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From  the  collection  of  the 


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PreTinger 
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1     San  Francisco,  California 
2007 


ESTABLISHED   BY  EDWARD  L.   YOUMANS. 


THE 


POPULAK   SCIENCE 


MONTHLY 


EDITED    BY   WILLIAM  JAY   YOUMANS. 


VOL.  XLIII. 

MAY  TO  OCTOBER,   1893. 


NEW  YORK  : 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

1,  3,  AND  5  BOND  STREET. 

1893. 


COPYRIGHT,  1893, 
BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


SAMUEL  WILLIAM   JOHNSON. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


MAY,    1893. 
JAPANESE   HOME   LIFE. 

By  DR.  W.  DELANO  EASTLAKE. 

IT  must  be  confessed  that  the  ideas  of  Japan  and  the  Japanese 
which  we  are  likely  to  gain  through  the  current  literature  of 
the  day  are  apt  to  be  sadly  confusing.  This,  I  am  quite  confident, 
is  not  from  any  desire  on  the  part  of  writers  on  Japanese  subjects 
to  encourage  any  false  impressions,  but  rather  from  the  very  fact 
that  neither  poet  nor  artist  traveler — ay,  nor  many  of  the  long 
residents  in  Japan,  for  that  matter — have  opportunity  to  see  or 
take  part  in  the  home  life  of  the  people  of  Japan. 

But  few  visitors  to  that  country  have  been  able,  in  so  short  a 
time,  to  become  so  thoroughly  en  rapport  with  the  customs  and 
life  of  this  interesting  people  as  Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  whose  grace- 
ful writings  show  us  how  he  has  thought  with  them,  lived  with 
them,  and  loved  with  them  in  a  deeper  and  truer  sense  than  many 
of  the  oldest  foreign  residents,  although  his  stay  was  compara- 
tively short.  Yet  even  in  Sir  Edwin's  writings  on  Japan  we  see 
the  poetry  rather  than  the  prose  of  Japanese  life ;  and  this  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at,  for  of  all  countries  and  people  none  could 
appeal  so  deeply  to  the  poet  as  does  this  fairyland  of  flowers  and 
romance.  The  very  air  one  breathes,  the  delicious  sense  of  rest 
and  quiet,  the  graceful  courtesy  of  the  people,  the  romantic 
beauty  of  mountain  or  highway,  city  or  dwelling — all  these,  and 
far  more,  complete  an  ideal  picture  that  awakens  enthusiasm  in 
the  prosiest  of  tourists  or  visitors.  It  could  surely  scarcely  have 
been  otherwise  that  the  author  of  the  Light  of  Asia,  whose  very 
heart-strings  are  tuned  to  the  melody  of  poetry,  should  have  struck 
the  keynote  of  Japanese  life  and  awakened  naught  but  answering 
chords  of  most  enchanting  harmony. 

VOL.    XLIII. — 1 


2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

So  he  has  given  us  these  in  his  writings  on  Japan  so  vividly 
and  artistically  that  we  can  almost  hear  the  soft-voiced  welcome 
of  the  serving  maiden,  as  the  soji  is  noiselessly  pushed  aside,  and 
amid  the  subtle  fragrance  of  the  plum  blossoms  sink  back  among 
the  silken  cushions  with  that  delicious  sense  of  repose,  while 
lulled  to  rest  by  the  melodic  echo  of  the  koto  strings,  and  find 
ourselves  once  more  in  fairyland  Japan.  And  would  it  were  only 

true! 

Yet  we  are  not  all  of  us  poets,  and  few  of  us  are  artists,  and  so 
find  that  there  is  prose  beneath  the  fragrant  blossoms  that  the 
poet's  pen  has  so  lavishly  scattered  over  things  Japanese.  On  the 


other  hand,  we  find  that  the  sweeping  assertions  regarding  Japa- 
nese ethics  and  morals — or  rather  lack  of  morals — as  contained  in 
other  writings  on  Japan,  are  both  unjust  and  untrue. 

On  the  one  hand,  Sir  Edwin  Arnold  tells  us  that  the  women  of 
Japan  approach  our  ideal  of  the  angelic,  while  another  writer 
cries  out  against  the  utter  lack  of  morality  in  Japanese  women. 
Such  diametrically  opposed  statements  are  distressingly  confus- 
ing, and  the  characteristics  of  "  angelic  immorality  "  are  hard  to 
conceive  of,  and  must  be  rather  paradoxical,  to  say  the  least. 

Should  we  desire  to  gain  any  true  idea  of  the  "prose  and 
poetry  "  of  Japan,  we  must  look  into  the  details  of  the  home  life 
of  the  people ;  for,  after  all,  it  is  the  daily  routine,  the  domestic 
and  social  duties,  the  thoughts,  pastimes,  and  aspirations  typical 


JAPANESE   HOME  LIFE.  3 

to  any  people  that  mold  the  ethics  and  character  of  the  nation 
itself.  In  a  word,  we  must  enter  the  homes  of  both  high  and  low, 
there  to  learn  facts  and  not  "  foreign  impressions." 

But,  alas !  the  task  is  one  most  difficult  to  accomplish,  for  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  the  vast  majority  of  foreign  residents, 
and  practically  all  transient  visitors  to  the  country,  see  little  or 
nothing  of  the  details  of  the  home  life  of  the  people.  And  why  ? 
Is  the  life  of  the  people  just  what  they  see  it  to  be  in  its  pic- 
turesque and  courteous  superficiality,  and  is  it  indeed  all  poetry, 
music,  and  flowers,  and  no  earnest  reality  ? 

I&deed,  there  is;  for  the  word  "home"  has  the  same  tender 
meaning  in  the  hearts  of  the  Japanese  as  with  us ;  and  the  cricket 
that  chirps  so  lustily  on  the  hearths  of  American  or  English 
homes  would  find  a  rival  songster  in  the  cheery  little  fellow 
whose  contented  chirp  by  the  side  of  the  glowing  brazier,  or 
hibachi,  makes  such  sweet  music  in  Japanese  homes. 

Apart  from  the  diplomatic  and  consular  representatives  from 
Western  countries,  the  foreign  residents  of  Japan  are  chiefly  com- 
posed of  merchants,  missionaries,  and  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  professional  men.  The  merchant  or  trading  class 
represent  by  all  odds  the  majority  of  the  foreign  community. 
Numerically,  missionaries  would  come  next.  Indeed,  it  would 
not  be  an  unfair  estimate  to  state  that  these  two  classes  constitute 
at  least  four  fifths  of  the  foreign  population.  Trading,  as  far  as 
foreigners  are  concerned,  is  still  limited  to  the  treaty  ports,  in- 
cluding Yokohama,  Kobe',  Nagasaki,  and  a  few  others.  Socially, 
the  Japanese  merchant  ranks  below  the  humblest  tradesman,  and, 
as  all  foreign  trading  with  the  interior  must  be  carried  on  through 
the  medium  of  these  Japanese  commission  merchants,  it  is  with 
this  class  of  people  that  the  majority  of  the  foreign  residents 
come  in  contact,  and  then  only  in  their  business  relations,  and 
seldom  socially  or  intimately ;  although,  were  this  the  case,  the 
idea  gained  of  Japanese  home  life  would  be  misleading,  for  the 
Japanese  trader  very  soon  learns  to  conform  himself  to  the  man- 
ners of  his  customers,  and  can  not  be  regarded — as  thus  met — as 
typical  of  the  truly  Japanese. 

The  missionaries  as  well,  for  the  most  part  at  least,  have  little 
opportunity  to  study  the  details  of  the  social  or  home  life  of  the 
people  they  are  working  among.  Theirs  is  a  duty  and  vocation 
which  from  its  very  nature  would  render  this  well-nigh  impossi- 
ble. They  are  teachers,  not  students ;  they  are  bearers  of  spiritual 
truths,  and  must  needs  open  warfare  against  the  existing  creeds  of 
the  people ;  and  this  attitude  in  itself  would,  in  the  majority  of  in- 
stances at  least,  debar  them  from  entering  into  the  pursuits  or 
pastimes  of  the  people.  Before  leaving  the  subject  of  mission- 
aries, I  would  call  attention  to  the  frequent  allusions  made  by  the 


JAPANESE  HOME  LIFE.  5 

representatives  of  certain  missions,  to  the  disrespect  and  disre- 
gard paid  to  them  or  their  teachings  by  the  Japanese.  Such 
assertions  are  too  sweeping,  to  say  the  least,  as  well  as  mislead- 
ing, for  many  of  the  foreign  missionaries  in  Japan  have  gained 
the  high  esteem  of  natives,  and  have  endeared  themselves,  both 
by  their  noble,  self-sacrificing  lives,  as  well  as  ever  ready  sym- 
pathy and  friendliness.  There  have  been  many  missionaries  sent 
to  Japan  during  the  past  decade  who  are  educationally  sadly  in- 
€ompetent  to  meet  the  emergencies  that  present  themselves  in 
Japan.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  standard  of  education 
of  the  present  generation  in  Japan  is  most  high.  The  works  of 
Huxley,  Spencer,  Darwin,  and  many  others  have,  for  the  most 
part,  been  translated  into  Japanese,  and  the  students  and  gradu- 
ates of  the  university,  the  Dai  gakko,  are  able  to  compete  educa- 
tionally with  men  from  our  best  colleges  and  universities.  The 
eagerness  for  knowledge  that  one  finds  so  universally  displayed 
among  the  Japanese,  together  with  the  remarkable  advance  in 
this  direction  that  the  nation  has  made  during  the  past  twenty 
years,  and  the  prominent  position  Japan  is  assuming  in  its  rela- 
tions to  America  and  European  countries — all  this  commands  our 
unbiased  interest  and  respect. 

The  task  of  endeavoring  to  portray  a  clear,  although  of  neces- 
sity incomplete,  view  of  Japanese  home  life  is  one  of  no  little  dif- 
ficulty. It  would  seem  almost  as  difficult  as  an  adequate  descrip- 
tion of  a  Beethoven  sonata  would  be  without  the  aid  of  music. 
For  there  is  a  subtle  "  something  "  about  Japan  in  which,  perhaps, 
the  exquisite  harmony  of  the  land — the  scenery  and  the  people — 
plays  an  important  part ;  yet  a  "  something  "  that  is  wont  to  cast 
a  charmed  spell  around  one,  and  causes  a  former  resident,  like 
myself,  to  look  back  to  the  years  spent  in  the  "  Land  of  the  Rising 
Sun"  as  to  the  memory  of  some  peaceful  vision  of  fairyland. 
This  indefinable  charm  can  not  be  described  in  mere  word-pic- 
tures, and  yet  escapes  few  visitors  to  Japan,  and  is  seldom  lost 
even  after  long  residence  in  that  country. 

The  sense  of  restfulness  that  pervades  our  Japanese  towns,  in 
bold  contradistinction  to  that  feeling  of  noisy  hurry  and  feverish 
excitement  of  a  busy  American  city,  has  been  attributed  to  the 
comparative  absence  of  horse  traffic  in  the  former.  Undoubtedly 
this  is  a  potent  factor,  but  not  the  only  one  which  gives  that  sense 
of  quiet  and  repose  already  referred  to.  The  courteous  politeness 
of  the  people,  both  rich  and  poor,  the  general  evidences  of  light- 
heartedness  among  even  the  poorest  laboring  classes,  the  absence 
of  that  distracting  hurry  and  rush  so  typical  of  our  great  busi- 
ness centers,  and  in.  addition  to  all  this  the  picturesque  houses  and 
streets,  the  spotlessly  clean  homes,  the  evidences  everywhere  of  a 
national  love  for  the  beautiful  and  artistic,  the  absence  of  saloons 


6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

or  barrooms,  and  their  substitution  by  public  bath-houses,  at  al- 
most every  corner— all  these  must  be  regarded  as  factors  produc- 
tive of  this  sense  of  quiet  and  rest.  Then,  again,  the  strange  com- 
mingling of  the  new  and  the  old— for,  turning  aside  from  some 
busy  street  thronged  with  shoppers,  venders  and  tradesmen,  a 
few  steps  may  find  us  approaching  some  majestic  temple  gate- 
way, leading  to  the  shrine  or  tomb  of  some  great  hero  of  centuries 
gone  by.  Ascending  the  time-worn  stone  steps,  and  standing  be- 
neath the  shadow  of  the  lofty  gabled  roof  of  the  gateway,  our  gaze 
may  follow  the  intricate  maze  of  lacquer  and  bronze  architectural 
adornment  until  it  is  lost  in  the  shadowy  gloom  overhead.  On 
either  side  of  the  two  central  columns,  and  shut  off  by  a  railing, 
are  the  colossal  figures  of  the  "guardians  of  the  temple,"  grim 
and  gaunt,  with  sword  in  hand.  Flanked  on  either  side  are  the 
tall  bronze  or  stone  lanterns  of  the  temple,  and  still  beyond,  back 
even  of  the  font  of  water  and  the  great  temple  bell  in  its  gabled 
belfry,  is  the  shrine  itself,  a  fitting  resting  place  or  tribute  to  one 
who  has  served  his  country  well,  guarded  as  it  is  by  gnarled  and 
ancient  pines  and  lofty  cryptomarias  that  were  ancient  when  the 
grandsires  of  the  happy  throng  below  ascended  these  self -same 
steps  to  offer  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  hero. 

There  is  a  marked  similarity  in  the  daily  routine  of  the  inmates 
of  Japanese  homes,  whether  they  be  homes  of  the  rich  or  poor, 
the  official  or  tradesman.  The  wife  is  always  the  mistress  of  the 
home,  and  hers  is  the  duty  of  in  every  way  possible  rendering  the 
life  of  her  husband  happy — and  to  be  happy  herself,  as  far  as  he 
knows.  The  instruction  of  the  daughters  of  the  home  in  the 
various  domestic  duties  also  devolves  upon  the  mother.  The 
wardrobe  of  the  entire  family  is  the  work  of  her  hands,  with  the 
assistance,  perhaps,  of  an  aunt  (obasari),  maid,  or  her  growing 
daughters.  The  latter,  by  the  way,  are  taught  how  to  sew  while 
yet  quite  little  tots,  and  as  they  grow  older  in  years  and  skill,  are 
initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  art  needlework.  Then  the  daugh- 
ters are  instructed  in  music,  a  certain  knowledge  of  the  samisen, 
koto,  or  some  other  musical  instrument  being  regarded  as  a  requi- 
site accomplishment  in  even  the  poorer  and  middle  classes,  while 
the  daughters  of  the  higher  classes  and  nobility  are  well  versed 
in  art,  music,  and  the  poetry  of  the  country.  The  other  accom- 
plishments deemed  desirable  in  women  consist  principally  in  the 
artistic  arrangement  of  flowers  and  the  details  of  ceremonial  tea 
making  and  drinking  (cha-no-yu) . 

The  recitation,  or  reading  of  historical  poems  (utai)  is  a  favor- 
ite study,  especially  if  some  romance  is  interwoven  into  the  story. 
Usually  the  dramatic  poems  (iorori)  are  ceremoniously  read  or 
sung  by  the  young  maidens,  while  an  elder  sister  or  teacher  will 
thrum  a  minor  accentuated  accompaniment  on  the  samisen.  Some- 


8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

times  the  story  of  the  utai  is  told  in  prose  to  the  eager  group  of 
children  gathered  around  the  glowing  brazier,  or  hibachi.  The 
latter,  it  must  be  confessed,  in  spite  of  its  cheery  appearance,  ra- 
diates but  a  scant  amount  of  heat  in  comparison  with  the  open 
grates  of  the  Occident.  Such  a  family  group  may  be  seen  in 
thousands  of  homes  in  Tokyo  alone,  on  a  winter's  afternoon  ;  the 
boys,  if  back  from  school,  resting  contentedly  on  the  white  tatami, 
or  studying  the  morrow's  lessons  in  some  quiet  nook ;  the  little 
maidens,  demurely  grouped  about  the  hibachi,  busily  plying  their 
needles,  while  listening  to  some  story  told  by  the  old  aunt  or 
nurse,  that  may  be  acting  as  instructress.  The  contented  hum  of 


SINGING  GIRLS  PLAYING  ON  THE  KOTO  AND  SAMISEN. 

the  quaint  old  iron  kettle,  resting  over  the  glowing  coals,  sup- 
ported by  an  iron  tripod  thrust  into  the  ashes  of  the  hibachi,  sug- 
gests its  entire  readiness  to  assist  in  the  preparation  of  tiny  cups 
of  fragrant  tea  for  any  chance  guest  that  arrives,  or  for  any  mem- 
ber of  the  family  that  wants  a  steaming  cup  of  this  delicate  bev- 
erage— which  is  so  much  more  dainty  and  delicious  as  prepared 
and  drunk  by  the  Japanese  than  by  us. 

It  is  then  that  the  telling  of  stories  finds  its  place  in  Japanese. 
The  deeds  of  heroes,  the  romances  of  ancient  dynasties,  mystical 
lore,  stories  of  ghosts  and  ghouls,  and  of  the  wicked  and  revenge- 
ful deeds  of  fox  or  badger  sprites — this  folk  lore,  historical  or 
mythical,  as  it  may  be,  has  become  so  blended  with  the  home  life 


JAPANESE  HOME  LIFE.  9 

of  the  people  that  one  can  not  well  dissociate  the  one  from  the 
other.  The  story  of  Kogo-no-Tsubone— properly  an  utai,  or  his- 
torical poem — is  a  favorite  on  account  of  the  sweet  romance  it 

contains. 

THE   STORY   OF   KOGO-NO-TSUBON& 

Long,  long  years  ago,  before  the  Shoguns,  that  now  sleep  in 
their  ancient  graves  in  Shiba,  had  gained  power,  and  before  the 
advent  of  foreigners  had  been  even  dreamed  of,  the  peace-loving 
young  Emperor  Takakura,  a  monarch  of  the  imperial  line,  graced 
the  sacred  throne  of  his  ancestors. 

But  the  imperial  power  of  Takakura  was  but  a  nominal  one, 
for  the  prime  minister— one  Kiyomori,  of  Taira  descent— virtually 
ruled  the  land,  and,  to  accomplish  his  ends  more  adroitly,  had 
even  caused  his  daughter  to  be  made  empress.  Thus  the  peace- 
loving  young  monarch  was  a  mere  tool  in  the  artful  hands  of  Ki- 
yomori. Indeed,  his  power  was  great,  for  the  emperor  could  not 
have  declared  war  or  made  peace  against  Kiyomorr'  s  tyrant  will. 

So,  while  the  prime  minister  was  scheming  with  his  daughter 
the  empress,  the  young  monarch  was  forced  to  seek  consolation 
in  music  and  art,  and  found  a  willing  and  loving  follower  in  one 
of  his  retainers,  Nakakuni,  who  himself  was  a  most  skilled  per- 
former on  the  flute.  Now,  it  happened  that  among  the  royal  mu- 
sicians at  the  palace  there  was  a  lady  in  waiting  to  the  royal 
household  who  in  music  far  outranked  any  other.  Fair  as  a 
dream,  gifted  with  the  sweetest  of  voices,  Kogo — for  this  was  her 
name — was  able  to  awaken  music  from  her  koto  strings  that 
seemed  to  spring  from  the  very  soul  of  the  instrument.  None 
but  the  tapering  fingers  of  the  fair  Kogo  could  create  such  en- 
trancing harmony,  and  it  truly  seemed  as  though  the  silken  strings 
would  murmur  a  loving  response  to  her  gentle  caress. 

Frequently  the  flutist  Nakakuni  would  accompany  Kogo's  mu- 
sic and  song,  while  the  young  emperor  would  listen  like  one  en- 
tranced. These  three  passed  many  happy  hours  together ;  but  as 
time  wore  on,  the  young  monarch  realized  that  sweet  Kogo's  mu- 
sic and  verse  had  awakened  love.  But,  alas !  Kiyomori  learned  of 
the  emperor's  infatuation,  and  poor  Kogo  was  compelled  to  se- 
cretly flee  to  the  mountain  forests  of  Saga  in  order  to  escape  from 
the  relentless  persecutions  of  Kiyomori  and  his  daughter  the  em- 
press. 

On  learning  of  Kogo's  flight  from  the  palace,  Takakura  at  once 
ordered  his  faithful  retainer  Nakakuni  to  go  in  search  of  the  miss- 
ing maiden,  and  look  far  and  wide,  and  not  to  return  until  he  had 
found  her  hiding  place.  The  fleetest  horse  of  the  royal  mews 
was  made  ready,  and  Nakakuni,  bearing  with  him  a  message  from 
the  Emperor,  was  soon  speeding  toward  the  gloomy  mountain  of 
Saga. 


10 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Long  he  rode ;  the  giant  cryptomarias  that  flanked  the  high- 
way towered  overhead,  and  well-nigh  shut  out  the  remnant  of 
the  dying  day.  Night  dropped  her  black  pall  over  the  earth  as 
he  entered  the  dark  forests  of  the  mountain,  but  far,  far  above  the 
tree-tops  the  silver  moon  shone  forth,  with  the  stars  peeping  out 


A  GEISHA,  OR  PROFESSIONAL  ENTERTAINER  AND  MUSICIAN. 

one  by  one,  as  though  desiring  to  aid  the  loyal  retainer  in  his 
search.  Again  and  again  he  would  check  his  horse  and  stop  to 
listen,  for  it  seemed  that  he  could  hear  the  melodious  tones  of  a 
koto.  At  last,  when,  far  late  into  the  night,  he  arrived  at  the 
ancient  temple  of  Horin,  the  sounds  became  more  audible,  al- 


JAPANESE  HOME  LIFE.  it 

though,  still  distant.  Was  it  the  distant  moan  of  some  far-away 
tempest  among  the  mountain  peaks  ?  Was  it  merely  the  night 
wind  sighing  through  the  lofty  pines  overhead  ?  Or  could  it  be 
the  plaintive,  liquid  melody  from  the  harp  of  the  lost  one  ?  Check- 
ing his  panting,  foaming  steed,  Nakakuni  listened  intently,  and 
while  listening  his  heart  began  to  beat  wildly,  for  he  now  recog- 
nized the  music  of  an  old  love  song,  and  the  magic  touch  of  Kogo's 
fingers  on  the  koto  strings.  Led  by  the  guiding  music,  he  soon 
reached  a  miserable-looking  hut,  whence  the  sounds  proceeded. 
Dismounting  at  the  door  of  the  hut,  he  proclaimed  himself  a  royal 
messenger  and  demanded  admittance. 

A  voice  from  within  answered  that  no  dweller  in  so  humble  a 
hut  was  worthy  of  being  the  recipient  of  a  message  from  the  em- 
peror, and  that  surely  he  had  made  some  mistake.  Not  to  be  put 
off,  however,  Nakakuni  declared  that  he  had  recognized  Kogo's 
music,  and  that  it  was  for  Kogo  that  he  was  seeking.  Then,  in- 
deed, he  was  made  welcome  to  the  humble  abode ;  but,  after  de- 
livering the  emperor's  message,  the  fair  Kogo  announced  her 
determination  to  forsake  the  world  forever  and  live  the  holy  life 
of  a  recluse,  and  begged  that  Nakakuni  would  secure  the  em- 
peror's pardon  for  her  enforced  disobedience  to  his  commands. 
In  vain  did  the  faithful  messenger  endeavor  to  alter  this  deter- 
mination, and  presently  the  two  fell  to  talking  of  the  happy  past 
at  the  palace.  The  koto  was  brought  forth,  and  Kogo  once  more 
sang  those  well-known  love  songs,  and  the  harp  strings  rang  again 
with  melody.  The  moments  rolled  into  hours,  and  the  day  was 
breaking  when  Nakakuni  took  leave  of  the  weeping  and  disconso- 
late maiden  and  rode  slowly  back  to  the  palace  alone. 

Sometimes  the  story  is  ended  here  with  the  conclusion  that 
Kogo  became  a  Buddhist  nun  and  spent  her  life  in  ministering  to 
others,  self-abnegation,  and  prayer;  but  the  history  of  the  ro- 
mance, as  set  forth  in  the  utai,  is  kindlier,  for  the  emperor  again 
sent  for  the  sweet  musician,  who  was  finally  prevailed  upon  to 
return  to  the  palace,  where  she  was  restored  to  her  former  honor- 
able position  in  the  imperial  household. 

In  rendering  the  above  in  English  I  have  endeavored  to  retain, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  quaintness  of  the  original  with  which  almost 
every  Japanese  is  familiar.  Regarding  the  purely  legendary  lore 
of  Japan,  this  is  as  a  rule  most  weird  and  mystical.  The  large 
variety  of  supernatural  beings,  for  the  most  part  of  a  purely 
psychical  origin,  is  truly  startling ;  indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
imagine  or  invent  any  grewsome  form  for  an.  apparition  that  is 
not  already  an  old  inhabitant  of  Japanese  "  ghostdom." 

But  for  "  fireside  "  stories  it  is,  after  all,  the  recital  of  the  un- 
canny and  magical  deeds  of  foxes  and  badgers  that  awakens  the 


JAPANESE  HOME  LIFE.  13 

greatest  interest  among  the  children,  and  which  are,  for  the  most 
part,  believed  in  even  by  the  elders.  In  fact,  among  the  more  illit- 
erate classes  to  be  possessed  with  the  spirit  of  a  fox  (kitsune-tsuki) 
is  a  form  of  zoanthropy  not  infrequently  met  with,  although  the 
disorder  is  more  likely  to  be  assumed  than  real,  and  the  epithet 
kitsune-tsuki,  or  "  f ox-hearted,"  is  more  apt  to  be  figuratively 
applied  than  otherwise.  Undoubtedly  the  popular  belief  in  the 
magical  powers  of  foxes  and  badgers  in  Japan  is  as  extensive  as- 
the  frequently  unexpressed  belief  in  the  supernatural  found  in 
this  country.  The  educated  classes  will  decry  any  such  super- 
stitious belief,  and  yet  will  tell  you  of  alleged  experiences  of  their 
friends  or  relatives  with  foxes  or  badgers,  which  are  "  very 
strange  and  not  to  be  accounted  for."  Fox  and  badger  stories 
are  therefore  highly  appreciated  by  the  juvenile  members  of  any 
Japanese  family,  principally  on  account  of  their  "  authenticity," 
and  because  of  that  fascinating  condition  of  fear  and  "  the  creeps  "" 
that  their  recital  occasions.  Here  is  a  good  badger  story,  the  truth 
of  which  I  can  vouch  for,  insomuch  as  there  is  a  field  of  Inami 
near  Kyoto,  and  that  it  is  a  grewsome  spot  well  suited  for  a  tryst- 
ing  place  for  ghouls  and  ghosts. 

THE   BURIAL  AT   MIDNIGHT.* 

Not  far  from  Kyoto,  in  the  smiling  hill-land  of  Harima,  there- 
is  a  broad,  open  plain  known  as  the  "  Field  of  Inami."  Although 
surrounded  by  verdant  hillsides,  this  plain  is  bleak  and  barren ; 
great  gusts  of  wind  sweep  over  the  long,  dry  grasses,  and  no 
farmer  or  peasant  has  ever  found  a  home  in  this  desolate  spot. 
Yet  the  great  highway  to  Kyoto  runs  just  to  one  side  of  the  plain, 
and  on  this  road  a  postman  used  to  carry  his  load  of  letters  once 
or  twice  every  week.  A  little  bypath  leads  across  one  corner  of 
the  plain,  lessening  the  distance  to  the  city,  and  this  path  was  a 
great  favorite  with  the  postman,  as  it  made  his  journey  so  much 
the  shorter. 

Going  one  day  as  usual  to  Kyoto,  he  reached  the  field  a  little 
later  than  was  his  wont,  and  night  came  on  before  he  had  ad- 
vanced very  far.  Without  a  light  or  the  means  of  procuring  one,, 
he  wandered  aimlessly  on  for  a  while,  but  finally  seeing  that  he 
had  missed  the  path  in  the  darkness,  resolved  to  pass  the  night 
where  he  was,  with  the  sky  for  a  coverlet.  Without  giving  a 
second  thought  to  all  the  ugly  stories  told  of  the  field,  the  ghosts 
and  malicious  fox-sprites  said  to  hold  their  nightly  revels  in  that 
spot,  the  postman  bravely  determined  to  make  the  best  of  it,  and 


*  This  tale  was  first  translated  from  the  Japanese  into  German,  and  read,  among  others, 
before  the  Gesellschaft  fur  Volkerkunde  in  Ost-Asien,  in  Yokohama,  by  F.  Warrington 
Eastlake,  Ph.  D. 


H  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

was  just  looking  for  some  sort  of  shelter  when  he  caught  sight  of 
a  little,  half-ruined  hut.  Drawing  nearer,  he  found  that  it  was  a 
sort  of  watch-house,  such  as  the  peasants  build  near  the  rice-fields 
in  order  to  protect  the  growing  grain.  Overjoyed  at  having 
found  even  this  poor  shelter,  the  postman  entered  the  little  hut, 
and,  throwing  himself  on  a  heap  of  dried  grass,  was  soon  fast 
asleep.  Perfect  silence  reigned  over  the  sterile  plain ;  only  now 
and  again  the  far-off  hoot  of  an  owl  or  the  mournful  cry  of  some 
night  bird  broke  the  stillness  of  the  night. 

Several  hours  had  passed,  when  the  sleeper  was  suddenly  awak- 
ened by  the  deep,  sonorous  note  of  a  bell.  The  sound  seemed  to 
come  from  the  western  portion  of  the  field,  and  all  at  once  the 
startled  sleeper  heard  a  tramping  as  of  many  feet,  and  a  confused 
murmur  of  Buddhist  chants  and  prayers.  Nearer  and  nearer 
came  the  crowd  of  people,  to  the  listener's  great  astonishment. 
"  There  are  no  houses  in  the  field,"  thought  he,  "  and  anyhow  no 
one  would  think  of  going  at  midnight  to  such  a  deserted  and  ill- 
omened  spot."  The  stars  were  shining  brightly,  but  no  moon 
illumined  the  scene,  so  that  the  trembling  postman  could  only  see 
objects  very  near  him.  Nevertheless  he  peeped  cautiously  out  of 
his  hiding  place  and  saw,  to  his  unbounded  surprise,  a  long  pro- 
cession of  men  bearing  torches  and  lanterns.  In  front  of  all 
marched  a  tall  priest,  reciting  the  Buddhist  invocation,  Namu 
Amida  Butsu,  in  a  clear,  loud  voice.  "  It  is  a  funeral  procession ! " 
thought  the  frightened  listener,  and  crept  farther  back  into  the 
shadows  of  the  hut. 

