asked, " Why is the rain not salt, if
most of the cloud vapor comes from the ocean ? " She was told
to dissolve a certain amount of salt, to evaporate the solution over
a fire, and note results. On the following day she reported that
the same amount of salt was left after evaporation as she had first
used, and gave as her conclusion that ocean- water in evaporating
leaves all its salt behind ; and the youngest boy added, " Then
only pure water can float up into the blue sky."

2. They learned that opinion without knowledge is folly. In
planting a window garden, they put seeds in pots of earth ; I, be-
tween wet blotting-papers. Their decided opinion was that my
seeds would not grow. A week later they were eager to give this
sentence, " The seeds in Miss Alling's garden did grow."

3. They became fond of mental activity. They were not marked,
formally examined, hurried, nor required to do a certain amount
in a definite time. This freedom and leisure transformed their
first laborious, timid thinking into a delight, which they entered
upon as spontaneously and fearlessly as upon their outdoor physi-
cal games.

4. Their habits of thinking improved. At first they showed
but a superficial interest in the objects studied, and much ques-
tioning was needed to direct and hold their attention ; later, they
voluntarily seized upon the marked features of objects and phe-
nomena, and pursued them until practically exhausted. We did
not flit hither and thither, giving the children new objects of
study each day, but kept them at work upon one so long as it

390 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

could yield anytliing within their comprehension. As an instance,
successive lessons on the cotton plant were given for three weeks.

5. Their perceptions became almost unerring. At the Museum
of the Boston Society of Natural History, one day, Katherine ex-
claimed as we rapidly passed a case of minerals, " There's some
graphite.'' Turning and seeing whitish specimens, I said, " Oh,
no ; have you forgotten how graphite looks ? " The child insisted,
and we turned back to the case. Sure enough, on one shelf the
white rocks contained grains and threads of graphite, which fact
the child had gathered in one rapid glance.

6. Memory became active and generally true. It was aimed to
pursue all things in order, with regard to natural relations and
associations ; beyond this the cultivation of memory was com-
mitted to the qualities of the ideas presented. The result seemed
to prove that memory is retentive in proportion to the activity
and concentration of the whole consciousness, and that this is pro-
portioned to the interest of the subject-matter.

7. Imagination was vivid and healthy, producing clear repro-
duction, apt illustration, sometimes witty caricature, and occa-
sionally thought and expression delicate and lovely enough to be
worthy the envy of grown-up literati.

8. There was a beginning made in the habits of independent
examination of any matter, of honestly expressing the results of
such examination, and stoutly maintaining one's own ideas until
convinced of error, and then of readiness to adopt and defend the
new, however opposed to the old. These habits lead to mental rec-
titude, robustness, and magnanimity, which qualities confer the
power of discriminating values : for pride of opinion gives blind-
ness ; the love of truth for its own sake, sight.

9'. In waiting for Nature to answer questions — sometimes they
waited three weeks or more — and in continual contact with her
regularity and dependence on conditions, they gained their first
dim conceptions of what law means, and of the values of patience
and self-control, and of realities as opposed to shams. Finding in
Nature mysteries which the wisest have not explained, a half-
conscious reverence stole ujion them — the beginnings of true spir-
itual growth.

At first the experiment called forth much criticism. At home
the children told about rocks and plants, and related stories from
history and literature, but said little about reading and writing.
Parents came to see, and universally condemned the method. One
mother said, " My daughter will study geology and literature
when the proper age comes ; I wish her now to learn reading and
writing, and have simple lessons in arithmetic and geography."
But she yielded to her child's entreaties, and allowed her to be
experimented upon. Later, this mother visited the department to

AJ^ EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 391

express her wonder and satisfaction at lier daughter's progress in
reading, writing, and number. A father, after visiting the depart-
ment, said, " My boy isn't learning anything ; he's having a twad-
dle of experiments." Three months afterward he said, " My boy's
whole attitude of mind is changed ; he looks at the world with
new eyes, and is also progressing rapidly in the studies common
to children of his age."

A criticism frequently met was that the vocabulary was too
difficult, and, being largely scientific and technical, could not fit
children to read children's books. Experience proved the contrary.
Reading for ideas, the children were not deterred by a few unfa-
miliar words. In reading stories in books, they could usually get
the principal ideas ; and to infer the meaning of the unknown forms
had much novelty and interest. It was also objected that the ideas
themselves were too difficult, and could not possibly be compre-
hended by the children. In a language lesson of the second year,
Frank gave the sentence, " The soil is thin." A visitor asked,
" Did you ever see a well dug ? " " Oh, yes ; at my grandfathers,
last summer." " Was the soil there thick or thin ? " " Thick."
"How thick?" Looking from floor to ceiling, "Thicker than
from this floor to the ceiling." " Then what do you mean by say-
ing that the soil is thin ? " was asked in a mocking, disconcerting
tone. Frank dropped his eyes in thought ; after a moment he
said, " I mean it is thin when you think of all the way down to
the center of the earth." This boy entered before he was six years
old, and was at this time barely seven.

Teachers who visited the department said, " You have a com-
paratively small number of children from cultivated families ;
even similar results could not be obtained in the large, miscella-
neous public-school classes." This could be met then by the state-
ment only that mind has everywhere the same elemental possi-
bilities, and must yield similar results for the same influences,
although the time required might be much lengthened. This
criticism has now been answered in part by the results of a trial
made in the public schools at Englewood, 111., an account of which
will appear in a subsequent paper.

The few scientists who knew of the experiment looked on with
favor. " It is the ideal way," said one. " A realization of my own
dreams," said another. An eminent leader in educational affairs
in this country objected that the great majority of our primary-
school teachers could not follow in the same line because lack-
ing the requisite body of knowledge. When courses of study for
lower schools are made out by eminent specialists with a view to
putting into the hands of children the beginnings of their own
lines of research, and when school authorities provide courses of
lectures and other means of furnishing to teachers the necessary

392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

body of knowledge, I think teachers will, as a whole, be quick to
respond to the demand and the opportunity — as a release from the
belittling effects of their present monotonous drudgery with triv-
ial ideas, if for no higher motive.

In conclusion, the reader may w^sh to ask, " Was the experi-
ment, after all, a success ? " I answer, '* As a demonstration of
the possibility and value of introducing little children to real
learning, yes; as a realization of my ideals, no." I was conscious
that there was much that was superficial in the work ; and that,
in striving to avoid shadows and to grasp the real substance of
education, I often grasped but another and a finer sort of shadow.
May some other teacher, having greater fitness for the work, and
a longer opportunity for effort, reach the goal for which I started !
The instruction such an one could give about primary education
is needed all over our beloved land.

THE AVIATOR FLYING-MACHINE.

Bt m. g. teouve.

A SUCCINCT history was given by M. G. Dary, in a recent
number of UEleciricien, of the vain efforts that have been
made at different times to steer balloons in the atmosphere. Some
of the experiments were, indeed, of real merit ; but they did not
succeed practically, because the problem they were intended to
solve offers insurmountable obstacles. The steering of balloons
and the realization of great speed with them are practically
impossible, and the results obtained from experiments directed
to those objects have not been worth the immense outlays that
have been made upon them. Yet balloons styled directable will
probably render very appreciable services in military art and
under a few other special circumstances. The experiments of
M. Gaston Tissandier and Commandant Renard have not been
useless, and it will be of some advantage to continue them. But
while balloonists are right in seeking to increase the dimensions
of their globes in order to increase at once the proportion of ascen-
sional power and of motor and propulsive energy to resistance,
we, advocates of machines heavier than the air, looking especially
to great speed, would gradually diminish the function of the bal-
loon as a sustainer, reduce it, and bring into greater predominance
the propulsory organs, making them at once more powerful and
lighter. These are those which, with the motor and the generator,
represent the element heavier than the air. When the balloon
shall have been eliminated in this way, practical aerial navigation
will have been accomplished.

THE AVIATOR FLYING-MACHINE. 393

Let us suppose ourselves looking through a glass, eye at the
eye-piece, at a balloon. It is large, gigantic, monstrous, the aero-
stat of to-day. Turn the glass, end for end. The balloon is
reduced, and becomes a mere point, imperceptible, lost. Such is,
from our point of view, the balloon of the morrow. It is well for
the present to use the balloon as a supplementary sustaining
instrument ; but let us always keep in mind that we shall thank it
as soon as possible for its services and show it the door. A hy-
pothesis should be to the physicist simply a provisional artifice for
the convenient grouping or explaining of a number of determined
phenomena ; and, to our view, a balloon is a similar artifice, the
present uses of which may be valuable.

We had the honor some years ago of becoming acquainted with
MM. de la Landelle and Ponton d'Amecourt, warm partisans and
advocates of the doctrine of machines heavier than the air, which
originated, according to classical traditions, with Architas. They
convinced us, and we have since been their fervent disciple. We
are, in fact, a persistent admirer of the simple processes employed
in Nature and used in a marvelous way by birds to sustain them-
selves in the air and guide their flight, and specious calculations
have never caused us to doubt the possibility of a solution of the
problem of locomotion in the air by wholly mechanical means ;
and we have long regarded the solution of it as depending solely
on the discovery of a powerful and light motor. How many
examples does the history of natural philosophy present us of
calculations that have deceived — either because their starting-
point was false, or because we were mistaken in interpreting the
results !

What good does it do to descant on the forms and the details
of an air-machine when its most essential part, its soul we might
say — its motor — has not been found ? Could we give a rational
theory of telephony before Bell invented his electric telephone, or
of the transmission of force to great distances before the creation
of the Gramme machine ?

We have received numerous letters during the last twenty
years from authors and inventors desiring to submit to us their
projects and arrangements of propellers. "It is all very well,"
we have told them, " but, before sending me anything — have you
a motor?" "A motor? No, sir; we have thought about it, in-
deed, but have dej)ended on you for that," " If I had a motor," I
would reply, " I should have no need of your apparatus ; I have
a thousand of them, and my only trouble is in choosing between
them." The motor, in fact, is the essential thing ; having that, it
is a minor affair whether one prefers the aeroplane, the helicopter,
or the aviator ; it is a question of return — a question that must be
looked into, but which is strictly subordinate to the nature of

394

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the motor. It is not till that is got that calculation should come
in, when it can find a sure starting-point, based on well-conducted
experiments and precise ideas, and its results will be susceptible
of an immediate verification. We have constantly employed this
prudent, jDositive method, and it only can give satisfactory results.
This motor, which is to fulfill at the same time the two conditions
so hard to reconcile, of great power and extreme levity, we shall
now try to describe.

Fig. 1. — BrRD-LiKE Generatok-Motor and Propeller.

The fact indisputably results from observations, from the posi-
tive experiments of M. Marey, from the studies of M. Espitalier,
and from our personal labors, that birds expend on an average a
motor exertion of 75 kilogrammes per unity of weight — a unity
comprehended between 3'6 and 12*5 kilogrammes — in rising verti-
cally one metre per second. Observe that we are talking of gross
work, not of useful work effected directly upon the air. Thus
Goupil, a respected authority, has found that the work of a horse-
power in the pigeon is given for a weight of 12'5 kilogrammes.
That is the manifest work, but not the work really developed by
the animal ; the wing, like the screw, in fact, makes only a weak
return.

We select, then, the minimum unity of weight 3'5 kilogrammes
per horse-power which results from the experiment with our elec-
trical helicopter, because we know in advance that we can not
obtain the full return for the expenditure ; and in this weight we
must include that of the generator of energy, or of the propeller,
and all the accessories.

It is impossible, in this necessarily brief study, to give the

THE AVIATOR FLYING-MACHINE. 395

names of all the known motors, and still less of the apparatuses
which might be applied as motors. Inventors reserve many sur-
prises in that matter. But, without letting imagination carry us
beyond the domain of experimental science, it is allowable for us
to consider what satisfaction steam, electricity, and such accumu-
lators of energy as India rubber, steel, compressed air, gas motors,
and explosives may give. We are able now, with special pre-
cautions, to construct steam motors of extreme levity, and giving
one horse-power for a weight very near that of 3'5 kilogrammes ;
but if we add to them the indispensable generator and the inevi-
table propeller, the weight increases in formidable proportions,
and the system becomes inapplicable to any mode of support in
the air.

Electricity, although it is better in many respects, is likewise
liable to criticism. Yet we had the honor of performing some
satisfactory experiments with it in 1887 at the Scientific Congress
in Toulouse, and in 1888 at the Easter session of the /Socie/e de Phy-
sique. We had taken all possible care in the construction of a
motor ; it was all of aluminum, with the exception of the poles,
which were of soft iron. Its weight was ninety grammes, and its
ppwer, measured with our dynamometer, was maintained at two
kilogrammetres, corresponding exactly with one horse-power per
3"375 kilogrammes. This motor, armed with a light and geomet-
rically perfect helix, made accord-
ing to a new method which we
had explained to the Academy of
Sciences on the 12th of July, 1886,
was placed in one of the plates of
a balance, and put in connection,
with a constant electrical source
of forty watts, when it raised its
whole weight. In order to render
more visible the extent of the re-
sult, and obtain a more exact idea
of it, I arranged a light balance
with long arms, to one of which
I attached the motor experiment-
ed on, as in Fig. 2. The electric ^'''- 2--Electbic Helicopter and Aero-

communications, carried through

the foot, knife-edges, and arms of the balance, can not obstruct
the freedom of its motion. Being movable in the vertical and
horizontal directions, the balance changes immediately from the
position A B to that of A' B'. The power developed by the
motor is found, by the most careful measurement, equivalent
to two kilogrammes— a power so related to the weight of the
motor as to be capable of raising it vertically twenty -two

396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

metres in a second. The simple theoretical calculation deduced
from the experimental fact assigns 3"375 kilogrammes to the mo-
tor that will develop seventy-five kilogrammes. But so minute a
motor returns only about twenty per cent of the energy which is
confided to it, while a motor of from fifty to one hundred horse-
power will return eighty, ninety, or one hundred per cent. It is
possible, therefore, and seems to be reasonable, that a large electric
motor, the power of which increases faster than the weight, would
employ the surplus of sixty or seventy per cent in raising the gen-
erator, the propeller, and the aeronaut. We do not intend to hy-
pothecate the future and form tables on gratuitous suppositions,
probable as they may seem. We therefore, for the moment, lay
aside the electric motor, because, with its generator and propeller,
it exceeds the weight of 3'5 kilogrammes per horse-power, which
we have imposed upon ourselves as the minimum.

We now come to accumulators of energy. India rubber, for
example, the elasticity of which is often utilized as a reservoir of
power, and has a potential, in this point of view, fifteen times
superior to that of steel, furnishes power and motion together.
Joining to it an immediate organ of resistance to the air, we have
an apparatus heavier than air. Penaud chose admirably ; and
one of the first helicopters was formed upon this plan. But, while
India rubber stores a large sum of energy, it expends it faster than
it obtains it, and can not of itself renew the provision. Penaud
had only a small success with it, because the thongs he used were
placed and displaced too slowly ; and if he had found a means of
changing them more rapidly, the considerable charge of his pro-
vision would have made him lose the primary advantages of his
judicious choice.

Compressed air motors and gas motors enjoy a certain repute
which is in many respects deserved ; but as they are constructed,
they require the assistance of lubricating and refrigerating appa-
ratus which have weight, and are thus excluded for the preseiit
from the list of applications for aerial locomotion. So there are
no steam motors, or electric motors, or accumulators of energy like
India rubber, or steel, or compressed air motors or generators, that
fully answer the requirements. None of them, as they are, supply
such coexisting conditions of power and levity as are strictly im-
posed by the nature of the problem. Is it, then, true that there is
now no motor with its accessories, the generator and propeller,
which can be used at once, or at least improved upon, for the pur-
pose we have in view ? The comparative experiments which
we have reported, and have verified with our new universal
direct-reading dynamometer, which we had the honor of pre-
senting to the Academy on the 23d of June, 1891, seem to attest
this. Still, if the generator and propeller, mutually necessary.

THE AVIATOR FLYING-MACHINE. 397

are the organs that embarrass us, can we not find some sub-
stitute ?

The electrical helicopters, with which we have obtained excel-
lent results, seem to offer a special adaptation of the screw to the
motor, which, like all electric motors, turns with an excessive
velocity — so that one of the organs seems made for the other. We
have often been struck, in our electric boats, with the fact that
the wake at the stern is hardly percei)tible. This is because the
helix of our steering motor-propeller, having the great velocity of
twenty-four hundred turns in a minute, enters the water as a
screw its tap. In our electric helicopter, likewise, the screw forms,
we might say, an integral part of the motor, thus supplying us
with a motor-propeller, India rubber offers a still more perfect
connection between the accumulator of potential and the motor —
the generator or accumulator and the motor being absolutely
identical. India rubber is a generator-motor. Hence, since we
can not eliminate the generator or the propeller from the appa-
ratus we imagine, we will absorb them and fuse them into the
motor. We will create a new organism sufficing for itself, and
will call it the generator-motor-propeller. We have ourself de-
vised a propeller of this kind, by the aid of the well-known Bour-
don tube, an instrument wliich is the essential part of the Bourdon
manometers. Electricity plays in it a part only secondary, but
necessary. This apparatus has so far given lis satisfaction, and
it may be that it will serve for some time as the essential basis of
machines heavier than the air.

If the pressure of the gas contained in the tube increases, the
tube changes shape, and its elliptical branches tend to spread
apart ; while, if the pressure is diminished, inverse action takes
place, and the branches approach. If, then, we provoke a series
of alternate condensations and expansions, or increasing and di-
minishing pressures, in the interior of the tube, it will go through
a series of oscillations, of strong vibrations, capable of being
used as a motor force, chiefly and perhaps only in the conditions
under which we have placed ourselves. For the purpose of fur-
ther increasing the energy of the resistance of the tube, and also
of diminishing the volume of the chamber in which the explo-
sions are produced, we have inclosed in the interior a similar sec-
ond tube — an addition which augments the elastic force of the
engendered gases, while diminishing the expenditure of combusti-
bles. The whole of the system is represented by Fig, 1, and was
presented by us to the Academy of Sciences in December, 1870,

The wings A and B are fixed directly, but with a rotary motion,
at the vibrating ends of the tube, suppressing all intermediary
organs of transmission by friction or rotation. Depression of the
wings corresponds to condensed pressures, and elevation tO dilated

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pressures. The chemical combination made use of is the oxida-
tion of hydrogen. Hydrogen is easily obtained, rai:»idly, in great
quantities, and pure, and oxygen for burning it is already pre-
pared in the atmosphere. Our bird, like the birds of Nature, there-
fore draws a considerable part of its food from the atmosphere.
The detonating mixture is regulated at will, but it is nearly
twenty-five parts of hydrogen to seventy-five parts of atmospheric
air, while the inflammation of it is produced by electricity, as in
gas machines. In the small model (Fig. 1) the generator of ex-
plosions is a revolver barrel (D), armed with twelve cartridges,
the charge of which has been carefully determined ; to make the
catches perform and the barrel turn, the bird must be left to
itself, while the cock is kept raised simply by the weight of the
apparatus. To start the machine, it is suspended by a cord fixed
at the end of a crane (Fig. 3), while the pendulum thus composed

Fig. 3. — Arraitgements fob starting the Bird.

is withdrawn from the vertical and held by a second cord against
the foot of the crane. Two candles, one movable (A) and the
other fixed (B), placed in the verticals of the points of attach-
ment, are intended to burn the two cords.

When we burn the first cord with the candle A, the bird, like
Foucault's pendulum, begins an oscillation. It goes, describing the
arc of a circle, from the position 1 to the position 2, reaching there
with a horizontal velocity, when the candle B is ajiplied and burns
the suspending cord. The hammer is released and falls, the car-
tridge explodes, the tube vibrates strongly, and the wings falling
sweep the air vigorously ; at the same time the bird abandons its
first horizontal position, and with its inclined tail takes on a slight
movement of ascension (position 3). Thus the disengaged gases
escape ittito the atmosphere, in the inverse direction of the move-

THE AVIATOR FLYING-MACHINE. 399

ment, so as to utilize their reaction. Tlie vibrating tube resumes
its original shape, and the wings rise. Promptly, the barrel, car-
ried on by its cog-work, brings a cartridge under the hammer,
which falls ; a second explosion is produced, and the phenomena
already described are repeated in their order. During the third,
fourth, and so on to the twelfth explosion, the bird flies over a
horizontal distance of seventy-five or eighty metres, sustaining
itself against gravity and steadily rising. Instead of the bird
falling straight down at the end of its course, the wings, kept up
by the drawing together of the branches of the tube and the silken
aeroplane (C, Fig. 1), the surface of which is proportioned to the
weight of the imitation animal, act as a parachute, and the
apparatus descends obliquely and slowly. The aeroplane, which
is represented by dotted lines, connects the head of the bird with
the helm, and with the wings and the tail. The use of the aero-
plane will always be of advantage, whatever the power of the
motor ; for its surface, constantly proportionate to the total
weight, will serve to prevent any accident in case of the sudden
arrest of the motor machine. We repeat that, in the apparatus of
large dimensions, a reservoir of compressed hydrogen is substi-
tuted for the cartridges of the small model ; while the use of alu-
minum is suggested by its lightness and the probability of its being
obtainable at a reasonable price. We also remark that the exten-
sive cooling surface of the vibrating tube and its direct contact
with the air, which will be closer as the velocity is greater, will
keep it at a moderate temperature ; yet there will be little danger
of its getting heated, for the simplicity of the mechanism, and
the removal of all transmission by rotation or sliding, will prevent
the necessity of using lubricants or refrigerants. In short, the
combined advantages of the generator-motor-propeller constitute
it the lightest aviator that it is possible to construct. It pos-
sesses, we dare say, all the warrantees of ascensional power and
return.

We shall be glad if we have succeeded in this summary in con-
veying to our readers the faith we have in the possibility and the
near realization of practical navigation of the air ; if the subject
has any further interest for them, they will find a general serious
and profound discussion of it in a book by M, Barral, and also full
descriptions of a number of sustaining machines which we have
devised, including the one we have just presented to them. Con-
structed during the siege of 1870, it is the first machine heavier
than the air susceptible of construction on a large scale and capa-
ble of traveling by its own force. The crowning experiment in
the navigation of the air now depends only on capital and second-
ary studies ; and, again, in centering our efforts on the discovery
of a strong and light motor, we believe we were the first (in 1870)

4O0 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to set forth the problem correctly. We close by saying, with
Victor Hugo, "The future is with navigation of the air." — Trans-
lated for The Pojndar Science Monthly from Le Monde de la Sci-
ence et de V Industrie.

THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH.

AFTER an interval of nine years the publication of the Be-
volkerung der Erde has been resumed by the well-known
geographical establishment of Perthes of Gotha. This is the
eighth issue of this invaluable and authoritative publication. It
first appeared in 1872 as a supplement to Petermann's Mitteil-
ungen, the editors being the late Dr. Ernest Behm and Dr. Her-
mann Wagner, now Professor of Geograj)hy in the University of
Gottingen. Up to 1882 the Bevolkerung der Erde was issued on
an average every two years, always as a supplement to Peter-
mann's Mitteilungen. While the eighth issue was being prepared
Dr. Behm died, and Prof. Wagner was not able to undertake by
himself the preparation of the vast mass of statistics involved.
Owing to various causes, a period of nine years has elapsed before
the publication has been resumed. Dr. Wagner's name still ap-
pears on the title-page as editor, associated with that ot Dr. Supaii,
who succeeded Dr. Behm as editor of the Mitteilungen, of which
the Bevolkerung continues to be a supplement. The form has,
however, been changed from a quarto to a large octavo, which
makes the work much handier for consultation. It covers two
hundred and seventy pages, and is the one work that exhibits in
detail the area and population of the earth in all its divisions and
subdivisions. It is no mere indiscriminate collection of statistics.
The whole is systematically arranged under the great divisions
of the globe. Every figure has been critically examined ; in all
cases the sources of the statistics are given ; where there are va-
rious figures, the value of each is discussed ; where there is no
authoritative census, the greatest pains have been taken to obtain
trustworthy estimates. Equal care has been bestowed on the
calculation of areas, new measurements of a large extent of the
earth's surface having been specially undertaken for the work.
Thus, it will be seen that Wagner and Supan's Bevolkerung der
Erde stands high above all other works of a similar kind. The
figures which it gives may be taken as the nearest apiiroximation
to the truth obtainable. It may be stated that Prof. Levasseur
in 1886-'87 published in the Bulletin of the International Statisti-
cal Institute a collection of statistics on the area and population
of the countries of the world, which were good and trustworthy
so far as they went, though they are not nearly so detailed as
those contained in the new issue of the Bevolkerung der Erde.

THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH. 401

Tlie preparation of the new issue has involved unusual labor,
as it was necessary to examine all the statistics which have ap-
peared since 1882. For many countries which have no censuses
Dr. Supan has undertaken special investigations as to population ;
in this way he has dealt with Africa, Turkey in Europe and Asia,
Arabia, China, East India Islands, etc. Dr. Supan is responsible
for the sections dealing with Africa, America, Australia, the Oce-
anic Islands, and the polar regions; all colonial statistics have
fallen to his share, while Prof. Wagner has looked after Europe
and Asia. In several respects the arrangements of the various
sections is an improvement on that of former issues.

In 1866 Behm estimated the population of the earth at 1,350,-
000,000. In the sixth issue (1880) of the Bevolkerung der Erde
the number had apparently grown to 1,456,000,000, showing an
ostensible increase of 106,000,000 in fourteen years. But this dif-
ference was really due to more accurate statistics and estimates
rather than to actual growth. It was somewhat alarming, how-
ever, when in the 1882 issue the total population of the earth
appeared as 1,434,000,000, showing a seeming decrease in two
years of 22,000,000. But this was largely accounted for by
the fact that new investigations compelled the reduction of the
estimated population of China from 405,000,000 to 350,000,000.
The estimate, reached in the present issue of 1891 for the total
population of the earth is 1,480,000,000, showing an increase of
46,000,000 over the estimate for 1882, being at the rate of 5,750,000
per annum. This estimate is 3,000,000 less than that of Levasseur
in 1886, partly due to the fact that Levasseur took higher esti-
mates of the population of China and of Africa than have Wag-
ner and Supan. But as the data for a very large area of the
inhabited globe are to a considerable extent based on guesswork,
it is no wonder that estimates should differ, and that we can not
be sure of the population of the world to within 60,000,000, possi-
bly 100,000,000, either way. In 1880 Prof. Wagner found that, of
the total population in that year, precise data based on actual enu-
meration (censuses or registration) were available for only 626,-
000,000 out of 1,401,000,000— that is, forty-four per cent of the
total. This population has meanwhile increased to 737,000,000
(though the increase in some cases is only apparent) ; to this must
be added 99,000,000, for which, since 1880, exact enumerations have
been substituted for vague estimates. This gives 836,000,000 out
of the total of 1,480,000,000 of people — i. e., between fifty-six and
fifty-seven per cent — of whom fairly precise enumerations have
been taken. True, in this is included 113,000,000 (the population
of the Russian Empire) of whom a general census, in the modern
sense of the term, has not been taken, except in the case of one
or two provinces. Although, when the figures are looked at by

VOL. XL. — 30

402

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

themselves, there has apparently been an increase of population
since 1880 of 125,000,000, as a matter of fact the difference between
the estimated population of 1880 (1,401,000,000, after deducting
the excess credited to China) and that of 1891 (1,480,000,000) is
only 79,000,000. This apparent decrease in the rate of growth is
really due to the reductions which the editors have felt bound to
make on the basis of more careful investigations in the estimates
of the population of certain regions. Thus, they have reduced
the population of Africa by 38,000,000, while in Asia a deduction
of 15,000,000 has been effected. All this shows how conscientiously
and critically the editors have gone about their laborious task,
and leads us to place the more confidence in the results. Even in
Europe there are considerable differences between the areas now
accepted and those given in previous issues ; the population sta-
tistics have been changed throughout.

The following table gives the area and population of the great
divisions of the earth's surface according to the latest data :

Europe *

Asia f

Africa \

America *

Australia || . . . .
Oceanic Islands.
Polar recrions . .

Total

Square miles.

17,530,686
11,2'7'7,3G4
14,801,402

2,991,442
733,120

1,730,810

Population.

52,821,684

357,379,000

825,954,000

163,953,000

121,713,000

3,230,000

7,420,000

80,400

1,479,729,400

To 1 square mile.

94
47
14
8
1
10

* Without Iceland, Nova Zembla, Atlantic islands, etc.
\ Without Madagascar, etc. * Without arctic regions.

f Without arctic islands.

II The continent and Tasmania.

More recent figures given in the appendix for one or two
countries (British India, the Netherlands, etc.) would make no
essential difference in the great total. This total is greater by
over 12,000,000 than the estimate of Mr. Ravenstein in his recent
paper on the Lands of the Globe still Available for European
Settlement; but then Mr. Ravenstein reduces the population of
Africa by about 30,000,000 below the estimate of Wagner and
Supan.

Among European countries Belgium still exceeds all others in
density of population ; the proportion is 530 persons to a square
mile. Belgium is followed by Holland, with 365 to the square
mile, and the United Kingdom with 312. If we take England
alone we find the density to be close on 480 to the square mile,
still considerably below that of Belgium. The density in Scot-
land is only about one fourth that of England, while that of
Ireland is one third. The most thinly populated countries in
Europe are Norway and Finland, which have only sixteen people
to the square mile. Turkey occupies considerable space in the

THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH. 403

new issue, the statistics of the area and population of the various
divisions and subdivisions of Turkey in Europe, Asia, and Africa,
and of her tributary states, being given in minute detail, with
copious references to authorities.

There are some curious and delicate estimates of the area of
Europe according to various calculations and within various
limits. Thus, according to Strelbitsky (who for several years
has been making elaborate calculations and measurements on
the subject), the area of Europe is 3,756,545 square miles, while
according to Wagner's estimate it is 3,755,493, a difference of
about 1,000 miles. But if to this we add Nova Zembla, Cis-
Caucasia, and Cis-Uralia, the Marmora Islands, and Iceland, we
get, according to Strelbitsky, 3,865,417 square miles, and accord-
ing to Wagner, 3,865,279, a difference of only 138 miles. Again,
if we take Europe within the limits of administrative divisions
we obtain an area of 3,836,913, but this includes Iceland, Nova
Zembla, the Canaries, and Madeira, making 79,165 square miles.
Here comes in the question as to what are the natural boundaries
of Europe, a question to which Drs, Wagner and Supan briefly
refer. They regard as outside of Europe the Canaries, Madeira,
the Azores, and the Marmora Islands. The inclusion or otherwise
of Iceland, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, will make a difference
of 103,093 square miles ; while there will be a further difference
of 434,750 square miles depending on the limits adopted for the
eastern boundary of Europe. Europe in the narrowest sense,
according to these highly competent authorities, covers 3,570,030
square miles. This excludes the polar islands, and draws the
boundary of eastern Europe along the crest of the Urals and the
line of the Manytch River, thus excluding the Caspian Steppe,
but including the Sea of Azoff. By including the polar islands
another 103,000 square miles would be added. If the Caspian
Steppe be included, the area of Europe would amount to 3,688,793,
or with the polar islands to 3,791,793 square miles. If the bound-
ary of eastern Europe be drawn along the Ural crest, the Ural
River, and the crest of the Caucasus, we obtain an area of 3,790,--
504 square miles, or, including Iceland and Nova Zembla (Europe
in Strelbitsky's acceptation), the area is 3,866,605 square miles.
Finally, taking Europe in the widest sense, including the Ural
Mountains, the south slope of the Caucasus, the countries on the
east side of the Ural, and the steppe between the Ural River and
the Emba, we obtain an area of 3,988,618 square miles, or, with
the polar islands, about 4,093,000 square miles.

For the section dealing with Asia, Herr B. Trognitz, a land
surveyor, has undertaken a new and elaborate calculation of the
area of the continent on the basis of the best maps at his com-
mand. Into the details of his methods it is unnecessary to

404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

enter ; the general result is, tliat for tlie continent we are now
given an area of 16,021,078 square miles, whicli may be slightly
increased or diminished according as the boundary between Asia
and Europe is drawn. To this if we add the area of all the Asiatic
islands (exclusive of the new Siberian islands and Wrangel Land),
we reach a total area of 17,179,490, the conclusion being that the
area of Asia has hitherto been overestimated by 167,570 square
miles. The total area of Asiatic Russia, according to Trognitz's
calculation, is 6,510,810 square miles, not including the arctic
islands. The total area of Persia is estimated at 635,165 square
miles, and the estimate of population, according to Houtum-
Schindler's calculation for 1882, 7,653,000, is still repeated. But
taking into account that during the last nine years there have
been no wars and no famines, nothing to check the natural in-
crease of the population, competent authorities believe that the
population of Persia is more likely to be about 9,000,000. Al-
though in the body of the work the detailed population of India
is only given for 1881, the authors are able, in the appendix, to
give that for 1891.

There is an elaborate discussion on the subject of the popula-
tion of China proper (the eighteen provinces), which at one time
was greatly exaggerated, some authorities making it out to be
500,000,000. After a careful examination of all available data,
Drs. Wagner and Supan are inclined to estimate the total popu-
lation for China proper at only 350,000,000 in round numbers, or
about 68,000,000 more than the estimate reached by Sir Richard
Temple. Including Mantchuria, Mongolia, Kansu, and Thibet, the
total population of the Chinese Empire is given as 361,500,000,
living on an area of 4,674,420 square miles. Corea is credited
with a population of 10,500,000. The total population of Arabia
is reduced by Dr. Wagner to 3,472,000, very different from the
estimate of 10,725,000 given by Rashid Bey in 1875. The area
assigned to Arabia by Wagner and Supan is 1,153,430 square
miles.

As might have been expected, considerable space is devoted to
Africa, with the result that the population has been reduced to
164,000,000, whereas a few years ago a common estimate was
220,000,000. Drs. Wagner and Supan evidently consider Raven-
stein's estimate of 127,000,000 much too low. They say there
have been during the past few years four points of "political
crystallization" — the Upper Nile, the Niger, the Congo, and
South Africa. Mediterranean Africa has, as a whole, remained
passive. Here are problems for the future — the fate of Egypt,
the Tripoli question, and the Morocco question. A brief sketch of
recent events in the partition of Africa is given, with a useful chro-
nology from 1882 to May, 1891. To Africa south of the equator

SKETCH OF ELI AS LOOMIS. 405

Herr Trognitz assigns an area of 3,540,740 square miles. Of this,
951,000 square miles are assigned to British South Africa, includ-
ing Nyassaland and the whole British region from the Zambesi
to the Cape. The total population of this area is estimated at
only 3,800,000. Neither to the Niger Protectorate nor to the Brit-
ish East Africa Company's sphere do Drs. Wagner and Supan
venture to assign either an area or a population. The area, they
tell us, is "off en" and for population they simply put a (?). To
Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) an area of 310,000 square
miles is given, and Portuguese West Africa, including Portugal's
share of Loanda, 517,000 square miles. The Congo Free State is
credited with an area of 865,380 square miles, and a population of
14,000,000. Of the total area, 309,000 square miles are under forest.

Turning to America, we find that the Bevolkerung has not
been able to secure the figures for Canada for 1891 ; though as a
second part, containing the population of towns, will be issued,
no doubt an opportunity will be taken to supplement the infor-
mation given in this part. Pretty full details are given of the
results of the United States census of last year.

About the rest of this invaluable collection of statistics there
is nothing further to remark at present. There is a new estimate
of the areas of the South American states ; indeed, one of the
prominent features of the new issue is the care which has been
taken in estimating the area of the various states of the world
and their administrative divisions. Now that Africa is divided
up among European powers, whose officials are spreading all over
the continent, it is to be hoped that some means will be taken to
form more precise estimates of the population of the various re •
gions. Until that is done we can not know to within millions
how many people live upon the face of the earth. — London Times,

SKETCH OF ELIAS LOOMIS.

"pvURING fifty-six years of active life Prof. Loomis made origi-
■J-^ nal investigations and contributed valuable additions to
our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism, the aurora borealis, me-
teoric showers, astronomy, and meteorology, and gave to students
an excellent series of mathematical text-books. He was con-
nected with four important institutions of learning, of one of
which— Yale— Prof. H. A. Newton says his life and work form no
mean portion of its wealth.

Elias Loomis was born August 7, 1811, at Willington, Conn.,
where his father — " a man possessed of considerable scholarship, of
positive convictions, and of a willingness to follow at all hazards

4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wherever truth and duty, as he conceived them, might lead " — was
pastor of a church. He grew up inclined to sedentary habits, hav-
ing a taste for mathematics inherited from his father, and exhibit-
ing a love for the languages at an age so early that he was reading
with ease the New Testament in Greek at a period when many
bright boys still have hard work with the reading of English. He
prepared for college chiejly under the instruction of his father,
spending only one winter at the academy, and was examined and
admitted to Yale College at the age of fourteen, but waited, on ac-
count of his health, another year before taking his place in class.
In college he took a good rank in all his studies, without showing
a particularly superior proficiency in any one over another. A
few weeks before his graduation, in 1830, he entered Mount Hope
Institute, near Baltimore, as a teacher. Thence he went, in the
fall of 1831, to Andover Theological Seminary as a student for
the ministry, but was called from that vocation in May, 1833, to
become a tutor in Yale College. He remained in this position till
the spring of 1836, when he was appointed Professor of Mathe-
matics and Natural Philosophy in Western Reserve College, Hud-
son, Ohio. Prior to entering upon the duties of this chair he
spent a year in Europe attending the lectures of the distinguished
French physicists of the time. He also purchased in London
and Paris apparatus for use in his professorship and an outfit for
a small observatory. He remained at Hudson — the college and
himself being both in straitened financial condition — till 1844,
when he became Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philoso-
phy in the University of New York. He then spent one year at
Princeton College in the professorship which had been vacated
by the resignation of Prof. Joseph Henry to become Secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution, then returned to his old place in the
University of New York, and continued there till 1860, when he
was elected to the professorship in Yale College made vacant by
the death of Prof. Olmsted. Here he spent the remainder of his
life in active service, teaching, investigating, experimenting, and
publishing as long as he was able to work.

For a summary of Prof. Loomis's labors for the increase and
extension of knowledge we are indebted to the memorial address
of Prof. H. A. Newton, delivered before the President and Fellows
of Yale College, in April, 1890, of which what follows is essen-
tially an abridgment.

He had begun his active career before his mind seemed to in-
cline to any one direction of study in preference to another. In
childhood he was most ready in Greek ; in college he was equally
proficient in all his studies ; at Andover he led his class in He-
brew ; in his tutorship at Yale he taught Latin when he might have
had mathematics. The great meteoric shower of 1833 was the sub-

SKETCH OF ELI AS LOOMIS. 407

ject of general conversation in the college, and lie participated
with ranch interest in the discussions that took place in the Tutors'
Club over the views of Prof. Twining and Prof. Olmsted concern-
ing the origin of the mysterious bodies. In the organization of
the department committees of the Connecticut Academy of Arts
and Sciences, in 1834, Mr. Loomis was assigned to that on mathe-
matics and natural philosophy. From this time on he devoted
himself predominantly to those branches of science in which he
became distinguished.

He began systematic studies of the earth's magnetism during
his tutorship in Yale College, setting up the variation compass of
the institution in the north window of his room and making
hourly observations of it, usually for seventeen hours of a single
day, for thirteen months. The results of these observations — the
only published American observations, except some made by Prof.
Bache during ten days in 1833, that were made before 1834 — were
published in Silliman's Journal in 1836. He also undertook the
collection of observations of magnetic declination in the United
States and the construction of a magnetic chart of the country.
This work was published about 1830, and in a revised second edi-
tion, with additional observations, two years later. Prof. Bache,
comparing Mr. Loomis's results with those obtained by himself
sixteen years later under much more favorable circumstances for
exact observation and collation, declared that, when proper allow-
ance had been made for secular changes, the agreement was re-
markable. The first charts contained but few records of dip ;
but after removing to Western Reserve College Prof. Loomis un-
dertook, with a dipping needle which he had procured in Eu-
rope, systematic observations of this feature. They were con-
tinued for several years at seventy stations in thirteen States, and
the results were published in successive papers in the Transac-
tions of the American Philosophical Society.

Prof. Loomis's interest in astronomy apparently dates from
the meteoric shower of 1833. He read a paper on that subject
before the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences in October,
1834, in which he reviewed the concerted observations made by
Brandes and his pupils in Germany in 1823, and deduced from
them an argument in favor of the cosmic origin of the shooting
stars. In November of the same year he made similar observa-
tions at New Haven in concert with Prof. Twining who was sta-
tioned near West Point, N. Y., the first observations of the kind
undertaken in America.

With the new five-inch telescope, the largest then in the coun-
try, given to Yale College by Mr. Sheldon Clark, Prof. Olmsted
and Mr. Loomis obtained the first sight of Halley's comet on its
predicted return in 1835, and observed it throughout its course.

4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Mr. Loomis, with such means as were at his command, observed
its place and computed its orbit. In the same year he computed,
from observations of Polaris and of moon culminations, the lati-
tude and longitude of the Athenaeum tower — the longitude to
within less than two seconds of the best determinations of the
present.

In September, 1838, in a small observatory he had constructed
at Hudson, Ohio, he began observations with the instruments — a
four-inch equatorial, a transit instrument, and an astronomical
clock — which he had bought in Europe. They were made upon
culminations and occultations of the moon for longitude, on Po-
laris for latitude, and upon five comets for computations of their
orbits. A sixth comet was observed by him at Hudson in 1850.
These observations were of much greater relative importance in
those small days of astronomy in this country, when the facilities
we now enjoy did not exist, than they would be now. While Yale
College had a telescope but no observatory, and the Williams
College Observatory was used for instruction but not for original
work, and while Lieutenant Gillis at Washington, and Mr. Bond
at Dorchester, Mass., were only preparing to begin observations
in connection with the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, there was,
as Prof. Loomis said in his inaugural address at Hudson, in 1838,
no place in the United States where astronomical observations
were regularly and systematically made. A few years later the
first telegraph lines had been set up, and the services of Prof.
Loomis and Mr. Sears C. Walker were enlisted by Superintendent
Bache, of the Coast Survey, in telegraphic determinations m 1847
and 1848 — Prof. Loomis having charge of the end of the line at
Jersey City and New York — of the differences of longitude of
Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Cambridge. In the
next summer (1849) Prof. Loomis assisted in a similar work to
connect Hudson with Eastern stations. These observations were
made from three to five years before telegraphic methods were
first used in Europe.

Prof. Loomis's interest in meteorology, in which his most im-
portant work was done, appears to have begun at about the same
time his attention was drawn to magnetism and astronomy.
He followed the discussions of the rival theories of Mr. Redfield
and Prof. Espy, which began about the time of his graduation,
and thenceforward made a particular study of the theory of
storms. With a set of meteorological instruments bought in
Europe he took complete meteorological observations twice a day
at Hudson. The examination of the track of a tornado which
passed near that place gave him some light respecting the course
of the storm- wind and sharpened his desire to learn more about
it. He next undertook the discussion of a large storm — that of

SKETCH OF ELI AS LOOMIS. 409

December 20, 1836 — concerning wliicli, it occurring on one of tlie
term days which Sir John Herschel had suggested as days for a
general system of observations, he was able to collect data from
all parts of the United States and some stations in Canada. His
discussion of this storm, in a paper read before the American
Philosophical Society in March, 1840, was. Prof. Newton says,
" probably more complete than that of any previous one, and the
methods which he employed were better fitted to elicit the truth
than any earlier methods. . . . The results which he was able to
secure did not sustain either of the two rival theories, but rather
tended to prove some features in each of them." The studies
were continued with the examination of the track of a second
tornado in February, 1842, which proved to be a part of a general
storm, and of another great storm that occurred in the same
month. The paper embodying the results of these observations,
which was read at the centennial meeting of the American Philo-
sophical Society, in May, ]843, is remarkable for ha\dng intro-
duced a new method of investigation. The delineations of
storms previous to the composition of this paper had attempted
no more than to indicate the progress of the center of minimum
pressure by lines drawn from point to point, to which a few lines
were added to show certain facts about the movements of the air.
" In the discussion of the storms of 1842, instead of the line of
minimum depression of the barometer, Prof. Loomis drew on the
map a series of lines of equal barometric pressure, or rather of
equal deviations from the normal average pressure for each
place. A series of maps representing the storm at successive
intervals of twelve hours were thus constructed, upon each of
which was drawn a line through all places where the barometer
stood at its normal or average height. A second line was drawn
through all places where the barometer stood two tenths of an
inch below the normal," etc. ; and also for places where the ba-
rometer stood above its normal height. " The deviations of the
barometric pressure from the normal were thus made prominent,
and all other phenomena of the storm were regarded as related to
those barometric lines. A series of colors represented respective-
ly the places where the sky was clear, where the sky was over-
cast, and where rain or snow was falling. A series of lines repre-
sented the places at which the temperature was at the normal, or
was 10°, 20°, or 30° above the normal or below the normal. Ar-
rows of proper direction and length represented the direction and
intensity of the winds at the different stations. These successive
maps for the three or four days of the storm furnished to the eye
all its phenomena in a simple and most effective manner." The
introduction of this method, which is the prototype, still but lit-
tle improved upon, of the weather charts now in general use, is

41 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

regarded by Prof. Newton as perhaps the greatest of the services
which Prof. Loomis rendered to science. The author expressed
the opinion in his memoir that " if the course of investigations
adopted with respect to the two storms of February, 1842, was
systematically pursued we should soon have some settled prin-
ciples in meteorology. If we could be furnished with two me-
teorological charts of the United States daily for one year— charts
showing the state of the barometer, thermometer, winds, sky,
etc., for every part of the country— it would settle forever the
laws of storms. No false theory could stand against such an
array of testimony. Such a set of maps would be worth more
than all which has been hitherto done in meteorology. ... A
well-arranged system of observations spread over the country
would accomplish more in one year than observations at a few
isolated posts, however accurate and complete, continued till the
end of time." Prof. Loomis suggested that the American Philo-
sophical Society should undertake the supervision of such a work,
for which local observers would not be wanting. The idea was
seconded by Professors Bache and Peirce. The Academy of Sci-
ences at Boston appointed a committee, of which Prof. Loomis
was a member, to urge the execution of such a plan upon some
proper authority. The American Philosophical Society added its
voice. Prof. Henry determined to make American meteorology
one of the subjects of investigation to be aided by the Smith-
sonian Institution ; and, by his invitation. Prof. Loomis made a
detailed report on the scheme, with an outlined plan of research.
This plan was adopted in part by the Smithsonian Institution, but
a more perfect organization of observations was needed than the
institution could then command before it could reach the perfec-
tion of the present system.

In connection with a rediscussion of the storm of 1836, which
Prof. Loomis undertook in 1854, he collected a series of observa-
tions made in Europe of a storm that occurred there about a
week later than the one under review ; but, instead of tracing a
connection between them, he found that they were distinct, and
that the laws of American and European storms did not agree
in all cases.

Another subject in which Prof. Loomis was interested, and
which stood in relation with his researches in terrestrial magnet-
ism, was that of the aurora borealis. He collected the accounts
from North America, Europe, Asia, and even the Southern Hemi-
sphere, of the great display of August and September, 1859 ; and,
comparing them with such facts as he could gather about other
auroras, he deduced many conclusions which have since been
confirmed in their essential features concerning the relations of
the aurora and electricity, magnetism, light, heat, and sun-spots ;

SKETCH OF ELI AS LOO MIS. 411

the movement of the auroral display and its correspondence with
magnetic movements on the earth ; the velocity of the auroral
wave ; the distribution of auroras over the earth's surface ; their
occurrence in the Southern Hemisphere ; their periodicity ; and
other points, with the discussion of which the world has since
become familiar. In these investigations and in those on other
subjects Prof. Loomis was ever intent. Prof. Newton says, upon
answering the questions, "What are the laws of Nature ? What
do the phenomena teach us ? " To establish laws which had been
already formulated by others, but which still needed confirma-
tion, was to him equally important with the formulation and
proof of laws entirely new."

Prof. Loomis was a prolific writer. The list of his books and
papers comprises one hundred and sixty-four titles upon every
topic of the sciences in which he was especially interested with
which he came in contact, recording the results of his experiments
and their different stages. What are perhaps his most important
papers were the series of Contributions to Meteorology which,
beginning in April, 187-4, he communicated twice a year to the
National Academy of Sciences, and afterward to the American
Journal of Science, in which they furnished the leading articles
in eighteen volumes. In them were discussed the results of the
Signal-Service observations and the subjects of European publica-
tions in meteorology. A revision of the papers was begun in
1884, on which he labored for the rest of his life, and was given
to the public in three chapters, the third chapter, discussing the
theory of storms, appearing in 1889. In connection with his col-
lege lectures on meteorology he published a treatise on the sub-
ject in 1868, which, "notwithstanding the rapid advances of the
science during more than twenty years, is still indispensable to
the student of meteorology." He published in 1850 a volume on
The Recent Progress of Astronomy, especially in the United
States, which went through two editions, and was then rewritten
and enlarged. It was followed by the Introduction to Practical
Astronomy and by popular articles in periodicals. During his
connection with the University of New York he prepared a series
of text-books in mathematics. The series comprised nearly
twenty volumes on the subjects from arithmetic up, and, being
well adapted to the requirements of teachers, has proved highly
useful and successful. Not in the line of science, but a work of
industry useful and interesting to all concerned, is the Loomis
Genealogy, for which he made inquiries on each of his four visits
to Europe, and entered into personal correspondence with every
family of Loomis in the United States of which he could hear,
and which grew till it contained the names of 8,680 descendants
in the male and 19,000 in the female line, of Joseph Loomis, the

412 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

first American ancestor, who settled in Windsor, Conn., in 1G39.
Other subjects than those already specified, mentioned by Prof.
Newton as those on which Prof. Loomis made experiments and
published papers, were the phenomena of optical moving figures ;
the vibrations sent out from waterfalls as the water flows over
certain dams ; the orbits of the satellites of Uranus ; the tempera-
ture of the planets ; the variations of light of the stars -q Argus
and Algol ; and the comet of 18G1.

A striking illustration of the value of Prof. Loomis's improve-
ment in the construction of weather maps is cited by Prof. New-
ton as among his recollections of conversations with Sir George
Airy and Le Yerrier. The former, before Prof. Loomis's maps
were published, expressed himself as having little hope for the
progress of meteorology in the shape in which the data then
appeared. Le Verrier, exhibiting, in 18G9, charts made like those
of Prof. Loomis, said : " I care not for the mass of observations
made in the usual form ; what I want is the power and material
for making such charts as these."

A description of Prof. Loomis's characteristics as a teacher is
given by a biographer in the Phrenological Journal, who says :
" He was a man of quick impressions and very solid convictions.
A really kind man, but so strict in his views of propriety and
duty that the student, as a rule, regarded him as severe. "We re-
member him well as he appeared in the lecture-room of the uni-
versity, always calm and even-toned, strict in his demands upon
students who might be reciting, very brief in question, a mere
trace of a smile if the student acquitted himself well, and noth-
ing more than ' Sit down ' when a student showed his ignorance of
the lesson by his blundering. He was never sarcastic, never cen-
sorious. There might be a coldness of manner and a slight sharp-
ness in his tone when annoyed, but these were passing cloudlets,
so to speak, in the calm blue of his manner. He awed the frisky,
mischievous ones into quiet, even well-behaved young men while
they were under his penetrating eye, so that we never knew of a
single instance of insubordination in his room during our course."
In a description in general harmony with this. Prof. Newton in-
cludes an acknowledgment that was made by Chief- Justice Waite,
that " if I have been successful in life, I owe that success to the
influence of tutor Loomis more than to any other cause what-
ever."

CORRESP ONBENCE.

413

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE PEOGEESS OF THE SILVER
QUESTION.
Editor Popular Science ifonthly :

SIR: In your issue of July, 1891, the
writer ventured to predict, as " a coming
solution of the currency question," that a
" gold clause," requiring payment of mdebt-
edness in " gold coin of the United States
of the present standard of weight and fine-
ness," instead of silver, copper or fiat money,
would be inserted in future long-time mort-
gages, and that (the legal validity of such
clauses being unquestioned) the effect would
be to decrease very greatly the then exist-
ing pressure for a depreciation of the cur-
rency. For it would become a matter of
the greatest importance to any one who had
obligated himself to pay in gold that no
disturbance of the currency should take
place which would prevent him from doing
so. Various instances of importance, such
as railroad mortgages, were pointed out in
which financial caution had already resorted
to this expedient.

It is interesting to note that this change
is taking place every day. Quoting from
The Honest Dollar of October 31, 1891 :

" Inquiries which we have made of the
most prominent companies interested in the
negotiating of Western farm mortgages have
been met with the invariable answer that all
mortgages now placed have a clause inserted
that payment shall be made in the gold coin.
We have examined numerous bonds repre-
senting these mortgages, and in every case
the provision that payment is to be made in
gold is inserted, and thus not only respect-
ing the principal, but also the interest, the
gold clause being written or stamped upon
all the coupons. This applies not only to
Kansas, but to all Western and Southern
States in which the farm-mortgage business
has assumed large proportions. It is prob-
able that few farmers have seriously con-
sidered the effect of this clause, and, in fact,
many of them are doubtless not aware of its
presence in their mortgages. Yet the matter
is of immense importance to them.

" Let us consider the effect of a gold
clause in connection with the theories of the
silver men and their opponents, and let us
take in first the statement of the silver men
that the free coinage of silver would not put
gold at a premium. Let us suppose, in
other words, that after free coinage had
been introduced the silver and gold dollars
still remain of equal value. In this case the
farmer has gained nothing by the free coin-
age of silver, and is not affected by it except
in so far as all the members of the com-
munity may be benefited or injured by the
change. But suppose, on the other hand,
that the opinions of the anti-free-silver men

are right, what is then the position of the
farmer ? According to this supposition the
gold dollars will disappear from circulation,
and be worth a premium of, say, thirty-three
and a half per cent. But it is in these gold
dollars that the farmer must pay his mort-
gage and the interest thereon — that is, he
must pay in the current money one third
more than the face of his mortgage. It is
easy to see what this means. It means that
many a farmer who is comfortably off will
find himself very hard pressed, and that
those who now find it hard to make the two
ends meet will be utterly ruined. And this
will be true even if the farmer gets some-
what more dollars for his crops, for he will
not get enough more to make up for this
difference, and the balance of loss will be
enough to make the farmer's lot a direfuUy
hard one. No doubt the silver men tell the
farmer that the gold clause in his mortgage
does not mean anything. But the meaning
of the clause is perfectly clear in common
sense and common justice, and a properly
drawn gold clause has been held valid by
the Supreme Court of the United States,
from which there is no appeal. The gold
clause, moreover, is part of a contract pro-
tected by the Constitution of the United
States, and no State Legislature can impair
its validity."

Thus the financial world is usurping the
functions of statesmanship, and preparing
for itself a solution of the most dangerous
problem confronting this nation. In the
course of a few years the great majority of
long-time borrowers will be on paper having
in it the gold clause, and will be aware of
the fact that their chances of payment de-
pend largely upon the maintenance of the
gold standard. The political force of the
movement for a cheap currency will thus be
largely removed.

But there remains the law of 1890, under
which 4,500,000 ounces of silver must be
purchased monthly by the Secretary of the
Treasury and silver certificates issued for
the same. The Government buys 371 J grains
of pure silver for seventy cents and issues for
it a certificate for one dollar in silver ; or,
what is the same thing, it buys 530 grains of
silver for one dollar and issues a certificate
for 3Yli grains of this as legal tender for one
dollar. The force that sustains these cer-
tificates, and the silver dollars of which
they are equivalents, in the market as the
equivalent of the gold dollar, is the same
as that which makes one tenth of a cent's
worth of copper pass as one cent, or one
cent's worth of nickel pass as five cents. It
is their convenience as subaidiari/ coin, the
impossibility of getting any other, and the
limited number in circulation. Were the

414

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

coinage of copper free, everybody owing a
dollar would buy ten cents' worth of copper,
have it coined, and pay his debts with it.
In this way a man owing $1,000 could pay
up with $100, and pocket $900. Were the
coinage of nickel free, and legal tender for
the same unlimited in amount, he would buy
$200 worth of nickel, pay off $1,000 of
debt, and pocket $800 profit. The same
thing, with diminished ratio of profit, might
be looked for with the free coinage of silver.
Now the question is. How long can the
Treasury issue certificates for silver without
destroying the force which keeps it on a
parity with gold ? This depends on the
amount of necessity there is for currency.
The moment that the daily pressure of cur-
rency is such that a considerable portion
may be conveniently withdrawn and held in
safe-deposit boxes, or sent to Europe, that
portion will without doubt be gold. If,
then, 550,000,000 silver dollars or certificates
should be suddenly put forth (that being ap-
proximately the amount of gold in circula-
tion), gold would no doubt disappear, be-
cause business transactions are adjusted to
the existing amount of currency, and the
surplus amount thus made would be un-
available here, at least to a large extent.
Now, how long can the silver certificates
be issued without a corresponding result?
Several facts are required to answer this
question: 1. How great is the natural ex-
pansion of the demand for money per month ?

2. How great must be the preponderance of
silver before gold is hoarded in quantity ?

3. When the hoarding begins, will it accel-
erate, from alarm or panic ?

Without trying to answer these questions,
upon which the best informed differ widely,
it may be granted that there is danger in
the continued issuance of so large an amount
of currency based upon silver. Assuming
this to be a fact, what is the probability of
a modification of the law ? The opponents
of silver having failed for twelve years to
repeal the Bland law, will they be more suc-
cessful with the Sherman law ?

Upon this point I hazard the suggestion
that the silver movement, which seemed so
dangerous a year ago, may have been a
blessing in disguise. It led directly to the
insertion of the gold clause in contracts, as

before stated, with all the consequent effects.
It led to the division of the Democratic
party ; to the justly famous silver letter of ex-
President Cleveland ; to the defeat of Gov-
ernor Campbell in Ohio ; and to the necessity
of choosing an Eastern man, or one opposed
to any form of fiat money, for the presidential
nominee of the Democratic party. Thus the
recoil from the silver agitation has far ex-
ceeded in importance of effect the original
momentum. The continuous effect of the
"gold clause" goes marching on to an irre-
sistible issue in a stable single standard ; and
it would not be surprising if the final result
of the silver movement of the past year
would be the relief of the country from the
dangers of the compromise law made in the
fury of the recent silver agitation.

Charles S. Ashlet.

COLOES OF NAMES.
Editor Popular Science Ilonthly :

Sir : An article in a recent number of
The Popular Science Monthly, by President
D. S. Jordan, on The Colors of Letters, as-
signing colors more or less pronounced to
the different letters of the alphabet, reminds
me of a childish fancy of my own, of which
I have often thought, but to which I had
never before attached any significance. The
days of the week were as distinctly marked or
colored in my early conception as the objects
about me. Sunday was red ; Monday a light
pink ; Tuesday gray, with irregular streaks
of a darker hue ; Wednesday was green,
with interstices of a dull white ; Thursday
was yellow, but not of deep tone ; Friday
was pink again, and of deeper tinge than
Monday ; and Saturday was green. What
is there in these names to suggest colors ?
The associations of the days do not seem to
offer any explanation, with possibly one or
two exceptions, and, if it be a mere freak of
imagination, it would be interesting to know
the experience of others touching the same
matter. Again, as I think over the names
of the months and the seasons now, there is
a suggestion of color in each, but more, I
think, the result of association than in the
days of the week. J. H. Chapin.

St. Lawkknce UsrvEBSiTT, Canton, N. Y., I
November, 1891. (

EDITOR'S TABLE.

EVOLUTION AND ITS ASSAILANTS.

THE doctrine of evolution teaches
that the changes which take place
in the universe both of mind and matter
follow an orderly sequence, and that
each preceding stage potentially con-
tains the succeeding one — that every
succeeding change can only be explained

and understood through a comprehen-
sion of the preceding one. It incites us,
therefore, to a study of cause and effect,
and encourages us to believe in the pos-
sibility of a rational interpretation of
Nature, Strictly speaking, evolution is
nothing more than a generalization of
the idea of cause. Every man within

EDITOR'S TABLE.

415

certain limits is an evolutionist, and we
have little hesitation in saying that the
limits within which each man is an evo-
lutionist are the real limits of his in-
telligence. "Where he ceases to be an
evolutionist he resigns all attempt to
comprehend, and merely records his
acceptance of unexplained facts. In the
sphere of human history the principle
of evolution seems to be fully recog-
nized. The historian who would fold
l)i3 hands and turn up his eyes before
any given event, and say that it was
utterly incomprehensible, having no re-
lation, save the abstract one of time, to
previous or subsequent events, would
be scorned by every intelligent reader.
Not to be able fully to explain a his-
torical occurrence is one thing; to say
that it has no dependence on previous
conditions is another and very different
thing. "We look to the historian to
attack such problems with a view to
bringing them under the operation of
some law of historical development;
in other words, we believe fully in evo-
lution as applied to the social and politi-
cal history of mankind.

Similarly we believe — and when we
say " we " we mean all persons with
any pretensions to education or intel-
ligence—in evolution as applied to the
physical history of our globe. "We be-
lieve that it passed through successive
stages or phases, each of which prepared
the way for the one following. "Evo-
lution," says Prof. Le Conte, "is the
central idea of geology. It is this idea
alone which makes geology a distinct
science. This is the cohesive principle
which unites and gives cohesion to all
the scattered facts of geology; which
cements what would otherwise be a
mere incoherent pile of rubbish into a
solid and substantial edifice." * That
the Silurian age passed naturally into
the Devonian, which served as a transi-
tion to the Carboniferous, no one who
has given any thought to the subject for

* Elements of Geolo^, p. 405.

a moment doubts. The trouble arises
when it is proposed to consider success-
ive animal species as genetically con-
nected. The scientific world at large
has no difficulty in framing the concep-
tion or in adopting the idea, but to a
few scientific men and a multitude of
non-scientific persons there is impiety in
the suggestion that one animal species
— or one plant species, for that matter —
could possibly have passed into or given
birth to another. The creation of species
was an office which their theology had
reserved for a supernatural being, and
they can not assign to natural causes or
processes the honor of introducing to
existence so much as the tiniest parasite.
"Whatever is most hideous, uncouth, de-
structive, and loathsome in the animal
kingdom must be regarded as the special
and intentional production of Divine
"Wisdom no less than the noblest forms
of life. None the less do men set them-
selves to destroy whatever in creation
they find hurtful or inconvenient; in
practically dealing with plants and ani-
mals they ask — not, " Did Divine Wis-
dom create it for a wise purpose ? " but,
" Does it suit our interests to allow it
to exist ? "

The great weakness of the assailants
of evolution is tliat they do not oflFer so
much as the gerrn of an instructive or
helpful idea in the place of that which
they oppose and would fain subvert.
Admitting that there has been much
of error in connection with the specu-
lations of the evolutionist school, the
error, we contend, has been of a health-
ful kind. An ancient Greek philosopher
held that what was of chief importance
in a scientific theory was, not that it
should be in exact accordance with
facts, but that it should be based on be-
lief in a natural sequence of phenomena.
Anything, he said, rather than the non-
natural, the irrational, the arbitrary —
in a word, anything rather than super-
stition. And he was right ; for the
man who is taught to believe in natural
causes, studies natural causes ; and if,

4i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

at a given moment, he attributes to
tliem wrong effects, his further observa-
tions will in due time cure him of his
error. Thus the errors of the evolu-
tionists are sure to be discovered and
corrected, for they consist, and can
consist, only in wrong suppositions as
to the relations between material phe-
nomena— phenomena which are open
to the study of all, and which have no
habit of hiding themselves behind a
veil of mystery. But what remedy is
there for the errors of superstition ?
What can we say to the man who be-
lieves in the uncaused, to whom the
universe is full of facts that bear on
them no stamp save that of arbitrary
will? His superstition is a pillar round
which reason will chase him in vain.

To say that every vegetable and ani-
mal species is the special result of a dis-
tinct divine fiat is to put a veto upon
all scientific inquiry in the region of
biology. But to-day such a veto comes
too late. The world has learned too
much under the guidance of the doc-
trine of evolution, too many regions of
knowledge have been fertilized by it,
too many individual minds have found
in it a never-failing spring of instruction
and intellectual stimulation, for any
overthrow, or even any obscuration, of
the idea to be possible. What, we ask,
have its opponents to teach ? They are
compelled to recognize the general prin-
ciple of evolution in history, geology,
and many other fields of research, and,
so far as they do, their intelligence has
free scope. But what do they teach
instead of it in the field of biology ?
Absolutely nothing. They simply draw
a line and say, " Here begin wonder,
miracle, mystery, all that is arbitrary
and thought-confounding." To the op-
ponent of evolution the resemblances,
analogies, and homologies that run
through animated nature are simply so
many false lights, igncs fatui^ suggest-
ing community of origin where com-
munity of origin there is none, Eudi-
mentary organs signify nothing, neither

do the facts of embryology. All that
can be said is that God made things as
they are, rudimentary organs and all,
just as suited himself. If different spe-
cies and genera show resemblances, it
is simply because the same ideas kept
running through the Divine Mind.
Such is the sum and substance of anti-
evolutionist teaching. That it is anti-
scientific, and that it tends to nothing
less than paralysis of the intellectual
powers, is evident at a glance. Fortu-
nately, it is confined nowadays to syn-
ods and conferences, and even there
is not received with entire favor. At
the recent CEcumenical gathering of
Methodists at Washington an earnest
divine from the Southern States found
some of his brethren, particularly those
from England, badly infected with evo-
lutionary ideas. A similar discovery
might be made in almost any similar
assembly to-day. Evolutionists may
therefore proceed very contentedly with
their studies. They are in the right
path, because they believe in the univer-
sality of natural causation ; and, if they
fall into error, they will work their way
out again without any abandonment of
their cardinal principle.

LITERAKY NOTICES.

The History cf Human Marriage. By
Edward Westermarck. LoDdon and
New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 644.
Price, $4.

The words of Pope — " The noblest study
of mankind is man " — long used as a motto
by the cultivators of the so-called humani-
ties, are in full agreement with the disposi-
tion of scientific research to give increasing
attention to the field of anthropology. Folk
lore, family and tribal customs, the evolution
of religions, the origin and development of
races, heredity, etc., are pre-eminently the
scientific topics of the time. The many who
are interested in this department of science
will welcome the work of Dr. Westermarck,
concerning which A. R. Wallace says in an
introductory note, " I have seldom read a
more thorough or a more philosophic discus-
sion of some of the most difficult and at the

LITERARY NOTICES.

417

same time interesting problems of anthro-
pology." The author defines marriage as a
more or less durable connection between
male and female, lasting till after the birth
of the offspring. The lowest animals among
which traces of such a connection are found
are the turtles. With the birds it is an al-
most universal institution, while among the
mammals it is restricted to certain species.
In the lower animals reproduction is timed
with reference to the season of plentiful food-
Bupply, and, as there are seasons of plenty
and scarcity of the food of man, the author
bcHeves that in primitive times there was a
human pairing season. Some of the lowest
race? actually have such a season at the
present time, and certain peoples of a little
higher grade have yearly nuptial festivals,
while in civilized countries it has been found
that more children were born at one or two
periods in the year than at other times. The
view that primitive men and women lived in
promiscuous sexual relations is opposed by
Dr. Westermarck, who sees no ground for
this hypothesis in the customs of uncivilized
tribes of the present time. Passing on to
the mode of contracting marriage, the author
gives a wealth of information concerning
customs of courtship among various peoples
and also concerning the related subjects of
means of attraction and the liberty of choice.
By a chapter on sexual selection among ani-
mals he leads up to a consideration of the
same process in the human species, his
treatment of this subject being one of the
points to which Mr. Wallace calls especial
attention in the introduction The author
maintains that man in the choice of a mate
prefers the best representatives of his par-
ticular race because a full development of
racial characters indicates health, while a
deviation from them indicates disease. The
production of the instinct which esteems
beauty above ugliness is ascribed to natural
selection. " According to Mr. Darwin," says
Dr. Westermarck, "racial differences are
due to the different standards of beauty,
whereas, according to the theory here in-
dicated, the diiferent standards of beauty
are due to racial differences." The prohibi-
tion of marriage between kindred is almost
universal, but, as our author shows, all sorts
of differences exist as to the unions that are
regarded as incestuous by different peoples.

VOL, XL.— 31

His study of this matter has brought him to
the conclusion that it is not the relationship
but living in the same household that causes
the repugnance to marriage between kindred,
and that this feeling by no means results from
observed bad effects of in-breeding. Among
the other subjects examined in this work are
marriage by capture and marriage by pur-
chase, marriage-rites, polyandry, polygyny,
and divorce. A copious list of authorities
quoted and an excellent index are appended.
The treatise is marked throughout by evi-
dences of thorough study, clear insight, and
sound reasoning.

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SEfilES,
VOLUME XVIIL

A Text-Book in Psychology. By Johann
Friedrich Herbart. Translated by
Margaret K. Smith. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. Pp. 200, Price, $1.

The work of Herbart now presented to
English readers in a translation from the
revised edition of 1834 is described by the
author as " an attempt to found the science
of psychology on experience, metaphysics,
and mathematics." For a quarter of a cent-
ury, beginning in 1809, Herbart occupied
the chair at the University of Konigsberg
that had previously been filled by the cele-
brated Kant. In directing a pedagogical sem-
inary, or normal school, which he founded,
he applied philosophy to the art of educa-
tion. The central thought of the present
treatise, as is pointed out by Dr. Harris in
the editor's preface, concerns the act of
apperception. The book thus constitutes a
sequel to the writings of Pestalozzi. For,
while Pcstalozzianism enforces the impor-
tance of perceiving fully and accurately by
the senses what is to be learned, the Her-
bartian pedagogics is occupied mainly with
the second step in the learning process — the
recognizing of what is perceived as identical
with or similar to something that has been
perceived before. An impression stored in
the mind by a former experience may be out
of consciousness at a given moment, but may
be brought up into consciousness by some
kindred idea. Herbart's theory concerning
these phenomena represents ideas as con-
nected in groups, and the forces with which
they interact upon each other he represents
by mathematical formulas.

The foregoing are among the funda-

4i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mental principles included in the first divis-
ion of the volume. The second division
deals with the so-called mental faculties and
with mental conditions, being analytical and
descriptive in character. This he calls Em-
pirical Psychology. There is a third part
entitled Rational Psychology, treating of the
relations between the soul and matter, and
giving explanations of various psychological
phenomena. " To the mere reader of psy-
chology," says the translator in her intro-
duction, " the Herbartian theories may at
first appear peculiar, and in the minds of
some may verge upon the absurd ; but the
careful student will probably find no psycho-
logical theories that are so well calculated
to stand the test of actual experience."

A Handbook of Industrial Organic Chem-
istry. By Samuel P. Sadtler. Phila-
delphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. Pp. 619.
Price, $5.

The aim of this work is to give a general
view of the various industries based upon
the applications of chemistry to the arts.
The mode of procedure in dealing with each
industry is " first to enumerate and describe
the raw materials which serve as the basis
of the industrial treatment ; second, the
processes of manufacture are given in out-
line and explained ; third, the products, both
intermediate and final, are characterized and
their composition illustrated in many cases
by tables of analyses ; fourth, the most im-
portant analytical tests and methods are
given, which seem to be of value either in
the control of the processes of manufacture
or in determining the purity of the product ;
and, fifth, the bibliography and statistics of
each industry are given, so that an idea of
the present development and relative impor-
tance of the industry may be had." To
assist the reader in following out the chain
of operations that converts the raw materi-
als into the various finished products and by-
products, a diagram something like a genea-
logical tree is given in many cases. One
such diagram shows at a glance the processes
involved in working up beef-tallow, and how
much of each product is obtained from the
proximate yield of one ox. Another diagram
shows how thoroughly the cotton seed is now
utilized. Three chapters are devoted to the
oils — petroleum, the fats, and the essential
oils; the sugar industry is next described;

then come the industries of starch and its
alteration products, fermentation industries
— including the making of alcoholic liquors,
vinegar, and bread — milk industries, the
utilization of vegetable and animal fibers ;
the preparation of leather, glue, and gelatin ;
industries based upon the destructive distil-
lation of wood and coal, the making of dyes,
and dyeing. The machinery and apparatus
used in each industry are described, and the
text is illustrated with one hundred and
twenty-seven figures. While the book deals
mainly with the chemical changes involved
in the industries described, its language has
been so chosen that those not specially
trained in chemistry can readily understand
it. An appendix contains temperature, spe-
cific'gravity, and alcohol tables, also metric
weights and measures.

Stones for Building and Decoration. By
George P. Merrill. New York : John
Wiley & Sons. Pp. 453. Price, $5.

This work is designed to be of service to
all who have to do with the use of stone for
constructive purposes. It tells what re-
sources of building-stone are known in each
State of the Union, what is the character of
each kind and variety, how each works,
methods of quarrying and dressing stone,
cost, durability, weathering, etc. The book
is based on the author's hand-book and cata-
logue of the collection of building and orna-
mental stones in the United States National
Museum, and some of the matter not con-
tained in that hand-book has been published
in various building-journals. The author's
experience in preparing the extensive collec-
tion above mentioned, as well as its partial
dupUcate at the American Museum in New
York, has afforded him ample opportunity
for becoming acquainted with the quarry
products of the country at large, while ex-
tensive field trips, particularly in the eastern
and extreme Western United States, have
given him a practical insight into the re-
source? of these regions, as well as some
knowledge concerning the usual methods of
quarrying and working. The volume is illus-
trated with views of quarries, figures of
tools and machines used in quarrying and
working stone, figures showing kinds of fin-
ish on stone, and the microscopic structure
of certain rocks, etc.

LITERARY NOTICES.

419

Mind is Matter ; or, the Substance of the
Soul. By William Hemstkeet. New
York : Fowler & Wells Co. Pp. 252.

It is impossible to concur with this au-
thor even in his presentation of physical
truth, and this naturally hinders serious con-
sideration of his views upon such impalpable
matters as " astral fluid," " odic force," or
"the atomicity of God." His purpose is
high and earnest — to win men from grossly
material pursuits to a more spiritual life.
This he hopes may be realized through his
philosophy, that God and the soul are mate-
rial existences, " God with us — not as a con-
jecture nor metaphor, but a chemical fact —
is all there is of religion." He seeks to
establish his theory of soul as a substance
" by scientific methods " and with " facts
that we all agree about." The most perti-
nent of these " facts " prove to be the phe-
nomena of personal magnetism and coinci-
dences of thought, in regard to which there
is scarcely any agreement of opinion. Other
extraordinary assertions are — "force is a
thing in motion," " all matter is reducible
to electric atoms," "electricity or nerve-fluid
is the latest discovery in physiology," " every
unit of matter must have a sex." The
statement is also made that the amoebae do
not eat. The biological truth is that an
amoeba incloses any vagrant diatom by its
pseudopods, ingests it, and assimilates it as
actually as higher organisms digest their
special food. The amoebas are even par-
ticular in their diet and do not feed upon
starch or fat, so that there is no necessity
whatever for the " direct conversion of ex-
isting atomicity into living things." There is
no doubt, " if we could learn by science and
philosophy the simple, natural fact that our
personal existence is continuous, it would
entirely change human life and society," but,
speaking scientifically, the " if " exhibits as
yet no sign of katabolism.

The History of Commerce in Europe. By
H. DeB. Gibbins. London and Xew York :
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 233. Price, 90
cents.

This short work is believed by the author
to be the first attempt in English to present
a connected account of the progress and de-
velopment of commerce in Europe from an-
tiquity to the present time. In the space to

which the book is limited only the main out-
hnes of the subject could be given, but they
are enough to convey an idea of the course
of development, and to furnish a sketch
which may at some future time be more ad-
equately filled up. The history is given under
the three heads of Ancient and Classical
Commerce, Mediaeval Commerce, and Modem
Commerce, the last including the history of
the commercial empires in the East and in the
West ; English commerce in three periods —
from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century,
the industrial revolution in England and the
continental war, and modern English com-
merce ; France and Germany ; and Holland,
Russia, and the other States of Modern Eu-
rope. The commerce of the United States
does not properly come within the scope of
the work, except as in its relations to the
European nations. References are made in
several places to the trade with the colonies,
and to the later trade with the States. And,
under the heading. Recent Developments of
Commercial Policy, the " insane example of
America " and the " notorious McKinley tar-
iff" are mentioned as patterns which Euro-
pean countries seem inclined to follow ; and
we are warned that, although we can not un-
derstand it, both Europe and the United
States may in time discover the fact " that
freedom of trade and industry, even though it
may seem to encourage foreign competition, is
nevertheless of inestimable advantage to the
country that adopts it. . . . Meanwhile, both
in her colonial policy and in her system of
trade and industry, England, though she has
yet much to learn, is setting an example to
all European nations."

Catalogue of Minerals and Synonyms. By
T. Egleston. New York : John Wiley
& Sons. Pp. 378.

The author began a catalogue in 1867 for
use in arranging the collections of the School
of Mines of Columbia College, but was inter-
rupted in the work. When he came to re-
sume it, in 1885, he found that the progress
of the science had been so great that the
whole had to be done over again from the
beginning. The study of mineralogy is em-
barrassed by the great varieties of synonyms
that prevail for the same mineral, whether in
different languages or in the works of differ-
ent authors. The object of the present cat-

420

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

alogue appears to be to remedy this difH-
culty by giving all the synonyms for each
species under the head of the authorized
English name, and by cross-references. The
names of species are printed in capitals,
those of doubtful species in Italics, and
those of synonyms in ordinary type ; and the
name of the authority for the species is
given, as far as possible, in italics. Well-
authenticated species are printed in large
capitals ; the synonyms follow in alphabet-
ical order ; and under species important vari-
eties are printed in small capitals, with their
synonyms. The synonyms under each spe-
cies are divided into classes where that is
necessary, and then arranged alphabetically
for convenience in referring to them. The
symbols representing the composition of the
minerals are given according to the new sys-
tem. The catalogue meets a felt want, for
none of the standard works on mineralogy
has a complete index.

Intimations or Eternal Life. By Caro-
line C. Leighton. Boston : Lee & Shep-
ard. Pp. 139.

The worthy aim of this little book as
defined in its preface is, "to elicit some-
thing clear and trustworthy" in regard to
the effect of scientific discovery upon the
probabilities of a future life. The author
considers that science has been misinter-
preted, especially concerning " the existence
of God, the reality of the soul and its inde-
pendence of the physical brain," and she
proceeds to liberate it from misconception.
The actuality of things unseen is evinced by
the invisible rays of light, sounds made au-
dible by the microphone, the phenomena of
radiant heat, and molecular motion. The
indestructibility of matter and the conserva-
tion of energy give reassurance of transfor-
mation, while the all-pervading, luminif erous
ether "makes the universe seem one and
homelike " ! Within closer limits two uses
are found for this ether : one as material upon
which memory impressions may be made;
the other, as the substance of the psychic
body. Nature hints at continuance in the
resurrection of the spring-time, and the
fragmentary character of human life implies
future completion, which, it is represented,
may take place in other worlds than ours.
We may yet remain " in the stream of evo-

lution " and find an abiding-place without
question of room, for, " if the planets fail us,
there are all the hosts of the fixed stars."
The nature of death and disposal of the
dead are discussed, and cheerful views of our
departure from earth are urged. Authorities
are given with great impartiality from Prof.
Tyndall to the Tonga Islanders, and science,
like a veritable Sindbad, is made to sustain
a multitude of inferences. Altogether, it
must be said, this search for scientific con-
firmation of the hope of a hereafter is more
suggestive than satisfying.

The Metal-Worker Essays on House-heat-
ing BY Steam, Hot Water, and Hot Air.
Arranged by A. 0. Kittredge. New York :
David Williams. Pp. 288. Price, $2.50.

The essays in this book were prepared in
1888 in answer to an offer of prizes by the
periodical, The Metal-Worker, for the best
methods of heating a house, plans and eleva-
tions of which were given. Three systems
of heating — by steam circulation, by hot-
water circulation, and by hot air — were rec-
ognized in the competitions ; and provision
was made for the consideration of combina-
tion plans. The results of the competition
were very successful, both in the number and
character of the essays received and the at-
tention they attracted. The essays in this
book are reprinted from the journal in which
they were first published ; and to them are
added summaries derived from very careful
study of the competitive efforts. The papers
are arranged under four different heads,
namely : 1. Combination Systems, two essays
— one on Steam and Warm Air, and one on
Hot Water and Hot Air. 2. Steam-heating
Systems, four essays. 3. Hot-water Circu-
lating Systems, three essays. And 4. Hot-
air Systems, six essays. The papers indicate
wide ranges of practice ; and it is believed
that, taken altogether, the fifteen essays pre-
sent a better idea of current practice in house-
heating than can be found anywhere else.
All the systems proposed are adequately il-
lustrated.

Second Annual Report of the Geological
Survey of Texas, 1890. E. T. Dumble,
State Geologist. Austin. Pp. cix + 756.

This large volume is devoted mainly to
describing the mineral resources of the

LITERARY NOTICES.

State so far as determined during the two
years' existence of the survey. In the course
of the second year the co-operation of the
United States Geological Survey and of the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
were secured in topographical work, much
to the advantage of all branches of the work
of the State Survey. Several geologists
worked during the year at mapping the iron
ores of the east Texas district, and the
associated clays and lignites were also stud-
ied. Prof. Robert T. Hill studied the eco-
nomic geology of the Cretaceous area, but
resigned from the survey without making
his report. Prof. W. F. Cummins was en-
gaged in a detailed study of the coal meas-
ures of the central coal field ; the Guadalupe
Mountains were explored by Mr, Tarr ; and
further work on the mineral resources of cen-
tral Texas was done by Dr. T. B. Comstock,
who discovered tin in this region and obtained
much information concerning the deposits of
other metals, and of granite and salt. In the
trans-Pecos region. Prof. W. H. Streeruwitz,
after completing the topographic mapping
of an important area, spent the rest of the
season in examining the mineral veins of
the region. For lack of books and type
specimens most of the paleontological work
on the Texas rocks has been done outside
the State. An offer by the State Geologist
to furnish collections of the rocks and miner-
als of Texas to the high schools of the State
brought more applications than could be
filled ; forty-one sets, more or less complete,
were furnished. The details of the year's
work are given in the papers accompanying
the report of Prof. Dumble, the text being
illustrated with maps of the several localities,
drawings of sections, and photographic views.

An Introdttction to the Mathematical
Theory of Electricity and Magnet-
ism. Bv W. T. a. Emtage. New York :
Macmillan&Co, Pp.228. Price, $1.90.

This work, which appears in the Claren-
don Press Series, is adapted to students far
enough advanced to possess a knowledge of
differential and integral calculus. It is
complete in itself, and may be read without
previous knowledge of the subject. Purely
experimental parts of the subject requiring
no special mathematical treatment have been
entirely omitted.

Plane and Solid Geometry. By Seth T.
Stewart. New York : American Book
Company, Pp. 406. Price, $1.12.

Prominent features of this text-book are
its strict adherence to the principle of asso-
ciation and its graded exercises. Each book
treats of one subject, and each section treats
of one subdivision of the subject, so that all
relating to the subject or its subdivisions
being placed together, the several parts will
support one another in memory by the law
of association. The same method of arrange-
ment— the resultant form of the book being
one that is rendered possible only by the
grouping of propositions — favors the regular
gradation of exercises. At the end of each
section miscellaneous exercises, assorted and
graded, are presented in an order intended
to promote, by their successive solution, a
constant growth in the power of analytic and
synthetic thought. A synopsis of each book
precedes the book itself, as an encourage-
ment to students to work independently of
the demonstrations given in the text. Thus,
before giving the definitions of points, lines,
and angles, the pupil is set to construct them
if we may use the word, after which the
definition follows, of necessity; and so on,
through the book. The inductive method is
in this way employed in the treatment of
each part of the work ; but, while the ap-
proaches to the subject are thereby rendered
more agreeable, the author has been con-
servative in retaining, as far as possible,
the usual phraseology of propositions and a
wholesome rigor in demonstration. Through-
out the volume the diagrams and demonstra-
tions are in full view of each other.

No. 3, Vol. rV, of Tlie Journal of Mor-
phology, contains seven papers. The first
embodies some Studies on Cephalopods, in
regard to Cleavage of the Ovum, by S.
Watasc. It is illustrated with four plates
and nineteen figures in the text. J. Play-
fair McJfu7-rich has a second installment
of his Contributions on the Morphology of
the Actinozoa in this number, dealing with
the Development of the Hexactiniae, It is
accompanied by a plate. There are short
papers by G. Baur on Intercalation of Ver-
tebrec, and by W. M. Wheeler on Neuro-
blasts in the Arthropod Embryo. G. Baur
also contributes a paper on The Pelvis of

422

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Testudinata, with notes on the evolution
of the pelvis in general. Frof. C. 0. Whit-
man has two papers in this number, one
dealing with Spermatophores as a Means of
Hypodermic Impregnation, the other being a
Description of Clepsine Plana. Each is ac-
companied by a plate.

The most extended paper in No. 1 of
Vol. V is by W. B. Scott, of Princeton, on
The Osteology of Poebrotherium. This num-
ber contains also A Contribution to the
Morphology of the Vertebrate Head, based on
a Study of Acanthias vulgaris, by J^dia B.
Piatt; a short paper on the Reproductive
Organs of Biopatra, by E. A. Andrews ; the
third of Dr. McMurricKs series, dealing
with The Phytogeny of the Actinozoa ; and
an account of the Bevelopment of the Lesser
Peritoneal Cavity in Birds and Mammals,
by F. Mall. Plates and small figures accom-
pany the papers.

An address to the New England Crema-
tion Society by its president, Mr. John Storer
Cobb, has been printed in pamphlet form,
with the title The Torch and the Tomb.
Mr. Cobb cites many instances in which the
decomposition of buried bodies has caused
disease by polluting water-supplies, by con-
taminating the air that passes over ceme-
teries, or by allowing the escape of bacteria
into the overlying soil in cases of deaths
from infectious disease. Ee also shows the
lack of foundation for the current objections
to ci'emation, and quotes the enthusiastic
approval of this process expressed by a
clergyman whose prejudice had been com-
pletely removed by witnessing the incinera-
tion of a friend's remains. The society was
organized in January, 1891, and Dr. W. H.
Wescott, P. 0. box 2,436, Boston, is its
general secretary.

The Archaeological Institute of America
has published Contributions to the History of
the Southwestern Portio7i of the United States,
by A. F. Bandelier, one of the archaeologists
of the Hemenway Expedition. These papers
embody materials derived from the archives
of Santa F6, Santa Clara, El Paso del Norte,
and Mexico, together with topographical and
archaeological data obtained by exploration.
A preliminary sketch is given of the knowl-
edge which the Spaniards in Mexico pos-
sessed of the countries north of the province
of New Galicia previous to the return of Ca-

beza de Vaca, in 1536. This is followed by
four monographs, dealing respectively with
the wanderings of De Vaca ; Spanish efforts
to penetrate to the north of Sinaloa, between
1536 and 1539 ; Fray Marcos of Nizza; and
the expedition of Pedro de Villazur from
Santa Fe to the Platte River in 1720. A
subscription of one thousand dollars is so-
licited to complete the final report of Mr.
Bandelier on his investigations among the
Indians of the Southwest.

The Third Year-book of the Brooklyn In-
stitute, 1890-'91, gives evidence of renewed
vigor in this old institution. The book con-
tains lists of officers and members, the by-
laws, a brief history of the Institute, and an
account of the work of 1890-91. During the
past winter each of the many departments of
the Institute provided a lecture once a month,
making a large aggregate of such lectures.
The library of the Institute comprises 13,000
volumes, and its circulation for the year end-
ing September 1, 1890, was 55,891. A bio-
logical laboratory course was carried on dur-
ing July and August, 1891, at Cold Spring
Harbor, Long Island, under the direction of
Prof. H. W. Conn. In December, 1888, a
movement for the formation of Museums of
Art and Science in Brooklyn was initiated by
the Institute, and considerable progress has
been made in this direction.

The principle of the slide-rule has been
applied by Mr. H. J. Thomas in the Slide-
Rule Perpetual Cahndar (Jerome-Thomas
Co., New York, 25 cents). This calendar
can be set for any month of any year, past
or future, and old style as well as new style.
"We note one misprint — 29 for 59 — in the
Year Letter Table.

An essay from the pen of Edward L.
Anderswi, sketching the origin and develop
ment of man, has been sent us (R. Clarke &
Co., 25 cents). It is untechnical in language
and highly finished as to literary style. The
author entitles the essay The Universality cf
Man's Appearance and Primitive Man, and
affirms his conviction that man "appeared
everywhere upon the earth, where the con-
ditions were favorable, during a certain geo-
logical period." He also asserts that man
has a soul, and that a pure soul is worthy of
immortality.

The Report of the New York Agricultural
Experiment Station, for 1890, records the

LITERARY NOTICES.

423

beginning of feeding experiments with milch-
cows, for which extensive preparations had
been made, also feeding experiments with
poultry and swine, and tests of various sor-
ghums. Considerable analytical work on a
variety of substances had been done by the
chemist ; the horticulturist reports tests of a
number of vegetables and small fruits ; the
pomologist describes his researches of the
year on the grape and the peach ; and a
variety of operations are embraced in the
report of the farm superintendent.

Mr. James Terrij, of the American Mu-
seum of Natural History, New York, has
published a monograph on three Sculptured
Anthropoid Ape Heads found in the valley
of the Columbia River. These heads were
carved from a dark pumiceous, basaltic rock!
and the author regards as the most probable
conclusion concerning their origin " cither
that the animals which these carvings rep-
resent once existed in the Columbia Valley,
or that, in the remote past, a migration of
natives from some region containing these
monkeys reached this valley, and left one of
the vivid impressions of their former sur-
roundings in these imperishable sculptures."
Five artotype plates accompany the text.

A handsomely printed monograph of one
hundred and fifty-six quarto pages, entitled
Dynamics of the Sun, has been published by
J. Woodbridffe Davis (D. Van Nostrand Co.,
New York). It is a mathematical and theo-
retical essay dedicated to the astronomers,
and they alone will be able to appre-
ciate it.

A Chart of the Metric System, published
by the American Metrological Society, con-
tains tables of the measures of length, area,
capacity, and weight ; definitions of the terms
used in the system ; equivalents of cubic
measures and weights, and exact-sized dia-
grams of the metre, the metre graduated into
decimetres, centimetres, and millimetres : the
litre ; the cubic centimetre ; ten cubic centi-
metres ; one hundred cubic centimetres ;
the cubic decimetre ; and the kilogramme
weight ; the whole covering a sheet suitable
to hang on the wall. On the back are
printed facts concerning the metric system ;
the action of various nations and of the
United States adopting or recognizing it ;
the adaptation of the metric units to various
scales of plans ; metric equivalents of old

units ; graphical conversion and oflBcial ab-
breviations ; the metric system in govern-
ment business ; its adaptation to the United
States land system ; metric railway curves ;
and other information.

The third volume of Dr. McCoolc's Amer-
ican Spiders and their Spinnimj-work will be
ready for delivery in the coming spring.
The cost of preparing the numerous en-
gravings and plates has so greatly exceeded
the expectations of the author (who is also
the publisher) that he feels constrained to
raise the price to new subscribers from $30
to $50 the set.

PDBLICATI0N3 RECEIVED.

Abbott, Francis Ellingwood. Appeal to the Cor-
poration and OverBeers of Harvard University. Pp.

48.

Atkinson, Rev. J. C. The Last of the Giant-
Killers. Macmillan. Pp. 244. $l.'25.

Bien, H. M. Ben Beor. A Htury of the Anti-
Messiah. Baltimore : Isaac Friedenwald & Go.
Pp. 5-28.

Bolles, Frank. Land of the Lingering Snow.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 230. $1.25.

Brooklyn Ethical Association. Season of 1891-
'92. Pp. 50.

The Californlan Illustrated Magazine. No. 1, Vol.
I. San Francisco. Pp. 114. 25 cents, $3 a year.

Chamberlain, A. F. Modern Languages and
Classics in America and Europe since 1680. Toron-
to, Ont. Pp. CO.

Chambers, George. Pictorial Astronomy. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 268. $1.

Cl.iy, Cassius Marcellus. Oration before the Mau-
mee Valley Historical and Monumental Association.
Toledo, O. Pp. 19.

Denton, Prof. J. E. Trap-siphonage and Trap-
seal Protection. Concord, N. II. I'p. 56.

Experiments in Physical Science. Pp. 59.

Fcote, A. E. A New Locality for Meteoric Iron,
and Diamonds in the Iron. Pp. 6, with Plato.

Foster, Dr. M A Text-Book of Physiology.
Part IV. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 41S. $2.

Gage, Simon Henry. The Microscope and His-
tology. Ithaca, N. T. Pp.96.

George. Henry. The Condition of Labor. An
Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII. New York : United
States Book Company. Pp. 157. 80 cents.

Gould. George M.. M. D. Fifteen Hundred
Cases of Refraction (in Eyes). Pp. 86.

Greely, A. W. Temperature Charts by Dec-
ades. For the United States and Canada. Wash-
ington : Signal Office. Seventy-two Charts.

Griswold, W. M. A Descriptive List of British
Novels. Cambridge, Mass. Pp. 200.

Hellver, 8. Stevens. Principles and Practice of
Plumbing. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 294. $1.25.

Herbart, Johann Friedrich. A Text-Book in
Psvchology. New Tork : D. Appleton & Co. Pp.
206. $1.

Hermetic Philosophy. Vol. II. J. B. Llpplncott
Co. Pp. 310. $1.50.

Huxlev, T. H. Les Sciences Naturelles et T'fedn-
cation. Paris : J. Bailli6re et Fils. Pp. 860. 8 fr.
50.

James, Prof Joseph P. Aee of the Point Pleas-
ant (Ohio) Beds. Pp. 10, with Plates.

Keen, W. W., M. D. Compressing the Subclavian

424

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Artery. Pp.3. — A New Method of Tenotomy. Pp.,
5.— Four Operations for Appendicitis. Pp. 6.

Lang, Dr. Arnold. Te.xt-Book of Comparative
Anatomy. MacmiUan. Pp. 562. |5.50.

MacDonald, M. Report of the Commissioner of
Fish and Fisheries for 1837. Government Printing-
office. Pp. &S>9.

Mackay, John Henry. The Anarchists. Bos-
ton : Benjamin E. Tucker. Pp. 3u5. 5(i cents.

Manson, Marsden. The Cause of the Glacial Pe-
riod, etc. San Francisco. Pp. 21.

Maynard, Mrs. N. C. Was Abraham Lincoln a
Spiritualist? Philadelphia: R. C. Uartranft. Pp.
264. $1.50.

Means, James. Manllight. Boston. Pp. 29.

Michigan Mining School, Houghton, Mich. Cata-
logue. 1S90-'91. Pp. 102.

Mills, Wesley. How to keep a Dog in the City.
New York : W, R. Jenkins. Pp. 40. 25 cents.

Missouri Botanical Garden. Announcement con-
cerning Garden Pupils. Pp. 8.

New York Academy of Sciences. Transactions
March, April, and May, 1891, and Index to An-
nals.

Penology, Papers in. Second Series. New York
State Reformatory. Pp. 14S.

Pick, Br. E. Method of acquiring the French
Language. Syracuse, N. Y. : C. W. Bardeen. Pn
113. $1. ^

Pickering, Edward C. Preparation and Discus-
sion of the Draper Catalogue. Cambridge, Mass. :
John Wilson & Son. Pp. 192.

Eaum, Green B. Report of the Commissioner
of Pensions. 1S91. Pp. 84.

Eidgwa}% Eobert. Note on Pachyrhamphns Al-
binueha, Bnrraeister. Pp. 2. — Two Supposed New
Forms of Th.imnophiIus. P. 1— Notes on some
Birds from the Interior of Honduras. Pp. 5.— On
some Costa Eic.in Birds. Pp. 6.— On the Genus
Sittasomus of Swainson. Pp.4.

Eotch, A. Lawrence. Observations made at the
Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Mass., in 1S90.
Cambridge, Mass. : John Wilson & Son. Pp. 120.

Sage, J. R. Annual Report of Weather and Crop
Service of Iowa. Pp. 94.

Shufeldt, Dr. R. W. Amateur Photographers
assisting Science. Pp. 5.— Tertiary Fossils of North
American Birds. Pp. 4.

Skidmore, S. T. Thirty Lessons in Astronomy.
J. B. Lippincott Co. Pp. 45.

Smith, J. Bucknall. Wire; its Manufacture and
Uses. New York : John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 347.

Steineger, Leonh.ard. Cubital Coverts in Birds
of Paradise and Bower Birds. Pp. 2.— Sceloporus
Variabilis and its Geographical Distribution in the
United States. Pp. 4.— New North American Liz-
ard of the Genus Sauromalus. Pp. 3. — Some North
American Snakes. Pp. 5.— .Japanese Birds in the
Imperial Museum, Tokio. Pp. 10.

Thompson, Edward P. How to make Inven-
tions. New York : D. Van Nostrand Co. Pp.161.

Troy, Daniel S. Molecular Motion in the Radi-
ometer, in Crookes Tubes, etc. New York : N. D.
C. Hodges. Pp. 61.

Fpbam, Warren. GeofiT.aphic Limits of Species
of Plants in the Basin of Red Elver of the North.
Pp. 32.

Virginia Pharmaceutical Association. 1S91. Pp.

58.

Watts, Charles A. The Agnostic Annual for
1892. London. Pp. 58. 6<7.

Whiting, Harold. Experiments in Physical Meas-
urement. Part IV. D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 324.

Whitman, C. O.. and Allis, E. P. Journal of
Morphology. September, 1891. Ginn & Co. Pp.
120, with Plates.

Wood, H. T. Light: an Elementary Treatise.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 147. To cents.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Changes in tbe Grammar-school Pro-
gramme.— The Association of Colleges in
New England, at its last annual meeting,
November 5 and 6, 1891, resolved to recom-
mend for gradual adoption the following
changes in the programme of New England
grammar schools : 1. The introduction of
elementary natural history into the earlier
years of the programme as a substantial
subject, to be taught by demonstrations and
practical exercises rather than from books.
2. The introduction of elementary physics
into the later years of the programme as a
substantial subject, to be taught by the ex-
perimental or laboratory method, and to in-
clude exact weighing and measuring by the
pupils themselves. 3. The introduction of
elementary algebra at an age not later than
twelve years. 4. The introduction of ele-
mentary plane geometry at an age not later
than thirteen years. 5. The offering of op-
portunity to study French, or German, or
Latin, or any two of these languages, from
and after the age of ten years. In order to
make room in the programme for these new
subjects the Association recommends that
the time allotted to arithmetic, geography,
and English grammar be reduced to what-
ever extent may be necessary. The Associa-
tion makes these recommendations in the
interest of the public-school system as a
whole ; but most of them are offered more
particularly in the interest of those children
whose education is not to be continued be-
yond the grammar school.

The British Association, — The meeting
of the British Association in August at Car-
diff does not appear to have been as fully
attended or as interesting as some of the
preceding meetings. The week was a very
rainy one, and that, no doubt, diminished to
a considerable extent the number of visit-
ors. The total attendance was about fifteen
hundred, or two hundred less than that at
the Leeds meeting, which was under the
average. But, by virtue of an unusually
large accession of life-members, the funds
at the disposal of the Association for scien-
tific purposes were almost equal to those
available at Leeds. From a scientific point
of view, Nature remarks, the meeting may

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

425

be said to have come up to a fair average.
The presidential address of Dr. Huggins was
a learued and able exposition of the spec-
troscopic and photographic investigation of
the sky and of the results accruing from it.
The addresses of the presidents of sections
were mostly historical or special in character,
and lacked the abundance of features of living
interest that have marked some of the like
addresses in past years. In the Section of
Physics and Astronomy Prof. Lodge de-
scribed his investigations as to the behavior
of the ether in the presence of rapidly mov-
ing bodies, which, without leading to deter-
minate results, indicated that the ether was
not affected by them. A noteworthy paper
read in this section was that of Prof. H. A.
Newton on The Action exercised by the
Planets on the Meteorites of our System.
In the Chemical Section Prof. Roberts Aus-
ten invoked more attention to the metallur-
gical branch of the subject, and presented
the problems, practical and scientific, with
which the metallurgist has to deal. The
alloys especially were spoken of as offering
a profitable field, and " traces " as possibly
having a more important bearing on the
properties of the substances in which they
are found than has been supposed. The
address of Prof. Rupert Jones in the Geo-
logical Section related to coal, and showed
that further investigation is still desirable
in tracing the true origin of the coal-beds,
and the ages to which their materials origi-
nally belonged. Francis Darwin spoke in
the Botanical Section on Growth Curvatures
in Plants, and gave the results of his long and
minute investigations on the subject. Mr. E.
G. Ravenstein presented to the Geographical
Section an account of the progress of cartog-
raphy and a justification of geographv as
a distinct and profitable branch of inquiry.
Some of the most interesting papers read at
the meeting were presented in this section
by women: an account of her journey to
Kilima Njaro, by Mrs. French Sheldon, and
Mrs. Bishop's (Miss Isabella Bird) account
of her observations in the Bakhtiari country.
Prof. Cunningham, in the Section of Eco-
nomics, stated some problems of high im-
portance in that science ; while in the Me-
chanical Section Mr. Foster Brown's address
dealt mainly with details as to recent me-
chanical inventions ; and Prof. Max Miiller,

in the Section of Anthropology, demonstrated
the complexity of the problems of ethnical
relationships, and showed that no one class
of data, whether of language or physiology,
or other, is competent alone for their solu
tion. The next meeting of the Association
will be held at Edinburgh, with Sir Archi-
bald Geikie as president, August 3, 1892.

Tests of Paper. — Paper lends itself to
many frauds which it is of interest to be
able to detect ; and it is desirable to know
how to measure its principal quality — re-
sistance to tearing. The processes for de-
termining these conditions are very simple.
There are also special details with which few
are acquainted. Important differences are
noted between machine - made and hand-
made paper. In machine-made paper the
resistance to tearing and the quality of ex-
tensibiUty vary according as the force is
exerted lengthwise or crosswise ; the differ-
ence is in the proportion of two to five.
The resistance is greater in the direction of
the length, while extensibility is greater
in that of the breadth. The differences are
explained by the method of making paper
by machinery. The veins of fluid running
out from the reservoir extend themselves
along the metallic network without any real
tendency to associate themselves closely with
the neighboring veins, while the current
lengthens the fibers and felts them in the
direction of the length. In hand-making,
the paper is homogeneous, equally resistant
in both directions — a demonstration of the
superiority of hand-work. There is no draw-
ing out and felting in one direction, to the
exclusion of the other; but the felting is
equally distributed over the whole surface.
Jlachine-made papers can not be stretched
much in the direction of their length, for
the method of fabrication has already
stretched them to near the extreme limit of
extension. The simplest means of testing
the durability of paper as against the usual
mechanical agents of destruction is rubbing
it between the hands. After such treat-
ment poor paper is full of cracks and holes,
while strong paper simply takes the appear-
ance of leather. The experiment also tells
something of the composition of the paper.
If much white dust is produced, we know
that the paper contains earthy impurities ;

426

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

if it cracks, that it has been bleached too
much. The thickness of paper can be meas-
ured by putting a number of leaves together,
or by the micrometrical determination of
the effect of adding a single leaf to the
mass. We may bum the paper and exam-
ine the ashes. If they amount to more than
three per cent, clay, kaolin, spar, or gypsum
has been added to the pulp. When we
color paper with an iodine solution, yellow
indicates the presence of wood-fiber ; brown,
of cotton or linen ; and the absence of color-
ation, of cellulose.

Man's Agency in the Extermination of
Species. — Extermination is defined in Nature
as indicating that in certain parts of the
range of a species, whether plant or animal,
it has ceased to exist, however abundant it
may remain elsewhere ; while in other cases,
especially if the species have but a limited
distribution, it easily becomes equivalent to
extirpation. The older school of zoologists
seem hardly to have contemplated the possi-
bility of a whole species having become ex-
tinct within the period since man appeared
upon earth, or to have supposed that a species
could by human efforts be utterly swept away.
Thus there was once skepticism about the ex-
tinction of the dodo, or, that having been es-
tablished, about its having existed within the
human period. The disappearance of numer-
ous animals, formerly abundant, from the set-
tled parts of our country, affords examples
of local extinction ; and the fate of the buf-
falo threatens to furnish an instance of total
extinction by the agency of man. Man's
agency usually acts indirectly — as by chang-
ing the conditions of the country, so as to
make them unfavorable to the subsistence of
certain animals, rather than directly by kill-
ing all the individuals of a species outright.
The wolf has defied all efforts, by offering
bounties and otherwise, to accomplish its
destruction in Europe, except in artificially-
built-up Holland, where it never was at
home ; Denmark, every spot of which is ac-
cessible to the hunter ; and the United King-
dom, where its forest resorts have been re-
moved. Other instances are the extirpation
of the quail in New Zealand by means of
fires that were lighted for other purposes ;
the threatened destruction of other interest-
ing animals of Australia and New Zealand

by animals of the weasel kind that were in-
troduced to prey upon the imported rabbits ;
and the destruction of turkey-buzzards' eggs
and petrels in Jamaica by the mongooses that
were taken there to make war upon rats ; of
the Diablotin petrel of Dominica by a spe-
cies of opossum ; and the destruction of the
cahoivs in the Bermudas, till it is not known
now whether the bird exists there. The
great skua, or " bonxie," disappeared from
one of its three breeding - stations in the
Shetland Islands several years ago, and has
been maintained at the other two only through
the vigorous exertions, to repress poachers
and preserve it, of the late Dr. Robert Scott
and the late Dr. Lawrence Edmondston, re-
spectively. The Zoological Society has or-
dered medals struck in honor of the serv-
ices these gentlemen rendered to science.
Though the reward is posthumous, and goes
to the heirs of the well-doers instead of to
themselves, the acknowledgment is a fitting
one, marks an example, and is an encourage-
ment to the lovers of living nature.

Prof. Wright in the British Association.

— Prof. G. F. Wright's paper in the British
Association, on The Ice Age of North Amer-
ica and its Connection with the Appearance
of Man on that Continent, is spoken of in
Nature as a most interesting one. The au-
thor said that the glacial deposits, trans-
ported from several centers mostly outside
the Arctic Circle, and the absence of a polar
ice-cap, militated against an astronomical
and for a geographical cause of the great
cold, particularly as an uplift of the glaciated
area was coincident with an important subsi-
dence in Central America. He regarded the
so-called " terminal moraine of the second
period " as a moraine of retreat due to the
first glaciation, and thought that the evi-
dence of forest beds, mainly to the south of
the area, indicated local recessions of ice,
and not a single great interglacial epoch.
Palaeolithic remains similar to those of the
Somme and Thames have been found in sev-
eral irravel terraces flanking streams which
drain from the glaciated region, and made
up of glacier-borne detritus ; they arc re-
garded by the author as deposits of the
floods which characterized the closing por-
tions of the Glacial period. The recession
of the falls of Niagara and St. Anthony

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

427

gives an antiquity of not more than ten
thousand years to the end of the Glacial
epoch — a conclusion supported by the en-
largement of post-glacial valleys and the
silting up of small post-glacial lakes.

Determination and Cnltivation of Bac-
teria.— Many scores of bacteria, says Prof.
John B. Roberts, in an address on the Rela-
tion of Bacteria to Practical Surgery, have
been, by patient study, differentiated from
their fellows, and given distinctive names.
Their nomenclature corresponds in classifi-
cation and arrangement with the nomencla-
ture adopted in different departments of bot-
any. Thus we have the pus-causing chain-
coccus {Streptococcus pyogenes), so called be-
cause it is globular in shape ; because it
grows with the individual plants attached to
each other, or arranged in a row, like a chain
of beads on a string ; and because it produces
pus. In a similar way we have the pus.
causing grape-coccus of a golden color (Sta-
phylococcus pyogenes aureus). It grows with
the individual plants arranged somewhat
after the manner of a bunch of grapes, and,
when millions of them are collected together,
the mass has a golden-yellow hue. The
difficulty of investigating these minute forms
becomes apparent when it is remembered
that under the microscope many of them are
identical in appearance, and it is only by
observing their growth when they are in a
proper soil that they can be distinguished
from one another. In certain cases it is
difficult to distinguish them by the physical
appearance produced during their growth.
Then it is only after an animal has been in-
oculated with them that the individual para-
site can be accurately recognized and called
by name. It is known, then, by the results
which it is capable of producing. Bacteria
may also be distinguished by their individ-
ual peculiarities of taking certain dyes. The
similarity between bacteria and ordinary
plants with which florists are familiar is
remarkable. Bacteria grow in animal and
other albuminous fluids ; but it is as essen-
tial to them to have a suitable soil as it is
for the corn or wheat that the farmer plants
in his field. By altering the character of
the albuminous fluid in which the micro-
organism finds its subsistence, these small
plants may be given a vigorous growth, or

may be starved to death. The farmer knows
that it is impossible for him to grow the
same crop year after year in the same field,
and he is, therefore, compelled to rotate his
crops. So it is with the microscopic plants
which we are considering. After a time the
culture-field or soil becomes so exhausted
of its needed constituents, by the immense
number of plants living in it, that it is unfit
for their life or development. Then this
particular form will no longer thrive ; but
some other form of bacteria may find in it
the properties required for functional activ-
ity and may grow vigorously. Again, there
are certain bacteria which are so antagonis-
tic to each other that it is impossible to
make them grow in company or coexist in
the blood of the same individual. An ani-
mal inoculated with erysipelas germs can
not be successfully inoculated immediately
afterward with the germs of malignant pust-
ule. As the horticulturist is able to alter
the character of his plants by changing the
circumstances under which they live, so can
the bacteriologist change the vital proper-
ties and activities of bacteria by chemical
and other manipulations of the culture-sub-
stances in which these organisms grow.
The power of bacteria to cause pathological
changes may thus be weakened and attenu-
ated ; in other words, their functional power
for evil is taken from them by alterations in
the soil, and vice versa.

Properties of Peroxide of Hydrogen. —

Peroxide of hydrogen has been a subject of
experiment by Dr. B. W. Richardson, chiefly
with regard to its medical uses, for more
than thirty years. He regards it as a solu-
tion— although it may be made to take on the
gaseous form — and as consisting of water
containing, according to strength, so many
atmospheres of oxygen ; or as an oxygen at-
mosphere in solution. It is not, however, a
mere mixture, but a peculiar chemical com-
pound. The oxygen can be made to accumu-
late, volume by volume, until the volume of
water can rise to ten, twenty, thirty, and
some say even more than a hundred volumes
of oxygen, before complete saturation is
reached and a volatile body is formed. The
combination of the added oxygen in hydro-
gen peroxide is stable in the presence of some
substances, unstable and easily evolved in the

428

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

presence of others. Some substances, inor-
ganic or organic, when added to the solution,
are neutral ; others evolve the oxygen and
are themselves unchanged ; a third kind
evolve the oxygen, and with that some of
their own contained oxygen ; and a fourth
kind absorb the oxygen. Thus, with oxide
of iron there is no action ; with black oxide
of platinum a taper can be lighted from the
oxygen thrown off ; with permanganate the
action is very brisk, and oxygen is thrown off
from both substances; and arsenious acid
absorbs oxygen from the solution. Dr. Kich-
ardson has found peroxide of hydrogen use-
ful in a large number of diseases ; among
them are consumption, whooping-cough, ul-
cers and purulent exudation, syphilis, dia-
betes, ana3mia, rheumatism, and others, his
experiments with which, and his methods of
application, are described in a paper recently
read by him before the Medical Society of
London.

Origin of Caste. — The origin of caste in
India was traced by General T. Dennehy, in the
International Oriental Congress, probably to
the contact of the Indo-Aryans on their first
migration with the uncouth, uncivilized abo-
rigines of the countries which they traversed.
The Aryans were even then highly civilized
and careful as to personal cleanliness and
religious observances, and naturally shrunk
against contact with the unwashed aborigi-
nes. They were particularly so with regard
to food, and hence arose the first manifesta-
tions of caste in the exclusion of strangers
from their meals. This custom grew with
years to be a cherished observance, and
what was first a measure of hygienic precau-
tion became an article of religious belief.
The later developments of caste corresponded
with the guilds of European countries so
prevalent in the middle ages. New castes
were seen growing up in India as new neces-
sities arose. For example, since the estab-
lishment of railroads it had been necessary
to find pointsmen (switchmen) and firemen;
and these men, being anxious to preserve
the emoluments of their posts in their own
families, were now actually crystallizing into
a new caste. The views expressed by M.
C. A. Fret, though differing from these, were
not inconsistent with them. He discerned
the working of evolution in caste. The Indo-

Europeans formed at an early period a social
hierarchy which continued in full force long
after the language spoken by them had
ceased to be a living tongue. The general
ignorance prevailing in primitive times neces-
sarily involved the evolution of a priestly
or teaching caste — the Brahmins. The ne-
cessity of having men always on guard
against the attacks and invasions of neigh-
boring races with different tendencies led
to the warrior class or caste. These two
leading castes represented the two leading
principles in the constitution of civilization
— the religious and the military. The civil
principle, properly so called, did not come
into existence till a later period.

Little Annoyances and Health.— Such

matters as water supply, sewerage and drain-
age, streets and pavements, including means
of rapid transit, parks, and open spaces,
lighting, provisions for the dead and for
those affected with contagious disease, and
the sale of improper food and drinks, are
classed by Dr. John S. Billings, in his address
on Public Health and Municipal Government,
as variables under municipal control, many
of which have a powerful influence on the
health of the people. A large part of the
discussions as to the best way to arrange and
manage them, or as to whether in any par-
ticular place at a particular time the munici-
pality is doing its duty with regard to them,
turn on sickness and death-rates. It should
be borne in mind, however, Dr. Billings adds,
that no sharp dividing-line can be drawn
between comfort and health ; that there are
many things — such as noise, dust, offensive
odors, rough streets, etc. — the influence of
which upon sickness and death-rates it would
be at present difficult or impossible to demon-
strate, at least to the satisfaction of a court
of law, which yet add materially to the
burdens of life of those who are subjected
to them, and may in some instances turn the
scales between life and death. The human
body in some diseases may be likened to a
heavy railway train going up a very steep
grade. If the fire under the boiler can be
kept bright and clear, if the fuel and water
hold out, and the engineer is skilled and
careful to get the benefit of every pound of
steam power developed, then the train will
just reach the top of the hill, provided there

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

429

are no little pebbles on the track. It is
always difficult, and usually impossible, to
obtain evidence that is satisfactory, from a
legal point of view, to prove that the offen-
sive odors from a bone-boiling establishment,
or the emanations from a cess-pool, or the
water from a polluted well, have produced
such a definitely injurious effect upon the
health of those within the sphere of their
influence as to justify municipal interference
with vested rights in property, or the ex-
action of damage for sickness or death pro-
duced by them. This has heretofore been
due largely to the want of definite and
precise or, in other words, scientific knowl-
edge of the causes of disease and death.

Cyclopean Strnetnres in Oceania. — One

reason, said Mr. R. Stemdale, in the Inter-
national Congress of Orientalists, why the
remarkable architectural remains existing in
the many islands of the Pacific have attracted
relatively little attention is the idea that they
are comparatively recent. The early people
of the Caroline Islands were builders of
Cyclopean towers and pyramids, and are still
skillful in building great walls of rude stone.
While many islands have been peopled by
accidental castaways, the settlement of the
great mountain groups was effected by organ-
ized migrations of savage navigators fighting
their way from land to land, and carrying
with them their families and household
gods, and the seeds of plants and trees.
The copper-colored autochthones of eastern
Asia spread in the course of ages to the
Caroline groups, and were the progenitors
of the Palaos, Barbados, Hombos, Blancos,
and other families of gentle barbarians.
They were followed by another exdous of a
kindred race, ferocious and pugnacious, and
Cyclopean builders on a large scale. Their
strong castles, built on steep hills or sur-
rounded by deep trenches, attest the fre-
quency and destructiveness of their wars.
The architecture of their temples — immense
quadrangular, paved inclosures, surrounded
by lofty walls and containing within them
terraces, pyramids, artificial caverns and sub-
terranean passages — illustrate their religious
earnestness. Some of these structures were
mausoleums as well as temples, and are
spoken of by the present race of natives as
sepulchres of the ancient deities. The au-

thor's brother, Mr. Handley Stemdale, had
found among the mountain ranges of Upolu
an enormous fort, in some places excavated,
in others built up at the sides, which led him
to a truncated conical structure about twenty
feet high and one hundred feet in diameter.
The lower tiers of stone were very large and
laid in courses, with what seemed to be
entrances to the inside in two places. It
was probably the center of the village, as
many foundations a few feet high were near
it. The Samoan natives had no tradition
respecting the people that may have inhabit-
ed this mountain fastness.

Slavic Marriage Forecasts. — Many curi-
ous customs are preserved among the Slavic
nations from the olden time. Of these,
those relating to marriage forecastings are
perhaps of the most peculiar interest. In
some districts maidens on Christmas Eve
throw rings or melted lead and wax into a
vessel full of water, and, while fishing them
out, sing old songs, the verses of which fore-
tell, as they catch each object, the peculiari-
ties of their future husbands ; or bread and
money are mixed with the straw which on
Christmas Eve underlies the table-cloth ; and
the girl who in the dark draws out money is
promised a wealthy husband, while she who
draws bread must give up that dream. If the
counting of an armful of chips, gathered alone
and in silence from the wood-house, gives an
even number, the girl will find a mate ; but if
the number be odd she will have to live single.
The young people, blindfolded and in the
dark, pick from the straw with which the
Christmas-Eve supper-tables are strewed for
purposes of the divination. The drawing of
a green sprig promises a wedding, but of a
dry one, long waiting. Wine, beer, and
water are placed by a girl between two can-
dles on a table, and she retires to a corner
whence she can watch in the looking-glass.
If the man who is expected to come at mid- #
night drinks the wine, her married life will
be one of wealth ; if he drinks the beer, she
will enjoy a moderate competency ; if the
water is chosen, poverty awaits her. If
wreaths of flowers thrown into a stream
on midsummer eve float undamaged out of
sight, the omen is good ; but should the
wreaths break, or the flowers sink before
the watcher, the prospects of her future are

430

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

clouded. A maiden throws a wreath of
flowers over her bead backward against a
tree. If the wreath catches and bangs on a
branch at the first throw, the thrower will
become a bride in the first succeeding year ;
if at the second throw, the wedding will be
in the second year ; and so on.

Classiflcation of Glacial Formations. — In

the discussion in the International Geological
Congress on the Classification of Glacial For-
mations, Prof. T. C. Chamberlin proposed six
classes, namely: Formations produced directly
from the action of Pleistocene glaciers ; for-
mations produced by the combined action of
Pleistocene glaciers and accompanying drain-
age ; formations produced by glacial waters
after their issue from Pleistocene glaciers ;
formations produced by floating ice derived
from Pleistocene glaciers ; formations pro-
duced by shore ice and ice floes, due to low
Pleistocene temperature, but independent of
glacier action ; and formations produced by
winds acting on Pleistocene glacial and glacio-
fluvial deposits under the peculiar condition
of glaciation. In each of these classes sub-
divisions were proposed. Prof. Albert Gau-
dry led in the discussion that followed. Dr.
Felix Wahnschaffe described the action of
glaciers in forming moraines. W J McGee
presented a scheme of classification with five
general heads: Aqueous, at base-level and
above base-level; Glacial, direct and indi-
rect; Aqueo-glacial ; Eolic ; and Volcanic,
direct and indirect.

Oriatin of Folk-lore Tales.— The value
of folk lore is regarded by Mr. E. Sidney
Harland as lying in the belief that the tra-
ditions alike of our fathers and other .na-
tions contain and m:iy be made to yield
valuable information concerning the primi-
tive beliefs and practices of mankind, and
behind these, concerning the structure and
development of the human mind. It is
chiefly in tales that the speculative portions
of a savage creed take shape. Not a little
has been done in this direction since Grimm
first showed the remains of ancient heathen-
dom in the stories of his own land. Grimm's
method has been more widely applied in
recent years by distinguished writers to
stories found in every region, and conclu-
sions in regard to the beliefs fundamental

to all savage religions have been based in
part upon them. Those speculations have
not been allowed to pass unchallenged.
Literary men have contended that the true
origin of folk tales is to be found in India,
and that they were originally Buddhist par-
ables sowed broadcast by the Buddhist
propaganda. But this theory has been
weakened by the discovery of streams of
Egyptian and even of Jewish tradition flow-
ing through the tales ; and as the area of
research widened, it was more and more
doubted that folk tales found in the remotest
corners of the eai'th all sprang from one
center within a measurable historical period.
The anthropological theory attributed the
origin of folk tales, as of every other spe-
cies of tradition, to the constitution of the
human mind. A similar environment acting
upon the mind would everywhere produce
similar results ; and it is the variations of
the environment which give rise to the sto-
ries all presenting perpetual coincidences,
and all evolved from a few leading ideas
common to the race. The birthplace can
not therefore be determined, for no story
has any one birthplace. Another theory
admits that the foundations of the absurd
and impossible tales current all round the
globe must be sought in the beliefs of sav-
age tribes about themselves and their sur-
roundings, but denies that the mere fact
that a given story is found domesticated
among any people is of itself evidence of
the beliefs and practices of that people,
present or past. Some stories must have
been invented once, and once only, and then
handed on from man to man, from tribe to
tribe, till they had made the circuit of the
world. This is the dissemination theory,
while the other is the anthropological the-
ory. Mr. Harland sustains the anthropo-
logical theory.

IVatnre of the Ether.— Speaking of the
theory and function of the ether. Prof.
Nipher said in the American Association
that the slowing up of light in space occu-
pied by matter shows that the ether within
must be either more dense (as Fresnel be-
lieved) or less elastic than that existing in
free space. It is certainly very difficult to
understand what there can be in the mole-
cules of matter that can increase the den-

NOTES.

431

eity of an incompressible medium. The ex-
periments of Michelson and Morley show
apparently that the ether at the surface of
the earth moves with it. It is dragged
along as if it were a viscid liquid. The
field of a steel magnet is, however, a rota-
tional phenomenon. It is a spin which is
maintained permanently without the expend-
iture of energy. It seems, therefore, that
the resistance to shear which shows itself in
the adhesion of the ether to the moving
earth must be a rigidity due in some way to
motion. Other experiments of Michelson
and Morley on the motion of light in mov-
ing columns of water have been taken as
proof that the ether in water is condensed
to nine sixteenths of its volume in air. The
ether in water certainly behaves as if it
were more dense, but it is another matter to
say that it is so. It seems improbable. The
speaker, after describing what might be a
more satisfactory way of making the experi-
ment, said that the question to be settled is
whether the ether or any part of it is at rest
in space, or does it sweep through the in-
terior of bodies that move through it as
wind sweeps through the leaves and branches
of a tree.

NOTES.

We mention, on behalf of Mr. Frederick
Starr, that the originals of most of the ob-
jects illustrated in his articles on Dress and
Adornment are in the American Museum of
Natural History. The omission of this ac-
knowledgment from the articles was not
noticed till it was too late to correct it.

The Programme of Lectures of the
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, provides
for thirty lectures, beginning November 2d
with a lecture on Japan by Mr. Henry Pet-
tit. Several of the lectures will be upon sub-
jects of travel. For the others, subjects are
announced relating to the electrical trans-
mission of power, physical exercise, com-
pressed air power, transmission of explosive
phenomena, building -stones, refrigerating
machines, and other topics relating to hy-
giene, metallurgy, applied chemistry, etc.
The lecturers are men specially acquainted
with the subjects which they will treat.

We have received from F. Gutekunst,
712 Arch Street, Philadelphia, a remarkably
fine half-size photograph of the late Joseph
Leidy. In distinctness of outline, clearness
of expression, delicacy of shading, and gen-
eral tone, it leaves nothing to be desired.

Certain prehistoric remains near Bel-
lary, in southern India, described by Mr.
F. Fawcett in the International Congress of
Orientalists, are particularly remarkable by
reason of the pictures which are engraved
on the rocks in their neighborhood, and
which the author adduces many reasons for
believing to be prehistoric. A commission
was appointed by the Congress to make
further investigation of the matter.

A TREE-CLIMBING kangaroo from North-
ern Queensland [Dendrolagus Ifuellcri), new
to science, is described by Messrs. Luehman
and French. It has a body about two feet
long, with a tail exceeding two feet. The
disproportion between the fore legs and the
hind legs is not nearly so great as in the
ordinary kangaroo and the wallaby. The
toes are strong and curved, so that it is able
to climb tall and straight trees, where it
lives on their leaves. The specimen from
which the species is described was got from
a straight tree, about ninety feet from the
ground.

A MARSUPIAL mole — Noioryctes typJilops
— a species absolutely new to science, has
been discovered living in the sands and
among the porcupine grass of South Aus-
tralia. It is very rare and has been seen
by only a few persons, either white men or
natives. Perpetual burrowing seems to be
the characteristic feature of its life. It
burrows very rapidly, but is not known to
occupy permanent burrows. The first speci-
men was captured by Mr. William Cone-
thard, of the Willowie Pastoral Company, and
the description is by Prof. Stirling, of the
University of Adelaide.

The Bowlder Committee of the British
Association reports that in some districts
bowlders are being destroyed so rapidly that
many described in former reports have dis-
appeared.

Among the features of the Columbian
Exhibition to be opened at Madrid in Sep-
tember, 1892, will be an American historical
exposition, which is intended to reproduce
the condition of the different countries of
the new continent before the arrival of Eu-
ropeans, at the time of the conquest, and
down to the first half of the seventeenth
century. It will include all kinds of ob-
jects, models, reproductions, plans, etc., re-
lating to the peoples who inhabited America
then and to all those who had to do with the
navigators.

Mr. Ivan Petroff, special census agent
in Alaska, has found six hundred natives on
Nunivak Island, where there were supposed
to be three hundred. They live, in the ab-
sence of white men, in the most primitive
style, eating walrus flesh and possessing
walrus ivory as their only wealth. Besides a
few land otter they do not catch any fur-
bearing animals.

432

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In the Congress of German Xaturalists
and Physicians, Prof. Lehman showed to
how great an extent the coarse rye-bread
eaten on the lower Rhine is polluted by
adulteration. He had procured eighty sam-
ples of flour and bread such as are used and
sold by the small millers and bakers. All of
them were polluted, some to an incredible
extent, with earth, excrement of mice, other
disgusting but not exactly noxious things,
and also with blighted corn, darnel, cockle,
and other poisonous seeds. Kone of the
samples were free from cockle, and in some
there was more than one per cent of it.

Is the matter of Technical Education in
Connection with Agriculture in England, Mr.
S. Rowlandson has shown that under the
stimulation of a parliamentary grant the
Royal Agricultural Society has instituted ex-
aminations in the science and theory of agri-
culture, a provision for the teaching of ele-
mentary agricultural subjects has been in-
corporated in the education code, and at-
tention has been given to the matter by the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The
lack of teachers is the chief obstacle to
making the benefits of instruction in the
subject real and general.

On the occasion of the transit of Mer-
cury, May 10, 1891, Dr. K. Winder, of De-
troit, analyzing the solar spectrum at the
point where the planet was projected on the
sun's disk, observed that the telluric rays in
the light from the edge of the planet were
strongly marked and extraordinarily dark,
indicating the existence of a dense atmos-
phere in Mercury and the presence of vapor
in it.

Finnic and Russian Lapland constitute
one of the coldest regions of Europe. The
whole country is within the isotherm of 0'
C, while in its interior the isotherms of — 1°
and— 2' describe concentric curves. At
Kola the thermometer stands above 0° C.
(the freezing - point) only during three
months. The winter usually begins on the
15th of September. The long winter, end-
ing in June, is followed by a spring of fif-
teen days ; then summer begins in the first
week in July and lasts some six or seven
weeks, when the thermometer often shows
a considerably warm temperature. In the
neighborhood of Enasa the ranunculus
blossoms on the 28th of June, chickweed
July 3d, meadow geranium July 12th, black-
berry July 26th, azalea June 26th, Linnea
boi-ealis July 20th, and butterwort July 2d.

As a test for the detection of fish oil in
linseed oil, Dr. Thomas Taylor recommends
silver nitrate solution. On its application
the fish oil, if any is present, coagulates and
falls to the bottom of the test-tube, displacing
the nitrate-of-silver solution. The author
declares the test infallible, as the effect is
not produced with other oils.

Dr. L. Webster Fox believes from his
experiments that savage races have better
color-perceptions than civilized races. In a
group of one hundred Indian boys he found
none color-blind. In another group of two
hundred and fifty Indian boys two were
color-blind. No color-blind Indian girls
were found.

A CURIOUS instance of " frugality " in
bees has been observed by Mr. M. H. Har-
ris, of Ealing, England. During rainy
weather, which promised to interfere with
further honey - making, they proceeded to
guard against it by ejecting the larvse of
both drones and workers and sucking out
the soft contents of the corpses, leaving
only the white chitinous covering.

OBITUARY NOTES.

Cardinal Hatnald, Archbishop of Ka-
locsa, who died on the 4th of July last, was
the son of a botanist and made himself emi-
nent in that science by his investigations of
the flora of Transylvania. Even among his
sacerdotal duties and his political ones as
member of the Hungarian House of Mag-
nates, and the social obligations they im-
posed, he found time to continue his botani-
cal studies and publish a few special papers
and biographical studies of botanists of his
acquaintance. His herbarium was the rich-
est in Hungary and one of the largest private
collections on the continent, and was free to
students.

The death of two well-known contribu-
tors to French scientific journals was an-
nounced in the same week in- October. M.
Edouard Lucas, Professor of Special Mathe-
matics at the Lycee Charlemagne, died of
erysipelas following a wound in the cheek
made by a piece of a broken dining-plate.
He had just been presiding over the Section
of Mathematics and Astronomy of the
French Association for the Advancement of
Science. He was the author of a series of
curious mathematical recreations and recon-
dite calculations — as amusing as they were
instructive — of which the most famous was
that of the Tower of Hanoi. He frequently
contributed articles of this character to the
Revue Scientifique and La Nature. M. Felix
H^ment had been Professor of Physics and
Natural Science at Tournon, Strasbourg, the
Lycee Bonaparte, the College Chaptal, the
Ecole Turgot, the Ecole Polonaise, and the
Israclitish Seminary. He was also a fre-
quent contributor to La Nature and the Re-
vue Scientifique.

Mr. Charles Smith Wilkinson, Govern-
ment Geologist of New South Wales, died
August 26th, forty-seven years old. He was
an original member of the Linnsean Society
of New South Wales, and its president in
1883 and 1884.

WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

FEBRUARY, 1892.

PERSONAL LIBERTY.

By EDWARD ATKINSON, assisted by EDWAED T. CABOT.

IN dealing with many of the questions which come within the
domain of the student of political economy or of social sci-
ence it becomes expedient to refer to the decisions of the courts,
especially among the English-speaking people. The paramount
question at issue to-day is the maintenance of personal liberty.
The precepts upon which personal liberty rest have become in-
corporated in the common law, and when personal rights are
impaired by statute law the complainant may appeal to the courts
and may establish his own control over all the factors that are
necessary or conducive to his support as a matter of right, so long
as he does not infringe the equal rights of others. Among such
factors is the right to control one's own time.

One of the most profound changes which has occurred in the
relations of men to each other has been the change from status
to contract. In ancient days, under ancient law, the place which
a man could hold in society was fixed by the condition of his
birth, by his relation to his father, his family, or his gens or his
class. His individuality was absolutely subordinate to the con-
dition in which he had been born. From the dawn of history
contract may have been found in existence, but its fulfillment
depended upon its form rather than upon any moral engagement.
Sir Henry Maine observes that "the conception" (of contract)
" when it first shows itself is rudimentary. No trustworthy primi-
tive record can be read without perceiving that the habit of mind
which induces us to make good a promise is as yet imperfectly
developed, and that acts of flagrant perfidy are often mentioned
without blame, and sometimes described with approbation. In
the Homeric literature the deceitful cunning of Ulysses appears

VOL. XL. — 31

434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as a virtue of the same rank with the prudence of Nestor, the
constancy of Hector, and the gallantry of Achilles."

Elsewhere, Sir Henry Maine, when dealing with the progress
of a society resting upon the just relations established by free
contract, remarks that " the many have an almost instinctive
reluctance to admitting good faith and trust in our fellows as
more widely diffused than of old. . . . From time to time these
prepossessions are greatly strengthened by the spectacle of frauds
unheard of before the period at which they are observed."

" But/' as he most profoundly remarks, " the very character of
these frauds shows clearly that, before they became possible, the
moral obligations of which they are the breach must have been
more than proportionately developed. It is the confidence reposed
in and deserved by the many which affords facilities for the bad
faith of the few; so that, if colossal examples of dishonesty occur,
there is no surer conclusion than that scrupulous honesty is dis-
played in the average of the transactions which, in the particular
case, have supplied the delinquent with his opportunity.''

In the observations of nearly half a century of business life the
writer has become profoundly impressed with the truth of these
observations, and has been almost brought to the conclusion that
contracts would be fulfilled, commerce would go on, and debts
would be paid as fully in the long-settled and well-established
communities now existing in many parts of this country, if all
laws for the collection of debts and all acts of legal tender were
repealed.

When the quality of the money of a nation is evenly main-
tained, no act of legal tender is needed to enforce its acceptance
by a creditor. If there is any other point of dispute, evidence of
an offer of the debtor to fulfill his contract in money might be
perpetuated without giving him an option to pay in poorer money
than he had promised. It is only when the quality of money has
been depreciated that an act of legal tender is cited by a debtor,
and in so doing he transfers the fraud from his own shoulders to
the Government that has impaired the terms of his contract.

In the free states which have been established by the English-
speaking people character stands for more than capital in estab-
lishing credit ; credit rests more upon the high standard of busi-
ness integrity than upon legal provisions for the collection of
debts : under these conditions, freedom on the part of the pur-
chaser and the seller, the employer and the employed, to make just
contracts, is the condition of abundant production and equitable
distribution, while the very existence of society depends upon the
maintenance of personal liberty.

The condition under which man exists is that he shall work.
The work may be mental, manual, or mechanical. Some may be

PERSONAL LIBERTY. 435

spared for a time from the necessity of work, but, as has been
well said by Colonel Henry Lee, " under a free distribution of
property it is but three generations from shirt-sleeves to shirt-
sleeves."

The entire capital in the richest nation or state, consisting of
railways, mills, factories, workshops, and dwellings, together with
all the goods and wares of every kind — comprising all that has
been saved in a useful form, aside from opening of the ways, the
clearing of the land and bringing it into productive condition —
will not exceed three or possibly four years' production ; in most
states it is less. If all could be reconverted into food, fuel, and
clothing, and the world should rest wholly from work, all would
be consumed in two or three years. In respect to food, the world
is always within a year of starvation, yet there is always enough
somewhere. Whether the product of each series of four seasons
shall be distributed so that all may share the necessaries of life
depends upon personal liberty, upon freedom of exchange, and
upon the maintenance of the right of every man " to use his fac-
ulties in all lawful ways, to live and work where he will, to earn
his livelihood in any lawful calling, and to pursue any lawful
trade or avocation." (Judge Peckham, of New York. People vs.
Gilson, 109 N. Y., 399.)

" The patrimony of the poor man lies in the strength and dex-
terity of his own hands ; and to hinder him from employing these
in what manner he may think proper, without injury to his neigh-
bor, is a plain violation of this most sacred property." (Judge
Snyder, of West Virginia. State vs. Goodwill, 10 S. E. Rep., 287.)

In the progress of invention, and by the application of science
to the art of material production, all that can be expected or
hoped for in the improvement of the condition of the great body
of the people is that the more noxious pursuits may be done away
with and that the conditions of the most arduous may be ame-
liorated ; but the work must go on and in the sweat of his brow
man must always eat his bread. The true gain that comes in the
course of years is that a part of the time which is at the disposal
of men may be saved from the necessity of hard work for the
enjoyment of more and more leisure. Whether the leisure
hours will be well spent or not will rest wholly upon the indi-
vidual. The best definition of leisure that I have ever met is that
"leisure consists in the diligent and intelligent use of time."
Time saved from the necessary work of life may be worse than
wasted or it may be well spent.

In dealing with this subject we are often brought face to face
with a singular paradox. If all were rich, all would be poor alike ;
each might then be disinclined to serve the other for compensa-
tion, and thus all would be obliged to do all their own work with-

436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

out opportunity to save labor by mutual service. Under such
conditions life would be hardly wortb living. Every kind of
work would be required of every man and woman and there
would be no rest. It is by the exchange of services that time is
saved, both to the employed as well as to the employer. The man
who directs the force of the capital in the possession of which he
makes himself rich adds vastly more to the common product from
which all wages and profits are derived, than he consumes for his
own use from that product in the personal support of himself and
his dependents. When just relations are established by free con-
tract between rich and poor the service which each renders to the
other is an equitable and useful service. Society rests for its very
existence upon this interdependence of men and upon the ine-
quality in their personal endowments, whether material or imma-
terial. The capacity to combine, direct, and use great masses of
capital is rare : without this capacity capital becomes inert or it
is wasted, while labor becomes less productive the more crowded
the area occupied. Hence inequality in possession is the very
necessity to the productive application of that which constitutes
wealth. The value of a man to the community in which he lives
is measured neither by his labor nor by his toil, nor by the num-
ber of hours that he works ; it is established by the service that
he renders, and that rests finally upon the quality of the mental
energy with which he is endowed and upon the effectiveness of
the forces, material or immaterial, to which he gives direction.
The mind of man is the prime factor in the conversion of forces
to the end that there may be abundance and leisure in place of
scarcity accompanied by long hours of arduous toil.

Such being the conditions, it does not follow that every one
may not feel a hearty sympathy with any true effort on the part
of those who earn their daily bread by the sweat of their own
brows, to shorten the hours of labor so as to save more time for
rest and recreation. It is only to the false methods by which these
ends are sought that exception can be taken.

When these efforts tend to deprive the very men who seek to
be benefited of their own personal liberty, and when their right
of free contract is impaired by their own acts, the time has
come to discriminate in order to separate the true from the
false methods of saving time ; or, in other words, to distinguish
between the true and the false methods of shortening the hours
of labor.

It is customary to define three factors which enter of necessity
into the production of all material things — land, labor, capital.
There are, in fact, two other factors inseparable from production,
and each is as essential as the land, the labor, or the capital
— namely, the mental power, or, in other words, the mental energy

PERSONAL LIBERTY, 437

■wiiicli is required to direct the processes of labor and capital and
the time that is required for the sequence of the several processes
of production.

Among these five factors, land, labor, capital, mental energy,
and time, there is but one in which all men must share alike. All
others are variable. One only is equal and constant, and that
is time.

The hours of the day number twenty-four. Whether a man
be rich or poor, whether well endowed with mental energy or not,
the one opportunity, the one element of property, which all must
share alike, is time. Time is a common factor, and yet it is also a
separate factor, an element of individual property, with which
every man may claim to deal according to his own will so far as
he may not impair the rights of others to deal with their share
of time at their own will.

It follows that any legal .restrictions upon the free use of time
impair personal liberty more than almost any other interference
with the freedom of men that can be conceived. Such restrictions
create inequality in that which in its nature must be shared by
all alike.

Yet, step by step, and session by session, the Legislatures of
almost every State are enacting statutes restricting the use of
time, which, when enforced, create monopolies, establish privi-
leged classes and inflict disabilities. Under pretense of police
ordinances or under the pretext of maintaining the public welfare
these acts deprive great bodies of citizens of their right of free
contract and of the free disposal of their own time according to
their own will, even in lawful and in innocuous pursuits in the
conduct of which no harm can arise to any other person, although
the man himself who chooses to do so may overwork himself.

These restrictions have been carried to such an extent as to
have perverted the very moral sense of great numbers of work-
men. Many combinations and associations have made demands
upon the Legislature to limit adult men and women in the use of
their own time who do not wish to be limited by legal restrictions
imposed both upon the workman and the employer. The attempt
has been made to put a brand or mark of disgrace upon other
workmen who choose to maintain their own personal liberty by
calling men " scabs " or " rats " and other opprobrious terms, who
control their own time and maintain their right to free contract.
Resort has even been had in very many cases to force, in this
futile attempt to substitute the despotism of democracy through
the misuse or abuse of the power of the majority for the despot-
ism of the kings and of the privileged classes whose rule we have
thrown off.

It matters not that all such attempts must fail because the

438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

free men who maintain their own personal liberty will in the
end secure the best positions aijd the most lucrative occupation.
These efforts, so long as they have a temporary effect, tend to the
privation of the very men who move for the enactment of re-
strictive statutes or who subject themselves to the rules of the
associations which limit them in the use of their own faculties.

It is the very province of the political economist to expose the
wrong, even if it offends the very men who wrong themselves, and
to appeal to the decisions of the courts in order to establish their
rights as well as the rights of those who will not submit to their
restrictions.

It does not yet seem to have occurred to any of those who are
oppressed by such public statutes, or by the rules and regulations of
private associations by which the attempt is made to restrict the
free use of time, that a remedy may be found in the courts for any
infringement of personal liberty, under whatever pretense the
public act may have been passed. It may, therefore, be expedient
to pass in review some of the cases in which this issue has already
been joined.

In order that the firm foundation on which personal liberty
rests may be fully comprehended, we may go back almost to the
beginning, and we must recur once again to a familiar chapter of
the English-speaking people.

The barons who wrested the charter of English liberty, the
Magna Charta, from King John, nearly eight hundred years ago,
were only maintaining the long existing and established rights of
the free men of England against the usurpation of a despotic ruler.
Strange that the counterpart of that ruler may be found to-day in
the legislatures of our own time.

Personal liberty was established in the Magna Charta in these
terms :

" No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised, or out-
lawed, or exiled, or anyways destroyed ; nor will we go upon him,
nor will we send upon him, unless by the lawful judgment of his
peers or by the law of the land.^' *

In the brief limits permitted for the statement of this case we
may not follow the course of history, century by century ; but we
must pass at once to a very noted instance in which the rights of
the people were established by the English courts, the " case of
monopolies," so well known to all students of law and so often cited.
In the time of Elizabeth, the Queen had under taken to grant to
the plaintiff the monopoly of making and selling playing-cards.
The court held this grant to be void, and in giving the opinion

*"Nullu3 liber homo capiattir, vec imprisonetur, aut dissaisiatur, aut utlagetur, aut exu-
leter, aut aliquo modo destruatur, ncc super eum ibimus, uec super cum mittemus, nisi per
legale judicium paiium suorum, vcl per legem terrse."

PERSONAL LIBERTY.

439

cited a previous case in which it had already been held that even
a chartered company which had undertaken to establish a some-
what similar privilege had gone beyond its powers. The record
of the previous case in part is cited in the following terms (The
Case of Monopolies, 11 Coke Rep., 86 a) :

" And a case was adjudged in this court, inter Davenant and
Hurdis, Trin. 41, Eliz. Rot. 93, where the case was that the company
of Merchant Taylors in London having power by charter to make
ordinances for the better rule and government of the company,
so that they are consonant to law and reason, made an ordinance
that every brother of the same society who should put any cloth
to be dressed by any cloth worker not being a brother of the same
society, shall put one half of his cloths to some brother of the same
society . . . upon pain of forfeiting ten shillings . . . and it was
adjudged that the ordinance, although it had the countenance of
a charter, was against the common law, because it was against the
liberty of the subject ; for every subject by the law has freedom
and liberty to put his cloth to be dressed by what cloth worker he
pleases, and cannot be restrained to certain persons, for that would
in effect be a monopoly ; and therefore such ordinance, by color of
a charter or any grant by charter to such effect, would be void."

Again, if any man or woman, or if any family, may choose at
this time to work machines in their own houses for a period of
time or for a number of hours in the day beyond what is permitted
by statute law to be done in the factory, and any one shall molest
them, the decision in which it was first held that " a man's house
is his castle " may be cited in defense of the personal liberty of
the owner and of his right to dispose of his time, of his looms
which may constitute his capital, and of his labor in such
manner as may serve his own purpose in the best way, according
to his own judgment. He may not be forbidden to do that kind
of work in his house which is forbidden when conducted in a
factory.*

Passing on again by more than a century, we come to one of
the great landmarks in the establishment of the liberty of the
English-speaking people, noted in the history of jurisprudence —
the decision of Lord Camden forbidding action under general
warrants. (Entick vs. Carrington, 2 Wis. 275, 1765.) The Earl
of Halifax, principal Secretary of State, issued a warrant to ar-
rest John Entick " and him having found you are to seize and
apprehend and to bring together with his books and papers in
safe custody before me." Entick brought trespass against the
king's messengers for seizing his papers under this warrant.

*A declaration that a man's bouse is hi3 castle, and that he may defend it against vio-
lence, is contained in Semayne's case, 5 Rep., 91 a (2d Jac. 1).

44°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Lord Camden, C. J. (p. 291): ''Our law holds the property of
every man so sacred that no man can set his foot upon his neigh-
bor's close without his leave. . . . The defendants have no right to
avail themselves of the usage of these warrants since the revolu-
tion. . . . We can safely say there is no law in this country to
justify the defendants in what they have done ; if there was, it
would destroy all the comforts of society ; for papers are often the
dearest property a man can have."

Only a little later, passing to our own side of the ocean, we
again find a complete condemnation of all modern acts which im-
pair personal liberty in one of the prime causes of the War of the
Revolution. When James Otis resisted the writs of assistance, by
which the attempt was being made to compel the citizens of Bos-
ton to assist the Surveyor of Duties in searching vaults, cellars,
warehouses, shops, and other places for goods which might have
been imported contrary to act of Parliament, he cited the common
law of England as controlling acts of Parliament, as laid down by
Lord Coke.*

When this appeal failed, the colonists threw off the power by
which they had been oppressed and adopted the remedy, the
terms of which are so well stated by Mr. Justice Gray in his
exhaustive review of this chapter in the history of American
jurisprudence, f

We are thus brought near to our own time and to the decisions
of our own courts, by which personal liberty has been re-established
and the right of every man to control the disposition of his own
time may be maintained. It seems passing strange that one
must resort to the decisions of the courts in order to find a true
definition of personal liberty. One would have thought that it
would have been found in the very statutes which the courts have
annulled.

The very power which Parliament had assumed and which
caused the colonies to rebel is now in some directions assumed by
the Legislature of Massachusetts. The remedy lies in an appeal to
the common law, which is the common heritage of the English-
speaking people everywhere, and in this country has been embod-
ied in our written Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Among the many decisions of the courts sustaining the right
of every man sui juris either to combine with others in the pur-
suit of a common end, so long as such union or association did
not impair the equal right of any one to work at his own will or
" for his own hand " outside such unions or associations, none have
been more lucidly or firmly presented than those given by Chief-
Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts. (Commonwealth vs. Hunt, 4

*Bonham'8 case, 8 Rep., 118 a. f Quincy's Reports, Appendix I, p. 540.

PERSONAL LIBERTY. 441

Metcalf, 111, 1842.) The attempt had been made to hold certain
men guilty of conspiracy because the members of a union or
society had agreed not to work for any person who employed
others not members of such union. The learned judge held (p.
128) : " The averment is this — that the defendants and others
formed themselves into a society, and agreed not to work for
any person who should employ any journeyman or other person
not a member of such society after notice given him to discharge
such workman. ... (p. 130) The case supposes that these per-
sons are not bound by contract, but free to work for whom they
please, or not to work if they so prefer. In this state of things
we can not perceive that it is criminal for men to agree together
to exercise their acknowledged rights in such a manner as best to
subserve their own interests."

The right of the workman to free contract is fully sustained
by this decision ; he is left as free to refuse to work as he is free
to work upon any terms that he may choose to work.

But when the attempt of a slave-master to control the service
of him who had been held a slave in another State was made,
Chief-Justice Shaw maintained the right of personal liberty in
terms which no Congress, no Legislature, and no court would now
dare to contravene.*

When Legislatures and trades-unions attempt to impair the
personal liberty of men, and to take from them the right to control
their own time, the act differs only from the claim of the slave-
holder in degree but not in kind ; and when an appeal is taken to
the courts, the great judge may again annul the act or the ordi-
nance, citing in support of his decision Chief-Justice Parsons, who
declared that no slave could breathe the air of Massachusetts ; and
Chief -Justice Shaw, who ruled that no man should even attempt
to impair the personal liberty of him who dwelt upon our soil,
even were it only for a single day.

In the case of the People vs. Gilson, adjudicated in New York
in 1888 (N'ewYork Reports, vol. 109, p. 389), Justice Peckham
gave a broad and lucid construction to the term " liberty " in the
following words (p. 398) : " The term ' liberty,' as used in the
Constitution, is not dwarfed into mere freedom from physical
restraint of the person of the citizen, as by incarceration, but it is
deemed to embrace the right of man to be free in the enjoyment
of his faculties with which he has been endowed by the Creator,
subject only to such restraints as are necessary for the common
welfare. Liberty in its broad sense, as understood in this coun-
try, means not only the right of freedom from servitude, im-
prisonment, or restraint, but the right of one to use his faculties

* Commonwealth vs. Aves, 18 Pick., 193 (1836).

442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in all lawful ways, to live and work where lie will, to earn his
livelihood in any lawful calling, and to pursue any lawful trade
or vocation."

The case before the court was one affecting methods of sale of
any article of food. The Legislature had enacted a law (chap.
691 of 1887) that " No person shall sell, exchange, or dispose of
any article of food, or offer or attempt to do so upon any repre-
sentation, advertisement, notice, or inducement that anything
other than what is specifically stated to be the subject of the sale
or exchange is or is to be delivered or received or in any way
connected with or a part of the transaction as a gift, prize, pre-
mium, or reward to the purchaser."

In respect to this specific act Judge Peckham held it uncon-
stitutional for the following reasons (p. 405) : " It seems to me
that to uphold the act in question upon the assumption that it
tends to prevent people from buying more food than they may
want, and hence tends to prevent wastefulness or lack of proper
thrift among the poorer classes, is'a radically vicious and erroneous
assumption, and is to take a long step backward and to favor that
class of paternal legislation which, when carried to this extent,
interferes with the proper liberty of the citizen and violates the
constitutional provision referred to."

In dealing with an act which had been passed to prevent the
manufacture of tobacco in tenement-houses, in cities of more than
five hundred thousand inhabitants — an act which was specifically
aimed at the cities of New York and Brooklyn — Judge Earl held,
in the case of Jacobs, 98 New York, p. 98 (1885), that the act was
unconstitutional.

Attention may well be called to the vigor with which the
learned judge denies the power of the Legislature to construe its
own acts by the titles which it may give to them. The assumption
of power under the indefinite term of police regulations may not
be admitted. The court may demand the facts to be submitted—
proof absolute, clear, and definite of the injury to the common
welfare may be required before personal liberty can be impaired
and the right of free contract taken away, in order that the court
may be satisfied that there is reasonable cause to sustain the regu-
lation as one rightly coming within the term of police powers.

A decree in legislative form may present an aspect of legality
but may yet be wholly unlawful. Lord Brougham ruled that
" things may be legal and yet unconstitutional," even in England
where there is no written constitution. Even Parliament has
been overruled and called upon to submit to the rule of the courts,
when it has impaired the personal liberty of the subject in a man-
ner which is in contravention of the common law, although the act
of Parliament may have been wholly consistent with legal forms.

PERSONAL LIBERTY. 443

Among the many judges who have ruled in defense of per-
sonal liberty none have given more well-considered and vigorous
decision than Justice Snyder, of West Virginia. In the year 1887
the Legislature of West Virginia passed an act (chap. 63) to
prevent the payment of wages by the issue of what are known as
shop orders, or for certain values of goods drawn upon their own
shops. This act was held to be unconstitutional (State vs. Good-
will, 10 S. E. Report, 285 (W. Va., 1889)). Justice Snyder held as
follows (p. 287) :

" The property which every man has in his own labor, as it is
the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most
sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of the poor man lies in the
strength and dexterity of his own hands ; and to hinder him from
employing these in what manner he may think proper without
injury to his neighbor is a plain violation of his most sacred prop-
erty. It is equally an encroachment both upon the just liberty
and rights of the workman and his employer, or those who might
be disposed to employ him, for the Legislature to interfere with
the freedom of contract between them ; as such interference hin-
ders the one from working at what he thinks proper, and at the
same time prevents the other from employing whom he chooses.
A person living under the protection of this Government has the
right to adopt and follow any industrial pursuit, not injurious to
the community, which he may see fit. And, as incident to this,
is the right to labor or employ labor ; make contracts in respect
thereto upon such terms as may be agreed upon by the parties ;
to enforce all lawful contracts ; to sue and give evidence ; and to
inherit, purchase, lease, sell, and convey property of every kind.
The enjoyment or deprivation of these rights and privileges con-
stitutes the essential distinction between freedom and slavery;
between liberty and oppression."

In dealing with the specific act. Judge Snyder (p. 288) de-
clared it to be " a species of sumptuary legislation which has been
universally condemned as an attempt to degrade the intelligence,
virtue, and manhood of the American laborer, and foist upon the
people a paternal government of the most objectionable character,
because it assumes that the employer is a tyrant and the laborer
is an imbecile."

In the research which the writer has been enabled through the
assistance of his coadjutor, Mr. E. T. Cabot, to make in the prepa-
ration of this treatise, he has been unable to find any direct adjudi-
cation upon the subject of the free use of time.

That no statute may stand which discriminates by classes or
by persons in the free use of time, has been well established by a
decision in the highest court of California.

A statute of 1880 (p. 80) provided that " it shall be unlawful

444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for any person, engaged in the business of baking, to engage or
permit others in his employ to engage, in the labor of baking for
the purpose of sale, between the hours of 6 p. m. on Saturday ana
6 p. M. on Sunday, except," etc. The question of the constitu-
tionality of this statute was raised in Expa7ie Westerfield, 55
Cal., 550. Judge Myrick gave the decision in the following
terms :

" This is special legislation. A certain class is selected. As
well might it have said, if master carpenters or blacksmiths, or if
attorneys having clerks, shall labor or permit employes to labor,
they shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished ;
carpenters or blacksmiths, not master- workmen^ or attorneys with-
out clerks, may labor at their will. The baking of bread is in it-
self lawful and necessary. Even if there be authority to restrain
the labor on some one day, it must be if at all under a general law
restraining labor on that day." Again it is held that if some may
not work according to their own will, the rule must be uniform,
and all who are engaged in pursuits of like kind must be subjected
to the same rule.

Analogous to the use of time is the method of payment. When
the State of Pennsylvania attempted to regulate the method of
payment which should be adopted under compulsion by the
employers who were engaged in mining or manufacturing, and
when the State also provided that no employer should sell
supplies to the employes at any greater profit than that received
from other employes, the Supreme Court declared the statute
void.*

In Illinois the Legislature attempted to provide for the weigh-
ing of coal at the mines under different conditions from the
conditions of weighing or delivery which might apply in other
places. The court held the act unconstitutional, as being class
legislation.!

The State of New York passed an act against excluding per-
sons from equal enjoyment of places of amusement on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and this act was
sustained. J

There could be no clearer statement of the right of every
man to make contracts and to enjoy the free use of time for such
number of hours as may be agreed upon by his employer, than
that given by Judge Andrews in this case. The learned judge
declares not only that life, liberty, and property must be protected,
but that every person must be pi-otected in every essential inci-
dent in the enjoyment of his rights. Can there be a more essen-

* Godcharles vs. Wigeman, 113 Pa. St., 431. f Millett vs. The People, 117 111., 294.
X People vs. King, 110 N. Y., 418.

PERSONAL LIBERTY. 445

tial incident to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property tlian
the -unrestricted use of time which all may and must share alike
unless prevented by unlawful interference ?

We may now observe a tendency in many arts, through the
progress of science and invention, to pass out of the great factory
so as to become again household industries under better conditions,
more favorable to production, and less arduous in their conduct
than these same branches of industry formerly were before sci-
ence and invention had come to their aid and had removed them
from the house to the factory. The application of water-power to
the conduct of the work in the factory rendered it necessary to
place the factory in the narrow valleys alongside the river below
the fall, and that tended to the concentration of great bodies of
men and women in the textile factory. When these branches of
industry were first established and were operated by water-power
on a large scale, such had been the arduous conditions of life
among the farmers of New England that the well-bred daughters
of these farmers found it expedient to go from the farm to the
factory, where they worked in low-studded, ill- ventilated, badly
lighted, and badly heated rooms fourteen hours a day for a meas-
ure of earnings only one half that which their successors secure to
their own enjoyment, working ten hours a day in a modern, high-
studded, well-ventilated factory.

There has been a natural progress in saving time which is due
to the application of art and science to production. Science and
invention have shortened the hours of work in spite of the meddle-
some interference of statutes, and will continue to do so, paying
little regard to statute law except so far as restrictions upon the
use of time may put off the day rather than hasten it when the
hours of work may be shortened yet more.

The application of steam and illuminating gas again tended to
concentrate great forces of men and women in the workshop and
in the factory and in the upper stories of city warehouses. The
power of steam can not be sent far distances. Illuminating gas
can only be carried in large pipes at light pressure on short lines.
This phase is passing. Profound changes are working. By means
of a wire, power, light, and the direction of the work can be carried
long distances. The power of the waterfall in the narrow gorge
where there is no room for a factory can be carried on the wire to
the far-away uplands, where under the best conditions of life the
workshops may be established. Fuel-gas distilled from coal by
the seaside or near the bank of the river may be carried in small
pipes at high pressure far away from the source where it is gen-
erated.

We are just entering upon the period of rapid transit under-
neath the ground, by means of which men and women may be

446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

moved at will from the center of the great city where they have
been confined in the slums to the broad areas of the suburbs where,
under better conditions of life, the same work may be conducted
even in their households. Is it to be pretended that by the power
of legislation the State constable may enter the household of a
free citizen of this country and may prescribe to him, his wife, and
his children how they shall work and what number of hours they
shall operate the loom, the knitting-machine, the sewing-machine,
or any other of the appliances which may be set in motion by elec-
trical power, lighted by electric light, and directed by electrical
speech at the touch of a button in the wall ? If the State constable
may not enter the household, may not invade the home, he may
not enter the factory or invade " the close," to use the old-time
term cited by Lord Camden, where men and women may choose
to work according to their own will and to control their own time
according to their own judgment.

One may not defend this abuse of legislation under the pre-
tense that it comes within the police power of the State. True,
the Supreme Court of the United States has left these matters up
to this time to State legislation, but its justices have more than
once laid down the rule under which the Legislatures must act
or else the supreme power of the land may forbid any restriction
upon personal liberty.*

In view of the certainty with which these principles have been
laid down and will be maintained by all the courts of this country,
may it not be judicious to put an end to the continual attempts
of sentimentalists, of pseudo-reformers, and of unenlightened
workmen, to impair the personal liberty of adult men and women
and to take from them their right of free contract by an appeal to
the courts of highest jurisdiction ?

Among the facts which Mr. Hugh Nevill cited at the International Congress
of Orientalists to illustrate the theory of a philological connection between Egypt
and India, was the use of rice-boats by the Goyi caste of Ceylon, which curiously
recalls the oracle-boats of Egypt. Rice was still pounded for ceremonial festivals
in these boats of stone or wood, while at the ruins of Amrajapura large stone
boats were found of dates between b. o, 200 and a. d. 400, which were used to
hold rice for the royal alms. The use of an image of Kamadhenu, the celestial
cow, among the Tamils of southern India and Ceylon, must be regarded as a sur-
vival of Isis-worship. The image was used as a car at Mulaition, to support an
image of Tantondiswara, or Siva, the self-created. The myth and custom were
of obscure antiquity, the celestial cow typifying, in southern Indian mythology,
the fertility of Nature. The author did not assert that the affinity observed be-
tween Egypt and India came from the former place to the latter ; for it might or
might not date from a time and place before Isis-worship reached its great seat
in Egypt.

*Calderi;5. Bull, 3 Dal., 386 (p. 388).

THE STORY OF A STRANGE LAND. 447

THE STORY OF A STRANGE LAND.

By DAVID STAER JORDAN.

PEESIDEirr OF THE LEI^ND BTiVSFOT.T) JUNIOE XTNIVEESITY.

" In one strange land,
And a long way from home,
I heard a mighty rumbling, and I couldn't tell where."

— Negro Melody.

IT happened a long time ago, it may "be fifty thousand years in
round numbers, or it may have been twice as many, that a
strange thing took place in the heart of the Great Mountains. It
was in the middle of the Pliocene epoch, a long, dull time that
seemed as if it would never come to an end. There was then on the
east side of the Great Divide a deep, rocky basin surrounded by
high walls of granite gashed to the base by the wash of many
streams. In this basin, we know not how — for the records all are
burned or buried — the crust of the earth was broken, and a great
outflow of melted lava surged up from below. This was no ordi-
nary eruption, but a mighty outbreak of the earth's imprisoned
forces. The steady stream of lava filled the whole mountain basin
and ran out over its sides, covering the country all around so deep-
ly that it has never been seen since. More than four thousand
square miles of land lay buried under melted rock. No one can
tell how deep the lava is, for no one has ever seen the bottom.
Within its bed are deep clefts whose ragged walls descend to the
depth of twelve hundred feet, and yet give no glimpse of the
granite below, while at their side are mountains of lava whose
crags tower a mile above the bottom of the ravines.

At last, after many years or centuries — time does not count for
much in these Tertiary days — the flow of melted lava ceased. Its
surface cooled, leaving a high, uneven plain, black and desolate,
a hard, cold crust over a fiery and smoldering interior. About
the crater lay great ropes and rolls of the slowly hardening lava,
looking like knots and tangles of gigantic reptiles of some horri-
ble extinct sort. There was neither grass nor trees, no life of any
sort. Nothing could grow in the coarse, black stone. The rivers
and brooks had long since vanished in steam, the fishes were all
dead, and the birds had flown away. The whole region wore the
desolation of death.

But to let land go to waste is no part of Mother Nature's plan.
So even this far-off corner of her domain was made ready for
settlement. In the winter she sifted snow on the cold black plain,
and in the summer the snow melted into a multitude of brooks
and springs. The brooks gradually wore paths and furrows down
the large bed, and the sands which they washed from one place

448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they piled up in anotlier. The winds hlew the seeds of grasses
about, and willows and aspens crept up the mountain-sides. Then
came the squirrels, scattering the nuts of the pine. Other seeds
came, too, in other ways, till at last the barren hillside was no
longer barren.

The brooks ran over the surface of the crust undisturbed by
the fires within, and were clear and cold as mountain brooks
should be ; but the rain and melted snow will never all remain on
the surface. Some of it falls into cracks or joints or porous jDlaces
in the rock, and from this come underground streams or springs.
But in this region a stream could not run long underground
without coming in contact with the old still-burning fires. When
a crust is formed over the lava, it cools very slowly. When the
crust is a rod or two deep, the lava within is almost as well pro-
tected as if it were at the center of the earth.

Whenever the water came down into the fire, the hot rocks
would be furious with indignation, and tearing the water to atoms
they would throw it back to the surface as steam. Then the ex-
plosive force of the steam would in turn tear up the rocks, mak-
ing still larger the hole through which the water came. When
the rocks were very hot, a little water upon them would make a
terrible commotion like the shock of an earthquake. When much
water came down, it would hiss and boil high in the air, as it
tried to break the cushion of steam which came between it and
the lava.

And all this went on in hundreds of places and maybe for
thousands of years. The hot rocks glowed and sweltered in the
ground, and the cold snow-water crept after them closer and closer,
while more and more vigorously the rocks resented the intrusion.
Sometimes the water would go down in a mass through a cleft,
when it would be hurled back bodily the very way it came. At
other times the water came down little by little, insinuating itself
into many places at once. Then the hot rocks threw it back in
many little honeycomb channels, and by the spreading of these
channels the rocks were at last crumbled to pieces. The hard
black lava or the glass-like obsidian were changed to white
kaolin as soft and powdery as chalk. And as the water fought
its way, gaining a little every year, steadily working between the
joints in the enemy's armor and as surely being thrown back with
violence if it penetrated too far, the animals and the plants
followed in the wake of the water, and took possession of the
territory as fast as it was won.

At last the Pliocene times were over, for all times come to an
end. The one sure thing on the earth is the certainty of change.
With the change of time came on ihe earth's great winter. The
snow-drifts on the lava were piled up mountain-high. Snow is

Lower or Great Falls of the Yellowstone Eiver.*

* We are indebted for the illustrations in this article to the kindness of Hon. Marshall
McDonald, of the United States Fish Commission.
VOL. XL. — 32

450

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

but ice gathered in little fragments which will grow solid under
pressure. As the snow accumulated it began to move, forming
great rivers of ice which ran down the courses of the streams.
And as these slowly moving, gigantic ice-rivers tore away huge
blocks of lava and pushed them down the mountain-sides, where
the rocks had been softened by the action of steam, the ice wore
out deep valleys, and everything that it touched was smoothed and
polished. The winter of the great Ice age lasted a very long-
time, many thousands of years ; but, long as it was and long ago,
it came at last to an end — not to a full stop, of course, for even
now some of its snow still lingers on the highest peaks that sur-
round the lava-beds.

Then the winters grew shorter and the summers longer. The
south winds blew and the ice melted away, first from the plain
and then from the mountains. The water ran down the sides of
the lava-bed, cutting deep gorges or canons, so deep that the sun
can hardly see the bottom. And into the joints and clefts of the
rocks more and more water went, to be hurled back with greater
and greater violence, for all the waters of all the snow can not put
out a mile deep of fire.

In the old depressions where the ice had chiseled away the
softer rocks there were formed lakes of the standing water, and
one of these was more than thirty miles long, winding in and
out among the mountain-ridges. In the lake bottom the water
soaked through down to the hot lava below, from which it was
thrown boiling back to the surface again, fountains of scalding
water in the icy lake.

The cold Ice age had killed all the plants in the region ; it had
driven oif the animals that could be driven, and had then buried
the . rest. But when the snow was gone the creatures all came
back again. Grass and meadow-flowers of a hundred kinds came
up from the valleys below. The willow and the aspen took their
place again by the brookside, and the red fir and the mountain
pine covered the hills with their somber green. The birds came
back. The wild goose swam and screamed, and the winter wren
caroled his bright song — loudest when there seemed least cause
for rejoicing. The beaver cut his timber and patiently worked at
his dams. The thriftless porcupine destroyed a tree for every
morning meal. The gray jay, the " camp-robber,"' followed the
Indians about in hope that some forgotten piece of meat or of
boiled root might fall to his share ; while the bufi'alo, the bear, and
the elk each carried on his afl'airs in his own way, as did a host of
lesser animals, all of whom rejoiced when this snow-bound region
was at last opened for settlement. Time went on. The water and
the fire were every day in mortal struggle, and always when the
water was thrown back repulsed, it renewed the contest as vigor-

If;.

-^.■^•, ^ ■

TuWEK Falls uy Tower Crkek.

THE STORY OF A STRANGE LAND. 453

oiisly as before. The fire retreated, leaving great stretches of land
to its enemy, that it might concentrate its strength where its
strength was greatest. And the water steadily gained, for the
great ocean ever lay behind it. So for century after century they
wrestled with each other, the water, the fire, the snow, the ani-
mals, and the plants. But the fishes who had once lived in the
mountain torrents were no longer there. They had been boiled
and frozen, and in one way or another destroyed or driven away.
Now they could not get back. Every stream had its caiion, and
in each caiion was a waterfall so high that no trout could leap up.
Although they used to try it every day, not one ever succeeded.

So it went on. A great many things happened in other parts
of the Avorld, America had been discovered and the colonies were
feeling their way toward the Pacific Ocean. And in the vanguard
was the famous expedition of Lewis and Clarke, which went over-
land to the mouth of the river Columbia. John Colter was a
hunter in this expedition, and by some chance he went across tlie
mountains on the old trail of the Nez Percys Indians which leads
across the Divide from the Missouri waters to those of the Colum-
bia. When he came back from the ISTez Perc«^s trail he told most
wonderful tales of what he had seen at the head of the Missouri.
There were cataracts of scalding water which shot straight up
into the air; there were blue ponds hot enough to boil fish ; there
were springs that came up snorting and steaming, and which
would turn trees into stone ; the woods were full of holes from
which issued streams of sulphur; there were canons of untold
depth with walls of ashes full of holes which let off steam like a
locomotive, and there were springs which looked peaceful enough,
but which at times would burst like a bomb.

In short, every one laughed at Colter and his yarns, and this
place where all lies were true was familiarly known as " Colter's
Hell." But for once John Colter told the truth, and the truth
could not easily be exaggerated. But no one believed him. When
others who afterward followed him over the Nez Perces trail told
the same stories, people said they had been up to " Colter's Hell "
and had learned to lie.

But, as time passed, other men told what they had seen, until, in
1870, a sort of official survey was made under the lead of Washburne
and Doane. This party got the general bearings of the region,
named many of the mountains, and found so much of interest
that the next year Dr. Hayden, the United States Geologist, sent
out a party for systematic exploration. The Hayden party came
up from Colorado on horseback, through dense and tangled for-
ests, across mountain torrents, and over craggy peaks. The story
of this expedition has been most charmingly told by its youngest
member, another John Coulter. Prof. Coulter was the botanist

OsPRET Falls of Gabdiner River.

THE STORY OF A STRANGE LAND.

45!

of the survey, and he won the first of his many laurels on this
ex]3edition. In 1873, acting on Hayden's report. Congress took
the matter in hand and set apart this whole region as a "■ public
park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the
people," and such it remains to this day.

But, while only of late this region has had a public history, the
long-forgotten years between the Glacial period and the expedi-
tion of Lewis and Clarke were not without interest in the history
of the trout. For all these years the fishes have been trying to
mount the waterfalls in order to ascend to the plateau above.

Beavek Lake ; showing Reaver Dams.

Year after year, as the spawning-time came on, they leaped against
the falls of the Gardiner, the Gibbon, and the Firehole Rivers,
but only to fall back impotent in the pools at their bases. But
the mightiest cataract of all. the great falls of the Yellowstone,
they finally conquered, and in this way it was done : not by the
trout of the Yellowstone River, but by "their brothers on the other
side of the Divide. These followed up the Columbia to the head-
waters of the Snake River, its great tributary, past the beautiful
Heart Lake, and then on to the stream now called Pacific Creek,
which rises on the very crest of the Divide. In the space between
this stream^ which flows west to help form the Snake River, and
a smaller stream now called Atlantic Creek, flowing down the

i'i>-s^..

THE STORY OF A STRANGE LAND.

457

east slope of the Divide, the great chain of the Rocky Mountains
shrinks to a narrow plateau of damp meadow, not a fourth of a
mile in width ; and some years, when the snows are heavy and
melt late in the spring, this whole region is covered with stand-
ing water. The trout had bided their time until they found it
so, and now they were ready for action. Before the water was
drained they had crossed the Divide and were descending on the
Atlantic side toward the Yellowstone Lake. As the days went
by, this colony of bold trout spirits grew and multiplied and
filled the waters of the great clear lake, where their descendants
remain to this day. And no other fishes— not the chub, nor the

Kkitlku's Cascade "i Fiukim ii.i. Kivki;.

sucker, nor the white-fish, nor the minnow, nor the blob— had ever
climbed Pacific Creek. None of them were able to follow where
the trout had gone^ and none of them have ever been seen in the
Yellowstone Lake. What the trout had done in this lake— their
victories and defeats, their struggles with the bears and pelicans,
and with the terrible worm, joint enemy of trout and pelicans
alike— must be left for another story.

So the trout climbed the Yellowstone Falls by way of the back
staircase. For all we know, they have gone down it on the other
side. And in a similar way. by stealing over from Black-tail
Deer Creek, they overcame the Undine Falls in Lava Creek and
passed its steep obsidian walls, which not all the fishes m the
world could climb.

458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In the Gibbon River the cataracts have proved to the trout an
impassable barrier ; but, strangely enough, its despised associate,
the sluggish, chunky blob, a little soft-bodied, smooth, black, tad-
pole-like fellow, with twinkling eyes and a voracious appetite—
a fish who can not leap at all— has crossed this barrier. Hundreds
of blob live under the stones in the upper reaches of the stream,
the only fish in the Gibbon waters. There he is, and it is a stand-
ing puzzle even to himself to know how he got there. We might
imagine, perhaps, that some far-off ancestor, some ancient Queen
of the Blobs, was seized by an osprey and carried away in the
air. Perhaps an eagle was watching and forced the osprey to
give up its prey. Perhaps in the struggle the blob escaped, fall-
ing into the river above the falls, to form the beginning of the
future colony. At any rate, there is the great impassable water-
fall, the blob above it and below. The osprey has its nest on a
broken pine tree above the cataract, and its tyrant master, the
bald eagle, watches it from some still higher crag whenever it
goes fishing.

Two years ago the Hon. Marshall McDonald, whose duty as
United States Fish Commissioner it is to look after the fishes
wherever they may be, sent me to this country to see what could
be done for his wards. It was a proud day when I set out from
Mammoth Hot Springs astride a black cay use, or Indian pony,
which answered to the name of Jump, followed by a long train of
sixteen other cay uses of every variety of color and character, the
most notable of all being a white pony called Tinker. At some
remote and unidentified period of her life she had bucked and
killed a tradesman who bestrode her against her will, and thereby,
as in the old Norse legends, she had inherited his strength, his
wickedness, and his name. And when, after many adventures, I
came back from this strange land and told the story of its fishes,
other men were sent out from Washington with nets and buckets!
They gathered up the trout and carried them to the rivers above
the falls, and now all the brooks and pools of the old lava-bed,
the fairest streams in the world, are full of their natural inhab-
itants.

Mentioninct some peculiarities in the distribution of plants in Great Britain—
that it has a southern flora opposite France, a Germanic flora on the east coast, a
Lusitanian flora in the southwest, and on the extreme west two American plants
unknown elsewhere in Europe— Mr. Clement Eeid expresses the belief that in the
Britain of the present day we may study the repeopling of a country over which
everything has been exterminated, and, until we have fuller direct evidence of the
stages of the process, we may safely accept Greenland and Britain as illustrating
the way in which Nature works to fill gaps in the fauna and flora, whether these
are caused by changes of climate, by volcanic agency, or by the submergence and
reappearance of islands.

URBAN POPULATION.

459

URBAN POPULATION.

LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. IV.

bt caeeoll d. weight, a. m.,

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR.

THE admirable "work of Mr, William C. Hunt, special agent
in charge of the Population Division of the Census Office,
and of Dr. John S. Billings, U. S. A., expert special agent in
charge of the Division of Vital Statistics of the Census, enables
one to study the relations of urban to country population, and the
social statistics of cities. Taking the work of these skillful statis-
ticians and the information "which has been collected from other
sources, I am able to dra"w a distinctive lesson relative to congest-
ed districts in cities.

In the census of 1880 urban population "was defined as that
element living in cities or other closely aggregated bodies of
population containing eight thousand inhabitants or more. The
Superintendent of the Eleventh Census remarks that " this defini-
tion of the urban element, although a somewhat arbitrary one, is
used in the present discussions of the results of the eleventh cen-
sus in order that they may be compared directly "with those of
earlier censuses." He considers the limit of eight thousand
inhabitants a high one, inasmuch as most of the distinctive feat-
ures of urban life are found in smaller bodies of population.
According to this definition, the urban population of the United
States in 1890 constituted 29*12 per cent of the total population.
The f ollo"wing brief table gives the proportion for the several cen-
suses since and including that of 1790 :

Census Tears.

Population of the
United States.

Population
of cities.

Inh.abitants of cities
in each 100 of the
total population.

1790

3,929,214

5,308,483

7,239,881

9,633,822

12,866,020

17,069,453

23,191,876

31,44.3,321

38,558,371

50,155,783

62,622,250

131,472

210,873

356,920

475,135

864,509

1,453,994

2,897,586

5,072,256

8,071,875

11,318,547

18,235,670

3-35

1800

3-97

1810

4-93

1820

4-93

1830

6-72

1840

8-52

1850

12-49

I860

16-13

1870

20-93

1880

22-57

1890

29-12

It will be seen that the proportion of urban population has
gradually increased from 3*35 per cent in 1790 to 29T3 per cent, or
nearly one third of the total population, in 1890. The number of
cities having a population of more than eight thousand increased

460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from G in 1700 to 28(3 in 1880, since wliicli time the number has
grown to 4:43. New York was the only city in 1880 wliich had a
population in excess of one million, but Chicago and Philadelphia
now come into this list. The cities in 1870 wliicli contained more
than one hundred thousand inliabitants numbered 14, in 1880 they
had increased to 20, and in 1800 to 28. The North Atlantic Divis-
ion of States, with a population of 17,401,545, contains an urban
population of 8,970,420, or 40'22 per cent of the entire urban popu-
lation of the countr}^ The jiopulation of the South Atlantic Di-
vision is 8,857,020, and the urban population is 1,420,455, or 7'70 per
cent of the entire urban population of the United States. The
Northern Central Division, the largest group in the country, has
a total population of 23,302,279, and it has a large urban popula-
tion (5,701,272), which is 31'7e per cent of the entire urban popula-
tion. The Southern Central Division contains 10,072,893 inhab-
itants, but its urban population is small, it being 1,147,147, or 0"20
per cent of the urban population of the country. The Western
Division, being the smallest group and having 3,027,013 inhab-
itants, has a city population of 000,370, which is 4'94 per cent of
the entire urban population. While the North Atlantic Division
contains nearly one half the urban population of the entire country,
51*58 per cent, or more than one half of its own population, is con-
tained in cities of eight thousand or more inhabitants, and during
the past ten years this urban element in this division has increased
43'53 per cent, while the total population has increased but 19"05
per cent. The greatest numerical increase in the urban element
is to be found in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York,
so far as the North Atlantic Division is concerned ; so that in the
States named the rural population must have actually diminished.
Of course, this rapid increase in the urban population of the North
Atlantic Division finds its cause in the great extension of manu-
factures and commerce, lines which rec[uire the aggregation of
inhabitants in restricted localities. This large increase of city
population is due in some degree to annexations to already exist-
ing cities, but this makes no particular difference with the fact
itself, that there is a large and rapidly increasing city population
as compared with the population of rural districts.

The bare statement of the facts which I have cited often causes
great apprehension as to the character of our population and as to
the rapid growth of the influence of cities as controlling powers
in the politics of the country, and very frequently it excites the
fears of students of social science relative to the supposed increased
intensity of the congestion in cities of the slum population. It
is upon this latter point that I have for some years made more or
less examination, and with a conclusion different from that of
statisticians and writers generally. The limits of this series of

URBAN POPULATION.

461

papers will not allow nie to take up more than three of our largest
cities, and I have selected those which have had the largest ex-
perience and for which I could most readily study the facts. The
population by wards of the cities of New York and Philadelphia
for 1870, 1880, and 1890, and for Boston for 1880 and 1890, is shown
in the following tables :

New Yorh.

Wabds.

First

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

Hixth

Seventh

Eighth

Ninth

Tenth

Eleventh

Twelfth

Thirteenth.. . .
Fourteenth. . . .

Fifteenth

Sixteenth

Seventeenth. . .
Eighteenth. . .
Nineteenth . . .
Twentieth . . . .
Twenty-first.. .
Twenth-second
Twenty-third . .
Twenty-fourth.

Total

1870.

14,463
1,312
3,715
23,748
17,150
21,153
44,818
34,913
47,609
41,431
64,230
47,497
33,364
26,436
27,587
48,359
95,365
59,593
86,090
75,407
56,703
71,349

942,292

1880.

17,939

1,608
3,582
20,993
15,845
20,196
50,066
35,879
54,596
47,554
68,778
81,800
37,797
30,171
31,882
52,188

104,837
66,611

158,191
86,015
66,536

111,606
28,338
13,288

1890.

11,123
929

3,765
17,809
12,385
23,119
57,366
31,220
54,425
57,596
75,426

245,046
45,884
28,094
25,399
49,134

103,158
63,270

231,864
84,327
68,019

156,859
53,948
20,137

1,206,299

1,515,301

Philadelphia — Population hy Wards.

Wards.

1870.

First

25,817
30,220
19,149
20,852
18,736
12,064
31,558
22,286
16,629
23,312
14,845
15,171
19,936
22,643
44,650
19,256
21,347
26,366
45,240

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

Sixth

Seventh

Eighth

Ninth

Tenth

Eleventli

Twelfth

Thirteenth

Fourteenth

Fifteenth

Sixteenth

Seventeenth

Eighteenth

Nineteenth

1880.

43,082
28,498
18,274
18,854
16,372
10,004
31,080
19,547
12,481
23,362
12,929
14,690
18,646
22,353
47,866
17,802
20,451
29,358
43,887

1890.

53,882
31,563
19,925
20,384
16,987

8,712
30,179
16,971

9,791
21,514
12,953
14,170
17,923
20,737
52,705
17,087
19,546
29,164
66,545

462

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Wabds.

Twentieth . . . . ,
Twenty-first. . . .
Twenty-second .
Twenty-third.. ,
Twenty-fourth. .
Twenty- fifth . .
Twenty-sixth.. .
Twenty-seventh
Twenty-eighth..
Twenty-ninth . .

Thirtieth

Thirty-first

Thirty-second . .

Thirty- third

Thirty-fourth.. .

Total

1870.

56,642
13,861
22,605
20,888
24,932
18,639
36,603
19,385
10,370

674,022

1880.

43,207
19,699
31,798
26,644
46,071
36,108
35,138
23,333
34,443
40,787
29,098
31,308

847,170

1890.

44,480
26,900
45,329
35,294
42,556
35,945
62,138
32,905
46,390
54,759
30,614
32,974
30,050
33,171
23,721

1,046,964

Boston — Population hy Wards.

Wards.

ISSO.

1890.

Wards.

ISSO.

1S90.

First

14,773
15,153

19,633
17,297
13,094
12,842
12,412
18,447
13,145
13,026
12,660
8,205
21,660
12,585
22,375
26,367

Fifteenth . . .

14,902
15,184
14,445
1.3,142
19,971
17,391
14,711
12,715
14,032
16,871
6,693

18,049

Second

Sixteenth

18,048
15,638
16,035

Third

Fourth

Fifth

11,514
11,257
10,960
16,904
12,550
12,792

Seventeenth

Eighteenth

Nineteenth

23,016

Sixth

Twentieth

24,335

Seventh

Twenty-first

Twenty-second

Twenty-third

Twenty-fourth

Twenty-fifth

Total

22,930

Eighth

20 011

Ninth

Tenth

Eleventh

Twelfth

12,611
11,503
16,602

lit RQft

24,997
29,638
12,032

Thirteenth. 2L462

362,839

448,477

Fourteenth

20,005

Wards 1 and 2 comprise East Boston; Wards 3, 4, and 5 comprise Charlestown ;
Wards 13, 14, and 15 comprise South Boston.

Tlie population of Boston by wards for 1870 can not be stated,
because the geographical boundaries of wards were changed in
1875 ; but other data relative to Boston can be used for the illus-
tration of the point I desire to make. In the other cities named,
New York and Philadelphia, the geographical boundaries of
wards have been identical under the last three Federal cen-
suses. From the foregoing tables I have combined what might
be called the "congested" wards of each of the cities. Elimi-
nating these from all the wards, and constructing a new table,
we have the facts relative to the population for all wards for
the years named, for the congested wards stated separately, and
for the remaining wards, in each of the cities. This table is as
follows :

URBAN POPULATION.

463

Population.

Gain,
1870 to 1890.

Percentage
of gain.

1870. 1S80.

1890.

1870 to 1S90.

New York.

Total all wards

Total congested wards*. . . .
Total remaining wards

942,292 1,208,299
545,653 593,914
396,639 612,385

1,515,301
596,831
918,470

573,009

51,178

521,831

60-81

9-38

131-56

Philadelphia.

Total all wards

Total congested wards \. . . .
Total remaining wards

674,022
436,272
237,750

847,170
401,795
445,375

1,046,964
407,631
639,333

372,942
X 28,641
401,583

55-33
^6-56
168-91

Boston.
Total all wards

Total congested wards*. . . .
Total remaining wards

362,839

98,074

264,765

448,477

99,094

349,383

1880 to 1890.
85,638
1,020
84,618

23-60

1-04

31-96

Boston.

Total

Boston proper

250,526 362,839
138,781 147,075
111,745 i 215764

448,477
161,330
287,147

197,921

22,549

175,402

79 +

16 +

156 +

'

A study of this last table throws great light upon the supposed
concentration of population in the slums of the cities named. In
New York the increase in the congested wards (and I have taken
for this purpose all the wards south of Fourteenth Street) was in
the twenty years from 1870 to 1890 but 51,178, or 9-38 per cent ;
while the increase for the whole city for the twenty years was
573,009, or 60-81 per cent. The remaining wards, or those north
of Fourteenth Street, were the territory where nearly all this last-
named gain took place. It was 531,831, or a gain from 1870 to 1890
of 131-56 per cent. Certainly during the twenty years there has
been no perceptible increase of population in the congested terri-
tory described.

Turning to Philadelphia, and taking the compact wards, we
find there has been a loss in the twenty years of 28,611, or 6-56
per cent, the wards other than the congested wards showing a
gain of 101,583, or 168-91 per cent, while the total gain for the
whole city was 372,912, or 55*33 per cent.

Similar conditions are shown for Boston. In the first section
of the preceding table relating to Boston the population for 1880
and 1890 only is given, as explained. This shows that in the ten
years named the congested wards, which include all the slum popu-
lation of the city, the gain was only 1,020, or 1*04 per cent ; while
in the remaining wards there was a gain of 84,618, or 31*96 per
cent. The second section of the table relating to Boston shows
the population for 1870, 1880, and 1890 for the whole city— for
Boston proper, that is, the old city territory prior to any of its

* First to seventeenth inclusive, except the twelfth, which is an outlying ward.
f Second to twentieth inclusive, except the fifteenth. X I^^®^-

* The sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, twelfth, sixteenth, and seventeenth.

464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

annexations, and the population of tlie annexations. In the twenty
years the population of Boston gained, including all, 197,921, or
79 + per cent ; the old city proper gained but 22,549, or IG + per
cent; while the jjopulation of the annexations increased 175,402,
or 150+ per cent, in the twenty years.

These facts certainly remove all apprehension as to the increase
of the slum population of the cities named, and I submit that it is
perfectly reasonable that the population of such districts can not
increase ; and that, while there is a great setting of people toward
our cities, they are found as a rule among the suburban popula-
tion, in healthy sanitary districts ; and that whatever influx there
is to the slum localities is entirely offset by the outgoing jDeople
from such districts.

After collecting the material for this chapter, my attention was
called to an exceedingly valuable article in the October Contem-
porary Review, by Mr. Sidney J. Low, entitled The Rise of the
Suburbs. Mr. Low, taking his figures from the recent census of
England, that of last spring, makes a table of some of the typical
districts of inner London, on both sides of the river, w4th their
rates of increase or decrease since 1881, which is as follows:

„ Rate of Increase or

^'®^'""- decrease per cent.

City of London 25'5 decrease.

Westminster 19-9 "

Strand 18-2 "

St. Giles \-l-l

St. George, ITanover Square 10 " 4 "

Holborn 6-8 "

St. George-in-the-East 3 "4 ''

Siioreditch 'i • 0 "

Bethnal Green 1 • 7 increase.

Mile End , 1-8

St. Clave, Southwark 1-4 "

Kensington 4 9 "

Whitechapel 4-3 '•

In regard to these districts, Mr. Low remarks that some of
them are wealthy residental districts, while many of them are poor
and others altogether poverty-stricken. " Bethnal Green. White-
chapel, St. Olave, Southwark, and parts of St. Pancras, St. Giles,
and Holborn," he says, " are tinted with a very dark brush on Mr.
Charles Booth's excellent comparative maps of London poverty."
And he further says : " It is not unsatisfactory to find that the
dwellers in these localities are obeying the great law of centrifugal
attraction, and quitting the inner recesses of the metropolis to
find homes in the outskirts. The people who leave Hatton Garden,
and Commercial Street, and Hoxton, and Seven Dials, either forced
out by ' improvements ' or voluntarily retiring, do not go to the
country — that we know well enough ; nor do the country folks

URBAN POPULATION. . 465

come in to take their jolaces in any large numbers. For the immi-
grant from the congested districts of tlie town, and for the emi-
grant from the decaying rural parishes, we must look to the
suburbs ; and we find him there, if figures can tell us anything.
Compare, with the list just given of stationary or declining areas
in central London, the statistics for a few of the regisration divis-
ions which lie farther out :

T^ Increase per

I^ISTEICT. ggnt gj^gg fggi_

CamberwcU 26-1

Woolwich S2 • 8

Wandsworth 46"1

Hampstead 50 • 5

Fulham 64 • 5

Totteuham 95-0

Willesden 121-9

Leyton 133 5

" Here is where the increase of ' Greater London,' with its five
and a half millions of inhabitants, is found. It is not, as hasty
observers have imagined, in the teeming alleys of ' Darkest Lon-
don,' or in the warren of rabbit-hutches which spreads for a mile
or two north and south of the Thames. The center of population
is shifting from the heart to the limbs. The life-blood is pouring
into the long arms of brick and mortar and cheap stucco that are
feeling their way out to the Surrey moors and the Essex flats and
the Hertfordshire copses. Already ' Outer London ' is beginning
to vie in population with the ' Inner Ring ' ; a few decades hence,
and it will have altogether passed it."

These figures for different portions of London are exceedingly
significant, and show precisely the same conditions as are shown
by the facts which I have already grouped relative to New York,
Philadelphia, and Boston, and they show conclusively that the
movement is greatly different from what it is often supposed to
be. To again quote Mr. Low : " The population is not shifting
from the fields to the slums ; and the slums themselves are not be-
coming fuller, but the reverse. So far from the heart of the city
being congested with the blood driven from the extremities, we
find, on the contrary, that the larger centers of population are
stationary, or thinning down ; it is the districts all round them
which are filling up. The greatest advance in the decade is shown
not in the cities themselves, but in the ring of suburbs which
spread into the country about them. If the process goes on un-
checked, the Englishman of the future will be of the city but not
in it. The son and grandson of the man from the fields will neither
be a dweller in the country nor a dweller in the town. He will be
a suburb-dweller. The majority of the people of this island will
live in the suburbs ; and the suburban type will be the most wide-

VOL. XL. 33

466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

spread and cliaracteristic of all, as the rural lias been in the past
and as the urban may perhaps be said to be in the present." This
aspect of affairs is perfectly reasonable, and is the only condition
that could have been expected. It should be remembered that the
cities named are great mercantile and manufacturing centers,
their prosperity developing rapidly, and it should also be remem-
bered that the rapidity of the development of cities in commercial
or industrial ways retards the growth of population in the com-
pact quarters to a very large degree. Every time an advance is
made along a street by the extension of business houses, the fami-
lies living there are crowded out ; they may move to other parts
of the city or locate in the suburbs ; in either event there is only
a shifting of population, and not an increase. The transfer of
great manufacturing establishments from the city to the country
carries large numbers of families, or if the transfer is made within
the city limits there is simply a change in location of the popula-
tion interested in the establishment. In taking the Federal census
of 1880 for the State of Massachusetts I discovered a loss in one
of the wards of the city of Boston ; but I found upon investigation
that the removal of one establishment from that ward to another
in a distant part of the city had carried with it more than one
thousand people ; so the increase in the population of the part of
the city to which the removal was made apparently indicated
growth. Cities lay out new streets and avenues, necessitating the
tearing down of rookeries and crowded tenement-houses. Every
such improvement displaces a large number of families, who seek
a residence either in some other part of the city or in the suburbs.
Thus, the building of a large number of houses, often referred to
as an evidence of increase of j)opulation, may not mean any in-
crease whatever. If a hundred families are crowded out of their
old locations by improvements or by the encroachments of trade,
there is an immediate demand for a hundred new tenements, which
makes it appear that the population is increasing rapidly, when
there is no increase. That the argument that new houses always
indicate an increase of population is unanswerable can not be
admitted, for very frequently the reverse is true ; even in a
country town a new house or a dozen new houses may not indicate
an increase of a single person in the population, as it may be en-
tirely the result of the improved financial condition of one or sev-
eral families formerly living in the same house. The building of
new houses is an indication of prosperity and of increase, but not
positive evidence of increase. The retarding influence of the in-
crease of trade and of manufactures must be felt more and more
as their extension becomes more rapid, and in all great cities
where large business blocks are erected in place of crowded tene-
ments there must be a dispersion of population.

STILTS AND STILT-WALKING. 467

I tliiuk that what has been said in regard to New York, Phila-
delphia, and Boston, and of the city of London, would prove true
of any large commercial or manufacturing center. The encourage-
ment to be drawn from this state of facts is great indeed, and
should relieve the popular mind of the constant fear of the in-
crease of the slums of our great cities. I wish that an investiga-
tion might be made that would show the exact number, character,
and condition of the j^eople living in the slums, and whether the
geographical territory inhabited by the slums is being enlarged,
or whether the actual number on restricted territory is being in-
creased. Such an investigation, whatever it might show, would
be of immense value in the study of urban population.

STILTS AND STILT-WALKING.

By M. GUYOT-DAUBES.

SYLVAIN DORNON, a stilt-walker of the Landes, left Paris
on the 12th of March, 1891, for Moscow, and reached the end
of his journey after fifty-eight days of w^alking. This long walk
on stilts was a subject of wonder, not to the Russians only, to
whom this method of locomotion was unknown, but to Dornon's
own countrymen as well.

Walking on stilts, which was common some twenty years ago
in certain parts of France, is gradually going out of use. In the
Landes of Gascony it was formerly a means of locomotion well
suited to the nature of the country. The Landes were large con-
tinuous plains, covered with scrub bushes and scanty heaths ; and,
in consequence of the impermeability of the subsoil, all the hol-
lows were transformed after a light rain into marshes. There was
no road or path. The population, of sheep-farmers, was greatly
scattered. The shepherds evidently conceived and adopted stilts
in order to be able to move about under these peculiar conditions.
The stilts of the Landes are called there tchangnes, a word in
the patois of the country meaning long legs, and the persons who
use them are called ichangues, or long-legged. They are long
sticks, which have at the mean height of about five feet from the
ground a stirrup to support the foot. The upper part of the stick
is shaved flat and supported against the leg, where it is held in
place by a strong strap. The lower part, which stands on the
ground, is expanded, and is sometimes re-enforced by a sheep-bone.
The stiltsman is assisted by a third stick, which serves him for a
variety of uses. It supports him in mounting his stilts, and can
be used for a crook in driving his sheep ; or, with the addition of
a piece of board, it forms a comfortable seat fitted to the height

468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the stilts. Resting after this fashion, the stiltsman appears as
if seated on a gigantic tripod. When he stops, he knits or spins
on the distaff which he carries in his belt.

His usual costume is made up of a kind of sleeveless vest of
sheepskin, linen gaiters, and a drugget cloak. On his head he
wears a Uret or a large hat. This outfit was formerly supple-
mented with a gun for defending the sheep against wolves, and a
frying-pan in which to prepare dinner.*

The appearance of the Landais peasants is extremely pictur-
esque, but their life is miserable ; they are generally puny and thin,
badly fed, and often threatened by fever. Mounted on their stilts,
they lead their sheep across the Landes, going over the bushes
and herbs, the little ponds, and safely crossing the marshes, with-
out having to look for roads or beaten paths. This elevation,
moreover, permits them easily to overlook their sheep, which are
often dispersed over a considerable surface. To put on his stilts
in the morning, the shepherd sits on the window-sill or climbs
upon the chimney-piece ; and even when he is in the open field
he can attach them while sitting on the ground, and then rise
with the assistance of his third stick.

Locomotion on stilts is evidently calculated to suggest peril
to persons who are accustomed to walking only on the feet. We
estimate the possible danger of a fall from the height of these
implements from our experiences of ordinary pedestrians' falls ;
but the Landais, habituated from infancy to this sort of exercise,
acquire extraordinary ease and skill in it. The tclmngue is per-
fectly able to preserve his equilibrium; he marches with long
strides, halts in a standing position, runs with agility, or executes
an occasional acrobatic turn, picking up a stone from the ground,
plucking a flower, pretending to fall and rise quickly, or running
in a lock-step, etc.

The speed attained by stiltsmen is easily explained, when we
regard the superior length of the stride which they can make
without enlarging the angle of separation of the legs.

When the Empress Josephine went to meet Napoleon at Ba-
yonne in 1808, the municipality sent a company of young Landais
stiltsmen to escort her. Turning back, they very easily kept up
with her carriages, although the horses trotted rapidly. During
her sojourn at Bayonne, the shepherds on their stilts gave much
amusement to the ladies of the court. They ran races, threw
money on the ground and all tried to pick it up at once, and per-
formed many exercises of cunning and skill, accompanied with
frequent falls. Until very recently hardly any festivals took

* A representation from Nature, of a shepherd of the Landes on his stilts, can be seen
in the hall of the Provinces of France, at the Ethnological Museum of the Trocadero.

STILTS AND STILT-WALKING.

469

place in the villages of Gascony without stilt-races. The prizes
usually consisted of a gun, a sheep, a rooster, or something of the
kind ; and young women sometimes took part in the exercises.
Some of the municipalities near Bayonne and Biarritz still organ-

FiQ. 1. — Sylvain Dornon, Landais Stilt-walker. (From a photoi;

Arcachon.)

-M. Bacour, of

ize stilt-races, at the seasons when travel to them is greatest ; but
it is said that the stiltsmen who perform at such times are not
real Landais shepherds, but are casuals picked up as they may be
found, most frequently from among professional acrobats.

Besides attaining considerable speed, the Landais stiltsmen are

470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

able to run long distances witliont ap]3reciable fatigue. Formerly,
on market days at Bordeaux, long lines of peasants could be seen
arriving on stilts, who, though encumbered with sacks and bas-
kets, had come from villages ten, fifteen, or twenty leagues and
farther away. Now, the sight of a man on stilts is almost as
great a curiosity in Bordeaux as in Paris. The peasant of the
Landes comes to the city in a wagon or by railroad.

Stilts are of common use in the Belgian city of Namur, a town
which formerly suffered from the periodical overflows of the Sam-
bre and the Meuse. The streets were at such times converted into
streams or ponds, and the inhabitants could communicate with
one another only by means of boats or on stilts. This condition
has been remedied by suitable public works, but the taste for
stilt-races and for the organization of societies of stiltsmen has
lasted till the present time.

It is said that the stiltsmen of Namur once procured a valuable
privilege for their city. The governor had promised the Arch-
duke Albert to send a band of warriors to meet him who should
not be on foot or on horseback. He fulfilled his promise with the
assistance of two companies of stiltsmen, who performed their
evolutions in the archduke's presence. He was so pleased with
the spectacle that he gave a perpetual exemption to the city of
Namur from the beer-tax. The gratitude of the ])eople toward
their stiltsmen, and the esteem in which sports with stilts are
held by the youth of Namur, are easily comprehended.

Travelers have seen stilts in ordinary use by natives of several
islands of the ocean, especially in Santa Christina of the Marque-
sas. Here, as in other places, the usage is in consequence of a
climatic peculiarity. During the rainy season the lower parts of
the island, the surface of which presents few inequalities, are full
of marshes, and stilts have been employed from time immemorial
as a means of communication over them. It is worthy of remark
that the stilts of savage jieoples are vastly more ingenious and
elegant than those of the Landais shepherds. Marquesan stilts
may be seen at the Ethnographic Museum of the Trocadero and
the Marine Museum in the Louvre adorned with really artistic
designs and curious sculptures, mostly made with the aid of fire.

Independently of the considerations of facility of communica-
tion which have made the use of stilts necessary in some coun-
tries, the thought of mounting sticks of greater or less height, in
order to appear larger or to excite the curiosity of spectators,
seems to have occurred at all times and in all countries. In nu-
merous masquerades artificial giants may be seen — persons who,
having thus mounted stilts, excite the admiration of the people.
They are a feature of the Italian masquerades. Gigan and his
wife are one of the attractions of the carnivals of Lille and Dun-

STILTS AND STILT-WALKING.

471

kirk. In various places we may see Gargantuas, Goliaths, or
Saint Georges and Saint Michaels. From the acrobatic point of
view, walking on stilts gives occasion for feats of agility easy to
execute and amusing to the spectator. Acrobats on stilts have
been mentioned in Japan, China, India, and Oceania ; and clowns
are sometimes seen in circuses executing curious exercises on
stilts.

The use of stilts is a sport, an amusement for children. Real
stilt-races may be seen every day in public gardens. The peasant
youth in the country are adepts in making excellent stilts of
forked sticks which they cut in the thickets.

I have been told by a friend that the college students at Brive-
la-Gaillarde formerly had a peculiar sport of going on holidays on
stilts to what they called viper-hunts. They armed themselves

mrf\

Fig. 2.— Collegians of Krive-la-CtAIllarde returning from a Viper-hitnt on Stilts.

with a long rod split at the end, and went on stilts, of course, as a
precaution against being bitten. When, in the evening, they
passed through the city, still on stilts, each carrying at the end
of his rod an adder or two which they called asps or black vipers,
they excited a sensation. Women and children ran away from
them or fled into the houses to get away from their tricks.

It seems to be a great pleasure to men on stilts to try to throw
one another down. Every young stiltsman is ready to attack,
to push, or to trip his colleagues. In the public gardens of Paris,
in the Luxembourg, for example, where many youth amuse them-
selves with stilts, wrestling and contests became so frequent that
once after an accident the authorities were constrained to jiro-
hibit them. These games on stilts seem to be attractive also to
the children of the Marquesas Islands. Pere Mathias, in his ac-

472

THi: POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

count of his voyage to those islands in 1745, remarks that the
game on stilts holds the first rank among the pleasures of the
Kanakas. On their stilts, he says, which raise them three or four
feet above the ground, they give themselves up to combats, and
great is the laughter that greets the fall of the awkward. These
contests are traditional at Namur, and constitute a kind of na-
tional tournament. The contestants form two parties. Each
camp is composed of seven or eight hundred combatants, with a
captain, officers, a banner, and a cockade. The stiltsmen come into
the grand square, announced by martial music. Each party occu-
pies its side of the place, waiting for the signal for opening. The
bells sound at every attack, flags fly from the windows, and a
crowd of spectators and friends attend to witness the sport. At
the giving of the signal the camps engage in the attack. At the
first meeting a large number of the contestants fall heavily to the
ground and lie there without being able to rise, exposed to being

t>^^,\k4%^^

Fig. 3. — Ancient Contests of Stiltsmen at Namur.

trodden upon unless some of the friends who accompany them —
wife, mother, or sister — come to their assistance, and lift them up
with considerable effort and often after unsuccessful attempts.
The contestant, set upon his stilts again, precipitates himself anew
into the fight, unless he has been hurt too badly hy liis first fall.
It is not necessary to add that these sports are often dangerous.

The stiltsmen of Namur who gave representations before
Charles V, Peter the Great, and Bonaparte, preserve piously in
their archives and repeat witli pride the saying of Marshal Saxe,
that " if two armies should clash together with as much energy
as the youth of Namur, the affair would not be a battle, but a
butchery."

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 4r72,

Stilts are no longer in use as a practical means of locomotion.
In France the Landes of Gascony have been drained and reclaimed,
and are penetrated by roads and coursed by railways. The Lan-
dais tchangues are gradually disappearing, and soon, probably,
their memory will exist only among the octogenarians of the
province, or as preserved in the collections of popular traditions.
— Translated for the Popular Science Monthly froTn La Nature.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE.

By DANIEL SFILLANE.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMEEICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE
COLUMBUS. XIL

THE place this country holds among modern nations in the
production and use of musical instruments is so significant
that the fact alone ought to be sufficient to disjjrove the charge
that Americans are too material to appreciate music or the arts.
In this and the following article we purpose to treat of the devel-
opment of musical instruments and their manufacture in America
from the historical, technical, and industrial stand] )oints, with
brief sketches of the various improvements and of the individuals
identified with them. The piano-forte, the " household orchestra "
of the people, is entitled to yjrecedence. Though less complicated
and expressive than that "king of musical instruments," the organ,
it fills such an important place in social and popular life, and its
])roduction maintains such a prosperous art industry, employing
within its lines so many gifted men, that this prominence is fully
justified.

In treating of the evolution of the piano-forte a little attention
must be claimed for the precursors of the instrument. The harp,
one of the most ancient, may be traced back in Egyptian history
to an indefinable period before Christ. Bruce, the celebrated Scot-
tish traveler and antiquarian, found two paintings, in fresco, of
harps on the wall of an ancient sepiilchre at Thebes, supposed to
be that of Rameses III, who reigned about 1250 B. c. In Thebes,
an Egyptian harp was found, in 1823, by Sir John Wilkinson, in
an ancient tomb, estimated to be three thousand years old, and
when the gut strings were touched they emitted musical sounds.
These instruments are illustrated in Fig. 1.

The lyre, a relative form of harp, was also much used in Assy-
ria and Egypt. Ancient sculptures found in Konyunjik, Assyria,
now in the British Museum, show two lyres with figures, which
further demonstrate its remarkable antiquity. Both instruments

474

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

were played with the fingers ; sometmies a piece of bone or ivory-
was used with the lyre as a plectrum.

The dulcimer, which of all musical mediuius is nearest to the
piano, has been likewise traced into the dim recesses of history,

TRIANGULAR HARPS.

J. Ancient Egyptian Harp, fmm instrument in Egyptian Museum, t^lorence. 2. Ancient Egyptian Harp AVilliinsonI

3. Ancient hgyptian Harp i\V ilkinson). 4. Persian C/iaKg- (from Persian MS. 410 years old j-Lanc's " Arabian Niglits."

VARIOUS FORMS OF ECVPTI.'.N HARPS (kOSELLINI). ,

lands. Portable Harps for single use. 2. Orchestral Harp. 4. From Painting at Thebes, on tomb of Ramescs III.

Fir,. 1.

and was known doubtless as early as the harp. In a piece of
antique sculpture — an Assyrian bas-relief — in the British Muse-
um, a dulcimer may be seen illustrating the principle of sound
production in strings by percussion. Another bas-relief repre-
sents a procession of tri-
umph after the victory
of Sardanapalus over the
Susians, where the dulci-
mer is used.

Having shown the an-
tiquity of these instru-
ments of the string fam-
ily out of which the piano
has been evolved, we pass
over a space of centuries and come to the next major development
of the idea. This was the introduction of finger-keys in the
organ, which were in the beginning struck with the clinched fist.
Guido is said to have first applied them, in addition to his other
historic achievements.

ASSYRIAN LVRPS.

I and 2. Sculptiires from Konyunjik (Diitish Museum).
3. From Botta's "Nincve."

Fifi. 2.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE, 475

Tlie first instrument of the string family with finger-keys was
the clavicytherium, or clavitherum, which the Italians produced
about the thirteenth century. This was a form of harp with gut
strings in which a key-board was employed with finger-keys to
move the mechanical leather plectra used for plucking the strings
in lieu of the fingers.

The clavichord, an instrument used up to a recent date, came
into existence about the same period as the foregoing, and was an-
other step toward the piano.
This, like the two instruments
mentioned, derived its name
from Claris, a key. For the
first time gut strings were
set aside for wire, which were
thrown into musical vibra-
tion by a tangent moved by a
key, thus forming a rude an-
ticipation of the first piano-
action mechanism. Sebastian
Bach used the instrument in
his home for purposes of in-
spiration and practice, while
Mozart is said to have carried
one on his musical journeys.
Beethoven was also partial to

the instrument. It had very many advantages over the harpsi-
chord, the only popular instrument of the Mozart and Bach era.
For instance, it was possible to produce rude -piano e forte effects
— which results, first attained in the piano, gave it its title — while
it had the faculty of action repetition, and a pleasing attribute of
being able to simulate human feeling, such as a violinist or vocalist
can produce by sliding from interval to interval. As compared
with the piano, however, or even the improved harpsichord of the
last century, it was a mere toy.

The first mention of the instrument discovered in England
goes back to 1500, when William Cornish, in his work, A Treatise
between Trouth and Informacion. says :

" The clavichorde hath a tunely knyde
As the wyre is wrested high and low."

It may have been known previously, however, in that country.
Meanwhile, the Germans were generally esteemed as leading
clavichord makers at that period.

The virginal and spinet, both forms of the clavicytherium,
came next. In these instruments brass-wire strings superseded
gut. Instead of a leather plectrum for plucking the strings, a

Fig. 3.

-Procession of Triumph, siio\vi>-(
Dulcimer.

476

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 4. — Spinet by Player.
South Kensington Museum, London.

piece of crow-quill was used attached to a " jack " and operated by
a finger-key. The difference between these two instruments was
only a slight matter of shape. The virginal was in some cases
partially upright. Among the magnificent collection of instru-
ments presented to the Museum of Art by W. A. and Mary E.

Brown, of this city, sev-
eral specimens may be
seen. The virginal was
a favorite instrument in
England during Eliza-
beth's time. The most
noteworthy example of
this species in preserva-
tion is the Rossi spinet,
in the South Kensington
Museum collection, Lon-
don. It has a compass
of four octaves and an
eighth from E, and is
finished in a superb man-
ner. A Player spinet is
shown in Fig. 4.

Meanwhile musical
art had been developing, the compass of keyed instruments was
extending, and the harpsichord duly ajopeared in Italy, which
was the home of musical art almost up to the end of the last
century. Toward the end of the sixteenth century it had taken
the iDlace of the virginal and spinet in many parts of Europe!
The harpsichord was an enlarged and improved form of the latter
instruments. Among other original features it contained two
strings to each note, which marks another important innovation,

Hans Ruckers, of Dresden — Handel's favorite maker — was the
most noted of his time. One of his instruments is at present in
the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. having been
presented by the late Mr. Drexel, of Philadelphia.

In Italy, Father Zanetti, a Venetian priest, became noted for
some improvements in the harpsichord about 1702, Crotone and
Farino — two famous Italian makers — later appeared. The latter
substituted catgut for wire, going back to the harp principle, but
it never won recognition. Meantime, one Rigoli, of Florence,
made upright harpsicliords as far back as 1631. Coming down
toward the introduction of the piano-forte, the names of Silber-
mann. Stein, Peronnard, Marius, Cristofori, and Tschudi must be
mentioned. These were all noted harpsichord-makers, represent-
ing Germany, France, Italy, and England, but nearly all of them
became identified with the production of the piano.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 477

Fig. 5. — Harpsichord.

The ijiano-forte was iuvented by Bartolommeo Cristofori, a
harpsichord-maker of Padua, Italy, who exhibited four iustru-
meuts in 1709. The honor was formerly claimed for Marius, a
French maker, who produced a piano in 1710 ; while German

writers maintained that Schroeter, of Dresden,

was the initiator of the instrument. The earli-
est date ascribed to the latter's achievement,
however, is 1711. During the present century,
however, an Italian document was discovered,
written by Marchese Scipione Maffei, a Floren-
tine scholar, in 1711, which testifies that Bar-
tolommeo Cristofori, of that city, exhibited
four pianos in 1709, which statement was origi-
nally published in the Giornale in that year,
accompanied by a diagram of Cristofori's ac-
tion principle, employing hammers, which con-
stituted the chief difference betwen the harp-
sichord and the piano.

In Maffei's writings Cristofori's name is
given as " Cristofali," but this is proved to be
an error, because inscriptions upon existing piano-fortes give the
name as " Cristofori."

Father Wood, an English monk, living at Rome, is also said
to have made a piano-forte similar to Cristofori's in 1711, which
he exhibited in England, where it attracted much notice.

Cristofori did not remain idle after
introducing his first instrument. He
became prominently known as a maker,
but died in 1731, comparatively poor.
Two piano-fortes by Cristofori, at pres-
ent in Florence, dated 1720 and 1726,
show that he anticipated the princi-
ples of an improved action, and many
other points of equal importance in the
structure and acoustics of the instru-
ment. One of these is illustrated in
Fig. 0. All authorities admit that he
was a great figure and a genius of no
common order.

England, backward in the produc-
tion of musical creators or adjuncts
to the art in the past, contributed nothing of consequence to
supplant the harpsichord, which instrument was largely im-
ported, until the middle of the last century, when Burckhardt
Tschudi, a Swiss, settled in London. Tschudi subsequently en-
gaged in the manufacture of piano-fortes, and incidentally founded

Fig. 6. — Piano by Cristofori, a. d.
1726. Kraus Mnsenm, Florence.

478

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tlie house of Broadwood & Sons, existing at tliis date in London,
and still eminent as piano manufacturers. Plenius, another Lon-
don liarpsicliord-maker, attempted to co])y Father Wood's x>iano-
forte, but failed to poyjularize the form, and ceased manufacturing
the instrument in a few years.

Throughout England little was known of the piano-forte until
the arrival of twelve workmen in London from German shops,
about 17G0. This turned the tide of popularity in its favor, for,
having had practical experience abroad, they produced instru-
ments of more musical value than those experimental pianos
hitherto made by Plenius and Tschudi, These men were famil-
iarly known as the " twelve apostles.'' From Cristofori's time to
1760 all the piano-fortes made were in the form of " grands," but
very diminutive as compared with those of our time. This shape
was borrowed from the harpsichord, out of which the piano-forte
was evolved. Zumpe, however, a German workman, who went
over to London among the group indicated, produced square
pianos for the first time, which he sold at a reasonable figure ;
and this feature, combined with their portable appearance and
pleasant touch, won rapid popularity for the instrument.

John Broadwood, the
founder of Broadwood
& Sons, a young Scotch-
man, came to London in
1751, and found employ-
ment in Tschudi's work-
shop. He rose rapidly
in the favor of his mas-
ter, and subsequently
married the latter's
daughter. Afterward
becoming a partner, up-
on the death of Tschudi
he inherited the busi-
ness. Broadwood, by
his personal genius as
an inventor and work-
man, rescued Tschudi
from being a mere harp-
sichord - maker, and,
toward 1786, Tschudi & Broadwood became pre-eminently known
as piano-forte makers. Broadwood was instrumental in intro-
ducing the action at present known as the " English grand
action," which originated with Backers, a workman in Tschudi's
shop, in 1776. Robert Stodart, another graduate of Tschudi's
workshop, succeeded to a successful business established by Back-

FiG. 7. — JoiKv Bkoadwood.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 479

I. The Clavichord I

^>^=^:
R??

ers, the inventor of the "English grand action/" and died very
wealthy. Stodart also contributed many important improve-
ments to the grand. He was followed by his sons, who main-
tained an excellent record as piano-makers up to recent years.

Sebastian Erard, the founder of the well - known house of
Erard, became a leading maker in France toward the end of the
last century. He was another important figure in relation to
improvements in the grand piano, and also the harp. He was fol-
lowed by his son Pierre, who became equally famous,

Clementi, the celebrated pianist, a Roman, began business
in London in 1800 in partnership with Frederick W. Collard, the
latter being the practical partner, and out of this firm the emi-
nent house of Collard & Collard, at present known through Great
Britain and Ireland as manufacturers, came. The first Collard
was in his time also a great inventor.

Pleyel, Pape, and other French makers appeared soon after the
beginning of the century and became famous in Europe as im-
provers. Many other makers of

distinction are known in relation j

to early piano-making in Germany >.»^-,»^?:?r3- ::-„..,fk

and elsewhere, but detailed refer-
ence to them is impossible here.

John Broadwood introduced an
important improvement in the con-
struction of the square piano in
1783, by altering the position of
the tuning-pin block — known tech-
nically as the " wrest - plank " —
from the front of the instrument
to the back, a system which has
since then been maintained. He
also made some valuable improve-
ments in the construction and po-
sition of the sounding-board.

John Geib, a German piano-
maker, patented and introduced
the first " square action " of value

in 178G. This became known as the " grasshopper " action, and
held a leading place in England and in this country up to 1840.
He also introduced the bufi^ stop. Members of the Geib family
were among the pioneer piano and organ builders in New York.

The square piano, which held a favorite place in the United
States up to within the past five years, owing to the fact that it
was brought to a high point of perfection here, was very popu-
lar in Europe as a household instrument up to 1807, when the
" cabinet " upright took its place. William Southwell, of Dublin,

4. Croadwood's Grand actioD.

Fig. 8. — Illustrating the Partial De-
velopment OF THE Piano Action.

480

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

some of whose family were prominently known on the early
American stage, was the inventor and j^atentee of the latter
instrument. It was produced after fourteen years of persistent
endeavor, and, although many persons had previously attempted
to make an upright piano-forte of practical value, Southwell was
the first to solve the problem in 1807, and it is out of his instru-

FiG. 9. — Southwell's Piano, a. d. 1798. In tlie possession of A. Simpson, Esq., Dundee,

Scotland.

ment that all subsequent models and modifications of the upright
sprang. He also originated the first meritorious upright action
ever produced up to his time. This is still known in London as
the " Irish " action. One of Southwell's earliest attempts is illus-
trated in Fig. 0.

It is noteworthy that John Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman, the
inventor of ever-pointed pencils, and an engineer by profession,
began the manufacture of uprights in PhiladeliDhia in 1800, He
took out a national patent in that year for his instrument, which
he named " portable grand," and which created quite a furor in
that city at the time,

Thomas Jefferson happened to see one of Hawkins's " portable
grands " in 1800, while visiting Philadelphia, which he speaks of
in the following letter to his daughter : " A very ingenious,
modest, and poor young man. in Philadelphia, has invented one of
the prettiest improvements in the piano-forte that I have ever

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 481

seen, and it has tempted me to engage one for Monticello. His
strings are perpendicular, and he contrives within that height to
give his strings the same length as in a grand piano-forte, and
fixes the three unisons to the same screw. It scarcely gets out of
tune at all, and then, for the most part, the three unisons are tuned
at once."

One of these instruments is now in the possession of Broad-
wood & Sons, London. Hawkins was certainly the first to antici-
pate the modern upright, in its characteristics of portableness,
but musically his instrument had no value, and the action prin-
ciple originated by him was
a complete failure. He after- ^
ward returned to London,
where he achieved an hon-
orable place in his profession.
I am indebted to Mr. A. J.
Hipkins, the celebrated Eng-
lish writer on musical instru-
ments, and member of Broad-
wood & Sons, London, for
facts given in this connec-
tion.

The future of the piano
about the beginning of the
century depended on the suc-
cessful introduction of iron ;
for a point of development
had been reached where
wooden cases were found in-
adequate to withstand the
tension imposed by heavier
stringing and an increased
key-board compass. Meanwhile the first notable attempt to in-
troduce iron into the structure of the piano occurred in this
country in 1800, when J. Isaac Hawkins, already spoken of, manu-
factured uprights with iron backs, on which the sounding-
board was adjusted. Several rude attempts to employ iron
were made subsequently in Europe, but without any degree of
success, until Allen and Thoms, two practical workmen in the
shop of Stodart in London, originated and patented a system of
metal tube and plate bracing in 1820. This attempt was in itself
very successful. It became the property of Stodart and proved a
fortune to him, but, although an improvement on the old methods,
it was far from being adequate to the demands of musical progress.
Pleyel, of Paris, and Broadwood, of London, followed with more
improvements of the same order, and with partial success, from the

VOL. xr,. — 34

Fig. 10. — First American Upright Piano, made
BY Hawkins in Philadelphia, 1800. In the
possessioa of Broadwood & Sons, London.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

standpoint of tlie European climate as well as the demands of the
limited compass then known. Allen and Thoms later on improved
upon their first patent, but not before they had been anticipated
in this country by Alpheus Babcock, a piano-maker of Bos-
ton, whose invention Jonas Chickering subsequently perfected.
Probably it was the obvious inability of London-made pianos to
stand oiir climate, or the intrinsic defects in the system of case-
building then in vogue, which attracted the attention of American
piano-makers as early as 1790, when cases were put together with
screws instead of glue in Philadelphia ; anyway, it has long been a
subject of pardonable pride to American piano-makers to know
that the problem referred to was solved in this country.

Fk

11.— The Albrecrt Piano, a. d. 1789. Pennsylvania Historical Society. Made in
Philadelphia by Charles Albrecht. One of the oldest American pianos known.

In 1775 John Behreiit, of Philadelphia, announced that "he
had finished an extraordinary instrument by the name of the
piano-forte in mahogany, in the manner of the harpsichord." This
was probably the first piano made in America. James Julian
came forward in 1784, when the Revolutionary War had just been
concluded, and advertised the great "American piano-forte of his
own invention." In 1789 a piano-forte made liy George Ulshofer,
a German musician and musical instrument maker and repairer,
was exhibited by him in Corre's City Tavern, New York. Some
time before this year Charles Albrecht began making pianos in
Philadelphia, many notable specimens of which exist to-day. One
stands in the Art Rooms of the Philadelphia Historical Society,
dated 1789, and another was presented by the late Mr. Drexel to
the New York Museum of Art.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 483

I find a definite announcement in 1792, in the first number
of the Diary or Lowdon's Register, of February 12tli, in which
Messrs. Dodds & Claus, musical instrument manufacturers, 66
Queen Street, announce the "forte piano of their make, with their
own improvements."

Piano-manufacturing in New England was begun by Benjainin
Crehore, in Boston, as early as 1798. He had a workshop at Mil-
ton, Mass., where he made violins and violoncellos many years
previously, but his first piano was produced some time in that
year. His workshop proved to be a national school for the art, so
to speak, for Alpheus Babcock and John Osboru, the celebrated
piano manufacturers of the period,
with whom Jonas Chickering learned
his business, were apprentices of Cre-
hore's. The first Chickering, there-
fore, sprang indirectly from the hit-
ter's modest factory.

The pioneer makers in New York
were Davis, Gibson, Kersing, and Geib
— names now almost forgotten, al-
though old instruments of their pro-
duction may be found occasionally in
piano ware-rooms and country houses.
All of these were in business before
1800 and upward, but they never at-
tained prominence or wealth.

The piano industry had attained
some footing in America toward 1829,
despite foreign competition, for in that
year twenty-five hundred pianos were
made here — nine hundred being pro-
duced in Philadelphia, eight hundred
in New York, seven hundred and sev-
enteen in Boston, and a considerable number in Baltimore and
Cincinnati. At that period the Loud Brothers, of Philadelphia,
were the leading American makers — a position assumed by Chick-
ering & Mackay toward 1840. In Boston, Osborn, Jonas Chicker-
ing, and Alpheus Babcock were established — the former being
one of the most distinguished of native piano-makers. Babcock,
who produced and patented his skeleton iron plate in 1825, moved
to Philadelphia in 1830, where he lived for a few years.

Jonas Chickering began business in 1823, in partnership with
James Stewart, a practical piano-maker and inventor. Stewart
had been previously in business in Baltimore, but came North to
become a partner of Osborn, with whom he quarreled in a short
time, when a separation ensued. In 1826 Stewart went to Lon-

FiG. 12.— Babcock's Skeleton Iron
Plates. 1. Patented December
17, 1825. 2. With iron ring, pat-
ented May 24, 1830.

484

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

don, having accejited a position as superintendent of Collard &
Collard's. Mr. Cliickering entered into partnership with a Cap-
tain Mackay at this juncture, and the new firm rapidly rose to a
foremost pUice as makers of pianos, thanks to the inventive and
technical genius of Mr. Chickering. In 1841 Captain Mackay died,
when the whole business reverted to Chickering,

Jonas Chickering was born in Ipswich, N, H., April 5, 1798.
He learned cabinet-making in his native town, and when a mere
youth turned his face toward Boston, to find an outlet for his
native abilities. On arriving in Boston he found his way into
Osborn's shop, leaving it subsequently to enter on a successful
career as a manufacturer and inventor. In 1840 he introduced
and patented his full solid-cast metal plate for squares, which he
carried into grands in 184'-i. The introduction of these plates
marks an era in the history of the American piano.

Fig. 13— .Ionas Ciiickehing.

Upon the death of Jonas Chickering, in 1853, the responsibili-
ties of the business devolved upon his three sons — Thomas E.,
C. Frank, and George H. Chickering. The first two are dead, the
last is the present head of the firm of Chickering & Sons. C.
Frank Chickering, the author of the chief developments in the
Chickering piano since his father's death, has left behind him a

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 485

splendid record as an inventor, while his most artistic labors have
been performed in the region of acoustics, or tone development.
He was born in Boston, June 26, 1827, where he received his edu-
cation and professional training. He lived in New York for many
years, attaining an influential position in social and artistic circles,
and died here March 23, 1891. George H. Chickering was born in
Boston, April 18, 1830. Trained under his father's eye in all de-
partments of the art, he was eminently fitted for the province in
which he labored up to the time of his brother's death, while time
and experience have amply qualified him for the responsible posi-
tion he now occu])ies.

Vui. 14. — Chickering's Full Solid-cast Iron Frame, a. d. 1840. Also applied to Grands

Chickering's " circular scale " for squares followed the full
metal plate, and this became in later years a direct key to the
development of the system of " overstringing" now in general use
in this country. Previous to the "circular scale" the hammer
heads struck upon an almost straight line throughout, and hav-
ing, meanwhile, to conform to a standard law which regulates the
part of the string on which the hammer is to strike, piano-makers
were restricted from bringing forward further improvements in
stringing and case structure. Jonas Chickering, however, helped
to remove the barriers wliich impeded progress by running his
hammer-heads on a curve. This permitted the introduction of
many original features in the general constitution of the instru-
ment, leading up to still greater developments. The improve-
ment was suggested to Chickering by the perfecting of the
plate idea, for, having found the latter to be a most satisfac-
tory means of strengthening his cases so as to withstand all extra
tension imposed by heavier stringing and an extension of the key-
board, he was placed in a position to move forward, and the "cir-
cular scale " for squares was the outcome. This system, however,

486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was never found applicable to the grand or upright, owing to their
different construction, though the late C. F. Chickering took out
a patent for a "circular scale" for the latter instrument in 1871.

The term " scale " in the technical vocabulary of the piano-
maker means — superficially — the disposition of the strings ; but it
really means far more, for the scale draughtsman has to make
radical changes in the case, action, structure of the plate, and
other lesser features to correspond with any changes made in the
arrangement or use of the strings. The Chickering "circular
scale "' is regarded as a most important contribution by old i:)iano-
makers, though it was never carried beyond the square.

Loud Brothers, of Philadelphia, had in the mean time brought
out and patented many features of moment, which gave impulse
to other thinkers, but nothing of consequence comparable with
Chickering's achievements. New York makers were not slow to
see the advantage of the latter's plates, which were copied in
various forms. A few of the more ingenious managed to use
plates almost similar to Chickering's, without exposing them-
selves to legal proceedings. The "circular scale," being an un-
patentable species of innovation, was, however, freely copied.

The most notable of the makers in New York around the
" fifties " were the Nunns family and Bacon & Raven. The for-
mer introduced the French square action into this country, and
are known to have l)rought forward some minor imjjrovements.

The next and most important advance in piano construction
was overstringing. In the old system of stringing — which is yet
in use among English makers — the strings throughout were
placed almost parallel, in harp-fashion. In the illustration of a
Chickering plate (Fig. 14), this method of string adjustment 7nay
be seen. British and French makers yet stick to the old system
to some extent, though they have adopted many of the progressive
traits of American pianos. Even the eminent house of Broad-
wood & Son, London, still use the " flat scaling," as it is called, in
preference to overstringing, on the ground that it yields a purer
quality of tone. This is only a matter of opinion, however, about
which the best makers and experts of Germany and this country
differ. One thing, meanwhile, is indisputable — viz., that English
pianos lack the power and resonance of American instruments,
and would never stand this climate. They are constructed for
sweetness and daintiness of tone rather than for volume. Ameri-
can pianos, on the other hand, possess a remarkable combination
of all those qualities which are in the highest sense related to
musical art.

Overstringing was anticipated about the l)eginningof the cent-
ury by the elder Thomas Loud, biit nothing came of his experi-
ments. Overstringing — which means simply the crossing of sec-

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 487

tions of the strings — was a difficult system to perfect, since it
compelled radical changes in the disposition of the hammers,
structure of the plate, and other component parts of the piano.
About 1853, when the instrument had grown to still larger di-
mensions and power, thanks to the whole-cast metal plate, a point
had been reached where it became apparent that further compass
and volume of tone were impossible under accepted stringing con-
ditions. Overstringing was the only avenue to further progress

Fig. 15. — Heitoy E. Steinway.

in tone-development open to piano-makers ; yet few saw it, and
those who did were incapable of bringing it to a practical success.
The chief points of superiority over the flat scaling are that over-
stringing permits the dividing up of the tensional pull of the
strings upon the case, while it admits of their more advantageous
use from the standpoint of tone, and renders the instrument more
capable of staying in tune and u]i to pitch — a most important con-
sideration.

John Jardine — a very clever piano-maker — was one of the ear-
liest to attempt overstringing in this country, but his efforts led
to no permanent results. Frederick Mathushek took out a pat-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ent for an application of this method of stringing in 1851, but it
never became popular. Steinway & Sons, however, took up the
idea in its crude stages a few years later, and applied it success-
fully. They not only developed overstringing, but it is to them
we owe the improved disposition of the strings below. They were
the first to exhibit a square piano containing a practical and suc-
cessful development of
the overstringing prin-
ciple, which has since
been accepted every-
where. An instrument
made on these im-
proved lines was ex-
hibited at the Ameri-
can Institute Fair in
1855. It was awarded
a gold medal, and was
practically the parent
instrument of that or-
der, not only as regards
the arrangement of the
strings, but in the
structure of the plate
and most other general
features. Bass over-
stringing, passing over
three bridges, was a no-
ticeable feature in that
piano. A full metal
plate, covering the
wrest-plank, having a
solid bar, was also used,
with imj)rovements
which insured greater
resistance against the
pull of the strings.
Another feature em-
bodied in this instrument was the arrangement of the bridges.
These were x>laced farther in on the sounding-board, so as to
bring into sympathy hitherto dormant sections of its surface.

Passing over the numerous inventions brought out by Stein-
way & Sons, following the success of their squares made on the
system referred to, their patent for stringing in grands claims a
brief notice. This is illustrated in Fig. 16. They were granted a
patent for this invention in 1859. In the instruments made on
the new lines the strings were spread out in fan-shape, in con-

FiG. 16.— Interior of "Steinway" Grand, showing
Disposition of the Strings Fan-shape.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 489

junction with an original disposition of the bridges, as well as
with a striking departure in the construction of the plate, the
quality of wire used in the different sections throughout, and in
many minor directions. The success of these instruments was
pronounced, and the " Steinway " grands were immediately given
a foremost place among the leading concert instruments of the
world. In 1863 they applied overstringing on a full iron plate,
together with many of the most significant features of their
squares and grands, to the upright, a form little used in those
times, though now holding popular favor to the almost entire ex-
clusion of the square. Since that year they have added patent
after patent, and have been most indefatigable in their efforts to
im]7rove the character of the piano. Among their other notable
inventions must be named their '' grand duplex scale," which is
now adopted in all their improved instruments. This was intro-
duced in 1872. Their modern grands are remarkable for the char-
acter of the action used, as much as for their individuality of
tone. This action is a Steinway specialty, and contains many
original and effective features, which render it capable of yield-
ing remarkable results in the hands of the artist, the chief feat-
ures being its power of quick repetition and susceptibility to
artistic demands. This brief sketch of their inventions would
be incomplete without mention of their " cupola metal frame."
This is another improvement in the structure of the modern
plate.

The house of Steinway & Sons was founded in 1853 by Henry
E. Steinway and his sons, Charles and Henry. The elder Stein-
way was born in Wolfshagen, in the duchy of Brunswick, Ger-
many, on December 17, 1797. From being an organ-builder he
entered the sphere of piano-making at Seesen, where he married
and began business on his own account. His three sons, C Theo-
dore, Charles, and William Steinway, were born at Seesen. Henry
E. Steinway won a reputation as a progressive piano-maker from
the beginning. In 1839 he exhibited a grand and two squares at
the state fair of Brunswick, where he was awarded the prize
medal by Albert Methfessel, the composer, who presided as chair-
man of the jury on the occasion. Meanwhile his sons all grew up
in the atmosphere of the piano art business, in which they after-
ward figured so prominently. In 1850 Henry E, Steinway came
to these shores on the advice of his son Charles, who had come
over the year before to investigate the field. In 1853, the year of
the first American World's Fair, the house of Steinway & Sons
was founded. William, armed with an excellent education and a
technical training, was taken into partnership late in that year,
and since then has been closely identified with the growth of the
business.

49°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

William Knabe, tlie founder of Knalje & Co., of Baltimore,
whose portrait we give, was another important figure in the de-
velopment of i:)iano-making in America Born in Kreutzburg,
Germany, in 1803, he came to this country twenty years later with
a knowledge of piano-making; and, in association with Henry
Gaehle, began manufacturing in Baltimore in 18139. A few years
later he started in business for himself. Knabe was instrumental
in bringing out many good " scales " and new ideas of similar un-
patentable character, and is admitted to have left behind him a

worthy record as a
maker, being always
identified with pi-
anos of the first
grade. He died in
1864 in Baltimore.

The late James A.
Gray, of Boardman
& Gray, of Albany,
introduced several
inventions of some
moment into the
square in past years,
but with the deca-
dence of that instru-
ment their value
ended.

William Linde-
man, a native of
Dresden, Saxony,
and founder of Lin-
deman & Sons, in-
troduced a " cycloid piano " in 1860, which won some notice from
performers and experts. This instrument was a sort of compro-
mise between the grand and square, but it was never a selling
success, though a most meritorious and ingenious development.

Among other makers who identified themselves with the
square during its popular period, may be named George Steck,
John Jacob Decker, Andres Holmstrom, Myron A. Decker, Henry
Hazelton, Napoleon J. Haines, and many others, living and dead,
whose work in minor details can not be considered here.

The late Henry F. Miller, of Miller & Sons, Boston, and Albert
Weber, founder of the eminent Weber firm, also deserve mention.
The Miller and Weber firms played no insignificant part in im-
proving the quality of American grands, and uprights as well.
Henry F. Miller was a native of Providence, R. I., where he was
born in 1825, He became an organist in early life, and subse-

FiG. 17. — William Knabe.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE.

491

quently drifted into piano-manufacturing in Boston, where he
soon won a distinguished place.

The upright, although the popular form in Euroj^e for over
fifty years, never won a place here until past 1870, when the show-
ing of these instruments at the Centennial Exhibition stimulated
fresh efforts in this direction. About 1882 it had conquered the
square as a household form of piano, and since then the latter has
been fast going out of use. In fact, in the leading shops the
manufacture of squares has ceased entirely.

Southwell's cabinet uprights, already spoken of, were large
clumsy instruments, though the first acceptable pianos in perpen-
dicular shape produced. In 1813 Robert Wornum, a great figure
in British piano -making records, brought for-
ward an improved upright with diagonal strings,
which, from its portableness and other charac-
teristics, soon became the favorite. In his model
the dimensions of the uj)right were reduced to
about four feet six inches, and this subsequently
in its improved features became the English cot-
tage piano — a form still in pojDular favor in Eng-
land. Wornum also produced a smaller upright
in 1826, which he named the " piccolo." These,
in addition to valuable action improvements, cor-
responding in effectiveness with the originality
of his instruments, were most significant contri-
butions to the development of the upright up to
the latter date. He was also the inventor of the
upright " tape-check action," which is now gen-
erally used, though with many modern improvements. It was pat-
ented in England in 1843, but, strange to say, despite its admitted
qualities of excellence, was regarded with little favor in Wor-
num's own country. Continental piano manufacturers alone tak-
ing kindly to it. The upright, meanwhile, received much atten-
tion in Europe from piano-makers and improvers, and soon grew
into popular favor, to the general exclusion of the square. The
European squares, however, were never brought to any consider-
able degree of perfection, while American squares, on the con-
trary, were so excellent, toward 18G0, that their musical and other
qualities served to draw the attention of piano-makers from the
upright. The demand for pianos taking little floor-space for
household use in the large cities within more recent years drew
the attention of makers to the ux^right as a substitute for the
square ; and, now that success has been achieved in giving the
upright the musical characteristics of the square, the latter is
almost out of date.

Cabinets and other forms of uprights on English lines were

(^p^

Fig. 18

Section of
Impkoved Upright
Action.

492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

imported and made in tliis country about the time they came into
use abroad. Timothy Gilbert, of Boston, introduced an improve-
ment in the upright and its action in 1841, but it amounted to
little. Jonas Chickering also paid some attention to the perfect-
ing of the instrument, and many excellent uprights of his pro-
duction may be found, but the public did not take kindly to them
at the time. In addition to many minor inventions in the ui:)right,
he is said to have applied overstringing to them in 1851. But it
was only after 1870 that the upright fcnind any favor in this
country.

The late C. Frank Chickering introduced some remarkable
upright scales about 1870, having devoted much time and experi-
ment to the perfecting of the instrument, and these were gener-
ally copied by competitors of less originality or spirit. Fred-
erick Mathushek, previously mentioned, is also on record as
having made some- striking advances in the adaptation of the
upright form to the jiopular demand. I have in mind the years
preceding 187G. It would, however, be impossible to follow out
in detail all the minor contributions made to the upright up to
that year.

Excellent uprights are now manufactured by the leading
firms, and in all may be found an average in the shape of im-
provements— the full iron plate in its most modernized form,
overstringing with imj^roved acoustic conditions, a good action
well regulated, and almost every other feature that existing in-
ventions warrant. But this is not to be interpreted as a declara-
tion that further evolution is impossible. Meanwhile there are
specialties in use in the instruments of some firms which I shall
try to point out in a brief way. One of the most peculiar of these
is the Mason & Hamlin system of tuning and stringing which
they have introduced in all their pianos. Notwithstanding a dis-
belief freely expressed at the outset, their innovation has been,
in fact, very successful. Instead of the conventional tuning-pin
driven in a pin-block (known as the wrest-plank), they use a
screw-headed blade, having a slot at one end for the string, and a
screw at the other end by which it can be tightened. The prin-
ciple is illustrated somewhat in a violin-bow. The blade runs in
another slot to keep it from twisting, and the tension of the string
is imposed upon a flange cast in the plate. This device is applied
to their grands and uprights with most satisfactory results.
Decker Brothers, Sohmer & Co., Steck & Co., Weber. Decker &
Son, of New York, Hallett & Davis, Emerson Co., Miller & Sons,
of Boston, and various other houses, also manufacture instru-
ments with patented improvements, but though most of them are
meritorious they are not revolutionary or striking. Behr Broth-
ers, of New York, have, however, attracted much attention with-

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE. 493

in recent years through the introduction of an improved grand-
action principle, and a system of stringing, which are illustrated.
They are sparing no expense or pains in their efforts to improve
the character of their instruments, and such sacrifices are entitled
to acknowledgment. Their grand-action improvement assists the
production of fine graduations of tone in performance as well as
prompt repetition, while
their method of string ad-
justment has been adopted
with a view to rendering
the instrument more ca-
pable of staying in tune,
as well as for the purpose
of tone development. This
is applied to both uprights
and grands.

James & Holmstrom, of
New York, have recently
patented and introduced a
" transposing key-board "
into their uprights, which
is receiving considerable
notice from artists. It is
an ingenious adaptation
of the ordinary key-board,
by which the piano-per-
former may change the
pitch at pleasure. Though
the idea was anticipated
a century ago, and frequently experimented with, it was reserved
for Mr. Andres Holmstrom, of the above firm, to apply it with
success. It is a great boon to vocalists and artists generally,
and of popular value as Avell. In the invention referred to,
the key -board, which is distinct from the action, is made to
move a little toward either side, so as to bring the keys under
different hammers; the performer is meanwhile given easy and
effective control over its disposition, and variations of pitch can
be obtained with ease. Apart from this invention Mr. Holmstrom
has drawn many excellent upright " scales,^' which have given
him a high reputation among piano-makers.

Conover Brothers, of New York, have also patented several
inventions of much significance, the author of which is Mr. C. F.
Conover, one of the most remarkable of the later-day school of
makers. These cover improvements in almost every department
•of the upright instrument. They include an original tuning-pin
arrangement, a method for obtaining prompt repetition in the

Fig. 19.
Behr Brothers' Grand Piano Hammer, with Com-
pensutius: Lever.

2. Ordinary Hammer and Butt.

3. Behr Brothers' " Stringing

ented.)

Device." (All pat-

494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

action, and a " scale " of especial moment and value. The latter
also embraces a departure in plate construction as a part of the
whole scheme. Conover's scale contains "duplex bridges'' and
what are termed " auxiliary vibrators," and in effect is a most
meritorious contribution to American jjiano-making. Their '' hol-
low steel" tuning-pin system is also a significant improvement,
while their action is, as far as it is original, equally successful.

Steck & Co., and Decker Brothers, of New York, have been
identified with the bringing out of several valuable improve-
ments, which they use as specialties, the most important of which
are in the form of scales which can not well be exemplified. The
same remark applies to the specialties of several other houses,
such as Haines Brothers, Hazleton Brothers, Decker & Son, Kra-
nich & Bach, and others.

Meanwhile I can not jmss over the inventions of Paul G.
Mehlin, who has done much for the improvement of the mod-
ern piano. Though these are numerous and touch every region
in the upright piano, his " grand plate and scale " for uprights
deserves mention. Through it Mr. Mehlin claims to give the up-
right some of the principal characteristics of the grand, and the
trial to a large extent justifies the claim. The Century Company,
of Indianapolis, manufacture the " Mehlin pianos." Mr. Mehlin
has taken out a considerable number of patents for improvements
in the plate, wrest-plank, action, key-board, scaling, cases, and
every section of the instrument since 1872, and has applications
pending for more.

Henry Kroeger, of Gildemeester & Kroeger, has also been
active as an improver, though his patented inventions cover no
radical departures ; but his contributions in the form of " scales "

Fig. 20.— Steinway & Sons' Grand Eepetition Action, with Tubular Metallic Frame.

Patented October 20, 1S75.

have been very useful, and during his career he has always been
associated with the production of pianos of the highest class.
His eminent services deserve this acknowledgment at least. Many
other thinkers and inventors, such as Stephen Bramback, of the
Estey Piano Company ; Myron A. Decker, of Decker & Son ; and
Hugo Sohmer, of Sohmer & Co., are equally entitled to recogni-
tion, though limitations of space prevent more than their mention.
Kindred Industries.— Since 1850 the specializing of such

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE PIANO-FORTE.

495

branches of piano-making as action and key making, and the
casting of plates — apart from liammer making and covering, case-
making, string and felt making — have helped the general develop-
ment of the piano to a large extent. Action-making is the largest
of all these branches. Formerly a skilled workman was expected
to be competent in action-making and half a dozen other branches
now separated. While the present system tends to prevent the
coming to the surface of such skilled piano-makers as those who
built up the principal houses now in existence, and otherwise
confines the energies and intellect of clever young men in a nar-
row channel, yet the existing order of things is on the whole
beneficent and better than the old.

The first action-making establishment in New York, and proba-
bly in the country, was opened by Andrew Brunet, an Alsatian,
in 1841, in Clark Street. His place was very small and unpre-
tentious. He was successful, for small manufacturers saw at a
glance the advantages of being able to procure their actions from
a specialist. Other establishments sprang up in a short time.
While there are numerous small shops throughout New England
and in the West, New York is the center for the production of the
best class of actions ; but Chickering & Sons, Boston, Steinway &
Sons, Knabe & Co., Baltimore and New York, and a few other
firms, produce their own. The two leaders in this branch of the
business are Straucli Brothers and Wessell, Nickel & Gross, of
New York. Both firms are engaged in a healthy rivalry for the
first place in production and in quality of work, and many tech-
nical improvements have resulted from this condition of afi^airs.
They both produce actions involving the same principles, but
differing in minor details. Keys are also manufactured specially
in New York and outside for the trade.

The j)roduction of plates for pianos comes next in importance
to action-making. The first foundrymen to become identified with
this specialty were the Shrivers, well known in that connection.
To-day Shriver & Co., of New York, and Davenport & Tracey, of
Stamford, Conn., control the largest proportion of the business.

The wonderful growth and extent of piano manufacturing in
America is further illustrated in the business established and con-
ducted by Mr. Alfred Dolge, the well-known initiator of the Dolge
system of jjrofit-sharing for employes. In the regions of sounding-
boards, felts for hammer-heads and other purposes, and a host of
incidental articles, he stands alone. In Dolgeville, a large town
he has founded in the northern jDart of this State, he employs over
six hundred hands in his felt and sounding-board factories, and
has other establishments in Leipsic, Otterlake, and Port Leyden.
Over 35,000 boards were turned out from this factory during the
last year. For this purpose 2,800,000 feet of choice lumber were

496

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

handled. As each sounding-board represents a piano, one can
easily estimate from this basis of observation alone the wonderful
dimensions of the piano trade. The unique business in Dolgeville
is well worthy of study as a curious example of American indus-
trial life. Its relation to the piano industry is apparent.

In 1850 there were 204 establishments in this country making
musical instruments; piano-fortes were not separately reported
upon; 2,307 hands were employed, and the product represented
$2,580,715. We find that in 1860 21,707 pianos, representing
$6,518,432, were manufactured in the United States. The annexed
table of statistics shows the industry in 1880, and is the latest :

State.

No. of
establish-
ments.

Capital.

No. of
workmeD .

Wages paid.

Cost of .1 Value of
materials. products.

New York

Massachusetts. . . .

Maryland

Connecticut

Pennsylvania

Indiana

California

Kentucky

Illinois

New Hampshire. . .
Missouri

82
45
4
3
5
2
6
5
5
3
7
1
2
2
1
1

§6,627,845

1,905,700

638,382

257,000

169,500

77,000

50,000

40,700

20,300

18,000

21,350

15,000

10.200

10^600

4,000

4,000

3,966

1,504

385

302

154

90

27

26

27

32

19

20

7

10

4

2

13,213,481

890,721

200,988

142,057

87,044

42,500

18,425

12,833

16,902

8,894

10,398

6,000

4,500

4,250

2,200

2,000

$3,579,131

1,132,847

157,699

182,018

81,145

43,000

41,725

13,800

11,800

15,994

8,060

3,000

6,000

4,500

1,500

900

$8,084,154

2,652,856

534,099

386,583

217,924

109,000

92,700

42,200

87,675

30,380

27,200

Ohio

New Jersey

Wisconsin

Micliigaii

15,000

13,000

12,570

5,500

Texas

8,500

1880

174

$9,869,577

6,565

$4,663,193

$5,283,119

$12,264,521

When the statistics for 1890 appear, it will be found that the
increase in production has been even larger in proportion during
the last ten years.

'• HowEYEE prophetic," says Mr. A. II. Green in Nature, "may have been the
far-seeing premonition of men in advance of their age in the dim past, and how-
ever invaluable may have been the additions made to the superstructure since, it
can scarcely be doubted that the foundation-stones of geology were Laid by Scotch-
men and Englishmen toward the end of the last and during the earlier part of the
present century. And what a charm there is about the story of those sturdy
pioneers — not perhaps quite the men whom one would have picked out as most
fitted or most likely to become the fathers of a new science ! It has about it the
elements of a genuine romance. For the early training of few of these men was
such as to give a scientific bent to their mind; tliey did not have what we are
pleased to call 'the advantage of a scientific education'; it is probable that they
never spoke, perhaps never dreamed of such a phrase as ' the scientific method,'
which we are so fond of formularizing, and on which we plume ourselves some-
what. But in spite of these seeming drawbacks, ratlier perhaps because with
these men genius was allowed to run its spontaneous, untrammeled course, they
opened out to mankind a domain of knowledge, the very outskirts of which had
been barely touched upon before.

ELECTRICITY IN RELATION TO SCIENCE. 497
ELECTEICITY IN RELATION TO SCIENCE.*

By Prof. WILLIAM CEOOKES.

THE third annual dinner of the Institution of Electrical En-
gineers was held at the Criterion on Friday, November 13th,
Prof. William Crookes, the president, was in the chair. In pro-
posing the toast of the evening, " Electricity in relation to Sci-
ence," Prof. Crookes delivered the following speech :

We have happily outgrown the preposterous notion that re-
search in any department of science is mere waste of time. It is
now generally admitted that pure science, irrespective of prac-
tical applications, benefits both the investigator himself and
greatly enriches the community. *'It blesseth him that gives,
and him that takes." Between the frog's leg quivering on Gal-
vani's work-table and the successful telegraph or telephone there
exists a direct filiation. Without the one we could not have the
other.

We know little as yet concerning the mighty agency of elec-
tricity. " Substantialists " tell us it is a kind of matter. Others
view it, not as matter, but as a form of energy. Others, again,
reject both these views. Prof. Lodge considers it " a form, or
rather a mode of manifestation, of the ether." Prof. Nikola Tesla
demurs to the view of Prof. Lodge, but thinks that "nothing
stands in the way of our calling electricity ether associated with
matter, or bound ether." Higher authorities can not even yet
agree whether we have one electricity or two opposite electrici-
ties. The only way to tackle the difficulty is to persevere in ex-
periment and observation. If we never learn what electricity is,
if, like life or like matter, it should remain an unknown quantity,
we shall assuredly discover more about its attributes and its
functions.

The light which the study of electricity throws upon a variety
of chemical phenomena — witnessed alike in our little laboratories
and in the vast laboratories of the earth and the sun — can not be
overlooked. The old electro-chemical theory of Berzelius is su-
perseded, and a new and wider theory is opening out. The facts
of electrolysis are by no means either completely detected or co-
ordinated. They point to the great probability that electricity is
atomic, that an electrical atom is as definite a quantity as a chemi-
cal atom. The electrical attraction between two chemical atoms
being a trillion times greater than gravitational attraction is

* Speech delivered at the third annual dinner of the Institution of Electrical Engi-
neers, London, November 13, 1891.
VOL. XL. — 36

498 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

probably the force with wliicli chemistry is most deeply con-
cerned.

It has been computed that in a single cubic foot of the ether
which fills all space there are locked up ten thousand foot-tons
of energy which have hitherto escaped notice. To unlock this
boundless store and subdue it to the service of man is a task
which awaits the electrician of the future. The latest researches
give well-founded hopes that this vast storehouse of power is not
hopelessly inaccessible. Up to the present time we have been
acquainted with only a very narrow range of ethereal vibrations,
from extreme red on the one side to ultra-violet on the other — say
from three ten-millionths of a millimetre to eight ten-millionths
of a millimetre. Within this comparatively limited range of
ethereal vibrations, and the equally narrow range of sound vibra-
tions, we have been hitherto limited to receive and communicate
all the knowledge which we share with other rational beings.
"Whether vibrations of the ether, slower than those wliich affect
us as light, may not be constantly at work around us, we have
until lately never seriously inquired. But the researches of Lodge
in England, and Hertz in Germany, give us an almost infinite
range of ethereal vibrations or electrical rays, from wave-lengths
of thousands of miles down to a few feet. Here is unfolded to us
a new and astonishing universe — one which it is hard to conceive
should be powerless to transmit and impart intelligence.

Experimentalists are reducing the wave-lengths of the elec-
trical rays. With every diminution in size of the apjDaratus
the wave-lengths get shorter, and could we construct Leyden
jars of molecular dimensions the rays might fall within the nar-
row limits of visibility. We do not yet know how the molec-
ule could be got to act as a Leyden jar ; yet it is not improba-
ble that the discontinuous phosphorescent light emitted from
certain of the rare earths, when excited by a high - tension cur-
rent in a high vacuum, is really an artificial production of
these electrical rays, sufficiently short to affect our organs of sight.
If such a light could be produced more easily and more regularly,
it would be far more economical than light from a flame or from
the arc, as very little of the energy in play is expended in the
form of heat-rays. Of such production of light. Nature supplies
us with examples in the glow-worm and the fire-flies. Their light,
though sufficiently energetic to be seen at a considerable distance,
is accompanied by no liberation of heat capable of detection by
our most delicate instruments.

By means of currents alternating with very high frequency.
Prof. Nikola Tesla has succeeded in passing by induction through
the glass of a lamp energy sufficient to keep a filament in a state
of incandescence without the use of connecting wires. He has

ELECTRICITY IN RELATION TO SCIENCE. 499

even lighted a room by producing in it sucli a condition that an
illuminating appliance may be placed anywhere and lighted with-
out being electrically connected with anything. He has produced
the required condition by creating in the room a powerful elec-
trostatic field alternating very rapidly. He suspends two sheets
of metal, each connected with one of the terminals of the coil. If
an exhausted tube is carried anywhere between these sheets, or
placed anywhere, it remains always luminous.

The extent to which this method of illumination may be prac-
tically available experiments alone can decide. In any case, our
insight into the possibilities of static electricity has been extended,
and the ordinary electric machine will cease to be regarded as a
mere toy.

Alternating currents have at the best a rather doubtful repu-
tation. But it follows from Tesla's researches that as the rapidity
of the alternation increases they become not more dangerous but
less so. It further appears that a true flame can now be produced
without chemical aid — a flame which yields light and heat with-
out the consumption of material and without any chemical pro-
cess. To this end we require improved methods for producing
excessively frequent alternations and enormous potentials. Shall
we be able to obtain these by tapping the ether ? If so, we may
view the prospective exhaustion of our coal-fields with indiffer-
ence ; we shall at once solve the smoke question, and thus dissolve
all possible coal rings.

Electricity seems destined to annex the whole field, not merely
of optics, but probably also of thermotics.

Rays of light will not pass through a wall, nor, as we know
only too well, through a dense fog. But electrical rays of a foot
or two wave-length of which we have spoken will easily pierce
such mediums, which for them will be transparent.

Another tempting field for research, scarcely yet attacked by
pioneers, awaits exploration. I allude to the mutual action of
electricity and life. No sound man of science indorses the asser-
tion that " electricity is life " ; nor can we even venture to speak
of life as one of the varieties or manifestations of energy. Never-
theless, electricity has an important influence upon vital phe-
nomena, and is in turn set in action by the living being — animal
or vegetable. We have electric fishes — one of them the prototype
of the torpedo of modern warfare. There is the electric slug
which used to be met with in gardens and roads about Hornsey
Rise ; there is also an electric centiped. In the study of such
facts and such relations the scientific electrician has before him
an almost infinite field of inquiry.

The slower vibrations to which I have referred reveal the be-
wildering possibility of telegraphy without wires, posts, cables, or

500 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

any of our present costly appliances. It is vain to attempt to
picture the marvels of the future. Progress, as Dean Swift ob-
served, may be too fast for endurance. Sufficient for this gener-
ation are the wonders thereof. — Nature.

THE NATIONALIZATION OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.

Br Pkof. C. HANFOED HENDERSON.

I HAVE read with attention the editorial comment on univer-
sity extension, published in the November number of this
magazine, and I am glad to see the subject given so much premi-
nence. The movement has still much of the plasticity of youth,
and any discussion regarding its proper ends and aims, or of the
means by which these are to be gained, can never be more
helpful than now. The present opportunity, it seems to me, is a
very large one, and we need the fullest and most impersonal play
of thought upon all questions connected with the extension
scheme. It is with this feeling in mind that I welcome most
heartily the editorial dissent from the proposition to make the
work a national activity. The proposition is assuredly a grave
one, not only as regards university extension, but even more
because it involves a distinct principle of governmental policy,
which is either to be courted or to be shunned.

If I may ask for a little further space, I should like to add a
word concerning this proposition, which, it is needless to say, was
not lightly made. And I should like to speak again, not so much
in defense of the proposition— for one must not, in such an inquiry,
allow one's self the attitude of an advocate— as to point out that
there is another way of looking at national co-operation with uni-
versity extension than as a subsidy for the movement. And I am
the more ready to speak, because it seems to me that perhaps the
editorial dissent is not so much against the proposition actually
made in the article under discussion, as against a proposition
which migU have been made, and was not, but which presented
itself to the mind of the critic as he read.

It is objected that university extension must depend for its
success upon individual zeal and public spirit— to which, of course,
I fully agree— and that government aid would defeat this purpose.
But such a result is by no means necessary. It would depend
entirely upon the way in which the aid was given. At present,
university extension centers are established quite by private action,
and the societies for the extension of university teaching simply
co-operate with the local center in providing lecturers, issuing
syllabi, and the like. The local center, be it remembered, meets

NATIONALIZATION OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 501

all its own direct expenses. But the central oflBce must meanwhile
be sustained. At present this is done in most cases by private
subscription. It is a benefaction, and bounded by all the limita-
tions of a benefaction. Under this arrangement it is quite clear
that a center can only be established where there are people of
means willing to make themselves responsible for the local expense
in case the sale of lecture tickets does not provide sufficient funds.
The freedom of the individual to avail himself of university ex-
tension is, therefore^ limited by the double contingency of local
conditions and the facilities possessed by the nearest central office.
In no case, it is to be observed, does the central office suggest
courses, or pay for them.

Now, it was not proposed that Government should assume the
paternal duty of establishing lecture courses in the arts and
sciences here and there over the country, like so many intellectual
post-offices. But it was proposed that the establishment of local
centers should be left, as now, to private initiative and enterprise,
while the Government should simply assume the duties of the
central offices on a larger and more liberal scale. The work prom-
ises to be much too large for private enterprise, and since it does
not pay for itself, it can not, in private hands, be thoroughly and
systematically done with regard to the country at large. The
naovement would not be pauperized or degraded by such national-
ization. There would be the same play for individual zeal and
public spirit as now. But there would be this difference : it would
everywhere find established and adequate co-operation where now
it finds only special and metropolitan co-operation.

I think that the experiment would not be very dangerous, and
it need not be very expensive. Once established, these district
central offices of the Department of Education might with perfect
propriety go a step further, and provide, under suitable conditions,
for part of the expense of an extension course where the proceeds
from the sales of lecture tickets were not sufficient. With the
people themselves directly creating each center, electing their own
subject, choosing their own lecturer, and paying for all or part of
the local expense, I really do not see how the movement could be-
come commonplace or mercenary in its character by being system-
atized under national auspices. There would be room here for an
enthusiasm which could be followed by performance.

Like most lovers of freedom we are often too jealous of it to
use it. The chief incapacity for greatness in republican admin-
istrations is that we are at heart cowards. We make our own
government, and are then very much afraid of it. It is as if we
feared that this thing which we have ourselves created should
turn and devour us ; and this distrust is everywhere fostered by
the current belief that American politics is very corrupt. Un-

502 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.

doubtedly it is corrupt, but it will well bear comparison with the
activities of private life, with banking and mining enterprises,
with railroads and telegraphs, with buying and selling. An im-
partial review of American history during the decade just passed
will disclose a remarkable result, and one which deserves empha-
sis here and elsewhere :

Tlie sum of American public infamy is neither absolutely nor
relatively so great as the sum of American private infamy.

On all sides we hear the reverse. It is preached to us from
pulpit and from press, for the human mind has ever shown a
willingness for that light gymnastic which consists in setting up
a man of straw and then knocking him down. It is better to face
the truth. Our Government is corrupt only because our society
is corrupt, and it is less corrupt than society because vice is a
mortal coward and never does its worst in the open. The electric
light has much increased the morality of large cities. The neces-
sary publicity of national action does not insure honesty, but at
least it prevents much dishonesty. In those departments in
which the Government does attempt to serve us in a positive
capacity, such as the Post-Office, the Coast Survey, the Smith-
sonian, the Geological Survey, the Weather Bureau, the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, and the like, the service is certainly truer and
more effective than parallels from private corporations. I know
that Mr. Gould says that the mails would be better administered
as private enterprise, but the history of the Western Union Tele-
graph Company hardly bears out the remark. In view of the
experience of the nation, I do not think that university extension
need fear corruption should it be included in the portfolio of the
incoming Secretary of Education.

Nor is it by any means a proved case that there is a paralyz-
ing lack of vitality in our public schools. It is often asserted,
but, taking America as a whole, it seems to me that they are very
much alive. It is true that they are commonplace, so common-
place indeed that a conscientious educator will often ask himself
whether he should consent to such a system, and will hesitate as
to whether he should not withdraw from the public service. But
if he will look around him he will see that they are the schools of
a commonplace community, and are as good as the community
will tolerate. Even in Boston, Alcott's Temple School could not
live. One must admit that the public schools are in many ways
deplorable tread-mills, and that there are serious scandals in their
administration ; but they also will well bear comparison with pri-
vate institutions. They have, moreover, this great advantage, that
they permit a freedom and honesty of expression not always tol-
erated in those institutions which hang for support upon private
pocket-books and prejudices. In judging of our public schools

NATIONALIZATION OF UNIVUBSITY EXTENSION. 503

we must always bear in mind tlieir constitnency. They are the
scliools of the populace as well as of the higher classes. If we
take the attitude of mind of the average American citizen and
compare it with the standards of life represented by the public
schools, and then take the culture of the educated classes and com-
pare it with the ideals set forth by private institutions, we shall
find that, relatively speaking, the public schools are on much the
higher plane ; and surely no other mode of comparison can com-
mend itself to our sense of fairness. Instead, therefore, of mis-
trusting the lesson of the public schools, I should be glad to
believe that in five years — no, in ten years — university extension
would be doing in its line as effective work as our poor common-
place public schools are doing in theirs.

I have tried briefly to answer the expressed objections to the
nationalization of university extension ; but these do not repre-
sent to me the gravest of the possible objections which might be
urged, and I am also disposed to believe that under the editorial
comment there was a more fundamental dissent in mind. The
question, I take it, is essentially not one of experience as to what
sort of a servant the Government has been in the past, but is the
deeper question of the proper function of government. Had ex-
perience shown the public service to be relatively poor instead of
being, as I believe, relatively good, I should still advocate its min-
istration if social studies led to the conclusion that public serving
was desirable. The remedy would then lie, not in abolishing the
service, but in purifying it. On the other hand, had experience
been most favorable, more favorable by far than it has been, and
could it be shown on sound theoretical grounds that such govern-
mental activity was mischievous and likely to lead to encroach-
ments upon ultimate personal liberty, it would be one's clear duty
to set one's self resolutely against the public convenience and
abolish such dangerous service.

Speaking in a large way, there are in America to-day two
classes of political thinkers : those who believe in a paternal
government, which shall say what one shall eat and drink, what
one shall wear^ how long one shall work, at what age one shall
send one's children to school, what precautions one shall take
against loss of life — in a word, a government which shall be a
special if not always a very wise providence to each of its citi-
zens; and there are those who, mistrusting this meddlesome
paternalism, would go to the other extreme, and would limit the
functions of Government to a minimum. The first class is apt to
include those well-meaning but mischievous reformers who wish,
like the prohibitionist, to cure society by medicine in place of
hygiene, and that part of our professional class who have drawn
their social ideals from bureaucratic Germany. The second class

504 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

takes in those, perhaps, who have studied the political -writings of
Herbert Spencer, and have translated his sturdy and wholesome
demands for the largest possible individual liberty to require a
perpetually negative attitude on the part of the Government.

It is difficult to say which class, if left to itself, would make
America the more unendurable.

It is this question of our ideal of government which is involved
in the proposed nationalization of university extension, and not a
mere question of past or probable experience.

This opens one of the most profound problems in our Ameri-
can political life, and one which may be stated indeed but scarcely
discussed within such brief limits as the present. Yet feeling
that the issue under discussion has its solution in the solution of
this larger question, I can not refrain from calling attention to
the very doubtful character of the liberty which is to be enjoyed
under a regime of social and governmental negations. Writers
of the sentimental school of political economy — a school which
oddly enough includes many prosaic labor agitators of the pres-
ent day — fairly gloat over their picture of the ideal liberty en-
joyed by man in his pre-social existence. But there are many
who can feel no enthusiasm for this impossible picture. Place a
naked man on an island in the Pacific, and, however generous
Nature may be, however free he may be from the tyrannies of
modern society, it would be the worst mockery to speak of him
as enjoying liberty, for liberty, as a man of any imagination
must perceive, presupposes not only the absence of restrictions
upon individual action, but also the presence of certain condi-
tions which will make those desired actions possible. In a word,
liberty is a positive and not a 7iegative condition. Again I
venture upon the use of Italics to emphasize what seems to me a
most important truth. When we contemplate the narrowing and
annoying restrictions which the holders of the ideal of a paternal
government would impose upon American life — the eternal thou
shalts and thou shalt nots of prohibitionists and dictators of all
classes — the temptation is to swing to the opposite extreme of the
pendulum, and declare that absolute non-interference on the part
of Government is the only safeguard. When, further, one reads
Herbert Spencer's admirable volume on Justice — admirable, that
is to say, excepting his unfortunate utterances on the status of
woman in the state — one is, at first, confirmed in this negative
retreat. The sole function of Government is to insure the great-
est possible individual liberty consistent with the liberty of all.
This is the conclusion which one of the most profound thinkers
of the century reaches at the end of a long and thought-crowded
life. And one could ask for no better definition. But how is this
conclusion to be applied ? That is the question. There is a tend-

NATIONALIZATION OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 505

ency, it seems to me, on the American side of the Atlantic, to
misinterpret this principle, and to discredit too much the immense
power for good in proper governmental activity. And even
Herbert Spencer himself, gazing too steadily upon the slavery of
socialism and the mischief of protection and prohibition, warrants
in a measure such a misinterpretation. It is true that govern-
mental activity run wild is as harmful as a thunderbolt, but, when
chained to the right sort of service, it is as useful as the electric
current. It is possible to apply the salutary principle laid down
in the volume on Justice in a manner that will avoid the evils of
both paternalism and of too great passivity. Nor is this playing
with fire. The line between legitimate and illegitimate govern-
mental activity is easily drawn. What is mandatory in govern-
ment must not much exceed the Decalogue, or it trespasses on
that individual liberty which it is the sole function of govern-
ment to promote. But the field of action is not so narrow as this.
There is a large region of what may be called permissives, in
which an intelligent Government may with perfect propriety
make individual actions possible, which would otherwise be quite
impracticable, and this is very different from the spirit of the
Decalogue. Every free Government does at the present time
extend a large measure of mere verbal permission to its citizens,
but this is rather a gratuitous bit of graciousness, if it do nothing
to see that adequate means are obtainable.

We have, then, an easily applied test of the propriety of any
governmental action. If it comj^el, beyond the primal social
necessaries — the prevention of murder, theft, adultery, and the
like — it is mischievous, and is to be resisted as an encroachment
upon individual liberty. But if it render intelligent assistance in
making desirable individual action possible, it is to be hailed as a
legitimate extension of individual liberty, and is to be utilized as
a fruit of the progress of civilization in precisely the same spirit
that we would utilize the inventions of Siemens or Edison. One
is free, for instance, to write a letter to any one in any place, but
he is the more free in that Government delivers it for him at a
cost so small that the very poorest may write. There is much
that is most desirable to be accomplished in America through
national action, and it seems to me that we cheat ourselves
sadly if we hesitate to use so powerful a means out of fear
that it shall be misused. The more it is properly used, the
better will its function be understood, and the less likely to be
abused.

Viewing the function of Government in this light, I still be-
lieve that the nationalization of university extension is highly
desirable, for I believe that, by supplying adequate means for the
carrying out of a great idea, it would add immensely to that indi-

5o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vidual liberty wliicli it is the special province of Government
to conserve, and this, too, without any loss of individual zeal and
initiative.

Let us repeat it : A governmental activity whicli compels, is
mischievous ; an activity which says : " Thou mayst ; lo, here are
the means," is helpful.

IS MAN THE ONLY REASONER ?

By JAMES SULLY.

THE " whirligig of time " may he said to be bringing to the
much-neglected brutes an ample revenge. The first naive
view of the animal mind entertained by the savage and the child
is a respectful one, and may perhaps be roughly summed up in
the formula in which a little boy once set forth his estimate of
equine intelligence : " All horses know some things that people
don't know, and some horses know more things than a great many
people." But this pristine unsophisticated view of the animal
world, though its survival may be traced in mythology and re-
ligious custom, has long since been scouted by philosophers.
Thinkers, from Plato downward, have, not unnaturally perhaps,
regarded the faculty of rational thought, which they themselves
exhibited in the highest degree, as the distinguishing prerogative
of man. The Christian religion, too, with its doctrine of immor-
tality for man and for man alone, has confirmed the tendency to
put the animal mind as far below the human as possible. And so
we find Descartes setting forth the hypothesis that animals are
unthinking automata.

Not forever, however, was the animal world to suffer this in-
dignity at the hands of man. Thinkers themselves prepared the
way for a Tapiyrocliertie7it between the two. More particularly
the English philosophers from Locke onward, together with their
French followers, pursuing their modest task of tracing back our
most abstract ideas to impressions of sense, may be said by a sort
of leveling-down process to have favored the idea of a mental
kinship between man and brute. This work of the philosophers
has been supplemented by the leveling-up work of the modern
biologist. There is not the least doubt that the wide and accurate
observation of animal habits by the naturalists of the last century
has tended to raise very greatly our estimate of their mental pow-
ers. So that it would seem as if in the estimation of animal intel-
ligence, scientific knowledge is coming round to the opinion of
the vulgar, and as if " the conviction which forces itself upon the
stupid and the ignorant, is fortified by the reasonings of the in-

IS MAN THE ONLY REASONER? 507

telligent, and lias its foundation, deepened by every increase of
knowledge." *

Definiteness lias been given to the question of tbe nature of
animal intelligence by the new doctrine of evolution. If man is
descended from some lower organic form, we ought to be able to
make out not merely a physical but a psychical kinship between
him and the lower creation ; and the more favorable estimate of
the animal mind taken by the modern savant is of great assist-
ance here. Mr. Darwin has, indeed, shown in his valuable contri-
butions to the subject, that the rude germ of all the more charac-
teristic features of the human mind may be discovered in animals.
At the same time, Mr. Darwin's investigations in this direction
amounted only to a beginning. The crux of the evolutionist, the
tracing of the continuity of crude, formless animal inference, up
to the highest structural developments of logical or conceptual
thought, still remained. And so, the most powerful attack on the
theory of man's descent has come from the philosopher, the lo-
gician, and the metaphysical philologist, who have combined to
urge the old argument that conceptual thought indissolubly
bound up with language sets an impassable barrier between man
and brute.

Mr. Darwin's unfinished work has now been taken up by one
who adds to the biological knowledge of the expert a considerable
acquaintance with psychology. In his previous volume, Mental
Evolution in Animals, Dr. Romanes took a careful psychological
survey of the animal world for the purpose of tracing out the suc-
cessive grades of its mental life. In his recent volume. Mental
Evolution in Man (Origin of Human Faculty), he essays to trace
forward this general movement of mental evolution to the point
where logical reasoning or "conceptual thought" may be dis-
tinctly seen to emerge. That is to say, he adroitly seeks to leap
the " impassable " barrier by merely denying its existence. Hu-
man reasoning and animal inference are not two widely dissimilar
modes of intellection. The one is merely a more complex expan-
sion of the other. If you start either at the human or the animal
bank you can pass to the opposite one by a series of stepping-
stones. In other words, the higher human product can be seen to
have been evolved out of the lower by a continuous process of
growth.

Dr. Romanes's present contribution to the theory of evolution
is thus emphatically the construction of hypothetical stepping-
stones for the purpose of passing smoothly from the territory of
animal to that of human reasoning. In order to this, he has on
the one hand to follow up animal intellection to its most note-

* Prof. Iluxley, Uurae, p. 104.

5o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

worthy achievements, and on the other hand to trace the process
of human intellection down to its crudest forms in the individual
and in the race.

As it is obviously language which marks off human thought
from its analogue in the animal world, our author is naturally
concerned to limit the function of language. While allowing as
a matter of course that the " conceptual thought " of the logician
involves language as its proper instrument or vehicle, he urges
that there is a good deal of rudimentary generalizing prior to,
and therefore independent of, language. To establish this a care-
ful examination of the higher processes of animal " ideation " has
to be carried out. In doing this Dr. Romanes introduces a num-
ber of psychological distinctions of a somewhat technical kind.
Of these the most important perhaps is that between the time-
honored concept of the logician and the recept This last corre-
sponds to Mr. Galton's generic image or the common image {Ge-
meinhild) of the German psychologists. It is an image formed
out of a number of slightly dissimilar percepts corresponding
to different members of a narrow concrete class, such as dog or
water. According to our author, animal reasoning remains on
the plane of recepts. It is carried on by pictorial representations.
At the same time it involves a process of classification or general-
izing. A diving-bird must be supposed to have a generalized idea
(recept) of water, a dog a generalized idea of man, and so forth.
Nay, more, this receptual ideation enables the animal to reach
" unperceived abstractions," as the idea of the quality of hollow-
ness in the ground, and even "generic ideas of principles" as
when the writer's own monkey having discovered the way to take
the handle out of the hearth-brush by unscrewing it, proceeded to
apply the principle of the screw to the fire-irons, bell-handle, etc.

The author's whole account of this receptual ideation or the
logic of recepts is interesting and persuasive. He has, it must
be owned, clearly made out the existence of a very creditable
power among animals of carrying out processes analogous to our
own reasonings without any aid from language. Yet a doubt may
be entertained whether the author has really got at the bottom
of these mental feats. The whole account of the recept is a little
unsatisfactory, owing to the circumstance that the writer does
not make it quite clear in what sense it involves generalization.
He writes in sonje places as if the fact of the generic image hav-
ing been formed out of a number of percepts corresponding to
different members of a class, e. g., different sheets of water seen
by the diving-bird, gives it a general representative character.
But this, as indeed Dr. Romanes himself appears to recognize in
other places, is by no means a necessary consequence. A generic
image may form itself more readily than a particular one, just

IS MAN THE ONLY BEASONER? 509

because tlie animal is unable to note differences sufficiently to
distinguish one sheet of water or one man from another. A
baby's application of the common epithet " dada " to all bearded
persons suggests not that it is carrying out any process of con-
scious generalization, but rather that it is failing to discriminate
where there are striking and interesting features of similarity.
It would seem as if an idea only acquires a properly general func-
tion after certain higher intellectual processes have been carried
out. These may be roughly described as the active manipulation
of percepts and images, by analytical resolution of these into their
constituent features, and a due relating or ordering of these ele-
ments. Only in this way does it appear possible to reach a rudi-
mentary form of a properly general notion ; that is to say, an idea
which is consciously apprehended as representing common feat-
ures among a number of distinct objects. Mere superposition of
images may result in a new typical image ; but the mind in which
such an image forms itself can not know this to be generic or
general till these processes which underlie active thought have
been carried out. Now, we ourselves carry out these operations
of resolving into elements and recombining these elements (anal-
ysis and synthesis) largely by the help of class-symbols or general
names, which come to be general symbols just because we make
use of them for the purpose of noting down and keeping distinct
the results of our successive comparisons and analyses. And the
really pressing question for the evolutional psychologist is. How
does this manipulation of the mind's imagery get carried out
where the serviceable instrument of language is absent ? That
it does get carried out to some extent may be readily allowed. A
sagacious and well-bred collie, who combines with a judicious
preference for his owner a certain mild complacency toward man-
kind at large (with some possible exceptions), may be rightly re-
garded as having attained to a rudimentary consciousness of the
distinction between the general and the particular, the " class "
and its constituent members. But how this has been attained
i)r. Eomanes's account of receptual ideation hardly helps us to
understand.

The recept or generic image is the first of the psychological
stepping-stones leading across the unfordable Rubicon, and it is
also the principal stepping-stone. Should this prove to be un-
stable, the transit would certainly become exceedingly doubtful.

From the recept we pass to the concept, which, according to
our author, is in its simplest form a named recept. The addition
of the name or sign is thus the differentiating character of the
concept. We may have generic images, but no concepts apart
from names or other signs.

In order to understand how the concept is marked off from

510 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the recept, we must accordingly inquire into fhe psychological
conditions and concomitants of the naming process. And this
our author does at some length. He gives us a full and detailed
account of names and of signs in general, distinguishing different
grades of sign-making from the merely indicative pointing or
other gesture up to the bestowal of a general symbol with a con-
sciousness of its significance as connoting certain common quali-
ties. Into much of this it is not needful for us to follow Dr. Ro-
manes, but brief reference may be made to one or two points of
special importance as bearing on the evolution of the higher con-
ceptual thought. One of the most curious features of Dr. Ro-
manes's theory of concepts and naming is the proposition that the
name is bestowed on the idea, and has for its psychological con-
dition an act of introspection. He tells us that before we can
bestow a name on a recept we must be able to set this recept be-
fore our mind as an object of our own thought. Or, to express
the truth in the author's own words, self-consciousness is the
necessary presupposition of naming and so of conceptual thought.
Before I can name an idea I must reflect on the idea as mine, and
before I can judge in the logical sense, I must realize the truth of
the proposition as such, that is presumably as truth for me, so
that self-consciousness would seem to come in necessarily at all
stages of conceptual thought.

This doctrine seems by no means as clear and convincing as
the author supposes. He is, as he clearly tells us, confining him-
self to the psychological treatment of his subject. This being so,
it may fairly be urged that in making an act of subjective intro-
spection an essential factor in the process of naming he is psycho-
logically wrong. Is a child when inventing a name for his toy-
horse or doll reflecting on his idea as his and naming this idea ?
Is he not rather thinking wholly about the object, and is not the
name given to this external object and not to the idea in the
namer's mind at all ? * No doubt the completed process of logical
reflection on names and propositions brings in the subjective ele-
ment— that is to say the mind's consciousness of its ideas and
judgments as representations of the realities thought about. But
this reference to self, this act of introspection, so far from being
involved in every act of conceptual thought, is directly excluded
from it.

This brings one to the next point. In naming things the mind
is busily occupied, not with itself and its ideas, but with the "not-
self," the qualities and relations of the things perceived or rep-

* I believe that observers of children -will indorse the remark that children regard
names as objective realities mysteriously bound up with the things, and in a manner
necessary to them. A nameless object is, for a child, something incomplete — almost
uncanny.

7>S' MAN THE ONLY RE AS ONER? 511

resented. And this snggests first of all that naming, properly so
called, only begins when things come to be apprehended as such,
that is to say, as wholes or unities. And here the question occurs
whether an animal, say a dog, that is just coming on to under-
stand a name or two, as that of the baby of the house, can be said
to have an organized percept precisely analogous to our own per-
cepts ? Dr. Romanes does not raise the question, but, in view of
the light thrown by modern psychology on the complexity of the
process of perception, it might not have been redundant. But
waiving this point as possibly smacking of the frivolous, we have
to ask whether an animal at the stage of mental development at
which it appears to begin to understand names, and even to make
use of them, is capable of carrjdng out the processes that go along
with, and in fact constitute, naming in its true and complete sense.
These processes have already been referred to in connection with
the subject of general ideas. To name an object appears to mean
to apprehend that object as a complex of qualities, to make men-
tal separation of these, and so to relate it to other objects both by
way of similarity (classification) and dissimilarity (individuation).
To use a name intelligently at all would seem to imply that these
processes have been carried out in a rough fashion at least. This
being so, we must be prepared when we endow an animal with the
power of naming, whether under the form of understanding or
that of using names, to say that it is carrying out in a rudi-
mentary way at least these thought-processes. How, it may be
asked, does Dr. Romanes deal with this point ?

The answer to this question will be found by turning to new
distinctions or "stepping-stones" in the movement of thought-
evolution. Our author attaches importance to the distinction be-
tween higher and lower forms of the concept. Not only is there
the generic image to carry us on smoothly from image to concept,
but within the limits of the concept itself there are higher and
lower forms. Since, according to our author, a concept is any
named idea, a proper understanding of these conceptual grades
can only be obtained by a glance at his scheme of names.

There are, according to Dr. Romanes, four stadia in the evolu-
tion of the complete logical sign or general name. Of these the
first is (a) the indicative sign — that is, a significant tone or gesture
intentionally expressive of a mental state, as the characteristic
tones by which animals express their emotions. These are not
names at all. Next to these in the order of evolution come (&)
denotative signs. These, whether used by children or animals,
e. g., talking birds, simply mark "particular objects, qualities,
and actions." They are learned by association, and are not con-
sciously employed as names. By the use of such a sign the talk-
ing bird merely fixes a vocal mark to a particular object, quality,

512 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

or action; it does not extend tlie sign to any other similar objects,
qualities, or actions of the same class ; and therefore by its use of
that sign does not really connote anything of the particular object,
quality, or action which it denotes. Next in order (c) follow con-
notative signs which involve the " classificatory attribution of
qualities to objects." This attribution of qualities may be effected
either by a receptual or a properly conceptual mode of ideation.
For example, a i^arrot had come to use a barking sound when a
particular dog appeared on the scene. This sign was afterward
extended to other dogs, showing that there was a certain recog-
nition of the common qualities or attributes of the dog. Simi-
larly when the writer's own child, among its first words, used the
term star for all brightly shining objects. Here again there was
perception of likeness, but no setting the term before its mind as
an object of thought. Lastly (d), we have the denominative sign
which means a connotative sign consciously bestowed as such
with a full conceptual appreciation of its office and purpose as
a name.

In this scheme Dr. Romanes evidently recognizes the point
we are now dealing with, viz., the implication of a true thought-
process in the proper use of a name. He seems to be trying to
dispense with this as long as possible, with the view of securing a
number of intermediate stepping-stones. Can he be said to have
succeeded ? Does this hierarchy of signs with its parallel scale of
ideation carry us up to logical thought ? Is it even intelligible ?
Let us briefly examine it.

To begin with, it staggers one not a little to find that long
before the " classificatory attribution of qualities " is possible, the
animal somehow manages to mark " particular qualities," what-
ever these may mean. How, one asks, can a sign be appended to
a quality without becoming a " connotative sign " — that is, attrib-
uting a quality to a thing ? But let us pass to the really im-
portant point, viz., the alleged power of the animal, e. g., the talk-
ing bird, to extend a sign to different members of a class, and so
to attribute common qualities or resemblances to these, while it is
unable to form a concept in the full sense. This extension, we
are told, takes place in the case of the sign-using bird by receptual
ideation. And here the critic may as well confess himself fairly
beaten. On the one hand, Dr. Romanes tells us that such a named
recept is a concept (lower concept), and, moreover, that the sign
employed is a connotative sign ; on the other hand, he hastens to
assure us that it is not a name, and therefore presumably not a
concept, in the rigorous or perfect sense, since the sign is not con-
sciously employed as a sign. Here we seem to have a stepping-
stone which it is impossible to define, a sort of tertium quid be-
tween the image and the concept which is at once neither and

IS MAN THE ONLY BE AS ONER? 513

both; Surely if a sound is used for the purpose of marking re-
semblances and attributing qualities, it is a genuine name, and
the mental process underlying it is a germ of true conceptual
thought. To say that the parrot attributes qualities, and attrib-
utes them in a " classificatory " way too, seems indeed to mean
that the bird has got a considerable way along the conceptual
path, and is fairly within sight of our distinctions of thing and
quality, individual and class. Why logical reflection on this
name as such should be needed to raise such a performance to the
dignity of a true conceptual act, one is at a loss to understand.
And, indeed, the author himself appears to recognize all this in a
dim way at least, when he adds that the connotative sign may be
the accompaniment not only of receptual but of truly conceptual
ideation. At the same time this addition may very well complete
the reader's perplexity, for it appears to render the next stage of
evolution, the denominative sign, unnecessary.

Altogether the author's account of sign-accompanied ideation
is not quite satisfactory. To begin with, one misses an adequate
psychological treatment of signs in general, their nature and
function in our mental processes, such as M. Taine has given us
in the beginning of his work On Intelligence. Then our author
has left us very much in the dark as to what it is that the sign
does for the intellective process, when it begins to be used. On
the one hand, since we are told that the mere addition of a name
transforms the generic image into a " concept," we naturally ex-
pect the function of the sign to be a large and important one. On
the other hand, we gather that signs can be used at the level of
receptual ideation, where, consequently, true conceptual thought
is wholly excluded.

This confusion seems to have its main source in the curious
theory that while an idea may be general, it can not become a
true concept till it is introspectively regarded as our idea ; and its
counterpart, that while a sign may be a true sign and even sub-
serve the attribution of qualities to objects, it can not grow into
the full stature of a name till it is reflected on as a name. By this
doctrine Dr. Romanes seems unwittingly to have substituted the
logical for the psychological definition of the concept, and so to
have put the latter higher up in the evolutional scale than it
ought to be. To this it must be added that the author appears
to have been overanxious, with the view of making the transit
smooth, to multiply distinctions. Such intermediate forms as Dr.
Romanes here attempts to interpolate in the process of intellect-
ual development can not in truth do away with the broad distinc-
tions which psychologists are in the habit of drawing. Thus the
recept only appears to connect the image and the concept just be-
cause it tries to be both at the same time. So the lower stadium

TOL. XL. — 36

514 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the sign only gives an appearance of bridging over the interval
between signless ideation and sign-aided thought, just because it
aims at once at being something less than a true sign, and this
true sign itself.

If our criticisms are just. Dr. Romanes can not be said to have
succeeded in his main object, viz., the obliteration of all quali-
tative difference between human and animal intellection by the
interposition of psychological links which can be seen to have the
essential characters of both. And here one is naturally led to ask
whether the author is after all on the right track. For he is a
master of his facts and shows considerable power in the marshal-
ing of his arguments, and, as even a hasty perusal of the volume
can show anybody, he has here concentrated his force in a severe
and sustained effort. Where he has failed it is conjecturable that
others may fail also. And so it behooves us to see whether he has
approached the problem in the right way, or, at least, in the only
possible way.

The introduction of all this technical mechanism of receptual
ideation, lower concepts, and the rest, has for its avowed object
the avoidance of all introduction of qualitative change in the
process of intellectual evolution. Dr. Romanes tells us plainly at
the outset that he is going to establish identity of kind between
the animal and the human type of intellection. And, no doubt, if
it were possible to do this in the way here attempted — that is to
say, by interposing transitional forms which virtually efface all
qualitative unlikeness — it would be a great advantage to the evo-
lutionist. But it may be said that it is not the only way of satis-
fying the requirements of the evolution hypothesis. Dr. Romanes
pertinently remarks, in meeting a priori objections to the deriva-
tion of human from animal intellection, that in the life of the
human individual we actually have a series of transitions from
animal to human psychosis. ISTow, a glance at the intellectual de-
velopment of the individual shows us that distinct qualitative
differences are introduced. Not to speak of the obvious fact that
every new sensation effects a qualitative addition to the infant's
mental life, there is the more important fact that the first image
of the absent mother or nurse introduces a new sphere of mental
activity. The child that dreams and imagines is already a differ-
ent being from the infant that merely touches and sees. Similarly
it may be said that the first conscious process of breaking up its
sense-presentations, the first distinct apprehension of relations, is
epoch-making just because it marks the oncoming of a new mode
of mental activity, a qualitative extension of its conscious life.

To say this, however, is not to say that the process of develop-
ment is wanting in continuity. For, first of all, these higher
forms of activity introduce themselves in the most gradual way,

IS MAN THE ONLY RE AS ONER? 515

and only slowly disentangle themselves from tlie lower forms
wliicli constitute their matrix. Thus the image little by little
lifts itself butterfly-like out of its chrysalis, the percept. Simi-
larly, what we call thinking, with its conscious comparing and
relating of the products of sense-perception, emerges in the most
gradual way out of lower forms of psychosis.

But this is not all, or the main thing. While the higher and
lower forms of intellection undoubtedly exhibit qualitative differ-
ences, it may be possible to transcend these differences by going
deeper, and detecting the veritable elements of the intellective
process. This deej^er analysis is emphatically the work of modern
psychology, and, as every reader of Mr. Herbert Spencer knows,
is of vast assistance to the evolutionist in following the psychical
process from its rudest conceivable form in the lower grades of
animal life up to the highest achievements of human thought.
The luminous idea that all intelligence is at bottom a combination
of two elementary processes, differentiation and integration, seems
to lift one at once high above the perplexities with which our
author so laboriously deals. It enables us to say that animal in-
telligence, just because it is intelligence, must be identical in sub-
stance with our own. The qualitative differences between percep-
tion and conception, or, to take Dr. Romanes's example, " the logic
of recepts " and the logic of concepts, which obstinately persist so
long as we look at the process ah extra, now appear as mere results
of different degrees of complexity, of unlike modes of combina-
tion of the ultimate elements ; just as to the physiologist the mani-
fold variety of color resolves itself into different modes of combi-
nation of two or three elementary sentient processes.

When once this fundamental identity of all intellective pro-
cesses is clearly apprehended, the question where exactly in the
evolutionist's tree the twig of thought proper, or better, perhaps,
of conscious generalization, branches off, sinks to its proper place
as a question of quite secondary importance. At the same time
we^may agree with Dr. Romanes that the point has its real his-
torical or genealogical interest, and that he has not done amiss to
devote a volume to its discussion.

The question turns mainly on the point how much the animal
can do by means of pure imagining and the aid of association.
Our author clearly recognizes that this will carry animals some
way, and may give to their mental operations the appearance of
a true generalizing process. But he has not fixed the limits of
this pictorial or suggestive inference with the precision one looks
for, partly, no doubt, because his whole view of the generic image
as somehow involving a generalizing process tended to obscure
from him the real point. One might safely, perhaps, hazard the
assertion that the diving-bird can get on very well without any-

5i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tiling like a general idea of water, a pure (generic) image being
all that seems necessary. On the other hand, one is disposed, on
the evidence of the facts adduced by our author, to put the begin-
nings of the true generalizing process pretty low down. It cer-
tainly seems to be involved in the mental life of the ants, as
elicited by Sir John Lubbock's experiments, and described by Dr.
Romanes (p. 94 and following). And since these particular
actions plainly imply the use of signs, and apparently signs capa-
ble of indicating such abstract ideas as those of quantity, there
seems no reason why we should hesitate to call ants thinkers in
the sense of being able to form general notions. The same applies
to the mechanical inventions of the spider, described by Mr. Larkin
(p. 62). Similarly, it is difficult to deny the rudiment of " concept-
ual thought " to a fox who can reason on the matter of traps in
the way described by Leroy (p. 56), or to a dog that was cured of
his dread of imagined thunder by being shown the true cause of
the disturbing noise, viz., the shooting bags of apples on to a floor
(pp. 59, 60). No doubt there is a danger in straightway endowing
animals with mental qualities identical with our own, when their
actions resemble ours. There may, of course, be two psychological
explanations of the same action. We can not, however, escape ouiv
limitations, and, if we are to deal with animal ways at all, we are
bound to interpret them in terms of our own mental processes.

The hesitation of the evolutionist to attribute rudimentary
thought to animals, in which Dr. Romanes evidently shares, is no
doubt due to the firmly established assumption that we generalize
by help of language. To the nominalist more especially it savors
of rank heresy to hint that animals apparently destitute of signs
may be capable of generalizing their perceptions and reaching a
dim consciousness of the distinction between the universal and the
particular.

But is the nominalist's assumption that language is the indis-
pensable instrument of thought above challenge ? A considerable
part of Dr. Romanes's volume deals with the relations of thought
to language. He gives us a fairly good summary of the results of
research into the origin of language. It can not be said that these
throw much light on the question. Perhaps it is unreasonable to
expect that they should. Our author contends with some skill as
against Prof. Max Miiller that the earliest traces of human lan-
guage suggest a highly pictorial and non-conceptual mode of idea-
tion. And in his ingenious hypothetical account of the genealogy
of man as the articulate reasoner our author inclines to the idea
that, so far from language making the thinker, the endowment of
language has to be ingrafted on a high quality of intelligence,
and even then to undergo considerable development before it
becomes a mechanism for conceptual thought.

^.V EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 517

The whole subject is still a dark and perplexing one, and we
must refrain from dogmatizing. It may, however, be contended
that the evidence on the whole supports the view that the general-
izing process is up to a certain and not very high point independ-
ent of language. That is to say, an animal unassisted by any sys-
tem of general signs may make a start along the path of compar-
ing its observations, resolving them into their constituents, and
separating out some of these as common qualities. Whether in
these nascent operations of thought there is some substitute for our
mechanism of signs, we do not know and perhaps never shall know.
However this be, they remain nascent processes never rising above
a certain level. The addition of some kind of sign which can be
used as a mark of common features or qualities seems to be indis-
pensable to any high degree of generalization, and to any elaborate
process of reasoning. It is the want of such signs, and not the
lack of the " power of abstraction," that keeps certain animals, for
example the dog, from being rational animals in as complete a
sense as a large number of our own species. — Nineteenth Century.

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION.

By MARY ALLING ABER.
SECOND PAPER.

ENGLEWOOD, III, is now a portion of the city of Chicago ;
but formerly it was a suburban town with an independent
school system. In October, 1886, Miss Frances MacChesney, a pri-
mary teacher in the Lewis School, obtained permission from her
principal. Miss Katherine Starr Kellogg, and her superintendent,
Mr. Orville T. Bright, to try some work on the lines wrought out
in the experiment made at Boston.* Her request was granted,
on condition that she would complete the grade work in the re-
quired time.

At first nothing was attempted beyond the giving of simple
science lessons as bases for reading lessons. In these the children
were furnished with specimens, and led through their own obser-
vations to the acquisition of facts and ideas, which the children
expressed ; these expressions put upon the blackboards constituted
the reading matter, and were written in script or print on slips of
paper for further use. At this time Miss MacChesney herself
thought of the work mainly as a more interesting way of teaching
reading ; and, although the basal lessons were usually drawn from
Nature, little attention was paid to the quality and value of the

* See this Monthly for January.

5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ideas tlius used. Later, the fundamental idea of the Boston experi-
ment was taken up, and the chief attention directed to the selec-
tion of topics and materials for real science lessons.

In this Avork no effort was made to introduce the vocabulary
of the reader assigned to the grade. In February that reader —
Appletons' First — was given to the children for the first time.
To quote Miss MacChesney's own words: " The interest which had
been awakened by the reading of their own thoughts was trans-
ferred to the books, and the grade work was completed before the
required time — thus more than fulfilling the condition on which
the trial was allowed to be made."

The work in reading went on in this manner during a second
year, all other grade work being done in the old ways. During
the third year systematic lessons on minerals and plants were
given, and work in literature begun ; and the children's sentences
were written out on a typewriter. In a letter written at the close
of this year. Miss MacChesney says : " Out of a room of forty chil-
dren, divided equally into two classes, one class finished the first
year's work in eight months ; the other class, with the exception
of two children, completed the grade work at the end of the year,
besides doing all the extra work ; and the whole was accomplished
with ease and happiness on the part of both pupils and teacher."
During the first year of trial, another teacher in the Lewis School,
Miss Quackenbush, became interested in Miss MacChesney's work,
and began a similar attempt with her own class. In a short time
she produced excellent results.

From the first, Mr. Bright carefully watched the progress of
the trial, and willingly and patiently waited its results. When
convinced of the superiority of the principles involved and of the
results obtained, he earnestly championed the cause, and has con-
tinued to be its enthusiastic supporter.

During the second year, teachers' meetings were called, discus-
sions aroused, illustrative lessons given, courses of lectures for the
teachers projected, and other teachers joined in the work. A
teacher wrote me at the time : " I never saw teachers so ready and
eager to ' speak in m.eeting ' ; . . . I never saw them so thoroughly
awake.'^ Finally the principals and teachers of the Englewood
schools generally waked up to the fact that something new and
interesting was going on in their midst ; the idea spread, and many
visitors came from adjoining towns.*

* In the fall of 18S8 Miss MacChesney gave a scries of lessons on grasshoppers and
beetles. These the children caught for themselves, but she herself killed and preserved
them in alcohol. The following summer, while teaching at an institute, she was attacked
quite fiercely for this part of her work, on the plea that it was inculcating cruelty. I should
like to ask all who bring this plea whether they eschew roast beef for dinner. Shall a
million beasts of a high grade of intelligence and finely wrought nervous systems daily wit-

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 519

At the beginning of tlie fourfh year a printing-press was
provided ; but each teacher furnished her own type, set it, and
did the printing for her class. During this year, after four
months of the new work, one division of Miss MacChesney's class
" completed the grade work in reading in three months, a thing
never before done at Englewood." Concerning this year Miss
MacChesney says further ; " From the experience which this year
has brought me, I am thoroughly convinced that, could the aver-
age child have from the first the results of his own observations
put in printed form, and enough of phonics to enable him to find
out new words, the reader could be withheld until the latter part
of the year, when it would be read with relish, and as a book
ought to be read. . . . The power gained by the children to ob-
serve closely, to tell clearly and concisely what they have observed,
and the power of logical, connected thinking is not confined to
their science and reading, but is felt in all the work of the school-
room. ... In looking back over the time since we began working
out this theory, I see a constant increase in the power of the
classes that have been led along this path."

In regard to the influence of this work upon herself, Miss Mac-
Chesney, during the third year, wrote me, " At night I can hardly
wait the morning, so eager am I to begin another day, and see
how the children will go through the work planned for that day."
Here she reaches the true work of the teacher — to watch and
direct the growth of the children's minds. From letters received
from Miss MacChesney during 1889-90 I cull the following : " I
started out to try what seemed a theory of doubtful utility to
public-school children, and found all my work and my life en-
larged and beautified. ... I am certainly happier than I have
ever before been in teaching, and I know I am doing more for the
children intrusted to my care. . . . Mr. Bright, in oj*der to speak
with assurance about these matters, visited fifteen city teachers ;
and in no case did he find the attention of teachers or childrei;
directed to anything but the symbol, and in no case were the chil-
dren further advanced than ours where thought and symbol go
hand in hand. ... I did not meet with any opposition in the work.
The only requirement that I must meet was *the grade work

ness the scenes in ten thousand slaughter-houses, and themselves be the victims of the
loathsome indifference to cruelty there practiced — shall this exist and pass uncondomned,
because its results are pleasant to the appetite of the body, and the cry of cruelty be raised
when a few hundred grasshoppers are killed for purposes of study ? Is the body of more
value than the mind, and nourishment more desirable than knowledge ? So long as slaughter-
houses exist, so long will it seem desirable to teach children reverence for animal life by
iTiinute personal study of the wonder and beauty of organ and function in the lower forms.
When slaughter-houses have been done away with forever, the human mind will find a bet-
ter way to teach zoology. Let the cry of cruelty go forth, but not from those whose own
flesh is built up from the flesh of their brute brethren.

520 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

accomplished in the required time ' ; and whether I could do that
was asked over and over again. . . . The greatest trouble " (refer-
ring to the days before they had a printing-press) " was the lack of
printed matter, I met no criticism from parents and much praise.
Especially was this true of the work in literature. . . . The criti-
cism of tenest given by visiting teachers is on the ' big words/ as
they call them.'' Elsewhere, in regard to these " big words/' she
says : " They " (the children) " were proud of their new possessions,
and lost no opportunity to use them and use them correctly. The
so-called ' big words/ when they express a definite idea, are remem-
bered with ease, while their humbler sisters which express nothing
tangible are more readily forgotten. . . . We can say emphatically
that the work can be done in the public schools, and that both
teachers and pupils are benefited thereby."

Another Englewood teacher wrote me : " The teacher gains an
impetus in searching for and assimilating real truth to give to
the waiting little ones. ... I believe the parents of our children
are becoming awakened, for children tell me of searches made at
home to answer whys and hows, whens and wheres, that have
been raised in the work at school."

Miss Walter, critic teacher at the Oswego (New York) State
Normal School, after a visit to Englewood in February, 1890,
wrote me : *' It has been my good fortune to see within the last
week some of the best school work I have ever seen. ... It was
in the rooms of Miss MacChesney, Miss Quackenbush, and others
that I saw such admirable work. . . . Miss MacChesney is car-
rying out, in a wise and careful manner, an ideal line of work."

In closing this account of the new work at Englewood I can
not do better than to give quotations from two letters received
from Mr. Orville T. Bright, the superintendent under whom all
this experimental work has been done. He says :

Decemher 15, 1889.—" We are now harder than ever at work
studying how to make observation a living element in our schools.
. . . We have thirty— yes, forty teachers now who are thoroughly
in earnest in the matter."

Maxell 9, 1890.—" It is about three years since Miss MacChes-
ney began the work. Miss Quackenbush soon followed, and the
next year Miss Phelps, all in the Lewis School ; . . . and the fact
was demonstrated beyond a doubt that fifty children are no bar
to the success of a teacher in training little children to observe in
subjects pertaining to science.

" All our primary teachers slowly wheeled into line. We had
numerous meetings and discussions on the subject, and every
one who tried the work was convinced. The stand of the super-
intendent had been misunderstood from the first, but he did not
think it wise to force matters. He wished teachers to undertake

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 521

the work because they believed in it ; and now every first and
second grade teacher in the district — thirty-five in number — are
in hearty sympathy, as are almost all of the third and fourth
grade teachers, about sixty in all. Not all, however, are at work.
" There has been no systematic arrangement of material, only
so far as individual teachers have made it in a small way. Our
aim has been to demonstrate the feasibility of doing the work
with large classes, and to prove the growth of children under the
training possible. These two things we have done ; and we are
now at work upon a related plan for the several grades. The
scheme must be a flexible one, and it can be so arranged ; but the
second grade work must grow out of and be an advance upon the
first, and so on. We have discussed motive first for several weeks.
Now we are on material ; then will come method. These I can not
write about now. We hope to see the subject in some kind of
shape before the end of the school year.'^

Do not the results of the trials at Boston and Englewood virtu-
ally constitute a plea to parents and teachers to investigate this
matter — not necessarily to follow, but possibly to get suggestions
about a better way ; for the contemplation of a new thing sincerely
conceived sometimes leads to the inspiration of a better ?

Pupils in all sorts of schools seem, for the most part, unable to
distinguish between opinion and fact ; their reasoning processes
are easily overturned, imperfect, slovenly; their power to dis-
criminate values is slight ; and the whole working of their minds
lacks cohesion, totality, and gradation. Is not the human mind
naturally capable of trustworthy action, and is not the lack of such
action in the average adult duo to faulty education ? To see
clearly, judge fairly, and will strongly — are not these the great
ends of education ? Should not a man have as great a conscious-
ness of mind and of power to think as he has of hands and feet
and power to use them ; and should he not be as unerring in the
right use of the one as of the others ? Should not the schools
give this consciousness and power and mental skill ; and also fill
the mind with ideas worth the effort of getting and retaining ?