As  soon  as  the  mournful  procession  had  reached  the  little  hut 
.a  halt  was  made,  and  the  coffin-bearers  stepped  forward.  Scarcely 
five  paces  from  the  hut  the  grave  was  dug,  and  the  coffin  placed 
in  it.  The  priest  then  threw  the  earth  back  into  the  grave  and 
built  a  little  mound  above  it,  and  finally  placed  a  few  sticks  cov- 
ered with  Buddhist  characters  in  one  end  of  the  mound.  With- 
out further  word  the  somber  procession  turned  back,  and  moved 
slowly  away  in  the  same  solemn  and  impressive  manner,  leaving 
the  postman  in  a  most  pitiable  frame  of  mind.  It  was  quite  bad 
enough  to  be  compelled  to  spend  the  night  in  such  an  uncanny 
and  grewsome  spot ;  but  the  late  hour,  mysterious  burial,  and  the 
proximity  of  the  freshly  dug  grave  were  enough  to  frighten  the 
bravest  heart. 

As  if  chained  to  the  spot  by  some  evil  spell,  the  postman  kept 
staring  at  the  little  mound  before  him.  Suddenly,  while  he  was 
gazing  fixedly  at  the  grave,  it  began  to  rock  slowly  from  side  to 
side.  Quicker  and  quicker  became  the  rocking,  while  the  invol- 
untary spectator  underwent  an  agony  of  terror.  Faster  and  faster 
still  rocked  the  mound,  until  it  fell  over  with  a  great  shock,  and 
a  naked,  horrid  thing  jumped  from  the  grave  and  ran  toward  the 


16 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


postman.  In  an  instant  he  remembered  that  horrible  ghouls 
always  attend  a  burial,  and  that  these  ghouls  often  kill  and  eat 
living  beings.  There  was  no  time  to  lose,  for  the  creature  had 
already  reached  the  entrance  of  the  hut.  Crazed  with  fear,  the 


postman  drew  his  sword  and  made  one  desperate  cut  at  his  enemy, 
and  then,  without  daring  to  give  a  second  blow,  ran  out  of  the 
hut  and  into  the  night. 

Hours  seemed  to  have  passed  before  the  postman  arrived,  half 
dead  with  exhaustion  and  panting  for  breath,  at  the  house  of  a 


JAPANESE  HOME  LIFE.  17 

peasant,  just  beyond  the  outskirts  of  the  field.  He  knocked  again 
and  again,  but  no  one  came  in  answer,  and  so  he  had  to  wait  for 
the  day  to  dawn.  Shortly  after  sunrise  the  people  of  the  house 
arose,  and,  hearing  the  knocking,  took  the  still  breathless  wan- 
derer into  the  guest  chamber,  where  they  attended  to  his  pitiable 
state,  and  then  begged  him  to  relate  what  had  befallen  him. 
This  he  did,  and  the  peasants  at  once  determined  to  go  to  the 
little  hut  in  the  field  of  Inami,  which  was  well  known  to  them. 
Upon  arriving  at  the  spot  they  found  no  signs  of  a  burial  or  of  a 
grave.  Mound  and  coffin  had  utterly  disappeared;  but  just  in 
front  of  the  hut  lay  the  body  of  a  huge  badger,  killed  by  the  one 
cut  of  the  good  steel.  At  once  they  saw  what  had  happened. 
The  evil  beast  had  wished  to  frighten  the  belated  wanderer  ;  and 
the  funeral  procession  and  priest,  coffin,  and  grave  had  been 
merely  the  work  of  magic. 

So  much  for  the  stories  that  play  such  an  important  role  in 
the  drama  of  home  life  in  Japan.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this 
subject  has  not  been  more  extensively  dealt  with  in  recent  writ- 
ings of  the  country,  for  many  of  the  hidden  beauties  of  the  coun- 
try and  people  are  best  portrayed  in  the  stories  of  bygone  heroes, 
as  told  to  the  children  around  the  liibachi,  or  as  sung  by  some 
graceful  maiden  with  samisen  or  koto  accompaniment ;  while  the 
tales  of  ghosts  or  ghouls  rival  those  of  almost  any  other  land  in 
variety  and  horror. 

Turning  to  the  pastimes  common  to  Japanese  homes,  a  brief 
mention  of  the  most  popular  games  must  not  be  omitted.  Go  and 
slwgi  are  similar  to  our  games  of  draughts  and  chess,  yet  the  for- 
mer is  far  more  scientific  than  checkers.  There  are  several  games 
of  cards,  the  playing  cards  being  about  as  long  as  those  used  in 
this  country,  but  scarcely  three  quarters  of  an  inch  wide.  Another 
favorite  game  is  that  of  "  One  Hundred  Poems."  It  is  somewhat 
similar  to  our  rather  childish  game  of  "  Authors,"  with  the  excep- 
tion that  the  Japanese  game  is  by  no  means  childish,  and  requires 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  at  least  one  hundred  poems  of  well- 
known  merit.  Two  hundred  cards  are  used  in  the  game,  and  half 
a  poem  is  written  on  each  card.  The  cards  being  spread  before 
the  players,  the  half  of  a  poem  on  any  one  card  is  read,  and  the 
other  half  searched  for  by  the  contestants.  Then  the  different 
seasons  of  the  year  have  typical  games.  The  most  picturesque  of 
these  is  haguita,  or  "  battledoor  and  shuttlecock,"  which  is  exclu- 
sively a  New- Year's  game.  Then  the  time  of  the  cherry  blooms 
brings  its  games  beneath  the  bloom-laden  branches.  Music  and 
song  find  their  way  into  the  homes  of  Japan  far  more  extensively 
than  in  this  country.  To  be  sure,  the  music  of  either  koto  or 
samisen  is  apt  to  sound  strange,  and  at  first  perhaps  almost  unin- 

VOL.    XLHI. 2 


18  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

telligible,  to  our  untutored  ears;  but  we  soon  become  familiar 
with  the  plaintive  notes  of  the  koto  or  the  sonorous  vibrations  of 
the  samisen,  and  learn  to  both  recognize  and  appreciate  the  quaint 
minor  harmonies  and  softly  worded  melody  of  some  love  song,  or 
so-fu-ren. 

As  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention,  the  dramatic  or 
operatic  poems  are  sung  with  the  accompaniment  of  the  samisen, 
while  the  historical  poems,  or  utai,  find  a  musical  accompaniment 
only  when  recited  on  the  no  stage,  and  then  flute  and  drums  are 
the  instruments  used.  The  dramatization  of  the  utai  upon  the 
no  stages  is  a  very  ancient  custom,  and  can  only  be  appreciated 
by  the  better  educated  classes.  Correctly  speaking,  no  is  a  his- 


FACSIMILE  OF  A  POEM  BT  ARITSUNE. 


torical  dance,  full  of  weird  mysticisms  almost  unintelligible  to 
those  not  conversant  with  its  meaning,  but  its  proper  performance 
is  a  classic  art.  It  has  remained  unchanged  in  the  slightest  detail 
for  centuries,  and  through  its  medium  the  classic  historical  poetry 
of  the  nation  is  retained  and  placed  before  the  appreciative  public 
of  the  higher  class. 

Thus  the  drama  and  history  of  the  country,  so  full  of  heroism 
and  romance,  shape  themselves  into  poetry  and  song.  The  blend- 
ing of  art  with  poetry  is  another  feature  typical  of  the  Japanese 
people.  There  are  two  purely  Japanese  schools  of  art :  the  one 
dealing  with  the  minutest  details,  and  the  other  with  the  bold  and 
forcible  portrayal  of  impressions  and  suggestions,  rather  than 
details  ;  graceful  sketches,  rather  than  detailed  drawings.  "  We 


JAPANESE  HOME  LIFE.  19 

can  not  reproduce  Nature  in  art,"  a  Japanese  artist  has  said, "  and 
instead  of  making  so  bold  an  attempt,  had  best  satisfy  ourselves 
with  mere  suggestions  of  Nature's  beauties."  The  same  may  be 
said  of  some  Japanese  poetry,  for  the  uta,  or  sonnets,  usually  are 
mere  poetic  suggestions  of  a  deeper  meaning  or  sentiment.  This 
brings  one  to  a  realization  of  the  close  connection  between  art  and 
poetry  in  Japan,  as  also  between  poetry  and  music.  In  social 
gatherings  among  friends,  a  favorite  mode  for  mutual  entertain- 
ment is  fo'r  one  of  the  guests  to  quickly  sketch  some  passing 
thought  or  memory  of  one  of  Nature's  beauties ;  it  may  be  the 
crest  of  some  distant  mountain,  a  branch  heavy  with  blossoms,  or 
a  flower.  This  sketch  is  then  passed  on  to  another  guest,  who, 
in  looking  at  it,  seeks  to  find  some  poetic  suggestion,  or  hidden 
lesson,  and  having  done  so,  adds  the  verse  to  the  sketch,  and 
the  picture  is  complete.  These  illustrated  sonnets,  the  fruits  of 
poetic  inspiration  and  artistic  impression,  are  taken  home,  to 
be  preserved  as  cherished  souvenirs  of  the  evening's  entertain- 
ment. 

To  illustrate  this  more  clearly,  we  will  say  that  an  artist  has, 
with  two  or  three  rough  strokes  of  his  brush,  depicted  a  bleak 
mountain  peak,  with  a  flock  of  birds  flying  above  it.  This  is 
passed  to  Aritsune',  a  Japanese  poet  of  recognized  merit,  who 
after  a  few  moments'  thought  adds  a  sonnet  to  the  sketch.  It  is, 
like  the  sketch,  a  mere  suggestion  of  a  deeper  sentiment,  or  imi,  as 
the  Japanese  would  have  it.  I  can  best  render  it  as  follows, 
making  the  translation  as  literal  as  possible : 

We  may  struggle  to  the  peak 
Of  the  mountain,  bare  and  bleak, 

There  but  to  learn, 

And  well  discern, 
That  the  winging  birds  above, 
Speeding  to  their  nests  of  love, 
More  of  Nature's  beauties  see 

Far  than  we. 

Surely  the  beauty  of  the  thought  is  evident,  and  the  deeper 
meaning,  or  imi,  appreciable  even  to  the  prosiest  of  us.  Yet  in 
rendering  the  lesson  of  the  sonnet,  as  implied  to  the  Japanese 
reader  of  the  above  words,  I  might  add  the  following  lines : 

So,  when  striving  naught  but  fame  to  obtain, 
Thou  chance  mayst  reach  the  highest  peak  of  earthly  gain ; 
Then  thou  wilt  learn, 
And  well  discern, 

That  Nature  doth  her  beauties  wide  outspread 
For  those  to  daily  duties  who  are  wed. 
While  simple  lives  yield  peace  and  light, 
Fame  blinds  the  sight. 


20 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


One  more  example  of  this  variety  of  illustrated  verse  will  suf- 
fice, and  in  the  one  I  have  chosen  the  meaning  is  confessedly 
obscure,  or  at  least  deep  enough  to  require  some  thought.  The 
picture,  or  sketch,  is  one  of  a  bunch  of  wild  flowers  (chrysanthe- 
mums), which  make  their  first  appearance  during  the  closing  days 
of  September,  by  which  time,  also,  the  cheery  voice  of  the  locust 
has  been  hushed  by  the  increasing  cold  of  the  autumn : 

Though  September's  last  days  are  fast  ebbing  away, 

And  the  locust's  bright  sonnet  is  stilled, 
Yet  the  wild  flowers  fair  breathe  a  far  sweeter  song 

While  the  air  with  their  fragrance  is  filled. 

In  justice  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  imi  of  the  above  lines 
is  rather  vague,  but  may  be  regarded  as  a  reminder  of  Nature's 
kind  compensation,  for,  with  the  change  of  seasons,  one  beauty  is 


FACSIMILE  OF  AN  UTA,  OB  SONNET. 


scarcely  missed  before  another  has  filled  its  place.  Perhaps  the 
words  may  be  construed  as  a  gentle  reproof  to  discontented  spir- 
its. That  the  very  heart  of  the  nation  finds  its  voice  in  song  is 
quite  evident,  for  in  every  instance  where  a  sonnet  or  poem  would 
find  application  we  are  sure  to  find  one.  During  the  time  of  the 
cherry  and  plum  blossoms,  in  early  spring,  the  bloom-laden 
branches  are  further  ornamented  by  numerous  sonnets  inspired 
by  the  beauty  of  the  scene — written  on  strips  of  white  paper,  and 
then  made  fast  to  the  low-hanging  branches.  Indeed,  the  poetic 
enthusiasm  of  a  score  of  Orlandos  in  the  forests  of  Arden  would 
be  put  to  shame.  Every  season  of  the  year,  with  the  flowers  that 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  "NATURAL  SELECTION."     21 

it  brings,  is  praised  in  verse.  From  the  chrysanthemums  in 
autumn,  the  camellias  and  plum  blossoms  of  the  winter  months, 
the  cherry  and  peach  blossoms  and  wistaria  during  early  spring, 
the  peony  in  May,  and  the  great  lotus  flowers  during  the  summer 
months,  so  every  season  has  its  typical  flower,  and  every  flower 
is  loved  and  praised  in  song  and  sonnet  by  the  people.  There  is 
room  for  flowers  in  the  humblest  abode,  and  even  the  crests  of  the 
thatch-roofed  huts  of  the  farmers  are  transformed  into  miniature 
gardens  of  hyacinths  and  tulips. 

So  we  have  pushed  aside  the  latticed  doors  and  glanced  in  at  the 
Japanese  home.  True,  our  stay  has  been  short,  and  much  must 
be  left  unnoticed ;  yet,  as  we  take  our  reluctant  leave,  above  the 
soft  melody  of  the  koto  strings,  we  can  clearly  hear  the  lusty  chirp 
of  the  "  cricket  on  the  hearth/' 


THE  INADEQUACY  OF  "  NATURAL  SELECTION." 

BY  HERBERT  SPENCER. 

ALONG  with  that  inadequacy  of  natural  section  to  explain 
changes  of  structure  which  do  not  aid  life  in  important 
ways,  alleged  in  §  166  of  The  Principles  of  Biology,  a  further  in- 
adequacy was  alleged.  It  was  contended  that  the  relative  powers 
of  co-operative  parts  can  not  be  adjusted  solely  by  survival  of  the 
fittest ;  and  especially  where  the  parts  are  numerous  and  the  co- 
operation complex.  In  illustration  it  was  pointed  out  that  im- 
mensely developed  horns,  such  as  those  of  the  extinct  Irish  elk, 
weighing  over  a  hundredweight,  could  not,  with  the  massive 
skull  bearing  them,  be  carried  at  the  extremity  of  the  outstretched 
neck  without  many  and  great  modifications  of  adjacent  bones  and 
muscles  of  the  neck  and  thorax ;  and  that  without  strengthening 
of  the  fore-legs,  too,  there  would  be  failure  alike  in  fighting  and  in 
locomotion.  And  it  was  argued  that  while  we  can  not  assume 
spontaneous  increase  of  all  these  parts  proportionate  to  the  ad- 
ditional strains,  we  can  not  suppose  them  to  increase  by  variation 
one  at  once,  without  supposing  the  creature  to  be  disadvantaged 
by  the  weight  and  nutrition  of  parts  that  were  for  the  time  use- 
less— parts,  moreover,  which  would  revert  to  their  original  sizes 
before  the  other  needful  variations  occurred. 

When,  in  reply  to  me,  it  was  cgntended  that  co-operative  parts 
vary  together,  I  named  facts  conflicting  with  this  assertion — the 
fact  that  the  blind  crabs  of  the  Kentucky  caves  have  lost  their 
eyes  but  not  the  foot-stalks  carrying  them ;  the  fact  that  the  nor- 
mal proportion  between  tongue  and  beak  in  certain  selected  varie- 
ties of  pigeons  is  lost ;  the  fact  that  lack  of  concomitance  in  de- 


22  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

crease  of  jaws  and  teeth  in  sundry  kinds  of  pet  dogs,  has  caused 
great  crowding  of  the  teeth  (The  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution, 
pp.  12,  13).  And  I  then  argued  that  if  co-operative  parts,  small 
in  number  and  so  closely  associated  as  these  are,  do  not  vary  to- 
gether, it  is  unwarrantable  to  allege  that  co-operative  parts  which 
are  very  numerous  and  remote  from  one  another  vary  together. 
After  making  this  rejoinder  I  enforced  my  argument  by  a  further 
example — that  of  the  giraffe.  Tacitly  recognizing  the  truth  that 
the  unusual  structure  of  this  creature  must  have  been,  in  its  more 
conspicuous  traits,  the  result  of  survival  of  the  fittest  (since  it  is 
absurd  to  suppose  that  efforts  to  reach  a  high  branch  could 
lengthen  the  legs),  I  illustrated  afresh  the  obstacles  to  co-adapta- 
tion. Not  dwelling  on  the  objection  that  increase  of  any  com- 
ponents of  the  fore-quarters  out  of  adjustment  to  the  others  would 
cause  evil  rather  than  good,  I  went  on  to  argue  that  the  co-adapta- 
tion of  parts  required  to  make  the  giraffe's  structure  useful,  is 
much  greater  than  at  first  appears.  This  animal  has  a  grotesque 
gallop,  necessitated  by  the  great  difference  in  length  between  the 
fore  and  the  hind  limbs.  I  pointed  out  that  the  mode  of  action  of 
the  hind  limbs  shows  that  the  bones  and  muscles  have  all  been 
changed  in  their  proportions  and  adjustments ;  and  I  contended 
that,  difficult  as  it  is  to  believe  that  all  parts  of  the  fore- quarters 
have  been  co-adapted  by  the  appropriate  variations  now  of  this 
part,  now  of  that,  it  becomes  impossible  to  believe  that  all  the 
parts  in  the  hind-quarters  have  been  simultaneously  co-adapted  to 
one  another  and  to  all  the  parts  of  the  fore-quarters :  adding  that 
want  of  co-adaptation,  even  in  a  single  muscle,  would  cause  fatal 
results  when  high  speed  had  to  be  maintained  while  escaping 
from  an  enemy. 

Since  this  argument,  repeated  with  this  fresh  illustration,  was 
published  in  1886, 1  have  met  with  nothing  to  be  called  a  reply ; 
and  might,  I  think,  if  convictions  usually  followed  proofs,  leave 
the  matter  as  it  stands.  It  is  true  that,  in  his  Darwinism,  Mr. 
Wallace  has  adverted  to  my  renewed  objection  and,  as  already 
said,  contended  that  changes  such  as  those  instanced  can  be 
effected  by  natural  selection,  since  such  changes  can  be  effected 
by  artificial  selection :  a  contention  which,  as  I  have  pointed  out, 
assumes  a  parallelism  that  does  not  exist.  But  now,  instead  of 
pursuing  the  argument  further  along  the  same  line,  let  me  take  a 
somewhat  different  line. 

If  there  occurs  some  change  in  an  organ,  say,  by  increase  of 
its  size,  which  adapts  it  better  to  the  creature's  needs,  it  is  ad- 
mitted that  when,  as  commonly  happens,  the  use  of  the  organ 
demands  the  co-operation  of  other  organs,  the  change  in  it  will 
generally  be  of  no  service  unless  the  co-operative  organs  are 
changed.  If,  for  instance,  there  takes  place  such  a  modification 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  "NATURAL   SELECTIONS     23 

of  a  rodent's  tail  as  that  which,  by  successive  increases,  produces 
the  trowel-shaped  tail  of  the  beaver,  no  advantage  will  be  derived 
unless  there  also  take  place  certain  modifications  in  the  bulks  and 
shapes  of  the  adjacent  vertebrse  and  their  attached  muscles,  as 
well,  probably,  as  in  the  hind  limbs,  enabling  them  to  withstand 
the  reactions  of  the  blows  given  by  the  tail.  And  the  question  is, 
by  what  process  these  many  parts,  changed  in  different  degrees, 
are  co-adapted  to  the  new  requirements — whether  variation  and 
natural  selection  alone  can  effect  the  readjustment.  There  are 
three  conceivable  ways  in  which  the  parts  may  simultaneously 
change:  (1)  they  may  all  increase  or  decrease  together  in  like 
degrees ;  (2)  they  may  all  simultaneously  increase  or  decrease  in- 
dependently, so  as  not  to  maintain  their  previous  proportions  or 
assume  any  other  special  proportions ;  (3)  they  may  vary  in  such 
ways  and  degrees  as  to  make  them  jointly  serviceable  for  the  new 
end.  Let  us  consider  closely  these  several  conceivabilities. 

And  first  of  all,  what  are  we  to  understand  by  co-operative 
parts  ?  In  a  general  sense,  all  the  organs  of  the  body  are  co- 
operative parts,  and  are  respectively  liable  to  be  more  or  less 
changed  by  change  in  any  one.  In  a  narrower  sense,  more  directly 
relevant  to  the  argument,  we  may,  if  we  choose  to  multiply  diffi- 
culties, take  the  entire  framework  of  bones  and  muscles  as  formed 
of  co-operative  parts;  for  these  are  so  related  that  any  consider- 
able change  in  the  actions  of  some  entails  change  in  the  actions  of 
most  others.  It  needs  only  to  observe  how,  when  putting  out  an 
effort,  there  goes,  along  with  a  deep  breath,  an  expansion  of  the 
chest  and  a  bracing  up  of  the  abdomen,  to  see  that  various  muscles 
beyond  those  directly  concerned  are  strained  along  with  them. 
Or,  when  suffering  from  lumbago,  an  effort  to  lift  a  chair  will 
cause  an  acute  consciousness  that  not  the  arms  only  are  brought 
into  action,  but  also  the  muscles  of  the  back.  These  cases  show 
how  the  motor  organs  are  so  tied  together  that  altered  actions  of 
some  implicate  others  quite  remote  from  them. 

But  without  using  the  advantage  which  this  interpretation  of 
the  words  would  give,  let  us  take  as  co-operative  organs  those 
which  are  obviously  such — the  organs  of  locomotion.  What,  then, 
shall  we  say  of  the  fore  and  hind  limbs  of  terrestrial  mammals, 
which  co-operate  closely  and  perpetually  ?  Do  they  vary  together  ? 
If  so,  how  have  there  been  produced  such  contrasted  structures  as 
that  of  the  kangaroo,  with  its  large  hind  limbs  and  small  fore 
limbs,  and  that  of  the  giraffe,  in  which  the  hind  limbs  are  small 
and  the  fore  limbs  large — how  does  it  happen  that,  descending 
from  the  same  primitive  mammal,  these  creatures  have  diverged 
in  the  proportions  of  their  limbs  in  opposite  directions  ?  Take, 
again,  the  articulate  animals.  Compare  one  of  the  lower  types, 
with  its  rows  of  almost  equal-sized  limbs,  and  one  of  the  higher 


24  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

types,  as  a  crab  or  a  lobster,  with  limbs  some  very  small  and  some 
very  large.  How  came  this  contrast  to  arise  in  the  course  of  evo- 
lution, if  there  was  the  equality  of  variation  supposed  ? 

But  now  let  us  narrow  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  still  further ; 
giving  it  a  more  favorable  interpretation.  Instead  of  considering 
separate  limbs  as  co-operative,  let  us  consider  the  component  parts 
of  the  same  limb  as  co-operative,  and  ask  what  would  result  from 
varying  together.  It  would  in  that  case  happen  that,  though  the 
fore  and  hind  limbs  of  a  mammal  might  become  different  in' their 
sizes,  they  would  not  become  different  in  their  structures.  If  so, 
how  have  there  arisen  the  unlikeness  between  the  hind  legs  of  the 
kangaroo  and  those  of  the  elephant  ?  Or  if  this  comparison  is 
objected  to,  because  the  creatures  belong  to  the  widely  different 
divisions  of  implacental  and  placental  mammals,  take  the  cases  of 
the  rabbit  and  the  elephant,  both  belonging  to  the  last  division. 
On  the  hypothesis  of  evolution  these  are  both  derived  from  the 
same  original  form,  but  the  proportions  of  the  parts  have  become 
so  widely  unlike  that  the  corresponding  joints  are  scarcely  recog- 
nized as  such  by  the  unobservant:  at  what  seem  corresponding 
places  the  legs  bend  in  opposite  ways.  Equally  marked,  or  more 
marked,  is  the  parallel  fact  among  the  Articulata.  Take  that  limb 
of  the  lobster  which  bears  the  claw  and  compare  it  with  the  cor- 
responding limb  in  an  inferior  articulate  animal,  or  the  corre- 
sponding limb  of  its  near  ally,  the  crayfish,  and  it  becomes  obvious 
that  the  component  segments  of  the  limb  have  come  to  bear  to  one 
another  in  the  one  case  proportions  immensely  different  from  those 
they  bear  in  the  other  case.  Undeniably,  then,  on  contemplating 
the  general  facts  of  organic  structure,  we  see  that  the  concomitant 
variations  in  the  parts  of  limbs  have  not  been  of  a  kind  to  produce 
equal  amounts 'of  change  in  them,  but  quite  the  opposite — have 
been  everywhere  producing  inequalities.  Moreover,  we  are  re- 
minded that  this  production  of  inequalities  among  co-operative 
parts,  is  an  essential  principle  of  development.  Had  it  not  been 
so,  there  could  not  have  been  that  progress  from  homogeneity  of 
structure  to  heterogeneity  of  structure  which  constitutes  evolution. 

We  pass  now  to  the  second  supposition : — that  the  variations 
in  co-operative  parts  occur  irregularly,  or  in  such  independent 
'  ways  that  they  bear  no  definite  relations  to  one  another — miscel- 
laneously, let  us  say.  This  is  the  supposition  which  best  corre- 
sponds with  the  facts.  Glances  at  the  faces  around  yield  conspic- 
uous proofs.  Many  of  the  muscles  of  the  face  and  some  of  the 
bones,  are  distinctly  co-operative ;  and  these  respectively  vary  in 
such  ways  as  to  produce  in  each  person  a  different  combination. 
What  we  see  in  the  face  we  have  reason  to  believe  holds  in  the 
limbs  as  in  all  other  parts.  Indeed,  it  needs  but  to  compare  people 
whose  arms  are  of  the  same  lengths,  and  observe  how  stumpy  are 


tqc 


THE  INADEQUACY    OF  "NATURAL  SELECTION."     25 

the  fingers  of  one  and  how  slender  those  of  another ;  or  it  needs 
but  to  note  the  unlikeness  of  gait  of  passers-by,  implying  small 
unlikenesses  of  structure;  to  be  convinced  that  the  relations 
among  the  variations  of  co-operative  parts  are  anything  but  fixed. 
And  now,  confining  our  attention  to  limbs,  let  us  consider  what 
must  happen  if,  by  variations  taking  place  miscellaneously,  limbs 
have  to  be  partially  changed  from  fitness  for  one  function  to  fitness 
for  another  function — have  to  be  re-adapted.  That  the  reader 
may  fully  comprehend  the  argument,  he  must  here  have  patience 
while  a  good  many  anatomical  details  are.  set  down. 

Let  us  suppose  a  species  of  quadruped  of  which  the  members 
have  for  long  past  periods  been  accustomed  to  locomotion  over  a 
relatively  even  surface,  as,  for  instance,  the  "prairie  dogs"  of 
North  America ;  and  let  us  suppose  that  increase  of  numbers  has 
driven  part  of  them  into  a  region  full  of  obstacles  to  easy  locomo- 
tion— covered,  say,  by  the  decaying  stems  of  fallen  trees,  such  as 
one  sees  in  portions  of  primeval  forest.  Ability  to  leap  must  be- 
come a  useful  trait ;  and,  according  to  the  hypothesis  we  are  con- 
sidering, this  ability  will  be  produced  by  the  selection  of  favor- 
able variations.  What  are  the  variations  required  ?  A  leap  is 
effected  chiefly  by  the  bending  of  the  hind  limbs  so  as  to  make 
sharp  angles  at  the  joints,  and  then  suddenly  straightening  them ; 
as  any  one  may  see  on  watching  a  cat  leap  on  to  the  table.  The 
first  required  change,  then,  is  increase  of  the  large  extensor  mus- 
cles, by  which  the  hind  limbs  are  straightened.  Their  increases 
must  be  duly  proportioned,  for  if  those  which  straighten  one 
joint  become  much  stronger  than  those  which  straighten  the 
other  joint,  the  result  must  be  collapse  of  the  other  joint  when 
the  muscles  are  contracted  together.  But  let  us  make  a  large 
admission,  and  suppose  these  muscles  to  vary  together;  what 
further  muscular  change  is  next  required  ?  In  a  plantigrade 
mammal  the  metatarsal  bones  chiefly  bear  the  reaction  of  the 
leap,  though  the  toes  may  have  a  share.  In  a  digitigrade  mam- 
mal, however,  the  toes  form  almost  exclusively  the  fulcrum,  and 
if  they  are  to  bear  the  reaction  of  a  higher  leap,  the  flexor  mus- 
cles which  depress  and  bend  them  must  be  proportionately  en- 
larged ;  if  not,  the  leap  will  fail  from  want  of  a  firm  point  d'appui. 
Tendons  as  well  as  muscles  must  be  modified ;  and,  among  others, 
the  many  tendons  which  go  to  the  digits  and  their  phalanges. 
Stronger  muscles  and  tendons  imply  greater  strains  on  the  joints ; 
and  unless  these  are  strengthened,  one  or  other  dislocation  will  be 
caused  by  a  more  powerful  spring.  Not  only  the  articulations 
themselves  must  be  so  modified  as  to  bear  greater  stress,  but  also 
the  numerous  ligaments  which  hold  the  parts  of  each  in  place. 
Nor  can  the  bodies  of  the  bones  remain  unstrengthened ;  for  if 
they  have  no  more  than  the  strengths  needed  for  previous  move- 

VOL.    XLIII. — 3 


26  THE   POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

merits  they  will  fail  to  bear  more  violent  movements.  Tims,  say- 
ing nothing  of  the  required  changes  in  the  pelvis  as  well  as  in  the 
nerves  and  blood-vessels,  there  are,  counting  bones,  muscles,  ten- 
dons, ligaments,  at  least  fifty  different  parts  in  each  hind  leg 
which  have  to  be  enlarged.  Moreover,  they  have  to  be  enlarged 
in  unlike  degrees.  The  muscles  and  tendons  of  the  outer  toes,  for 
example,  need  not  be  added  to  so  much  as  those  of  the  median 
toes.  Now,  throughout  their  successive  stages  of  growth,  all 
these  parts  have  to  be  kept  fairly  well  balanced  ;  as  any  one  may 
infer  on  remembering  sundry  of  the  accidents  he  has  known. 
Among  my  own  friends  I  could  name  one  who,  when  playing 
lawn-tennis,  snapped  the  Achilles  tendon;  another  who,  while 
swinging  his  children,  tore  some  of  the  muscular  fibers  in  the  calf 
of  his  leg ;  another  who,  in  getting  over  a  fence,  tore  a  ligament 
of  one  knee.  Such  facts,  joined  with  every  one's  experience  of 
sprains,  show  that  during  the  extreme  exertions  to  which  limbs 
are  now  and  then  subject,  there  is  a  giving  way  of  parts  not  quite 
up  to  the  required  level  of  strength.  How,  then,  is  this  balance 
to  be  maintained  ?  Suppose  the  extensor  muscles  have  all  varied 
appropriately ;  their  variations  are  useless  unless  the  other  co- 
operative parts  have  also  varied  appropriately.  Worse  than  this. 
Saying  nothing  of  the  disadvantage  caused  by  extra  weight  and 
cost  of  nutrition,  they  will  be  causes  of  mischief — causes  of  de- 
rangement to  the  rest  by  contracting  with  undue  force.  And 
then,  how  long  will  it  take  for  the  rest  to  be  brought  into  adjust- 
ment ?  As  Mr.  Darwin  says  concerning  domestic. animals:  "Any 
particular  variation  would  generally  be  lost  by  crossing,  rever- 
sions etc.,  .  .  .  unless  carefully  preserved  by  man."  In  a  state 
of  nature,  then,  favorable  variations  of  these  muscles  would  dis- 
appear again  long  before  one  or  a  few  of  the  co-operative  parts 
could  be  appropriately  varied,  much  more  before  all  of  them 
could. 