The maxim, " Ideas before words," adopted by teachers like
Prof. Louis Agassiz, has produced great results in changing the
methods of study in the natural and physical sciences. This in-
fluence has extended to other departments in the older centers of
learning, but the majority of our higher schools are yet scarcely
touched by it. In these, study results in little more than filling
the mind with words ; and from them students pass into life with-
out the taste or ability to examine and estimate facts, and to form
independent judgments and volitions.

In primary education the maxim " Ideas before words " is re-

522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

peated with tiresome iteration, but seldom is a question raised
about the value of the ideas taught. Do the charts and books for
primaries express aught that is unfamiliar to children ? Rather
do they not contend for the merit of expressing most completely
the commonplaces of child-life ? Is there anything worthy to
be called thinking or capable of arousing interest and emotion in
memorizing combinations of symbols, and associating them with
familiar and trivial ideas ? And let us see what "object-lessons"
chiefly deal with. Last year, in a normal school of the Empire
State, a teacher of primary methods, proudly claimed by her prin-
cipal to be the best in the State, gave thimbles, scissors, chairs,
etc., as suitable subjects for object-lessons, and carefully led her
pupils through the steps required to develop in children's minds
ideas of the parts and the uses of these objects. Is there one child
in five hundred, at six years of age, ignorant of these parts and
uses ? Then the so-called development process is a farce, and a
waste of time and energy. Look over manuals of object-lessons
and courses of study for primary children : you will usually find
but few subjects leading the child from the beaten path of his
daily life into new, inviting, and fruitful fields ; and of these, note
the directions as to what is to be taught. Such directions often re-
semble a lesson on a butterfly that I heard given by a kindergart-
ner. With a single butterfly held in her hand she led the children
to speak of its flying in the sunshine, sipping food from flowers,
living through the summer, and of the beauty of its colors. Not
a word was said of the three parts of the body, the two pairs of
wings, the six legs, the antennse, and the tube through which it
sips food— all of which and more the children could easily have
been led to see. Doubtless the teacher thought the children had
had a beautiful lesson ; but had they received anything at all ?
Although city children, they spent the summer in the country-—
they had all seen and probably chased several species of butter-
flies, and possibly some of them knew more than their teacher
about the habits of butterflies.

Think of children gathered by fifties in thousands of school-
rooms, spending the first years of school-life in repeating trivial
facts and ideas that have heen familiar from babyhood j in learn-
ing the symbols for these ideas, and in counting beans and bits of
chalk ! The five-year-old boy who described a kindergarten as
"the place where they are always pretending to do something
and never doing it," and the eight-year-old girl who, after read-
ing the first few paragraphs of some ordinary i)rimary reading
matter, looked up at her teacher and said, " I think' these sentences
are very silly, don't you ? " are not alone in preferring the lessons
of the street and the field to those of the school-room. In such
dealing with trite ideas the child gets little mental exercise, gets

AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 523

no addition to his knowledge save the written and printed sym-
bols, gets no increase to his vocabulary, and little facility in using
it. For these slight gains he gives the freshest, best years of life,
and exhausts in weariness of spirit the fountains of intellectual
interest and enthusiasm.

In the experiment an effort was made to bring the child at
once into contact with the real substance of education. It is this
concentration of attention upon the subject-matter, not upon the
method of teaching it ; on the kind of ideas, not upon the symbols
of ideas, that chiefly differentiates this experiment from ordinary
primary work, and makes the use of the word experiment legiti-
mate. The value of method is heartily conceded, but what shall
be taught was thought to be of more importance. Is it not a law
of Nature that new and valuable ideas only can arouse interest and
lead to worthy thoughts ? When such thoughts exercise the mind,
do they not exclude the transient and trivial, lead to culture and
right conduct, and so further the true end of existence— the per-
fectionment of the soul ?

Do not the showy, the superficial, the transient, the seeming,
rule the hour ? Where do we find the heroic dignity that should
inhere in man and woman ? Few pursue truth and righteousness
for their own sakes regardless of consequences ; in few does the
love of humanity overcome the shrinking from poverty and cal-
umny. Are we becoming a nation of cowards and infidels, that
we can fear nothing but material and intellectual discomforts in
this one short life ?

To awaken love for great literature, to arouse interest in local
history, to develop a habit of observing Nature's phenomena — to
do these before the mind has sunk itself in materialism and the
love of sensual delights— to do these while the child is still so
young that mind and heart are plastic and responsive, is indeli-
bly to impress the idea that these are the legitimate objects of
study whose pursuit leads, not to learning only, but to nobility of
mind, and to real, satisfying pleasures. One can not know and
love the great in the world's literature and not be ashamed of
mean thoughts ; one can not be a student of history without bring-
ing to bear upon the affairs of our own time a greater intelligence
than the majority of our politicians exhibit ; one can not habit-
ually observe Nature's phenomena without extending that habit
to the highest and most interesting of her creatures — man ; and
one can not observe man, with any depth of insight, without being
profoundly impressed, not alone by the miseries of the very poor
and the never-ending drudgery of the laboring classes, but by the
lack of unselfish zeal, heroism, dignity, truth, gentleness, gener-
osity, and purity among the well-to-do ; one can hardly view the
course of Nature and history from remote ages to the present

524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

without seeing througli all a tendency to completion, order, and
beauty on an ever-rising plane, like the threads of a spiral ; and,
seeing this, to desire to be himself in harmony with that tendency
and a factor in aiding it in his own time.

I put forth no claim to the Boston experiment or the Engle-
wood trial as a cure for existing evils ; but I urge every educator
who loves mankind to investigate each new departure in educa-
tion, to test any that seems to have good in it, to cease to concen-
trate attention on symbols and shows, and to turn thought to such
realities as can nourish the mind and heart, and be retained as
valuable furnishings for all the years to come, and to do these
from the first day in the primary school.

\_Concluded.'\

HOMELY GYMNASTICS.

By ALICE B. TWEEDY.

WHILE voyaging over many seas of experiment in search of
education, some of us are beginning to apprehend that the
golden fleece of mental culture will not create for us the sym-
metrical man or woman. As a consequence, various systems of
bodily training are receiving close attention from teachers and
reformers, while athletic sports are now honored and encouraged
in schools and colleges where not many years ago they were
merely tolerated as safety-valves for unsubdued vitality. We
are returning to Greek ideals, but the elimination of the me-
diaeval and Puritanic expression of contempt for the body is a
slow process, and the formula still meets us variously masked in
life and literature. Now, it is the notion of the spiritualizing
effect of invalidism, or delicacy of health ; their debasing tenden-
cies toward selfishness and morbidity being ignored. Again, it is
the exaltation of nerve sensitiveness into an evidence of refine-
ment ; forgetting that the healthy nerve, like the pure metal,
stands the normal test put upon it, the flinching being a token of
failure as the alloy is of gold. In another instance, it is the scorn
for manual labor, although this indicates also the survival of
feudal feeling. We call the hand the servant of the mind, think-
ing we have ranked it, but educating the blind shows us that it
may turn instructor and incite its ignorant master to action.

This is an age of fads and fetiches, and, as we give up our idol
of disembodied intellect, we erect a shrine to meaningless muscle.
We have outgrown croquet and archery. Even tennis no longer
sufiices, and we are founding schools of physical culture and
gymnasiums ad libitum. In truth, these are needed badly enough

HOMELY GYMNASTICS. 525

by tlie physically idle, and if strength of body is our aim, a be-
ginning must be made somewhere in its training. Does it not
savor, however, of absurdity that the girls, who not long since
were frowned upon for being " tom-boys " — i. e., using their mus-
cles in running and jumping — and afterward were cautioned
against running up and down stairs or taking long walks, should
be suddenly precipitated upon parallel bars and turning poles,
where there is emulation and a slight danger of overdoing ?
Very far am I from believing in any inherent physical frailty of
women, or that it is not good for a girl to turn a somersault or
learn hand over hand. It is the inconsistency of such philosophy
that calls for comment.

Unquestionably the best exercise is that taken in the open air ;
and rowing, running, walking, skating, horseback-riding, have
forever the advantage over indoor training, in that they oxidize
the blood as well as develop muscle. Gymnastics, on the other
hand, has two special claims — economy of time and defiance of
weather. But it is not only to the gymnasiums, equipped with
apparatus and superintended by doctor or professor, that we need
betake ourselves if muscular development is our object. These
are attractive, and have advocates enough. Within our doors
there is a despised sort of gymnastics which has few scholars,
fewer teachers, and stands in great need of intelligent attention.
The evangel of cookery has been preached to us from all quarters,
but what missionary has been bold enough to proclaim the use
and dignity of house-work ?

" Nothing menial for me ! " cries the ignorant woman ; while
her more intellectual sister exclaims, " Oh, I feel above such
drudgery ! " Alas ! to what giddy heights must those minds be
elevated which do not see the necessity nor compensation of mus-
cular work ! Mr. Gladstone can find refreshment for his brain in
chopping trees, and an eminent jurist of the United States in vig-
orously plying the saw ; but there are women so highly refined
that they can no longer employ their muscles for any useful
purpose.

In the pretty allegory of Homely and Comely, Moncure D.
Conway contrasts for us two common mistakes, neglect of house-
work and exclusive devotion to it, but shows also a health and
beauty balance on the side of Homely.

That there is not much sanitary or strengthening influence in
the operation of dusting is evident ; and yet many women, dis-
daining heavier work, reserve this domestic duty for themselves
and waste much time upon it. Muscular motion is of little value
unless vigorous and swift. The slow walk and loitering move-
ment do not rouse the blood from its torpidity. The lowliest
labor when zealously performed may be followed by an unex-

526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pected hygienic effect. There is the instance of a penniless young
man, threatened with fever in a strange country, shipping as a
deck-hand to return and die among his people. During the voy-
age he scrubbed away the dirt from the ship-boards, and with it
the disease that had invaded his life-craft. A story is also told
of a family whose women were of the delicate, ailing sort. Mis-
fortune obliged them to perform their own domestic work. What
seemed for them a sad necessity proved itself a double blessing.
They gained what they had never known before, robust health ;
and their enforced economy restored them to a prosj)erous con-
dition.

Not all physicians are clear-sighted or independent enough to
prescribe as did one of their number. A young lady supposed to
be suffering with anaemia, nervous prostration, and other fashion-
able ills sent for the family doctor. " Is there anything I can do
to get well ? " she asked, after the usual questioning, " There is,'*
answered he ; " follow this prescription faithfully.'' The folded
scrap of paper read as follows :

" One broom : use in two hours of house-work daily."

That domestic work is not without its aesthetic side many au-
thors bear witness. George Eliot introduces us to Hetty Sorrel
at the butter-making, and writes, "They are the prettiest atti-
tudes and movements into which a pretty girl is thrown." But
if dairy- work is rapidly taking a place beside spinning and weav-
ing as one of the picturesque employments of the past, what there
is to do about the house may be also gracefully done. And here,
it may be said of this as of all other work, the spirit and care we
put into it endow it with beauty as well as health.

Aside from the physical view of homely gymnastics, there is a
social and an economic aspect. Courtship need not wait upon a
problematic income if the fair Dorothea has not only a clear head
but arms willing to take up the burden of life equally. Does
Hermann need to toil ? She deems it incumbent upon her, unless
busy with young children, to earn her own living within the
home or outside of it. "When women shall have been educated to
a keener sense of justice, they will no longer imagine they have
discharged their debt to the community by adding a few beauti-
fying touches to the household furniture ! Nor, although they
fulfill the higher and more exacting duties of a mother, will they
thenceforth fold their hands and do nothing. To be a good
father does not absolve a man from work, neither does being a
good mother exempt a woman from her share in the maintenance
of the home. The maiden of to-day is yet enslaved by caste cult-
ure ; but the maiden of to-morrow may scorn to be merely orna-
mental or useless. She may be too proud to allow her husband
to support her in idleness and may refuse to be re-enforced by a

HOMELY GYMNASTICS. 527

Biddy or Gretclien unless tliere is more to do than one pair of
Lands can accomplisli.

The practice of these domestic exercises has also an important
influence upon household service. The mistress who understands
all the work required by her, and performs part of it herself,
rarely has any trouble with servants. But, in order to attain this
result, she must know more than the manner in which any piece
of work is to be done ; she must know how long it takes to do it,
and in order to estimate this justly she will need to make practi-
cal trial of it herself without assistance. The knowledge and
skill she gains in this way will also enable her often to sug-
gest an easier method or better arrangement of work. The
ridiculous requirements made in some households where there
is a lack of service, and which result in frequent changes, would
not be possible if the mistress had learned this lesson in its
entirety.

Can it be repeated too often that it is the sign of ignorance to
scorn any work well done, or the doer of it ? Only when the
dignity and importance of labor are rightly estimated can we
hope for any well-founded social prosperity. While it is not sug-
gested that wealthy women should discharge their servants and
undertake their own domestic work, it may be urged that only
good can come from their personal performance of some share of
it — physical benefit to themselves and a more wholesome feeling
for the labor of their necessitous sisters. Between the small
minority who suffer from too easy living and those whose days
are overburdened with care, there exists, especially in cities, a
large class of women in moderate circumstances whose health
would be greatly benefited by more physical exercise. These
need not rashly bestride the bicycle, nor rush through the non-
productive drill of the gymnasium as an only means of grace.
They may garner their resources, develop their muscles in walk-
ing and in reconquering a world of flexibility and strength which
lies within their own thresholds.

New evidence of the existence of a vibration or some other motion of change
in latitude was presented to the American Association by Prof. 0. L. Doolittle,
who describes the results of between eleven and twelve thousand observations,
made during the last fourteen years, at tlie Sayre Observatory, Bethlehem, Pa.,
showing that such variations were recorded. Prof. George C. Oorastock, of
"Washington Observatory, Madison, Wis., deduced from similar observations at
Konigsberg, Pulkowa, Washington, and Madison, a theory that the north pole
is moving along the meridian at the rate of four and five tenths of a second per
century. The active discussion that followed the reading of these papers is an
indication of tlie interest that is taken by men of science in a subject that has
only recently begun to attract attention.

528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

NEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE LANGUAGE OF
ANIMALS.

By M. De LACAZE DUTHIERS,

OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.

I HAD occasion, in a note publislied several years ago in the
Revue Scientifique, to mention a parroquet whicli I have since
continued to observe, the manifestations of whose intelligence are
both interesting and instructive. Many acts of birds are difficult
of interpretation. To speak only of their songs, the meanings of
most of the innumerable varieties of sounds which they produce,
and of their diverse warblings, escape us completely. It is not
possible to find the meaning of these things except by form-
ing suppositions and hypotheses, or by catching the connections
between cries and acts. But instances of the latter kind are ex-
tremely rare in comx^arison with the great majority of the mani-
festations made by animals.

Thus, to select examples which every one can observe, when a
canary-bird is warbling in its cage and becomes deafening, or
when a lark rises straight up in the air and incantat suum tirile
tirile — sings its tirile tirile — as Linnseus picturesquely expresses
it ; when a tomtit, leaping from branch to branch of a willow or
among the reeds, repeats its florid warblings ; when a raven croaks ;
when a blackbird whistles — what significance can we attach to
their songs and their cries ? Certainty is impossible, and we can
only form more or less plausible hypotheses concerning the inter-
pretation of them.

The parrot furnishes us one more aid in this matter than other
birds, and this helps us, to a certain extent, in overcoming the
difficulty of interpretation. It has an articulate voice, and when
we have taught it a few words, the meaning which it gives them
may be better divined by us according to the tone and the rapid-
ity or slowness of its utterance. This permits us to discover the
feelings that move it, for we can better judge from an articulate
sound than from one that is merely musical.

Much has been written on the language of animals. It is
neither my desire nor my intention to repeat here all that may
have been said on this subject. It would take too long and would
be of no use. I have often witnessed facts that may be of inter-
est to those who are occupied with the mental manifestations of
animals. I will simply relate them ; and of such as are already
known, I will merely mention them anew, admitting in advance
a priority for others which I do not demand for myself.

There can be no doubt that animals communicate their impres-

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS. 529

sions by an inarticulate voice. Common sense and tlie most su-
perficial observations are opposed to the negative of this propo-
sition. But when a canary-bird warbles till it stuns us, or a
nightingale sings in the shadows on the fine nights of June, can
we follow and discover the significance of those modulations — now
sharply cadenced, now slowly drawn out, and ending with a trill
long and accurate enough to challenge the most skillful mu-
sician ?

All the poets of every country have constantly sung of the
songs of Philomela. But their fervent and enthusiastic verses
cast little light on the value of the nightingale's song. It is
said that the male sings for the entertainment of the sitting
female, but there is no proof of the assertion. The note warning
of the approach of danger is easier to recognize. The bird utters
a short, hoarse cry, and repeats it with a succession of trrrSy trrre,
which is impossible to mistake. When we hear this cry we may
be sure that an enemy is near. Music gives way to a cry of dis-
tress and warning, and the female leaves her nest if the sounds be-
come piercing. AVhat do we know of the gobbling of the turkey,
which the whistling and the cries of children excite ? They are
doubtless responses to those challenges ; but what do they mean ?

The crowing of the cock, recurring regularly at fixed hours,
has some signification, but we can not comprehend it. If on a fine
afternoon in autumn the cock crows, and repeats his strain be-
tween two and four o'clock, the countrymen in some places will
say there will be a fog on the morrow, and they are generally not
mistaken. Hens do not mistake his notes either ; when a leader of
the troop, coming upon a spot rich in food, utters his peculiar
chuckle, they run from all around to share the find with him. It
is evident that the cock has called them and they have understood
him. These facts indicate that there is some definite sense in this
inarticulate language; and examples of it, taken from other
groups, might be multiplied.

The dog, intelligent animal as he is, manifests his affection on
meeting his master, with peculiar cries which vary with the in-
tensity of his joy. No one could confound these notes of pleasure
with those which he utters when he is angrily driving away a beg-
gar, or when he meets another dog of unpleasant appearance and
puts himself in the position of attack.

An interesting study of the voice of the dog on guard may be
made in the country at night. If another dog barks in the dis-
tance, the house-dog answers in a peculiar manner. He gives a
few growls, stops, seems to listen, begins again, very often getting
answers ; and, after two or three interruptions, he terminates his
barking with abrupt yelps, loud at the beginning and long drawn
out, and gradually dying away. This ending of his cries is habit-

TOL. XL. — SY

530 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY:

ually accompanied by his raising liis head, and throwing it back.
I have often, when within the house, on hearing the watch-dog
bark in this way. opened the window to assure myself on the sub-
ject, and distinguished, as I could not do with the windows closed,
the voice of another watch-dog barking in the same way in the
distance — the barkings of the two dogs alternating, one answering
the other. There is in such cases an evident communication of im-
pressions. One of the dogs, having had his attention aroused by
some unusual noise, has transmitted his impression to the other,
as sentinels posted at intervals call out their warnings one to
another. I have often repeated this observation during the long
evenings of winter.

Another example, little known in thickly populated countries,
is drawn from a curious scene which I witnessed during a winter
passed in Perigord Noir. We had remarked that for several nights
the three watch-dogs, a young and an old male and a bitch, howled
often toward midnight, but in a peculiar way. One night in par-
ticular, during their tedious concert, just as we had got to sleep,
they mingled with their cries bowlings like those they would
have uttered if they had been beaten, with a shading hard to
define, but which we perceived plainly ; and we remarked that,
leaving their kennel in the avenue that led up to the lodge, they
had come to close quarters with one another at the gate, with alter-
nating bowlings and plaintive cries. Inquiring in the morning for
the cause of these singular cries, the peasants told me that a wolf
had passed, and predicted that it would return. They said, too,
that a neighbor's hunting-bitch had disappeared, and its bones
had been found in the fields near a wood. We were awakened
again about midnight by the cries of the dogs, and the scene was
renewed. Informed as we now were of the nature of what was
going on, we ran to one of the windows, whence we could see, in
the clear light of the moon, all that passed. The three dogs were
cowering against the gate, the oldest one howling by the side of
the others, while the younger one and the bitch were exposed at
intervals to the attacks of another animal, browner than they,
and of about their size, without defending themselves, but moan-
ing as if they were undergoing a vigorous correction.

Frightened, doubtless, by the opening of the blinds of the
first story above him, the strange animal had gone away and
was sitting in the middle of the road. We could only see that he
had straight ears. While we were going down to get a gun the
visitor came back to his charge on the dogs, which had begun
howling after he left them, and resumed the cries significant of
chastisement when they were attacked again. For some reason,
perhaps because he heard the click of the gun, the foe drew back
and sat down in a garden-walk, concealed by a bunch of shrub-

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS. 531

bery. The three dogs, notwithstanding our reiterated urging, were
no more disposed to pursue him than before. If the assailant had
been a dog they would have rushed upon him, but they stayed cow-
ering at the gate and howled distressfully. The bitch was most
affected, and they all seemed paralyzed by fear. It is said in
the country that bitches are especially liable to be attacked by
wolves. It was so here. The most certain feature in the matter
was the terror of the animals. They were capable of resisting
the attack three times over. The young dog was a savage one,
and passers-by were afraid of the bitch ; but that night they were
terrorized, and all incapable of defending themselves. Their cries
were therefore due to the same cause as in the preceding night —
the presence and attacks of the wolf. I could not have realized
their meaning if I had not been a witness of the scene — that is, I
could not have correlated the cries and the acts.

A shot at the animal behind the bushes was followed by a
hoarse cry. He was hit, and ran ; but, in spite of our urgings,
the dogs stayed at the gate and only stopped howling. Under any
other conditions, upon the signal of the shot they would all have
started in pursuit of the wounded animal.

A wolf came to the farm during the last winter (1890-''91) and
attacked the same bitch. He would have carried her off, for he
had seized her by the throat, if we could judge from the stifled
cries she uttered ; but this time he found with her a new watch-
dog— a mountain bitch from the Pyrenees — of a breed that at-
tacks the wolf and the bear. The wolf would have been caught if
he had not run away. He did not return, for he had been attacked,
and learned what he had to deal with.

The Pyrenean breed furnishes excellent watch-dogs. I knew
one of remarkable traits. At evening he would go round the
house, giving two or three growls at each door. With his head
raised he seemed to listen to his fine voice, then he would start
again and go to another door. He seemed desirous to show those
who were observing him that he was attending to his post as
guardian. He then went away in silence along the walk, through
a dark, rising hedgerow, leaping the slight hillock, yelping, to-
ward the wood. He listened, yelped again, and went in. There
was never any failure in this performance, but every evening as
night was coming on he began his round, which no one had taught
him. It was all done in his function as a guard. It would be
hard to determine what his yelps meant, but there were in them
an inflection, a sonorousness, and a continuance quite different
from those he uttered when pursuing a passer-by or when going
to meet a person coming toward the house. Every one who has a
watch-dog is able to tell by the sound of his barking when a per-
son is coming up, and usually what sort of a visitor it is.

532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The peasants* dogs of the southwest of France dislike the
country millers, because of the long whips which they are always
carrying and snapping, and with which the dogs, running after
them, are often struck. From as far off as the snapping of the
whip can be heard, the dogs come to wait for the millers and pur-
sue them ; and it is easy to recognize when the millers are passing,
by the behavior of the dogs. There is in this also a significance,
at once aggressive and defensive, in the cries which one can, by
giving a little attention, soon learn to distinguish.

Another example of the reality of the various meanings of the
cries of the dog under different circumstances is afforded by the
companies that collect around a female in heat.

I have a very intelligent and experienced brach-hound, the
same which with the bitch had to face the attack of the wolf.
He amuses me much at my country lunches. Hunting-dogs
which have been much with their masters at lunch do not like to
have the drinking-glass offered them. This dog was much afraid
of the glass, and I had only to present it to him at lunch-time to
make him keep his distance. I used to keep my door open at
lunch, for the amusement of observing how I could make him
stop exactly at the threshold without stepping over it. If he had
passed over it I could always send him back by casting toward
him a few drops of water from the bottom of the glass after
drinking. Sitting, as was his habit, on the sill of the door, with
the tip of his muzzle never extending beyond the plane of the
panels, he would follow my motions with the closest attention,
reminding me, if I failed to give him a sign of attention, by a dis-
creet, plaintive cry, that he was there. But if I touched my glass
he would spring up at once ; if I filled it, he would put himself on
guard, utter a kind of sigh, sneeze, lick his lips, yawn, and, shak-
ing his ears briskly, make little stifled cries. Then he would
grow impatient, and more and more watchful and nervous.
When I lifted my glass to my lips he would draw back, working
gradually nearer to the farther door, and at last disappear and
hide. One who was looking at him without seeing me could tell
by his wails and his attitude the level and position of my glass.
When the glass was horizontal, I could see only about half of his
head, with one eye regarding me fixedly, for that was usually the
critical moment — the one, also, when the wails and restraints were
most demonstrative of the anxious fear of my poor animal.

When we dine in the kitchen, which is on the ground floor,
the dogs are usually all put out. There are four of them, three
young and not experienced, and this old, sagacious brach-hound.
He insists on coming in, and, to gain his purpose, tries to have
the door opened. Although no person may be coming up the
walk, he dashes down it barking, all the others going along too

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS. 533

and yelping with him ; then he stops, remains a little behind
after having got the others out of the way, and, turning his head
from moment to moment, looks to see if the door has been opened,
for we generally go to it to see who has come. In that case the
feigned attack is successful, and the dog, who has evidently meant
to give the alarm so as to have the door opened, comes in at once
and claims a place at the table. He has accomplished his end, for
the door is usually shut without paying attention to his having
got in. I have frequently witnessed this stratagem, and when,
during my kitchen dinner, I suddenly hear the dogs yelping after
the brach-hound has begun, I am pretty sure that nobody is in
sight.

I have forgotten where I found the next story of an old dog
who was also very sagacious. Hunting-dogs, when they grow old,
become rheumatic, or are at least debilitated with pains. We know,
too, that they crave heat, and get as near the fire as possible — a
craving which increases as they grow older. One such dog, older
than the others, and slower in getting into the lodge on return-
ing from the hunt, was often crowded away from the fire by the
other livelier dogs getting all the best places before him. Find-
ing himself thus turned out in the cold, he would dash toward
the door barking, when the others, supposing it was an alarm,
would rush away too, while the old rheumatic went to the fire
and selected a place to suit him.

It is not necessary to dwell upon the intelligence shown by
such acts. But it is hardly contestable that the old animal, who
knows how to play such tricks upon his less experienced compan-
ions, deceives them by his intonations, while he is well aware that
no enemy is approaching the house ; but he does it scientifically,
by the inflections of his voice, as a man speaking to other men
would do in announcing the arrival of an imaginary enemy.

Inarticulate cries are all pretty much the same to us ; their
inflections, duration, pitch, abruptness, and prolongation alone
can inform us of their purpose. But experience and close atten-
tion have shown us the connection of these variations with the
acts that accompany or precede them. Animals evidently un-
derstand these inflections at once. We can not better compare
the language of animals than with what takes place in a pleasant
sport, a kind of pantomime of the voice or language which many
youth doubtless understand, and which I venture to refer to
here to aid in more easily conceiving of the communication of
thought among animals by sounds which seem to us all alike.
When I was engaged in hospitals, the evenings in the guard-
room were sometimes enlivened by the presence of a companion
who excelled in humorous mimicry. He would represent a man
in liquor who had stopped at a fountain that flowed with a gentle

534- THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sound, somewhat like that of his own hiccough. A single oath,
pronounced in different tones, was sufficient to enable us to com-
prehend all the impressions, all the states of mind through which
this devotee of Bacchus passed. The oath, at first pronounced
slowly and with an accent expressing relief, represented a feeling
of satisfaction, with shadings of prolonged exclamation which it
would be hard for one to imagine without suggestion. The con-
tinued flowing of the fountain made our drunken man impatient,
and he wanted it to stop. This state of mind was translated by a
new modulation of the same word. In a little while the gurgling
of the fountain produced astonishment. Was it possible that he,
with all the liquid he had imbibed, could vomit so much and for
so long a time ? This mental condition was expressed by a new
modulation of the same oath. The first movement of surprise
over, resignation follows, and our man decides to wait patiently
for the end. A period of half lethargy was easily represented by
the slowness and weakness of the man's voice while living up to
this decision ; but when he comes out of this sleepy condition and
hears the fountain again, ho is possessed with fear : he can not
understand the flood he is pouring out — he dares not move — he
believes he is lost. Gradually the fumes of the liquor pass away,
and, his mistake being recognized, the drunkard is taken with a
laughing and a gayety which are indicated by the same oath
repeated in tones corresponding with the satisfaction he is then
enjoying. This making the series of impressions a man passes
through comprehensible by a single word, varied in pronuncia-
tion and utterance, is very like the language of animals, which is
always the same, and the significance of which is given by vari-
ety of intonations corresponding with sensational conditions.

The mewing of the cat is always the same ; but what a num-
ber of mental conditions it expresses ! I had a kitten whose
gambols and liveliness entertained me greatly. I understood well,
when it came up to me mewing, what the sound meant : some-
times the kitten wanted to come up and sleep in my lap ; at other
times it was asking me to play with it. When, at my meals, it
jumped on my knees, turned round, looked at me, and spoke in a
coaxing and flattering way, it was asking for something to eat.
When its mother came up with a mouse in her jaws, her mufiled
and low-toned mew informed the little one from a distance, and
caused it to spring and run up to the game that was brought to
it. The cry is always the same, but varied in the strength of the
inflections and in its protraction, so as to represent the various
states of mind with which my young animal is moved — just as it
was with the drunken man in the mimicry scene. These facts
are probably well known to all observers of animals.

We have seen that this tonality of the watch-dog's cries is

OBSERVATIONS ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS. 535

competent to indicate that a person is coming to the house. We
find similar cries of warning uttered by birds. When I was a
professor in the Faculty of Lille, I frequently visited the well-
known aged Professor of Physics, M. Delezenne. He had a work-
ing-room at the end of a garden, in which a laughing mew wan-
dered. From the time that any one came in till he went out, this
bird made the vocal explosions to which it owes its name ; and the
good professor was certain, without ever being mistaken, that
somebody was coming to his laboratory. He was notified. My
Jaco in Paris has a warble that answers the ringing of the bell.
If we have not heard the bell, we are notified by Jaco of its ring-
ing, and, going to the door, find some one there. I have been told
of a parrot belonging to the steward of a lyceum which had
heard the words " Come in," when any one rang the bell. He
never failed to cry, " Come in," when the bell moved, and the vis-
itor was embarrassed at seeing nobody after having been invited
to open the door.

Instances in which cries of birds had an incontestable and
precise signification are numerous ; let me refer to a few of the
best known. The cackle of a hen, after having laid an egg and
left her nest, is decidedly characteristic. Her clucking when she
is impelled to sit on her eggs, or when she is calling her chicks, is
no less demonstrative. There is not a farmer who does not rec-
ognize it and understand it. In these things we see the rela-
tion between the tone of the prating or cluck of the hen and her
acts. But when a nightingale sings all night, or a gold-finch
whistles or a raven croaks, we can not so easily interpret the
significance of their inarticulate sounds. The finch calls its
mate by uttering a few notes followed by a long trill. Matches,
of a barbarous character based on this habit, were held in the
north of France while I was living at Lille, between 1855 and
18G0. I do not know whether they have been suppressed or not,
but the laws for the protection of animals ought to take cogni-
zance of them. The gamesters put out the eyes of the male finches,
and made them, thus blinded, compete as singers, for which pur-
pose they brought their cages into proximity. When the birds
heard and recognized one another's voices, they made their appeal
to the female ; the one that renewed his amorous trills most fre-
quently, protracted them longest and to the last, gained the
prize. The bird that was declared victor received a medal amid
the applause of a large and enthusiastic crowd ; and considerable
wagers were staked upon the result. I have heard that these
poor blinded birds sometimes fell down exhausted with singing,
and kept on calling the absent female till they died, not being
willing to yield to a rival, who on his side was also keeping up
his equally useless appeals. These finch contests were suggested

536 THJE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

after the meaning of the soug of the birds was learned. But
when these birds, which are more usually isolated — whence they
have been named Fringilla codehs, or celibates — hop around our
houses and also utter their amorous trills at another than the
mating season, they are evidently not calling the female. Should
we not then seek to determine by the tone whether their call,
which is always the same, is amorous or not ?

In countries where flocks of turkeys are raised one can learn
very quickly from their gobblings when they have captured a
hare. If they meet him standing still or lying down, they form
in a circle around him, and, putting their heads down, repeat con-
tinually their peculiar cries. The hare remains quiet, and it is
sometimes possible to take him up, terrorized as he is in the midst
of the black circle of gobbling beaks and heads. The language
of the turkeys is at that time incontestably significant. It is war
like, and similar to that of the males when they are fighting. In
the present instance, they have joined for war, and they make it
on the frightened hare.

My Jaco, like all parrots, which are excellent imitators, pro-
nounces a few words and repeats them over and over again. Such
birds amuse us, because the words they know sometimes happen
to be ludicrously fitting. A bird of this kind had been struck by
the note sounded by the wind blowing into a room through a crack
in the glass-work whenever a certain door was opened ; and he
had become so perfect in his imitation that they sometimes, on
hearing the noise, went to shut the door when it was not open.
Jaco formerly belonged to a very pious old lady who was accus-
tomed to say her litanies with another person. He had caught
the words " Pray for us " in the invocations to the several saints,
and said them so well as sometimes to deceive his learned mistress,
and cause her to think she was saying her litanies with two col-
leagues. When Jaco was out of food, and any one passed by him,
he would say, " My poor Cocotte ! " or " My poor rat ! " in an arch,
mawkish, protracted tone that indicated very clearly what he
wanted, and that his drinking-cup was empty. There was no
doubt in the house as to his meaning ; and whenever one heard
it he said, " He has nothing to eat." He was exceedingly fond of
fresh pits of apples and pears, and I was in the habit of collect-
ing them and keeping them to give him. So, whenever, as I
came near him, I put my hand into my pocket .he never failed
to say, " Poor Cocco ! " in a supplicating tone which it was im-
possible to mistake. A sugar-plum is a choice morsel to him.
He can tell what it is from a distance when I hold it out in
my fingers ; and when I give it to him he can not restrain him-
self if it has been any considerable time since he has had the
delicacy. Usually, after having made the first motion to get it.

OBSERVATION'S ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS. 537

as if he were ravished and wanted to express his joy in advance,
he would draw back before taking it, and say, in a comical tone,
" Hold, my poor Cocotte ! " His manner of thanking in advance
is likewise amusing. The expression of his eyes and the pose
of his head are all in accord with the tone of his exclamation.
When he tastes the plum he utters a series of alis, and produces
a kind of warble by prolonging some of his notes and short-
ening up others. We find in these examples without doubt that
the articulate voice makes us better able to judge the meaning of
the impressions that are moving the animal than inarticulate cries,
or merely musical sounds. When Jaco met a child for whom he
had a great affection, he would promenade on his perch, or turn
the wheel, spreading out his tail and ruffiing the feathers of his
head, while his eyes grew red with excitement if the child was too
slow in bestowing the accustomed caress. Then he would stop,
bend down his head, and, looking at his friend, say pleasantly,
" Jaco," in a tone and with a manner quite in contrast with the
pronunciation of the same word when he was hungry.

It is not the word he speaks that is of interest ; he might have
been taught another, and it would have been the same ; but it is
the tone. In this case, too, the articulation gives an easier clew
to the meaning the bird seeks to express, having a meaning ac-
cording to the manner of pronouncing it, than any isolated, sim-
ply musical sound, like the song of the nightingale, canary-bird,
and warbler. This became evident to me, not from observing
animals for a few moments without seeing them again, but from
studying them continuously.

Jaco did not like solitude, and was talkative and fond of being
caressed, like all of his kind. One day when there was no one in
the country-house, all having gone out into the garden or the
fields, I heard him saying over what few words he knew, in differ-
ent inflections. I went quietly into the room where he was, with-
out being seen ; but he heard my steps, although I had walked in
very cautiously, hoping to surprise him. He ceased his chatter,
listened, and, after a silence, pronounced " Jaco " in a low tone,
drawing out the end of the word. He listened again, and repeated
the word in the same tone ; then, after another silence, repeated
it with a rise of the voice I continued observing him, and, as he
heard no one, he raised his tone gradually, repeating the same
word, and ended at last with a genuine cry of distress. The peo-
ple ran in from without, supposing something had happened to
him. He then repeated his name in a lower tone, which seemed
to indicate his satisfaction at finding his isolation ended. I went
in myself, and his prattle unmistakably betrayed his gladness at
being no longer alone.

Is there not in this an act of real intelligence ? While alone.

538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the parrot entertained himself by talking ; but when he heard a
sound he hoped at first to see some one come ; and when no one
answered him, he raised his voice, as a person would do who calls,
and, getting no reply, cried out louder and louder till he was heard
and answered. The meaning of the differences of intonation is as
evident in this case as in that of the drunken man. A parrot
raised in the south had learned to swear in the local patois. Be-
ing fond of coffee, he was sometimes given a spoonful, which he
would come awkwardly up to the table to drink with his master.
One day the master, not thinking of his bird, had already added
cognac to his coffee, and gave the i)arrot the accustomed spoonful.
The parrot took a swallow of it, and, in his surprise at the novel
taste, raised his head and repeated the oath in a tone that excited
laughter in all who were present. The cause of his surprise being
discovered, he was soothed, and then took his usual ration with
evident signs of contentment. The mimicry of language in this
case clearly represented the shade of the new impression he felt.

Jaco is very timid. In the evening, when he is put to roost in
a close and dark room, he is afraid of the shadow of his perch
that is cast by the light we carry in our hand ; he eyes it, and
utters a low cry, which stops when the candle is blown out and
he can not see the shadow any longer. He stands in dread of
blows in the bottom of his cage, because, having a wing broken,
he can not fly, and is afraid of falling. Feeling his weakness,
his language has a different tone from the usual one. Large
birds flying in the sky above him annoy him greatly, and we can
all tell by his voice when such a bird is near or flying over.
He inclines his head and chatters in a low tone as long as the
bird is in sight, paying no attention to anything else. Turkeys
and hens announce the approach of a bird of prey in a similar
manner.

We find in the facts which we have related, as well as in
many others which are cited respecting the ways and habits of
parrots, proofs of a remarkable intelligence. These creatures are
distinguished by the unlimited affection which they bestow upon
certain persons, as well as by their excessive dislikes, which noth-
ing can explain. Jaco conceived an extraordinary dislike for a
maid who, although she took good care of him, was in the habit
of washing the bottom of his cage under a faucet. He afterward
discarded another person, whom he had liked so much that she
could do what she pleased with him, even to passing her hand
over his back and taking him by the tail, holding him in her
hands, or putting him in her apron — caresses of a kind that par-
rots do not usually permit. Nothing astonished him or offended
him. He proved very inconstant toward her, and now, while bet-
ter disposed toward the other girl, he is furious against this one.

OBSERVATIONS ON TEE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS. 539

A tliird miss has come to capture his affection ; and when he has
been left asleep, or resting in his cage, he has always the same
word, but different in the inflection, wheedling, angry, or nearly
indifferent, as either of the three persons comes near him. Jaco's
pronunciation is scanned in many metres. Only one young stu-
dent has had the privilege of retaining his affection unmarred.

Jaco had been left in the country for a whole week in the
winter. Alone and isolated, he was taken care of by a person
who was not constantly with him. The young student, accom-
panied by a tutor, came to pass a few days in the house. At the
sight of the youth, Jaco, surprised, called out, " Momon ! Mo-
mon ! " " It was affecting," they wrote me, " to see so great signs
of joy." I have also myself witnessed similar signs of joy at the
coming of the student. Jaco's speech at such times is always in
harmony with his feelings. In the pleasant season Jaco's cage
is put outdoors ; and at meal-times, knowing very well what is
going on within, he keeps up a steady course of suppliant appeals
for attention. His appeals cease at once if I go out with fruit
in my hand, and if I go toward him he utters a prattle of joy that
sounds like musical laughter. These manifestations indicate that
he is happy at seeing that he has been thought of.

I close these anecdotes, as I began them, by repeating that
animals communicate their impressions, and the feelings that
move them, by various modulations of their inarticulate cries,
which are incomprehensible to us unless we have succeeded by
attentive observation in connecting them with the acts that fol-
low or precede them. We have also seen that the articulation of
a few words learned by parrots aids us greatly in learning the
meaning of these different inflections.

The extension of these studies would furnish much of interest ;
but further observations should be made upon the same animals
for a long time continuously, relating especially to their peculiar
instincts as manifested by their various cries. We might then,
by comparing and relating acts and cries, reach the point of com-
prehending and perhaps fixing the meaning in many cases where
we are now in ignorance. Every one has noticed a few facts, and
has interpreted and related them, but much is still wanting for the
co-ordination of them in the point of view of the signification of
the language and communication of animals among themselves.
It has not been made in a general sense. — Translated for The
Popular Science MorUhly from the Revue Scientifique.

AocoBDiNG to Prof. G. Brown Goode, the United States is taking a "splendid
load " in the investigation of deep-sea fishes, England, France, Italy, Switzerland,
and India have all suspended their investigations, and the United States steamer
Albatross represents the whole work of the world in that direction.

540 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

RECENT OCEANIC CAUSEWAYS.

By M. E. BLANCHAED, of the Institute of Feance.

e

THE object of tliis paper is the survey of the most remarkable
changes that have taken place in the configuration of the
land and the seas. My purpose is to show by an aggregation of
proofs that the European and American continents were, to a
certain extent, united at an epoch of only moderate geological
antiquity. When we consider the extent of the Atlantic Ocean
between Europe and America, as measured by the usual routes
across it, we reject all thought of there ever having been a pas-
sage between the two continents in the present geological period.
But the assertion of the former existence of such a communica-
tion should cause no surprise, if we regard the arctic regions of
both shores of the Atlantic. In fact, if we follow a line drawn
from the islands north of Scotland through the Faroe Islands to
Iceland, from Iceland to Greenland, and from Greenland to Labra-
dor through Davis Strait, which is crowded with islands and
islets, we find a chain of lands interrupted only by spaces of sea
of small extent, and in some places of no great depth. Subsi-
dences of the ground and erosions have caused the isolation of
lands which were united in former ages, when living Nature had
assumed a character which has not ceased to exist down to our
own days. A similar phenomenon produced the separation of
England.

The application of natural history to physical geography and
the history of the globe casts a full light upon this matter. The
flora and fauna of North America are distinguished from those
of Europe by essential traits. This fact contributes in a striking
manner to establish the passage of a number of species from Eu-
rope to America. The demonstration appears complete when we
look at the number and the character of the plants and animals
inhabiting both continents. Among these are several anemo-
nes,* Crucifer(S;\ violets, and a number of species of Stellaria of
the pink family. The astragalus of the Alps thrives in Canada.
Among the RosacecB we find a series of species of northern and
Alpine Europe which occur also in North America — Spirceas, Po-
tentillas and others. Numerous saxifrages, epilobiums, and
honeysuckles are common, especially the famous LinncBa horealis.
Heaths of several kinds, the rhododendron of Lapland, and prim-
roses, have likewise found their way to America. The families of
the scrophul arias, the labiates, the borages, and the gentians are al-

* Anemone grafius, A. narcissijlora, and A. hepatica.

f Cardamine bellidijlora, Arabis petrcea, aud Draha lucana.

RECENT OCEANIC CAUSEWAYS. 541

so represented in the New World by identical species. Among the
arborescent plants, alders, willows, junipers, and the common yew
exist in the cold or temperate regions of both worlds. While we
refrain from dwelling on the grasses and ferns, the dissemination
of which to great distances is one of the most common phenom-
ena,* we are able to cite plants which seem hardly adapted to leap
over the arms of the sea, such as orchids and lilies of northern
Europe, which are also common in North America.

The numerous world of insects furnishes hundreds of exam-
ples of species that have passed across from the arctic regions of
Europe into America. Of the beetles, insects generally sedentary
and possessed of means of locomotion so inferior that they would
hardly venture to cross a sea with them, we can mention not less
than three or four hundred species as common to both continents.
We are particularly struck with the number of carnivorous spe-
cies {Carabides), which, living on the land and hiding under
stones, are disseminated very slowly. These species of carnivo-
rous Coleoptera may be followed from the north of the European
continent to Iceland, the shores of Greenland, Labrador, and
Canada, f It would be absurd to suppose that man has been able
in his migrations to carry such a multitude of the lower creatures
across the ocean. Notwithstanding the daily chances and the
continual transportation of all kinds of food-products, the com-
mon chafer of Europe has not been introduced at any point in
North America.

Lepidopterous insects (butterflies and moths), aided by a favor-
able wind, are undoubtedly sometimes carried over the sea ; and
it is not impossible that when they fall upon a land remote from
the country of their origin they may live and propagate them-
selves there. These, however, are exceptional cases, while the
Lepidoptera of the New World may be counted by the legion.
The common vanessas of Europe abound in the northern parts
of America,! and the argynnes of Lapland and Iceland* and the
satyrs of the genus Chionobas live also in Labrador. The enu-
meration could be easily extended.

It is fair to suppose that investigations properly directed
would enable us to recognize, in some American forms very close
to the European, local varieties of the same species. It may

* M. 0. Francliet, a botanist attached to the Museum of Natural History, has made, at
my request, a complete examination of the plants of northern Europe which are diffused to
a greater or less extent in North America.

f Bldhera ardica, Nebria nivalix, Bemhid'mm Grapei, Patrohus sepicntrwiix, Pterosti-
chus vitreus, P. arcticola, Amara erratica, A. inierstidaHs, A. brunnea, PlaUjrus Boge-
manni, Miscodera arciica.

I Vanessa anfiopa, V. Paolychlorus, V. Urtica, V. Atalanta,

* Argynn'is Freya, A. Frigga.

542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be further observed, in support of our thesis, that species in-
capable of great displacements, such as the spiders of arctic
countries and Alpine regions, have been observed in Greenland.
We can furthermore draw valuable results from the survey of
the geographical area of various vertebrates. The common mar-
ten, the common sable, and the ermine of the cold countries of
Europe, have passed into North America. Specific differences
between animals existing in different countries were formerly
made too readily, but we are now more careful. A very charac-
teristic type — the beaver — is widely diffused in Europe and in
Canada. The differences which the old naturalists defined be-
tween the European and American beavers are of the most super-
ficial character, while contemporary zoologists only distinguish
local varieties. Other rodents, like the Norwegian lemming and
the variable hare, have followed the same ways as the preceding
species, and spread themselves from one continent to the other.
Finally, we must not forget the reindeer of Lapland, which also
wanders in numerous troops in the coldest regions of North
America.

The fresh-water fishes of North America constitute a group
very characteristic of a single region of the globe. Yet this
fauna is augmented by a few European species. A perch {Perca
flavescens) should not apparently be separated from the river
perch of Europe. The peculiarities in the number and propor-
tions of the spines that garnish the opercle are so variable in
individuals that specific distinctions can not be based upon them.*
The European river bull-head (Coitus gobio), which is spread
through all northern Europe, lives in Greenland and North
America. The European pike inhabits the fresh waters of North
America, along with a distinct species peculiar to the country.
Now, it is certain that no river perch or bull-head or pike ever
left fresh water. These fishes could therefore have distributed
themselves through the two continents only at some time when
the lands scattered between the Old and New Worlds were con-
nected.

So abundant are the proofs of a communication by land be-
tween Europe and America during a recent age of the earth,
that it does not seem too presumptuous to declare it clearly cer-
tain.

If we carry ourselves back to the views which prevailed till
recently concerning the isolation of America, we shall suffer a
kind of surprise in observing most striking resemblances in living

* At my request, M. Leon Vaillant, my colleague in the Museum of Natural History,
has examined all the specimens of the American perch {Perca flavescens) in the collections
of this museum and compared them with the river perch of Europe. The recognized dif-
ferences are of so little importance as in no way to authorize a specific distinction.

RECENT OCEANIC CAUSEWAYS. 54.3

Nature on the two continents. The union between the continents
probably existed only in the north, perhaps above the fiftieth
degree of latitude. If we follow the most eastern parts of Asia,
northern Japan, Siberia, and Kamchatka, which are separated
from America by Bering Strait, or if we proceed from the Ameri-
can side through the peninsula of Alaska and the chain of the
Aleutian Islands, we shall comprehend at once that only very
ordinary geological changes may have been sufficient to bring
about the separation of lands which had been long united. Look-
ing toward the extreme north, we find no other separation between
the Old and New Worlds than a simple arm of the sea, Bering
Strait.

The study of living Nature in the arctic regions of Asia and
America is very instructive. Let us begin with examining the
vegetation. Some anemones and a ranunculus * of Siberia are
now common in North America. Another species of ranunculus f
is common to Japan, Kamchatka, Alaska, and northern and east-
ern America. While we admire the tulip tree % in the parks of
Europe, we recollect also that that beautiful exotic is one of the
glories of the North American flora. But the tulip tree has recently
been discovered in China. Then, there are the violets of Siberia
and Japan,* which are mingled also with the vegetation of North
America; and a vine {Vitus Lahrusca), now well known, reputed
American, which grows in Japan and a part of eastern Asia. A
maple || is common to Japan and North America, as are also
Spirceahetulifolia (birch-leaved spiraea) and Pole ntilla fragiformis
of the rose family, some saxifrages, a crassula {Penthorum se-
doides), various umbelliferous plants, the maritime alder, and a
few orchids and lilies.

The animal world furnishes valuable evidences of our theory.
Concerning insects I will cite only the facts most demonstrative
of former communications. Some carnivorous beetles, the Ca-
rabs,^ insects remarkable for their forms and colors, wingless, and
having only their legs as means of locomotion, inhabitants of
eastern Siberia, are also found in the cold countries of North
America. I first saw collections made in California, after I had
already become familiar with the faunas of Europe, Asia, and
America. I was then surprised to see in those collections Euro-
pean and Asiatic forms which were believed to be entirely foreign
to America. A little French butterfly, also occurring in Siberia,
the valley of the Amoor, and Japan, was found on the western
coast of America. It appears to be unique in the color of its
wings, which are beautifully green on the lower sides. The like-

* Eannneulus cj/mbalaria. f Trautvclieria palmata. % Liriodendron tulipifera,

* Viola rostrata, V. Canadensis. || Acer spicatiim.
^ Carabus Vie^yighosi , C. meander, C. truncaticoUis, C>jclu-us'anrfusticoUis.

544 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ness was most striking. Yet an entomologist, resting on trifling
peculiarities hardly the signs of a variety, described it as a new
species.* It is impossible to admit this. It was then learned that
the genus Parnassius, which were believed peculiar to the mount-
ains of Europe and Asia, existed in California. The species were
distinct from those of the Old World ; according to the conven-
tional expression, they were typical species. Afterward a species
of the same genus was observed on the western coast of North
America which was regarded as peculiar to Siberia and Mongolia.f
Papilio Hippocrates, a butterfly of a remarkable type, which was
known in Japan, has been found in North America.

Passing to vertebrate animals, I confine myself to the mention
of a small number of most characteristic types. Among the
rodents we remark the marmot, Ardomys pruniosiis, or sonslik
of Siberia, which lives in Kamchatka, on the Alaskan Peninsula,
and on the American continent. Among all the carnivorous ani-
mals of the family of the Miistelidm, or weasels, we remark the
sable of eastern Asia in Kamchatka, Alaska, and other northern
parts of the American continent. A carnivorous animal of an-
other group, the glutton, or wolverine, is found in the same
regions.

In this latter part of my paper I have spoken wholly of ani-
mals and plants common to Asia and America, as in the former
part I spoke only of those common to Europe and North America.
But while I omit to make long enumerations of species, I insist
on the fact that plants and animals are distributed in considerable
numbers over the whole extent of the arctic regions in Europe,
Asia, and America, having accomplished the whole circuit of that
zone at an epoch when the continuity of the land made possible
an indefinite dissemination to the full extent that climatic condi-
tions were favorable.

With the present condition exactly determined, and the former
condition recognized, a sure foundation is laid for the science of
the future ; new changes will be produced in the course of a few
centuries in the configurations of the lands and the seas, and then
men of science will be able to form theories of Yoliie.— Translated
for TJie Popidar Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique.

The work of searching for tlie affinities of great groups is declared by Prof.
Coulter to be the crying need of systematic botany. There is danger of mag-
nifying the importance of certain periods or organs in indicating affinities.
For the best and most permanent results of systematic botany, it should take into
account development at every period and of every organ, and so obtain a mass
of cumulative evidence for safe generalization.

* The Thecla rnbi of Europe and Asia; the California specimens were described under
the name of T. dumetorum (Boisd). f Parnassius Nomion.

THE UNIVERSE OF STARS. 545

THE UNIVERSE OF STARS.*

IT is only, curiously enough, witliin tlie last decade or two that
the science of astronomy has answered to its name. Until the
methods of spectrum analysis and of photography were applied to
the stars, astronomers were scarcely justified in their title, for
they knew little about the stars, and, hardly hoping to know
more, almost confined their attention to the solar system. Now,
although sidereal astronomy, the science of astronomy jjar excel-
lence, is still in its infancy, we may discern pretty clearly what
will be the nature of its achievements. Surpassing the wildest
dreams of the older astronomers in range and penetration, mod-
ern astronomy yet brings the whole cosmos within the grasp of
human intelligence. Not only are the stars in process of being
numbered, their motions, proper and relative, in course of meas-
urement, their physical constitution subjected to analysis, and
their distances brought within computation ; but the entire side-
real system is recognized as limited in extent, and the form and
magnitude of the vast group in space will at no distant date be-
come susceptible of approximate delineation and calculation.

Of the methods referred to, photography has had, perhaps, the
largest share in the recent advancement of sidereal science. The
chemistry of the stars, it is true, is founded wholly on spectrum
analysis, that profound and searching means of testing the com-
position of bodies by the action of elementary substances, under
proper conditions, upon the infinitesimal undulations which give
rise to the phenomena of light ; but without the aid of photog-
raphy, the mapping of star-spectra must have remained a slow
and inaccurate process. The camera, on the other hand, has re-
vealed almost all that is known concerning the number, distances,
masses, and motions of the stars ; the lens has no " personal equa-
tion," and never gets tired ; sensitized gelatin responds with
infinite celerity to the undulations which make no impression
whatever upon the eye ; and star-pictures of the heavens are not
only permanent records, but, with the proper instruments and
skill, can be so readily taken that before very long it is probable
that some seven hundred thousand out of the whole sixty millions
of stars will be accurately charted and indexed.

For such is the least number of the heavenly host — which a
French astronomer somewhat extravagantly estimates to contain
nearly seventy thousand millions of suns ; for each star we see is
a sun shining with its own light, and governing probably, like
our own, the motions of a system of planets. Nor is the light

* The System of the Stars. B7 Agues M. Gierke. London : Longmans. 1890,

VOL. XL. — 38

546 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they send us inconsidera'ble, for the total effulgence of the stars
down to the 9i light-magnitude is equal to one eightieth part of
the effulgence of a full moon in a clear sky. "What light we get
from the stars of lower magnitude it is difficult to say, but it is
clear that the stellar world is not boundless, for were it so the
light from the infinite hosts of more and more remote suns would,
as Miss Gierke says, fill the sky with an indefinitely intense ra-
diance. It must, however, be remembered that it is not known
whether the undulations which cause light are capable of infinite
propagation. Nor, it may be added, can one be certain that the
mass of ether in which our cosmos swims is the only one in space ;
or, if space and ether be taken as convertible terms, that it is the
only mass differentiated — coarsened, so to speak, into a condition
fit for the evolution of matter and energy, and of the suns and
solar systems thus brought into being. The stars are arranged
according to their light-magnitudes, to each magnitude the nu-
merical value 2i being assigned, for mathematical reasons that
can not be here explained. Altair and Aldebaran are, strictly
speaking, the only stars of the first magnitude, and the light of
either of them would equal that of one hundred stars of the sixth
and one million stars of the sixteenth magnitude. Sirius, how-
ever, is nine times as bright as Aldebaran, and its magnitude
accordingly is expressed by the value — 1'4. Among the suns visi-
ble to us, it comes next to our own sun, whose magnitude is reck-
oned at — 25"-4 ; in other words, the sun is (to our earth) between
three and four million times as luminous as the Dog-star. The
most accurate photometric measures of the stars are now made
by the aid of photography, and the astronomers of a thousand
years hence will have before them exact light-histories of nearly
all the millions of stars of which the delicate and tireless gelatin
films can seize and retain the faintest light-impressions. To what
undreamed-of knowledge of our cosmos this wealth of accurate
records will lead !

One of the most important results of stellar photometry is the
aid it affords toward determining the distances of the stars. The
mean distance of stars of the same magnitude is approximately
the same ; and if, therefore, the distances of some of the nearer
stars are obtained, the approximate remoteness of any given cate-
gory is easily calculated. But to find independently the distance
of any individual star, its parallax must be known — the angle,
that is, between two lines drawn from the ends of a base-line of
known length to the star in question. Now, if the mean distance
between earth and sun be taken as such base-line, 93,000,000 miles
in length, to include an angle of one second (one 324,000th of a right
angle), the line must be drawn to an object 206,205 X 93,000,000
miles distant. "Well, no star is so near as this. The nearest star.

THE UNIVERSE OF STARS. 547

a Centauri, has a parallax of three fourths of a second. To bring
within easier comprehension the enormous distance this parallax
involves, let the rapidity of light be considered. Light travels at
the rate of over one hundred and eighty thousand miles a second,
and a year of such travel may be taken as a unit for star-distances.
Thus, the distance of a Centauri would be measured by nearly 4^
" light-years." The Polar Star is forty light-years, Sirius one hun-
dred and twenty-one light-years, distant from our globe ; while
stars of the sixteenth magnitude may be so remote that it would
take a wave of light thirty -six thousand years to reach the solar
system. The parallax of Sirius is only about one thirty-third of
a second — a striking example of the dependence of the most pro-
digious measurements of astronomy upon the minutest readings
of apparatus, necessitating the utmost perfection of workman-
ship, as well as consummate skill and knowledge on the part of
the observer.

Over eight thousand nebulae have now been subjected to ex-
amination. The great nebulae in Andromeda and Orion are, of
course, familiar to every one. The telescopic nebulae are of all
sizes and shapes, and scattered over the whole heavens. Many
stars have nebulous wisps and whirls, tails and helices, attached
to them. The nature of nebulae is still more or less of a mystery.
But it is certain that they are initial, or at least early, phases of
the life-history of stars. That life-history may be shortly stated
in Miss Gierke's own words :

By the ceaseless advance of condensation nebulae are transformed first into
gaseous stars (showing bright lines in the spectrnm, and therefore shrouded in
glowing atmospheres, chiefly of hydrogen and helium), then into stars with banded
spectra (showing outer atmospheric strata below incandescence over inner strata
at glowing heat), from which (by further condensation and increase of inner heat
below irregular outer clouds of metallic vapor) solar stare, and from these again
Sirian stars, gradually emerge. Here the ascent ends ; the maximum of temper-
ature is reached, and a descent begins, the initial stage of which is marked by a
second group of objects like our sun and Capella, distinguished from the first by
the circumstance that they are losing instead of gaining heat ; while, lower still,
the condition immediately antecedent to solidification and obscurity (dark stars)
is represented by Father Secchi's " carbon stars."

The nebula in Orion is of a very irregular shape ; imbedded
in it lies the stellar group 0^ of the constellation, and some other
stars, all of which together seem to form an enormous system
whose dimensions can scarcely even be guessed at. Examined by
the spectroscope, the nebula is found to consist of glowing gas,
which the spectrum indicates to be a mixture of hydrogen and
nitrogen. The Andromeda nebula, on the other hand, presents a
well-defined oval, and gives a continuous spectrum in which no
bright lines have been certainly distinguished. It may, therefore,

548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be not a nebula at all, but a cluster of stars so enormously remote
as to be unanalyzable by the most powerful of modern telescopes.'
In relation to nebulae, a word may be said on Mr. Lockyer's in-
genious "meteoric theory," submitted to the scientific world in
1887. Nebulse, he asserts, " are composed of spare meteorites, the
collisions of which bring about a rise of temperature sufficient to
render luminous one of their chief constituents, magnesium." But
the spectroscopic coincidences upon which this theory is based
are by no means verified, nor has any comprehensible theory of
the origin of these meteorites — very complex bodies, according to
the samples that have reached our earth — been offered. If, fol-
lowing the indications of recent chemical and physical research,
we consider the elements as molecular differentiations of the
ether, the nebulse may present stages in this differentiation in
which the molecular states of some of the elements are not iden-
tical with those with which we are familiar in the laboratory, in
which, indeed, certain of the elements may not yet have been
evolved. — The Spectator.

SKETCH OF WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER.

WITH the death of Weber, June 23, 1891, passed away, as M.
Mascart, of the Central Meteorological Bureau of France,
has well said, the last representative of that generation of men of
science that cast so much luster on the first half of this century.
He was also the last survivor of that group of experimenters in
Europe and America whose labors gave the world the electric
telegraph ; the one among them who first demonstrated that com-
munication by electricity was possible and practicable.

William Edward Weber was born in Wittenberg, Prussia,
October 24, 1804. He was the second of three sons of the learned
theologian, Michael Weber, Professor of Theology at Wittenberg.
The other two sons became doctors, both contributed to science,
and both co-operated with the subject of this sketch in some im-
portant investigation. Weber studied at the Frankean School
and the University of Halle, received his doctor's degree in 1826,
became privat-docent at Halle in the next year, and Professor-
Extraordinary of Physics there in 1828. In 1831 he was ap-
pointed to succeed John Tobias Mayer as Professor of Physics in
the University of Gottingen. Ho remained there till 1837, when
a political event caused his retirement. On the death of King
William IV of England and Hanover, the kingdom of Hanover
was separated from England by the operation of the Salic law,
and fell to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, uncle of King

SKETCH OF WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER. 549

William. Ernest was a believer iu the supreme right of kings,
and set aside the Constitution which William had granted in
1833. At the same time he called on the public officers of the
country, including the professors in the university, to take an
oath of allegiance to him and of obedience to his new rule. Weber
with six of his fellow-professors — Jacob and William Grimm,
Dahlmann, Albrecht, Gervinus, and Ewald — protested against
the arbitrary act, and refused to conform to it. " The entire effect
of our work," they said, " depends not more surely on the scien-
tific value of our teaching than on our personal freedom from
reproach. So soon as we appear before the students as men who
trifle with their oaths, our efficiency is at an end. And what
would the oath of our fidelity and homage be worth to his Majesty
the King, if it came from men who had just frivolously set aside
another sworn obligation ? " For this refusal the seven professors
— " the Gottingen seven " they are called — were removed from
their chairs, and three of them (Gervinus, Dahlmann, and Jacob
Grimm) were expelled from the country. After this event
Weber lived in retirement as a private teacher in Gottingen till
1843, when he was called to be Professor of Physics in the Uni-
versity of Leipsic. According to a German biographer, he never
felt quite at home in Leipsic, and gladly accepted an invitation
in 1849 to his old place in the Georgia Augusta at Gottingen,
where he spent the rest of his life, " with rare fullness of enjoy-
ment pursuing his learned work, never anxious about the show of
success, but finding complete satisfaction in the peculiar joys of
scientific achievement, furnishing thus a shining example in op-
position to the restlessness of our age."

With his eldest brother, Ernst Heinrich, who, a physician,
with particular devotion to anatomy and physiology, had become
interested in the solution of certain difficult questions in physics,
Weber engaged in the investigation of some of the phenomena of
wave -motion. The result was the publication, in 1825, when
Weber was twenty-one years old, of the book T>ie Wellenlehre
auf Experimente gegrundet (The Doctrine of Waves, based on
Experiments), a volume of five hundred and seventy-four pages,
with eighteen copper plates, mostly engraved by the authors. One
of the striking results of the investigations was the discovery
that, when a regular series of waves follow each other along the
surface of water, the particles at the surface describe vertical cir-
cles, the plane of which is parallel to the direction of propagation
of the waves, and those lower down ellipses, of which the vertical
axis becomes smaller and smaller with increasing depth. The
work was, according to the declaration of the authors, the re-
sult of such constant and intimate communication between them
with regard to all the parts that it was impossible to assign

55°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

to either of them the separate authorship of any distinct
portions.

A few years afterward, at Gottingen, Weber was engaged in
another investigation with his brother Eduard Friedrich, who was
also a doctor interested in physical studies, of the mechanism of
walking, the results of which were published in the book Mechanik
der Tnenschlichen Oehwerhzeuge. The salient feature of this work,
in which many novel facts were brought out, was the enunciation
of the fact that the pressure of the air is a factor in holding the
bones in place in the joints.

For several years Weber was occupied mainly with questions
of acoustics, on which, as well as upon electricity, heat, and light,
he published many important papers.

His title to be regarded as one of the masters in science rests
chiefly on his researches in electricity and magnetism. His posi-
tion as professor at Gottingen brought him into close association
with Gauss, who was as devoted to mathematics as Weber was to
physics. The two assisted and complemented one another : Weber
needed calculations to bring out the bearings of his experimental
results, and Gauss was ready to take up any serious problem that
needed solution.

Gauss, according to M. Mascart, besides his work in analysis
and celestial mechanics, had given his attention to the mathemati-
cal theory of electricity and magnetism, in which he found many
analogies with that of universal attraction. He had published a
memoir describing an experimental method superior to that of
Coulomb for verifying the law of magnetic actions, and a general
theory of the magnetism of the globe and the relations between
the results obtained at different stations. He established a mag-
netic observatory, where the methods of calculation he had devised
were applied ; and with Weber's collaboration an extensive asso-
ciation was formed, including the directors of the principal observ-
atories, chiefly in Germany, for making a systematic study, under
a common plan, of the continual variations of terrestrial magnet-
ism. The results of this great enterprise were published by Weber
from year to year, and collected in a magnetic atlas of the globe.
In memory of this initiative, the Meridian of Gottingen is still
preserved as the point of departure in a large number of general
studies on the distribution of terrestrial magnetism. This com-
mon labor led to the installation, by the two co-workers, in 1834,
of the first electric telegraph, by which an important date is
marked in the history of telegraphy.

The idea of telegraphing by means of electricity was not entire-
ly novel then. Samuel Thomas von Sommering, of Munich, had
experimented upon it with some success in 1809. Ampere, in 1820,
and Fechner, in 1829, had proposed the utilization of the magnetic

SKETCH OF WILLIAM EDWARD WEBER. 551

needle for making signals. But none of these efforts had advanced
beyond the experimental stage, and they were only of historical
value. They illustrate the general principle that a great discovery
hardly ever springs from the thought of a single man. But the
fact that there were preceding tentatives does not diminish the
fame of the man who gathers up and combines the previous results
and completes what they had left unfinished. Weber was the first
who established a permanent workable telegraph line, and there-
by demonstrated the practical value of the electric telegraph.
Weber's house in the city was connected with the astronomical
and magnetic observatories by a line between three and four
kilometres (over two miles) in length. The signals were made by
the deviations of the needle of a galvanometer to the right and
left and were interpreted according to a conventional alphabet.
The use of interrupted or reversed currents did not permit the
transmission of more than one or two words a minute, but the
speed was increased to seven or eight words by the use of induced
currents.

The following first notice of this telegraphic connection was
published in one of the numbers of the Gottingischen gelehrteii
Anzeigen (or Gottingen Scientific Notes) for 1834: "We can not
omit to mention an important and, in its way, unique feature in
close connection with the arrangements we have described [of the
Physical Observatory], which we owe to our Prof. Weber. He
last year stretched a double connecting wire from the cabinet of
physics over the houses of the city to the observatory ; in this a
grand galvanic chain is established, in which the current is car-
ried through about nine thousand feet of wire. The wire of the
chain is chiefly copper wire, known in the trade as No. 3. The
certainty and exactness with which one can control by means of
the commutator the direction of the current and the movement of
the needle depending upon it were demonstrated last year by suc-
cessful application to telegraphic signalizing of whole words and
short phrases. There is no doubt that it will be possible to estab-
lish immediate telegraphic communication between two stations
at considerable distances from one another."

Weber's general magnetic and electrical researches, by which
his place in the history of science is most conspicuously marked,
are described in the Resultate aus den Beobaclitungen des mag-
netischen Vereins (Results from the Observations of the Magnetic
Union), published by Gauss and Weber from 1837 to 1843, and in
Weber's JElektrodynamische Maasbestimmungen (Electrodynamic
Measurements), published from 1846 to 1874. Of these, M. Mas-
cart says that " the thouglit of measures in mechanical unities
was naturally applicable to the reactions which take place be-
tween conductors traversed by electric currents and between cur-

552 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rents, tlie laws of which, had been established by Ampere for the
permanent effects, and by Faraday for the transient effects pro-
duced by currents of induction. Weber found in them a new
road and a personal glory. The series of memoirs in the Elehtro-
dynamische Maashestimmungen constitute an imperishable scien-
tific monument, in which the extent of the descriptions may some-
times appear long to the reader eager to get on, but the attentive
study of which is ever fruitful. It is impossible to give an ade-
quate estimate of this work in a short analysis ; we shall only
point out a few of its salient traits. The invention of electro-
dynamometry, which depends on the reciprocal action of currents,
permitted Weber to subject Ampere's law to a vigorous testing
by a method that differed from that of Gauss only by the substi-
tution of coils for magnets. The close study of the deviations
produced in galvanometric apparatus by permanent or temporary
currents furnished him with a means of devising precise methods
of observation, of measuring quantities of electricity correspond-
ing to the discharge by the impulse impressed by them on the
magnetic needle, and of estimating the approximate duration of
the discharges by a combination of the galvanometer and the
electrodynamometer.

In the course of his experimental researches, Weber made
known an important formula which includes in a single expres-
sion Coulomb's laws of electrostatics. Ampere's laws on the
reciprocal action of currents, and the phenomena of induction
described by Faraday. Gauss seems not to have been a stranger
to the selection of this formula, and the theoretical conceptions
which are its basis may give occasion to discussion ; but Weber
has the merit of having shown all its consequences by establish-
ing for the first time a close connection between phenomena that
appear independent. Weber's labors are particularly distin-
guished by the introduction of the absolute measures which have
contributed for several years to the rapid progress of electricity
as a subject of pure science and in its industrial applications. To
him, in fact, we owe the suppression of a vague terminology in
which currents were estimated by the kind of piles and number
of couples, the length and size of circuits, or the deviation pro-
duced in a dynamometer of which only the number of turns of wire
was indicated. The inestimable services that have been derived
from the employment of absolute measures justify the attribution
of the name of weher to the unity of the current as defined by its
electromagnetic action, for which the mechanical unities of Gauss
— the millimetre, the milligramme, and the second of mean time
— are adopted.

Weber's biographer in Nature gives Sir William Thomson the
credit of having been one of the first men of science to recog-

SKETCH OF WILLI A3I EDWARD WEBER. 553

nize the fundamental cliaracter and far-reaching importance of
"Weber's work ; and, owing mainly to his clear-sighted advocacy
of the absolute system of measurement, this system was from the
first adopted as the basis for the operations of the British Asso-
ciation Committee on Electrical Standards, appointed originally
in 1862. " This system has now become so familiar to electricians,
and is taken so much as a matter of course, that it requires some
mental effort to recall the state of science when it did not exist,
and to appreciate the intellectual greatness of the man to whom
it is due. If we consider method and point of view, rather than
acquired results, it is not too much to say that the idea of abso-
lute measurements, underlying as it does the conception of the
conservation of energy, constitutes the most characteristic differ-
ence between modern physics and the physics of the early part of
our century. And to no one man is so large a share in this great
step due as to Wilhelm Eduard Weber."

Weber, in conjunction with Kohlrausch, determined the rela-
tions between electrical and magnetic measurements expressed in
the same unities, concerning which there seems to have been
some confusion. He determined the chemical actions by electrol-
ysis which correspond with the passage of a unity of current in
a second, and by this furnished a practical means of reconstitut-
ing that unity in experiments. He pointed out and put in prac-
tice some of the most precise methods for determining the nu-
merical value, as related to the fundamental unities, of the
electrical resistance of a conductor. His name is also asso-
ciated with numerous labors for fixing the value of the prac-
tical unity of resistance, or the ohm, in terms of the mercurial
column.

So retired was Weber's life in his later days that, though his
fame had not diminished, the world had almost forgotten that he
was still in it ; and it is said that when, at the meeting of the Ger-
man naturalists in Berlin a few years ago, the name of Weber
was read in the list of those who had taken part in the first meet-
ing held there in 1828, surprise was expressed at recognizing in
their octogenarian friend one who had sat there with Berzelius
and Ohm and Heim.

Weber was a corresponding member of the Institute of
France, and had been a foreign member of the Royal Society
since 1850.

554

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

VmVERSITY EXTENSION AND TEE
STATE.

THE writer of the able article on
university extension which ap-
peared in the November Monthly, does
well to come forward in the present
number and further develop his views
as to the best means of securing the suc-
cess of the university-extension move-
ment. He does not agree with the opin-
ion we expressed in the " Table " for
November, that the movement in ques-
tion should be carried on in entire inde-
pendence of Government assistance. He
thinks, on the contrary, that, unless the
national Government comes to its aid
with a grant of money, the work which
is proposed " can not be thoroughly or
systematically done as regards the coun-
try at large " ; and he takes occasion to
indicate what he considers to be the true
theory of the state. The arguments of
our valued contributor, we must say,
have not convinced us ; and, consider-
ing the importance of the subject, we
feel sure that we shall be excused if we
say a few more words upon it from our
own point of view.

The university-extension scheme,
we must assume, has been called into
existence to meet a public demand.
Prof. Henderson says : "The work
promises to be much too large for pri-
vate enterprise." "We interpret this to
mean that there is a great and growing
interest in the extension movement —
that the public are, to an encouraging
extent, alive to its importance ; but, if
such is the case, instead of saying that
the work promises to be "much too
large for private enterprise," we should
say that private enterprise bids fair to
cope most successfully with the work.
If public interest has not been awakened
in an encouraging degree, we fail to see
the force or propriety of the word
"promises" as used by Prof. Hender-

son ; if it has been so awakened, we say,
let us wait and see what public interest
and private enterprise will do before we
dream of asking for a share of the taxes
to support the movement. We are
strongly of opinion that people should
pay for the bread of intellectual life.
If they pay for it they will value it, and
not scatter it by the roadside, as beg-
gars do bread given in alms. There is
invariably far more intellectual interest
in a class all the members of which pay
the full amount of their own fees; the
attendance is more regular, the attention
is more keen. Every one can verify this
from his own experience. A traveling
teacher or professor visits a town or vil-
lage and offers to teach a class of so
many some particular subject at so much
a head. If the class is formed, every
one, as a rule, does his or her best to
get the most out of it. Nobody goes
there to trifle, nobody cares to miss a
lesson. Now, what university extension
has got to do is to offer the people what
they want in the way of instruction and
invite them to pay for it. If it offers
the people what they do not want they
will not take it ; and here we see one of
the mischiefs of Government interfer-
ence. "Why have the old universities of
the world been so slow to move out of
their ancient ruts, so slow to adapt
their teaching to the new requirements
of a new age? Simply because they
have had large endowments and have
been to that extent independent of pub-
lic opinion. If a certain subject declined
in interest, the university could go on
teaching it to all but empty benches.
The endowment was there, the chair
was provided for, and why should any
change be made? Precisely so with our
university-extension movement : backed
by Government money it would inevita-
bly be less swayed by considerations of
public utility, and more by the estab-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

555

lished conventions, not to say fictions, of
the teaching profession, than if it were
whoHy dependent on the free response
of the public.

Another objection that we make is
that tbe idea of using the proceeds of
taxation in aid of the movement gives
it too indeterminate a character. Prof.
Henderson's own language shows this.
" Onco established," he says, " these
district central offices of the Department
of Education might, with perfect pro-
priety, go a step further and provide,
under suitable conditions, for part of
the expense of an extension course
where the proceeds from the sale of
lecture-tickets were not sufficieot. "With
the people tLemselves directly creating
each center, electing their own subject,
choosing their own lecturer, and paying
for all or part of the local expense, I
really do not see how the movement
could become commonplace or merce-
nary in its character by being system-
atized under national auspices." The
words we have italicized are signifi-
cantly vague. Will it be pretended, be-
sides, that the agency disposing of the
Government grant would not have a
great deal to say as to the mode of its
application, and would not, in many
cases, override local choice as to sub-
jects and lecturers? If of two locali-
ties, both aspiring to the grant, one
fell in with all the views of the district
center, while another stood out for some
plan of studies of its own, can any one
doubt that the tractable locality would
have much the better chance of getting
it? Another point is that as soon as it
became a matter of distributing Gov-
ernment money, all kinds of local jeal-
ousies would arise ; and politicians
would appear upon the scene to de-
mand that their special localities should
not be neglected. "We incline to think
that, if Prof. Henderson could only be
brought into contact with two or three
average Congressmen wrangling over
what they would regard as a division
of the spoils, his confidence in the be-

neficent influence of a subsidy would be
somewhat shaken.

We do not know how our contribu-
tor arrives at the induction he puts for-
ward with so much confidence that
" the sum of American public infamy is
neither absolutely nor relatively so great
as the sura of American private infa-
my"; but we must be allowed to ques-
tion the value of the formula. We are
told that the Government is corrupt only
because the people are corrupt. There
is doubtless some general truth in the
statement ; but it ought not to be for-
gotten that one way in which the cor-
ruption of the people shows itself is in
taking money in taxes which they could
not get in any other way, and to which
they have no right. Appropriation-hunt-
ing has long since been reduced to a
science, and no one who has carefully
watched the politics of this or any other
democratic country can doubt that every
additional appropriation made by the
Legislature becomes to some extent an
additional corruption fund. Granting
even that the appropriation once voted
is honestly expended as a matter of ac-
count, the very granting of it in many
cases was an act of theft viewed from
one side and an act of bribery viewed
from another. The locality or interest
that clamors till it gets what it wants,
without regard to the general welfare,
virtually steals; and the combination of
politicians that procures the appropria-
tion aids in the theft for purposes of
bribery. To say, therefore, that such
money does not stick to the hands of
the officials who expend it is not saying
much. They doubtless, as Prof. Hen-
derson hints, are more or less compelled
to be honest — the dishonesty was per-
petrated in the passing of the vote by
which the money was obtained in the
first place. When Prof. Henderson tells
us that our officials are not so bad, and
that we should not be afraid of the
Government which is our own creature,
he misses the mark. We are not afraid
of the officials, whose functions are

556

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

krgely analogous to those of employes
in private firms or corporations; what
we are afraid of is the really irrespon-
sible action of our legislators who are
sent to Congress almost solely as repre-
sentatives of local interests, wholly un-
embarrassed by local consciences. Our
real Government is not the executive —
it is the Legislature ; and if Prof. Hen-
derson will take the responsibility of
stating that the private business of the
country is carried on on less honest
principles than the business of legisla-
tion, we think he will surprise most
well-informed readers.

We must demur altogether to Prof.
Henderson's identification of liberty w ith
power or faculty. If a man can not
swim, we do not say he is not at liberty
to swim. If, on the other hand, a boy
can swim, but is not allowed to by his par-
ents, we say he is not at liberty to swim.
The business of Government, according
to Herbert Spencer, to whom Prof. Hen-
derson refers, is to protect individuals
in the exercise of already acquired fac-
ulties and powers, not to take measures
for enlarging their faculties and pow-
ers: that, he holds, they should look
after for themselves. Liberty means
nothing else than freedom from external
restraint ; and to assume, as Prof. Hen-
derson seems to, that a man free from
external restraint is not truly free unless
he has also a wide range of action is
abont as logical as to say that a man can
not be truly sane unless he has a very
wide range of knowledge. Yet it is on
the strength of this apparent confusion
of thought that Prof. Henderson asks
us, in the name of liberty, to intrust the
Government with a great diversity of
functions for the purpose of "making
desirable individual action possible " !
We sincerely trust that university-ex-
tension lecturers will not be found teach-
ing this doctrine, and arguing that a
man's freedom is increased when he
gets cheap'er postage, or any other
added facilities for action. In the sense
in which Prof. Henderson is using the

word " liberty," it would surely be the
duty of the Government to see that
every man was well supplied with
pocket-money, since nothing so circum-
scribes action as poverty.

Finally, we fail to see much force in
the paragraph in which our contributor
sums up his case: "A governmental ac-
tion which compels is mischievous; an
activity which says, 'Thou mayst; lol
here are the menns,' is helpful." Sure-
ly it is obvious that before the Govern-
ment can say "Thou mayst; lo! here
are the means," it must have taken
those means from somebody else. The
one great form of compulsion which
governments nowadays have it in their
power to exercise is this one of ta:sa-
tion. The business of Government is
not to say "Thou mayst" to any one,
but to say " Thou mnst not " to every
one who shows a disposition to encroach
on the liberties of his neighbor. " Thou
mayst" in the mouth of the Govern-
ment is almost, if not quite, an imper-
tinence. "Thou must not," if uttered
in the right quarter, is the watchword
of individual liberty.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Cause of an Ice Age. By Sir Robert
Ball, LL. D., F. R. S., Royal Astronomer
of Ireland, author of Starland. Modern
Science Series, Vol. I. New York : D.
Applcton & Company. 1891. 16mo.
Pp. xii 4-180. Price, $1.

As a mathematician, Dr. Ball has a high
reputation, and he has at the same time
rare ability in popularizing his themes.
Even those who have little mathematical
knowledge will find no difficulty in under-
standing the main points of this volume,
while the abstruse formulas upon which hia
theory depends are relegated to a short ap-
pendix, where they can be examined at lei-
sure by those who are competent to carry on
extended mathematical calculations.

In his opinion, the discovery which Dr.
Ball has made lends strong support to the
theory of Adhemar and Croll, namely, that
the great Ice age was produced by the pre-
cession of the equinoxes during a period of

LITERARY NOTICES.

557

an extreme ellipticity of tbe earth's orbit.
The sua is now about three million miles
nearer us in the winter than in summer,
and the winter (that is, the time from the
autumnal to the vernal equinox) is seven
days shorter than the summer. In about
eleven thousand years from now the con-
dition of things will be reversed, and the
northern hemisphere will have a summer
seven days shorter than the winter, occur-
ring while the earth is three million miles
nearer its source of heat. About two hun-
dred and fifty thousand years ago the eccen-
tricity of the earth's orbit was so great that
the difference in these seasons was thirty-
three days, and the difference between the
distance of the earth from the sun at peri-
helion and that at aphelion was seven or
eight million miles.

These facts served as the basis for Mr.
Croll's theory, who assumed, on the strength
of Herschel's authority, that the absolute
amount of heat received by the earth during
the season which occurred in perihelion was
the same as that received during aphelion.
He reasoned, therefore, that when the win-
ters occurred in aphelion both their in-
creased length and the greater distance from
the sun would favor the radiation of heat
to such an extent that a glacial period would
bo produced, especially in those periods when
the eccentricity of the earth's orbit was
greatest. Dr. Ball comes to the aid of Mr.
CroU by showing that the distribution of
heat between summer and winter is not in
equal quantities, as supposed by Mr. Croll,
but that sixty-three per cent of the annual
heat received by a hemisphere of the earth
falls upon it during the summer — that is,
from the vernal to the autumnal equinox —
and only thirty-seven per cent during the
winter. If, therefore, there was any truth
in Croll's original theory. Dr. Ball's dis-
covery will greatly increase the efficiency of
the cause.

But the accumulating objections urged
by geologists against the theory of Mr. Croll
must still apply with all their force. For
after Dr. Ball's amendment there is even
greater demand than before for geological
evidence of a long succession of glacial pe-
riods, especially during the later geological
eras. But it is the universal opinion of ge-
ologists that the Tertiary period was through-

out one of great mildness of climate, even
up to the vicinity of the north pole; yet the
Tertiary age doubtless stretched over more
than one period of extreme eccentricity of
the earth's orbit. Furthermore, the point
of glacial radiation in North America is not
the north pole, but the region south of
Hudson Bay. So clearly is this the case,
that President Chamberlin (who has charge
of the glacial department of the United
States Geological Survey) has adopted the
theory that the cause of the glacial phe-
nomena of North America was an actual
change of the position of the pole ; while
others, who can not give their adherence to
so improbable a cause, are laying renewed
emphasis upon the changes of level in the
earth's surface which occurred toward the
close of the Tertiary period.

While, however, we are not convinced
of the adequacy of Croll's hypothesis, even
as amended by Dr. Ball, we can speak most
highly of Dr. Ball's work in bringing clearly
before our minds a possible astronomical
cause for the Glacial period with which all
students of this attractive subject must
reckon. The defect in the theory lies not
in the mathematical calculations, but in our
real lack of knowledge concerning the causes
which distribute the heat over the surface
of the earth. Meteorology is the science to
which we look with most expectancy for
further light upon the cause of the Glacial
period. The astronomical causes suggested
by Dr. Ball's discussion may be so readily
masked by slight changes in the direction of
oceanic and atmospheric currents produced
by relatively slight changes of land level as
to be almost entirely ruled out of account.

Systematic Mineralogy, bared on a Natu-
ral Classification. By Thomas Sterrt
Hunt, M. A., LL. D. New York : Scien-
tific Publishing Company. Pp. xvii +
391, octavo. Price, $5.

This volume aspires to fill a unique place
in the literature of mineralogy. As the au-
thor notes in his preface, there is no lack of
treatises on the science, both determina-
tive and descriptive. Still, to a naturalist
familiar with the methods of nomenclature
in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the
names of mineral species are barbarous, triv-
ial, and unmcaninff. This state of affairs

558

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

springs from the absence of a natural and
rational system of classification, such as
long since was introduced in the organic
worlds. Not that attempts at this needed
classification have been wanting. Two ri-
val schools for many years have contended
for methods diametrically opposed. The
so-called natural-history or mineralogical
method was advocated by Werner, Mohs,
Jameson, Shepard, and Breithaupt ; the
chemical method, as formulated by Berze-
lius and developed by Rammelsberg, has
been the basis of the text-books of Phil-
lips, Dana, and Naumann. The possibility
of reconciling these apparently antagonistic
systems has been the aim of our author
throughout his long career of study. La-
bors in this direction, which from time to
time have been brought to the attention of
the scientific world, are in the present vol-
ume connected and completed, formin"' what
he terms a natural system of classification.
He approaches his main task by a presenta-
tion of those elementary principles of chem-
istry and physics which underlie alike the two
rival methods hitherto in the field. He dis-
cusses the nature of chemical combination,
of which he holds that solution is a phase ;
the periodic law ; and the important prob-
lem of ascertaining the relative degree of
chemical condensation, upon which depends
the varying hardness and insolubility of spe-
cies. Between the physical characteristics
and the chemical constitution of a mineral
subsist necessary relations ; on these rest
the new classification, in which the seeming
contradictions of the two rival schools are
brought to accord. In place of the old
trivial names we are given a classic Latin
nomenclature for classes, orders, genera,
and species — that for species being bino-
mial. This system realizes, in a simplified
form, that projected by Breithaupt and left
unfinished by him. An examination of his
nomenclature, as well as of those proposed
by Mohs and by Dana, is followed by a sy-
nopsis of native species, with both their
scientific and trivial names. This is suc-
ceeded by a critical discussion of the more
important genera and species. In his two
concluding chapters Dr. Hunt presents orig-
inal and striking views of the genesis of
carbonaceous minerals — graphite, diamond,
petroleum, and coal ; and, further, upon the

mineral history of natural waters. In his
preface our author announces his intention
of preparing a descriptive mineralogy based
upon this new classification.

Schliemann's Excavations: An Arch^o-

LOGICAL AND HISTORICAL StUDY. By

Dr. C. ScHucHAKDT. Translated from
the German by Eugenie Sellers. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 863, with
Plates. Price, $4.

The author of this book is Director of
the Kestner Museum in Hanover. His pur-
pose in writing it has been to present the
results of Schliemann's Excavations in a
concise form, which should make them more
accessible to the general public ; and the
work appears to have been undertaken with
the sanction of the discoverer. He has
also sought, by careful discussion and com-
parisons, to find what are the ascertained
results, and to present them free from the
conjectures and enthusiastic speculations
with which Schliemann's first reports, from
the nature of the conditions under which
they were written, are necessarily encum-
bered. The author was engaged in Grecian
archjeological excavation at Pergamos when
he was intrusted with the preparation of the
work. He improved the opportunity he then
had of making personal observations on the
spot, and of informing himself by inter-
course with the persons concerned. The
undertaking was a difficult one, for the ques-
tions which Dr. Schliemann's activity had
called up are still undecided, and additions
to our knowledge on the subject are con-
stantly furnished by further excavations.
But it was pleasant, for these objective
studies in Greek antiquity have a charm
that is surpassed in no other pursuit. In
the account of Troy the history is given of
the controversy of the two rival sites, the
topography is compared with the references
in the Iliad, and the reasons are given — all
in seventy-five pages — for believing conclu-
sively that Homer's Troy was real and
Schliemann's identification of it is correct.
Tiryns is described, in forty pages, as af-
fording the most ancient illustrations of the
civilization of which Mycenoe has furnished
so numerous and so splendid examples.
The largest space is given to Mycenae, with
its remarkable tomb-structures and treasure-
chambers, and its truly astounding richness

LITERARY NOTICES.

559

in work of the goldsmith's art, A brief
chapter on minor excavations includes ac-
counts of the researches at Orchomenos and
Ithaca. In a Ilistorical Survey of the He-
roic Age of Greece, the relations of Myce-
naean civilization to that of Greece and
Caria are discussed. Among the general con-
clusions to be drawn from Dr. Schliemann's
Excavations are that they invariably con-
firm the former power and splendor of every
city which is mentioned by Homer as con-
spicuous for its wealth or sovereignty ; that
the strongly fortified citadels, which do not
appear after this (the Mycenaean period)
either in Greece or A.:ia Minor, correspond
exactly with those described by Homer ;
and that the wealth of metals in this " pe-
riod of youthful display" is distinctly re-
flected in Homer. "But for the golden
treasures of the shaft-graves, Homer's tales
of chased goblets like the cup of Nestor, of
bossed shoulder-belts, and the golden dogs
that kept watch before Alklnoos's door,
would still be treated as bold flights of
fancy, as was, in fact, the case before the
excavations." But the most striking a«d
important correspondence between the My-
cenaean discoveries and Homer is that shown
in the inlaid work on certain dagger-blades
found at Mycenae. " Nowhere else in Greece
has work of this sort, complete pictures in
inlaid metals, been discovered. Yet Homer
had a very clear conception of this kind of
workmanship, for he describes in detail
how, on Achilles's shield, vineyards were
represented with purple grapes on golden
stems, surrounded by a hedge of tin, and
later on speaks of youths wearing golden
swords hung from silver baldrics. It is
enough to enumerate these leading points
of agreement. They are sufficient proof
that for certain parts of his descriptions
Homer can have had no other models before
him but those of Mycenaean art and civili-
zation." The controversy still rages on the
question whether there was a single personal
Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey,
or whether the two books are collections of
different sagas, sung by different minstrels,
and composed in different ages. The author
assumes the latter view, and speaks through-
out the book as if it was a settled fact. He
is sustained in this by Mr. Walter Leaf,
an eminent English Homeric scholar, who

furnishes a valuable critical introduction, in
which the bearing of Dr. Schliemann's dis-
coveries on this and other questions of Ho-
meric interpretation are referred to rather
than discussed, but who differs from the
author on one or two points. In the appen-
dices are given a report on the excavations
at Troy in 1890, with the welcome announce-
ment that Mrs. Schliemann will continue the
work of her husband there ; and an illus-
trated description of the two beautiful gold-
en cups discovered in the tumulus at Va-
pheio — one of the most remarkable and
interesting "finds" recorded as yet in the
whole history of Greek archEEological re-
search.

The ScrENTiTic American Cyclopaedia op
Keceipts, Notes, and Queries. Edited
bv Albert A. Hopkins. New York:
Munn & Co. Pp. 675. Price, $5.

This compilation well illustrates the use
of the accumulation of small things. For
nearly fifty years the Scientific American
has been publishing original contributions
of facts, experiences, experiments, and prac-
tical observations in nearly every branch of
the useful arts. The items have been print-
ed in all departments of the journal, but
especially in the columns of " Notes, Queries,
and Correspondence," where their modest
appearance furnished the careless reader no
clew to their real worth, but whence the
student seldom turned without having gained
some prized acquisition to his knowledge.
A considerable proportion of them embodied
the fruits of special knowledge, which were
made public nowhere else. In the files of
the periodical they were as good as lost.
Mr. Hopkins has made the vast compendium
they afford the basis of his work. He has
collected these, carefully digested and con-
densed them ; has added to them the results
of laborious researches among the difficult
mysteries of Trade Secrets, and has incor-
porated with them, for the rounding off of
his fabric, information from other cyclopae-
dias of similar character. The arrangement
of articles is alphabetical, according to their
titles, with no other classification, the titles
being given in full-faced type, with cross-
references when they are needed. Illustra-
tions are given, but not frequently. A few
cautions are sounded in the preface to those

560

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

who are to use the receipts, concerning the
need of care to obtain the right materials
and pure materials, to follow the directions
precisely, and observe all precautions in de-
tail. Tables of weights and measures and
chemical synonyms are given in the appendix.

In the Land of the lAngcring Snow
(Houghton, Mifflin & Co., $1.25) a winter
outdoor book is given us by Mr. Frank
£olles, of Cambridge, Mass. In twenty-six
essays the "Stroller in New England," as
the author styles himself, chronicles his
weekly visit to points of interest within not
too hard reach of his home, from January to
June. They were made, in fact, twice a week,
for he took both Saturday and Sunday for his
excursions. In thera he enjoyed the weath-
er, whatever it might be, the exultation of
facing the fiercest storms if they came, the
scenery, and the birds. No stress of weather
seems to have deterred him from taking his
short railroad trip and long walks, or to have
overcome the enterprise of the birds, which
he never failed to find in numbers. On the
first Sunday of the year, in the deep snow, he
finds traces of a crow, fifteen quail, and a
robin; the next week, when everything is
covered with ice, twenty chickadees, crows,
robins, and a hawk ; on the third walk, in a
tempest, eighty-five birds, representing nine
species. They seem to have been the objects
for which he was looking, and he found them.
As the spring comes on and advances into
summer the pictures gain in freshness and
warmth, but the author's mood is always the
same. It is that of the lover of Nature who
sees beauty and life in all their aspects and
knows how to paint them.

The point of view taken by Mrs. L'llen
M. Mitchell, in her 8tud)j of Greek Philosophy
(S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago, $1.25), is indi-
cated by her dedication of it to the Kant
Club of Denver, and her acknowledgment of
indebtedness to the Concord School of Phi.
losophy, Dr. W. T. Harris, and the histories
of Zeller and Hegel. The book grew out of
the studies of the author in connection with
a woman's club in St. Louis, and afterward
in Denver. Her verbal expositions gradually
assumed written forms, and eventually came
into their present shape ; and the whole bears
the impress of the thoughts of the other mem-
bers of the clubs as well as of the author's

own. Beginning with the assertion of the
identity of philosophy and the history of
philosophy, the author analyzes the charac-
ter of the Greek philosophy, and then con-
siders it from the beginning, in the pre-sophis-
tic philosophy, through all its stages of de-
velopment, and as expounded by the larger
host of teachers whose names have become
identified with much of the best of human
thought, and whose influence has endured
and is still strong. An introduction is fur-
nished by William R. Alger, who glorifies
philosophy as the supreme department, the
most important and most attractive branch
of knowledge, setting it above hterature and
science.

In Ben Bcor, a Story of the Anti-Messiah
(Baltimore, Isaac Friedenwald & Co. ; Vicks-
burg. Miss., the author), the supernatural and
the allegorical are mingled. The aim of the
author, H. M. £ien, a rabbi of Vicksburg,
Miss., has been to exhibit the agencies which
are assumed to have been working during
past ages to suppress the rights and liberties
of the people ; " upholding serfdom and su-
perstition for the benefit of a few privileged
classes." The persecutors and haters of man
are called as a unit the Anti-Messiah, whose
story is set forth under the name of Ben
Beor. This character, called after the biblical
Balaam Ben Beorz, who is endowed with an
immortality like that of the Wandering Jew,
appears in the ancient world as the instigator
of the great evils which afflicted its nations?
as the concocter and distributer of strong
liquors and the stimulator of evil passions »
as the chief agent in provoking the siege and
destruction of Jerusalem, the Roman perse-
cution of the Christians, the suppression of
knowledge and free thought which marked
the dark ages, the promoter of priestcraft
and the Inquisition, and the upholder of des-
potism down to modern times. The inven-
tion of printing and the Reformation were
antagonistic to his plans, and his power and
his office ceased with the promulgation of
the Declaration of Independence.

The fourth volume of Prof. J. C. Bran-
ner's Annual Report of the Geological Sur-
vey of Arkansas for ISSS contains the geol-
ogy of Washington County and the Plant
List for the State. While it has been the
plan of the survey to study and report upon
geologic topics rather than upon geographic

LITERARY NOTICES.

561

areas, an exception has been made in the
case of Washington County, because its ge-
ology embraces a complete section at the
•westernmost exposure in the State, across
the lower carboniferous rocks from the base
of the coal measure to tlie Silurian ; and
because the location of the State University
at Fayetteville makes it desirable for the
geology of the surrounding region to be
worked up in detail for purposes of instruc-
tion. The economic results of the survey
are not of great positive value, and Washing-
ton County will have to depend upon its other
advantages, which are many and excellent,
for its growth and prosperity. The report,
which was prepared by Prof. F. W. Simons,
is accompanied by a geological map. The
riant List is chiefly the work of Prof. F.
V. Coville, with additional contributions by
Prof. Branner, who remarks upon the clear
distinction between the flora of the limestone
and of the sandstone formations, as show-
ing to how large an extent the distribution
of plants is governed by the character of the
soil.

The fourth part of Mr. Harold Whiting^
Corirse of Experiments in Physical Measure-
ment (D. C. Heath & Co.) consists of Appen,
dices and Examples for the use of teachers.
In the first appendix are described the labora-
tory, or room where the experiments are to be
performed, which should be well lighted and
uniformly heated, and should have good ven-
tilation. The use of iron in construction
should be avoided, on account of its mag-
netic influence, and special precaution should
be taken to' avoid vibrations. A basement
is not suitable, or an attic. Such a room as is
commonly used for lecture purposes is the
most suitable — a two or three story room
reaching from the first floor to the attic, and
lighted on three sides, is the best. The
arrangement of the tables, benches, and ap-
paratus is considered, and the apparatus is
described in detail, beginning with the most
needed articles. In the third appendix, ex-
penses, the most economical methods in
dividing the classes and delivering the lect-
ures, so as to get along with the fewest sets
of apparatus and the smallest number of
teachers practicable, are considered ; and in
the fourth appendix, the best methods of
making the instruction given efBeient and of
permanent value. The rest of the volume is
VOL. XL.. — 39

devoted to models of experiment, demonstra-
tions of rules etc. First are examples of
observations and calculations in a hundred
experiments, illustrating the details to be re-
garded in each of the numbers and the man-
ner of treating ; there are three lists of ex-
periments, intended to cover the ground
required for admission to Harvard College,
in both elementary and advanced physics.
These are followed by discussion of the prin-
ciples of finding the average values of varia-
ble quantities, the probability of errors,
" proofs," and " useful formulae," with, in
conclusion, a full index to the whole series
of books.

The Rev. J. C. Atkinson, Canon of York,
publishes through Macmillan & Co., a collec-
tion of stories in the style of Jack the Giant
Killer, and Jack and the Bean Stalk, entitled
The Last of the Giant Killers, or the Exploits
of Sir Jack of Danhij Bale. They were writ-
ten without any intention of publication, for
the amusement of certain children belonging
to different families, who were more or less
interested in the district of which Danby
Dale is a part. In nearly every instance the
stories are based upon or connected with
some local legend, local fact, or local habita-
tion ; and the relations are prefixed by a few
remarks on the popular disposition to attach
a superstitious significance to peculiar feat-
ures in the landscape and to curious local
incidents.

W. S. Gottsberger & Co. add a humorous
book to their series of usually sober or classi-
cal romances in the shape of A Little Tour
in Ireland, in which a visit to Dublin, Galway,
Conncmara, Athlone, Limerick, Killarncy,
Glengarrif, Cork, etc., is described by An
Oxonian, with a vein of jollity pervading the
story and a disposition to look upon the laugh-
able side of everything — which are much
heightened by Mr. John Leech's illustrations.
The book is one from which the careful
reader, by straining the bubstance from the
froth, may get a fair and pleasing view of
the country and its sights.

A collection of short stories by Count
T.co Tolstoi, published by C. L. Webster &
Co.. includes Ivan the Fool, or the Old Devil
and Three Small Devils, A Lost Opportunity,
and Polikushka. The translation is direct
from the Russian by Count Norraikov, who
thinks that justice is not done to the author

562

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in translations through the French or in
direct translations by persons who know
Russian only imperfectly. The jSrst of the
stories, Ivan the Fool, portrays Tolstoi's
communistic ideas and the ideal kingdom
he would establish in which each and every
person should be a worker and a producer.
A Lost Opportunity pictures Russian peas-
ant life, with many of its peculiar customs.
Polikushka describes the life led by a ser-
vant in a nobleman's court household, and
marks the difference in the conditions and
surroundings of such sei'vants from those
of ordinary peasants.

An exhibition of ten years' progress of
the " New Learning " is made in Prof. A.
F. Chamberlain'' s pamphlet on Modern Lan-
guages and Classics in America and Eu-
rope since 18S0. It presents the views of
numerous teachers and persons interested
in education concerning the success with
which the scheme for giving more relative
attention to the modern languages has met
in the United States, Great Britain, France,
Italy, Hungary, Germany, and Norway and
Sweden. Published at the office of The
Week, Toronto.

Mr. Henry George's Open Letter to Pope
Leo XIII on The Condition of Labor is a
respectful, temperate reply to those parts of
his Holiness's Labor Encyclical which bear
on the doctrines held by the school of pub-
licists of which the author is the most con-
spicuous representative. It is of value and
interest to us chiefly because it presents a
clear, succinct, and precise statement of
what the doctrines of that school are, what
they are seeking, and of the manner in
which they purpose to promote their objects
by peaceful agitation.

In a manual on Tlie Sextant and othei'
Reflecting Mathematical Instrumejits (D. Van
Nostrand Company, 50 cents), Mr. F. R.
Brainard, of the United States Navy, pre-
sents a compilation from various sources on
the instruments concerned, and adds a few
ideas and suggestions of his own, and of offi-
cers who have been associated with him ; era-
bodying also practical hints on the errors,
adjustments, and use of the instruments.

In a manual of the handy Van Nostrand
Science Series, How to become an Engineer,
the theoretical and practical training neces-
sary in fitting for the duties of a civil engi-

neer are set forth by Prof. George W.
Plympton, who supplements his views by
quotations from the opinions of eminent au-
thorities and full lists of the courses of
study in the technical schools — including
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an
example of American schools, and several
schools of England and the European con-
tinent. Price, 50 cents.

Light, an Elementary Treatise (Macmil-
lan & Co., I0 cents), has been prepared by
Sir Henry Trueman Wood with a view of
providing such information as an intelligent
student unfamiliar with natural science
would require. In it are given an explana-
tion of the modern theory of light and of
the phenomena which are matters of com-
mon observation ; descriptions of the na-
ture of color and the manner of its produc-
tion ; accounts of the more important opti-
cal instruments and the principles of their
action; an exposition of the chemical ef-
fects of light and their application in pho-
tography ; and descriptions of the phenom-
ena produced by polarized light and by fluo-
rescence. The book is one of the numbers
of Whittaker's Libraiy of Popular Science.

Information about electric lighting, prac-
tical and theoretical, is given in the Practi-
cal Treatise on the Incandescent Lamp, pre-
pared by J. E. Randcdl, Electrician of the
Thomson-Houston Company, and published
by the Bubier Publishing Company, Lynn,
Massachusetts. It contains, in brief, the
history of incandescent lighting, the philoso-
phy and construction, with details, of the
incandescent lamp, and observations on pho-
tometers and their use. The author esti-
mates that 25.000 incandescent lights are
made in the United States daily, or 7,500,-
000 a year, and he believes that the " life "
of the lamp is more likely to be abbreviated
than increased in the future, because con-
sumers will grow more particular about the
quality of their light, and will change their
burners when they cease to be efficient in-
stead of using them till they burn out.

Prof. Wesley Mills, believing that a dog
is a useful member of the household and es-
pecially valuable in the city as a companion
and means of instruction for the children,
and recognizing the embarrassment city fam-
ilies labor under through not knowing how
to manage with the animal in their narrow

LITERARY NOTICES.

563

quarters, has prepared a little book on IIow
to keep a Dog in the City, which is pub-
lished by William R. Jenkins, New York,
for 25 cents. It supplies information re-
specting the details of the management of
the dog from puppyhood up, including lodg-
ing, feeding, measures for cleanliness, care
of his skin, exercise, training, and treatment
of his ailments.

How to make a Trial Balance represent-
ing any number of accounts in less time
than an hour is explained in a small book
written and published at Baltimore, by A.
Weinberg. The method is the result of
much thought and study, and may, the au-
thor claims, be applied to a business of five
thousand accounts as easily as to one of
fifty accounts, with great saving of time
and labor.

Two series of twelve charts each, pub-
lished by the United States Signal Office,
show graphically the probability of rainy
days and the average cloudiness for each
month in all the regions of the United
States within the circle of observations of
the several local signal stations. They are
based on observations made from 1871 to
1888 inclusive, or for shorter periods at the
more recently established stations. The
percentages of rainy days (called such when
precipitation to the extent of '01 inch or
more occurs) are calculated for each station
and month from the average number of such
days. The cloudiness charts are made up
from eye-observations taken three times a
day. They are expected also to show the
sunshine by taking as sunshine the comple-
ment of the cloudiness. Such data, when
well matured, a- e of great value in the study
of cUmate and its adaptability to different
conditions and needs of health.

Three numbers of Tlie Quarterly Register
of Current History (Evening News Associa-
tion, Detroit) have been published. The
first number, February, 1891, contained a re-
view of the history of the world during 1890.
The second number. May, and the third,
August, 1891, are devoted respectively to
the history of the first and second quarters
of the year. The matter is classified and
arranged under the heads of International
Affairs ; Affairs in Europe, in Asia, in Afri-
ca, and in America ; Record of Progress, and
Necrology. The idea of the publication is

an excellent one. The short view we have
been able to take of the numbers does not
suggest that anything of value is omitted,
but shows several things of minor impor-
tance which, if they had been left out, would
not be missed a year or two hence ; and
there is room for improvement in pruning
and smoothing the articles, the present style
of which is more like that of a daily paper
than of a record made to last.

To the attempts to teach foreign lan-
guages in the way they are learned in Na-
ture must be added the method of Dr. Ed-
toard Pick, in which the language itself is
employed as the instrument, and is taught
by comparison with the English before the
grammar is learned. The author holds that
remembrance is assisted most efficaciously in
the study if we take the known as the start-
ing-point of comparison with the unknown.
In the study of foreign languages the known
consists of those elements which we find in
our own language, or in any other language
familiar to us. Thus the knowledge of one
foreign language facilitates the study of
others. The usual method of studying for-
eign languages — beginning with grammar —
" is contrary to the nature of the mind, be-
cause we begin with the unknown — nay,
more, we begin with details unknown to us
(the grammatical rules) of a thing equally
unknown (the language)." In Dr. Pick^s
Method applied to acquiring the French
Language (C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, New
York), the pupil is introduced to Voltaire's
History of Charles XII, for the study of the
French text, word for word and form for
form, with the English translation.

I'D^LICATIONS RECEIVED.

Ashley, J. M. The Impendinq- Political Epoch.
New York : Evening Post. Pp. 87. 25 cents.

Bill, Robert. Star Linrt. London and New
York : Cassell & Co. Pp. 876. Illu.strated.

Ball, Robert. The Cause of an Tee Ape. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 180. $1. Illus-
trated.

Bennett, T. J. Texas Sanitarian. Austin : Tex-
as Sanitarian Publishing Co. Monthly. Pp. 72. $2
a year.

Bronpon, T. B. Collnqnial Oerman. Now York:
Henry Molt & Co. Pp. 147. C) cents.

Call, R. E. Tertiary Silicifled Woods of Eastern
Arkansas. Pp. 9. Reprint.

Cannizzaro, 8.. and Fabris, O. Tests for the
Purity of Olive Oil. Boston : J. A. Ilaj'es & Co.
Pp. 41.

Carpenter, W. B. The ^fieroscope. Seventh
edition. Edited bv W. H. Dallinger. Philadelphia :
P. Blakiston, Son ■& Co. Pp. lo'J9. Illustrated.

Charts showing the Isobars, Isolherois, and Winda

564

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in thn ITnitecl States for each Month from January,
1871, to December, 1873. War Department.

Cherrio, G. K. Notes on Costa Kican Birds.
Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 20.

Columbia Daily Calendar for 1892. Boston :
Pope Manufacturing Co.

Cowles, Edward. Neurasthenia and its Mental
Hymptoms. Pp. 105. Reprint,

Cragin, T. W. New Obseryations on the Genua
Trinacromernm, pp. 4 ; and On a Leaf-bearing Ter-
rane in the Loup Fork, pp. 4. Reprints.

Crummell. Alexander. Africa and America.
Springfleld, Mass. : Wiley ct Co. Pp. 466.

Drake, S. A. The Battle of Gettysburg. Bos-
ton : Lee & Shepard. Pp. 178. 50 cents.

DufiFerin, Lady. My Canadian Journal. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 456. %-l. Illustrated.

Findlay, G. Working and Management of an
English Railway. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 354. $1.50.

Fiske, S. Holiday Stories. Boston : Benjamin
E. Tucker. Pp. 203.

Flogel, E. Carlyle's Moral and Religions Devel-
opment. New York : M. L. Holbrook & Co. Pp.
140. $1.

Foote, A. E. New Locality for Meteoric Iron :
Discovery of Diamonds in the Iron. Pp. 5. Reprint.

France, Anatolo. Thais. Chicago : N. C. Smith
Publishing Co. Pp. 205.

Furney, E. E. Culture : A Modern Method.
New York : L. II. Brown & Co. Pp. 322.

Gilbert. C. H. Apodal Fishes from the Tropical
Pacific. Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 6.

Gill, T. On the Genus Labrichthys, etc. Smith-
sonian Institution. Pp. i).

Hall and Bergen. A Text-book of Physics. New
York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 3SS. $1.25.

Halstead, B. "D. Fungi injurious to Fruits and
to Garden Crops. Columbus, O. : Westboto »fc Co.
Pp. 18.

Harper and Burgess. An Inductive Latin Prim-
er. New York : American Book Company. Pp.
424. $1.

Hopkins, A. A. The Scientific American Cyclo-
pnedia of Receipts. Notes, Queries. New York :
Munn & Co. Pp. 675. $5.

Jones. Alonzo T. The Two Republics of Rome
and the United States of America. Battle Creek,
Mich. : Review and Herald Publishing Co. Pp.
895. Illustrated.

K-rkpatrick, T. J. The ISIodern Oook-Book.
Springfield, 0. : Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick. Pp.
320.

Lewi.sT. H. Effigy Mounds of Buflfalo Lake,
Wisconsin. Pp. 3. Reprint.

Loewy, Benjamin. A Graduated Course of Natu-
ral Science. P.art 11. New York : Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 257. 60 cents. Illustrated.

Lyons. Daniel. Christianity or Infallibilitv. New
Tork : Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 2S4. $1.50.

McCalley, H., .ind Gibson, A. M. Report on the
Coal Measures of the Plateau Regions of Alabama.
Pp. 238, with Maps.

Macfarlane, R. Notes on Birds and Ei'gs col-
lected iu Arctic America. Smithsonian Institution.
Pp. 34.

Marble. A. P. Sanitary Conditions for School-
houses. Washinc-ton : Bureau of Education. Pp.
121, with 45 Phates.

Mason, W. P. Notes on Cases of Drinking-
water and Disease. Pj). 10. Reprint.

Massee, George. The Plant World. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 212. %\. Illustrated.

Maycock, W. P. First Book of Electricity and
Magnetism. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 133.
60 cents.

Nuttall's Ornithology. Edited by Montigue
Chamberlain. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown &
Co. Pp. 473 and 431. $S. Illustrated.

Ochorowicz. J. Mental Suggestion. New York •
Humboldt Publishing Co. Pp. 369. $3.

Ostwald, W. Solutions. New York : Longmans,
Green & Co. Pp. 310. $3.

Paquin. P. The Supreme P.assions of Man. Bat-
tle Creek. Mich. : Little Blue Book Co. Pp. 150.

Paquin, P. The Bacteriological World. Month-
ly. Pp. 40. $2 a year.

Parker, William W. The Ancient and Modern
Physician. Lynchburg : Virginia Medical Society.
Pp. 18.

Peter.s, E. D. Copper-smelting. Second edi-
tion. New York : Scientific Publishing Co. Pp.
393. Illustrated.

Physician's Visiting List for 1892. Philadelphia :
P. Blakiston, Son & Co.

Poole, Joseph. Practical Telephone Hand-book.
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 288. 75 cents.
Illustrated.

Poole, W. H., and Mrs. Cooking for the Dia-
betic. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. Pp.
64. %\.

Pringle, Allen. Bibles and Religions out t.s. in
the Public Schools. Canadian Secular Union. Pp. 24.

Remondino, P. C. History of Circumcision.
Philadelphia : F. A. Davis. Pp. '346. 50 cents.— An
Instructive Case of Ura3mia. Pp. 8. Reprint.

Report of the Commissioner of Pensions for the
Year ending June 30, 1S91. Pp. 84.

Report of the New York State Board of Charities
for 1S90. Pp. 349.

Shaler, N. 8. The Story of our Contment. Bos-
ton : Ginn & Co. Pp. 290. 85 cents.

Shaw, G. B. The Quintessence of Ih.senism.
Boston : Benjamin R. Tucker. Pp. 170. 25 cents.

Sloane, T. O'Conor, Electricity SimpUfied. New
York : N. W. Henley & Co. Pp. 158. $1. Illus-
trated.

Smith. J. B. Noctuidae of Temperate North
America. Smithsonian Institution. Pp. SO.

Smith, Oberlin. The Engineer as a Scholar and
a Gentleman. Pp. 14. Reprint.

Stejneger, L. On the Snakes of the Genus
Lichanpur.a. Pp. 5. — Description of a New Species
of Chameleon. Pp. 2.

Stevenson, .1. J. The Chemung and Catskill
[Upper Devonian] on the Eastern Side of the Ap-
palachian Basin. Pp. 31. Reprint.

Torrey, Bates. Practical Type-writing. New
York: Fowler & Wells. Pp. 156.

Upham, W. Geographic Limits of Species of
Plants in the Basin of the Red Kiver of the North.
Pp. 32. Reprint.

Watts, C. A. The Agnostic Annual. London ;
W. Stew.art & Co. Pp. 6S. M.

Whitney, W. D. Introductory French Reader.
New York : H. Holt & Co. Pp. 256. 70 cents.

Yeaman, G. H. The Silver Question. Pp. 27.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Ancient River Channels. — A remarkable
contrast in the physical geography of the
eastern and western coasts of the American
continent is pointed out by Prof. Joseph Le
Conte. The continent is bordered on both
sides by a submarine plateau sloping gently
seaward till it attains a depth of about one
hundred fathoms, from which point the bot-
tom drops off rapidly into deep water. This
submarine plateau may be regarded as a sub-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

565

merged coastal plain, and its margin as the
true boundary between the continent and
the ocean basin, or as the submerged con-
tinental margin. On the eastern coast the
submarine plateau is trenched with subma-
rine troughs running out from the mouths
of the great rivers to the submerged conti-
nental margin and then opening into deep
water. The best known of the channels are
opposite the mouths of the Hudson and
Delaware Rivers, Chesapeake Bay, and the
Mississippi. Along the California coast the
phenomena are different. The researches of
Prof. Davidson have brought to light some
twenty or more submarine channels on the
coast from Cape Mendocino to San Diego, a
distance of about seven hundred miles. But
they have no obvious relation to existing
rivers. They are not a submarine continua-
tion of any system of river valleys on the
adjacent land, but run in close to shore and
abut against a bold coast, with mountains
rising in some cases to three thousand feet
within from three to five miles of the shore
line, and wholly unbroken by any large river
valleys. The channels of the Eastern coast
are accounted for by supposing that they
were always connected with the rivers oppo-
site them, and that they have assumed their
present positions by the operation of the
changes of level to which the land has been
subjected. But the disconnected positions
of the Western channels can not be account-
ed for except as being the result of orogenic
changes which have diverted the lower
courses and places of emptying of the rivers
since the channels were made. Prof. Le
Conte's paper is devoted to the study of the
nature and history of these changes.

Jupiter and the Comets. — Prof. 11. A.
Newton showed, at the meeting of the Brit-
ish Association, that if a comet or other
small body should pass in front of Jupiter,
the kinetic energy of the planet would be
increased by the gravitational attraction be-
tween the two bodies, while that of the
comet would be diminished, and might be
diminished to such an extent as to cause it
to form (though possibly only temporarily)
a member of the solar system. On the other
hand, if a comet, already a member of the
solar system, pass behind Jupiter, the kinetic
energy of the planet will be diminished and

that of the comet will be increased, and
may conceivably be increased under favora-
ble circumstances to such an extent that the
comet may uo longer remain a member of
the system. The author had calculated that
of one billion comets from space crossing, in
all directions, a sphere eqiuil in diameter to
that of Jupiter's orbit, about twelve hundred
would come near enough to Jupiter to have
their period so much diminished as to be less
than that of the planet.

The Baths of the Accnrsed. — Hammam
Meskoutine, or the Baths of the Accursed,
are a famous bathing-place and health re-
sort not far from Constantino in Algeria.
They are but a few minutes' walk from the
railway station. The first object of interest
within a quarter of a mile of the station is a
superb hot waterfall, whence the vapors fly
away abundantly. " Yet," says a writer who
describes it, " it is not all of water. For the
most part it is rigid, like a thing of ice. It
is, in fact, mainly a petrifaction. The cal-
careous deposit in the hot spring above has
incrusted the rocks, so that they have the
corrugated appearance and something of the
color of barley sugar. Here and there, over
and between the still masses, there is an
ooze or trickle of warm water, adding to the
work already done. Grass and flowers grow
well by the sides of this nutritious water-
fall, though the whitened soil in the neigh-
borhood does not seem adapted for vegeta-
tion of any kind. You climb to the level of
the cascade, and then see, close by, a num-
ber of odd-looking cones and columns stand-
ing up from the blanched surface of the
ground. The soil is hot to the hand, and
you tread with an echo." The springs bub-
ble up with a temperature of more than 200°
Fahr. A litter of egg-shells and fowls' feath-
ers by the edge of them tells of the purpose
they serve to the residents of Meskoutine.
Here the dinner is cooked, and the clothes
are washed in one or another of the little
basins by which the springs eddy up to the
daylight. Though the Arabs give the baths
an impolite name, and tell various weird
tales about them, they love them well. The
cones look like a procession of gigantic
phantoms suddenly petrified. Some arc six
or seven feet in height, and some are four-
teen or fifteen feet. They mark the sites of

566

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ancient springs now subsided. At one time
each of these cones was but tlie mere rim
or lip of a basin in which the hot water
bubbled as we sec it at the top of the cas-
cade. Thus the water continued to boil up-
ward ia jets, like the geysers, for centuries,
gradually, by the deposit of lime which fell
from it, raising its lip. At length the sub-
terranean force that impelled it vertically
weakened. The cone had attained its full
stature. According to the Arabs, however,
the cones arc deaf, dumb, <ind blind genii in
whose charge Solomon put the baths when
he is supposed to have created them for all
the world. The worthy guardians, who still
think King Solomon is alive, continue to
keep the baths warm as they did at the first
for the use of the king's subjects. It is
supposed to be a matter of great difficulty
to announce to these genii the fact that their
master is dead. The inference is, therefore,
that they will continue to warm the baths to
the end of time. Various other stories are
told to account for the origin of the baths.

Lepers in the Middle Ages. — Leprosy was
common in England and continental Europe
some five hundred years ago, and those who
were afflicted with it were subjected to treat-
ment which would now be considered cruel.
Institutions for the segregation and treat-
ment of the diseased, erected by the Church
or by the aid of pious donors, were to be
found over all England ; and at one time
there was a leper hospital or village near ev-
ery town. According to Prof. Simpson, there
were in the year 1 226 two thousand lazar-
houses in the small kingdom of France.
" In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,"
says an English writer, " a leper was not al-
lowed to hold property, was deemed incapa-
ble of making a will, and lost all the privi-
leges of citizenship. He was hunted from
the towns and driven from the dwellings of
men ; he was forbidden to drink from the
running stream, lest he should defile it, and
it was unlawful for him to touch things that
were used for food by man. Anything was
deemed good enough for the leper." When
a man was supposed to have leprosy, he was
examined, and, if the disease was found upon
him, was banished from society, after endur-
ing a service at the church resembling the
funeral ritual, and sometimes embodying a

part of it. If a man was wealthy, he might
buy himself an exemption from the extreme
disabilities, as did the abbot Richard de
Wallingford, who was able, with great diffi-
culty, to keep his position. The hospitals
maintained by the Church did much to alle-
viate the woes of lepers. The regulations
of the Hospital of St. Julian, which were
drawn up in 1344, have been preserved.
Though strict, they were not hard. Among
them was an exhortation to avoid slander
and cultivate brotherly love and true charity.
Each leper was allowed seven loaves of bread
a week, five of white and two of brown, made
from corn " just as it had been thrashed
from the sheaf." Every seventh month he
had fourteen gallons of ale or eight pence ;
on Christmas-day, forty gallons of ale or forty
pence, two quarters of pure and fine com,
and his share of fourteen shillings, to be ap-
plied to the purchase of mufflers. On St. Mar-
tin's day each one had a pig from the com-
mon herd, the patients taking choice in the
order of seniority of admission, or a money
equivalent m case pigs were scarce. Other
periodical allowances were a bushel of beans
01 peas every winter ; a quarter of oats on the
14th of February; two bushels of salt, and
four shillings for clothing, on the 24 th of
June ; a penny on St. Alban's, St. Julian's,
and Easter days ; a half-penny on Ascension-
day "for the taking away from themselves
of dirt " ; and flour for pancakes on Shrove
Tuesday. With these gifts they were com-
manded to be content.

Offices of Forests. — A writer who nar-
rates the history of the woods and pastures of
Lynn, Mass., in the Transcript of that city,
says that the " Ljmn woods have had three
periods of usefulness. Down to 1706 they
furnished pasturage and timber and shelter
to the village. In their second period, cov-
ering the life of the town in its shifting
from the pastoral to mechanical pursuits,
they were still useful, although restricted to
furnishing fuel to the inhabitants. As time
went on, and cheap coal came in with the
ever-advancing density of population, it
seemed as if the slaughtering brick-maker
and fire-fiend would render the woods a des-
ert and a menace to our fair town." But
a period of greater usefulness, according to
Garden and Forest, has come. The inhab-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

567

itants of cities require pure water, and tlie
people of Lynn have wisely determined to
protect and preserve the abundant supply
which still flows from the springs that wa-
tered the cattle of the Puritans, and these
woods now perform their noblest duty, in
furnishing the great city with water, oxy-
gen, and sylvan beauty for the repose of its
inhabitants.

Fossil Insects, — The publications of the
last ten years on fossil insects comprise, ac-
cording to Mr. S. H. Scudder's review, about
one third of a complete catalogue of papers
on the subject. This literature records some
of the most important discoveries that have
been made in this field. Passing the dis-
covery of Silurian scorpions in several parts
of the world, we have, first, Brongniart's dis-
covery of the hexapod, Faheoblalthia, in the
Silurian of France, as yet the only known
true insect in that system. Next is the re-
markable Devonian insect fauna in New
Brunswick, first announced before 1880, but
only fu)ly published, with figures of the
species, then. With these must be classed
the Devonian myriapods, the earliest known
members of that group, elaborated by Peach.
In the Carboniferous period we have the
abundant forms of Mazon Creek and other de-
posits in the United States, which include so
extraordinary a number of blattarians that
Mr. Scuddcr calls it, so far as its insect fauna
is concerned, " the ago of cockroaches."
These discoveries are even more than paral-
leled by the similar discoveries of M. Brong-
niart in France, equally characterized by
multitudes of cockroaches. There the prin-
cipal discoveries in the Palaeozoic series
have been accompanied by the publication
of many striking forms which indicate the
ancestral types of living insects, or by the
better elucidation of types already known
but whose significance had not been under-
stood. A new era has been begun in the
study of the earlier types, in that the sub-
jects have been treated in more than a scat-
tered way, by fuller discussions, and by at-
tempts to systematize. Our knowledge of
Mesozoic insects has been likewise much en-
larged. Of Tertiary insects, the earliest are
to all general intents and purposes identical
with those of to-day, although they differ
no doubt specifically, and to a considerable

degree generically. Most of those so far re-
covered from temperate regions indicate a
warmer climate in their time ; but, taken as
a whole, the grand features of insect life ap-
pear to have been essentially the same since
the beginning of Tertiary times. Of the iu-
sects of this period, the Florissant deposit
alone of the Western United States is as pro-
ductive, if we exclude the insects found in
amber, as all the Tertiary fields of Europe
taken together. Last year the author found
that the strata of a considerable tract of
country in western Colorado and eastern
Utah were packed with fossil insects as
closely as at Florissant. " Whether these
new localities will excel or even equal that
place in the variety of their fossil treasures
is yet to be determined ; but there can hard-
ly be any doubt that we shall soon be able
in our Western Territories to rehabilitate suc-
cessive faunas as successfully as has been
done with many of our vertebrate types, and
as has not yet been done for insects in any
country in the world." Insects have now
been found, too, in a score of places in our
Carboniferous series.

Ancient Snpcrstitions in Italy. — In a

paper at the International Folk-lore Con-
gress on Modern Tuscan Tradition, Mr.
Charles G. Leiand spoke of a mountainous
district, the Romagna Tuscana, between
Forli and Ravenna, in which the peasantry
have preserved old customs and traditionary
lore to a degree for which there was no
parallel elsewhere in Europe. There are
certain families in which witchcraft is espe-
cially cultivated, among whom the old tradi-
tions and names of the gods still live. There
is ten times as much belief in the super-
stitions as in the Catholic religion ; and
when people are in trouble, though they first
tried the saints, they always found sorcery
and spirits best in the end. The basis of
the cult was a peculiar polytheism, or a
worship of the spirits called foIleUi. These
spirits generally bear the names of old
Etruscan gods, mostly very little changed?
or of the old Roman minor rural deities
First among them is Tinia, the folletto of
thunder, lightning, and storms. There is
also an herb called tigna, identified with
this spirit and much used in magic to repel
Tinia when he injures crops. The spirit of

568

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the vineyards, wine-cellars, and wines, whose
name, Fafiau, is but little changed from
Fufluns, the ancient Etruscan Bacchus, is
described as " enchantingly beautiful " and
given to good-natured mischief. When the
peasants arc gathering grapes, he comes in-
visibly and knocks thuir panniers all about ;
but if this is taken pleasantly, he replaces
everything, and then his ringing laughter is
heard. Sometimes he falls in love, and, of
course, always woos successfully. Teramo
is the spirit of merchants, thieves, messen-
gers, and carrier-pigeons, and corresponds
with Turnus, the old Etruscan Mercury.
Maso or Mas is Mars, not the god of war,
but his Etruscan prototype, a god of crops
and fertility. Diana preserves to this day
her title of queen of the witches. The great
mediaeval writers declare that all the Italian
witches asserted that they did not worship
Satan, but Diana and Herodia. Marcellus of
Bordeaux, who was court physician to the
Emperor Honorius in the fourth century,
collected and recorded a hundred magical
cures which he had gathered among old
women and peasants. Of these, Mr. Leland
by dint of much inquiry had found fifty in
practical use, and bad recovered some of them
in a more perfect form than that given by
Marcellus. Through all this lore there runs
the thread that all disorders and ill luck and
earthly mischances are caused by witchcraft,
and must be cured by Christian saints or
heathen sorcerers, of which the latter are
preferred.

Allotropism in Alloys. — In his presiden-
tial address before the Chemical Section of
the British Association, Prof. Roberts Aus-
ten spoke of the consequences of allotropic
changes which result in alteration of struct-
ure as being very great. The case of the tin
regimental buttons which fell into a shape-
less heap when exposed to the rigorous win-
ter of St. Petersburg is well known. The
recent remarkable discovery by Hopkinson,
of the changes in the density of nickel-
steel (containing twenty-two per cent of
nickel) which are produced by cooling to
30°, affords another instance. This variety
of steel, after being frozen, is readily mag-
netizable, although it was not so before ; its
density, moreover, is permanently reduced
by no less than two per cent by the exposure

to cold ; and it is startling to contemplate
the effect which would be produced by a
visit to the arctic regions of a ship of war
built in a temperate climate of ordinary
steel, and clad with some three thousand
tons of such nickel-steel armor ; the shearing
which would result from the expansion of
the armor by exposure to cold would destroy
the ship. The molecular behavior of alloys
is, indeed, most interesting. W. Spring has
shown, in a long series of investigations,
that alloys may be formed at the ordinary
temperature, provided that minute particles
of the constituent elements are submitted to
great pressure. W. Hallock has recently
given sti'ong evidence in favor of the view
that an alloy can be produced from its con-
stituent metals with but slight pressure, if
the temperature to which the mass is sub-
mitted be above the melting-point of the al-
loy, even though it be far below the melting-
point of the more easily fusible constituent.
A further instance is thus afforded of the
fact that a variation of either temperature
or pressure will effect the union of solids.

The Instincts of Cattle. — Many habits of
the lower animals can be explained by anal-
ogy with our own behavior in similar cir-
cumstances and still more with that of sav-
age men. Thus the tenderness and ingenu-
ity that a cow shows in caring for her calf,
and the fierce courage that she displays in
its defense against foes from which she
would flee if alone, all find their counterparts
in human life. Several instincts that are
more difficult to account for are discussed
by Mr. W. H. Hudson, in a recent number
of Longman's Magazine. This writer ac-
counts for the angry excitement shown by
cattle on the appearance of a red cloth as
an outgrowth of curiosity. AVere a red flag
displayed in a field by itself, the animals
would surround it with every sign of inter-
est and curiosity; but should a man drape
himself in it, the bolder would attack him,
not on account of the color, but because the
man had drawn their attention irresistibly to
himself. In regard to the unerring detec-
tion by cattle of the spot where blood has
been spilled, the furious fighting over it by
the stronger males, the strange anxiety of
the whole herd to survey it, and above all
the weird horror expressed in the discordant

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

569

note that the bellowing at once assumes,
Mr. Iludson supposes that " their inherited
memory associates the smell of blood with
the presence among them of some powerful
enemy," and that their attacks on each other
result from the lack of any visible foe.
This seems reasonable, and it might be
worth while for Mr. Hudson to consider
whether a better explanation of the excite-
ment caused by red objects could not be
found by connecting the impression pro-
duced by the sight of red — the color of blood
— with that produced by the smell of blood.
To the same blind terror and the same in-
visibility of cause is attributed the impulse
of cattle to gore or trample to death a dis-
abled companion — ability to discriminate
between distress and the cause of distress
being wanting. Of a very different origin is
the persecution of the weakly members of a
herd by the stronger. This comes from the
instinct of self-preservation that prompts
the individual animal to establish ascendency
over as many of the herd as it can.

The Preparatory Stage in Education. —

The young mind, with all its latent powers,
with all its individual characteristics, is lik-
ened by President J. M. Coulter to an un-
cultivated field that must be drained and
broken up and liarrowed, to be ready for the
seed ; and the seed is one's specialty, which
is to be planted when the ground is ready.
This popular cry for a "practical educa-
tion " asks us to omit the preparation of the
soil and plant the seed at once, that there
may be no loss of time. This figure seems
to express the proper relationship between
the general training or preparation which
we call " education " and the special training
or apprenticeship which looks directly to
one's life-work. It is these two stages which
are distinct in method and purpose that are
ignored in the popular reasoning. One pre-
pares the soil, the other sows the seed ; the
one reduces the metal, the other fashions it
to its special use ; the one develops the mus-
cle, the other turns this developed power to
some definite purpose ; the one weaves the
cloth, the other cuts and fits it. Think of
shaping an axe from unreduced ore ; of
wielding a sledge-hammer with weak and
flabby muscles ; of cutting clothes from an
unworked fleece, and you have the sort of

reasoning used by " practical " men concern-
ing what is called " practical " education.
The author thinks it is apparent that mental
muscle may be developed without a single
item of information being obtained as such ;
and that it may often be cultivated in a
pleasanter, more even, and scientific way, if
the utilitarian idea of obtaining information
be not constantly present. Education, then,
being the development of mental muscle, the
period of preparation, we are confronted with
the question, " What is a practical educa-
tion ? " not in the popular meaning of the
term, but really. Plainly, it is that kind of
education which will bring about the devel-
opment of this mental muscle, this prepara-
tion which is to bring ability to grasp one's
specialty and the problems of life. Hence,
studies become tools, the agricultural imple-
ments, not the seed ; the means, not the end.
No study in our ordinary, unprofessional
schools has any right to be other than a
means ; the subject itself entirely lost sight
of in its appHcation ; the grindstone forgot-
ten in the sharpening of the tool.

The Uses of Potlatch.— The Northwest-
ern Indian custom of potlatch, from Dr. Bo-
az's description of which in a report to the
British Association we gave a condensed ex-
tract in the May number of the Monthly, is
regarded by the Hon. Horatio Hale as some-
thing essentially different from the parade
of wasteful and ostentatious profusion which
it superficially appears to be. It is, he says,
" a method most ingeniously devised for dis-
playing merit, acquiring influence, and at
the same time laying up a provision for the
future. Among these Indians, as among all
communities in which genuine civilization
has made some progress, the qualities most
highly esteemed in a citizen are thrift, fore-
thought, and liberality. The thrift is ex-
hibited by the collection of the property
which is distributed at the gift-feast ; the
liberality is, of course, shown in its distri-
bution; and the forethought is displayed in
selecting as the special objects of this liber-
ality those who are most likely to be able
to return it. By a well-understood rule,
which among these punctilious natives had
all the force of a law of honor, every recip-
ient of a gift at a potlatch was bound to re-
turn its value, at some future day, twofold.

57°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

And in this repayment his relatives were
expected to aid bim ; they were deemed, in
fact, his sureties. Thus a thrifty and as-
piring burgher who, at one of these gift-
feasts, had emptied all his chests of their
accumulated stores, and had left himself
and his family apparently destitute, could
comfortably reflect, as he saw his visitors
depart in their well-laden canoes, that he
had not only greatly increased his reputa-
tion, but had at the same time invested all
his means at high interest, on excellent se-
curity, and was now, in fact, one of the
wealthiest as well as most esteemed mem-
bers of the community.

An Overlooked Mode of Icelierg Forma-
tion.— To the familiar explanation of the for-
mation of icebergs must be added another.
Mr. Israel C. Russell, in recounting his ex-
pedition to Mount St. Elias, says that the
foot of a glacier extends out under the mud-
dy water, sometimes for a thousand feet or
more, in front of the visible part of the
ice-clifEs. When this extension of the ice-
foot has reached the point where the buoy-
ancy of the ice at the bottom exceeds its
strength, huge pieces break off and rise to
the surface. The sudden appearance of
these masses of ice is always startling.
" At first it seems," says Mr. Russell, " as if
some huge sea-monster had risen from the
deep and was lashing the waters into foam."
Soon it can be seen that a blue island has
appeared above the surface, carrying up
hundreds of tons of water, which flows down
its sides in cataracts of foam. The frag-
ments which rise from the bottom in this
manner are usually larger than those broken
from the faces of the ice-cliffs, sometimes
measuring two hundred or three hundred
feet in diameter. Their size and the sudden-
ness with which they rise would insure cer-
tain destruction of a vessel venturing too
near the treacherous ice-walls..

Artificial Globular Lightning.— M. Plant6
has used his secondary batteries to repro-
duce on a small scale the phenomenon of
globular lightning. M. von Lepel has
shown that it can be obtained also by means
of static electricity given by an induction
machine. When two small copper wires
from the poles of a strong machine are held

at a certain distance from the opposite faces
of a plate of mica, ebonite, or glass, small
luminous red balls will be seen moving here
and there, at times slowly, at others rapidly,
and sometimes in a stationary position. The
most remarkable effects are got with a plate
of glass or disk of paper rubbed with par-
afiine. M. von Lepel believes that the vehicles
of the luminous phenomena are small par-
ticles of liquid or dust. A slight current of
air will remove the spherules, which "will
disappear faintly whistling. The experi-
menter remarks, further, that the phenomena
are of weak tension. When this is increased,
the luminous balls arc no longer obtained,
but instead of them the ordinary spark-dis-
charge.

Contamination of Graveyard Soil. — As a

part of the inquiry as to whether the soil of
graveyards is hable to become infectious and
dangerous. Dr. Justin Karlinski, of Kon-
jica, Herzegovina, has undertaken to deter-
mine whether the organs of the body under-
go any change in temperature during the
natural process of decomposition after burial
in the earth, and especially whether any dif-
ference appears in the case of infected sub-
jects. His results show that the putrefac-
tive process is invariably accompanied by a
rise of temperature above that of the soil
around, and that the rise is higher when the
parts examined have been taken from bodies
that have succumbed to infectious diseases
than from other bodies. He found that
typhoid bacilli may retain their vitality in
the decomposing spleen for three months,
and are annihilated only by rapid putrefac-
tion. The author says that he had pre-
viously shown that typhoid bacilli could re-
tain their vitality for five months in soil,
but that if the earth were thoroughly satu-
rated with rain-water they are destroyed in
from seven to fourteen days. The part
played by the soil in the origin of epidemics
should not, he thinks, be underestimated,
since typhoid bacilli can exist in water only
for a comparatively short time.

Melanesian Ghosts. — According to Dr. R.
H. Codington, in his studies of their An-
thropology and Folk Lore, the Melanesians
have no conception of the devil as an evil
spirit, but are possessed by the belief in a

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

571

supernatural power or influence called tnana,
which shows itself in physical force, or in
any kind of excellence which a man may
possess. " This mana is not fixed in any-
thing, and can be conveyed in almost every-
thing ; but spirits, whether disembodied
souls or supernatural beings, have it and
can impart it ; and it essentially belongs to
personal beings to originate it, though it
may act through the medium of water or a
stone or a bone. All Melanesian religion
consists, in fact, in ' getting this mana for
one's self, or getting it used for one's bene-
fit— all religion, that is, as far as religious
practices go, prayers and sacrifices." The
sacrifices are different in different places.
In the western islands the offerings are
made to ghosts, and are consumed by fire as
well as eaten ; in the eastern islands they
are made to spirits, and there is no sacrifi-
cial fire or meal. In the former, nothing is
offered but food ; in the latter money has a
conspicuous place. Notwithstanding our as-
sociation of idolatry with these people. Dr.
Codington gives it no place in his account of
their religion. Their belief is all in ghosts.
There are land-ghosts and sea ghosts, of
which the latter have the more important
place. At Wango, in the Solomon Islands,
there was a canoe-house full of carvings and
paintings representing native life, among
them a canoe attacked by ghosts that haunt
the seas. Two of them are composed as
much as possible of forms of fishes — their
spears and arrows long-bodied gar-fish and
flying-fish. Even sharks have ghosts. In
the volcanic islands it is generally believed
that the souls of the dead ascend the mount-
ain and are received within the craters by
the ghosts which assemble to welcome the
new-comer.

The " Rare Earths " in America. — 31 r.

Waldron Shapleigh exhibited at a recent
meeting of the Franklin Institute some forty
specimens of salts of what are called the
rare earths, with minerals from which they
are obtained, viz. : samarskite, zircon crys-
tals, and monazite sand from North Caro-
lina, monazite sand from Brazil, gadolinite
from Texas, and allanite from Virginia.
This was the first time the salts of praseo-
dymium and neodymium have been shown
and probably separated in this country ; the

separation of these elements is long and
tedious. The specimens shown had under-
gone nearly 400 fractional distillations, and
had been in a state of constant preparation
since early in 1888. Tons of cerite and
monazite sand had been used, and tons of
the salts of cerium and lanthanum obtained,
but the yield of praseodjnnium was only a
few kilogrammes. The percentage of neo-
dymium was much higher. Zirconium, lan-
thanum, and cerium should no longer be
classed among rare earths, as hundreds of
tons of ores from which they are obtained
have been located in North Carolina, and
there seems no end to the deposits of mona-
zite sand, one of the richest ores, and con-
taining most of the rare earths. In Brazil
it does not have to be mined, as it is in the
form of river-sand. In North Carolina it is
found in washing for gold. Should the arts,
trades, or manufactures create a demand for
these so-called rare earths. Nature could
readily supply it from these two localities.
Thorium and yttrium minerals are not so
easy to obtain, but they have recently been
found in quantity in North Carolina and
Texas.

Cultivation of the Poppy. — The poppy is
cultivated for opium in a region of India
about six hundred miles long and two hun-
dred miles wide. The plants come into full
flower in February, when they are some
three or four feet high. Each stem pro-
duces from two to five capsules, about the
size of a duck's egg. Previous to piercing
these capsules, the petals of the flower, now
beginning to fall off, are carefully collected.
They are formed into circular cakes from
ten to fourteen inches in diameter, and put
into shallow earthen vessels which are
heated over a slow fire, and are eventually
used as shells or coverings for the drug.
When the capsules have reached their high-
est development, the ryot visits his poppy-
field in the afternoon and scarifies each
capsule from top to bottom, adding some-
times a horizontal cutting. The juice at
once begins to exude ; milky white at first,
but afterward taking on a pinkish tinge.
The exudation continues during the night.
If there is no wind and abundance of dew,
the return is favorable. A westerly wind
and cloudy atmosphere diminish the yield.

572

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

At an early hour the next morning the ryot
again repairs to the field and collects the
thickened juice from the capsules. The
juice is next emptied into an earthenware
pot, and the ryot is expected to expose it
every day to the air, but not to the sun ; to
turn over the mass daily, so as to insure its
being thoroughly dried ; to keep it free from
impurities or adulterations ; and to bring it
up to the highest standard of consistence
and strength. When he has persevered
with this process for three weeks or a month
he delivers the raw opium at the factory. A
dark, coffee-colored fluid, called puasana,
exudes from the juice when it is fresh, which
contains many of the active principles of the
drug, and is dealt with separately. Besides
the collected petals which form the envelope
of the drug, and the pussana, the ryot has
other sources of profit in the poppy. The
stems and leaves of the plant are left till
they become thoroughly dried up under the
hot winds of April and Maj'. They are then
removed, broken up into a coarse powder,
and used for the packing of the cakes. The
oil is used for cooking and lighting. The
seeds are like caraway and are sold as com-
fits ; and after the extraction of the oil a
dry cake remains, which is given to cattle
or sold for medicinal purposes.

Time-reckoning on tlie Congo. — Ac-
cording to an account of the geography and
meteorology of the natives of the cataract
region of the Congo, given in the Mouve-
ment geographique, the day is the solar day,
in the length of which no variation (the
range being only about forty minutes) is
recognized. It is divided into four parts of
three hours each, which are indicated by
stretching the arm or pointing to the east
for sunrise ; 45° toward the east for nine
o'clock; toward the zenith for noon; Ah"
toward the west for three o'clock, and hori-
zontally toward the west for sunset. Each
hour has its name, that for sunrise meaning
"early," and that for sunset, "the sun is'dead."
If a native is asked how long it will take to
go to a certain village, he will answer by
pointing to where the sun stands at starting,
and toward where it will be when the point
is reached. Thus he indicates the number
of hours by the astronomical angle corre-
sponding with them. Four days form a

week, and each day has its name. Public
markets are distinguished by the name of
the day on which they are held, and of the
chief, village, or group of villages that con-
trol them. Seven four-day weeks form a
month, which corresponds with the lunar
month. Long durations of time are ex-
pressed in moons ; the black does not take
account of years. Although he distin-
guishes the seasons and recognizes their
periodicity, he has no fixed point by which
to determine the revolution of the sun. The
five seasons of the Congo are that of abun-
dant and continuous rains (from the middle
of February to the middle of May) ; that of
the end of the great rains and the beginning
of the dry season, when the grass grows
high (middle of May to middle of July) ; the
dry season, continuing till the middle of
September — also the season of great hunts ;
the beginning of the lesser rainy season,
when the sapotas begin to grow (middle of
September till the end of November) ; and
the season of decreasing rains, or lesser dry
season, when the sapotas are eatable (De-
cember, January, and early February). The
phases of the moon are understood. The
new moon is called the child moon, and the
moon at its last quarter the dead moon.
The blacks know that the new moon is the
same that appeared in the preceding month,
but they have no explanation for the phe-
nomenon. They have no notion concerning
the stars, further than to recognize the
brightness of Venus and give it a name,
and to name the constellation of the Three
Kings. Atmospheric phenomena — rains,
droughts, thunder, rainbows, halos, etc. — are
attributed to the action of the spirits in-
voked by the fetich-priests.

Evolution on the Railroad. — It is most
interesting, says Mr. W. Armstrong ^Yillis in
the Gentleman's Magazine, to trace how tena-
ciously the first railway managers in England
clung to the traditions of coaching. The
builders of the first railway carriages made
no allowance for the changed mode of pro-
gression and motion which was introduced
with the steam-engine. They retained the
short, narrow, stuffy body of the stage-coach,
set it upon four wheels of another make, and
then attached it to the engine as to a new,
enlarged kind of horse. With the increased

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

573

speed of traveling the motion became intol-
erable, and, when a high rate of speed was
reached, few people could liecp their seats.
By degrees, but very slowly, these things
were improved. Better ventilation was in-
sured, more wheels were added, and the
carriages were enlarged ; doors and windows
were so constructed as to keep out the
clouds of dust that choked the traveler on
badly made and ill-kept lines. The same
principle of evolution which has turned the
old stage-coach into the comfortable saloon-
carriage has been at work in every depart-
ment of railways and their management,
and the highly intricate and important sys-
tem of modern signaling springs from a
most simple beginning. Shortly after the
opening of the Stockton and Darlington line,
which was the earliest line constructed, one
of the station-masters is traditionally said
to have adopted the simple expedient of
putting a lighted candle in the window of
the station-house when it was necessary for
the train to stop. When the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway was first opened, in
1830, the only means of signaling the trains
was a flag by day and a lamp by night. The
first ailvance to modern signaling began
about four years after the line had been
opened, when stout posts were provided up-
on which lamps were placed by the points-
man. Nowadays the signalman's cabin is
the center from which all signaling radiates.

Bainfall by Explosion. — Reviewing the
theories of artificial rain-making. Prof. E. J.
Houston draws the general conclusions, in
view of the present state of meteorological
science, that rain can never be made to fall
at will hj mid-air explosions on any part of
the eartli's surface, irrespective of the cli-
matic conditions there existing; but during
certain meteorological conditions, mid-air ex-
plosions may result in rainfall over extended
areas ; that the liberation of energy neces-
sary for such rainfalls is due not to the mid-
air explosions, but to the energy stored up
in the moist air from which the rain is de-
rived ; that the meteorological conditions
which must exist for the successful action of
mid-air explosions would probably in most
though not in all cases themselves result in
a natural production of rain ; that a com-
paratively high difference of electric poten-

tial between different parts of the air, or
between the air and the earth, is possibly
favorable, when taken in connection with
other meteorological conditions, for artificial
rain-making ; and that an undirected mid-air
explosion is not as likely to produce rain as
an explosion in which the main tendency of
the energy liberated is to cause a general
uprush of the air. Among the " certain me-
teorological conditions " mentioned in this
summary is that in which the air is in a
state of very unstable equilibrium, when a
slight determining cause may result in the
liberation of the stored-up energy, with a
resulting heavy rainfall. In such cases it
may appear that there are no reasons why an
explosion in mid-air should not be followed
by rain. In this case rain might be eventu-
ally caused without artificial aid. A condi-
tion in which heavy rains might be artifi-
cially produced by mid-air disturbances, when
without them there would be none, may exist
when a layer of warm, moist air exists be-
tween the earth's surface and a higher layer
of cold, moist air, separated by a compara-
tively thin layer of air, and other conditions
are sucli as to maintain the two layers sepa-
rate. The breaking or piercing of the inter-
mediate separating layer might then per-
mit such an uprush of the warmer air as
would result in the formation of a true
storm center and a heavy rainfall.

Weddings among the Sbnshwap Indians.

— Dr. Franz Boaz, in his report to the Hon.
Horatio Hale for the British Association con-
cerning the northwestern Indian tribes of
Canada, describes from native accounts the
marriage ceremonies of the Shushwap as fol-
lows : " A young man who wishes to marry a
girl takes a number of horses and other prop-
erty that is considered valuable, and offers it
to the father of the girl he wishes to marry.
The latter, before accepting the price offered,
invites his whole family to a council and
asks their consent. If they agree to accept
the suitor, and the price he has offered for
the gii'l is satisfactory, they tie the horses to
their stable and take the other goods into
the house, as a sign of their willingness.
After this the young man may take the girl
without further ceremonies. After the
marriage the bridegroom and his family go
on a hunting expedition, and try to obtain

574

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as much game as possible, which is to be
given to his father-in-law. The latter
dresses the meat and invites the whole
tribe to a feast. Then he and his family in
their turn go hunting, and present the game
they have obtained to the young man's fa-
ther, who gives a feast to the whole tribe.
At this time the girl's father returns all the
payments he has received to the young man's
father. For a number of days the couple
live with the girl's family. When the young
man goes to reside with his wife he asks all
his friends to support him, and they give
him presents of food and clothing. The lat-
ter he puts on, one suit on top of the other,
goes to his father-in-law, and gives him all
the ^ property he carries. The latter dis-
tributes this property among the whole
tribe according to the contributions every
one has made. Then the young couple re-
move to the young man's family ; and before
leaving her father's house the bride is fitted
out with presents in the same way as the
young man was when he came to reside with
her family. This is a present to the young
man's father, who also distributes it among
the tribe."

Some Cliaracteristics of Waves. — The

friction of the wind upon the sea-surface,
the convulsions of deep-seated earthquakes,
and the attraction of the heavenly bodies,
give rise to three different kinds of sea-
waves. If the wind blows directly parallel
to the sea-surface, says a writer in Cham-
bers's Journal, the friction may cause an
ocean - current without wave - disturbance.
As a rule the direction of the wind is in-
clined to the sea-surface, and its immediate
effect is to produce a depression, which re-
lieves itself by means of a wave to leeward
and another to windward. This latter ele-
vation is opposed by the wind, and gradu-
ally dies away, while the leeward wave is
correspondingly accelerated. Each undula-
tion shelters the water under its lee from
the wind, which consequently impinges up-
on the sea a little in advance of the newly
formed wave ; and thus we get a series of
parallel ridges and hollows, provided the
wind remain steady in direction and inten-
sity. There is no necessary connection be-
tween the advance of a wave and the for.
ward movement of the water composing it,

as may be seen by running the fingers along
the keys of a piano. An inverted ware
travels along, but the keys merely move up
and down. Similarly, a wave may often be
observed running along the ripe ears of
golden grain ■while the stalks are firmly
rooted in the soil. The onward progress of
a sea-wave is easily perceptible, and by watch-
ing some light substance floating on the sur-
face the fact is revealed that the water is
not moving with the same velocity as the
advancing wave. Should the wind direction
suddenly change, a new series of waves will
be generated, and cross -seas soon confront
the mariner. Hence it is that in a cyclone,
or revolving storm, where the wind is fre-
quently changing, there are high waves roll-
ing along from various directions, each as
distinct as the ripples in a river, which cross
one another without swerving from their
course. Waves become short and abrupt in
shallow water, and are far more dangerous
to shipping than the long, regular billows
of the ocean. It is probable that the great-
est slope of a wave in open waters does not
exceed thirty degrees, and frequently not
more than fifteen degrees. Waves raised
by the friction of the wind upon the water
are relatively superficial. In heavy gales,
however, lower depths become troubled, and
the undulations more and more imposing.
Occasionally an exceptionally large solitary
wave is met with, advancing in awe-inspir-
ing grandeur, its white crest towering high
above all its fellows. Such ocean giants may
be due to the fact that the elevations of se-
ries of waves having different lengths hap-
pen to coincide ; or may be caused by squalls
of wind, which are sometimes as terrible in
intensity as they are sudden in formation.

The Wagging of the Dog's Tall.— Prof.

Eimer, in his work on Organic Evolution, is
not able to explain why the dogs of Constan-
tinople erect the tail and carry it upright,
while the ancestral wolf and the jackal
carry it hanging down. Dr. Joseph L. Han-
cock suggests, in the American Naturalist,
that the reason may be found in the fact
that as the dog becomes domesticated it is
prone to use the tail as an organ for express-
ing mental states — wagging it when pleased,
dropping it between the legs when disap-
pointed or frightened. The ancestral wolf

NOTES.

575

carries it hanging down, because in that
position it is less conspicuous and better
eludes detection. A family of wolves play-
ing together undisturbed occasionally carry
their tails curled upward. By degrees the
tail acquires naturally the upright position
as a result of coincident evolution of the
mind of the wolf by domestication and of
the slow adaptation of the appendage as an
organ of expression. The cessation of natu-
ral selection in the domestic dog would give
the tail greater freedom of motion without
detriment to life ; and artificial selection
modifies it into various shapes.

Salphar in Sicily. — According to the re-
port of the United States consul at Palermo,
there are now about three hundred sulphur
mines in Sicily. The deposits are estimated
to amount to about 30,000,000 tons, and the
annual production to 400,000 tons. The
royalties vary from twelve to forty - five
per cent, according to the quality of the
ore and the facihties for producing the
sulphur, and average about twenty -five
per cent. The external indications of the
presence of sulphur are the appearance
of gypsum and sulphurous springs. When
the miners detach the ore from the sur-
rounding material, vast cavities are often
left which have to be supported on pillars of
rock, and frequently give way with disas-
trous results. Seven different qualities are
reco2;nized, and determined by color. The
mines have declined in prosperity since the
extraction of sulphur from iron pyrites has
come into use, and two thirds of them are
represented to be at the point of suspension.

Cause of Chinese Emigration. — The

main cause of the emigration from China,
which is filling all other countries with ap-
prehension, is traced by a Dutch colonial offi-
cer in the East Indies, not to the excess of
population, but to the poverty of the soil in
the provinces whence the emigrants come.
The mass of the emigration is from the bare
mountainous valleys of the eastern part of
China, where the soil yields but little and
the rainfall is slight. Disafforestation, mak-
ing wood scarce and dear, is another factor
in the matter. The author believes that as
soon as China earnestly sets itself to the
task of constructing railways and other great

works the stream of emigration will be
stopped ; for the people will find in the in-
terior of their own country the work and
means of livelihood which they now seek for
elsewhere,

UnlTcrsity-extension Lectures on Science.

— Arrangements have been made, in connec-
tion with the English university-extension
movement, for one month's residence during
the long vacation of extension students within
the university precincts, where lectures will
be given them on the subjects of their stud-
ies. The lectures for 1891 included a dis-
cussion of the criticism of Weismann's theo-
ry of heredity, by Mr. Poult on ; the functions
of the heart, by Mr. Gotch ; the benzene
ring, by Prof. Odling ; a course of practical
chemistry, under the supervision of Mr.
Marsh ; practical instruction in geology, by
Prof. Green and Mr. Badger, with excursions ;
practical astronomy ; four lectures on the
application of science to the art of agricult-
ure ; the management of poultry ; and ma-
nures.

NOTES.

A PRACTICAL paper on Some Means of
Health in School-houses is contributed to
the 1890 Report of the Wisconsin Board of
Health by Hon. W. D. Parker. One of the
arrangements that Mr. Parker strongly com-
mends is the " dry-air closet," so called
because a current of dry air, coming from
the ventilating flues of the building, is
passed through the vault and carries off all
the moisture from it, leaving only a small
quantity of dry, inoffensive solid matter,
which can be shoveled out. This result, he
says, is almost incredible, but has been es-
tablished by sufficient tests.

The fact that the science relating to
electricity has no name of its own is noted
by the editor of Our Language, who pro-
poses that it be called ".electrics." The
pair of words, " electrics " and electrician,
would be in analogy with optics and opti-
cian, mechanics and mechanician, mathe-
matics and mathematician, and many others.
At present the word electricity performs two
functions similar to those which are sepa-
rated in the case of light and optics, heat
and thermotics, soimd and acoustics.

An instance of a spider catching a small
mouse, very similar tn one published in the
Monthly for May, 1890, comes to us from
Columbus, Ohio. The mouse was found by
Mr. W. J. Dawson suspended by a cable

576

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of spider's threads under a counter in his
grocery-store, 511 West Broad Street. It
had been hoisted three inches from the
floor, and the spider, which was no bigger
than the end of a lead-pencil, was by dint
of hard worlf very slowly hauling it up fur-
ther, the captive being alive and struggling.
After about an hour the cord was broken
and the mouse was carried away and killed.

M. Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim
gun, is studying the construction of direct-
able flying-machines, and believes that he
has obtained a motor of sufficient force. M.
Fontes Pereira de Mello believes that he is
on the right road to the invention of a prac-
tical submarine boat.

The primitive monuments of the Bale-
aric Islands are described by M. Cartailhac
as of a Cyclopean or Pelasgic character,
similar to those which are found throughout
the Mediterranean region. Remains of real
fortified towns, hke a Greek acropolis, exist
in Majorca and Minorca, usually at some
distance from the most exposed coasts,
sometimes on a plain and sometimes on an
elevated spot. In the inside of each town
there was a special monument of large
hewn stones, so arranged as to form a semi-
circle. There were also galleries constructed
by placing stones on pillars, under which
one could hardly stand upright ; and towers
called iaiar/ois, the huge walls of which
concealed small crypts or cellars. Human
bones were found interred in artificial grot-
toes or crypts, to each of which entrance
was gained by a small antechamber leading
by a narrower portal.

The Illinois Experiment Station reports
the results of comparative experiments at
four stations— three of them in light-colcred
soils and the other in a darker soil— in
raising wheat : on unmanured ground, on
ground heavily treated with barn-yard ma-
nure, five wagon-loads to the quarter-acre,
and on ground treated with one hundred
pounds of superphosphate to the quarter-
acre. The results showed decisively _the
superioritv of the barn-yard manuring,
while the" beneficial effects of superphos-
phates on the amount of yield were rela-
tively small.

One of the remarkable results of the
spectroscopic observation of the great nebula
of Orion by Mr. Keeler at Lick Observatory
is the representation in them of the direction
of the earth's orbital motion, so that the ob-
server "would with some confidence under-
take to determine the month of the year by
measuring the distance of the principal line
from the lead line used in the spectrum."

To estimate the relative merits of differ-
ent kinds of points for lightning-conductors,
Dr. Hess recently collected and examined
nineteen heads of" conductors that had been
struck by hghtning. His conclusions are

that the fusion of points of lightning-con-
ductors by lightning causes no danger of
fire through scattering of fused drops, for
this does not occur; that fine and smooth
points receive the hghtning-stroke in con-
centrated form, while sharply angled and
ribbed and blunt points divide it into
threads ; that platinum needles and tips
have no advantage over copper points ; and
that .there are lightning-strokes which are
capable of making incandescent brass wire
7-2 millimetres (say 0-29 inch) thick. Un-
branched copper conductors should there-
fore never be thinner than 7 millimetres.

AccoEDiNG to the observations of M. A.
Muntz, the rain-water and the herbage of
elevated regions are much poorer in sodium
chloride than those of the lowlands, and the
milk and the blood of animals feeding on
the mountains contain a decidedly less pro-
portion of the salt than are found in similar
animals from the plains.

OBITUARY NOTES.

Mr. Charles Smith Wilson, Govern-
ment Geologist of New South Wales, died
August 26th, in his forty-eighth year. He
was an original member of the Linna^an So-
ciety of New South Wales, and its president
in 1883 and 1884.

Mr. William B. Watson, who died at
Bolton, England, October 6th, in his eightieth
year, was one of Dalton's last surviving pu-
pils, and assisted him in his researches on
the composition of the atmosphere, and was
one of his nurses in his illness.

The Rev. Percy W. Mtles, an English
botanist and editor of Nature Notes, the
journal of the Selborne Society, died October
7th, in his fortv-third year. He was author
of the Pronouncing Dictionary of Botanical
Names appended to Mieholson's Dictionary
of Gardening, which is recognized as a stand-
ard. As his circumstances were narrow, a
Myles memorial fund is proposed to be
raised for the benefit of his widow, for
which Prof. George Henslow will receive con-
tributions.

The death of Mr. Thomas Wharton Jones,
F. R. S., one of Prof. Huxley's teachers for-
ty years ago, is announced. He was nearly
eighty years of age.

Dr. Philip Heriiert Carpenter, fourth
son of the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter, died at
Eton College, England, October 21st, in his
fortieth year, from the administration of chlo-
roform during temporary insanity. He had
been connected, in a scientific capacity, with
expeditions of the Lightning and Porcupine,
and with the Valorous of Sir G. Nares's Arc-
tic Expedition. He made a specialty of the
study of echinoderms, in which he became
distinguished as an authority, and on which
he pubhshed several papers and reports.

-flSS.

'*i*

A!"^v,.

«?'

WILLIAM FERREL.

THE

POPULAR SCIEKOE
MOI^THLY.

MAEGH, 1892.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.

XV. ASTKONOMY.

By ANDEEW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D., L. H. D.,

EX-PEESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVEESITY.

PART I.

THE next great series of battles was fought regarding tlie
relations of the earth to the heavenly bodies. In the early
Church, astronomy^ like other branches of science, was very gen-
erally looked upon as futile, in view of the doctrine, so promi-
nent in the New Testament, that the earth was in its last days.
At best, the heavenly bodies were only objects of pious specula-
tion. Some theologians, remembering the beautiful poetic vision
of the morning stars singing together, revived an old theory that
the heavenly lights have immortal souls. Tertullian's view of
the solar system is seen in his theory that an eclipse of the
sun was simply a sign of the wrath of God against unbelief. St.
Augustine gave forth as final truth in sacred science a statement,
based upon the Psalms, that " the heavens are like a curtain " ;
but his view of any scientific study is shown by his ejaculation,
" What concern is it to me whether the heavens as a sphere in-
close the earth in the middle of the world, or overhang it on
either side ? "

The prevailing view in the Church was based upon the declara-
tions in Genesis that a solid vault — a "firmament" — was extended
above the earth, and that the heavenly bodies were simply lights
hung within it. This view plays a great part in the sacred theory
established so firmly by the monk Cosmas in the sixth century.
Having based his plan of the universe upon various texts in the
Old and New Testaments, and having made it a vast oblong box,
covered by the solid "firmament," he brings in an additional

TOL. XL. — 40

578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

view from Scripture to account for the planetary movements, and
develops at length the theory that the sun and planets are moved
and the " windows of heaven " opened and shut by angels ap-
pointed for that purpose.

How intensely real this way of looking at the universe was,
we find in the writings of St. Isidore, the greatest leader of ortho-
dox thought in the seventh century. He affirms that since the
fall of man, and on account of it, the sun and moon shine with a
feebler light ; but he proves from a text in Isaiah that when the
world shall be fully redeemed these " great lights " will shine
again in all their early splendor.* But despite these authorities
and their theological finalities, the evolution of scientific thought
continued, its main germ being the geocentric doctrine — the doc-
trine that the earth is the center, and that the sun and planets
revolve about it.

This doctrine was of the highest respectability : it had been
developed at a very early period, and had been elaborated until
it accounted well for the apparent movements of the heavenly
bodies; its final name— " Ptolemaic theory "—carried weight;
and, having thus come from antiquity into the Christian world,
it was finally acquiesced in and universally held to agree with the
letter and spirit of Scripture, f

Wrought into this foundation, and based upon it, there was
developed in the middle ages, by means of Scriptural texts and
theological reasonings, a new sacred system of astronomy, which
became one of the great treasures of the universal Church— the
last word of revelation.

Three great men mainly reared this structure. First was the
unknown who gave to the world the treatises ascribed to Dio-
nysius the Areopagite. It was unhesitatingly believed that these
were the work of St. Paul's Athenian convert, and therefore vir-
tually by St. Paul himself. Though now known to be spurious,
they were then considered a treasure of inspiration, and an Em-

* For Tevtullian's view of an eclipse of the sun, see the Ad Scapulam, cap. iu, m Migne.
Patr. Lat, i, p. 701. For passage cited from Clement of Alexandria, see edition of T.
Clark, Edinburgh, 1869, vol. ii, p. 868. For typical statements by St. Augustine, see De
Genesi, ii, cap. ix, in Migne, Patr Lat., tome xxxiv, pp. 2Y0, 271. For St. Isidore, see the De
Ordine Creaturarum, cap. v, in Migno, Patr. Lat., Ixxxiii, pp. 923-925 ; also, 1000, 1001. For
Cosmas's view, see his Topographia Christiana in Montfau9on, Col. Nov. Patrum, ii, p. 150,
and elsewhere as cited in my chapter on " Geography."

f As to the respectability of the geocentric theory, etc., see Crete's Plato, vol. m, p.
257; also Sir G. C. Lewis's Astronomy of the Ancients, chap, iii, sec. 1, for a very thought-
ful statement of Plato's view, and differing from ancient statements. For plausible elabo-
ration of it, and for supposed agreement of Scripture with it, see Fromundus, Anti-Aris-
tarchus, Antwerp, 1631 ; also Melanchthon's Initia Doctrinae Physics. For an admirable
statement of the theological view of the geocentric theory, antipodes, etc., see Eicl^en,
GescUclite der St/stem der Miitelalterlichen Wcltanscliauung, pp. 618 et scq.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 579

peror of the East sent them to an Emperor of the West as the
most worthy of gifts. In the ninth century they were widely
made known in western Europe, and became a fruitful source of
thought, especially on the whole celestial hierarchy ; thus the old
ideas of astronomy were vastly developed; and the heavenly
hosts were classed and named in accordance with indications scat-
tered through the sacred Scriptures.

The next of these three great theologians was Peter Lombard,
professor at the University of Paris. About the middle of the
twelfth century he gave forth his collection of "Sentences," or
Statements by the Fathers, and this remained until the end of the
middle ages the universal manual of theology. In it was espe-
cially developed the theological view of man's relation to the uni-
verse. The author tells the world : " Just as man is made for the
sake of God — that is, that he may serve Him, — so the universe is
made for the sake of man, — that is, that it may serve Jiim ; there-
fore is man placed at the middle point of the universe, that he
may both serve and be served.''

The vast significance of this view, and its power in resisting
any real astronomical science, we shall see, especially in the time
of Galileo.

The great triad of thinkers culminated in St. Thomas Aquinas,
the sainted theologian, the glory of the mediaeval Church, the
" Angelic Doctor," the most marvelous intellect between Aristotle
and Newton ; he to whom it was believed that an image of the
Crucified had spoken words praising his writings. Large of mind,
strong, acute, yet just — even more than just — to his opponents,
he gave forth, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, his
Cyclopaedia of Theology, the " Summa." In this he carried the
sacred theory of the universe to its full development. With great
power and clearness he brought the whole vast system, material
and spiritual, into its relations to God and man.*

Such was the vast system developed by these three leaders of
mediaeval thought ; and now came the man who wrought it yet
more deeply into European belief, the poet divinely inspired who
made the system part of the world's life. Under the touch of
Dante the empyrean and the concentric heavens, paradise, purga-
tory, and hell, were seen of all men ; the God Triune seated on his
throne upon the circle of the heavens as real as the Pope seated

* For the contribution of the pseudo-Dionysius to mediaeval cosmology see Dion., Areo-
pagita, De Cselcst. hierarch. vers. Joan. Scoti, in Migne, Patr. Lat., cxxii. For the contri-
bution of Peter Lombard, see Pet. Lomb., Libr. Sent. II, i, 8 ; IV, i, 6, 7. For the citations
from St. Thomas Aquinas, see the Summa, ed. Migne, especially Qusest. LXX, tome i, pp.
11V4-1184:; also Quaest. XLVII, Art. iii. For good general statement, see Milman, Latin
Christianity, iv, 191 et seq ; and for relation of Cosmas to these theologians of western
Europe, see Milman, as above, viii, 228, note.

58o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in tlie chair of St. Peter ; the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones,
surrounding the Almighty, as real as the cardinals surrounding
the Pope ; the three great orders of angels in heaven as real as
the three great orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, on earth ;
and the whole system of spheres each revolving within the one
above it and all moving about the earth, subject to the primum
mobile, as real as the feudal system of western Europe, subject
to the emperor.*

Let us look into this vast creation— the highest achievement
of theology — somewhat more closely.

Its first feature shows an evolution : the earth is no longer the
flat plain inclosed by four walls and solidly vaulted above, as
theologians of previous centuries had believed it, under the in-
spiration of the monk Cosmas ; it is no longer a mere flat disk
with sun, moon, and stars hung up to give it light, as the earlier
cathedral sculptors had figured it ; it has become a globe at the
center of the universe. Encompassing it are ten successive,
transparent spheres, nine of them rotated by angels about the
earth, and each carrying one of the heavenly bodies with it : that
nearest the earth carrying the moon; the next. Mercury; the
next, Venus ; the next, the sun ; the next three. Mars, Jupiter,
and, Saturn. The tenth heaven, inclosing all these, was the em-
pyrean This was immovable,— the boundary between creation
and the great outer void; and here, in a light which no one can
enter, the Triune God sat enthroned— the "music of the spheres
rising to him as they move.

In attendance upon the Divine Majesty, thus enthroned are
vast hosts of angels, and these are divided into three hierarchies,
one serving in the empyrean, one in the heaven between the
empyrean and the earth, and one on the earth. _

Each of these hierarchies is divided into three choirs or
orders; the first, into the orders of Seraphim, Cherubim, and
Thrones; and the main occupation of these is to chant inces-
santly, to " continually cry " the divine praises.

The order of thrones conveys God's will to the second hie-
rarchy—which serves in the movable heavens. This second
hierarchy is also made up of three orders. The first of these, the

* For the central sun, hierarchy of angels, and concentric circles, see Dante, Paradiso,
canto xxYiii. For the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, showing to Virgil and mnte
the great theologians of the middle ages, see canto x, and in Dean Plumptres trans-
lation, vol. ii, pp. 66 et seg.; also Botta, Dante, pp. 350, 351. As to Dante s deep re-
ligious feeling and belief in his own divine mission, see J. R. Lowell, Among my
Books vol i p. 36. For a remarkable series of colored engravings showing Dante s
whole 'cosmology, see La Materia della Divina Commcdia di Dante dichiarata in vi tavole
da Michelangelo Caetani, published by the monks of Monte Casslno, to whose kindness
the wfiter is indebted for bis copy.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 581

order of Dominions, receives the divine commands ; the second,
the order of Powers, moves the heavens, sun, moon, planets, and
stars, opens and shuts the " windows of heaven," and brings to
pass all other celestial phenomona ; the third, the order of Em-
pire, guards the others.

The third and lowest hierarchy is also made up of three
orders. First of these are the Principalities — the guardian spirits
of nations and kingdoms : next come Archangels ; these protect
religion, and bear the prayers of the saints to the foot of God's
throne : finally, come Angels ; these care for earthly affairs in
general — one being appointed to each mortal, and others taking
charge of the qualities of plants, metals, stones, and the like.
Throughout the whole system, from the great Triune God to
the lowest group of angels, we see at work the mystic power
attached to the triangle and sacred number three — the same
which gave the triune idea to ancient Hindoo theology, which
developed the triune deities in Egypt, and which transmitted this
theological gift to the Christian world, especially through the
Egyptian monk Athanasius.

Below the earth is hell. This is tenanted by the angels who
rebelled under the lead of Lucifer^ prince of the seraphim — the
former favorite of the Trinity ; but of these rebellious angels,
some still rove among the planetary spheres, and give trouble to
the good angels ; others pervade the atmosphere about the earth —
carrying lightning, storm, drought, and hail. Others infest earth-
ly society, tempting men to sin; but Peter Lombard and St.
Thomas Aquinas take pains to show that the work of these devils
is, after all, but to discipline man or to mete out deserved punish-
ment.

All this vast scheme had been so knit into the Ptolemaic view
and interwoven with it by the use of biblical texts and theological
reasonings that the resultant system of the universe was consid-
ered impregnable and final. To attack it was blasphemy.

This system stood for centuries. Great theological scientists
in following ages, like Vincent de Beauvais and Cardinal d'Ailly,
devoted themselves to showing not only that it was supported by
Scripture, but that it supported Scripture. Thus was the geocen-
tric theory imbedded in the beliefs and aspirations, in the hopes
and fears, of Christendom down to the middle of the sixteenth
century.*

* For the earlier sacred cosmology of Cosmas, with citations from Montfati^on, see my
chapter on Geography. For the views of the mcdiasval theologians, see foregoing notes in
this chapter. For the passages of Scripture on which the theological part of this structure
was developed, see especially Romans viii, 38 ; Ephesians i, 21 ; Colossians i, 16, and ii, 15 ;
and innumerable passages in the Old Testament. As to the music of the spheres, see
Dean Plumptre's Dante, vol. ii, p. 4, note. For an admirable summing up of the mediaeval

582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

But, on the other hand, there had been planted, long before,
the germs of the heliocentric theory. In the sixth century before
our era, Pythagoras, and after him Philolaus, had suggested the
movement of the earth and planets about a central fire ; and three
centuries later, Aristarchus had restated the main truth with
striking precision. Here comes in a proof that the antagonism
between theological and scientific methods is not confined to
Christianity; for this statement brought upon Aristarchus the
charge of blasphemy, and drew after it a cloud of prejudice which
hid the truth for six hundred years :— not until the fifth century
of our era does it timidly appear in the thoughts of Martianus
Capella : then it is again lost to sight for a thousand years, until
in the fifteenth century, distorted and imperfect, it appears in
the writings of Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa.

But in the shade cast by the vast system which had grown
from the mind of the great theologians and from the heart of the
great poet there had come to this truth neither bloom nor fruitage.

Quietly, however, the soil was receiving enrichment and the
air warmth. The processes of mathematics were constantly im-
proved, the heavenly bodies were steadily observed, and at length
appeared, far off from the centers of thought, on the borders of
Poland, a plain, simple-minded scholar, who first fairly uttered
to the modern world the truth — now so commonplace, then so
astounding, — that the sun and planets do not revolve about the
earth, but that the earth and planets revolve about the sun ; and
this man was Nicholas Copernicus.

Copernicus had been a professor at Rome, and even as early
as 1500 had announced his doctrine there, but more in the way of
a scientific curiosity or paradox, as it had been previously held
by Cardinal de Cusa, than as the statement of a system repre-
senting a great fact in nature. About thirty years later one of
his disciples, Widmanstadt, had explained it to Clement VII;
but it still remained a mere hypothesis, and soon, like so many
others, disappeared from the public view. But to Coperni-
cus, steadily studying the subject, it became more and more a
reality, and as the truth grew within^himhe^seemed to feel that

cosmology in its relation to thought in general, see Rydberg, Magic of the iliddle Ages,
chapter i, whose admirable summary I have followed closely. For charts showmg the
continuance of this general view down to the beginning of the sixteenth century, see the
various editions of the Margarita Philosophica, especially that of Strasburg, 1508, astro-
nomical part. For interesting statements regarding the trinities of gods in ancient Egypt,
see Sharpe, History of Egypt. The present writer once heard a lecture in Cairo, from an
eminent Scotch Doctor of Medicine, to account for the ancient Hindoo and Egyptian sacred
threes and trinities. The lecturer's theory was that when Jehovah came down into the
garden of Eden and walked with Adam in "the cool of the day," he explained his trmne
character to Adam, and that from Adam it was spread abroad to the various ancient
nations.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 583

at Rome lie was uo longer safe. To announce his discovery there
as a theory or a paradox might amuse the papal court, but to an-
nounce it as a truth — as the truth — was a far different matter. He
therefore returned to his little town in Poland.

To publish his thought as it had now developed was evidently
dangerous even there, and for more than thirty years it lay slum-
bering in the mind of Copernicus and of the friends to whom he
had privately intrusted it.

At last he prepares his great work on the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Bodies, and dedicates it to the Pope himself. He next
seeks a place of publication : he dares not send it to Rome, for
there are the rulers of the older Church ready to seize it ; he dares
not send it to Wittenberg, for there are the leaders of Protestant-
ism no less hostile; it is therefore intrusted to Osiander, at Nu-
remberg.*

* For germs of heliocentric theory planted long before, etc., see Sir G. C. Lewis ; and
for a succinct statement of the claims of Pythagoras, Philolaus, Aristarchus, and Martianus
Capella, see Hoefer, Ilistoire de I'Astronomie, 1873, p. 107 et seq. ; also, Heller, Geschichte
der Physik, Stuttgart, 1882, vol. i, pp. 12, 13 ; also, pp. 99 et seq. For germs among
thinkers of India, see Whewell, vol. i, p. 277 ; also, Whitney, Oriental and Linguistic
Studies, New York, 1874; Essay on the Lunar Zodiac, p. 345. For the views of Vincent
de Beauvais, see his Speculum Naturale, edition of 1480, lib. xvi, cap. 21. For Cardinal
d'-\illy's view, see his Ymago Mundi, 1490, treatise De Concordia Astronomicae Veritatis
cum Theologia.

For general statement of De Cusa's work, see Draper, Intellectual Development of
Europe, p. 512. For skillful use of De Cusa's view in order to mitigate censure upon the
Church for its treatment of Copernicus's discovery, see an article in the Catholic World
for January, 1869. For a very exact statement, in a spirit of judicial fairness, see Whew-
ell, History of the Inductive Sciences, p. 275 and pp. 379, 380. In the latter, Whewell
cites the exact words of De Cusa in the De Docta Ignorantia, and sums up in these words :
" This train of thought might be a preparation for the reception of the Copernican sys-
tem ; but it is very different from the doctrine that the sun is the center of the planetary
system." Whewell says; " De Cusa propounded the doctrine of the motion of the earth
more as a paradox than a reality. We can not consider this as any distinct anticipation
of a profound and consistent view of the truth." On De Cusa, see also Heller, vol. i, p. 216.
For Aristotle's views, and their elaboration by St. Thomas Aquinas, see the De Coelo et
Mundo, sec. xx, and elsewhere in the latter. It is curious to see how even such a biog-
rapher as Archbishop Vaughan slurs over the angelic doctor's errors. See Vaughan's Life
and Labors of St. Thomas of Aquin, pp. 459, 460.

Copernicus's Danger at Borne. — The Catholic World for January, 1869, cites a speech
of the Archbishop of Mechlin, before the University of Louvain, to the effect that Coper-
nicus defended his theory at Rome, in 1500, before two thousand scholars; also, that an-
other professor taught the system in 1528, and was made apostolic notary by Clement
Vin. All this, even if the doctrines taught were identical with those of Copernicus, as
finally developed, which is simply not the case, avails nothing against the overwhelming
testimony that Copernicus felt himself in danger — testimony which the after-history of
the Copernican theory renders invincible. The very title of Fromundus's book, already
cited, published within a few miles of the archbishop's own cathedral, and sanctioned
expressly by the theological faculty of that same University of Louvain in 1630, utterly
refutes the archbishop's idea that the Church was inclined to treat Copernicus kindly.

584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But Osiander's courage fails liim : lie dares not launch tlie
new thouglit boldly. He writes a groveling- preface, endeavoring
to excuse Copernicus for his novel idea, and in this he inserts the
apologetic lie that Copernicus propounds the doctrine of the
earth's movement not as a fact, but as a hypothesis ; he declares
that it is lawful for an astronomer to indulge his imagination,
and that this is what Copernicus has done.

Thus was the greatest and most ennobling, perhaps, of scien-
tific truths^ — a truth not less ennobling to religion than to science
— forced in coming before the world to sneak and crawl.*

On the 24th of May, 1543, the newly printed book arrived at
the house of Copernicus. It was put into his hands ; but he was
on his death-bed. A few hours later he was beyond the reach of
the conscientious men who would have blotted his reputation,
and perhaps have destroyed his life.

Yet not wholly beyond their reach. Even death could not be
trusted to shield him. There seems to have been fear of ven-
geance upon his corpse, for on his tombstone was placed no record
of his life-long labors, no mention of his great discovery ; but
there was graven upon it simply a prayer : " I ask not the grace
accorded to Paul ; not that given to Peter ; give me only the favor

The title is as follows : " Anti-Aiistarchus sive Orbis-TerrEe Immobilis in quo decretum S.
Con'»re"-ationis S. R. E. Cardinalium I.qC.XVI adversus Pythagorico-Copernicanos editum
defenditur, Antwerpias, MDCXXXI." L'Epinois, Galilee, Paris, 1867, lays stress, p. 14,
on the broaching of the doctrine by De Cusa, in 1435, and by Widmanstadt in 1533,
and their kind treatment by Eugenius IV and Clement VII, but this is absolutely worth-
less in denying the papal policy afterward. Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus, vol. i,
pp. 217, 218, while admitting that De Cusa and Widmanstadt sustained this theory, and
received honors from their respective popes, shows that, when the Church gave it serious
consideration, it was condemned. There is nothing in this view unreasonable. It would
be a parallel case to that of Leo X, at first inclined toward Luther and others, in their
" squabbles with the begging friars," and afterward forced to oppose them. That Coper-
nicus felt the danger is evident, among other things, by the expression in the preface :
" Statim me explodendiim cum tali opinione damitant." For dangers at Wittenberg, see Lange,
Geschichte des Materialismus, vol. i, p. 217.

* Osiander, in a letter to Copernicus, dated April 20, 1541, had endeavored to reconcile
him to such a procedure, and ends by saying, " Sic enim placidiores reddideris peripatheticos
et theologos quos contradicturos nietuis." See Apologia Tychonis in Kepleri Opera Omnia,
Frisch's edition, vol. i, p. 246. Kepler holds Osiander entirely responsible for this preface.
Bertrand, in his Fondateurs de 1' Astronomic moderne, gives its text, and thinks it possible
that Copernicus may have yielded " in pure condescension toward his disciple." But this
idea is utterly at variance with expressions in Copernicus's own dedicatory letter to the
Pope, which follows the preface. For a good summary of the argument, see Figtiier,
Savants de la Renaissance, pp. 378, 379 ; see, also, citation from Gassendi's Life of Coper-
nicus, in Flammarion, Vie de Copernic, p. 124. Mr. John Fiske, accurate as he usually is,
in his Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, appears to have followed Laplace, Delambre, and
Petit into the error of supposing that Copernicus, and not Osiander, is responsible for the
preface. For the latest proofs, sec Menzer's translation of Copernicus's work. Thorn, 1879,
notes on pp. 3 and 4 of the appendix.

Ni:W CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 585

whicli Thou didst show to the thief on the cross." Not till thirty-
years after did a friend dare write on his tombstone a memorial
of his discovery.*

The preface of Osiander, pretending that the book of Coperni-
cus suggested a hypothesis instead of announcing a truth, served
its purpose well as regards the book itself. During nearly seventy
years the Church authorities evidently thought it best not to stir
the matter, and in some cases professors like Calganini were al-
lowed to present the new view purely as a hypothesis. There
were, indeed, mutterings from time to time on the theological
side, but there was no great demonstration against the system
until 1616. Then, when the Copernican doctrine was upheld by
Galileo as a truth, and proved to be a truth by his telescope, the
book was taken in hand by the Roman curia. The statements of
Copernicus were condemned "until they should be corrected,"
and the corrections required were simply such as would substitute
for his conclusions the old Ptolemaic theory.

That this was their purpose was seen in that year when Gali-
leo was forbidden to teach or discuss the Copernican theory, and
when were forbidden " all books which affirm the motion of the
earth." Henceforth to read the work of Copernicus was to risk
damnation, and the world accepted the decree, f

There was, indeed, in Europe one man who might have done
much to check this current of unreason which was to sweep
away so many thoughtful men on the one hand from scientific
knowledge, and so many on the other from Christianity. This

* See Figuier, Savants de la Renaissance, p. 380 ; also, Flammarion, Vie de Copernic,
p. 190,

f The authorities deciding this matter in accordance with the wishes of Pope Paul V
and Cardinal Bcllarmine were the Congregation of the Index, or cardinals having char"-e of
the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, Recent desperate attempts to fasten the responsibility
on them as individuals seem ridiculous in view of the simple fact that their work was sanc-
tioned by the highest Church authority, and required to be universally accepted by the
Church. Eleven different editions of the Index in my own possession prove this. Nearly
all of these declare on their title-pages that they are issued by order of the pontiff of the
period, and each is prefaced by a special papal biill or letter. See especially the Index of
1664, issued under order of Alexander VII, and that of 1761, under Benedict XIV. Co-
pernicus's statements were prohibited in the Index ^^ donee corrir/nnfur.'''' Kepler said that
it ought to be worded ''■donee explieeiur." See Bertrand, Fondateurs de I'Astronomie
moderne, page 57. De Morgan, pages 57-60, gives the corrections required by the Index
of 1620. Their main aim seems to be to reduce Copernicus to the groveling level of Osian-
der, making of his discovery a mere hypothesis ; but occasionally they require a virtual
giving up of the whole Copernican doctrine— e. g., "correction" insisted upon for chapter
viii, p. 6. For a scholarly account of the relation of the Prohibitory and Expingatory In-
dexes to each other, see Mendham, Literary Policy of the Church of Rome; also, Reusch,
Index der verbotenen Bucher, Bonn, 1855, vol. ii, chaps, i and ii. For a brief but very
careful statement, see Gebler, Galileo Galilei, English translation, London, 1879, chap, i;
see, also, Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, article Galileo, p. 8.

586 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.'

was Peter Apian. He was one of the great mathematical and
astronomical scholars of the time. His brilliant ahilities had
made him the astronomical teacher of the Emperor Charles V ;
his work on geography had brought him a world-wide reputa-
tion ; his work on astronomy brought him a patent of nobility ; his
improvements in mathematical processes and astronomical instru-
ments brought him the praise of Kepler and a place in the history
of science : never had a true man a better opportunity to do a
great deed. When Copernicus's work appeared, Apian was at the
height of his reputation and power : a quiet, earnest plea from
him, even if it had been only for ordinary fairness and a suspen-
sion of judgment, must have carried much weight. His devoted
pupil, Charles V, who sat on the thrones of Germany and Spain,
must at least have given a hearing to such a plea. But, unfortu-
nately, Apian was a professor in an institution of learning under
the strictest Church control— the University of Ingolstadt. ^ His
foremost duty was to teach safe science— to keep science within
the line of scriptural truth as interpreted by theological pro-
fessors. His great opportunity was lost. Apian continued to
maunder over the Ptolemaic theory and astrology in his lecture-
room. As to the attacks on the Copernican theory, he neither
supported nor opposed them ; he was silent ; and the cause of his
silence should never be forgotten so long as any church asserts
its title to control university instruction.*

Doubtless, many will exclaim against the Koman Catholic
Church for this; but the simple truth is that Protestantism
was no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine. All
branches of the Protestant Church— Lutheran, Calvinist, Angli-
can—vied with each other in denouncing the Copernican doctrine
as contrary to Scripture; and, at a later period, the Puritans
showed the same tendency.

Said Martin Luther : " People gave ear to an upstart astrologer
who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or
the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whoever wishes to ap-
pear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is
of course the very best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire
science of astronomy ; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua
commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth." Melanch-
thon, mild as he was, was not behind Luther in condemnmg
Copernicus. In his treatise on the Elements of Physics, pub-
lished six years after Copernicus's death, he says : " The eyes are
witnesses that the heavens revolve in the space of twenty-four

* For Peter Apian, see Madler, Geschichte der Astrouomie, Braunschweig, 1873, vol. i,
p. 141. For evidences of the special favor of Charles V, see Delarabre, Histoire de I'Astrono-
mie du Moyen Age, p. 390 ; also Briihns, in the AUgemeine deutsche Biographic. For an
attempted apology for him, see Giinther, Peter and Philipp Apian, Prag, 1882, p. 62.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 587

hours. But certain men, either from the love of novelty, or
to make a display of ingenuity, have concluded that the earth
moves ; and they maintain that neither the eighth sphere nor
the sun revolves. . . . Now, it is a want of honesty and decency
to assert such notions publicly, and the example is pernicious.
It is the part of a good mind to accept the truth as revealed by
God and to acquiesce in it." Melanchthon then cites passages
from the Psalms and from Ecclesiastes, which he declares assert
positively and clearly that the earth stands fast, and that the sun
moves around it, and adds eight other proofs of his proposition
that " the earth can be nowhere if not in the center of the uni-
verse," So earnest does this mildest of the Reformers become,
that he suggests severe measures to restrain such impious teach-
ings as those of Copernicus.*

While Lutheranism was thus condemning the theory of the
earth's movement, other branches of the Protestant Church did
not remain behind. Calvin himself took the lead, in his Com-
mentary on Genesis, by condemning all who asserted that the
earth is not at the center of the universe. " Who," he said, " will
venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the
Holy Spirit ? " Turretin, Calvin's famous successor, even after
Kepler and ISTewton had virtually completed the theory of Coper-
nicus and Galileo, put forth his compendium of theology, in
which he proved, from a multitude of scriptural texts, that the
heavens, sun, and moon move about the earth, which stands still
in the center. In England we see similar theological efforts, even
after they had become evidently hopeless. Hutchison's Moses'
Principia, Dr. Samuel Pikes's Sacred Philosophy, the writings of
Bishop Home, Bishop Horsely, and President Forbes contain
most earnest attacks upon the ideas of Newton ; such attacks being
based upon Scripture. Dr. John Owen, so famous in the annals
of Puritanism, declared the Copernican system a " delusive and
arbitrary hypothesis, contrary to Scripture " ; and even John Wes-
ley declared the new ideas to tend toward " infidelity." \

And Protestant peoples were not a whit behind Catholic in fol-
lowing out such teachings. The people of Elbing made them-

* See the Walsch edition of Luther's works, 1743, p. 2260; also the Tischreden; also
Melanchthon's Initia DoctrinaB Physicae. This treatise is cited under a mistalccn title by the
Catholic World, September, 1870. The correct title is as given above ; it will be found in
the Corpus Reformatorum, ed. Bretschneider, Halle, 1846. (For the above passage see vol.
xiii, pp. 216, 217; also, Madler, vol. 1, p. 176; also, Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus,
vol. i, p. 217; also, Prowe, Ueber die Abhangigkeit des Copernicus, Thorn, 1865, p. 4 .
also note, pp. 5, 6, where text is given in full.)

f On the Teachings of Protestantism as regards the Copernican theory, see citations in
Canon Farrar's History of Interpretation, preface, xviii ; also, Rev. Dr. Shiekls, of Prince-
ton, The Final Philosophy, pp. 60, 61.

588 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

selves merry over a farce in wliicli Copernicus was the main ob-
ject of ridicule. The people of Nuremberg, a Protestant strong-
hold, caused a medal to be struck with inscriptions ridiculing the
philosopher and his theory.

Why the people at large took this view is easily understood
when we note the attitude of the guardians of learning, both
Catholic and Protestant, in that age. It throws great light upon
sundry claims by modern theologians to take charge of public in-
struction and of the evolution of science. So important was it
thought to have " sound learning " guarded, and " safe science "
taught, that in many of the universities, as late as the end of the
seventeenth century, professors were forced to take an oath not to
hold the " Pythagorean " — that is, the Copernican idea — as to the
movement of the heavenly bodies. As the contest went on, pro-
fessors were forbidden to make known to students the facts re-
vealed by the telescope. Special orders to this effect were issued
by the ecclesiastical authorities to the universities and colleges of
Pisa, Innspruck, Louvain, Douay, Salamanca, and others ; during
generations we find the authorities of these universities boasting
that these godless doctrines were kept away from their students.
It is touching to hear such boasts made then, just as it is touching
now to hear sundry excellent university authorities boast that
they discourage the reading of Mill, Spencer, and Darwin. Nor
were such attempts to keep the truth from students confined to
the Roman Catholic institutions of learning. Strange as it may
seem, nowhere were the facts confirming the Copernican theory
more carefully kept out of sight than at Wittenberg ; the univer-
sity of Luther and Melanchthon. About the middle of the six-
teenth century there were at that center of Protestant instruction
two astronomers of a very high order, Rheticus and Reinhold:
both of these, after thorough study, had convinced themselves
that the Copernican system was true, but neither of them was
allowed to tell this truth to his students. Neither in his lecture
announcements nor in his published works did Rheticus venture
to make the new system known, and he at last gave up his pro-
fessorship and left Wittenberg, that he might have freedom to
seek and tell the truth. Reinhold was even more wretchedly
humiliated. Convinced of the truth of the new theory, he was
obliged to advocate the old ; if he mentioned the Copernican ideas,
he was compelled to overlay them with the Ptolemaic. Even this
was not thought safe enough, and in 1571 the subject was in-
trusted to Peucer. He was eminently " sound," and denounced
the Copernican theory in his lectures as " absurd and unfit to be
introduced into the schools."

To clinch anti-scientific ideas more firmly into German Prot-
estant teaching. Rector Hensel wrote a text-book for schools en-

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 589

titled " The Restored Mosaic System of the World/' whicli shoAved
the Copernican astronomy to be unscriptural.

Doubtless this has a far-off sound ; yet its echo comes very
near modern Protestantism in the expulsion of Dr. Woodrow by
the Presbyterian authorities in South Carolina ; the expulsion of
Prof. Winchell by the Methodist Episcopal authorities of Ten-
nsesee ; the expulsion of Prof. Toy by the authorities of another
Protestant sect in Kentucky ; the expulsion of the professors at
Beyrout under authority of the American Board of Commis-
sioners for Foreign Missions — all for holding the doctrines of
modern science, and in the last years of the nineteenth century.

"When Protestants talk of the " bigotry " of the Roman Catho-
lic Church, they will do well to remember that it is impossible
to imagine such Catholic authorities as Cardinal Gibbons, Arch-
bishops Ireland and Kenrick, and Bishops Keane and Spalding,
sanctioning such suicidal folly as this. The Mother Church has
learned something.*

But the new truth could not be concealed ; it could neither be
laughed down nor frowned down. Many minds had received it,
but within the hearing of the papacy only one tongue appears to
have dared to utter it clearly. This new warrior was that strange
mortal, Giordano Bruno, He was hunted from land to land,
until at last he turned on his pursuers with fearful invectives.
For this he was imprisoned during six years, then burned alive,
and his ashes scattered to the winds, f Still, the new truth lived
on. Ten years after the martydom of Bruno the truth of Coper-
nicus's doctrine was established by the telescope of Galileo.

Herein was fulfilled one of the most touching of prophecies.
Years before, the opponents of Copernicus had said to him, " If
your doctrines were true, Venus would show phases like the
moon." Copernicus answered : " You are right ; I know not what
to say ; but God is good, and will in time find an answer to this
objection." The God-given answer came when in ICll the rude
telescope of Galileo showed the phases of Venus.|

* For treatment of Copernican ideas by the people, see The Catholic World, as above ;
also, Melanchthon, uhi supra ; also, Prowe, Copernicus, Berlin, 1383, vol. i, p. 269, note ; also,
pp. 279, 280; also Miidler, i, p. 167. For Rector Hensel, see Rev. Dr. Shield's Final
Philosophy, p. 60. For details of recent Protestant efforts against evolution doctrines, see
my chapter on The Fall of Man and Anthropology, in this series.

f For Bruno, see Bartholmcss, Vie de Jordano Bruno, Paris, 1S4G, vol. i, p. 121 and
pp. 212 d scq.\ also Berti, Vita di Giordano Bruno, Firenze, 1868, chapter xvi ; also Whcwell,
vol. i, pp. 272, 273. That Whewell is somewhat hasty in attributing Bruno's punishment
entirely to the Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante will be evident, in spite of Montucla, to any
one who reads the account of the persecution in Bartholmess or Berti ; and, even if Whewell
be right, the Spaccio would never have been written but for Bruno's indignation at
ecclesiastical oppression. See Tiraboschi, vol. vii, pp. 466 el seq.

X For the relation of these discoveries to Copernicus's work, see Delambre, Histoire de

590 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

On this new champion, Galileo, the whole war was at last
concentrated. His discoveries had clearly taken the Copernican
theory out of the list of hypotheses, and had placed it hefore the
world as a truth. Against him, then, the war was long and bit-
ter. The supporters of what was called "sound learning" de-
clared his discoveries deceptions and his announcements blas-
phemy. Semi-scientific professors, endeavoring to curry favor
with the Church, attacked him with sham science ; earnest preach-
ers attacked him with perverted Scripture ; theologians, inquisi-
tors, congregations of cardinals, and at last two popes dealt with
him, and, as was supposed, silenced his impious doctrine forever.*

I shall present this warfare at some length because, so far as
I can find, no careful summary of it has been given in our lan-
guage, since the whole history was placed in a new light by the
revelations of the trial documents in the Vatican Library, hon-
estly published for the first time by M. L'Epinois, in 18G7, and
since that by Gebler, Berti, Favaro, and others.

The first important attack on Galileo began in 1610, when he
announced that his telescope had revealed the moons of the planet
Jupiter. The enemy saw that this took the Copernican theory out
of the realm of hypothesis, and they gave battle immediately.
They denounced both his method and its results as absurd and
impious. As to his method, professors bred in the " safe science "
favored by the Church argued that the only way of studying the
universe was by comparing texts of Scripture ; and, as to his re-
sults, they insisted, first, that Aristotle knew nothing of these new
revelations ; and, next, that the Bible showed by all applicable
types that there could be only seven planets ; that this was proven
by the seven golden candlesticks of the Apocalypse, by the seven-
branched candlestick of the tabernacle, and by the seven churches
of Asia ; that from Galileo's doctrine consequences must logically
result destructive to Christian truth : bishops and priests therefore
warned their flocks, and multitudes of the faithful besought the
Inquisition to deal speedily and sharply with the heretic, f

I'Astronomie Moderne, discours pr^liminaire, p. xiv ; also Laplace, Systeme du Monde,
vol. i, p. 326 ; and for more -areful statements, Keplcri Opera Omni, edit. Frisch., tome
ii, p. 464. For Copornieus's prophecy, see Cantu, Histoirc Universelle, vol. xv, p. 473
(Cantu is an eminent Eoman Catholic).

* A very curious example of this sham science employed by theologians is seen in the
argument, frequently used at that time, that, if the earth really moved, a stone falling
from a height would fall back of the point immediately below its point of starting. This
is used by Fromundus with great effect. It appears never to have occurred to him to test
the matter by dropping a stone from the topmast of a ship ; Benzenburg has experiment-
ally demonstrated just such an aberration in falling bodies as is mathematically required
by the diurnal motion of the earth. See Jevons, Principles of Science, pp. 388, 389, in
one volume, second edition, 1877.

f See Delambre on the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter as the turning-point with

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 591

In vain did Galileo try to prove the existence of satellites by
showing them to the doubters through his telescope : they either
declared it impious to look, or, if they did look, denounced the
satellites as illusions from the devil. Good Father Clavius de-
clared that " to see satellites of Jupiter, men had to make an in-
strument which would create them." In vain did Galileo try to
save the great truths he had discovered by his letters to the
Benedictine Castelli and the Grand Duchess Christine, in which
he argued that literal biblical interpretation should not be applied
to science ; it was answered that such an argument only made
his heresy more detestable ; that he was " worse than Luther or
Calvin."

The war on the Copernican theory, which up to that time had
been carried on quietly, now flamed forth. It was declared that
the doctrine was proved false by the standing still of the sun for
Joshua, by the declarations that " the foundations of the earth
are fixed so firm that they can not be moved," and that the sun
" runneth about from one end of the heavens to the other." *

But the little telescope of Galileo still swept the heavens, and
another revelation was announced — the mountains and valleys in
the moon. This brought on another attack. It was declared that
this, and the statement that the moon shines by light reflected
from the sun, directly contradict the statement in Genesis that
the moon is " a great light." To make the matter worse, a painter,
placing the moon in a religious picture in its usual position be-
neath the feet of the Blessed Virgin, outlined on its surface mount-
ains and valleys ; this was' denounced as a sacrilege logically re-
sulting from the astronomer's heresy.

Still another struggle was aroused when the hated telescope
revealed spots upon the sun, and their motion indicating the
sun's rotation. Monsignor Elci, head of the University of Pisa,
forbade the astronomer Castelli to mention these spots to his stu-
dents. Father Busaeus, at the University of Innspruck, forbade

the heliocentric doctrine. As to its effects on Bacon, see Jevons, Principles of Science,
p. 638, as above. For argument drawn from the candlestick and seven churches, sec De-
lambre, p. 20.

* For prmcipal points as given, see Libri, ITistoire des Sciences mathematiques en
Italic, vol. iv, p. 211 ; De Morgan, Paradoxes, p. 26, for account of Father Clavius. It is
interesting to know that Clavius, in his last years, acknowledged that " the whole system
of the heavens is broken down, and must be mended." Cantu, Histoire Universclle, vol.
XV, p. 478. See Th. Martin, Galilee, pp. 34, 208, and 266 ; also Heller, Geschichte der
Physik, Stuttgart, 1882, vol. i, p. 866. For the original documents, see L'Epinois, pp. 34
and 36. Martin's translation seems somewhat too free. See also, Gebler, Galileo Galilei,
English translation, London, 1879, pp. 76-78; also Gebler, Acten des Galileischen Process,
for careful copies of the documents ; also Reusch, Der Process Galilei's und die Jesuitcu,
Bonn, 1879, chapters ix, x, xi. See also full official text in L'Epinois, and also the ex-
tract given by Gebler, Galileo Galilei, p. 78.

592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the astronomer Scheiner, who had also discovered the spots and
proposed a safe explanation of them, to allow the new discovery
to be known there. At the College of Douay and the University
of Louvain this discovery was expressly placed under the ban,
and this became the general rule among the Catholic universities
and colleges of Europe. The Spanish universities were especially
intolerant of this and similar ideas, and up to a recent period they
were strictly forbidden in the most imx3ortant university of all —
that of Salamanca.'*

Such are the consequences of placing the instruction of men's
minds in the hands of those mainly absorbed in saving men's
souls. Nothing could be more in accordance with the idea re-
cently put forth by sundry ecclesiastics, Catholic and Protestant,
that the Church alone is empowered to promulgate scientific truth
or direct university instruction. But science gained the victory
here also. Observations of the solar spots were reported not only
from Galileo, in Italy, but from Fabricius, in Holland. Father
Scheiner then endeavored to make the usual compromise between
theology and science. He promulgated a pseudo-scientific theory,
which only provoked derision.

The war became more and more bitter. The Dominican father,
Caccini, preached a sermon from the text, " Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" and this wretched pun
upon the great astronomer's name ushered in sharper weapons ;
for, before Caccini ends, he insists that " geometry is of the devil,"
and that " mathematicians should be banished as the authors of
all heresies." The church, authorities gave Caccini promotion.

Father Lorini proved that Galileo's doctrine was not only
heretical but " atheistic," and besought the Inquisition to inter-
vene. The Bishop of Fiesole screamed in rage against the Coper-
nican system, publicly insulted Galileo, and denounced him to the
grand duke. The Archbishop of Pisa secretly sought to entrap
Galileo and deliver him to the Inquisition at Rome. The Arch-
bishop of Florence solemnly condemned the new doctrines as un-
scriptural ; and Paul V, while petting Galileo, and invitmg him as
the greatest astronomer of the world to visit Rome, was secretly
moving the Archbishop of Pisa to pick up evidence against the
astronomer.

But by far the most terrible champion who appeared against
the new astronomy was Cardinal Bellarmin, one of the greatest
theologians the world has known. He was earnest, sincere, and
learned, but insisted on making science conform to Scripture.
The weapons which men of Bellarmin's stamp used were purely
theological. They held up before the world the dreadful conse-

* See Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, vol. iii.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 593

quences wMcli must result to Cliristian theology were the heav-
enly bodies proved to revolve about the sun and not about the
earth. Their most tremendous engine against Galileo was the
statement that " his pretended discovery vitiates the whole Chris-
tian plan of salvation." Father Lecazre declared that " it casts
suspicion on the doctrine of the incarnation." Others declared
that it " upsets the whole basis of theology ; that if the earth is a
planet, and only one among several planets, it can not be that any
such great things have been done specially for it as the Christian
doctrine teaches. If there are other planets, since God makes
nothing in vain, they must be inhabited ; but how can these in-
habitants be descended from Adam ? How can they trace back
their origin to Noah's ark ? How can they have been redeemed
by the Saviour ? " Nor was this argument confined to the theolo-
gians of the Roman Church ; Melanchthon, Protestant as he was,
had already used it in his attacks on Copernicus and his school.

In addition to this prodigious theological engine of war there
was kept up a fire of smaller artillery in the shape of texts and
scriptural extracts.

But the war grew still more bitter, and some weapons used in
it are worth examining. They are very easily examined, for they
are to be found on all the battle-fields of science; but on that
field they were used with more effect than on almost any othsr.
These weapons are the epithets " infidel " and " atheist." The
battle-fields of science are thickly strewn with these. They have
been used against almost every man who has ever done anything
new for his fellow-men. The list of those who have been de-
nounced as " infidel " and " atheist" includes almost all great men
of science, general scholars, inventors, and philanthropists. The
purest Christian life, the noblest Christian character, have not
availed to shield combatants. Christians like Isaac Newton,
Pascal, Locke, Milton, and even Fenelon and Howard, have had
this weapon hurled against them. Of all proofs of the existence
of a God, those of Descartes have been wrought most thoroughly
into the minds of modern men ; yet the Protestant theologians of
Holland sought to bring him to torture and to death by the
charge of atheism, and the Roman Catholic theologians of France
prevented any due honors to him at his burial.*

These epithets can hardly be classed with civilized weapons.
They are burning arrows; they set fire to masses of popular
prejudice, always obscuring the real question, sometimes destroy-

* For various objectors and objections to Galileo by his contemporaries, see Libri, His-
toire des Sciences mathematiques en Italic, vol. iv, pp. 233, 234 ; also Martin, Vie de Gali-
lee. For Father Lecazrc's argument, see Flammarion, Mondes imajiinaires et r^els, 6i^me
edition, pp. 315, 316. For Melanchthon's argument, see his Initia, in Opera, vol. iii, Halle,
1846.

VOL. XL. — 41

594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing the attacking party. They are poisoned weapons. They
pierce the hearts of loving women ; they alienate dear children ;
they injure man after life is ended, for they leave poisoned
wounds in the hearts of those who loved him best — fears for his
eternal salvation, dread of the divine wrath upon him. Of course,
in these days these weapons, though often effective in vexing
good men and in scaring good women, are somewhat blunted ;
indeed, they not infrequently injure the assailants more than the
assailed. So it was not in the days of Galileo ; they were then in
all their sharpness and venom.* Yet worse even than these
weapons was the attack by the Archbishop of Pisa.

This man, whose cathedral derives its most enduring fame
from Galileo's deduction of a great natural law from the swing-
ing lamp before its altar, was not an archbishop after the noble
mold of Borromeo and F^nelon and Cheverus. He was, sadly
enough for the Church and humanity, simply a zealot and in-
triguer : he perfected the plan for entrapping the great astron-
omer.

Galileo, after his discoveries had been denounced, had written
to his friend Castelli and to the Grand Duchess Christine two
letters to show that his discoveries might be reconciled to Script-
ure. On a hint from the Inquisition at Rome, the archbishop
sought to get hold of these letters and exhibit them as proofs that
Galileo had uttered heretical views of theology and of Scripture,
and thus to bring him into the clutch of the Inquisition. The
archbishop begs Castelli, therefore, to let him see the original
letter in the handwriting of Galileo. Castelli declines ; the arch-
bishop then, while, as is now revealed, writing constantly and
bitterly to the Inquisition against Galileo, professes to Castelli
the greatest admiration of Galileo's genius and a sincere de-
sire to know more of his discoveries. This not succeeding,
the archbishop at last throws off the mask and resorts to open
attack.

The whole struggle to crush Galileo and to save him would be
amusing were it not so fraught with evil. There were intrigues
and counter-intrigues, plots and counter-plots, lying and spying ;
and, in the thickest of this seething, squabbling, screaming mass
of priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals, strove two popes,
Paul V and Urban VIII. It is most suggestive to see in this
crisis of the Church, at the tomb of the prince of the apostles, on
the eve of the greatest errors in church policy the world has
known, in all the intrigues and deliberations of these consecrated

* For curious exemplification of the way in which these weapons have been hurled, see
lists of persons charged with " infidelity " and " atheism," in Le Dictionnaire des Ath^es,
Paris, An. viii ; also Lecky, History of Rationalism, vol. ii, p. 50. For the case of Des-
cartes, see Saisset, Descartes et ses Precurseurs, pp. 103, 110.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 595

leaders of the Cliurch, no more evidence of the guidance or pres-
ence of the Holy Spirit than in a caucus of New York politicians
at Tammany Hall.

But the opposing powers were too strong : in 1615 Galileo was
summoned before the Inquisition at Rome, and the mine which
had been so long preparing was sprung. Sundry theologians of
the Inquisition having been ordered to examine two propositions
which had been extracted from Galileo's letters on the solar spots,
solemnly considered these points during about a month and ren-
dered their unanimous decision as follows : " The first proposition,
that the sun is the center and does not revolve about the earth, is
foolish, absurd, false in theology, and heretical, because expressly
contrary to Holy Scriptures " j and " the second j^roposition, that
the earth is not the ceriter but revolves about the sun, is absurd,
false in philosophy, and, from a theological point of vieiv at least,
opposed to the true faith."

The Pope himself, Paul V, now intervened again : he ordered
that Galileo be brought before the Inquisition. Then the greatest
man of science in that age was brought face to face with the great-
est theologian — Galileo was confronted by Bellarmin. Bellarmin
shows Galileo the error of his opinion and orders him to renounce
it. De Lauda, fortified by a letter from the Pope, gives orders
that the astronomer be placed in the dungeons of the Inquisition
should he refuse to yield. Bellarmin now commands Galileo, " in
the name of his Holiness the Pope and the whole Congregation of
the Holy Ofiice, to relinquish altogether the opinion that the sun
is the center of the world and immovable, and that the earth
moves, nor henceforth to hold, teach, or defend it in any way
whatsoever, verbally or in writing." This injunction Galileo ac-
quiesces in and promises to obey.*

This was on the 26th of February, 1G16, About a fortnight
later the Congregation of the Index, moved thereto, as the letters
and documents now brought to light show, by Pope Paul V, sol-
emnly rendered a decree that "the doctrine of the double motion
of the earth about its axis and aboid the sun is false and entirely
contrary to Holy Scripture " ; and that this opinion must neither
be taught nor advocated. The same decree condemned all writings
of Copernicus and "all ivritings which affirm the motion of the
earth." The great work of Copernicus was interdicted until cor-
rected in accordance with the views of the Inquisition ; and the
works of Galileo and Kepler, though not mentioned by name at

* I am aware that the theory proposed by Wohlwill and deyeloped by Gebler denies
that this injunction and promise were ever made by Galileo, and holds that the passage
was a forgery devised later by the Church rulers to justify the proceedings of 1632 and 1633.
This would make the conduct of the Church worse, but the better authorities consider the
charge not proved. A careful examination of the documents seems to disprove it.

596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that time, were included among those implicitly condemned as
" affirming the motion of the earth."

The condemnations were inscribed upon the Index ; and, finally,
the papacy committed itself as a judge and teacher to the world
hy prefixing to the Index the usual papal bull giving its moni-
tions the most solemn papal sanction. To teach or even read the
works denounced or passages condemned was to risk persecution
in this world and damnation in the next. Science had apparently
lost the decisive battle.

For a time after this judgment Galileo remained in Rome,
apparently hoping to find some way out of this difficulty ; but he
soon discovered the hollowness of the protestations made to him
by ecclesiastics, and, being recalled to Florence, remained in his
hermitage near the city in silence, working steadily, indeed, but
not publishing anything save by private letters to friends in vari-
ous parts of Europe.

But at last a better vista seemed to open before him. Cardinal
Barberini, who had seemed liberal and friendly, became pope
under the name of Urban VIII. Galileo at this conceived new
hopes, and allowed his continued allegiance to the Copernican
systei to be known. New troubles ensued. Galileo was induced
to visit Rome again, and Pope Urban tried to cajole him mto
silence, personally taking the trouble to show him his errors by
argument. Other opponents were less considerate, for works
appeared attacking his ideas-works all the more unmanly, smce
their authors knew that Galileo was restrained by force from
defending himself. Then, too, as if to accumulate proofs of the
unfitness of the Church to take charge of advanced mstruction,
his salary as a professor at the University of Pisa was taken
from him, and sapping and mining began. Just as the Arch-
bishop of Pisa some years before had tried to betray him with
honeyed words to the Inquisition, so now Father Grassi tried it,
and, after various attempts to draw him out by flattery, suddenly
denounced his scientific ideas as "leading to a denial of the real
presence in the eucharist."

For the final assault upon him a park of heavy artillery was
at last wheeled into place. It may be seen on all the scientific
battle-fields. It consists of general denunciation; and in 1631
Father Melchior Inchofer, of the Jesuits, brought his artillery to
bear upon Galileo with this declaration : " The opinion of the
earth's motion is of all heresies the most abominable, the most
pernicious, the most scandalous; the immovability of the earth is
thrice sacred ; argument against the immortality of the soul, the
existence of God, and the incarnation, should be tolerated sooner
than an argument to prove that the earth moves."

From the other end of Europe came a powerful echo. From

DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN INDIA. 597

the shadow of the Cathedral of Antwerp, the noted theologian,
Fromundus, gave forth his famous treatise, the Anti-Aristar-
chus. Its very title-page was a contemptuous insult to the mem-
ory of Copernicus, since it paraded the assumption that the
new truth was only an exploded theory of a pagan astronomer.
Fromundus declares that " sacred Scripture fights against the
Copernicans." To prove that the sun revolves about the earth he
cites the passage in the Psalms which speaks of the sun " which
cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber." To prove
that the earth stands still, he quotes a passage from Ecclesiastes,
" The earth standeth fast forever." To show the utter futility of
the Copernican theory, he declares that if it were true, " the wind
would constantly blow from the east " ; and that " buildings and
the earth itself would fly off with such a rapid motion that men
would have to be provided with claws like cats to enable them to
hold fast to the earth's surface." Greatest weapon of all, he works
up, by the use of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, a demonstra-
tion from theology and science combined, that the earth must
stand in the center, and that the sun must revolve about it.*

DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN INDIA.f

By JOHN LOCKWOOD KIPLING.

PASSING from the free to the fettered, we come to a beast
which in India serves at once as an expression of wild lib-
erty, more complete than that of the monkey, and of utter and
abject slavery. For a wholly unmerited obloquy, relic of a dark
aboriginal superstition, is added to the burden of toil and hard
living. Yet there was once a time when in the nearer East, or
ever the horse was known, he was held in high honor, carved in
Assyrian sculptures, and reckoned a suitable steed for prophets
and kings. Even now, in Cairo, Damascus, and Bagdad, although
the Bedawi Arab pretends to despise him, he is regularly ridden
by respectable people.

* For Father Inchofer's attack, see his Tractatus Syllepticus, cited in Galileo's let-
ter to Deodati, July 28, 1634. For Fromundus's more famous attack see his Anti-Aris-
tarchus, already cited, passim, but especially the heading of chapter vi, and the argument
in chapters x and xi. A copy of this work may be found in the Astor Library at New-
York, and another in the White Library at Cornell University. For interesting reference
to one of Fromundus's arguments, showing, by a mixture of mathematics and theology,
that the earth is the center of the universe, see Quetelet, Histoire des Sciences math^ma-
tiques et physiques, Bruxelles, 1864, p. 170; also Madler, Geschichte der Astronomic,
vol. i, p. 274.

f Extracted from the author's recent book. Beast and Man in India, by the courtesy of
the publishers, Messrs. Macmillan & Co. ,

598

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Tlie Arabian Nights story of a conversation overheard be-
tween the ox and the ass shows the estimation in which he was
held ; and it is written that Mohammed himself had two asses,
one of which was called Yafur, nor did that great man disdain to
ride double. But here in India, by formal prescription, only the
gypsy, the potter, the washerman, and such-like folk, out-caste
or of low caste, will mount or own the ass. This prescription.

Fig. 1. — The Potter and his Donkey.

and the ridiculous Hindu association of the donkey with the
goddess of small-pox, account for the universal dislike and dis-
dain in which this most useful, sagacious, and estimable animal
is held. He is never fed by his owners, and his chronic hunger
is mocked by a popular saying that to feed a donkey is neither
sin nor sacrifice.

It would seem difficult to be cruel to a goat, but the keepers of
the flocks of milch-goats regularly driven morning and evening
into Indian cities contrive to inflict a good deal of pain. The
nipples of the udder are tied up in torturing fashion, and there is
an unnecessary use of the staff. But the worst cruelty is the prac-
tice of flaying them alive, in the belief that skins thus prepared
have a better quality. The magistrates in the Presidency towns

DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN INDIA.

599

frequently have cases of this offense before them, and inflict ab-
surdly inadequate fines.

A quaint belief is that in dry desert places where wells for-
merly existed goats will group themselves in a circle round the
ancient well-brink, though not a trace of it is visible to the keen-

FiG. 2.^MiLcn Goats.

est human eye. Those who sketch animals may have noticed
that goats at rest have a way of grouping themselves as if posing
for their portraits. It is possible
that this unconscious trick is at
the bottom of the well-brink belief.
So far as I know, there are no say-
ings which notice the fine carriage
of the head and the elegant horse-
like gait of this beautiful animal.
The Indian goat, as a rule, is much
taller and of more slender build
than the European animal.

From an administrative and eco-
nomic point of view there are serious
objections to the goat, which is one
of the plagues of the Forest Depart-
ment of the Government. It is the
poor man's animal, and is supposed
to cost nothing to keep. Every
green shoot is nibbled off as soon
as it peeps above the ground, and
young trees are promptly destroyed by creatures which sjiend
half their time on their hind legs, and have an effective reach up
to the height of a man's head.

Fig. 3.— a Sporting Man.

6oo

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It is only in India and Peru that the sheep is used as a beast
of burden. Borax, asafoetida, and other commodities are brought
in bags on the backs of sheep driven in large flocks from Thibet
into British territory. Only the picturesque shepherds return
from these journeys ; for the carriers of the caravan, feeding as
they go, gather flesh in spite of their burdens, and provide most
excellent mutton.

Sheep are numerous in India, but they are seldom kept by the
cultivator or farmer, for the combination of agricultural with
pastoral life, common in other countries, is almost unknown. In
the towns of the plains rams are kept as fighting animals, and
the sport is a source of gratification to many. A Mohammedan.
" buck," going out for a stroll with his fighting ram, makes a
picture of point-device foppery not easily surpassed by the sport-
ing fancy of the West. The ram is neatly clipped, with a judi-
cious reservation of salient tufts, touched with saffron and mauve
dyes, and, besides a necklace of large blue beads, it bears a collar
of hawk-bells. Its master wears loosely round his neck or on his
shoulders a large handkerchief of the brightest colors procurable ;
his vest is of scarlet or sky-blue satin, embroidered with color and
gold ; his slender legs are incased in skin-tight drawers ; a gold-
embroidered cap is poised on one side of his head ; his long black
hair, parted in the middle, and shining with scented hair-oil, is
sleeked behind his ears, where it has a drake's-tail curl which
throws in relief his gold ear-rings ; and, in addition to two or three

Fig. 4. — Comparative Sizes of the Largest and Smallest Breeds of Indiaij Oxen.

necklaces, he usually wears a gold chain. Patent-leather shoes
and a cane complete the costume. As he first affronts the sun-
shine, he looks undeniably smart, but his return, I have observed,
is not always so triumphant. The ram naturally loses interest in
a stroll which has not another ram in perspective, and it is not
easy to preserve an air of distinction when angrily proiDelling
homeward a heavy and reluctant sheep.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN INDIA.

601

The beauty of the cow counts almost as much as her useful-
ness in popular estimation, and the best breeds are really hand-
some. It is true that a British amateur, accustomed to the level
back of the English beast, at first looks unfavorably on the hump
and the falling hind quarter. The head seems too large and the
body too short. But he acknowledges at once the clean, thorough-
bred legs, the fine expression of the eye, the air of breeding in
the broad, convex brow and slender muzzle, the character given
by the deep, thin dewlap, the smooth, mole-like skin, and in the
large breeds an indefinable majesty of mien. In addition to their
high caste and shapely look, the hind legs are much straighter
and less " cow-hocked " than those of the English animal, and
are not swung so far out in trotting. On occasion the animal can
jump a fence with a carriage of limbs like that of the horse. So

ii!ilfiiiiiii{ii|iiiiini{!iiiHiniaii!i»|{!iiiiii'iii|iiii!ii!niin|ii;

The wheat
andthec/*tt

Fig. 5. — In a Good Season.

in a very short time the Briton drops his prejudices, and is even
reconciled to the hump, which, like that of the camel and the fat
tail of the dumha sheep, has some mysterious relation to the vary-
ing conditions of a precarious food-supply. They say vaguely it
is a reserve of sustenance, but it would take a physiologist to
explain how it acts. Some insist that the sloping quarter is the
result of ages of scanty or irregular feeding, but it is now, at all
events, a fixed anatomical peculiarity.

602

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

To the stranger the great variety of breeds and their adapta-
tion to a wide range of needs and conditions are not at first appar-
ent. He sees an ox and another ox as he sees a native and another
native, without noticing that they belong to distinct families.
Orientals have a passion for classifying things, and see scores of
differences in rice, cotton, wheat, cattle, and horses, which are
barely perceptible even to trained English eyes. But among
cattle, though there is a bewildering variety of local breeds, some
broad differences may be easily learned. The backward slope of
the horns of the large and small breeds of Mysore cattle — perhaps
the most popular type in use — the royal bearing of the splendid
white or fawn oxen of Guzerat, and the transport and artillery
cattle bred in the Government farms, at once strike the eye.
These are the aristocrats of the race, but they have appetites pro-
portioned to their size, and are too costly for the ordinary culti-

FiG. 6.— Indian " Thorn-bits."

vator. They trot in bullock coaches or draw the springless and
uncomfortable but delightfully picturesque native rath or cano-
pied ox-cart, the wagons of the Government commissariat and of
the various Government baggage services.

India has been described by a European as the paradise of
horses, and from his point of view the phrase is not unfitting.
The natural affinity between horses and Englishmen becomes a

DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN INDIA.

603

closer bond by residence in India, where everybody rides — or ought
to ride — where horses and horse-keep are cheap, and where large
castes of stable servants, contented with a low wage, are capable,
Tinder careful superintendence, of keeping their animals in a state
of luxurious comfort. The horses, however, which serve native
masters are born to purgatory rather than to paradise. Those in
the hands of the upper classes suffer from antiquated and bar-
barous systems of treatment, and are often killed by mistaken
kindness or crippled by bad training, while those of low degree
are liable to cruel ill-usage, overwork, neglect, and unrelieved
bondage.

Fig. 7.— a Eajah's Charger (Marwar Breed).

The "thorn-bits" here engraved are ordinary specimens of
those in use; the cut requires careful examination before their
murderous character can be made out. Some say the Indian bit
is severe because the average horseman, being of slight build, is
physically incapable of holding a horse with a fair one. There
may be something in this, but the weakness is more moral than
physical ; nerve is more wanting than muscle, and reason most
of all.

6o4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When a native chief goes out, he is accompanied by a soivdri
— literally a " riding " of ministers, servants, guards, and attend-
ants of all sorts. Formerly all rode ; but, with good roads, good
carriages have been introduced, and usually in these days only
the horsemen of the guard ride. But on state occasions, led
horses, richly caparisoned, always form part of the show, and there
are many animals in princely stables kept solely for processional
purposes. The animals most liked are the stallions of Marwar or
Kathiawar. White horses with pink points, piebalds, and leopard-
spotted beasts are
much admired,
especially when
they have pink
Roman noses and
light-colored
eyes, with an un-
canny expression.
Their crippled,
highly arched
necks, c u r b y
hocks, rocking
gait, and paralyt-
ic prancing often
proclaim them
as triumphs of
training.

The docility of
the elephant is
never more evi-
dent than when
he is dressed for
parade on an oc-
casion of state.
It is a long and
tiresome business
to clothe the
creature in the
ornaments and
housings with
which Oriental taste loves to bedizen him. If the occasion be
a very grand one, a day or two will be consumed in prepara-
tions. First the forehead, trunk, and ears are painted in bold
patterns in color. This is a work of art, for the designs are
often good, and the whole serai, excepting always the elephant
himself, is deeply interested. His mind and trunk wander ; he
trifles with the color-pots ; so with each stroke comes an order to

A Painted Elephant.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN INDIA.

605

stand still. Some mahouts are quite skillful in this pattern-work.
Then the howdah pad is girthed on with cotton ropes, riding over
flaps of leather to prevent the chafing to which the sensitive skin
is liable. The howdah itself, a cumbrous frame of wood covered
with beaten silver plates, is slung and tied with a purchase on the
tail-root, and heavy cloths, broidered in raised work of gold and
silver thread, are attached, hanging like altar-cloths down the
sides. A frontlet of gold and silver diaper, with fringes of fish-
shaped ornaments in thin beaten silver, necklaces of large silver
hawk-bells and chain-work, with embossed heart-shaped pendants
as big as the open hand, and hanging ornaments of chains of
silver cartouches, are adjusted. A cresting of silver ornaments,
like small vases or fluted soup-tureens, exaggerations of the knobs
along a horse's crest, descend from the rear of the howdah to the
tail ; anklets of silver are sometimes fitted round the huge legs.

Fig. 9. — Elephant lifting Teak Logs (Burmah).

and a bell is always slung at his side. The pillars of the howdah
canopies, and then the canopies themselves, with their finials, are
fitted as the beast kneels.

It is officially stated that " all who have had to deal witli ele-
phants agree that their good qualities can not be exaggerated ;
that their vices are few, and only occur in exceptional animals ;
that they are neither treacherous nor retentive of injury ; and
that they are obedient, gentle, and patient beyond measure." This
is higher and more sympathetic praise than is usually tied up in
the pink tape of secretariats, and it is all true.

The normal load for continuous travel of a fair-sized elephant
is eight hundred pounds, so the animal is equal to eight ponies.

6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

small mules, or asses ; to five stout pack-mules or bullocks, and to
three and one third of a camel. Under such a load the elephant
travels at a fair speed, keeping well up with an ordinary army or
baggage train, requiring no made road, few guards, and occupying
less depth in column than other animals. He is invaluable in
jungle country and all roadless regions where heavy loads are to
be moved. In Burmah, and on the east and southeast frontier,
elephants are absolutely necessary for military supply. When
once a good road is made the beast is, of course, easily beaten by
wheeled carriages.

He shines most as a special Providence when the cattle of a
baggage-train or the horses of a battery are stalled in a bog or
struggling helplessly at a steep place. An elej^hant's tusk and
trunk serve at once as lever, screw-jack, dog-hooks, and crane,
quickly setting overturned carts and gun-carriages right, lifting
them by main force or dragging them in narrow, winding defiles,
where a long team can not act ; while his head, protected by a
pad, is a ram of immense force and superior handiness.

A born forester, it is in jungle-work that the laboring elephant,
outside Government service, is seen at his best. The tea-planters
of Assam and Ceylon find him useful in forest-clearing and as a
pack-animal. They even yoke him to the plow. He is the leading
hand in the teak trade of Burmah — unrivaled in the heavy toil of
the timber-yard, where he piles logs with wonderful neatness and
quickness. Small timbers are carried on the tusks, chipped over
and held fast by the trunk. A log with a thick butt is seized with
judicious appreciation of balance, while long and heavy "Balks are
levered and pushed into place.

The truth about the camel's character has often been debated.
He is wonderful, and in his own way beautiful to look at, and his

Fig. 10. — Rajput Camkl-rider's Belt.

patience, strength, speed, and endurance are beyond all praise.
The camel-riders of Rajputana and central India, mounted on
animals of a swift breed, cover almost incredible distances at high
speed, finding it necessary to protect themselves against the rock-
ing motion by broad leather belts, tightly buckled, which are
often covered with velvet and prettily broidered in silk. Even
they, who know the beast at his best, never pretend to like their

SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES, 607

mounts as one likes a liorse. So useful a beast is estimable, but
the most indulgent observation fails to find a ground for affection,
Europeans, at all events, who have to do with camels, seem to
think it were as easy to lavish one's love on a luggage-van. He
is a morose, discontented, grumbling brute, a servant of man, it is
true, as is the water that turns a mill-wheel, the fire that boils a
kettle, or the steam that stirs the X->iston of a cylinder. He does
not come to a call like other beasts, but has to be fetched and
driven from browsing. There are but few words made for his
private ear, such as belong to horses, dogs, and oxen. An elephant
has a separate word of command for sitting down with front legs,
with hind legs, or with all together, and he moves at a word. A
camel has but one, and that must be underlined with a tug at his
nose-rope ere he will stoop. But he has a large share in that
great public property of curses whose loss would enrich the world.
Camel trappings are not so gaudy in India as in Egypt or
Morocco, where riding animals are bedizened in scarlet and yel-
low. They are in a different key of color, belonging to a school
of pastoral ornament in soberly colored wools, beads, and small
white shells, which appears to begin (or end) in the Balkans and
stretches eastward through central Asia into India, especially
among the Biloch and other camel folk on our northwest frontier.
Camel housings may be the beginning of the nomad industry of
carpet-weaving. It is, perhaps, not too fanciful to trace on the
worsted neck-band the original unit or starting-point of the car-
pets and " saddle-bags " which have given lessons to English
upholsterers.

SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES.

LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. V.

By CARROLL D. WRIGHT. A.M.,

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR.

THE social statistics of our great cities are being put into con-
crete form by Mr. Harry Tiffany, Chief of the Division of
Social Statistics of Cities of the Eleventh Census, under the able
direction of Dr. John S. Billings, U. S. Army, expert special agent
of the census office. So far the returns on some important leading
features comprise about fifty of the principal cities. These facts
relate to streets, street-lighting, water-works, sewers, and the
police and fire departments. All these, however, are among those
features of municipal conditions which are constantly in the
minds of men and agitating them as to expenses and the value
which they secure in return for taxes paid.

The distribution of population in the fifty cities on which re-

6o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ports have already been published should first be given in any
treatment of the social statistics of cities, and the following table
answers the purpose admirably well :

Population and Area of Fifty Cities, with Distribution of Population hy
Square Miles and Acres.

Cities.

New York. . . .

Chicago

Philadelphia. .
Brooiilyu . . . .

St. Louis

Boston

Baltimore ....
San Francisco.
Cincinnati.. . .
Cleveland. . . .

Buffalo

New Orleans. .

Detroit

Milwaukee . . .
Washington . .

Newark

Minneapolis . .

Omaha

Rochester ....

St. Paul

Denver

Indianapolis..
Worcester. . . .

Toledo

New Haven. .

Lowell

Nashville . . . .
Fall River. . . .
Cambridge . . .

Camden

Trenton

Lynn

Hartford

Evansville. . . .
Los Angeles . .
Lawrence ....

Hoboken

Dallas

Sioux City. . . .

Portland

Holyoke

Binghamton .

Duhith

Elraira

Davenport . . .

Canton

Taunton

La Crosse. . . .

Newport

Rockford ....

Counties.

New York, N. Y....

Cook, 111

Philadelphia, Pa. . . .

Kings, N. Y

Missouri

Suffolk, Mass

Maryland

San Francisco, Cal. .

Hamilton, Ohio

Cuyahoga, Ohio

Erie, N. Y

Orleans, La

Wayne, Mich

Milwaukee, Wis

District of Columbia.

Essex, N. J

Hennepin, Minn. . . .

Douglas, Neb

Monroe, N. Y

Ramsey, Minn

Arapahoe, Col

Clarion, Ind

Worcester, Mass.. . .

Lucas, Ohio

New Haven, Conn. . .
Middlesex, Mass. . . .

Davidson, Tenn

Bristol, Mass

Middlesex, Mass. ...

Camden, N. J ,

Mercer, N. J

Essex, Mass

Hartford, Conn

Vanderburg, Ind.. . .

Los Angeles, Cal

Essex, Mass

Hudson, N. J ,

Dallas, Texas

Woodbury, Iowa

Cumberland, Me

Hampden, Mass. ...

Broome, N. Y

St. Louis, Minn

Chemung, N. Y

Scott, Iowa

Stark, Ohio

Bristol, Mass

La Crosse, Wis

Campbell, Ky ,

Winnebago, 111

Population.

1,515,301

1,099,850

l,04r),964

806,343

451,770

448,477

484,439

298,997

296,908

261,353

255,664

242,039

205,876

204,468

202,978

181,830

164,738

140,452

133,896

133,156

106,713

105,436

84,655

81,434

81,298

77,696

76,168

74,398

70,028

58,313

57,458

55,727

53,230

50,756

50,395

44,654

43,648

38,067

87,806

36,425

35,637

35,005

33,115

29,708

26,872

26,189

25,448

25,090

24,918

23,584

Area.

Square
miles.

40

160

129

26

61

35

28

15

25

24

89

37

20

17

10

17

51

24

15

51

15

10

34

19

7

11

8

10

5

4

3

10

14

4

27

6

1

7

30

2

3

10

3

4

4

6

47

8

1

6

22

57
39
46
35
28
38
46
00
88
04
09
59
00
24
77
67
50
60
42
49
07
02
72
56
15
44
95
83
34
95
64
66
42
60
67
47
68
90
51
98
04
23
45
41
80
40
19
20
37

25,740

102,764

82,809

16,934

89,264

22,579

18,163

9,894

16,000

15,923

24,985

23,737

13,177

10,880

6,553

11,372

33,068

15,680

9.984

32,908

9,913

6,444

21,772

12,620

4,838

7,136

5,401

7.008

3,731

2,777

2,528

6,809

9,382

2,828

17,664

4,268

940

4,915

19,776

1,606

2,547

6,425

2,067

2,848

2,822

4,352

30,336

0,241

768

4,076

POPtTLATION TO

Each
square mile.

37,675-

6,849'

8,091'

30,474'

7,363'

12,711

15,307-

19,840-

11,876'

10,504'

6,548'

6,525-

9,998'

12,027-

19,822-

10,232-

3,1!

5,732 '

8,583'

2,589-

6,889'

10,470-

2,488-

4,129'

10,753'

6,968-

9,024-

6,794

12,011

13,436'

14,546-

5,237-

3,630-

11,483'

1,825-

6,694-

29,692

4,956'

1,223

14,511

8,954'

3,4i

10,252'

6,675'

6,093'

3,851

536 ■

3,063'

iO,765'

3,702 •

-31

58-

•66

10-

•54

12^

•04

47-

•81

11^

•93

19-

•93

28 •

•04

80-

•32

18 •

-54

16-

•77

10-

•72

10-

•83

15^

•53

18^

•07

30-

-41

15-

•27

4.-

•73

8-

■08

13^

•58

4-

-15

10^

•31

16-

•39

3^

•51

6^

•70

16-

-25

10^

-64

14-

-34

10^

•66

18-

•18

20-'

-33

22-

•50

8-

•97

5-(

-26

17. (

-91

2-i

•75

10-^

52

46-J

64

7-'

50

\-{

•95

22-(

02

13-S

55

5-4

•32

16-(

•96

10-4

•42

9-1

•32

&■{

88

Q-i

49

4.-'

•00
•35

The total population of the cities comprehended in the forego-
ing table is 10,095/370, The areas have been determined by actual

SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES. 609

measurements, and from latest obtainable data, or from records
in the offices of the city engineers of the respective cities. Fall
River is an exception to this rule, as the boundaries of Wards 6
and 9 in that city have never been accurately defined. The city
of Washington, in the table, includes the area and population
inclosed within the actual municipal boundaries, and not the total
area and population of the District of Columbia. The islands in
the East River, with an area of five hundred and twenty acres,
and which are geographically situated in Wards 12, 19, and 23, are
included as part of New York,

The most interesting feature of the foregoing table is that
relating to the distribution of population according to area ; but
in this one must not be deceived. The population to each acre or
to each square mile of a city can not well be compared with like
data for another city, unless the exact area of dense population is
known — as, for instance, a city may comprise fifty square miles of
territory and have 500,000 population, which would give a popu-
lation of 10,000 to each square mile, but the population may be
compressed into twenty-five square miles, when the actual- distri-
bution would be 20,000 persons to the square mile ; while another
city of like area and like total population, but with the population
distributed more evenly over the whole area, would be in a much
better sanitary condition than the first city named, although in
statistics the population per square mile would be the same when
the whole area is considered.

Twenty-two of the cities named in the foregoing table have a
population of over 100,000 each, the total being 8,737,648, which is
13'95 per cent of the total population of the country. The popu-
lation to the square mile of these twenty-two cities is 15'92 to the
acre ; but the differences in ratios of population to area are very
great, ranging from four in St. Paul, five in Minneapolis, nine in
Omaha, ten in New Orleans and Bufi'alo, eleven in Chicago and
Denver, and twelve in St. Louis, to thirty in San Francisco,
thirty-one in Washington, forty-eight in Brooklyn, and fifty-nine
in New York. Tliese figures represent population to a square
acre. So skillful a statistician as Dr. Billings is of course careful
to remark that the ratios indicated by the statistics published
" give no information as to the difi'erence in density of the popu-
lation in the actually built-up portions," and he cites that in New
York the number of persons per acre ranges from four hundred
and seventy-four in Ward 10 to three in Ward 24, while in Chi-
cago there is a range from one hundred and sixteen in Ward 16
to two in Wards 28 and 23. These instances show the extremes,
and teach us emphatically that any comparison of population to
the square acre or to the square mile for the purpose of drawing
conclusions relative to sanitary and other conditions must be

VOL. XL. — i2

6io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

avoided. Physicians have taken considerable interest in censuses,
and for the very reasons stated, and so in many cases health dis-
tricts have been prescribed and the statistics of population and
the social facts relating to population for such health districts
preserved. In this way the very best results are to be reached.
With complete statistics of population for clearly defined health
districts, where the sanitary conditions can be compared and
differences of conditions noted, a scientific study of death-rates
with reference to the density of population can be undertaken.
The ordinary statistics of death-rates based on the density of
population of cities are exceedingly vicious, but perhaps not
more so than the ordinary statements relative to the death-rate
of cities based on the whole population. There is great liability
to very misleading statistics in this direction. The errors arise
from two causes. The first of these is the incompleteness of death
statistics. This can only be overcome by a compulsory registra-
tion of deaths. The second cause is that population is not accu-
rately known except for periods some distance apart, and here
error arises, and would arise, even with complete and perfect
statistics of deaths ; as, for instance, a State which depends
entirely upon the Federal census ascertains its population only
once in ten years. For the census year the death-rate based on
population may be fairly accurate ; but for intermediate years
the death-rate must be based upon calculations of population
mathematically made. In some cases this has led to very vicious
results, and has caused considerable fright and anxiety on account
of the great apparent death-rate, when, had the facts all been
known, it would have been found that the death-rate was really
normal. Another feature of error, or rather feature for the basis
of erroneous conclusions, relative to the death-rate in great cities,
arises from the fact of the existence of large hospitals in cities,
and that the death-rate is increased by people coming from the
country to the cities for treatment and there passing awa}^ thus
giving an abnormally high death-rate relative to the actual living
population of a city. This is also true in connection with the
criminal statistics of cities. Men come in from country towns for
the purpose of a visit or a spree, or for carrying out some nefari-
ous design. At all events, they commit crime, from one cause or
another, within the city limits, are there arrested and punished^
and their crimes help to swell abnormally the legitimate criminal
statistics of the city itself. All these considerations should be
taken into account when writers are undertaking to draw what
they feel to be accurate conclusions through comparisons of sta-
tistics. I have read very learned essays upon conditions of the
population, involving insanity, crime, disease, death, etc., when
all the conclusions of the essays were based upon most incomplete

SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES. 6u

and unsatisfactory data — in fact, upon statistics that were not
within a large percentage of accuracy. When treating the vital
statistics of the whole country I shall take pains to call attention
to some of the exceedingly misleading if not thoroughly erroneous
conclusions in the past. It is exceedingly gratifying to know
that the experts in charge of such important facts under the
eleventh census are thoroughly alive to all the opportunities of
error which ordinarily and naturally arise under imperfect sta-
tistics.

The discussions which are going on relative to municipal con-
trol will be enriched by a great many facts in the social statistics
of cities that are being published under the eleventh census. The
difference in the cost of building and maintaining streets and in
the cost of street-cleaning, the advantages of paved or unpaved
streets so far as health is concerned, and the general conditions
resulting from cleanliness — all these facts can be learned when
the complete statistics of cities are published. Boston, Worces-
ter, and Holyoke are cities in which all the streets are paved ;
but Dallas, Texas, has but 47 per cent of its streets paved, St.
Paul 4'1, and Minneapolis 31, while Denver's streets are not
paved at all.

The average yearly cost of construction and repairs per head
of population in cities having over 100,000 inhabitants is $1.54,
while in twenty-seven cities for which the census has returns,
having less than 100,000 inhabitants each, the cost is $2.04.

The average annual expenditure for street-cleaning varies from
five cents in Buffalo and eight cents in Chicago to seventy-one
cents in New York and sixty-two cents in Cincinnati ; but, as the
census officials remark, there is probably no definite relation be-
tween the cost per head of street-cleaning as shown by the figures
and the actual condition of the streets as to cleanliness. Ordinary
observation teaches us that in many cities where the cost is great-
est the streets are in the filthiest condition.

The question as to economical street-lighting is an important
one in all municipalities. The facts already published indicate
that the annual cost of gas-lamps varies from $50 per lamp in
New Orleans, $43.80 in San Francisco, and $37 in St. Louis, to $15
in Indianapolis and Canton, $15.60 in Minneapolis, and $17.50 in
Hoboken ; while the annual cost of each electric lamp varies from
$G8 in Chicago and $58.46 in Denver to $237.25 in Boston and
$440.67 in San Francisco. When all the facts are collected and
published it is to be hoped that the public can ascertain the rela-
tive advantages of the different systems of lighting, so far as cost
per capita is concerned. At present the cost to each head of
population can only be stated for the total average annual cost
for the cities comprehended in the table. This is sixty-four cents

6i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

per annum. Not only will the facts be shown relative to the cost
per capita of each method of lighting the streets of a city,
whether by gas, electric light, or oil, etc., but the relative advan-
tages of lighting streets by works owned by the city and works
owned by private corporations will be shown. It is a fact that
the gas-light is gradually giving place to the electric light ; for,
while the facts for the cities named in the tables already pub-
lished by the census office show that gas-lamps comprise over
sixty per cent of all classes used for street-lighting, it is evident
that they are now rarely used exclusively for lighting. It is also
learned that electric lighting is most favored in those cities that
have less than 100,000 inhabitants each ; for, in 278 such cities,
out of a total of 91,667 lamps, 35,127 are gas-lamps, 35,191 are
electric lamps, and 21,149 are lamps burning oil, etc. Taking the
total cities from which reports have been received relative to
light, being 309 cities, with a population of 16,335,569, the total
number of lamps of all kinds is 293,847, the gas-lamps numbering
182,671, the electric lamps 53,696, and the oil-lamps 57,480.

The interest which now centers in the question as to whether
quasi public works shall be controlled by private corporations or
by the municipality itself is illustrated more specifically by the
facts connected with water- works than by those surrounding any
other character of city works, and the difference as to cost of
maintenance and receipts between public and private works is
very noteworthy. The facts are already given quite fully by the
census for fifty cities, and of these thirty-five own their own
water-works. The average cost of construction in the thirty-five
cities owning their own water- works to each head of population is
$21.35, while in thirteen cities where the water-works are owned
by private parties the cost of construction to each head of popula-
tion is $31.20, or nearly ten dollars more per capita than where
the cities construct their own works. Out of .273 cities reporting
to the census on their water-works, fifty-six per cent own and
operate their own works, the remainder depending on private
companies for their water-supply ; but the fifty-six per cent repre-
sent seventy-seven per cent of the total population of the 273
cities. A greater proportion of private works perhaps are to be
found in the smaller cities ; for, out of 133 such cities, having a
population of 3,708,994, 112 cities, representing 2,351,574 people,
have their water- works operated by private parties.

The sewers of the cities of the country are under the control
and direction of the municipal governments. The construction
has been under public control. In Baltimore, where the sewers
are intended for the removal of storm water only, is found the
smallest percentage of sewers to streets in the larger cities, it
being only 3-56. The cities of Washington and Cambridge have

SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES. 613

more miles of sewers than of streets. In 190 cities the population
to each mile of sewer is 1,815.

The social statistics of cities already published comprehend
tables on the points which have been discussed ; and, further, as
stated, on the police and fire departments. In the latter two sec-
tions the chief interest relates to the cost of each force. Selecting
some of the salient features relative to the police, it is interesting
to learn that in New York there are 72-65 patrolmen to each square
mile of territory, while in Chicago there are but 9'08, in Philadel-
phia 11-01, in Brooklyn 34-01, in St. Louis 8-72, in Boston 19-25, in
Baltimore 21-81, in San Francisco 21-73, in Cincinnati 16, in Cleve-
land 10-13, in New Orleans 4-66, and in Washington 35-64.

The criminal conditions as indicated by arrests, if arrests be a
fair indication, are shown by the following facts : In New York
the number of arrests to each patrolman is 25-53, in Chicago 27*37,
in Philadelphia 35-09, in Brooklyn 31-52, in St. Louis 32-98, in Bos-
ton 48-41, in Baltimore 42-96, in San Francisco 69-68, in Cincinnati
35, in Cleveland 29-76, in Buffalo 41, in New Orleans 86-71, and in
Washington 48-71.

The question as to what a man receives for the taxes he is
called upon to pay is not only an exceedingly interesting one
from an economic point of view, but of real, vital consequence to
the welfare of the people. I have therefore constructed an en-
tirely new table from the various tables already reported by the
census, showing the average cost per head of population in the
fifty cities named for the construction and repairs of streets, for
street-cleaning, for lamps of all kinds, for the maintenance and
repairs of sewers, for the police force, for the fire department, and
for water, with a total which all these items of expenditure make
for each inhabitant in the fifty cities named. (See table on fol-
lowing page.)

The averages in the tables from which the foregoing is drawn
are, as I understand it, for the ten years ending January 1, 1890,
except in some cases where municipal governments have been of
recent growth, in which cases the averages are for the years dur-
ing which the work has been carried on. It is evident, however,
that the averages have been very carefully worked out, and repre-
sent more forcibly than any statements heretofore published the
cost in the great branches of city government in the cities named.
I hope in some future paper to add the cost of the educational
work of the cities, and some other features, so as to show the
exact expenditures which one has to make for the maintenance
of the various branches of city affairs. It must be remembered
that the average cost per head of population, as shown in the last
table, represents the cost to each man, woman, and child. It must
also be remembered that the cost is not paid directly, in accord-

6i4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Cities.

New York, N. Y

Chicago, 111

Philadelphia, Pa. . . .

Brooklyn, N. Y

St. Louis, Mo

Boston, Mass

Baltimore, Md

San Francisco, Cal. . .

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Buffalo, N.Y

New Orleans, La. . . .

Detroit, Mich

Milwaukee, Wis

Washington, D. C. . .

Newark, N. J

Minneapolis, Minn. . .

Omaha, Neb

Rochester, N. Y

St. Paul, Minn

Denver, Col

Indianapolis, Ind. . . .
Worcester, Mass. . . .

Toledo, Ohio

New Haven, Conn. . .

Lowell, Mass

Nashville, Tenn

Fall River, Mass. , . .
Cambridge, Mass. . . .

Camden, N. J

Trenton, N. J

Lynn, Mass

Hartford, Conn

Evansville, Ind

Los Angeles, Cal. . . .

Lawrence, Mass

Hoboken, N. J

Dallas, Texas

Sioux City, Iowa. . . .

Portland, Maine

Holyoke, Mass

Binghamton, N. Y. , .

Duluth, Minn

Elmira, N. Y

Davenport, Iowa. . . .

Canton, Ohio

Taunton, Mass

La Crosse, Wis

Newport, Kv

Rockford, 111

Ateeage Cost per Head of Population in Fifty Cities.

For con-

For main-

For fire

depart-

struction

For street

For all

tenance

For

For

and repairs

cleaning.

lamps.

and repairs

police.

water.

ot streets.

of sewers.

$0.68

$0.71

$0.43

$0-077

$2.90

$1.06

$1.20

3.18

0.08

0.58

0.075

0.89

0.64

2.80

0.61

0.27

0.70

0.024

0.96

0.60

1.80

0.49

0.20

0.59

0.066

1.07

0.70

1.60

1.85

0.28

0.43

0.057

1.05

0.62

2.80

1.84

0.30

1.24

0.263

2.15

1.78

2.40

0.28

0.25

0.70

0.023

1.56

0.35

1.40

3.21

0.20

0.94

0.094

1.82

1.15

4.00

2.88

0.62

0.73

0.084

1.11

0.92

2.50

1.34

0.19

0.61

0.023

0.96

0.77

2.26

2.24

0.05

0.11

0.017

1.17

0.88

2.40

0.14

0.10

0.71

0.70

0.66

5.00

1.G3

0.16

0.56

0.062

1.08

1.03

2.00

2.29

• . . .

0.59

0.095

0.60

0.82

2.20

2.50

0.31

0.77

0.119

1.97

0.49

0.90

O.ll

0.16

0.67

0.9S

0.49

2.75

1.21

1.01

0 . 006

0.92

0.76

1.80

4.15

0.16

0.26

0.032

0.46

0.46

2.40

1.06

0.15

1.06

0.015

0.74

0.45

1.40

6.69

0.28

1.06

0.74

1.01

1.72

0.45

0.95

0.023

0.47

0.94

3.40

2.61

0.47

0.44

0.53

0.71

2.40

1.65

0.08

0.94

0.112

0.87

0 59

3.00

4.03

0.10

0.66

0.90

0.76

2.20

1.68

0.06

0.79

0.001

1.26

0.92

2.40

1.27

0.73

0.167

0.91

0.91

2.60

1.71

0.38

0.001

0.60

0.73

4.40

0.89

0.37

0.95

0.57

3.00

0 64

0.36

0.69

0.174

1.02

0.85

3.40

0.88

0.19

0.59

0.010

0.51

0.34

2.20

0.17

0.03

0.70

0.96

0.38

2.00

0.72

0.18

0.66

0.045

0.72

0.85

2.20

0.88

0.11

0.86

0.025

1.03

1.11

1.80

0.66

0.15

0.64

0.030

0.55

0.79

3.00

1.15

0.57

1.33

4.80

0.74

0.07

0.34

0.73

0.49

2.40

0.46

0.05

0.44

0.046

0.96

0.23

2.35

0,47

0.50

0.394

1.05

0.92

6.20

20.05

0.16

0.40

0.053

0.32

0.53

2.40

1.59

0.84

0.049

0.93

0.40

4.60

0.51

0.61

0.561

0.56

1.13

2.20

0.43

0.03

0.63

0.24

0.43

3.00

15.00

0.15

0.68

6.138

1.21

1.51

4.00

0.40

0.07

0.80

0.017

0.60

0.74

8.60

1.12

0.19

0.61

0.004

0.44

0.52

1.60

1.22

0.69

0.32

0.45

1 60

1.41

0.61

0.74

0.51

2.60

0.81

0.51

0.40

0.37

2.40

0.60

0.16

0.37

0.40

0.32

3.40

0.51

0.08

0.51

0.013

0.32

0.51

2.20

Totol.

$7,057
8.245
4.964
4.716
7.087
9.973
4.563

11.414
8.844
6.143
6.867
7.310
6.522
6.695
7.059
5.110
5.706
7.922
4.875

10.500
6.233
7.160
7.242
8.650
7.111
6.587
7.821
5.780
7.034
4.220
4.240
5.375
5.815
6.820
7.850
4.770
4.536
9.534

23.913
8.409
6.571
4.760

22.688
6.227
4.484
4.280
6.870
4.490
6.250
4.143

ance witli the items specified, but that to the whole city the cost
per capita is as stated. According to all economists, however —
and there is no reason to take issue with the proposition — the
taxed cost is "borne by every man, woman, and child, either di-
rectly or indirectly. It is fair, therefore, to assume that in each
of the cities named, for each person there must be paid, either

SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES. 615

directly, by an assessed tax, or indirectly, through the increased
cost of articles of consumption, of rent, etc., the cost specified.

The column for water is not particularly satisfactory, although
it is indicative of the actual expense. The census tables show
only expense of annual charge for water for an average dwelling,
meaning by an average dwelling one that is occupied by one
family and not exceeding seven rooms, with one bath-room, in-
cluding hot and cold water, and one water-closet. If an average
dwelling is one occupied by one family, then one fifth of the
annual charge for water as given in the census reports would
show with reasonable accuracy the charge for each individual,
and on this basis the column for water has been constructed.

Looking at the items for each of the fifty cities named in the
last table and the total, we easily ascertain what a man receives
for the tax which he is obliged to pay directly or indirectly, and
also in which city he receives the most for his money, or, rather,
where he receives all his protection of police, his use of streets,
his protection from fire, etc., for the least expenditure, and the
analysis also leaves in each man's mind this question : Could he
secure so great a return for his money by any other method of
expenditure ?

There are a few blanks in the table just given ; as, for instance,
in New Orleans the expense for the maintenance and repairs of
sewers is missing, and this item is also omitted from the reports
for Newark, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Toledo, Fall River, Trenton,
Los Angeles, Lawrence, Mass., Binghamton, Canton, Taunton,
La Crosse, Wis., and Newport, Ky. There are also a few other
points missing ; as, for instance, the expense of street-cleaning in
Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, and some other cities. These
points, however, comprehend nearly all the omissions, and in so
far as they occur the total expense in the cities named is vitiated,
although to a very small extent.

Taking the table as it stands, it is seen that Rockford, 111.,
offers the most for one's taxes of the smaller cities, it being $4.14
per capita. Camden, N. J., comes next, with $4.22 ; and Trenton
follows, with $4.24. Among the larger cities, those having over
300,000 inhabitants, Baltimore offers the very lowest expense for
her great departments of government, the per capita expense for
all being $4.66. Brooklyn, N. Y., comes very close, the expense
being $4.71, and Philadelphia ranks third as to cheapness of mu-
nicipal government for the items named, the expense being $4.96.
The great city of New York, about which so much is said relative
to her expensive government, furnishes the seven items of expense
named in the table at $7.05 per capita, being lower than St. Louis,
Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Cincinnati, or New Orleans, and
ranking almost exactly with Washington. The most expensive

6i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

city on the list is Sioux City, Iowa, and the next is Dulutli, Minn.,
the expense being in the first $23.91 and in the second $23.08; but
this great expense is probably due to the extensive construction
of streets in a recent period, and therefore the expense of these
two cities should not be compared with that of others. Throw-
ing out the cities with abnormal conditions, it is probable that
San Francisco is the highest cost city in the list of fifty given
in the table, the expense being $11.41 per capita.

The table will be found interesting in many respects, as com-
parisons can easily be made for one city with another, not only as
to total per capita cost, but as to the items enumerated. Looking
at the city of New York, for instance, the table means that it
would cost a family of five $35.25 per annum for the benefits ac-
cruing to it from -the use of streets and the cleaning thereof,
for public lighting, for the maintenance and repairs of sewers, for
police protection, for the protection of the fire department, and for
the use of water. No one can object to an expense for a family of
five persons no higher than that named for all these great advan-
tages. The working-man with five in his family is not taxed this
$35.25 directly, as intimated, but he has to pay it in rent and the
cost of his living. Is it an unreasonable addition to his an-
nual expenses ? is the question. It does not matter whether the
total expense is high or low for all the advantages detailed ; the
great question is. Could they be furnished as efficiently and
as well in every respect for a less sum, with the integrity of
all departments preserved ? If they could, then a man is entitled
to the less expense. If not, he should certainly be entirely
satisfied with the great return which he now gets for the money
expended.

WAYSIDE OPTICS.

By CASEY A. WOOD, C. M., M. D.,

mSTBUCTOR IN OPHTHALMOLOGY, CHICAGO POST-GRADCATE MEDICAL SCHOOL.

OUR train has been traveling for the past twenty-four hours
over that part of a transatlantic route which stretches from
the Sierra Madre to the extreme borders of the great Mohave
Desert. There are many interesting things to be seen along this
line of travel, but nothing more striking than the curious optical
phenomena presented by the pleasing alternation of vast plain
with rugged mountain. For example, not far from the last station
we come upon a lofty peak overtopping the surrounding hills. It
seemed to be about ten miles away, but was in reality fifty.

As is well known to the student of optics, the apparent size of
an object is mainly dependent upon the size of the image which

WAYSIDE OPTICS.

617

I

it makes upon the retina, jnst as its apparent distance from the
observer is determined chiefly by the distinctness of the impres-
sion formed upon the background of the eye. The rays of hght
reflected from the distant mountain made a distinct image upon
my retina) because they traversed a rarefied atmosphere of uni-
form density which produced the minimum amount of refraction,
dispersion, and absorption. Previous to this time I had been ac-
customed, under Eastern skies, to view distant objects through
media neither so rare nor so uniform as this mountain air, and it
was not, therefore, strange that my calculations of distance should
in this case be erroneous. Such phenomena, familiar enough to
most travelers and to every dweller in the "cool, thin atmosphere
of mountainous regions, are almost startling when seen for the
first time. It is difficult to believe that the huge, stony mass, ap-
parently so near— certainly so plainly seen
—is over half a hundred miles away.

The illusion as to distance does not,
however, extend to the matter of size.
Mountains and hills may, under certain
atmospheric conditions, appear to be near
at hand when they are actually far away,
but their apparent size remains always the
same. The same mountain would appear
of just the same size in Colorado as in
Vermont. We know this because objects
equally distant and of the same size al-
ways subtend the same visual angle. The
greater the distance from the eye, the
smaller the visual angle and retinal image ;
the less the distance, the greater the angle
and the larger the image— as the following
diagram (Fig. 1) shows :

The rays of light falling through the
pupil upon the retina, b m c, cross at the
nodal point a. The near object, 7 8, sub-
tends a larger visual angle, 7 a 8, and
makes a larger retinal image, 5 6, than the
distant object, 1 2.

It would be interesting to test the truth of these statements by
actual experiment, if ideas of size and distance did not, unfortu-
nately, vary with the individual, and were not subject to almost
daily modification by experience and other influences. Calcula-
tions as to the actual size and distance of the most familiar ob-
jects are, within certain limits, but pure guesses on the part of
the great majority of people; so that, even if it were worth the
while, the most of us could never become experienced enough,

6i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by making a study of distant objects, to do more than roughly
approximate their actual size and distance away.

In making estimates of this kind we are, in the latter instance,
very materially assisted by the peculiar " distance tints " which
the mountains assume. The brain becomes accustomed, after a
large number of experiences, to associate a certain coloration of
objects with certain distances from the eye, and in this way to
calculate the distance of an object seen for the first time. Eintho-
ven thinks that the chromatic aberration which even a normal
eye exhibits may account for the peculiar colored appearances
which distant objects take on.

This explanation is manifestly opposed to the view commonly
held, that the minute globules of water in the air act as prisms,
and, resolving white light into its component colors, robe the dis-
tant mountains in " azure hues." In either case the peaks of the
Sierras would deceive the unfamiliar eye, for not only are they
more distinctly seen than their fellows of the Atlantic States, but
their " distance tints " would entirely mislead the unaccustomed
observer.

As the train proceeds rapidly over the level desert my eyes
" fix " * — i, e., gaze steadily at — a clump of sage-bush which is prob-
ably two miles distant. The bush seems to move slowly iviili the
train, while objects between it and my eyes have an apparent
motion in the opposite direction. Of these latter the near ones
fly past with great rapidity, but the apparent velocity of those
farther removed diminishes until, just before the point of fixation
is reached, objects come to an apparent standstill. Beyond the
point fixed by my eyes objects move in the same direction as the
train, their velocity apparently greater the farther away they lie.

Suddenly I shift my gaze from the sage-bush to a large bowl-
der which is sailing slowly past, probably one thousand yards
from the train. Everything is changed at once. The bowlder's
retrograde progress is arrested ; near objects fly past with accel-
erated speed ; the sage-bush clump forges ahead as if to make up
for lost time, while the plain beyond it, indistinct in the distance,
races ahead of every object in view. And so I while away a full
half-hour, making one conspicuous object after another stand still,
go ahead, or sail past at will — all upon the surface of this aj^par-
ently boundless plain — trying to realize, meantime, that things
are not as the moving panorama before me indicates. For, rela-
tively to the train, all objects are passed at an equal rate, the near
as well as the distant, those seen by direct as well as those seen

* When the eye fixes anything, the visual apparatus is so adjusted that the rays of light
coming from the object are focused upon the macula, a small central spot in the retina,
where vision is most acute; and the object thus fixed is seen more distinctly than surround-
ing bodies.

WAYSIDE OPTICS. 619

by indirect vision. But, in looking from my car window, I am
made the subject of optical illusions common in a journey of
this sort.

Notwithstanding the many wonderful things about the mech-
anism of vision, it exhibits, after all, a great many crudities. In-
tellectually, for instance, the optic centers are low down in the
scale of origin. Even the olfactory nerves have a higher cerebral
origin than they. Accordingly, we often find them committing
all sorts of errors, from whose consequences only the experience
of the other organs (acting as special detectives) enables the organ-
ism to escape.

Simple " seeing " ought not to be followed, in all cases, by im-
plicit belief. When, for example, as in this case, the eye forms
part of a moving mass, the motion is wrongly attributed by the
optic centers to surrounding bodies. The explanation of how this
comes about is easy when one considers certain facts in element-
ary optics. If I close one eye and slowly move a pen from right

Fig. 2.

•

to left a few inches in front of the other eye, the direction of the
movement is rightly interpreted by my brain, although by a ref-
erence to Fig. 2 it will readily be seen that the retinal image of
the pen moves in an opposite direction over the background of
the eye.

Precisely the same effect is obtained if, instead of moving the
pen, I look straight forward and move my head from left to right,
simply because the same impression is produced — i. e., the retinal
image moves from left to right.

When, therefore, the image of an object is made, it matters
not hoio, to move over the retinal background, motion in an op-
posite direction is immediately referred to the object itself. It
makes no difference, then, so far as the optical effect is concerned,
whether the solid plain with the objects on its surface be carried
past the observer at rest, or whether the observer himself move
past or over the plain. Further, when there is no movement of
the image over the retina, no motion is detected by the eye ; opti-
cally, the object is at a standstill. That a body moving in front
of the eye should appear to be stationary, its image must always
be kept in the same position on the retina. This is accomplished

620

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by the alert ocular muscles. "When, however, the object is too
near the eye, or when its motion is too swift, the muscles are not
quick enough in their action to preserve this delicate state of op-
tical rest ; the image is thrown across the retina, and the object is
seen to move. A glance at this diagram (Fig. 3) will show how
these retinal impressions are received and interpreted.

The first figure is intended to represent three objects seen from

a train in motion. Although the middle one is fixed by the eye,

^ and is consequently most dis-

\

4^

tinctly seen, the blurred images
of the other two also fall upon
the macula, so that for a single
instant they are all optically at
rest. A moment later, the eye,
still fixing the middle object,
has moved from 1 to 2, and, as
is seen in 2, the images corre-
sponding to the near and the re-
mote objects have passed over
the retinal area. Motion in the
opposite direction is, according
to the law just laid down, at-
tributed to each, while the mid-
dle object still gives the im-
pression of comparative rest.

When, however, the image
of the moving object is kept
fixed upon the macular region,
the eye may judge of the rate
of its motion by the amount
of effort put forth by the ocu-
lar muscles necessary to keep the image focused upon the macula.
This method of calculation is defective, and gives rise to nu-
merous optical errors. For example, the movement of a lady's fan
in front of her face, the velocity of a base-ball through the air five
hundred yards off, and the rate at which the night express trav-
els as it approaches " end on " — its head-light gleaming in the dis-
tance— would all be incorrectly calculated if the brain were to
accept ocular evidence alone and based on one or both of the fore-
going rules. The to-and-fro movement of the fan would be inter-
preted as exceedingly quick ; the velocity of the base-ball would
be next in order ; while little or no motion would be attributed to
the approaching train.

Becoming tired of looking at the wayside scenery, I find my-
self, in a sort of brown study, watching the back of the plush-
covered seat in front of me, and then I discover that the retinal

Fig. 3.

WAYSIDE OPTICS. 621

impressions made by the moving pageantry of tlie Arizona desert
are curiously transferred to this crimson background. For I see
a strip of plush moving irregularly to the right of me, and just
above it another section moving to the left.

As the movements of the plush correspond very nearly to the
previous visual impressions made by the moving landscape, I soon
find that I can vary the plush movements at will.

Allowing sufficient intervals of rest to elapse, I am able to
make an upper segment of the plush cushion move slowly back-
ward or forward in contrast with a lower portion — a faithful pho-
tograph from the landscape negative.

This persistence of strong or continued retinal impressions may
easily be demonstrated by another and commoner experiment.
Look intently for two or three minutes at the light falling through
a small window, other illumination being excluded. Then close
the eyes and place a bandage over them. The impression pro-
duced by the light persists several minutes, and the experiment
will be all the more striking if the window be crossed by bars, the
persistent images of which are seen distinctly in strong contrast
to the lighted spaces surrounding them.

Kiihne, of Heidelberg, and others have shown that the retina
possesses a pigmentary substance (visual purple), sensitive to
light, which acts like the sensitized plate or film of the photo-
graphic camera, and that a picture distinctly seen is actually pho-
tographed upon the background of the eye.

Looking from the rear platform of our vestibule train —
an admirable vantage-ground from which to view the country
through which one is passing — I find that we have just skirted
some foot-hills and are approaching the mouth of a small canon,
at the head of which a bold, black mountain looks threateningly
down on the desert below. The train once more gains the level
country, and on looking back, although it is far up the gorge, the
mountain seems very near. Nay, more, as I look first at the road-
bed and then at the base of the huge mass in front of me, the lat-
ter, in some uncanny way, follows, as if it wished to fall upon
and crush me. This apparent motion reminds me of Shelley's
description :

" The Apennine in the light of day
Is a mighty mountain dim and gray,
Which between the earth and sky doth lay;
But when night comes, a chaos dread
On the dim starlight then is spread.
And the Apennine walks abroad with the storm."

Not so, however, is it with this particular outpost of the Sierra
Mad re. The fact is that while I have, at the car window, been
experiencing the retinal effects produced by objects moving in a

622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

direction apparently parallel to the horizon, I am now having an
object-lesson in optics with bodies whose apparent motion is at an
angle to the horizontal line. In both these cases the explanation
of the observed phenomena is precisely the same. The body of
the mountain represents the most distant objects on the level
desert, its base is the point of fixation, while the near objects are
between it and the receding train.

The rails, sleepers, and the gravel fly past with a velocity
which apparently diminishes in the distance ; the mountain-base
is practically at a standstill, but beyond it is the prominent bulk
of the mountain itself, which appears to advance in obedience to
the laws we have just been considering.

But my cerebral convolutions refuse to accept such evidence.
They insist, these maturer products of the evolutionary force,
that the organism has never had any experience of mountains
chasing railway trains. And so it happens that I, placing my
trust in an enlightened experience rather than in a report from
my childish optical centers, feel assured that this particular
mountain is not following us.

The prevailing idea that the organ of vision is practically a
perfect piece of optical and nervous mechanism has done not a
little to discourage attempts to develop those wonderful powers
which it undoubtedly possesses.

One may, by judicious education, train and improve an unde-
veloped sense, but what improvement can be wrought in a per-
fected organism ?

Far too little has been done in this direction, not only among
children during school life, but in after-years spent at literary,
technical, or other institutions. Of course, it may be asserted that
the sense of sight, in conjunction with the other senses, receives
its due share of developmental training in the ordinary course of
general and sj)ecial instruction. But, as opposed to this, may be
urged, in the first place, the natural deficiencies of the eye, a few
of which have just been referred to ; and, in the second instance,
the splendid results which, despite these innate defects, are ob-
tainable by judicious training — results richer far than any other
sense is capable of attaining.

This plea for a systematic exercise of the visual functions does
not exclude the payment of proper attention to the other senses.
It is asserted merely that our knowledge would be more complete
if a larger proportion of the time and attention given to the culti-
vation of the special senses were devoted to the development of
the capable but congenitally deficient organ of vision.

As a preliminary to this there should never be forgotten the
care of sight. A great deal has been said (and too much, perhaps,
can not be said) about the importance of ocular hygiene, especial-

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN. 623

ly as applied to schools and scliool children ; but, in addition to
these sanitary measures as applied to the mass, inspection of in-
dividual cases should be insisted upon. How many useful eyes
might have been saved to the commonwealth if they had been ex-
amined and treated early in life by a competent oculist !

It is a rule — to which there are few exceptions — that, in addi-
tion to those defects which all eyes possess in common, the human
organ of sight is, about the school age, prone to certain diseases,
arising from inherent anomalies of structure, from heredity, from
the results of infantile diseases, and from other causes. It is also
true that many, if not most, of these dangers to which the eye in
after-life is subject may be warded off by precautions suitable to
individual cases. Thus the myope, or short-sighted person, should
exercise care of a kind quite different from that which is suitable
to the hyperope, or long-sighted individual ; while the unfortunate
astigmatic child (with " blurred " sight) should follow a prophy-
lactic programme of a kind distinct from either; and so on through
the list of possible ocular defects, which, although they commonly
elude even the watchful eye of parent or guardian, are still pos-
sible sources of future disease. The advance of ophthalmological
science has reached that point where one may read in the defect-
ive eyes of childhood the record of a large percentage of the im-
paired, restricted, or lost vision of later years.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

By DANIEL SPILLANE.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMEEIOAN INDUSTRIES SINCE
COLUMBUS. XIIL

THE organ is the most magnificent and comprehensive of all
musical instruments. While the pipes of Pan — aside from
that mythical personage — indicate a very ancient use of pipes as
a means of producing musical sounds, the " water-organ of the
ancients " furnishes to the student of organ history the first tan-
gible clew regarding the remote evolution of the instrument. In
the second century the magripha, an organ of ten pipes with a
crude key-board, is said to have existed, but accounts of this in-
strument are involved in much obscurity. It is averred that an
organ — the gift of Constantine — was in the possession of King
Pepin of France in 757 ; but Aldhelm, a monk, makes mention of
an organ with " gilt pipes " as far back as the year 700. Wolston
speaks of an organ containing 400 pipes, which was erected in the
tenth century in England. This instrument was blown by " thir-
teen separate pairs of bellows." It also contained a large key-

624

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 1. — Antique Sculpture in the Mu-
seum OF Arles, dated XX. M. VIII,
represeuting organ blown by the
mouth.

board. There are drawings of that period extant, which repre-
sent the organ as an instrument having but few pipes, blown by
two or tliree persons, and usually performed on by a monk. The
keys, which were played upon by hard blows of the fist, were
very clumsy, and from four to six inches broad. About the end
of the eleventh century semitones were introduced into the key-
board, but to all appearances its
compass did not extend beyond
three octaves. The introduction of
pedals, in 1490, by Bernhardt — giv-
ing a compass B flat to A — was
another important contribution to
the instrument. These were merely
small pieces of wood operated by
the toe of the player.

Jordan's " swell organ," which
was introduced about 1712, in Eng-
land, is deservedly ranked as one
of the greatest advances in organ-
building known up to that year.
Jordan was renowned among the builders of his century. Green,
another noted English builder of the period, improved the swell
and added a score of lesser innovations which give him a promi-
nent place in histories of the instrument. Milton was cheered
and consoled in his blindness, as we learn from his biographers,
by a portable organ. This was a form of instrument called the
regale, which was in use during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. It has, however, been obsolete for over a century.

From being a mere accessory to church choral services, the
organ has been improved in time by the introduction of stops,
instrumental effects, and the
extension of pedal and man-
ual compass, until it has at-
tained such a recognized po-
sition as a solo instrument
that it might now be called
an orchestra in itself. In the
last century the men no"* ably
associated as builders with its
progress were Jordan, Green,
Schroder, Silberman, Snetzler, Harriss, Avery, By well, and Father
Schmidt. Frescobaldi, the organist, who wrote the first fugues
and musical compositions according to the highest capacities of
the organ in his lifetime (1580-1640), gave the development of the
instrument a great impetus. Stradella, J. S. Bach, Handel, and
Albrechtsberger followed as executants and composers of organ

Fig. 2. — Kepresentation of an Organ on an
Obelisk at Constantinople, erected in the
fourth century.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

625

music. Each of these eminent musicians assisted in the improve-
ment of the instrument by suggestions given to the celebrated
builders of his time. The builders of the seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries were great enthusiasts in their art, and every
fresh development in the region of tones and effects was intro-
duced with considerable eclat. Of the old effects still in use, the
Kremhorn (Cremona), the Gemshorn, and Hohl flute stops are
most generally known. As
we behold to-day the magnifi-
cent instruments in European
and American churches and
concert auditoriums from the
workshops of the representa-
tive builders of both conti-
nents, we are given much to
contemplate from a mechan-
ical and artistic point of view,
while the wonderful musical
effects that they are capable

Fig. 3. — Curious Drawing from MS. Psaltee
OF Edwin, in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge, England.

of producing tend to fill us with awe and profound pleasure.
Among the most famous of the old organs in Europe is the
Haarlem instrument, built by Christian Miiller, of Amsterdam
(17o5-'38). This is celebrated as one of the largest and finest in
the world. It has a manual compass of 51 notes, CC to D in alt,
and a pedal compass of 27 notes, CCC to tenor D. It has 60
stops and 4,088 pipes, divided as follows : Great organ, 16 stops,
1,300 pipes ; choir, 14 stops, 1,268 pipes; echo, 15 stops, 1,098 pipes;
pedal, 15 stops, 513 pipes. The chief accessory stops, movements,

etc., are: (1) Coupler choir to
great ; (2) coupler echo to
great ; (3, 4) two tremulants ;
(5) wind to great organ; (6)
wind to choir organ ; (7) wind
to echo organ ; (8) wind to
pedal organ — with twelve bel-
lows nine feet by five. This
magnificent instrument lacks
the advantages of modern or-
gans in the general action
mechanism. The Haarlem organ can not be played without the
expenditure of considerable muscular energy. The organist has
to strip to his duties like a wrestler, and when the performance is
over he withdraws covered with perspiration. Though endowed
with wonderful musical effects in the extent and variety of its
stops and combinations, these have been lost hitherto, owing to
the disabilities of the manual and pedal action. Modern develop-
TOL. SL. — 43

Fig. 4. — From an Ancient MS.

626

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ments in mecliaiiics, and particularly the application of pneu-
matics, as shown in the magnificent American instrument by
Jardine & Sons recently erected in the Brooklyn Tabernacle,
have rendered the most complicated and extended ensemble ef-
fects capable of easy expression, while allowing the organist that
amount of muscular repose necessary for the mental demands
of his art.

The Spaniards brought over the first organs heard on this con-
tinent, but so little is known concerning the subject that the his-
toric attempt of Thomas Brattle
to introduce an organ into the
King's Chapel, in Boston, in 1713,
may be accepted as the earliest
reliable contribution to American
organ history on record. Brat-
tle's organ is at present in St.
John's Chapel, Portsmouth, N. H.
Thomas Brattle, a native of Bos-
ton, after whom Brattle Street
and Brattle Square are named,
imported the organ referred to.
He bequeathed it to the Brattle
Street Church, provided " that
within a year from his death they
would procure a sober person who
could play skillfully thereon with
a loud noise, otherwise to the
King's Chapel." Whether it was
owing to the inability of the man-
' ^l^^^^^'^^h^^^!^^ ^^'T'*^ agement of the favored church to
j^ — ^--^^^f^J^-gfJ\ *^^^~^ procure a " sober person " capable

of playing with a '' loud noise " on
that historic instrument — which
is rather an asj^ersion on the abil-
ity of Boston organists of the
time, as well as a reflection on
their muscular capacity — or through prejudice against the instru-
ment as an alleged agency of the evil spirit, matters little now ;
suffice it for the historian to say that it was refused. It was
accordingly thrown over on the congregation of King's Chapel
and practically sent begging an owner, for King's Chapel also
refused to accept it. The executors of Brattle's will having done
their duty in the order intimated, refused to cart it away, and
after considerable discussion it was allowed to lie in the porch
of the church unpacked. It rested there for seven months, until
the question was reopened in 1714, ending with the erection of

Fig. 5. — From an Ancient Engraving,
showing early key-board.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

627

the instrument. Here it was used from 1718 to 17oG, when it was
sold to St. Paul's Church, Newburyport. In 183G it* was trans-
ferred to St. John's, Portsmouth.

It has been generally accepted that Edward Bromfield, Jr., of
Boston, built the first American organ, in 1745. The writer, how-
ever, is in a position to assert that, although a venerable piece of
musical history, this is not a fact. Mr. J. W. Jordan, Assistant
Librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, who has paid
special attention to the subject, recently discovered that Mathias
Zimmerman, of Philadelphia, a
carpenter and joiner, built an or-
gan in that city some time before
1737. In his will, probated in
1737, he bequeathed the organ to
a nephew, hoping that he would
learn to play on it, adding that if
not it could be sold to advantage,
owing to its being so much of a
curiosity. The record of Zimmer-
man's will forever disposes of the
time - honored belief regarding
Bromfield. 1"

The Germans and Swedes were
the chief organ-builders in Ameri-
ca during the last century. In
Pennsylvania, where several col-
onies located, no less than four
organ-builders of note practiced
their art from 1740 to 1770. These
were Gustavus Hesselins, John Klem, David Tanneberger, and
Robert Harttafel. Mr. Jordan, to whom I also owe the foregoing
information, says the first named was a Swede. He adds in a
communication, " Tanneberger's reputation as an organ-builder
stood very high, and I know of at least one of his fine instruments
still in use."

The Moravians of Bethlehem, in that State, were particularly
noted for their connection with musical art during the last cent-
ury, and their descendants manifest the same faculty. The an-
nexed extract of a letter from Hesselins, of Philadelphia, to Rev.
J. C. Pyrlaens, Bethlehem, May 28, 1746, has some value to stu-
dents of national musical history : " I hope Mr. Klem will see
the organ well and safe in your hands." The following is another
record of a more explicit nature : "Received, June 9, 1746, of Jas-
per Payne, of Bethlehem, four pounds and three pounds for the
half set of pipes, and one pound for coming and putting the organ
up." (Signed^ " John Klem, organ-builder." Franklin, in writing

Fig. 6. — Method of blowing described by
Pr,etoritjs; representing the old organ
in the Church of St. ^gidien, Brunswick.

628

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

to his wife, in 1750, remarks that he "heard very fine music in
the church*" (at Bethlehem), that "flutes, oboes, French horns,
and trumpets accompanied the organ."

After Bromfield, the next organ-builder in New England was
Thomas Johnston, who built an instrument for Christ Church,
Boston, in 1753. He is known to have supplied the Episcopal
Church in Salem with another organ in 1754, containing one man-
ual and six stops. This pioneer maker died in ] 769. Dr. Josiah
Leavitt, a physician of Boston, became interested in the art
through intercourse with Bromfield, with the result that he sub-
sequently devoted himself to practical organ-building for many
years, with a fair measure of success. The next organ-builder in
New England after Johnston was Pratt, who went out of the
business toAvard 1800. William M. Goodrich, a native of Temple-
ton, Mass., born in 1777, began to build organs in Boston in 1803.
He was a pupil of Leavitt, and was the first native-born organ-
builder who achieved
a worthy place in
that noble art. Sev-
eral eminent makers
graduated from the
sho i of Goodrich,
the principal being
Thomas Appleton,
many of whose in-
struments are still in
use. Ebenezer Good-
rich left his brother's
shop and began or-
gan-building in 1816
on his own account.
He drifted into part-
nership with Thom-
as Appleton subse-
quently, but after a
few years they sepa-
rated. Thomas Mc-
Intyre, another early
Boston builder of
note, appeared in
1823. This maker also left many fine instruments behind him
as examples of his skill. Though Goodrich, Mclntyre, and Ap-
pleton accomplished much, taking into account their opportu-
nities, the times they labored in, and the class for which they
catered, the organs they built are insignificant beside more mod-
ern products of the Hook & Hastings, Erben, Jardine, and Roose-

FiG. 7. — King's

College, Cambridge,
Dallam, 1605-'6.

England. Built by

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

629

velt establisliments. Meanwhile the development of organ-build-
ing in this country, it must be remembered, depended almost
wholly upon the disposition of church patrons and clergymen
to follow the example of their European brethren in giving the
instrument a place in religious ceremonials. As evidenced in
the Brattle incident, much prejudice formerly existed against the

Fig. 8.— Haarlem Catoedbai,. Built by MOller, 1785-'38.

use of the instrument in church services among the Protestant
sects— the predominating element— but, unless in very rural dis-
tricts, none of this feeling now persists.

The Hooks, precursors of the celebrated firm of Hook & Hast-
ings, Boston, were the first builders in New England to display
individuality and a desire to adopt new improvements in their
instruments. The Hook brothers, Elias and George G., began
business in Salem, Mass., in 1827. Elias, the practical head of the

630

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

business, was, like Appleton, a graduate of the elder Goodricli's
establishment. Winning notice toward 1832, they removed to
Boston, and there entered on a remarkable career, in time form-
ing the firm of Hook & Hastings, now known throughout Amer-
ica as organ - builders of the highest rank. Hook & Hastings
came into being in 1865, through the accession of Mr. F. H. Hast-
ings, an expert workman and a graduate of their shoj). The
Hook brothers died within a year of each other, George C. Hook
passing away in 1880, at the age of seventy-three; Elias, the
founder of the house, in 1881. The business thereupon devolved
on Mr. Hastings, who has conducted it since then with much suc-
cess. Evidences of the great skill of Hook & Hastings are scat-
tered all over the continent. Among their important instruments
may be mentioned the organ in Music Hall, Cincinnati, built in
1878, which is one of the largest in the country. The Tremont

Fig. 9. — Marien Kirche, Dortmuih).

Temple organ in Boston, remarkable for its artistic qualities,
although smaller than the Cincinnati instrument, is another nota-
ble product of this firm. Visitors to the Centennial Exhibition
in 1876 may remember the magnificent instrument in use there ;
this was also supplied from the same establishment. These in-
struments are equipped with every mechanical and scientific de-

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS-THE ORGAN.

631

vice requisite for bringing their immense resources under control
of the organist. Mr. Hastings, while adopting many innovations
from European sources, improved upon them materially m his
method of application ; his coupling and draw-stop system, in par-
ticular, being most sympathetic and effective in operation. These
organs possess remarkably well-balanced tonal qualities also, be-
ing free from the prevailing acoustic defects apparent in large
instruments of some makers.

Organ-building, like all the arts, was encouraged in New York
to a greater extent than elsewhere in the years preceding the
Revolutionary War and immediately afterward The spirit of

A

h

Fig.

11.

Fig. 12.

Fig. 13.

Figs 10 and 11.— Flue-stop Pipes, showin^r general features of construction : body of pipe
'{A), foot (6), mouth (0, lower lip {d), upper lip (e), air passage (/), languette which
divides the body of the pipe from the foot (gr), wind entrance (h), ears for steadying the
wind (i), and tuner (J). Figs. 12 and 13 represent section of a wood pipe of the same
order: the difference Ls shown in block {K), cap (0, tuner (m), exterior bevel (»), in-
verted mouth (0).

liberalism found its expression in the practices and observances
of church bodies, too, and a desire to erect imposing organs in
keeping with the custom obtaining in English communities was
manifest. Geib, who built the old Grace Church instrument, was
censured severely at the time of its construction for his inability
to complete an organ of more massive proportions and capable

632

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. U.— General Plan of a Fodk-manual Grand Organ (St. Patrick's Cathedral, New-
York), showing wind-chest ot great organ (A), sound-board {B), and sliders or registers
(C). (For further exemplification ot action jirinciples see Fig. 15.)

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN. 633

of more extended effects. It was the original intention of the
patrons of the church at that period to have an instrument equal
to some of the famous organs abroad ; but Geib and his contem-
poraries would not undertake what they looked upon as an im-
possibility to them with their limited facilities and limited ca-
pacities. There was then talk of bringing over an instrument
from London ; but Geib's friends succeeded in putting the con-
tract in his hands, satisfied to accept the best results he could
produce. In the mean time the money saved was put to other
account, so the story goes. Certain it is, however, that the first
notable examples of the art of organ-building were produced in
New York. Adam Geib, the builder referred to, came to New
York in 17C0. In that year he began business on a very unpre-
tentious scale, but attained some note soon after the conclusion of
the war. He was succeeded by two sons. John E. Geib, the best
known, remained in the business until past 1830, and was looked
upon as a very skillful builder.

Loew and Hall were builders of some mark in years past. The
first named erected a fine instrument in St. John's Chapel. Hall
served his apprenticeship with Loew, and was, in a minor sense,
an originator and inventor of note. Hall was in business in
New York from 1812 until 1875, when he passed away, at the
age of eighty-five. A noted individual came forth from the
workshop of Thomas Hall, during the early days of his business
career, in the person of Henry Erben. Erben was such a remark-
able youth that he was taken into partnership by Hall in 1827,
just after concluding his apprenticeship. Separating from Hall
in a few years, he established a business of his own in New York.
Erben was fortunate enough to secure the contract for the organ
in Trinity Church during his first labors, and this brought him
reputation and status in his art. It is by no means a remark-
able instrument, though of large proportions. Erben's later ef-
forts were indicative of more originality. He introduced some
improvements in the disposition of the general action of the in-
strument about 1860, which, though credited to him largely as his
own inventions, were nevertheless adaptations of ideas copied
from abroad.

Jardine & Sons, of New York, have taken out several im-
portant patents for organ improvements, besides constructing
instruments of rare excellence embodying a hundred features
of originality of the unpatentable order. In applying pneu-
matics to the action of the organ they have been particularly
successful. Their patent pneumatic vacuum and tubular systems,
also methods for controlling the registers by piston-knobs, are
singularly effective devices. These are intended to facilitate exe-
cution, while rendering the manual and pedal actions easy and

634-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sympathetic to every demand of the artist. Mr. A. J. Hii)kins
gives the following account of the introduction of pneumatic
action, the most valuable of modern developments, in the organ :
" The late Mr. Joseph Booth, of Wakefield, was the first organ-
builder to whom the idea seems to have occurred of establishing

m///MMA

pneumatic agency, and of thus ingeniously turning the wind-
power, one of the organist's antagonists, into his assistant."
(Mr. Hipkins means the pressure of wind which impedes touch
through the pallets, not the wind-power through which sound is

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

63s

produced.) " It was to some of the bass pipes of the organ he
built for the Church of Attercliffe, near Sheffield, in the year 1827,
that Booth first applied his little invention. The lower notes of
the wood open diapason of the GGr manual were placed on a
small separate sound-board, and to the pull-down of each pallet

he attached a small
circular bellows un-
derneath. From the
great organ sound-
board groove a con-
veyance conducts
wind into this bel-
lows, which, opening
downward, draws
the pallet with it.
These small bellows
Mr. Booth used to
call ' puff:- valves.' "

Since Booth's ex-
periments in this di-
rection many Euro-
pean builders,among
them Cavailld - Coll,
of Paris, have con-
tributed to the appli-
cation of pneumat-
ics, with the most
remarkable results.
American builders
have not been be-
hindhand either in
adapting and im-
proving upon the in-
ventions of their con-
temporaries abroad,
and their work is to
be found illustrated
the magnificent

±

r

^o.

^

::^

m

Fig. 15. — Sectional Vitcw of Organ in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle, illustrating the pneumatic and general action
principles embodied (erected 1891). The great organ key-
board in the above cut, also trackers and connections, are
indicated by A throughout.

instruments erected
in various cities
throughout the
States. Jardine &
Sons are admitted a leadership by the fourscore and odd organ-
builders who constitute the business in the United States and the
British Dominion. The founder of this eminent house, George
Jardine, was born in Dartforth, England, November 1, 1801.

636

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

He learned liis business with Flight & Robson, the famous
English builders, and proved a workman of rare ability. In
1837 he arrived in New York, bringing over his family with
him. American organ-building was in an embryo state at the
time, and Jardine was compelled to put his mechanical skill to
account in other directions ; but he found an entry into the busi-
ness in due time. Working along in an unpretentious way, he
awaited an opportunity to show his ability. The Church of St.
James gave him a contract for a small instrument, and the out-
come laid the basis of
his fortune. E. G. Jar-
dine, his son, who had
been educated to all the
niceties and comprehen-
sive details of the busi-
ness, was taken into
partnership in 1860, and
upon the death of his
father became the head
of the firm. This gentle-
man has traveled exten-
sively in Europe, where
he studied the celebrated
works of Cavailld-Coll
and other noted builders
to acquire a broader in-
sight into his art. Dur-
ing recent years Jardine
& Sons have erected the
following instruments :
Fifth Avenue Cathedral,
St. George's, St. Paul's,
M. E., Holy Innocents,
New York ; Pittsburgh Cathedral, Mobile Cathedral, Christ
Church, New Orleans, and the Brooklyn Tabernacle organ, all
these being four-manual organs, besides a vast number of other
notable instruments, which can not be specified here. George
Jardine died in 1883, leaving a name destined to live among the
world's greatest organ-builders of this century.

The present condition of the art of organ-building in America
is further exemplified in the magnificent concert instrument
erected in the Auditorium Building, Chicago, by the Roosevelt
house of New York. Hilbourne L. Roosevelt, the founder of this
house, was a native of New York, who was educated to a scholas-
tic j)ursuit. Interest in the instrument as a boy led up to an en-
thusiasm for the mechanical and artistic possibilities which it em-

FlG

16. — Early Pbecursob of the American Parlor
Organ.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN. 637

bodied, and believing himself capable of contributing to its per-
fection, Roosevelt entered the sphere of organ-building with love
for the art, personal genius, and money to back up his ambition.
Though cut off prematurely in 1889, he had succeeded in winning
fame as an inventor and builder of the highest character. The
instrument designated alone proves the capabilities of the house
and the value of the mechanical and scientific principles which
Roosevelt developed and helped to put into practical effect.
Among his numerous innovations, which created considerable
interest and discussion, was his arrangement of the swell effect.
For instance, in a two-manual instrument of ordinary dimensions
and capacity he inclosed all the pij)es in a swell-box of his own
construction and design, which enabled the executant to produce
better nuances leading frova foHe to piano, or vice versa; at least,
the champions of the Roosevelt system asserted these claims,
while there was also a strong opposition among organists to that
method of construction. I think, however, that the Roosevelt
system will prove a valuable feature in time; at present it is
somewhat immature and crude. Mr. Roosevelt also carried the
principle into the region of three and four manual instruments.
In the latter almost all the total register of tones can be brought
under the influence of the swell at pleasure. This is accom-
plished by inclosing the various organs, solo, etc., constituting
the abstract instrument, in separate swell-boxes, part of the grand
organ being also partly inclosed. Apart from his original de-
parture in the swell movement, Mr. Roosevelt introduced several
notable improvements in the action of his three or four manual
instruments. In the application of electricity and pneumatics to
the instrument as well as in the region of tones this maker further
displayed his remarkable ability. The Auditorium organ is an
eloquent illustration of Roosevelt's capacity; the Garden City
Cathedral instrument is another magnificent example of what the
Roosevelt shop was and is capable of accomplishing. Though the
late Mr. Roosevelt was the genius of the house he founded, the
business is still carried on with success on the lines he laid down.

Johnson & Sons, of Westfield, Mass., are known as capable
and progressive makers, destined through their past work to
reach a high position in the future. William A. Johnson, the
head of the business, has brought forth many inventions of value.
In the region of voicing — a most important function — his son, W.
M. Johnson, is regarded as an expert of the first order. Hutch-
ings, Plaisted & Co., another Boston firm, have won considerable
notice for their instruments within the past twenty years, many
of which contain improvements of value, and are found in lead-
ing churches throughout the country.

The general principles of the Jardine Tabernacle organ shown

638

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

in the accompanying plan will give the reader an idea of the
modern improved organ, its wonderful mechanical and acoustic
features, which involve such interesting complications of pipes,
sound-boards, bellows, and draw-stop, mutative stop, manual and
pedal action, through which one individual — the organist — can
control a great domain of musical resources at one time.

The present organ is in singular contrast with the organ of

J^'IG. 17.

Fig. 19.

Fig. 22

Fig. 18.

Figs. 17 to 22. — Eepresenting Constructive Principles of a Mason and Hamlin Organ.
Ficr. 17 shows position of reed ; Fig. 18 represents in sectional elevation part of one end
•with reed-valves and stop action ; Fig. 19 shows auxiliary mutes ; Fig. 20 exhibits method
by which the stop-valve is mounted : wind-chest ( U), reed-valves (/), stop-valves ( T'),
swell-cap (F) with the swell-lids attached (TF), stop-lever (X), transverse roller-lever
(5'), roller-board (0'), name-board (a'), draw-stops (a and 6), and the tube-board {K).
Some connections of the parts are indicated thus: Tlie inner end of stop- valve [T)
attached to tube-board {U) by butt-hinge fc) ; similar hinge {d^ fastened to outer end of
tube-board; stop-valve {T) joined to half hinge (//) by the bent wire {e) ; connection of
bent wire (e) with stop-lever (X) by the link (?/) ; brass incline (17) on stop-lever (X);
also connection of stop with valve (P) at the back of tube-board \R). Figs. 21 and 22
represent relative parts according to exemplification.

past centuries. As a musical instrument, presided over by one
mind, it is incomparably ahead of any other musical medium
known, in the extent of its development, aside from its capacities
in the artistic sphere. To dwell for a while upon its construction :
Pipes in the organ are of two kinds, wood and metal, and of two
acoustic classes — namely, reed and flue. The grouping and ar-
rangement of the huge body of pipes which enter into the compo-

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN

639

sition of large organs — many of them containing over six thou-
sand— so as to get them under the command of the narrow compass
of the manuals, reveal wonderful ingenuity, quite apart from the
musical effects capable of being represented through the instru-
mentality of that noble art medium. Formerly the pij^es were
attached to one key-board. Then came the disposition of the
pipes with two manuals and two cases. These were consequently
termed double organs. A modern instrument is found in many
instances to contain five separate organs within its case, but being
all under the control of the organist, they are spoken of com-
positely as one instrument, though particularized in giving a
description by their names — grand, swell, solo, choir, and pedal.
Emphasis has been laid
on these points in order
to give readers a clear
idea of the terms used
elsewhere in speaking
of the instrument.

The aim of the or-
gan-builder has been
to increase the varie-
ty and extent of the
sounds, so as to render
them available for art
purposes through the
instrumentality of the
key - board and pedal
system. And in the or-
der of things, when the
number of pipes was
added to from time to
time to give increased
compass, it became
necessary to originate
improvements in the
wind collecting and dis-
tributing departments.
These are, first of all,

the bellows, then the wind-chest, wind-trunk, and sound-board
grooves. Meantime it is seen that the perfection of this depart-
ment, so to speak, was such that it permitted the builder to apply
air to the action mechanism according to the laws of pneumatics,
with obvious advantage. In the early centuries the instrument was
blown with a rude bellows by hand ; then came the pedal bellows
described by Prsetorius, in 1620, which he found in the ancient or-
gan in the church of St. ^gidien, in Brunswick. This system re-

PopuLAE Style of Modern I'arlor Organ.

640 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

f erred to — working tliem by the feet, the blowers holding on. to a
rigid transverse bar as they moved along the row (the bellows de-
scribed by the authority named numbered twenty, and were oper-
ated by two men)— was, however, known a thousand years previous,
in Constantinojjle. Passing over incidental contributions to that
department, it is only necessary to point out that the demands
upon the wind became so great in time that it was deemed neces-
sary to introduce mechanical means for supplying and regulating
the supply required. A hydraulic engine, invented by Joy and
Holt, of Middleborough, England, though defective in some re-
spects, was the first thing found to answer the purpose. Next
came a water-moter, invented by Thomas Duncan, which met
with some favor. Latterly, gas and electricity have been applied
with much success, and in the operation of the most comprehen-
sive organs little difficulty is experienced at present in supplying
and regulating the stock of wind required.

When the organ-builder increased the compass of the instru-
ment and its effects, the perfecting of the key movement, the
invention of the draw-stop action for controlling the use of the
various tiers of pipes, the introduction of composition pedals,
couplers, and other features became necessary as a part of the
major development, viz., the modern great organ as it stands. Of
electricity and pneumatics nothing more need be said save that
these agencies have been found invaluable in operating massive
instruments.

A description of the Tabernacle organ in Brooklyn will show
the mechanical and scientific points of interest contained in a
modern instrument of that class: The great-organ key-board
(A) is capable of controlling all the others — namely, swell (B),
choir (C), and solo organ (D). In effect, the great-organ key-
board through the tracker (A) and squares (A) opens the ports
of the pneumatic chest (E), the interior of one of which is shown.
This is filled with compressed air of a power and quantity capa-
ble of raising a column of water seven inches. When the key
is pressed, or operated, it opens the vent-valve (G) and closes
the supply-valve (H). The compressed air from the chest presses
on the top of the small bellows (I), one of which is furnished to
each note, and the wind, consequently escaping through the vent-
valve, pulls the wire of lever (J) and tracker (J). This passes
up and pulls open the big valve in the great-organ wind chest,
and affects all the other organs also, when coupled on to the
tracker indicated.

To explain the action of the choir key-board (C) : On being
pressed, the key (C) opens the train of trackers and connections
(K) ; the vent-valve (L) in that chest is opened, which closes the
supply-valve (N), thereby allowing wind to escape from the small

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

641

pneumatic bellows (N), which, being pressed down by the force
of compressed air from the wind-chest, opens the large valve (O).
This supplies all the pipes in that chest with wind. The swell
(B) and solo (D) key-boards also operate their respective wind-
chests on the same principle.

The couplers are operated
through the medium of lever
(P), which is controlled through
a block glued on the tracker (J).
When the performer desires to
couple the choir to the great
organ, the draw-stop pulled out
has the effect of pushing the
square (G) up against the track-
er (K), when the desired result
is attained. Again, when he
wishes to couple the swell to
the great, the pulling out of Ihe
draw-stop brings up the lever
(R) against the block on the
tracker in that connection.
The coupling of the swell oc-
tave is attained by the levers
(S), which are placed at an an-
gle so as to pull the tracker of
the swell one octave higher, by
an ingenious movement. In
coupling the solo organ to the
great, the lever (T) is moved up
to the block on the tracker of
that manual. A little study of
the plan, and the points given,
will explain the general system
of action very clearly. In this
instrument a set of bells of
three octaves (U) are operated
from the great-organ key-board
by a mechanism of the square
piano order ; pneumatic agency
is also used here, as the press-
ure of the key will not of itself

furnish the dynamic impulse necessary to put them in vibration.
This is attained by a draw-stop, which puts lever (V) and tracker
(J) in connection by pushing the former up against the latter. To
play any of the key-boards by pedals, a " cam " serves to raise the
levers (W) to the tail of the keys, thus establishing a connection.

VOL. XL. 44

Fig. 24. — General View of Interior oe Par-
lor Organ (Estey system). — Case (^4), lid
to key-board {A")^ bellows reservoir (B), es-
capement (6), treadle (Z*), tape connecting D
with C (d), wind-chest (E), reed-socket (e),
reeds (r r), dampers (e), swells (s), octave-
coupler levers (-fT), tracker-pin (A), key (F),
name-board ((?), stop-knob (/), stop-rod (i),
lever and link for swells (./), slide for open-
ing dampers (M), grand-organ roll (n), vox
humana tremolo ( T), float-wheel of tremolo
(t), fan (/), music-support (m), lamp-stool
(Z), and knee-swell lever (S).

642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Among the special effects in this organ not specified are a bass-
drum and tymi3ani (kettle-drums), also operated by pneumatic
agency. The great and swell organs are on a four-inch wind ;
the choir is on a three-inch ; the thirty-two-foot and sixteen-foot
open diapasons are on a seven-inch wind. In the region of tones
may be found a German gamba — a unique stop with a string
tone — and a vox humana copied from the celebrated instrument
at Freiburg by Mooser. The imx anglica in the organ treated on
is a remarkable expression effect, while the song-trumpet stop is
a startling acoustic development. It is of such immense power
that it is capable of leading eight thousand voices. The instru-
ment also contains combination piston-knobs under the key-board
and a combination pedal to every organ. These are adjustable.
There are in all 110 stops and 4,448 pipes, divided as follows :
Great organ, 18 stops, 1,4G4 pipes ; swell organ, 18 stops, 1,342
pipes ; choir organ, 12 stops, 854 pipes ; solo organ, 8 stops, 488
pipes ; pedal organ, 10 stops, 300 pipes ; also 10 couplers, 11 me-
chanical movements, 6 pneumatic piston-knobs in great organ, 11
combination pedals, and 6 pedal movements.

The four manuals contain five octaves each, with an auxiliary
pedal compass of two and a half octaves. The wind is furnished
by three immense bellows of various wind pressure, operated by
a C. & C. electric motor of an improved order on an Edison cir-
cuit. Its exterior, moreover, is most striking. It shows a fagade
of richly decorated j^ipes forty feet in width and fifty feet in
height, and is altogether one of the finest instruments in appear-
ance and effect in this country, and an imposing exemplification
of American organ-building.