With  this  insurmountable  difficulty  goes  a  difficulty  still  more 
insurmountable — if  the  expression  may  be  allowed.  It  is  not  a 
question  of  increased  sizes  of  parts  only,  but  of  altered  shapes  of 
parts,  too.  A  glance  at  the  skeletons  of  mammals  shows  how  un- 
like are  the  forms  of  the  corresponding  bones  of  their  limbs ;  and 
shows  that  they  have  been  severally  remolded  in  each  species  to 
the  different  requirements  entailed  by  its  different  habits.  The 
change  from  the  structures  of  hind  limbs  fitted  only  for  walking 
and  trotting  to  hind  limbs  fitted  also  for  leaping,  implies,  there- 
fore, that  along  with  strengthenings  of  bones  there  must  go  alter- 
ations in  their  forms.  Now  the  spontaneous  alterations  of  form 
which  may  take  place  in  any  bone  are  countless.  How  long,  then, 
will  it  be  before  there  takes  place  that  particular  alteration  which 
will  make  the  bone  fitter  for  its  new  action  ?  And  what  is  the 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  "NATURAL   SELECTIONS     27 

probability  that  the  many  required  changes  of  shape,  as  well  as 
of  size,  in  bones  will  each  of  them  be  effected  before  all  the  others 
are  lost  again  ?  If  the  probabilities  against  success  are  incalcu- 
lable, when  we  take  account  only  of  changes  in  the  size  of  parts, 
what  shall  we  say  of  their  incalculableness  when  differences  of 
form  also  are  taken  into  account  ? 

"  Surely  this  piling  up  of  difficulties  has  gone  far  enough  " ;  the 
reader  will  be  inclined  to  say.  By  no  means.  There  is  a  difficulty 
immeasurably  transcending  those  named.  We  have  thus  far 
omitted  the  second  half  of  the  leap,  and  the  provisions  to  be  made 
for  it.  After  ascent  of  the  animaFs  body  comes  descent ;  and  the 
greater  the  force  with  which  it  is  projected  up,  the  greater  is  the 
force  with  which  it  comes  down.  Hence,  if  the  supposed  creature 
has  undergone  such  changes  in  the  hind  limbs  as  will  enable 
them  to  propel  it  to  a  greater  height,  without  having  undergone 
any  changes  in  the  fore  limbs,  the  result  will  be  that  on  its  de- 
scent the  fore  limbs  will  give  way,  and  it  will  come  down  on  its 
nose.  The  fore  limbs,  then,  have  to  be  changed  simultaneously 
with  the  hind.  How  changed  ?  Contrast  the  markedly  bent  hind 
limbs  of  a  cat  with  its  almost  straight  fore  limbs,  or  contrast  the 
silence  of  the  upward  spring  on  to  the  table  with  the  thud  which 
the  fore  paws  make  as  it  jumps  off  the  table.  See  how  unlike  the 
actions  of  the  hind  and  fore  limbs  are,  and  how  unlike  their 
structures.  In  what  way,  then,  is  the  required  co-adaptation  to 
be  effected  ?  Even  were  it  a  question  of  relative  sizes  only,  there 
would  be  no  answer ;  for  facts  already  given  show  that  we  may 
not  assume  simultaneous  increases  of  size  to  take  place  in  the  hind 
and  fore  limbs ;  and,  indeed,  a  glance  at  the  various  human  races, 
which  differ  considerably  in  the  ratios  of  their  legs  to  their  arms, 
shows  us  this.  But  it  is  not  simply  a  question  of  sizes.  To  bear 
the  increased  shock  of  descent  the  fore  limbs  must  be  changed 
throughout  in  their  structures.  Like  those  in  the  hind  limb,  the 
changes  must  be  of  many  parts  in  many  proportions ;  and  they 
must  be  both  in  sizes  and  in  shapes.  More  than  this.  The  scapu- 
lar arch  and  its  attached  muscles  must  also  be  strengthened  and 
remolded.  See,  then,  the  total  requirements.  We  must  suppose 
that  by  natural  selection  of  miscellaneous  variations,  the  parts  of 
the  hind  limbs  shall  be  co-adapted  to  one  another,  in  sizes,  shapes, 
and  ratios ;  that  those  of  the  fore  limbs  shall  undergo  co-adapta- 
tions similar  in  their  complexity,  but  dissimilar  in  their  kinds ; 
and  that  the  two  sets  of  co-adaptations  shall  be  effected  pari 
passu.  If,  as  may  be  held,  the  probabilities  are  millions  to  one 
against  the  first  set  of  changes  being  achieved,  then  it  may  be 
held  that  the  probabilities  are  billions  to  one  against  the  second 
being  simultaneously  achieved,  in  progressive  adjustment  to  the 
first. 


V    / 


28  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

There  remains  only  to  notice  the  third  conceivable  mode  of 
adjustment.  It  may  be  imagined  that  though,  by  the  natural 
selection  of  miscellaneous  variations,  these  adjustments  can  not 
be  effected,  they  may  nevertheless  be  made  to  take  place  appro- 
priately. How  made  ?  To  suppose  them  so  made  is  to  suppose 
that  the  prescribed  end  is  somewhere  recognized ;  and  that  the 
changes  are  step  by  step  simultaneously  proportioned  for  achiev- 
ing it — is  to  suppose  a  designed  production  of  these  changes.  In 
such  case,  then,  we  have  to  fall  back  in  part  upon  the  primi- 
tive hypothesis ;  and  if  we  do  this  in  part,  we  may  as  well  do  it 
wholly — may  as  well  avowedly  return  to  the  doctrine  of  special 
creation. 

What,  then,  is  the  only  defensible  interpretation  ?  If  such 
modifications  of  structure  produced  by  modifications  of  function 
as  we  see  take  place  in  each  individual,  are  in  any  measure  trans- 
missible to  descendants,  then  all  these  co-adaptations,  from  the 
simplest  up  to  the  most  complex,  are  accounted  for.  In  some 
cases  this  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  suffices  by  itself  to 
explain  the  facts ;  and  in  other  cases  it  suffices  when  taken  in  com- 
bination with  the  selection  of  favorable  variations.  An  example 
of  the  first  class  is  furnished  by  the  change  just  considered  ;  and 
an  example  of  the  second  class  is  furnished  by  the  case  before 
named  of  development  in  a  deer's  horns.  If,  by  some  extra  mass- 
iveness  spontaneously  arising,  or  by  formation  of  an  additional 
"  point,"  an  advantage  is  gained  either  for  attack  or  defense,  then, 
if  the  increased  muscularity  and  strengthened  structure  of  the 
neck  and  thorax,  which  wielding  of  these  somewhat  heavier  horns 
produces,  are  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  inherited,  and  in  several 
successive  generations,  are  by  this  process  brought  up  to  the  re- 
quired extra  strength,  it  becomes  possible  and  advantageous  for  a 
further  increase  of  the  horns  to  take  place,  and  a  further  increase 
in  the  apparatus  for  wielding  them,  and  so  on  continuously.  By 
such  processes  only,  in  which  each  part  gains  strength  in  propor- 
tion to  function,  can  co-operative  parts  be  kept  in  adjustment, 
and  be  readjusted  to  meet  new  requirements.  Close  contempla- 
tion of  the  facts  impresses  me  more  strongly  than  ever  with  the 
two  alternatives — either  there  has  been  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters,  or  there  has  been  no  evolution. — Contemporary  Review. 

[To   be  concluded.'] 


IN  his  work  on  Burma  and  Farther  India,  General  A.  It.  MacMahon,  ex- 
Political  Resident,  expresses  the  opinion  that  the  caste  restriction  on  social  inter- 
course, the  absence  of  which  in  Burma  gives  occasion  for  much  pleasant  inti- 
macy with  Europeans,  has  preserved  the  natives  of  India  from  many  evils— the 
result  of  a  too  sudden  introduction  to  European  ways  and  habits  to  which  the 
Burmese  succumb. 


EVIDENCES    OF  GLACIAL   MAN  IN   OHIO.  29 

EVIDENCES  OF  GLACIAL  MAN  IN  OHIO. 

BY  PROF.  G.  FREDERICK  WRIGHT. 

THE  recent  sweeping  denials  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ethnology,  respecting  the  validity  of  the  evidence 
upon  which  the  existence  of  glacial  man  in  America  has  been  so 
generally  accepted  makes  it  necessary  to  present  the  facts  in 
greater  detail  than  has  heretofore  been  done.  It  seems  that  Mr. 
Holmes  has  been  himself  looking  for  palaeolithic  implements  in 
undisturbed  gravel  of  glacial  age  for  two  or  three  years,  but  has 
not  found  any ;  and  that  he  has  discovered  that  the  Indians  had 
quarries  and  workshops  in  various  places  where  they  threw  aside 
great  piles  of  partially  wrought  and  rejected  implements  which 
were  of  such  shape  as  not  to  be  readily  available  for  their  pur- 
poses, and  which  had  a  faint  resemblance  to  palaeolithic  imple- 
ments. In  view  of  these  experiences  Mr.  Holmes  has  come  to  the 
conclusion,  first,  that  all  the  so-called  palaeolithic  implements 
which  have  been  found  by  Dr.  C.  C.  Abbott  and  others  in  America 
are  simply  "  rejects  " ;  and,  secondly,  that  nobody  in  America  has 
found  any  implements  iri  undisturbed  gravel  of  glacial  age.  In 
Science  for  January  20, 1892,  he  uses  the  following  language  :  "  If 
there  was,  as  is  claimed,  an  ice-age  man,  or  at  any  rate  a  palaeo- 
lithic man,  in  eastern  America,  the  evidence  so  far  collected  in 
support  of  these  propositions  is  so  unsatisfactory  and  in  such  a 
state  of  utter  chaos  that  the  investigation  must  practically  begin 
anew." 

The  best  answer  which  I  can  give  to  this  sweeping  denial  will 
be  to  present,  with  illustrations,  the  details  concerning  a  single 
discovery  in  Ohio  with  which  I  am  familiar,  namely,  that  at  New- 
comerstown.  But,  to  get  the  full  significance  of  this  discovery, 
and  the  cumulative  value  of  the  evidence  afforded  by  it,  a  brief 
statement  of  other  discoveries  must  be  made. 

The  evidence  naturally  begins  with  that  at  Trenton,  N.  J., 
where  Dr.  C.  C.  Abbott  has  been  so  long  at  work.  Dr.  Abbott, 
it  is  true,  is  not  a  professional  geologist,  but  his  familiarity  with 
the  gravel  at  Trenton,  where  he  resides,  the  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities afforded  to  him  for  investigation,  and  the  frequent  visits 
of  geologists  have  made  him  an  expert  whose  opinion  is  of  the 
highest  value  upon  the  question  of  the  undisturbed  character  of 
the  gravel  deposit.  The  gravel  banks  which  he  has  examined  so 
long  and  so  carefully  have  been  extensively  exposed  by  the 
undermining  of  floods  on  the  river-side,  but  principally  by  the 
excavations  which  have  been  made  by  the  railroad  and  by  private 
parties  in  search  of  gravel.  For  years  the  railroads  had  been  at 
work  digging  away  the  side  of  the  banks  until  they  had  removed 


3o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

a  great  many  acres  of  the  gravel  to  a  depth  of  twenty  or  twenty- 
five  feet.  Any  one  can  see  that  in  such  conditions  there  has  been 
no  chance  for  "  creep  "  or  landslides  to  have  disturbed  the  strati- 
fication ;  for  the  whole  area  was  full  of  gravel,  and  there  was  no 
chance  of  disturbance  by  natural  causes.  Now,  Dr.  Abbott's  tes- 
timony is  that  up  to  the  year  1888  sixty  of  the  four  hundred  palaeo- 
lithic implements  which  he  had  found  at  Trenton  had  been  found 
at  recorded  depths  in  the  gravel.  Coming  down  to  specifications, 
he  describes  in  his  reports  the  discovery  of  one  (see  Primitive 
Industry,  page  492)  found  while  watching  the  progress  of  an  ex- 


FIG.  1. — SECTION  OF  THE  TRENTON  GRAVEL,  IN  WHICH  THE  IMPLEMENTS  DESCRIBED  IN  THE 
TEXT  ARE  FOUND.  The  shelf  on  which  the  man  stands  is  made  in  process  of  excavation. 
The  gravel  is  the  same  above  and  below.  (Photograph  by  Abbott.) 

tensive  excavation  in  Centre  Street,  which  was  nearly  seven  feet 
below  the  surface,  surrounded  by  a  mass  of  large  cobble-stones 
and  bowlders,  one  of  the  latter  overlying  it.  Another  was  found 
at  the  bluff  at  Trenton,  in  a  narrow  gorge  where  the  material 
forming  the  sides  of  the  chasm  had  not  been  displaced,  under  a 
large  bowlder  nine  feet  below  the  surface  (ibid.,  page  496).  An- 
other was  found  in  a  perpendicular  exposure  of  the  bluff  imme- 
diately after  the  detachment  of  a  large  mass  of  material,  and  in  a 
surface  that  had  but  the  day  before  been  exposed,  and  had  not 


EVIDENCES    OF   GLACIAL   MAN   IN    OHIO.  31 

yet  begun  to  crumble.  The  specimen  was  twenty-one  feet  from 
the  surface  of  the  ground. 

In  all  these  and  numerous  other  cases  Dr.  Abbott's  attention 
was  specially  directed  to  the  question  of  the  undisturbed  char- 
acter of  the  gravel,  he  having  been  cautioned  upon  this  point  in 
the  early  part  of  his  investigations. 

Here  it  is  proper  to  premise  that  the  apparent  monopoly  of 
this  evidence  by  Prof.  Putnam  and  his  associates  in  the  Peabody 
Museum  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  has  come  about  by  a  legitimate 
and  natural  process,  which  at  the  same  time  has  probably  inter- 
fered to  a  considerable  extent  with  the  general  spread  of  the 
specific  information  in  hand.  Early  in  the  investigations  at  Tren- 
ton, Prof.  Putnam,  who  had  lately  become  curator  of  the  museum, 
with  its  large  fund  for  prosecuting  investigations,  satisfied  him- 
self of  the  genuineness  of  Dr.  Abbott's  discoveries,  and  at  once 
retained  him  as  an  assistant  in  the  work  of  the  museum,  thus 
diverting  to  Cambridge  all  his  discoveries  at  Trenton.  Living  on 
the  ground  during  long-continued  and  extensive  excavations  made 
by  the  railroad,  Dr.  Abbott's  opportunities  were  exceptionally 
favorable ;  hence  his  own  prominence  in  the  whole  matter. 

It  is  important  also  to  note  that,  before  taking  up  with  Dr. 
Abbott's  work,  Prof.  Putnam  took  ample  pains  to  satisfy  himself 


FIG.  2. — SECTION  ACROSS  THE  DELAWARE  EIVER  AT  TRENTON,  N.  J. :  a,  a,  Philadelphia  red 
gravel  and  brick  clay  (McGee's  Columbia  deposit) ;  i,  6,  Trenton  gravel,  in  which  the  im- 
plements are  found ;  c,  present  flood  plain  of  the  Delaware  River  (after  Lewis).  (From 
Abbott's  Primitive  Industry.) 

of  its  character  and  correctness.  In  1878  Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney 
visited  Trenton  in  company  with  Mr.  Carr,  assistant  curator  of 
the  museum.  In  the  Twelfth  Annual  Report  Mr.  Carr  writes : 
"  We  were  fortunate  enough  to  find  several  of  these  implements 
in  place.  Prof.  Whitney  has  no  doubt  as  to  the  antiquity  of  the 
drift,  and  we  are  both  in  full  accord  with  Dr.  Abbott  as  to  the 
artificial  character  of  many  of  these  implements."  In  reporting 
further  upon  this  instance  at  the  meeting  of  the  Boston  Society 
of  Natural  History,  on  January  19,  1881,  Mr.  Carr  states  that  the 
circumstances  were  such  that  "  it  [i.  e.,  one  of  the  particular  im- 
plements] must  have  been  deposited  at  the  time  the  containing 
bed  was  laid  down."  In  1879,  and  again  in  1880,  Prof.  Putnam 
spent  some  time  at  Trenton,  and  succeeded  in  finding  with  his 
own  hands  "  five  unquestionable  palaeolithic  implements  from  the 
gravel,  at  various  depths  and  at  different  points."  One  of  these 
was  four  feet  below  the  surface  soil  and  one  foot  in  from  the  per- 
pendicular face  which  had  just  been  exposed,  and  where  it  was 


32  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

clear  that  the  gravel  had  not  been  disturbed.  A  second  one  was 
eight  feet  below  the  surface.  (Proc.  Boston  Soc.  of  Nat.  Hist,  for 
January  19,  1881.) 

As  confirming  the  entire  trustworthiness  of  Dr.  Abbott's  ob- 
servations, it  is  to  be  noted  that,  with  a  single  exception,  all  the 
implements  reported  below  the  loam  which  constitutes  the  sur- 
face soil  are  of  argillite,  while  those  upon  the  surface,  which  are 
innumerable,  are  chiefly  of  a  different  type,  made  from  flint  and 
jasper,  or  of  other  material  of  related  character.  Another  fact, 
which  has  always  had  great  weight  in  my  own  mind,  is  one  men- 
tioned by  the  late  Prof.  Carvill  Lewis,  in  his  chapter  upon  the 
subject  at  the  end  of  Dr.  Abbott's  volume  on  Primitive  Industry. 
I  have  the  more  reason  to  feel  the  force  of  his  conclusions,  be- 
cause the  proof-sheets  passed  through  Lewis's  hands  at  the  time 
we  were  together  conducting  the  survey  in  Pennsylvania,  soon 
after  we  had  visited  the  deposits  in  question.  The  fact  was  this  : 
Prof.  Lewis  had  been  at  work  for  a  considerable  time  in  classify- 
ing and  mapping  the  gravels  in  the  Delaware  Valley,  being  all  the 
while  in  ignorance  of  Dr.  Abbott's  work  until  his  own  results 
were  definitely  formulated.  But,  after  he  had  accurately  deter- 
mined the  boundary  between  the  glacial  gravels  and  the  far  older 
gravels  which  surround  them  and  spread  over  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  territory  beyond,  he  found  that  the  localities  where 
Mr.  Carr,  Prof.  Putnam,  and  Dr.  Abbott  had  reported  finding 
their  implements  in  undisturbed  gravel,  all  fell  within  the  limits 
of  the  glacial  gravels,  and  had  in  no  case  been  put  outside  of 
those  limits.  Now,  Dr.  Abbott's  house  is  situated  upon  the  older 
gravel ;  but  at  the  time  of  most  of  his  discoveries  he  had  not 
learned  to  distinguish  the  one  gravel  from  the  other.  If  these 
implements  are  all  from  the  surface  and  had  been  commingled 
with  lower  strata  by  excavations,  landslides,  or  windfalls,  there  is 
no  reason  why  they  should  not  have  been  found  in  the  older 
gravels  as  well  as  in  those  of  glacial  age.  There  is  here  a  coin- 
cidence which  is  strongly  confirmatory  of  the  correctness  of  our 
conclusion  that  there  is  no  mistake  in  believing  that  the  imple- 
ments were  originally  deposited  with  the  gravel  where  they  were 
found. 

Such  was  the  progress  of  discovery  at  the  time  when  I  began 
my  special  investigations  upon  the  glacial  boundary  in  Ohio,  and 
of  the  glacial  terraces  there  corresponding  in  age  with  that  at 
Trenton.  To  the  similarity  of  conditions  along  these  streams  I 
promptly  called  attention  in  1883,  pointing  out  various  places  in 
Ohio  where  it  would  be  profitable  for  local  observers  to  be  upon 
the  lookout  for  such  evidences  of  glacial  man  as  had  been  discov- 
ered by  Dr.  Abbott.  The  first  response  to  this  came  from  Dr.  C. 
L.  Metz,  of  Madisonville,  on  the  Little  Miami  River,  in  southern 


EVIDENCES    OF   GLACIAL   MAN  IN   OHIO. 


33 


Ohio.  Dr.  Metz  is  a  physician  of  large  practice,  of  high  char- 
acter, and  of  long  experience  as  an  assistant  of  Prof.  Putnam  in 
exploring  the  mounds  of  Ohio.  He  knows  the  difference  between 
disturbed  and  undisturbed  gravel  as  perfectly  as  any  one  does. 
His  residence  is  upon  the  glacial  terrace  which  borders  the  Little 
Miami  Valley.  In  1885,  while  digging  a  cistern  in  this  terrace,  a 
perfectly  formed  implement  of  black  chert  was  found  by  him  in 
undisturbed  gravel  eight  feet  below  the  surface.  This  was  ex- 
hibited by  Prof.  Putnam  at  a  meeting  of  the  Boston  Society  of 
Natural  History,  on  the  4th  of  November,  1885,  and  is  No.  40,970 
in  the  Peabody  Museum.  Two  other  implements  were  discovered 
at  a  later  time  by  Dr.  Metz  in  the  talus  of  the  glacial  terrace  of 
the  Little  Miami,  at  Loveland,  where  also  numerous  bones  of  the 


FIG.  3. — CHIPPED  PEBBLE  OF  BLACK  CHERT,  found  by  Dr.  C.  L.  Metz,  October,  1885,  at 
Madison ville,  Ohio,  in  gravel  eight  feet  from  surface  under  clay :  a,  face  view ;  ft,  side 
view.  Natural  size. 

mammoth  were  found.  But,  as  these  were  not  in  place  when  dis- 
covered, they  can  not  be  adduced  as  positive  evidence. 

The  discovery  at  Newcomerstown,  of  which  Messrs.  Holmes, 
Brinton,  and  McGee  speak  so  lightly  because  they  do  not  know 
the  facts,  is  really  one  of  the  best  attested  of  all  the  single  cases. 
The  discovery  was  made  in  1889  by  Mr.  W.  C.  Mills.  The  imple- 
ment has  been  presented  to  the  Western  Reserve  Historical  Soci- 
ety of  Cleveland,  and  can  there  be  seen  at  any  time  in  company 
with  various  implements  from  France.  A  photogravure  from  it 
appears  in  the  smaller  figure  in  the  following  cut. 

The  discovery  of  the  implement  was  made  in  October,  but  it 
was  not  brought  to  public  notice  until  the  next  spring,  when  I 
chanced  to  meet  Mr.  Mills  and  learned  about  it.  He  then  for- 


34 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


warded  it  to  me,  when  its  exact  resemblance  in  form  and  finish- 
ing to  an  implement  which  I  have  in  my  own  collection,  that  was 
obtained  by  Dr.  Evans,  of  London,  at  Amiens,  France,  greatly  im- 
pressed me.  I  forwarded  it  immediately  to  Prof.  H.  W.  Haynes, 


A  . 


FIG.  4. — THE  SMALLER  is  THE  PAL^OLITH  FKOM  NEWCOMERSTOWN,  THE  LARGER  FROM  AMIENS, 
FRANCE  (face  view).    Keduced  one  half  in  diameter. 

of  Boston,  whose  expert  judgment  is  second  to  that  of  no  other 
person  in  America,  or  indeed  of  the  world.  Prof.  Haynes  ex- 
hibited it  at  the  meeting  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History 
on  May  7,  1890,  and  his  account  was  published  in  the  Proceedings 
of  that  evening.  In  conclusion,  after  having  enumerated  its  dis- 
tinctive characteristics,  he  said,  "  I  desire  to  express  most  emphat- 
ically my  belief  in  the  genuineness  and  age  of  this  Newcomers- 
town  implement,  as  well  as  to  call  attention  to  the  close  resem- 
blance in  all  particulars  which  it  bears  to  these  unquestioned 
palseolithic  implements  [which  he  exhibited  beside  it]  of  the  Old 
World."  This  implement  is  not  a  "  reject,"  but  is  a  finished  im- 
plement, with  the  secondary  chippings  all  around  the  edge.  The 


EVIDENCES    OF   GLACIAL   MAN  IN    OHIO. 


35 


cuts,  reproduced  from  photographs,  perfect  as  they  are,  by  no 
means  do  it  justice. 

I  promptly  gave  an  account  of  this  discovery  in  The  Nation,  in 
its  issue  for  April  24,  1890,  and  repeated  it  in  substance  with  some 
additional  particulars  on  page  620  of  the  third  edition  of  my 
volume  on  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America.  This  account  was 
also  reprinted  in  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Volume  XXXIX, 
pages  314  to  319.  The  account  in  my  later  volume,  on  Man  and 
the  Glacial  Period,  is  still  more  condensed.  The  more  detailed 
evidence  is  published  in  Tract  No.  75  of  the  Western  Reserve  His- 
torical Society,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  containing  the  report  of  the  meet- 


Fio.  5. — EDGE  VIEW  OF  THE  PRECEDING. 

ing  when  Mr.  Mills  was  present  and  gave  his  own  testimony. 
This  was  held  December  12,  1890. 

The  facts  are  these :  There  is  a  glacial  gravel  terrace  in  New- 
comerstown  at  the  mouth  of  Buckhorn  Creek,  where  it  enters  the 
larger  valley  of  the  Tuscarawas  River.  There  can  be  no  question 
about  the  glacial  age  of  this  terrace.  It  is  continuous  up  the 


36 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


river  to  the  terminal  moraine.  Its  surface  is  about  thirty-five 
feet  above  the  flood-plain  of  the  Tuscarawas ;  it  consists  of  strati- 
fied material,  containing  many  granitic  pebbles  and  much  gra- 
nitic gravel.  The  deposit  at  Newcomerstown  extends  over  many 
acres,  having  been  protected  from  erosion  in  the  recess  at  the 


FIG.  6. 

mouth  of  Buckhorn  Creek.  Through  the  middle  of  this  deposit 
the  railroad  had  cut  its  road-bed,  and  for  years  has  been  appro- 
priating the  gravel  for  ballast. 

Mr.  Mills  is  an  educated  business  man,  who  had  been  a  pupil 
in  geology  of  Prof.  Orton,  of  the  State  University,  and  had  with 
him  done  considerable  field-work  in  geology.  Mr.  Mills's  charac- 
ter and  reputation  are  entirely  above  suspicion.  In  addition  to 
his  business  he  took  a  laudable  interest  in  the  collection  of  Indian 
relics,  and  had  in  his  office  thousands  of  flint  implements,  col- 
lected by  him  and  his  associates  in  the  vicinity,  who  had  been 
organized  into  an  archaeological  society.  His  office  was  but  a 
short  distance  from  the  gravel  pit  from  which  I  have  said  the 


EVIDENCES    OF   GLACIAL   MAN  IN    OHIO.  37 

railroad  had  been  for  so  many  years  obtaining  ballast.  The  per- 
pendicular face  of  this  bank  of  gravel  as  it  was  exposed  from  time 
to  time  by  the  excavations  of  the  railroad  men  was  frequently 
examined  by  Mr.  Mills,  not  with  special  reference  to  finding  im- 
plements, for  that  thought  had  not  entered  his  rnind,  but  for  the 
sake  of  obtaining  specimens  of  coral,  which  occasionally  occurred 
in  the  gravel.  While  engaged  in  one  of  these  rounds,  on  the  27th 
of  October,  1S89,  he  found  this  specimen  projecting  from  a  fresh 
exposure  of  the  perpendicular  bank,  fifteen  feet  below  the  sur- 
face, and,  according  to  his  custom,  recorded  the  facts  at  the  time 
in  his  note-book.  There  was  no  lack  of  discrimination  in  his  ob- 
servations, or  of  distinctness  in  his  memory. 

The  accompanying  illustration  from  a  photograph  taken  six 
months  after  the  discovery,  and  when  a  talus  consequent  upon 
the  frosts  of  winter  had  accumulated  to  a  considerable  extent  at 


FIG.  7. — ' 


FERRACE  IN   NEWCOMERSTOWN,   SHOWING  WHERE   W.  <?.  MILLS  FOUND  A  PAI.JDO 
LITHIC  IMPLEMENT. 


the  base  of  the  deposit,  shows  the  spot  in  the  bank  from  which 
the  implement  was  taken.  In  looking  for  objects  of  his  quest, 
Mr.  Mills  thrust  in  his  cane  into  the  coarser  gravel  which  is  seen 
to  overlie  the  finer  deposits.  This  resulted  in  detaching  a  large 
mass  about  six  feet  long  and  two  feet  wide,  which  fell  down  at  his 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


—    Sand,  >/a  foot. 


feet.     It  was  in  the  face  of  the  bank  behind  this  mass  that  Mr. 