The Parlor Organ. — Sound is produced in instruments such
as the French and English harmonium and the American parlor
organ through the medium of the free reed. The latter, though
related to the former in a physical and mechanical sense, is in
many respects so different from the European reed instruments
of the class designated that it is entitled to stand alone as an
instrument peculiarly American and distinct in point of con-
struction.

The individuality of the American parlor organ rests largely
upon the system of reed structure invented in this country, upon
which a tone has been evolved which is easily distinguished from
that produced by the reed instruments made abroad. Several
other features in its interior construction and exterior finish, how-
ever, distinguish it from the reed instruments called harmoniums
produced in Europe. The " free reed," as it was first applied in
American accordeons and seraphines, was not by any means a
domestic invention, as writers recklessly assert. It was used by
European pipe-organ builders for stop effects, and also in a sepa-

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

643

rate key-board instrument, prior to 1800. The " free reed " is so
named to distinguish it from the " beating reed " of the clarionet
and the " double reed " of the oboe and bassoon. It consists of a
strip of flexible metal adjusted on a pan over a slot in which the
reed vibrates on being set in motion by a current of air, thus pro-
ducing a musical sound. Pitch, the height or depth of sounds, is
regulated by the size and structure of the reed and pan, the smaller
reeds producing the sharpest and the larger the gravest tones,
while timbre, or quality, one of the three chief characteristics
which a sound possesses, is conditioned by the structure of the
reed, the nature of the metal used, and other incidental in-
fluences.

The seraphine was the first instrument of the class produced in
America. It was invented by Mr. Chadwick, an American, and
was merely a slight advance on the accordeon, its precursor, which
was also a key-board instrument. The melodeon appeared about

Fig. 25.— Showino Body of Organ eemoveb from Case (Peloubet system, Lyon & Healy,
Chicaffo, nianufacturersV— Ends of mutes belonging to two full registers of reeds {A) ;
stop-board (B), with knobs in front; upright forked levers for stops (C). Also UIus-
trates general principles.

1840, and differed little from French harmoniums until Emmons
Hamlin— afterward one of the founders of the celebrated firm of
Mason & Hamlin — introduced some significant improvements in
the construction of the reed. The improvement was of a highly
important character from the historical point of view, since it was
the first and chief step toward the American parlor organ. Ham-
lin found that, if the tongue of the reed were slightly twisted or

644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bent, a better quality of tone could be produced. This discovery-
was made in 1848. Subsequent exj^eriments yielded remarkable
results, and a new instrument was practically introduced. Mean-
while the discovery of the method of reed structure referred to
has been a subject of dispute for years, the late Mr. Riley Bur-
dette and others claiming to have anticipated Hamlin. As neither
took out a patent, I can only give the version most generally ac-
cepted. In 1847 the two leading American firms devoted to the
melodeon were Prince & Co. and Carhart & Needham, both
located in Buffalo, N. Y. Hamlin was a clever workman and
tuner in the employ of Prince & Co., to whose benefit he turned
his discovery up to 1854, when he joined the celebrated Dr. Lowell
Mason and founded the eminent Boston firm yet bearing their
names. Other makers were not slow to copy the invention, and
it became a commonly accepted principle in the melodeon within
a few years.

The use of these instruments became wide-spread from 1850
upward, many patented improvements being brought forward in
the interval in the acoustic and other departments. Of these,
Jeremiah Carhart's invention of the exhaust or suction bellows in
1846 was the most significant. Harmoniums, so called, were also
produced in this country similar to those of Alexandre, of Paris,
but they varied little from seraphines and melodeons except in
matters of detail. Carhart's bellows became generally adopted
subsequently, and at this period is used exclusively in American
organs. The old method of playing air upon the reeds yet ob-
tains in Europe, owing to the claim that it secures more prompt
speech, while the opj^osite method is employed in this country.

Toward 1861 the first instruments resembling the modern par-
lor-organ appeared. The case became individualized, new tone
effects were added, two or more sets of reeds employed, and the
name of " organ " aj^plied formally. Mason & Hamlin first
used the term in instruments of that improved order in 1861
which they named "organ harmoniums," to distinguish them
from melodeons and harmoniums. In a few years it became " or-
gans." Prince & Co., Carhart & Needham, and other makers
contributed to the later developments in special directions, but to
the firm of Mason & Hamlin is conceded the claim that they were
the first to introduce the parlor organ in the year designated.

The organ business grew so rapidly that a great many new
firms entered the field before 1870, some of them yet existing.
Among the older houses yet devoted to this industry are Clough &
Warren, of Detroit, and Estey & Co., of Brattleboro, Vt., both be-
ing founded about 1850. In the organs of both of these firms tech-
nical and acoustic ideas of a special nature are to be seen. This
must also be said of instruments produced by more modern

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE ORGAN.

645

firms. But in the abstract the organs produced by the leading
makers approximate in most respects, all aiming after the same
artistic results. The most elaborate and costly organs, however,
come from the workshops of Mason & Hamlin, who deserve spe-
cial recognition for their untiring efforts to elevate the instru-
ment in artistic char-
acter and status. The
present head of the
firm, Mr. Edward Ma-
son, is a grandson of
Dr. Lowell Mason,
and a native of Bos-
ton, where he was
born in 1858. The
founders of the busi-
ness have all passed
away.

There are many
other excellent organ-
makers in the United
States, some of whom
are better known in
Europe than in this
country, strange as it
may seem. The num-
ber of organs export-
ed annually is very
large, and of these
the West contributes
a goodly share.

The manufacture
of reeds, keys, and
many other parts of
the instrument be-
came specialized as in
the case of the piano,
but not to such an ex

tent The Munroe Reed Company was the most important of
these specialists, the others being largely associated with the
kindred industry of piano-making.

Improvement in the organ since 1850 has been expressed in
the development of tone and case structure, as remarked, while
the chief patents taken out have been for mechanical contrivances
to cheapen production. Modern parlor organs represent consid-
erable intelligence and accumulated effort in their scope and char-
acter, many of the examples produced coming close to the smaller

Fig.

26. — Improved Model, with Two Manuals and Pedals
(capable of fine artistic effects).

646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pipe-organs in effect. Quality of tone, together witli power and
great variety, are now possible, whereas the harmoniums, melo-
deons, and seraphines known in 18G0 were simple instruments
with one set of reeds and no stops worthy of the name, being
only fit for domestic hymn-singing. Notwithstanding, the organ
has ceased to be popular at present, nearly all the firms named
having added the production of pianos to their business. The
latter instrument has been growing into popular favor, to the dis-
advantage of the former, and if present indications are reliable
the production of organs will be an insignificant branch of indus-
try in the future ; yet some look forward to the re-establishment
of the organ in popular favor.

Many attempts have been made to combine reeds with strings
in the piano, the first being made by Prof. Wheatstone, in Lon-
don, in 1834. Obed Coleman, a native of New Bedford, Mass., in-
vented a system for uniting both in a square piano, which he
named the ^olian attachment. This was adopted by a Boston
manufacturer in 1844, but was abandoned after a few years.
Other attempts have been made, with like results.

Organs combining the features pf the pipe and reed have been
also made, the Peloubet system being regarded as the most suc-
cessful. Lyon & Healy, of Chicago, manufacture the " Peloubet
reed-pipe organs" at present, their trade extending to Europe
largely. Another form of organ somewhat approximate is the
Vocalian. The physical basis of sound production in this instru-
ment resembles that of the human voice, according to its invent-
or. Dr. Hamilton, a Scottish gentleman, who produced it after
many years of study and experiment. The instrument conse-
quently attracted much attention when introduced here in 1882.
It comes very close to the pipe-organ in quality, and is an excel-
lent substitute. Mason & Risch, of Worcester, Mass., manufact-
ure these instruments.

Mechanical instruments called organettes are also produced in
large numbers for export and domestic purposes. In these, sheets
of perforated paper run over the reeds, the perforations admitting
free play for the air, thus producing the desired effect. They are
of American invention. Organs employing somewhat similar
methods for the mechanical production of music by pneumatic ac-
tion have come into use recently, but, while capable of yielding
pleasing effects, they are decried by musicians, upon the ground
that the individuality of an artistic musical performance can not
be duplicated apart from human instrumentality. This is, how-
ever, only a matter of opinion. While the majority of organ man-
ufacturers are scattered throughout various States — unlike the
piano art industry, which is mostly concentrated in New York and
Boston— Chicago is the largest producing center in the country.

MORAL EDUCABILITY. 647

MORAL EDUCABILITY.

By EDWAKD PAYSON JACKSON.

FOR a long time the brain has been accepted, popularly as well
as scientifically, as a gauge of intellectual capacity ; less
widely it has been known as an equally accurate gauge of physi-
cal and also of moral energy. If narrow compass and few and
shallow convolutions in what are known as the intellectual
" areas " infallibly indicate mental deficiency, the same conditions
in the moral areas as infallibly indicate moral deficiency. It is a
hard saying, but, whatever bearing it may have upon the doctrine
of free moral agency and personal responsibility for action, it is
as true as it is hard.

But there is a great difference in the results of feeble or ar-
rested development in the three different sets of brain areas.
Each case is attended with disadvantages peculiar to itself ; only
in the case of the moral areas are these disadvantages looked upon
as " penalties." If the physical basis of intellect is ill developed,
the subject may be doomed to obscurity, neglect, and perhaps hard
manual labor for his livelihood ; if the ganglia which supply his
muscles and vital organs with nerve-force are small and weak, he
must suffer life-long invalidism ; in either case he is simply " un-
fortunate " ; but if Nature has allowed him only an ill-developed
physical basis for the moral faculties, his unhappy deficiency is
visited with the abhorrence and indignation of his fellow-men ;
he is a criminal, and he must suffer the " just punishment of his
misdeeds " in prison or on the gallows.

Whether these differences involve an element of injustice on
the part of Nature or her controller, or on the part of man, is not
our question. Suffice that they exist, and that they are, in a meas-
ure at least, inevitable, since society does not need to be protected
from the mental or the physical imbecile as it does from the moral
imbecile. Both justice and policy demand, however, that the chief
motive and purpose of society in dealing with the moral imbecile
should be self -protection rather than punishment for the sake of
punishment. We do not slay mad dogs to punish them for the
crime of rabies, but simply to prevent ourselves and others from
being bitten.

The idea is gradually gaining strength that the most just as
well as the most effective means of protection from the moral im-
becile is moral education. If there is injustice involved in the
fact that he was created a moral imbecile, then this is the most
direct and obvious means of righting that wrong ; if there is no
such injustice, it still remains the best possible policy, both as re-
gards society and the subject himself.

648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

And, happily, of the three sets of brain areas, that which forms
the physical basis of the moral faculties is by far the most capa-
ble of improvement by cultivation. It is the part which most
quickly and fully responds to educative influences. And there is
entire correspondence in the improved outward conduct, which
may as truly be looked upon as the effect of increased brain-
power as stronger muscular action is of more highly developed
muscles.

History demonstrates the jjre-eminent educability of the moral
part of man. The ancient athlete did not differ essentially from
his modern ectype. There is not much to choose intellectually
between Cicero and Wendell Phillips, between Aristotle and Her-
bert SjDencer, between Copernicus and Charles Darwin, between
the prehistoric genius who first smelted iron ore and Edison.
The intellectual status of the educated classes of ancient Rome
did not differ materially from that of the corresponding classes
of modern London or New York ; but compare their moral
status ! The wealth, beauty, and fashion of Rome assembled in
eager thousands to witness the entertaining spectacle of wholesale
human butchery : we stigmatize a bull-fight as intolerable sav-
agery, worthy only of belated Spain, Portugal, or Mexico, and
even the blood and bruises of a prize-fight are too much for the
humanity and self-respect of any but blacklegs, thieves, " sports,"
and of a few scions of royalty and other gz/asi-respectable men.
The ancients punished not only their criminals but often their inno-
cent captives with death by torture : imagine a populous city of
our day, absorbed in its various employments and pleasures, uncon-
cerned while in full sight on a neighboring plain men are for days
together writhing and moaning out the inconceivable agonies of
crucifixion ! Not only would such a thing be impossible in our
day, but we are actually divided in opinion as to whether painless
death by electrocution is not too barbarous a way of disposing of
criminals. The ancients immured their lunatics and idiots in
noisome subterranean dungeons, and left their paupers, their halt,
blind, and deaf to shift for themselves or to depend upon casual
private benevolence : we build almshouses, hospitals, and asylums,
and our best scientific skill is taxed to its utmost in behalf of
our unfortunates of these classes.

Such are a few of the ways in which improvement in the aver-
age moral sentiment of humanity within the Christian era is
shown. We wonder at the monstrous cruelties of past ages.
How could they have been possible, we ask, since " human nature
has always been the same " ? But human nature has not always
been the same ; it has always been changing ; it is changing now,
and it will always continue to change. And the rate of improve-
ment is continually accelerating. Those born since the war find

MORAL EDUCABILITY. 649

it diflficult to comprehend the barbarities of even one short genera-
tion ago. Their children will find the barbarities of to-day equally-
incredible. The horrors of Siberia, of the Russian persecution of
Israel, of the no less infamous sweat-shops in our own country,
may relegate the latter third of the nineteenth century to the
same limbo of infamy to which the ages of Nero and Simon
Legree are condemned, notwithstanding the comparatively great
ameliorations in the average condition of the human race. Still
later generations will wonder at the possibility of inhumanity
which in our day condemns the many to life-shortening and life-
embittering toil that the few may consume in luxurious idleness
the price of their sweat and suffering ; at the travesty of justice
which punishes the criminal who robs his one victim with his
puny arm of flesh and bends the knee to the ruffian who despoils
his thousands with his mightier brain ; at the selfish greed of the
titled idlers who partition the soil among themselves and take
heavy toll of the multitude of Earth's children for presuming to
live upon the bosom of their common mother ; at the unspeakable
cruelty of the sex which flatters and spoils with indulgence a por-
tion of the other sex, and drives by its tyranny another portion to
starvation, suicide, or infamy.

Thus the mists which becloud the moral perceptions of men
and chill their nobler impulses will lift one after another, as gen-
eration succeeds generation. But not until the law of love shall
have made civil laws with their penalties suj^erfluous and obso-
lete, not until the universal enforcement of the golden rule, not
by objective, but by subjective penalties, will the moral education
of mankind be complete.

In his later work, on Leonardo da Vinci and the Alps, Prof. Gustavo Uzielli
treats of certain passages in the great artist's manuscripts containing references
to the Alps. Telling of his ascent of Monboso or Monte Rosa in the middle of
July, Leonardo incidentally remarks that snow rarely falls on the summit, hut only
hail in the summer, when the clouds are highest ; also, that the extreme darkness
of the sky and the luminosity of the sun are accounted for by the less extent of
atmosphere between the spectator and the sun than if he stood on the lower
plains at the foot of the mountain. The fruits of Leonardo's observations of the
Alps are to be found in his works as an artist, and particularly in his portrait of the
Mona Lisa, whom he placed amid their snows. But he studied them also with a
practical eye, with a view to the utilization of the water that flows down their
sides to the plains of Lombardy. Operations in connection with this purpose re-
quired the personal examination of the formation of the mountains ; and while on
his excursions he studied their geology, the density of matter, the action of light,
and the composition of the atmosphere. His attention was also occupied with
botanical studies and observations of the flight of birds. And there is evidence
that he looked at the mountains also with the eye of a military engineer.

650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIAL MOLE.

By Dr. E. TEOUESSAET.

THE discovery of a new mammal with distinct enough charac-
teristics to constitute the type of a new family, possibly of
an order, in the class of Didelphse or Aplacentarise, is, at this age,
a zoological event of great importance. The discovery is still
more interesting in the case of an animal presenting so curious
a form and organization as the one about to be described. The
account we give of it is taken from the original memoir of Mr. E.
C. Stirling, Director of the South Australian Museum and pro-
fessor in the University of Adelaide, who found the animal in the
central desert of Australia. The researches of English natural-
ists, especially of the ornithologist Gould, have made us so well
acquainted with the fauna of New Holland that the announce-
ment of the existence in that country of a living mammal that
fills what has long been recognized as a gap in it is a real sur-
prise.

The Notoryctes, as Prof. Stirling has named it, is a marsupial
mole presenting remarkable analogies at once with the Chryso-
clilores, or moles, of the Cape of Good Hope, placentary insecti-
vores peculiar to South Africa, and with the primitive mammals
of the Secondary period and the beginning of the Tertiary, of
which only the dentition is known to us. The name, Notoryctes
typhlops, means blind burrower of the South.

The first individual of this species, of which Prof. Stirling saw
the remains in very bad condition, was captured in 1888 by Mr.
Coulthard, a cattle-raiser of northern South Australia. Following
the tracks of the animal, he found it at the foot of a tuft of porcu-
pine-grass {Spinifex or Triodia irritans). Although he had lived
many years in the country, he had never seen or heard of it before.
The region where it was found is about a thousand miles north
of Adelaide ; is bounded on the northeast by the dry bed of Finke
River, and is a country of dunes and red sand, with spots of vege-
tation composed exclusively of Spinifex and Acacia. It rarely
rains there. The species does not seem to be very abundant, and
the natives appeared to have no knowledge of the animal when a
figure of it was shown them. Much interested in his discovery.
Prof. Stirling visited the South Australian desert and procured six
specimens of the Notoryctes, four female and two male, and pre-
served them in alcohol for dissection on his return to Adelaide.

It was only with the assistance of the natives, and their surpris-
ing gifts in following the tracks of an animal, that it was possible
to procure the precious specimens. The rainy season of the short
semitropical summer of the country is the most favorable time

THE AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIAL MOLE. 651

for this kind of investigation. The tracks of the animal are then
preserved in the ground, while the soil is at other times too friable
to retain any mark. The Notoryctes is essentially a burrower, and
never comes out from under the sand except to run a few feet in a
slow and tortuous gait, dragging its belly along the ground. It
walks, clinching the outer edges of its claws in the ground, leav-
ing a triple, often interrupted, sinuous track, the lateral lines of
which are drawn by the feet, the middle line by the tail, on which
the animal supports itself by beating it on the ground. The track
resembles those of some Australian lizards, which Prof. Stirling
was apt at first to mistake for them.

The Notoryctes burrows obliquely in the sand, going two or
three inches under the ground, and never betraying its passage
except by a slight undulation of the soil. In digging it uses its
conical nose, which is protected by a horny plate, and the strong,
mattock-shaped claws of its fore feet. The hind feet, which are
wider and spade-shaped, throw the sand back so that no trace is
left of the tunnel which it hollows. It comes to the surface a few
yards farther on, and then buries itself again, all without making
any noise. It is prodigiously agile and swift, a property on which
Mr. Benham, who lived for some time at Idracowra, says : " Every-
body here can tell you how soon one of these animals will get
away by digging in the sand. I had brought a live one to the
house and we were talking of its agility in digging. Mr. Stokes
desired to see it at work. After spading and turning over the
ground near the house, we set the animal down ; I held it in my
hands till it was nearly hidden, and then tried to overtake it by
scratching the ground behind it, but it was quicker than I. I
took a shovel and tried to find it, but without success. Another
man came to my help with a second shovel, and also a native
woman used to digging in the ground with her hands. But all
three of us could not find it."

The Notoryctes are hard to keep alive, even if large tubs full
of sand are provided. Night and day can be heard the slight sound
they make in digging in this friable soil. They would not touch
the ants which Mr. Stirling gave them, although ants were found
in their stomachs. On the other hand, they readily ate the large
white grubs of long-horned beetles and Lepidoptera ; one "of them
even ate bread, but it died the next day. They did not try to
bite when taken in the hand. The natives call them oor-quamata,
and seem to have a superstitious fear of them, arising perhaps
from the animal's being almost unknown. They have never seen
the young ones. The intestines of different individuals dissected
by Mr. Stirling contained ants and other insects.

At first sight, the animal looks very much like the Chryso-
chlores, or golden moles of the Cape, but differs from them by

652

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

its strong tail (the Chiysochlores have none), in the shape of its
incisors, and in the presence of a pouch in the female. It is
smaller than the European mole. Its pelage is yellowish, golden
at some points, and silvered at others. It has no distinct neck,
but the cheeks merge into the shouders. It results that the body

Fig. 1. — The New Mammal, Notoeyctes ttphlops (slightly reduced).

is strongly arched. The nose, the feet, and the tail only are in
the same plane. The nostrils are pierced through the horny
plate which protects the muzzle, and which is divided in two by
a transversal furrow. The mouth is underneath. The tongue is
broad and shaped like a man's tongue.

There are no outside traces of eyes. Those organs are not
even indicated by a pigmentary spot visible under the skin. The
external ear is represented by a small roundish hole. The tail is
singular, having the form of a truncated cone ; is bare, ringed.

THE AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIAL MOLE,

653

hidden to a considerable extent by the hairs of the back, but fully-
visible from below, Ifc is swelled out near the middle by two
considerable lateral tuberosities. The fore feet are similar to those
of the Chrysochlores. The two large arched and compressed
nails of the third and fourth digits conceal the others, with the
exception of the obtuse and corneous nail of the fifth digit, which
is turned back and inserted at the base of the fourth. On exam-
ining the narrow palm of this paw, we can discover the thin, atro-
phied nails of the thumb and second finger. The palm is cleft,
and the fingers form two groups : the outer, consisting of the
third, fourth, and fifth ; and the inner, of the first and second.
The hind paws are likewise short and very thick, more robust
than those of the Chrysochlores, spade - shaped, have the sole
turned outward, are deeply grooved, and bare to the metatarsus.*
The first four toes are subequal ; the fifth is represented by a
short nail, much like that of the hand, and flanked by a large,
broad, and flat sesamoid bone. The tibia is thick.

The dentition of the Notoryctes comprises forty teeth — ten in
each branch of the jaws. The molars resemble those of the Chry-

FiG. 2. — Feet of the Notortctes. 1, 2, and 3,
fore foot seen in front, in profile, and from
beneath ; 4 and 5, hind foot, from above
and from beneath.

Fig. 3. — Details or the Skeleton (enlarged').
1 and 2, skull, profile and from beneath ;
3 and 4, feet.

sochlores, having, like them, V-formed crowns ; but the front
teeth, especially the incisors, are much smaller than those of the
Chrysochlores. This fact is remarkable, considering that the gen-
eral form of the skull is also strikingly like that of the Chryso-
chlores. The median incisors are, like those of the Iliisaraignes
and most of the placentary insectivores, scalpriformed, or thick
and hooked like the teeth of rodents, and constitute strong organs
of prehension which touch on the median line. On the other

* From an examination of the osteology, we should say that the hind feet of the Noto-
ryctes are similar in form to the fore feet of the real moles.

654

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hand, the front teeth, of the Notoryctes are small, hardly more
than pegs, and leave a considerable gap on the median line, a
disposition like that observed in some of the edentates. It might
be well to compare this dentition with that of the Myrmecobia,
which is also Australian, and with that of some of the types of
Eocene fossil mammals which have recently been discovered in

Fig. 4. — Notoetctes. (View of the under side ; two thirds the natural size.)

South America. The angular apophysis of the lower jaw is
markedly bent within, a tolerably constant characteristic of the
opossums. The marsupial bones, on the other hand, are but lit-
tle developed. They are represented only by two small osseous
nodules diverging forward and united in the tendon of the oblique
external muscle of the abdomen at its insertion on the symphysis of
the pubis. They are hardly visible with the lens, and might easily
pass undetected in a hasty or superficial dissection. Nothing is yet
known of the method of reproduction of the Notoryctes.

As a whole, we are struck by the resemblances exhibited be-
tween the Notoryctes and the African Chrysochlores ; the forms
of the skull, of the molar teeth, and of the fore limb are such as
to lead us to suppose something more than a simple secondary
adaptation depending on an identical mode of life. The unlike-
ness, on the contrary, between the incisors and the canine teeth
of the two types is deserving of closer study. It is of interest
to recollect that these two genera are not the only ones which
establish by their outer forms a bond of relationship between the
South African and the Australian fauna. The Pedetes (Helamy),
or great jerboa of the Cape, exhibits absolutely the forms of the
Australian kangaroos, although it is a placentary rodent. There
are also well-known relations between the South African and the
Australian flora. — Translated for The Popidar Science Monthly
from La Nature.

[Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby has reached the conclusion, after a careful study of Mr. Stir-
ling's accounts of this animal, that in it we have at last obtained a definite connecting link
between the Monotremes (Ormihorhi/ncus) and the Marsupials (kangaroos and opossums).
At the present state of our knowledge it would, he thinks, be presumptuous to class Noto-
ryctes among the Monotremes proper, although several naturalists incline to the opinion
that its affinities are closer to those animals than to the Marsupials. — Ed. P. S. M.]

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG. 655

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG:
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH*

MY father, who had a color warehouse, frequently occupied
himself in making some of the colors in which he dealt,
and for that purpose had fitted up for himself a small laboratory
to which I had access, and where I sometimes enjoyed the privi-
lege of helping him. He made his experiments as prescribed in
works upon chemistry, which were, with great liberality, lent to
the inhabitants of Darmstadt from the rich Court Library.

The lively interest which I took in my father's labors naturally
led me to read the books which guided him in his experiments,
and such a passion for these books was gradually developed in
me that I became indifferent to every other thing that ordinarily
attracts children. Since I did not fail to fetch the books from the
Court Library myself, I became acquainted with the librarian
Hess, who occupied himself successfully with botany, and as he
took a fancy to the little fellow, I got, through him, all the books
I could desire for my own use. Of course, the reading of books
went on without any system. I read the books just as they stood
upon the shelves, whether from below upward or from right to
left was all the same to me ; my fourteen-year-old head was like
an ostrich stomach for their contents, and among them I found
side by side upon the shelves the thirty -two volumes of Macquer's

* Read at a joint meeting of societies in the Chemical Laboratories, University College,
Liverpool, on Wednesday evening, March 18, 1891, by Prof. J. Campbell Brown, D. So.

[At the recent celebration of the Jubilee of the Chemical Society, reference was made to
the wonderful energy and ability of Liebig, to the great work which he did in founding
organic chemistry, and to the immense stimulus which he gave, alike in his own country
and in England, to scientific investigation in pure chemistry and in its applications to agri-
culture, physiology, and pathology.

Very opportunely a portion of an autobiographical sketch in Liebig's own handwriting
has just come to light, in which he gives a most Interesting account of the formation of
his habits of thought, and of the development of his scientific activity. He also gives an
amusing description of the lectures given in his student days by professors of the deductive
method.

In his sixtieth year, we are told, Liebig wrote some biographical sketches which were
laid aside and could not be found when he wished to resume them. They were never
finished. A portion of the manuscript was found among some other papers in Liebig's
handwriting by his son Dr. Georg Baron von Liebig, and has been published by the latter
in the Deutsche Rundschau for January, 1891. Mr. E. K. Muspratt has been good enough
to lend me a copy which he received from his friend the present baron.

I have endeavored to render it into English as literally as the difference in the idiom
and modes of expression in the two languages will permit ; and it is now made public in
England by the kind permission of the Deutsche Rundschau.

His method of teaching and its remarkable success are worthy of attention at the pres-
ent time, when technical education is occupying so much of the public mind.]

656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Chemical Dictionary, Basil Valentine's Triumphal Car of Anti-
mony, Stahl's Phlogistic Chemistry — thousands of essays and
treatises in Gottling's and Gehlen's periodicals, the works of Kir-
wan, Cavendish, etc.

I am quite sure that this manner of reading was of no partic-
ular use so far as acquisition of exact knowledge is concerned, but
it developed in me the faculty, which is peculiar to chemists more
than to other natural philosophers, of thinking in terms of phe-
nomena ; it is not very easy to give a clear idea of phenomena to
any one who can not recall in his imagination a mental picture of
what he sees and hears, like the poet and artist for example. Most
closely akin is the peculiar power of the musician, who, while com-
posing, thinks in tones which are as much connected by laws as
the logically arranged conceptions in a conclusion or series of con-
clusions. There is in the chemist a form of thought by which all
ideas become visible to the mind as the strains of an imagined
piece of music. This form of thought is developed in Faraday in
the highest degree, whence it arises that to one who is not ac-
quainted with this method of thinking, his scientific works seem
barren and dry, and merely a series of researches strung together,
while his oral discourse, when he teaches or exj^lains, is intellect-
ual, elegant, and of wonderful clearness.

The faculty of thinking in phenomena can only be cultivated
if the mind is constantly trained, and this was effected in my case
by my endeavoring to perform, so far as my means would allow
me, all the experiments whose description I read in the books.
These means were very limited, and hence it arose that, in order
to satisfy my inclination, I repeated such experiments as I was
able to make a countless number of times, until I ceased to see
anything new in the process, or till I knew thoroughly every as-
pect of the phenomenon which presented itself. The natural con-
sequence of this was the development of a memory of the sense,
that is to say of the sight, a clear perception of the resemblances
or differences of things or of phenomena, which afterward stood
me in good stead.

One will easily understand this if one imagines, for instance, a
white or colored precipitate which is produced by mixing two
liquids ; it is formed either at once or after some time, it is cloudy
or of a curdy or gelatinous character, sandy or crystalline, dull or
bright, it deposits easily or slowly, etc. ; or if it is colored it has a
certain tint. Among the countless white precipitates each has
something peculiar to itself ; and when one has experience in this
sort of appearances, whatever one sees during an investigation at
once awakens the remembrance of what one has seen. The fol-
lowing example will make clear what I mean by sight or eye
memory : During our joint research on uric acid, Wohler one

JUSTUS VOX LIE BIG. 657

day sent me a crystalline body which he had obtained by the
action of peroxide of lead upon this acid : I immediately there-
upon wrote to him with great joy, and without having analyzed
the body, that it was allantoin. Seven years before I had had
this body in my hands ; it had been sent to me by C. Gmelin for
investigation, and I had published an analysis of it in Poggen-
dorf's Annalen J since that time I had not seen it again. But
when we had analyzed the substance obtained from uric acid
there appeared a difference in the amount of carbon, the new
body gave one and a half per cent carbon less, and since the
nitrogen had been determined by the qualitative method a corre-
sponding quantity (four per cent) of nitrogen more ; consequently
it could not possibly be allantoin. However, I trusted my eye-
memory more than my analysis, and was quite sure that it was
allantoin, and the thing now to be done was to find the remains of
the substance previously analyzed in order to analyze it afresh.
I could describe the little glass in which it was with such pre-
cision that my assistant at last succeeded in picking it out from
among a couple of thousand other preparations. It looked exactly
like our new body, except that examination under the lens showed
that Gmelin, in the preparation of his allantoin, had purified it
with animal charcoal, some of which having passed through the
paper in the filtration had become mixed with the crystals.

Without the complete conviction which I had that the two
bodies were identical, the allantoin produced artificially from uric
acid would undoubtedly have been regarded as a new body, and
would have been designated by a new name, and one of the most
interesting relations of uric acid to one of the constituents of the
urine of the foetus of the cow would perhaps have remained for a
long time unobserved. In this manner it came to pass that every-
thing I saw remained intentionally or unintentionally fixed in
my memory with equal photographic fidelity. At a neighboring
soap-boiler's I saw the process of boiling soap, and learned what
" curd soap " and " fitting " are, and how white soap is made ; and
I had no little pleasure when I succeeded in showing a piece of
soap of my own making, perfumed with oil of turpentine. In the
workshop of the tanner and dyer, the smith and brass-founder, I
was at home, and ready to do any hand's turn.

In the market at Darmstadt I watched how a peripatetic dealer
in odds and ends made fulminating silver for his pea-crackers. I
observed the red vapors which were formed when he dissolved his
silver, and that he added to it nitric acid, and then a liquid which
smelt of brandy, and with Avhich he cleaned dirty coat-collars for
the people. With this bent of mind it is easy to understand that
my position at school was very dex)lorable ; I had no ear-memory
and retained nothing or very little of what is learned through this

VOL. XL. 46

658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sense ; I found myself in tlie most uncomfortable position in which
a boy could possibly be; languages and everything that is ac-
quired by their means, that gains praise and honor in the school,
were out of my reach ; and when the venerable rector of the gym-
nasium (Zimmermann), on one occasion of his examination of my
class, came to me and made a most cutting remonstrance with me
for my want of diligence, how I was the plague of my teachers
and the sorrow of my parents, and what did I think was to become
of me, and when I answered him that I would be a chemist, the
whole school and the good old man himself broke into an uncon-
trollable fit of laughter, for no one at the time had any idea that
chemistry was a thing that could be studied.

Since the ordinary career of a gymnasium student was not
open to me, my father took me to an apothecary at Heppenheim
in the Hessian Bergstrasse ; but at the end of ten months he was
so tired of me that he sent me home again to my father. I wished
to be a chemist, but not a druggist. The ten months sufQced to
make me completely acquainted alike with the use and the mani-
fold applications of the thousand and one different things which
are found in a druggist's shop.

Left to myself in this way, without advice and direction, I
completed my sixteenth year, and my persistent importunity at
last induced my father to give me permission to go to the Univer-
sity of Bonn ; whence I followed to Erlangen the Professor of
Chemistry, Kastner, who had been called to the Bavarian Univer-
sity. There arose at that time at the newly established University
of Bonn an extraordinary quickening of scientific life ; but the
degenerate philosophical methods of investigation, as they had
been embodied in Oken, and still worse in Wilbrand, had a most
pernicious influence on the branches of natural science, for it had
led alike in lecture and in study to a want of appreciation of ex-
periment and of an unprejudiced observation of Nature, which
was ruinous to many talented young men.

From the professional chair the pupil received an abundance
of ingenious contemplations ; but, bodiless as they were, nothing
could be made of them. The lectures of Kastner, who was con-
sidered a most eminent chemist, were without order, illogical, and
arranged just like the jumble of knowledge which I carried about
in my head. The relations which he discovered between phenom-
ena were somewhat after the following pattern :

" The influence of the moon upon the rain is clear, for as soon
as the moon is visible the thunderstorm ceases," or " the influence
of the sun's rays on water is shown by the rise of the water in the
shafts of mines, some of which can not be worked in the height
of summer." That we see the moon when the thunderstorm is
dispelled, and that the water rises in the mine when the brooks

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG. 659

which drive the pumps dry up in summer, was, of course, too
blunt an explanation for a clever lecture.

It was then a very wretched time for chemistry in Germany.
At most of the universities there was no special chair for chemis-
try ; it was generally handed over to the professor of medicine,
who taught it, as much as he knew of it, and that was little enough,
along with the branches of toxicology, pharmacology, materia
medica, practical medicine, and pharmacy. Many years after this
in Giessen, descriptive and comparative anatomy, physiology,
zoology, natural history, and botany were in one single hand.

While the labors of the great Swedish chemist, the English
and French natural philosophers, Humphry Davy, WoUaston,
Biot, Arago, Fresnel, Thenard, and Dulong, opened up entirely
new spheres of investigation, all these inestimable acquisitions
found no soil in Germany where they could bear fruit. Long
years of war had undermined the well-being of the people, and
external political pressure had brought in its train the desolation
of our universities, filled men with painful anxiety for many
years, and turned their desires and their strength in other direc-
tions. The national spirit had asserted its freedom and independ-
ence in ideal spheres, and by the destruction of belief in authority
had brought rich blessings in many ways — for example, in medi-
cine and philosophy ; only in physiology it had broken through
its natural limits, and wandered far beyond experience.

The goal of science and the fact that it has value only when it
is useful to life had almost dropped out of sight, and men amused
themselves in an ideal world which had no connection with the
real one. It was considered an almost debasing sentiment, and
one unworthy of an educated person, to believe that in the body
of a living being the crude and vulgar inorganic forces played
any part. Life and all its manifestations and conditions were
perfectly clear. Natural phenomena were clothed in bewitchingly
lovely dress, cut out and fitted by clever men, and this was called
philosophical investigation. Experimental instruction in chem-
istry was all but extinct at the universities, and only the high-
ly educated pharmacists, Klaproth, Hermbstadt, Valentin Rose,
Trommsdorff, and Buchholz, had themselves preserved it, but in
another department.

I remember, at a much later period, Prof. Wurzer, who held
the chair of chemistry at Marburg, showing me a wooden table
drawer, which had the property of producing quicksilver every
three months. He possessed an apparatus which mainly consisted
of a long clay pipe-stem, with which he converted oxygen into
nitrogen by making the porous pipe-stem red hot in charcoal, and
passing oxygen through it.

Chemical laboratories, in which instruction in chemical anal-

66o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ysis was imparted, existed nowhere at that time. What passed
by that name were more like kitchens filled with all sorts of fur-
naces and utensils for the carrying out of metallurgical or phar-
maceutical processes. No one really understood how to teach it.
I afterward followed Kastner to Erlangen, where he had prom-
ised to analyze some minerals with me ; but unfortunately he did
not himself know how to do it, and he never carried out a single
analysis with me.

The benefit which I gained through intercourse with other
students during my sojourn in Bonn and Erlangen was the dis-
covery of my ignorance in very many subjects which they brought
with them from school to the university, and since I got nothing
to do in chemistry I laid out all my energies to make up for my
previously neglected school studies. In Bonn and Erlangen small
numbers of students joined with me in a chemico-physical union,
in which every member in turn had to read a paper on the ques-
tion of the day, which, of course, consisted merely in a report on
the subjects of the essays which appeared monthly in Gilbert and
Schweigger's Journal,

In Erlangen, Schelling's lectures attracted me for a time, but
Schelling possessed no thorough knowledge in the province of
natural science, and the dressing up of natural phenomena with
analogies and in images, which was called exposition, did not
suit me. I returned to Darmstadt fully persuaded that I could
not attain my ends in Germany.

The dissertations of Berzelius — that is to say, the better trans-
lation of his handbook, which had a large circulation at that time
— were as springs in the desert. Mitscherlich, H. Rose, Wohler,
and Magnus had then repaired to Berzelius, in Stockholm ; but
Paris offered me means of instruction in many other branches of
natural science, as, for instance, physics, such as could be found
united in no other place. I made up my mind to go to Paris. I
was then seventeen and a half years old. My journey to Paris,
the way and manner in which I came in contact with Thenard,
Humboldt, Dulong, and with Gay-Lussac, and how the boy found
favor in the sight of those men, borders on the fabulous, and
would be out of place here. Since then it has frequently been my
experience that marked talent awakens in all men, I believe I may
say without exception, an irrepressible desire to bring about its
development. Each helps in his own way, and all together as if
they were acting in concert ; but talent only compels success if it
is united with a firm, indomitable will. External hindrances to
its development are in most cases very much less than those
which lie in men themselves ; for just as no one of the forces of
Nature, however mighty it may be, ever produces an effect by
itself alone, but always only in conjunction with other forces ; so

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG. 661

a man can only make valuable that whicli he learns ■without
trouble, or acquires readily, for which, as we say, he has a natural
gift, if he learns many other things in addition, which perhaps
cost him more trouble to acquire than other people.

Lessing says that talent really is will and icork, and I am very
much inclined to agree with him.

The lectures of Gay-Lussac, Thenard, Dulong, etc., in the Sor-
bonne, had for me an indescribable charm ; the introduction
of astronomical or mathematical method into chemistry, which
changes every problem when possible into an equation, and as-
sumes in every uniform sequence of two phenomena a quite cer-
tain connection of cause and effect, which, after it has been
searched for and discovered, is called " explanation " or " theory,"
had led the French chemists and physicists to their great discov-
eries. This kind of " theory " or " explanation " was as good as
unknown in Germany, for by these expressions was understood
not something " experienced," but always something which man
must add on and which he fabricates.

French exposition has, through the genius of the language, a
logical clearness in the treatment of scientific subjects very diffi-
cult of attainment in other languages, whereby Thenard and Gay-
Lussac acquired a mastery in experimental demonstration. The
lecture consisted of a judiciously arranged succession of phe-
nomena— that is to say, of experiments whose connection was com-
pleted by oral explanations. The experiments were a real delight
to me, for they spoke to me in a language I understood, and they
united with the lecture in giving definite connection to the mass
of shapeless facts which lay mixed up in my head without order
or arrangement. The antiphlogistic or French chemistry had, it
is true, brought the history of chemistry before Lavoisier to the
guillotine ; but one observed that the knife only fell on the shad-
ow, and I was much more familiar with the phlogistic writings
of Cavendish, Watt, Priestley, Kirwan, Black, Scheele, and Berg-
mann, than with the antiphlogistic ; and what was represented in
the Paris lectures as new and original facts appeared to me to be
in the closest relation to previous facts, so much so, indeed, that
when the latter were imagined away the others could not be.

I recognized, or more correctly perhaps the consciousness
dawned upon me, that a connection in accordance with fixed
laws exists not only between two or three, but between all chemi-
cal phenomena in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms ;
that no one stands alone, but each being always linked with an-
other, and this again with another, and so on, all are connected
with each other, and that the genesis and disappearance of things
is an undulatory motion in an orbit.

What impressed me most in the French lectures was their

662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

intrinsic truth, and the careful avoidance of all pretense in the
explanations ; it was the most complete contrast to the German
lectures, in which the whole scientific teaching had lost its solid
construction through the preponderance of the deductive method.

An accidental occurrence drew A. von Humboldt's attention to
me in Paris, and the interest which he took in me induced Gay-
Lussac to complete, in conjunction with me, a piece of work which
I had begun. In this manner I had the good fortune to enjoy
the closest intercourse with the great natural philosopher; he
worked with me as he had formerly worked with Thenard ; and
I can well say that the foundation of all my later work and of
my whole course was laid in his laboratory in the arsenal.

I returned to Germany, where through the school of Berzelius,
H. Rose, Mitscherlich, Magnus, and Wohler, a great revolution in
inorganic chemistry had already commenced. Through the sup-
port of von Humboldt's warm recommendation, an extraordinary
professorship of chemistry at Giessen was conferred upon me in
my twenty-first year.

My career in Giessen commenced in May, 1824. I always recall
with pleasure the twenty-eight years which I spent there : it was
as if Providence had led me to the little university. At a larger
university or in a larger place my energies would have been di-
vided and dissipated, and it would have been much more difficult,
and perhaps impossible, to reach the goal at which I aimed ; but
at Giessen everything was concentrated in work, and in this I
took passionate pleasure. The need for an institution in which
the students could be instructed in the art of chemistry, by which
I mean familiarity with chemical analytical operations, and skill
in the use of apparatus, was then being felt ; and hence it hap-
pened that, on the opening of my laboratory for teaching ana-
lytical chemistry and the methods of chemical research, students
by degrees streamed to it from all sides. As the numbers in-
creased I had the greatest difiiculty with the practical teaching
itself. In order to teach a large number at one time it was neces-
sary to have a systematic plan, or step-by-step method, which had
first to be thought out and put to the proof. The manuals which
several of my pupils have published later (Fresenius and Will)
contain essentially, with little deviation, the course which was
followed at Giessen ; it is now familiar in almost every labo-
ratory.

The production of chemical preparations was an object to
which I paid very particular attention; it is very much more
important than is usually believed, and one can more frequently
find men who can make very good analyses than such as are in a
position to produce a pure preparation in the most judicious way.
The formation of a preparation is an art, and at the same time a

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG. 663

qualitative analysis, and there is no other way of making one's
self acquainted with the various chemical properties of a body
than by first producing it out of the raw material, and then con-
verting it into its numerous compounds and so becoming ac-
quainted with them.

By ordinary analysis one does not learn by experience what an
important means of separation crystallization is in skillful hands ;
and just as little the value of an acquaintance with the peculiari-
ties of different solvents. Consider only an extract of a plant or
of flesh which contains half a dozen crystalline bodies in very
small quantities imbedded in extraneous matter, which almost en-
tirely masks the properties of the others ; and yet, in this magma,
we can recognize by means of chemical reactions the peculiarities
of every single body in the mixed mass, and learn to distinguish
what is a product of decomposition and what is not, in order to
be able to separate them afterward by means which will exert no
decomposing influence. An example of the great difiiculty of find-
ing the right way in such researches is aft'orded by the analysis of
bile by Berzelius. Of all the numerous substances which he has
described as its constituents no one is, properly speaking, con-
tained in the natural bile.

An extremely short time had been sufficient for the famous
pupils of the Swedish master to give a wonderful degree of per-
fection to mineral analysis, which depends on an accurate knowl-
edge of the properties of inorganic bodies ; their compounds and
their behavior to each other were studied in all directions by the
Swedish school with a keenness quite unusual previously and
even now unsurpassed. Physical chemistry, which investigates
the uniform relations between physical properties and chemical
composition, had already gained a firm foundation by the discov-
eries of Gay-Lussac and von Humboldt on the combining propor-
tions of bodies in the gaseous state, and those of Mitscherlich on
the relations between crystalline form and chemical composition;
and in chemical proportions the structure appeared to have re-
ceived its coping-stones and to stand forth completed. All that
foreign countries had acquired in by-gone times in the way of
discoveries now yielded rich fruit also in Germany.

Organic chemistry — or what is now called organic chemistry
— had then no existence. It is true that Thenard and Gay-Lussac,
Berzelius, Prout, and Dobereiner, had already laid the foundations
of organic analysis, but even the great investigations of Chevreul
upon the fatty bodies excited but little attention for many years.
Inorganic chemistry demanded too much attention, and, in fact,
monopolized the best energies.

The bent which I acquired in Paris was in a quite different
direction. Through the work which Gay-Lussac had done with

664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

me upon fulminating silver I was familiar with organic analysis,
and I very soon saw that all progress in organic chemistry de-
pended essentially upon its simplification ; for in this branch of
chemistry one has to do not with different elements which can he
recognized by their peculiar properties, but always with the same
elements whose relative proportions and arrangement determine
the properties of organic compounds. In organic chemistry an
analysis is necessary to do that for which a reaction suffices in
inorganic chemistry. The first years of my career in Giessen I
devoted almost exclusively to the improvement of the methods of
organic analysis, and the immediate result was that there began at
this little university an activity which had never before been seen.
For the solution of innumerable questions connected with
plants and animals, on their constituents, and on the reactions
accompanying their transformation in the organism, a kindly
fate brought together the most talented young men from all the
countries of Europe, and any one can imagine what an abundance
of facts and experiences I gained from so many thousands of
experiments and analyses, which were carried out every year, and
for so many years, by twenty and more indefatigable and skilled
young chemists.

Actual teaching in the laboratory, of which practiced assist-
ants took charge, was only for the beginners ; the progress of my
special students depended on themselves. I gave the task and
supervised the carrying out of it ; as the radii of a circle have all
their common center. There was no actual instruction ; I received
from each individual every morning a report upon what he had
done on the previous day, as well as his views on what he was en-
gaged upon. I approved or made my criticisms. Every one was
obliged to follow his own course. In the association and constant
intercourse with each other, and by each participating in the work
of all, every one learned from the others. Twice a week, in winter,
I gave a sort of review of the most important questions of the
day ; it was mainly a report on my own and their work combined
with the researches of other chemists.

We worked from break of day till nightfall. Dissipations and
amusements were not to be had at Giessen. The only complaint,
which was continually repeated, was that of the attendant (Aubel),
who could not get the workers out of the laboratory in the even-
ing, when he wanted to clean it. The remembrance of this so-
journ at Giessen awakened in most of my pupils, as I have fre-
quently heard, an agreeable sense of satisfaction for well-spent
time.

I had the great good fortune, from the commencement of my
career at Giessen, to gain a friend of similar tastes and similar
aims, with whom, after so many years, I am still knit in the bonds

JUSTUS VON LIEBIG. 66^

of warmest affection. While in me the predominating inclina-
tion was to seek out the points of resemblance in the behavior
of bodies or their compounds, he possessed an unparalleled fac-
ulty of perceiving their differences. A keenness of observation
was combined in him with an artistic dexterity, and an ingeni-
ousness in discovering new means and methods of research or
analysis such as few men possess. The achievement of our joint
work upon uric acid and oil of bitter almonds has frequently
been praised; it was his work. I can not sufficiently highly
estimate the advantage which the association with Wohler
brought to me in the attainment of my own as well as our
mutual aims, for by that association were united the peculiari-
ties of two schools — the good that was in each became effective
by co-operation. Without envy and without jealousy, hand in
hand, we pursued our way ; when the one needed help the other
was ready. Some idea of this relationship will be obtained if
I mention that many of our smaller pieces of work which bear
our joint names were done by one alone ; they were charming
little gifts which one presented to the other.

After sixteen years of the most laborious activity I collected
the results gained, so far as they related to plants and animals, in
my Chemistry applied to Agriculture and Physiology, two years
later in my Animal Chemistry, and the researches made in other
directions in my Chemical Letters. The last-mentioned was gen-
erally received as a popular work, which, to those who study it
more closely, it really is not, or was not at the time when it ap-
peared. Mistakes were made, not in the facts, but in the de-
ductions about organic reactions ; we were the first pioneers in
unknown regions, and the difficulties in the way of keeping on
the right path were sometimes insuperable. Now, when the paths
of research are beaten roads, it is a much easier matter ; but all
the wonderful discoveries which recent times have brought forth
were then our own dreams, whose realization we surely and with-
out doubt anticipated.

Here the manuscript ends, and it is to be hoped that more of it will yet be
found.

Liebig's reference to Wohler is very touching, and shows a side of his character
which all his pupils knew well ; they tell many genial stories illustrating his un-
selfishness and kindness of heart. One could have wished that he had not con-
sidered the stories "bordering on the fabulous," of how he "found favor in the
siiiht of numboldt, Gay-Lussac, and Thenard, out of place here." They would
have been far from out of place. Mr. Mu^pratt supplies one of these stories as he
heard it from Liebig's own lips, in tlie Munich Laboratory, as follows :

Liebig frequently spoke in most grateful terms of the kind
manner in which he — a youth barely eighteen — was received by
Gay-Lussac, Thenard, and other eminent chemists, in Paris.

666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In the summer of 1823 he gave an account of his analysis of
fulminating silver before the Academy. Having finished his
paper, as he was packing up his preparations, a gentleman came
up to him and questioned him as to his studies and future plans,
and, after a most exacting examination, ended by asking him to
dinner on the following Sunday. Liebig accepted the invitation,
but, through nervousness and confusion, forgot to ask the name
and address of his interviewer. Sunday came, and poor Liebig
was in despair at not being able to keep his engagement.

The next day a friend came to him and said, " What on earth
did you mean by not coming to dine with von Humboldt yester-
day, who had invited Gay-Lussac and other chemists to meet
you ? " "I was thunderstruck,^' said Liebig, " and rushed off, as
fast as I could run, to von Humboldt's lodgings, and made the
best excuses I could." The great traveler, satisfied with the ex-
planation, told him it was unfortunate, as he had several members
of the Academy at his house to meet him, but thought he could
make it all right if he would come to dinner next Sunday. He
went, and there made the acquaintance of Gay-Lussac, who was
so struck with the genius and enthusiasm of the youth that he
took him into his private laboratory, and continued, in conjunc-
tion with him, the investigation of the fulminating compounds.—
Chemical News.

THE COTTON mDUSTRY IN BRAZIL.

Bt JOHN C. BEANNEE, Ph.D.,

rORMEELT ASSISTANT GEOLOGIST OF THE GEOLOGICAL StJEVET OF BRAZIL.

COTTON is indigenous to Brazil. The oldest documents relat-
ing to that country contain many references to its existence
there and to the uses made of it by the Indians at the time of the
discovery. There is no indication, however, that it was then culti-
vated to any considerable extent by the natives. The picture of
the indifference of the aborigines in regard to such matters is
vividly suggested by the manner in which a few straggling plants
are allowed to grow, even nowadays, about the houses of the civil-
ized Indians, and by the poor classes generally throughout the
interior of the country.

As soon, however, as the Portuguese came to Brazil, bringing
with them a knowledge of the cultivation of cotton and of its
uses, there was established an industry which has been an impor-
tant factor in the material prosperity and development of the
country. Although by the end of the seventeenth century cotton
was quite generally cultivated throughout Brazil, it was used
almost exclusively for domestic purposes until the last half of the

TBE COTTON INDUSTRY IN BRAZIL. 667

eighteentli century. The earliest record of its exportation is given
incidentally in the story of the shipwreck of Jorge de Albuquer-
que Coelho, who sailed from Pernambuco in May, 1565. The
passage was a stormy one, and the sea became so rough at one
time that they were obliged to throw part of their cargo over-
board. " And seeing that all this was of no avail, and that the
waves grew the higher, as if they wished to overwhelm us, we
threw overboard the artillery and many boxes of sugar, and many
bales of cotton."

Early Uses. — In early times — indeed, as late as 1747 — cotton
thread and cotton cloth were used throughout Brazil in lieu of
money. In 1670 it was complained that, unless the exportation of
cotton cloth was prohibited, " not a yard of cloth, or rather no
money, would be found in Maranhao." Balls of cotton thread
were used as small change, and circulated as such in all the shops
and in all kinds of financial transactions. The manufacturers of
these balls do not appear to have been always scrupulously honest,
for the Legislature was finally obliged to take action to prevent
the fraud of putting pieces of cloth, rags, and other such things
in them. The trade in cotton between the neighboring captain-
cies became so large that the authorities of Maranhao, in order to
keep all the money at home, prohibited the exportation of cotton
from that place, and it was not until fifty years later (1756) that
this law was repealed.

The manufacture of cotton cloth was carried on to such an ex-
tent (" the people generally, even the senators, were accustomed
to dress in clothing made of cotton ") that complaint was made to
the King of Portugal by the Portuguese merchants that it was
interfering with their export trade with the colony and with the
receipts of the royal treasury. Instructions were, therefore, given
(January 5, 1785) to the agents of the crown in Rio de Janeiro to
prohibit all spinning-factories, and, if necessary, to confiscate the
looms. This prohibition, however, did not extend to the factories
and looms for making coarse cotton cloth, such as was used for
clothing slaves and for like purposes.

Yet in the face of these obstacles cotton culture in Brazil
rapidly increased. The only statistics to be obtained of the expor-
tation of cotton up to the end of the eighteenth century are those
of the captaincy or province of Maranhao. In 1760 Maranhao
exported 24,960 pounds of cotton ; and in 1800, 5,529,408 pounds.
That captaincy, however, stood only second among those export-
ing cotton ; Pernambuco exported more than twice as much as
Maranhao, while Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Pard, together ex-
ported about as much as Maranhao. Cotton was also one of the
principal products of Rio Negro, Piauhy, Rio Grande do Norte,
Parahyba, Alagoas, and Sergipe. These facts give us an idea of

668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tlie extent of cotton culture in Brazil at the end of the eighteenth
century.

When, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the royal
family of Portugal came to Brazil, it ceased to be a mere col-
ony ; the empire was established, and a new impetus was given
to all industries. The ports were made free to friendly for-
eign powers, and the decree prohibiting the use of looms was
revoked.

The Cotton Kegion. — The territory in Brazil capable of
yielding cotton is coextensive with the country itself. From Sao
Paulo all along the coast to the Amazon, and, for that matter,
throughout the entire country, cotton might be grown in almost
unlimited quantities. In reality, however, it is only cultivated to
any considerable extent in the drier regions of the north, and
along the valley of the Rio Sao Francisco, and in some parts of
the province of Minas Geraes.

In the north — i. e., to the north of Sergipe — a belt along the
coast about fifty miles wide is, for the most part, devoted to the
production of sugar. Immediately beyond this is the region in
which cotton is actually grown, the width of which region de-
pends almost solely upon the distance which the j)roducers feel
themselves able to transport it.

As cotton culture, replaced by the cultivation of sugar, has re-
ceded from the coast, the question of transportation has become a
very serious one with Brazilian planters. Roads are usually so
poor and markets so far away that the planters necessarily lose
the greater part of their profits in the expense of transportation.
The remedy generally recommended is railways; but railways,
where they already exist, have not in all cases been found a
remedy for this state of affairs. Cotton sent by rail from the in-
terior of the province of Sao Paulo to the seaboard at Santos pays
out in freight about thirteen per cent of its value. The planters
of Pernambuco pay out from twenty-five to thirty per cent of the
value of their cotton in freights. Along the large streams, where
it is possible to ship cotton by water, it can be moved with some
facility. As a rule, however, transportation is on horseback or
muleback, and it is thus brought to market often for a distance
of from three hundred to four hundred miles, trips sometimes
requiring three or four months for a troop of mules, over roads
that are nothing more than bridle-paths, and often very bad ones
at that.

Varieties cultivated. — It is not to be supposed that only
native varieties of cotton are cultivated in Brazil. Indeed, the
three varieties best known to and used by Brazilian planters are
all exotic. The crioulo is a large bush from five to fifteen feet in
height, is very hardy, and, if properly cared for, will last two or

THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN BRAZIL. 669

tliree years. The smooth, black seeds of the crioido * cling so
firmly to each other that they separate only when pressed very
strongly between the fingers, and the fiber can be stripped from
them without their being separated and without leaving any lint
upon them. The cotton, when ripe, clings firmly and compactly
within the boll, and it is for this reason more difiicult to pick.

The variety known as the quehradinlio is distinguished from
the preceding by having seeds which readily separate from each
other. The seeds are fewer in number and the bolls smaller than
in the crioido. Both of these varieties, and the yellow variety
m.entioned below, are known as " tree cotton." One occasionally
hears of tree cotton lasting from five to ten years ; but, while this
may be literally true, the crops borne by these old plants are
hardly worth the picking.

The herbaceous variety (called lierhaceo) is an annual plant,
growing from three to five feet high, and is identical with that
generally cultivated in the United States. The seeds separate in
the bolls, and the ripe cotton hangs from them in large flocks.
This si^ecies produces more fiber, sometimes from five to six times
as much as either of the preceding kinds, but the quality is con-
sidered much inferior. The yield on a given piece of ground of
the herbaceous cotton is four times as large as that of tree cotton,
and in picking one can gather twice as much from the herbaceous
in a given time. Herbaceous cotton is said to have been intro-
duced from the United States, and there is no doubt about its
having been taken to Brazil within a comparatively short period.

The only other variety deserving attention is the yellow or
light brown, which, however, is not grown in any considerable
quantities, owing undoubtedly to its color and to Its small yield
of fiber. The color is not generally considered an attractive one,
but it is valued for certain household articles, such as hammocks,
in which neutral tints and fast colors are desirable.

Cultivation.— Substantially the same system of cultivation
is used to-day that was in vogue three hundred years ago.
Auguste de Saint-Hilare wrote in 1812, " All the planter has to
do is to burn off the woods and plant his seed at the proper sea-
son." This is the whole story. There is no uprooting of stumps,
no digging out of sprouts, no breaking up with the plow, no
preparation of the soil, no laying out of furrows, no cultivation
other than the occasional chopping out with the hoe of weeds or
sprouts.

Rotation of crops is almost entirely unknown. Fields are sel-
dom laid out with any definite forms, as they would be if the

* This variety takes its name frojii the black color of the seeds, the word crioulo being
Bometimes applied to negroes in Brazil.

670 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

plow were in common use, but vary in shape to suit the conven-
ience of the planters, who adapt themselves to the natural features
of the surface and character of the soil. If the place to he plant-
ed is forest, whether heavy or of only a few years' growth, the
laborers, with bill-hooks for the undergrowth and axes for the
trees, begin clearing it from one side, felling the trees and under-
growth toward the open space, and leaving stumps of any height
that may make the work of clearing easier. No effort is made to
pile the brush in heaps. This work is done in the dry season,
and the brush is allowed to lie for several months, until the ap-
proach of the rainy season, when the whole, being thoroughly
dried by long exposure to the rays of a very hot sun, is set on fire.
The want of arrangement of the branches permits the burning of
all the leaves and of the small limbs, twigs, etc., but the larger
branches and the trunks of the fallen trees are only blackened by
the passing fire. A more desolate sight than one of these " new
grounds " can not be imagined. Sometimes a few of the half-
burned pieces are piled together and set on fire, but usually they
are allowed to lie where they happen to have fallen. The soil is
now ready for the seed. The laborers go over the field with large,
heavy hoes, and with powerful blows open holes to receive the seeds
at intervals more or less irregular. The cotton seeds are planted
in these holes, and with the foot or hand covered with a little
earth. The spaces between the hills are generally supposed to be
from five to eight palms, according to the fertility of the soil.
Sometimes rows are attempted in a rude, rambling way, and in
such cases the hills are about six palms apart in one direction and
eight in the other, according as the stumps and logs and half-
consumed limbs may permit.

The planting season varies in different localities according to
the time when the rains generally set in. Most of it is done in
the months of February and March, though planting-time may
vary a month or two either way, according to the season and the
nature of the ground, low, rich soil generally being planted later
than the dry uplands. Difference is also made with the kind of
cotton, the tree cotton generally being planted a month or two
earlier than the herbaceous. Sometimes other things are planted
between the rows of cotton, such as beans, rice, or corn.

Shortly after the planting the season of rains sets in ,and cot-
ton, weeds, sprouts, and all come up and grow with a vigor and
rapidity only to be seen in the tropics. When the cotton is about
to be choked out by useless vegetation, the hoes are sent to chop
it out — an operation that is performed two or three times, or as
often as circumstances are supposed to require it, during the year.
The amount of cleaning required by a field depends upon the
richness of the soil and upon the length and character of the win-

THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN BRAZIL. 671

ter or wet season, rich soil and long, wet winters producing more
weeds and requiring more attention. So far as tillage is con-
cerned, this chopping out of the weeds and sprouts is the nearest
approximation to cultivation the plants receive, and the soil natu-
rally becomes as hard as a brick.

Insects. — While Brazil is the home of the cotton plant, it is
at the same time the home of insects affecting that plant. Besides
the " cotton-worm " {Aletia argellacea), which occurs in that coun-
try at times in vast swarms very much as it does in the Southern
States, there are other moths whose larvse attack the cotton in a
similar manner. The "boll- worm" {Heliothis armigera) is also a
native of Brazil, and occasionally does great injury to the cotton
crop. But, while these insects exist in Brazil under climatic con-
ditions more favorable to their multiplication than are those of
the United States, these favorable circumstances are offset very
materially by the vast number of insect enemies which these same
climatic conditions foster. As a rule, the Brazilian planter feels
himself utterly at the mercy of Fate when the " cotton-worms "
attack his crop. N"o remedies for the evil are known, and none are
ever attempted. They seem to think that to combat the plague
would be to " fly in the face of Providence " ; that when God wishes
it stopped he'll send rains and stop it himself. The percentage of
loss through these insects varies greatly, but I have known of
many instances of a loss of fifty per cent of the crop. Such a loss,
however, is unusually large for that country.

Picking. — Cotton-picking does not assume the importance in
Brazil that it does in the Southern United States. Fields are
never large, and picking is done more at the leisure and conven-
ience of the planter. With the varieties of tree cotton there is but
little risk of loss in leaving the ripe cotton in the bolls longer
than could be done with the herbaceous variety, for the seeds of
the former, being more compact when they ripen, do not cause the
fiber to thrust the mass in a loose flock from the boll, as is the
case with the latter. The cotton-pickers carry baskets or bags
with them, in which the cotton is placed as it is gathered, very
much as is the custom in this country.

Ginning. — What kind of a gin to use has been a question of
importance among Brazilian planters. The question was not be-
tween the various kinds of saw-gins, but between saw-gins and
the old-fashioned way of cleaning cotton with two small wooden
cylinders revolving close to each other.

The roller-gin is simply two short wooden cylinders, less than
an inch in diameter, geared together and revolved close to each
other after the fashion of a modern clothes-wringer. The raw cot-
ton is fed slowly between the cylinders, and the seeds are removed
by being pinched from the cotton and thrust back on the side from

672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

•wliich. it is fed. This macliine is objectionable on account of the
slowness with wliich it operates, and also on account of its often
crushing the seeds and thus soiling the staple.

The saw-gin was introduced into Brazil during the civil war
in the United States, when it was necessary to put into the mar-
ket at once a large supply of cotton. The saw-gin is said to break
the fiber of the cotton much more than the roller-gin, and for that
reason many efforts have been made by the English spinners to
suppress it. But in spite of these efforts the saw-gin remains
master of the situation, and nowadays it is but rarely that any
other kind is seen in Brazil, even in the remote interior. In every
community in which cotton is grown there is at least one gin, the
proprietor of which buys the uuginned cotton from the planters
and small farmers, cleans and bales it, and sends it to market.
No use is now made of the cotton seeds. They are usually thrown
out as so much waste. The cattle are allowed to eat what they
choose, and sometimes they are used for fuel.

Home Coxsumption. — Owing to the ease with which cotton is
produced, the extent of its culture, the difficulty of getting the
raw material into market from remote points, the evenness and
mildness of the temperature, which, as a rule, does not require the
warmer clothing of a more rigorous climate, the number of do-
mestic purposes for which it is used, and the high tariff iipon for-
eign manufactured goods, the home consumption of cotton is very
large, and has steadily increased. In consequence of the decree
prohibiting the use of looms, the cotton consumed in the country,
until the beginning of the present century, was manufactured
in the most aboriginal manner. About 1845 cotton factories be-
gan to spring up, and there are now no less than fifty spinning
and weaving establishments in Brazil.

The manufacturing industry is at present confined almost
wholly to the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Geraes, S5o
Paulo, and Bahia, where the demand for the better grades of cot-
ton cloth is greatest. But the factories have by no means done
away with direct domestic consumption of raw material. To the
traveler in the interior of Brazil there is no more familiar sight
than that of spinning with the ancient distaff and spindle. In
some parts of the country this custom is so common that the chil-
dren learn it as a matter of course, and it would be very difiicult
to find a person who did not know how to spin. In order to show
the wide-spread knowledge of this art in the interior, a Brazilian
gentleman once assured me that it might be taken for granted that
the then Brazilian prime minister could spin cotton in this aborigi-
nal fashion. Very nearly all the hammocks used throughout the
northern part of Brazil, together with considerable quantities of
coarse cloth, are still made of thread spun in this manner. The

THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN BRAZIL. 673

direct domestic consumption is about 1,102,000 pounds annually,
which, with the amount made up by the factories and used in the
country, makes the whole consumption of raw material in Brazil
18,481,600 pounds annually since the factories began operation.

Production. — The total export from the whole empire from
1851 to 1876, inclusive, was 1,095,304,075 pounds. Add 27,900,000
pounds for the direct domestic consumption for the same period,
and 69,270,400 pounds for the amount used by the factories during
the four years from 1872 to 1876, and we have as the production
of cotton by the whole empire, during the twenty-four years from
1851 to 1876, an average of 74,680,700 pounds per annum, or about
twice as much as that of the State of Arkansas.

During the civil war in the United States, the exportation of
cotton from Brazil assumed proportions hitherto unknown to that
country. From the year 1850 to 1861 the average annual amount
of cotton exported was 28,300,000 pounds. The exports rapidly
increased from 21,400,000 in 1801 to 102,600,000 in 1868. As the
United States recovered from the effects of the war, the amount
of cotton exported from Brazil, although still large and fluctuat-
ing from year to year, was gradually decreasing, until in 1876 the
exportation had fallen to 63,609,000 pounds. An impetus, how-
ever, was given to cotton culture in Brazil by the civil war in the
United States which has been of great permanent benefit to the
industry in that country.

Cotton in Brazil grows on its native soil, and, it is to be pre-
sumed, under climatic and other conditions best adapted to its
highest development. But, though Brazil began to export cotton
more than a hundred years before the United States, her annual
product to-day is only about one eighteenth as much as our own.
To be sure, the population is only one fifth as large as ours, but
there almost the whole population lives in a cotton-growing
region, while only a small part of our people live in the cotton
belt.

Under normal conditions Brazil can scarcely become a com-
petitor of the United States in cotton production ; but the disap-
pearance of slavery and the consequent adoption of some system
of small farming will, in the near future, materially increase the
present production. Slavery has fostered a remarkable conserva-
tism in agriculture, which must, with the aid of educated planters,
soon disappear. Cotton-factories are already rapidly springing
up and prospering, and the day is not far distant when they will
supply the Brazilian market.

The same agricultural tools and methods now employed by the
average planters were in use more than two hundred years ago — ■
methods learned from their Portuguese ancestors and from their
African slaves. It is far from my intention, however, to criticise

TOL. XL. — 46

6/4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

these metliods or the men who use them. The climate in which
they live and the circumstances which have produced and re-
tained these methods are so entirely different from our climate
and our surroundings that any criticism from our standpoint
would almost necessarily be unjust. The lack of capital and the
lack of common roads are serious matters, no doubt, but they are
not insuperable difficulties. Insect plagues that destroy from a
fourth to a half of their crops are great drawbacks, but such
questions should be regarded, not as visitations of God, before
which man is powerless, but as practical matters to be met and
dealt with as our planters are meeting and dealing with similar
plagues in this country.

DARWINISM IN THE NURSERY.

By LOUIS KOBINSON, M. D.

WITHIN quite recent times we have learned that such seem-
ingly trivial things as nursery rhymes and fairy tales are
of the greatest importance in illustrating some points of the his-
tory and affinities of the human race, and also, in a less degree, in
indicating the character of the ideas of our early ancestors con-
cerning the forces and phenomena of Nature.

The value of the intense conservatism of the nursery in thus
preserving for us, in an almost unchanged form (like ants in the
resin of the Tertiary epoch or mammoths in the frozen tundra of
the Quaternary), relics of the thoughts and customs of long ago
has only begun to be appreciated ; and doubtless if the nursery
were less of a close preserve to the poachers and priers of science,
and, like the beehive and the ant-hill, were available for purposes
of investigation or experiment, we might considerably add to our
knowledge concerning the history and habits of primitive man.
At present there is a gap between embryology and anthropology
which has never been filled up ; and, oddly enough, with one or
two exceptions, there have been hitherto no attempts to make use
of the abundant material close at hand for the purpose of filling
it. In this essay I propose to bring forward a few results of re-
searches that have been carried out during several years under
rather unusually favorable circumstances, in the hope that in some
humble degree I may contribute to this end.

Some of the results obtained have been extraordinary, and the
hesitation with which they have been received by some of my
friends well versed in physiology and anthropology shows that
hitherto the facts have escaped attention. They are, however,
easily verified, and in several instances a single experiment per-
formed in presence of a skeptic has cut short the controversy in a

DARWINISM IN THE NURSERY. 675

satisfactory manner. Many of the inferences drawn are no doubt
mucli more open to question, and tliey are liere put forward chiefly
with the purpose of drawing the attention of those much better
able to judge of the value and bearing of the facts than the present
writer.

It is curious how little has been written on the natural history
of the human infant in its normal state. "We have, of course, an
abundant medical literature on the ailments and care of young
children, but the many eminent physicians who have written on
the subject have confined their attention almost entirely to abnor-
mal or diseased conditions. Even in studying the healthy physi-
ological processes the primary idea has been to gain the kind of
knowledge which would be available in the treatment of disease
rather than that which might illustrate the history of the develop-
ment of the race, and this may easily account for many facts of
very considerable value for the latter purpose being overlooked
or not appreciated at their proper value.

It is plain that a typically healthy infant, in which Nature's
processes go on without the interference of medical art, will, after
the first crisis of its entry on an independent existence is over,
scarcely come under the notice of the physician at all.

The three classes of persons who are brought into close enough
contact with the objects under discussion to study their habits and
characteristics are medical men, nurses, and parents. The first
have been already dealt with. Of the second class we may say
that their knowledge, although doubtless profound, and derived
both from tradition and observation, does not seem very available
for the purposes of science. This has hitherto been my experi-
ence, for although in nearly every case where questions were asked
there was every assumption and appearance of superior erudition,
yet it seemed almost impossible to tap the supply.

Parents, as a rule, from the very nature of their relationship to
their offspring, are obviously unable to look on them with the cold,
impartial gaze of the scientific investigator. At any rate, experi-
ence has proved that very little has resulted from their observa-
tions. The parental bias must, more or less, vitiate results ; and
the average mother, in spite of many unquestioned merits, is about
as competent to take an unprejudiced view of the facts bearing
on the natural history of her infant as a "West African negro
would do to carry out an investigation of the anatomy and physi-
ology of a fetich.

There are some illustrious exceptions, and Darwin himself, in
his Expression of the Emotions and Descent of Man, gives an ac-
count of some very interesting observations on several of his own
children when infants. Several salient traits seem, however, to
have completely escaped him, and some of these, which will be

676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dealt with, in tliis paper, have a most important bearing on the
argument on which he was then laying most stress, viz., that man
is descended from an arboreal quadrumanous ancestor. The fact
that such important and easily ascertained characteristics as those
alluded to should have been passed over by one so keenly observ-
ant of all phenomena bearing upon his theory might suggest that
the great man was scarcely so supreme in his own nursery as he
was in the wider field of research, and that his opportunities for
investigation were to some extent limited by the arbitrary and
inflexible rules of this household department. In fact, the sup-
posed interest of the Darwinian race, when conflicting with the
interests of the Darwinian theory, appear to have become para-
mount somewhat to the detriment of the latter.

It has been well said that the develoi^ment of the individual
from the single germ-cell to maturity is an epitome of the
infinitely longer development of the race from the simplest form
of life to its present condition. No branch of science, not even
paleontology, has thrown so much light on the evolution theory
as the study of the structure and progress of the embryo up to the
time of birth. There seems, however, no reason why embryology
should stop here. An animal until independent of parental care,
and even beyond that point, until the bodily structures and func-
tions are those of an adult, is still, strictly speaking, an embryo ;
and we may learn much of its racial history by observing the
peculiarities of its anatomy and habits of life.

For instance, among our domestic animals, horses and cattle
live very much in the same manner, and thrive equally well graz-
ing in open pastures. Yet a brief examination of the young of
each shows that the habits and habitats of their resj^ective wild
ancestors were widely different. A foal from birth is conspicuous
for the development of its legs, and when a few days old can gal-
lop almost as fast as ever it will in its life. It makes no attempt
at concealment beyond retiring behind its dam, and it carries its
head high, evidently on the alert to see danger and flee from it.
A young calf, on the contrary, is not much longer in the \eg in
proportion than its parents (I exclude, of course, the breeds artifi-
cially produced within quite recent times), and has but an indif-
ferent turn of speed, and it is slow and stupid in noticing its sur-
roundings. It has, however, one powerful and efficient instinct
of self-preservation ; for if, as is often the case in a bushy pasture,
the mother leaves it under cover while she goes to graze, it will
lie as still as death, and allow itself to be trodden on rather than
betray its hiding-place. Hence we see that the ancestors of our
domestic horses inhabited open plains where there was little or
no cover, and that they escaped by quickly observing the approach
of a foe and by speed. Wild cattle, on the contrary, as is still

DARWINISM /iV THE NURSERY. 677

seen in some parts of Texas and Australia, never from choice
stray far from the shelter of the woods ; and their ancestors, when
threatened, lay couched among the bushes like deer, in the hope
of escaping observation. It is very remarkable how quickly
horses and cattle, though domesticated for thousands of genera-
tions, during which long period many of their wild instincts and
habits have been entirely in abeyance, regain all the old power of
self-preservation proper to the wild state, and often in a single
generation become as acute in powers of scent and vision, and
other means of escaping from their enemies, as animals which
have never been tamed. There are at present probably no animals
so alert and difficult to approach as the " brumbies," of Australia.
In no way could more eloquently be shown the immense stretch
of time during which these qualities were formed and became
ingrained in the very nature and structure of their possessors than
by comparing them with the trivial and evanescent effects of
many centuries of domestication.

In the case of our own race it has often been observed that
schoolboys present many points of resemblance to savages both in
their methods of thinking — especially about abstract subjects —
and in their actions. Younger children without a doubt also re-
flect some of the traits of their remote progenitors. If, as in the
case of the calf and the foal, we look for traces of habits of self-
preservation that for incalculably long periods were most neces-
sary for the safety of the individual (and therefore for the preser-
vation of the race), we shall find that such habits exist, and are
impossible to explain on any other hypothesis than that they were
once of essential service.

Take, for instance, the shyness of very young children and
their evident terror and distress at the approach of a stranger.
At first sight it seems quite unaccountable that an infant a few
months old, who has experienced nothing but the utmost kindness
and tender care from every human being that it has seen, should
cling to its nurse and show every sign of alarm when some person
new to it approaches. Infants vary much in this respect, and the
habit is not by any means universal, though it is far more often
present than absent. This would suggest that, whatever its origin,
it was not for any very long period (in the evolutionary sense) ab-
solutely necessary to preserve the species from extinction. Darwin
merely alludes to the shyness of children as probably a remnant
of a habit common to all wild creatures. We need not, however,
go back to any remote ancestral form to find a state of affairs in
which it might prove of the greatest service. We know that the
cave-dwellers of the Dordogne Valley were cannibals, and that
much later, when the races that piled together the Danish
"kitchen middens" lived on the shores of the Baltic and German

678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Oceans, they were very mucli such, savages as the present inhabit-
ants of Tierra del Fuego, and lived after the same fashion. Like
the Fuegians, they were probably divided into small clans, each
of a few families, and these, from conflicting interests and other
causes, would be constantly at war. The earlier palaeolithic sav-
ages, living in caves and rock shelters, would be even more isolated
and uncompromising in their treatment of strangers, for the
game of any given district would only be sufficient to support a
few. If in our day

" Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Ablior each other, mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations,"

in the time of palseolithic and early neolithic man every district
the size of an English parish would be the hunting-ground of a
clan, with fierce enemies on every side. In such a state of affairs
a stranger (unless he were safely tied to a stake) would be a most
undesirable person in proximity to the wigwam and the pica-
ninnies.

If he paid a call it would very likely be — in the scarcity of
other game — with the purpose of carrying off a tender foe for
table use. Under such circumstances the child who ran to its
mother, or fled into the dark recesses of the cave, upon first spying
an intruder would be more likely to survive than another of a
more confiding disposition. Often, during the absence of the men
on a hunting expedition, a raid would be made, and all the women
and children that could be caught carried away or killed. The
returning warriors would find their homes desolate, and only those
members of their families surviving who, by chance or their own
action, had escaped the eyes of the spoilers. On the approach of
an enemy — and " stranger " and " enemy " would be synonymous —
the child which first ran or crawled to its mother, so that she could
catch it up and dash out of the wigwam and seek the cover of the
woods, might be the only one of all the family to survive and leave
offspring. Naturally the instinct which caused the child to turn
from the stranger to the mother would be perpetuated ; and from
the frequency of the habit at the present day it seems probable
that many of our ancestors were so saved from destruction. We
must remember that the state of society in which such occurrences
would be frequent lasted many thousand years, and that probably
scarcely a generation was exempt from this particular and unpleas-
ant form of influence.

When we bear in mind that the play of young animals is
almost always mimic war, it is well worthy of note how very early
young children will take to the game of " hide and seek.'^ I have
seen a child of a year old who, with scarcely any teaching, would

DARWINISM IN THE NURSERY. 679

liide beliind the curtains and pretend to be in great alarm wlien
discovered. Probably the readiness with which infants play at
" bo-peep," and peer round the edge of a cradle curtain, and then
suddenly draw back into hiding, is traceable to a much earlier
ancestor. Here we see the remains of a habit common to nearly
all arboreal animals, and the cradle curtain, or chair, or what not,
is merely a substitute for a part of the trunk of a tree behind
which the body is supposed to be hidden, while the eyes, and as
little else as possible, are exposed for a moment to scrutinize a
possible enemy and then quickly withdrawn.

It is remarkable how quickly very young children notice and
learn to distinguish different domestic animals. I have known
several cases in which an infant under a year old, which could not
talk at all, has recognized and imitated the cries of sheep, cows,
dogs, and cats, and evidently knew a horse from an ox. Not
infrequently I have heard great surprise expressed by parents at
the quickness with which a baby would perceive some animal a
long distance off, or when from other causes it was so inconspicu-
ous as to escape the eyes of older persons. Pictures of animals,
too, have a great fascination, and the child is never tired of hear-
ing its playmate roar like a lion or bray like an ass when looking
at them in the picture-book. This may seem of trivial import ;
but it is worth while to remember that the baby's forefathers for
several thousand generations depended upon their knowledge of
the forms and ways of wild beasts in order to escape destruction,
either from starvation or from being overcome and devoured in
contests with them ; and that any and every individual who was
a dunce at this kind of learning was in a short time eliminated.
Hence an aptness to notice and gain a knowledge of different
animals was essential to those who wished to survive, and a
faculty so necessary, and so constantly operative through long
ages, would be likely to leave traces in after-generations.

Among all arboreal apes the ability firmly to hold on to the
branches is, of course, extremely important, and in consequence
they have developed a strong power of grip in the hands. The
late Frank Buckland compares the hands of an anthropoid ape to
grapnels, from their evident adaptation to this end. Nor does
this power exist only among adults, for although most apes, when
at rest, nurse their young on one arm, just as does a mother of
our own species, when, as often happens, they are fleeing from an
enemy, such as a leopard or some other tree-climbing carnivorous
animal, the mother would need all her hands to pass from branch
to branch with sufficient celerity to escape. Under such circum-
stances the infant ape must cling on to its mother as best it can ;
and naturalists who have repeatedly seen a troop of monkeys in
full flight state that the young ones as a rule hang beneath the

68o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

necks and breasts of the mothers, holding on by the long hair of
their shoulders and sides. This was the case with a young Rhoe-
sus monkey born in the Zoological Gardens. Wallace, in his
Malay Archipelago, gives an account of a very young orang
which he secured after shooting the mother. He states that the
baby orang was in most points as helpless as a human infant, and
lay on its back, quite unable to sit upright. It had, however, an
■extraordinary power of grip, and when it had once secured a hold
-of his beard he was not able to free himself without help. On his
taking it home to his house in Sarawak he found that it was very
unhappy unless it could seize and hold on to something, and would
lie on its back and sprawl about with its limbs until this could be
accomplished. He first gave it some bars of wood to hold on to,
but, finding it preferred something hairy, he rolled up a buffalo-
skin, and for a while the little creature was content to cling to this,
until, by trying to make it perform other maternal duties and
fill an empty stomach, the poor orphan mias nearly choked itself
with mouthfuls of hair and had to be deprived of its comforter.
The whole story of this poor little ape is both amusing and
pathetic, as well as instructive, and I can not do better than refer
those not already acquainted with it to the book, which is as a
whole as good an introduction for the young student to the science
of evolution as could well be found.

This power to hold on to the parent in any emergency may be
com_[>ared to the galloping power of the young foal and the instinct
of concealment in the calf ; it is the one chief means of self-preser-
vation adopted by the young of the arboreal quadrumana. During
long epochs, impossible to measure by years, it would constantly
be exercised ; and it is plain that every infant ape that failed to
exercise it, or which was physically unable from any cause to
cling to its mother, when pursued by an agile foe, would either
fall to the ground or be devoured among the branches. When
we consider the harassed and precarious life of all wild creatures
and the number of their enemies, it becomes apparent that scarcely
an individual would be exempt from being many times put to the
test, and the habit would, by the survival of those only which
were able to maintain their grip, become more and more confirmed,
until it became an integral part of the nature of all quadrumana
and their descendants.

This being so, it occurred to me to investigate the powers of
grip in young infants ; for if no such power were present, or if the
grasp of the hands proved only to be equally proportionate to any
other exhibition of muscular strength in those feeble folk, it
would either indicate that our connection with quadrumana was
of the slightest and most remote description, or that man had some
other origin than the Darwinian philosophy maintains.

DARWINISM IN THE NURSERY. 68 1

In Tlie Luck of Roaring Camp every one will remember the
expression of one of Bret Harte's mining ruffians after lie liad
passed through the shanty containing the newly born " Luck "
and the corpse of the wretched mother. " He wrastled with my
finger," said Mr. Kentuck, regarding that member with curiosity,
and characteristically adding some adjectives more emphatic than
to the point. On reading the story aloud in company several years
ago a discussion arose as to whether the novelist was as correct an
observer of infant human nature as he doubtless was of the
vagaries of the pious cut-throats and chaste courtesans of the
Pacific slope in the golden days of '49, and considerable doubt
was thrown on the statement of Mr. Kentuck, since it did not
seem probable that so gelatinous and flabby a creature as a new-
born babe could " wrastle " (and prevail) even with a finger. Sub-
sequent observation proved that the novelist here did not go
beyond Nature's warrant, and that, whatever doubts we may have
of the disinterestedness of Mr. Oakhurst, or the constancy of
" Miggles," " The Luck " was drawn true to type.

Finding myself placed in a position in which material was
abundant, and available for reasonable experiment, I commenced
a series of systematic observations with the purpose of finding out
what proportion of young infants had a noticeable power of grip,
and what was the extent of the power. I have now records of
upward of sixty cases in which the children were under a month
old, and in at least half of these the experiment was tried within
an hour of birth. The results as given below are, as I have already
indicated, both curious and unexpected.

In every instance, with only two exceptions, the child was able
to hang on to the finger or a small stick three quarters of an inch
in diameter by its hands, like an acrobat from a horizontal bar,
and sustain the whole lueight of its body for at least ten seconds.
In twelve cases, in infants under an hour old, half a minute passed
before the grasp relaxed, and in three or four nearly a minute.
When about four days old I found that the strength had increased,
and that nearly all, when tried at this age, could sustain their
weight for half a minute. At about a fortnight or three weeks
after birth the faculty appeared to have maintained its maximum,
for several at this period succeeded in hanging for over a minute
and a half, two for just over two minutes, and one infant of three
weeks old for two minutes thirty-five seconds! As, however, in a
well-nourished child there is usually a rapid accumulation of fat
after the first fortnight, the apparently diminished strength subse-
quently may result partly from the increased disproportion of the
weight of the body and the muscular strength of the arms, and
partly from the neglect to cultivate this curious endowment. In
one instance, in which the performer had less than one hour's

682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

experience of life, he liung by both hands to my forefinger for ten
seconds, and then deliberately let go with his right hand (as if to
seek a better hold) and maintained his position for five seconds
more by the left hand only. A curious point is, that in many
cases no sign of distress is evinced, and no cry uttered, until the
grasp begins to give way. In order to satisfy some skeptical
friends I had a series of photographs taken of infants clinging to
a finger or to a walking-stick, and these show the position adopted
excellently. Invariably the thighs are bent nearly at right angles
to the body, and in no case did the lower limbs hang down and
take the attitude of the erect position. This attitude and the dis-
proportionately large development of the arms compared with the
legs, give the photographs a striking resemblance to a well-known
picture of the celebrated chimpanzee " Sally " at the Zoological
Gardens. Of this flexed position of the thighs, so characteristic
of young babies, and of the small size of the lower extremities as
compared with the upper, I must speak further later on ; for it
appears to me that the explanation hitherto given by physiolo-
gists of these peculiarities is not altogether satisfactory.

I think it will be acknowledged that the remarkable strength
shown in the flexor muscles of the forearm in these young infants,
especially when compared with the flaccid and feeble state of the
muscular system generally, is a sufficiently striking phenomenon
to provoke inquiry as to its cause and origin. The fact that a
three-weeks-old baby can perform a feat of muscular strength that
would tax the powers of many a healthy adult — if any of my
readers doubt this let them try hanging by their hands from a
horizontal bar for three minutes — is enough to set one won-
dering.

So noteworthy and so exceptional a measure of strength in
this set of muscles, and at the same time one so constantly present
in all individuals, must either be of some great utility now, or
must in the past have proved of material aid in the battle for
existence. Now it is evident that to human infants this gift of
grip is of no use at all, unless indeed they were subjected to a
severe form of an old south of England custom, which ordered
that the babe, when three days old, should be lightly tossed on to
the slope of a newly thatched roof, that it might, by holding on to
the straw with its little hands, or by rolling helplessly back into
the arms of its father, assist in forecasting its future disposition
and prospects in life. Barring the successful passing of this
ordeal — with regard to which I have never heard that non-suc-
cess was a preliminary to immediate extinction — it seems plain
that this faculty of sustaining the whole weight by the strength
of the grasp of the fingers is totally unnecessary, and serves no
purpose whatever in the newly born offspring of savage or civil-

DARWINISM IN THE NURSERY. 683

ized man. It follows therefore that, as is the case with many
vestigial structures and useless habits, we must look back into the
remote past to account for its initiation and subsequent confirma-
tion ; and whatever views we may hold as to man's origin, we find
among the arboreal quadrumana, and among these only, a condi-
tion of affairs in which not only could the faculty have originated,
but in which the need of it was imperative, since its absence meant
certain and speedy death.

It is a well-known fact that the human embryo about three
months before birth has a thick covering of soft hair, called " la-
nugo," which is shed before a separate existence is entered upon.
At1:he same stage of development the skeleton is found to conform
much more to the simian type than later, for the long bone of the
arm, the humerus, is equal to the thigh-bone, and the ulna is quite
as long and as important as the tibia. At the time of birth the
lower limbs are found to have gained considerably on the upper,
but still they are nothing like so much larger as when fully grown.
Physiologists have explained this want of development of the
lower extl-emities in the foetus by attributing it to the peculiarity
of the ante-natal circulation, in which the head and arms are sup-
plied with comparatively pure oxygenated blood fresh from the
maternal placenta, and the lower part of the trunk and legs get
the venous vitiated blood returned through the great veins and
transferred via the right ventricle and the ductus arteriosus to
the descending aorta. This, it is said, accounts for the more rapid
growth and more complete development of the head and arms
before birth. To assert the exact contrary would be to contradict
several great authorities, and apparently to follow the lead of the
pious sage who admired the wisdom and goodness of Providence
in causing large rivers to flow by great cities. Nevertheless it is
well to remember that just as the Sabbath was made for man, and
not man for the Sabbath, so the blood-vessels were made for the
body and not the body for the blood-vessels. It appears to me
much more true to say that the quick arterial blood is sent to the
upper extremities because these parts are for the. time being more
important, and their growth and development essential to the wel-
fare of the individual, than that they are coerced into a kind of
temporary hypertrophy, nolens volens, through having a better
blood-supply arbitrarily sent them than is allotted to their nether
fellow-members. That this view is "ttorne out by facts can be
shown by taking the example of a young animal whose hind
quarters are of essential service to it from birth ; and for this end
we need go no further than the instance, already quoted, of the
young foal. Now, in the ante-natal state the foal has just the same
arrangement of blood-distribution as the embryo man ; yet he is
born with a small light head and well-developed hind quarters, so

684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tliat he can gallop with speed. Instead of coming into the world
with tlie general outline of an American bison (as he ought to do
upon accepted physiological dicta), he is, as is well known, pro-
portionately higher at the rump and lower at the shoulder than
in after-life. The mention of the American bison reminds me
that it is another capital illustration of the same fact ; for a
young buffalo calf must have speed from its earliest days to
enable it to keep up with the herd on the open prairie ; and, in
consequence, we find that it is much better developed behind (the
hind legs being the chief propellers in all galloping animals) than
the full-grown bull or cow, and has none of the comma-like,
whittled-off aspect of its adult parents. The massive fore end of
the bull bison arises from his habit of using himself as a projectile
wherewith to batter his rivals out of the overlordship of the herd ;
but the bison calf is almost as level-backed as the young of our
domestic cattle — though it is a much more active, wide-awake little
beast than an ordinary calf.

Why, then, are the head and upper extremities so apparently
abnormally developed in the young infant ? I conceive the true
reason to be something like this : For untold ages the perfection
of the arms was a sine qua non of the continuance of the race ;
and as man, or the thing which was to be man, took to living by
his wits — when, that is, mind began to take precedence of brute
force and direct reflex action in the forefront of the struggle for
existence — it became an absolute necessity for the being that was
to live by his wits to be furnished with an abundant supply of
the raw material out of which wits are made — that is, brains.
Now, every man, actual or in ^osse— having elected, be it remem-
bered, to fight chiefly with his brains, and having renounced for-
ever the more gross and carnal weapons, such as huge canine teeth
and heavy, cla.w-armed limbs— would be certainly bested in the
struggle, and driven out of being, if his chosen armature were not
up to the mark. In other words, every incipient homo who was
born with deficient mind-material lived but a short time and left
no offspring. And, since the potentialities of the brain depend
far more upon its primary degree of development than do, for
instance, the potentialities of the muscles, only those infants
which were born with crania capacious and well-furnished would
attain that degree of excellence which would prevent them from
being fatally plucked in Nature's great perennial competitive
examination. Only those infants, then, survived and became our
ancestors which had from the first a good development of head
and arm, and, to insure this, Nature has provided for a suitable
blood-supply during the early period of growth.

With regard to the forward bend of the thighs in young infants,
which is constant in all cases, as any one who has the opportunity

DARWINISM IN THE NURSERY. 685

for observing can see for himself, this has been accounted for from
the fact that the thighs are flexed against the abdomen during the
hitter part of intra-uterine life. But from analogy with other
young creatures, such as those already mentioned and young
birds, we find that the pre-natal position has little or no influence
in decreeing the habitual attitude of the limbs after birth, and it
seems to me more logical and reasonable to trace this also to a
prior state of evolutionary development.

Man is, when standing erect, the only animal that has the
thigh in a line with the axis of the vertebral column, and among
his nearest congeners in the animal world the flexed state of
the femoral articulation is natural and constant. As we go down
the scale the angle between the thighs and trunk diminishes, until
it reaches the right angle characteristic of most quadrupeds. I
speak here of the attitude adopted when the animal is at rest
upon its legs, for during sleep there is in many cases a curious re-
version to the position occupied in embryonic life. Thus we see
that a bird roosting with its head " under its wing," and the legs
drawn up close to the body, offers a decided resemblance to the
chick in the Qgg.

I have noticed that young children, when old enough to shift
their limbs, very seldom sleep in any but the curled-up posi-
tion ; and that as often as not, when unhampered by clothing or
other artificial restraints, they sleep in the same attitude as do
many quadrupeds, viz., with the abdomen downward and the
limbs flexed beneath them. I am told that negro mothers and
nurses in the West Indies invariably lay their charges down to
sleep on their stomachs, and that this custom is also common in
various parts of the world. Adult man is, I believe, the only ani-
mal who ever elects to sleep upon his back. Some of the lower
savages seem to sleep comfortably on occasion in a crouching
position with the head bent down upon the knees, just as all the
common tribes of monkeys do. Among the quadrumana it is not
until we come to the platform-building anthropoid types that we
find a recumbent position habitually taken during sleep. The
young orangs and chimpanzees that they have had at the Zoologi-
cal Gardens slept with the body semi-prone and with the limbs,
or all except one arm, which was used as a pillow, curled under
them. This is exactly the position voluntarily adopted by eighty
per cent of children between ten and twenty months old which
I have had opportunities of watching. I was told by the attend-
ants at the Zoological Gardens that no ape will sleep flat on his
back, as adult man often does.

It would be very interesting to get exact observations as to
the habits of all the lower tribes of men with regard to sleeping,
for it is a point upon which a great deal would seem to depend, if.

686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as Tylor and most of our anthropologists believe, man's first ideas
of a spirit world arose from dreams. We know that most of our
domestic animals dream, as is proved by their movements while
asleep, and the same thing has also been observed in monkeys.
The effect of the position of the body during sleep upon the char-
acter of our dreams is too well known to require comment, for
probably every one of my readers has experienced the very disa-
greeable results of sleeping on the back.

Now, if the first glimmerings of another world came to early
man through dreams, in which he saw his comrades, or enemies,
long since dead, reappear just as in life, though mixed up with
much that was incongruous and incomprehensible, it would seem
as if the period during which man first adopted the dorsal decubi-
tus might have been an epoch-making time in his raw theology.

Devils and devil-worship might easily have originated from a
nightmare ; and since even dogmas have pedigrees and are subject
to the laws of evolution, it is perhaps no very wild suggestion
that some of the more somber tenets of our gentle nineteenth-
century creeds may owe their embryonic beginnings to the sleep-
ing attitude of some palaeolithic divine who had gorged himself in
an unwise degree with wild-boar Resh.— Nineteenth Century.

SKETCH OF WILLIAM FERREL.

By Prof. WILLIAM M. DAVIS.

SIXTY years ago, the study of meteorology gained a notable
impetus from the discoveries then recently made concerning
the phenomena of storms. The tempestuous winds had been
called to order by the investigations of Dov^ and Redfield, fol-
lowed by those of Reid, Piddington, and others in the succeeding
decades, and even the literary quarterlies contained reviews of
books treating revolving gales. But at that time the understand-
ing of the general circulation of the atmosphere about the earth
had hardly advanced from its position early in the eighteenth
century, when Hadley first and incompletely explained the oblique
course of the trade-winds, as a consequence of their motion upon
a rotating globe. In the middle of our century, Dov^, then the
leader of European meteorologists, taught that all our northeast
winds were portions of the return current from the poles, whose
battling with the equatorial current gave us our alternations of
wind and weather in the temperate zone. In this country, the
most commonly accepted explanation of atmospheric circulation
was derived from Maury's fascinating Physical Geography of
the Sea — a book whose erroneous teachings concerning the source

SKETCH OF WILLIAM FERREL. 687

of our rains in evaporation from the South Pacific Ocean, and
concerning the northeast-southwest course of the return polar
current at great altitudes, still find recent advocacy by those who
would persuade us that cannonading will cause rainfall.

The meteorology of to-day is another science from that of
those earlier decades. The store of facts has increased wonder-
fully, both from the observations made at sea, in good part as a
result of the incentive given by Maury, and from the establish-
ment of weather services in many countries following the sug-
gestions of Espy, Henry, Leverrier, and others. The hydro-
graphic offices of various governments have charted the winds
of the oceans ; Buchan has determined the distribution of baro-
metric pressure over the world, Loomis has discussed more fully
than any one else the features of the cyclonic storms whose action
is so well indicated on the weather maps.

But from whom has the finer spirit of understanding of all
these facts been received ? From whom have we now gained an
insight into the wonderful correlations that exist among the
varied motions of the atmosphere ? We would not belittle the
ingenious theories of Espy, to whom greater honor is given with
the passing years ; we would not forget the many contributions
made by earnest students at home and abroad ; but the fuller
appreciation of the system of the winds, both great and small,
both in the full sweep of the terrestrial circulation and in the
constricted whirl of the tornado, comes from one man — a man
lately described by the leading meteorologist of Europe as one
" who had contributed more to the advance of the physics of the
atmosphere than any other living physicist or meteorologist — a
man of whom Americans are justly proud."* Alas that this man
is no longer living, and that so few Americans know how proud
they may be for having had him for a countryman !

William Ferrel died on September 18, 1891, at May wood,
Kansas, in his seventy-fifth year. The first half of his life was a
struggle against adverse circumstances in uncongenial surround-
ings. His later years saw him on the staff of the Nautical Alma-
nac, in charge of tidal computations in the Coast Survey, Profes-
sor of Meteorology in the Signal Service, member of the National
Academy of Sciences, and our recognized leader in scientific me-
teorology. Let those of us whose paths of life have been opened
by the labors of our fathers marvel at the innate powers of such
a man as this, who made his own way through heavy discourage-
ments.

Ferrel was born in Bedford (now Fulton) County, Pa., on Jan-

* Dr. Julius Ilaim, Director of the Austrian Meteorological Observatory, in the Pro-
ceedings of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, April 9, 1S9L

688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tiary 29, 1817. We are fortunate in having from his own hands a
record of his early years. At the request of Mr. A. McAdie, of
the Signal Service, Prof. Ferrel wrote, in 1887, an account of his
life, and from this Mr. McAdie prepared a biographical sketch
that was published in the American Meteorological Journal for
February, 1888. The same journal for December, 1891, contains
several notices of Ferrel's works by Newcomb, Abbe, and others,
read at the October meeting of the New England Meteorological
Society. A list of his published writings is given in the Journal
for October of the same year. The manuscript autobiography
has been presented by Mr. McAdie to the Library of Harvard Col-
lege, and the following account of Ferrel's youth is prepared from
it. Although never widely known, even among our scientific
men, his work since his fortieth year gives a record of the latter
part of his life ; and for that reason the narrative of his earlier
years is here given more fully. It is one that may certainly
inspire young men who labor under discouragement ; and per-
chance it may also lead the more generous of our readers to seek
out and lend a helping hand to those whose lines are hard and
who are working earnestly to help themselves ; not that all such
shall become Academicians, but that well-timed help extended in
such directions is the best investment that a man can make for
himself and for his country.

Ferrel's father was of Irish and English descent ; his mother
came from a German family. They lived in a simple way in the
country, and the boy went to a common district school. In 1829
the family moved across the narrow western arm of Maryland
into Berkeley County, Virginia (now "West Virginia). There the
son was kept closely at work, except while at school for two win-
ters, the school-house being a rude log cabin, in which he went
"through the arithmetic and the English grammar," and then re-
mained out of school till 1839. Having mastered his school-books,
he had nothing further to study except a weekly newspaper, the
Virginia Republican, published at Martinsburg ; this he waited
for eagerly, to read its occasional scientific items.

While thus engaged on the farm young Ferrel saw somewhere
a copy of Park's Arithmetic, with a sketch of mensuration at its
close. Of this he writes : " At the sight of the diagrams I was at
once fired with an intense desire to have the book. But I had no
money, and at this time I was too diffident to ask my father for
even a half-dollar, or to let him know that I wanted the book.
Soon afterward I earned fifty cents in the harvest-field of one of
the neighbors, and with this I determined to buy the book. The
first time I had a chance to go to Martinsburg I inquired for it at
a store, but learned that its price was sixty-two cents. I told
the store-keejDer I had only fifty cents, and so he let me have it at

SKETCH OF WILLIAM FERREL. 689

that price. It was a light task to learn all that was in it." One
can not forbear to moralize over this intense desire for knowledge,
for what would not such a boy have learned with proper encour-
agement and opportunity ! It must be to these and the succeed-
ing years of hampered effort that Ferrel refers in a few sad words
at the close of his narrative : " Much of my time has been wasted,
especially the earlier part of it, because, not having scientific
books and scientific associations, I often had nothing on hand in
which I was specially interested."

It may be said that Ferrel began his career as an investigator
in 1832, when on going out one day to work he noticed that the
sun was eclipsed. He had not known that such an event was to
occur, but it set him to thinking. He had somewhere learned the
cause of solar and lunar eclipses, but his materials for further
study were only a German calendar, such as farmers use, and a
copy of Adams's Geography, with an appendix giving problems
on the use of the globes. From these he found that the sun and
moon moved with unequal velocities in different parts of their
orbits, and that the fastest and slowest motions were at opposite
points. Of this he writes : " My theory was that the earth and
the moon moved with uniform velocity in circular orbits, and that
these orbits were eccentrically situated with regard to the sun
and earth. With regard to the moon's path, I knew that it crossed
the ecliptic, but I did not know at what angle, and I also at first
supposed that the node was fixed. At the beginning of the next
year, when the next calendar came to hand, I discovered from the
predicted eclipses that the node must recede. I saw from the
calendars that there was some cycle of nineteen years, and sus-
pected that this had something to do with the moon's node. This
would make the node recede about 19° in a year, as the next year's
eclipses seemed to require." Then, with the aid of some older cal-
endars, Ferrel, about at the age of sixteen, proceeded to make out
tables of the dates of eclipses in an empirical fashion, but he un-
fortunately assumed that the diameter of the earth's shadow was
constant. " Upon this assumption I spent a vast amount of time,
but could get no positions of the nodes or inclination of the orbit
which would satisfy the eclipses. The amount of study I gave to
the subject both day and night was very great, but I at last gave
the matter up in despair. Some time after I was at work one day
toward evening on the thrashing-floor, and saw the shadow of a
distant vertical plank against the wall ; I observed that it was
much smaller than the width of the plank, and the reason for it
occurred to me at once. I then saw the error of my assumptions
with regard to the earth's shadow in my eclipse investigations
and was now very anxious to go over again all my computations
with the true diameter of the earth's shadow, for, knowing the dis-

TOL. XL. 17

690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tance of tlie moon and the angular diameter of the snn, I was able
to determine this. As soon as I could find time I went over the
whole work, and everything came out as satisfactory as could
reasonahly be expected with my methods. . . . This was in the
winter of the first part of 1834. I now ventured to predict by my
method the eclipses for the next year, 1835. I determined that
there would be three eclipses — two of the moon and one of the
sun. ... I made a record of the whole in a book and awaited for
the next calendar for comparison with its predictions. All the
circumstances of the lunar eclipses agreed remarkably well, and
the greatest error in the predicted times was only nine minutes.'*
And this was the work of a farmer's boy, without help, without
encouragement, in the time that he could spare from daily work !

His next book seems to have been Gummere's Surveying, which
he mastered in the spring of 1834, with the exception of the mis-
cellaneous examples at the end of the volume, for which no rules
had been given and which required a knowledge of geometry.
" During the summer, as I had a little time to spare, I dwelt upon
these, giving weeks sometimes to a single proposition. It hap-
pened that during the summer I was engaged a good part of my
time on the thrashing-floor, which had large doors at both ends
with wide and soft poplar planks. Upon these I made diagrams,
describing circles with the prongs of large pitchforks, and draw-
ing lines with one of the prongs and a piece of board. One by
one I mastered all the problems in this way except three. For
more than a quarter of a century these diagrams were visible on
the doors, and, in returning occasionally to the old homestead, I
always went to take a look at them."

This kind of home study continued until 1839, when Ferrel
went to Marshall College, at Mercersburg, Pa. Here he learned
algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, and gave some time also
to Latin and Greek. The next winter he taught near home;
but in 1840 he returned to Marshall It was in this year that
one of his professors assigned original problems in mathematics
to the class. " On one occasion he gave the problem : Given the
distances of a well from the three angles of an isosceles triangle,
to determine the triangle. . . . This was easy to me at the time,
for it was one of the problems which I had solved while at work
on the thrashing-floor, with the use of diagrams on the barn-
doors, before I had seen a college or a treatise on algebra or ge-
ometry."

His money was exhausted in the latter part of 1841, and he
went home to teach for two years. Bethany College was then
opened in Virginia, and he was admitted to the senior class, and
graduated in 1844. It is curious to notice that during all these
years there is no mention of apparatus, experiments, or systematic

SKETCH OF WILLIAM FERREL. 691

observations ; the boy's work, like that of the man afterward, was
almost entirely internal and mental. Thus, at the age of twenty-
seven, his schooling was ended, and he left his home and went to
Missouri to teach. Failing health compelled him to stop work
for a time, and his next engagement was at a small school in
Kentucky, where he remained for seven years, until 1854.

While in Missouri he had happened on a copy of Newton's
Principia, ordered but never called for by an earlier teacher ; he
bought it for five dollars, making little advance then on account
of poor health, but later returned to it in Kentucky. " I now be-
came first interested in the tides, and conceived the idea that the
action of the moon and sun must have a tendency to retard the
earth's rotation on its axis. Knowing that Laplace had treated
the subject extensively in the M^canique Cdleste, I was very desir-
ous of obtaining a copy, mostly to see what he had in that subject.
I accordingly instructed a village merchant, on going to Phila-
delphia for a supply of goods, to procure me the work, having
little idea of the magnitude of the work or the cost. On learning
the cost at Philadelphia, he did not procure it for me until after
writing and hearing further from me. I had now plenty to study
in connection with my teaching for several years." From this
followed Ferrel's first scientific paper. On the Effect of the Sun
and Moon on the Rotary Motion of the Earth, a subject to which
he returned with success in later years.

In the spring of 1854 Ferrel went to Nashville, Tenn., and
opened a private school ; here Prof. W. K. Bowling, of the Medical
College, became his warm friend, and here he first turned his atten-
tion to meteorology, from meeting with Maury's Physical Geog-
raphy of the Sea. " From this book I first learned that the atmos-
pheric pressure was greatest near the parallels of 30°, and less at
the equator and in the polar regions ; and I at once commenced to
study the cause of it. . . . In conversation one day with my friend
Dr. Bowling, I told him I had read Maury's book, and he was at
once desirous of knowing what I thought of it. I told him that I
did not agree with Maury in many things. He then desired me
to ' pitch into him,' as he expressed it, and furnish a review for
his Journal of Medicine. This I declined to do, but at length con-
sented to furnish an essay on certain subjects treated in the book,
and notice Maury's views a little in an incidental way." This was
the beginning of the studies in meteorology, which gave a new
aspect to the science. The promised article was his Essay on the
Winds and Currents of the Ocean. It has since been republished
by the Signal Service in Professional Paper No. XII.

In the spring of 1857 the third period of Ferrel's life began
on his accepting an offer from Prof. Winlock, transmitted through
Dr. B. A. Gould, to take part in the computations for the Nauti-

692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cal Almanac, then prepared in Cambridge, Mass., and thus opened
the happier situation of his later years ; but it was not until the
spring of 1858 that he finally left Nashville. From this time on
he did not lack opportunity for study and acquaintance with sci-
entific men. In 1867 he joined the Coast Survey, then under the
superintendence of Prof. Benjamin Peirce, and remained in that
service until 1883. The chief results of his work during this pe-
riod were his Tidal Eesearches, Meteorological Researches, and
his Tide-predicting Machine, all of which contribute to his well-
earned reputation.

Ferrel's researches on the tides were in both theoretical and
practical directions. His theoretical discussions began in his days
of teaching in Kentucky, and in 1853 had led him to conclude that
the action of the tides would very slightly retard the rotation of the
earth, but at that time no indication of such retardation had been
found by astronomers. In 18G0, however, it was found that the
position of the moon was somewhat in advance of its calculated
position ; all the known efi'ects of external perturbations having
been allowed for, its advance still was unexplained. Ferrel, then
living in Cambridge, returned to this problem and showed that
the moon's unexplained advance might be accounted for as only
an apparent result, the real fact being a retardation of the earth's
rotation by tidal action. The essay on this subject was published
in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in Boston in 1864. An incident in this connection illustrates the
diffidence that Ferrel felt in coming in contact with strangers.
He carried his essay on The Influence of the Tides in causing
an Apparent Secular Acceleration of the Moon's Mean Motion
in manuscript to the meetings of the Academy time after time,
with the intention of reading it, but his courage always failed,
until at last the paper was presented in 1864. Had its presenta-
tion been deferred over one more meeting, its appearance would
not have antedated a similar essay by the French astronomer,
Delaunay, on the same subject.

This was before Ferrel was a member of the Coast Survey ; it
was naturally followed by his engagement as expert in tidal
studies in that office; and when afterward in Washington, he
discussed and reduced many tidal observations made at various
points on our coast. To lighten the labor of such computations
he invented a tide-predicting machine, by means of which the
time and value of high and low tides can be mechanically deter-
mined for various ports with sufficient accuracy for publication in
the official tables, after the constants for the ports are worked
out. This machine is now in regular use in Washington, where it
is regarded as doing the work of thirty or forty computers. A
general work on tides and their theory was among the latest stud-

SKETCH OF WILLIAM FERREL. 693

ies that Ferrel undertook, to be stopped only "by the illness tliat
caused his death.

In 1882 Ferrel accepted a professorship in the Signal Service,
producing while there several special reports of high value, among
which his Recent Advances in Meteorology should have first men-
tion. He also lectured to the officers of the Signal Corps at Wash-
ington, and it is from these lectures that he subsequently prepared
his Popular Treatise on the Winds, the most comprehensive state-
ment of theoretical meteorology in the English language. He re-
signed this professorship in 188G, in his seventieth year. He had
before this accumulated a competence from judicious investments
of the small earnings of earlier years.

Ferrel's name is chiefly connected with his original investiga-
tions in meteorology. The first of these was made at Nashville,
as stated above, but a more serious study was made in his Mo-
tions of Fluids and Solids relative to the Earth's Surface, pre-
pared shortly after going to Cambridge, and published in Runkle's
Mathematical Monthly. This is regarded by a most competent
critic as " the starting-point of our knowledge of the mechanics of
the atmosphere." It is here that he first clearly states the impor-
tant law that " in whatever direction a body moves on the earth's
surface there is a force arising from the earth's rotation which
tends to deflect it to the right in the northern hemisphere, but
to the left in the southern." This was published in May, 1858,
six months before it was discussed, with the same result, in the
French Academy of Sciences. Space can not be given here to
show the great importance of this principle in meteorology, but
if the reader desires to follow it to its applications he should con-
sult the Treatise on the Winds, named above. As to the im-
portance of the principle, let any one attempt to explain the mo-
tions of the wind and the distribution of atmospheric pressures
without it, and he will soon see the service rendered to meteorology
by Ferrel in its introduction. The essential quality of this prin-
ciple may perhaps be briefly stated.

The general conception of the theory of the winds refers them
to convectional movements, arising from the action of gravity on
parts of the atmosphere of different temperatures. According to
this, the poles, where the temperatures are low, should have high
pressures, and the occurrence of low pressures there has been a
stumbling-block to more than one writer on the subject ; indeed,
hardly an English text-book can be named that will lead the
student around this difiiculty. The consideration introduced by
Ferrel is to the effect that the actual distribution of pressure does
not depend only on differences of temperature, but also on the
motions excited by reason of the pressure differences. The condi-
tion of steady motion, under which the winds are impelled by an

694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY'.

acceleration just sufficient to overcome their resistances, requires
that the acceleration should be not only the small component of
gravity acting on the barometric gradient, but the much smaller
resultant of this component acting with the deflective force aris-
ing from the motion of the wind itself. The course adopted by
the established interchanging circulation between the equator and
the poles consists for the most part of a great circumpolar whirl
from west to east ; and the deflective forces here in play reduce
the polar high pressures to low pressures. A reactionary relation
therefore exists between the winds and the pressures, by which the
distribution of pressures according to temperature alone is greatly
modified. Instead of finding high pressure at the cold poles, a low
pressure is produced there by the great circumpolar whirl of the
general winds, and the air thus held away from the poles accumu-
lates around the tropical belts of high pressure, of which Ferrel
had first learned from Maury's book. The absence of northeast re-
turn currents (in this hemisphere), except in the trade-wind belt,
is as important a feature of Ferrel's theory as the reversal of polar
high pressure into low pressure. Maury's erroneous explanation
of the winds gained great acceptance from the attractive style in
which his book was written ; but it is time that his explanation
should be abandoned even in elementary teaching, and replaced
by more serious views, less easily acquired but of more permanent
value.

Ferrel's theory of the winds not only explains the general dis-
tribution of atmospheric pressure over the world, as no other
theory can do ; it introduces broad correlations among many phe-
nomena in meteorology, greatly to the advance of the science.
The legitimate analogies that may be drawn between the great
circumpolar whirl of the terrestrial winds, the smaller whirls of
tropical cyclones, and the concentrated whirling of tornadoes show
the unity of action of the convectional processes in the moist at-
mosphere of a rotating planet. In earlier years, meteorology con-
sisted chiefly of rules for observation and statistical study. The
broad generalizations taught by Ferrel raise the science from this
simple inductive condition and complete the philosophical round-
ing of its parts.

Ferrel was not an observer, but he carefully based his studies
on well-ascertained facts. He was not an experimenter, but he
followed the results obtained by the best physicists. He was a
reasoner, able to employ the stronger methods of mathematical
analysis. He was sincere and judicial, single-minded and simple-
hearted. No one criticised his results more carefully or deliber-
ately than he did himself. He was indifferent to popularity, and
took little trouble to enforce his views on the world. He lived a
quiet life, more with books than with men, although the few to

SKETCH OF WILLIAM FERREL. 695

whom liis closer friendship was given prized it highly. From his
isolation as a boy and young man, he was diffident, even to his own
embarrassment, in going out to meet others ; but to those who
came to him he was generous and sympathetic in giving assist-
ance. He never pushed himself forward, and all his official posi-
tions came unsought. His earlier essays were inconspicuously
published, and never had a wide circulation, even in separate pam-
phlet form. Many who have received them must have passed
them by hardly noticed. The attention of scientific men turned
slowly to his work; only in later years than 1870 is his name
often mentioned abroad. His preference was always for original
methods, in his college demonstrations as well as in later inves-
tigations. He did little in the way of restatement of the conclu-
sions of others, but liked better to give his time to original re-
searches in which there was a prospect of discovering something
new or of explaining facts that had not been explained before.
When his interest was aroused in such work, he devoured every-
thing that he could find about it, " studying almost day and night,"
and never giving up a problem until it was solved, or until he was
satisfied that his labors could not solve it. His conquest of physi-
cal problems was not the result of intuitive perceptions alone, but
followed patient and persevering work. This appears in his boy-
hood when he pondered over geometrical problems in the barn,
and in later years when his meteorological theories gradually
developed.

Ferrel was a man whose teachings reach slowly through the
world. Many of the problems that he solved bear only remotely
on the lives of the millions of unmarked men from among whom
he won his way to eminence ; but all who read of him may under-
stand the lesson of his courageous perseverance, of his earnest
work and of his simple life. They will do well if, even without
adding much to the world's store, they can ^btj as he did at the
close of life, "I regret to leave my friends, but that is all I regret."

Attention was drawn by Miss BacklaiKl, at the British Association, to nnmer-
ous points in which the Navajo myth entitled "The Mountain Chant" reproduces
customs and beliefs of the Old World. Among them were mentioned the singular
prohibition of food in the abode of spirits, such as appears in the classical story
of Persephone, and in modified shape in the fairy folk lore of Europe, in Aino and
Japanese tales, and in New Zealand. The author pointed out the great contrast
between the bloodless Navajo rites and the sanguinary ceremonies of the ancient
Mexicans, and the great dissimilarity in the forms of the Navajo and Mexican
gods, as denoting entirely different origins for the two religions, incompatible with
the belief commonly entertained of the wholly indigenous character of American
culture, and she urged that the Navajo rites point unmistakably to an Eastern
origin.

696

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

INTELLIGENCE AND THE BELIEF IN

EVOLUTION.
Editor Popular Science, Monthly :

SIR: Two sentences in your Editor's Ta-
ble of the January (1892) number excite
my surprise. They are these : " Every man
within certain limits is an evolutionist, and
we have little hesitation in saying that the
limits within which each man is an evolu-
tionist are the real limits of his intelli-
gence " ; and " we believe — and when we
say ' we ' we mean all persons with any pre-
tensions to education or intelligence — in evo-
lution as applied to the physical history of
our globe." Are these statements consistent
with that judicial fairness which all seekers
for truth, such as you certainly mean to be,
should preserve ?

There are many of us who have been
diligent students of the works of evolution-
ists from the appearance of Herbert Spen-
cer's First Principles in 1865. We have
read Darwin's vohimes carefully, and Hux-
ley's and Tyndall's. We have followed Prof.
Gray's beautiful essays. But we are as yet
unconvinced "of evolution as applied to the
physical history of our globe." There are
gaps in the chain which, to our mind, are not
filled, nor are in promise of being filled, in
material evolution, as at the beginning of
life. We accept the statement of the au-
thors of The Unseen Universe : " It is against
all true scientific experience that life can ap-
pear without the intervention of a living an-
tecedent." Also at the appearance of new
organs, as Prof. Samuel Harris says, after
giving Prof. Tyndall's description of the de-
velopment of the eye : " This certainly is not
science ; no fact sustains a single one of the
assumptions. It is a figment of fancy."
Then there is the gap between the brute and
rational man, where we see no approach to a
bridge.

Besides this, it seems to us there is much
sophistical reasoning among evolutionists, as
pointed out by Rudolph Schmid, by S. Wain-
wright, and especially by Prof. Samuel Harris,
in his Scientific Basis of Theism.

There is, too, an initial difficulty in the
getting the heterogeneous out of the homo-
geneous, without a force from without, impul-
sive and directive.

Clerk Jfaxwell states the difficulty in the
way of evolution from molecular science : " No
theory of evolution can be formed to account
for the similarity of molecules throughout
all time, and throughout the whole region of
the stellar universe, for evolution necessa-
rily implies a continuous change, and the
molecule is incapable of growth or decay, of
preservation or destruction. . . . Therefore,
for the interaction of molecules, there must
be a power from without impelling and di-

recting." Maxwell adds words which we ac-
cept: "These molecules continue this day as
they were created, perfect in number, meas-
ure, and weight ; and from the ineffaceable
characters impressed on them we may learn
that those aspirations after truth in state-
ment and justice in action, which we reckon
among our noblest attributes as men, are
ours because they are the essential constitu-
ents of the image of Him who, in the begin-
ning, created not only the heaven and the
earth, but the material of which the heaven
and the earth consist."

We would not deny an evolution in the
physical work which Prof. Harris calls " sci-
entic," but we would consider it with Prof.
Leotze " as a gradual unfolding of a creative
spiritual principle," and would recognize,
with him and Uhici, "in the evolution both
a mechanical and a icJcological process, im-
plying both an energizing and a directing
agency."

Now, if in not accepting evolution as or-
dinarily understood, in holding E'arwinism
nou -proven, we show a limit of our intelli-
gence and are excluded from the company
of " all persons with any pretensions to edu-
cation or intelligence," it positively is not
from lack of study of what evolutionists
have said, and certainly we have some very
good company in our limitation and our ex-
clusion ; many of them are men who seem to
be thoroughly conversant with all that has
been said for evolution, and they seem to be
able to grapple with the arguments.

Do not statements such as you make
create a prejudice against evolution among
many fair-minded men, and hinder their ac-
ceptance of its arguments ?

Evolutionists repel with indignation the
assertion that they are actuated by a desire
to be rid of God and of moral obligation.
Need they be surprised if men who have
studied diligently what they say, and are
yet unconvinced, do repel with equal indig-
nation the assertion of their Umitalion of in-
telligence ?

Is not the true way to grant each other
the fair assumption of honistg and honor-
ableness of motive and of intelligence ? Is
not this the only true way for those who
would help one another in the search for the
one supreme reality — Truth ?

John R. Thueston.
WuiTiNSVix-LE, Mass., Vccemher 22, 1S91.

THE EARTHQUAKE OF OCTOBER, 1£91, IN

JAPAN.
Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Sir: In 1855, on the 11th of November,
Japan was shaken by a terrible earthquake.
At that time the center of the seismic dis-
turbance was somewhere in the vicinity of

CORRESP ONDENCE.

697

Yeddo (now Tokyo); the great part of the
city was laid in ruins, and the loss of life
amounted to several tens of thousands, in-
cluding those who were actually crushed to
death by the falling houses and those who,
imprisoned in the debris, were burned in nu-
merous fires which broke out in various parts
of the city ; for, as the earthquake occurred
at about eleven o'clock at night, the inhabit-
ants were asleep and unprepared to escape
from their houses.

On the 28th of last October another part
of Japan was visited by a similar catastro-
phe, of which more details are available than
of the above-mentioned earthquake of 1855.
The center of this latter seems to have been
the valley of Neo, north of the city of Gifu,
in the province of Mino. In this city and in
the neighboring town of Ogaki the destruc-
tion is terrible and the loss of life appalling.
Gifu is the seat of government of Gifu pre-
fecture. In Gifu and Aichi prefectures the
killed numbered 7,522, the wounded 9,983 ;
the number of buildings wholly destroyed
is 88,705; partly destroyed, 28,011; while
throughout the entire region over which the
disturbance was most seriously felt the to-
tals are: Killed, 7,566; wounded, 10,121;
buildings wholly destroyed, 89,629 ; partly
destroyed, 28,626.

Great changes in the geographical feat-
ures of the provinces of Hchizen, Mino, and
Owari, at the head of Owari Bay, will evi-
dently result. Land-slips have occurred which
completely changed the appearance of the
mountain-sides ; river channels are dammed
by the debris, causing inundations of agri-
cultural lands, and large lakes where were
cultivated farms.

The total area throughout which the
earthquake was felt is stated to have been
39,375 square miles. No serious damage was
done in Tokyo or Yokohama. Asama-Yama,
the volcano in the provinces of Kodzuke-
Shinano, far to the north of the center of the
disturbance, was thrown into a state of un-
usual activity, large quantities of scoria? hav-
ing been ejected. Fuji-Yama has also suf-
fered. It appears that, ten miautes after
the most violent sliock, a noise like a hun-
dred peals of thunder was heard to proceed
from the side of the mountain. Some peo-
ple declare that an immense land-slip, visible
soon after the earthquake, has occurred ; but
before their statements could be verified by
careful, scientific investigation, snow fell and
obscured the topography.

One of the Japanese newspapers states
that at the Okumstama Shrine, in the Naga-
jima district of Aichi prefecture, Mino prov-
ince, several fissures were opened from which
mud and water were ejected. After the wa-
ter had drained off, a number of wooden
swords, stone axes, and maga-tama (beads)
were discovered. If this be true, it is a re-
markable archaeological fnd.

The trembling of earth continues up to
the present time, although the shocks arc no

longer of destructive force. Prof. Milne, of
the Imperial University, compares the rum-
bling sound that accompanies the shocks to
that which would be produced by the escape
of a great volume of steam through narrow
fissures — a colossal steam-horn, in short,
roaring and bellowing underground, each of
its thunders indicating the explosion of a
more or less destructive force.

J. King Goodrich.
Yokohama, Japan, yovember 16, 1S91.

COLORS OF LETTERS.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Sir : I was greatly interested in the ar-
ticle by President Jordan, on the colors of
letters, which appeared recently in your
magazine. From my earliest recollections I
had always associated various colors with
the letters, but never before have I heard of
any one else who did so.

Thinking that statistics on this subject
might be of interest, I send you my list of
alphabet colors:

A. Dull yellow. N. Tin color.

B. Dark. 0.

C. Like kerosene-flame. P. Nearly like H.

D. Black. Q. Red.

E. Like A. R. Black.

F. Dark. S. Silver color.

G. Gray. T. Dark,
H. Slate color. U.

L Black. V. Like J.

J. Dirty brown. W.

K. BlaJk. X. Red.

L. Black. Y.

M. Dark red. Z. Red.

Those left blank are associated in my
mind with a color, but I am unable to define
it ; and certain of the descriptions used do
not fully convey the idea.

It has been suggested to me that my con-
necting color with the letters arose from the
colors on the blocks from which I learned
them. This might account for red, black,
and white, but certainly would not account
for the other shades.

My own explanation of the matter is
this : When we are learning to spell we as-
sociate certain letters with certain words, and
those words give us the idea of color. These
words may be said to be chronwpoetic, and
this property, if it may be so called, can not
be dissociated from them. For illustration,
D is associated in my mind with dog, and
when I think of dog it never is a white dog,
but always a black one ; hence, D is black.
I brings up ink and black ink ; J, a jug of
brown color ; V is a vulture, which I always
think of as brown.

In many cases I am unable to trace the
connection between the letter and the color,
but I feel sure it exists somewhere in my
mind. If this possesses sufficient interest to
your readers to warrant its publication, you
are at liberty to do so.

James S. Stevens, Professor of Physics.
Maine State College, Orono, Me., Aug. 15, 1891.

698

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

EDUCATION AND ETHICS.

ONE of the most serious questions of
the present day is as to where and
how adequate moral instruction is to be
imparted to the rising generation. In
the olden time there was no question as
to the full responsibility of the home
aided by the Church for the moral train-
ing of the child. School education was
obtained with more or less diflBculty,
and, when a child was sent to school,
the connection between school and home
was close. The parent paid for the teach-
ing, and master and parent worked as a
general thing on the same moral lines.
Nowadays, owing to the vast extension
of popular education through the agency
of the State, and the abolition of all
direct payment of school fees, there is
a severance of the former relation be-
tween home and school, and the moral
interests of the children seem to be slip-
ping to the ground between two stools.
The State takes from the parent nearly
all initiative in regard to the education
of the cliild, and does so much that the
parent is easily led to imagine that it
does everything — that it teaches the
principles of right conduct no less than
the rules of grammar and arithmetic,
and practices the young in virtue as sys-
tematically as in handwriting. How far
this is from being really the case any
one can learn on inquiry ; but the vague
assumption that it is the case, or ought
to be the case if it is not, does a great
deal, we are persuaded, to diminish the
sense of parental responsibility.

From the side of religion many pro-
tests have been made against the pres-
ent system of popular education. The
clergy of the different churches can not
help thinking that at least the more im-
portant doctrines of the Christian faith
should be officially taught ; and they
draw most discouraging pictures of what
the moral future of the youth of this

country will be if their counsels are not
heeded. All sound and successful moral
teaching, they contend, must repose up-
on a basis of theology, and to confine
ethical teaching to the region of the nat-
ural is to deprive it of all warrant, of all
authority, of all coercive power. If these
views were correct, it would be difficult
to see how the weakness of our schools
on the moral side could ever be reme-
died ; for notliing is more certain than
that any attempt to teach theology in
them would be predestined failure. The
people (or some people) will pay for
theology in the pulpit, but they are not
willing to pay for it in the schools, and
have shown in most unmistakable ways
that they do not want it there. The
question, then, is: Shall all attempts at
moral teaching in the public school be
abandoned, seeing that it can not be ad-
ministered as an adjunct of theology ; or
shall a brave effort be made to give it
an independent status of its own and a
fair chance to show what it can accom-
plish when conducted on purely natural
lines? The latter is the decision that
some earnest minds have come to, and
we have at this moment before us a
book produced for the express purpose
of aiding the good cause. This work,
published by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin
& Co., bears the title Conduct considered
as a Fine Art, and consists of two essays
written in response to a call from the
American Secular Union for " the best
essay, treatise, or manual adapted to aid
and assist teachers in our free public
schools ... to thoroughly instruct chil-
dren and youth in the purest principles
of morality without inculcating relig-
ious doctrine." Mr. N. P. Gilman, who
writes the first half of the book, and
whose essay bears the special title of
The Laws of Daily Conduct, shows very
plainly how unnecessary it is in dealing
with children to do more than illustrate

EDITOR'S TABLE.

699

moral principles from the experience of
daily life. Children do not call for meta-
physics; and to refrain from teaching
them the principles of morals because
you are not prepared to discuss with
them those ultimate questions as to the
final sanction of morality which are de-
bated by philosophers and theologians,
is like withholding from a builder all
knowledge of the practical applications
of geometry, because you can not carry
him into the calculus, or make him feel
at home in the fourth dimension. Mr.
Gilman states his position very well in
the following passage: "When, then,
we have in mind, as a subject for public
school instruction, not the science of
ethics, not the speculations of moral
philosophers, but the orderly presenta-
tion of the common facts and laws of the
moral life which no one disputes, we
perceive how the religious or theological
difficulty disappears to a large degree.
. . . Let the relation of religion and
morality be as it may be, the teacher is
not called upon to decide an issue of this
magnitude. He can teach the duties of
ordinary life, sliowing their reasona-
bleness and their interdependence in a
consecutive, orderly manner, without
appealing to religion ; he can use the
plain and usual consequences of actions
good or bad without being open to a
just accusation of irreligion. These con-
sequences are admitted by all. He has
then a right in reason to stop with them,
because of the practical limitations im-
posed upon him by the time at his dis-
posal, the immaturity of the faculties
which he is training, and, most of all,
because of the wide difference of men's
minds as to the final explanation."

Mr. Gilman makes due allowance for
the fact that a well-ordered school has
" a necessary moral discipline of its
own, which is enforced by every ca-
pable teacher " ; but he does not think
that this should be regarded as a suf-
ficient substitute for all direct moral
teaching. He considers that the school
has some special advantages for effective

ethical teaching which the home does
not possess, and that a teacher throws
away very valuable opportunities who
does not find frequent occasion for
bringing home moral lessons to the
minds of his pupils. In this we wholly
agree with him. The teacher has what
the parent has not, an ever-present and
more or less numerous body of hearers,
to whose common judgment he can ap-
peal; and he has the established order
and discipline of the school as a means
of commanding attention. Moreover,
the teacher's judgment is already as-
sumed by the child to be more or less
the judgment of the outside world,
whereas the parent's opinion, like his
jurisdiction, is apt to be looked upon as
valid only within the limits of the house-
hold. It is evident, therefore, that a
vast influence for good might be exerted
by the teacher, provided only he himself
possessed the requisite intelligence and
earnestness. The real weakness of our
public schools for the purpose in view
comes to light just here. Before any
teacher could make a wise and effective
use of such a manual as the one before
us his heart would have to be in his
work ; he would have to possess a really
apostolic zeal for the moral benefit of
the children committed to his care. Are
such teachers numerous? Is tliere any-
thing in the conditions under which
teachers are trained and selected to en-
courage the hope that very many of
them would, under any circumstances,
be earnest exponents of moral truth?
We are really not aware that there is.
In the vast army of public-school teach-
ers there must be many superior minds
and many noble souls; but those who
have studied our school system seem to
be impressed rather with the lack, than
with the presence, of what we may
perhaps call ethical vitality in both
teachers and scholars. A teacher must
outwardly bear a good character ; but
what examination has ever been de-
vised to test his or her interest in
ethical questions or principles, in the

700

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stimulation of virtue or the building of
character ?

Still, we quite hold with those who
consider that the schools ought to aim
at the production of good citizens, and
that, for this purpose, they should teach,
with such resources as they can com-
mand, the principles of right conduct.
The book before us will be useful to
those who desire help in this direction.
Mr. Gilman has excellent chapters on
" Life under Law," " Obedience to
Moral Law," "Self-control," "Truth-
fulness," etc., etc. ; and Mr. E. P. Jack-
son, who contributes the second half of
the book, throws his discussion of very
much the same topics into the form of a
series of dialogues between a teacher
and his pupils. Each writer has done
his work well, and the teacher who has
the will to teach his or her scholars
what is right will find the whole book
very profitable.

We return, however, to the point
with which we set out, that parental
influence to-day in the moral education
of children counts for too little. Mr.
Gilman tells us that " numerous edu-
cators " object to giving any special in-
struction in morals, alleging that that is
the parent's business. He might have
told us, we are persuaded, from his own
knowledge, that still more parents are
disposed to shuffle off all responsibility
for the moral education of their children
on the schools. What the effect of the
double disclaimer of responsibility is
likely to be may readily be determined.
If the clergy, instead of making futile
demands for the teaching of theological
dogmas in the schools, would try to
rouse the minds of their adherents and
followers to a sense of their personal re-
sponsibility for their children's charac-
ters, they miglit accomplish a more use-
ful work. This is something which they
should preach in season and out of sea-
son ; and if they would do so with the
earnesrness which the occasion demands,
the effect might in a few years be seen
in the altered moral tone of a portion of

the public-school teachers themselves;
and thus, concurrently with the eleva-
tion of the home, we should have a
notable improvement in the work of
moral education as carried on in the
schools. Keform the home, and the
whole face of society will be reformed.

EVOLUTION AND INTELLIGENCE.

We publish in another column a let-
ter from a correspondent who thinks
that, in our article entitled Evolution
and its Assailants, in the January Table,
we cast a slur upon the intelligence of
those who do not, in the fullest sense,
accept the doctrine of evolution. The
following is the statement to which
our correspondent objects : " Every
man within certain limits is an evo-
lutionist, and we have little hesitation
in saying that the limits within which
each man is an evolutionist are the real
limits of his intelligence." We hardly
thought this would be misunderstood,
but it evidently has been by one per-
son at least. The word "intelligence"
has two very familiar meanings. In
one application it means the power a
given individual has of comprehending
things in general, and thus expresses a
personal quality. This is the sense in
wliicli we did not employ the word.
Again, it may mean the act or function
of understanding, and this was the sense
in which we did employ it. To say in
this sense that " the limits within which
each man is an evolutionist are the real
limits of his intelligence," is to say that
beyond those limits he ceases to tinder-
stand. We wonder that a man who
professes to be so widely read In phi-
losophy and science as our correspond-
ent should not have perceived that this
was our meaning, and not that a man
begins to be stupid T^ust where he ceases
to believe in evolution. The passages
which our correspondent cites from some
of his favorite authorities prove that we
were exactly right in the position we
took up, for they all go to show that, in
the chain of events which make up the

LITERARY NOTICES.

701

history of our globe, there are some
which baffle comprehension. In a cer-
tain sense evohition itself may be said
to baffle comprehension, since the hu-
man intellect can never fully under-
stand how one thing cau become any-
thing else ; but the general processes of
evolution are at least illustrated by facts
which long and repeated experience has
rendered very familiar. On the other
hand, there is notliing analogous to any
well-established human experience in
the miraculous interference which those
have to postulate who either reject evo-
lution altogether, or only recognize it to
a limited extent.

Our correspondent also objects to
our statement that "all persons with
any pretensions to education or intelli-
gence believe in evolution as applied to
the physical history of our globe." At
the moment we were thinking more of
the globe itself than of its living in-
habitants; and before objecting to our
statement our correspondent might
properly have raised with himself the
question whether we meant more than
we actually said. However, on points
like these there will, of course, be dif-
ferences of opinion, and we must only
ask our correspondent to believe that
we meant no disrespect in anything that
we said to persons of his way of think-
ing. "We believe in evolution because it
has already explained so many things,
and because its scope as a scientific the-
ory is continually widening. If our cor-
respondent declines to accept it on such
grounds as he alleges in his article, he is
quite within his right. What he has not
shown us is what phenomena or events
to which the doctrine of evolution has
no application he really understands.

LITERARY NOTICES.

My Canadian Journal, 1872-'Y8. By the
Marchioness op Dufferin and Ava. New-
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 456. $2.

The Journal consists of extracts from
letters written home to the author's mother
while Lord Dufferin was Governor-General

of Canada. Although — the letters having
been written from twelve to twenty years
ago — it is rather an account of the past
than a description of the present, and Can-
ada has undergone a great development, its
villages having become towns and new rail-
ways having developed cities in what was
the wilderness, the Journal has lost none of
its freshness ; for it is the record, made on
the spot and at the moment, by a keen ob-
server of cultivated intelligence, disposed
to make the best of everything that she
saw and experienced ; and such records are
always fresh. So we are given, in the famil-
iar style which intimate friendship author-
izes, yet always graceful, sketches of travel,
adventure, scenery, society, social and eco-
nomical conditions, sports, more serious oc-
cupations, and whatever is of the life of the
country. The pictures are of all seasons
through eight years ; they cover all parts of
Canada, the St. Lawrence, the lakes, the
Maritime Provinces, the west, northwest, and
Pacific coast, and the Eastern Townships, with
occasional excursions into the United States,
concerning which the author is sorry to pass
so lightly over the cordiality and the friend-
liness that were invariably shown her and
her husband — " for whether we were travel-
ing officially through Chicago or Detroit, or
went as ordinary visitors to New York or
Boston, we were always received with a kind-
ness and cordiality which we can never for-
get."

Studies in Aerodynamics. By S. P. Lang-
ley. Smithsonian Institution. 1891.

This monograph of Prof. Langley is the
record of four years' experimental work with
the inclined plane, to determine the condi-
tions to be complied with in moving such a
plane through the air, the power required,
etc. His work has thoroughly convinced
him of the practicability of moving such
planes through the air with our present
means of propulsion. It has generally been
thought that the one essential element need-
ed to be provided, in order to make mechan-
ical flight possible, was an extremely light
and powerful motor. But Prof. Langley's
experiments have shown that we need not
make a search for such a motor, as the
steam-engine, in the forms we now possess
it, is quite equal to the occasion. His ex-

702

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

periments have demonstrated the somewhat
remarkable fact that the power required to
sustain an inclined plane, when inclined at
a slight angle to the horizontal and driven
forward, decreases with the speed. He finds
that there is a speed for any given plane at
which the plane becomes self-supporting, or
rather in which it tends to rise. This speed
he terms the soaring speed, and when it is
reached the weight becomes unimportant.
With greater weights it is only necessary to
drive them at greater speeds in order to
eliminate the element of weight. The prac-
tical conclusion from this is that we are not
prohibited by the weight of our apparatus
from achieving mechanical flight, and the
problems to be solved are not those connect-
ed with the question of weight, but rather
those concerning tlie details of construction
by means of which the apparatus may be
controlled while under movement and in as-
cent and descent, so as to be safe and man-
ageable. The method of experiment adopt-
ed by Prof. Langley consisted in mounting
an inclined plane at the end of the arm of a
whirling table sixty feet in diameter. This
table was driven by power at such a rate
that a speed of one hundred miles an hour
could be attained. The plane was mounted
in such a way that it was free to fall, and, by
a number of ingenious appliances designed
by Prof. Langley, the power which would be
required to drive the plane in free air at the
speeds attained could bo measured. The nu-
merical result arrived at by the experiments
is that by the expenditure of one horse-pow-
er a weight of two hundred pounds can be
transported through the air at the rate of
forty-five miles an hour. As a steam-engine
of this power can be built to weigh not more
than one tenth of this amount, it will be seen
that there is a wide margin between the
weight of the motor and the total weight
which can be moved by it. When we con-
sider the vast practical results which would
follow the successful navigation of the air,
the value of experiments such as these which
supply us with data necessary to a solution
of the problem can not well be overesti-
mated. It is to be hoped that Prof. Langley
will be able to continue his experiments until
all the problems bearing upon this interest-
ing and important subject shall have been
solved.

The Journal of Phtsiologt. Edited by
Michael Foster. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge Engraving Company. Vol.
XIL Price, $5 a volume.

The editor has the co-operation in con-
ducting this journal — the foremost one of its
class — of Professors W. Rutherford and
J. Burdon-Sanderson, in England, and Pro-
fessors H. P. Bowditch, H. Newell-Martin,
H. C. Wood, and R. H. Chittenden, in the
United States, The journal is published in
numbers which appear not at rigidly fixed
times, but at varying intervals, determined
by the supply of material. The present vol-
ume consists of five numbers, the last one
of which is made up of parts five and six, and
contains thirty-one articles in original ex-
perimental physiological research. These
articles relate to different elements of ani-
mal organisms ; to the circulation, the nerv-
ous system, the action of various substances
on bodily functions and products ; respira-
tion, temperature relations, the excretions ;
and to apparatus. They are prepared by
careful and accurate experimenters, many
of whom are experts or physiologists of
world-wide reputation, and record in minute
detail what they have themselves observed ;
the observations being usually accompanied
by charts showing the graphic records made
by the instruments used.

A Popular HAND-nooK of the Ornithology
OF the United States and Canada.
Based on Nuttall's Manual. By Mon-
tague Chamberlain. Boston : Little,
Brown & -Co. Two volumes. Pp. xlvii-f
473, and vii + 431. Price, $8.

The first volume of Nuttall's Manual was
published in 1832, and the second m 1834.
The book was the work of a master of the
ornithological knowledge of the day, and of
an author who commanded a warm literary
style with fine powers of description. It
was the first hand-book of the subject that
had been published, and was carried at once
into favor, not less by its innate qualities
than by the interest of the subject. While
a great advance has been made in scientific
or technical ornithology, the study of bird-
life, the real history of our birds, remains
just about where Nuttall and his contempo-
raries left it. We have brilliant and engag-
ing essays on various aspects of it by such
writers as Bradford Torrey, Mrs. Miller, and

LITERARY NOTICES.

703

Frank BoUes ; but they do not appear in the
hand-books, and, as Mr. Chamberlain re-
marks, " in comparison with the worlc ac-
complished by the older writers, and with
that which is still unknown, the recent ac-
quisitions must be considered slight." Xut-
tall's work has been out of print for several
years ; but its popularity and real value have
kept it in demand, and the few copies re-
cently offered for sale were disposed of at
high prices. In publishing the new edition
instead of issuing it in the form of the origi-
nal, or remodeling it to the extent that
would be required to arrange it in harmony
with the new system in ornithology, the
editor has reproduced Nuttall's biographies
with few changes beyond pruning them of
w^at was obsolete ; has added, in notes dis-
tinguished by smaller type, such new facts
as seemed needed to bring the descriptions
into conformity with the present state of the
science; has rewritten the descriptions of
plumage, endeavoring to phrase them in well-
known and untechnical terms, so that they
may be understood by unskilled readers ; and
has added a description of the nest and eggs
of each species. The untechnical character of
the work, and the use of simple, well-known
terms in the descriptions, are a feature on
which the publishers speak with some pride.
Canadian readers have been kept in mind, and
accounts are given of every species that has
been found within the Dominion east of the
Manitoba plains, and of their Canadian dis-
tribution. The editor is a specialist in orni-
thology, on which he has published numer-
ous articles in periodicals devoted tc the sci-
ence and monographs. We were interested
in reading Nuttall's introduction, which is
given entire and unchanged, a foreshadowing
of the doctrine of protective mimicry which
has been made prominent by Mr A. R. Wal-
lace. Some birds, it is observed, "are
screened from the attacks of their enemies
by an arrangement of colors assimilated to
the places which they most frequent for sub-
sistence and repose ; thus the wryneck is
scarcely to be distinguished from the tree
on which it seeks its food ; or the snipe
from the soft and springy ground which it
frequents. The great plover finds its chief
security in stony places, to which its colors
are so nicely adapted that the most exact
observer may be deceived. The same resort

is taken advantage of by the night-hawk,
partridge, plover, and the American quail
the young brood of which squat on the
ground, instinctively conscious of being near-
ly invisible, from their close resemblance
to the broken ground on which they lie, and
trust to this natural concealment. The same
kind of deceptive and protecting artifice is
often employed by birds to conceal or render
the appearance of their nests ambiguous.
Thus the European wren forms its nest ex-
ternally of hay, if against a hay-rick ; cov-
ered with lichens, if the tree chosen is so
clad ; or made of green moss, when the de-
cayed trunk in which it is built is thus cov-
ered ; and then, wholly closing it above,
leaves a concealed entry in the side. Our
humming- bird, by external patches of lichen,
gives her nest the appearance of a moss-
grown knot. A similar artifice is adopted
by our yellow-breasted fly-catcher, or vireo,
and others." The first volume is devoted to
land birds, the second to game and water
birds. The accounts are confined to birds
known east of the Mississippi Valley. The
work is published in beautiful style, with
pictorial illustrations that it would be hard
to excel of most of the species, and a colored
plate in each volume.

Christianity and Infallibility : Both or
Neither. By the Rev. Daniel Lyons.
New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 284. Price, §1.50.

This book bears the nihil ohsfat (no ob-
jection) of D. Pantauella, S. J., and the im-
primatur of the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Denver, It was written under the influence
of the conviction which the author believes
the logic of facts is daily confirming, that
" Christianity, to maintain its rightful hold
on the reason and conscience of men, needs
a living, infallible witness to its truths and
principles ; a living, infallible guardian of
its purity and integrity, and a living, infalli-
ble interpreter of its meaning." The doc-
trine of infallibility, he believes, " goes to the
very root of the Christian controversy, and
supplies the only complete and satisfactory
solution of the many and grave difficulties
which it involves." Grant it, and in it " you
have a ready, easy, and at the same time a
perfectly satisfactory solution of the religious
controversy with all its difficulties. Reject

704

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the doctrine of infallibility, and your path, as
a believer in Christianity, is beset with insu-
perable difficulties." Protestants, it appears,
have very erroneous conceptions of the mean-
ing of this doctrine, which if they were cor-
rect would rightfully condemn it. As defined
by the author, its true meaning is that " the
Pope, by virtue of a special supernatural as-
sistance of the Holy Spirit of Truth promised
to him, in and through St. Peter, is exempt
from all liability to err when, in the dis-
charge of his Apostolic Office of Supreme
Teacher of the Universal Church, he defines
or declares, in matters of or appertaining to
Christian faith or morals, what is to be be-
lieved and held, or what is to •be rejected
and condemned by the faithful throughout
the world." Besides the meaning of infalli-
bility, which is thus summarized, the author
considers the reasons why Catholics believe
in the dogma of infallibihty, the way they
meet the objections to it, and — in the appen-
dixes— The Ilappiness of Converts, Some
Facts relating to the Vatican Council, and
Pontifical Decrees and the Obedience due to
them.

The Tvto REPtrnLics; or, PiOME and the
United States of America. By Alonzo
T. Jones. Battle Creek, Mich. : Review
and Herald Publishing Co. Pp. 895.
Price, $2.50.

The purpose of this book is to study the
interrelationship of government and relig-
ion, in respect to which Rome and the United
States are regarded as occupying the two
extremes. " The principle of Rome in all its
phases is that religion and government are
inseparable ; the principle of the Govern-
ment of the United States is that religion is
essentially distinct and totally separate from
civil government, and entirely exempt from
its cognizance. The principle of Rome is
the abject slavery of the mind ; the principle
of the United States of America is the abso-
lute freedom of the mind. As it was Chris-
tianity that first and always antagonized this
governmental principle of Rome, and estab-
lished the governmental principle of the
United States of America, the fundamental
idea, the one thread-thought of the book, is
to develop the principles of Christianity
with reference to civil government, and to
portray the mischievous consequences of the
least departure from those principles." All

Sunday legislation is so strenuously opposed,
that this may be regarded as the chief pur-
pose of the book. The Rome that is treated
of is that which was brought into relation
with Christianity, the empire, and the papacy.
The persecutions of the Christians, which are
regarded as simply the legitimate outcome
of the impartial enforcement of the laws
when inflicted by good emperors, and as a
part of their undiscriminating viciousness
when inflicted by bad ones, arc considered
the legitimate results of the union of Church
and State. As Christianity became stronger,
it is charged with having adopted heathen
features as a means of making its way more
rapidly — " the great apostasy " — and par-
ticularly those connected with the worship
of the sun (which is supposed to be, of all
pagan cults, the most abhorrent to Jehovah),
and among them the consecration of Sunday.
The growth of other features held to be in
conflict with pure religion and freedom is
traced through the lives of emperors and
popes. The transplantation of some of them,
even after the Reformation, to America, and
their gradual elimination under the work-
ings of our free institutions ; and the efforts,
in recent years, by the National Reform
Union, the Sabbath Union, and other socie-
ties, to secure the incorporation in the Con-
stitution of a recognition of the Christian
religion, and the enforcement of Sabbath
laws, are successively reviewed. " As sure-
ly," the author concludes, " as the movement
to commit the Government of the United
States to a course of religious legislation
shall succeed, so surely will there be re-
peated the history of Rome in the fourth
and fifth centuries," and our republic will
" be led captive in the ruinous triumph of
the papacy."

The Positive Theory of Capital. By
Ecgen V. Bohm-Bawerk. Translated,
with a Preface and Analysis, by William
Smart, M. A. London : Macmillan & Co.
1891. Pp. 428. Price, $4.
In this volume Prof. Bohm-Bawerk deals
with one of the vexed questions of econom-
ics— the economic basis of interest — with
the question why the lender of a sum of
money, for instance, should demand at the
end of the period for which it is lent, not
only the original sum, but a bonus as well.
The different theories which have been

LITERARY NOTICES.

705

advanced by economists to account for in-
terest have been reviewed and subjected to
criticism by the author in his previous work,
Capital and Interest. This destructive criti-
cism he now follows by a positive construc-
tion of his own, in which he seeks to find a
lasting basis for the phenomenon of interest,
in a theory which does not necessitate the
resort to questionable hypotheses to support
it. This basis he finds in considering inter-
est, not as a bonus paid for the use of capi-
tal, but as a surplus arising from the greater
value of present goods over future ones. He
regards the transaction, say, of the loan of a
sum of money and the payment of interest
for it, as a case of the exchange of goods —
the exchange of present goods for future
ones.

As present goods are more desirable than
future ones of the same face value, they
command a premium, and this premium is
interest. The following extract from the
author's discussion of the sources of interest
Bets forth clearly his own views, as well as
his estimate of previous explanations :

" In the previous book I have tried to
show, and account for, the natural difference
that exists between the value of present and
the value of future goods. I have now to
show that this difference of value is the
source and origin of all interest on capital.
But, as the exchange of present commodities
for future commodities takes various forms,
the phenomenal forms of interest are as vari-
ous, and our inquiry must necessarily deal
with them all. In the following chapters,
therefore, I intend to take up, in succession,
all the principal forms of interest, and I
shall endeavor to show that, notwithstanding
all differences in shape and appearance, the
active cause in them all is one and the same
— namely, the difference in value between
present and future goods.