Mills's  eye,  so  long  trained  for  the  detection  of  artificially  chipped 

flints,  discovered  the  implement  under  consideration,  which  he 

removed  with  his  own  hands,  and  placed  in  his  collection,  with 

little  thought  at  the  time 

of  the  significance  attach-  r^~^^ 

ing    to    the    position    in  m* —  Soil,  s  to  «  feet. 

which  it  was  found.     The 

accompanying  map  of  the 

vicinity  and  drawing  of 

the  bank  were  made  by 

Mr.  Mills  at  the  time  of 

our    visit,    and    furnish, 

with  the  photograph,  all 

the    additional    informa-        -.^-~_~— — — — 1 gand 

tion  necessary. 

There  is  no  possibility       >;';;; .-.     ;X  • ;"  ;A .  ~;::  :'^3ft\ 
of  mistake  concerning  the 
undisturbed  character  of  FIG.  8. 

the  gravel  from  which  Mr. 

Mills  took  the  implement.     All  the  strata  were  clearly  exposed 
and  observed  by  him. 

These  facts,  submitted  at  the  meeting  of  the  Western  Reserve 
Historical  Society  referred  to,  were  fully  detailed  upon  the  spot 


Where  palseolith 
was  found. 


FIG.  9. — Height  of  Terrace  exposed,  25  feet.     Palseolith  was  found  143/4  feet  from  surface. 

to  myself  and  a  party  of  gentlemen,  consisting  of  Judge  C.  C. 
Baldwin,  E.  A.  Angell,  Esq.,  William  Gushing,  Esq.,  all  lawyers 
of  eminence,  and  Mr.  David  Baldwin,  who  accompanied  me  in  a 


OUR   KNOWLEDGE    OF   THE  DEEP   SEA.  39 

visit  to  the  place  on  the  llth  of  April,  1890.  We  had  all  the  op- 
portunity to  question  and  cross-question  that  could  be  desired. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  proper  to  say  that  the  sweeping  character 
and  the  suddenness  of  these  attacks  of  Mr.  Holmes  and  his  asso- 
ciates upon  the  evidence  of  glacial  man  in  America  have  been 
somewhat  bewildering.  It  has  come  like  thunder  from  a  clear 
sky.  One  has  but  to  go  back  to  Mr.  McGee's  article  in  The  Popu- 
lar Science  Monthly  for  November,  1888,  to  find  an  unquestioning 
and  enthusiastic  indorsement  of  nearly  all  the  facts  concerning 
glacial  man  which  I  have  incorporated  in  my  recent  volume  upon 
Man  and  the  Glacial  Period,  together  with  a  number  which  I  have 
omitted,  except  the  discovery  at  Newcomerstown,  which  had  not 
then  been  made.  Had  I  been  aware  of  the  preparations  which 
these  investigators  were  making  to  discredit  all  past  observers  on 
the  matter,  I  should  have  introduced  more  detailed  evidence  in  my 
summary  in  the  volume  referred  to.  Still,  it  is  probably  as  well 
that  the  statements  were  left  as  they  are,  for  they  are  all  capable 
of  ample  proof ;  and  it  is  perhaps  better  for  the  public  to  be  re- 
ferred for  details  to  such  fuller  reports  as  are  made  in  this  article 
and  in  the  other  publications  here  indicated. 

I  submit  that  this  evidence  is  neither  "  chaotic  "  nor  "  unsatis- 
factory," but  is  as  specific  and  definite  and  as  worthy  to  be  be- 
lieved as  almost  anything  any  expert  in  this  country,  or  any  other 
country,  can  be  expected  to  produce. 


GROWTH  OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  DEEP  SEA. 

BY  G.   W.  LITTLEHALES, 

CHIEF   OF   THE   DIVISION   OF   CHART   CONSTRUCTION,    UNITED  STATES   HYDROGRAPHIC   OFFICE. 

BEFORE  the  time  of  the  project  for  the  Atlantic  telegraph 
cable  in  1854,  there  seemed  to  be  no  practical  value  attached 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  depths  of  the  sea,  and,  beyond  a  few  doubt- 
ful results  obtained  for  purely  scientific  purposes,  nothing  was 
clearly  known  of  bathymetry,  or  of  the  geology  of  the  sea  bottom. 
The  advent  of  submarine  cables  gave  rise  to  the  necessity  for  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  bed  of  the  ocean  where  they  were  laid, 
and  lent  a  stimulus  to  all  forms  of  deep-sea  investigation.  But 
although  our  extensive  and  accurate  knowledge  of  the  deep  sea  is 
of  so  late  an  origin,  the  beginnings  of  deep-sea  research  date  far 
back  into  antiquity.  The  ancients  can  not  be  said  to  have  had 
any  definite  conceptions  of  the  deep  sea.  Experienced  mariners, 
like  the  Phosnicians  and  Carthaginians,  must  necessarily  have 
possessed  some  knowledge  of  the  depths  of  the  waters  with  which 
they  were  familiar,  but  this  knowledge,  whatever  its  extent,  has 


4o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

now  passed  away.  To  the  writings  of  Aristotle,  who  lived  during 
the  fourth  century  B.  c.,  are  credited  the  first  bathymetric  data. 
He  states  that  the  Black  Sea  has  whirlpools  so  deep  that  the  lead 
has  never  reached  the  bottom ;  that  the  Black  Sea  is  deeper  than 
the  Sea  of  Azov,  that  the  .^Egean  is  deeper  than  the  Black  Sea, 
and  that  the  Tyrrhenian  and  Sardinian  Seas  are  deeper  than  all 
the  others.  The  first  record  of  a  deep-sea  sounding  should  be 
credited  to  Posidonius,  who  stated,  about  a  century  B.  c.,  that  the 
sea  about  Sardinia  had  been  sounded  to  a  depth  of  one  thousand 
fathoms.  No  account  is  given  of  the  manner  in  which  the  sound- 
ing was  taken,  and  we  have  no  information  as  to  the  methods 
employed  by  the  ancients  in  these  bathymetric  measurements. 

The  opinions  of  the  learned  with  respect  to  the  greatest  depth 
of  the  sea,  in  the  first  and  second  centuries  A.  D.,  may  be  gleaned 
from  the  writings  of  Plutarch  and  Cleomedes,  the  first  of  whom 
says,  "  The  geometers  think  that  no  mountain  exceeds  ten  stadia 
[about  one  geographic  mile]  in  height,  and  no  sea  ten  stadia  in 
depth."  And  the  second :  "  Those  who  doubt  the  sphericity  of  the 
earth  on  account  of  the  hollows  of  the  sea  and  the  elevation  of 
the  mountains,  are  mistaken.  There  does  not,  in  fact,  exist  a 
mountain  higher  than  fifteen  stadia,  and  that  is  also  the  depth  of 
the  ocean." 

There  was  no  important  addition  to  our  knowledge  of  the  deep 
sea  during  the  middle  ages,  and  no  definite  attempt  to  provide 
effective  means  for  deep-sea  sounding  appears  to  have  been  made 
until  Mcolaus  Causanus,  who  lived  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  invented  an  apparatus  consisting  of  a  hollow  sphere,  to 
which  a  weight  was  attached  by  means  of  a  hook,  intended  to 
carry  the  sphere  down  through  the  water  with  a  certain  velocity. 
On  touching  the  ground  the  weight  became  detached  and  the 
sphere  ascended  alone.  The  depth  was  calculated  from  the  time 
the  sphere  was  under  water.  This  apparatus  was  afterward  mod- 
ified by  Pliicher  and  Alberti,  and,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  by 
Hooke,  who  substituted  a  piece  of  light  wood  well  varnished  over 
for  the  hollow  sphere.  Hooke's  instrument  was  no  doubt  fairly 
accurate  in  shallow  water,  but  useless  in  great  depths,  where  the 
enormous  pressure  waterlogged  the  wood  and,  by  materially  in- 
creasing its  density,  greatly  diminished  the  speed  with  which  it 
rose  from  the  bottom.  When  used  in  currents  the  float  was  car- 
ried away  and  the  record  lost. 

During  the  period  when  the  voyages  of  Columbus,  Vasco  da 
Gama,  and  Magellan  added  a  hemisphere  to  the  chart  of  the  world 
and  forever  established  the  fundamental  principles  of  all  scientific 
geography,  navigators  had  sounding  lines  of  one  hundred  and  two 
hundred  fathoms  in  length,  and,  although  they  eagerly  studied  the 
oceanic  phenomena  revealed  at  the  surface,  the  deep  sea  did  not 


OUR  KNOWLEDGE   OF  THE  DEEP   SEA.  41 

engage  their  attention.  Kircher,  in  his  Mundus  Subterraneus, 
gives  the  ideas  as  to  the  depths  of  the  sea  that  were  accepted 
in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  stating  that  "  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  highest  mountains  are  grouped  in  the  center 
of  the  land,  so  also  should  the  greatest  depths  be  found  in  the 
middle  of  the  largest  oceans ;  near  the  coasts  with  but  slight  ele- 
vations the  depth  will  gradually  diminish  toward  the  shore.  I 
say  coasts  with  but  slight  elevations,  for,  if  the  shores  are  sur- 
rounded by  high  rocks,  then  greater  depths  are  found.  This  is 
proved  by  experience  on  the  shores  of  Norway,  Iceland,  and  the 
islands  of  Flanders." 

Several  soundings  were  taken  in  deep  water  during  the  eight- 
eenth century,  but  they  were  not  of  much  value.  The  first  at  all 
reliable  were  made  by  Sir  John  Ross  during  his  well-known  arc- 
tic expedition  in  1818.  He  brought  up  six  pounds  of  mud  from 
1,050  fathoms  in  Baffin  Bay,  and  obtained  correct  soundings  in 
1,000  fathoms  in  Possession  Bay,  finding  worms  and  other  animals 
in  the  mud  procured.  Sir  James  Clark  Ross,  during  his  antarctic 
expedition  from  1839  to  1843,  obtained  satisfactory  soundings  of 
2,425  and  2,677  fathoms  in  the  South  Atlantic,  with  a  hempen  cord. 
He  also  dredged  successfully  in  depths  of  400  fathoms. 

Meanwhile,  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  first 
definite  ideas  about  the  formation  of  the  bottom  soil  began  to  be 
advanced,  although  there  had  been  speculations  on  the  formation 
of  alluvial  layers  since  the  time  of  Herodotus.  In  1725  Marsilli 
made  a  few  observations  on  the  bathymetric  knowledge  then  pos- 
sessed concerning  the  nature  of  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  He  admit- 
ted that  the  basin  of  the  sea  was  excavated  "  at  the  time  of  the 
creation  out  of  the  same  stone  which  we  see  in  the  strata  of  the 
earth,  with  the  same  interstices  of  clay  to  bind  them  together," 
and  pointed  out  that  we  should  not  judge  of  the  nature  of  the  bot- 
tom of  the  basins  by  the  materials  which  seamen  bring  up  in  their 
soundings.  The  dredgings  almost  always  indicate  a  muddy  bot- 
tom, and  very  rarely  a  rocky  one,  because  the  latter  is  covered 
with  slime,  sand,  and  sandy,  earthy,  and  calcareous  concretions, 
and  organic  matter.  These  substances,  he  said,  conceal  the  real 
bottom  of  the  sea,  and  have  been  brought  there  by  the  action  of 
the  water.  Lastly,  by  way  of  explanation,  he  compared  the  bed 
of  the  sea  to  the  inside  of  an  old  wine  cask,  which  seems  to  be  made 
of  dregs  of  tartar  although  it  is  really  of  wood. 

Donati's  studies  on  the  bottom  of  the  Adriatic  Sea  led  him  to 
announce,  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  it  is 
hardly  different  from  the  surface  of  the  land,  and  is  but  a  prolon- 
gation of  the  superposed  strata  in  the  neighboring  continent,  the 
strata  themselves  being  in  the  same  order.  The  bottom  of  this 
sea  is,  according  to  him,  covered  with  a  layer  formed  by  crusta- 

VOL.   XLIII. 1 


42  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ceans,  testaceans,  and  polyps,  mixed  with  sand,  and  to  a  great  ex- 
tent petrified.  This  crust  may  be  seven  or  eight  feet  deep,  and  he 
attributed  to  this  deposit,  bound  together  with  the  remains  of  or- 
ganisms and  sedimentary  mineral  matter,  the  rising  of  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea,  and  the  encroachment  of  the  water  on  the  coasts. 

In  1836  Ehrenberg  produced  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  publi- 
cations relating  to  microscopic  organisms  which  distinguished  him 
as  a  naturalist  of  rare  sagacity.  He  devoted  the  whole  of  his  life 
to  the  study  of  microscopic  organisms,  to  the  examination  of  ma- 
terials brought  up  from  deep-sea  soundings,  and  to  all  questions 
appertaining  to  the  sea.  Having  discovered  that  the  siliceous 
strata  known  as  tripoli,  found  in  various  parts  of  the  globe,  are 
but  accumulations  of  the  skeletons  of  diatoms,  sponges,  and  radio- 
laria,  and  having  found  living  diatoms  and  radiolaria  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  Baltic  of  the  same  species  as  those  found  in  the  Ter- 
tiary deposits  of  Sicily,  and  having  shown  that  in  the  diatom  layers 
of  Bilin  in  Bohemia  the  siliceous  deposit  had,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  infiltrated  water,  been  transformed  into  compact  opaline 
masses,  he  concluded  that  rocks  like  those  which  play  so  impor- 
tant a  part  in  the  terrestrial  crust  are  still  being  formed  on  the 
bottom  of  the  sea. 

The  investigation  of  the  distribution  of  marine  animals  accord- 
ing to  the  depths  of  the  sea  may  be  said  to  have  commenced  in 
1840  with  Forbes's  studies  in  the  Mediterranean.  He  maintained 
that  the  dredgings  showed  the  existence  of  distinct  regions  at  suc- 
cessive depths,  having  each  a  special  association  of  species ;  and 
remarks  that  the  speciea  found  at  the  greatest  depths  are  also 
found  on  the  coast  of  England — concluding,  therefore,  that  such 
species  have  a  wider  geographical  distribution.  He  divided  the 
whole  range  of  depth  occupied  by  marine  animals  into  eight  zones, 
in  which  animal  life  gradually  diminished  with  increase  of  depth, 
until  a  zero  was  reached  at  about  three  hundred  fathoms.  He 
also  supposed  that  plants,  like  animals,  disappeared  at  a  certain 
depth,  the  zero  of  vegetable  life  being  at  a  less  depth  than  that  of 
animal  life. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  probably  the  first  reliable 
deep-sea  soundings  ever  made  were  by  Sir  John  Ross  in  1818.  To 
him  is  due  the  invention  of  the  so-called  deep-sea  clam,  by  means 
of  which  specimens  of  the  bottom  were  for  the  first  time  brought 
up  from  great  depths  in  any  quantity.  This  instrument  was  in 
the  form  of  a  pair  of  spoon-forceps,  kept  apart  while  descending, 
but  closed  by  a  falling  weight  on  striking  the  bottom.  Two 
separate  casts  were  usually  made,  one  to  ascertain  the  depth  and 
the  other  to  bring  up  a  specimen  of  the  bottom  soil. 

For  the  development  of  accurate  knowledge  of  the  depths  of 
the  sea  the  world  will  ever  be  indebted  to  the  genius  of  Midship- 


OUR  KNOWLEDGE   OF  THE  DEEP   SEA. 


43 


man  Brooke,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  who  made  the  first  great 
improvement  in  deep-sea  sounding  in  1854  by  inventing  a  machine 
in  which,  applying  Causanus's  idea  of  disengaging  a  weight  at- 
tached to  the  sounding  line,  the  sinker  was  detached  on  striking 
the  bottom  and  left  behind  when  the  tube  was  drawn  up.  The 
arrangement  of  the  parts  is  shown  in  the 
accompanying  figure.  When  the  tube  B 
strikes  the  bottom,  the  lines  A  A  slack  and 
allow  the  arms  C  C  to  be  pulled  down  by  the 
weight  D.  When  these  arms  have  reached 
the  positions  indicated  by  the  dotted  lines, 
the  slings  supporting  the  weight  have 
slipped  off,  and  the  tube  can  be  hauled  up, 
bringing  within  it  a  specimen  of  the  bottom. 
This  implement  has  been  improved  from 
time  to  time  by  various  officers  of  our  own 
and  foreign  navies  by  changing  the  manner 
of  slinging  and  detaching  the  sinker,  and  by 
adding  valves  to  the  upper  and  lower  ends 
of  the  tube  to  prevent  the  specimen  from 
being  washed  out  during  the  rapid  ascent 
which  has  been  rendered  possible  by  the  use 
of  wire  sounding  line  and  steam  hoisting 
engines ;  but  in  all  the  essential  features  it 
is  the  same  as  the  most  successful  modern 
sounding  apparatus.  The  impulse  given  to 
deep-sea  sounding  by  Brooke  was  seconded  by  the  successful 
adaptation  of  pianoforte  wire  to  use  as  a  sounding  line,  in  1872, 
by  Sir  William  Thomson ;  and  within  recent  years  soundings 
have  been  taken  far  and  wide  in  all  the  seas  by  national  vessels 
during  their  cruises,  by  vessels  engaged  in  laying  submarine 
cables,  and  by  various  specially  organized  expeditions,  among 
which  that  known  as  the  Challenger  Expedition,  sent  out  by  the 
Government  of  Great  Britain  during  the  period  from  1873  to  1876, 
stands  pre-eminent.  As  a  result  of  this  work  many  of  the  ques- 
tions which  perplexed  the  naturalists  of  the  middle  of  the  present 
century  have  now  been  cleared  away. 

Many  of  the  specimens  of  the  bottom  that  were  brought  up  in 
the  early  days  of  deep-sea  sounding  were  studied  through  the 
microscopes  of  Ehrenberg,  of  Berlin,  and  Bailey,  of  West  Point. 
Maury,  who  believed  that  there  are  no  currents  and  no  life  at  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  wrote :  "  They  all  tell  the  same  story.  They 
teach  us  that  the  quiet  of  the  grave  reigns  everywhere  in  the 
profound  depths  of  the  ocean ;  that  the  repose  there  is  beyond 
the  reach  of  wind ;  it  is  so  perfect  that  none  of  the  powers  of 
earth,  save  only  the  earthquake  and  volcano  can  disturb  it.  The 


44  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

specimens  of  deep-sea  soundings  are  as  pure  and  as  free  from  the 
sand  of  the  sea  as  the  snowfiake  that  falls  when  it  is  calm  upon 
the  lea  is  from  the  dust  of  the  earth.  Indeed,  these  soundings 
suggest  the  idea  that  the  sea,  like  the  snow  cloud  with  its  flakes  in 
a  calm,  is  always  letting  fall  upon  its  bed  showers  of  these  micro- 
scopic shells;  and  we  may  readily  imagine  that  the  'sunless 
wrecks '  which  strew  its  bottom  are,  in  the  process  of  ages,  hid 
under  this  fleecy  covering,  presenting  the  rounded  appearance 
which  is  seen  over  the  body  of  a  traveler  who  has  perished  in  the 
snowstorm.  The  ocean,  especially  within  and  near  the  tropics, 
swarms  with  life.  The  remains  of  its  myriads  of  moving  things 
are  conveyed  by  currents,  and  scattered  and  lodged  in  the  course 
of  time  all  over  its  bottom.  The  process,  continued  for  ages,  has 
covered  the  depths  of  the  ocean  as  with  a  mantle,  consisting  of 
organisms  as  delicate  as  the  macled  frost  and  as  light  as  the  un- 
drifted  snowflake  of  the  mountain." 

Maury  was  right  in  respect  to  the  covering  of  the  bed  of  the 
deep  sea,  for,  as  a  result  of  all  our  researches,  it  is  found  that  in 
waters  removed  from  the  land  and  more  than  fourteen  hundred 
fathoms  in  depth  there  is  an  almost  unbroken  layer  of  pteropod, 
globigerina,  diatom,  and  radiolarian  oozes,  and  red  clay  which 
occupies  nearly  115,000,000  of  the  143,000,000  square  miles  of  the 
water  surface  of  the  globe.  But  he  was  wrong  in  asserting  that 
low  temperature,  pressure,  and  the  absence  of  light  preclude  the 
possibility  of  life  in  very  deep  water. 

Ehrenberg  held  the  opposite  opinion  with  regard  to  the  condi- 
tions of  life  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Maury  in  1857 : 
"  The  other  argument  for  life  in  the  deep  which  I  have  established 
is  the  surprising  quantity  of  new  forms  which  are  wanting  in 
other  parts  of  the  sea.  If  the  bottom  were  nothing  but  the  sedi- 
ment of  the  troubled  sea,  like  the  fall  of  snow  in  the  air,  and  if 
the  biolithic  curves  of  the  bottom  were  nothing  else  than  the  prod- 
uct of  the  currents  of  the  sea  which  heap  up  the  flakes,  similarly 
to  the  glaciers,  there  would  necessarily  be  much  less  of  unknown 
and  peculiar  forms  in  the  depths.  The  surface  and  the  borders  of 
the  sea  are  much  more  productive  and  much  more  extended  than 
the  depths ;  hence  the  forms  peculiar  to  the  depths  should  not  be 
perceived.  The  great  quantity  of  peculiar  forms  and  of  soft  bodies 
existing  in  the  innumerable  carapaces,  accompanied  by  the  obser- 
vation of  the  number  of  unknowns,  increasing  with  the  depth — 
these  are  the  arguments  which  seem  to  me  to  hold  firmly  to  the 
opinion  of  stationary  life  at  the  bottom  of  the  deep  sea." 

It  would  appear  to  have  been  definitely  established  by  the  re- 
searches of  the  last  fifty  years  that  life  in  some  of  its  many  forms 
is  universally  distributed  throughout  the  ocean.  Not  only  in  the 


OUR  KNOWLEDGE   OF  THE  DEEP   SEA.  45 

shallower  waters  near  coasts,  but  even  in  the  greater  depths  of  all 
oceans,  animal  life  is  exceedingly  abundant.  A  trawling  in  a 
depth  of  over  a  mile  yielded  two  hundred  specimens  of  animals  be- 
longing to  seventy-nine  species  and  fifty-five  genera.  A  trawling 
in  a  depth  of  about  three  miles  yielded  over  fifty  specimens  be- 
longing to  twenty-seven  species  and  twenty-five  genera.  Even  in 
depths  of  four  miles  fishes  and  animals  belonging  to  all  the  chief 
invertebrate  groups  have  been  procured,  and  in  a  sample  of  ooze 
from  nearly  five  miles  and  a  quarter  there  was  evidence  to  the 
naturalists  of  the  Challenger  that  living  creatures  could  exist  at 
that  depth. 

Recent  oceanographic  researches  have  also  established  beyond 
doubt  that  while  in  great  depths  the  water  is  not  subjected  to  the 
influence  of  superficial  movements  like  waves,  tides,  and  swift 
currents,  there  is  an  extremely  slow  movement,  in  striking  con- 
trast with  the  agitation  of  the  surface  water.  Although  the 
movement  at  the  bottom  is  so  slow  that  the  ordinary  means  of 
measuring  currents  can  not  be  applied  accurately  to  them,  the 
thermometer  furnishes  an  indirect  means  of  ascertaining  their  ex- 
istence. Water  is  a  very  bad  conductor  of  heat,  and  consequently 
a  body  of  water  at  a  given  temperature  passing  into  a  region 
where  the  temperature  conditions  are  different  retains  for  a  long 
time,  and  without  much  change,  its  original  temperature.  To 
illustrate:  The  bottom  temperature  near  Fernando  do  Noronha, 
almost  under  the  equator,  is  0'2°  C.,  or  close  upon  the  freezing 
point ;  it  is  obvious  that  this  temperature  was  not  acquired  at  the 
equator,  where  the  mean  annual  temperature  of  the  surface  layer 
of  the  water  is  21°  C.,  and  the  mean  normal  temperature  of  the 
crust  of  the  earth  not  lower  than  8°  C.  The  water  must  therefore 
have  come  from  a  place  where  the  conditions  were  such  as  to  give 
it  a  freezing  temperature ;  and  not  only  must  it  have  come  from 
such  a  place,  but  the  supply  must  be  continually  renewed,  how- 
ever slowly,  for  otherwise  its  temperature  would  gradually  rise  by 
conduction  and  mixture.  Across  the  whole  of  the  North  Atlantic 
the  bottom  temperature  is  considerably  higher,  so  that  the  cold 
water  can  not  be  coming  from  that  direction;  on  the  other  hand, 
we  can  trace  a  band  of  water  at  a  like  temperature  at  nearly  the 
same  depth  continuously  to  the  Antarctic  Sea,  where  the  condi- 
tions are  normally  such  as  to  impart  to  it  this  low  temperature. 
There  seems,  therefore,  to  be  no  doubt  that  there  is  a  current 
from  the  antarctic  to  the  equator  along  the  bottom  of  the  South 
Atlantic. 

From  the  millions  of  reliable  deep-sea  soundings  that  have 
been  made  during  the  last  forty  years  the  more  general  features 
of  the  bathymetric  chart  of  the  world  have  been  firmly  estab- 
lished ;  and  the  ancient  idea,  derived  chiefly  from  a  supposed 


46 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


physical  relation,  that  the  depths  of  the  sea  are  about  equal  to 
the  heights  of  the  mountains,  has  given  place  to  exact  notions  as 
to  the  depths  as  well  as  the  heights. 

The  greatest  known  depths  that  have  been  reliably  sounded  in 
the  different  oceans  are  given  in  the  following  list : 


Latitude. 

Longitude. 

Depth  in 
fathoms. 

North  Atlantic  Ocean  

19°  39'  N. 

66°  26'  W. 

4,561 

19°  65'  S. 

24°  50'  W. 

3,284 

North  Sea  (Skagerack)     

58°  12'  N. 

9°  30'  E. 

442 

Baltic  Sea                                       

58°  37'  N. 

18°  30'  E. 

233 

Mediterranean  Sea                             .  .     \  . 

35°  45'  N. 

21°  46'  E. 

2,405 

Black  Sea 

42°  55'  N 

33°  18'  E. 

1,431 

19°    0'  N. 

81°  10'  W. 

3,427 

11°  22'  S. 

116°  50'  E. 

3,393 

North  Pacific  Ocean         

44°  55'  N. 

152°  26'  E. 

4,655 

South  Pacific  Ocean                        

24°  37'  S. 

175°  08'  W. 

4,428 

Bering  Sea 

54°  30'  N 

175°  32'  W 

2,146 

Sea  of  Japan 

38°  30'  N 

135°    0'  N 

1  640 

China  Sea      

17°  15'  N. 

118°  50'  E. 

2,350 

Sulu  Sea            .             

8°  32'  N. 

121°  55'  E. 

2,549 

Celebes  Sea                     

4°  16'  N 

124°  02'  E. 

2,794 

Banda  Sea 

5°  24'  S 

130°  37'  E 

2,799 

Flores  Sea  

7°  43'  S. 

120°  26'  E. 

2,799 

Arctic  Ocean  

78°  05'  N. 

2°  30'  W. 

2,469 

Antarctic  Ocean    

62°  26'  S 

95°  44'  E. 

1,975 

THE  CULTIVATION  OF  HUMANE  IDEAS  AND 
FEELINGS.* 

BY  PROF.  WESLEY  MILLS,  M.  A.,  M.  D., 

MC  GILL  UNIVERSITY,   MONTREAL. 

THE  main  object  of  every  society  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty 
to  animals  I  take  to  be  the  establishment  of  right  feelings 
toward  our  speechless  fellow- creatures.  But  feeling,  to  be  correct, 
strong,  and  abiding,  must  be  based  on  sound  conceptions  of  the 
nature  of  that  toward  which  it  is  exercised.  So  long  as  any  indi- 
vidual believes  that  another  wishes  to  injure  him,  so  long  will  he 
find  it  most  difficult  to  entertain  kindly  feelings  toward  the  man 
that  he  deems  his  enemy ;  but  let  it  appear  that  he  has  entirely 
misunderstood  the  motive  and  actions  of  the  individual  in  ques- 
tion— that  instead  of  an  enemy  he  proves  to  be  a  friend — and  the 
whole  current  of  feeling  is  changed.  Thus  would  it  be,  in  my 
opinion,  with  thousands  of  people  if  they  could  be  made  to  see 
animals  in  their  true  light. 

Glancing  at  historical  and  national  views  of  animal  life,  we 
find  at  all  periods  widely  different  conceptions,  and  consequently 


*  An  Address  before  the  American  Humane  Association,  Philadelphia,  October  27, 1892. 


HUMANE  IDEAS  AND   FEELINGS.  47 

feelings,  in  regard  to  some  of  our  domestic  animals.  A  certain 
animal  regarded  as  a  fit  subject  for  contempt  by  some  peoples  has 
been  an  object  of  worship,  or  something  akin  to  it,  by  others ; 
hence  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  lot  of  such  animals  has  been 
very  different  in  some  parts  of  the  world  as  compared  with  others. 
To  illustrate  this  we  need  go  no  further  than  the  universally  dis- 
tributed dog  and  cat.  In  the  East  the  dog  is  rarely  other  than 
a  homeless,  despised  outcast.  In  Europe  generally  he  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  family.  But  it  is  to  Great  Britain  especially  that  we 
look  to  find  all  our  domestic  animals  in  the  highest  perfection, 
and  cherished  with  feelings  of  peculiar  regard.  In  Britain  it  is 
contrary  to  law  to  hitch  a  dog,  however  large  and  strong,  to  a  cart 
to  draw  even  a  small  child,  while  in  Germany  dogs  may  be  seen 
used  as  beasts  of  burden  in  all  the  large  cities.  In  no  part  of  the 
world  are  the  good  qualities  of  dogs  so  appreciated  and  valued  as 
in  Great  Britain ;  hence  it  is  not  at  all  inexplicable  that  cruelty 
to  the  dog  and  other  animals  is  there  comparatively  rare. 