" By far the simplest case of this differ-
ence in value is presented in the loan. A
loan is nothing else than a real and true ex-
change of present goods for future goods ;
indeed, it is the simplest conceivable phe-
nomenal form, and, to some extent, the ideal
and type of such an exchange. The ' lender,'
A, gives to the ' borrower,' B, a sum of pres-
ent goods — say present pounds sterling. B
gets full and free possession of the goods, to
deal with as he likes, and, as equivalent, he
VOL. XL. — 48

gives into A's full and free possession a sum
of entirely similar, but future, goods — say,
next year's pounds sterling. Here, then, is
a mutual transfer of property in two sums
of goods, of which one is given as recom-
pense or payment for the other. Between
them there is perfect homogeneity, but for
the fact that the one belongs to the present,
the other to the future. I can not imagine
how an exchange in general, and an ex-
change between present and future goods in
particular, could be expressed more simply
and clearly. Now, in the last chapter we
proved that the resultant of the subjective
valuations which determines the market price
of present and future goods is, as a rule, in
favor of present goods. The borrower,
therefore, will, as a rule, purchase the money
which he receives now by a larger sum of
money which he gives later. He must then
pay an 'agio' or premium (Aufgeld), and
this agio is interest. Interest, then, comes,
in the most direct way, from the difference
in value between present and future goods.

" This is the extremely simple explanation
of a transaction which, for hundreds of years,
wa.«i made the subject of interpretations very
involved, very far-fetched, and very untrue."

Prof. Bohm-Bawerk considers the profit
of capitalist undertakings as a case of inter-
est, and explainable by his formula, on the
ground that the " owners of capital are mer-
chants in present goods, such goods being
more valuable than the " future goods " —
labor, uses of land, and capital — which the
capitalist buys. While this work is primari-
ly addressed to economists, it is quite within
the range of the general reader who is inter-
ested in economic questions.

Electricity and Magnetism. Translated
from the French of Amepee Guillemin.
Revised and edited by Silvanus P.
Thompson. Macmillan & Co. 1891. Pp.
967. Price, $8.

The industrial applications of electricity
have been so many and so varied, and they
have increased at so great a rate in recent
years, that the subject of the uses and possi-
bilities of this marvelous agent possesses an
interest for the general public shared by
none of the other great agencies which have
contributed so largely to our material ad-
vancement. This interest has been both
sustained and augmented by the many popu-

7o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lar expositions which have appeared in recent
years, in which the principles of the science
and their application to the arts have been
told in plain, simple, and attractive language.
Already the popular literature of the subject
is large, and keeps pace with the advance in
industrial and technical uses. Of recent con-
tributions of this character the work of M.
Guillemin is one of the most notable. The
work covers a general exposition of the
science of electricity and magnetism, and
then brief and concise descriptions of appa-
ratus and appliances. In the division de-
voted to the industrial applications, the sub-
jects considered are — the mariner's compass,
lightning-conductors, telegraphy, the tele-
phone, microphone, and the radiophone, elec-
tric clock-work, motors, transmission of
power, electric lighting, electro-plating, and
various minor applications. In an appendix
Prof. Thompson gives a brief account of the
modern views of the nature of electricity,
based upon the researches of Faraday and
Maxwell.

The book is handsomely got up, printed
in large type, on heavy calendered paper,
with wide margins, and is very fully illus-
trated.

Mental SrcGEsnoN. By Dr. J. Ochoko-
wicz, with a Preface by Charles Richet.
New York : The Humboldt Publishing
Company. Pp. 361. Price, $2.

As we gather from the concluding chap-
ter of this work, by mental suggestion is
meant a " dynamic correlate " sent forth by
thoughts in every direction. Thoughts do
not travel ; " no substance is carried hither
or thither, but a wave is propagated and
modified more and more according to the
different natures and the different resistances
of the media it traverses." It is mental ac-
tion at a distance, upon subjects which have
to be in a proper rapport or relation to the
acting thought. By it the phenomena of
hypnotism, occultism, which it does not
favor but banishes, and kindred mysteries
are supposed to be accounted for. Accord-
ing to Dr. Richet's interpretation, the theory
means that " independently of any phe-
nomenon appreciable by our normal senses
or by our normal perspicacity, how quick
soever it may be supposed to be, there ex-
ists between the thought of two individuals

a correlation such as chance can not account
for." Dr. Ochorowicz sets forth a multitude
of facts which have been observed by him-
self and by sundry experimenters, criticises
them vigorously and seeks to eliminate the
diflBculties that might arise from fraud or
chance, and to present the conclusions
which seem to be established. Yet Dr.
Richet does not maintain that his argument
produces conviction, but only doubt. "So
strong in its action upon our ideas is the
influence of routine and of habit," which
have taught us to ignore the conclusions to
which the phenomena would lead an un-
prejudiced mind. "But," Dr. Richet adds,
"whatever the opinion ultimately formed as
to the reality of mental suggestion, it ought
not, I think, to influence one's judgment as
to M. Ochorowicz's book. Everybody, it
seems to me, must recognize his sincerity,
his perseverance, and his contempt for
ready-made opinions. One feels that he
has a passionate love of truth." The body
of the work consists largely of citations of
incidents apparently or really illustrating the
doctrine of mental suggestion, with the au-
thor's criticisms and comments upon them,
and the conclusions drawn from them.

Solutions. By W. Ostwald. Translated
by M. M. Pattison Muir. London and
New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 816. Price, $3.

The volume here oflPered to chemists is a
portion of the author's Lehrbuch der allge-
meinen Chemie, a second edition of which
was issued toward the end of 1890. Suffi-
cient reason for its translation and publica-
tion by itself is given in the appearance and
rapid growth during the last three or four
years of van 't Hoff's theory of solutions.
An authoritative statement of this theory,
together with a systematic setting forth of
the great mass of facts about solutions that
have been accumulated, has obvious value
for chemists at the present time. The emi-
nent rank of the translator among English
chemists, together with the fact that he has
had the co-operation of the author in pre-
paring this version, insures that the treatise
has lost nothing 'in the process of transla-
tion. It has, in fact, gained the benefit of
some slight revisions, and some additions
from memoirs published in the first half of
1891.

LITERARY NOTICES.

707

The Practical Telephone Hand-book. By
Joseph Poole New York : Macmillan
& Co. Pp. 288. Price, 75 cents.
The task which the author of this hand-
book has performed is a presentation of the
art of communication by telephone as it is
now practiced. To this end he describes the
batteries, receivers, transmitters, signaling
apparatus, and switch boards in general use,
the systems employed in operating telephone
exchanges, modes of constructing telephone
lines, together with the poles, wires, insula-
tors, and other material required in the con-
struction. Long-distance working is also
treated, and underground work and the lo-
calization of faults are not omitted, while a
few minor or very recent topics are included
in a miscellaneous chapter and an appendix.
The volume is a thoroughly practical one
and is fully illustrated.

Modern American Methods of Copper-
smelting. By Edwajid Dyer Peters,
M. E., M. D. Second edition, revised
and enlarged. New York: The Scien-
tific Publishing Company. Pp 398.

The author has dealt most largely in
this work on facts gleaned from his own ex-
perience, while he has aimed to touch upon
theoretical questions only when it was essen-
tial for the understanding of practical facts.
Much attention has been given to matters of
cost, both of construction and subsequent
operation, and in this expenses are given,
not as calculated on paper, but as actually
incurred in building on a large scale and in
smelting many thousand tons of ores under
various circumstances, and in all the ordi-
nary kinds of furnaces. The first edition
of the book was published in 1887. For
the second edition such new material as
time and experience have suggested has
been added. But the advances in copper-
smelting since the work first appeared have
been rather in a general enlargement of
furnaces and apparatus than in any radical
changes or inventions. A section on the
electrolytic assay of copper has been pre-
pared by Mr. Francis L. Sperry, of Sudbury,
Ontario, and information and plans of the
regenerative gas-furnaces used at Atvida-
berg, Sweden, have been furnished by Mr.
Paul Johnson. It is in these regenerative
gas-furnaces that the author expects to see
realized the vital point of economy in the

use of fuel. In the first chapter the ores of
copper are described ; in the second, their
distribution is pointed out. The chapters
that follow concern methods of copper as-
saying, the roasting of copper ores in lump
form, stall roasting, roasting in lump form
in kilns, calcination of ore and matte in a
finely divided condition, the chemistry of
the calcining process, smelting, blast-fur-
naces, the smelting of pyritous ores con-
taining copper and nickel, reverberatory
furnaces, refinement of copper with gas in
Sweden, treatment of gold and silver bear-
ing copper ores, and the Bessemerizing of
copper mattes.

A Graduated Course of Natural Science.
By Benjamin Loewy, F. R. A. S., etc.
Part II. London and New York : Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 257. Price, 60 cents.

The second installment of this course of
study consists wholly of experiments, most
of them being in the domain of physics, but
some in that of chemistry. The element-
ary laws and principles of mechanics, acous-
tics, optics, and electricity are successively
brought out, and a few forms of chemical
action are illustrated. A list of questions is
given on the work included in each chapter.
This part of the course is designed for young
students, hence the directions and interpre-
tations of the experiments are given in sim-
ple language. An appendix contains hints
for performing the experiments, and there
are sixty diagrams of apparatus in the body
of the book. The author states that he has
throughout aimed at rendering the experi-
ments feasible with a very limited appara-
tus, and inexpensive materials and appli-
ances.

Electricity Simplified. By T. O'Conor
Sloane. New York : Norman W. Hen-
ley & Co. Pp. 158. Price, $1.

The objects of this little book are to ex-
plain the commonly accepted theory in re-
gard to the action of electricity, and to de-
scribe the various ways in which electrical
energy has been practically utilized. The
theoretical part of the subject most needs
explanation, and hence naturally receives
most attention. Among the practical ques-
tions of popular interest that are answered
are. How long does it take to send a signal

7o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

across the Atlantic Ocean ? how are cars
on electric railroads worked ? and under
what conditions can a fatal shock of elec-
tricity be received ? The text is illustrated
with twenty-nine tigures.

The Story of our Continent. By N. S.
Shaler. Boston : Ginn & Co. Pp. 290.
Price, 85 cents.

The study of the ordinary text-books on
geography gives pupils a minute acquaint-
ance with the features of each division of a
country, but leaves them without any broad
view of the country as a whole, and without
any appreciation of the relations of one sec-
tion to another. This lack with respect to
North America Prof. Shaler has aimed to
supply by means of a reader in geography
and geology telling how this continent grew
into its present form, what aboriginal peoples
are known to have inhabited North America,
how the form of the continent has affected
the history of its several groups of colonists,
and what are its resources and commercial
condition. Comparisons with some features
of the Eastern Continent are introduced in
the course of the description. The volume
is illustrated and has an index.

Part XIX (July, 1891) of the Proceedings
of the Society for Psychical Research contains
three principal papers, all of which embody
reports, confirmed by several witnesses, of
so-called psychic phenomena. The first pa-
per, by Mr. F. W. H. Myers, is On Alleged
Movements of Objects, without Contact, oc-
curring not in the Presence of a Paid Me-
dium. These movements include the rising
of tables from the floor, knockings, ringing
of bells, writing on slates, and the moving of
chairs and various smaller articles. A rec-
ord of Experiments in Clairvoyance is con-
tributed by Dr. Alfred Backman, of Kalmar,
Sweden. The cases given include seeing or-
dinary actions at a distance, describing a
murderer and his house, describing Christ-
mas presents some days before Christmas
that the King of Sweden was to receive, and
finding a miniature revolver that had been
lost in a field. Dr. Richard Hodgson de-
scribes A Case of Double Consciousness oc-
curring in a preacher named Bourne, living
in Rhode Island. Mr. Bourne wandered from
his home in 1887 and set up a small store in

Norristown, Pa., which he kept for six weeks
before recovering his identity. Mr. Bourne
has been several times hypnotized and ques-
tioned by Dr. Hodgson, Prof. James, and Dr.
Morton Prince. A supplement contains a
Third ad interim Report on the Census of
Hallucinations, covering returns received in
England and in France, a reply to Mr. A. R.
Wallace on Spirit Photographs, by Mrs. Hen-
ry Sidgwick, and two notices of books. Dr.
Richard Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston,
is the agent of the society in America.

A laboratory manual has been published
by Prof. Delos Fall, of Albion, Mich., under
the title An Introduction to Qualitative Chem-
ical Analysis. It is intended to lead students
to learn analysis by the inductive method.
That this method of study " produces strong,
accurate, enthusiastic, and independent stu-
dents " is attested by the author's experi-
ence of several years with it. An introduc-
tion contains an outline of the mode of
teaching for which the book is adapted ; the
tests are interspersed with practical hints
and with questions that draw the student's
attention to the essential features of what he
is doing ; lists of apparatus and reagents re-
quired are given, and also forms for record-
ing the results, which to the student are dis-
coveries.

The Legislature of the new State of "Wyo-
ming, in January, 1891, established the 11^-
oming Experiment Station, which, under date
of May, 1891, issued its first Bulletin. This
document describes the organization and the
proposed work of the station. The arrange-
ments for agricultural experiments include
six farms, at altitudes from four thousand
to seven thousand feet above sea-level, four
fifths of the State being between four thou-
sand and eight thousand feet. All but one
of these farms are under irrigation. Special
experiments on grasses ai'e also being car-
ried on under the direction of the U. S. De-
partment of Agriculture.

Bulletin No. 33, Neio Series, of the New
York Agricultural Experiment Station is de-
voted to fertilizers. It contains one paper
that can not be too highly praised ; this is
an Explanation of Terms of Chemical Analy-
sis. A great part of the literature of agri-
cultural stations is made entirely useless for
the farmers that are taxed to pay for it by
the use of chemical and other technical

LITERARY NOTICES.

709

phraseology that only graduates of scientific
schools can understand. Sucli explanations
as the above should be multiplied.

A pamphlet with the title Ethereal Mat-
ter ; Electricity and Akasa, has been made
by Nils Kolkin, consisting of extracts from
two books by the same author (J. M. Pinck-
ney Co., Sioux City, Iowa, fifty cents). The
subjects treated are the less known forces
of Nature and various hypothetical sub-
stances, and the pamphlet will doubtless
have interest for those who enjoy excursions
into the unexplored domain of physics.

A stirring and practical address on 77ic
Tcaclier as he should be, delivered by C. W.
Bardccn in July, 1891, has been published in
a pamphlet (Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y.). The
drift of the address is that personality is of
far more importance in a teacher than pe-
dantically accurate knowledge on every sub-
ject.

A weekly magazine, called Railway Laiv
and Legislation, and conducted by W. P.
Canaday and G. B. West, began to appear in
September, 1891 (712 Tenth Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C, $3 a year). It is con-
cerned with legislation, litigation, and finan-
cial and economic developments affecting
common carriers. The first article is a his-
torical sketch of The Nicaragua Canal Pro-
ject. Other subjects treated are Canadian
Competition and Discrimination, The Postal
Telegraph Bill, The Coming Committees (a
forecast), and various minor matters men-
tioned in notes.

Among the Miscellaneous Documents of
the Fifty-first Congress was one entitled
Postal Savings- Banks ; an Argument in their
Favor by the Postmaster-Oeneral. The rea-
sons for adding the function of savings-
banks to the post-offices are set forth in a
communication of fifteen pages, and an ap-
pendix of seventy-two pages contains a pro-
posed bill to establish postal savings-banks,
details of such systems of banks in other
countries, opinions of previous postmasters-
general, a large number of press comments
concerning postal savings-banks, and some
minor exhibits.

The first number of a quarterly maga-
zine, devoted to matters of interest to in-
habitants of Kansas, was published at Saii-
na, Kan., July, 1891 (C. B. Kirtland Pub-
lishmg Company, $1 a year). It is called

Tlie Agora, and the contents of its first num-
ber include The Kansas " Mulligrub," by
Hon. William A. Phillips ; Imagination in
Science, by Prof. L. E. Sayre; A New So-
ciology, by Rev. E. C. Ray, D. D. ; " Bleeding
Kansas," by Prof. J. W. D. Anderson ; be-
sides other articles, poetry, and book notices.

An Introductory French Reader, the ob-
ject of which is to prepare the pupil in the
shortest possible time to read French easily,
has been prepared by William Dioight Wliit-
ney and M. P. Whitney, and is published by
Henry Holt & Co. and F. W. Christern. The
exercises have been selected, with this end
in view, from the works of the best-known
French authors, choosing such passages as
are simple enough to present little difficulty
in translation, and so varied and interesting
as to rouse and hold attention. A full vo-
cabulary, in which the ordinary idiomatic
phrases and expressions in the text are ex-
plained, and a table of irregular verbs are
added ; while the grammatical difficulties
and a few literary and historical points are
treated in the notes. (Price, 70 cents.)

The A B C of the Swedish System of
Educational Gymnastics is a practical hand-
book for teaching the subject, prepared by
Ilartvig Nissen, an experienced teacher of
the exercise in the public schools of Boston,
and published by F. A. Davis, Philadelphia.
The first two chapters contain such ques-
tions as have been frequently put to the au-
thor, the answers to which give a satisfac-
tory idea of the foundation of the system.
Other chapters contain prescriptions for
daily lessons, arranged for school classes of
different grades. Full instructions and com-
mands are given for each lesson, and the
whole is illustrated by seventy-seven engrav-
ings. (Price, 75 cents.)

Mr. Thomas Bertrand Branson's little
manual of Colloquial German is designed to
be a drill-book in conversation for school
classes or self-instruction, and is intended to
offer in convenient form a short course in
that art and in German composition. It
contains exercises in ordinary English con-
versation, which the student is expected to
turn into German, to aid him in doing which
a vocabulary, a summary of grammar, and a
list of the irregular verbs arc added. (Pub-
lished by Henry Holt & Co. Price, 65
cents.)

710

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

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Chaddock. C. G. Visual Imagery of Alcoholic
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Geikie, Archibald. Geological Sketches at Home
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Green, C. H. Catalogue of a Unique Collection
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Texas Sanitarian. T. J. Bennett, Editor Month-
ly. Austin, Texas : Sanitarian Publishing Co.. Pp.
72. $2 a year.

Thornton. C. S. Report on the Condition of the
Cook County Normal School. Chicago. Pp. 27.

Trimble, Henry. The Tannins. Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippiucott Co. Pp. 168. $2.

United States (Geological Survey Bulletins No.
62. 65, 67 to 81, inclusive. Government Printing-
office, iS90 and 1891.

Wright. G. Frederick. Theory of an Interglacial
Submergence in England. Pp. 8. Reprint.

Wyatt, Francis. The Phosphates of America.
New Y'ork : Scientific Publishing Co. Pp. 187. $4.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

A Defense of Examinations. — Examina-
tions are defended by W. H. Maxwell, in a
paper which he read before the National
Education Association at its meeting in 1890.
To the question, " Is examination one of the
means that occasion those mental activities
which result in knowledge, power, and skill ? "
Mr. Maxwell gives an aflSrmative answer, say-
ing : " Knowledge is not knowledge when it
has been merely taken in. It is not knowledge
until it has passed through the mind and
come out again in words or actions of our
own. Until this is done, we can not be sure
even that we possess knowledge. Every
thorough-going student has been at some
time or other, when confronted with exami-
nation questions, amazed at his own igno-
rance of subjects with which he fondly im-
agined he was thoroughly familiar. There
is probably no better test of a teacher's
ability than his power to determine, during
the giving of a lesson or after it has been
given, whether it has been mastered by his
pupils. And yet I have frequently seen
teachers of great ability astonished at their
pupils' ignorance of subjects which they
(the teachers) thought had been completely

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

711

mastered. In all these cases the examina-
tion test proves that the knowledge in ques-
tion has not been assimilated, has not been
converted into faculty. The very ac:. of
reproducing knowledge in the pupil's own
words or acts is one of the best means of
converting it into faculty ; but it is not the
only means. The process is not complete
when isolated facts, nor even when divisions
of a subject, have passed through the mind
and been reproduced. All this is necessary,
but it is not enough. It is but a means to
an end, and the end is the comprehension of
a subject as a whole, and the comprehension
of the relations of the various parts to one
another and to the whole. . . . Nor is even
this all. The process of learning is not com-
plete till the pupil can apply his knowledge
in some practical way. . . • Examination
consists not merely in reproducing knowl-
edge imparted or acquired, but in making
practical application of knowledge, in test-
ing power and skill. And hence on this
ground also — the ground of practical appli-
cation as well as that of reproduction — ex-
amination, seeing that it is not only a test
of application and reproduction, but an exer-
cise in application and a means of the develop-
ment of power and skill, must be regarded as
an element of teaching what is good."

Climate and Health. — The modifying
effects of differences in age deserve more
attention than they have received in the dis-
cussion of the influence of climate upon
health. The question is a practical one, and
admits, according to the Lancet, of some
fairly definite rules and principles. In gen-
eral, children respond more readily to change
than older persons. They commonly do well
at the seaside ; they often benefit signally
by a sea-voyage, and do not suffer severely
from the discomforts attending one. They
suffer more than grown people from the de-
pressing influences of city life ; and, in a
large proportion of cases, they are not spe-
cially benefited by the climate of high alti-
tudes. The explanation of the love of chil-
dren for the sea is that they are benefited by
it, because they are commonly in a condi-
tion to bear stimulation, not having used-up
nervous systems. They are attracted by the
sea and its products, and by the amusements
natural to the seaside ; and some of their

most common ailments are among the affec-
tions most amenable to sea influences. The
advantages of mountain air to them are not
so conspicuous, but much has yet to be
learned on this subject before it can be dis-
cussed with full intelligence. Elderly peo-
ple in general do well with equabiUty and
moderate warmth, bear cold badly, and are
most benefited by abundant sunshine. High
altitudes are rarely suitable to them, and
often injurious; and they do best in level
places, where there is abundant shelter.
They may or may not benefit by the seaside
or a sea-voyage, but these measures can not
be recommended with the same confidence
as to children. In nothing is the superior
recuperative power of youth over age more
apparent than in the greater readiness and
certainty of its response to change of cli-
mate. We can confidently recommend to
the young measures which we suggest du-
biously to the old. In fact, change is rarely
at fault in the earlier years of life, whereas
it is often a doubtful and sometimes a haz-
ardous experiment for the aged. In the
case of the old, we need to have solid rea-
sons and tolerably definite prospects before
we induce them to give up the comforts and
safety of home for the uncertainties of travel.

The United States Life-saying Seryice.

— Systematic methods for the preservation
of life from shipwreck were not adopted
till very late in history. According to Mr.
Horace L. Piper, of our Life-saving Service,
the eighteenth century was " well in its twi-
light " before any organized effort, and that
private, was made for this purpose. The
first life-boat was not invented till after our
independence was achieved, and George
Washington had been two years President
when the first serious steps in that direc-
tion were taken in England. The United
States was abreast of other coimtries in this
work. The Humane Society, organized in
Massachusetts in 1*786, devoted itself to it
in 17S9. The Life-saving Service of the
United States was begun in 1848, was
made more effective in 1871, and was organ-
ized into a separate bureau in 1878. For
its purposes, the coasts of the Atlantic,
the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes,
and the Pacific (excepting Alaska), com-
prising more than ten thousand miles, are

712

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

divided into twelve life-saving districts,
designated by number, beginning with Maine
on the Atlantic and ending with AVashing-
ton on the Pacific. Each district is in
charge of a superintendent chosen for his
knowledge of the subject, business capacity,
and executive ability. The districts are
subdivided into stations, known by the
names of their localities, and situated with
regard to the special dangers of the coast.
They are of two kinds : complete life-saving
stations, and houses of refuge. In all there
are about two hundred and forty stations of
both kinds, but some of them are not yet
fully completed and manned. A majority
of them are on the Atlatrtic coast ; ten on
the shores of Maine and New Hampshire ;
six in Massachusetts, where the Humane So-
ciety provides whatever other service is
needed ; thirty-nine on Long Island ; forty
in New Jersey ; seventeen between Cape
Henlopen and Cape Charles ; twenty-three
between Cape Henry and Cape Hatteras ;
one station and ten houses of refuge in
Florida ; eight on the Gulf of Mexico ; forty-
nine on the Lakes ; and twelve on the Pa-
cific coast. Every station is in charge of an
oflicer who is really the captain of the
crew, but whose technical designation of
keeper is a survival from the time when
only one person was constantly employed
and depended on volunteers for help. The
crews are technically known as surfmen, and
are selected by the keeper from the best
men in the neighborhood. The crews are
under the control of the keepers, and above
these are the district superintendent, who
visits the stations quarterly; the assistant
inspector, who makes monthly rounds ; and
the general inspector, who reports periodi-
cally to headquarters in Washington. The
statements of the operations of the service
show that it has been very effective in sav-
ing life and property. The entire loss of
lives on all the coasts of the United States
under the present system since 18 VI has
been only thirty-eight in excess of the loss
on the Long Island and New Jersey coasts
alone during the preceding twenty years.
This efficiency is lax-gely due to the fact that
politics "has not yet intruded into the service,
while the principle of choosing and keeping
the best men for their work has been stead-
fastly adhered to.

Organic Variation a Chemical Problem.

— The laws of chemism are applied by Prof.
A. E. Dolbear to explain the phenom-
ena of protoplasmic growth and change.
Since the discovery of the mechanical equiv-
alent of heat there has been no alternative
but to suppose those phenomena to be due
to motion. Having shown that such motions
of matter as constitute sound, heat, magnet-
ism, and the rest, all produce fields external
to themselves, and that within such fields
other bodies are brought into similar states
of position or of motion or both, the author
would apply the same principle to proto-
plasm and cell structure. " Imagine a cell
with any degree of complexity, surrounded
by material such as it is itself composed of,
and what should one look for to take place
if not that the same kind of a structure
should be reproduced ? When this happens,
we say growth has taken place, and it is at-
tributed to life. As the new cell is similar
to the old one that furnished the specific
conditions for its development, we say it
has inherited its form and functions. The
bearings of this upon the fundamental prob-
lems of biology are apparent. If the fore-
going be true, heredity is explained as much
as inductive magnetism is, and is no more
mysterious. . . . Suppose that in such a
complex molecule as protoplasm a single
atom of a different substance should acci-
dentally become imbedded, either as a con-
stituent or not, it would bring its field along
with it necessarily, and the resultant field of
the whole would be modified. It could not be
what it would be in the absence of this new
constituent, and consequently the reaction
upon other matter in its neighborhood would
be different, and the next organic molecule
formed would need to be a little differently
organized. Mechanical conditions would ne-
cessitate it. Again, if energy, radiant or
conducted, should act for a short time upon
one part of a molecule, it might easily bring
about an exchange of positions among some
of the less stable constituents without other
disturbance, and this too would result in a
change of the configuration of the field and
the direction of growth. Every change in
the collocation and motions among molecules
exhibits itself in changed properties. Such
conditions might properly be spoken of as
changes in the environment, but it is mo-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

713

lecular environment, and the difference be-
tween this idea and that heretofore com-
mon is, that tlie molecule produces an en-
vironment of its own — the space beyond its
own geometric boundary, in which it is com-
petent to act upon other bodies and compel
other bodies to conform in a greater or less
degree to it. More than that, a new con-
stituent in a nearly saturated molecule could
not have as firm a grip upon the structure
as the older constituents could have, al-
though it might so modify things while pres-
ent as to organize other molecules in like
manner, but slight changes in the neighbor-
hood might slough off the new acquisition in
a subsequent generation, so there might be
a return to the form and qualities of the
ancestry — that is, reversion to a former type
would also be a mechanical consequence.
Thus growth, heredity, variation, and rever-
sion may be considered as the consequence
of atoms vibrating in harmonic orders, each
producing its own field in the universal
ether, and each group of atoms constituting
a molecule, large or small, having a field
which is the resultant of all the fields of its
constituents. All of them are molecular
properties as much as any one of them can
be, and growth has been believed for a long
time to be a property of inorganic molecules.
The cause of variation is therefore molecu-
lar as truly as isomerism is a different collo-
cation of atoms. It is a chemical problem."

Snake-myths. — A great deal of nonsense
has been published, and a great deal more
is believed, about snakes. Some most thrill-
ing stories turn upon a power which ser-
pents are credited with of fascinating their
victims. This appears to be a superstition.
According to Mr. Vincent Richards, mice,
birds, dogs, guinea-pigs, and other small
animals, introduced into a rattlesnake's cage,
show little fear, even at first, and after-
ward none whatever. Smaller birds, after
fluttering about till they are tired, end by
becoming amusingly familiar with the snakes.
Mr. Richards put two rats into a cage con-
taining forty cobras. At the outset the
rats' appetites were considerably affected,
and they were evidently alarmed. In a short
time, however, they recovered their spirits,
and caused considerable commotion among
the cobras by running all over their heads

and bodies. The snakes resented this fa-
miliarity by darting at each other and at
imaginary foes. The rats lived and partook
of food in the cage for ten or twelve days,
when, one after another, they were found
dead — " victims, no doubt, of misplaced
confidence." It is still a matter of debate
whether snakes are proof against their own
poison. The remedies advised for snake-
bite are of doubtful validity. Because a
man recovers after being bitten by a snake,
and dosed with opium, mercury, ammonia,
or what not, we must not jump to the con-
clusion that the treatment has effected a
cure. A snake may bite without poisoning.
Biting, though in appearance simple enough,
consists really of a series of complex move-
ments, following rapidly one upon another
in ordered sequence, should any of which be
inadequately performed, the victim may not
be properly poisoned. Ammonia, alcohol,
and making the patient move about, are
worse than useless ; for they increase the ac-
tivity of the circulation, and thereby pro-
mote the absorption of the poison. Even
permanganate of potash is of no effect un-
less it is administered within four minutes.
Researches into the nature of the poison
have shown that it resides in some proteid,
and that there are three toxic elements —
globulin, serum albumen, and acid albu-
men— but wherein the quality consists that
gives to these substances, usually so harm-
less, their poisonous power, is as much in
the dark as ever.

The Gems of the Ancients. —The gems of
the ancients, according to Prof. J. H. Middle-
ton's book on the Engraved Gems of Classi-
cal Times, consisted chiefly of the varieties
of quartz — including colorless rock crystal,
amethyst, sard, carnclian, chalcedony, chrys-
oprase, plasma, jasper, onyx, and sardonyx.
Among the non-silicious stones were chryso-
beryl, topaz, emerald, garnets, peridote, tur-
quoise, opal, and lapis lazuli. The translu-
cent stones are preferred, for artistic pur-
poses, to the transparent ones. They admit
the light, but not the forms of objects, and
better reveal the charms of fine and noble
workmanship. Many "gems" have been
wrought or reproduced in paste and glass.
Paste was a hard glass colored by various me-
talHc oxides, such as those of manganese, iron,

7H

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

copper, and cobalt. Sometimes a piece of
paste was treated by the gem-engraver just
as if it were a natural stone, and sculptured
by the aid of the same tools ; but inore gener-
ally the glass was melted and pressed into a
mold. Such a mold had been taken from
an engraved gem by a pellet of clay which
was afterward hardened by fire. Paste gems
arc often beautiful in color and design,
though the material lacks something of the
optical properties which distinguish many
of the true natural stones. The tools and
processes employed in ancient times in en-
graving gems were virtually the same as those
in use to day— drills, wire saws, and files,
re-enforced with emery, and gravers of dia-
mond, sapphire, or rock-crystal.

Courtship in Torres Strait.— The people
living on the islands of Torres Strait are
divided by Prof. Arthur C. Haddon into the
eastern and western tribes, and customs
differ considerably among them. While the
usual course in marriage is followed by the
eastern tribe, in the western tribe the girls
propose — or did, till " civilization " overtook
them — marriage to the men. " It might be
some time before a man had an offer ; but
should he be a fine dancer, with goodly calves,
and dance with sprightliness and energy at
the festive dances, he would not lack ad-
mirers. Should there still be a reticence on
the part of his female acquaintances, the
young man might win the heart of a girl by
robbing a man of his head. Our adventur-
ous youth could join in some foray ; it mat-
tered not to him what was the equity of the
quarrel, or whether there was any enmity at
all between his people and the attacked. So
long as he killed some one — man, woman, or
child — and brought the head back, it was
not of much consequence to him whose head
it was. . . . The girl's heart being won by
prowess, dancing skill, or fine appearance,
she would plait a strong armlet, tiajmruru ;
this she intrusted to a mutual friend, pref-
erably the chosen one's sister. On the first
suitable opportunity the sister said to her
brother, ' Brother, I have some good news
for you. A woman likes you.' On hearing
her name, and after some conversation, if he
was willing to go on with the affair, he told
his sister to ask the girl to keep some ap-
pointment with him in the bush. When

the message was delivered, the enamored
damsel informed her parent that she was
going into the woods to get some wood or
food, or made some such excuse. In due
course the couple met, sat down and talked,
the proposal being made with perfect deco-
rum. The following conversation is given
in the actual words used by my informant,
Maine, the chief of Tud. Opening the con-
versation, the man said, ' You like me prop-
er ? ' ' Yes,' she replied, ' I like you proper
with my heart inside. Eye along my heart
see you — ^you my man.' Unwilling to give
himself away rashly, he asked, ' IIow you
like me ? ' 'I like your fine legs, you got
fine body — your skin good — I like you alto-
gether,' replied the girl. After matters had
proceeded satisfactorily, the girl, anxious to
clinch the matter, asked when they were to
be married. The man said, ' To-morrow, if
you like.' They both went home and told
their respective relatives. Then the girl's
people fought the man's folk, ' for girl
more big' (i. e., of more consequence) ' than
boy ' ; but the fighting was not of a serious
character, it being part of the programme of
a marriage. 'Swapping' sisters in matri-
mony was a convenient way of saving ex-
pense in the way of wedding gifts, for one
girl operated as a set-off to the other."

V.alne of Photography. — The name of
impressionists has been given to a school of
painters who, abandoning all consideration
of the arrangements and mechanism of pre-
vious workers, have consulted only their im.
pressions of natural scenes, and have painted
to those impressions. " With one point of
sight and one subject of supreme interest they
have aimed to seize above all the action and
first impression of that subject." The natu-
ralistic school trust rather to a study of Na-
ture, and make its truthful representation and
perfect expression the criterion of their art.
Mr. George Davison sees no reason why pho-
tography should not be used to express our
impressions of natural scenes as well as any
other black-and-white method. Worked
under the same conditions as the eye, or
under conditions as nearly approximate as
possible, nothing, he says, gives so truthful
a record in drawing as photography, and
nothing, when the proper means are used and
the requisite knowledge is possessed by the

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

715

photographer, gives so delicately correct a
relation of tones. It is to the proper use of
the proper means at their disposal that pho-
tographers need stimulating. The most im-
portant of these means are such as are
directed to securing the proper light effect
and relations of light values, and those which
give the focusing and relative interests of
the subject. Some of the simplest facts of
light are overlooked by photographers, who
have been governed by untrue and mislead-
ing conventions and dogmas concerning gra-
dation and brilliancy. Instead of deep black
prints usually in favor among them, it is of
first-rate importance in landscape pictures to
keep the shadows light. To repeat the im-
pression of outdoor light the whole picture
must be luminous, and not heavy and dark,
as is the effect of the ordinary style. Fur-
ther, the shadows when the sun shines are
lighter than when he is obscured. The
printing medium employed is an important
consideration. Mr. Davison finds excellent
qualities in the newest extra rough-surfaced
papers. Photography is good under suitable
conditions of light for representing transient
action and effects. Photography has pre-
eminently more of painting qualities than
any other monochrome process. It is not
specially limited to nor compelled to empha-
size facts of form. It gives form by means
of tone against tone — the best means of ren-
dering it — and its truth of form is unlimited.
It is equal to any other black-and-white pro-
cess. In nothing more than closed forms
is the delicacy of its tonal discriminations
shown. The quality of naturalness will tell
in the long run. Men will weary of empha-
sis, and graphic artists will leave past his-
tory, archaeology, and fiction to literature or
scientific drawing.

A Voodoo Initiation. — A paper was com-
municated to the International Folk-lore
Congress in London by Miss Owen on Voo-
doo Magic, to the mysteries of which she
alone among white women had been initi-
ated. The ceremony of initiation began
with a walk at midnight, barefooted and
bareheaded, to a fallow field. The author
had to walk backward to the field, and when
there, to pull up, with her hand behind her,
a weed by the roots. She was then bidden
to run home and throw the weed under her

bed, to be left there till sunrise. Next, the
weed had to be stripped of its leaves and
made into a little packet, to be worn under
the right arm for nine days. At the end of
this time the leaves of the packet had to be
scattered to the four winds, a few being
thrown at a time over the right shoulder as
the novice turned round and round, so that
they might fall north, south, east, and west.
When this was done the novice was ready
for instruction. Slie learned that the pre-
eminently lucky number which, when woven
into incantations, was irresistible, was four
times four times four; while ten was the
unlucky number. After this a knowledge
of the value of certain vegetable remedies
and poisons had to be acquired. Charms
were divided into four degrees. The first
were good charms, the hardest to work, be-
cause good is always more difficult to prac-
tice than evil ; the second were bad charms
and fetiches made in the name of the devil ;
the third had special reference to bodily
ailments ; and the fourth related to what
were called "commanded things," such as
earth and pieces of stick. After each lesson
both pupil and teacher had to get drunk,
either by drinking whisky or by swallowing
tobacco-smoke. To be thoroughly equipped
the novitiate must possess a conjuring-stone
— a stone black, kidney-shaped, and very
rare. These stones were supposed to oper-
ate most rapidly when the moon was full or
just beginning to wane. At other times, if
the stones were not efficacious enough, their
potency could be stimulated by a libation of
whisky.

Cremation in Japan. — We are indebted
to a correspondent of the London Spectator
for the following interesting account of this
method of disposing of the dead in Meguro,
Tokeigo. It appears that cremation is the
general custom among the "Monto sect of
the Buddhists," a highly enlightened branch
of Japanese Buddhism, which holds to the
immortality of the soul as one of its leading
tenets. " The building is of plaster, with an
earthen floor, with stone supports for bodies.
The chimneys are wide, and are carried to a
considerable height, and there is no escape
of disagreeable effluvium over the neighbor-
hood. The bodies in the ordinary wooden
chests which are used for burial are placed

7i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon piles of fagots at 8 p. m., and are to-
tally consumed by 6 a. m. The relations are
admitted early in the morning, and the ashes
are collected and placed in urns. The scale
of charges is 3s. 6(/., Is. 6d., 15s., and 20s.,
the process in each case being the same, the
only difference being that the highest charge
insures a solitary chamber, while for the
lowest the corpse may be consumed in com-
pany with five others, each, of course, occu-
pying a separate stone platform."

Chinese Cookery. — It appears, from the
Pall Mall Budget, that the great number of
strange dishes spoken of in books of travel
are seen only at official banquets, and do
not constitute the meals even of the wealthy
Chinese. These public dinners are usually
given in restaurants, which are built two or
three stories high, the kitchen and public
rooms being on the first floor, the private
rooms above. A correspondent of the Jour-
nal des Dcbats gives the following as the
bill of fare at a banquet given by a French
official of the Chinese Government to Chen
Pao-Chen, the Viceroy of the Two Kiangs :
" Four large ' classical ' or stock dishes —
swallows' -nest soup with pigeons' eggs,
sharks' fins with crabs, trepang {beche de
mer) with wild duck, duck with cabbage.
Dishes served in cups placed before each
guest — swallows' nests, sharks' fins, wild
cherries, vegetables, mushrooms with ducks'
feet, quails, pigeons in slices, dish of sun-
dries. Four medium-sized dishes — ham and
honey, pea-soup, vegetables, trepang. Four
large dessert dishes — pea-cheese with bam-
boo roots, bamboo roots, chicken, shell-fish ;
four dishes of dried fruits as ornaments,
four kinds of dry fruits, four kinds of fruits
in sirup, four kinds of fresh fruit ; four
dishes of Iiors d^cfuvre (two varieties in each
dish) — ham and chicken, fish and gizzard,
tripe and vermicelli, duck and pork chops.
Dishes set before each guest — almonds and
watermelon pips, pears and oranges. Sweet
and salt dishes served in cups set before
each guest — ^two kinds of salted cakes, ham-
broth, a broth composed of pork, chicken,
and crab boiled down, two sweet cakes, a
cup of lotus fruit, a cup of almond milk.
Roast and boiled meats — sucking pig, roast
duck, boiled chicken, boiled pork. Entre-
mets— a dish of cakes with broth, slices of

pheasants. Last service — mutton broth,
almond jelly, white cabbage, pork and broth,
bowls of rice, cups of green tea." Notwith-
standing this elaborate " bill of fare," the
Chinese are generally an abstemious people.
A coolie will subsist upon eight shillings a
month, and live comfortably upon twice that
sum. Boiled rice is the staple article of
food. In the north of China wheat and ca-
nary seed, boiled and made into small i-olls,
are much used. Small cakes made of boiled
wheat, together with a little fish or some
vegetables, constitute an excellent dinner
for a Chinaman. Some light refreshment
is frequently taken between meals by the
well-to-do Chinaman — " the kuo tsa lead-
ing up to the morning, the kuo tsong to
the midday, and the tien chen to the even-
ing meal, while the chian ya and the kuo
yia are partaken of during the night by
those who can not get to sleep."

A Defense of Opinm- smoking. — That
there is no cause without its advocate is
evident from the fact that Consul Gardner,
in a trade report for the past year, plausibly
defends the practice of opium -smoking.
We gather the following from the Pall Mall
Budget : About 12,000,000 pounds of opium
are yearly consumed in China. The smok-
ers are of thrfee classes — occasional smokers,
habitual moderate smokers, and excessive
habitual smokers. When a Chinaman is
said to smoke opium, the recognized mean-
ing is that he belongs to the third class,
just as with us when we say that a man
" drinks," excessive drinking is understood.
In smoking, only part of the drug is con-
sumed ; the ash when reprepared yields fifty
per cent of opium. This accounts for the
fact that the saloon-keepers sell opium at
what appears to be cost price ; the ash
yields the profit and pays for light, house-
rent, and attendance. It is estimated that
the immoderate smoker consumes not over
four pounds a year, and the average annual
consumption of all classes is half a pound.
If, as this implies, half the adult popula-
tion smoke, and opium-smoking is the evil it
is represented to be, why are there not visi-
ble inherited ill effects ? Consul 'Gardner,
in reply, says : " The length of the intestines
in man shows that a due admixture of ani-
mal and vegetable food is the diet best suited

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

717

to him. In China the population lives al-
most entirely on vegetables. Opium-smok-
ing slows the processes of digestion, and,
in fact, has the same effect as long intes-
tines, and consequently is highly beneficial."
Again, the Chinese live in low, undraincd
grounds, and are consequently liable to at-
tacks of fever and ague. Under similar cir-
cumstances the lowlanders of Lincolnshire
took to laudanum ; the Chinese take opium
in another form. Residents in China are
struck with the comparative freedom of the
people from pulmonary diseases. " That
this immunity is not due to chmatic influ-
ences is clearly proved by the fact that Euro-
peans and Americans are not more free from
the scourge in China than they are in their
own countries." Morphia is an anaesthetic,
and rarefied as smoke probably an antiseptic.
" In this form it would tend to arrest the sup-
puration of the lungs that takes place in
consumption,"

Oscillations of Alpine Glaciers. — About
thirty years ago, according to Herr von E.
Richter, the glaciers of the Alps began a
precipitate retreat. In 1870 the ti-aveler
often found a stone-strewn plain or an un-
dulating slope of polibhed rock where ten
years before he had scrambled over crevassed
ice. About five years later, a slight, tran-
sitory forward movement was perceptible,
while now the indications of an advance are
becoming more marked. Similar changes,
at earlier dates, are on record, and their his-
tory has been studied by Prof. Forel, Ilerr
von Richter, and others. The historical
period of the oscillations of the glaciers ex-
tends back about three centuries, while prior
to this the notices are too sparse and vague
to be of any real use. In this period eight
marked epochs of glacier growth are on rec-
ord. The first began in 1592, and the last, ex-
cluding the slight one of 1875, in 1835. Each
was followed by a period of diminution.
The intervals between the epochs vary from
twenty to forty-seven years. The observa-
tions are not numerous enough to give trust-
worthy indication of a law, but are supposed
to hint at one. The changes are connected
with climatic variations, but effects are pro-
duced more quickly than is generally sup-
posed. In the present century the curves
representing the oscillations of the glacier

and those of the annual temperature nearly
correspond. Some traditions assert that in
the middle ages the glaciers had almost
melted away from many parts of the Alps,
and passes were then crossed by women and
children which are now left to experienced
mountaineers. Their evidence relates to the
cultivation of vines, cereals, etc., in locali-
ties where they are no longer grown, and to
the former use of passes which are now
practically closed. To the former evidence,
as Herr Richter shows, little weight can be
given. Man and Nature are in constant con-
flict in the Alps, and the position of the
frontier line between their territories is de-
termined by the convenience of the former.
If a particular form of cultivation ceases to
be remunerative all the advanced posts are
abandoned. Herr Richter, likewise, does not
give much force to evidence based on the
disuse of passes. This is more than likely
to have been brought about by the discov-
ery of better ways or the making of new
roads. In short, says the Saturday Review,
under this author's treatment, " the tradi-
tions, not the glaciers, become unsubstantial,
and the warm epoch in the mediseval history
of the Alps goes the way of many other
legends."

Origin of tlie Colors of Flowers. — Any

one, says Mr. E. Williams Hervey, in Garden
and Forest, can solve the problem as to the
primitive color of flowers by a study of the
native wild plants growing by the roadside
or in the fields and woods. Two methods,
he says, are employed by Nature in the de-
velopment of colors, one of which he calls
the imperfect or foliar development, and the
other the normal floral process. In the
former, the colors are apparently evolved
directly from the green chlorophyl, as the
reds, purples, and yellows of autumn leaves ;
for from some green-colored flowers a rather
limited number of dull reds, purples, and
yellows are produced. The reds and reddish
purples are, however, rare, and appear mostly
on the scales of involucres, where they are
common, on the spathes of several of the
Aracece, in Salicornia of the salt marshes,
which turns red in the fall, and in the castor-
oil plant of gardens, which turns a reddish
purple in all its parts. The author does not
find a satisfactory example of yellow evolved

718

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

directly from green among our native plants,
and doubts if any pure yellow ever immedi-
ately succeeds green. But there are some
greenish-yellow flowers. For illustration of
the normal floral method of development by
which he believes all the bright, attractive
hues of the floral world are produced, the
author takes up the Spiranthes gracilis, or
ladies-tresses, an orchid which grows in
all our fields, having small white flowers
spirally disposed at the summit of the scape.
The lip is green, fringed around the edges
with white, and the other petals are wholly
white. " A small section of the petals,
placed under the magnifying glass, appears
colorless and transparent, while the delicate
network of the tissue glistens like crystal ;
yet this colorless tissue, in a mass, reflects
white. In the same manner a single leaf-
like bract of Moiiot-opa unijlora, severed
from the stem, appears colorless ; but two
or more placed together, making a greater
thickness, reflect a decided white color."
Attention is called to the fact that in Sjcii-
ranthcs the white color directly succeeds the
dark rich green of the lip. The author then
endeavors to demonstrate that the universal
law of progression in color, as regards the
floral structure, is first from gi'cen to white ;
"or, differently stated, Nature, before she
begins to paint the more rich and delicate
tissue of the petals, by some secret chemical
process completely eliminates the chloro-
phyl and prepares a perfectly pure and
white canvas upon which to essay higher
flights of fancy." Twenty-eight wild and
garden flowers are cited as illustrating this
principle in the development of their colors,
and numerous inconspicuous or weed-like
plants in the coloring of their sepals ; while
the hues of flowers of other colors are thus
produced by transition through white, " with-
out a single exception every flower that
came to hand of a white color was developed
directly from green, without any intervening
color."

€anaries> — A correspondent of the Lon-
don Spectator writes chattily of his pet ca-
naries, and seems to show that they are very
human in their reason and unreason. Dur-
ing some intensely hot weather, when the
ben was sitting, she drooped, and it seemed
as if she might not be able to hatch her

eggs. The cock, however, showed himself
an excellent nurse. After bathing in fresh
cold water, he went every morning to the
edge of the nest and allowed the hen to re-
fresh herself by burying her head in his
breast. A green and yellow canary hung
side by side, and were treated exactly alike.
One day three dandelion blossoms were
given to the green bird and two to the
yellow one. The latter showed his anger
at the proceeding by " flying about his cage,
singing in a shrill voice." But when one of
the three flowers was taken away, both birds
seemed quietly to enjoy their feast.

Utilizing the Less-known Metals. — In

closing his presidential address before the
Chemical Section of the British Association,
Prof. Roberts-Austen spoke of the great
importance of extending the use of the
less-known metals. He supposed that in
the immediate future there would be a rapid
increase in the number of metallurgical pro-
cesses that depend on reactions which are
set up by submitting chemical systems to
electrical stress. Attention is at present
concentrated on the production of alumi-
num. Sodium, also, is of growing impor-
tance, both for cheapening the production
of aluminum, and as a powerful weapon of
research. The manufacture of magnesium,
which was a curiosity in 1849, has become
an important industry. We may confidently
expect to see barium and calcium produced
on a large scale as soon as their utility has
been demonstrated by research. Minerals
containing molybdenum are not rare ; and
the metal could probably be produced as
cheaply as tin if a use were to be found for it.
The quantities of vanadium and thallium
which are available are also considerable ;
but we as yet know little of the action
when alloyed of those metals which are in
daily use. The field for investigation is
vast, for it must be remembered that valu-
able qualities may be conferred on a mass
of metal by a very small quantity of an-
other element. The useful qualities im-
parted to platinum by iridium are well
known. A small quantity of tellurium
obliterates the crystalline structure of bis-
muth ; but we have lost an ancient art,
which enabled brittle antimony to be cast
into useful vessels. Two tenths per cent

NOTES.

719

of chromium increases the strength of gold
enormously, while the same amount of bis-
muth reduces the tenacity to a very low
point. Chromium, cobalt, tungsten, titani-
um, cadmium, zirconium, and lithium are
already well known in the arts, and the
valuable properties which metallic chro-
mium and tungsten confer upon steel are
beginning to be generaUy recognized.

NOTES.

The Electrical Engineer begins the new
year with the publication of the first of a
series of articles on the electrical and mag-
netic discoveries of Prof. Joseph Henry, by
his daughter, Miss Mary A. Henry, of Wash-
ington, with notes by Mr. Franklm Leonard
Pope. Additional interest is given to these
articles by the fact that the author will en-
deavor in them to substantiate the claim
that Prof. Henry was the original discoverer
of magneto-electricity.

A German physician, Dr. Krug, claims
that he has discovered how to make an eat-
able and nutritious cake with wood. His
method consists in transforming the cellulose
into grape sugar, a substance assimilable by
the animal organism. The biscuit is made
by adding to this about forty per cent of
meal of wheat, oats, or rye. Phosphates
and all the bone elements may also be nitro-
duced. This bread of wood-glucose is in-
tended to be fed to cattle, for which it will
take the place of oil-cakes and other feeds
composed of industrial wastes.

TiiK Council of the School of Mines in
England has determined that the room at
South Kensington containing the library of
research presented by Prof. Huxley to the
institution, and in which he taught for nearly
twenty years, shall be entirely set apart as the
Huxley Laboratory for Biological Reseach.
An endowment of one thousand pounds be-
queathed for the establishment of a prize
or scholarship in biology, has become avail-
able, together with the scientific books and
instrum"ents, and its proceeds will be appro-
priated annually in aid of a student in this
laboratory, which now has provision for two
students.

Ma. Albkrt Koebele, of our Bureau of
Entomology, who is studying the enemies of
insect pests in the Australasian colonies,
was recently introduced by Sir James Hec-
tor to the Wellington Philosophical Society,
New Zealand, as a naturalist whose work in
securing the'Vedalia lady-bird to destroy
the Iceria pest of the California orchards is
" one of the grandest things in the interest
of fruit and" tree growers that have been
effected in modern times."

A CORRESPONDENT of the Gcncva (Switz-
erland) Tribune relates that his family were
disturbed one evening by a mysterious nng-
ino- of the electric bells all over the house.
Investigating the cause, the writer found
that a large spider had established itself at
a point where the bell and the electric light
wires ran close to one another, with one leg
on either wire, thus establishing a connec-
tion.

A SPECIMEN of prehistoric hatchets of pe-
cuhar form was exhibited by M. Villanova,
of Piera, at the meeting of the French Asso-
ciation. About two hundred of them had
been found at Elcho. They were simple em-
blems or images of a hatchet, made of a
thin blade of metal, ornamented on both
sides from one end to the other, and without
edges. At the top is a kind of cup suggest-
in^ a socket that does not exist, and repre-
senting, probably, the jet of the casting.

Java is said to be the region of the
globe where it thunders oftenest, having
thunderstorms on ninety-seven days in the
year. After it are Sumatra, with eighty-six
days- Hindustan, with fifty-six; Borneo,
with fifty-four ; the Gold Coast, with fifty-
twe ; and Rio de Janeiro, with fifty-one. In
Europe Italy occupies the first place, with
thirty-eight days of thunder, while France
and "southern Russia have sixteen days,
Great Britain and Switzerland seven days,
and Norway only four days. Thunder is
rare at Cairo, being heard on only three
days in the year ; and is extremely rare in
northern Turkistan and the polar regions.
The northern limit of the region of thunder-
storms passes by Cape Ogle, Iceland, Nova
Zembla, and the coast of the Siberian Sea.

A PRIZE of four hundred kronen is of-
fered by the Royal Danish Academy of Sci-
ences at Copenhagen for investigations on
the exact nature and proportions of the
more important carbohydrates present at
different stages of maturity, in the cereals in
most general use.

The use of aluminum is recommended by
Mr. G. L. Addeubrooke, instead of brass, for
the framing of photographic lenses and the
metal parts of cameras ; for the revolving
tripod heads fixed in the base-boards of
cameras ; and for developing dishes, for
which he regards it as very suitable, for the
action of most of the chemicals used in pho-
tography is very slight upon it, and, when
there is any, the compounds formed would
not be harmful.

In the course of an account of various
marriage customs. Dr. A. H. Post refers to
a strange sort of symbolical marriage with
plants, trees, animals, or inanimate objects,
which is supposed to have originated m In-
dia. If any one proposes to enter upon a
union that "is not in accordance with tradi-
tional ideas, it is believed that the ill luck
which is otherwise sure to follow may be

720

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

averted by a marriage of this kind, when
the evil consequences will pass over to the
object chosen. In some regions a girl must
not marry before her elder sisters, but in
parts of southern India the difficulty is over-
come by the eldest daughter marrying the
branch of a tree. Then the wedding of the
younger daughter may be safely celebrated.

Facts well known to boys who are famil-
iar with the woods are reported by Mr. C.
Fitzgerald in The Zoologist. During many
winters passed in the backwoods of North
America, he has seen squirrels frisking among
the trees in the coldest weather. On bright,
sunny days especially, they delight in chas-
ing one another from tree to tree among the
evergreens, and cover the snow with their
tracks. The chipmunks lay up in the au-
tumn a store of provisions of grain, nuts,
etc., for winter, and may be seen sunning
themselves on laright days. Mr. Fitzgerald
has on several occasions come across their
hoards, and once saw two large bucketfuls
of shelled buckwheat taken from the hollow
of an old birch tree.

FKriT-TREES are planted along the road-
sides of several countries of Europe, but it
has not been usual to attach great impor-
tance to the value of their products. Recent
estimates made in Germany show that this
is considerable. The i-oadside trees of Han-
over gave a gross return in 1890 of 270,000
francs, of which 187,000 francs were de-
rived from the fruits. The roadside fruits
of the Hildersheim region returned 64,000
francs, and those of Gottingcn 41,000 francs;
and the district of Reutlingen, according
to the Gartcnflora, derived 333,000 francs
from the sale of these fruits. The trees of
the Monheim district, first planted in 1858,
yielded 9,500 francs in 1868, 22,000 francs
in 1878, and about 36,000 francs in 1888.

Old newspapers are said to make valu-
able anti-moth wrappers for furs and winter
clothing, the ink upon them being nearly as
repulsive to all kinds of vermin as camphor
or coal-tar paper. They are likewise good to
lay on carpets for a like purpose. Being
impermeable to air, they also form excellent
envelopes for vessels containing ice and
fresh liquors.

Garden and Forest tells the story of two
famous trees which were saved from de-
struction, each by the sagacity and liberality
of a man who appreciated their value. One
is the giant Manzanita (Arcfostaphylos »n«?i-
zanita), of St. Helena, Cal., which a wood-
chopper in the employ of the Napa Valley
Wood Company had begun to cut down when
Dr. C. Hitchcock, passing by, paid two dol-
lars to have it saved. The other is the fine
red oak of Dedham, Mass., which Thomas
Motley, father of the historian, who owned
the adjoining place, paid its owner to have
spared. Both of these trees are now owned
by men who will preserve them. The names

of the men to whom their continued life is
due deserve to be remembered.

OBITUARY NOTES.
OcR French papers bring news, with no
particulars, of the death, January 12th, of
M. A. de Quatrefages, the eminent anthro-
pologist, at the age of eighty-two years.

M. Jean Servais Stas, the distinguished
Belgian chemist, died at Saint-Gilles, near
Brussels, December 13th, after a short ill-
ness. He was born at Lou vain in 1813,
studied in Paris under Dumas, and, return-
ing to Belgium, became a professor in the
Military School. He was afterward Commis-
sioner of Moneys, a member of the Commis-
sion of the Obsei'vatory, and, after the death
of Houzeau, of the Committee of Direction,
Belgian representative in the International
Committee of Weights and Measures, mem-
ber of many learned societies at home and
abroad, and bearer of many honors. His
chemical researches were numerous, and
have been much quoted from.

Dr. H. K. H. Hoffmann, Professor of
Botany at Giessen, and Director of the Bo-
tanic Institute there, died October 27th, in
the seventy-third year of his age.

Edouard Maillt, formerly aid at the
Royal Observatory of Belgium, died October
8th, in his eighty-second year. He entered
the Observatory as a computer in 1832, and
occupied himself there with the reductions of
the meridional observations. He published
in the Annuaire of the Observatory, and in
the Academical Collections, a number of
works in the history of science which were
highly prized. Among them were essays on
the Scientific Institutions of Great Britain and
Ireland, Spain, Italy, and the United States,
a sketch of Astronomy in the Southern Hem-
isphere and in India, papers on the history
of the Belgian Academy, biographical notices
of Adolphe and Ernest Quetelet, Van Ries,
and Argclander, and a book of reminiscences.

The Right Rev. Harvey Goodwin, Bishop
of Carlisle, who died in York, England, No-
vember 25th, took a prominent part in the
discussion of questions involving the inter-
relations of science and religion. Being an
eminent mathematician, as well as a distin-
guished theologian, he enforced his arguments
with mathematical methods and principles,
which added greatly to their effect. He was
clear, judicious, and temperate in argument,
and rarely missed the essential point. The pa-
pers by him which have been published in the
Monthly attest his ability in this particular.

Prof. Joseph Lovering, Hollis Professor
Emeritus of Harvard College, died January
18th of heart-failure following grip, in the
seventy-ninth year ot his age. A full sketch
of his life and scientific activity till his re-
tirement from work in 1888 was published
in the Monthly for September, 1889.

KhlS^

CONSTAKTINE SAMUEL TJAriNESQITE.
For Sketch, see Vol. XXIX, p. 212 (June, 1880).

THE

POPULAR SCIEITOE
MONTHLY.

APRIL, 1892.

AGASSIZ AT PENIKESE.

Bt Peof. DAVID STAER JOEDAN,

PRESIDENT OF THE LELAND STANFOED JUiaOE UNIVEESITT.

AGASSIZ was above all else a teaclier. His mission in Amer-
ica was that of a teaclier of science — of science in the broad-
est sense as the orderly arrangement of all human knowledge.
He would teach men to know, not simply to remember or to
guess. He believed that men in all walks of life would be more
useful and more successful through the thorough development of
the powers of observation and judgment. He would have the
student trained through contact with real things, not merely ex-
ercised in the recollection of the book descriptions of things.
" If you study Nature in books/' he said, " when you go out of
doors you can not find her."

Agassiz was once asked to write a text-book in zoology for the
use of schools and colleges. Of this he said : " I told the publish-
ers that I was not the man to do that sort of thing, and I told
them, too, that the less of that sort of thing which is done the
better. It is not school-books we want, it is students. The book
of Nature is always open, and all that I can do or say shall be to ■
lead young people to study that book, and not to pin their faith to
any other."

He taught natural history in Harvard College as no other man
had taught in America before. He was "the best friend' that
ever student had," because the most genial and kindly. Camr
bridge people used to say that one had " less need of an overcoat
in passing Agassiz's house " than any other in that city.

In the interest of popular education as well as of scientific re-
search-, Agassiz laid the foundation of the Museum of Compara-
tive Zoology. Here, in the face of all sorts of discouragements,

TOL. XL. 49

722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lie worked with wonderful zeal, which showed its results in the
success of everything with which he had to do.

Of the older teachers of biology in America, the men who were
born between 1830 and 1850, nearly all who have reached emi-
nence have been at one time or another pupils of Agassiz. The
names of Le Conte, Hartt, Shaler, Scudder, Wilder, Putnam,
Packard, Clark, Alexander Agassiz, Morse, Lyman, Brooks, Whit-
man, Garman, Faxon, Fewkes, Minot, and many others not less
worthily known, come to our thoughts at once as evidence of this
statement.

Even as late as 1873, when Agassiz died, the Museum of Com-
parative Zoology was almost the only school in America where
the eager student of natural history could find the work he
wanted. The colleges generally taught only the elements of any
of the sciences. Twenty years ago original research was scarcely
considered as among the functions of the American college. Such
investigators as America had were for the most part outside of
the colleges, or at the best carrying on their investigations in time
stolen from the drudgery of the class-room. One of the greatest
of American astronomers was kept for forty years teaching alge-
bra and geometry, with never a student far enough advanced to
realize the real work of his teacher. And this case was typical
of hundreds before the university spirit was kindled in American
schools. That this spirit was kindled in Harvard forty years ago
was due in the greatest measure to Agassiz's influence. It was
here that graduate instruction in science in America practically
began. In an important sense the Museum of Comparative Zoolo-
gy was the first American university.

Notwithstanding the great usefulness of the museum and the
broad influence of its teachers, Agassiz was not fully satisfied.
The audience he reached was still too small. Throughout the
country the great body of teachers of science went on in the old
mechanical way. On these he was able to exert no influence.
The boys and girls still kept up the humdrum recitations from
worthless text-books. They got their lessons from the book, re-
cited them from memory, and no more came into contact with
Nature than they would if no animals or plants or rocks existed
on this side of the planet Jupiter.

It was to remedy this state of things that Agassiz conceived,
in 1872, the idea of a scientific " camp-meeting," where the workers
and the teachers might meet together — a summer school of obser-
vation where the teachers should be trained to see Nature for
themselves and teach others how to see it.

The first plan suggested was that of calling the teachers of the
country together for a summer outing on the island of Nantucket.
Before the site was chosen, Mr. John Anderson, a wealthy tobacco

AGASSIZ AT PEN IKE SE. 723

mercliant in New York city, offered to Agassiz the use of his isl-
and of Penikese, together with a large yacht and an endowment
of fifty thousand dollars in money, if he would permanently lo-
cate this scientific "camp-meeting" on the island. Thus was
founded the Anderson School of Natural History on the island
of Penikese.

Penikese is a little island containing about sixty acres of very
rocky ground, a pile of stones, with intervals of soil. It is the
last and least of the Elizabeth Islands, lying to the south of Buz-
zard's Bay, on the south coast of Massachusetts. The whole clus-
ter was once a great terminal moraine of rocks and rubbish of
all sorts, brought down from the mainland by some ancient gla-
cier, and by it dropped into the ocean off the heel of Cape Cod.
The sea has broken up the moraine into eight little islands by
wearing tide channels between hill and hill. The names of these
islands are recorded in the jingle which the children of that re-
gion learn before they go to school :

*' Naushon, Nonamesset, Uncatena, and "Wepecket,
Nashawena, Pesquiaese, Cuttyhunk, and Penikese."

And Penikese, last and smallest of them, lies, a little forgotten
speck, out in the ocean, eighteen miles south of New Bedford. It
contains two hills, joined together by a narrow isthmus, a little
harbor, a farm-house, a flag-staff, a barn, a willow tree, and a
flock of sheep. And here Agassiz founded his school. This was
in the month of June in the year 1873.

From the many hundred applicants who sent in their names
as soon as the school was made public Agassiz chose fifty — thirty
men, twenty women — teachers, students, and naturalists of various
grades from all parts of the country. This practical recogni-
tion of coeducation was criticised by many of Agassiz's friends,
trained in the monastic schools of New England, but the results
soon justified the decision. These fifty teachers should be trained
so far as he could train them in right methods of work. They
should carry into their schools his own views of scientific teach-
ing. Then each of these schools would become in its time a cen-
ter of help to others, until the influence toward real work in sci-
ence should spread throughout our educational system.

None of us will ever forget his first sight of Agassiz. We had
come down from New Bedford in a little tug-boat in the early
morning, and Agassiz met us at the landing-place on the island.
He was standing almost alone on the little wharf, and his great
face beamed with pleasure. For this summer school, the thought
of his old age, might be the crowning work of his lifetime. Who
could foresee what might come from the efforts of fifty men and
women, teachers of science, each striving to do his work in the

724 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

best possible way ? His tliouglits and hopes rose to expectations
higher than any of us then understood.

His tall, robust figure, broad shoulders bending a little under
the weight of years, his large round face lit up by kindly dark-
brown eyes, his cheery smile, the enthusiastic tones of his voice,
all these entered into our first as well as our last impressions of
Agassiz. He greeted us with great warmth as we landed. He
looked into our faces to justify himself in making choice of us
among the many whom he might have chosen.

The roll of the Anderson School has never been published, and
I can only restore a part of it from memory. Among those whose
names come to my mind as I write are Dr. Charles O. Whitman,
now of Clark University; Dr. William K. Brooks, of Johns Hop-
kins ; Dr. Frank H. Snow, now Chancellor of the University
of Kansas ; Dr. W. O. Crosby, of the Boston Society of Natural
History, then a boy from Colorado interested in rocks and min-
erals ; Samuel Garman, Walter Faxon, Walter Fewkes, and
Charles Sedgwick Minot, all of them still connected with the
work at Cambridge ; Ernest Ingersoll, then just beginning his
literary work ; Prof. Scott, of the Normal School at Westfield ;
Prof. Stowell, of the school at Cortland ; Prof. Apgar, of Trenton,
N. J. ; Prof. Fernald, of Maine ; Miss Susan Hallowell, of Welles-
ley College ; Miss Mary Beaman (Mrs, Joralemon) ; Mr. E. A.
Gastman, of Illinois ; and other well-known instructors. With
these was the veteran teacher of botany at Mount Holyoke Semi-
nary, Miss Lydia W. Shattuck, with her pupil and associate. Miss
Susan Bowen. Prof. H. H. Straight and his bride, both then
teachers in the State Normal School at Oswego, were also with
us. These four, whom all of us loved and respected, were the first
of our number to be claimed by death.

Among our teachers, besides Agassiz, were Burt G. Wilder,
Edward S. Morse, Alfred Mayer, Frederick W. Putnam, then
young men of growing fame, with Arnold Guyot and Count
Pourtalfes, early associates of Agassiz, already in the fullness of
years. Mrs. Agassiz was present at every lecture, note-book in
hand, and her genial personality did much to bind the company
together.

The old barn on the island had been hastily converted into a
dining-hall and lecture-room. A new floor had been put in, but
the doors and walls remained unchanged, and the swallows' nests
were undisturbed under the eaves. The sheep had been turned
out, the horse-stalls were changed to a kitchen, and on the floor
of the barn, instead of the hay-wagon, were placed three long
tables. At the head of one of these sat Agassiz. At his right
hand always stood a movable blackboard, for he seldom spoke
without a piece of chalk in his hand. He would often give us a

AGASSIZ AT PENIKESE. 725

lecture while we sat at the table, frequently about some fish or
other creature, the remains of which still lay beside our plates.

Our second day upon the island was memorable above all
others. Its striking incident has passed into literature in the
poem of Whittier, " The Prayer of Agassiz."

AVhen the morning meal was over, Agassiz arose in his place
and spoke, as only he could speak, of his purpose in calling us
too-ether. The swallows flew in and out of the buildmg m the
soft June air, for they did not know that it was no longer a barn
but a temple. Some of them almost grazed his shoulder as he
spoke to us of the needs of the people for better education- He
told us how these needs could be met, and of the results which
might come to America from the training and consecration of

fifty teachers- ,

This was to him no ordinary school, still less an idle summer s
outing, but a mission work of the greatest importance. He spoke
with intense earnestness, and all his words were filled with that
deep religious feeling so characteristic of all his thoughts. For
to Agassiz each natural object was a thought of God, and trifling
with God's truth as expressed in Nature was the basest of sac-

rile^'e.

What Agassiz said that morning can never be said again. No
reporter took his language, and no one could call back the charm
of his manner or the impressiveness of his zeal and faith.

At the end he said, " I would not have any man to pray for me
now," and that he and each of us would utter his own prayer in
silence. What he meant by this was that no one could pray in
his stead. No public prayer could take the place of the prayer
which each of us would frame for himself. Whittier says :

" Even the careless heart was moved,
And the doubting gave assent
"With a gesture reverent
To the Master well beloved.
As thin mists are glorified
By the light they can not hide,
All who gazed upon him saw,
Through its veil of tender awe,
How his face was still uplit
By the old sweet look of it ;
Hopeful, trustful, full of cheer
And the love that casts out fear."

And the summer went on with its succession of joyous morn-
ings, beautiful days, and calm nights, with every charm of sea
and sky, the master with us all day long, ever ready to speak
words of help and encouragement, ever ready to give us from his
own stock of learning. The boundless enthusiasm which sur-

726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rounded liim like an atmospliere, and wliicli sometimes gave the
appearance of great acliievement to the commonest things, was
never lacking.

Essentially Latin in his nature, he was always picturesque in
his words and his work. He delighted in the love and approba-
tion of his students and his friends, and the influence of his per-
sonality sometimes gave his opinions weight beyond the value of
the investigations on which they were based. With no other in-
vestigator have the work and the man been so identified as with
Agassiz. No other of the great workers has been equally great
as a teacher. His greatest work in science was his influence on
other men.

In an old note-book of those days I find fragments of some of
his talks to teachers at Penikese. From this note-book I take
some paragraphs, just as I find them written there :

" Never try to teach what you do not yourself know and know
well. If your school board insist on your teaching anything and
everything, decline firmly to do it. It is an imposition alike on
j)upils and teacher to teach that which he does not know. Those
teachers who are strong enough should squarely refuse to do such
work. This much-needed reform is already beginning in our col-
leges, and I hope it will continue. It is a relic of mediteval times,
this idea of professing everything. When teachers begin to de-
cline work which they can not do well, improvements begin to
come in. If one will be a successful teacher, he must firmly
refuse work which he can not do successfully.

" It is a false idea to suppose that everybody is competent to
learn or to teach everything. Would our great artists have suc-
ceeded equally well in Greek or calculus ? A smattering of every-
thing is worth little. It is a fallacy to suj^pose that an encyclopaedic
knowledge is desirable. The mind is made strong not through
much learning, but by the thorough possession of something."

" Lay aside all conceit. Learn to read the book of Nature for
yourself. Those who have succeeded best have followed for years
some slim thread which has once in a while broadened out and
disclosed some treasure worth a life-long search."

" A man can not be professor of zoology on one day and of
chemistry on the next, and do good work in both. As in a concert
all are musicians — one plays one instrument, and one another, but
none all in perfection."

" You can not do without one specialty. You must have some
base-line to measure the work and attainments of others. For a
general view of the subject, study the history of the sciences.
Broad knowledge of all Nature has been the possession of no natu-
ralist except Humboldt, and general relations constituted his
specialty."

AGASSIZ AT PENIKESE. 7^7

"Select such subjects that your pupils can not walk without
seeing them. Train your pupils to be observers, and have them
provided with the specimens about which you speak. It you can
find nothing better, take a house-fly or a cricket, and let each one
hold a specimen and examine it as you talk."

" In 1847 I gave an address at Newton, Mass., before a Teach-
ers' Institute conducted by Horace Mann. My subject was grass-
hoppers. I passed around a large jar of these insects, and made
every teacher take one and hold it while I was speaking. If any
one dropped the insect, I stopped till he picked it up. This was
at that time a great innovation, and excited much laughter and
derision. There can be no true progress in the teaching of natu-
ral science until such methods become general."

"There is no part of the country where in the summer you
can not get a sufficient supply of the best specimens. Teach your
children to bring them in yourselves. Take your text from the
brooks not from the booksellers. It is better to have a few forms
well known than to teach a little about many hundred species.
Better a dozen specimens thoroughly studied as the result of the
first year's work, than to have two thousand dollars' worth ot
shells and corals bought^ h^om a curiosity-shop. The dozen ani-
mals would be your own." .. ^ .

"You* will find the same elements of instruction aiJ about you
wherever you may be teaching. You can take your classes out
and o-ive them the same lessons, and lead them up to the same
subjS^ts you are yourselves studying here. And this method of
teaching children is so natural, so suggestive, so true. That is the
charm of teaching from Nature herself. No one can warp her to
suit his own views. She brings us back to absolute truth as often
as we wander."

" The study of Nature is an intercourse with the highest mind.
You should never trifle with Nature. At the lowest her works
are the works of the highest powers, the highest something in
whatever way we may look at it."

" A laboratory of natural history is a sanctuary where noth-
ing profane should be tolerated. I feel less agony at improprie-
ties in churches than in a scientific laboratory."

" In Europe I have been accused of taking my scientific ideas
from the Church. In America I have been called a heretic be-
cause I will not let my church-going friends pat me on the head."
Of all these lectures the most valuable and the most charming
were those on the glaciers. In these the master spoke, and every
rock on our island was a mute witness to the truth of his words.

* In this paragraph, quoted by Mrs. Agassiz (Life and Letters of Agassiz, p. Y75), I
have adopted the wording as given by her.

728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

He often talked to us of the Darwinian theory, to which in all
its forms he was most earnestly opposed. Agassiz was essentially
an idealist. All his investigations were to him not studies of ani-
mals or plants as such, but of the divine plans of which their
structures are the expression. " That earthly form was the cover
of spirit was to him a truth at once fundamental and self-evi-
dent." The work of the student was to search out the thoughts
of God, and as well as may be to think them over again. To
Agassiz these divine thoughts were especially embodied in the
relations of animals to each other. The species was the thought-
unit, the individual reproduction of the thought in the divine
mind at the moment of the creation of the first one of the series
which represents the species. The marvel of the affinity of struct-
ure— of unity of plan in creatures widely diverse in habits and
outward api^earance — was to him a result of the association of
ideas in the divine mind, an illustration of divine many-sidedness.
To Darwin these same relations would illustrate the force of he-
redity acting under diverse conditions of environment.

Agassiz had no sympathy with the prejudices worked upon by
weak and foolish men in oiDposition to Darwinism. He believed
in the absolute freedom of science ; that no power on earth can
give answers beforehand to the questions which men of science
endeavor to solve. Of this I can give no better evidence than the
fact that every one of the men specially trained by him has joined
the ranks of the evolutionists. He would teach them to think
for themselves, not to think as he did.

The strain of the summer was heavier than we knew. Before
the school came to an end, those who were nearest him felt that
the effort was to be his last. His physician told him that he must
not work, must not think. But all his life he had done nothing
else. To stop was impossible, for with his temperament there
was the sole choice between activity and death.

And in December the end came. In the words of one of his
old students, Theodore Lyman, " We buried him from the chajDcl
that stands among the college elms. The students laid a wreath
of laurel on his bier, and their manly voices sang a requiem. For
he had been a student all his life long, and when he died he was
younger than any of them."

The next summer, the students of the first year came together
at Penikese, and many eager new faces were with them. Wise and
skillful teachers were present, but Agassiz was not there, and the
sense of loss was felt above everything else. The life was gone
out from Penikese, and at the end of the summer the authorities
of the museum closed the doors of the Anderson School forever.
The buildings stand on the island, just as we left them in 1874, a
single old sea-captain in charge of them all these years, until last

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 729

winter, wlien lie was lost in a storm. The blackboards in tbe
lecture-ball* still bear tbe inscriptions left on them by the students
and taken from the words of the master :

" Study Nature, not books."

"Be not afraid to say No.

"A Laboratory is a sanctuary which nothing profane

SHOULD ENTER."

But, while the island of Penikese is deserted, the impulse which
came from Agassiz's work there still lives, and is felt in every
field of American science.

With all appreciation of the rich streams which in late years
have come to us from Germany, it is still true that " the school
of all schools which has most influence on scientific teaching m
America was held in an old barn on an uninhabited island some
eighteen miles from the shore. It lasted but three months, and m
effect it had but one teacher. The school at Penikese existed m
the personal presence of Agassiz ; when he died it vanished !"

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. ,
XV. ASTRONOMY.
By ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D., L. H. D.,

EX-PKESIDENT OF COBNELL TJNIVEESITy.

PART II.

WHILE news of triumphant attacks upon him and upon the
truth he had established were coming in from all parts of
Europe, Galileo prepared a careful treatise in the form of a dia-
logue, exhibiting the arguments for and against the Copernican
and Ptolemaic systems, and offered to submit to any conditions
that the Church tribunals might impose if they would allow it to
be printed. At last, after discussions which extended through
eight years, they consented, imposing a humiliating condition ; —
the preface written in accordance with the ideas of Father Ric-
ciardi, Master of the Sacred Palace, and signed by Galileo, in
which the Copernican theory was virtually exhibited as a play of
the imagination, and not at all as opposed to the Ptolemaic doc-
trine reasserted in 1616 by the Inquisition under the direction of
Pope Paul V.f

* According to Dr. Carl H. Eigenmann, who has lately visited the island.

f As to the general style of the attacks, sec Fromimdus's book, cited above, pmsm, but
especially the heading of chapter vi, and the argument in chapters x and xi. For inter-
esting reference to one of Fromundus's arguments, showing, by a mixture of mathematics
and theology, that the earth is the center of the universe, se,e Quetelct, Histoire des Sciences
mathematiques et physiques, Bruxelles, 1864, p. 170; also, Madler, Geschichte der As-
tronomic, vol. i, p. 274.

730 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This new work of Galileo — tlie "Dialogo" — appeared in 1632,
and met with prodigious success. It put new weapons into the
hands of the supporters of the Copernican theory. The pious
preface was laughed at from one end of Europe to the other.
This roused the enemy. The Jesuits, Dominicans, and the great
majority of the clergy returned to the attack more violent than
ever, and in the midst of them stood Pope Urban VIII, most
bitter of all. His whole power was now thrown against Galileo.
He was touched in two points : first, in his personal vanity, for
Galileo had put his arguments into the mouth of one of the persons
in the dialogue and their refutation into the mouth of another ;
but, above all, he was touched in his religious feelings. Again and
again he insisted to all comers on the absolute and specific declara-
tions of Holy Scripture, which prove that the sun and heavenly
bodies revolve about the earth, and declared that to gainsay them
is simply to dispute revelation. Certainly, if one ecclesiastic
more than another ever seemed not under the care of the Spirit of
Truth, it was Urban VIII in all this matter.

Herein was one of the greatest pieces of ill fortune that has
ever befallen the older Church. Had Pope Urban been broad-
minded and tolerant like Benedict XIV, or had he been taught
moderation by adversity like Pius VII, or had he possessed the
large scholarly qualities of Leo XIII, now reigning, the vast
scandal of the Galileo case would never have burdened the
Church : instead of devising endless quibbles and special pleadings
to escape responsibility for this colossal blunder, its defenders
could have claimed forever for the Church the glory of fearlessly
initiating a great epoch in human thought.

But it was not so to be. Urban was not merely Pope, he was
also a prince of the house of Barberini, and therefore doubly
angry that his arguments had been publicly controverted.

The opening strategy of Galileo's enemies was to forbid the
sale of his work ; but this was soon seen to be unavailing, for the
first edition had already been spread throughout Europe. Urban
now became more angry than ever, and both Galileo and his
works were placed in the hands of the Inquisition. In vain did
the good Benedictine, Castelli, urge that Galileo was entirely
respectful to the Church ; in vain did he insist that "nothing that
can be done can now hinder the earth from revolving," Pie was
dismissed in disgrace, and Galileo was forced to appear in the
presence of the dread tribunal without defender or adviser. There,
as was so long concealed, but as is now fully revealed, he was
menaced with torture again and again by express order of Pope
Urban, and, as is also thoroughly established from the trial docu-
ments themselves, forced to abjure under threats, and subjected
to imprisonment by command of the Pope ; the Inquisition defer-

2^EW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 731

ring in this whole matter to the papal authority. All the long
series of attempts made in the supposed interest of the Church to
mystify these transactions haye at last failed. The world knows
now that Galileo was subjected certainly to indigmty, to impris-
onment, and to threats equiyalent to torture, and was at last
forced to pronounce publicly and on his knees his recantation,

as follows: ^ . . -,

" I Galileo being in my seyentieth year, being a prisoner and
on my knees, and before your Eminences, haying before my eyes
the Holy Gospel, which I touch with my hands, abjure, curse,
and detest the error and the heresy of the moyement of the

earth " *

He was yanquished indeed, for he had been forced, in the face
of all coming ages, to perjure himself. To complete his dishonor,
he was obliged to swear that he would denounce to the Inquisition
any other man of science whom he should discoyer to be support-
ing the " heresy of the motion of the earth."

Many haye wondered at this abjuration, and on account ot it
haye denied to Galileo the title of martyr. But let such gam-
sayers consider the circumstances. Here was an old man-one
who had reached the allotted threescore years and ten, broken
with disappointments, worn out with labors and cares, dragged
from Florence to Rome, with the threat from the Pope himself
that if he delayed he should be " brought in chains " ; sick m body
and mind, giyen over to his oppressors by the grand duke who
ought to have protected him, and on his arrival in Rome threat-
ened with torture. What the Inquisition was he knew well. He
could remember but as yesterday the burning of Giordano Bruno
in that same city for scientific and philosophic heresy; he could
remember, too, that only eight years before this very time De
Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, having been seized by the In-
quisition for scientific and other heresies, had died in a dungeon,
and that his body and his writings had been publicly burned.

To the end of his life, nay, after his life was ended, the perse-
cution of Galileo was continued. He was kept in exile from his
family from his friends, from his noble employments, and held
ri"-idly'to his promise not to speak of his theory. When, m the
midst of intense bodily sufferings from disease, and mental suffer-
ino-s from calamities in his family, he besought some little liberty,
he^was met with threats of committal to a dungeon. When at

* For various utterances of Tope Urban against the Copernican theory at this period,
see extracts from the original documents given by Gebler. For punishment of those who
had shown some favor to Galileo, see various citations, and especially those from the
Vatican manuscript, Gebler, p. 216. As to the text of the abjuration, see L'Epmo.s; also
Polacco, Aniicopcrnicus, etc., Venice, 1644; and for a discussion regardmg its publication,
see Favaro, Miscellanea Galileana, p. 804.

732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

last a special commission had reported to the ecclesiastical au-
thorities that he had become blind and wasted with disease and
sorrow, he was allowed a little more liberty, but that little was
hampered by close surveillance. He was forced to bear contempti-
ble attacks on himself and on his works in silence ; to see the men
who had befriended him severely punished ; Father Castelli ban-
ished; Ricciardi, the Master of ihQ Sacred Palace, and Ciampoli
the papal secretary, thrown out of their positions by Pope Urban
and the Inquisitor at Florence reprimanded for having given per-
mission to print Galileo's work. He lived to see the truths he
had established carefully weeded out from all the Church colleges
and universities in Europe, and when in a scientific work he hap-
pened to be spoken of as "renowned," the Inquisition ordered the
substitution of the word " notorious." *

And now measures were taken to complete the destruction of
the Copernican theory, with Galileo's proofs of it. On the IGth
of June, 1633, the Holy Congregation, with the permission of the
reignmg Pope, ordered the sentence upon Galileo, and his recan-
tation, to be sent to all the papal nuncios throughout Europe, as
well as to all archbishops, bishops, and inquisitors in Italy • and
this document gave orders that the sentence and abjuration be
made known "to your vicars, that you and all professors of phi-
losophy and mathematics may have knowledge of it, that they
may know why we proceeded against the said Galileo, and recog-
nize the gravity of his error, in order that they may avoid it, and
thus not incur the penalties which they would have to suffer in
case they fell into the same." f

As a consequence of this, the professors of mathematics and
astronomy in various universities of Europe were assembled and
these documents were read to them. To the theological authori-
ties this gave great satisfaction ; the Rector of the University of
Douay, referring to the opinion of Galileo, wrote to the papal
nuncio at Brussels, " the professors of our university are so op-
posed to this fanatical opinion that .they have always held that
it must be banished from the schools : in our English college at
Douay this paradox has never been approved and never will be."
Still -another step was taken : the Inquisitors were ordered,
especially in Italy, not to permit the publication of a new edition
of any of Galileo's works, nor of any similar writings. On the
other hand, theologians were urged, now that Copernicus and

It is not probable that torture in the ordinary sense was administered to Galileo,
though it was threatened. See Th. Martin, Vie do Galilee, for a fair summing up of the
case. For the substitution of the word "notorious" for "renowned" by order of the
Inquisition, see Martin, p. 227.

•f For a copy of this document, see Gebler, p. 269. As to the spread of this and simi-
lar documents notifying Europe of Galileo's condemnation, see Favaro, pp. 804, 805.

KEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 733

Galileo and Kepler were silenced, to reply to tliem with tongue
and pen. Europe was flooded with these theological refutations
of the Copernican system. -, , xi «t i ^^ f

To make all complete, there was prefixed to the index ot
the Church, forbidding " all writings which affirm the motion of
the earth," a bull signed by the reigning Pope, which, by virtue of
his infallibility as a divinely guided teacher m matters of faith
and morals, clinched this condemnation into the consciences of
the whole Christian world.

From the mass of books which appeared under the auspices
of the Church immediately after the condemnation of Galileo, for
the purpose of rooting out every vestige of the hated Copernican
theory from the mind of the world, two may be taken as typical
The first of these was a work by Scipio Chiaramonti, dedicat^ed
to Cardinal BarberinL Among his arguments against the double
motion of the earth may be cited the following :

"Animals, which move, have limbs and muscles; the earth
has no limbs or muscles, therefore it does not move. It is angels
who make Saturn, Jupiter, the sun, etc., turn round. If the_ earth
revolves, it must also have an angel in the center to set it m mo-
tion ; but only devils live there; it would therefore be a devil
who would impart motion to the earth. . . .

"The planets, the sun, the fixed stars, all belong to one spe-
cies-namely, that of stars-they therefore all move or all stand
still It seems, therefore, to be a grievous wrong to place the
earth, which is a sink of impurity, among the heavenly bodies,
which are pure and divine things."

The next, which I select from the mass of similar works, is
the AnUcopernicus Caiholicus of Polacco. It was intended to
deal a finishing stroke at Galileo's heresy.

In this it is declared : " The Scripture always represents the
earth as at rest, and the sun and moon as in motion ; or, if these
latter bodies are ever represented as at rest. Scripture represents
this as the result of a great miracle." . . .

" These writings must be prohibited, because they teach cer-
tain principles about the position and motion of the terrestrial
globe repugnant to Holy Scripture and to the Catholic interpre-
tation of it, not as hypotheses but as established facts. . . .

" It is possible to work with the hypotheses of Copernicus so
as to explain many phenomena. . . . Yet it is not permitted to
argue on his premises except to show their falsity."

Speaking of Galileo's book, Polacco says that it " smacked of
Copernicanism," and that, " when this was shown to the Inquisi-
tion, Galileo was thrown into prison and was compelled to utterly
abjure the baseness of this erroneous dogma."

As to the authority of the cardinals in their decree, Polacco

734 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

asserts that, since they are the " Pope's Council " and his " broth-
ers/' their work is one, except that the Pope is favored with spe-
cial divine enlightenment.

Having shown that the authority of the Scriptures, of popes,
and of cardinals is against the new astronomy, he gives a refuta-
tion based on physics. He asks : " If we concede the motion of
the earth, why is it that an arrow shot into the air falls back to
the same spot, while the earth and all things on it have, in the
mean time, moved very rapidly toward the east ? Who does not
see that great confusion would result from this motion ?"

Next he argues from metaphysics, as follows : " The Coper-
nican theory of the earth's motion is against the nature of the
earth itself, because the earth is not only cold but contains in
itself the principle of cold ; but cold is opposed to motion, and
even destroys it— as is evident in animals, which become motion-
less when they become cold."

Finally, he clinches all with a piece of theological reasoning,
as follows : " Since it can certainly be gathered from Scripture that
the heavens move above the earth, and since a circular motion
requires something immovable around which to move, ... the
earth is at the center of the universe." *

^ But any sketch of the warfare between theology and science in
this field would be incomplete without some reference to the treat-
ment of Galileo after his death. He had begged to be buried in
his family tomb in Santa Croce; this request was denied. His
friends wished to erect a monument over him ; this, too, was
refused. Pope Urban said to the ambassador Niccolini that "it
would be an evil example for the world if such honors were ren-
dered to a man who had been brought before the Roman Inquisi-
tion for an opinion so false and erroneous ; who had communicated
it to many others, and who had given so great a scandal to Chris-
tendom." In accordance, therefore, with the wish of the Pope and
the orders of the Inquisition, Galileo was buried ignobly, apart
from his family, without fitting ceremonj^ without monument,
without epitaph. Not until forty years after did Pierrozzi dare
write an inscription to be placed above his bones; not until a
hundred years after did Nelli dare transfer his remains to a suit-
able position in Santa Croce, and erect a monument above them.
Even then the old conscientious hostility burst forth : the Inqui-
sition was besought to prevent such honors to "a man condemned
for notorious errors " ; and that tribunal refused to allow any epi-
taph to be placed above him which had not been submitted to its

* For Chiaramonti's book and selections given, see Gebler as above, p. 2'71. For
Polacco, sec his work as cited, especially Assertiones i, ii, vii, x5, xiii, Ixxiii, clxxxvii,
and others. The work is in the White Library at Cornell University. The date of it
is 1644.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 735

censorship. Nor has that old conscientious consistency in hatred
yet fully relented : hardly a generation since has not seen some
ecclesiastic like Marini or De Bonald or Rallaye or De Gabriac,
suppressing evidence, or torturing expressions, or inventing theo-
ries to blacken the memory of Galileo and save the reputation of
the Church. Nay, more, there are school histories, widely used,
which in the supposed interest of the Church, misrepresent in the
grossest manner all thege transactions in which Galileo was con-
cerned. Sanda simpUcitas I The Church has no worse enemies
than those who devise and teach these perversions. They are
simply rooting out, in the long run, from the minds of the more
thoughtful scholars, respect for the great organization which such
writings are supposed to serve. Their work is just as futile as
that of writers of school histories which in the supposed Protest-
ant interest misrepresent the Roman doctrine of indulgences

The Protestant Church was hardly less energetic against the
new astronomy than the mother Church had been. The sacred
science of the first Lutheran Reformers was transmitted as a pre-
cious legacy, and in the next century was made much of by Calo-
vius His great learning and determined orthodoxy gave him
leadership in the Lutheran Church. Utterly refusing to look at
ascertained facts, he cited the turning back of the shadow upon
King Hezekiah's dial and the standing still of the sun for Joshua,
denied the movement of the earth, and denounced the Copernican
view as clearly opposed to Scripture. To this day his arguments
are repeated by sundry orthodox leaders of American Luther-

anism.

As to the other branch of the reformed Church, Turretm, Cal-
vin's famous successor, even after Kepler and Newton had estab-
lished the theory of Copernicus and Galileo, put forth his compen-
dium of theology, in which he proved from a multitude of script-
ural texts that the heavens, sun, and moon move about the earth,
which stands still in the center, f In England we see similar
theological efforts even after they had become utterly futile :
among the strict churchmen, the great Dr. South denounced the
Royaf Society as "irreligious," and among the Puritans the emi-
nent John Owen declared that Newton's discoveries were "built
on fallible phenomena and advanced by many arbitrary presump-

* For the persecutions of Galileo's memory after his death, see Gebler, Wohlwill, but
especially Th. Martin, p. 243, and elsewhere. For the persecution of Galileo's memory, see
Th Martin, chapters ix and x. For documentary proofs, see L'Epinois. For a collection
of the slanderous theories invented against Galileo, see Martin, final chapters and appendix.
Both these authors are devoted to the Church, but, unlike Monsignor Manni, are too up-
right to resort to the pious fraud of suppressing documents or interpolating pretended

"""^ov Calovius, see Zoeclder, Geschichte, vol. i, pp. 684 and 763. For Calvin and Tur-
retin, see Shields, The Final Philosophy, pp. 60, 61.

736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions against evident testimonies of Scripture." Even Milton
seems to have hesitated between the two systems. At the begin-
ning of the eighth book of Paradise Lost he makes Adam state
the difficulties of the Ptolemaic system, and then brings forward
an angel to make the usual orthodox answers : later, Milton seems
to lean toward the Copernican theory, for, referring to the earth,
he says :

" Or she from west her silent course advance
With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle, while she faces even
And bears thee soft with the smooth air along."

Yet English orthodoxy continued to assert itself. In 1794
John Hutchinson, professor at Cambridge, published his Moses'
Principia, a system of philosophy in which he sought to build up
a complete physical system of the universe from the Bible. In
this he assaulted the Newtonian theory as " atheistic," and led the
way for similar attacks by such Church teachers as Home, Dun-
can Forbes, and Jones of Nayland. But one far greater than
these involved himself in this view. That same limitation of his
reason by the simple statements of Scripture which led John
Wesley to declare that " unless witchcraft is true, nothing in the
Bible is true," led him, while giving up the Ptolemaic theory and
accepting in a general way the Copernican, to suspect the demon-
strations of Newton. Happily, his inborn nobility of character
lifted him above any bitterness or persecuting spirit, or any im-
position of doctrinal tests which could prevent those who came
after him from finding their way to the truth.

But in the midst of this vast expanse of theologic error signs
of right reason began to appear, both in England and America.
Noteworthy is it that Cotton Mather, bitter as was his orthodoxy
regarding witchcraft, accepted, in 1721, the modern astronomy
fully, with all its consequences.

In the following year came an even more striking evidence
that the new scientific ideas were making their way in England.
In 1722 Thomas Burnet published the sixth edition of his " Sacred
Theory of the Earth." In this he argues as usual to establish the
scriptural doctrine of the earth's stability; but in his preface
he sounds a remarkable warning. He mentions the great mis-
take into which St. Augustine led the Church regarding the
doctrine of the antipodes, and says, "If within a few years or
in the next generation it should prove as certain and demonstra-
ble that the earth is moved, as it is now that there are antipodes,
those that have been zealous against it, and engaged the Scripture
in the controversy, would have the same reason to repent of their
forwardness that St. Augustine would now, if he were still alive."
Fortunately, too. Protestantism had no such power to oppose

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 737

the development of the Copernicaii ideas as the older Church had
enjoyed. Yet there were some things in its warfare against sci-
ence even more indefensible. In 1772 the famous English ex-
pedition for scientific discovery sailed from England under Cap-
tain Cook. Greatest by far of all the scientific authorities chosen
to accompany it was Dr. Priestley. Sir Joseph Banks had espe-
cially invited him. But the clergy of Oxford and Cambridge
interfered. Priestley was considered unsound in his views of the
Trinity; it was evidently suspected that this might vitiate his
astronomical observations; he was rejected, and the expedition
crippled.

The orthodox view of astronomy lingered on in other branches
of the Protestant Church. In Germany even Leibnitz attacked
the Newtonian theory of gravitation on theological grounds,
though he found some little consolation in thinking that it might
be used to support the Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation.

In Holland the Calvinistic Church was at first strenuous
against the whole new system, but we possess a comical proof that
Calvinism even in its strongholds was powerless against it. For
in 1642 Blaer published at Amsterdam his book on the use of
globes, and, in order to be on the safe side, devoted one part of his
work to the Ptolemaic and the other to the Copernican scheme,
leaving the benevolent reader to take his choice.*

Nor have efforts to renew the battle in the Protestant Church
been wanting in these latter days. The attempt in the Church
of England in 1864 to fetter science, which was brought to ridicule
by Herschel, Bo wring, and De Morgan; the assemblage of Lu-
theran clergy at Berlin in 1868 to protest against " science falsely
so called," are examples of these. Fortunately, to the latter came
Pastor Knak, and his denunciations of the Copernican theory as
absolutely incompatible with a belief in the Bible, dissolved the
whole assemblage in ridicule.

In its recent dealings with modern astronomy the wisdom of
the Catholic Church in the more civilized countries has prevented
its yielding to some astounding errors into which one part of the
Protestant Church has tumbled heedlessly.

Though sundry leaders in the older Church have committed

* For the attitude of Leibnitz, Hutchinson, and the others named toward the New-
tonian theory, see Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, chap. ix. For
John Wesley, see also his Compendium of Natural Philosophy, being a Survey of the W' is-
dom of God in the Creation, London, 1784. See also Leslie Stephen, Eighteenth Century,
vol. ii, p. 413. For Owen, see his works, vol. xix, p. 310. For Milton, see place cited.
For Cotton Mather's view, see The Christian Philosopher, London, 1721, especiallv pp. 16
and 17. For the case of Priestley, see Weld, History of tlie Royal Society, vol. ii, p. 56,
for the facts and the admirable letter of Priestley upon this rejection. For Humboldt, see
his Life, by Bruhns and LasscU, London, 1873, vol. ii, p. 411. For Blaer's book, see his
L'Usage des Globes, Amsterdam, 1642.
VOL. XL. — 50

738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the absurd error of allowing a text-book and sundry review
articles to appear which grossly misstate the Galileo episode, with
the certainty of ultimately undermining confidence in her teach-
ings among her more thoughtful young men, she has kept clear
of the folly of continuing to tie her teachings, and the acceptance
of our sacred books, to an adoption of the Ptolemaic theory.

Not so with American Lutheranism. In 1873 was published
in St. Louis, at the publishing house of the Lutheran Synod of
Missouri, a work entitled Astronomische Unterredung, the author
being well known to be a late president of a Lutheran Teachers'
Seminary.

No attack on the whole modern system of astronomy could be
more bitter. On the first page of the introduction the author,
after stating the two theories, asks, " Which is right ? " and
says : " It would be very simple to me which is right, if it were
only a question of human import. But the wise and truthful
God has expressed Himself on this matter in the Bible. The
entire Holy Scripture settles the question that the earth is the
principal body {Hauptkorper) of the universe, that it stands fixed,
and that sun and moon only serve to light it."

The author then goes on to show from Scripture the folly not
only of Copernicus and Newton, but of a long line of great as-
tronomers in more recent times. He declares : " Let no one un-
derstand me as inquiring first where truth is to be found^n
the Bible or with the astronomers. No, I know that beforehand —
that my God never lies ; never makes a mistake ; out of His
mouth comes only truth, when He speaks of the structure of the
universe, of the earth, sun, moon, and stars. . . .

'* Because the truth of the Holy Scripture is involved in this,
therefore the above question is of the highest importance to me.
. . . Scientists and others lean upon the miserable reed (Eohrstab)
that God teaches only the order of salvation, but not the order of
the universe."

Very noteworthy is the fact that this late survival of an
ancient belief based upon text-worship is found not in the teach-
ings of any zealous priest of the mother Church, but in those of an
eminent professor in that branch of Protestantism which claims
special enlightenment.*

Nor has the warfare against the dead champions of science
been carried on by the older Church alone.

* For the amusing details of the attempt in tiie English Church to repress science, and
of the way in which it was met, see De Morgan, Taradoxes, p. 42. For Pastor Knak and
his associates, see the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1868. For the recent Lutheran works
against the Copernican astronomy, see among others Astronomische Unterredung zwischen
einem Licbhaber der Astronomic und mchreren beriihmten Astronomer der Neuzeit.
J. C. W. L. St. Louis, 1873.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 739

On the lOtli of May, 1859, Alexander von Humboldt was
buried. His labors bad been among tbe glories of tbe century,
and his funeral was one of the most imposing that Berlin had
ever seen : among those who honored themselves by their pres-
ence was the prince regent, afterward the Emperor William I ;
but of the clergy it was observed that none were present save the
officiating clergyman and a few regarded as unorthodox.*

We return now to the sequel of the Galileo case.

Having gained their victory over Galileo, living and dead,
having used it to scare into submission the professors of astrono-
my throughout Europe, conscientious churchmen exulted. Loud
was their rejoicing that the " heresy," the " infidelity," the " athe-
ism " involved in believing that the earth revolves about its axis
and moves around the sun had been crushed by the great tribunal
of the Church, acting in strict obedience to the expressed will of
one Pope and the written order of another. As we have seen, all
books teaching this hated belief were put upon the Index of
books forbidden to Christians, and that Index was prefaced by
a bull enforcing this condemnation upon the consciences of the
faithful throughout the world, and signed by the reigning Pope.

The losses to the world during this complete triumph of
theology were even more serious than at first appears : one must
especially be mentioned. There was then in Europe one of the
greatest thinkers ever given to mankind — Rend Descartes. f Mis-
taken though many of his theories were, they bore a rich fruitage
of truth. The scientific warriors had stirred new life in him, and
he was working over and summing up in his mighty mind all the
researches of his time The result would have made an epoch in
history. His aim was to combine all knowledge and thought
into a Treatise on the World, and in view of this he gave eleven
years to the study of anatomy alone. But the fate of Galileo
robbed him of all hope, of all courage ; the battle seemed lost ; he
gave up his great plan forever.

But ere long it was seen that the triumph was really a pro-
digious defeat. From all sides came proofs that Copernicus and
•Galileo were right ; and although Pope Urban and the Inquisition
held Galileo in strict seclusion, forbidding him even to speak re-
garding the double motion of the earth ; and although this con-
demnation of " all books which affirm the motion of the earth "

* See Bruhns and Lassell, Life of Humbol(lt, London, 1873, vol. ii, p. 411.

f For Descartes's discourajrement, see Humboldt, Cosmo.«, London, 18.51, vol. iii, p.
21 ; also, Lange, Geschichte des Matcrialismus, vol. i, p. 222, where the letters of Des-
cartes are given, showing his despair, and the relinquishment of his best thoughts and works
in order to preserve peace with the Churcli ; also, Saisset, Descartes et ses Precurseurs,
pp. 100 et seq. ; also, Jolly, Histoire du Jlouvement intellectuel au XVP Pifecle, vol. i,
p. 390.

740 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was kept on the Index ; and although the papal hull still bound
the " Index ^' and the condemnations in it on the consciences of
the faithful ; and although colleges and universities under Church
control were compelled to teach the old doctrine ; — it was seen hy
clear-sighted men everywhere that this victory of the Church
was a disaster to the victors.

New champions pressed on. Campanella, full of vagaries as
he was, wrote his Apology for Galileo, though for that and
other heresies, religious and political, he seven times underwent
torture.

And Kepler comes : he leads science on to greater victories.
Copernicus, great as he was, could not disentangle scientific rea-
soning entirely from the theological bias. The doctrines of Aris-
totle and Thomas Aquinas as to the necessary superiority of the
circle had vitiated the minor features of his system, and left
breaches in it through which the enemy was not slow to enter ;
but Kepler sees these errors, and by wonderful genius and vigor
he gives to the world the three laws which bear his name, and
this fortress of science is complete. He thinks and speaks as one
inspired. His battle is severe. He is solemnly warned by the
Protestant Consistory of Stuttgart " not to throw Christ's king-
dom into confusion with his silly fancies," and as solemnly or-
dered to " bring his theory of the world into harmony with
Scripture '' : he is sometimes abused, sometimes ridiculed, some-
times imprisoned. Protestants in Styria and Wiirtemberg, Cath-
olics in Austria and Bohemia j^ress ujjon him ; but Newton, Hal-
ley, Bradley, and other great astronomers follow, and to science
remains the victory.*

Yet this did not end the war. During the seventeenth cent-
ury, in all France, after all the splendid proofs added by Kepler,
no one dared openly teach the Copernican theory, and Cassini,
the great astronomer, never declared it. In 1672 the Jesuit, Fa-
ther Riccioli. declared that there were precisely forty-nine argu-
ments for the Copernican theory and seventy-seven against it.
Toward the end of the seventeenth century, after the demon-
strations of Sir Isaac Newton, even Bossuet, the great Bishop of

*ror Campanella, see Amabile, Fra Tommaso Campanella, Napoli, 1882, especially
vol. ill ; also, Libri, vol. iv, pp. 149 et scq. Fromimdus, speaking of Kepler's explana-
tion, says, " Vix teneo ebnllientem risum." This is almost equal to the New lork Church
Journal, speaking of John Stuart Mill as "that small sciolist," and of the preface to Dr.
Draper's great work as " chippcring." How a journal, generally so fair in its treatment of
such subjects, can condescend to such weapons, is one of the wonders of modern journal-
ism. For the persecution of Kepler, see vol. i, p. 392 ; also Heller, Geschichte der Physik,
vol. i, pp. 281 et spq. ; also Eeuschle, Kepler und die Astronomic, Frankfurt a. M., 1871,
pp. 87 efseq.; also Professor Pigwart, Klcine Schriften pp. 211 pf seq. There is poetic
justice in the fact that these two last-named books come from Wiirtemberg professors.
See also the Xcw Englander for March, 1884, p. 1*78.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 741

Meaux, the foremost theologian that France has ever produced,
declared it contrary to Scripture.

Nor did matters seem to improve rapidly in the following
century. In England, John Hutchinson, as we have seen, pub-
lished in 1724 his Moses" Pi-incipia maintaining that the Hebrew
Scriptures are a perfect system of natural philosophy, and are
opposed to the Newtonian system of gravitation ; and, as we have
also seen, he was followed by a long list of noted men in the
Church. In France, two eminent mathematicians published in
1748 an edition of Newton's Principia ; but, in order to avert the
censure of the Church, they felt obliged to prefix to it a state-
ment absolutely false. Three years later, Boscovich, the great
mathematician of the Jesuits, used these words : " As for me, full
of respect for the Holy Scriptures and the decree of the Holy In-
quisition, I regard the earth as immovable ; nevertheless, for sim-
plicity in explanation I will argue as if the earth moves ; for it is
proved that of the two hypotheses the appearances favor that
idea."

In Germany, especially in the Protestant part of it, the war
was even more bitter, and it lasted through the first half of the
eighteenth century. Eminent Lutheran doctors of divinity flood-
ed the country with treatises to prove that the Copernican theory
could not be reconciled with Scripture.

In the theological seminaries and in many of the universities
where clerical influence was strong they seemed to sweep all be-
fore them ; and yet at the middle of the century we find some of
the clearest-headed of them aware of the fact that their cause
was lost.*

In 1757 the most enlightened perhaps in the whole line of
the popes, Benedict XIV, took up the matter, and the Congrega-
tion of the Index secretly allowed the ideas of Copernicus to be
tolerated. Yet in 1705 Lalande, the great French astronomer,
tried in vain at Rome to induce the authorities to remove Gali-
leo's works from the Index. Even at a date far within our own
nineteenth century the authorities of many universities in Cath-
olic Europe, and especially those in Spain, excluded the Newton-
ian system: in 1771 the greatest of them all, the University of
Salamanca, being urged to teach physical science, refused, making

* For Cassini's position, see Henri Martin, Ilistoire de France, vol. xiii, p. 175. For
Riccioli, see Daunou, Etudes Historiqiies, vol. ii, p. 439. For Bossuet, see Bertrand, p. 41.
For Hutchinson, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, p. 48. For Wesley, see his work, already
cited. As to Boscovich, his declaration, mentioned in the text, was in l74fi, but in 1785 he
seemed to feel his position in view of history, and apologized abjectly : Bertrand, pp. fiO,
61. See also Whewell's notice of Le Sueur and Jacquier's introduction to their edition of
Newton's Principia. P'or the struggle in Germany, see Zoeckler, Geschichte der Beziehun-
gen zwischcn Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, vol. ii, pp. 45 et seq.

742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

answer as follows : " Newton teaches nothing that would make a
good logician or metaphysician ; and Gassendi and Descartes do
not agree so well with revealed truth as Aristotle does,"

Vengeance upon the dead also has continued far into our own
century. On the 5th of May, 1829, a great multitude assembled
at Warsaw to honor the memory of Copernicus and to unveil
Thorwaldsen's statue of him.

Copernicus had lived a pious, Christian life ; he had been be-
loved for unostentatious Christian charity ; with his religious
belief no fault had ever been found ; he was a canon of the
Church at Frauenberg, and over his grave had been written the
most touching of Christian epitaphs. Naturally, then, the people
expected a religious service ; all was understood to be arranged
for it ; the procession marched to the church and waited. The
hour passed, and no priest appeared ; none could be induced to
appear. Copernicus, gentle, charitable, pious, one of the noblest
gifts of God to religion as well as to science, was evidently still
under the ban. Five years after that, his book was still standing
on the Index of books prohibited to Christians.

The edition of the Index published in 1819 was as inexorable
toward the works of Copernicus and Galileo as its predecessors
had been ; but in the year 1820 came a crisis. Canon Settele, Pro-
fessor of Astronomy at Rome, had written an elementary book in
which the Copernican system was taken for granted. The Mas-
ter of the Sacred Palace, Anfossi, as censor of the press, refused
to allow the book to be printed unless Settele revised his work
and treated the Copernican theory as merely a hypothesis. On
this Settele appealed to Pope Pius VII, and the Pope referred the
matter to the Congregation of the Holy Office. At last, on the
10th of August, 1820, it was decided that Settele might teach
the Copernican system as established, and this decision was ap-
proved by the Pope. This aroused considerable discussion, but
finally, on the 11th of September, 1822, the cardinals of the Holy
Inquisition graciously agreed that " the printing and publication
of works treating of the motion of the earth and the stability of
the sun, in accordance with the general opinion of modern astron-
omers, is permitted at Rome." This decree was ratified by Pius
VII, but it was not until thirteen years later, in 1835, that the
condemnation of works defending the double motion of the earth
was left out of the Index.

This was not a moment too soon, for, as if the previous proofs
had not been sufficient, each of the motions of the earth was now
absolutely demonstrated anew, so as to be recognized by the
ordinary observer. The parallax of fixed stars, shown by Bessel
as well as other noted astronomers in 1838, clinched forever the
doctrine of the revolution of the earth around the sun, and in

INVOL VNTARY MO VEMENTS.

743

1851 the great experiment of Foucault witli the pendulum, showed
to the human eye the earth in motion around its own axis. To
make the matter complete, this experiment was publicly made in
one of the churches at Rome by the eminent astronomer, Father
Secchi, of the Jesuits, in 1852 — just two hundred and twenty
years after the Jesuits had secured Galileo's condemnation.*

INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS.

By JOSEPH JASTROW, Ph.D.,

PROFESSOR OF EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.

QUITE a number of delusions find a common point of origin
in the wide-spread belief that our thoughts and actions are
to be completely explained by reference to what our consciousness
tells us and what our will directs. The equally important realm
of the unconscious and the involuntary is too apt to be over-
looked. It is true that we are ready to admit that, in some un-
usual and semi-morbid conditions, persons will show these unto-
ward phenomena ; but we are slow to believe that they have any
bearing upon the soundly reasoned and skillfully directed actions
of our own intelligence. Accordingly, when from time to time
there comes to the front some phenomenon diverging from the
ordinary experience of mankind and apparently revealing obscure
laws, we fly to some unproved and extreme explanation, and fail
to recognize in our daily unconscious and involuntary activity
the true source of the apparent mystery. While it is very reason-
able to trust the verdict of our consciousness, yet it is equally

* For good statements of the final action of the Church in the matter, see Gebler ; also
Zoeckler, Geschichte dcr Beziehungen, etc., ii, 352. See also Bertrand, Fondateurs de I'As-
tronomie moderne, p. 61 ; Flammarion, Vie de Copemic, chap. ix. As to the time when
the decree of condemnation was repealed, there have been various pious attempts to make
it earlier than the reality. Artaud, p. 307, cited in an apologetic article in the Dublin Re-
view, September, 186.5, says that Galileo's famous dialogue was published in 1744, at Padua,
entire, and with the usual approbations. The same article also declares that in 1818 the
ecclesiastical decrees were repealed by Pius VII in full Consistory. Whewell accepts this ;
but Cantu, an authority favorable to the Church, acknowledges that Copernicus's work
remained on the Index as late as 1835 (Cantu, Histoire universelle, vol. xv, p. 483) ; and
with this Th. Martin, not less favorable to the Church, but exceedingly careful as to the
facts, agrees ; and the most eminent authority of all. Prof. Reusch, of Bonn, in his Index
der verbotenen Biicher, Bonn, 1885, vol. ii, p. 396, confirms the above statement in the
text exactly as I made it in 1871. For a clear statement of Bradley's exquisite demonstra-
tion of the Copernican theory by reasonings upon the rapidity of light, etc., and Foucault's
exhibition of the rotation of the earth by the pendulum experiment, see Ilocfer, Histoire
de 1' Astronomic, pp. 492 et srq. For more recent proofs of the Copernican theory, by
the discoveries of Bunsen, Bischoff, Benzcnburg, and others, see Jevons, Principles of
Science.

744-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

desirable that tins confidence should be accompanied by an under-
standing of the conditions under which the evidence is presum-
ably valid and when likely to mislead. Sense deceptions, faulty
observation, exaggeration, neglect, fallacy, illusion, and error
abound on all sides and emphasize the need of a calm judgment,
a well-equipped intellect, a freedom from haste and prejudice, an
appreciation of details and nice distinctions, in the determination
of truth and the maintenance of mental health.

For these and other reasons it is important to demonstrate
experimentally the readiness with which normal individuals may
be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary pro-
cesses. When, some years ago, the American public was con-
fronted with the striking phenomena of muscle-reading, the wild-
est speculations were indulged in regarding its true modi^s
operayidi ; and the suggestion that it was due to unconscious indi-
cations skillfully interpreted was ridiculed, mainly for the reasons
that this explanation was hardly applicable to certain extreme
instances involving considerable good fortune, other and subtler
modes of interpretation, as well as some exaggeration in the ac-
counts, and that so many worthy and learned persons were abso-
lutely certain that they had given no indications whatever. For
a time the view that mind-reading was muscle-reading rested upon
rather indirect evidence, and upon modes of reasoning that do not

The Automatograpr. — Wlieu in use a screen is interposed concealing the apparatus from the
subject. There is also a sheet of paper on the upper glass plate, which has been removed
to show the glass balls.

carry great conviction to the ordinary mind. To supplement this
evidence by a clear exposition of the naturalness and regularity of
these involuntary movements is our present task.

Inasmuch as the movements in question are often very slight,
delicate apparatus is necessary, the description of which may
properly precede an account of the results. There is first a strong

IX VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS. 745

"wooden frame, lidding a heavy plate glass, fifteen Indies square,
and mounted on three brass legs, with screw adjustments by-
means of which the plate may be brought into exact level. Upon
the plate glass are placed in the form of a triangle three very per-
fectly turned and polished brass balls, and upon the balls rests a
thin crystal j)late glass fourteen inches square, set in a light
wooden frame. Covering the upper glass is a sheet of paper, and
upon the paper the subject lightly rests the finger-tips of one hand.
When all is properly adjusted, and glass and balls are rubbed
smooth with oil, it is quite impossible to hold the apparatus still
for more than a few seconds ; the slightest unsteadiness or move-
ment of the hand at once sets the apparatus going. If one closes
his eyes and thinks intently of something, one readily forms the
conviction that the glass remains quiet, but a bystander is equally
convinced of the opposite. The rest of the apparatus is designed
to give a permanent record of these movements. Fastened to the
light frame containing the upper glass is a slender rod some ten
inches long, bearing at its end a cork, and piercing the cork is a
small glass tube that serves to hold a snugly fitting glass rod. The
rod is drawn to a smooth rounded point, and when in position rests
upon a piece of glazed paper that has been blackened over an oil-
flame, and is smoothly stretched over a small glass plate. The
point of the rod thus records easily and accurately every move-
ment of the hand that is imparted to the upper plate, and by the
manner of its adjustment accommodates itself to all irregularities
of movement or surface. Inasmuch as the main purpose of the
apparatus is to write involuntary movements, it may not be amiss
to name it the " automatograph," and speak of the record it yields
as an " automatogram." *

Firt. 1. — (H-^ READiNa Colors. Time of reooni, 95 seconds.
In all the fi(,nires A represents the beginning of the record, Z the end. In Fiofs. 4 and 6 the
numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 indicate the points of the record 15, 30, 45, (100 seconds— in Fig. 11, 30, 60,
90, 120 seconds — after the start. Tlie arrow indicates the direction in which the ohject attended
to was situated. The tracings are permanently fixed by bathing them in a weak solution of
shellac and alcohol.

Various means may be employed to hold the attention of the
subject in a definite direction, and in all he is instructed to thiuk
as little as possible of his hand, making an effort, if he chooses, to

* The apparatus was designed and the results were obtained in the PsycholoLncal Labo-
ratory of the University of Wisconsin. The success of the investiijation and the labor of
obtaining the rcsidts are to a great extent duo to the skill and industry of Miss Helen West,
A. B., 1891, of the University of Wisconsin.

7+6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

keep it from moving. A large screen is interposed between tlie
subject and tlie record to prevent him from indirectly seeing wliat
is going on. On the wall facing him, some eight feet distant, are
some small patches of color, the names of which he is asked to call
out. The colors are small enough to necessitate close attention in
their distinction, and the record of the hand, after the subject has
been employed in this way for a minute or two, is usually quite
significant. An average result is presented in Fig. 1. The hand

moves clearly and directly
toward the wall where the
colors hang ; the move-
ment is at times halting
and uncertain, but its gen-
eral trend is unmistakable.
Moreover, the result can
not in general be antici-
pated, not alone because
there are marked differ-
ences between individuals
in the readiness with which
they will manifest invol-
untary movements, but
also because the intensity
of the attention and the
momentary condition of
the subject are imjDortant
and variable factors in
the result. With very
good subjects it becomes
quite safe to j^redict the
general nature of the re-
sult, and the different trac-
ings of the same subject
1 )ear a family resemblance
to one another.

A more unusual but
very striking form of in-
voluntary movement is
shown in Fig. 2. As be-
fore, the subject's atten-
tion was fixed uj)on the
colors on the wall, but these were arranged in three rows, the
first being read from left to right, the second from right to left,
and the third from left to right again. The record plainly indi-
cates where the change of direction of reading took place ; the
correspondence between the movements of the hand and of the

Fio. 2. — Readino Colors arranged in Three Rows.
Shows movement of the hand |)araliel with move-
ment of the attention. Time of record, 90 seconds.
The iirst line was read in this direction J, the sec-
ond in this J, tlie tliird in this J. At the turn from
the second to the third line the record is interrupted.

IN VOL UN TAR Y MO VEMENTS.

747

attention is perfect, while the movements are unusually direct and
extensive. The originator of this record is the best of our sub-
jects, in the sense that the involuntary movements are largest and
most predictable.

We may substitute reading from a printed page for the naming
of colors and obtain a very similar result. An example is given
in Fig. 3, showing, as before, the movement of the hand toward
the object of attention.

Fig. 3. — )«-> Reading Printed Page. Time ot record, 45 &eeonds.

The attention may be directed to a sound as well as to a visual
impression; this may be conveniently done by listening to the
strokes of a metronome. In order to further strengthen the at-
tention the subject is required to count the strokes, the usual rate
being one hundred and forty per minute.

Fig. 4. — «-^ Counting the Strokes of a Metronome. Time of record, 70 seconds. It also
illustrates slight hesitation before the movement toward the metronome begins.

The result — a typical illustration is given in Fig. 4 — shows
that the hand moves toward the metronome. If the metronome
be placed in front of the subject in one experiment and behind
him in the next, an interesting
contrast may be observed. The
effect of close attention to the
regular strokes of a metronome
may show itself in another way.
We all appreciate how strong is
the tendency to beat time to en-
livening music, by tapping with
the hands, or stampiiig with the
feet, or nodding with the head ;
and Dr. Lombard has shown that
music is capable of effecting such
thoroughly involuntary move-
ments as a sudden rise of the leg when the patella of the knee is
struck. It is not surprising, therefore, to find evidences of periodic
movements in these automatograms, and in some instances, such

Fig. 5. — Counting the Strokes of a Met-
ronome. Shows tlie oscillation of the
movements with the strokes of the
metronome.

748

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

as Fig. 5, tliis pervades the whole record. Here the hand moves
to and fro, keeping time — not accurately at all, but in a general
way — Avith the strokes of the metronome.

Fig. (i. — ■«H> Counting the Oscillations of a rExinLUJi. Time ot record, 45 seconds.

To obtain similar results for a visual impression, a silently
swinging pendulum is used, the subject watching the oscillations
and counting them. The result is more frequently a movement
toward the pendulum, Fig. 6, but occasionally there appear peri-
odic movements due to the pen-
dulum. A very excellent instance
of the latter appears in Fig. 7.

We may more closely approxi-
mate the ordinary experiment of
the muscle-reader by giving the
subject some object to hide, say
a knife, and then asking him to
place his hand upon the autom-
atograph and think intently of
the place of concealment. As be-
fore, there is a movement of the
hand, and on the basis of the gen-
eral direction of this movement
one may venture a prediction of
the direction in which the knife
lies. The results will show all
grades of success, from complete failure to an accurate localizing
of the object, but as good a record as Fig. 8 is not infrequent. In
this case the eyes are closed, and we have not the aid of the senses

Fig. 7. — i)H» Counting Pendulum Oscilla-
tions. Time of record, 80 seconds. Shows
movement toward the pendulum at first,
and then movements synchronous with
its oscillations.

Fig. 8.— w^ Thinking of a Hidden Object. Time, SO seconds.

in maintaining a concentrated attention; moreover, the position
of the subject may not be suited to a ready movement in the
direction of the hidden object.

A further interestiner mode of concentrating the attention con-

IN VOL UN TAR V MO YEMEN TS.

749

sists in thinking of a building or locality in the neighborhood ; a
very good record obtained in this way appears in Fig. 9.

The peculiar line of Fig. 10 was obtained in an experiment in
which a book was slowly carried about the room, the subject
being required to continuously read from the page. It is evident
that the hand followed the movement of the attention, not pre-

¥m. 9. — -^-Hf Thinking of a Locality. Time, 1^0 seconds. Also illustrates initial hesitancy
followed by steady movement toward the object of thought.

cisely in a circle, but in an irregular outline, closing in upon it-
self. The great differences between individuals which the experi-
ence of the muscle-reader would lead us to expect are not lacking
here. Some movements are direct and extensive, others circuitous
and brief. Fig. 11 is a good type of
a small movement, though it is quite
constantly toward the object of the
attention. This may be contrasted
with another record in which there
is a movement of six and a half
inches in forty-five seconds. In some
cases the first impulse carries the
hand toward the object of thought,
and is followed by considerable hesi-
tation and uncertainty. A marked
example of this tendency may be
seen in Fig. 12. There is, too, an op-
posite type, in which the initial move-
ments are variable, and the significant movement toward the ob-
ject of thought comes later, when there is perhaps some fatigue.
This tendency appears somewhat in Figs, 4 and 9.*

How far these movements are involuntary or unconscious must
be largely determined by the subjective experiences of those who
execute them. While here, as elsewhere, there is some difference

* A further point of importance for future research is the effect of the position of the
subject upon the ease of the movement. A sufficient number of experiments were made to
Bhow that such an effect exists, and as a result a position was chosen allowing as nearly as
possible of equally easy movements in all directions.

Fig. 10.

KROM 1'kINTED

J t KliAI)lN(
*-HI

Page, the page being moved about
the subject.

750

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

among individuals, tlie consensus of opinion indicates that the
subject exercises no essential control over the results ; and as a
rule he is considerably surj)rised when the results are first shown
to him. At times he becomes conscious of the loss of equilibrium
of the apparatus, but the indication is rarely sufficiently definite
to inform him of the direction of the movement. Not infrequently

the movement is unconsciously per-
formed, and is accompanied by a
strong conviction that the appa-
ratus has been stationary. In sev-
eral cases an intentional simulation
of the movements was produced for
comparison with the other records ;
the difference between the two is
considerable. An objective mode of
determining the precise nature of
the movements is certainly desirable, but the subjective expe-
riences are entitled to weighty consideration.

No elaborate comment upon the significance of these results is
necessary. They merely outline the initial steps in the study of
involuntary movements, and leave much to be done to complete
our knowledge of the details and variations of this interesting but

Fig. n. — -w-^ Counting Penddlum
Oscillations. Time, 120 seconds.
Illustrates slow and indirect move-
ment.

Fig. 12.

w-^ Counting Strokes of Metronome. Time of record, 90 seconds,
initial directness of movement followed by hesitancy.

Illustrates

subtle phenomenon. The results go sufficiently far, perhaps, to
indicate how readily one may obtain permanent records of invol-
untary movements, and how closely related these are to the pro-
cesses upon which the success of the muscle-reader depends. They
bear a striking corroboration of the view that all thought is only
more or less successfully repressed action, and that, as an eminent
muscle-reader puts it, all willing is either pushing or pulling.

The skin of tlie giraffe, according to M. II. Bryclen, is remarkably tliick,
reacliing in some parts three centimetres. A complete specimen, for mounting,
is worth from thirteen to twenty- three dollars. The author asserts that the ani-
mal easily escapes detection in its natural condition by the resemblance of its
long neck to the trunk of a tree.

SCIENCE AND FINE ART. 751

SCIENCE AND FINE ART.*

By EMIL DU BOIS-EEYMOND.

WHEN we represent to ourselves the mental stature of the
extraordinary man in whose honor we meet every year on
this day, we are ever anew astonished at the boundless breadth of
his view and the almost endless diversity of the subjects in which
he was interested. It appears hardly comprehensible that the
state paper which adjudged the principality of Neufchatel to the
King of Prussia came from the same pen as the Protogea, the
Analysis of the Infinite, and the true measure of force from
the same head as the pre-established harmony and the Theodicy.
Yet on closer examination a gap is revealed in this picture
which at first sight appeared all-inclusive. Aside from tlie Latin
poem in which Leibnitz extravagantly glorifies Brand's discovery
of phosphorus, we seek in vain for any relation of our hero to art.
That his Ars comblnaforia had nothing to do with fine art does
not need to be said. Only occasionally and rarely do we meet in
his writings and letters remarks on art and the beautiful. Once
he permits himself to be heard at length on the pleasure we re-
ceive from music, the causes of which he seeks in a uniform
though invisible order in the movements of the trembling strings
"which . . . produces in us ... a harmonious resonance, by
which our vital spirits are also moved. "f But the world of feel-
ing was only dimly visible to Leibnitz. He saw the Alps and the
Italian art treasures with his eyes, but was, as we now say, soul-
blind. The same lack of appreciation of fine art is seen in Vol-
taire, who was comparable for his various learning with Leibnitz ;
and we have to come down to a third generation, to Diderot in
France, and Winckelmann and Lessing in Germany, to find de-
cisive interest in fine art and appreciation of its position in the
culture-life of the people.

The period thus defined was, aside from a few phenomenal ex-
amples, one of decline in art, while it was one of the most famous
in science. When we regard the historical development of these
two lines of human activity, we find no conformity in their courses.
During the highest bloom of Grecian plastic art there was hardly
any science. At the beginning of the art period which we are
accustomed to call the cinque-cento stands out the giant figure of

* Address on Leibnitz Commemoration-day in the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, July
3, 1890.

f Die philosopliischen Schriftcn von G. W. Leibnitz. Published by C. J. Gerhardt. Vol.
ii, p. 87. Berlin, 1890.

752 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Leonardo da Vinci, who, in addition to his immortal art-creations,,
was a physicist of high rank, yet he was as such so far ahead of
his time that the examjile can not be cited as evidence that the
rise of science conditions also the rise of art. Michael Angelo
died on the same day that Galileo was born. In the common emi-
nence of art and science at the beginning of this century we see
only a coincidence. Art has since then continued at best at the
same height, while science is still careering on its course of irre-
pressible victory.

The two lines are in fact so different that it is easily to be seen
that science can help art and art science only externally. " Na-
ture," said Goethe, addressing Eckermann, without perceiving
how sharply his words might be applied to a side of his own
scientific efforts — " Nature knows no pastime ; she is always true,
always earnest, always severe ; she is always right, and faults and
mistakes are always man's."* In order adequately to perceive
the correctness of this expression, one must be accustomed, when
he applies his own hand to work as an experimenter or ob-
server, to look into the inexorable face of Nature, and, we might
almost say, to take upon himself the immense responsibility that
is involved in the determination of even the most insignificant
fact. What happens at this moment, under these circumstances,
will also happen, under the same circumstances, for a negatively
endless time, and will likewise happen after a positively endless
time ; this is the pregnant significance of every rightly interpreted
experiment. Only the matliematician, whose work is more nearly
allied to that of the experimental investigator than we are used
to conceive, can oppose eternally inviolable laws to the same feel-
ing of responsibility. Sworn witnesses before the tribunal of
reality, they both strive after knowledge of the world as it is,
within the limits imposed upon us by the nature of our intellect.
For this painful pressure under which he labors, the investigator
is compensated by the knowledge that even the least of his
achievements is a step forward above the highest stage reached
by his greatest predecessors ; that it may contain the germ of
immensely important theoretical knowledge and practical achieve-
ments, as Wollaston's lines in the spectrum contained the germ of
spectrum analysis; that such a prize invites not only the genius
raised up by Nature, but also the conscientious industry of the
moderately gifted ; and that science, bestowing upon the human
mind the mastery of Nature, is the ruling organ of civilization :
that without it there never has been a true civilization ; and that
without it civilization, together with art and its works, might
any day sink again hopelessly, as they did on the extinction of
the ancient world.

* Gespriiche mit Goethe, etc. Leipsic, 1836, vol. ii, p. 68 (1829).

SCIENCE AND FINE ART. 753

The investigator can also be comforted witli the knowledge
that a thoughtless multitude enjoying the benefits conferred upon
it by him, hardly knows to whom it owes them ; that while the
name of every musical virtuoso is in all mouths, and is certain
of immortality in the Conversations-Lexicons of the fashionable
classes, the name is substantially unknown among us of him who
achieved that supreme triumph of inventive genius of making
perceptible, through a copper wire stretched over wide regions and
over mountain and valley, the sound of a voice as though it was
speaking into our ears. " Knowledge is earnest, art is happy," we
might paraphrase the poet's expression, without lessening its ap-
plicability. Art is the empire of the beautiful ; of the creation of
that which inspires in us a semi-sensational, semi-spiritual pleas-
ure ; and saying this we also say that it is in its widest scope an
empire of freedom. In it rule no stiff laws ; no strict causality
binds the events of the present to those of the past and of the fu-
ture ; no standard unconditionally warrants success. The chang-
ing taste of times, peoples, and men assumes to praise and blame,
as when the magnificence of Gothic church architecture became
the sport of the eighteenth century. Here the definition of genius
as the talent for patience goes to the ground ; its happy inspira-
tion produces a picture that seizes us and lifts us up with an ele-
mentary power which seems to mock the profound interpretation
subsequently imposed upon it by art criticism ; and the favored
hand which perfects it is also a benefactor of care-laden manhood.
It unfortunately lies in the nature of things that such force is not
developed in every age. Here at one time the highest development
is attained in some one direction, in trying to reach which again
generation after generation despondently exhausts itself. The
finest art theories can neither lift the individual over the limits of
his natural ability; nor in the great whole prepare a better destiny
for a declining art period. Of what profit is the discussion con-
cerning idealism and realism which has divided the art world
for a considerable time ? Has it protected us against the hardly
tolerable excesses of the latter? Seek for something new; the
bold raising of a standard which the untaught multitude blindly
follows, will bear the victory, till the antiquated is in some way
supplemented by the fresh, or till a personality of commanding
altitude unquestionably achieves the mastery.

Still less can pure science help art; and thus, intrinsically
alien to one another, without either materially influencing the
other, they go each its own way — the one steadily rising, some-
times more rapidly, sometimes more slowly, the other rising and
falling in majestic waves. To desire to stamp one of the two, art
alone, as the mark of the highest development of the power of the
human mind, as not rarely occurs to persons unfamiliar with

TOL. XL. — 51

754 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

science, is undoubtedly a mistake ; but tlie human mind really
shines the clearest when the luster of art is joined with the luster
of science.

Furthermore, the same takes place here as in practical ethics.
The lower the morals of an age or a people have sunk, the more
talk there is about virtae. The more the native creative strength
subsides and is dried up, the higher rises the flood of aesthetic
theories. Hermann Lotze's History of Esthetics in Germany *
affords a wearisome and discouraging picture of this long and
fruitless movement. The philosophers of all schools have outbid
one another in framing abstract formulas for determining exactly
what beauty is. It is unity in diversity, or fitness without piir-
pose, or unconscious rationality, or the absolute in sensual exist-
ence, or the enjoyed harmony of the absolute spirit, and more of
the same kind. But between these qualities ascribed to all beauty
nominally constituting its essentials, and the perception of the
beautiful, there is no more connection than there is between the
ether and sonorous vibrations and the qualities made known
to us by them. It would indeed be a vain undertaking to con-
ceive an expression which shall equally cover the various kinds
of beauty ; the beauty of the Cosmos in contrast to chaos, of a
mountain view, of a symphony, of a poetical work, of Ristori as
Medea, of a rose ; or in fine art alone, the beauty of the Co-
logne Cathedral, of the Hermes, of the Sistine Madonna, of a
genre picture, of a landscape, of a picture of still life, or of a
Japanese vine-weaving. We prefer to say that we in this as in
many other points meet something in our organism that is inex-
plicable, something inexpressible, but something none the less
certainly felt for all that, without which life would pass away
grimly bare.

There is in Schiller's works a discussion concerning the beauty
of the human body.f He distinguishes between an architectonic
beauty and one that depends upon grace. Twenty years ago on
Leibnitz's day, in an address on Leibnitz's ideas in later science, I
attacked the rationalism in aesthetics in which the past century
had been much entangled, and I ventured among other things
the remark that " as little as for the effect of melody is an expla-
nation conceivable of the charm which handsome forms of one
sex have for the other." | We can not in fact discern in close con-
sideration, why this form which, according to Fechner, can be
represented by a plain equation between three variables, should
please us more than a thousand other possibilities. It can not be

* The seventh volume of Die Geschichte der Wissenschaften in Dcutschland. Neuere
Zeit. Munich, 1888.

f In the essay on Anmuth und Wiirde.
. :j: Reden, etc., vol. i, Leipsic, 1886, pp. 49, 50.

SCIENCE AND FINE ART. 755

derived from any abstract principle or architectonics or Hogarth-
ian wave-line. A year after my remark, appeared Charles Darwin's
Descent of Man, in which the doctrine of sexual selection, which
was only indicated in the Origin of Species, was treated in detail
and followed out to its consequences. But I have, too, a lively
recollection of how Dove, when I was once contending with him
against the validity of vitalism, embarrassed me with the objec-
tion that profusion prevails in organic nature, as, for example, in
the feathers of a peacock, or of a bird-of -paradise, while Mauper-
tuis's law of the least action excludes such waste in inorganic na-
ture. The problem seems to be solved now, under the presumption
that a kind of sense of beauty in their species exists among ani-
mals. The brightly colored wedding garment of the male bird
may have originated in the females giving the preference to the
most highly decorated suitor, under which an ever more richly
adorned posterity is developed. The male birds-of -paradise may
be seen at pairing-time emulously displaying their beauty before
the female. The nightingale's gift of song may likewise be
accounted for if, instead of pleasure in colored feathers, we
ascribe musical perceptions to the females. Darwin carries his
idea further, to the extent of assuming that certain sexual marks
in the human race, the grave beard of the man and the luxu-
riant hair of the woman, may have been derived through sexual
selection*. It is well known that the introduction of handsome
Circassian slaves into the harems of prominent Turks has repeat-
edly changed the original Mongolian type into a figure of nobler
pattern. Rising to a higher level, we can now find in the same
idea the answer to the question. Where are the roots of the charm
which female beauty exercises on man ? According to our views,
the woman was not made out of a rib of the first man, an assump-
tion which encounters morphological difficulties, but it was tlie
man himself who in the course of numerous generations made his
woman by natural selection of such fashion as would please him,
and, inversely, the woman her man. "We now call this type beau-

* The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. London, 1871, vol. li, pp. 52,
89, 379, 400, 401. In his book on Darwinism, etc (second London edition, 1889), Mr.
Wallace rejected the explanation of the decorative plumage and the song of the male bird
through selection by the female, and proposed other interpretations. But a writer recog-
nized by Mr. Wallace himself as equally a student in this line, Mr. C. B. Poulton, in his
work, The Colors of Animals, their Meaning and their Use (International Scientific Series),
has sturdily taken up the defense of the Darwinian view against this attack, and exposed
the untenability of Wallace's later explanation. Mr. Wallace has not failed to reply to this
(Nature, No. 1082, vol. xlii, July 24, 1890) ; while Mr. R. J. Pocock, resting on Mr. G. W.
Peckham's investigations, joins Mr. Poulton (ibid.. No. 1086, August 1, 1890, p. 40.'5). This
is not the place to enter into the question, especially as my conclusion concerning the
doctrine of sexual selection still holds, even if Mr. Wallace should be right on the single
points of feather ornament and song.

756 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tiful ; but it is only necessary to cast a glance upon a Venus by
Rubens or Titian, and to think of the many races of men, to
recognize bow little even this beauty is absolute.

An instance in which beauty seems to have allowed itself to
be dismembered to the best advantage is afforded by the beauty
that might be called mechanical. It is the least considered, be-
cause a peculiar training of the eye is required for its estimation.
It is the beauty which a machine or a physical instrument can pos-
sess, of which every part has the right measure, the right form
and position for its perfection. The definition, unconscious ra-
tionality, fits it well, for in this case the pleasure can with full
right be traced back to the fact that we, by sufficient training, can
unconsciously perceive how exactly that which was necessary has
been done to connect firmness with lightness and as much mo-
bility as is required, in order to obtain the most advantageous
transference of force without useless expenditure of material. A
driving-belt, it is true, looks neither beautiful nor unbeautif ul ; but
since the strength of a connecting-rod needs to be greatest in the
middle of its length, it pleases the educated vision to see it gradu-
ally swelling out from the ends to the middle. This kind of beauty
is of course of most recent origin ; and it should be lemarked that
it was, so far as I know, first perceived and raised to a principle
in the making of our physical instruments in Germany by Georg
von Reichenbach in Munich. At a time when instruments of per-
fect mechanical beauty were turned out of the shops of Munich
and Berlin, there came to us from France and England only those
on which stiff columns and fantastically ornamented cornices gave
disagreeable reminders of the impure forms in the architecture
and furniture of the Rococo.

I do not recollect what French mathematician in the last cent-
ury endeavored to account for the impression of perfect satisfac-
tion to the eye which the view of the cupola of St. Peter's in Rome
produced. He measured the curves of the cupola, and found that
their form was precisely that which under the given conditions
afforded, by the rules of the higher statics, the maximum of sta-
bility. Thus, unconsciously, guided by a sure instinct, Michael
Angelo solved in his model (the cupola was not built till after his
death) a problem which was hardly comprehensible to his con-
sciousness, and which had never, in his time, been mathematically
discussed. The equation of beauty, if we may call it that, appears,
moreover, in this case, to have had several roots ; for there is at
least one other form of cupola, of which that of the Val-de-Grace
in Paris occurs to me as a type, which makes quite as restful an
impression, though perhaps not so elevating, as that of Michael
Angelo's.

Mechanical beauty comes in here in the building art, and the

SCIENCE AND FINE ART. 757

more frequently at this time because the iron constructions of
the later period give more occasion than stone structures for its
exhibition. The change of material has, according to Anton
Kallmann's expression, produced a changed statics of feeling.*
In the Eiffel Tower mechanical beauty is in conflict with plastic
want of beauty, and in this reveals itself for the first time to
many who would not otherwise have had occasion to perceive its
effect. The new Forth Bridge is certainly not without it. Yet
there is no question that even in stone buildings, besides many
traditions and conventional tastes, the pleasure in definite forms,
in the gentle swelling and tapering of Doric pillars upward, their
expansion into the echinus and abacus, and in the profile of the
architectural members, depends on mechanical beauty, as well as
on the absence from the agreeable impression they make of the
repulsive, which the senseless ornamentation of vulgar styles in-
flicts upon the refined taste.

Mechanical beauty plays a part even in the forms of organic
nature, to the degree that much that is repulsive to the untutored
eye delights the educated eye and fills it with admiration. That
it is which the anatomist is pleased to discern in the structure of
the bones, particularly of the joints ; which on other grounds than
its contradiction of the way the ancients painted death, makes a
death-dance appear repulsive to him; which Benvenuto Cellini,
to his credit, comprehended in a skeleton ; and which, if only our
understanding was adequate, every organized form would illus-
trate to us even in the aquarium and under the microscope.
Even in the building up of the plant structure. Dr. Schwendener
has demonstrated an economical adaptation of parts, characteristic
of the organization, of which we can discern something in the
sight of a broadly rooted oak pushing its massive head up toward
air and light.

Mechanical beauty comes into consideration in the contempla-
tion of animal forms, particularly of beasts of prey. A greyhound
and a bull-dog, a thoroughbred race-horse and a brewer's draft-
horse, a South Down and a merino sheep, an Algau Mountain
steer and a Dutch milch-cow, are all handsome, though some
among them, like the bull-dog and the Percheron horse, may
appear ugly to a stranger ; for in all of them the type of the
species is modified for some adaptation.

Although science can not, as we have seen, inspire art in its
departing life, nor communicate a new impulse to it, it can still
afford it an inestimable service of another kind, by increasing its
insight and improving its technical means, teaching it useful
rules, and guarding it against errors. We are not thinking here

* Kunstbestrebungen der Gegenwart. Berlin, 1842, p. 71.

7s8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of a thing so primitive as the preparation of pigments or of certain
knacks in casting ; the less so because, as is well known, our colors
are in a remarkable way poorer than those of an unscientific primi-
tive time, and an unexcelled thinness of the metal is the mark of a
genuine Greek bronze statue. It can hardly be necessary to recol-
lect the long story of the benefits of this kind which scientific knowl-
edge has conferred upon art. Linear perspective was discovered
by the artists themselves, by Leonardo and Diirer. The laws of re-
flection and shadow-construction, which were still unknown to the
ancient painters, if we may judge from the Pompeiian Narcissus-
pictures, followed. In the representation of the rainbow, which
had better be left unpainted, many and serious mistakes have been
made, notwithstanding the teachings of optics. Statics furnished
the sculptor important instruction concerning what is called pon-
deration. Aerial perspective owes its development, again, to the
painters, particularly to those of northern lands.

The advance of science has added to those ancient helps much
of importance, although it is not so fundamental, and many natu-
ralists, among them some of the first rank, have interested them-
selves in making the new knowledge accessible to artists. The
great masters of past centuries were guided by their feelings to
the proper selection of colors, as, according to Johannes Miiller,
women of taste of all times are correct in the choice of their cloth-
ing ; * and the Oriental carpet- weavers are not behind them. But
the significance of such unconscious success could be perceived
only after the subjective physiology of the sense of sight had been
created by the older Darwin, Goethe, Purkinje, Johannes Miiller,
and others. These matters have been discussed by our fellow-
member, Herr Ernst von Briicke, in his Physiology of Colors for
industrial art, and his Fragments from the Theory of the Fine
Arts,t with such special skill as only the rare combination of the
artistic culture acquired in his father's studio with his own physio-
logical knowledge could make possible. Chevreul pursued similar
aims in France. Not less did Prof, von Helmholtz embody his pro-
found knowledge of physiological optics in public lectures in the
service of art, which owes to him likewise his fruitful conclusions
concerning the nature of musical harmony. He explained among
other things the relation in which differences of luster of real ob-
jects stand to those which the painter controls, and showed what
means he could employ to overcome the difiiculties growing out
of them. I By imitation of the irradiation recognized by him in

* Handbuch der Physiologic des Menschen, etc. Vol. ii, Part II, Coblentz, 1838,
p. 375.

f Physiologie der Farben, etc. First edition, Leipsie, 1866; second edition, 1887,
Bruchstiicke, etc., Leipsie, 1877.

\ Optisches ueber Malerei. Vortrage und Reden, vol. i, Brunswick, 1884. Concerning

SCIENCE AND FINE ART. 759

its true meaning — a fault of our vision — the painter is even placed
in a position to reproduce the dazzling impression of the solar
disk. Of this the Castle Gandolf o of Roqueplan in the Raczynski
Gallery, through its boldness, affords an interesting example.

The representation of the stars as stars, in the shape in which
the stars of decorations are drawn and from the resemblance to
which star-fishes are named, rests likewise upon defects of our
vision ; for the stars of the sky are only shining points without
rays, as indeed a few favored eyes see them. The sacred halo,
the phosphorescence of holy heads, which in Correggio's Night
extends over the whole Christ-child, and objectively illuminates
the scene, has nothing to do with this. The origin of that
kind of representation, so far as it is not a free sport of fancy, is
possibly traced by Herr Exner to the crown of light which one
sees in a dewy field in sunshine around the shadow of his own
head.* By another defect of the human eye, astigmatism, the
more advanced grades of which, such as short-sightedness, belong
to pathology, Herr Richard Liebreich was able to explain certain
peculiarities long incomprehensible, which disfigured the later
works of the distinguished English landscape-painter. Turner, f
It would have been easy for a modern oculist to protect him from
this fault by properly fitted glasses. Color-blindness, known of
old, but thoroughly studied only in our own age, is another very
frequent defect of our vision, to which corresponds, in the ear, an
inability to distinguish between the tones. A color-blind painter
is perhaps not so inconceivable as a musician without hearing.

It might not be practicable to define the limits beyond which
optical science can do no more good to the artist. In order to know
the laws of the movements of the eyes, to understand wherein close
vision is different from far vision, no painter will have reason to
regret applying to himself Johannes Miiller's remarks in his early
paper on the Comparative Physiology of the Sense of Sight. Yet
it must be granted that an artist could paint an qjq very well with-
out ever having heard of the Sansonian images, on which depends
the soft glance of a mild eye as well as the wild fire of an angry,
penetrating eye; just as the landscape-painter would paint the
blue sky on his canvas no better if he had learned to take note of
the yellow brush in every great circle of the heavenly sphere that
passes through the sun, which continued unremarked through
thousands of years, but has been familiar to physiologists since
Haidinger's discovery.

irradiation compare the Handbuch der physiologischen Optic, second edition. 5. Lieferung.
Hamburg and Leipsic, 1889, pp. 394 et seq.

* Physiologisches und pathologisches in den bildenden Kiinsten. Vienna, 1889, p. 17.

f Proceedings of the Royal Institution, etc., weekly evening meeting, Friday, March 6,
1872.

76o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In the mucli-debated question of the polychromy of the ancient
statues and buildings, on the contrary, and of the propriety of
adopting it, one observation of the physicists, as appears to me,
has not hitherto been sufficiently considered. It is that all colors
become whitish under a very strong illumination, so that, on the
immediate view of the solar spectrum in the telescope, nearly
every impression of color disappears, except for a light-yellow
shimmer at the red end.* As the colors become whitish, their glar-
ing contrast disappears, and they blend more harmoniously into
one another. Therefore, under a clear sky, the fiery red petti-
coat of the Contadina, which is repeated so often in Oswald
Achenbach's Campagna pictures, as well as the white horse of
Wouverman's war-scenes, make no disagreeable impression on
the eye. Under the bright Grecian sky, on the Acropolis, in the
Poikile, the more or less glaringly j^ainted fagades and pillars
still had a pleasant effect; in the gray northern light, and in
closed rooms, they are not happily introduced.

Wheatstone has materially enriched the capacity of drawing
and painting art from another side, by showing with his stereo-
scope the different manner in which binocular vision distin-
guishes nearer objects from monocular vision, and also from the
binocular vision of objects so remote that the interval between
the eyes vanishes before their distance. The impression of a solid
body arises only when each of the eyes receives a different view
of the object, and is produced by both views blending into one,
the corporeal view. Therefore the painter, expressing dimen-
sions of depth only through shading and air-perspective, has
never been able to produce a real corporeal appearance on his
canvas. While, then, Wheatstone's pseudoscope shows the hu-
man face concave in an unusual way, Helmholtz's telestereoscope
exaggerates the distance between the eyes, and, without aerial
perspective, resolves the far-off forest or mountain into its vari-
ous elements. The stereoscope with movable pictures, however,
confirms old Dr. Robert Smith's explanation of the fact that the
moon and sun appear larger by nearly two tenths of their diame-
ters in the horizon than in the zenith, and reduces the problem to
the question why we see the vault of the sky rather flattened like
a watch-glass than as a hemisphere.

Of vastly greater importance for art is photography, which
originated at nearly the same time with the spectroscope. To
fasten Delia Porta's charming pictures was indeed a dream of
artists as well as of physicists, and after the discovery of chloride
of silver the no longer unattainable object came in sight. One

* Helmholtz, Handbuch der physiologischen Optic, A. a 0, Fourth Part, 1887, pp.
284, 285.

SCIENCE AND FINE ART. 761

"would need to have witnessed Daguerre's discovery, and Ara-
go's report upon it in the Chamber of Deputies, to realize the
enthusiasm with which it filled the world. Daguerre's particular
process, of only limited application, was soon cast in the shade by
one which in its essentials is still in use. But it deserves, perhaps,
to be remembered that when the first still imperfect Talbotype
process reached us from England nobody foresaw its immense
future, and the substitution for the silver plate of paper impreg-
nated with a salt of silver was received with shaking of heads,
and was looked upon as a step backward.

Thus photography started upon its wonderful career of vic-
tory. It soon assumed the relation to art that Arago had prom-
ised for it. Not only has it lightened the work of the archi-
tectural, interior, and landscape painter, and made the camera
lucida superfluous even for panoramas; it has also furnished
many useful hints relative to light and shadow, reflection and
half-tone, and especially as to the way to give the most natural
appearance of bodily projection to figures on a flat. It might be
profitable, for the sake of forming a judgment in both directions,
to inquire what part photography has had in the origin of the
newer schools of painting, of the mannerism of the impressionists,
and of the clear-light and free-light painters. It has taught the
landscape painter how to reproduce rocks with geological and
vegetation with botanical correctness, and to represent glaciers,
which was rarely attempted before, and never successfully. It
fixed the image of the clouds, although its. pictures of the sky
were somewhat defective. Finally, it helped the portrait painter
without exciting his envy, for, while it caught up only a single
often long- while tense expression, it was not adequate to give an
average picture of the man, and the unpleasant, stiff photograph
was almost proverbially a bad portrait. It furnished painters,
however, in many instances with an invaluable groundwork,
although it had to be enlivened by the artistic touch. But the
newer form of portrait photography is calculated to attract the
attention of the artist in many points. Instantaneous photogra-
phy catches the expression of the countenance and the attitudes
during so short an interval that it makes good what escapes in
the average expression, and thus leads to most valuable observa-
tions. Duchenne and Darwin* recreated the doctrine of expres-
sion in emotion ; the former by counterfeiting the various ex-
pressions by means of electrical stimulation of the muscles of the
face, and the latter by following their phylogenetic development
through the series of animals. Both presented the artist with
photographic images of such expressions by the side of which

* The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London, 1872.

762 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the drawings used in the art schools for the same purpose ap-
pear antiquated. Since then the English anthropologist, Mr.
Francis Galton, has solved by photography a problem which was
as much beyond the reach of the artist as the representation of
the average expression of a person was of the photographer —
namely, of collecting into a typical picture the average physiog-
nomy and shape of the head of a considerable number of persons
of the same age, race, like degree of mental development, or simi-
lar pathological condition or criminal propensity. This is done
by causing faint pictures of faces of the same category to cover
one another on the same negative.* Prof. Bowditch, of the Har-
vard Medical School, has in this way taken average (composite)
pictures or the types of American students and girl students,
drivers and conductors of horse-cars. In the last cases the supe-
riority of the intellectual exjDression of the conductor type over
that of the driver type is very plain. It would have been some-
thing for Lavater and Gall.

Again, pathology comes into the service of fine art. Dr. Char-
cot has recognized, in the photographically fixed convulsive atti-
tudes and distortions of hysterics, the classical representations of
possessed persons, f It is indeed most wonderful to see how
Raphael, otherwise dwelling only in the ideal, portrayed in his
Transfiguration the figure of the possessed boy so realistically
that one can with certainty, from the Magendian position of his
eyes, diagnosticate a central disease. It is in harmony with this,
as was recently remarked in New York, that his left hand is af-
flicted with an athetoid cramp. J

[To he concluded.']

Experiments by Herr Regel with reference to the influence of external factors
on the odor of plants show that the most important is the indirect influence of
light on the formation of etheric oils and their evaporation. Heat and light in-
tensify the fragrance of strongly fragrant flowers, which in darkness is lessened
without quite disappearing. "When the whole plant was darkened, those buds
only which were before fairly well developed yielded fragrant flowers, the others
were scentless. If, however, only the flowers were darkened, all were fragrant.
Other plants open their flowers and are fragrant only by night. When these plants
were kept continuously in the dark, they lost their scent, as they lost their starch.
When brought into light again, both starch and fragrance returned. Besides
light, respiration has a decided influence on the fragrance. In general, the open-
ing of flowers coincides with their fragrance, but there is no necessary connection
between these phenomena.

* Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development, with Illustrations. London, 1883.
f Compare Exner, a. a. 0. S. 21 et scq.

\ Sachs and Peterson, A Study of Cerebral Palsies, etc. Journal of Nervous and Men-
tal Disease, May, 1890.

BACTERIA IN OUR DAIRY PRODUCTS. 763

BACTERIA IN OUR DAIRY PRODUCTS.

Bt Pkof. H. W. conn.

THERE have been no discoveries in the last half-century more
startling than those which are now accumulating upon the
subject of bacteriology. Every one knows to-day that bacteria
have a causal connection with certain diseases, and the whole civ-
ilized world has been recently agitated over the attempts that are
being made to combat their effect in the human system. The study
of the relation of these organisms to the animal body seems to be
producing a revolution in the study of medicine, or rather perhaps
is creating a science of medicine, for medicine of the past can
hardly be called a science.

"We have heard so much of the disease-germs and their evil
effects that bacteria are usually looked upon as unmitigated nui-
sances. It is a doubtful chance if any knowledge of their benefi-
cial effects has passed beyond the reach of the scientist's laboratory
and lecture-room. But science has for a long time known that
even the bacteria which are not connected with disease are of im-
mense significance in the processes of Nature. The non-pathogenic
germs were studied long before the pathogenic forms; but the
great attraction offered by the study of disease has led the larger
number of bacteriologists in this direction. To-day, however, we
are beginning to recognize more than ever the great part played
by the harmless bacteria, and to find out that their value in the
world far outweighs the injury produced by their mischievous
relatives. There is hardly a process in Nature which is not in some
way connected with bacteria growth. Fermentation, the raising
of bread, the formation of vinegar, the germination of seedlings,
the growth of plants, the ripening of fertilizers, the decomposition
of animal and vegetable bodies by means of which they are again
incorporated into the soil, are all to a greater or less extent depend-
ent on the growth of micro-organisms, either bacteria or yeasts.
Without the agency of these organisms to prepare the soil, plants
could not grow, and life would soon disappear.

There is no one who is not directly or indirectly connected
with the dairy industry. The discoveries of the last twenty years,
and more especially those of the last five years, have shown that
dairy products are in a large measure connected with the growth
of microscopic organisms — some dairy processes, indeed, being
nothing more than gigantic breeding experiments. Each of the
three chief products of the dairy — milk, butter, and cheese — ^has
its own definite relations to bacteria growth and each must be
considered separately.

Milk. — The souring of milk is such a universal phenomenon

764 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that it has until recently been considered a normal character of
milk. The last twenty years have, however, demonstrated for us
that it is universally caused by bacteria growth. The souring of
milk is simply the formation in it of a certain amount of lactic
acid, and the acid precipitates the casein of milk just as any other
acid would do, and thus forms the curd. But it is bacteria which
produce the lactic acid. The presence of micro-organisms in milk
was first noticed fifty years ago by Fuchs, but it was not till
twenty years later that Pasteur succeeded in showing that these
organisms could really produce lactic acid and thus might be the
cause of the souring of milk. Fifteen years more were required to
show that they were the sole cause of the souring of milk, and to
demonstrate the further important point that milk when drawn
from the healthy cow contains no bacteria and has therefore no
tendency to sour or undergo other unpleasant changes. Since this
was first shown by Lister, in 1873, numerous observers have so
successfully verified the conclusions of Pasteur and Lister that no
possibility of doubt longer remains, and we now know that under
normal conditions the milk while in the mammary gland of the
healthy cow is free from bacteria, and we have abundant proof that
such milk will never sour nor ferment if kept free from bacteria
contamination.

Absolutely pure milk is, then, free from bacteria; but when we
examine milk that has been standing for a few hours the number
of bacteria found in it is almost incredible. By the time that it is
five or six hours old milk will contain millions for each tumbler-
ful, and by the time it has reached the city consumer it will fre-
quently contain fifty millions to the quart. Now, if the milk
while in the cow contains no bacteria, it follows that this numer-
ous crop must have been planted in the milk during the milking
or subsequently. At first thought it seems hardly possible to be-
lieve that this immense number of bacteria could have found their
way into the milk since the milking. But when we learn that
they are abundant in the air ; that they are crowded in every
particle of dust clinging to the hairs of the cow ; that they are
always present in the milk-duct for a short distance from its open-
ing, living there in the remains of the milk left from the last
milking ; that the milk-pail in which the milk is drawn can not be
washed clear of them by any ordinary methods ; that the milk-
cans will always contain them in cracks and chinks even after the
most thorough cleansing ; that they are always on the hands of
the milker ; and when, in addition to all this, we learn that bacteria
multiply so fast that by actual experiment a single individual may
in the course of six hours give rise to three thousand progeny — it
no longer remains a marvel that their number is so great in milk
of a few hours' standing.

BACTERIA IN OUR DAIRY PRODUCTS. 765

Fortunately, this immense number of bacteria in milk need not
especially alarm us, for they are not disease-germs and are harm-
less to the healthy person. Nevertheless, they are undoubtedly a
nuisance in the milk. They can not grow there without producing
some effect upon it. Commonly the first change noticeable is the
appearance of the well-known odor and taste of sour milk, followed
shortly by its curdling. This souring is undoubtedly the result
of bacteria growth, and it was at first supposed that there was a
single definite species which alone had this power of producing
lactic acid. So thought Pasteur and Lister at first, and such a
species they described. The species of bacterium studied by them
certainly had this power, and it was named Bacterium lactis by
Lister. In later years the name Bacillus acidi lactici has been
given to it. By the work of the last six years we have learned
that more than one species has the power of souring milk by the
formation of lactic acid. Lactic-acid formation is the character-
istic of a class of bacteria comprising many species, and even in
the ordinary souring of milk under normal conditions it is not
always the same species of bacteria which produces the mis-
chief.

While it is true that any one of a number of species of bacteria
may produce lactic acid by their growth in milk and thus cause its
souring, in other respects these different species do not have the
same effect. The formation of lactic acid is not the only change
that occurs in the souring of milk. Sour milk has a well-known
odor, but this is not due to the lactic acid, since lactic acid is odor-
less. The formation of such an odor tells us, therefore, that there
are other changes going on in the souring of milk. The fact is,
that a decomposition of the albuminoids and other substances in
the milk is going on, and it is these decomposition products that
give the odor. Now, the different species of bacteria do not all pro-
duce the same sort of decomposition products. All who are fa-
miliar with milk will recall that the character of sour milk is by
no means uniform. It differs in the hardness of the curd, in the
amount of the whey, in odor, and even in taste. "When different
specimens of milk are examined just before or just after souring,
it is found that the species of bacteria are by no means the same
in the different specimens. Each will contain some of the acid-
forming class, but the particular species which happen to be
present in the different specimens will vary with the different
conditions. Different localities and different methods of handling
the milk will affect the variety of bacteria that it contains. It will
sour in all cases, since all have some of the members of the acid-
forming class ; but the other accompanjdng phenomena may be
different. Thus we have learned to attribute all the differences in
the different specimens of sour milk to the fact that the souring

766 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

has been produced under the influence of different species of bac-
teria. The souring of milk is therefore not a simple or a uniform
phenomenon. While it is always the effect of bacteria growth, we
recognize many varieties of souring corresponding to the variety
of bacteria most abundant in the milk before souring. All this
makes little difference to the consumer ; in any case the milk is
ruined for his purposes, and he is more concerned in preventing
such troubles completely than in learning their variety. A rem-
edy seems simple enough. When we have once learned that the
whole trouble is caused by bacteria, we see that it is only neces-
sary to keep these organisms out in order to preserve the milk
pure and sweet.

From the standpoint of public health also the desirability of
freeing milk from these organisms is becoming every day more
apparent. It is true that the vast majority of the bacteria in milk
are perfectly harmless to the healthy person, even when swallowed
in such numbers as above indicated. But, at the same time, it not
infrequently happens that disease-germs get into the milk and,
finding there a suitable medium for growth, multiply rapidly.
They are then served out to all the patrons supplied with the
milk. Typhoid fever is certainly disseminated by means of the
milk-supply, and there is a growing conviction that the fatal
tuberculosis owes much of its prevalence to milk from diseased
cows. Other epidemics have also been traced to the same source.

Even if no definite disease-germ chances to be present in the
milk, the vast number of harmless forms may render the milk
dangerous to all having weak or sensitive digestive organs ; for
they produce considerable lactic acid, and every one knows that
acid is injurious in the food of infants and invalids. The pres-
ence of lactic acid is probably a less serious matter than the pres-
ence of certain decomposition products which are formed by the
same bacteria. These are directly poisonous, and, although they
are present in such small quantities that they have no effect on
the healthy person, they may be injurious to one whose digestive
organs are in a sensitive condition. For a long time doctors have
recognized that boiled milk is a safer food for invalids than raw
milk, supposing, however, the explanation to be that the cooking
renders it more easily digested, just as it does other foods. Recent
experiments have shown us that this is not true. On the con-
trary, boiled milk is less easily digested and absorbed by the
system than raw milk. The real reason for the greater safety
in drinking boiled milk lies in the fact that it is thus deprived
of the disturbing action of the millions of bacteria ordinarily
present.

To keep bacteria out of milk is a practical impossibility.
Their presence in such quantities in all places renders their access

BACTERIA IN OUR DAIRY PRODUCTS. -jSj

to it a certainty, and it lias only been by exercising the most
extraordinary precautions that scientists have in a few cases
succeeded in obtaining milk directly from the cow in such a way
as to avoid its becoming contaminated during the milking. At
the same time much may be accomplished by cleanliness in the
barn and the dairy. The presence of disease-germs in the milk is
always to be traced to filth or to carelessness in handling the milk,
or to diseased cows. Typhoid-fever germs, for instance, can only
get into the milk from some unusual source, and tuberculosis
germs only from diseased cows. If it were possible to enforce
cleanliness in the barns and dairies, and to obtain sufiicient care
in the handling of milk, we should have no more epidemics spread
through the milk-supply. But, in the present state of public igno-
rance and carelessness as to health, such an enforcement is an
impossibility. In our cities and large towns, therefore, the milk-
supply must be looked upon as one of the fertile sources for the
spread of disease, and it behooves every one to look carefully to
the condition of the milk he drinks during times of epidemics,
especially of those affecting the digestive organs.

But even with the most extreme care it is impossible for our
milkmen to avoid the presence of the more common forms of
micro-organisms which will sour the milk. Recognizing, then,
that bacteria are sure to get into the milk, we may next ask if
there is no way of destroying them after they get in. If we can
kill these bacteria, we can of course preserve the milk longer and
render it more healthful. It is easy enough to kill the bacteria
though every method is open to certain objections. Various
chemicals have been suggested for poisoning the bacteria, or at
least for delaying their growth, but they are one and all to be con-
demned, as likely to do more harm than good.

A safer and more effective method for preserving milk is by
the use of heat. All bacteria may be killed by heat, and then, if
the milk be kept in tightly closed bottles, it will keep sweet indefi-
nitely. For this purpose many sterilizing machines have been
invented in the last few years, all based upon the same principle,
but differing much in detail. In all cases the milk is subjected to
a high heat. Most of them simply heat the milk to a boiling
temperature by means of steam or boiling water, but a few, by
boiling under pressure, contrive to raise the temperature consid-
erably above boiling water. Although many forms of apparatus
have been devised for simplifying the matter, no apparatus is
really needed for sterilization. All that is necessary is to put the
milk into bottles and boil it for ten minutes with the mouth of
the bottle open, then close the mouth and steam it for ten minutes
more. This method of sterilization will not kill all of the bacteria
in the milk, but it will kill all the disease-germs which are likely

768 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to be in it, and it will so decrease tlie numbers of the other bac-
teria that the milk will keep sweet for a long time.

All methods of sterilization that are in use in this country
have the disadvantage of giving to the milk the taste which is
peculiar to boiled milk, and also of rendering it less easily ab-
sorbed by the body. In France and Germany a method has been
adopted which accomplishes the purpose without injuring the
taste of the milk. Machines are in use in Paris and some other
cities which will heat great quantities of milk to a temperature of
about 155° Fahr. for a few minutes, and then cool it rapidly to a
low temperature. The method has been called the pasteurization
of milk. It does not kill all the bacteria, but it does destroy so
many of them that it greatly increases the keeping properties of
the milk. Moreover, it almost entirely destroys the danger from
disease-germs in milk, since nearly all forms likely to occur in
milk are killed by this temperature. The advantage of this
method is that the temperature of 155° Fahr. does not give to the
milk the taste of boiled milk, which most people find unpleasant,
and does not render the milk difficult of digestion. These pas-
teurizing machines have not yet been introduced into this coun-
try, and the opportunity exists for some one to develop a thriving
business by furnishing pasteurized milk in our large cities. A
little experience with its superior keeping properties, and a little
knowledge of its greater wholesomeness, would soon create a de-
mand for it in America as it has already done in the larger cities
of France and Germany.

Butter. — If bacteria are the enemies of the milkman, they
are the allies of the butter and cheese maker. The last few years
have shown us that butter owes at least its flavor to bacteria
growth in the cream. Butter is made by allowing the cream to
separate from the milk by means of its less specific gravity, and
then by shaking the cream vigorously until the butter collects in
lumps. Now, it has been for a long time recognized that it is a
difficult matter to churn sweet cream. It may be shaken for a
long time without the separation of the butter, and a smaller
amount of butter can be obtained from it than from cream that
has been allowed to sour or "ripen" for a time before churning.
This, at all events, is true of cream which is separated from the
milk by the ordinary method of setting, though it seems less true
of cream separated by means of a centrifugal machine. It has
also been generally recognized that the butter made from sweet
cream lacks the delicate flavor or aroma which is such an impor-
tant factor in a first-class butter. Sweet-cream butter has a flat,
creamy taste, which is not generally desired.

For these reasons butter-makers have learned not to churn
cream when fresh, but to allow it to stand awhile and sour, or

BACTERIA m OUR DAIRY PRODUCTS. 769

" ripen/' Tlie cream in a creamery is placed in large vats, and
tlien kept at a constant warm temperature for about twenty-four
hours. The cream is stirred frequently during this time, and at
the end of the ripening it is seen to have changed its character.
It is somewhat acid in taste, is slightly thickened, and has a pleas-
antly sour odor, though one quite different from that of sour
milk. The cream is now churned, and the butter is found to sepa-
rate readily, the quantity is at its maximum, and the butter ob-
tained has the proper butter aroma.

Bacteriological study of the last few years has shown that this
"ripening" is nothing more than a breeding of bacteria on a
large scale. There were many bacteria in the cream at the begin-
ning, and the ripening has been conducted at just the tempera-
ture at which bacteria grow rapidly. The result is, that their
multiplication is marvelously rapid, and the number of bacteria
present in ripened cream is beyond comprehension and almost
beyond calculation. Five millions in a drop would not be too
high an estimate for some specimens.

Now, what are the bacteria doing in the cream during their
twenty-four hours' growth ? They can not multiply so rapidly
without producing profound changes in the cream. So far as the
butter-maker is concerned their action is twofold : 1. There is pro-
duced in the cream a considerable amount of lactic acid, together
with small quantities of other acids. 2. Various decomposition
processes are going on which fill the cream with decomposition
products, and these give rise to the odor and taste of ripened
cream.

To understand the effect that this ripening has upon the but-
ter-making, we must first ask what happens to the cream during
the churning. If we look at a drop of milk under the microscope,
we find that the butter-fat is in the form of the most minute
drops. So small are they that they can not be readily separated
from the liquid part of the milk. In cream we simply have the
great mass of these drops together, but still not at all fused, like
a lot of snow-balls floating in water. In the churn, however, the
cream is agitated until the drops are shaken together and made
to fuse with each other. They now form masses of fat large
enough to be removed from the liquid in which they float, and
these masses form the butter. But, looking at the cream more
closely, we find a mechanical difficulty in the way of their ready
fusion. The fat-drops are not free to move at will, for they are
bound together in groups by a sort of slimy substance. As we
watch the cream with our microscope we see the fat-globules are
not easily shaken together, for the slimy matter prevents their
direct contact. This slimy substance must be broken down and
the drops shaken into each other before the butter can form into

VOL, XL. — 52

770 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the large masses necessary for their separation from the liquid.
It requires a deal of shaking to accomplish it when the slime is
intact, and sweet cream may sometimes be churned for hours
without producing the butter. But the ripening prepares the
way for the churning. The acid formed by the bacteria gradu-
ally dissolves this slime, which is of an albuminous nature, and
after it is thus dissolved the difficulty of the fusion is gone and a
short shaking in the churn finishes the process. It is plain, too,
that a larger amount of butter will be obtained from the cream,
for in churning sweet cream much of the fat will be left behind
in the form of small drops not to be separated from the slime
even after the most vigorous churning.

As mentioned above, the second advantage derived from ripen-
ing is the development of the aroma of a first-class butter. Sweet-
cream butter is tasteless, and the cause of the butter aroma is
to be found in the decomposition products of bacteria growth.
While growing in the cream they are splitting up the sugars
and albuminoids present and producing decomposition products.
Among them are many volatile products which have a prominent
odor and taste, and these, as we have seen, produce the odor and
taste of ripened cream. Now, of course, the butter obtained from
such cream will be affected by these compounds, and thus we see
that the delicate aroma of first-class butter is produced by the
decomposition products of bacteria growth in the cream. These
are volatile, and eventually pass away from the butter in large
measure. It is well known that the delicate butter aroma is found
only in fresh butter. Old butter is strong enough in its taste,
but the peculiar delicate aroma is gone. When first made, how-
ever, these volatile substances permeate the butter and explain its
flavor. Of course, it is highly essential that only the proper de-
composition products should be developed, and for this reason it is
a matter of high importance that the ripening shall be stopped at
just the right time. If it is not continued long enough, the proper
decomposition will not take place ; and, on the other hand, if it is
continued too long, the volatile products will approach those of
putrefaction and give a strong-tasting butter. At just the right
moment they are present in sufficient amount to give the butter a
pleasant flavor without being so abundant as to give a disagree-
able one. The experience of the butter-maker guides him in
determining when to stop the bacteria growth, and here is one of
the points of skill in butter-making. When the cream is ripe
enough he churns it, and this ends the process, so far as the bac-
teria are concerned, for they cease to grow when the butter is
made.

But why should they cease to grow ? Why do they not con-
tinue to cause the decomposition in the butter ? What becomes

BACTERIA IN OUR DAIRY PRODUCTS. 771

of them after the churning ? The answer to these questions is
simple. Many of the bacteria go off in the buttermilk; many
more are removed by the water used in washing, but many of
them still remain in the butter. Here, however, their active
life is nearly over, for the salt added to the butter checks their
growth and their numbers begin to diminish. Butter is not a
good medium for their development, and, after a few weeks, they
practically disappear. Their growth in the butter is thus so
slight that it is of no importance and ordinarily produces no no-
ticeable result. To be sure, the butter may subsequently become
rancid, and until recently it has been supposed that the rancidity
of butter was due to bacteria growth. Some species of bacteria
certainly produce butyric acid, and this is one of the most promi-
nent characteristics of rancid butter. But it has been recently
shown that butter may become rancid independently of bacteria
growth, the direct oxidizing power of the air producing the effect.
Bacteria, it is true, may hasten the process, but they are probably
not a necessary cause. After the butter is made, then, the bac-
teria are of no further importance, and unless there should chance
to be some disease-germs among them nothing further will result
from their action.

The butter-maker thus forces the bacteria to give to his butter
a flavor for which he gets a good price in the market. Unfortu-
nately for him, however, there is more than one species of bac-
teria which may readily get into his cream and produce its ripen-
ing, and not all of them are equally serviceable to him. Many
species of bacteria give a very unpleasant flavor to the butter if
they are abundant in the ripening cream. While they cut the
slime that holds the fat-globules and thus make the churning
easy, the aroma produced by different species is by no means
always satisfactory. It has been found that many of the species
which commonly grow in ripening cream will produce very dis-
agreeable butter if they are allowed to act alone. Others acting
alone produce good butter, and the latter must, of course, out-
weigh the former, or the butter will be unsatisfactory.

The fact is, that during the ripening of the cream a great bat-
tle is going on among the different species of bacteria. Some of
them find the conditions of the ripening cream favorable to their
growth, while others find it less favorable. The favored species
multiply rapidly, and may largely crowd out of existence those
less favored. Some species may chance to get the start of oth-
ers by being in greater numbers at the outset, while another spe-
cies will make up for all drawbacks by having a more rapid rate
of multiplication. The final result of the struggle will depend
upon an infinite variety of conditions, which will be entirely be-
yond our knowledge. The condition of the cow, the manner of

772 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

milking, the manner of setting tlie cream, the temperature, etc,
will all be important factors favoring one form of bacteria and
hindering others. If the battle results in favor of the beneficial
species, a good-flavored butter will result, while, if the injurious
species should get the upper hand, the butter will be bad. The
results are at present beyond the control, of the butter-maker.
By practice he has found the methods which will commonly re-
sult in a good product ; but even with his greatest precautions he
is occasionally unable to obtain the best butter. At certain sea-
sons of the year failure to obtain good butter is about as common
as success even in our best creameries.

Now, bacteriologists would not pretend that the bacteria con-
tent of the ripening cream is the sole reason of the variations
in the quality of the butter product. Different conditions of the
cattle, different food, etc., will all affect the butter, but beyond
doubt bacteria have an important part to play. Now, uniformity
in the product of the dairy is the great desideratum of the butter-
maker. Usually he can make good butter, but sometimes he fails
from unexplained causes. The complexity of the ripening pro-
cess makes it impossible for him to be sure of uniformity in this
respect, even though other conditions are constant. But what is
to prevent the bacteriologist finding the right bacteria to produce
a proper aroma to the butter and furnishing them in quantity to
the butter-maker to use in time of trouble ? They may then be
planted in the cream, and thus a ripening always assured which
shall be of the best character. It seems to be entirely possible
thus to produce uniformity in this direction. Already in Ger-
many and Denmark and in this country experiments have been
started looking in this direction with much promise of success.
It is not unlikely, therefore, that before long the butter-maker
will have at his command a method of assuring success in the
aroma of his butter if he only exercises ordinary skill in the pro-
cess of its manufacture. If such an artificial ferment may be
obtained, uniformity in the ripening of cream will be easy. Per-
haps the result will be to bring the different creameries into
greater likeness to each other, enabling those which now are un-
able to obtain a first-class product to improve its flavor by using
the right species of bacteria for ripening in the place of the in-
ferior species which are afforded by some localities. This would
perhaps not improve the best qualities of butter, but would bring
the inferior qualities to a higher standard.

Cheese. — If bacteria are an aid to the butter-maker, they are
absolutely indispensable to the cheese manufacturer. Some peo-
ple do enjoy the taste of sweet-cream butter, and there has been
for some time an evident tendency toward a desire for less strongly
tasting butter. But no one desires to eat fresh cheese. When

BACTERIA IN OUR DAIRY PRODUCTS. 77 ^

first made, cheese is soft and tastes somewliat like milk curd. It
has none of the palatable taste which we find in the cheese of our
table. It is a long ripening which gives this taste to the cheese.

Here, again, the ripening process is one of bacteria growth.
The millions of bacteria that were in the milk are stored away in
the cheese, and instead of being killed here, as they are in the but-
ter, they begin to multiply immediately. Here, too, there is a bat-
tle of bacteria, and now one species is in the ascendency and now
another. If the wrong species gets the upper hand, the cheese be-
comes bad, and cheese-makers have their greatest trouble from this
source. The bacteria do not grow so rapidly as they do in cream,
for the conditions are less favorable, but the ripening is kept up
for months, and during the whole time the bacteria are growing.
Under their action the character of the cheese slowly changes.
Here, again, the decomposition products are responsible for the
taste and odor. In some cases, such as Limburger cheese, the
action is allowed to continue to the verge of putrefaction. Ordi-
narily it is not continued so far, but in all cases the cheese-maker
favors the growth of certain forms of bacteria by regulating the
temperature at which the ripening is carried on. As the ripen-
ing continues, certain parts of the cheese are digested and decom-
posed by the bacteria growth, and, as the products of decomposi-
tion accumulate, the taste grows stronger. After a time it is
considered fit for the market, but the longer the ripening contin-
ues the stronger th* taste becomes.

Little is known yet as to the bacteriology of different kinds of
cheeses. Whether the different tastes of Edam, Limburger, and
other characteristic cheeses is largely due to the character of the
bacteria ripening them can not yet be said. Cheese-makers do,
however, have much trouble with various irregular forms of ripen-
ing, and a great drawback in this business is the lack of uni-
formity in this respect. Beyond doubt this is due largely, per-
haps chiefly, to the variety and number of bacteria which succeed
in gaining a foothold in the cheese and contribute to its ripening.

Along the line of cheese manufacture our bacteriologists are
promising us help from their researches. Of course, the cheese-
maker has never paid any attention to the sort of bacteria which
he plants in his cheeses, for he has never heard of them. Some-
times he has unwittingly planted species which produce violent
poisons, as is shown by the many instances of death from eating
poisonous cheese. Now, our bacteriologists are suggesting that
the ripening of cheese may be easily controlled. Artificial cult-
ures of the proper sort may be furnished the cheese-maker, and
if these are planted in the cheese not only will the danger from
poisonous cheese be prevented, but at the same time the desired
taste of the cheese be assured. More than this, when we recognize

774 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the great variety of decomposition products which the different
species of bacteria produce, we can see ahead a great development
m the varieties of cheese. Who can tell what may he the numer-
ous varieties of cheeses produced when our cheese-makers have
learned to ripen their product with pure cultures of different spe-
cies of bacteria, instead of depending as they do now upon '^ wiW
species which get into the cheese by accident from the milk '

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF PORT ROYAL.

By Colonel A. B. ELLIS.

rpHE popular notion of the great catastrophe which overtook
-L the city of Port Royal, Jamaica, in the year 1692, is that the
earth yawned open, taking in the unfortunate city, as it were at
one gulp, and that the next minute the sea flowed several fathoms
deep over the spot where it had stood. Connected with this
notion is the belief, which has been sedulously inculcated by
several generations of religious writers, that the catastrophe
was a signal instance of divine wrath ; that, in fact, the city was
swallowed up on account of the desperate wickedness of its in-
habitants—the buccaneers and their associates. It is somewhat
strange that in this age of investigation and research no one
should have yet come forward to dispel some#f the illusions with
which ignorance and superstition have clothed this great dis-
aster ; for we may confidently affirm that the earth did not yawn
open and swallow up the town of Port Royal, which was de-
stroyed in a perfectly natural and comprehensible manner ; and to
those persons who profess to be exponents of divine motives we
may point out that Port Royal was not overwhelmed when it was
the resort of the buccaneers and the dissolute and profligate of
both sexes, but at least fifteen years after these gentry had been
expelled from Jamaica, and had removed their headquarters to
the French portion of Hispaniola.

The former city of Port Royal stood where the present town
now stands, at the western extremity of the long tongue of sand,
called " The Palisades," which incloses the harbor of Kingston on
the southern side. Its area in 1692 was much the same as it is
now ; for, except on the northern side, where the church buoy
marks the site of the submerged cathedral, the action of the tides
has in a great measure repaired the damage committed by the
earthquake. The accompanying map will enable the reader to
see its situation and surroundings at a glance.

The sand-spit, some nine miles in length, called " The Palisades,"
at the extremity of which Port Royal stands, owes its existence to

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF PORT ROYAL. 775

a number of small cays of ^olian formation, whicli, originally
detached, have now been joined together by ridges of sand. This
formation is still going on to the southward, and an outer line,
similar to the Palisades, is gradually being built up on the nu-
merous small detached cays which lie between East and bouth-

east Cays. 1 t. v ;i ^

When the Spaniards discovered Jamaica the present Palisades
were in much the same condition as the outer line is now-that is
to say, there was a line of detached cays, connected by banks of
loose, shifting sand, which were submerged at high water, with
here and there channels of sufdcient depth to admit of the passage
of small vessels. In 1635,
when Colonel Jackson,

KINGSTON

the English adventurer,
attacked and plundered
St. Jago de la Vega, the
capital of Jamaica, the
small cay of calcareous
rock, which ultimately
became the nucleus of
Port Royal, was sepa-
rated from the Palisades
by a channel sufficiently

deep for his ships to pass through. Twentyjears later when
Venables captured the island from the Spaniards, this channel
was closed by a narrow bank of sand barely rising above the
water, and those who had accompanied the former expedition
remarked upon the change which had taken place From that
date the sand seems to have accumulated rapidly, and before long
the Palisades became one continuous tongue of sand, extending
from the mainland of the island on the east to Port Royal Point

on the west. , -.i. ,-. . xv -u ^A

The Spaniards, during the century and a half that they held
Jamaica, never erected any buildings upon Cagua, or Punto de
Caguaya, as the cay at the western extremity of the Palisades
was termed by them.* Indeed, in their day the site was not at all
suitable, for during the prevalence of strong breezes the sand was
swept hither and thither by the sea, and a great portion of the
cay submerged. After, however, the cay had become .|oined to
the Palisades, and the sand ridge had risen two or three feet
above high water, Cagua, or Careening Point, as the English
called it, became a good position from which to defend the en-
trance of the harbor. The first work, which mounted twenty-one
small guns, but consisted merely of a stockade with a wall ot

* This name is supposed to be a corruption of caragua, the Indian name for the aloe.

776 THU POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

loose stones, was erected in 165G, and in 1G57 this was replaced
by a round tower of stone. The requirements of the small garri-
son gradually led to houses being built, and Governor Brayne
formed a naval and military depot. Thus by degrees a town
sprang up, which at first was limited to the rock area of the origi-
nal cay, but which gradualy overflowed those limits and spread
along the sand which had drifted up against the rock. In 1G60,
at the accession of Charles II, the royal commission confirming
in the office of Governor of Jamaica Colonel D'Oyley, who had
been appointed under the Commonwealth, was proclaimed at
Careening Point, and the town was named Port Royal, in com-
memoration of the event. In 1662 the stone tower, which had
been enlarged and added to, was similarly renamed, and hence-
forward was known as Fort Charles.

At about this time the buccaneers began to frequent Port
Royal, bringing there their prizes and plunder, and the prodi-
gality and excess of these gentry drew a number of dissolute
characters to the town. The buccaneers themselves formed no
inconsiderable number. Morgan, the English (or, rather, Welsh)
leader, had under his command , twenty-eight English vessels,
carrying one hundred and eighty guns and thirteen hundred and
twenty-six men, and eight French vessels with fifty -nine guns and
five hundred and twenty men, and there were several other inde-
pendent leaders. The wealth they brought into Port Royal
was enormous. After the sack of Puerto Velo, the successful
buccaneers returned to Jamaica and divided the spoil on Port
Royal beach. " Two hundred and fifty thousand pieces of eight
were divided among them, and plate, jewels, and rich effects were
piled up beneath the eaves of the houses for want of warehouse
room. This quickly changed hands, and after a few weeks of
riotous debauchery the buccaneers were again poor, and clamor-
ing to be led to sack another town. . . . Many of the inhabitants
of Port Royal were literally rolling in wealth. Their tables and
dinner services were of silver, and their horses were sometimes
shod with plates of the same metal, loosely nailed, so as to drop
off and show their contempt of riches. Vast wealth, intermingled
with the sound of arms and the riot of intemperance, filled the
streets.'^

Esquimeling, the historian of the buccaneers, who was bond-
servant to the notorious Morgan, has left us a strange picture of
Port Royal at that day. After narrating a successful exploit, he
continues : " All these prizes they carried into Jamaica, where they
safely arrived, and, according to their custom, wasted in a few
days in taverns and stews all they had gotten by giving them-
selves to all manner of debauchery, with strumpets and wine.
Such of these pirates are found who will spend two or three thou-

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF PORT ROYAL, j-jj

sand pieces of eight in one night, not leaving themselves, perad-
venture, a good shirt to wear on their backs in the morning. . . .
My own master would buy on like occasions a whole pipe of wine,
and, placing it in the streets, would force every one that passed by
to drink with him, threatening also to pistol them in case they
would not do it. At other times he would do the same with bar-
rels of ale or beer. And very often, with both his hands, he would
throw these liquors about the streets and wet the cloaths of such
as walked by, without regarding whether he spoiled their apparel
or not, were they men or women."

To Port Royal, consequently, flocked thousands of people, all
anxious to profit by the wild extravagance of the buccaneers, and
new houses sprang up until all the available space was covered.
Then rows of palisades were driven a few feet into the sand at
the water's edge, sand was brought from a distance and banked
up behind them, and houses built on the foundation thus made.
As the demand for greater space increased, such encroachments
became more common, until the greater portion of the town was
built upon made ground, which was merely kept in position by a
succession of rows of stakes or palisades, and which any severe
shock of earthquake would inevitably shake down. And this was
done, not on a flat beach shelving gradually through shallow into
deep water, but on the brink of a harbor so deep that the largest
ships of the day could lie close in shore, sometimes even with their
yards projecting over the roofs of the houses. It was simply
courting destruction.

However, we are anticipating, for the end was not yet. The
buccaneers continued to frequent Port Royal, in spite of orders
sent out by the British ministers to the Governor of Jamaica to
restrain their excesses, and the plunder of Maracaibo, Panama,
and scores of less important places was brought into the town.
The buccaneers were in fact the masters of the situation, for the
Jamaica government had no force with which it could compel
respect for its orders — that is to say, if it gave any orders, for
there are good reasons for supposing that everybody was disposed
to connive at a system by which everybody profited. At last,
however, the remonstrances of the court of Spain took effect : in
1672 all commissions and letters-of -marque that had been granted
to buccaneers were revoked, and Port Royal ceased to be their
chief resort, though for the next two or three years occasional
prizes were brought in by stealth. With the departure of the
buccaneers the town declined ; and when Sir Hans Sloane visited
it in 1687, although it contained some two thousand houses, the
population was only between three and four thousand. The bulk
of the inhabitants had no doubt followed the fortunes of the buc-
caneers, but the town was still the largest and most populous in

778 THE POPULAR SCIEN'CE MONTHLY.

Jamaica, all the otiiers, with the exception of Spanish Town, be-
ing mere hamlets.

Let us now take a general view of the town as it was a year or
two before the earthquake. In the center, approximately speak-
ing, built on the solid rock of the original cay, was Fort Charles
and about five streets of houses, while all around, but principally
to the north, and to the east, where the ship-channel had been
when Colonel Jackson visited the island, the greater part of the
houses were built upon ground that had been won from the sea,
and was retained in position by rows of palisades. These latter
were most numerous to the east, and that part of the town was
called the Palisadoes, whence we get the modern name "The
Palisades." Several batteries and other works had been built on
the brink of the water on land similarly won from the sea. Of
these the principal were Fort Rupert, a hexagonal work, defend-
ing the approach along the sand-spit from the east ; Fort James,
which mounted thirteen guns, and was situated at the northwest-
ern angle of the town ; Walker's Lines, which commanded the en-
trance to the harbor; and Morgan's Lines, which defended the
sea front. The ground-floors of the houses were, generally speak-
ing, of brick; the upper portions of wood. Four fifths of the
town was thus built upon sand, heaped up on the verge of deep
water, and it is marvelous how the inhabitants could have been
satisfied to live in so perilous a position, for earthquakes fre-
quently took place, and they had ample warning of what might
at any time occur. On October 20, 1687, a shock of earthquake
was felt which caused the bells in the church to ring and a tidal
wave to sweep along the streets nearest the harbor, while the
sand in other streets, sucked out by the waters beneath, fell away
into crater-like pits. Nobody, however, seems to have inquired
what would have been the result had the shock been of longer
duration.

The 7th of June, 1692, the day of the great earthquake, was
exceedingly hot ; not a cloud was in the sky, and not a breath of
air stirred. At about 11.40 a. m. a slight trembling of the earth
was felt, and this was shortly followed by a second shock, some-
what stronger than the first, and accompanied by a hollow rum-
bling noise like distant thunder. At this most of the people began
to run out of their houses, but a third shock at once supervened,
and in about a minute — for it is said to have lasted nearly a min-
ute— four fifths of the town was in ruins and the sea rolling over
it. The streets on the north side, on the brink of the harbor,
where the sand had been most steeply banked up, were the first
to fall, sinking at once into four or five fathoms of water ; next
fell the church and tower ; and then Morgan's Lines, on the south
side, on the verge of the sea, to which many had fled for safety.

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF PORT ROYAL. 779

suddenly disappeared, the sea rolling completely over the . place
where it had stood. Then the whole of that portion of the town
where the ship-channel had been sank at once into deep water,
while the houses nearer the central rock sank, some up to the
eaves, others up to the first floor, and others again one or two feet
only, according to the distance at which they were situated from
the water's edge. The shock of the earthquake, in fact, shook
down the artificially sustained bank of sand ; as the sand shook
down and spread out, the houses subsided, while the sea, rushing
in underneath as well as above, gushed up in spouts in the streets
and completed the ruin. Fort Charles and the houses that stood
on the rock foundation alone remained, and of these the greater
number were terribly shattered. About sixteen hundred persons
are said to have perished. The following sketches, showing
roughly a section of Port Royal, before and after the earthquake,
will help to explain what occurred.

Befokk.

Abteb.

The amount of damage done by an earthquake to buildings
depends very largely upon the nature of the foundations, for
the shock-waves of earthquakes travel at different rates of speed
through different substances. As a rule it may be said that the
more compact the substance the quicker the rate. Thus they
travel fastest through solid rock and slowest through loose sand.
The duration of the shock has everything to do with the amount of
damage ; consequently, in Port Royal, the sand gave way, and the
houses built on it collapsed, while those built on the rock, though
evidently shaken and thrown out of the perpendicular, remained
standing.

We are able to append the following curious map, which is
said to be an exact plan of Port Royal before the earthquake, and
which shows what remained afterward. It must be observed,
however, that the cathedral-church, which stood near the build-
ing known as King's House, is unaccountably omitted. The
original is to be found in the library of the Institute of Jamaica,
at Kingston. The dotted line shows the area of rock.

ySo

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A few descriptions of the earthquake by eye-witnesses are
still extant. "We take the two following, which may be of inter-
est, from the Philosophical Transactions, vols, xvii, xviii, 1694:

1. " This part of Port Royal which is now standing, is said to
stand upon a rock. ... It seems strange that the force of the
earthquake did not dissipate and dissolve the very foundation of
it, and that it did not fall to pieces and scatter under the water,
as the rest of the place did ; for the shock was so violent that it
threw people down on their knees, and sometimes on their face,
as they run along the street to provide for their safety ; and it
was a very difficult matter to keep one's legs. The ground heaved
and swelled like a rolling, swelling sea ('tis a strange comparison,
but everybody here using it, I venture to do so likewise), by which
means several houses now standing were shuffled and moved some

Ak Exact Plan of the Towk of Pobt Eoyal before the Earthquake in 1692 ; the past
within the dotted line being all that was left after the shock.

A, Fort James ; B, Fort Carlisle ; C, Fort Eupert ; D, Fort Charles : E, Walker's Lines ; F,
Morgan's Lines ; G, White's Lines ; H, Church Lines ; I, King's House ; K, School ; L,
New Dockyard ; M. Storehouse. 1, Thames Street ; 2, Queen's Street; 3, High Street ;
4, Broad Street ; 5, New Street ; 6, Cannon Street ; 7, York Street ; 8, Tower Street ; 9,
Church Street ; 10, Parade ; 11, Lime Street ; 12, Fisher's Street,

yards from their places. One whole street (a great many houses
whereof are now standing) is said to be twice as broad now as be-
fore the earthquake ; and in many places the ground would crackle
and open, and shut quick and fast : of which small openings I
have heard Major Kelly and. others say they have seen two or
three hundred at one time, in some whereof many people were
swallowed up ; some the earth caught by the middle and squeezed
to death ; the heads of others only appeared above ground ; some
were swallowed quite down, and cast up again by great quan-
tities of water; others went down and were never more seen.
These were the smallest openings ; others that were more large,
swallowed up great houses ; and out of some gapings would issue
whole rivers of water, spouted up a great height into the air.

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF PORT ROYAL. 781

which seemed to threaten a deluge to that part of Port Royal
which the earthquake seemed to favor, accompanied with ill
stenches and offensive smells. . . . The sky, which was before
clear and blue, was in a minute's time become dull and reddish,
looking (as I have heard it compared often) like a red-hot oven :
all these dreadful circumstances occurring at once, accompanied
all the while with prodigious loud noises from the mountains,
occasioned by their falling, etc. ; and also a hollow noise under-
ground, and people running from one place to another distracted
with fear, looking like so many ghosts, and more resembling the
dead than the living, made the whole so terrible, that people
thought the desolation of the whole frame of the world was at
hand. Indeed, 'tis enough to raise melancholy thoughts in a man
now, to see the chimneys and tops of some houses, and the masts
of ships and sloops, which partak'd of the same fate, appear above
water ; and when one first comes ashore, to see so many heaps of
ruins, many whereof by their largeness shew that once there had
stood a brave house ; to see so many houses shatter'd, some half
fallen down, the rest desolate and without inhabitants ; to see
where houses have been swallowed up, some appearing half above
ground, and of others the chimneys only ; but above all to stand
on the sea-shore, and to look over that part of the neck of land
which for above a quarter of a mile was quite swallowed up ;
there where once brave streets of stately houses stood^ appearing
now nothing but water, except here and there a chimney."

2. '" What you desire concerning our earthquake in Jamaica, I
will answer as near as I can to what I saw and heard ; Port Royal
being the place where I lived. I shall begin with what I met
with there. On Tuesday, the 7th of June, 1693, betwixt eleven
and twelve at noon, I being at a tavern, we felt the house shake,
and saw the bricks begin to rise in the floor, and at the same in-
stant heard one in the street cry, 'An earthquake ! ' Immediately
we run out of the house, where we saw all people with lifted-up
hands begging God's assistance. We continued running up the
street, whilst on either side of us, we saw the houses, some swal-
lowed up, others thrown on heaps ; the sand in the street rose like
waves of the sea, lifting up all persons that stood upon it, and
immediately dropping down into pits ; and at the same instant a
flood of water breaking in and rowling those poor souls over and
over ; some catching hold of beams and rafters of houses, others
were found in the sand that appeared when the water was drained
away, with their legs and arms out ; we beholding this dismal
sight. The small piece of ground whereon sixteen or eighteen of
us stood (praised be God) did not sink. As soon as the violent
shake was over, every man was desirous to know if any part of
his family were left alive. I endeavoured to go towards my house

782 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

■upon the ruins of the houses that were floating upon the water,
but could not ; at length I got a canoa, and row'd up the great
sea-side towards my house, where I saw several men and women
floating upon the wreck out to sea ; and as many of them as I
could I took into the boat, and still row'd on till I came to where
I thought my house had stood, but could not hear of neither my
wife nor family. But seeing all people endeavouring to get to the
Island, I went among them, in hopes I might hear of my wife, or
some part of my family, but could not. Next morning I went
from one ship to another, till at length it pleased God that I met
with my wife and two of my negroes. I then asked her how she
escaped. She told me, when she felt the house shake, she ran out
and call'd all within to do the same. She was no sooner out but
the sand lifted her up ; and her negro woman grasping about her,
they both dropped into the earth together ; and at the same in-
stant the water coming in, rowl'd them over and over, till at
length they catch'd hold of a beam, where they hung, till a boat
came from a Spanish vessel and took them up. The houses from
the Jews' street end to the breastwork were all shak'd down save
only eight or ten that remained from the balcony upwards above
water. And as soon as the violent earthquake was over, the water-
men and sailors did not stick to plunder those houses ; and in the
time of their plunder one or two of them fell upon their heads by
a second earthquake, where they were lost. . . . Several ships and
sloops were over-set and lost in the harbour. Amongst the rest the
Swan-Frigat that lay by the wharf to careen, by the violent mo-
tion of the sea and sinking of the w^harf, was forced over the tops
of many houses : and passing by that house where my Lord Puke
lived, part of it fell upon her, and beat in her round-house : she did
not over-set, but helpt some hundreds in saving their lives.''

The shocks of earthquake continued, but with decreasing vio-
lence, for a period of nearly three weeks, and the survivors of the
catastrophe at Port Royal fled to the plain of the Liguanea and
encamped where the city of Kingston now stands. Here they
were attacked by a pestilence, occasioned by exposure, scarcity of
food, and the effluvium from the corpses which were floating up
and down all over the harbor. Jamaica historians tell us that
this epidemic " slew thousands of the survivors," but as they have
limited the population of Port Royal to thirty-five hundred, and
sixteen hundred of these perished in the earthquake, there were
no thousands left to be slain. From a letter, dated Jamaica, Sep-
tember 20, 1G02, it appears that about five hundred died.

Other portions of the island were more sensibly affected by
the shock than was even Port Royal, and it is said that the eleva-
tion of the entire surface was considerably diminished. More
houses were left standing in Port Royal than in all the rest of

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF PORT ROYAL. 783

the island put together, for scarcely a planter's house or sugar-
works withstood the shock anywhere. • Not one house remained
standing in the village of Passage Fort, one only in the Liguanea,
and none in Spanish Town but a few low and substantial struct-
ures that had been built by the Spaniards. From the Saltpond
Hill, opposite Port Royal, water rushed out from some twenty or
thirty openings, twenty feet above the sea-level, and continued
running abundantly for two days. Vast land-slips stripped the
mountain-sides of their forest, and left bald and bare scarps sev-
eral miles in extent. Rivers were choked up and driven into new
channels, and the entire appearance of the Blue Mountain Range
was changed.

As far as Port Royal was concerned, the earthquake had re-
duced it to a cay of about the same dimensions as it presented in
1635 when Colonel Jackson visited Jamaica, and the work of fifty-
seven years had been undone in one or two minutes. Although
Port Royal is now again connected with the Palisades, the process
of silting up does not appear to have proceeded so rapidly after
the earthquake as it did before. In 1698 there was still a navi-
gable channel over the ruins, for on the 8th of November of that
year a committee of the House of Assembly reported : " That it is
necessary to have a close fort of about sixteen guns erected upon
the easternmost part of Port Royal, where the old church and
King's House stood, which will not only secure the passage which
the late dreadful earthquake made on that part of the town, but
very much annoy any ship that may break into the harbour."
As late as 1783 — that is, ninety-one years after the earthquake —
Port Royal is referred to in official documents as a " cay."

Sixty years ago the ruins of the submerged town were said to
have been plainly visible in calm weather, and at the present day
irregular masses of masonry can be discerned near the conical red
buoy which marks the spot where the church stood. The popular
belief, derived from the works of old authors, such as Martin's
British Colonies, was that incalculable wealth was to be found
among the ruins ; for, according to these writers, " the wharves
were laden with the richest merchandise, and the markets and
stores displayed the glittering spoils of Mexico and Peru," at the
time that the earthquake occurred. This, no doubt, was only
meant for fine writing, as we know very well that the wealth and
glory of Port Royal had departed some fifteen years before the
catastrophe ; but it served to inflame the public imagination, and
in 1861 an American diver requested aid from the Government
to explore the remains of the old city, offering to divide the treas-
ure he might find. One trial was allowed him. He stated, on
coming to the surface, that he had entered what was apparently
a blacksmith's shop, and that he had found the remains of a fort.

784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

presumably Fort Carlisle, but that he had been unable to enter it,
it being entirely overgrown with coral, which had imbedded the
guns in the embrasures as firmly as if they had been fixed in
solid masonry. It was probably at this time that one of the bells
of the old church, which is now in the Museum of the Jamaica
Institute, was recovered.

At Green Bay, opposite Port Royal, concealed in dense bush, is
the tomb of Lewis Galdy, a member of the Assembly of Port Royal,
who fell into one of the crater-like pits caused by the subsidence
of the sand, and was washed out again by the water gushing up
from beneath. The inscription, which is rapidly becoming illegi-
ble, is as follows : " Here lies the body of Lewis Galdy, Esquire,
who departed this life at Port Royal, the 22d of December, 1736,
aged eighty years. He was born at Montpellier, in France, but
left that country for his religion, and came to settle in this island ;
where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake in the year
1693 ; and, by the Providence of God, was, by another shock,
thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming, until
a boat took him up. He lived many years after in great reputation,
beloved by all who knew him, and much lamented at his death."

As we have said, owing to the action of the tides and currents,
the sand has again accumulated round the nucleus of rock at Port
Royal, which presents, physically, much the same appearance as
it did before the earthquake ; and, notwithstanding the lesson of
the past, the surface is again crowded with buildings. But what
has happened once may at any time happen again; shocks of
earthquake frequently occur in Jamaica, and it only requires one
of sufficient violence to bring upon the new town the fate which
overtook the old. Let us hope, however, that it will not occur.

Among the marked characteristics of the Melanesians, as described in Dr. R. H.
Codrington's book about them, is the universal prevalence of secret societies, like
the Duk-dnk of New Britain, the Matarabala of Florida Island, the Quatu of the
New Hebrides, and the Tamate of the Banks Islands, which celebrated certain
mysteries and peculiar dances, kept secret from the uninitiated and from women
and girls, but having nothing religious, obscene, or idolatrous about them. The
Banks Islands are considered by Dr. Codrington the cliief seat of these societies,
•which are there called " The Ghosts." All these Tamate associations have as their
particular badge a leaf or flower. The lodge or secret resort of the Tamate is the
salagoro, established in some secluded place, generally amid lofty trees, in the
neighborhood of every considerable village or group of villages. The whole place
is set apart, not sacred, by sufficient authority, and no woman or uninitiated per-
son would tliink of approaching it ; yet foreigners are admitted without difficulty.
These Tamate liave survived the introduction of Christianity. All belief in the
supernatural character of the associations has long since disappeared, but the
societies occupied so important a place in the social arrangements of the people
that they have held their ground as clubs.

RAPID TRANSIT. 785

RAPID TRANSIT.

LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. VI.
By CARKOLL D. WEIGHT, A. M.,

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR.

WE have seen that the population of cities is rapidly gaining
in proportion to the increase of population in the whole
country, and also that this growth in cities is largely suburban
in its character. The suburban growth is fed from without and
from within. As business is extended, and the room and area
formerly occupied by people are taken for great mercantile houses
and for manufacturing, the population of such areas is sent out
to the suburbs of necessity, while many seek suburban residences
as a matter of choice. From without the suburban population is
augmented by the rush to cities from the country. Owing to the
improvement in methods of agriculture, by which production
from the earth becomes in some sense a manufacture, a less num-
ber of persons is required for agricultural purposes than of old.
The question is often asked why, if population increases, there
is not an increasing necessity of supplying food products ; and if
there is such a necessity, why can great numbers be spared from
the rural districts to engage in the business undertakings of the
cities ? Improved methods of production offer an answer to this
question, the result being that the labor of the country not being
in so great demand, even to supply the vast increase required in
food products, seeks remunerative employment in centers of pop-
ulation. As the contraction of labor through invention goes on,
the expansion of labor through invention grows to a greater ex-
tent ; and it is probably true that through inventions, or through
great industries which have come into being in recent years, a
larger number of people are employed relatively than are deprived
of employment through improved methods. The great indus-
tries associated with electrics, railroad enterprises, the building
of new kinds of machinery, and the absorbing in various ways of
laborers in occupations not known until within a few years, ena-
bles manufacturing centers to furnish gainful work to those com-
ing from the country, where, relatively speaking, they are not
needed. These people take up their residence in the suburbs,
though they may find their occupations in the crowded areas of
the cities themselves. The question of rapid transit in cities,
therefore, becomes one not only of great interest in the study of
the movement of population at the present time, but one of prime
necessity for the consideration of municipal governments. It is
something more than a question of economics or of business con-
venience ; it is a social and an ethical question as well.

VOL. XL. — 53

786 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tlie bulletins of the census furnisli, to some extent, the sta-
tistics relating to rapid transit in cities, and of the relative econ-
omy of different motive powers used on street railways. These
bulletins have been prepared by Mr, Charles H. Cooley, special
agent for rapid transit facilities in cities, under the immediate
direction of that skillful statistician and economist, Mr. Henry C.
Adams, special agent for transportation, and from them we learn
the growth of rapid transit facilities during the ten years from
1880 to 1889, inclusive, in cities having over fifty thousand in-
habitants. The special experts have selected cities on a basis of
an estimate of population made at the time the compilation of the
tables was begun.

The full reports of the statistics of the equipment of all roads
furnishing rapid transit facilities, and of their operations for the
single fiscal year ending 1890, are being collected, and the census
authorities will present them in future exhibits.

Prof. Adams announces, and with truth, that street railways
have never before been brought within the scope of the census
statistics of transportation, and he points out the peculiar difficul-
ties which were met with in collecting the facts already presented.
Some of these difficulties arose from the ambiguity of designa-
tion, as " length of line," " length of single track," and " length of
double track," when applied to street railways ; and on account of
such ambiguities the attempt has been made to fix upon some
definite nomenclature by which careful returns can be secured.
The conclusion is, that " length of line " means length of road-
bed, or, in case of railways running entirely upon streets, the
length of street occupied ; that " length of single track " means
the length of that portion of the road-bed or street laid with one
track only ; and that " length of double track " means the length
of that portion of the road-bed or street laid with two tracks. In
determining the total length of tracks, switches and sidings have
been included, and thus double track has been reckoned as two
tracks.

On December 31, 1889, 476 cities and towns in the United
States possessed rapid transit facilities, the total number of rail-
ways in independent operation being 807. Many railroads, how-
ever (and the number is stated at 286, having a total length of
3,150-93 miles, and 13, having a total length of 13575 miles), have
as yet made no report ; while in six the returns received were so
imperfect that it was necessary to supplement them by approxi-
mations. This statement accounts for the bulletins not present-
ing statistics for a series of years for the whole number of rail-
roads in the country, and m cities have been selected for which
the reports are comparatively complete. Suburban lines tribu-
tary to large cities, but without their corporate limits, as well as

RAPID TRANSIT.

787

those actually within the cities, are included in the statement ;
as, for instance, where cities situated close together have a com-
mon street-railway system, it has not been thought best by the
experts to attempt a separation in the tables. Therefore, Pitts-
burg and Allegheny, in Pennsylvania, are treated as one city, as
are also Newark and Elizabeth, in New Jersey. The street-rail-
way lines comprehended in Boston traverse also Lynn, Cam-
bridge, and other suburban places.

The aggregate mileage of the fifty-six cities selected for each
year from 1880 to 1889, with the increase and percentage of in-
crease, is shown in the following table :

Total mileage.

Incebasb.

Tbab.

Miles.

Per cent.

1880

1,689-54
1,765-95
1,875-10
1,941-49
2,031-84
2,149-66
2,289-91
2,597-16
2,854-94
3,150-93

1881

76
109
66
90
117
140
307
257
295

41
15
39
35
82
26
25
78
99

4-62

1882

6-18

1883

3-54

1884

4-65

1885

5-80

1886

6-52

1887

1888

13-42
9-93

1889

10-37

Total

1,461

39

86-50

It is only fair to state that in order to make the foregoing
statement, the statistics of some of the cities have been re-enforced
by information from sources other than the census returns.

By the above table it will be seen that from 1,089*54, total mile-
age in the fifty-six cities selected in 1880, the growth has been to
3,150"93 miles in 1889. This is an increase of 1,461*39 miles, or
86'50 per cent. These figures show conclusively the rapidly in-
creasing wants of cities.

The five leading cities of the country have a mileage assigned
them as follows : Philadelphia, 283-47 ; Boston, 200*86 ; Chicago,
184*78 ; New York, 177*10 ; Brooklyn, 164*44. These are figures
for 1889, and they show the total length of line ; but the total
length of all tracks, including sidings, for the same cities, is as
follows : New York, 368*02 ; Chicago, 365*50 ; Boston, 329*47 ;
Brooklyn, 324*03 ; Philadelphia, 324*21. From these figures we
find that the position of Philadelphia in the last statement is re-
versed, and that New York steps from the fourth place in the five
cities named to the first place ; and this brings out a peculiarity of
the Philadelphia roads and, to some extent, the roads of Boston,
the tracks in these cities, to a large extent, occupying different
streets in going to and from a terminus instead of being laid upon
the same street.

788

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The motive power used on the total mileage given is divided
as follows :

Motive

POWEK.

Miles.

Per cent.

Animal power

2,351-10

260-36

255-87

61-79

221-81

74-62

Electricity

8-26

Cable

8-12

Steam (elevated roads)

1-96

Steam (surface roads) -

7-04

Total

3,150-93

100-00

The relative economy of cable, electric, and animal motive
power has been brought out by the census officers, but the super-
intendent remarks, in issuing the bulletins on this subject, that it
is still too early to form a final judgment regarding the value of
electric motive power for street railways ; yet he feels that the
statistics presented, being, as they are, a record of actual experi-
ence, throw considerable light upon the matter of economy. The
lack of uniform accounts of railways prevents the use of the data
already collected for the formation of a final judgment ; while,
again, the electric railways, being nearly all new, have not been
in operation a sufficient length of time to afi'ord final conclusions
as to economy of service ; and, as Prof. Adams points out, most
electric railways are the successors of roads operated by horses,
the horses being still retained on a part of the lines and the ex-
pense incurred for horse power being intermixed with that in-
curred for electric power. For these reasons a final judgment on
the figures given must not be reached ; yet the facts presented are
indicative of what may be expected.

The bulletin relating to the relative economy of different mo-
tive powers embraces fifty lines of street railway, ten of which
are operated by cable, ten by electricity, and thirty by animal
power ; and from the various tables presented, showing length,
steepest grade, number of cars, car mileage, number of passen-
gers carried, operating expenses, etc., a crystallized statement
(which statement, it should be remembered, is not a complete and
accurate one) is drawn, showing that the operating expense per
car mile of cable railways is 14-13 cents ; of electric railways, 13'21
cents ; and of animal power, IS'IG cents ; while the operating ex-
pense per passenger carried is, for cable railways, 3*22 cents ; for
electric railways, 3-82 cents ; and for railways operated by animal
power, 3'G7 cents. It will surprise many to learn that in opera-
tion both cable and electric railways show a greater econo-
my than railways operated by animal power ; but in the full
tables given in the bulletins it is noticeable that electric rail-
ways which have the least expense per car mile have the greatest
expense per passenger carried. So the statement of the ratio be-

RAPID TRANSIT. 789

tween passengers carried and car mileage becomes essential, and
from this it appears that electric railways show a less number of
passengers per car mile than either of the other classes, the num-
ber of passengers carried per car mile being, for cable railways,
4"38 ; for electric railways, 3*46 ; and for railways operated by ani-
mal power, 4'95. Thus the electric railways carry a less number
of passengers per car mile than either of those operated by cable
or by animal power. The assumption is made in the census report
that this variation is explained by the fact that electric roads,
being new, occupy lines over which the passenger traffic has been
but partly developed.

The expense per car mile and per passenger, the cost of road
and equipment, and the volume of passenger traffic are essential
for a full understanding of the financial side of the question.
From the statistics reported it is seen that the total cost of road
and equipment per mile of line (meaning thereby street length)
is, for cable railways, $350,324.40 ; for electric railways, $46,697.59 ;
and for railways operated by animal power, $71,387.38 ; and the
number of passengers carried per mile per year is, for cable rail-
ways, 1,355,965 ; for electric railways, 222,648 ; and for railways
operated by animal power, 596,563. From these figures it appears
to be true that cable railways attain their greatest efficiency
where an extremely heavy traffic is to be handled, and that elec-
tric railways and those operated by animal power are used where
the traffic is not so heavy, or is more generally diffused.

The operating expense per car mile is: For cable railways,
14'12 cents ; for electric railways, 13'2l cents ; for railways oper-
ated by animal power, 18'16 cents ; and the operating expense per
passenger carried is, for the different powers as named, respect-
ively, 3*22 cents, 3*82 cents, and 3*67 cents ; but, including interest
charge per car mile at assumed rate of six per cent, the sum of
operating expense and interest per car mile is : For cable railways,
20*91 cents ; for electric railways, 17*56 cents ; and for railways
operated by animal power, 21*71 cents. These charges, both act-
ual and estimated, show a somewhat greater expense for cable
roads per car mile than for electric roads ; but when the interest
charge is considered on the basis of passengers carried, and added
to the operating expense, the sum of operating expense and inter-
est per passenger is as follows : For cable railways, 4*77 cents ;
for electric railways, 5"08 cents ; for railways operated by animal
power, 4*39 cents, showing a less cost for operating expense and
interest charge per passenger for cable railways than for electric
railways. In the first instance, the greater charge for cable rail-
ways is on account of the much greater cost and equipment per
mile ; while the greater number of passengers carried by cable rail-
ways per mile reduces the ratio of expense on the passenger basis.

790 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It is to be hoped that the complete statistics relating to rapid
transit in cities will enable the public to determine, with reason-
able accuracy, the relative economy of the different powers used.
This is a question which is vital to the interests of city and subur-
ban communities, and which leads to the ethical consideration of
the problem of rapid transit. That power must eventually be
used by which passengers can be transported from their homes to
their places of business and return at the least possible expense,
and the greatest possible safety commensurate with high speed.

The necessity of living in sanitary localities, in moral and
well-regulated communities, where children can have all the ad-
vantages of church and school, of light and air, becomes more and
more evident as municipal governments undertake to solve the
problems that are pressing upon them. If it be desirable to dis-
tribute the population of congested districts through country dis-
tricts, means must be provided for safe, rapid, and cheap transit
to the country districts; or,- inversely, if it be desirable to build
up the suburban areas, the jjeople must be supplied with cheap
and convenient means of reaching the localities within which
they earn their living.

The reduction of fares, through improved means of rapid
transit, however desirable, is really a minor question. It is prob-
ably true that by a slight reduction from a five-cent fare the head
of a family engaged in mechanical labor, earning perhaps five
or six hundred dollars per annum, might save enough to pay
taxes, or to offset church and society assessments, or to furnish
his family with boots and shoes, in any event extending his power
'pro ianio for the elevation of his family; but he does more than
this when speed is taken into consideration. By the old methods
of transit from suburbs to the heart of a city a working-man going
into the city of Boston was practically obliged, while working
ten hours at his usual occupation, to spend an hour on the horse-
railway, when now, on one line, by the use of the electric car, he
can go to and return from his place of work in half that time,
thereby actually adding to his own time half an hour each day,
practically reducing his working time from eleven hours to ten
and a half hours without reduction of wages and without in-
creased expense for transportation. The question of raj^id transit,
therefore, as seen by this simple illustration, becomes an ethical
consideration ; for if there is anything to be gained by adding to
the time which men have at their disposal for their own purposes,
for intercourse with their families, for social improvement, for
everything for which leisure is supposed to be used, then the
question of rapid transit is one of far greater importance than
that of saving money either to the man who uses transportation
or to the company that secures dividends upon its stock. I be-

RAPID TRANSIT. 791

lieve, therefore, that all the efforts that are being made to secure
convenient and cheap rapid transit in great cities are those which
should bring to their support the help of all men who are seeking
the improveraient of the condition of the masses.

Business extension in cities is crowding the street area. This
area is precisely the same in old cities like Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, etc., for the present population and business opera-
tions that existed a century ago. The crowding of streets with
the transportation essential for the movement of goods increases
with great rapidity, but when the crowding is augmented, per-
haps doubled, by the presence of the means of transporting pas-
sengers, the difficulties involved are almost appalling. With
every increase of population the companies having in charge
transportation facilities must, in order to accommodate the pub-
lic, add more cars and more animals — if animals are the motive
power — and so rapidly add to the already crowded condition of
streets. This process is one which attacks the health and the
safety of the people. The presence of so many horses constantly
moving through the streets is a very serious matter. The vitia-
tion of the air by the presence of so many animals is alone a suffi-
cient reason for their removal, while the clogged condition of the
streets impedes business, whether carried on with teams or on
foot, and involves the safety of life and limb. It is a positive
necessity, therefore, from this point of view alone, that the prob-
lems connected with rapid transit should be speedily solved, and
this feature demands the efforts and the support of sanitarians.
With the removal of tracks from the surface, and with tunnels
built in such a manner as to be free from the dampness of the
old form of tunnel, as has been done in London, and to secure
light and air and be easy of access, all the unsanitary conditions
of street-railway traffic will be at once and forever removed ; and
if private capital can not be interested to a sufficient extent to
undertake such measures, then municipal governments must see
to it that the health of the community is not endangered by sur-
face traffic. When this question is allied to the ethical one, and
when one considers the advantages to be gained, first, through
securing rapid transit from the crowded portions of cities to the
suburbs, and, second, by removing rapid transit traffic from the
surface to underground viaducts, the importance of the whole
problem becomes clearly apparent, and not only the importance
of the problem but the necessity of its solution.

The statistics given by the census officers seem to indicate that
as a matter of economy the very best equipment can be used with-
out increasing the tax upon individual passengers. If under-
ground roads can be used without at first increasing such tax,
and still offer a reasonable compensation for capital invested, the

792 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gains to the people at large offer an inducement to capital, while
the many considerations of health and morals oft'er men who de-
sire to use their means for the benefit of their kind an opportunity
that has not existed in the past. From my knowledge of some of
the men who have been foremost in projecting lines of rapid tran-
sit, but who have been accused of doing it for entirely selfish
motives, I learn that public benevolence has influenced them to a
sufficient extent to induce them to take the great risks which are
apparently involved. I believe that could the real, underlying
patriotism of such men be known, and the confidence of the public
in their willingness to do work for the public benefit gained, the
solution of the rapid transit problem would be much easier.

Capital is securing less and less margin of profit through its
investments, whether in manufacturing or in other enterprises.
The capitalist is satisfied with a safe and sure return of from
three to five per cent, and the spirit of altruism, which seems to
be growing more and more rapidly among our millionaires, and
which is leading them to the establishment of great institutions
for public good, will lead them ultimately to such operations as
those essential to secure the best results of rapid transit. Private
capital, encouraged and protected by public sentiment and mu-
nicipal enactments, may be capable of solving this problem. If it
is not, then public sentiment, interested in the welfare of the peo-
ple at large, not only from an economic point of view, but from
sanitary and ethical considerations, will insist uj3on a public solu-
tion of the question. It is an important study, and the officers of
the eleventh census are entitled to great credit for their efforts to
bring out the partial results they have published, and, later, to
give to the country the full data relative to rapid transit in cities.

In a piiper on the Meteorological Results of the Challenger Expedition in rela-
tion to Physical Geography, Mr. Alexander Biichan expresses the conclusion that
the isobaric maps show in the clearest and most conclusive manner that the dis-
tribution of the pressure of the earth's atmosphere is determined by tlie geographi-
cal distribution of land and water, in their varying relation to the heat of tlie sun
through the months of the year ; and since the relative pressure determines the
direction and force of the prevniling winds, and these, in their turn, the temper-
ature, moisture, and rainfall, and in a very great degree the surface currents of
the ocean, it is evident that there is here a principle apidicable, not merely to the
present state of the earth, but also to different distributions of land and water in
past times. In truth, it is only by the aid of this principle that any rational at-
tempt, based on causes having a purely terrestrial origin, can be made toward the
explanation of those glacial and warm geological epochs through which tlie cli-
mates of northern countries have passed. Hence the geologist must familiarize
himself with the nature of these climatic changes, which necessarily result from
different distributions of land and water, especially those changes which influence
most powerfully the life of the globe.

ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 793

ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

By DA^'IEL SPILLANE.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE
COLUMBUS. XIV.

THE most profound and intellectual works of the great mas-
ters in the symphony and other forms of " instrumental "
music — as they are classified in musical nomenclature — are in-
terpreted through the orchestra, and through forms partly dra-
matic and vocal, such as opera and oratorio, in which the orches-
tra and various combinations of orchestral instruments play an
important and inseparable part. Orchestral music is also an in-
dispensable auxiliary to the proper representation of melodrama
and in other departments of dramatic art.

Within the past forty years, especially since the close of the
civil war, the progress of music in America has been most re-
markable. This is manifest to-day in the large number of fine
orchestras, musical societies and bodies throughout the country,
and in the intelligent and generous support given to representa-
tions of the best class of music. A great demand has in conse-
quence grown up for instruments for orchestral and band pur-
poses. Many of these — for instance, the harp, violin, flute, violon-
cello, and cornet — being also largely used for private amusement
at home and in small musical circles, their production gives em-
ployment to a large number of skilled workmen, and maintains a
comparatively new and expanding American industry.

Though bands do not serve the high artistic purposes of or-
chestras— some full military bands, such as Gilmore's, Cappa's,
and Sousa's, may be excepted — they fill an acknowledged place in
the domain of the art. Bands have been associated with popu-
lar demonstrations since the earliest times, though originally
in crude forms. In the illustrations of ancient Assyrian and
Egyptian sculptures, given in the February issue in relation to
the article on the piano-forte in this series, may be seen the pre-
cursors of modern band musicians marching in procession with
lyres, dulcimers, harps, double flutes, and pulsatile instruments
to commemorate some notable event, which indicates the fact
that the human instinct which finds its expression in the main-
tenance of bands at this date is as old as the most remote chap-
ter in the history of civilization. As compared with our instru-
ments of music, however, these products of the Assyrians, Egyp-
tians, and other nations of the far-away past were little more than
toys. This remark applies equally to the instruments in use
among the Greeks and Romans of a more recent period.

I fancy that Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers of those

VOL. XL. — 53*

794

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

times must have had a fashion of drawing largely upon their imagi-
nation, or else some elements of human nature must have changed
since then, for they all remarked the influence of music upon the
manners of a people. If the crude musical system they were ac-
quainted with, with its primitive instruments, was capable of such
effects as they claimed, an interesting proposition is suggested for
some student to elaborate — namely, are the people of the present
less sensitive and less open to the influence of music — though
having an incomparably superior system — than the ancients ?
This remains for some speculative and subtle mind to deter-
mine. Lyres, cithares, and incidental stringed instruments of that

order have meanwhile
become obsolete, while
the dulcimer has no place
in art. The harp has,
however, come down to
us through the centuries
in an enlarged and vastly
improved form as the
most honored and most
historic of all musical in-
struments. It is not so
important, indeed, as the
piano and parlor organ,
and consequently could
not have been treated in
our previous articles with
- consistency, although it
was a precursor, in its
primitive forms, of the
piano -forte and entitled
to mention.

Tlie harp in its present
form is capable of fine
artistic effects, and is in
most respects far different
from the rude instrujnent
of that species known in
remote centuries. There
are many kinds of harps produced, namely, the Welsh harp, which
contains three rows of strings ; the double harp, having two rows;
the single-action pedal instrument and the double-action pedal
harp, with one set— the latter being the most successful and
artistic instrument of all. In fact, the single- and double-ac-
tion pedal harps are generally used in musical circles to the ex
elusion of the two former.

Fig. 1. — Modern Docble-pedal Harp.

ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

795

Among the races identified with the improvement of this an-
cient instrument the Celts are entitled to first mention, the Irish
and Welsh being in particular associated with it in the pages of
history and romance. It still occupies a place in the festivals of
the hitter nation. Owing to the use of gut strings, the tones pro-
duced are more mellow and sympathetic than those of the piano,
but this one advantage can not compensate for the various other
disadvantages on its side as compared with the piano ; that is, for
popular use. What is not the case
with the piano, the performer must be
able to string and tune the harp. It
gets out of tune rapidly, while the
method of playing it calls for consid-
erable expertness in the performer,
owing to the absence of finger-keys
and other mechanical conditions fa-
miliar in the piano.

The harp only became worthy of a
place in the orchestra toward the end
of the last century, when Southwell, of
Dublin, and Erard, of Paris, invent-
ed the modern pedal -action system.
Hochbrucker and Volter, German
makers, made some notable changes in
its construction about 1730, but until
the invention of the system referred
to it was not acceptable to musicians
of culture.

The name of Erard ranks first in
Europe to-day, after the lapse of a
century, among harp-makers, but there
are several other manufacturers of
note in Berlin, Paris, and London, who
produce instruments of the first grade.
The pedal-action system of Erard en-
ables the performer to raise the pitch
of each string two semitones mechani-
cally, which facilitates execution and
effect to a wonderful degree. Harps
were made in this country ' as far
back as 1790. In that year Charles
Watts, of New York, exhibited in-
struments of his own construction, but they met with little de-
mand. For over a half-century harp-makers have existed here in
a few cities, but up to about fifteen years ago the instrument had
a very limited circle of ])atrons. Brown and Buckwell are the

Fio. 2. — VioLix, Amati Model.

796 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

most time-honored names of American harp manufacturers —
names best known to persons interested in this artistic branch.
Comparatively little in the way of radical inventions has been
introduced into the instrument since Southwell's and Erard's im-
provements were adopted, but a gradual development has taken
place, the present concert harp being capable of larger and more
extended tones and art possibilities than those instruments used
in past years. Many native artists, among whom Miss Maud
Morgan and Miss Inez Caruzi may be mentioned, have already
appeared in America, while in the leading conservatories through-
out the country j)rofessors of the harp are also engaged, and this
educational work is steadily widening the circle of its admirers
and patrons. James F. Buckwell, of New York, has introduced
some improvements in the instruments of his manufacture ; these
can not be very readily described, however. Lyon & Healy, of
Chicago, have also begun the manufacture of harps containing
many patented points of improvement. One of the chief points
of originality in the Lyon & Healy harps is the adjustment of
tlie pedal-rods. These work in solid metal bearings in the column,
and are a remarkable improvement over ordinary methods. In
these instruments many other original features in the action and
parts are also evidenced, and these permit the performer to make
the most perfect mechanical adjustment of the scales in the vari-
ous pedal positions ever made possible in the harp. A comparison
of American harps on the whole with foreign instruments will go
to show that they are equal in every respect, if not superior in
some details.

Orchestral and Band Instruments. — The violin and in-
struments of that order rule in the orchestra. Although bow
instruments somewhat similar were known long before Christ,
the violin of the familiar shape only came into use about the mid-
dle of the sixteenth century. One Baltazarini gave performances
to wondering listeners in England in 1577, which is the earliest
record known. The elder Amati began business in Cremona,
Italy, in 1 600, and is said to have founded that famous school.
The Stradivari and Guarneri families subsequently appeared and
bequeathed to the world instruments which are famous to-day.
Germany, which claims to have first produced the violin, is rep-
resented by the names of Klotz and Steiner, who flourished dur-
ing the same century. The violin became the leader in the orches-
tra, and still holds the foremost place there. The violoncello and
other larger forms of the instrument were evolved between the
middle of the sixteenth and the end of the seventeenth century,
but nearly all efi'ort has been concentrated on the violin, or " little
viol," from which the familiar title came.

Dr. F. W. Adams, of Montpelier, A^ermont, was perhaps the

ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. jgj

most noted of early American makers. He was in the field in
1820, The first makers of instruments of the violin family were
Benjamin Chrehore, of Milton, Mass., spoken of in connection
with pianoforte-making, also Clement Clans, of New York, who
came from London in 1790. Samuel Long, of Hanover, N. H.,
won considerable notoriety from 1812 to 1825 in that field; while
Abraham Prescott, of Concord, N. H., took the place of the latter
and became equally esteemed. Among the most famous were
Warren A. White, of Boston, and Calvin Baker, of Weymouth,
Mass., both more recent makers than Long and Prescott. Nearly
all the violins turned out by those domestic violin-makers men-
tioned went among amateurs and into unpretentious orchestral
circles. The professional musicians had always a preference for
old instruments, and these of necessity came from abroad.

But within the past thirty years American violins fully equal
to the best European instruments of modern times have been pro-
duced, some of which will be ranked with the finest examples of
the Cremona masters in future years. These have come from the
workshops of the Gemunders. George Gemunder is a native of

Fig. 3.— Improved Flfte, Boeiim Model.

Germany, where he was born in 1810, but he has lived here since
1847, almost a half-century, and is the only American violin-maker
that exhibited in the musical instrument department of the fa-
mous World's Fair in London in 1851. He learned the art of violin-
making from his father, and at nineteen became a pupil of Voil-
laume, in Paris, where he stayed four years. He began business
in Boston in 1847, and in 1851 removed to New York, where he
has since been located. August Gemunder is equally a renowned
maker, his instruments being in the hands of some of the leading
soloists. He was also born in Germany, but has been here since
early manhood. Lesser makers in various cities produce good
violins, while nearly all manufacture violcis, violoncellos, and
basses as well.

The modern transverse flute, passing over its precursors, was
invented in Germany in the seventeenth century ; hence the term
" German flute." It was first used by Handel in orchestral scores,
and speedily achieved a leading place, although up to recent
years a very imperfect instrument. In its present perfected state
it is very satisfactory, and capable of producing excellent artistic
effects. The piccolo, a smaller species, has also come into being,
and is employed in conjunction with the other in orchestras and
bands. The latter is capable of producing the sharpest and high-
est tones known in the compass of any instrument. The flageolet

798 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is the ancient form of the flute — with some differences — and is
also used very widely.

The flute was first made acceptable for artistic requirements
by Theobold Boehm about 1834. Not only did this celebrated
inventor contribute to the flute, but his system of key adjust-
ment, fingering, and tube-boring materially assisted the further
development of the clarionet and other wood wind-instruments.
He was anticipated in this country, however, in many points by
Edward Riley, one of the earliest American musical instrument
makers of the century. Boehm was a native of Munich, Ger-
many, where he had a shop devoted to the making of wood wind-
instruments. Captain Gordon, a Swiss military officer of Scotch
extraction, was the inventor of the Boehm system of fingering,
but Boehm applied it practically with modifications in 1835, and
thus earned the credit of being the inventor. He crossed to Lon-
don in that year and introduced his instruments to musicians,
meeting with great success. These were made with the cylindri-
cal instead of the conical bore and created much attention. Their
appearance led to a revolution in the methods of flute-making
practiced up to that period. Boehm took out no patent, hence
the general adoption of his method of boring and other particu-
lars soon after their introduction. His system of fingering in
itself, however, involved a radical departure which musicians
and students were loath to take iip at once, but it is now firmly
established.

Common flutes without keys were made in America before the
Revolution, but Riley was the first maker of standing to appear in
the field. He had a factory in Franklin Square, New York, as
early as 1810, where he produced wood wind-instruments of va-
rious kinds for orchestral and band purposes. The firm of Firth
& Hall came into existence about 1817, and was devoted to the

Fig. 4.— Clarionet, with Impkoved System of Fingering and Key Construction.

manufacture of wood wind-instruments and music-publishing.
Thaddeus B. Firth, of Maspeth, Long Island, a grandson of John
Firth, yet carries on flute-making as a special branch, in which
he has won some distinction. Flutes, flageolets, and piccolos of
excellent quality are manufactured by various makers in this
country at present, in connection with clarionets and other wood
wind-instruments.

The clarionet, which plays a most important part in the domain
of musical art, is a product of Germany, where it was invented in

ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

799

1690 by Deniier, of Nuremberg. It resembles the oboe in the
structure of the tube, but sound is produced in it by means of a
single instead of a double reed. Like all the instruments treated,
it was very imperfect up to thirty years ago. It occupies the
place of the orchestral violin in reed — ordinarily called military —
bands. Meanwhile, the clarionet was not an " invention " in the
exact sense, owing to the fact that it had a predecessor of the
oboe family known as the schalmey or ciialamean (from calamus,
a reed). J. C. Bach, son of the master, first introduced it to

Fio. 5. — The Bassoon, an Important Auxiliary in Orchestras and Military Bands.

notice in his opera of Orione, in 1760, and its general adoption
followed. It was given a leading place, in military bands in par-
ticular, as a treble instrument from the moment of its inception.
Within the past half-century larger forms of the instrument ap-
peared— alto, tenor, barytone, and bass — for military band pur-
poses, their artistic use being to soften the brasses and lend color
to the ensemble and to special effects.

Saxophones are a production of this cent-
ury, and indispensable in full reed or military
bands. They are played with a clarionet mouth-
piece, and resemble the clarionet, only that they
are made of brass instead of wood. Saxophones
are the invention of the celebrated Antoine
Sax, of sax-horn and musical-instrument fame.
While working in his father's shop, in Dinant,
Belgium — in which city he was born in 1814 —
he conceived the idea of their construction.
Settling in Paris in 1842, Sax won a leading
place as a maker of wood and brass wind-in-
struments. He secured a patent for his saxo-
phones in 1846, and in time introduced them
into the French military bands, other nations
acquiring them subsequently. They have been
improved largely since their production, and,
though not ranking high as solo instruments,
they enjoy an important place in large bands
as instruments essential to artistic aims in
ensemble.

We arrive now at brass instruments, such as the horn and
cornet, in which sound is produced by means of the lips vibrat-
ing in the moutli-piece. To readers acquainted with the common
bugle the principle will be easily apparent. The origin of the

Fig. 6. — Saxophone.

8oo

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

horn is lost in antiquity. It is the parent — in its native form
without pistons — of tlie numerous family of piston and slide in-
struments which have been evolved within the past century, and
it is one of the relics of the past, which has maintained a place
in the modern orchestra or military band through the addition
of valves. The instrument in question is known at present
as the French horn, to distinguish it from the sax-horn and the

Fig. 7. — Slide Trombone.

JIT

Fig. 8. — Valved Trombone.

English horn. When Beethoven first wrote for it in the orchestra
it was in its primitive state, the tones produced being those of the
harmonics of the open tube. These are doubtless familiar to most
readers who have heard military bugles. Intermediate tones were
produced by the insertion of the hand in the bell of the instru-
ment at first, which mufiled the tone and so rendered the efi^ect
uneven in timbre and not acceptable for solo purposes. The in-
troduction of pistons, about 1840, obviated the former drawbacks,
but its normal tone-character renders it useful merely as an acces-
sory, for it is too soft, subdued,
and lacking in individuality to
win a place as a solo instrument.
The slide trombone and trump-
et are equally ancient in their
primitive shape. The former yet
maintains a leading place. Be-
sides the harmonics of the open
tube referred to, intermediate
semitones, so as to complete the
range of the accepted octave, are
easily produced in the trombone by means of the slide, which
lengthens or decreases the tubing as required. Since valves were
invented, they have lieen applied to the latter, but the slide trom-
bone is yet jH'eferred, owing to the superior purity of its tones.

Fig. 9.

-Duty Bugle, the Precubsor of
THE Cornet.

ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

80 1

which, however, hardly compensates for defectiveness in phrasing
and other drawbacks.

Up to about 184U the keyed or " Kent bugle " held the place
now occupied by the cornet, although in being only since 1807.
That now obsolete instrument was the familiar duty or field
bugle, to which keys had been added so as to allow the pro-
duction of intermediate tones in addition to the harmonics indi-
cated.

Halliday, an Irish gentleman, who invented that instrument,
discovered by accident that, by boring holes in an old field bugle,
extra tones could be produced. EUard, a musical instrument
maker of Dublin, made him a model after some experiments, and
the latter having added further improvements, it was submitted
to the Duke of Kent, who introduced it into his band, whereupoa
it took the name of the " Kent bugle."

When the allied armies entered Paris after Waterloo, the
Grand Duke Constantine of Russia heard the bugle for the first
time. Through Distin— father of the modern family of that name
—then soloist in the Coldstream Guards band, he secured a copy,
and on returning to Russia had it adopted in all the imperial
bands. It had a short existence, however, for within a few years
the cornopean — as the cornet was at first named — succeeded it.
This was not merely an incidental
step beyond the Kent bugle, for it
resulted in the production of a
complete family of brass instru-
ments within a few years, name-
ly sax-horns, besides influencing
the French horn, trombone, and
trumpet, and art generally. It
appeared first in Russia, but its
invention was claimed by the
elder Sax, and by a Mr. Adams,
an American. The latter had no
patent and never proved his right
to the claim advanced, while the
representations of Sax stand equal-
ly discredited. The real author is
yet unknown. The chief features
of originality in the cornopean or cornet over the keyed bugle
consist in the use of three pistons, which, on being pressed singly,
or in combination, shut off, or add, certain lengths of tubing, so
as to raise or lower the pitch, these valves being perforated to
assist that end.

Antoine Sax, of Paris — the greatest inventor of the age in that
field — in addition to his feats in relation to the saxophone, took

VOL. XL. — 54

Fio. 10.— Soprano Cornet.

Fig. 11. — Cornet, showing Kotart Valve
System.

802

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tlie cornet in its crude state, regulated the tube lengths, cut away
rough angles in the air-passages of the valves, and made it more
acceptable for artistic needs. It became popular immediately,
the great Koenig and other artists appearing before 1850 to give
it notoriety. In 1846 Sax also introduced his sax-horns, from so-
prano to bass, which were adopted in all countries, with special
improvements and modifications. The brass bands of modern
character — called " cornet bands " in some parts of this country
— therefore became a possibility. In sax-horns and more recent
adaptations of these instruments, such as the circular basses and
euphonium, the same piston system prevails as in the cornet.

Bands were chiefly used for mili-
tary purposes up to about 1840, wlien
amateur and professional organiza-
tions for public celebrations appeared.

Fig. 12.— Tenor Sax-horit.

Fig. 13.— Bass Sax-horn.

■Previous to the appearance of the clarionet they were composed of
hautboys, sackbuts, trumpets, flutes, serpents, horns, and various
other olDSolete instruments, all of a crude character, besides drums,
cymbals, and pulsatile accessories. Yet the invention and adop-
tion of sax-horns in military bands gave rise to an entirely new
order of instrumentation in the abstract, but without disturbing
the clarionet from the position it has always occupied.

The manufacture of brass wind-instruments in America was be-

ORCHESTRAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 803

gun about 1835, but the few bands then in the country constituted
the market to be relied upon. American bands, and the spread of
the cornet and other brass instruments among private parties
which increased after the war period, helped to maintain a few
small manufactories devoted to the cheaper variety, until about the
great Centennial Exhibition year, when Henry Distin, son of John
Distin spoken of above, removed from England and began to
manufacture the justly celebrated " Distin " instruments in the
United States. The Distins had been previously in business in
London for a great many years, and had won a leading place in
that sphere. Henry Distin's arrival here practically established
that industry in this country.

A notable sign of the progress going forward in this art and
industrial channel is the town of Elkhart, Indiana, the mainstay of
which is a manufactory founded by C. G. Conn, devoted to mili-
tary band instruments of a high order, which are fast winning a
leading place. Mr. Conn established himself in business in 1883
upon an enlarged scale after being burned out ; he had been only
a few years in the field at the time. The Distin factory is situated
in Williamsport, Pa. Several other smaller makers of the cheaper
class of musical instruments are scattered throughout the country.

Fio. 14. — Modern Valved Trumpet.

In addition to the branch treated, Lyon & Healy, of Chicago,
Haynes & Co., of Boston, and Stratton & Co., of New York, main-
tain factories devoted to the production of guitars, mandolins, and
small instruments of that order, which give employment to a
large number of hands. These industries being of very recent
growth, it is impossible to give any comparative estimate of their
progress in the absence of the statistics for 1890, which has not
yet appeared. The table for 1880 would in itself be no guide, for
the above reason.

Meanwhile it is a source of satisfaction to know that such
activity prevails in relation to musical art in America as the
articles throughout indicate. It also shows that Americans, as
a people, are wonderfully versatile, and capable of establishing
industries which are maintained as specialties in countries abroad,
while capable of improving almost everything which they under-
take to manufacture. That has been distinctly shown in the
music industries at least.

8o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

VARIATIONS IN CLIMATE.

By W. H. LAERABEE.

SPECULATIONS concerning changes of climate have an in-
terest that never flags. It rarely happens in the succession
of seasons that two of an identical character come in succession ;
and any more than usually marked variation easily prompts the
fancy that some modification in the character of the climate is
impending.

The subject of climatology is a difficult one. The data for the
proper study of it have hardly begun to be collected. We are
embarrassed when we undertake to define climate and what
marks to accept as its characteristics. Hann and Humboldt de-
fine it as comprising the whole of the meteorological phenomena
characterizing the state of the atmosphere at any place, particu-
larly as they affect our organs or have an influence on animal or
vegetable life. The general character of the conditions can not
be determined by the observations of one year, for they are liable
to be contradicted by those of the next year ; nor by those of any
short term of years, for a similar reason. A period must be taken
long enough to furnish the data for composing a type ; and the
more the years vary, as between one another, the longer must the
period be. Many factors enter into the composition of a climate
and form complicated combinations, all of which must be unrav-
eled so as to give each factor its true force and position ; and then
the determination of their relative importance affords another
source of embarrassment. Temperature and moisture are ac-
cepted as the most important factors, and temperature as the
dominant one; and the climate is deduced by considering the
average mean temperature for a term of years. Equal yearly
averages do not, however, signify identical climate. A place
where the summer heat and the winter cold are extreme has not
the same climate as one where the range is relatively narrow,
though the yearly averages may be the same in both. Hence we
need separate determinations of summer and winter averages.
The combinations of conditions of temperature and moisture may
be endless, while the averages of either may be hardly disturbed.
These facts make it hard to compare climates even when they are
steady for long periods. In the capricious climates of our tem-
perate latitudes a just determination and comparison form a
baffling task.

Observations, more or less systematic, with instruments, have
been made of climatological features for about a hundred years,
but on a general co-operative plan they have been carried on
imperfectly for less than a third of that time, or about the period

VARIATIONS IN CLIMATE. 805

within which some observers suppose a round of meteorological
changes is accomplished for a single locality. Popular opinions
are founded most largely on hap-hazard recollections of vague
impressions that can not be depended upon ; and even if we had
accurate records in place of these, they could not be used to deter-
mine the trend of climate on account of the short time they cover.
It has hapj)ened more than once during that time that a series of
seasons of a peculiarly marked character has been followed ab-
ruptly by a series of opposite character, nullifying the conclusions
that may have been taking shape from the former series. The
speculations concerning a decrease of rainfall in the United States
in consequence of the removal of the forests have been disturbed
by the recent prevalence, in part of the disforested area, of a suc-
cession of seasons of heavy and continuous rains.

Cosmical revolutions and changes taking place on the surface of
the earth have been mentioned as causes by which climates may
be permanently modified, and have been brought in to account for
the changes which geology shows have taken place in the past.

Among the theories of cosmical causes, one, which supposes
the solar system to be carried through parts of space having dif-
ferent constitutions or different temperatures, may be dismissed
as being purely hypothetical. No fact has been adduced in sup-
port of it, and no valid reason has been presented for supposing
that there are differences in the parts of space. Other theories,
which refer climatic changes to astronomical cycles affecting the
earth's orbit and its position therein, have a more substantial
basis. They have been considered by sober authors and have a
hold on the minds of intelligent students; and the cycles have
a real existence and are capable of producing effects that can be
calculated. They comprise a secular variation in the obliquity of
the ecliptic ; the precession of the equinoxes, with the attendant
revolution of the apsides ; and an oscillation in the eccentricity
of the earth's orbit— all conforming to regular and well-defined
periods.

The variation in the obliquity of the ecliptic affects the dis-
tance to which the sun departs from the equinoctial at midsum-
mer and midwinter. Its action is to heighten or reduce the con-
trast between those seasons according as its measure is greater or
less. By precession the equinoctial points shift their places back-
ward along the ecliptic, accomplishing a revolution in 21,500
years. It entails the revolution of the apsides, which is equiva-
lent to a displacement in relation to the seasons of the points of the
earth's greatest and of its least distance from the sun. By the vari-
ation in the eccentricity of tlie earth's orbit these distances, called
the aphelion and perihelion distances, are lengthened and short-
ened, the difference between them is increased and diminished.

8o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and the quantity of heat received from the sun by the earth in
different parts of its orbit is supposed to be correspondingly modi-
fied. These differences are greatest when the eccentricity is
greatest. If with this is combined such a position of the equi-
noxes that summer in one hemisphere shall correspond with the
perihelion and winter with the aphelion, the contrast of the sea-
sons in that hemisphere will be most marked, and we shall have
the conditions, according to one theory, for a glacial period.

Such, according to M. Jean Reynaud, was the case in the
northern hemisphere about 9500 B. c, when, he thinks, our last
glacial period was at its height. From that time the differences
were gradually reduced till about 1250 a. d,, when they became
least, and the northern seasons were mildest and most equable.
The differences then began to enlarge again, and we are now ad-
vanced a little more than six hundred years toward another gla-
cial period. According to this theory, the seasons were growing
milder all through human history till 1250 A. D,, and have been
tending to become more severe since then.

A question of fact is here presented, evidence respecting which
is sought, in the absence of exact observations, in such records as
may happen to exist of the character of seasons in the j^ast. M.
Arago several years ago collected a considerable list of mentions
in the literature and documents of former times of periods of un-
usual cold, of long or cold winters, unusually hard freezing of
rivers, and remarkable heat, drought, or rain, which constitutes
our principal source of information on the subject. Parts of this
list have been used by M. Jules Peroche and M. Amad^e Guille-
min to establish opposite conclusions as to the validity of M. Rey-
naud's hypothesis.

Latin poets furnish some of these data, as when Ovid com-
plains of the inclemency of his place of exile on the Black Sea, in
what is now pleasant southern Russia ; or Horace and his com-
peers describe terrible storms in Rome; or Juvenal tells of a
Roman lady having to break the ice of the Tiber to wash her
face. Cicero and some of the historians speak of the severe cli-
mates of Gaul and other outlying provinces, evidently contrast-
ing them with the pleasures of life in Italy. The discomforts ex-
perienced by Hannibal in crossing the Alps were what an army
from the south would suffer in any age in crossing those mountains
in winter, if they were roadless and inhabited by barbarians. To
a candid critic, these representations mean nothing on one side or
the other, and such is the conclusion which M. Angot has reached
after carefully examining the subject.

Of fifty-six instances of extreme winter severity cited by M.
Peroche from M. Arago's list, fourteen occurred before the sup-
posed "Great Summer" year, 1250. There seem to be more of

VARIATIONS IX CLIMATU. 807

them as we approach the nineteenth century, but we have a right
to assume that that is because the records are fuller near our
times, not necessarily because extremes are growing more fre-
quent or marked. None of the instances, ancient or modern,
betoken greater severity than the frosts of 1234 — sixteen years
before the " Great Summer " year — when " the Po and Rhone were
frozen, and loaded wagons crossed the Adriatic on the ice opposite
Venice" ; 1236, when " the Danube was frozen to the bottom for
a considerable time " ; or 1305, fifty-five years after it, when " the
Rhone and all the rivers of France were frozen." With all the
greater completeness and systematic organization of modern ob-
servations, the records of the nineteenth century contain no men-
tion of such seasons as those of 1323, 1333, 1349, 1402, and 1407,
when the southern part of the Baltic was frozen so hard that men
could ride on horseback from Copenhagen to Lubeck and Dantsic.

These occasional winters of exceptional severity can not be
taken as typical of the general character of the seasons, any more
than we can characterize a winter by an extreme day in January,
or a summer by an unusually sultry July day winding up in a
thuuder-shower. A surer guide to the habitual climate would be
afi'orded by regarding the development of jjlant growth and the
maturing of crops. Of these the vine has been taken as a type.
It is said that, cultivated in the time of Julius CaBsar only in the
southern parts of Gaul, or France, it was gradually carried north-
ward to the fullest expansion in the thirteenth century, when
there were vineyards and wine was made as far north as Flanders
and England. Since then it has retired from the most northern
points it had reached, where the grape is now ripened under
glass. So the cultivation of the olive is said to be falling back
toward the south ; the sugar-cane has disappeared from Provence,
where it once grew ; less tender plants are taking the place of the
orange in some quarters ; and a depression of the zone of forest
vegetation is mentioned as taking place in the Alps and the Car-
pathians.

There are many other causes than climate, as the present
operations of agriculture and horticulture amply demonstrate, by
which the cultivation of a crop in any place is determined. It
may be found after some years of experiment to be unprofitable
or of poor quality there ; or may be supplanted by new and bet-
ter varieties growing in more favored localities, or superseded hj
the introduction of new and more profitable products, which the
cultivator is always ready to take up. Such causes have more
force now than they ever had before, because of the great in-
crease in the facilities for exchange under which it is no longer
necessary to cultivate anything except in the places where it will
do best. M. Angot has, moreover, found, by consulting the offi-

8o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cial records of the times of the opening of the vintages as far
back as to the fourteenth century, that there has been no real
change. The times have varied in the same places, in different
years or series of years, during all this period, as much as two
months, but there has been no regular variation, or any of a char-
acter to support the hypothesis of a constant, secular movement.

M. Arago undertook, about fifty years ago, to measure the
value of these cosmical influences on climate, and declared that
they were not competent to produce an effect within the period
of historical time worthy to be regarded. He found that the
present effect upon the surface of the cooling of the earth's in-
terior, which some were disposed to regard, could be comprised
within a thirtieth of a degree. Sir William Thomson makes it still
less, and limits it to one seventy-fifth of a degree. M. Arago saw
no reason for supposing there were differences of temperature in
the parts of space, while, if there were, they would affect all the
earth alike and not one hemisphere more than another. The
variation in the obliquity of the ecliptic, small in its total at the
most, could not cause a change of more than a quarter of a degree
in two thousand years.

M. Arago likewise depreciated the importance of the preces-
sion of the equinoxes and the variation in the eccentricity of the
earth's orbit as climatological factors, because, as he showed,
during a period of long eccentricity with summer at the peri-
helion, while the hemisphere may receive a more intense heat
during the summer part of the revolution the excess is balanced
by the season's being shorter; but the winter will under those
conditions be both colder and longer. Sir John Herschel and M.
Reynaud have answered him as to this point by saying that char-
acter IS given to the season, not by the absolute quantity of heat
received, but by its distribution ; not its mean temperature but
its maxima and mimima of temperature are to be considered, and
the greater or less rapidity of the ascent and descent of thermic
movements. A difference of four and a half times in eccentricity,
such as is possible, might work great changes in these properties ;
so that in the case considered by M. Arago " half the annual heat
would be concentrated into a summer of very short duration,
while the other half would be distributed through a long and
gloomy winter, made intolerable by the intensity of the cold, in-
creasing in proportion to the distance of the sun." M. Arago
thinks tliat it would take ten thousand years for variation in
eccentricity to effect a change of temperature in the earth meas-
urable by the thermometer. No evidence is produced that it has
had any effect within the historical period.

Thus, whatever may be the importance of these astronomical
causes in determining the climatic features of geological periods,

VARIATIONS IN CLIMATE. 809

it is usually agreed tliat they may be disregarded in accounting
for such clianges as may have taken place within man's memory.
Mr. James Croll, who has discussed this question with consider-
able fullness, and is inclined to allow them all the force they are
entitled to, ascribes less importance to their direct operation than
to the secondary effects they induce through their influence on
the currents of the ocean and air and upon features of the earth's
surface. M. Woeikoff allows them still less agency in the mat-
ter than Mr. Croll, and ascribes the greatest influence upon cli-
mate to the elevation and configuration of the land, as Mr. Lyell
did in the earlier days of geology ; and M. A. Blytt, of Chris-
tiania, has shown, by pertinent contemporaneous examples, how
climate in Scandinavia may be influenced by slight differences in
situation, soil, and exposure.

The whole subject has just been reviewed by Sir Robert S.
Ball, Astronomer Royal of Ireland, one of the most eminent living
mathematicians, in his book on The Cause of an Ice Age. Speak-
ing particularly of Glacial periods, he shows that changes in the
intensity of solar radiation, relatively unimjiortant to the sun,
may produce enormous climatic effects on the earth. By an exact
calculation he finds that, with the present obliquity of the ecliptic,
while the earth as a whole receives equal amounts of heat from
the sun during the two halves of the year, the distribution as to
a single hemisphere is extremely unequal — a fact which previous
writers seem to have overlooked — the exact distribution being
sixty-three per cent of the whole amount of heat during the sum-
mer and thirty-seven per cent during the winter half. When
the line of the equinoxes is perpendicular to the major axis of the
earth's orbit and the eccentricity is at its maximum — the condi-
tions establishing the greatest possible difference in the length of
the seasons — the sixty-three per cent of heat is distributed over a
very short and therefore intense summer, and the thirty-seven
per cent over a long and therefore cold winter. The northern
hemisphere, when placed in such a condition, will have a summer
of one hundred and sixty-six days, during which the sun is at its
least possible distance, and a winter of one hundred and ninety-
nine days, with the sun at its greatest possible distance. This
Prof. Ball regards as a condition favorable to glaciation. The
ice and snow will accumulate during the rigors of the long
winter, while the succeeding brief summer has not power enough
to thaw as much water as has been solidified in the winter, and
the ice will grow from year to year. All this time the southern
hemisphere would be enjoying a widely different condition. Its
summer would contain as great a number of days as it is possible
for that season to possess, while the fierce heat of the sun would
be abated from its average amount, because the sun would be at

8io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the greatest distance from the earth it is possible for it to attain.
The winter would be short and warm. The present difference in
the length of the seasons is seven days, and the position of the
perihelion is such that it is near its maximum for the present
eccentricity. The directions in which the precession of the equi-
noxes and the variation of the obliquity of the ecliptic are tend-
ing are for reduction of the inequality, and ice ages are not to be
expected from vicissitudes such as are now possible.

It is not denied that climates have been, and are, changing ;
but the changes are believed to be special, local, temporary, and
oscillatory, and most largely determined by causes that may be
found on the surface of the earth. M. Arago thought they
might all be attributed to agricultural works, to the clearing
of woods from plains and mountains, to the drying up of
marshes ; and he doubted if it could be proved that the cli-
mate had become warmer or colder in any place the physical
aspect of which had not been perceptibly changed during a series
of ages.

The present drift of the opinion of many careful students of
the subject seems to be that exaggerated ideas have been held
of the extent of climatic variations, both in the present and the
past. M. Woeikoif, whose opportunities for studying climato-
logical phenomena over a large extent of territory have not been
surpassed, believes that this is so, even when the application is
made to the Glacial period ; that not intense cold, but those con-
ditions of temperature and moisture most conducive to the pre-
cipitation and accumulation of snow, formed the chief factors of
its characteristic phenomena. Chief among these were proximity
of the sea and a temperature of the surface-water rather below
than above the freezing-point. The effect on glacial accumula-
tion of the conditions commonly supposed to correspond with the
combination of high eccentricity and an aphelion winter would,
in his opinion, be the opposite to what is attributed to it ; for the
greater cold assumed to j^revail in winter would not be conducive
to the precipitation of snow, while the more intense heat of mid-
summer would probably melt the snow at heights where the pres-
ent temperature rises but little above the melting-point. Hence
the conditions in the interior and eastern part of a continent like
Asia would be less favorable than they are now to marked glacia-
tion. The western parts of continents and islands would be more
fully under the influence of the sea; and as there is no reason to
suppose that its surface temperature would be lower than now,
it follows that there would not, all other things being equal, be
more snow than now in countries where rain is the rule, even in
winter. The effect of the combination would be in any case but
slight, and not by far, in M. Woeikoff's opinion, to be compared

VARIATIONS IJY CLIMATE. 8ii

to that of such geographical conditions as the distribution of
land and sea, and of mountains and lowlands.

The idea that glaciation was dependent on extreme cold has
been rejected by other students. J. de Charpentier recognized the
conditions as inconsistent. Lecoq, of Clermont, '*' affirmed a cor-
relation between a great solar heat, provoking a powerful evapo-
ration, and the formation of glaciers." Tyndall has shown that
the ice of the Alps " derives its origin from the heat of the sun,"
and that if that were diminished their source of supply would
be cut off. The thoughts of some other writers, as Le Blanc,
Forbes, and Charles Martins, have been turned to showing that
the depression of temperature, if there was any, need not have
been great.

Another group of writers, whose views have been summarized
by M. Millot,* of Nancy, hold that warmer climates than now pre-
vail were more favorable to glaciation, and gave character to the
Glacial period ; and that the present conditions of limited glaciation
are the result of the sun's cooling, whereby the supply of evapo-
rated moisture has fallen off. They claim that their theory fur-
nishes the simplest explanation of the presence of warmth-lov-
ing plants and animals along with evidences of ice-action. The
hot and the glaciated region were so close to one another that the
mixture easily took place.

Prof. G. F. Becker, of the United States Geological Survey, has
also expressed the opinion (Popular Science Monthly, February,
1884) that the Glacial period was one of higher mean temperature
at the sea-level than the present ; that while the formation of gla-
ciers may have been affected by all contemporaneous changes,
including secular revolutions, it is not necessary to have recourse
to such causes ; the question is chiefly one of differences between
the temperatures at the sea-level and those at the level where the
glacier was formed.

M. Blytt, studying the distribution of the Scandinavian fauna,
has found it subject to considerable local variations at short dis-
tance, which have relation to differences in conditions of exposure
and the character of the soil. He concludes that no great changes,
but only small variations in the extremes of temperature and
rainfall, are required to explain these departures. Such variations
may be produced, for his country, by fluctuations in the direction,
force, and temperature of ocean currents and winds that need in
no case be great ; but he believes that these variations are coinci-
dent with periodical changes of climate corresponding with secu-
lar incidents.

The considerable effects of exposure on local climates are

* Popular Science Monthly, August, 1885.

8i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

exemplified at the winter seaside resorts on tlie south coast of
England, where certain spots enjoying conditions of shelter from
cold winds, combined with exposures favoring the concentration
of the sun's rays and the warm winds upon them, enjoy a spring-
like mildness through much of the winter. Prof. W. Mattieu
Williams * speaks of Torbay, Torquay, Broadstairs, and Hastings
as possessing these characteristics. A considerable difference has
been noticed in the winter temperatures of places east and west of
a certain point on the coast, though all are nearly in the same
latitude.

Dr. D. Hart Merriam has described a succession of tempera-
ture zones in descending from the plateau level to the bottom of
the Colorado Canon equivalent to those stretching from the conif-
erous forests of northern Canada to the cactus plains of Mexico,
with marked variations of climatic conditions under apparently
very slight diversities of exposure.

A variation of only 5'3° Fahr. in the mean annual temperature
at Uskfield, England, is shown by Mr. C. Leeson Prince f to be
sufficient to exert an enormous influence on the general character
of the seasons, the produce of the soil, and the health of the pop-
ulation.

The fact of changes in climate being admitted, discussion turns
upon their extent, and the laws by which they are governed. In
many cases they are brought about by changes in local conditions,
of which the removal or replacement of forests, or the relations
of land and water, are among the most important. In other cases
a periodical law is supposed. The attempt has been made by
some meteorologists and astronomers to show that there is a con-
nection between such changes and an eleven-year period of abun-
dance and scarcity of sun-spots. It was believed by an observer
in Ceylon in 1872 J that that island was on the eve of an impor-
tant change of climate depending upon a cycle of thirty or thirty-
five years. The previous thirty years, he asserted, had shown a
complete contrast to the thirty years preceding them, with mani-
festly different effects on animal and vegetable life. It had been
a period of relatively lighter rainfall, and the next cycle of thirty
years was expected to be, above the average, wet. This theory of
changes by thirty or thirty-six years is often met in following the
discussions on this subject. A paper published recently in the Ar-
chives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles * deduced from a total
of twenty thousand years of observations, at about five hundred
stations, that the climates of all the continents, excepting only a
few maritime coast regions, were subject to simultaneous varia-

* Popular Science Monthly, March, 1886. J Nature, vol. v, p. 412.

f Nature, vol. xx, p. 419. * Ciel et Terre, January 16, 1889.

VARIATIONS IN CLIMATE. 813

tions, wliich became more and more pronounced toward the in-
terior regions. The years 1815, 1850, and 1881 came about the
middle of relatively wet periods, and 1830 and 18G0 of dry periods.
The mean period of the oscillations was deduced from records of
vintages, going back to the year 1400, to be thirty-six years. The
changes appeared to be dependent on certain relations of atmos-
pheric pressure, the wet jieriods being characterized by lesser dif-
ferences, and the dry periods by increased differences, in that
factor. The theory of a period of thirty-five or thirty-six years
is fully elaborated by Prof. E. Bruckner, of the University of
Basle, in his book Klimaschwankungen (Vienna and Olmutz,
1890). Approaching the question from nearly every conceivable
point of view — of temperature, precipitation, atmospheric press-
ure, the rise and fall and freezing and thawing of rivers, vintages
and harvests — he is led to the same conclusion in every case.
The period is nearly equivalent to three of the supposed eleven-
year sun-spot periods. Herr G. Hellman has counted thirty-four
seasons since 1755 when December and January in Berlin were
warmer than the average ; but the warm seasons came at irregu-
lar intervals, and did not suggest any law.

Dr. W. Koppen, of Hamburg, records, as the outcome of an
investigation which he made of the periodicity of weather-
changes, " that for certain intervals strongly marked periodical
influences make their appearance and then vanish entirely, at
times being replaced by others of a totally different character.
No law has, as yet, been discovered for these changes."

The presence of forests has not been shown to contribute di-
rectly to the increase of rainfall, nor their removal to diminish
it. Yet their influence on climate must be considerable. This is
confessed when the farmer on the prairies plants belts of trees
between his fields and the quarters from which cold winds and
destructive storms are expected. They stand like a wall to pro-
tect the localities they overhang against sudden extremes of tem-
perature and other accidents of violent weather. Although they
may not increase the amount of precipitation to a perceptible
extent, they, by means of their matted roots and the under-
growth which they promote, and by their beneficent shade, con-
vert the ground on which they stand into a kind of reservoir, and
husband the moisture which, without them, would run off or dry
up at once. Thus they contribute to prevent sudden floods in the
wet season, and, permitting a slow exudation of moisture into
the streams, to keep them lively and the rivers to which they are
tributary full during dry seasons. Many persons believe, too,
that they diffuse a coolness and vaporous moisture in the atmos-
phere, the presence and influence of which, although they are
not manifested in rain, are nevertheless real. Whether they may

8 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not exert an influence on tlie distribution of rain through the
seasons, as tliey certainly do on that of ground moisture, does not
appear to have been yet adequately investigated.

In connection with the influence upon climate of the relations
of land and water, the speculations respecting the probable effect
upon the climate of Europe of flooding the Desert of Sahara de-
serve to be noticed. It has usually been taken for granted that
a cooler condition would follow. But Prof. Hennessey argued
several years ago that, as vapor, rather than dry air, is the chief
vehicle of wind-borne heat, the result would be the opposite of
this. While the midday heats of the desert are intense, the
nights are cold. Hence a uniformly warm breeze can not come
from there. The warm southwest winds of central and southern
Europe have been found to be connected with the currents of the
Atlantic, and not to come from the desert. The substitution of
water for barren sands and rocks would be followed by the stor-
ing up of the heat of the sun which is now jjartly dissipated
by radiation at night, and would furnish a source of constant
warmth.

BAD AIR AND BAD HEALTH.

By HAEOLD wager and AUBEEON HEKBEET.

THE purpose of this paper is to utter a warning against the
careless way in which the great mass of people, poor and
rich, ignorant and learned, allow the air of their living-rooms to
be in an impure condition, and to point out the great sacrifice of
energy and health which results from this carelessness. We shall
try to show that there is strong ground for believing that not
only a large part of the ever-increasing trouble of bronchial and
lung affections, but also a very large part of that vague and subtle
ill-health which troubles our modern lives in varying forms, is to
be placed to the account of the impure air which we so habitually
breathe.

As we wish to make the paper plain to every one, we shall oc-
casionally go back to the A B C of certain matters involved. The
air which we breathe is made up of two gases, one active, one in-
different. The active gas, oxygen, on which life depends, is in
the proportion of about one fifth (twenty-one per cent) of the
whole ; the indifferent gas, nitrogen, which tempers and dilutes
its active partner, is in the proportion of four fifths (seventy-nine
per cent), and with these two gases is found a small quantity —
varying according to the purity of the air — of carbonic acid,
about three to four parts in 10,000 parts, or 0-04 per cent, and in
addition a minute quantity of a peculiarly active form of oxygen.

BAD AIR AND BAD HEALTH. 815

called ozone, which is rarely found in the air of towns. Of this
gas-mixture (which we call air) we breathe enormous quantities.
Of it we breathe in the twenty-four hours, according to Prof. M.
Foster, over 2,600 gallons, that is about 425 cubic feet; and as
it returns from our lungs the proportions of the mixture are
changed, the oxygen being reduced, and the carbonic acid in-
creased.* But in all ordinary cases the quantity of oxygen in a
room in which people are meeting is only slightly decreased, while
the increase of the carbonic acid is not sufficient to cause bad
effects. How, then, arises the mischief ?

The truth is that, in taking air into the lungs and breathing it
out again, we breathe out with it certain organic poisons. About
the existence and presence of these poisons there can be no doubt,
though very little is known about their nature. Of them Dr.
Foster writes (page 552) that they may be formed in the lungs, or
may be products of putrefactive decomposition allied to a class of
poisons known as ptomaines, which are found in the system. Dr.
A. Ransome (Health Lectures, 1875-76, page 160) says :

The aqueous vapor arising from the breath, and from the general surface of
the body, contains a minute proportion of animal refuse matter, which has been
proved, by actual experiment, to be a deadly poison. ... It is this substance that
gives the peculiar, close, unpleasant smell which is perceived on leaving the fresh
air and entering a confined space occupied by human beings or other animals, . . .
and air thus charged has been fully proved to be the great cause of scrofulous or
tubercular diseases, and it is the home and nourisher of those subtle microscopic
forms of life that have lately become so well known under the title of germs of
disease, or microzyms. It is probably the source of a large part of that increase
of mortality that seems inevitably to follow the crowding together of the inhabit-
ants of towns.

Galton says (Our Homes, page 497) : " This organic matter
(given off from the lungs), on an average, may be estimated at
thirty or forty grains a day for each adult " ; f and both Dr. Car-
penter and Sir Douglas Galton notice that if breath be passed
through water (and then kept in a closed vessel at a high tempera-
ture), putrefaction is set up, and a very offensive smell is given off. J

* It must be remembered that the act of breathing consists in bringing the blood of
the system in contact with air, through a delicate membrane in the lungs. Here an ex-
change takes place — oxygen being yielded up from the air to the blood, and carbonic acid
from the blood to the air.

f We do not know on what exact grounds this calculation rests.

X Foster (p. 552) states that " when the expired air is condensed . . . the aqueous
product is found to contain organic matter, which, from the presence of micro-organisms,
... is very apt rapidly to putrefy." L. P. writes : " If a globe be filled with ice and
taken into a close, badly ventilated room, the dew which forms outside is found to be con-
taminated with these organic impurities." L. T. writes: ''It is more than likely that it is
this animal poison which is the direct cause of typhus fever as that follows overcrowding
with mathematical precision."

8i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Now let us take the case of a person who sits in a closely shut
up room, ten feet high, ten feet broad, and fifteen feet long, for
five hours.* At the end of that time he is breathing air which
contains 1*2 i^er cent less oxygen than it ought to contain, but,
what is far more serious, he is breathing some air which has
already passed through his lungs, and which is charged with this
special poison. Here is the great secret of the fatal mischief.
Nature has got rid of the poison, thrown it out of the system,
but the perverse occupant of the room insists on thwarting Na-
ture, and, by means of his closed doors and windows, breathes in
again, it may be a second time or a third time, the poison that has
once been safely got rid of. Say that in twenty-four hours 500
cubic feet have passed once through the lungs, then in six hours
our friend will have vitiated one quarter of that quantity, or 125
cubic feet — i. e., one twelfth of the whole air in the room (1,500
cubic feet). If he still goes on sitting in his study, at the end of
nine hours he will have vitiated 187*5 cubic feet, or one eighth of
the whole ; or, if he has been unfortunate enough to have a friend
sitting with him, then in six hours they will have tainted one
sixth of the air ; and of every mouthful of air they breathe after
that time, one sixth of it must be supposed to be charged with
poisons that have been already once got rid of, but are now being
retaken into the system. Of course, this proportion of one sixth
will not remain constant. Each breath expired will make the
matter worse.

A few words seem necessary here for those who have never
followed the changes going on in the body. We know that we
are constantly building up new tissue of difl'erent kinds, and that
this building up makes it necessary that the old tissue should be
got rid of. The larger part of our food measures this change
which is going on. If we take our daily food, liquid and solid,
for twenty-four hours, as weighing about five pounds eight ounces
(Hermann, page 233)— a large proportion being water— we may
look upon about five pounds three ounces of this quantity as used
for the making of new tissue, the other five ounces forming what
is spoken of as exhausted ferments, and which, passing along the
alimentary canal, is eventually rejected. Now, all the suitable
part of the food, after undergoing various changes, which are
necessary to prepare it for its passage from dead food into living
tissue, finds its way into the blood ; and when by means of the
larger blood-vessels it reaches the very minute blood-vessels,
called capillaries, it pours a part of itself out through the per-

* A considerable quantity of air, however, is always entering through window frames,
under doors, even through brick walls. On the other hand, we have made no allowance
either for space occupied by furniture or for the (probably) tainted condition of the

BAD AIR AND BAD HEALTH. 817

meable walls of these minute vessels, batliing and feeding the
whole surrounding tissue. Thus, as somebody has said, the whole
of the new and living body is in solution in this wonderful food-
stream of the blood, which, by a very subtle mechanism of nerves,
distributes its good gifts in proportion to the needs of each sepa-
rate part. But the blood is not simply a food-stream, it is also a
sewage-stream, and it is as such that we are specially interested
in it. Where no growth or storing of flesh material of any kind
is taking place in the system, it is evident that that part of the
daily food which is turned into tissue measures not only the daily
construction that is taking place within us, but also the daily de-
struction or waste. In fact we — if we may so speak of the parti-
cles of which we are composed — are forever living and dying
within ourselves — making a new self, and getting rid of an old
self ; and just as the new living body is in solution in the blood,
so also is the old dead body, that has done its work and has to be
got rid of. Now, of this dead body a large part has to escape
through our lungs and through our skin.

About this process of waste very little is known. "We know,
while certain temporary forms of waste are found in muscle, such
as kreatin (Gr. Tcreas, flesh), which, whether again made use of
or not (M. Foster, page 154), is supposed to be eventually changed
in some complex manner into urea in the liver (M. Foster, page
755), and an acid called sarcolactic (Gr. sarx, flesh ; gala, milk),
which is also supposed to be decomposed in the liver into car-
bonic acid and water (M. Foster, page 836), that all our dead tis-
sue is, with a certain slight but most important exception, got rid
of safely at last, as urea, carbonic acid, and water.* These are
the final forms which the waste that passes from the tissue into
the blood takes — the urea being separated from the blood and got
rid of by the kidneys, the carbonic acid both by the skin and the
lungs, and the water by all three channels of separation. f

But we said that urea, carbonic acid, and water did not ac-
count for quite all the waste tissue ; and among the part not so
accounted for are the very hurtful poisons which escape from
lungs and skin. What are these poisons ? Have they a connec-
tion with or a resemblance to the poisons which, as we know, ex-
ist at all times within the system on a large scale. Dead or waste
tissue probably passes through many forms before it reaches the
safe final forms of carbonic acid and water, and we must conclude

* We are not taking into account certain other substances discharged from the skin
in small quantities.

\ " The natural waste of the body appears in two simple forms of carbonic acid — the
gaseous form having the chemical formula C0,0, while that which is got rid of in solution
is urea, that is, C0,(NH2)', in which the second atom of oxygen in the carbonic acid is re-
placed by a nitrogenous body termed amidogen." — (L. P.)
VOL. XL. — 55

8i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that some of these forms are highly poisonous. We see this hy
what happens to a man when he is drowned. A drowned man is in
reality a poisoned man. The waste which is going on everywhere
and at every moment in his tissues is producing a poison of so
deadly a character that when it can not be oxidized by receiving
oxygen from the blood (as it does under ordinary circumstances
by means of the two gallons (nearly) of air he breathes in a min-
ute) death ensues in a few minutes. In this case the poison pro-
duced all over the system has been no longer rendered harmless
by oxygen, and goes as poison to the brain. Now, this poisoning
does not appear to be primarily or necessarily due to an excess of
carbonic acid, which also accumulates in the blood when a man
is drowned. As Dr. Foster shows, even where carbonic acid is
got rid of and no oxygen available the same result follows. Thus
we have a pretty clear indication that the poisoning which re-
sults is the non-oxidization of certain active poisons. Other indi-
cations point to the same conclusion. When a man faints from
loss of blood he probably faints because the diminished stream
of blood does not carry a sufficient quantity of oxygen with it to
neutralize the poisons which reach the brain.* It is also notice-
able that in both these cases convulsions occur — that is, oxygen
being denied, the poisons (which retain all their virulence, from
being non-oxidized) act as a very powerful stimulant on a part of
the nervous center, which, in turn acting through the nerves,
throws one set of muscles after another (connected with the re-
spiratory system) into action, in order to obtain the oxygen that is
absent ; ending at last in that general violent movement which is
called convulsions. After a short time the poisons overpower the
nerve-centers and death ensues, f

Both fevers and violent exercise seem also to illustrate the
same thing. In fever the tissue rapidly wastes, and great quan-
tities of waste poison are poured into the blood. These poisons
affect the nerves, and are the cause of quickened respiration, and
often of quickened circulation, % which are necessary in order to

* One of the writers was informed by a friend in Africa that he was present when a
man cut himself badly with a bill-hook and was carried into a cabin. Each time the door
was closed the roan fainted ; each time the door was thrown open he came back to his
senses, indicating pretty clearly that the supply of oxygen, which was unduly diminished
by the loss of blood, was increased when the door was open, and was just sufficient to neu-
tralize the effect of the waste poisons and prevent unconsciousness.

•)• It Is interesting to remark here that this reaction of the nerve-center under the
effect of the poison seems to be of that " protective character " which occurs so often, and
to which Prof. Foster more than once has referred — that is to say, that it produces a vio-
lent movement of the muscles in the effort to obtain air, which can alone neutralize the
mischief.

\ In certain cases, however, the heart and circulation are slowed, not quickened. This
is the case, Dr. Foster says, in drowning after a slight quickening has taken place. May

BAD AIR AND BAD HEALTH. 819

get the excess of poison oxidized ; when, therefore, unconscious-
ness supervenes, we may say pretty confidently that the rapid
circulation and the rapid breathing have not been sufficient to
oxidize and neutralize the mass of poison which is being carried
to the brain.* So, again, in pneumonia the quickened breathing
shows both the effort of Nature to make up for the loss of that
part of the lung which is ineffective, and also the stimulus which
the increased waste poison in the blood (increased owing to di-
minished lung capacity, and therefore diminished oxygen) exerts
upon the respiratory machinery. So, again, when less blood is
carried to the lungs, owing to the artery which leads from the
heart to the lungs being partially blocked with a clot, the same
effect is produced. Probably a somewhat similar condition arises
after hard work, either in old age or in a feeble state of health.
The tissue, not being in the firm condition of the tissue of a vig-
orous person accustomed to daily work, breaks down in large
quantities, while at the same time the circulatory and respiratory
machineries are no longer at their best, and therefore the oxida-
tion is imperfect. On the next day the infirm man is poisoned
by the unusual quantity of waste in the system, and feels discohi-
fort in many parts of his body or limbs. So, also, the discomfort
acutely felt by some persons during east winds probably arises
from the poison that ought to have been got rid of by the skin,
but, owing to the closing of the pores, has been thrown back into
the system. So also with ordinary violent exercise. When we
take violent exercise an unusual quantity of waste is thrown into
the blood, requiring an unusual quantity of oxidation. Here also
the waste stimulates the nerve-centers, increasing action of heart,
and of respiratory muscles, so that the blood charged with waste
and the air may come into quicker contact. The successful ath-

this not be explained by the supposition that, where oxygen is altogether denied, an in-
crease in the rapidity of the circulation would carry the poison quicker to the brain, and
therefore hasten the end ? A different effect seems to occur in the case of vitiated air.
In this case Miiller asserts (as quoted by Mr. Angell, Manchester Health Lectures, p. 33,
IS'ZO-'SO) that the circulation is slowed. Is this — if correctly stated — a consequence of
the depressing action of these peculiar poisons, which escape with the breath, and are re-
breathed in vitiated air ? The case of flies which died in foul air with unexhausted tissue,
alluded to later on, and some other evidence, seem to point in this direction. In exercise,
on the other hand, the effect is, as one would expect, different : both respiration and cir-
culation are quickened in order to increase the supply of oxygen required to meet the
large increase of waste; thus it would appear as if the ordinary waste poisons stimulated,
while the special poisons of vitiated air depressed. The whole subject calls for very care-
ful consideration. A friend remarks that Dr. Burdon Sanderson, of Oxford, has long been
and Is working out these questions.

* This indicates very clearly that the purest and freshest air should flow through the
room of a person suffering from fever. It would be almost as necessary to him as to the
person suffering from loss of blood. Such treatment is confirmed by experience (see case
of Austrian army, further on).

820 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lete is, therefore, first the good oxidizer (see M. Foster, page 628),
the person who has good lung capacity, and especially a powerful
heart to drive the blood swiftly ; and, secondly, the person who
trains well, whose tissue is healthy and firm and does not break
down rapidly into waste — waste in his case not outstripping the
powers of oxidation, and thus causing distress. On the other
hand, the untrained man, who breaks down in the race with every
symptom of distress, is the poisoned man — the man who formed
waste quicker than he could oxidize it.*

Reviewing, then, what we have said, we seem to see three
things : first, that so long as we have a sufficiency of oxygen, we
get rid of a large amount of daily waste in safe and harmless
forms ; secondly, that when oxygen is withheld from us there are
poisons in every part of our tissue of so deadly a character (either
abnormally formed because oxygen is absent, or under ordinary
circumstances neutralized by the supplies of oxygen present) as
to take life in a few minutes ; thirdly, that even when all is well,
and our system is functioning under healthy conditions, we are
still always breathing out from ourselves, through lung and
through skin, certain dangerous poisons, which poisons, when we
are living in bad air, we perpetually reabsorb into ourselves, to
our own great hurt.

Nothing, however, that we have said satisfactorily explains the
presence of these poisons which escape from the lungs and the
skin. It seems hard to explain why, when Nature so successfully

* In such a case it may be asked, Why are not the waste poisons passing into the
blood from the tissues safely got rid of in the form of carbonic acid and water when the
blood reaches the lungs ? It seems difficult to escape from the conclusion (see Foster, p.
603) that these unoxidized waste products may, on occasion, pass the lungs without being
got rid of. In the case of violent exercise, it would seem that the quickened heart and
quickened breathing must come from the action of waste poisons, which, passing the lungs,
reach the medulla and stimulate the nerve-centers, there not having been time, owing to
the excessive quantity of waste produced, to reduce all the waste to the safe final prod-
ucts of water and carbonic acid, and therefore some part of the waste in an unoxidized
state being carried past the lungs on to the nerve-centers. As regards the poisons we re-
breathe from the air, it is, of course, rather a surprising thing, if they entered the circu-
lation, that they should not be oxidized in the blood when we think of how they must be
surrounded by the oxygen that the blood has received from the air. But active as oxygen
is— in its " nascent " state, just released from haemoglobin— in the tissues after leaving the
blood, there are reasons for thinking that this activity does not exist in the blood itself.
Thus we are told that pyrogallic acid, which is an easily oxidizable substance, may pass
through the blood without undergoing any change ; and fresh blood, as we are told, has
little oxidizing effect. This strange powerlessness of the oxygen in the blood increases
the danger of these waste poisons. If they were oxidized in the blood we should be able
probably to got rid of them quite harmlessly, as they would not be in the condition of
poisons when they escaped from lungs and skin ; but we may feel sure that there is some
good reason why this can not take place. When they are once carried to the tissues, ex-
cept in the case of persons taking plenty of exercise and leading a healthy life, there may
be no superabundance of oxygen, but rather a deficiency, for all the work to be done.

BAD AIR AND BAD HEALTH. 821

breaks down the great mass of waste into harmless products,
there should be this comparatively slight residue left over — re-
minding one of a lawless fraction of people in an orderly state —
which can not be got rid of on the same easy terms. As we have
seen, we have about five pounds three ounces of daily waste that
is safely got rid of as urea, carbonic acid, and water, by means of
kidneys, skin, and lungs ; but accompanying this safe discharge
we have a few grains of poison — a sort of surplus of evil — which
in some way or other seems to resist the oxidation to which all the
other mass of waste has been subject. What, then, is this poison?
How far is it the same, how far does it differ from the normal
poisons of the tissues, which, as we see, in a few minutes destroy
life when oxygen is withheld? Where and how is it formed ?
Are we to look upon it as a putrefactive poison formed at the sur-
face of the lungs and the skin, when waste of some kind is escap-
ing through these channels ? Dr. Klein tells us (pages 61 and 241)
that septic bacteria* (the authors of putrefactive change) are to
be found in those parts of the body into which air penetrates, as
the mouth, the air-passages, the whole alimentary tract; but it
seems diflBcult not to believe, whatever changes take place as these
poisons reach the air, that they must at all events have existed as
chemical poisons when still in the tissues. Are we, then, to look
upon these poisons as derived from putrefactive decompositions
taking place in certain parts of the body ; or as poisons derived
from the tissues ; or as in turn possessing both characters ? At
present, both within and without the body, their nature is sur-
rounded with mystery, and many are the interesting questions
that remain to be solved about them. When they have passed out-
side the body, are they the food of any of the bacteria which are
found so plentifully in foul air? f If so, are the ordinary bacteria
(excluding the case of certain bacteria producing disease) our
friends or our enemies ; do they render the poison itself harmless ;
or do they themselves produce an excretion which is of a poison-
ous character ; or should they be looked on as neutral, destroying
one poison and producing another; are the poisons themselves
simply removed by currents of air, or are they oxidized in the
air ; if so, are they oxidized only when ozone is present (see Our
Homes, page 11) ; and if in the air, why not in the blood, after we
have rebreathed them and surrounded them with oxygen, in loose
combination with haemoglobin ? J

* For a different view, see De Bary on Bacteria, p. 44.

f Bicteria (Gr. hakterion, a staff) are the smallest livin,<T ora;anisins known, and gener-
ally included in the vegetable kingdom. They possess a very simple structure, are capable
of free movement, and multiply very rapidly. Some kinds are the causes of putrefaction
and of certain diseases. It is calculated that we inhale 300,000 germs of these organisms
in the day.

X Mr. Wager adds the following note : " The bacteria on the surface are constantly at

822 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Another light is thrown upon the waste poisons of the tissues
by the statement that they exhaust the power of muscle to con-
tract. Muscle taken from a freshly killed animal, if fed with
arterial blood, or blood supplied with oxygen, may retain for some
time its power of contraction. But if venous blood (blood that has
lost its oxygen and is charged with waste poisons) be injected
into it, the power of contraction is lost quicker than if no blood
be supplied to it. In the same way the power of the muscle is
soon exhausted if a solution containing substances which can be
extracted from muscle (such as kreatin, lactic acid, etc.) be in-
jected into it (M. Foster, page 150). These facts help us to see the
local mischief which must often arise from these poisons, as well
as their effects on the nerve-centers. Many an ache and pain are
probably due to local effects of the waste poisons, whether they
are the normal waste poisons of the system, which under un-
healthy conditions of life we are not properly getting rid of, or
the special waste poisons of skin and lungs that we have re-
breathed into the system.*

work excreting. At every breath we give off a small quantity of poison, whether we are
breathing in pure or bad air. The quantity given off is extremely (extraordinarily) small
— so small that it can only be approximately measured by the amount of carbonic acid in
the air. These bacteria are present whether we live in foul air or pure air. Their exist-
ence there means that they can thrive, and if they thrive they must feed, and if they feed,
they must excrete, or something analogous to it. Personally, I am inclined to think they
(these special lung and skin poisons) come from the blood, because ptomaines can be formed
by the action of various chemical agents (such as acids) upon protoplasmic or albuminous
material and as blood (serum) is albuminous, and as it contains various substances derived
from tissue waste — e. g., lactic acid, uric acid probably, etc. — it may be that the two react
upon one another, producing these ptomaine-like poisons. I think, however, that it is just
possible that they may be formed on the surface.

* Where Nature does not get fair play, where, for example, the blood is vitiated by our
constantly rebreathing poisons that have been already got rid of, other dangers probably
exist. In the delicate chemical translations which take place when tissue is being changed
into harmless waste, it may happen that the process goes wrong, and an abnormal poison
is formed. Thus, under certain circumstances, instead of urea, uric acid is formed ; thus
in urfemia, or retention of urea in the system, various secondary compounds are formed
(Carpenter, p. 448), which act on brain or spinal cord as narcotic poisons ; thus, in acute
yellow atrophy, where liver-cells lose a part of their activity, a substance called leucin is
manufactured to a considerable extent instead of urea (M. Foster, p. 755) ; thus gall-stones
are formed instead of gall, and certain changes take place in the bile, by which some of its
constituents cease to be dissolved in it (M. Foster, p. 431); thus the ptomaines— a class of
mysterious poisons— are formed in the system (Quain, Ptomaine, p. 1816) after various ill-
nesses. [In connection with these ptomaines a dispute arose during an Italian trial as to
whether a poison detected in a body was strychnine, or this naturally formed ptomaine.]
Thus, too, Blythe (Poisons, A. W. Blythe, pp. 468-470) describes cases in which narcotic
poisons have been formed by synthesis of substances in the tissue or in the blood. So also
we might quote the interesting speculation of Dr. Carpenter (p. 368), that a cancer is an
excretory organ, formed to get rid of poisons in the system, illustrating once more " the
protective nature " even of that which brings pain and death; and the case of certain
pathogenic organisms, which, as Dr. Klein suggests (p. 248), may not affect healthy living

BAD AIR AND BAD HEALTH. 823

We now pass to other evidence affecting the poison that escapes
from lungs and skin. We all know that a room is offensive when
many people are crowded into it ; we know the unpleasantness of
a bedroom before the air has freely entered it ; we know how dis-
agreeable the breath and the clothes can be ; we know that ani-
mals die when submitted to air that has been breathed, even when
the carbonic acid has been removed ; * we know how necessary is
the continuous flood of pure air in hospitals — we have heard it
stated that this much freer admission of air is rendering unneces-
sary the antiseptic treatment of wounds ; how by treating men
in the open air and in tents recoveries have been made quicker
and better than in hospital ; f and how in the case of the Aus-
trian army "the most severe maladies ran their course much
more mildly " in the free air, while the recovery was quicker and
more perfect (Ransome, Health Lectures, 1875-'78, page 151). So
also Dr. Parkes says (page 181) in cases of blood-poisoning, the
best treatment is complete exposure to open air ; so also in typhus ;
and in a less degree in enteric fever, small-pox, and plague. " This
complete exposure," he adds, " of patients to air is the most im-
portant mode of treatment, before even diet and medicines." X Iii

tissues, but only diseased tissues — the disease implying alteration of the tissue. All these
cases are cases, doubtless, of an extreme kind ; they imply the abnormal formation of
poisons to a serious extent, sufficient to constitute illness ; but it may well be that there
are many less serious formations of abnormal poisons, which, though not sufficient to pro-
duce illness, yet cause much discomfort, and which -are the consequence of the vitiated
state of the blood, arising from the habitual breathing of impure air.

* If we remember rightly, both Parkes and D. Galton (Our Homes) refer to these ex-
periments— a mouse dying in forty-five minutes when submitted to air treated in this man
ner. Dr. Richardson also refers in one of his works to experiments, which were conducted
by himself, and which are more fully described in a report to the British Association. Dr.
Richardson had formerly a theory of " devitalized oxygen," but we suppose he would prob-
ably consider now that it was a truer statement to say that this special poison had not been
removed from the air which the creatures breathed. Experiments of the same kind have
also been made on rabbits in Paris. One of our number (A. H.) adds the following re-
mark : " Though I think probably it would be quite misleading to speak of the experiments
upon the mouse, and the experiments conducted by Dr. Richardson as in any sense cruel,
yet, speaking my own personal opinion, I remain opposed to all such experiments. While
I admit the neat and convenient evidence often supplied by them, and also admit that diffi-
culties of method would at first exist, were they renounced, yet I think the wealth of mate-
rials that exist on all sides of us for pushing forward knowledge is so vast, that however
convenient these experiments may be, they are not really necessary, while perhaps a keener
perceptive sense in tracing out the meaning of the things of common life, which are of
such vital importance, would be developed, as investigators renounced this particular
method. In writing this, however, I am governed by the moral side of the question, which
is the one that, apart from all other considerations, determines my view."

f The case of the hospital is, of course, a complicated case, and it might be disputed
how far its evidence can be used for our purpose.

\ " When our health commissioners were sent out to the Crimea to examine the heavy
mortality among soldiers in the hospitals, their first act was to use their sticks to break

824 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tlie same way, tlie deaths of the Black Hole of Calcutta add their
evidence, though it is an evidence of an extreme kind. While out
of the one hundred and forty-six persons shut up, one hundred
and twenty-three died, of the remaining number (Carpenter, page
357) many afterward died of putrid fever — that is, were poisoned,
owing to an insufficiency of oxygen to neutralize the poisons
breathed out on all sides of them, and rebreathed by themselves.
A much simpler piece of evidence is presented to us daily by our
own eyes. Who is not struck by the pasty, antemic look of our
city children, and of the large number of those who follow seden-
tary occupations, as contrasted with the looks of those who live
in the country and are much in the open air ? What is that
pasty, anaemic look ? It is the absence of red corpuscles from the
blood, indicating that where oxygen is deficient * the red corpus-
cles are not produced in their proper quantity. So also the effects
of living in rooms in which sewer-gas has penetrated illustrate in
their own stronger degree the effects of living in unventilated
rooms. The one is the lesser form, the other the more serious
form of the same evil. In both, bacteria thrive and multiply,
and in both, meat and milk rapidly taint. They are both full of
organic matter, and the symptoms of headache and feverishness
are common to both, though, of course, the case of sewer-gas is
much the more acute case. \ Again, we all know the wonderfully
restoring effect that hill air with its ozone has upon us after town
life ; showing how the poison has depressed all our functions, and
how the pure air restores their energy. We see the same effect
in the lives of work-people. Sir D. Galton, as we have seen, tells
us of better work done, more energy, more appetite, when air is
introduced into unhealthy work-rooms. Dr. Parkes tells the same
story. Dr. A. Ransome, speaking in 1875, quotes the case of the
Guards, picked men, highly cared for, yet who died quite as fast
as the civil population. Why ? he asks. Mainly from defective
ventilation of the barracks (Health Lectures, 1875-'78, page 150). J

some hundreds of glass panes in the windows, so as to admit air freely. After that the
wounded recovered rapidly."— (L. P.) In the same way Dr. Clifford Allbutt reduced the
mortality in a heavy epidemic of typhus fever in Leeds by fastening the windows in the
fever hospital with screws, so that they could not be shut. He remarks that in Ireland
those attacked with typhus, who were put out to die, would often recover.

* But why is oxygen deficient in these cases ? Is it, once more, because so much or-
ganic poison is breathed in with the air of the shut-up rooms, that the, functions are de-
pressed and imperfectly performed ; that, for example, the act of respiration is impaired ?
Or does the poison directly affect the formation of the red corpuscles ?

\ It has, however, been shown recently that the air in a well -ventilated sewer is, so far
as organic matter and micro-organisms are concerned, purer than the air in a small, badly
ventilated room.

X " Sir Lyon Playfair, one of the commissioners for inquiring into the state of barracks,
passed a couple of nights with the soldiers m their crowded sleeping-rooms, and found the

BAD AIR AND BAD HEALTH. 825

Again, we find disease attacking country districts for tlie first
time, where houses had been improved, and the ventilation, which
used to take place through porous walls and less well-fitting
windows, has been done away with.* So also it is stated by Mr.
Angell (Health Lectures, 1879-'80, page 31) that in the old
crowded lodging-houses people sleeping on the floor would escape
fever, while those sleeping on the bedsteads would be struck by
it. Those on the floor got ventilation from the door and fire-
place ; those on the bedsteads were above the line of it — the colder

air saturated with organic effluvia which discolored permanganate of potash. The mortality
iimong soldiers is now greatly reduced by the better ventilation enforced by the commis-
sion."—(L. P.)

* A case of this kind is reported to us by Mr. Alexander Campbell, of Auchindarroch,
Lochgilphead ; and we believe that the same thing was observed in a Westmoreland dis-
trict. In an interesting letter Mr. Campbell writes : " Some years back I was asked by a
medical officer of large experience in the Highlands regarding a phenomenon which had
puzzled him. He had exerted himself much, and with great success, to have improved cot-
tages built, but in proportion as the cottages grew better did the health of the people
grow worse. I gave him my opinion that in tho old, uncomfortable-looking cottages,
built may be of dry stone, and open to the roof, the people were kept healthy in spite
of themselves by the wind blowing through them, while the new cottages, tightly built,
and with well-fitting doors and windows, excluded the air, and the windows being seldom
or never opened, the inhabitants were poisoned. He said he fully agreed in this, and would
ask for no more new cottages until the people had learned how to live in them. I have
found a considerable amount of ill health among the paupers in the island of Tiree, which,
from its situation, exposed as it is to the free action of breezes from the Atlantic, should
be one of the healthiest islands of the Hebrides. I attribute this to the mode in which the
houses are built, with two walls two or three feet apart, the interval being closely packed
with sand. The air is thus hermetically excluded, and unless the windows are made to
open, and are freely opened, the inhabitants are constantly, when within their dwellings,
breathing vitiated air." It is also worth while quoting from a review of Major Fisher's
book (which book we have not read) in The Spectator, May 2, 1891, Through the Stable and
Saddle Room : " Everybody knows something of the importance of ventilation, both for
man and horse ; but it is not so widely known as it ought to be that, while horses seldom
or never take cold through being exposed to cold, they are often made ill by being too
warm. [It is not the warmth ; it is the impure air.] It is the inside, not the outside, air
that gives them coughs, sore throats, congestion of the lungs, and sundry other ills to which
horse-flesh is heir. For this reason, old ramshackle stables, full of cracks and crevices, are
healthier than brand-new buildings with tight doors and windows and impervious roofs.
Our author, who never generalizes rashly, and supports his theories with copious instances,
mentions one or two curious ' cases in point.' Remounts for cavalry regiments, which are
mostly of Irish extraction, have often to travel in severe weather part of the way in cattle-
trucks, with no other protection from the cold than their own coats. Nevertheless, the
remounts nearly always arrive at their destination in perfect health ; yet they are no sooner
placed in stables, however well ventilated, than they begin to suffer from coughs and colds,
which generally end in strangles. During the autumn manceuvres of 1875, Major Fisher's
regiment was encamped near Aldershot, and though it rained almost incessantly, and the
horses were picketed in the open, without so much as a blanket to cover them, colds and
coughs were unheard of, and the favorite charger of one of his brother officers, which at
the time she left the barrack-stable suffered from a severe cold, was made whole by a few
days' exposure to the elemental strife." The book should contain some valuable facts.
TOT.. XL. — 55*

826 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and purer air being heavier than the heated impure air, and
therefore nearer the line of the floor.

Animals furnish the same evidence. Cows and horses both
suffer grievously from want of ventilation in their stables ; and
cattle, though they require warmth for fattening, still put on
flesh better in a colder but well-ventilated place than in a warmer
place which is unventilated (Parkes, page 180). So also Parkes
tells us about the French cavalry. Before 1836 the mortality
among the horses varied from 180 to 197 per 1,000 per annum.
With the enlargement of the stables and increased quantity of
air, the loss was reduced to G8 per 1,000, and finally to 28^ per
1,000, and of officers' horses to 20.

Then we have the evidence of the ordinary tests for ascertain-
ing the purity of the air. Air fouled by respiration discolors
permanganate of potash and robs it of a portion of its oxygen ; the
amount of organic matter is then measured by the number of
volumes of oxygen required to reoxidize the permanganate and
restore it to its former condition. Another test is the presence of
certain bacteria, which are found in large numbers in foul air,
increasing out of proportion to the molds or fungi found in the
air, which appear to be much less affected by impurities. It is
stated that these forms of life all originally come from the open
air — that reservoir of all things — though they are supposed to
multiply in congenial quarters when once they have found an
entrance. The significant fact, however, is their number, which
might seem to show that they prosper just because they have dis-
covered their proper food — the organic poison which Is poured
out into the air from our lungs and skin. On this point. Dr. A.
E-ansome makes an interesting sj^eculation, which we quote from
memory — a wrong thing to do. Impressed with the belief that
consumption is communicable in foul air, and non-communicable
in good air, he believes that the bacillus (a form of bacteria) which
conveys the disease retains its virulence more in foul air than in
pure air, and is thus better able to make a lodgment in the human
system.* — Contemporary Review.

[To he concluded.^

* This speculation of Dr. A. Ransomc's suggests another speculation. Dr. Klein (pp.
238-248) believes that in the interior of healthy human tissue no bacteria, which cause
putrefaction, are found. They are found abundantly in those parts of the system to which
air penetrates, as, for instance, in the mouth, or in the alimentary canal ; and from the
alimentary canal they pass easily, as the food itself does, into the diminutive blood-vessels
or the diminutive lymphatics (locally called lacteals) that line the walls of this canal. Cut
if the blood is in healthy order they seem to perish, dying for want of food. Dr. Kliin
goes on to state that if at some point they are carried to tissue that is in an unheal. by
condition, there they may obtain a footing and begin to multiply. He does not actually
state, as we understand, that the unhealthy condition of the blood keeps them alive, but
he implies it ; and it would seem probable that the unhealthy state of the blood^ — for ex-

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM B ARTE AM. 827

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BARTRAM.

DURING the century which preceded the American Revolu-
tion the science of the colonies, like their commerce, was
tributary to that of the Old World. Fabulous reports in regard
to the natural resources of America had been brought home by
European voyagers, and the cultivators of all sciences and arts
were looking to that vast unexplored region for products which
should increase the knowledge of the naturalist, the resources of
the physician and the agriculturist, the profits of the merchant,
and the enjoyment of the man of leisure. The function of those
colonists who inclined to natural history was that of explorers
and collectors, and among the earliest and most notable of these
American collectors were the subjects of this sketch.

The grandfather of the elder Bartram, also named John, came
from Derbyshire, England, to Pennsylvania in 1G82. He brought
his wife, three sons, and one daughter, and settled near Darby, in
Delaware (then Chester) County. The third son, William, was
the only one who married, his wife being Elizabeth, daughter of
James Hunt, Both families belonged to the Society of Friends.
The children of William were John (the botanist), James, Will-
iam, and a daughter who died young. The second William went
to North Carolina and settled near Cape Fear ; John and James
remained in Pennsylvania.

The date of John Bartram's birth was March 23, 1G99. But
little is on record concerning his early years. Like the majority

ample, blood charged with poison which have escaped from the skin and lungs, and been
rebreathed into the system — would have the same favoring effect upon them as the un-
healthy tissue. Both are likely to present them with the food they require. If this be so,
then just as the bacteria that cause disease are favored by the external poisons they find
ill vitiated air, so also they may be internally favored by the unhealthy slate of the bron-
c'liial and lung tissues of those persons who habitually breathe the poisons of shut-up
rooms. Thus, these organic poisons, both within and without a man, would tend to make
him a prey to those illnesses in which the success of the germ depended upon its proper —
might we say — food being supplied to it ; and it would seem probable that, by constant
attention to the purity of the air which we breathe, we might do much toward securing
iudividual exemption from the danger of infectious diseases. An instructive passage in
Dr. Carpenter (p. 365) which bears on this point should be read. It is also worth quoting
Prof. Nussbaum (see an interesting article by Mrs. Priestley, May, Nineteenth Century, p.
825) : " It is known with certainty that the cholera bacillus is dangerous only to those per-
sons whose stomach is not in a healthy state, and jeopardizes life only when it passes into
the intestines. A healthy stomach will digest the bacillus, and therefore it does not reach
the intestines in a living state." It is, perhaps, right to refer here to a theory that in the
blood and connective and lymphatic tissues (Klein, p. 243) there exists a clan of protective
cells (phagocytes), whose office it is to overpower invading bacteria of a dangerous charac-
ter ; and, according to Metschnikoff (Ann. de I'lnstitut Pasteur) these can, in case of need,
emigrate to any part of the body which is invaded by parasites.