It  may  safely  be  said  that  never  before  in  civilized  countries 
were  animals — and  especially  our  domestic  animals — treated  so 
well,  because  never  before  were  they  so  thoroughly  understood. 
To  what  is  this  to  be  attributed  ?  Not  alone  to  the  spread  of  kind- 
lier feelings  and  better  principles  generally,  but  largely  to  the 
advance  of  science.  There  was  a  time,  well  within  the  recollec- 
tion of  persons  not  yet  old,  when  man,  we  were  told  by  those  to 
whom  we  looked  for  light  and  guidance,  stood  utterly  apart  from 
all  else  in  the  universe  as  the  one  being  in  whom  the  Creator 
specially,  and  we  might  say  solely,  delighted,  and  for  whose  benefit 
every  other  object,  animate  and  inanimate,  existed.  How  natu- 
ral, then,  for  man  to  believe  that  animals,  as  such,  had  few  if  any 
rights ! 

The  one  test  to  which  many  persons  naturally  enough  brought 
every  animal  was  just  this  :  Is  the  creature  of  any  use  whatever 
to  man  ?  If  not,  then  it  was  held  that  it  simply  cumbered  the 
ground.  People,  it  is  true,  admitted  that  man  was  an  animal ;  but 
they  did  not  realize  what  this  expression  meant,  or  did  not  accept 
it  in  its  full  significance.  To  them  man  was  an  "  animal,"  but  not 
like  the  others.  He  was  too  exalted  to  have  any  more  than  the 
common  principle  of  life.  Men  could  not  realize  then  as  now  that 
mind  and  body  are  so  closely  related  that  for  every  mental  process 
there  must  be  a  corresponding  physical  correlative.  But  this  once 
being  admitted  it  became  possible  to  understand  that  animals  be- 
low man  may  have  minds  whose  processes  are  akin  to  ours.  The 
question  then  became,  not  have  animals  minds,  but  what  sort  of 
minds.  Wherein  does  animal  intelligence  in  the  widest  sense  dif- 
fer from  human  intelligence  ?  As  soon  as  man  himself  became 
better  understood  it  was  plain  that  his  feelings  were,  on  certain 


48  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

planes,  parallel  with  groups  of  animals  much  lower  in  the  scale 
generally.  To  them  pleasures  and  pains  were  just  as  real  as  they 
were  similar  to  those  of  human  beings. 

I  suggest  that  these  most  important  advances  are  owing  chiefly 
to  the  progress  and  the  diffusion  of  scientific  knowledge  and  the 
scientific  spirit.  The  doctrine  of  organic  evolution  published  by 
Darwin  over  thirty  years  ago  at  once  offered  to  man  a  broader 
kinship  than  he  had  previously  been  able  to  comprehend.  In  my 
opinion  the  importance  of  this  conception  will,  for  a  right  under- 
standing of  the  relations  of  man  and  other  animals,  outweigh 
all  others,  because  it  will  bring  us  to  see  that,  with  a  common 
origin,  there  must  always  remain  numerous  similarities  of  nature. 

But,  without  taking  advantage  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  it 
has  become  apparent  that  the  claim  for  man  of  a  nature  entirely 
distinct  and  different  from  that  of  other  forms  of  life  is  baseless. 
Gradually,  from  many  different  quarters,  this  conception  of  simi- 
larity of  nature  is  spreading  among  the  masses ;  and  the  friend 
of  animals  can  not  do  better  than  encourage  people  to  dwell  upon 
the  resemblances  rather  than  the  differences  between  the  highest 
.and  the  lower  grades  of  animal  life.  It  will  be  readily  perceived, 
then,  that  my  conviction  is  that  we  shall  best  advance  the  cause  we 
have  at  heart — the  humane  treatment  of  our  animals — by  spread- 
ing sound  views  of  their  nature,  and  in  that  keeping  prominent 
the  resemblances  to  man  rather  than  the  differences  from  him, 
many  of  them  questionable,  at  all  events  as  to  kind. 

Inasmuch  as  science  has  done  more  than  all  other  agencies  in 
dissipating  man's  prejudices  and  freeing  the  mind  from  erroneous 
and  enslaving  views,  it  will  be  wise  for  all  societies  with  a  hu- 
mane object  to  think  well  before  in  any  way  interfering  with  sci- 
entific investigations  of  any  kind.  Without  research  the  true 
nature  of  those  diseases  which  afflict  man  and  the  lower  animals 
can  not  be  known. 

With  many  persons  dogs  and  hydrophobia  are  closely  associ- 
ated mentally,  and  I  recently  read  an  article  in  which  the  author 
spoke  of  the  dog  as  the  "  breeder  of  hydrophobia."  The  societies 
will  do  good  by  publishing  actual  statistics  and  other  details  bear- 
ing on  the  nature  of  this  dreaded  disease.  I  have  also  read  argu- 
ments for  the  complete  extirpation  of  dogs  based  on  the  fact  that 
some  sheep  were  worried.  The  plain  preventive  for  rabies  is  the 
proper  care  and  management  of  dogs;  and  for  sheep- worry  ing, 
the  confinement  of  dogs  at  night,  which  would  ~be,  indeed,  a 
proper  proceeding  if  no  sheep  existed.  A  roaming  dog  is  no  more 
desirable  than  a  human  tramp ;  but  no  one  has  advocated  the 
destruction  of  the  human  race  to  get  rid  of  tramps.  In  attempt- 
ing to  spread  sound  views  in  regard  to  diseases  that  are  common 
to  man  and  our  domestic  animals,  such  as  rabies,  indirectly  much 


HUMANE  IDEAS   AND   FEELINGS.  49 

information  will  be  given  to  the  public  about  the  care  of  dogs, 
with  a  view  to  avoiding  conditions  that  simulate  this  terrible 
malady.  The  "mad  dog"  of  the  streets  is,  we  know,  rarely  rabid, 
and  usually  only  needs  a  little  judicious  and  kindly  assistance  to 
restore  him  to  health.  It  is  just  about  as  reasonable  to  pounce  on 
and  kill  a  human  being  that  falls  in  an  epileptic  fit,  as  the  majority 
of  the  dogs  that  are  attacked  and  killed  by  an  excited  crowd. 

Above  all,  the  public  needs  enlightenment  regarding  the  true 
nature  of  animals.  When  that  is  complete  and  thorough,  right 
feelings  toward  them  will  spring  up  in  the  larger  proportion  of 
people.  I  would  especially  direct  attention  to  the  education  of 
children  in  and  out  of  school  on  this  subject.  It  should  be  held 
before  a  child  as  a  more  cowardly  thing  to  abuse  a  defenseless 
animal  than  one  of  its  own  species.  But  this  will  not  weigh  much 
with  the  child  if  all  it  hears  tends  to  belittle  the  creatures  by  which 
it  is  surrounded,  and  to  exalt  man  beyond  all  measure.  I  should 
begin  with  very  young  children  by  pointing  to  similarities  of 
structure  and  function  between  themselves  and  the  family  cat  or 
dog.  They  have  eyes,  ears,  tongues,  etc. ;  they  see,  hear,  taste, 
feel  pain,  and  experience  pleasure  just  as  children  do ;  therefore, 
let  us  recognize  their  rights,  avoid  giving  them  pain,  and  increase 
their  pleasures.  I  strongly  advocate  each  family  having  some 
one  animal,  at  least,  to  be  brought  up  with  the  household  to  some 
extent,  whether  it  be  bird,  cat,  or  dog.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  great  mistake  to  introduce  any  animal  as  a 
mere  toy  or  plaything  for  very  young  children.  Such  a  proceed- 
ing rather  tends  to  encourage  cruelty. 

It  is  of  great  importance  for  the  education  of  the  public  mind 
that  fine  specimens  of  animals  be  exhibited.  All  shows  for  our 
domestic  animals  are  worthy  of  encouragement  as  educators. 
Many  a  person  that  regards  the  ordinary  mongrel  dogs  of  the 
street  with  indifference,  if  not  aversion,  has  his  views  and  feelings 
changed  when  he  attends  a  dog  show,  with  its  numerous  speci- 
mens of  fine,  pure-bred  animals ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
horse,  cattle,  and  poultry  shows.  The  aesthetic  has  a  very  great 
influence  in  our  age.  We  devote  a  large  share  of  our  energies  to 
securing  the  gratification  of  our  sense  of  the  beautiful.  It  will 
be  judicious,  therefore,  to  present  the  beautiful  in  animals  to  the 
public.  For  this  reason,  again,  exhibitions  of  superior  specimens 
of  domestic  animals,  zoological  gardens,  museums,  and  kindred 
institutions  prepare  the  public  mind  to  appreciate  animals  more; 
and,  as  I  am  endeavoring  to  show,  to  understand  and  to  admire 
are  usually  necessary  steps  to  the  generation  of  humane  feelings 
toward  the  creatures  with  which  we  come  in  contact. 

Once  establish  the  proper  feelings,  and  fitting  conduct  is  likely 
to  follow  ;  but  before  these  feelings  arise  we  must  have  right  con- 

TOL.    XLIII. 5 


5o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ceptions  of  man's  relations,  if  not  relationship,  to  the  animal 
kingdom. 

While  many  persons  are  ready  to  admit  that,  so  far  as  phys- 
ical organization  is  concerned,  man  and  other  animals  are  on  the 
one  plane,  they  either  do  not  believe  in  any  likeness  beyond  this, 
or  more  probably  they  have  never  examined  the  subject. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  great  majority  of  persons  have  not 
devoted  a  half  hour  of  their  lives,  taken  altogether,  to  any  thought 
upon  such  a  subject.  It  has  been  taken  for  granted  that  man  is 
on  one  plane  of  intellect  and  feeling,  and  all  other  animals  are  so 
much  below  him  that  their  acts  are  not  commonly  regarded  as 
other  than  the  result  of  instinct,  a  sort  of  blind  impulse,  so  that 
they  are  not  regarded  as  showing  at  all  those  qualities  which  we 
term  mental,  much  less  moral  ones.  Even  educated  persons  have 
but  vague  conceptions  on  the  subject  of  animal  intelligence.  The 
publications  of  many  of  the  humane  societies  bearing  on  animal 
intelligence  must  have  done  a  vast  amount  of  good  in  dissipating 
ignorance  and  prejudice. 

We  have  in  Montreal,  in  connection  with  the  Faculty  of  Com- 
parative Medicine  and  Veterinary  Science  of  McGill  University, 
a  society  for  the  study  of  comparative  psychology — the  only  insti- 
tution of  the  kind  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  It  has  been  in 
existence  now  six  years. 

A  brief  account  of  the  proceedings  of  each  meeting  is  pub- 
lished in  the  daily  press  of  the  city,  and  I  have  reason  to  believe 
that  the  association  has  in  this  way  alone  helped  considerably 
the  cause  of  the  lower  animals.  The  Montreal  Association  for 
the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals  has  received  and  circulated 
large  numbers  of  copies  of  several  of  the  papers  read  before  this 
society  for  the  study  of  animal  intelligence. 

I  suggest  that  if  the  interest  of  teachers — especially  the  heads 
of  schools — can  be  secured,  some  steps  may  be  taken  in  leading 
the  young  to  entertain  correct  views  and  feelings  toward  the  lower 
animals.  The  keynote  should  be :  They  are  our  fellow-creatures ; 
in  some,  but  not  all  respects,  our  "  poor  relations  " ;  to  be  guarded 
and  assisted,  but  also  to  be  respected ;  for  in  not  a  few  directions 
they  are  superior  to  ourselves.  Let  this  spirit  get  into  schools 
and  families,  and  but  little  actual  formal  teaching  will  be  required 
to  accomplish  the  end  in  view.  Actions  on  the  part  of  elders  in 
this,  as  in  other  cases,  speak  louder  than  words. 

Of  course,  now,  and  for  a  long  time  to  come,  the  ignorant,  the 
lowly  organized,  and  the  depraved  will  maltreat  animals ;  and 
they  must  be  appealed  to  in  a  way  that  is  deterrent — that  is,  by 
punishment.  But  the  sooner  we  can  establish  a  strong  and  cor- 
rect public  feeling  on  the  subject  of  the  rights  and  relations  of 
animals,  the  more  effectually  will  cruelty  be  prevented ;  and  when 


THE   OSWEGO   STATE  NORMAL   SCHOOL.  51 

it  does  occur,  be  detected  and  punished.  All  cases  of  prosecution 
should  be  published,  on  account  not  only  of  its  preventive  effect, 
but  because  it  strengthens  public  sentiment. 

The  cause  will  be  hindered  by  mawkish  sentiment,  interfer- 
ence to  an  undue  degree  in  slight  cases,  while  neglecting  great 
and  widespread  injustice,  or  positive  wrong,  toward  our  faithful 
dumb  friends.  In  spreading  sound  ideas  in  regard  to  animals ;  in 
correcting  generally  admitted  and  great  cruelties ;  in  providing 
temporary  homes  for  lost  and  stray  animals;  by  encouraging, 
directly  or  indirectly,  scientific  research  in  biology,  especially  on 
the  diseases  common  to  man  and  our  domestic  animals ;  in  con- 
tributing to  the  investigation  of  animal  intelligence — we  have,  in 
addition  to  many  other  lines  of  effort,  large  and  worthy  fields  of 
•endeavor  for  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
world  in  which  we  live,  both  for  man  and  his  fellow-creatures, 
lower  in  the  scale,  it  is  true,  but  withal  very  admirable. 


THE  OSWEGO  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 

BY  PROF.  WILLIAM  M.  ABER. 

TO-DAY,  in  the  quiet,  old  city  of  Oswego,  N.  Y.,  stands  a  school 
whose  influence  has  extended  throughout  the  land.  At  its 
head  is  its  founder,  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon :  the  school  is  his  life  work. 

In  1848  Mr.  Sheldon,  a  young  man  of  twenty-four,  then  a  resi- 
dent of  Oswego,  felt  moved  to  study  somewhat  into  the  condition 
•of  the  poor  of  that  city.  Their  ignorance  and  misery  excited  pro- 
found pity.  Influential  friends  were  enlisted,  an  "Orphan  and 
Free  School  Association"  was  formed,  a  schoolroom  provided, 
and  a  teacher  sought.  To  his  surprise,  he  found  that  he  must 
teach  the  school  or  the  enterprise  would  be  abandoned.  For  sal- 
ary he  asked  the  estimated  cost  of  his  living,  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  dollars  per  year,  and  received  three  hundred  dollars. 
In  the  basement  of  an  old  church,  the  inexperienced  young  teacher 
was  brought  face  to  face  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  wild  boys 
and  girls  of  from  five  to  twenty-one.  These  he  held  in  order  and 
kept  at  work  by  insight,  love,  and  patience — those  potent  exer- 
cisers of  evil  spirits. 

From  this  movement,  though  against  strenuous  opposition, 
sprang  the  free  and  graded  schools  of  Oswego,  which  were  organ- 
ized by  Mr.  Sheldon  in  1853.  As  a  superintendent  of  schools  he 
might  have  ended  his  days,  had  he  not  possessed  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart  which  led  him  to  turn  from  easy,  routine  work  and 
•encounter  toils  and  dangers  to  find  or  make  a  better  way.  As 
machines  for  securing  from  the  pupils  the  -learning,  memoriter,  of 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


so  many  pages  per  day,  and  from  the  teachers  recitation-hearing, 
marking,  and  reporting,  his  schools  were  eminently  successful. 
Teachers,  pupils,  and  patrons  neither  knew  nor  desired  anything 
better;  but  that  sympathy  with  childhood  which  had  led  Mr. 
Sheldon  into  this  work  was  not  satisfied  with  these  poor  results. 
Five  years  of  growing  dissatisfaction  with  the  current  range  of 


E.  A.  SHELDON. 

subjects  and  methods  of  instruction  had  culminated  in  a  determi- 
nation to  prepare  some  books  and  charts  for  himself,  when  a  visit 
to  Toronto  revealed  the  object  of  his  search.  He  saw  there  in  the 
National  Museum,  though  not  used  in  their  own  schools,  collec- 
tions of  appliances  employed  abroad — notably  in  the  Home  and 
Colonial  Training  School  in  London.  Evidently  the  seed  sown 
by  this  school  had  not  found  in  Toronto  so  good  a  soil  as  in  the 
mind  of  this  Yankee  schoolmaster.  From  this  visit  he  returned 
with  the  delight  of  a  discoverer  of  a  new  world,  laden  with 
charts,  books,  balls,  cards,  pictures  of  animals,  building  blocks. 


THE   OSWEGO    STATE  NORMAL   SCHOOL. 


53 


cocoons,  cotton  bolls,  samples  of  grain,  and  specimens  of  pottery 
and  glass. 

In  1859  a  new  course  for  the  primary  schools  was  introduced 
at  Oswego,  in  which  lessons  on  form,  color,  size,  weight,  animals, 
plants,  the  human  body,  and  moral  instruction  were  prominent. 
But  his  teachers  knew  little  about  the  subject  matter  of  such  les- 
sons, and  less  about  methods  of  teaching  them.  The  superintend- 
ent was  forced  to  become  the  teacher  and  trainer  of  his  teachers. 
Without  training  himself,  he  sadly  felt  the  inadequacy  of  his  in- 
structions, and  determined  to  try  to  obtain  a  training  teacher  from 


OLD  NORMAL  SCHOOL  BUILDING. 

the  Home  and  Colonial  School.  The  Board  of  Education  con- 
sented, "  on  condition  of  its  not  costing  the  city  a  single  cent."  To 
assist  in  providing  the  means,  some  of  his  teachers  resigned,  for 
one  year,  half  their  salaries,  which  ranged  from  three  to  five  hun- 
dred dollars.  Their  names  should  be  recorded  among  the  found- 
ers of  the  school,  and  written  in  letters  of  gold  on  its  walls. 
To  begin  this  work,  Miss  M.  E.  M.  Jones  was  obtained,  for  one 
year,  from  the  Home  and  Colonial  School.  After  school  hours 
each  day,  Mr.  Sheldon,  his  most  interested  teachers,  and  a  few 
from  abroad,  sat  for  two  hours  in  a  small,  obscure  room  to  receive 
the  instruction  which  had  been  brought  from  over  the  sea  at  so 
much  personal  sacrifice.  For  one  year  these  men  and  women  be- 
came as  little  children,  that  they  might  enter  and  win  the  king- 
dom of  childhood  through  the  door  opened  by  Pestalozzi,  for  Miss 
Jones  was  a  disciple  of  that  master.  The  work  thus  begun  was 
continued  by  some  of  her  pupils,  and  by  Prof.  Hermann  Kriisi, 
who  also  had  taught  in  the  Home  and  Colonial,  and  was  a  son  of 
one  of  Pestalozzi's  most  trusted  helpers. 

For  two  years,  this  training  class  was  maintained  by  the  city. 


54  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  1863  it  was  adopted  by  the  State,  and  a  grant  of  three  thousand 
dollars  per  year  was  made  for  its  support,  on  condition  of  the 
city's  furnishing  the  necessary  buildings  and  accommodations, 
and  of  not  less  than  fifty  teachers  designing  to  teach  in  the  com- 
mon schools  of  the  State  receiving  free  tuition  each  year.  These 
persons  were  to  be  recommended  by  county  commissioners  or  city 
superintendents  and  appointed  by  the  State  Superintendent.  In 
1865  a  building  was  purchased  and  fitted  up  by  the  Oswego 
Board  of  Education  at  a  cost  of  twenty-six  thousand  dollars, 
In  1866  a  general  act  was  passed  by  the  Legislature,  which 
provided  for  four  additional  normal  and  training  schools  in 
various  parts  of  the  State,  to  be  governed  by  local  boards,  ap- 
pointed and  removable  at  will  by  the  State  Superintendent,  and 
supported  by  an  annual  grant  of  twelve  thousand  dollars  each. 
On  March  27,  1867,  the  building  provided  by  Oswego  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  State.  With  the  appointment  of  a  local  board  of 
thirteen,  the  Training  School's  connection  with  the  city  schools 
ended,  except  that  which  necessarily  arose  from  the  Practice 
School.  So  the  city  teachers'  class  had  in  six  years  grown  into  a 
State  Normal  and  Training  School,  and  had  produced  four  other 
schools  fashioned  in  its  own  image.* 

The  development  from  a  training  class  for  the  primary  teach- 
ers of  one  city  to  a  school  for  the  training  of  teachers  for  all 
grades  and  for  all  parts  of  the  State,  necessitated  an  enlargement 
of  the  curriculum.  The  one-year  course  was  enlarged  to  courses 
of  two,  three,  and  four  years.  The  first  covered  the  field  of  in- 
struction below  the  high  schools ;  the  second  included  high-school 
work ;  and  the  third  added  Latin  and  Greek,  with  German  and 
French  as  an  alternative  for  Greek.  The  last  year  of  each  course 
was  devoted  to  professional  work.  In  these  enlargements  there 
was  no  departure  from  the  original  plan.  Instruction  in  the  sub- 
ject matter  to  be  taught,  in  the  history  and  philosophy  of  educa- 
tion, in  psychology,  in  general  methods  of  teaching,  and  methods 
in  detail  for  special  subjects,  and  practice  in  teaching  have  from 
the  first  characterized  the  Oswego  school — characteristics  which 
have  been  reproduced  in  most  of  the  normal  schools  of  the  coun- 
try. These  enlargements  were  bitterly  opposed  by  the  private 
school  interests  of  the  State,  represented  in  the  academies;  but 
they  were  forced  upon  the  normal  schools  by  two  facts :  most  of 
the  appointees  were  too  imperfectly  instructed  in  the  subjects  to 
enter  at  once  upon  the  discussion  of  methods  of  teaching  them ; 
and  if  the  schools  had  rejected  all  such  appointees,  their  duty  of 
furnishing  teachers  for  the  public  schools  of  the  State  would  have 

*  The  Normal  School  at  Albany  already  existed,  but  had  been  organized  on  a  different 
plan. 


5 6  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

been  so  unfulfilled  as  to  have  imperiled  their  very  existence. 
New  York  State  makes  her  normal-school  diplomas  valid  as  life 
certificates,  pays  one  half  the  railway  fares  of  State  appointees, 
and  furnishes  text-books  free  to  all.  Pupils  from  other  States 
were  formerly  admitted  free,  but  now  pay  a  tuition  of  forty  dollars 
per  year.  In  1892  the  two  years7  course  was  dropped,  and  at  present 
the  State  Normal  Schools  have  three  courses — an  English  course 
of  three  years,  and  classical  and  scientific  courses  of  four  years. 

In  1890  the  Oswego  school  decided  to  discontinue  instruction 
in  the  ancient  and  modern  languages  "  when  the  pupils  already 
entered  for  these  subjects  shall  have  finished  their  courses  " ;  but 
diplomas  for  the  classical  and  scientific  courses  will  be  given  to 
students  who  possess  the  required  knowledge.  This  departure 
was  made  because  Dr.  Sheldon  became  convinced  that  more  could 
be  accomplished  for  the  public  schools  by  concentrating  the  en- 
ergy, time,  and  money  required  for  these  linguistic  studies  on  ad- 
vanced academic  and  professional  work  on  the  lines  of  the  Eng- 
lish course.  In  lieu  of  these  languages,  the  Oswego  school  now 
offers  three  one-year  post-graduate  courses : — advanced  instruction 
in  natural  science,  psychology,  history,  and  English,  and  practice 
teaching  in  higher  English  and  science  subjects;  kindergarten 
training,  and  special  training  for  primary  teaching ;  and  prepara- 
tion of  teachers  for  teaching  in  training  schools.  For  the  kinder- 
garten work  a  diploma  is  given :  for  each  of  the  other  courses  a 
certificate  testifying  to  the  extra  work  and  qualifications. 

To  keep  pace  with  these  various  changes,  the  faculty  of  the 
school  has  been  increased  from  six  to  fifteen  persons ;  the  annual 
appropriation  raised  from  $3,000  to  $21,000;  and  in  1879  a  new 
building  was  provided  by  the  State  at  a  cost  of  $56,000.  This 
building  (see  cut)  stands  on  the  summit  of  a  ridge  rising  west- 
ward from  the  Oswego  River.  It  forms  three  sides  of  an  ob- 
long, with  a  south  front  one  hundred  and  ninety  feet,  an  east 
front  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  feet,  and  a  west  front  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  feet.  In  its  construction,  exterior  form  and 
ornament  were  sacrificed  for  interior  convenience  and  furnishing. 
It  gives  more  recitation  room  and  laboratory  space,  and  is  better 
equipped  with  appliances  for  the  best  methods  of  study  and  pro- 
fessional training,  than  some  normal-school  buildings  of  twice  its 
cost.  Arrangements  for  heat,  light,  and  ventilation  are  excellent. 
On  the  first  floor  are  the  general  offices  and  waiting  rooms,  the 
kindergarten  and  practice  school;  on  the  second,  the  assembly 
hall,  library,  reading  room,  and  general  recitation  rooms  ;  on  the 
third,  literary  society  rooms,  scientific  laboratories,  and  lecture 
room ;  and  on  the  fourth,  an  art  room. 

The  kindergarten  is  domiciled  in  the  east  end  of  the  front,  in 
a  charming  room,  whose  adornments  and  work  make  a  fairyland 


THE   OSWEGO    STATE  NORMAL    SCHOOL.  59 

through  which  the  little  ones  enter  school  life  with  fearless,  happy 
steps.  As  the  visitor  watches  the  little  ones  at  play,  weaving 
bright  colors,  building  with  blocks,  or  molding  clay  into  forms 
surpassing  in  interest  even  the  mud  pies  of  his  childhood,  he  may 
sigh  for  his  own  first  day  at  school.  The  writer's  is  an  indelible 
memory.  In  a  rough  stone  house,  with  a  forest  in  the  rear  and 
a  swamp  in  front — land  of  more  value  could  not  be  afforded — he 
sat  for  hours,  with  dangling  feet,  on  a  backless  slab  bench,  until 
called  up  to  receive  at  the  master's  knees,  from  a  tattered  primer, 
his  first  lesson, — looking  at  and  calling  the  names  of  queer  marks 
whose  appearance  was  not  interesting,  and  whose  use  was  not 
known.  Fortunate  children,  for  whose  kindly  and  wise  guidance 
over  the  threshold  of  education  men  and  women  of  great  minds 
and  hearts  have  labored,  will  you,  as  actors  on  the  stage  of  life, 
be  wiser  and  better  than  this  generation  ? 

The  practice  school  has  three  large  assembly  rooms  and  twenty 
recitation  rooms.  The  assembly  rooms  have  lofty  ceilings  and 
great  windows  which  preach  the  gospel  of  good  air  and  sunshine, 
choice  products  of  the  children's  work  adorn  their  walls,  and 
libraries  for  the  children's  use  are  attractive  features.  The  school 
comprises  from  four  to  five  hundred  children  of  "the  primary, 
junior,  and  senior  grades.  Each  grade  is  divided  into  classes  of 
fifteen  to  twenty  pupils.  Each  class  is  assigned  its  own  room  and 
a  teacher  from  the  normal  class  which  has  reached  the  point  of 
practice  teaching — the  last  twenty  weeks  of  the  courses.  Each  of 
the  rooms  is  an  independent  school,  for  whose  discipline  and  in- 
struction the  practicing  teacher  is  primarily  responsible.  One  of 
these  teachers  has  for  ten  weeks  a  primary  class  and  for  ten  weeks 
a  junior  or  senior  class;  and  the  conditions  are  much  like  those 
which  a  teacher  will  have  in  a  school  of  his  own.  The  work  of 
the  same  grades  in  the  other  schools  of  the  city  is  done ;  and,  in 
addition,  extra  work  in  drawing,  color,  form,  work  in  modeling, 
parquetry,  folding,  cutting,  sewing,  and  shop  work  with  carpen- 
ter's tools.  Drawing  and  modeling  are  extensively  applied  in  the 
study  of  geography,  plants,  and  animals.  Each  class  room  is 
adorned  with  the  best  work  of  its  children;  and  ample  black- 
boards give  space  for  work  in  number,  language,  drawing,  etc. 
In  each  is  a  cabinet  to  whose  shelves  field,  forest,  and  factory 
have  furnished  treasures  which  delight  and  instruct  the  children. 
As  these  cabinets  are  constantly  growing  by  the  contributions  of 
pupils  and  teachers,  they  have  a  future  of  great  possibilities.* 
They  are  all  descendants  of  that  little  cabinet  stored  with  thel 
spoils  of  the  Toronto  visit. 

The  whole  collection  of  little  schools  is  under  the  charge  of  five 
permanent  critic  teachers  upon  whom  the  tone  and  character  of 
the  whole  depend,  and  who  have  the  ultimate  responsibility  for 


60  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  welfare  and  progress  of  the  children.  To  attempt  to  give,  in 
this  article,  details  as  to  the  methods  of  securing  real  practice 
teaching,  and  yet  conserve  the  interests  of  the  children,  is  not 
practicable.  That  these  objects  are  attained  is  evidenced  by  two 
facts,— the  practice  school  is  popular  with  the  city  patrons,  and 
the  term  of  practice  work  is  generally  regarded  by  Oswego  gradu- 
ates as  the  most  valuable  in  their  entire  course.  It  is  justly  so 
regarded ;  for  five  months  of  teaching  under  searching  but  kindly 
and  constructive  criticism  may  be  worth  more  than  years  of  un- 
aided experience.  The  critic  teachers,  while  employees  of  the  city 
Board  of  Education  and  responsible  to  them  for  the  discipline  and 
progress  of  the  city  pupils,  are  chosen  and  nominated  by  the  State 
Normal  School  authorities,  and  are  responsible  to  them  for  the 
normal  practice  teachers.  This  arrangement  gives  opportunity  for 
difficulty  and  friction ;  but  there  has  been  little  serious  trouble  at 
Oswego,  a  fact  which  speaks  volumes  for  the  good  sense  and  tact 
of  all  concerned.  The  executive  ability  and  teaching  power  re- 
quired to  drill  a  succession  of  inexperienced  teachers,  and  during 
this  process  to  work  through  these  teachers  the  same  or  better 
discipline  and  teaching  than  prevails  in  the  other  city  schools,  can 
be  better  imagined  than  described.  Whether  the  saying,  "A 
teacher  is  born  and  not  made,"  is  true  in  all  branches  of  the  pro- 
fession or  not,  it  certainly  is  true  of  the  critic  teachers  of  a  great 
practice  school. 

On  the  second  floor  of  the  building  are  eight  recitation  rooms, 
seating  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  students,  devoted  to  mathemat- 
ics, language,  history,  etc.,  and  supplied  with  maps,  charts,  models, 
ample  blackboards,  and  abundant  light.  The  reading  room  and 
library  on  this  floor  have  the  standard  periodicals  and  well-se- 
lected books.  The  visitor  can  not  forbear  the  wish  that  some  of 
the  thousands  yearly  wasted  by  New  York  State  could  be  used  to 
increase  this  library ;  yet  smallness  is  not  an  unmixed  ill  for  a 
school  library  if  the  books  are  the  best  of  their  kind,  and  the  lim- 
ited number  secures  concentration  of  attention  and  thorough  ac- 
quaintance. The  Oswego  School  Library  is  supplemented  by  the 
City  Library,  whose  volumes  are  accessible  to  the  normal  students. 

The  Normal  Assembly  Hall  occupies  the  entire  upper  portion  of 
the  west  wing.  This  wing,  although  of  the  same  height  as  the  main 
part  of  the  building,  is  divided  into  but  two  stories  above  the  gym- 
nasium, thus  securing  extra  height  of  ceiling  for  the  assembly 
rooms  of  the  practice  school  below  and  for  the  Normal  Hall  above. 
This  hall  is  sixty-eight  by  seventy-six  feet,  seated  for  four  hun- 
dred students,  and  has  a  capacity  for  three  hundred  additional 
seats  on  public  occasions ;  it  has  large  windows  on  three  sides,  and 
plain  but  tasteful  coloring  and  decoration. 

The  third  floor  is  the  domain  of  the  natural-science  department 


THE    OSWEGO    STATE  NORMAL    SCHOOL.  63 

whose  laboratories  and  lecture  rooms  occupy  almost  the  whole 
space.  The  zoological  laboratory  is  at  the  western  end  of  the 
front,  the  mineralogical  and  geological  at  the  eastern,  and  between 
them  are  the  physical  laboratory,  storerooms,  and  lecture  rooms 
for  these  sciences.  The  botanical  and  chemical  laboratories  are  in 
the  east  wing.  The  zoological  laboratory — extending  thirty -two 
by  fifty-six  feet,  flooded  with  light  by  a  row  of  southern  windows, 
lined  on  its  northern  side  by  spacious  glass-fronted  cases  of  speci- 
mens, at  its  eastern  end  a  large  tank  for  the  storage  of  working 
materials,  on  the  floor  tables,  and  along  the  southern  side  a  broad 
shelf,  sufficient  in  all  to  furnish  room  for  a  hundred  workers — 
wins  the  heart  of  the  zoologist.  It  has  a  full  supply  of  dissecting 
apparatus  and  small  microscopes  for  elementary  work,  and  a  fair 
equipment  of  large  microscopes  with  accessories  for  more  ad- 
vanced work.  The  botanical  laboratory  is  twenty-eight  by  forty 
feet.  The  other  laboratories  furnish  working  facilities  for  forty 
pupils  each.  The  furnishing  of  the  chemical  laboratory  is  note- 
worthy for  the  convenience  of  the  tables,  apparatus,  and  water 
supply.  In  the  largeness  and  fineness  of  the  home  provided  for  the 
natural  sciences  in  this  building,  as  compared  with  the  crowding 
of  these  subjects  into  two  or  three  small  rooms  in  some  recently 
erected  normal-school  buildings,  there  is  a  fit  expression  of  Os- 
wego  educational  ideas. 

The  art  room  on  the  fourth  floor  is  forty-four  by  fifty-two  feet, 
admirably  lighted,  and  furnished  with  fine  facilities  for  teaching 
drawing.  Two  of  the  three  literary  societies  of  the  school — the 
Athenean  and  Adelphi — have  private  rooms  neatly  fitted  up  and 
furnished  by  themselves.  The  rhetorical  and  literary  work  of  the 
school  is  largely  done  in  connection  with  these  societies.  The 
Adelphi  and  Athenean  lay  out  their  own  work  and  conduct  their 
business  in  their  own  way.  Alternately,  about  once  in  two  weeks, 
they  give  public  exercises  in  the  Normal  Hall.  The  Keystone, 
which  embraces  the  lower  classes,  is  in  charge  of  members  of  the 
faculty  and  occasionally  gives  a  public  exercise. 

On  the  ground  floor  is  the  workshop,  provided  with  engine, 
lathes,  circular  saws,  tools,  benches,  and  facilities  for  various  kinds 
of  woodwork.  In  this  the  normal  students  learn  to  make  the 
simpler  pieces  of  scientific  and  other  apparatus,  and  get  some  skill 
in  using  tools.  In  the  class  in  familiar  science  each  pupil  con- 
structs his  own  apparatus  for  illustrations  and  thus  becomes  pro- 
vided with  the  necessary  apparatus  for  teaching  the  elements  of 
science  in  public  schools.  A  room  for  clay  modeling  and  one  for 
free-hand  drawing  is  also  supplied  for  the  manual  training  work. 
The  Normal  School  Gymnasium  is  on  the  ground  floor  of  the 
west  wing.  Daily  exercise  is  required  of  all  students,  and  is  con- 
sidered important,  both  for  its  immediate  effects  upon  health  and 


64  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

comeliness,  and  for  instruction  in  methods  of  physical  training. 
The  gymnasium  is  large  and  well  equipped,  and  was  until  recently 
under  the  charge  of  Dr.  Mary  V.  Lee,  a  physician  who  was  a  spe- 
cialist in  physical  training  and  made  much  use  of  the  Delsarte 
system.  Her  recent,  untimely  death  has  left  the  department  in 
charge  of  one  of  her  pupils. 

From  the  observatory,  which  crowns  the  central  front  of  the 
building,  the  students  see,  as  a  whole,  the  views  which  all  day 
long  they  catch  from  the  windows  below — views  which  have  no 
small  part  in  their  student  life.  Northward  stretches  Ontario 
with  boundless  limit,  its  shores  extending  right  and  left  in  wind- 
ing curves,  bold  bluffs,  lowland,  field,  and  forest.  Below  and 
around  is  the  city :  to  the  east,  sloping  down  to  the  river  and  rising 
beyond  it ;  to  the  west,  soon  shading  off  into  farm  lands ;  to  the 
south,  rising  in  a  steep  slope  on  which  stands  the  City  Orphan 
Asylum,  a  sister  institution,  tracing  its  origin  to  the  same  source. 
Whether  the  water  and  land  sleep  under  a  June  sky  or  are  vexed 
by  January  storms,  the  eye  need  ask  for  no  finer  scene. 

As  the  mother  of  normal  schools  and  methods,  the  Oswego 
school  presents  its  most  interesting  aspect.  Normal  schools  have 
been  organized  on  the  Oswego  plan  and  called  Oswego  graduates 
to  introduce  her  methods — as  city  schools  in  Portland,  Boston,  New 
Haven,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  Indianapolis,  Detroit, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  and  other  cities  of  less  note;  and  as  State 
schools  in  all  the  New  England  States,  in  New  York,  New  Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
Nebraska,  Kansas,  Missouri,  Mississippi,  and  California.*  This 
influence  was  felt  first  in  New  England  and  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  later  in  the  South. 

The  graduates  of  the  Oswego  school  number  1,703.  Oswego 
gradiiates  have  taught  in  every  State  and  Territory  except  Idaho 
and  Nevada,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  five  foreign 
countries.  Of  the  graduates  who  were  born  and  reared  in  New 
York  State  over  four  hundred  have  been  called  away  to  teach  in 
thirty-nine  States,  two  Territories,  the  District  of  Columbia, 
Canada,  Mexico,  South  America,  Sandwich  Islands,  and  Japan. 
New  York  State  has  complained  that  through  Oswego  she  has 
educated  teachers  for  the  schools  of  other  States ;  but  could  any 
but  an  unnatural  mother  fail  to  be  proud  to  have  her  children 
worthy  to  be  thus  called  away,  and  glad  to  have  within  her  bor- 
ders an  institution  whose  graduates  are  sought  for  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  Canada  to  the  Argentine  Republic, 
and  the  borders  of  Asia  ? 


*  See  Circular  of  Information  No.  8,  1891,  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  D.  C., 
and  Historical  Sketches  of  the  State  Normal  and  Training  School  at  Oswego,  N.  Y. 


VOL.    XLIII. fi 


THE    OSWEGO    STATE  NORMAL    SCHOOL.  67 

The  fundamental  causes  of  this  widespread  influence  were  the 
educational  imrest  which  filled  the  United  States  forty  years  ago, 
and  the  fact  that  through  Mr.  Sheldon's  efforts  the  Oswego  school 
offered  a  means  of  satisfying  it.  This  unrest  made  a  good  soil 
for  the  new  educational  ideas ;  these  new  ideas  were  discussed  by 
school  men  before  New  York  State  had  a  normal  school ;  and  the 
school  at  Albany  was  founded  and  began  the  teaching  of  educa- 
tional theories  before  the  Oswego  school  was  even  thought  of. 
What  Mr.  Sheldon  did  was  to  focus  all  these  floating  ideas  on 
actual  practice,  and  work  out  a  systematic  and  rational  expression 
of  these  theories  for  the  daily  work  of  the  schoolroom — to  do 
what  other  men  were  dreaming  about.  Doubtless  Mr.  Sheldon 
had  unusual  genius  for  organizing  and  teaching,  but  these  exer- 
cised under  purely  selfish  motives  would  not  have  led  to  such  re- 
sults. School  work  as  a  business,  pursued  for  salary  alone,  attains 
no  more  than  it  seeks.  E.  A.  Sheldon  with  his  ragged  Oswego 
boys  and  girls  in  1848,  and  Heinrich  Pestalozzi  with  his  destitute 
orphans  at  Stanz  in  1799,  teach  the  same  lesson.  Love,  hope,  and 
faith  are  the  most  potent  forces  in  education  as  well  as  in  religion. 
Through  these  forces  the  Oswego  movement  began;  through 
these,  its  founder  became  and  has  remained  a  seeker  for  educa- 
tional righteousness,  ready  to  try  all  things  and  to  hold  fast  the 
better;  through  these,  he  became  receptive  of  good  influences 
from  all  sources,  and  eagerly  sought  to  impart  them  to  others. 
An  incident  occurring  in  1861  shows  how  Oswego's  gospel  was 
at  first  spread.  An  invitation  was  issued  to  leading  educators  of 
different  States  to  come  to  Oswego  to  observe  the  methods.  This 
invitation  was  cordially  accepted,  and  after  careful  examination 
these  observers  made  a  favorable  report,  stating  that  "  the  system 
of  object  teaching  is  admirably  adapted  to  cultivate  the  perceptive 
faculty  of  the  child,  to  furnish  him  with  clear  conceptions  and  the 
power  of  expression,  and  thus  to  prepare  him  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  sciences  or  the  pursuits  of  active  life."  They  also  expressed 
the  opinion  that  this  system  "  demands  of  the  teacher  varied 
knowledge  and  thorough  culture ;  and  that  attempts  to  introduce 
it  by  those  who  do  not  clearly  comprehend  its  principles,  and  who 
are  not  trained  in  its  methods,  can  result  only  in  failure,"  thus  in- 
dorsing the  necessity  of  training  schools. 

The  system  introduced  at  Oswego  is  commonly  called  Pestaloz- 
zian,  because  it  was  inspired  so  directly  from  that  source,  for  the 
Home  and  Colonial  was  founded  by  disciples  of  Pestalozzi.  The 
essentials  of  Pestalozzianism  may  be  summed  up  as  a  new  point 
of  view ;  and,  as  resultants  of  this,  a  new  conception  of  education, 
and  methods  appropriate  for  realizing  it.*  The  old  education  takes 

*  See  Krusi's  Life  and  Work  of  Pestalozzi. 


THE    OS  WE  GO    STATE  NORMAL    SCHOOL.  69 

the  standpoint  of  the  adult ;  the  new,  that  of  the  child.  From  the 
former,  the  whole  mass  of  heterogeneous  facts  composing  the 
knowledge  to  be  acquired  is  viewed  as  having  been  classified, 
labeled,  and  stored  in  books.  From  this  conception,  what  method 
of  acquiring  knowledge  can  be  more  direct  than  the  memorizing 
of  books  ?  By  a  cheerful  optimism  this  system  crams  the  child 
with  words,  and  trusts  that  somehow  he  will  grasp  the  ideas  for 
himself  and  will  have  his  powers  cultivated  in  the  process.  In 
exceptional  cases  these  objects  are  accomplished ;  but  the  average 
child  is  left  in  a  condition  of  permanent  mental  dyspepsia  and 
torpor.  The  new  education  conceives  the  child  as  looking  forward 
into  the  phenomena  of  Nature  and  life,  curious  and  eager  to  know 
realities  first,  then  to  express  his  knowledge,  and  delighted  with 
the  exercise  of  his  powers.  To  bring  the  child  into  contact  with 
facts,  to  guide  him  in  classifying  and  labeling  these  facts  for  him- 
self, becomes  the  teacher's  first  and  chief  duty,  in  obedience  to  the 
sound  principle  that  development  of  powers  is  gained  by  their  ex- 
ercise only.  From  this  point  of  view  education  is  conceived  of  as 
a  natural  process  extending  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  with 
Nature  as  the  chief  teacher,  and  the  mother  as  the  first  assistant, 
whose  work  is  carried  on  by  the  schools  and  the  experiences  of 
life.  In  this  natural  process  of  education,  ideas  come  before  ex- 
pressions, whether  the  idea  be  the  child's  first  conception  of  color 
and  form  or  the  profoundest  abstraction  of  a  philosopher ;  and  its 
principles  are  therefore  applicable  to  education  in  all  grades 
from  the  kindergarten  to  the  university.* 

As  to  the  correctness  of  this  conception  of  education  and  the 
general  means  of  realizing  it,  there  is  substantial  unanimity  among 
school  men ;  but,  as  to  details  of  courses  of  study  and  methods  of 
presenting  subjects,  diversity  of  opinion  necessarily  exists.  Here, 
as  in  other  fields,  practice  lags  far  behind  theory.  To  the  Oswe- 
go  school  belongs  the  honor  of  having  developed  in  great  detail 
courses  of  study  and  methods  of  teaching  that  have  received  the 
indorsement  of  educational  reformers  and  of  teachers  in  hundreds 
of  schoolrooms  as  being  capable  of  realizing  in  large  measure  the 
true  educational  ideal.  Here  also  were  devised  simple  and  effi- 
cient means  for  giving  teachers  the  training  required  for  the  new 
kind  of  work.  To  all  who  know  how  broad  and  how  difficult  to 
bridge  is  the  chasm  between  educational  theory  and  practice,  these 
achievements  will  seem  of  no  small  importance.  In  this  con- 
nection, Prof.  Hermann  Kriisi,  for  twenty-five  years  the  teacher 
of  the  history  and  philosophy  of  education,  geometry,  French, 
and  German ;  Miss  Matilda  S.  Cooper,  for  the  same  period  teacher 

*  For  an  interesting  application,  see  Sheldon's  General  History,  and  Sheldon-Barnes's 
United  States  History,  by  Oswego  graduates. 


7o  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  English  grammar  and  primary  methods;  and  Prof.  Isaac  B. 
Poucher,  from  1867  to  the  present  time — excepting  an  absence  of 
four  years — teacher  of  arithmetic,  algebra,  and  methods  of  teach- 
ing these  subjects,  should  be  especially  remembered.  In  many 
a  school  called  normal  the  pupils  are,  in  preparatory  instruction, 
taught  exactly  as  they  should  not  be,  in  defiance  of  the  principles 
and  methods  to  be  mastered  in  their  professional  training.  At 
Oswego  the  preparatory  work  in  mathematics,  language,  history, 
natural  science,  etc.,  has,  for  the  most  part,  been  done  by  intelli- 
gent and  loyal  adherents  of  the  schoors  professed  principles,  and 
been  consistent  with  the  methods  inculcated  in  the  professional 
work.  The  students  having  seen  the  daily  application  of  these 
principles  and  methods  to  all  sorts  of  subjects,  and  experienced 
their  value  in  their  own  persons,  more  easily  comprehend  and  ap- 
ply them  in  subsequent  method  and  practice  work. 

The  Oswego  movement  did  not  lack  opponents — a  class  whose 
services  in  all  reforms  are  equally  useful  as  extinguishers  of  false 
lights  and  disseminators  of  true.  The  most  notable  of  these  help- 
ers was  Dr.  Wilbur,  Superintendent  of  the  New  York  State  Idiot 
Asylum,  a  man  eminently  successful  in  his  work.  In  the  New 
York  State  Teachers'  Convention  of  1862,  and  in  the  National 
Convention  of  1864,  he  severely  attacked  the  whole  system,  from 
philosophical  standpoints.  In  consequence,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  examine  thoroughly  the  practical  bearings  of  the 
"  vicious  "  system.  The  chairman  of  this  committee,  Prof.  Greene, 
of  Brown  University,  visited  the  Oswego  schools,  tested  their  re- 
sults thoroughly,  and  made  his  report  before  the  National  Con- 
vention of  1865.  This  report  was  so  intelligent,  exhaustive,  and 
favorable  that  the  underlying  principles  of  the  Oswego  methods 
have  never  since  met  serious  opposition  in  any  authoritative 
body.* 

Students  at  Oswego  have  sometimes  complained  of  the  rigor- 
ous drill  of  classes  in  methods,  and  of  the  practice  school,  as  too 
mechanical,  tending  to  produce  mannerisms  and  to  crush  individ- 
uality. These  complaints  were  sometimes  made  by  those  who 
best  comprehended  the  principles  and  felt  the  power  and  desire 
to  work  out  their  own  applications.  These  complaints  admit  this 
answer :  For  the  average  man  and  woman  comprehension  of  prin- 
ciples does  not  secure  practice.  The  principles  must  be  embodied 
in  precepts  and  rules,  must  be  applied  in  a  practical  course  of  ac- 
tion under  whose  influence  habits  of  right  conduct  are  formed. 
Right  habits  can  not  be  formed  in  the  teacher  by  imparting  to  him 
the  principles  merely  of  his  profession  more  than  in  the  soldier. 
If  in  some  cases  the  product  of  drill  is  a  mere  machine,  it  is 

*  See  Circular  of  Information,  No.  8,  1891,  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  D.  C. 


THE    OSWEGO    STATE  NORMAL    SCHOOL. 


usually  because  the  person  is  inclined  to  become  a  machine,  and  a 
well-constructed  machine  is  better  than  a  poor  one.  The  few  so 
specially  gifted  as  not  to  need  so  much  detail  and  drill  suffer  no 
permanent  injury  by  the  temporary  restraint  of  their  powers  of 
independent  action.  The  habits  formed  in  the  thorough  training 
school  will  but  aid  their  steps  into  new  paths  in  the  wide  field  be- 
yond its  walls.  To  the  careful,  unremitting  drill  of  her  method 
and  practice  school  work  is  largely  due  the  fact  that  the  Oswego 
Normal  School  has  turned  out  so  large  a  product  of  successful 


r 


HERMANN  KRUSI. 

teachers  as  compared  with  her  production  of  mere  talkers  and 
essay  writers.  No  one  else  deserves  so  much  credit  for  this  as 
Miss  Cooper.  The  maxims,  The  idea  before  the  word,  The  con- 
crete before  the  abstract,  One  step  at  a  time,  Never  tell  a  child 
what  he  can  find  out  for  himself,  were  constantly  applied  by  her 
as  the  plumb-line  and  try-square  to  test  all  work.  Her  method  of 
inculcating  principles  and  teaching  the  art  of  questioning  was 
philosophical.  The  student  was  required  to  write  out  a  series  of 
logical  questions  and  answers  for  drawing  out  the  ideas  to  be 
taught;  not  once,  but  daily  for  twenty  weeks,  in  a  series  of 
graduated  lessons  in  each  of  the  subjects  to  be  taught  in  primary 


7z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

schools.  The  imaginary  child  which  each  student  set  up  for  him 
self  displayed  his  ignorance  of  child  life;  and  his  processes  of 
questioning  showed  the  limitations  of  his  grasp  of  the  principles 
involved.  To  the  student  whose  sympathy  with  childhood  is 
spontaneous  and  whose  grasp  of  principles  is  intuitive,  such  drill 
is  needlessly  irksome.  But  that  the  vague  notions  of  childhood 
and  vaguer  grasp  of  principles  of  most  normal  students  can  be 
developed  and  trained  by  such  courses  of  drill  only,  the  subse- 
quent twenty  weeks  in  the  practice  school  will  abundantly  dem- 
onstrate. 

The  school  has  been  exceptionally  fortunate  in  its  social  and 
physical  environments ;  and  no  enumeration  of  the  causes  of  her 


MATILDA  S.  COOPER. 


success  can  afford  to  omit  these  potent  influences.  The  site  of  the 
city,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Oswego  River  and  on  the  shores  of  On- 
tario, one  of  the  fairest  of  our  Great  Lakes,  is  unsurpassed,  both 
for  beauty  and  for  commercial  and  manufacturing  advantages. 
Ridges  which  rise  gently  on  both  sides  of  the  river  near  its  mouth, 
and,  farther  back,  form  bold,  picturesque  hills,  furnish  almost  ideal 
ground  for  a  city.  The  place  is  not  lacking  in  the  charm  of  his- 


THE   OSWEGO   STATE  NORMAL   SCHOOL.  73 

toric  associations.  As  one  of  the  gateways  to  central  New  York, 
its  old  fort  was  the  prize  of  battle  between  Indian,  French,  Eng- 
lish, and  Continentals  during  colonial  and  Revolutionary  days. 
To  one  who  has  stood  on  the  bluffs  to  the  west  of  the  old  har- 
bor, with  the  lake  outspread  as  a  shining  mirror,  and  listened  to 
the  soft  lapping  of  the  waters  on  the  shelving  rocks  below ;  or 
from  the  crumbling  ramparts  of  the  old  fort  on  the  eastern  side 
has  watched  the  sun  like  a  burnished,  golden  shield  slowly  sink 
into  the  western  waters,  sending  a  flaming  track  across  the  wave- 
lets, the  soothing  and  restful  influences  were  of  unspeakable 
value.  For  a  time  the  fret  and  fever  of  ignoble  strife  departed, 
and  in  the  saner  hour  the  spirit  was  open  to  better  impulses. 
When  the  waters  were  lashed  into  fury  by  storms  and  hurled  in 
fierce  onset  against  the  rocky  shores,  not  less  useful  inspiration 
came  from  wind  and  wave — exultation  in  strength  and  courage 
for  conflict.  Nor  did  these  influences  altogether  perish  with  the 
hour.  What  Oswego  pupil,  susceptible  at  all  to  Nature's  influ- 
ence, did  not  feel  the  power  of  those  scenes  and  does  not  cherish 
their  memory  ? 

The  social  and  religious  influences  of  Oswego  have  been  favor- 
able to  the  Normal  pupils.  The  city  is  not  so  large  as  to  cause  the 
Normal  School  factor  to  be  ignored,  nor  so  small  as  to  cause  it  to 
have  undue  prominence.  In  churches,  Sunday  schools,  and  other 
societies  pupils  have  been  welcomed  as  guests  and  kept  as  valued 
helpers.  A  more  important  social  influence  has  been  the  free 
mingling  in  work  and  recreations  of  the  young  men  and  women 
composing  the  school.  In  the  recitation  rooms  and  laboratories, 
this  influence  has  produced  wholesome  rivalry  and  respect  for  one 
another's  powers ;  at  social  gatherings  and  merrymakings,  it  has 
been  refining  and  ennobling.  For  many  a  bashful  boy  and  shy 
maiden,  excursions  on  the  lake  and  rambles  in  woods  and  fields 
have  replaced  awkwardness  and  constraint  by  the  easy,  natural 
manners  of  comradeship,  and  given  insight  into  each  other's  na- 
tures and  characters.  Such  introductions  into  the  kingdoms  of 
true  manhood  and  womanhood  are  not  the  least  among  the 
school's  gifts  to  her  children.  Social  intercourse  has  always  been 
left  as  free  as  the  ordinary  rules  of  propriety  admit.  Rarely  has 
this  freedom  been  misused,  and  the  good  arising  from  it  has  out- 
weighed a  thousandfold  the  evil.  An  important  center  of  the 
school's  social  life  is  the  Welland,  the  girl's  boarding  hall,  whose 
parlors  have  so  often  echoed  to  the  pleasures  of  the  Friday  even- 
ing socials. 

Dr.  Sheldon's  home  has  been  the  chief  center  and  source  of 
social  influences.  This  home  is  situated  on  a  high,  wooded  point 
of  the  lake  shore,  a  mile  west  of  the  city — a  very  paradise  for 
quiet  beauty.  On  the  spacious  grounds,  beneath  the  shadow  of 


74 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


great  forest  trees,  and  in  the  hospitable  halls  of  this  home,  many 
a  generation  of  Normal  pupils  have  had  their  merrymakings — 
springtime  maple-sugar  parties  and  autumnal  fruit  festivals  and 
corn-roasts — the  hearty  participation  of  the  master  and  mistress 
of  the  place  making  all  feel  at  home.  This  home — with  its  evi- 
dence that  refinement  and  simple  but  generous  hospitality  can  be 


ISAAC  B.  POUCHER. 


maintained  without  wealth  or  extravagance ;  that  gentle,  winning 
manners  and  a  cheerful  heart  are  not  incompatible  with  serious 
character  and  heavy  burdens— has  been  the  finest  object  lesson  at 
Oswego. 

Thirty  years  have  passed  since  the  tender  shoot  was  planted 
that  has  grown  into  this  stately  tree :  its  fruits  have  dropped  all 
over  our  land ;  some  of  the  seeds  have  fallen  on  stony  ground  and 
withered  away  after  a  superficial  growth ;  others  have  been  choked 
by  the  growth  of  purely  selfish  ambitions  and  brought  forth  little 
fruit ;  but  some  have  fallen  on  good  soil  and  brought  forth  an 
hundredfold.  Much  has  been  done  for  education  in  our  land  dur- 
ing these  thirty  years,  but  a  thousandfold  more  remains  to  be  done 
to  make  the  public  schools  what  they  must  become  to  merit  confi- 


THE   OSWEGO    STATE  NORMAL   SCHOOL.  75 

dence  as  the  efficient  conservators  of  our  national  happiness  and 
prosperity.  In  the  work  of  the  past,  the  Oswego  Normal  has 
played  an  honorable  part ;  but  her  mission  is  not  yet  ended,  nor 
her  powers  abated.  With  youthful  energy,  both  at  home  and 
through  her  graduates,*  she  is  grappling  with  the  question  of  what 
to  teach,  a  question  of  not  less  importance  than  the  how.  That 
more  useful  and  interesting  material  for  study  may  be  brought 
into  schoolrooms,  especially  in  the  primary,  is  to  be  ardently  de- 
sired. The  best  methods  applied  to  trite  or  useless  subject  mat- 
ter can  not  make  school  life  interesting  or  valuable  to  pupil  or 
teacher. 

After  all  that  has  been  done,  and  well  done,  no  one  but  a  most 
willful  optimist  can  be  blind  to  the  lamentable  defects  of  our 
schools,  f  The  censure  for  these  defects  usually  falls  upon  teach- 
ers, but  does  not  primarily  belong  there.  Teaching  requires  in- 
sight into  and  sympathy  with  child  life,  a  condition  spontaneous 
in  but  few  adults,  requiring  in  most  laborious  and  sustained  effort 
to  gain  and  to  maintain  it ;  and  a  constant  effort  to  advance  in 
scholastic  and  professional  attainments  to  escape  slipping  back 
into  the  abyss  of  slothful  indifference.  Teaching  is,  of  all  the 
professions,  the  most  useful  for  the  public  welfare,  as  it  is  one  of 
the  most  laborious  and  skilled,  and  should  be  paid  according  to 
its  deserts.  Eecitation-hearing ,  however,  is  one  of  the  easiest,  least 
skilled,  and  most  useless  of  all  occupations.  In  this  field,  as  in 
others,  the  public  gets  the  kind  of  work  it  pays  for.  The  wages 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  public-school  teachers  average  less  than 
those  of  skilled  mechanics.  As  long  as  the  public  continues  to 
pay  for  recitation-hearing,  it  will  not  get  much  teaching ;  for 
educational  missionaries  to  work  without  the  ordinary  induce- 
ments are  too  few  to  supply  the  demand,  and  will  probably  con- 
tinue so  until  the  millennium. 

There  is  need  of  educational  statesmen  to  secure  legislation 
efficient  for  preventing  the  employment  of  teachers  without  ade- 
quate scholastic  acquirements  and  professional  training,  as  physi- 
cians are  forbidden  to  practice  without  such  attainments.  Is  the 
body  of  so  much  more  value  than  mind  or  soul  that  it  should 
have  greater  safeguards  ?  There  is  need  of  educational  agitators 
to  rouse  and  awaken  the  people  from  complacent  day-dream- 
ing about  the  schools,  to  show  them  that  much  of  their  ex- 
penditure is  wasted  through  poor  work,  and  to  convince  them 


*  See  work  of  Mr.  L.  H.  Jones  for  Indianapolis  schools  in  the  Forum  for  December, 
1892;  "  An  Experiment  in  Education,"  in  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  January  and  Feb- 
ruary, 1892 ;  and  the  work  of  Prof.  Barnes  in  Stanford  University. 

f  See  articles  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Rice  in  the  Forum  for  October,  November,  and  Decem- 
ber, 1892. 


76  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

that  better  pay  and  more  honor  for  their  teachers  would  be  a 
wise  economy. 

That  our  alma  mater  may  bear  as  brave  and  glorious  a  part 
in  the  struggles  of  coming  years  as  in  the  past  must  be  the  heart- 
felt wish  of  every  graduate  of  the  Oswego  Normal  and  Training 
School. 


DECAY  IN  THE  APPLE  BARREL. 

BY  BYRON  D.  HALSTED,  Sc.  D., 

RUTGERS   COLLEGE. 