828

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of boys in the colonies, he was brought up to a farming life, and
his education was only such as the country schools of the time
afforded. After reaching adult years he studied Latin a little, so
as to be able to pick out the descriptions of plants in the Latin
works of European botanists. In a sketch of John Bartram,
written by his son William, it is stated that he had an inclination
to the study of physic and surgery and did much toward relieving
the ailments of his poor neighbors. In January, 1723, he married
Mary, daughter of Richard Morris, of Chester Meeting, by whom
he had two sons— Richard, who died young, and Isaac, who lived
to old age. His wife Mary died in 1727, and in September, 1729,
he married Ann Mendenhall, of Concord Meeting, who survived
him. John and Ann Bartram had nine children, five boys and
four girls. Of these the third son was William, he and his twin

Bartram's House in 1887. (From a photograph furnLshed by Mr. Thomas Meelian. )

sister, Elizabeth, being born February 0, 1739. The ground on
which John Bartram laid out the first botanic garden in America
was on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, at Kingsessing,
near Gray's Ferry (now within the city limits of Philadelphia),
and was bought by him September 30, 1728. " Here he built with
his own hands," says William, " a large and comfortable house of
hewn stone, and laid out a garden containing about five acres."
A view of this house, which is still standing, is given in the

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BART RAM. 829

accompanying picture. The year of its erection is shown by a
stone in the wall on which is cut "John ^ Ann Bartram, 1731."
Another inscription on a stone over the front window of his

study reads :

'''Tis God alone, Almighty Lord,
The Holy One, by me adored.

"John Barteam, 1770."

That the building was a labor of love is attested by the care be-
stowed upon the carved stone-work around the windows and
doors and the pillar under the porch. John Bartram must have
been a good stone-cutter and mason, for this was one of four stone
houses that he built in his lifetime.

Nearly all the extant information concerning the lives of the
two Bartrams has been embodied in the Memorial of John Bar-
tram, by William Darlington, published in IS-IO. This volume
contains the sketch of John Bartram by his son William, with some
additions by the editor, and over four hundred pages of corre-
spondence. About a fourth of these letters are from his friend
Peter Collinson ; the others are from eminent botanists in Europe
and America, and from Bartram to these various correspondents.
Darlington also reprinted a sketch of John Bartram, which ap-
peared in the Letters from an American Farmer, by J. Hector St.
John, published in London soon af tei Bartram's death. The " let-
ter" describing Bartram purports to be written by a Russian
traveler, who is evidently a myth, although in all imj)ortant re-
spects the account represents the botanist as he was. As to how
Bartram's interest in botany was aroused, the " Russian gentle-
man " has a very pretty story, telling of a sudden conversion after
the botanist had married ; but Bartram himself is better author-
ity, and he writes to Collinson, May 1, 1764, "I had always since
ten years old a great inclination to plants, and knew all that I
once observed by sight, though not their proper names, having
no person nor books to instruct me."

He was encouraged to study systematically by James Logan
(founder of the Loganian Library, in Philadelphia), who gave him
several botanical works. In order that his explorations, begun at
his own expense, might be extended, Bartram's friends prompted
him to seek the patronage of some wealthy and influential person
in the mother-country. Accordingly, a quantity of his specimens
and a record of some of his observations were sent to Peter Col-
linson, a Quaker merchant in England, who was greatly inter-
ested in horticulture. Bartram's consignment secured his inter-
est, and led to a correspondence, which lasted nearly fifty years.
The first letter in Darlington's collection is from Collinson, under
the date January 20, 17;54-'35, and refers to letters from Bartram
of the preceding November ; hence this correspondence probably

830 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

began when Bartram was about thirty-five years of age. In his
early letters Collinson makes many inquiries about American
plants and requests for specimens. He sends Bartram seeds,
roots, cuttings of trees, vegetables, and flowering plants culti-
vated in England, packages of paper in which to preserve speci-
mens, and gives him directions for collecting and drying plants.
From time to time he sends presents of cloth and other articles
for the use of the botanist or his family. For Bartram's " im-
provement in the knowledge of plants " he early offers, if dupli-
cate collections are sent, to " get them named by our most know-
ing botanists, and then return them again, which will improve
thee more than books." In this way the learning of Dillenius,
Gronovius, and other eminent men was brought to the aid of the
humble colonist. Collinson obtained for Bartram many orders
for seeds and roots of American plants, and early secured for him
the patronage of Lord Petre, whose gardens and hot-houses were
probably the most extensive in the kingdom. This noble ama-
teur ordered quantities of seeds from time to time, and when Bar-
tram asked for a yearly allowance to enable him to extend his ex-
plorations, Lord Petre agreed to contribute ten guineas toward it.
As much more was obtained from the Duke of Richmond and
Philip Miller, and the twenty guineas were paid each year till
1743, when Lord Petre died. The first expedition that Bartram
made with this assistance was an exploration of the Schuylkill
River. He transmitted his journal of the trip and a map of the
river to his patrons, and with both of these Collinson reported
Lord Petre to be much pleased.

Besides plants, Collinson asks Bartram at various times to
send insects, birds, and their eggs and nests, terrapin and other
turtles, snakes, shells, wasps' and hornets' nests, and fossils, which
last were then regarded as " evidences of the Deluge." " My incli-
nation and fondness to natural productions of all kinds," he writes,
"is agreeable to the old proverb, ' Lil-e the parson's ham — refuses
nothing.'" During the second year of his allowance Bartram
complains that it does not recompense him for his labors, and he
also finds fault with Collinson for giving him seeds and cuttings
that he has already, and for not having answered some of his let-
ters. Collinson, in a business-like reply, shows that Bartram's
complaints are due to his ignorance of commercial affairs and
the difficulty of transatlantic communication, and to his ex-
ceeding the commissions of his patrons — whereupon the botanist
promptly apologizes.

In 1738 Bartram made a journey of five weeks through Mary-
land and Virginia to Williamsburg, then up the James River,
and over the Blue Ridge Mountains, traveling in all about eleven
hundred miles. Most of the botanist's expeditions were made

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BAH TEAM. 831

without any scientific companion. " Our Americans," he Avrites
to a correspondent, " have very little taste for these amusements.
I can't find one that will bear the fatigue to accompany me in my
peregrinations."

In an undated letter, written probably in 1730, to Colonel Byrd,
of Virginia, Bartram reports that he had been making " micro-
scopical observations upon the male and female parts in vegeta-
bles," He had also made, he says, " several successful experi-
ments of joining several species of the same genus, whereby I
have obtained curious mixed colors in flowers, never known be-
fore," To this he adds : " I hope by these practical observations
to open a gate into a very large field of experimental knowledge,
which, if judiciously improved, may be a considerable addition
to the beauty of the florist's garden," It was in this " field of
experimental knowledge " — namely, cross-fertilization — that Dar-
win afterward won a share of his fame. Bartram evidently dis-
cussed this subject with Collinson, for the latter writes in 1742:
"That some variegations may be occasioned by insects is cer-
tain ; but then these are only annual, and cease with the year,"
Permanent variegations, he says, are produced by budding — a
sort of inoculation.

That Bartram had a hostility to superstition, tempered with
much considerateness for persons, is shown by a letter in which
he tells of a visit to Dr. Witt, of Germantown, another of CoUin-
son's correspondents. He says : " When we are upon the topic
of astrology, magic, and mystic divinity, I am apt to be a little
troublesome, by inquiring into the foundation and reasonableness
of these notions — which, thee knows, will not bear to be searched
and examined into : though I handle these fancies with more ten-
derness with him than I should with many others that are so
superstitiously inclined."

One of the botanists whose offices Collinson had secured in
identifying Bartram's specimens was Prof. Dillenius, of Oxford,
and in 17-40 Collinson writes for some mosses for him, saying,
" He defers completing his work till he sees what comes from
thee, Clayton, and Dr. Mitchell." In the same year a list of speci-
mens which had been named by Dr. J. F. Gronovius, of Leyden,
was returned, and contained this entry : " Coyivsce sii'e Verhasci,
Fl, Virg., pp. 74, 75. This being a new genus, may be called
Bartramia." The name Bartramia is now borne by a diff'er-
ent plant — a moss growing in the Berkshire Hills of Massa-
chusetts.

Bartram's correspondence with Gronovius began about 1743,
and extends over a dozen years or more. Gronovius writes at
length, very appreciatively, and makes many requests. He sends
his books as they appear, and before the publication of his Index

832 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Lapidse, sends a transcript of the passage, in Latin, in which he
is to give Bartram credit for his fossil finds.

Among the European scientists whom Collinson made ac-
quainted with Bartram's work was Sir Hans Sloane, physician
and naturalist, who succeeded Newton as President of the Royal
Society. At his request Bartram sends him, in 1741, some "petri-
fied representations of sea-shells." The next year Sloane sends to
Bartram a silver cup inscribed :

" The gift of S' Hans Sloane, Bart.

To his Fr" John Bartram.

Anno 1742."

A figure of this cup is given by Darlington. Sloane also sent
Bartram his Natural History of Jamaica, in two ponderous folio
volumes.

About this time a correspondence began between Bartram and
Dr. John Fothergill, a wealthy physician and naturalist, who, like
Sloane, had first received some of Bartram's specimens from Col-
linson. Dr. Fothergill wishes to know what mineral springs there
are in America, and Bartram sends him what information he has
and can get from others.

Bartram also exchanged letters with Philip Miller, author of
the Gardener's Dictionary, with George Edwards, who in 17GC
sends his book, containing descriptions of birds that the Penn-
sylvanian had sent him, with Prof. John Hope, of Edinburgh,
and with the ablest observers of nature in the colonies, among
whom were Dr. John Mitchell, Rev. Jared Eliot, John Clayton^
Cadwallader Golden, and Dr. Alexander Garden.

In 1744 he writes, "Dr. Gronovius hath sent me his Index
Lapidae, and Linnseus the second edition of his Characteres
Plantarum, with a very loving letter desiring my correspondence,
and to furnish him with some natural curiosities of our country."
The same year he sends to England his Journal of the Five Na-
tions and the Lake Ontario, describing a journey he had made
the preceding fall. It contained an account of the " soil, produc-
tions, mountains, and lakes " of those parts of Pennsylvania and
New York through which the route lay ; and gave the proceed-
ings of a great assembly of Indian chiefs held to treat with the
agent of the Province of Pennsylvania, whom Bartram accom-
panied. This journal was afterward published in London.

The visit of Peter Kalm to America took place in 1748 to 1751.
He traveled through Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, and ad-
joining provinces ; made the acquaintance of the Gray's Ferry
botanist, and obtained much assistance from him. It has been
alleged that Kalm took to himself the credit of some discoveries
which rightfully belonged to Bartram. This would not be sus-
pected from reading Kalm's Travels, in which he gives Bartram

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BARTRAM. 833

a page and a half of hearty commendation, saying among other
things: "We owe to him the knowledge of many scarce plants,
which he first found, and which were never known before. . . .
I likewise owe him many things, for he possessed that great qual-
ity of communicating everything he knew. I shall, therefore, in
the sequel frequently mention this gentleman." On nearly every
one of the next twenty pages credit is given to Bartram for in-
formation.

In 1751 Benjamin Franklin and D. Hall published at Phila-
delphia an American edition of Dr. Thomas Short's Medicina
Britannica, " with a Preface by Mr. John Bartram, Botanist, of
Pennsylvania, and his Notes throughout the work ; . . . and an
Appendix, containing a description of a number of Plants peculiar
to America, their uses, virtues, etc." The notes told where the
plants were found in America, and how they differed from the
English varieties.

John Bartram's son William begins to figure in his father's
correspondence when about fifteen years old. At that time Bar-
tram sent some of William's drawings of natural objects to Col-
linson, and took him on a trip to the Catskills. In 1755 Bartram
writes : " I design to set Billy to draw all our turtles with remarks,
as he has time, which is only on Seventh days in the afternoon,
and First-day mornings ; for he is constantly kept to school to
learn Latin and French." This attention to the languages indi-
cates that Bartram was determined that his son should not suffer
from the lack that had limited his own reading of works on nat-
ural history. Williarn was then attending the old college in
Philadelphia.

The same passage shows also that Bartram's ideas about Sun-
day occupations were somewhat unusual for that generation, and
in fact it is stated that he was excommunicated by his brother
Quakers about this time for his independent religious views. The
question of an occupation for William now came up, and in the
letter just quoted his father asks Collinson's advice in the matter.
" My son William," he writes, " is just turned of sixteen. It is now
time to propose some way for him to get his living by. I don't
want him to be what is commonly called a gentleman. I want to
put him to some business by which he may, with care and indus-
try, get a temperate, reasonable living. I am afraid that botany
and drawing will not afford him one, and hard labor don't agree
with him. I have designed several years to put him to a doctor,
to learn physic and surgery ; but that will take him from his
drawing, which he takes particular delight in. Pray, my dear
friend Peter, let me have thy opinion about it." Franklin offered
to teach William the printing trade, but Bartram was not quite
satisfied with the prospects for printers in Pennsylvania, and

VOL. XL. — 66

834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Franklin then suggested engraving. But William iDecanie nei-
ther printer nor engraver. At the age of eighteen he was placed
with a Philadelphia merchant, Mr. Child, where he remained
about four years.

Bartram's science was largely practical. He wrote to Dr.
Alexander Garden, of Charleston, in 1755, suggesting a series of
borings on a large scale, to search for valuable mineral products.
He gives as another reason the satisfaction to be derived from
knowing the composition of the earth, and adds, " By this method
we may compose a curious subterranean map.'"* " This scheme of
John Bartram's," says Darlington—" if original with him— would
indicate that he had formed a pretty good notion of the nature
and importance of a geological survey and map, more than half a
century before such undertakings were attempted in our country,
or even thought of by those whose province it was to authorize
them."

Bartram was evidently much interested in geological subjects ;
thus, in 1756 he writes, " My dear worthy friend, thee can't bang
me out of the notion that limestone and marble were originally
mud, impregnated by a marine salt, which I take to be the origi-
nal of all our terrestrial soils."

In 1760 he makes a trip through the Carolinas, his Journal of
which he wrote out and sent to England. The following sum-
mer, William, then twenty-two years old, went to North Carolina
and set up as a trader at Cape Fear, where his uncle William had
settled when a young man. That year John Bartram makes a
journey to Pittsburg and some way down the Ohio River, keep-
ing a journal, as usual, which is sent to his English friends.
Nearly all of these trips were made in autumn, so as to get ripe
seeds of desirable trees and plants.

Bartram had too tender a feeling toward animal life to be
much of a zoologist. He says on this score : " As for the animals
and insects, it is very few that I touch of choice, and most with
uneasiness. Neither can I behold any of them, that have not
done me a manifest injury, in their agonizing mortal pains with-
out pity. I also am of opinion that the creatures commonly
called brutes possess higher qualifications, and more exalted
ideas, than our traditional mystery-mongers are willing to allow
them." His ideas concerning animal psychology were thus clear-
ly in advance of his time.

The war with France, known to Americans as the French and
Indian War, resulted in extending the British possessions in
America as far west as the Mississippi River. Immediately a de-
sire was expressed in England for a thorough exploration of this
great accession of territory. Bartram writes in 1763 that this
could not be made without great danger from the Indians. His

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BARTRAM. 835

own expeditions had been very short during the hostilities. The
late war had shown the colonists what atrocities the savages were
capable of, and the prevailing feelings toward the red men had
become dread and hatred. " Many years past in our most peace-
able times," writes Bartram, " far beyond the mountains, as I was
walking in a path with an Indian guide, hired for two dollars, an
Indian man met me and pulled off my hat in a great passion, and
chawed it all round — I suppose to show me that they would eat
me if I came in that country again." In two other letters he says
that the only way to make peace with the Indians " is to bang
them stoutly." The question arises whether the combative dis-
position of the botanist thus revealed might not have been one
of the reasons for his exclusion from the Society of Friends.

In 1764 Bartram sends to England his Journal to Carolina and
New River. In this year, one Young, of Pennsylvania, managed
to gain the favor of the new king, George III, by sending him
some American plants, and obtained sudden preferment. It was
said that all the plants had been sent to England before — many
of them by Bartram, The friends of our botanist, feeling that he
was much more deserving of such favor, urged him to send some
specimens to the king, which he does through Collinson, desiring
that he may be given a commission for botanical exploration in
the Floridas. April 9, 1765, Collinson writes, " My repeated solici-
tations have not been in vain," and reports that the king has
appointed Bartram his botanist for the Floridas, with a salary
of fifty pounds a year. This appointment continued till the
death of the botanist, twelve years after. Bartram accordingly
made an expedition in the South the next fall. He was then
sixty-six years old ; and, although his eagerness for exploring
was undiminished, he felt the need of a companion on this trip,
and got William to go with him, the latter closing out his not
very successful business at Cape Fear in order to do so. In his
sketch of his father, William states that he had been ordered to
search for the sources of the river San Juan (St. John's), and that
he ascended the river its whole length, nearly four hundred miles,
by one bank, and descended by the other. He explored and made
a survey of both the main stream and its branches and connected
lakes, and made a draught showing widths, depths, and distances.
He also noted the lay of the land, quality of the soil, the vege-
table and animal productions, etc. His report was approved by
the governor of the province, and was sent to the Board of Trade
and Plantations in England, by which it was ordered published
" for the benefit of the new colony." Bartram collected a fine lot
of plants, fossils, and other curiosities on this trip, which were
forwarded to the king, who was reported to be much pleased
with them. His journal is still extant, in a volume with an Ac-

836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

count of East Florida, by William Stork, published in England.
It is evident from this production that the botanist was not a
ready writer. His observations are minute and sagacious, and
his language is simple, but his sentences are loosely strung out,
and the record is the barest statement of facts. His Journal to
the Five Nations, however, is much more readable.

William seems to have been much taken with Florida, and
accordingly his father helped to establish him as an indigo-
planter on the St. John's River. After about a year of disas-
trous experience he returned to his father's home and went to
work on a farm in the vicinity. Collinson had been watching
for an opening for William in England, but so far nothing had
come of it. The next year he writes that the Duchess of Portland,
a " great virtuoso in shells and all marine productions," had just
dined at his house, and, having seen William's drawings," she de-
sires to bestow twenty guineas on his performances for a trial.'*
The kind of objects she wants drawn are told. The same month,
July 18, 17G8, Collinson writes to William that he had also secured
an order from Dr. Fothergill for drawings of shells, turtles, terra-
pin, etc. This was probably the last letter of Collinson to the
Bartrams, as he died on the 11th of the following month. Dur-
ing his long friendship with John Bartram the two men had
never seen each other.

William now began to send drawings and descriptions to Dr.
Fothergill from time to time. In 1773 he began explorations in
the Floridas, Carolina, and Georgia, the expense of which for
nearly five years was borne by Dr. Fothergill, and to him William's
collections and drawings were turned over. William made many
contributions to the natural history of the country through which
he traveled, and in 1791 jDublished his Travels through North and
South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, together with
an account of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and other tribes of
Indians which he visited. His attitude toward the red men is much
more favorable than that of his father. The volume contains
many engravings of plants and birds from the author's own draw-
ings. Of this book Coleridge said : " The latest book of travels
I know Avritten in the spirit of the old travelers is Bartram's
account of his tour in the Floridas. It is a work of high merit
every way."

Among the influential friends of the elder Bartram was Benja-
min Franklin. While in England Franklin writes to him and
sends him seeds of garden vegetables at various times ; and when
the Revolution had stopped his sending seeds to England, Franklin
offers to sell them for him in France.

Among the testimonials to his botanical achievements that
Bartram received was a gold medal, weighing 487 grains, from

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM B ARTE AM. 837

a society in Edinburgh, founded in 17G4, for obtaining seeds of
useful trees and shrubs from other countries. This medal is in-
scribed, " To Mr. John Bartram, from a Society of Gentlemen at
Edinburgh, 1772 " ; and on the reverse, " Merenti," in a wreath.
The medal is figured in Darlington's Memorials, and when that
book was published was in the possession of a Mrs. Jones, a de-
scendant of the botanist. April 2G, 1769, the Royal Academy of
Sciences, of Stockholm, on the proposal of Prof. Bergius, elected
Bartram to membership. Another honor that he received from
the same country was a letter from Queen Ulrica, and with this
may be mentioned the opinion passed upon him by Linnaeus, who
called Bartram the greatest natural botanist in the world. Bar-
tram was one of the original members of the American Philo-
sophical Society, and contributed many papers to its Trans-
actions.

The closing years of John Bartram's life were the opening years
of the Revolution. He was living when independence was declared
in the neighboring city of Philadelphia, but died the following
year, September 22, 1777, at the age of seventy-eight. A grand-
daughter, who remembered him distinctly, has stated that he was
exceedingly agitated by the approach of the British army after
the battle of Brandywine, and that his days were probably short-
ened in consequence. The royal troops had been ravaging the
country, and he was apprehensive lest they should lay waste his
darling garden.

His son William describes him as " a man of modest and gentle
manners, frank, cheerful, and of great good nature ; a lover of
justice, truth, and charity. . . . During the whole course of his
life there was not a single instance of his engaging in a litigious
contest with any of his neighbors or others. He zealously testified
against slavery, and, that his philanthropic precepts on this sub-
ject might have their due weight and force, he gave liberty to a
most valuable male slave, then in the prime of his life, who had
been bred up in the family almost from infancy." He was of an
active temperament, and often expressed the wish that he might
not live to be helpless. This desire was gratified, for he died after
only a short illness.

No picture of him is known to exist. In regard to his physical
appearance William states : " His stature was rather above the
middle size, and upright. His visage was long, and his counte-
nance expressive of a degree of dignity with a happy mixture of
animation and sensibility." Concerning Bartram's ability as a
naturalist there are enthusiastic opinions extant in letters by
Franklin, Collinson, Golden, and others well qualified to judge.

William Bartram, after the death of his father, continued in
the pursuit of natural history. The Botanic Garden was inher-

838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ited by liis brotlier Jolin, wlio took William into a partnership
which lasted many years. After this arrangement terminated,
William continued to assist his brother till the death of the latter,
in 1812. The garden then descended to John's daughter Anne, the
wife of Colonel Robert Carr, in whose family William resided
from that time until his death. He was never married. In 1782
William Bartram was elected Professor of Botany in the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, but declined the position on account of ill
health. He became a member of the American Philosophical
Society in 178G, and was elected to other learned societies in both
Euroi)e and America. He was an ingenious mechanic, and, as
before intimated, was skillful in drawing and painting. Most of
the illustrations in Prof. Barton's Elements of Botany were from
his drawings. His botanical labors brought to light many inter-
esting plants not previously known. But this was not his only
field. He made the most complete and correct list of American
birds before Wilson's Ornithology, and, in fact, his encouragement
and assistance were largely instrumental in making that work
possible. Among William Bartram's scientific correspondents
were the Rev. Henry Muhlenberg and F. A. Michaux, to whom he
furnished seeds. A manuscript diary of William Bartram, pre-
sented to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1885,
by Mr. Thomas Meehan, is rich in ornithological and botanical
notes, and contains also weather notes and records of personal ex-
periences which are of great interest. His death occurred sud-
denly from the rupture of a blood-vessel in the lungs, July 22,
1823, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Besides his Travels, Will-
iam Bartram was the author of Anecdotes of a Crow, and Descrip-
tion of Certhia. In 1789 he wrote Observations on the Creek
and Cherokee Indians, which was published in 1851, in the Trans-
actions of the American Ethnological Society, Vol. III.

In the old stone-house the great fireplace has been filled up,
but few other changes have been made. The building is full of
curious turns and cubby-holes. Connected with a cupboard in
the sitting-room is a recess running behind the chimney, which
furnished a safe depository in winter for si^ecimens that frost
could injure. Back of the sitting-room, in the wing of the build-
ing, is an aj)artment with large windows looking toward the
south which was the botanist's conservatory. Here were reared
such plants as could not stand a Pennsylvania winter — gathered
in Florida or the Carolinas, or sent from Europe. In the grounds
close to the river is a great imbedded rock, hewn flat, in which is
cut a wide, deep groove. This is the nether stone of John Bar-
tram's cider-mill. The Botanic Garden remained in the posses-
sion of Colonel Carr till about 1850, when it became the property
of Mr. A. M. Eastwick. This gentleman had derived much pleas-

SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BART RAM. 839

ure from visiting the garden as a boy, and was resolved to pre-
serve it without the sacrifice of a tree or a shrub. In 1853 a
Handbook of Ornamental Trees, by Mr. Thomas Meehan, was
published, the main purpose of which, as stated in its preface,
was to describe the trees then in the Bartram garden. After Mr.
Eastwick's death, the fate of the garden was for some time dubi-
ous. His executors saw no duty but to get as much money out
of the estate as possible. About 1880 Prof. C. S. Sargent, of
Harvard University, obtained the promise of a private subscrip-
tion to buy the old garden, and a price was agreed upon, but the
executors withdrew from the agreement. In 1882 Mr. Thomas
Meehan became a member of the Common Councils of Philadel-
phia and at once introduced a scheme for small parks for the
city, in which the Bartram place was included. Repeated re-
elections enabled him to follow the matter up, and finally, in the
spring of 1891, the city took possession of the property, and put a
superintendent in charge of it. The great gale of September, 1875,
and some fifteen years of neglect had had their effect among the
trees, but many planted by the botanist's own hands yet remain.
It should be a source of gratification to all cultivators of science
that this relic of the beginnings of botany in America is now as-
sured of preservation.

Mb. "W. W. Rockhill was credibly assured during his travels in Thibet that
wild men were to be found in the eastern part of that country. His informant, a
Mongol who had accompanied a Chinese trader in quest of rhubarb, described
these savages as covered with long hair, standing erect, and making tracks like
men. The author is of the opinion that they were nothing but bears ; but he
acknowledges that intelligent and educated Chinese, well acquainted with the
appearance and habits of bears, believe that primitive savages are to be found
in the Thibetan mountains ; and he himself speaks of a forest fire in the Horpa
country having driven out of the woods a number of hairy wUd men, clad in skins
and speaking an incomprehensible language. The Indian traveler Kishen Singh
and Lieutenant Kreitner testify to the existence of wild men in those parts, and
the former minutely describes them and their habits. It is curious, too, the
Athenajum remarks, that the habitat of the wild man, whose progenitors may
easily have relapsed into savagery, owing to the exceptional sterility and inaccessi-
bility of northern Thibet and its adjacent deserts, should be the same as that of
the wild camel and the wild horse, which there is good reason to believe are the
prototypes of the domesticated varieties.

Me. E. H. Max says that the little island of Chowry has for generations en-
joyed the monopoly of pottery manufacture in the Nicobars. The work of pre-
paring the clay and of molding and firing the finished vessel devolves on the
female members of the community. The inliabitants of the island seem to guard
their art jealously, and the value of trade-marks is recognized. No vessels are
made especially by the Nicobarese for funeral purposes, but cooking-pots are
among the personal and household articles that are laid on a grave after an inter-
ment. The people have no knowledge of anything like the potter's wheel.

840

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE "WAYS OF BEEB.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

DEAR SIR: I have read Prof. E. P.
Evans's article, on Progress in Lower
Animals, in your December number, and it
seems to mc that some of the statements
found therein call for the attention of a
practical apiarist.

If all of tliem have no more foundation
in fact than have those relating to bees,
they furnish a very flimsy support upon
which to found any kind of an argument.

I am well aware that there is a good
deal of nonsense written in the name of sci-
ence ; but I do not reu:ember having seen
60 many misrepresentations of facts, in the
same length of space, in any article I ever
read.

The professor says : " Beehives which
suffer from overproduction rear a queen and
send forth with her a swarm of emigrants to
colonize, and the relations of the mother-
hive to her colonies are known " (by whom ?)
" to be much closer and more cordial than
those which she sustains to apian commu-
nities with which she has no genetic connec-
tion. Here the ties of kinship are as strongly
and clearly recognized as they are between
consanguineous tribes of men."

It is true that bees rear queens and
swarm, but they do not rear a queen to send
forth with a " swarm of emigrants " ; for
the young queen is not out of her cell until
the old queen, her mother, is out of the
hive and gone with the new colony. The
"ties of kinship" are such that, should the
young queen issue from her cell before the
old one leaves the hive, she would usually
receive a fatal sting from her mother, not-
withstanding her " genetic connection,"
whatever that may mean. And the first
young queen that gains her liberty is apt to
treat her younger sisters in the same way,
even before they have issued from their
cells.

That the swarm after it has become set-
tled in its new home recognizes in any way
the relationship it bears to the old colony is
utterly absurd, and, as every practical apia-
rist knows, has no foundation in fact.

The " ties of kinship " are not as " clear-
ly recognized as they are between consan-
guineous tribes of men." Nay, the very op-
posite is true. They are not recognized at
all after the swarm has become distinct and
separate from the colony remaining in the
hive, which is composed of the young bees
with the young queen.

We are again told, " Bees readily sub-
stitute oatmeal for pollen, if they can get
it." Cccs can be taught to take ri/e-meal as

a substitute for pollen when they can not ge
pollen, but neither Prof. Evans nor any one
else ever saw a colony of bees that would
take '■'■ oatmeaV in preference to follen. In
fact, they will not take rye-meal at all, if
they can get pollen.

Ilowever, the above quotations are not
so bad as they might be, for they are harm-
less— that is, it will do no more injury for
the people to receive them as true than it
would for them to receive any other inno-
cent absurdity in the name of science. Had
it not been for the statement which follows,
I should not have felt called upon to point
out these mistakes of the professor. But,
in further support of his argument, he tells
his readers that " apiarists now provide their
hives with .artificial combs for the storage of
honey, and the bees seem glad to be relieved
from making cells, as their predecessors
had done." Apiarists do not " provide
their hives with artificial combs," but they
do sometimes fill the frames of their hives
with comb foundation ; but this is the real
stuff- — beeswax — in thin sheets with an im-
print corresponding to the cells. This is
not " artificial comb," and the bees are not
" relieved from making cells." They have
the cells to build, the same as they do when
they secrete the wax in their own bodies,
out of which the combs are formed. The
modern apiarist furnishes the wax, and
saves the time and labor of the bees that
would be required to secrete it ; but nothing
but wax will do, and some colony of bees
had to secrete that wax. It can not be
made by any " artificial " process.

I hardly think that there is any evidence
that the bees are " glad " to get this wax.
We only know that they will use it.

Some years ago Prof. Wiley wrote what
he afterward called a " scientific pleasantry "
for The Popular Science Monthly, if I am
correct, in which he described how " arti-
ficial comb " was made and filled with imi-
tation honey, and declared that an expert
could not distinguish it from the genuine
stuff. He thus gave currency to what has
become known among apiarists as the
" Wiley lie," of which Prof. Evans's state-
ment seems to be an echo.

You have no idea, Mr. Editor, how much
injury this little " pleasantry " has done the
bee-keepers of this land. For, notwithstand-
ing the fact that Prof. Wiley has explained,
over his own signature, that this was only a
joke, and A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, has
offered one thousand dollars for a single
pound of the comb, which has not been forth-
coming, yet the papers and the people go on
repeating this slander on an honest and
reputable industry.

CORRESP ONDENCE.

841

I have no idea that Prof. Evans thought
that he was doing any industry an injury
when he wrote the article referred to; but
it does seem tha* it is high time that people
who write in the name of science about
bees should inform themselves as to the
facts, which may be obtained from any
practical and intelligent apiarist, one or
more of whom may be found iu almost every
community.

Very truly, Emehson T. Abbott.
8t. Joseph, Mo., December 13, 1891.

PROFESSOR EVANS'S REPLY.
Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Sir : In reply to Mr. Abbott's strictures I
may state in general that all accounts of the
habits of animals contained iu my paper, so
far as they are not the results of my own ob-
servations, are based upon the very best au-
thorities. In my rejoinder I shall leave my
critic in the undisturbed enjoyment of his
consciousness of superior knowledge, and
confine myself strictly to the points at issue.
I was perfectly well aware, before Mr. Ab-
bott informed me of the fact, that the old
queen goes off with the swarm before her
successor is permitted to come out of the
cell, and regret that in expressing myself
too concisely my words convey au impres-
sion which any one who has observed bees
or read Iluber knows to bs incorrect. For
the purpose I had in view and the point I
wished to illustrate it makes no difference
whether the old or young queen leaves the
hive; and, as I had this point wholly in
mind, I did not state the minor fact as ac-
curately as I ought to have done. In my
paper nothing is said of cordial relations be-
tween the two queens ; I fear Mr. Abbott is
indulging here in one of those " pleasant-
ries," which facetious gentlemen in that
part of the country seem to be addicted to,
when they write about such funny creatures
as bees. What I mentioned was the closer
and more cordial relations observed to exist
between bee communities which have a ge-
netic connection, or (as this phrase appears
to puzzb Mr. Abbott) we will say between
the mother-hive and its colonies. By whom
has this been observed ? Among others by
Lenz, " a practical apiarist," and, what is
more, a careful sciontiflc observer, who kept
bees, not merely to supply the market with
honey, but chiefly in order to study their
habits. The existence of such a relationship
is recognized and referred to as a fact by no
less an authority than Prof Wilholm Wundt,
who even suggests that the mother-hive and
its colonies may form a sort of federation.
It is somewhat arrogant, even in a practical
apiarist, to denounce any statement as " ut-
terly absurd," and to declare that it " has no
foundation in fact," simply bccau.se it has
not come under his own observation. I did
not assert that bees " take oatmeal in prefer-
ence to pollen," but that they " readily sub-

stitute oatmeal for pollen ; " and, in remark-
ing that they are " glad " to bo relieved of
the extra labor imposed upon former gen-
erations of bees, I reasoned perhaps rather
recklessly from human analogy, and im-
agined them feeling as men would do under
the same circumstances. Mr. Abbott insists
upon it that they are sorry ; if so, I am sin-
cerely sorry for them, and would fain think
of them as glad ; but the practical apiarist
is inexorable, and I must console myself with
the reflection that we really know nothing of
the state of their minds. Mr. Abbott say3
it is rye-meal ; a German Biencnxcituny says
oatmeal {Hafenneld). So far as my argu-
ment is concerned, it may be rye or oats, or
" it may chance of wheat or of some other
grain."

We now come to the most serious offence,
and indeed the only one that seems to have
constrained Mr Abbott to wield his pen in
defense of a maligned and maltreated indus-
try. I have asserted that " apiarists now
provide their hives with artificial comb."
Whether Prof. Wiley is the author of this
statement or not I do not know, but I read it
in an American scientific journal, with a full
description of the manner of using it, how
by revolving movement the honey is thrown
out of the comb, and that the bees adapt
themselves easily to the new arrangement.
The interesting information was quoted by
European journals of high standing ; al-
though one German paper suggested, rather
maliciously as I thought, that the Yankees
are a cunning folk, wonderfully productive
of strange inventions, including all sorts of
canards. Mr. Abbott now states that Prof.
Wiley has explained over his own signature
that his communication was only a " scien-
tific pleasantry," a euphemism for what per-
sons endowed with a finer moral sense call
by a shorter and harsher name. But how
are scientists in a foreign land three thou-
sand miles away to know that an American
professor has written, to a local paper per-
haps, confessing that he is a liar, and that
henceforth no one is to believe what he
says ? As for myself, I must acknowledge
that I never before heard the statement con-
tradicted, and I fully share Mr. Abbott's in-
dignation against Prof. Wiley for deliber-
ately fabricating and disseminating such a
falsehood. A man so jocularly disposed
and ethically slack-twisted should stop writ-
ing on scientific subjects and devote his tal-
ents as a professional "funny man" to the
comical column of a country newspaper.

IIow artificial comb, if it could be fabri-
cated and the bees should store it, would do
injury to the bee-industry, I am at a loss to
understand. In Switzerland, where honey is
found on the breakfast-table in every inn, at
least three fourths of it is artificial honey;
and one proprietor of a large hotel recently
admitted that he did not have a jar of real
honey in the house. Real honey in an arti-
ficial comb is certainly preferable to manu-

842

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

factured honey that has never been in any
kind of comb, but is sold in pots. Under
the circumstances it seems to be rather
gratuitous indignation to resent such a state-
ment as a '• slander on an honest and repu-
table industry."

All specialists are exceedingly sensitive
to whatever touches their hobby, and unwill-
ing to admit that they do not know all that
is known about it. A few weeks ago a
young archreologist called on a distinguished
professor of classical archajology in a Ger-
man university and stated that he was about
to publish a work on a certain kind of Gre-
cian vase. " There are no such vases," re-
torted the old professor. "But I have
quite a collection of them which I have
myself excavated," urged the young man.
" They are all falsifications," was the terse
and decisive answer. The simple fact was,
that the old professor had never seen any
vases of this sort. Rearing bees is not only
a useful business, but also a fascinating
study. If carried on as a specialty it suffers
from the vice of all hobbies ; even the prac-
tical apiarist, who hangs around hives all
his life, is apt to have " a bee in his bonnet."
Yours, etc., E. P, Evans.

EEMAEKABLE CxLACIAL GEOOVINGS.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Sir : Several references to the fine deep
glacial groovings in the rocks at Kelley's Isl-
and, Ohio, have appeared in The Popular
Science Monthly, and there also appear men-
tions of the commendable efforts of scien-
tifically inclined gentlemen to purchase the
land and dedicate it to public uses and pres-
ervation.

There are other places where the same

action should be had, among them the groov-
ings at Watertown, N. Y., uncovered and
seen where an ancient glacial stream crosses
Black River. The writer has crossed the
continent four times upon different routes,
and observed many places where glaciation
has done its work, but in no place has he
observed more unique and characteristic
groovings than at Watertown. Lying in one
of these grooves, several feet deep, may be
seen immense bowlders weighing fifty tons
or more, just where a glacier stranded and
dropped its burden, showing as plainly how
the grooving has been done as a plow stand-
ing in the furrow where some plowman had
left it would tell its story.

The field notes of the Geological Survey
of New York suggest that the river at some
time has deserted its channel and eroded a
new one from Watertown to Black River
Bay, but this is not the case; the present
channel is undoubtedly the original. At the
date of the survey, glaciation and its work
had not been much studied ; the geologist
mistook glacial erosion for earlier river ero-
sion.

Another interesting point is the fact that
the present river has eroded its channel some
three feet deeper since the glacial era in the
hard, heavy-bedded, and sometimes flinty
bird's-eye limestone.

The glacial groovings at Kelley'b Island
and at Watertown may both be referred to
the Adirondack Glacial period, belonging to
the same age and agencies. The St. Law-
rence River was then blocked with ice, and
turned back upon itself, emptying its floods
into the Ohio River.

Visitors may find these groovings both
above and below the railroad bridge of the
Cape Vincent track. D. S. Martin.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE ATTACK ON INTELLECTUAL
LIBERTY IN GERMANY.

A THING which most certainly no
one not snpernaturally illuminated
would have predicted has come to pass
in Germany. A young man of thirty,
who considers himself at once the father
and the master of the German people,
has intimated his good pleasure that
every child in the German Empire shall
have a theological education. It mat-
ters not what the parents of the chil-
dren think; it matters not what the
great body of the teachers think : his
Majesty has made up his very mature

mind, and all other minds must bow will-
ingly or unwillingly to his decision. It
is quite possible that, before the words
we are now writing can appear in print,
the imperial dictator may have seen the
error of his ways, and may have con-
cluded not to try the patience and self-
respect of his subjects too far: none the
less will it remain a notable fact that the
possibility of fettering the German in-
tellect in the most arbitrary manner
should have occurred to a ruler of the
German people in the very last years of
the nineteenth century. We can not
but argue ill for the future of a man

EDITOR'S TABLE.

843

possessed of such overweening self-con-
fidence. The ancient Greeks looked
upon a character of this kind as proba-
bly predestined by the gods to a tragic
end; and the experience of mankind
has, on the whole, tended to show that
their presentiment in such cases was not
without foundation. Courage we ad-
mire, fidelity to principle we admire,
resolute statesmanship we admire; but
the determination of one man to impose
his will upon a nation resembles mad-
ness rather than the exercise of any
noble quality. It is hard for us in Amer-
ica to conceive how such a dream could
have entered the head of any presuma-
bly sane man.

It is worth while, perhaps, to take
this opportunity of asking the question
why it is thought so very necessary
to make special provision by law for
the teaching of theological doctrines.
The question is just as pertinent in this
country as in any other; for there are
many here who think such provision
should be made, and who, if they could
command a majority of votes for the
purpose, would quickly make it. Only
one answer can be given, and that is
that the feeling of the promoters of
such legislation is, that unless the doc-
trines in which they are interested are
arbitrarily and compulsorily taught,
they will have no chance of obtaining
a lodgment in the minds of the rising
generation. Faith in the home as a cen-
ter of religious teaching seems to have
almost wholly died out, and faith in the
Church to be nearly as low ; consequent-
ly the state is asked to step in and take
up the task of inculcating the cardinal
doctrines of Christian theology. As we
pointed out last month, however, the
inability of the state to do anything of
the kind is an accepted conclusion with
nearly all intelligent observers of the
events of the time, "What we may now
further point out is that, were the state
to attempt it, its success would mean
before long the intellectual and even
rehgious atrophy of the nation. Im-

agine for one moment the success of
Emperor "William's attempt. In twenty
or thirty years the great bulk of the
adult population would have gone
through the official theological mill.
All intellects would have been bowed
to the official explanation — unanswera-
ble because official — of the being and
attributes of God. All would have
bowed to the official proofs of the im-
mortality of the sonl. All would have
accepted the official indorsement of
ecclesiastical miracles, and the official
interpretation of church history. All
would have adjusted themselves to the
principal historic creeds. No doubt
some would have been brought up as
Protestants, and some as Catholics ; but
as in each case the teaching was official,
the effiect would probably be to create a
kind of imbecile readiness to admit as
equally true the most contradictory posi-
tions. It is impossible, we maintain, for
any person capable of reflection not to
see that such a system of education
would mean the death of all personal
interest in, or apprehension of, the truths
or doctrines inculcated. The being of
God can not be proved in the same man-
ner as the laws of chemistry ; the latter
admit of demonstrative proof, nobody
asks for more than demonstration, and
so long as demonstration is reached no
one objects to the road by which it is
reached; the former does not admit of
demonstrative proof in the same sense,
and everything depends upon the way
in which such proofs as it does admit of
are presented. Official teachers would,
however, have to put forward their offi-
cial proofs as demonstrative, and the
effect would either be to deaden intel-
lects or to turn out hypocrites by the
thousand. The one and only guarantee
for the vitality of theological beliefs is
perfect freedom on the part of those
who teach them and equal freedom on
the part of those who learn them. Give
to the individual intellect an infinite
outlook upon the great problems of ex-
istence, and a reverential acceptance of

844

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the cardinal principles of religion may
well be evoked ; but insist that definite
answers must be found to these trans-
scendent questions, and that there is
just one authorized way of arriving at
such answers, and you provoke revolt.
The only result, therefore, of Emperor
William's scheme, could it be realized,
would be to fill the German fatherland
with intellectual stagnation, formalism,
and hypocrisy. Such, too, would be the
effect here if the faint-hearts of the reli-
gious world could have their way. They
would intrust the inculcation of reli-
gious truths to the public-school teach-
ers, and would place religion on a par
with geography, with this difference in
favor of geography that it could prove all
its statements by irrefragable evidence,
while religion, though taught with an
equal air of authority, could not in any
similar manner prove its statements.
Truly, the friends of a cause are often
its greatest enemies, while those who
get the credit of being its enemies are
often its truest friends.

That the American people will not
hand over their religion to the state to
be sterilized in the public schools is now
a matter of certainty, and it will be a
very bad sign if anything of this kind
happens in Germany. "We can imagine
a cynical enemy of all religion aiding
and abetting the emperor's scheme, in
the confident expectation that it would
do more in ten years to extinguish vital
religion in the German Empire than
all the attacks of all the freethink-
ers could do in a century. We could
ima;?ine, too, that people with whom re-
ligion was a mere fashion or social
badge might favor it as tending to at-
tach a stigma to independent thought;
but we can not imagine sincerely and
intelligently religious people lending it
any countenance. If tlie religious clauses
of the present German education bill
become law, it will be a clear sign that,
to all intents and purposes, religion is
dead in Germany.

SAFEGUARDS OF UEALTB.

While disease at one front of battle
is ever yielding to the advances of medi-
cal skill, at another it is as surely sur-
rendering to the progress of hygiene.
To-day the physician is asked not only
how the sick may be healed, but how
the well may stay well. From year to
year investigation lengthens the list of
diseases strictly preventable, and diph-
theria and typhoid only linger to mark
the neglect of well-understood precau-
tions. Vaccination has been so striking
an example of what prophjlaxis can do,
that hundreds of eager experimenters
are endeavoring to bring consumption
and scarlet fever into the same category
as small-pox. From maladies less seri-
ous, but much more common, the public
is fast learning that immunity is largely
a question of taking care of one's gen-
eral health and vigor. Seeds of disease
which find a foothold in an enfeebled
frame are either repelled by a sound
and hearty constitution or harmlessly
digested by it. To maintain this happy
condition wholesome food, abundant ex-
ercise, personal cleanliness, temperance
in all things, and the avoidance of worry
are indispensable.

There are a good many people who
know their lung-tissues to be delicate,
or their heart-action to be irregular, or
who suffer from some other constitu-
tional weakness. Among this class the
custom is gradually spreading of con-
sulting a physician, not when acute diffi-
culty has arisen, but as soon as the in-
firmity is detected, and periodically there-
after. Not seldom health is maintained
in this way and life lengthened, for it is
in their early stages of development
that many diseases, especially the ob-
scure derangements of the nervous sys-
tem, can be most successfully treated.
Perhaps it is the daily glass of spirits,
or the weekly supper party, which the
physician interdicts. Quite as often it
is the allurement of the stock exchange
or the card-table which he has to pro-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

845

hibit. Whatever his advice, it has in-
calculably more value ia preventing a
crisis than in dealing with it after it has
come to pass. Just as the best services
of the lawyer are not in advocacy so
much as in steering his client clear of
the courts, so the doctor finds his
worthiest skill to be in keeping his
patient free from the need of cure or
healing.

In the task of maintaining health-
ful conditions, general and special, a
science has grown up in which not only
the physician but the architect, the sani-
tary engineer, the purveyor of food and
drink, the manufacturer of clothing, have
deep interests. This great science of
hygiene is now worthily represented in
the University of Pennsylvania by a
special laboratory devoted to it, which
was formally opened on February 22d.
It has been planned by Dr. John S. Bil-
lings, who is its director. The means
for carrying it on are to be credited to
the liberality of citizens of Philadelphia.
The laboratory contains research rooms
for investigations upon air, water, food,
soil, and clothing; v.'ork-shops and pho-
tomicrographic rooms, and special ar-
rangements for demonstrating the prin-
ciples and practice of heating and ven-
tilation, and of house drainage. In
addition there are ample lai)oratories for
chemical and bacteriological research.
The course of instruction embraces the
whole range of sanitary science — the
disposal of refuse, the management of
contagious diseases, the offensive and
dangerous trades, methods of vital sta-
tistics, and sanitary jurisprudence. In
directing this important work Dr. Bil-
lings is assisted by Dr. A. 0. Abbott,
recently Assistant in Bacteriology and
Hygiene at Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity.

All honor to the men and women
who have made this noble gift to their
kind I It will mean joy and life to
many thousands who else were doomed
to hopeless suffering and premature
death.

BOGY-nvNTmo.

The British mind seems prone to
conjure up terrors. The proposed tun-
nel under the Strait of Dover, whose
importance to English commerce would
probably equal that of all the docks of
London, is made impossible by the af-
frighted query, What if the French
should send an invading army against us
under the sea? A display of this ludi-
crous apprehensiveness, of more special
interest to cultivators of science, was
given by The Spectator in an article on
the celebration of Prof. Virchow's seven-
tieth birthday. Is such public homage
as Prof. Virchow received on this occa-
sion, The Spectator asks, "good for sci-
ence or good for the world in gener-
al ? " Its fear is that unworthy persons
will be drawn into the pursuit of science
for the sake of the applause to be won
therein, and it therefore looks askance
at the dawning tendency to bestow mer-
ited praise upon the achievements of
scientiflc men. The Spectator's ideal
man of science — devoted to knowledge
for its own sake, or rather for his own
gratification, and wholly indifferent to
the good opinion of others — is a rare
and regretable phenomenon. The real
man of science is a human being having
the same warm sympathy with his fel-
low-men and the same need of their
sympathy and appreciation that is found
in the normally constituted man of any
other calling. Shall a due measure of
public esteem be denied to these men
lest a few undeserving persons may try
to share it? The services of scientif-
ic investigators have too long been re-
paid with proscription or neglect. Men
whose occupation is the pursuit of truth
know full well what justice is; and, if
they are made to feel the smart of per-
sistent injustice and the chill of unvary-
ing loneliness, their capacity for work
will be sure to suffer from these repress-
ing influences.

But The Spectator has another appre-
hension, that rises to the dignity of a
well-developed bogy. The aforesaid un-

846

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wortliy persons having been drawn into
the pursuit of science, it apparently as-
sumes that they would display sufficient
ability in this field to make them very
dangerous. Our bogy-hunter says :

As a rule, science turns itself away frona
producing what is not useful but injurious,
and concentrates its attention on what is likely
to benefit mankind. It helps, of course, to
make war inventions more effective, but no sci-
entific man has yet persistently searched for
means of destroying non-combatants whole-
sale, or for sterilizing vast tracts of country as
a lava-flood sterilizes them. If once, however,
tlie tone of scientific feeling is lowered, there
is no knowing how far the maleficent side of
science may be developed. . . . The results
of scientific discoveries intended to be bene-
ficial ai'e often, as it is, turned to very ill uses.
"What would be the result if we had hundi-eds
of active brains consciously attempting to
shape Nature's actions to evil ends?

There is probably no career that is
less likely to hold any unworthy persons
who might be attracted to it than the
pursuit of science. A sufficient com-
mand of chemistry, for instance, to en-
able a man " actuated by worldly mo-
tives " to produce " an air-poison so po-
tent as to act instantaneously over a very
wide area " can not be acquired except
through an amount of patient research
that no such person would endure. The
Spectator had better sound its warnings
where they are more needed. Take the
field of literature, for example. Poets
receive and have long received a vast
deal more of adulation than has yet
fallen to the lot of men of science. We
like to think of poets as persons who can
utter none but fine and noble thoughts.
Is there not great danger that the ambi-
tious youth may say of poetry what The
Spectator imagines him saying of sci-
ence, " Here is a field in which I can ex-
change my brains and my assiduity
against popularity and worldly position
with great advantage?" Would it not
be better to withhold all marks of public
esteem from poets than to risk having
the craft adulterated with "persons pri-
marily actuated by worldly motives"?
Nor is this all. It is well known that

poetry exerts a vast influence over the
passions of men. The oft-quoted saying,
" I care not who makes the laws of a
people if I may make their songs," terse-
ly attests this. What dreadful deeds a
populace might be incited to " if half the
[poets] were primarily anxious to sell
their powei-s [of song] to the highest bid-
der ! " Here, indeed, is a bogy by which
The Spectator might well be terrified.

LITEEARY NOTICES.

Africa and America. By Alex. Crfmmell.
Springfield, Mass.: Willey & Co. Pp.
466.

It is difficult to finish this volume of ad-
dresses without renewed interest in the con-
dition and future of the African people.
The author has not only studied the needs
of the freedman in America, but through a
residence of twenty years on the western
coast of Africa has made himself acquainted
with the Liberian colonists and many native
negro tribes, and can differentiate the natu-
ral characteristics of his race from those
acquired in years of bondage. He allows
no rancor against those who have been its
oppressors to obscure his judgment, and
writes of slaveholders that they, " like all
other sorts of men, were divided into two
classes — the good and the bad."

Far worse than any present political in-
justice is the terrible inheritance of two
hundred years of moral and intellectual deg-
radation. To counteract this, an uplifting
of character and industrial training are
needed. The educational and material prog-
ress since emancipation disproves any idea^
of retrogression. According to the census
of 1880, the colored population was assessed
for over $91,000,000 of taxable property,
and nearly 16,000 school-teachers were
credited to them.

The race problem can not be settled by
amalgamation nor by absorption. It is not
a social question, but one of civil and politi-
cal equality. Unless this is conferred upon
the negro, the democratic idea is a failure.
The trend of national affairs, however, is to-
ward a fuller realization of justice, and the
dwelling together of various races in amity.

Several papers treat of the condition of

LITERARY NOTICES.

847

the negro in America ; others relate to the
interests of Liberia ; the Congo State ; the
aims of education and the lives of noted
leaders. All are well thought out, and can
not fail to be helpful to the people for
whom they were written.

Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Bio-
logical Problems By August Weis-
MANN. Vol. I. New York : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 471. Price, $2.
The three great names in the history of
biologic evolution are those of Lamarck,
Darwin, and Weismann. The first edition
of this work, which was soon exhausted, ap-
peared as a single volume, and at a much
higher price. The present volume is more
desirable, as one gets with it a list of refer-
ences to the numerous discussions that its
appearance immediately evoked, and which
has continued at a high tension and without
interruption in the numbers of Nature and
other periodicals ever since. One can un-
derstand the cause of the intense feeling
shown in these discussions by glancing at
the titles of these essays which have ap-
peared at various times since 1881 : The
Duration of Life, 1881 ; On Heredity, 1883 ;
Life and Death, 1883; The Continuity
of the Germ-plasm as the Foundation of
a Theory of Heredity, 1885; The Signifi-
cance of Sexual Reproduction in the The-
ory of Natural Selection, 1886; On the
Number of Polar Bodies and their Signifi-
cance in Heredity, 188Y ; On the Supposed
Botanical Proofs of the Transmission of Ac-
quired Characters, 1888 ; and The Supposed
Transmission of Mutilations, 1888.

While any one of these subjects was suf-
ficient to excite endless controversy, the last
two essays were bound to bring on an irre-
concilable conflict. A principle that we had
regarded as settled, namely, that traits ac-
quired by the individual during life could be
transmitted to his offspring, is not only de-
nied by Weismann, but this comer-stone of
natural selection being knocked away, the
edifice, to our astonishment, does not tumble,
but remains just as steady without it. The
author's judicial and temperate way, his
admission of doubt, where doubt exists,
inspires confidence in his deductions. In
ending his essay on the Duration of Life, he
says : " And so, in discussing this question of
life and death, we come at last — as in all

provinces of human research — upon prob-
lems which appear to us to be, at least for
the present, insoluble. In fact, it is the
quest after perfected truth, not its posses-
sion, that falls to our lot, that gladdens us>
fills up the measure of our life, nay! hal-
lows it."

In closing his essay on Life and Death
he says : " Life is continuous, and not peri-
odically interrupted : ever since its first
appearance upon the earth, in the lowest
organisms, it has continued without break ;
the forms in which it is manifested have
alone undergone change. Every individual
alive to-day — even the very highest — is to be
derived in an unbroken line from the first
and lowest forms."

It is impossible within the limits of a
brief review to make even an abstract of
the writer's arguments. The low price of
the work enables every student to possess it.
To the few remaining opponents of evolu-
tion among thoughtful students who are un-
familiar with the facts and details cited,
this hot discussion between the Weismanni-
ans and the Neo-Lamarckians must seem
fratricidal, whereas it may be compared to
a band of earnest travelers perfectly united
in their efforts to reach the same goal, and,
coming to a number of cross-roads, heated-
ly discuss which is the right road, firmly re-
solved to follow that when demonstrated,
even if many have to finally retrace their
steps in order to do so. The acrimony and
satire which have been excited by these dis-
cussions are in consequence of the fact that
there is no half-way ground upon which the
combatants can unite. It must end in abso-
lute defeat to one or the other side. Great
credit is due to Edward B. Poulton, Selmar
Schonland, and Arthur E. Shipley, all accom-
plished biologists, for their connection with
the work as editors.

The Story op the Hills. By Rev. H. N.
HuTcniNSON. New York and London:
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 357. Price, $1.50.
The simple description on the title-page
of this work — " a book about mountains for
general readers" — nptly characterizes the
contents and style of the volume. The au-
thor has written especially for those who
enjoy mountain scenery, and has aimed to
heighten their enjoyment by increasing their
understanding of what they see. He has

848

THE POPULAR SCIEJ^rCB MONTHLY.

not, however, put so strong an infusion of
science into the book as to make it distaste-
ful to those who read cliiefly for pleasure.
The first part of the book is descriptive,
dealing with "the mountains as they are,"
and in the latter part is told " how the
mountains were made." Throughout the
volume are scattered bits of picturesque
description quoted from enthusiastic lovers
of mountains, illustrative anecdotes, and
fragments of verse. The style is every
where clear, and the language is simple, few
terras being employed that are not in the
vocabulary of every cultivated person. The
text is illustrated with sixteen full-page
pictures from photographs by W. Donkin, J.
Valentine, and others. The Story of the
Hills will add much to the reputation which
the author has gained through his Autobi-
ography of the Earth.

Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad.
By Archibald Geikie. New York : Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 3b2. Price, $1.50.

These fourteen papers consist of popular
accounts of geological explorations, with a
few essays and addresses on geological sub-
jects. Several of them have been thought
of sufficient general interest for publication
in the popular periodicals Good Words and
Macmillan's Magazine. The first of these
sketches describes the author's earliest geo-
logical excursion, and contains some striking
testimony as to how science was taught when
Prof. Geikie was a boy. Other papers de-
ecribe excursions in Scotland, France, Nor-
way, the Yellowstone Park, and Wyoming.
The text is iUustrated with views of many
of the places visited, and with geological
diagrams.

School and College. Edited by Rat Greene
HuLiNG. Jlonthly. Boston : Ginn & Co.
Price, $1.50 a year.

The first number of an educational maga-
zine with the above name appeared in Janu-
ary. It starts as a periodical of high grade,
under the editorship of the principal of the
high school at New Bedford, Ifass., who is
well known as an educator and a writer on
educational topics. The opening article of
the January number is by E. Benjamin An-
drews, President of Brown University, on
Some of the Next Steps forward in Educa-
tion, and is characterized by a fullness of

progressive spirit. James H. Blodgett, of
the Census Office, contributes a statistical
paper on Secondary Education in Census
Years. There is a descriptive article on The
Greek Method of performing Arithmetical
Operations, by John Tetlow, head master of
the Girls' High and Latin Schools, of Boston,
which is illustrated with diagrams. B. C.
Burt, of Ann Arbor, discusses the question
When should the Study of Philosophy be-
gin ? There is also an editorial department,
in which Co-operation in Entrance Exami-
nations and Compulsory Greek in England
are discussed ; departments of News from
Abroad, and Home News, the latter contain-
ing statistics of college attendance in 1890-
'91 ; also departments for Letters and Re-
views.

Star-land. By Sir Robert Stawell Ball,
F. R. S. New York : Cassell & Co. Pp.
388.

The Royal Institution of Great Britain
provides at each Christmas season a course
of juvenile lectures. In 1881, and again in
188T, the course was given by the Royal
Astronomer of Ireland, who has embodied
his lectures in the present volume. The
several lectures deal with the sun, the moon,
the inner planets, the giant planets, comets
and shooting-stars, stars, and to these has
been added a chapter, with the title How to
name the Stars, telling how to recognize the
constellations. Since the lectures were pre-
pared for an audience of children, their
style is simple, though not childish, and
many adults could get a better understand-
ing of the outlines of astronomy from this
little book than from more dignified treatises.
The text is illustrated with nearly a hundred
pictures.

The Microscope and its Revelations. By
the late William B. Carpenter, M. D.,
F. R. S. Seventh edition. Pieviscd by
W. II. Pallinger, F. R. S. Philadelphia :
P. Blakiston, Son h Co. Pp. 1117.

The great advances in the application of
mathematical optics to the construction of
microscopes since the appearance of the
sixth edition of this cyclopedic work have
made necessary a recasting of a large part
of the treatise. The editor states in the
preface, somewhat paradoxically, that the
first five chapters of the last edition are rep-

LITERARY NOTICES.

849

resented in this one by seven chapters, two
of which "are on subjects not treated in
any former edition." In the second chap-
ter, on the Principles and Theory of Vision
with the Compound Microscope, the results
of the past twenty years' labors of Dr. Abbe,
of Jena, have been summarized in a manner
that has received Dr. Abbe's hearty com-
mendation. In treating many of the other
topics Dr. Dallinger has had the aid of emi-
nent specialists. The book is increased by
two hundred and fifty pages over the size of
the last edition. Great pains have been
taken to bring the text up to the most recent
knowledge of experts, and the illustrations
have been increased by the addition of nine-
teen new plates, many being colored, and
three hundred woodcuts, making the whole
number over eight hundred.

The Phosphates of America. By Francis
Wyatt. New York : The Scientific Pub-
lishing Company. Pp. 187. Price, $4.

The best evidence of the usefulness of
this book is that a second edition was re-
quired within a week from the publication
of the first. After setting forth the value
of phosphates in producing fertility of soils,
the author describes in successive chapters
the deposits of phosphates and the modes of
mining them employed in Canada, South
Carolina, and Florida. Lists of companies
engaged in phosphate-mining, with their
capitalization, are given, also the expenses
of working, the equipment required, and the
selling prices of the products. These chap-
ters are illustrated with many views of mines,
drying-sheds, and machinery for handling
and treating the ores. The manufacture of
sulphuric acid is then described, after which
the making of superphosphates is treated,
and a final chapter contains methods of an-
alysis of the materials and products of these
manufactures. The author states that the
volume embodies many facts, figures, and
suggestions resulting from long observation
and an extremely varied practical experience,
and he trusts that it will prove highly profit-
able to all classes of persons interested in
the production, manufacture, sale, and con-
sumption of commercial fertilizers. He has
aimed to couch the information in common
language, avoiding, as far as possible, chemi-
cal formulas and technical terms.
VOL. XL. — 57

The first volume of a monograph on Tlie
Tannins has been published by Prof. Henry
Trimble (Lippincott, $2). It contains chap-
ters on the discovery, general characters,
and the detection and estimation of tannins,
followed by a detailed treatment of gallo-
tannic acid. An index of authors, an index,
or more properly a chronological table, of
the literature of tannin, and a general index
to the volume, are appended.

The Experiment's arranged for Students
in General Chemistry, by Profs. Edgar F.
Smith and Harry F. Keller (Blakiston), has
reached a second and enlarged edition. It
is adapted to beginners, and is not intended
to displace the instructor, but rather to as-
sist him. Pieferences are made to Richter'a
Inorganic Chemistry, but any other suit-
able book may be used instead. Thirty-
seven diagrams of apparatus are given, and
questions and problems arc interspersed
throughout the directions for experiments.
The volume is interleaved with blank leaves
for notes.

Radical Wrong;; in the Prfccpts and Prac-
tices of Civilized Man, by /. Wilson (the author,
Newark, N. J., $1), is devoted to condemning
practices of modern social life that, in the
opinion of the author, are wrong. Mr. Wilson
denounces war, cruelty to animals, capital
punishment, private ownership of land, tak-
ing payment for the use of money, dis-
posing of property by will, etc., with equal
emphasis.

The second volume of the exposition of
the Hermetic Philosophy, by an editor who
signs himself in an enigma (Slyy, of the "/T.
B. of Z."), is published by the J. D. Lippin-
cott Company, Philadelphia ($1). The work
as a whole includes lessons, general dis-
courses, and explications of " fragments "
from the schools of Egypt, Chaldca, Greece,
Italy, Scandinavia, etc., designed for students
of the Hermetic, Pythagorean, and Platonic
sciences, and Western occultism. The pres-
ent volume contains the second lesson on the
Principles and Elements of Things, and a
discourse from Porphyry on Auxiliaries to
the Perception of Intelligible Nature. The
introduction comprises a notice of Sanchonia-
thon, the ancient Phoenician philosopher and
historian, and the text of the fragment of
his Cosmogony and Theogony which has
been preserved by Eusebius ; and the dis-

850

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

course by Porphyry is preceded by a notice
of that writer,

Mr. Andrew J. Rid-off^ in preparing the
First Lessons in Arithmetic (American Book
Company, price, 36 cents), has endeavored
to promote clear, accurate, and thorough
worii in the four fundamental rules and the
training of the judgment in the proper ap-
plication of those powers. It is divided
into three parts, of which the first is de-
voted to exercises — each number being stud-
ied in all combinations — in numbers not
greater than ten. All the processes are
graphically illustrated with diagrams ar-
ranged so as to resemble the dots on domi-
noes. Part II deals with units and tens,
with the graphic method continued. After
the study of the number fifty, equal parts —
halves, fourths, and eighths — are considered.
Pamiliar measures are introduced. In Part
III the treatment of numbers up to one
hundred is completed, the pupil is carried
through the four fundamental rules in the
higher orders, and is familiarized with their
application to simple business transactions.
No abstract reasoning or intricate problems
are introduced. Training to reckon rapidly
and accurately is mainly sought, and the
book is intended to systematize and facilitate
rather than to supersede oral instruction.

A useful manual of Cookery for the Dia-
betic has been prepared by W. TI. and Mrs.
Foole, and is published by Longmans, Green
& Co. (price, $1). In explanation of its
purpose Dr. F. W. Pavy says, in a preface
which he has written for it, that it is neces-
sary to frame the dietary in diabetes so as
to exclude as far as practicable certain prin-
ciples of food which enter considerably into
the dietary of ordinary persons. The basis
or material part of a dish placed upon the
table may be permissible, but accessories in-
troduced in the cooking of it may render it
objectionable. Diabetics are often in this
way deprived of many of the properties
which render food palatable and attractive,
and reduced to a monotony of a few dishes
of the plainest character, Mr. and Mrs,
Poole seek to relieve them from this incon-
venience by furnishing them with recipes
by which their food may be given pleasant
seasoning and at the same time harmless to
them, and its variety may be increased.

The distinctive features of the Inductive

Latin Frimer (American Book Company) of
William R. Harper and Isaac B. Burgess are
that the lessons are shorter than those of
the Inductive Method of the same authors}
formal grammar is reduced to a minimum,
and is introduced more slowly ; no reference
is made to the grammar during the early les-
sons ; the exercises are easy and copious ;
prominence is given to conversation upon
the text ; maps, plans, and pictures are in-
troduced ; and a treatment of English gram-
mar, inductive in character and adapted to
these who never studied English grammar
before and to the needs of those studying
Latin, is bound with the Latin lessons. The
work is based upon the connected text ol
Cffisar.

Russian Traits and Terrors are vividly
portrayed in a book of that name, which
professes to be a faithful picture of the
Russia of to-day ; published by B. R. Tucker,
Boston (85 cents). The author's name, if it
can be called that, is E. B. Lanin, which we
are told, however, is the collective signature
of several writers in the Fortnightly Re-
view. An unpleasant picture enough is given
of lying, fatalism, sloth, and dishonesty as
Russian characteristics ; of the condition of
Russian prisons; of a low stage of sexual
morality ; of the miserable situation of the
Jews; of Russian finance, which is repre-
sented as a " racking of the peasantry." To
all this is added an ode by Swinburne, writ-
ten after reading the account of the prisons.

Homilies of Science (Open Court Com-
pany, Chicago) is a collection of papers on
subjects related to religion, which were first
contributed by the author, Dr. Paul Carus,
as editorial articles in The Open Court. The
principle that pervades the papers is to
preach an ethics that is based upon truth
and upon truth alone. The homilies are de-
clared not hostile toward the established
religions of traditional growth, but toward
the dogmatic conception only of those re.
ligions. They are also not hostile toward
free thought, but, standing upon the princi-
ple of avowing such truths alone as can be
proved by science, they reject that kind of
free thought only which refuses to recognize
the authority of the moral law. The author
accounts for his position on these matters
by relating that in childhood he was a devout
and pious Christian ; on growing up, he re-

LITERARY NOTICES.

851

solved to be a missionary ; studying for that,
he lost his faith in dogmatic Christianity,
but found his religious ideals purified, and
became a missionary of a religion which
knows no dogmas ; which is not in conflict
with Christianity ; which can never come in
conflict with science, and is not in conflict
with any other religion ; " for it is the goal
and aim of all religions."

Very different from the reverential spirit
of Dr. Carus's Homilies is the tone of Mr,
G. H. Martinis Antidotes for Superstition,
which comes to us from Watts & Co., Lon-
don, and which we can only describe as a
vehement attack on Christianity, its origins
and purport. In the first chapter — on
Christian Veracity — the charge is made
that the method of teaching biblical history
and chronology in the seminaries " is one of
organized misrepresentation and systematic
concealment of facts," and that the rest of
Christian instruction is of the same kind.
In the second chapter the essential spirit of
Christianity is described as " a most malign,
subtle, and Protean spirit." The assignment
of other similar traits is followed by at-
tempts to show, in Christianity before
Christ and Pre - Christian Gospels, that
what is good in Christianity is of more an-
cient origin and is common to pagan re-
ligions ; and by " ammunition for our re-
cruits " in the shape of supplied answers
for persons unskilled in debate, to the argu-
ments of the apologists for Christianity.

The Commission of Fish and Fisheries
has issued the Beport of the Commission for
18S7, which covers the whole of that year
and the first half of 1888. Future reports
will cover the fiscal year of the Government
instead of the calendar year, as heretofore.
In the summer of 1887 occurred the death
of Prof. Baird, who had been commissioner
since 1871. The duties of the office were
performed for about six months by Dr. G.
Brown Goode, and the Hon. Marshall McDon-
ald was then appointed commissioner. The
work of the eighteen months covered by
this volume is reviewed in the commissioner's
report, and to it are appended an account of
the Fisheries of the Great Lakes, by H. M.
Smith, M. M. Snell, and J. W. Collins; a
Report upon the Division of Fisheries, by
J. "W. Collins ; reports on the distribution of
fish and eggs by the commission, and on the

work of the steamer Albatross ; reports on
the construction and equipment of the
schooner Grampus, by J. W. Collins ; on the
operations of the Grampus, by J. W. and
D. E. Collins ; a Review of the Labroid
Fishes of America and Europe, by David
Starr Jordan ; a paper on Lake Superior En-
tomostraca, by S. A. Forbes ; and one on
Entozoa of Marine Fishes of New England,
by Edwin Linton. All these papers are fully
illustrated.

The Sixth Annual Report of the Commis-
sioner of Labor, being the report for 1890,
is devoted to statistics of the cost of pro-
ducing iron and steel. It makes a volume
of fourteen hundred pages, and is divided
into three parts, of which the first gives the
cost of labor, raw materials, and other ele-
ments that enter into the total cost of pro-
duction ; the second is devoted to the time
and earnings of laborers, and the efficiency
of labor; while the third part, comprising
eight hundred pages, shows the cost of the
laborers' Uving, in detail. Establishments
in Great Britain and on the continent of
Europe, as well as in the United States, were
included in the investigation. This is one
of the reports on the cost of producing
dutiable articles which are called for in the
act of Congress establishing the Department
of Labor, and throws a vast amount of light
upon the question of how much protection
the iron and steel industries need in order
to continue the present wages of American
workmen.

The fifth of the lists of special classes
of novels, compiled by W. M. Grisivold, is a
Descriptive list of British Novels (the au-
thor, Cambridge, Mass., $2), comprising over
nine hundred titles. Each entry is accom-
panied by from a few lines to half a page
of description, which in most cases is taken
from a review in some prominent literary
periodical. We can join heartily with Mr
Griswold in the hope that " the publication
of this and similar lists will lessen, in some
measure, the disposition to read an inferior
new book when superior old books, equally
fresh to most readers, are at hand." There
are no antiquated books in the list before
us — the oldest that we note arc some of
George Eliot's which appeared in 1859 and
1860. Surely no apology is needed for go-
ing back far enough to include these.

852

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The Bactei'iological World and 3fodcrn
Medicine, formed )3y the fusion of the two
journals whose united names it bears, issued
the first number of its new series in Novem-
ber, 1S91. It is edited by Paul Paquin,
M. D., and /. II. Kcllogj, M. D., with a large
staff of collaborators (Battle Creek, Mich.
$2 a year). Among the contents of the
three numbers before us are continued arti-
cles on Influence of the Continuous Current
on Microbes, by Mil. Apostoli and Laguer-
riere, with illustrations ; The Influence of
Dress in producing the Physical Decadence
of American Women, by J. II. Kellogg, M. D.,
illustrated with pncumographic tracings, out-
lines of natural and constricted forms, etc. ;
Lessons in Bacteriology, by Paul Paquin, M.
D. ; and The Application of the Microscope
in Medical, Medico-legal, and Legal Difiicul-
tics, by Frederick Gaertner, M. D. There
are also shorter articles, notes, reviews, edi-
torials, etc. The journal has as a depart-
ment the bulletins of the Medical and Sur-
gical Sanitarium, and of the Laboratory of
Hygiene connected with it. In addition to
the other illustrations, each number contains
one or two colored plates.

A Ilistorij of Circumcision has been pub-
lished by P. C. Pcmondlno, M. D. (F. A.
Davis, $1.25 and 50 cents), extending from
the earliest times to the present. The au-
thor describes the Hebraic and other modes
of performing this operation, and argues
strongly in favor of the practice, setting
forth a great many annoyances and diseases
to which the presence of the prepuce con-
tributes, both in early and in later life. The
book contains also descriptions of infibula-
tion, muzzling, and other operations that
have been practiced on the prepuce, and his-
tories of castration, eunuchism, hermaphro-
dism, and hypospadias. The work gives
abundant evidence of having been carefully
prepared, and can not fail to be of service
to the surgeon. It contains much informa-
tion, moreover, that would benefit lay read-
ers, and the author's declared intention of
making the volume " readable " has been
very successfully carried out. Over a hun-
dred notes to the text, a list of works
quoted, and an index are appended ; there
arc also two illustrations, one of He-
braic and the other of Egyptian circum-
cision.

I'CBLICATIONS EECEIVED.

Allen, Harrison, M. D., University of Pennsyl-
vania. Addresses on Anatomy. Pp. 19.

Aver, N. W. & Son, Philadelphia. Calendar for
1892.'

Bacon. Benjamin "Wisner. The Genesis of Gene-
sis. Hartford: Ihe Student lublishing Co. Pp.
352. $2.50.

Ballanoe, George A., and Edmunds, "W alter. The
Ligation of the Great Arteries in Continuity. Jlac-
miilan & Co. Pp. 56S. $10.

Black, George Asbton. History of Municipal
Ownership of Land on Manhattan Island. .New
York: University Faculty of Political Science. Pp.
S3, with Plates. 50 cents.

Brocknoy, Frederick J., M. D. Essentiiils of Medi-
cal Phvsics. Philadelphia : W. B. Saunders. Pp.
SSO. $1.

Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Astro-
nomical Hand-book for 1SU2. Pp. 38. 20 cents.

Coltmar, Pobert. The Chinese. Philadelphia:
F. A. Davis. Pp. 212. With Plates.

Cdlumbia College. New York. Statement of the
Committee on Site. Pp. 9.

Comstock. Theodore B. Eeport on the Geology
and Mineral Re^oiu-ces of the Central Mineral Legion
of Texas. Pp.128. AYith .Maps.

Davis, N. S., Jr., M. D. Consumption. Philadel-
phia : F. A. Davis. Pp. 14.S. 75 cents.

Draper, Andrew S. Thirty-eighth Report as
State Superintendent of Public' Instruction of New
York. Pp. CO.— Points in Favor of the Township
System of Schools. Pp. 4.— Address to New York
State Teachers' Associ.ation. Pj). 22. — American
Schools for American Citizenship. Pp. S".

Engineering News, New York. Manual of Amer-
ican Water Works. Pp. 3S4.

Flower, William Henry. The Horse. Modern
Science Series. D. Appleton & Co. I'p. 204. $1.

Fliigel, Ewald. Thomas Carlyle's Moral and Ee-
ligious Development. New York : N. L. Holbrook
&. Co. Pp. 140.

Glazier, Wilhard. Source of the Mississippi.
Broad sheet.

Gordon. H. L. The Fe.ist of the Virgins, and other
Poems. Chicago: Laird & Lee. J p. 3GC, with
Plates.

Gorton. Pev. James. Sharpsville, Pa. The Sab-
bath Question and the World's Fair. Pp. IG.

Greer, Henry. Eecent Advances in Electricity.
Pp. 55.

Hale, George E. Eecent Results in Solar Promi-
nence Photography. Pp. 9.

Hasting.-;. C. W. Chicago. Chart of the Ele-
ments and Proportions of Soaring Flight. 75 cents.

Ives. J. E.. Philadelphia. Reptiles and Batra-
chians from Northern Yucatan and Mexico. Pp. 6.

James, William. Psychology. New York : Henry
Holt & Co. Pp. 479.

Japan Journal of the College of Science, Im-
perial University. Yolume II. Part I. Pp. 130,
with Plates.

Jastrow Joseph. The Natural History of Anal-
ogy (Anthropological Address, A. A. A. S.) Pp.
23.

Keen, W. W.. M. D . Philadelphia. Congenital
Tumors of the Head and Spine.

Ledger, Public, Philadelphia. Almanac for 1S92.
Pp. 73.

I,e Favre. Carrica. Delsartian Phy.oical Culture.
New York : Fowler & Wells Co. Pp 108. 25 cents.

Marine Biological Laboratory. Foiu-th Annu'il
Report. Boston. Pp. 40.

Merrill, Frederick J. H. Quiitemary Geology of
the Hudson River Valley. Pp. 54.

Mills. Chnrles, M. D, and Keen, W. W., M. D.
Jacksonian Epilepsy, etc. Pp. 13.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

853

Munro, J. Heroes of the Telegraph. New York
and Chicago: Fleming U. Kevell. Pp. 28S. $1.4Ll.

National Educational Association. Journal of
Proceedings and Addi-ess. Session of 1S91. To-
ronto. Pp. 892.

Netto, Ladislao. Le MusSum National de Rio de
Janeiro. Son Influence sur les Sciences Naturelles
au Bresil. Paris : Ch. Delagrave. Pp. S3.

Payne, W. W., Nonhfield, Minn., and Hale. George
E., Editors. Astronomy and Astrophysics. 'I'en
times a year. January, iS92. Pp. 96. $4 a year.

Pickering, Edward C. Cambridge, Mass. Forty-
sixth .\nnual Report of the Director of the Astro-
nomical Observatory of Harvard College. Pp. 11.

Robinson, John. Our Trees. Salem, Mass. : Es-
sex Institute. Pp. 120.

Sheldon, W. L., St. Louis. The Meaning of the
Ethical Movement. Pp. 41.

Shepard, Charles H., M. D., Brooklyn, N. T.
Rheumatism and its Treatment by Turkish Baths.

Shufeldt, R. W., Tacoma. Wash. Taxonomy of
the North American Pygopodes. Pp. 6.

Stallcrop, John 0. Of Matter, the Laws and the
Life thereof. Pp. 50.

Thorne, R. Thome. Diphtheria. Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 266. *2.

Thomas, Cyrus. Catalogue of Prehistoric Works
East of the Rocky Mountains Washington: Amer-
ican Bureau of Ethnology. Pp 246. with Maps.

Turner, Frederick J. The Character .and Influ-
ence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin Baltimore :
Johns Hopkins Press. Pp. 94. 50 cents.

Tyndall, John. New Fragments. D. Applston
& Co. Pp. 500. $2.

United States National Museum, Washington :
Explorations in Newfoundland and Labrador. By

F. A. Lucas. Pp. 20. — On a Bronze I5uildha in the
United States National Museum. By Charles DeKay.
Pp. 8. — The Puma, or American Lion. Bv F. AV.
True. Pp. 20.— The Musetuns of the Future. By

G. Brown Goode. Pp. 20.

University of the State of New York, Albany.
University Extension Bulletin, No. 1. Pp. 50. 10
cents.

University of Pennsylvania. Courses in Me-
chanical and Electrical Engineering for lS91-'92. Pp.
38.

Ward, Lester F. Principles and Methods of Geo-
logic Correlation by Means of Fossil Plants. Pp. ^.~
'I'he Plant-bearing Deposits of the American Lias.
Pp.7.

Winslow, Arthur. Preliminary Report on the
Coal Deposits of Missouri. Jeflterson City. Pp. 226,
■with Map.

Wolif, Alfred R. The Ventilation of Buildings.
New York. Pp. 32. 25 cents.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

The Peabody Mnseom of Archaeology.—

The Peabody Museum of American ArchaB-
ology has received for current expenses
since 1881, when the first gift was made to
it, $27,801. The gifts amounted to an av-
erage of $3,089 a year. The permanent
fund for the support of the museum gives
an income of $2,376 a year. At no time
has so much interest been talcen in the
work of the museum or in aid of its explo-
rations as during the past two years. Im-
portant additions have been made to the
building, and improvements in the arrange-

ment of the collections. Among the results
of the various works arc additional discov-
eries of p alaeolithic implements in the Tren-
ton gravel by Dr. Abbott, and of others
from the older or Columbian gravel by Dr.
Cresson ; discoveries by Mr. Ernest Volk in
relation to the early people of the Delaware
Valley ; explorations by the curator of burial-
places of Massachusetts Indians at Win-
throp; of Seneca Indians in the Genesee
Valley ; and of village sites of Indians in
the Potomac Valley, with recovery of chipped
stones and implements in various stages of
manufacture from an ancient workshop. The
Serpent Mound Park has been completed,
and the hay crop and the discriminate cut-
ting of timber from parts of the land will
help bear the expense of maintaining it. A
collection and several important objects
have been received from Mexico, Yucatan,
and Santo Domingo ; crania of Zufii and of a
Tierra del Fuegian ; the sacred pole of the
Omaha Indians, with the scalps of noted ene-
mies of the tribe, the sacred pipe, arrows, etc.;
Peruvian pottery and pottery vessels, stone
implements, and carved stones from Chiriqui ;
implements, weapons, masks, etc., from New
Guinea and several islands of the Pacific;
casts of M. Desire Charnay's collections of
the Lorillard Expedition to Yucatan and
Mexico ; and copper implements from the
province of Tobasco, Mexico, which will
form an important link in the chain of evi-
dence upon the working of stone in Mexico
and Central America. Continued explora-
tions in the Little Miami Valley have re-
sulted in the discovery of some ancient
hearths half a mile below the Turner earth-
works, which furnish evidence of the occu-
pation of the bottom lands at different in-
tervals during the formation of the deposit
that fills the valley. The Turner earthwork
has now been thoroughly explored ; more
so, perhaps, than any earthwork in the
country. In the last mound examined, large
flint points of peculiar shape, handles made
of antlers, and specimens of the objects
called gorgets made from a stalagmitic or
fibrous gypsum, were found — all unique.
Another curious work has been examined
at Foster's, about twenty miles above the
Turner group. It is a circumvallntion more
than half a mile in extent, made up of
a carefully laid wall of flat stones, loose

854

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stones behind it, and beliind and over these
a mass of clay burned to all degrees of
hardness. The curator pronounces it one
of the most remarkable structures he has
ever seen. Lectures and instructions have
been delivered on some of the subjects cher-
ished by the museum, and an outline of a
course of American archaeology and eth-
nology for advanced students is published
in the report. The most important of the
later gifts is one by Mrs. Mary Copley
Thaw, of Pittsburg, for a fellowship fund,
of which Miss Alice C. Fletcher is to be the
first beneficiary.

The Harvard Obseryatory Time-Serv-
ice.— In giving notice of the discontinuance,
after the end of March, of the time-service
furnished by Harvard College Observatory,
Prof. Pickering has taken occasion to give a
brief history of the operation of this branch
of the observatory's work. It has been
maintained for nearly twenty years, and has
given continuous signals — that is, signals
throughout the twenty-four hours, instead
of for a short time each day — to the cities of
Boston and Cambridge, the railroads center-
mg in Boston, and the Western Union Tele-
graph Company. Through the latter agen-
cies the signals were distributed over a
large part of New England and to New
York city. The subscriptions of the city of
Boston and the railroads, and the receipts
from jewelers who timed their clocks by
the signals, were sufficient to defray the cost
of furnishing the exact time, and for some
years formed a source of revenue to the
observatory, while no charge was made to
the city of Cambridge or the Western Union
Telegraph Company. The observatory was
one of the foremost and most earnest pro-
moters of the adoption of standard time, al-
though its revenues were likely to be dimin-
ished by it. One of the greatest advantages
of the time-service to the observatory was
that it kept before the public the practical
value of astronomical work. Many thou-
sands of persons, who take no interest in a
work of a purely scientific character, realize
the great financial value to the public of an
accurate standard of time. The observatory
desired to confer this benefit on the public,
and would have been ready to do so, even at
a financial loss ; but recently the time sig-

nals of the United States Naval Observatory
have been offered to the public at very low
rates, through the Western Union Telegraph
Company, and the Harvard College Observa-
tory is relieved of the duty. The expense
of furnishing the time is borne by the peo-
ple through a Government appropriation. A
time-service, under which the people at large
within its sphere were supplied at the ex-
pense of a few who received special benefits
from it, gives way to a system under which
these special interests are supplied free by
taxation of the whole people.

Preservation of Delicately Colored Speci-
mens.— A mounting fluid for specimens
compounded by Mr. Haly, of the Colombo
Museum, Ceylon, proves to be also an excel-
lent medium for preserving the colors of
fish and other animals. It is composed of
cocoanut oil and carbolic acid. The most
tender frogs and snakes, the delicate plum-
like bloom on the geckoes, the fugitive red-
dish tint on certain snakes, are not injured
but are beautifully preserved by it. Pre-
served fish-skins can be packed away in it
for an indefinite period, and, although they
do not preserve their sheen like fish in the
oil itself, they maintain a silvery and nat-
ural appearance, very different from that of
ordinary museum specimens. It appears to
be an excellent preservative for crustacca,
the higher orders of arachnids and centi-
peds, but has hitherto proved a failure for
marine invertebrates in general. The per-
fect miscibility of the two liquids opens up
endless possibilities. The absolutely une-
vaporable nature of the liquid, apart from
its other qualities, makes it invaluable in a
tropical climate. The acid makes it possi-
ble to mix cocoanut oil and turpentine, and
thus is formed a splendid microscopic fluid,
in which objects may be allowed to soak,
without any previous preparation, and in
which they become very transparent.

Cnltivation of tlie Bermuda Onion. — The

Bermuda onion is raised, according to Mr.
Russell Hastings, in Garden and Forest, in a
temperature which from November to June
ranges from 50° to 75°, never higher, never
lower, with never a greater monthly range
than 25°, or a greater daily range than 14°.
Its value lies in its mild and dehcate flavor.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

855

a3 well as in the unusual season at which it
is fresh. The seed is all grown in TencrifEe
Island, of two varieties, one producing white
and the other red bulbs. The white bulbs
are a little earlier, but the red ones are
Bweeter. The seed is so^vn very thickly in
seed-beds — the soil of which has been pre-
pared with special care and highly enriched
— from the last of September till early in
November. The plants are transplanted in
December and January. The fields are
little pockets of earth scattered here and
there over the island, in depressions between
the rocks. They seldom contain an area of
more than two acres, and the larger propor-
tion of them contain less than half an acre.
The soil is carefully prepared and laid out,
by treading paths into beds about three feet
wide, into which the little plants, about as
large as a goose-quill, are transplanted from
the seed-beds. The whole number of acres
cultivated on the island of Bermuda in the
winter of 1890-'91, in onions, potatoes, to-
matoes, and beets, was 2,422.

Hannfactnre of Silk Gauzes. — Silk gauzes
are manufactured by a special method dis-
tinct from all other modes of weaving, in
which, according to M. G. Hennebcrg, of
Zurich, the first consideration is the selec-
tion, from among the best brands of raw silk,
that which will give the most uniform and
the firmest twist. The twist is obtained by
spinning two threads, one upon the other,
about a thousand turns to the metre of
length. When the threads intended for the
chain have been stretched uniformly with
the most delicate care, to prevent a pre-
mature wearing away (which occurs when
the tension is unequal, by the two light
threads snapping) each of the threads of the
chain is passed separately between two
meshes of the weaving harness, and between
the teeth of the comb or of extremely fine
steel. To show how carefully this work must
be done, we mention that a steel comb used
in weaving a gauze one metre wide, No. 17,
has 6,517 teeth, with as many spaces be-
tween them. Next is the preparation of
the chain for the operation of weaving, by
moistening it with soft brushes. Some of
the valleys of eastern Switzerland, on ac-
count of their elevated position and special
climatic and atmospheric conditions, seem

particularly well adapted to the weaving of
a strong twist, exceptionally brittle and hard.
The weavers do their work in couples or
threes in specially constructed cellars abun-
dantly lighted and aired, the temperature of
which should be kept nearly the same —
about 50° Fahr. — through the whole year,
and the moisture seventy-five per cent.
Whenever a notable variation in temperature
takes place, the weaving should be stopped
till a favorable change occurs. The weaver
should be a strong, hearty man, because the
management of the loom demands much
skill and a more than ordinary toughness of
body. When the piece is done, it is washed,
stre'ched on a frame to dry, and dried by
drawing a pan of hot coals back and forth
under it. Silk gauze must be kept in per-
fectly dry and well-aired places.

Habits of the Wandering Albatross. — Of

the wandering albatross {Dlomcdca cxulans)
a Mr. Harris, who has carefully studied it,
says that at a certain time of the year, be-
tween February and Juno, the old birds
leave their young and go to sea, not to return
till October, when they arrive in large num-
bers. During their absence the young birds
never leave the breeding-ground. Immedi-
ately after the return of the old birds, each
pair goes to its old nest, and, after a little
fondling of the young one, turns it out and
prepares the nest for the next brood. The
deserted young ones are in good condition
and very lively, being frequently seen off
their nests exercising their wings ; and when
the old birds come back, a young bird will
often remain outside of the nest and nibble
at the head of the old one, until the feathers
between the beak and the eye are removed,
and the skin is made sore. The young birds
do not go far from land till the following
year, when they accompany the older ones
to sea.

Railway Accidents for 1889-'90.— Ac-
cording to the statistics of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, the total number of
passengers, employes, and other persons not
trespassers, who suffered death or injury on
railroads in the United States during the year
ending June 30, 1890, was 29,196, of whom
about five sixths were employes. The num-
ber of casualties to employes was greater by

856

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

2,845 than in 1SSS-'S9, and greater by 2,627
than in ISS'Z-'SS. The number of casualties
to passengers was 255 greater than in 1888-
'S'J, and 258 greater than in ISSV-'SS. In each
class the number killed is about one tenth of
the number injured. The largest number of
casualties occur to employes engaged di-
rectly in handling trains. Thus, while train-
men represent but 20 per cent of the total
number of employes, the casualties sus-
tained by them account for 58 per cent of
total casualties. A passenger riding contin-
uously at the rate of 30 miles an hour might
expect immunity from death by railway ac-
cident for 158 years; but an engineer, a
brakeraan, or a conductor, under the same
conditions, is liable to a fatal accident at the
expiration of 35 years. The most common
accident to which railway employes are
liable results from coupling and uncoupling
cars. Railway travel is found to be least
safe in the States south of the Potomac and
Ohio Elvers. In the Western territory rail-
way employment and travel are slightly
safer than in the Southern States, while the
smallest proportion of accidents occur in the
States east of Illinois and north of the Poto-
mac and Ohio.

Th? Power of Water in Motion. — After
an elaborate series of computations. Prof.
Samuel B. Christy, of the University of
California, concludes that if a nozzle of from
six to nine inches diameter were specially
arranged to throw a stream of water verti-
cally upward against a spherical bowlder of
quartz weighing 1,000 pounds, the vertical
head being anywhere from 100 to 500 feet,
the bowlder would be forced up until the di-
minished velocity of the stream established
an equilibrium of pressures. There would
be a point at which the upward pressure of
the stream would exactly balance the gravity
pressure of the bowlder, holding the rock
suspended. In practice, of course, the bowl-
der could not be balanced accurately upon
the axis of the stream, but would fall to one
side or the other. But if a large conical
basket of iron bars were arranged about the
nozzle so as to catch the bowlder whenever
it should be deflected from the stream, and
return it to the nozzle, the 1,000 pounds of
quartz would be kept in play like a ball in a
fountain. As to cutting these streams. Prof.

Christy says that he has often tried to drive
a crowbar into one of them. The stream
felt as solid as a bar of iron, and, although
he could feel the point of the crowbar enter
the water for perhaps half an inch, the bar
was thrown forward with such force that it
was almost impossible to retain it in the
grasp. An axe swung by the most power-
ful man could not penetrate the stream ;
yet, it might be cut by the finger of a child,
provided the child were seated in a railway
train moving parallel with the stream in the
same direction and with the same velocity,
which would be considerably more than a
mile per minute.

Chinese Roads. — According to a com-
munication by the United States minister in
Pekin, road-making has not been brought to
great perfection among the Chinese. The
country abounds in water-ways, and roads
receive the less attention. Human carriers
being cheaper than beasts of burden, the
need of roads over the mountain passes Is
not so seriously felt as it otherwise would
be. In southern China, at the centers of
the tea trade, the long string of coolies
bearing down from the hills the leaves, in
deep baskets slung on poles, is a familiar
sight. In northern China, where water-ways
are not so numerous as in the south, inter-
communication has always presented serious
difficulties, which no attempt has been made
to overcome. Bridges have been built over
some smaller streams, but are not kept in
repair. The large rivers are to be crossed
by ferries only, the smaller ones to be forded.
In some places there are bridges, too narrow
to be crossed by carts, where the mules are
taken out and led singly, while the carts are
carried over on men's shoulders. In times
of flood there is frequently no way of cross-
ing. Intelligence is conveyed between the
capital and outside provinces by an elaborate
system of post stations thirty miles apart,
where relays of horses are kept in readi-
ness for the imperial courier. By these
means dispatches have been sent to distant
capitals at the rate of two hundred and fifty
miles a day. The express courier from Gar-
tok to Lhara, in Thibet, a distance of eight
hundred miles, travels night and day, and is
not relieved. His clothes are sealed on him,
and can be removed only after the seal has

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

857

been broken by the proper official. The
messengers are lifted at the post station
from one horse to another, and sometimes
die on the way from exposure and fatigue.
Over some mountain roads, which would
otherwise be impassable, considerable work
has been done and money expended. In
some places the paths have been paved for
foot-passengers, and in others provision has
been made for the passage of carts. Most
of these roads date from very remote periods,
but there are occasional instances of recent
construction and repair.

Forest Growth after Fire.— In an article
in Zoe, quoted in Garden and Forest, Mr. T.
S. Brandagee describes the vegetation that
grows on ground over which forest fires
have run, particularly in Colorado, Montana,
and on the Pacific coast. Trees have a
power of resisting fire proportioned to the
thickness of their bark. The redwood trees
of the forests of the California coast, when
they are killed or burned to the ground, send
up new shoots from their roots, which soon
surround the old stems with a luxuriant
growth ; the parent stem disappears in time,
leaving only the circular groves characteristic
of the redwood. The forests of Douglas fir
in the coast region of Oregon and Wash-
ington destroyed by fire are in time replaced
by countless seedlings which under favorable
conditions grow very rapidly. The mountain-
ous region is usually more commonly covered
with a new growth than regions of lesser al-
titudes, although the new growth is not al-
ways at first the same as that of the original
forest. Fire is very apt to destroy in the
mountain regions the seeds of conifers, for
seedlings do not appear immediately on the
site of a coniferous forest, although trees of
the original species gradually appear grow-
ing under the shade and protection of bushes,
aspens, and other plants which first cover
the burned ground. That fire is the principal
cause of this change of forest composition is
shown by the fact that, when the original
trees arc cut and fires are excluded, young
trees of the same species appear at once.
Many of the trees that grow in the regions
where fires prevail have the power of repro-
ducing themselves by root-suckers strongly
developed. The soil loosened by fire, and
enriched by the ashes of the destroyed for-

ests, provides excellent seed-beds for the
germination of the seeds of many annual
and perennial plants. Hence these Califor-
nia burns often afford the best botanizing
grounds in the State ; and several otherwise
rather local plants are appearing in such
situations in much greater numbers and
growing much more luxuriantly than they
have ever been known to do before. It is not
difficult, therefore, to imagine how great
an influence this periodical burning of vast
forest areas must have upon the composition
and spread of the flora of the region.

A Hnndred Miles an Honr. — New York
Railroad Men publishes a symposium on
the possibility of reaching a speed of a
hundred miles an hour, and on the modifi-
cations in railroad appurtenances that will
be required to promote such a result. Mr.
J. D. Layng, of the Cleveland, Columbus,
Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad, sees
no more difficulty in raising speed to a hun-
dred miles an hour than has been met in in-
creasing it from thirty to sixty ; and believes
that it will be more difficult to get a track
clear for the train than to develop a speed
greater than now seems possible. Mr. George
H. Thompson, of the New York Central and
Hudson River Railroad, believes that a wide
gauge will be necessary to secure the desired
speed ; " but, after the principles of railroad-
ing become better known, an ultimate rail-
road constructed and operated upon ultimate
ideas will obtain. Forces now at work, part-
ly physical, partly ethical, point to a broad
gauge, say eight to ten feet. This gauge,
outside of its adaptation to economical
freight-work, will admit of large drivers, and
consequent high-speed acceleration and low
piston speeds." Further, Mr. Thompson be-
lieves, as a deduction from the doctrine of
evolution relating to progress, that high
speed will some day be in the usual order of
things. Another general manager is hope
f ul as to high speed ; but three other officers
do not believe that a hundred miles an hour
will be reached in this generation, if ever.

An Ant Mineralogist. — A curious coinci-
dence is observed by M. A. Vercoutre be-
tween a statement of Pliny's and the habits
of an American species of ant. The Roman
naturalist relates that among a tribe in

858

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

northern India, called the Dardes, ants ex-
tract gold from mines, and adds that " metal
which they have extracted during the winter,
the Indians steal from them in summer when
they have retired to their holes to escape the
heat." The American ant {Pogonomyrmex
occidentaRs\ which was studied by McCook
in 1881, betrayed a similar disposition. When
the colony have built their hill as a dome
over their galleries, they cover the whole
with small stones — fragments of rocks, fos-
sils, minerals, etc., well fitted together in the
style of mosaic, for which they go down,
after the fashion of miners, to the depth of
more than a yard below the surface. Now,
as gold sometimes occurs in the region in-
habited by these ants, we can easily suppose
that their roofs will sometimes glisten with
bits of that metal, which the natives might
discover and take from them. The curious
fact about the matter is, that these American
ants are the only species known that correspond
with Pliny's description. Had Pliny heard
of them, and consequently of America ; or did
they once inhabit Asia also, and afterward
disappear so completely as to be no longer
known there ? Or did Pliny repeat a trav-
eler's tale, that has waited till this time for
verification ?

Mediscval Instrnments of Torture. — A

curious exhibition was held in London last
fall of instruments of torture from the royal
castle at Nuremberg which had been bought
by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot. With
one or two exceptions, such as the " scav-
enger's daughter," no mediasval instrument
of torture appeared to be unrepresented.
The principal object of interest was the
" iron maiden " {ciserne Jungfrau), which is
pi'obably the most terrible instrument of
torture ever invented. It is the figure of a
woman made of strong wood, bound with
iron bands, opening with two doors to allow
the prisoner to be placed inside. The in-
terior is fitted with long, sharp iron spikes,
which, when the doors are pressed to, forced
their way into various parts of the victim's
body and inflicted inexpressible agonies up-
on him till he died a lingering death. A
trap-door was then opened in the base, and
the body was allowed to fall into the moat
or river below. The Scotch "maiden" of
the sixteenth century was different from

this, and was not an instrument of torture,
but a kind of guillotine. Other objects were
the racks ; the " Spanish donkey," which
cut the body into halves ; the wheel on whicli
malefactors were broken alive ; the small
lever with a sharp-toothed thumb and fin-
ger screw ; the ducking-cage for bakers de-
tected in giving short weight ; the iron
tongue-tearer, in the shape of a pair of tongs
with screw; the Spanish "mouth-pear" or
gag ; and the yoke in which couples found
guilty of acts of immorality were pilloried
in the market-place. Of a different kind of
interest are the copper mask worn by the
judge of the Vehmgericht, the " drunkard's
cloak and helmet," and carvings of Satan
that were supposed to have been worshiped
by witches. There were also manacles, body-
rings, hand -screws, scourges, branding-irons,
pillories, stretching-gallows, garters for tor-
turing the legs, spiked collars, heavy chains
for fastening prisoners to the wall, " mouth-
openers" for slitting the tongues of blas-
phemers, sieves through which boiling water
was poured on to the body, iron rings for
fastening up criminals in public places,
masks for the punishment of scolds and
others, crucifixes which condemned crimi-
nals carried on their way to execution, iron
mail chain gloves that were made hot before
being put on, settles belonging to a torture-
chamber, and many other things. A num-
ber of old prints accompanying the collec-
tion illustrated the application of some of
these instruments.

Religions Ideas of Savages. — Having re-
marked that the conception of the Great
Spirit of the North American Indians has
been found not to be original with them, but
suggested by the early Christian mission-
aries. Dr. E. B. Tylor proceeded, in a paper
before the Anthropological Institute, to show
that the mistaken attribution to barbaric
races of beliefs really belonging to the cul-
tivated world, as well as their development
among these races under civilized influence,
are due to several causes. Among them are
direct adoption from foreign teachers ; the
exaggeration of genuine native deities of a
lower order into a god or devil ; the conver-
sion of native words, denoting a whole class
of minor spiritual beings, such as ghosts or
demons, into individual names, alleged to be

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

859

those of a supreme good deity or of a rival
evil deity. Detailed criticism of the names
and descriptions of such beings in accounts
of the religions of native tribes of America
and Australasia was adduced, which gave in
many cases direct proof of the beliefs in
question being borrowed or developed under
foreign influence. The problems involved
in the discussion are of great diiSculty, and
the only hope for their full solution in many
cases lies in the researches of anthropolo-
gists and philologists minutely acquainted
with the culture and languages of the dis-
tricts. Such researches should be carried
out without delay, before important evidence,
still available, has disappeared.

Character and the Voice. — Mr. Louis C.
Eison remarks in the Boston Musical Herald
on the effect of character or race upon the
human voice as a subject that has never
been well studied. It is a fairly well-known
fact, he says, that certain kinds of voice
prevail in certain countries : thus America
produces many fine sopranos, Russia is the
land of phenomenal bassos, and the sweet,
high tenor must be sought chiefly in Spain ;
but it has not yet been quite determined as
to whether climate, or diet and general mode
of life, or actual distinction of race, is the
cause of this definite distribution of vocal
compass and timbre. The female voice in
America is sharper and shriller than that
of the Englishwoman or Frenchwoman, and
this is especially noticeable in the conver-
sational tone. The Englishwoman is more
usually a full-toned alto than anything else ;
the Frenchwoman almost always is a mezzo-
soprano. The peculiar style of singing a
full falsetto, called jodlinff, which is chiefly
heard in mountain districts, is another in-
stance of race characteristics in vocal music.
So perfectly is this singing done by the
Tyrolese that the theory was held for a time
that the throat of the Tyrolean might have
some peculiar formation of its own, super-
induced by peculiar diet and the drinking of
snow-water. This has been shown by in-
vestigation to be erroneous ; but since a simi-
lar style of singing is practiced in the Nor-
wegian mountains, the Engadine, and other
similar districts, it may be inferred that it re-
sults from a mode of calling the cattle, which
is peculiarly high, characteristic, and penetra-

ting, to which these people are accustomed
from childhood. Peculiar types of voice
may be found, upon investigation, to be
rather the result of ages of peculiar usage,
which finally produce traits that become
hereditary, than of climate. The proba-
bility that diet may have some effect in the
matter is mentioned. The voice of the
American negro is distinguishable from that
of the white singer, and here, perhaps, an-
atomy may afford a partial clew, for thick
lips and a flat nose must influence the tone
production in a certain degree. When these
traits are absent, the tone of the colored
singer is more akin to the ordinary standard
of the singing of other races ; and the au-
thor speaks of having heard some finely
formed male Caffres sing, whose voices were
not distinguishable from those of white sing-
ers. The loss of sight seems to have an ap-
preciable effect on the voice, and, as a rule,
one will find the intensely passionate charac-
ter absent from the singing of the blind.

Sanitary Mistakes. — There is much in
popular errors, says Dr. P. C. Redmondino,
of San Diego, Cal., that helps to bring about
our condition of physical degeneracy. For
example, people look upon cold as their great
and dreaded enemy, whereas cold — except
in an extreme degree — does not and can not
hurt any one primarily. To shut out the
cold, which is harmless, they shut themselves
in with ochlesitie poisons, as morbific and
fatal in the end as the effects of alcohol and
fusel oil. They have a vague idea that
" catching cold " is to be avoided, but they
have not the least idea of the lasting poison
of ochlesis or in fomites. A man will give a
friend a wide berth during the critical period
of typhoid fever, but as soon as that period
is passed he and his whole family will troop
into the room, in blissful ignorance of the
researches of Uffelmann and others into the
wonderful tenacity of life possessed by the
typhoid bacillus ; or, so that they avoid the
immediate breath of a consumptive, they
live in fancied security. That this infection,
as well as that of typhoid and other disease-
germs, is longer lasting in a dark or north
room, is not of any importance. The lady of
the house, on the departure of her consump-
tive visitor, will at once draw the curtains
and close the windows of her parlor that the

86o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

light and dust may not affect her carpets
and bric-d-brac, perfectly unmindful that the
care she bestows to protect these things is
fraught with risk to the health and life of a
son or daughter. She does not know, nor
has she taken the pains to learn, nor has
any one undertaken to instruct her, that the
bacillus of such diseases as typhoid fever,
diphtheria, phthisis, and most diseases which
have a specific germ, can not exist and hold
their identity in solar light and air, which,
as has been demonstrated by Koch, kills
them in from a few moments to a few hours,
whereby no room is left for doubt that, by
the construction of our houses and by the
studied exclusion of light and air, we do
most for the retention of these disease-
germs, and at the same time contribute to
the preservation of their vitality.

Earliest Use of the Mariner's Compass. —

The history of the discovery of the mariner's
compass by the Chinese is lost in their an-
tiquities. It is supposed to have been acci-
dental, in a province where there is much
magnetic iron ore, from the observation that
a needle made from that ore, when by any
means it was caused to float on water, as-
sumed a north and south direction. The
earliest author who mentioned the " south-
pointing needle " lived in the fourth century
B, c. It probably came into use when the
professors of fung shue or geomancy began
to study landscape, about the eighth century
of the Christian era. Their instrument
was made of hard wood, about a foot wide,
with a small well in the middle, in which a
mag-netized needle floated in water. On the
compass were inscribed several concentric
circles, as on the wooden horizons of our
globes. They embraced the twelve double
horns, the ten denary symbols, eight dia-
grams, and other marks. This compass was
used in preparing a geomantic diagram of
any spot where a house or tomb was to be
constructed, so that the construction might
not be upon an unlucky site, or planned in
an unlucky manner. At the same time there
was living a Chinese who had studied Hin-
doo astronomy, and was the imperial astrono-
mer and also a Buddhist priest. He noticed
that the needle did not point exactly north,
but varied by 2° 5'. The variation went on
increasing till a century later, or the ninth

century. Shenkwa, writing in the eleventh
century, mentions that any iron needle could
be given polarity by rubbing it on a piece of
loadstone. After this, in 1122, an ambassa-
dor to Corea described the use of the float-
ing needle on board ship while he made the
voyage. This is the earliest instance, by
more than a century, of the use of the mari-
ner's compass on board ship found in any
book. At that time the needle was floated
in water, supported by a piece of wood ; but
in the Ming dynasty some Japanese junks
engaged in piracy were captured by Chinese,
in which the needle of the compass was dry
and raised upon a pivot. The Japanese hud i
learned this from the Portuguese. The
Chinese from that time also hung their
compass-needles on a pivot.

An American Exhibition in Spain. — The

Spanish Government is preparing to estab-
lish at Madrid, in honor of the fourth cen-
tennial of the discovery of America, an ex-
hibition of every kind of American objects,
so constituted as to give an idea of the civil-
izations of the American world, both previ-
ous to and coeval with the epoch of the dis-
covery and the European conquests. For
this purpose the commission solicits contri-
butions of American objects illustrating
prehistoric America — plans, models, and re-
productions of drawings of cave dwellings,
megalithic monuments, and lake dwellings,
and of objects of all kinds of the palfeolithic
and neolithic ages, and of the bronze and
copper ages. Of the historical period are
wanted models or representations of build-
ings and architectural fragments, specimens
of polychromatic architecture, representa-
tions of restored monuments, and works of
fine art of every kind. In the department of
industrial arts, etc., clothing and adornments
of aboriginal uncivilized or only partly civil-
ized Indians are asked for, implements of
war of wood, copper, bronze, and iron ; gold,
silver, bone, and ivory jewels, necklaces, ear-
rings, bracelets, etc. ; pottery, household
utensils, and furniture; tissues and textiles
from which they are made; apparatus for
manufacturing purposes ; articles used in
transportation ; native documents ; Indian
portraits and effigies ; models of Indian
dwellings, crania, etc. Old maps, articles
relating to cartography, whatever relates to

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

86i

Columbus, etc., constitute another class ;
and the collection will be completed with
representations of fine-art works, literary
and scientific publications, and manuscripts,
charts, and plans from the discovery to the
middle of the eighteenth century. Prizes
and diplomas are offered for the contribu-
tions.

The Royal Tombs of Uganda. — Dr. Carl
Peters gives the following description of the
more modern royal tombs of Uganda : " On
approaching them from a distance the trav-
eler thinks he sees pyramids before him,
but in reality they are in the form of large
cones, and are built of wood in Uganda
fashion. On entering, the visitor finds him-
self in a dusky hall, supported by a row of
columns. In the background of this hall is
a painted curtain, before which are ranged
the weapons and favorite movables of the
deceased. On putting aside the curtain the
dark area is entered, from which shafts and
corridors have been excavated in the ground.
In these passages textile stuffs, covv^rie shells,
and other articles of value, which in Uganda
represent money, are heaped up. At the
farthest extremity of these passages is de-
posited the coffin, with the embalmed corpse
of the dead person. It appears that the
regular procedure for preserving the corpse
is by drying it, and swathing it tight in
wrappings ; but the Waganda also told me
that they understood the art of preserving
the body from decomposition by injections
into the blood. In front of the curtain
twelve girls watch day and night on behalf
of the last one departed ; at present, there-
fore, for Mtesa. From time lo time all the
great men of the land come to the dead
man, with drums and fifes, to pay him a
visit, as if he were alive."

Excess in Ornamentation. — In his book
on the Planning of Ornament, Mr. Lewis F.
Day recognizes as among the {esthetic faults
of modern architecture its too free use of
ornament without reference to its fitness to
the other details of the structure, and rela-
tive neglect of proportion. A writer who
timidly suggested lately that by a proper
attention to proportion ornament might be
economized, found himself out of fashion,
as he doubtless apprehended. The Saturday

Review enforces the precepts of the two
authors, with a comparison of two buildings
that stand near one another in London. Of
one, the "front is composed of arches and
columns — the arches of colored marbles,
the columns of polished granite, the capitals
of bronze, heavily gilt. Not far from it is
another elevation, partly in brick and plas-
ter, painted drab and wholly devoid of any
ornament ; yet the eye lingers lovingly on it.
The proportions are like those of, say, one
of Gray's odes, or one of Mendelssohn's
songs without words. The whole fa9ade cost
perhaps seven or eight hundred pounds ;
but, then, it was designed by Wren. The
bank front cost, at a moderate estimate, sev-
enty or eighty thousand pounds, yet, because
the architect, or, to speak more exactly, the
builder, did not mix his design with a single
ounce of brains, had not, in fact, so much
brains to bestow upon it, all the money
spent has produced so hideous a pile that
one instinctively turns from it as one turns
from a sudden glare or a street accident."
Like contrasts may be found in almost any
large town.

Amnsements of Animals. — A writer in
the London Spectator suggests as a logical
order in which to consider some of the pow-
ers of enjoyment possessed by animals, with-
out exaggerating or depreciating them, is
to observe their development as the animal
itself grows up. The faculty of amusement
comes early in them. Many animals are
aware of this, and make it part of their ma-
ternal duties to amuse their young. A fer-
ret will play with her kittens, a cat with
hers, and a dog with her puppies. A mare
will play with her foal, though the writer
from whom we quote has never seen a cow
try to amuse her calf, nor any birds their
young. If their mothers do not amuse them,
the young ones invent games of their own.
A flock of ewes and lambs were observed in
the Isle of Wight in adjoining fields, sepa-
rated by a fence with several gaps in it.
" Follow my leader " was the game most in
favor with this flock, the biggest lamb lead-
ing round the field and then jumping the
gap, with all the others following in single
file ; any lambs that took the leap unusually
well would give two or three more enthusi-
astic jumps out of sheer exuberant happi-

862

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ncss when it readied the other side. Anoth-
er flocli of lambs, confined in a straw-yard,
had steeple-chases over a row of feeding-
troughs stuffed with hay, right down the
yard and back again. On a Yorkshire moor
they have been seen to race, for a quarter
of an hour, round a spring, and back to the
ewes. Fawns play a kind of cross-touch from
one side to the other, the " touch " in each
case being given by the nose. Little pigs
are also great at combined play, which gen-
erally takes the form of races. Emulation
seems to form part of their amusement, for
their races seem always to have the win-
ning of the first place for their object, and
are quite different from those combined
rushes for food or causeless stampedes in
which little pigs are wont to indulge. Rac-
ing is an amusement natural to some ani-
mals, and, being soon learned by others,
becomes one of their most exciting pastimes.
Many horses, and all racing-dogs, soon learn
to be as keen at winning as public-school
boys in a half-mile handicap. It is a com-
mon impulse with horses to pass, or at least
to keep up with, any other horse in their
company, and this instinct, developed by
training, makes the professional race-horse
eager to v/in. Animal enthusiasm for racing
is well — the writer in the Spectator says best
— seen in a dog-race. Birds especially delight
in the free and fanciful use of their wings.
There is all the difference possible between
the fiight of birds for " business " and pleas-
ure ; and many kinds on fine days will soar
to vast heights for pleasure alone. In any
comparison of the games and sports of ani-
mals with our own enjoyment of the same
amusements, it must not be forgotten that
imagination, the make-believe which enters
into so much of the best play of children,
is also the basis of much of the play of
young animals. "Watch a kitten, while you
tap your fingers on the other side of a cur-
tain or table-cloth, imitating the movements
of a mouse running up and down. She
knows it is not a mouse. But she enters
into the spirit of the game, and goes through
all the movements proper to the chase. Or
perhaps she has a ball. If you set it in mo-
tion, so much the better — that helps " the
make-believe." The ball is " alive,'' and
she catches it, claws it, and half kills it,
taking care all the while to keep it moving

herself. The beautiful young lion, given by
the Sultan of Sokoto to Queen Victoria last
year, would play in exactly the same way
with a large wooden ball, growling and set-
ting up the crest, and pursuing the ball
across the cage.

Durability of Oil Paintings. — Much time
has been devoted by Mr. A. P. Laurie to
the study of the means of insuring the du-
rability of oil paintings. Some of the paint-
ings of the old masters are still remarkably
brilliant in coloring. A Van Eyck in the
National Gallery is especially mentioned in
M. Laurie's paper before the Society of Arts
as having its colors all fairly well preserved,
and a green — one of the most difficult of
colors — wonderfully so. The quality is
found not to reside in the pigments used,
which were not superior to those of the
present. It must, therefore, lie in the ve-
hicle. It has been shown by Prof. Russell
and Captain Abney that most fugitive pig-
ments are permanent if protected from moist-
ure, and a still larger number if protected
from both air and moisture. If, therefore,
we can obtain a vehicle which will really
protect the particles of the pigment from
moisture, we may use safely many pigments
that are now regarded as fugitive. Mr.
Laurie tested the qualities of linseed and wal-
nut oils, the resins, and mixtures of oil and
resins. His experiments showed that linseed
oil, no matter how carefully refined, or in
what way it is converted into boiled oil, can
not be depended upon to protect a surface
from moisture. Walnut oil proved no better.
Solutions of resins in spirits of turpentine
or benzol give as varnishes sufiicient preser-
vation from moisture for all practical pur-
poses, but, forming a brittle and not very
durable surface, are not fit to be used as
mediums in place of oils. Eastlake's theory
that the Flemish painters secured perma-
nency by grinding their colors in oil and
adding a little varnish, was tested and found
not correct. No preparations of that kind
experimented upon resisted the attacks of
moisture ; but a good mastic varnish was
more efficient, and proved superior to any
other substance tried. The use of copal or
amber dissolved in spirit is also objection-
able, because the varnish is difficult to re-
move. By using mastic, we have a varnish

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

863

which, while it affords the best protection
to the picture from moisture, is easily re-
moved and renewed. A source of danger
to pictures to which not enough attention
has been given is that which arises from
the development of moisture by chemical
action within the substance of the paint-
ing itself. An old medium of remarkable
qualities has been recently discovered, con-
cerning which nothing more is said at pres-
ent, till its qualities are proved. Appar-
ently the most durable surface that can be
produced with modern mediums is that ob-
tained with a mixture of copal oil varnish
and linseed oil ; and, until the proper me-
dium is discovered, the best we can do is to
paint our pictures with this medium and a
carefully selected group of pigments, and
then, as a further precaution, coat the pict-
ures, when thoroughly dry, with a layer of
mastic dissolved in turps (or turpentine).

Illnstration of Cnstoms.— The Pitt Rivers
collection in the University Museum at Ox-
ford is designed to illustrate the customs,
life, and religious observances of primitive
and semi-civilized races. The contents are
arranged with a view to showing the various
stages of development among different races
and at different times, and to establishing
direct relationship between the primitive
and the modern types. The collection has
also many European objects of antiquarian
interest. Among them are specimens of the
hornpipe, the instrument that gave its name
to the dance performed to its music, and of
the pipe and tambour used by the mummers
at their performances. Among the exhibits
relating to savage races is a collection of
masks from Fiji, New Britain, and else-
where, such as were worn at funerals by the
male relatives of the deceased. In some cases
the very skull of the dead man was made
into masks, with the idea that he should as-
sist at his own obsequies. The jew's-harp in
many forms and developments — none, how-
ever, dating beyond the sixteenth century —
has a place in the museum, together with a
collection of primitive reed instruments, some
of which were blown by the mouth and
others by the nostrils. Of fire-kindling ap-
paratus, the frictional fire-sticks of savages,
the rather elaborite mechanical contrivance
of the Brahman r)riests, and the apparatus

used by the Vestal Virgins to kindle the
sacred lamp if it should be extinguished, are
shown,

Medixyal Gnilds. — According to a paper
in the Archjeological Institute by the Rev. J.
Hirst, on the Guilds of the Anglo-Saxon Mon-
asteries, a regular system of communica!ion
was kept up between the various religious
houses by means of messengers, who, being
men of the world, were able to supply the
news of passing events, even in the most
distant countries. Other visitors to the
abbeys were pilgrims, who were often ad-
mitted as brothers, and were thus enabled
to participate in the benefits derived from
the prayers of the community. From these
sources no doubt the monldsh chroniclers de-
rived much of their information, which they
so carefully recorded. The author said these
ancient guilds threw a light on the origin,
rapid increase, and organization of the Eng-
ish trade-guilds at a later period. Mr. J. T
Micklethwaite pointed out a difference be-
tween these two sorts of guilds. The trade-
guilds kept a common purse, whereas those
attached to the monasteries did not ; the ab-
sence also of the word guild in the Saxon
manuscripts led him to believe that the trade-
guilds were not derived from the monastic
ones.

Spiders as Marplots. — A curious account
is given in Engineering of the way in which
the accuracy of engineering work is often
impaired by spiders and their webs. When
plumb lines are sunk in shafts, the spiders
sometimes attach their webs to them and
draw them to one side. The accuracy of a
certain work in the Hoosac Tunnel was de-
stroyed until the lines, 1,028 feet long, were
inclosed in cases. It has been suggested as
a remedy to apply electricity to the lines so
as to burn off the spider-threads. The writer
in Engineering once found his vision when
using the level distorted by the appearance
of curved lines in its field. After consulting
an oculist and paying his fees, he discovered
that the whole trouble was caused by a little
spider which had settled itself in the eye-glass
of the telescope of the level. An electric-
light metre, of the revolving fan type, was
found doing imperfect work, as it recorded
only a small fraction of the electricity that
was known to be used. It was found that

864.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a spider had entered the case through a
screw-hole and spun a web in such a man-
ner as to prevent the free use of the fans.

NOTES.

We published in the Monthly for June,
1886, a sketch, by Prof. David Starr Jor-
dan, of the eminent early American natural-
ist C. S. Rafinesque, for which we were not
able at the time to secure an authenticated
poi'trait. We have since found such a por-
trait, which was published several years ago
in Potter's American Monthly, and now have
the privilege, by permission of Messrs. Pot-
ter & Co., of presenting it to our readers, as
a supplement to Prof. Jordan's delightful
sketch. It comes in opportunely at this
time to supply the lack of the portraits of
the Bartrams, of neither of whom have we
been able to find an authenticated likeness.
As the object most closely associated with
the Bartrams, we give in connection with
the sketch of them a view of the house built
by the elder Bartram, as it appeared in 1887,
from a photograph furnished us by Mr.
Thomas Meehan.

A NEW star, not marked on any map,
was observed February 1st in the constella-
tion Auriga, slightly in advance of the star
26 of that constellation, and of about the
same, or the sixth magnitude. It is described
as yellowish, and somewhat fuzzy in appear-
ance.

OBITUARY NOTES.
Dr. Thomas Sterry Hunt, a distinguished
American geologist and chemist, died at the
Park Avenue Hotel, in this city, February
11th, of mitral disease of the heart, in the
sixty-sixth year of his age. A sketch of his
life and scientific activity, and a portrait,
were given in the Monthly for February,
1876. He retired from public professional
life in 1878, but had made since then many
important contributions to theoretical chem-
istry and geology. One of the organizers of
the International Geological Congress, he
was its first secretary, and was a vice-presi-
dent at the meetings in Padua, 1878; Bo-
logna, 1881; and London, 1888. He was a
member of the International Juries at the
Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Dr. Hunt
had been in feeble health for many months
previous to his death.

Sir George Biddell Airy, English As-
tronomer Royal from 1836 till 1881, died
on January 2d, after a few months' illness,
in the ninety-first year of his age. A sketch
of his life and works up to that time, with a
portrait, were given in The Popular Science
Monthly for May, 1873. He after that made
the preparations for the equipment of the
British expedition for the observation of the
transit of Venus of 1874, a subject on which

he had been engaged since 1836. He retired
from his office in the Greenwich Observatory
in 1881, after forty-five years of service.

M. Emile de Lavelete, the eminent Bel-
gian economist and publicist, died at Liege,
early in January, of pneumonia, following in
flueuza, just after the publication of his latest
work. Government in Democracy. He was
born in Bruges in 1822, studied law in the
University of Ghent, and engaged in histori-
cal and philological labors, and aftei'ward in
works on political economy and kindred sci-
ences, which gave him a world-wide reputa-
tion. In 1864 he was appointed Professor
of Political Economy in the University of
Liege. His principal works were on the Rural
Economy of Belgium and of Holland, on
Property and its Primitive Forms, and Natu-
ral Laws and the Object of Political Economy.
He was the most conspicuous advocate of
bimetallism.

According to the Academy, the death of
the Duke of Devonshire, in December, 1891,
was a greater loss to the learned world than
(directly) to politics or society. The duke
had been intimately associated with academi-
cal affairs ever since he took his degree at
Cambridge in 1829. "The Cavendish Lab-
oratory at Cambridge bears witness to his
munificence, while science acknowledges no
less gratitude to him for serving as chairman
of the Royal Commission on Scientific In-
struction and the Advancement of Science."

Prof. John Couch Adams, the English
astronomer and mathematician, who shares
with Leverrier the honor of having pi-e-
dicted the place where the planet Neptune
would be found, has recently died. He
was the son of a farmer, and was born near
Bodmin, Cornwall, in 1818. He began his
investigations of the irregularities in the
motions of Uranus in 1841, and completed
them as early as Leverrier did his, but suf-
fered himself to be anticipated in the pub-
lication. In 1858 he succeeded the late
Dean Pcacocke as Lowndean Professor of
Astronomy at Cambiidge.

The death is announced of Colonel James
Augustus Grant, a famous African explorer.
He was the sou of a Scottish clergyman and
was born in 1827 ; served in the war of the
Indian mutiny ; accompanied the Abyssinian
Expedition in 1868 as a member of the In-
telligence Department; and in 1860 to 1863,
with Captain Speke, explored the sources of
the Nile and discovered the Victoria Ny-
anza. He described this expedition in the
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,
and its botany in those of the Linna:an So-
ciety ; and published in 1874 a supplement-
ary account of the expedition, of which a
joint account by the two explorers had al-
ready appeared. It was entitled A Walk
across Africa. He received medals from
the Royal Geographical Society, the Pope,
and King Victor Emanuel.

I ]sr D E X.

ARTICLES MARKED v:nil AN ASTERISK ARE ILLUSTRATED.

PAGE

Abbott, Emerson, T. Ways, The, of Bees. (Corr.) 840

Aber, Mary Ailing. Experiment, An, in Education 377, 517

Agassiz at Penikese. D. S. Jordan 721

Air, Bad, and Bad Health. H. Wager and A. Herbert 814

" Breathe Pure. J. W. Quinby 192

Albatross, the Wandering, Habits of. (Misc.) 855

Allotropism in Alloys. (Misc.) 568

Animals, Amusements of. (Misc.) 861

" Domestic, in India.* J. L. Kipling 597

" in the Desert of Gobi. (Misc.) 141

" tlie Lower, Progress and Perfectibility in. E. P. Evans 170

Ant Mineralogist. (Misc.) 857

Artesian Wells and their Flow. (Misc.) 135

Ashley, Charles S. Progress, The, of the Silver Question. (Corr.) 413

Association of Official Geologists. (Misc.) 281

Astronomy. A. D. White 577, 729

Atlantic Coast, Changes in Level of the. (Misc.) 281

Atkinson, Edward, and Edward T. Cabot. Personal Liberty 433

Bacteria, Determination and Cultivation of. (Misc.) 427

" in our Dairy Products. H. W. Conn 763

Baldness, Causes of. (Misc.) 284

Barber, Edwin Atlee. Recent Advances in the Pottery Industry* 289

" Rise, The, of the Pottery Industry * 145

Baths of the Accursed, The. (Misc.) 565

Bartrara, John and William, Sketch of* 827

Bees, The Ways of. (Corr.) E. T. Abbott. E. P. Evans. 840

Benton, Warren G. Ethics, The, of Confucius 87

Bicycle, Righting the.* (Corr.) F. A. Fernald 267

Birds, The, of the Fame Islands. (Misc.) 1 38

Blanchard, E. Recent Oceanic Causeways 540

Bogy-hunting. (Editor's Table) 845

Books noticed 126, 272, 416, 556, 701, 813

Agora, The, 'TOO. Atkinson. J. C. The Last of the Giant-

American Journal of Psychology, April, killers, 561.

1891, 130. Bacteriological "World and Modern Medi-

Anderson, Edward L. The Universality cine, 853.

of Man's Appearance and Primitive Ball, Robert. The Cause of an Ice Age, 550.

Man, 422. Ball. Sir Robert S. Star-Land, 848.

Arkansas. Report of the Geological Sur- Bandelier, A, F. Contributions to the

vey for 1888. J. C. Branner, State Geolo- History of the Southwestern Portion of

gist, 560. the United States, 422.

VOL. XL. — 58

866

INDEX.

Books noticed :

Bardeen, C. W. The Teacher as he should
be, 709.

Bien, H. M. Ben Beor, a Story of tlie
Anti-Messiah, 500.

Blair, Andrew A. The Chemical Analy-
sis of Iron, 278.

Blanchard, Rafael. Los Animales Par4-
sitos introducidos por el Agua en el Or-
gauismo, 131.

Bodington, Alice. Studies in Evolution
and Biology, 128.

Bohm-Bawerk, Eugen V. The Positive
Theory of Capital, 704.

Bolles, Frank. The Land of the Lingering
Snow. 560.

Brainard, F. R. The Sextant and other
Reflecting Mathematical Instruments,
562.

Bronson, Thomas Bertrand. Colloquial
German, 709.

Brooklyn Institute. Third Year-book,
1890-'91, 422.

Burton, Charles V. Introduction to Dy-
namics, 131.

Carpenter, William B. The Microscope
and its Revelations, 848.

Carus, P. HomiUes of Science, 850.

Chamberlain, A. F. Blodern Languages
and Classics in America and Europe,
562.

Chamberlain, Montague. A Popular Hand
book of the Ornithology of the United
States and Canada, 702.

Chart of the Metric System, 423.

Charts showing the Average Monthly
Cloudiness in the United States. 563.

Charts showing the Probabihty of Rainy
Days, 563.

Cobb, John Storer. The Torch and the
Tomb, 422.

College of Science of the Imperial Univer-
sity of Japan. Journal, Vol. IV, Part I
1.30.

Cooke, Josiah P. Laboratory Practice,
277.

Crummell, Alexander. Africa and Amer-
ica, aio.

Davis, J. TVoodbridge. Dynamics of the
Sun, 423.

Dole, Charles F. The American Citizen,
1.32.

Dufferin and Ava, The Marchioness of.
My Canadian Journal, 1872-'78, 701.

Educational Papers by Illinois Science
Teachers, 134.

Egleston, T. Catalogue of Minerals and
Synonyms, 419.

Emtage, W. T. A. An Introduction to
the Mathematical Theory of Electricity
and Magnetism, 421.

Evolution in Science and Art, 272.

Fall, Delos. An Introduction to Qualita-
tive Chemical Analysis, 708.

Fiske, Amos K. Beyond the Bourn, 279.

Foster, Michael. Text-book of Physiolo-
gy, 277

Geikie, Archibald. Geological Sketches,
848.

Geografla per Tutti. A. Ghisleri, Editor,
133.

George, Henry. The Condition of Labor,
562.

Gibbins, H. DeB. The History of Com-
merce in Europe, 419.

Goss, John Dean. The Histoi-y of Tariff
Administration in the United States, 131.

Griswold, W. M. Descriptive List of Brit-
ish Novels, 851.

Guillemin, Amed6e. Electricity and Mag-
netism, 705.

Hamilton, Claude C, Editor. Muter's
Blanual of Analytical Chemistry, 278.

Harper, "William Rainey, and Herbert
Curling Tolman, Editors. Eight Books
of Cassar's Gallic War, 133.

Harper, W. R., and I. B. Burgess. Induc-
tive Latin Primer, 850.

Hemstreet, William. Mind is Matter ; or,
the Substance of the Soul, 419.

Herbart, Johann Friedi-ich. A Text-book
in Psychologj-, 417.

Hermetic Philosophy, Vol. II, 849.

Hinton, Richard J. Progress Report on
Irrigation in the United States, 129.

Howard, John R. Henry Ward Beecher :
a Study of his Personality, Career, and
Influence in Public Affairs, 280.

Huling, Ray Greene. School and College,
848.

Hunt, Thomas Steri'y. Systematic Miner-
alogy, based on a Natural Classification,
557.

Hutchinson, H. N. Story of the Hills, 847.

Jones, Alonzo T. The Two Republics ;
or, Rome and the United States of
America, 704.

Jones, D. E. Elementary Lessons in
Heat, Light, and Sound, 278.

Jom-nal of American Archteology and
Ethnology. J. Walter Fewkes, Editor,
133.

Journal of Morphology, Vol. IV, No. 3,
421 ; Vol. V, No. 1, 422.

Journal of Physiology. Michael Foster,
Editor, Vol. Xll, 702.

Kinmont, Alexander. The Natural His-
tory of Man and the Rise and Progress
of Philosophy, 274.

Kittredge, A. O., Editor. The Metal- Work-
er Essays on House-heating by Steam,
Hot Water, and Hot Air, 420.

Kolkin, Nils. Ethereal Matter ; Electrici-
ty and Akasa, 709.

Langley, S. P. Studies in Aerodynamics,
701.

Lanin, E. B. Russian Traits and Terrors,
850.

Leighton, Caroline C. Intimations of
Eternal Life, 420.

Little Tour in Ireland, A, 561.

Loewy, Benjamin. A Graduated Course
of Natural Science, Part H, 707.

INDEX.

867

Books noticed :

Lyons, Daniel. Christianity and Infalli

ty; Both or Neither, 703.
SlacQueary, Howard. Topics of the

Times, 270.
Martin, G. H. Antidotes for Superstition,

Maurice, F. War, 132.

Merrill, George P. Stones for Building

and Decoration, 418.
Mills, Wesley. How to keep a Dog in the

City, 562.
Mitchell, Ellen M. Study of Greek Phi-
losophy, 500.
Moulton, Richard G. Address on the

University Extension Movement, 279.
Nettleton, Edwin S. Report of Artesian

and Underflow Investigation, 129.
New York Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion. Bulletin, No. 33, 708 ; Report for

1890, 422.
Nissen, Hartvig. The A B C of the

Swedish System of Educational Gym-
nastics, 709.
Ochorowitz, J. Mental Suggestion, 706.
Olmsted, Denison. An Introduction to

Natural Philosophy, 275.
Osborn, Herbert. The Pediculi and JIal

lophaga affecting Man and the Lower

Animals, 278.
Ostwald, W. Solutions, 706.
Parker, William W. Instinct in Animals

and Intelligence in Man contrasted,

130.
Parsons, James Russell, Jr. Prussian

Schools through American Eyes, 133.
Peterman, Alexander L. Elements of

Civil Government, 279.
Peters, Edward Dyer. Modern American

Methods of Copper-smelting, 707.
Pick, Edward. Dr. Pick's Method applied

to acquiring the French Language, 563.
Pierson, Arthur T. Stumbling-stones re-
moved from the Word of God, 133.
Plympton, George W. How to become

an Engineer, 5C2.
Poole, Joseph. The Practical Telephone

Hand-book, 707.
Poole, W. H. and Mrs. Cookery for the

Diabetic, 8.50.
Postmaster - General. Postal Savings-

Banks ; an Argument in their Favor,

709.
Putnam, George Haven. The Question of

Copyright, 120.
Quarterly Register of Current History.

Nos. 1, 2, and 3, 133. 563.
Railway Law and Legislation. W. P.

Canaday and G. B. West, Editors, 709.
Randall, J. E. Practical Treatise on the

Incandescent Lamp, 562.
Reeve, Charles A. The Prison Question,

127.
Remondino, P. C. History of Circum-
cision, 8.52.
Ribot, Th. The Diseases of Personality,

138.

Richter, Victor von. Chemistry of the
Carbon Compounds, 275.

Rickoff, A. J. First Lessons in Arithme-
tic, 850.

Ryder, John A. The Sturgeons and Stur-
geon Industries of the Eastern Coast of
the United States, 127.

Sadtler, Samuel P. A Hand-book of In-
dustrial Organic Chemistry, 418.

Schuchardt, C. Schliemann's Excava-
tions : An Archaeological and Historical
Study, 558.

Scientific American Cyclopaedia of Re-
ceipts, Notes, and Queries. Albert A.
Hopkins, Editor, 559.

Shaler, N. S. The Story of our Conti-
nent, 708.

Sheldon, Samuel. Chapters on Electrici-
ty, 275.

Siebel, J. E. Original Communications of
the Zymotechnic Institute, 278.

Silberstein, S. J. The Universe and its
Evolution, 278.

Sloane, T. O" Conor. Electricity sunpli-
fled, 707.

mith, Edgar F., and H. F. Keller. Ex-
periments in General Chemistry, 849.

Society for Psychical Research. Pi-oceed-
ings. Parts X^^U and XES, 130, 708.

Stewart, Seth T. Plane and Solid Geome-
try, 421.

Swift, Morrison I. Problems of the New
Life, 132.

Terry, James. Sculptured Anthropoid
Ape Heads, 423.

Texas. Second Annual Report of the
Geological Survey. E. T. Dumble, State
Geologist, 420.

Thomas, H. J. Slide -Rule Perpetual
Calendar, 422.

Tolstoi, Leo. Ivan the Fool. 561.

Trevert, Edward. Electricity and its Ap-
plications, 131.

Trimble, Henry. The Tannins. R49.

United States Commission of Fish and
Fisheries. Report for 1887. 851.

United States Commissioner of Labor. Re-
port for 1890, 851.

Vis Medicatrix. Woods Hutchinson,
M. D., Editor, 279.

Weed, Clarence M. Insects and Insecti-
cides, 130.

Weinberg, A. How to make a Trial Bal-
ance, 563.

Wei.smann, August. Essays upon Hered-
ity and Kindred Biological Problems,
847.

Westermarck, Edward. The History of
Human Marriage, 416.

Wliiting, Harold. Short Course of Ex-
periments in Physicnl Measurements,
Parts in and V<1 . 278, .'561.

Wilcox, Walter F. The Divorce Prob-
lem. 1.31.

Wilson. Daniel. The Right Hand : Left-
handedness, 276.

INDEX.

Books noticed :

Wilson, J. Radical Wrongs in the Pre- Wright, John A. The Practical Working

cepts and Practices of Civilized Man, 849. and Results of the Inter-State Com-
Winslow, J. O. The Principles of Agri- merce Act, 279.

culture, 279. W^right, Lewis. Optical Projection, 1.31 .

W^ood, Henry Trueman. Light, an Ele- W^yatt, Francis. Phosphates of America,

mentary Treatise, 562. 849.

Worthington, Slack. Politics and Prop- Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Sta-

erty or Phronocracy, 133. tion. Bulletin, No. 1, 708.

Booth, James Curtis, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 116

Botany, Economic, Some of tlie Possibilities of. G. L. Goodale 57, 207

Bowlders, Remarkable.* I>. A. Wells 340

Branner, John 0. Cotton Industry, The, in Brazil 666

British Association, The. (Misc.) 424

Canaries. (Misc.) 718

Carpet- weaving in Persia. (Misc ) 285

Caste, Origin of. (Misc.) 428

Census, Lessons from the. C. D. Wright 75, 368, 459, 607, 785

Central Asian Phenomena. (Misc.) 142

Ohapin, J. H. Colors of Names. (Corr.) 414

Chinese Cookery. (Misc.) 716

" Emigration, Cause of. (Misc.) 575

" View of it, A. (Misc.) 138

Churchill, William. Reef-knot Nets * 83

Cities, Social Statistics of. C. D. Wright 607

Climate and Health. (Misc.) 71 1

" Variations in. W. H. Larrabee 804

Clocks and Watches, Evolution of. (Misc.) 282

Colors of Letters. (Corr.) J. S. Stevens 697

" Names. (Corr.) J. H. Chapin 414

Compass, the Mariner's, Earliest Use of. (Misc.) 860

Conn, IL W. Bacteria in our Dairy Products 763

Cotton Industry, The, in Brazil. J. C. Branner 666

Courtship in Torres StraH. (Misc.) ' ^"^

Cremation in Japan. (Misc.)

Crookes, William. Electricity in Relation to Science 497

Customs, Illustration of. (Misc.) ^^^

Cyclopean Structures in Oceania. (Misc.) ^^'^

Darwinism in the Nursery. L. Robinson "'"*

Davis, William Morris. Lost Volcanoes, The, of Connecticut* 221

" Sketch of William Ferrel. (With Portrait) 686

Denudation, Different Effects of. ^Misc.) • ^^^

Dog's Tail, The Wagging of the. (Misc.) • ^"^^

Dogs, The Training of.* W. Mills 236

Dress and Adornment.* F. Starr 44, 194

» Religious.* F. Starr ^^^

Du Bois-Revmond, Emil. Science and Fine Art 'J'51

Durfee, William F. Manufacture, The, of Steel* "^5

Dust. J. G. McPherson 251

Duthiers, De Lacaze. New Observations on the Language of Animals 528

INDEX. 869

PAGE

Earthquake, The, of October, 1891, in Japan. (Corr.) J. K. Goodrich 696

" The Great, of Port Royal.* A. B. Ellis 774

Education and Ethics. (Editor's Table) 698

" An Experiment in. M. A. Aber 377, 517

" The Preparatory Stage in, (Misc.) 568

Egj'ptian Identifications. (Misc.) 283

Electricity in Relation to Science. "W. Crookes 497

Ellis, A. B. Great Earthquake, The, of Port Royal * 774

Eskimos, Stolidness of. (Misc.) 141

Ether, Nature of the. (Misc.) 430

Ethics, The, of Confucius. W. G. Benton 87

Evans, E. P. Progress and Perfectibility in the Lower Animals 170

" Ways, The, of Bees. (Corr.) 841

Evolution and Intelligence. (Editor's Table) 700

" and its Assailants. (Editor's Table) 414

" Intelligence and the Belief in. (Corr.) J. R. Thurston 696

Examinations, A Defense of. (Misc.) 710

Exhibition, An American, in Spain. (Misc.) 860

Fernald, Frederik A. Righting the Bicycle.* (Corr.) 267

Ferrel, William, Sketch of. (With Portrait.) W. M. Davis 686

Flowers, Origin of the Colors of. (Misc.) 717

Flying-machine, The Aviator.* G. Trouve 392

Folk-lore Tales, Origin of. (Misc.) 430

Forest Reproduction in New England 283

" Growth after Fire. (Misc.) 857

Forests, Offices of. (Misc.) 566

Fossil Insects. (Misc.) 567

Gems, The, of the Ancients. (Itlisc.) 713

Geology, Do we teach ? R. T. Hill 41

Glacial Formations, Classification of. (Misc.) 430

" Groovings, Remarkable. (Corr.) D.S.Marvin 842

Glaciers, Alpine, Oscillations of. (Misc.) 717

Goodale, George Lincoln. Some of the Possibilities of Economic Botany. . 57, 207

Goodrich, J. King. Earthquake, The, of October, 1891, in Japan. (Corr.). . 696

Grammar-school Programme, Changes in the. (Misc.) 424

Graveyard Soil, Contamination of. (Misc.) 570

Guilds, Medieval. (Misc.) 863

Gnillemin, Amddee. Communication with the Planets 361

Guyot-Daubes. Stilts and Stilt- walking* 467

Gymnastics, Homely. A. B. Tweedy 524

Harvard Observatory Time-Service. (Misc.) 854

Health, Little Annoyances and. (Misc.) 428

" Safeguards of. (Editor's Table) 844

Henderson, C. H. Nationalization, The, of University Extension 500

" University Extension 1

Herbert, Auberon, and H. Wager. Bad Air and Bad Health 814

High Life 108

870 INDEX.

FAGB

Hill, Robert T. Do we teach Geology ? 41

Holy Stones of the East and the West. (Misc.) 286

Hundred Miles an nour. (Misc.) 857

Iceberg Formation, An Overlooked Mode of. (Misc.) 570

Instincts, The, of Cattle. (Misc.) 568

Intellectual Liberty, The Attack on, in Germany. (Editor's Table) 842

Involuntary Movements.* J. Jastrow 743

Jackson, Edward Payson. Moral Educability 647

Jade, Native, in Europe. (Misc.) 284

Jastrow, Joseph. Involuntary Movements 743

Jordan, David Starr. Agassiz at Penikese 721

" Story, The, of a Strange Land * 447

Jupiter and the Comets. (Misc.) 565

Kelley's Island Groove, The. (Corr.) M. C. Younglove 267

Kipling, John Lockwood. Domestic Animals in India* 597

Language of Animals, New Observations on the. De Lacaze Duthiers. .... 528

Larrabee, W. H. Variations in Climate 804

Lepers in the Middle Ages. (Misc.) 566

Liebig, Justus von : an Autobiographical Sketch 655

Life-saving Service, The United States. (Misc.) 711

Life, Wild, in the Snow. (Misc.) 139

Lightning, Artificial Globular. (Misc.) 570

Lobster-fishery, The Future of the. (Misc.) 142

Loomis, EUas, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 405

Lost Volcanoes, The, of Connecticut.* W. M. Davis 221

Marvin, D. S. Pvemarkable Glacial Groovings. (Corr.) 842

McPherson, J. P. Dust 251

Mann, J. B. Silk Dresses and Eight Hours' Work 245

Marsupial Mole, The Australian.* E. Trouessart 650

Martin, Horace T. Musk Ox, The* 364

Melanesian Ghosts. (Misc.) S*^^

Mendeleef, Dimitri Ivanovitch, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 261

Mesopotamian Desert, The. (Misc.) 284

Metals, Utilizing the Less-known. (Misc.) '^18

Mills, Wesley. Training, The, of Dogs* 236

Monkey Language, The. (Misc.) 137

Moral Educabihty. E. P. Jackson 647

Musical Instruments— The Organ.* D. Spillane 623

" The Piano-forte.* D. Spillane 473

" Orchestral.* D. Spillane 793

Musk Ox, The.* IT. T. Martin 364

New Chapters in the Warfare of Science. A. D. White 323, 577, 729

Numismatics, Astronomy and. (Misc.) 283

INDEX. 871

PAGE

Obituary Notes. WUliam Ferrell, Martin Duncan, L. Just, Francis Brunnow,

Dr. Barclay 288

Cardinal Haynald, Edouard Lucas, F61ix H6ment, Charles

Smith Wilkinson 432

William B. Watson, Percy W. Mjles, Thomas Wharton

Jones, Philip Herbert Carpenter 576

A. de Qaatrefages, Jean Servais Stas, H. K. H. Hoffmann,

Edouard Mailly, Harvey Goodwin, Joseph Lovering 720

Thomas Sterry Hunt, Sir George Biddell Airy, Smile de
Laveleye, Duke of Devonshire, John Couch Adams,

James Augustus Grant 864

Oceanic Causeways, Recent. E. Blancbard 540

Oil Painting^i, Durability of. (Misc.) 862

Onion, Bermuda, Cultivation of the. (Misc.) 854

Opium-smoking, A Defense of. (Misc.) 716

Optics, Wayside.* C. A. Wood 616

Organic Variation a Chemical Problem. (Misc.) 712

Ornament.* F. Starr 44

Ornamentation, Excess of. (Misc.) 861

Painting, The Origin of. L. Popoff 100

Paper, Tests of. (Misc.) !• 425

Peabody Museum of Arcbseology. (Misc.) 853

Peroxide of Hydrogen, Properties of. (Misc.) 427

Personal Liberty. E. Atkinson and E. T. Cabot 433

Phosphorus in Plants and Animals. (Misc.) 285

Photography, Value of. (Misc.) 714

Planets, Communication with the. A. Guillemin 361

Playing-cards, Japanese. (Misc.) .... 136

Political Justice. (Editor's Table) 270

Popoff, Lazar. Origin, The, of Painting 100

Poppy, Cultivation of the. (Misc.) 571

Population, Our, and its Distribution. C. D. Wright 368

" . The, of the Earth 400

" Urban. C. D. Wright 459

Potlach, The Uses of. (Misc.) 569

Pottery Industry, Recent Advances in the.* E. A. Barber 289

" The Rise of the.* E. A. Barber 145

Preservation of delicately Colored Specimens. (Misc.) 854

Quinby, J. W. Breathe Pure Air 192

Races, Two Ancient. fNIisc.) 286

Railroad, Evolution on the. (Misc.) 572

Railway Accidents for 1889-'90. (Misc.) 855

Railroads, South American. (Misc.) 281

Rainfall by Explosion. (Misc.) 573

Rapid Transit. C. D. Wright 785

" Rare Earths," The, in America. (Misc.) 571

Reasoner, Is Man the only ? J. Sully 506

872 INDEX.

PAGE

Reef-knot Nets.* W. Churchill 83

Religious Ideas of Savages. (Misc.) 858

River Channels, Ancient. (Misc.) 564

Roads, Chinese. (Misc.) 850

Robinson, Louis, M. D. Darwinism in the Nursery 674

Ross, P. D. Type-casting Machines * 180

Sanitary Mistakes. (Misc.) 859

Scharf Library, The, of Johns Hopkins. (Misc.) 136

Science and Fine Art. E, Du Bois-Reymond Y51

Scientific Meetings, A Group of. (Editor's Table) 125

Sewage, Purification of. (Misc.) 282

Sheep and Cows, Non-drinking. (Misc.) 287

Silk Dresses and Eight Hours' Work. J. B. Mann 245

" Gauzes, Manufacture of. (Misc.) 855

Silver Question, The Progress of the. (Corr.) C. S. Ashley 413

Slavic Marriage Forecasts. (Misc.) 429

Snake-myths. (Misc.). 713

Species, Man's Agency in the Extermination of. (Misc.) 426

Spiders as Marplots. (Misc.) 863

Spillane, Daniel. Musical Instruments— The Organ* 623

" " , The Piano-forte* 473

" " Orchestral * 793

Starr, Frederick. Ornament * 44

" Religious Dress * 194

Stars, The Universe of 545

Steel, The Manufacture of.* W. F, Durfee 15

Stevens, James S. Colors of Letters. (Corr.) 697

Stilts and Stilt-walking.* Guyot-Dauhes 467

Story, The, of a Strange Land.* D. S. Jordan 447

Strong Man, The. (Editor's Table) 268

Sully, James. Is Man the only Reasoner ? 506

Sulphur in Sicily. (Misc.) 575

Superstitions, Ancient, in Italy. (Misc.) 567

Swords, Famous Japanese. (Misc.) 137

Tail-like Formations in Men * 347

Theology and Political Economy. A. D. White 323

Thurston, John R. Intelligence and the Belief in Evolution. (Corr.) 696

Time-reckoning on the Congo. (Misc.) 572

Tombs, Royal, of Uganda. (Misc.) 861

Torture, Medifcval Instruments of. (Misc.) 858

Tramp Colonies. (Editor's Table) 271

Trouessart, E. Australian Marsupial Mole, The* 650

Trouv6, G. Aviator Flying-machine, The * 392

Tweedy, Alice B. Homely Gymnastics 524

Type-casting Machines.* P. D. Ross 180

University Extension. C. H. Henderson 1

" (Editor's Table) 123

" and the State. (Editor's Table) 654

INDEX.

873

University Extension Lectures on Scienr^A. m\.. ^

The Nationalization of. C. H. Henderson." --^

on Science. (Misc.)

I. Henderson 500

Voice, Character of the. (Misc.)

Voodoo Imitation, A. (Misc.) ^^'^

715

Vager, Harold, and A. Herbert. Bad Air and Bad Health ...

Water m Motion, Power of. (Misc.) ^^

Waves, Some Characteristics of. (Mi'sc) ^^^

Weber, William Edward, Sketch of. (wiih Portrait)'. ! ! ." fj'

Weddings among the Shushwap Indians. (Mi^c )

Weeds, The Travels of. (Misc.) ^"^^

Wells, David A. Eemarkable Bowlders'* ^^'^

White, Andrew Dickson. Astronomv ^^^

44 •' 577 729

W.mo. yrx. , Theology and Political Economy. . ' " " '090
Women, Where, rule. (Misc.). ^^^

Wood, Casey A., M. D. Wayside 'opti'cs'* ^^^

Woods, Tests of. (Misc ) ^^ ^

Wright, Carroll D. Lessons ^om ;he'cen;us;.-.'.'.'.'.-.-.-.VV5,' 368; '459,- 007; ?85
Our Population and its Distribution . . qr«

Urban Population '^

Social Statistics of Cities. ff!

^ " Rapid Transit.... ^^^

Wright, Prof., in the British Association. '(Mi'sc') !?J

'^ 426

Younglove, M. C. Kelley's Island Groove, The. (Corr.) 267

END OF VOL, XL.

MBI. WHOI LIBRARY

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