Tj^RUITS  decay  and  everybody  knows  it,  but  how  this  rotting 
-L  takes  place  is  less  evident.  Grandfathers  told  our  parents 
that  it  was  due  to  the  weather,  and  some  of  them  may  have  held 
to  the  notion  that  the  moon  had  a  remarkable  influence  upon 
the  keeping  quality  of  various  fruits.  The  perfection  of  the 
microscope  and  its  more  general  use  as  an  aid  in  seeing  the  minute 
things  which  surround  us  upon  every  side  have  led  to  a  deeper 
comprehension  of  decays.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  show, 
if  possible,  some  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  rotting  of  our 
apples,  realizing  that  what  holds  true  concerning  one  kind  of  fruit 
applies  almost  equally  well  to  others. 

Let  us  in  the  first  place  take  a  survey  of  the  normal  subject, 
or,  in  other  words,  of  a  healthy  apple.  It  is  made  up  of  five  seed 
cavities  which  occupy  the  central  portion  of  the  fruit  and  con- 
stitute the  core.  Outside  of  this  is  the  edible  portion  called  the 
flesh,  consisting  of  cells  of  small  size  filled  with  liquid  substances. 
A  tough  layer  covers  the  outside,  which  is  the  skin,  and  bears  the 
coloring  substance  that  determines  whether  the  apple  is  green, 
red,  mottled,  or  striped.  At  one  end  of  the  fruit  is  the  stem,  or,  as 
found  in  the  barrel,  this  former  means  of  attachment  to  the 
branch  of  the  tree  may  have  been  broken  away  or  pulled  from 
the  fruit — a  matter  of  no  small  consideration  when  the  question 
of  decay  is  concerned.  This  end  of  the  apple  is  known  to  the 
horticulturists  as  the  "cavity,"  and  varies  greatly  in  diiferent 
sorts,  sometimes  being  deep  and  narrow  as  in  the  Winesap  and 
Pearmain,  and  broad  and  shallow  in  the  Greening  and  Peck's 
Pleasant. 

The  opposite  end  of  the  apple  bears  the  name  of  "  basin,"  and 
contains  the  remnants  of  the  blossom — sometimes  called  the  eye 
of  the  fruit.  This  part  of  the  apple  is  likewise  deep  in  some 
varieties,  and  shallow  and  open  in  others.  This  is  the  weakest 
point  in  the  whole  apple  as  concerns  the  question  of  the  keeping 
quality  of  the  fruit.  If  the  basin  is  shallow  and  the  canal  to  the 
core  firmly  closed,  there  is  much  less  likelihood  of  the  fruit  decay- 


DECAY  IN  THE  APPLE  BARREL. 


77 


ing  than  when  it  is  deep,  and  the  evident  opening  connects  the 
center  of  the  fruit  with  the  surface. 

For  its  own  protection  the  perfect  apple  has  a  continuous 
layer  of  skin  over  its  whole  surface.  The  stem  has  not  been  re- 
moved from  its  cavity,  but  remains  of  its  full  length,  for  there  is 
a  place  naturally  provided  for  its  separation  from  the  branch 
which  bore  it.  Such  an  apple  is  the  rare  exception  as  found  in 
the  barrel.  At  the  market  or  in  the  storeroom  of  the  consumer, 
instead  of  being  without 
blemish  upon  the  surface, 
there  are  small  specks  as 
large  as  a  pin-head,  or 
smaller,  which  dot  the  skin 
in  patches.  A  portion  of 
the  surface  of  an  apple 
with  these  specks  is  shown 
three  times  magnified  in 
Fig.  1.  Sometimes  one 
needs  to  look  for  a  long 
time  to  find  a  fruit  entirely 
free  from  these  specks. 
Under  the  compound  mi- 
croscope these  dots  are  re- 
solved into  a  thin  layer  of 
interwoven  threads,  with 
their  free  ends  radiating 
from  a  central  point.  This 
is  one  of  the  low  forms  of  plant  life  belonging  to  the  molds,  and 
grows  from  microscopic  cells  called  spores,  which  in  the  economy 
of  the  mold  serves  the  purpose  of  seeds.  These  spores  are  pro- 
duced in  great  abundance,  and,  being  carried  by  the  air,  alight 
upon  the  fruit  and  there  germinate  and  grow  into  a  colony  or 
speck  which  is  all  the  time  feeding  upon  the  substance  obtained 
from  the  skin  of  the  apple. 

The  second  defect  in  apples,  as  seen  in  the  barrel,  is  the  one 
known  to  fruit-dealers  as  the  "  scab."  To  the  eye  this  is  recog- 
nized by  the  rough-coated  patches,  often  circular  in  outline,  that 
are  present  upon  the  skin.  There  may  be  several  of  these  spots, 
and,  by  their  borders  becoming  confluent,  one  half  or  less  of  a  fruit 
may  be  thus  rough  coated  and  more  or  less  dwarfed,  making  the 
apple  one-sided.  This  scab  is  due  to  a  mold  which,  under  the 
microscope,  is  as  different  in  its  real  structure  from  the  specks 
above  mentioned  as  the  two  are  unlike  in  general  appearance.  If 
it  will  add  anything  to  the  value  of  this  popular  article,  the 
botanical  name  of  the  species  of  mold  causing  the  apple  scab  may 
be  given  as  Fusicladium  dendriticum,  Fl.  It  is  as  much  a  distinct 


FIG.  1. — APPLE  SPECKS.     (Magnified.) 


78  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

kind  of  plant  as  the  apple  tree  upon  which  it  thrives.  It  is  not 
confined  to  the  fruit,  but  grows  luxuriantly  upon  the  foliage, 
causing  it  to  become  blotched  with  the  brown  patches  and  other- 
wise destroyed.  The  mold  consists  of  fine,  cobwebby  threads, 
which  penetrate  the  leaf  and  rob  it  of  nourishment,  and  after  a 
time  form  patches  upon  the  surfaces,  where  innumerable  spores  of 
a  dark  color  are  produced. 

The  apples  are  first  attacked  by  the  scab  fungus  when  they 
are  quite  small,  probably  while  the  tree  is  in  blossom,  or  shortly 
after.  At  that  time  the  surface  of  the  young  fruit  is  tender  and 
has  no  well-developed  skin,  which,  when  the  fruit  nears  maturity, 
might  be  so  tough  as  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  the  scab  mold. 
This,  therefore,  is  a  defect  that  does  not  come  upon  the  fruit  after 
harvest,  and  usually  does  not  spread  much  after  the  apples  are  in 
the  barrel. 

The  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  scab  is  due  to  a  mold  that 
begins  to  infest  the  fruit  in  early  summer  has  led  to  experiments 


FIG.  2. — APPLE  SCAB. 

in  spraying  the  trees  during  the  growing  season  with  the  Bor- 
deaux mixture  and  other  fungicides,  with  marked  success  in 
checking  its  ravages.  Trees  sprayed  three  or  four  times  in  May 
or  June  have  borne  abundant  fruit  comparatively  free  from  scab, 
while  unsprayed  trees  otherwise  alike  yielded  a  scant  amount  of 
distorted,  scabby,  withered  apples.  Fig.  2  shows  an  apple  that  is 
a  fair  illustration  of  the  working  of  the  scab  fungus. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  things  in  connection  with  the 
study  of  the  decays  of  apples  is  the  relation  which  one  mold  bears 
to  another.  There  are  several  very  common  kinds  of  molds, 


DECAY  IN  THE  APPLE  BARREL. 


79 


which  grow  nearly  everywhere  when  circumstances  favor  them. 
Their  spores  seem  to  be  almost  omnipresent,  but  they  do  not 
possess  the  ability  to  penetrate  tough  substances,  and  the  natural 
skin  of  the  apple  is  usually  a  barrier  they  can  not  pass.  Of  all 
these  molds  the  Penicillium  glaucum,  Lk.,  or  commonly  known 
as  the  "  blue  mold/7  is  the  one  that  causes  the  greatest  destruction 
in  the  storeroom.  A  large  part  of  the  rapid  soft  rot  is  due  to  the 
Penicillium. 

In  a  few  words  let  the  work  of  the  scab  fungus  be  reviewed. 
As  the  name  indicates,  it  causes  a  scab  upon  the  surface,  the 


FIG.  3. — APPLE  MOLD  FOLLOWING  APPLE  SCAB. 

naturally  smooth,  tough  skin  is  roughened,  and  minute  cracks  are 
produced  which  in  short  replace  the  ordinary  skin,  impervious  to 
the  blue  mold,  with  a  disrupted  coat  that  furnishes  both  a  fine 
lodgment  for  the  spores  of  the  mold  and  the  condition  favorable 
for  their  germination  and  the  further  rapid  growth  of  the  mold. 
It  is  easy  to  conceive  of  the  scab  upon  an  apple  being  so  slight 
and  superficial  as  not  to  affect  its  real  value,  but  the  one  deface- 
ment becomes  the  entrance  of  a  decay  germ,  that  in  a  few  days 
reduces  the  whole  apple  to  a  noisome  mass  of  rottenness  resulting 
in  a  million  spores  or  blue  mold.  To  prevent  the  soft  rot  of  the 
apple  in  midwinter  in  the  barrel,  the  trees  need  to  be  sprayed  in 
midsummer  in  the  orchard,  to  check  the  development  of  the  scab 
that  would  otherwise  furnish  the  place  of  entrance  of  the  blue 
mold.  Fig.  3  shows  an  apple  that,  when  harvested,  had  a  number 
of  rough  circular  patches  due  to  the  scab  fungus.  When  the 
photograph  was  taken,  each  one  of  these  spots  was  the  seat  of  a 


8o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

rapid  decay,  due  to  the  development  upon  them  of  the  Penicil- 
lium,  while  all  other  portions  of  the  fruit  were  in  a  normal  con- 
dition. 

There  are  many  diseases  due  to  those  exceedingly  minute 
germs  so  widely  talked  of  nowadays — namely,  the  bacteria.  They 
attack  animals  and  induce  fevers  of  many  sorts,  and  man  sinks 
before  them  with  the  dreaded  cholera,  consumption,  etc.  Plants 
have  their  enemies  among  these  micro-organisms,  and  apples  do 
not  enjoy  an  immunity  from  them.  The  succulent  substance  of  a 
ripe  apple  is  a  favorite  food  for  the  bacteria,  the  only  check  upon 
their  abundant  entrance  being  the  tough  skin.  But  there  are  too 
many  weak  places,  and  it  is  presumable  that  these  germs  when 
falling  upon  them  are  capable  of  beginning  their  course  of  rapid 
multiplication  which,  when  unchecked,  reduces  the  fruit  to  rot- 
tenness. In  Fig.  4  is  seen  an  apple  under  the  apparently  un- 
broken skin  of  which  in  several  places  were  decaying  spots  with 
no  signs  of  any  other  mischief-makers  than  the  swarming  mil- 


Fio.  4. — APPLE  BLOTCH. 

lions  of  the  micro-organisms.  As  soon  as  the  skin  becomes 
broken  in  any  such  places,  the  coarser  decay  germs  enter  and 
quickly  the  fruit  is  overrun  with  a  motley  vegetation  of  various 
molds. 

If  we  look  further  among  the  decaying  fruits,  it  will  not  be 
long  usually  before  an  apple  is  found  that  does  not  agree  with 
any  of  the  descriptions  given  above.  Perhaps  it  is  healthy  in  all 
parts  save  one,  and  that  has  no  scab  present.  The  blue  mold  is 


DECAY  IN   THE  APPLE  BARREL.  81 

absent,  the  skin  is  unbroken  except  in  a  peculiar,  almost  regular 
manner.  There  is  an  evident  central  point  where  the  fungus 
started,  and,  as  it  has  spread,  numerous  pimples  have  formed  just 
under  the  skin,  and  sometimes  in  eccentric  circles.  From  these 
minute  light-colored  pimples  spores  ooze  out  and  are  ready  to 
find  their  way  to  some  other  specimen.  The  affected  portion  of 
the  apple  has  a  bitter  taste,  and,  on  account  of  this,  the  term 
"bitter  rot"  has  long  been  given  to  this  form  of  decay.  This 


FIG.  5. — APPLE  BITTER  EOT. 

same  fungus  causes  the  rotting  of  the  grapes,  and,  if  all  the  facts 
were  known,  this  Glmosporium  fructigenum,  Berk.,  might  be 
definitely  charged  with  a  large  percentage  of  the  decay  of  other 
fruits.  An  apple  badly  affected  with  the  bitter  rot  is  shown  in 
Fig.  5,  but  one  regrets  that  many  of  the  details  are  lost  in  the 
photo-engraving  process  by  which  the  engraving  was  made. 

This  form  of  rot  while  it  may  be  met  with  upon  the  tree  or 
in  the  windfalls  beneath  it  in  late  summer,  is  most  abundant  in 
the  storeroom  and  is  decidedly  contagious — that  is,  an  apple  that 
is  decaying  with  the  bitter  rot  is  able  to  communicate  the  decay 
to  other  fruits  by  means  of  the  myriads  of  spores  which  are 
borne  upon  the  surface  of  the  ruptured  pimples.  These  facts  sug- 
gest the  precaution  of  discarding  any  rotting  fruits  whenever 
found.  There  is  little  room  for  doubt  that  were  the  harvested 
fruits  themselves  sprayed  with  a  fungicide,  it  would  aid  mate- 
rially in  preserving  them.  Thus,  if  a  thin  coating  of  the  Bor- 
deaux mixture  was  applied,  the  spores  of  bitter  rot  and  other 
decay  germs  would  not  so  readily  germinate.  But  there  is  the 

VOL.    XLIII. 7 


82  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

objection  of  having  the  beauty  of  clean  fruit  lost  under  a  film  of 
fungicide  that  while  not  particularly  poisonous  is  decidedly  un- 
palatable, consisting  of  lime  and  sulphate  of  copper.  A  sensation 
was  created  in  New  York  two  years  ago  because  grapes  were  thus 
marketed,  and  the  same  process  for  stored  fruit  is  not  here  recom- 
mended, although  its  effectiveness  as  a  preservative  is  granted. 

A  decay  that  might  be  mistaken  for  the  last  mentioned  is 
caused  by  a  fungus  of  a  widely  separated  order.  It  is  shown  in 
Fig.  6.  This  might  be  called  the  black  rot,  as  it  has  a  strong  tend- 
ency to  turn  the  affected  portions  of  a  dark  color.  One  of  the 
characteristic  features  is  the  almost  black  pimples  formed  in  con- 
siderable numbers  beneath  the  skin,  which  they  finally  rupture 
and  then  discharge  large  numbers  of  dark-olive  spores.  This  fun- 


Fio.  6. — APPLE  BLACK  EOT. 

gus  is  a  described  species  bearing  the  name  Sphc&ropsis  malorum, 
Pk.  It  may  be  seen  in  early  apples  before  they  begin  to  ripen, 
and  the  windfalls  as  they  lie  upon  the  ground  become  badly  in- 
fested with  the  Sphceropsis.  It  is  not  confined  to  the  apple,  but 
thrives  destructively  upon  quinces  and  pears  as  well.  This  decay 
in  its  habits  of  growth  calls  to  mind  the  fact  that  the  basin  is  the 
weakest  point  of  fruits  like  the  three  above  mentioned,  for  in 
most  instances  the  black  rot  begins  at  the  free  end  where  the 
remnants  of  the  flower  may  be  still  adhering,  and  very  likely  as- 
sist in  the  fungus  gaining  a  foothold.  This  decay,  like  the  bitter 
rot,  is  amenable  to  treatment,  and  therefore,  in  order  to  check 
their  destructive  work  in  the  storeroom,  the  fungicide  needs  to 


DECAY  IN   THE  APPLE  BARREL.  83 

be  applied  while  the  fruits  are  growing  upon  the  trees.  Thus  the 
work  of  the  prevention  begins  a  long  time  previous  to  picking — 
while  the  barrel -staves  are  possibly  still  in  the  living  forest  tree. 
This  reminds  one  of  the  time  when  the  boy's  education  should  be- 
gin as  stated  by  Dr.  Holmes,  namely,  with  his  grandfather  when 
he  was  a  small  lad. 

Up  to  this  point  remarks  concerning  the  mechanical  treatment 
of  apples  have  been  purposely  withheld.  There  is  no  question 
about  the  importance  of  so  far  as  possible  preventing  the  bruis- 
ing of  the  fruit.  From  what  has  been  said  in  strong  terms  con- 
cerning the  barrier  of  a  tough  skin  which  Nature  has  placed  upon 
the  apples,  it  goes  without  saying  that  this  defense  should  not  be 
ruthlessly  broken  down.  It  may  be  safely  assumed  that  germs  of 
decay  are  lurking  almost  everywhere,  ready  to  come  in  contact 
with  any  substances.  A  bruise  or  cut  in  the  skin  is  therefore 
even  worse  than  a  rough  place  caused  by  a  scab  fungus  as  a 
lodgment  provided  by  the  minute  spores  of  various  sorts.  If  the 
juice  exudes,  it  at  once  furnishes  the  choicest  of  conditions  for 
molds  to  grow.  An  apple  bruised  is  a  fruit  for  the  decay  of 
which  germs  are  specially  invited,  and  when  such  a  specimen  is 
placed  in  the  midst  of  other  fruit  it  soon  becomes  a  point  of  infec- 
tion for  its  neighbors  on  all  sides.  Seldom  is  a  fully  rotten  apple 
found  in  a  bin  without  several  others  near  by  it  being  more  or  less 
affected.  A  rotten  apple  is  not  its  brother's  keeper. 

The  surrounding  conditions  favor  or  retard  the  growth  of  the 
decay  fungi.  If  the  temperature  is  near  freezing  they  are  com- 
paratively inactive,  but  when  the  room  is  warm  and  moist  the 
fruit  can  not  be  expected  to  keep  well.  Cold  storage  naturally 
checks  the  decay.  The  ideal  apple  has  no  fungous  defacements 
and  no  bruises.  If  it  could  be  placed  in  a  dry,  cool  room  free  from 
fungous  germs  it  ought  to  keep  indefinitely  until  chemical  change 
ruins  it  as  an  article  of  food.  But  the  facts  in  the  case  are  far 
different  from  this  ideal.  The  apple  when  gathered  from  the  tree 
may  have  the  germs  of  decay  already  within  its  tissue.  They 
may  have  extended  through  the  basin,  become  firmly  located  in 
the  ragged  remnants  of  the  flower  or  by  means  of  some  insect  or 
"  worm  "  that  has  bit  or  burrowed  the  fruit.  Its  stem  may  have 
been  broken  close  to  the  fruit  or  pulled  out  from  it,  or  over  the 
surface  specks  and  scabs  may  have  formed  during  the  season  of 
growth  that  have  so  destroyed  the  skin  as  to  furnish  a  ready  en- 
trance for  other  more  destructive  germs.  Bruises  of  the  pulp 
and  breaks  in  the  skin  expose  the  soft,  highly  decomposable  flesh 
to  the  "  seeds  "  of  decay,  and  as  one  contemplates  what  an  apple  is 
made  of  and  its  many  enemies,  it  seems  almost  a  marvel  that 
fruit  keeps  at  all  until  it  is  cooked  to  kill  the  germs  within  it  and 
then  canned  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  those  that  are  without.  It 


84  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

is  not  designed  that  apples  in  their  natural  state  should  keep  for 
long,  and  all  attempts  to  preserve  them  in  the  fresh  condition 
through  the  winter  and  far  into  the  succeeding  spring  are  a  tri- 
umph against  Nature  only  to  be  won  by  the  person  who  is  con- 
versant with  the  methods  of  his  microscopic  opponents.  The  use 
of  fungicides  in  the  orchard  while  the  fruit  is  growing  will  insure 
more  and  fairer  specimens,  thus  filling  a  larger  number  of  barrels 
with  apples  that  are  less  subject  to  attack  after  harvest.  This, 
with  careful  handling  to  avoid  bruises  when  picked  and  housed, 
together  with  a  dry  storage  room,  should  all  bring  a  full  reward. 
Fig.  7  shows  an  apple  in  the  last  stages  of  dissolution,  overrun 
inside  and  out  with  a  diminutive  forest  of  fungi.  It  is  the  seed- 


FIG.  7. — APPLE  MOLD. 

time,  so  to  speak,  with  the  host  of  species  each  vying  with  the 
others  for  the  last  particle  of  the  apple,  the  seeds  only  being 
left  behind  ready  to  grow  into  trees  when  suitable  circumstances 
obtain,  provided  the  vital  spark  does  not  expire  before  the  favor- 
ing condition  arrive.  The  pulp  that  has  been  destroyed  is  large- 
ly man's  product  developed  by  him  through  long  years  of  selec- 
tion and  culture,  and  for  which  the  orchard  is  planted  and  pre- 
served. Nature  wants  more  apple  seed ;  man  desires  more  and 
better  pulp.  Nature  claims  that  the  pulp  of  the  wild  apple  is 
only  to  secure  the  wider  dissemination  of  the  seed,  and  to  the 
orchardist,  middleman,  and  consumer  she  speaks  in  her  emphatic 
way  that  "  if  you  would  exact  of  me  extra-fine  pulp,  you  must  at 
the  same  time  employ  the  best  devices  of  your  high  civilization 
to  preserve  it  from  your  omnipresent  and  active  competitors,  the 
insidious  germs  of  decay." 


DISCOVERY   OF  ALCOHOL   AND   DISTILLATION.      85 
THE  DISCOVERY  OF  ALCOHOL  AND  DISTILLATION. 

BY  M.   P.   E.   M.  BERTHELOT. 

A  LCOHOL  is  an  important  factor  in  modern  civilizations,  the 
-£j~  source  of  great  revenues  to  states,  and  of  immense  wealth, 
to  those  who  deal  in  products  containing  it.  While  wine,  beer, 
hydromel,  etc.,  have  been  in  use  from  prehistoric  times,  the  active 
principle  common  to  them  which  produces  the  pleasant  excite- 
ment and  the  disgusting  intoxication,  and  which  is  concentrated 
in  spirituous  liquors,  alcohol,  has  been  known  for  only  seven  or 
eight  centuries ;  it  was  unknown  in  antiquity.  The  story  of  the 
way  the  discovery  of  it  was  made  is  one  of  much  interest. 

The  reservation  of  the  name  of  alcohol  for  the  product  of  the 
distillation  of  wine  is  modern.  Till  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  word,  of  Arabic  origin,  signified  any  principle  atten- 
uated by  extreme  pulverization  or  by  sublimation.  It  was  applied, 
for  example,  to  the  powder  of  sulphuret  of  antimony  (koheul), 
which  was  used  for  blackening  the  eyes,  and  to  various  other 
substances,  as  well  as  to  spirits  of  wine.  No  author  has  been 
found  of  the  thirteenth  century,  or  even  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury and  later,  who  applied  the  word  alcohol  to  the  product  of 
the  distillation  of  wine.  The  term  spirit  of  wine  or  ardent  spirit, 
although  more  ancient,  was  also  not  in  use  in  the  thirteenth 
century  ;  for  the  word  spirit  was  at  that  time  reserved  for  vola- 
tile agents,  like  mercury,  sulphur,  the  sulphurets  of  arsenic,  and 
sal  ammoniac,  which  were  capable  of  acting  on  metals  and  modi- 
fying their  color  and  properties.  The  term  eau-de-vie  was  given 
in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  to  the  elixir  of  long 
life.  It  was  Arnaud  de- Villeneuve  who  employed  it  for  the  first 
time  to  designate  the  product  of  the  distillation  of  wine.  But  he 
used  it,  not  as  a  specific  name,  but  in  order  to  mark  the  assimila- 
tion which  he  made  of  it  with  the  product  drawn  from  wine.  The 
elixir  of  long  life  of  the  ancient  alchemists  had  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  our  alcohol.  Confusion  of  the  two  has  led  the  historians 
of  science  into  more  than  one  error. 

Our  alcohol  first  appeared  under  the  name  of  inflammable 
water,  a  name  which  was  likewise  given  to  spirits  of  turpentine. 
Let  us  try  to  determine,  from  the  ancient  authors  and  those  of 
the  middle  ages,  what  was  the  origin  of  the  discovery  of  alcohol, 
and  to  trace  the  successive  steps  in  the  knowledge  of  that  sub- 
stance. The  ancients  observed  that  wine  gave  out  something 
inflammable.  We  read  in  Aristotle's  Meteorologica,  "Ordinary 
wine  possesses  a  kind  of  exhalation,  and  that  is  why  it  gives  out 
a  flame."  Theophrastus,  an  immediate  disciple  of  Aristotle's,  says, 
"  Wine  poured  upon  the  fire,  as  for  libations,  throws  out  a  light" 


86  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

— that  is,  produces  a  shining  flame.  Pliny  says,  still  more  decid- 
edly, that  the  Falernian  wine,  the  product  of  the  Faustian  field,  is 
the  only  wine  that  can  be  ignited  "  on  contact  with  a  flame  " ;  a 
thing  that  happens  with  some  wines  very  rich  in  alcohol.  These 
are  common  phenomena,  accidental  observations  made  in  the 
course  of  sacrifices  and  festivals  which  served  as  the  beginning  of 
the  discovery.  But  there  had  to  be  many  intermediate  steps. 
Among  them  was  this  experiment,  an  amusing  trick  in  physics, 
doubtless  devised  by  some  prestidigitator,  which  is  explained  in 
a  Latin  manuscript  in  the  Royal  Library  of  Munich :  "  Wine  can 
be  burned  in  a  pot,  as  follows :  Put  white  or  red  wine  in  a  pot, 
the  top  of  the  pot  being  raised  and  having  a  cover  with  a  hole  in 
the  middle.  Having  heated  the  wine  till  it  begins  to  boil  and  the 
vapor  comes  out  through  the  hole,  put  a  light  to  it.  The  vapor 
will  at  once  take  fire  and  the  flame  will  last  as  long  as  it  comes 
out."  But  alcohol  was  not  isolated  by  the  ancients. 

Distillation,  or  a  method  of  separating  the  inflammable  prin- 
ciple from  wine,  had  to  be  discovered  before  a  further  knowledge 
of  alcohol  could  be  gained.  This  process  passed  through  several 
stages.  It  also  started  from  common  observations.  When  water 
is  heated  in  a  vessel,  its  vapor  condenses  on  the  walls  of  surround- 
ing objects,  and  especially  on  the  cover  of  the  vessel ;  this  can  be 
observed  by  every  one,  in  domestic  economy,  on  the  covers  of  soup 
dishes,  of  kettles,  and  of  tea  and  coffee  pots.  Aristotle  mentions 
the  fact  in  his  Meteorologica.  "  Vapor,"  he  says, "  condenses  under 
the  form  of  water,  if  we  take  pains  to  collect  it."  He  speaks  in 
another  place  of  a  less  usual  observation,  which  was  probably 
likewise  accidental,  and  which  has  been  extensively  applied  in 
our  own  time.  "  Experiment  has  taught  us  that  sea- water  when 
converted  into  vapor  becomes  potable,  and  the  vaporized  product, 
when  condensed,  110  longer  resembles  sea-water.  .  .  .  Wine  and  all 
liquids,  when  vaporized,  turn  into  water."  It  appeared,  then, 
according  to  Aristotle,  as  if  evaporation  changed  the  nature  of 
the  vaporized  liquids  and  reduced  them  all  to  an  identical  condi- 
tion— that  of  water.  This  change  was  conformable  to  the  philo- 
sophical ideas  of  the  author,  wine  and  sea-water  being  reduced  to 
the  same  condition  of  water,  the  principle  of  liquidity,  which  was 
regarded  by  the  ancient  philosophers  as  one  of  the  four  funda- 
mental elements  of  things. 

Aristotle's  remarks  on  sea-water  soon  gave  the  suggestion  of  a 
practical  process  mentioned  by  Alexander  of  Aphrodisias,  one  of 
his  earliest  commentators,  about  the  second  or  third  century  A.  D. 
According  to  that  author,  sea- water  was  heated  in  brass  kettles, 
and  the  water  that  condensed  on  the  covers  was  collected  for 
drinking.  This  was  the  germ  of  the  industry  of  the  distillation  of 
sea-water,  which  is  practiced  now  on  a  large  scale  on  board  of  ves- 


DISCOVERY    OF  ALCOHOL   AND   DISTILLATION.      87 

sels.  But,  before  this  process  could  be  carried  out  in  a  practical 
form,  the  modern  improvements  in  the  process  of  distillation  had 
to  be  discovered. 

Similar  processes  to  that  mentioned  by  Alexander  of  Aphro- 
disias  are  described  by  Dioscorides  and  Pliny,  in  the  first  century 
A.  D.,  for  the  preparation  of  two  liquids  so  different  as  mercury 
and  spirits  of  turpentine.  These  discoveries,  also  met  in  acci- 
dental observations,  began  to  make  more  general  the  ideas  of  the 
industrial  men  and  physicists  of  the  time.  Cinnabar,  or  sulphuret 
of  mercury,  has  been  used  from  remote  antiquity  as  a  red  coloring 
matter  (vermilion) ;  the  Romans  got  it  from  Spain,  where  the 
principal  mines  of  mercury  in  Europe  are  still  situated.  It  was 
early  remarked  that,  in  heating  in  an  iron  vessel  to  purify  it,  it 
disengages  vapors  of  mercury,  which  are  condensed  on  neighbor- 
ing objects,  chiefly  on  the  cover  of  the  vessel.  This  discovery  was 
the  origin  of  the  regular  extracting  process,  described  by  Dioscori- 
des and  Pliny.  The  cinnabar  was  placed  in  a  capsule  of  iron  in 
the  middle  of  an  earthenware  pot.  The  cover  was  sealed  on,  and 
heat  was  applied.  After  the  operation  the  cover  was  scraped,  in 
order  to  detach  and  collect  the  globules  of  mercury  which  had 
sublimed  from  the  capsule.  Thus  was  obtained  artificial  quick- 
silver, which  the  ancients  supposed  to  have  different  properties 
from  natural  quicksilver,  or  that  which  occurs  in  Nature  in  mines. 
This  was  an  illusion,  the  mercury  being  identical,  whatever  the 
mode  of  extraction.  At  any  rate,  the  process  employed  for  the 
extraction  of  mercury  by  vaporization  is  the  same  as  that  de- 
scribed by  Alexander  of  Aphrodisias  for  making  sea-water  po- 
table ;  and  this  process,  as  I  shall  shortly  explain,  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  alembic. 

Another  rudimentary  process,  the  first  that  was  applied  to  the 
extraction  of  an  essential  oil,  is  described  by  Dioscorides  and  by 
Pliny.  It  is  for  the  distillation  of  pine  resins,  which  are  now 
called  turpentines.  They  were  heated  in  vessels  over  which  wool 
was  spread ;  this  condensed  the  vapor ;  then  the  wool  was  pressed, 
in  order  to  extract  from  it  the  liquefied  product,  spirits  of  turpen- 
tine, which  was  then  called  resin  oil  or  flower  of  resin.  It  soon 
assumed  an  important  function  in  the  composition  of  the  inflam- 
mable substances  used  in  the  arts  and  in  war.  But  these  terms 
seem  at  first  to  have  designated  also  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
liquid  part  of  the  resins,  as  well  as  the  water  charged  with  their 
soluble  principles,  which  was  floating  on  these  resins  like  whey  on 
milk,  at  the  moment  of  their  extraction ;  and,  lastly,  the  distilled 
and  odorous  water  which  was  vaporized  at  the  same  time  with  the 
essence.  The  ancients  were  in  some  confusion  about  these  sub- 
stances, which  are  distinct  in  modern  chemistry ;  and  this  it  is  which 
makes  the  reading  and  interpretation  of  the  old  authors  so  hard. 


88  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

• 

The  decisive  step  in  the  knowledge  of  distillation  was  taken  in 
Egypt.  There  were  invented  the  first  real  distilling  apparatus 
during  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era.  They  are  described 
precisely  in  the  works  of  Zosimus,  an  author  of  the  third  century, 
from  the  technical  treatises  of  two  women  chemists  named  Cleo- 
patra and  Mary.  In  the  margin  of  a  Greek  text  of  St.  Mark  are 
the  drawings  of  the  apparatus,  and  they  agree  exactly  with  the 
author's  descriptions.  The  apparatus  consists  of  a  boiler  or  bal- 
loon-shaped receiver,  in  which  the  liquid  was  put ;  but  the  cover 
was  replaced  by  a  large  tube  topping  the  balloon,  and  ending 
above  in  a  cap  shaped  like  an  inverted  balloon,  to  serve  as  a  con- 
denser. The  cap  was  furnished  with  lateral  conical  tubes  inclined 
downward,  which  were  intended  to  collect  the  condensed  liquid 
and  allow  it  to  flow  out  into  small  bottles.  All  the  essential  parts 
of  a  distilling  apparatus  are  here  defined.  These  lateral  tubes 
and  their  recipients  constitute  the  chief  improvement,  and  are 
what  constitutes  the  alembic.  Among  the  distinctive  character- 
istics of  the  primitive  alembic  described  by  Zosimus  is  the  multi- 
plicity of  the  abductor  tubes.  He  distinguishes  between  two- 
beaked  and  three-beaked  alembics.  The  flow  of  vapor  was  simul- 
taneous, though  there  were  several  beaks,  and  condensation  took 
place  in  two  or  three  receivers  at  once.  Another  figure  represents 
an  alembic  with  a  single  beak,  to  which  a  large  copper  tube  was 
attached.  An  alembic  described  by  Synesius,  an  author  of  the 
fourth  century,  and  figured  in  less  ancient  manuscripts,  shows  the 
boiler  with  its  cap,  furnished  with  a  single  tube,  the  whole  appa- 
ratus being  heated  in  a  marine  bath.  This  form  varied  but  little 
till  the  sixteenth  century.  The  alembic  passed  from  the  Greco- 
Egyptian  experimenters  to  the  Arabs  without  any  notable  change. 
The  Arabs  were  not,  therefore,  the  inventors  of  distillation,  as  has 
been  too  often  affirmed.  In  chemistry,  as  in  astronomy  and  medi- 
cine, they  merely  reproduced  the  apparatus  and  processes  of  the 
Greeks,  their  masters,  adding  a  few  improvements  in  details.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  trace  the  discovery  of  distillation  and  of  alcohol 
to  Rases,  or  Abulcasis,  or  other  Arabian  authors;  the  verified 
texts  have  at  least  furnished  me  no  indication  of  that  kind.  In 
fact,  Rases  (tenth  century),  in  the  passages  cited  in  support  of 
that  opinion,  speaks  only  of  vinous  liquids  or  false  wines  ob- 
tained by  the  fermentation  of  sugar,  honey,  and  rice;  liquids, 
some  of  which,  like  hydromel,  were  known  to  the  ancients.  But 
there  is  nothing  about  distilling  them,  or  extracting  a  more 
active  principle,  in  any  passage  in  Rases  that  I  am  acquainted 
with.  In  the  pharmaceutical  works  attributed  to  Abulcasis  or 
Abulcasim,  a  Spanish  doctor  of  Cordova,  who  died  in  1107,  we 
only  find  a  distilling  apparatus  for  preparing  rose-water  which 
did  not  differ  in  principle  from  those  of  the  old  Grecian  alche- 


DISCOVERY   OF  ALCOHOL  AND   DISTILLATION.      89 

mists.  The  Arabs,  therefore,  were  still,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  using  the  complicated  apparatus  of  the  Greco- 
Egyptians. 

Alembics  with  several  beaks  were  still  employed  by  the  Western 
alchemists  in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  Porta's  treatise,  entitled 
Natural  Magic,  a  collection  of  processes  or  secret  operations,  the 
author  mentions  the  cap  of  three  and  four  beaks,  each  furnished 
with  its  tube  and  receiver.  It  is  still  the  old  apparatus  of  Zosi- 
mus.  Porta,  however,  describes  two  important  improvements 
which  have  come  down  to  modern  industry — graduated  condensa- 
tions during  the  same  operation  and  the  cooling  worm.  We  need 
not  suppose  that  he  invented  them,  but  only  that  he  described  the 
practice  of  his  time.  The  new  feature  is  as  follows :  In  the  alem- 
bics described  by  Zosimus  the  three  pipes  are  at  the  same  level, 
and  doubtless  disengaged  an  identical  vapor;  the  ideas  of  the 
chemists  of  the  time  were  too  vague  to  allow  anything  else  to  be 
expected.  The  three  tubes  of  Porta,  on  the  other  hand,  are  at 
different  heights,  arid  the  author  adds  that  the  highest  tube  fur- 
nishes the  purest  spirit.  We  can  already  discern  the  ideas  that 
have  fructified  in  our  apparatus  for  fractional  rectification,  with 
series  of  superposed  chambers  and  trays  delivering  alcohols  of 
higher  degrees  of  concentration  from  the  higher  levels.  This  ar- 
rangement, however,  was  abandoned;  at  least  we  find  no  more 
trace  of  it  during  the  following  centuries.  In  this  as  in  many 
other  incidents,  the  men  of  the  sixteenth  century  foresaw  the  most 
modern  advances,  but  by  a  kind  of  intuition,  without  their  having 
those  clear  notions  and  those  exact  principles  of  physics  which, 
being  wanting,  progress  is  accidental  and  transient. 

Another  more  durable  improvement  was  that  of  the  worm. 
The  alembics  of  the  ancient  Greeks  doubtless  permitted  distilled 
liquors  to  be  obtained,  but  on  condition  of  operating  slowly  and 
with  a  very  moderate  heat.  In  fact,  the  vapors  were  imperfectly 
condensed  on  the  small  surfaces  of  the  tubes  and  the  caps  repre- 
sented in  the  manuscripts.  However  little  we  might  try  to  hasten 
the  distillation,  the  receivers  would  become  warm  and  condensation 
would  become  almost  impossible.  Hence  the  ancient  authors  pre- 
scribed that  their  apparatus  should  be  heated  over  very  slow  fires. 
They  operated  by  means  of  sand  baths,  baths  of  ashes,  or  water 
baths.  Sometimes  they  tried  to  distill  with  no  other  heat  than 
that  of  fermenting  manure  or  a  low  fire  of  dung  or  sawdust. 
Their  operations  were  therefore  very  slow,  and  often  lasted  for 
days  and  weeks.  It  required  fourteen  days,  or  twenty-one  days,  a 
text  would  say,  to  perform  the  operation.  Not  only  did  they  in 
this  way  assure  the  effect  of  digestions  and  cementations,  designed 
to  produce  gradual  permeation  with  sulphurous  and  arsenical 
vapors,  into  sheets  of  metal  submitted  to  the  tinctorial  action  of 


9o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  elixirs,  but  they  also  made  it  practicable  to  collect  the  liquids 
placed  in  the  alembics. 

At  last,  however,  the  operators  of  the  middle  ages  perceived 
that  the  manipulations  could  be  conducted  more  rapidly,  the  dis- 
tillations, for  instance,  by  cooling  the  cap  and  the  connected  tube 
that  conducted  to  the  last  receiver.  For  that  purpose  they  first 
fixed  around  the  boiler  cap  a  bucket  filled  with  cold  water ;  this 
facilitated  the  condensation,  but  caused  a  part  of  the  liquefied 
vapors  to  fall  back  into  the  boiler.  A  new  improvement — the  one 
described  by  Porta — consisted  in  bending  the  tube  between  the 
cap  and  the  receiver  and  giving  it  the  form  of  a  serpent.  This 
was  the  origin  of  the  modern  still-worm.  It  was  surrounded  by 
cold  water  in  a  wooden  vessel.  But  the  use  of  the  serpentine  ar- 
rangement spread  very  slowly,  and  was  still  regarded  as  recent  by 
the  authors  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Let  us  observe  here  that  we  are  using  the  word  distillation  in 
the  modern  sense  of  evaporation  followed  by  a  condensation  of 
liquid ;  but  in  many  authors  of  the  middle  ages  the  sense  is  more 
vague.  The  word  means,  in  its  literal  sense,  a  flow  drop  by  drop, 
and  is  applied  equally  to  filtration  and  all  refining  and  purifica- 
tion. The  word  distill  is  often  employed  in  the  same  sense  in 
modern  language.  It  also  comprehended  from  the  Greco-Egyp- 
tian epoch  two  fundamentally  distinct  operations,  viz.,  the  con- 
densation of  dry  vapors  into  a  solid  form — such  as  calamines  or 
metallic  oxides,  sulphur,  metallic  sulphurets,  arsenious  acid  and 
metallic  arsenic  (which  was  the  second  mercury  of  the  Grecian 
alchemists),  and  at  a  later  date  chlorides  of  mercury,  sal  ammo- 
niac, etc. — the  process  which  is  now  called  sublimation.  It  re- 
quires special  apparatus,  which  the  ancients  devised  and  used,  and 
which  gave  rise  to  the  Arabian  aludel.  We  mention  this  here  on 
account  of  its  connection  with  many  modern  industries,  although 
it  has  no  relation  to  the  discovery  of  alcohol. 

I  proceed  now  to  describe  distilled  liquids  and  the  successive 
steps  made  in  their  study.  "  Celestial  things  above,  terrestrial 
things  below,"  was  the  phrase  by  which  the  Grecian  alchemists 
designated  the  products  of  all  distillation  and  sublimation.  They 
declared  that  "the  sublimed  vapor  emitted  from  below  up  is 
called  divine.  .  .  .  White  mercury  is  likewise  called  divine,  be- 
cause it,  too,  is  emitted  from  below  up.  .  .  .  The  drops  which 
affix  themselves  to  the  covers  of  boilers  are  likewise  called  di- 
vine." In  this  expression  we  find  the  marks  of  Aristotle,  Dios- 
corides,  and  Alexander  of  Aphrodisias.  The  alchemists,  accord- 
ing to  their  usage,  interpreted  these  purely  physical  ideas  by 
symbols  and  a  curious  mysticism.  Democritus  (or  the  alchemic 
author  who  took  that  name)  called  the  spherical  apparatus  in 
which  the  distillation  of  water  was  carried  on  "  celestial  natures." 


DISCOVERY   OF  ALCOHOL   AND  DISTILLATION.     91 

The  separation  which  is  effected  in  these  between  volatile  water 
and  fixed  matter  is  expressed  as  follows  in  the  text  of  Olympiodo- 
rus,  who  lived  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century :  "  Earth  is 
taken  in  the  early  morning,  still  impregnated  with  the  dew  which 
the  rising  sun  lifts  with  its  rays.  It  is  then  like  a  widow  and  de- 
prived of  its  spouse,  according  to  the  oracles  of  Apollo.  .  .  .  By 
divine  water  I  mean  my  dew,  aerial  water."  In  the  same  style 
Comarius,  a  writer  of  the  seventh  century,  drew  the  allegorical 
picture  of  evaporation  and  the  condensation  that  accompanies  it, 
condensed  liquids  reacting  on  the  solid  products  exposed  to  their 
action :  "  Tell  us  ...  how  the  blessed  waters  descend  from  above 
to  visit  the  dead,  stretched  out,  chained,  and  loaded  down  in  dark- 
ness and  shadow,  in  the  interior  of  hades ;  .  .  .  how  new  waters 
enter  in,  ...  come  by  the  action  of  the  fire ;  the  cloud  holds  them 
up ;  it  rises  from  the  sea,  sustaining  the  waters." 

This  singular  language,  this  enthusiasm  borrowing  the  most 
exalted  religious  formulas,  need  not  surprise  us.  The  men  of  that 
time,  excepting  a  few  superior  geniuses,  had  not  reached  that 
state  of  calm  and  abstraction  that  permits  the  contemplation  of 
scientific  verities  with  a  serene  coolness.  Their  education,  the 
symbolical  traditions  of  ancient  Egypt,  and  the  gnostic  ideas 
with  which  the  first  alchemists  were  all  impregnated,  did  not 
allow  them  to  preserve  their  even  balance.  They  were  trans- 
ported and  intoxicated,  as  it  were,  by  the  revelation  of  that  hidden 
world  of  chemical  transformations  which  appeared  to  the  human 
mind  for  the  first  time. 

In  the  first  Greek  treatises,  all  the  active  liquids  of  chemistry 
are  confounded  under  the  common  name  of  divine  water  or 
waters.  "  Divine  water  is  one  in  kind,"  they  said ;  "  but  it  is  mul- 
tiplied as  to  species,  and  admits  of  an  infinite  number  of  varieties 
and  methods  of  treatment."  They  designated  those  varieties  by 
the  most  various  symbolical  names,  such  as  aerial  water,  fluvial 
water,  dew,  virginal  milk,  water  of  native  sulphur,  silver  water, 
Attic  honey,  sea-foam,  etc.  Confusion  was  systematically  engen- 
dered by  this  variety  of  denominations,  for  the  avowed  purpose 
of  concealing  the  secrets  of  the  alchemical  fabrications  from  the 
vulgar  and  uninitiated.  Although  it  is  occasionally  possible  to 
discern  something  precise  in  the  deliberate  vagueness  of  the  de- 
scriptions, there  does  not  exist  among  them,  so  far  as  I  know,  any 
text  that  is  applicable  to  the  distillation  of  wine.  It  is  barely  pos- 
sible that  the  principle  of  fractional  distillation  and  the  diversity 
of  its  successive  products  are  indicated  in  one  or  two  passages, 
but  those  passages  appear  to  apply  to  the  treatment  of  alkaline 
polysulphides  or  of  organic  sulphureted  substances,  which  have 
nothing  in  common  with  alcohol. 

I  have  not,  moreover,  met  in  the  Arabic  treatises  on  medicine 


92  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  materia  medico,  as  yet  printed,  or  in  the  manuscript  Arabic 
works  of  Geber  and  other  alchemic  authors  which  I  possess  and 
am  preparing  for  publication,  with  any  precise  text  relative  to 
alcohol  or  to  any  definite  distilled  liquid.  I  have  already  ex- 
plained the  passages  of  Rases  that  have  been  wrongly  cited  as 
bearing  on  this  point,  which  relate  only  to  fermented  liquids 
without  reference  to  their  distillation  or  to  the  extraction  of  alco- 
hol. So  Abulcasim,  who  has  been  cited,  after  describing  some  dis- 
tilling apparatus  modeled  after  the  dibicos  and  tribicos  of  the 
Greeks,  adds  simply,  "  According  to  this  method,  whoever  wants 
distilled  wine  can  distill  it."  He  gives  directions  for  distilling  rose- 
water  and  vinegar  in  the  same  way.  He  speaks  only  of  distilla- 
tion in  a  mass.  Still,  the  idea  of  the  preparation  of  a  distilled 
fragrant  water,  like  rose-water,  appears  here  clearly  for  the  first 
time ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  it  that  applies  to  an  essence  proper, 
or  especially  to  alcohol. 

I  repeat  that  simply  a  distillation  of  wine,  without  any  dis- 
tinction between  the  successive  products  of  a  fractional  distilla- 
tion, is  meant  in  these  texts.  But  it  was  perceived  from  that 
time,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  Aristotle,  that  distilled  wine  was 
not  identical  with  water ;  still,  our  authors  do  not  speak  of  alco- 
hol, although  the  knowledge  of  that  substance  would  result  al- 
most immediately  from  the  study  of  the  distilled  liquids  yielded 
by  wine. 

The  most  ancient  manuscript  containing  a  precise  reference  to 
this  product  is  in  the  Clef  de  la  peinture,  which  was  written  in 
the  twelfth  century.  It  is  a  receipt  in  cipher,  which  when  de- 
ciphered and  translated  reads :  "  By  mixing  pure  and  very  strong 
wine  with  three  parts  of  salt  and  heating  it  in  vessels  designed 
for  the  purpose,  we  obtain  an  inflammable  water,  which  is  con- 
sumed without  burning  the  matter  on  which  it  is  placed."  This 
meant  alcohol.  The  property  of  burning  on  the  surface  of  bodies 
without  burning  them  greatly  struck  the  first  observers  of  it.  A 
more  explicit  mention  is  contained  in  the  Treatise  on  Fires  of 
Marcus  Grsecus,  a  Latin  work  drawn  from  Arabian  and  Grecian 
sources,  no  manuscripts  of  which,  however,  are  of  earlier  date 
than  the  year  1500.  It  is  a  compilation  of  technical  receipts, 
mostly  relating  to  the  art  of  war.  The  receipt  for  the  burning 
water  was  added  later  to  the  original  text ;  for  it  is  not  a  part  of 
another  manuscript  that  exists  in  Munich,  but  is  inserted  in  it 
outside  of  and  after  the  Treatise  on  Fires.  It  contains  some  new 
hints  and  characteristics,  and  is  as  follows :  "  Preparation  of  In- 
flammable Water. — Take  wine,  black,  thick,  and  old.  For  a  quar- 
ter of  a  pound  add  two  scruples  of  very  finely  powdered  sulphur, 
one  or  two  of  tartar,  extract  of  a  good  white  wine,  and  two  scru- 
ples of  common  salt  in  coarse  fragments.  Place  the  whole  in  a 


DISCOVERY   OF  ALCOHOL   AND  DISTILLATION.      93 

good  leaden  alembic;  put  on  the  cap,  and  you  will  distill  the 
burning  water.  It  should  be  kept  in  a  glass  vessel  tightly  closed." 
The  Munich  manuscript  adds :  "  These  are  the  virtue  and  proper- 
erties  of  the  inflammable  water :  A  rag  moistened  with  it  and 
set  on  fire  will  burn  with  a  great  flame.  When  the  fire  is  extin- 
guished the  cloth  will  be  found  unharmed.  If  you  dip  your  fin- 
ger in  this  water  and  then  put  fire  to  it,  it  will  burn  like  a  candle 
and  not  suffer  any  wounding."  This  was  in  fact  a  prestidigitator's 
trick ;  and  the  part  those  people  played  is  manifest  in  the  begin- 
nings of  a  large  number  of  inventions  in  antiquity  and  the  middle 
ages.  In  any  case  the  facts  pointed  to  in  this  description  are  ex- 
act, and  show  how  first  observers  are  often  struck  by  real  or  ap- 
parent properties  of  bodies,  even  though  they  be  insignificant. 
Frequently,  too,  they  complicate  operations  by  superfluous  if  not 
annoying  details,  to  which,  according  to  the  theories  by  which 
they  are  guided,  they  attach  the  same  importance  as  to  the  rest. 
For  instance,  in  the  first  receipt  of  Marcus  Grsecus  is  a  direction 
to  add  sulphur  previous  to  the  distillation,  which  occurs  likewise 
in  a  book  by  Al  Farabi,  transcribed  into  another  manuscript  of 
the  same  period,  as  well  as  in  Porta's  Natural  Magic,  which  was 
composed  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  therefore  not  accidental. 
It  is  the  product  of  a  theory  which  is  expounded  at  length  in  sev- 
eral texts,  held  by  the  chemists  of  the  time,  that  the  great  moist- 
ure of  wine  is  opposed  to  its  inflammability.  To  counteract  this 
they  added  salts  or  sulphur,  the  dryness  of  which,  they  said,  aug- 
mented the  combustible  properties.  One  of  these  old  authors  re- 
fers, in  support  of  his  theory,  to  dry  wood  and  green  wood,  un- 
equally combustible,  according  to  the  season  when  they  were  cut 
and  the  proportion  of  moisture  they  contain. 

We  should  recollect  also  that  volatility  and  combustibility  were 
then  confounded  and  called  sulphurity,  a  term  which  was  still  ap- 
plied in  this  sense  in  the  time  of  Stahl,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  These  ideas  go  back  to  the  Grecian  alchemists, 
who  called  every  volatile  liquid  and  every  sublimate  sulphurous 
(or  divine)  water.  In  this  we  can  see  the  origin  of  those  compli- 
cated preparations,  so  hard  to  understand  now,  which  were  em- 
ployed by  the  old  alchemists.  They  tried  to  communicate  to  bod- 
ies the  qualities  in  which  they  were  lacking  by  adding  to  them 
substances  in  which  those  qualities  were  supposed  to  be  con- 
centrated. Hence  sulphur  was  added  to  wine  in  the  belief  that  it 
would  render  the  manifestation  of  its  inflammable  principle  easier. 

The  first  man  of  science  known  by  name  who  spoke  of  alcohol 
is  Arnaud  de  Villeneuve,  who  was  of  a  date  posterior  to  the  com- 
position of  these  writings.  He  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  the 
author  of  the  discovery,  though  he  never  himself  presented  such 
a  claim.  He  only  spoke  of  alcohol  as  a  preparation  known  in  his 


94  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

time,  which,  he  admired  very  much.  He  recorded  of  it  in  his 
work  Concerning  the  Preservation  of  Youth :  "  We  extract,  by 
distillation  of  wine  or  its  lees,  burning  wine,  called  also  eau-de- 
vie.  It  is  the  most  subtile  portion  of  the  wine." 

He  then  exalts  its  virtues :  "  Discourse  on  Eau-de-vie. — Some 
call  it  water  of  life ;  some  of  the  moderns  say  it  is  permanent 
water,  or  rather  golden  water,  on  account  of  the  sublime  nature 
of  its  preparation.  Its  virtues  are  well  known."  He  next  enu- 
merates the  maladies  for  which  it  is  a  cure :  "  It  prolongs  life,  and 
therefore  deserves  to  be  called  water  of  life.  It  should  be  kept  in 
a  golden  vessel ;  all  other  kinds  of  ware,  except  glass,  are  liable 
to  be  acted  upon  by  it."  Then  he  speaks  of  alcoholates :  "  On  ac- 
count of  its  simplicity,  it  receives  every  impression  of  taste,  odor, 
and  other  properties.  When  the  virtues  of  rosemary  and  sage 
are  imparted  to  it,  it  exercises  a  favorable  influence  on  the  nerves," 
etc.  The  pretended  Raymond  Lulle,  a  more  modern  author  than 
Arnaud  de  Yilleneuve,  speaks  of  alcohol  with  equal  enthusiasm. 
He  describes  the  distillation  of  the  inflammable  water,  derived 
from  wine,  and  of  its  rectifications,  repeated  seven  times  if  neces- 
sary, till  the  product  burns  without  leaving  a  trace  of  water,  and 
adds, "  It  is  called  vegetable  mercury."  So  it  appears  that  the 
alchemists  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  were  taken 
with  such  admiration  for  the  discovery  of  alcohol  that  they  lik- 
ened it  to  the  elixir  of  long  life  and  the  mercury  of  the  philoso- 
phers. Yet  we  have  to  be  cautious  against  taking  every  text  con- 
cerning the  mercury  of  the  philosophers  or  the  elixir  of  long  life 
as  applicable  to  alcohol. 

The  elixir  of  long  life  is  a  fancy  of  ancient  Egypt.  Diodorus 
Siculus  calls  it  "the  remedy  of  immortality."  Its  invention  is 
attributed  to  Isis,  and  the  composition  of  it  may  be  found  in  the 
works  of  Galen.  The  formulas  for  it  in  the  middle  ages  were 
various.  It  was  also  reputed  to  be  capable  of  changing  silver 
into  gold,  or,  in  other  words,  was  credited  with  the  same  chimerical 
properties  as  the  philosopher's  stone. 

Although  the  discovery  of  alcohol  did  not  give  realization  to 
these  illusions,  it  has  nevertheless  had  the  gravest  consequences 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Alcohol  is  an  eminently  active 
agent,  and  thereby  at  once  useful  and  harmful.  It  may  prolong 
human  life  or  shorten  its  term,  according  to  the  use  that  is  made 
of  it.  It  is  also  a  source  of  inexhaustible  wealth  for  individuals 
and  states — a  more  fruitful  source  than  the  pretended  philoso- 
pher's stone  of  the  alchemists  could  have  been.  Their  long  and 
patient  labors  were  therefore  not  lost ;  and  their  dreams  have 
been  realized  beyond  their  hopes  by  the  discoveries  of  modern 
chemistry. — Translated  for  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 


AMERICAN  EXPLORATION   TRIBUTE.  95 


TRIBUTE  OF  THE  FRENCH  ACADEMY  TO  AMERICAN 
GEOLOGICAL  EXPLORATION.* 

THE  following  tribute  to  the  Americans  who  have  conducted 
meritorious  geological  and  geographical  explorations  is  a 
graceful  and  well-bestowed  recognition  from  the  French  people 
of  the  remarkable  results  that  have  been  achieved  in  this  coun- 
try by  individual  and  Government  agencies  in  adding  to  the  sum 
of  human  knowledge.  The  tribute  of  words  is  even  more  beauti- 
ful than  the  elegant  medal  which  accompanied  it,  and  while  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey  is  made  the  official  recipient  of 
the  gift,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  intended  to  honor  other  American 
workers  in  this  field  of  science. 

Institute  of  France,  Academy  of  Science.  Meeting  of  Decem- 
ber 21,  1891.  Pages  70  to  74. 

CUVIER  PKIZES. 

COMMISSIONEES  :   MM.  GATJDEY,  FOTTQUE,  DE  QTJATBEFAGES,  MILNE-EDWABDS. 
M.  DAUBEEE,  RAPPOETEFE. 

The  commission  charged  with  awarding  the  Cuvier  prize  for 
the  year  1891  has  with  unanimous  voice  given  this  high  mark  of 
esteem  to  the  collective  work  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  the 
United  States. 

In  the  United  States,  where  all  the  natural  resources  are  ex- 
ploited with  so  much  ardor,  the  studies  relative  to  the  soil  ought 
necessarily  to  demand  a  very  particular  attention  by  reason  of 
the  numerous  applications  which  they  legitimately  promise.  It 
is  therefore  more  than  half  a  century  since  the  governments  of 
many  States  instituted  a  geological  exploration  of  the  lands  which 
belonged  to  them.  These  geological  surveys  were  organized  and 
confided  to  men  most  prominent  in  their  profession.  It  was  in 
the  Northern  States  that  the  most  considerable  progress  was 
made.  Hitchcock  published,  in  1833,  the  Geology  of  Massachu- 
setts. From  1836  to  1840  the  eminent  Henry  Rogers  and  his 
brother,  W.  B.  Rogers,  undertook  that  of  Pennsylvania  and  Vir- 
ginia, the  essential  characteristics  and  distorted  structure  of 
which  they  so  admirably  made  known.  Charles  T.  Jackson,  of 
Boston,  the  discoverer  of  etherization,  and  already  known  by  his 
mineralogical  works,  undertook  that  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
and  Rhode  Island  (1837  to  1839),  after  having  published  in  1833  a 
study  of  Nova  Scotia.  The  geology  of  the  State  of  New  York  is 
confided  to  James  Hall — who  has  not  yet  discontinued  the  series 

•  *  Translated  by  Robert  T.  Hill,  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 


96  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  Ms  discoveries — Mather,  Emmons,  and  Vamixem.  It  has  given 
existence  to  publications  that  have  become  classic  (1836  to  1842). 
By  the  side  of  these  promoters  who  have  the  merit  of  having  been 
the  first  to  conquer  the  greatest  difficulties,  justice  demands  that 
there  should  be  written  the  names  of  two  geologists  not  attached 
officially  to  the  service  of  the  United  States,  whose  powerful  influ- 
ence ought  to  be  proclaimed.  Our  compatriot  De  Verneuil  pur- 
sued since  1846,  with  the  success  that  is  well  known,  a  task  which 
no  other  could  better  undertake,  that  of  comparing  upon  the  two 
continents  all  the  sedimentary  deposits,  from  the  most  ancient 
down  to  those  that  contain  the  coal ;  and  Dana,  by  his  original 
work  and  by  his  excellent  books,  has  contributed  singularly  to 
the  education  of  all  those  who,  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America, 
devoted  themselves  and  still  devote  themselves  to  the  study  of 
geology  and  mineralogy. 

The  first  results  attained  proved  the  utility  of  like  enterprises. 
Thus,  following  the  steps  of  the  local  governments,  the  Federal 
Government  entered  into  the  same  path. 

It  was  at  first  for  the  great  Territories  of  the  West,  little 
known  and  not  yet  classed  as  independent  States.  The  wise 
geologist  Hayden,  to  whom  this  study  was  confided  and  of  whom 
we  deplore  the  loss,  worked  there  with  ardor  during  a  dozen 
years.  First  of  all  had  to  be  adopted  a  rational  plan  for  an  ex- 
ploration at  the  same  time  geographic  and  geologic.  This  new 
service  bore,  indeed,  the  title  of  Geological  and  Geographical 
Survey  of  the  Territories.  Then  followed  the  discovery  in  1871, 
and  the  detailed  exploration  in  1872,  of  the  region  of  the  geysers 
of  the  Yellowstone ;  from  1873  to  1879  the  complete  topographic 
and  geologic  survey  of  the  Alpine  part  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
comprised  in  the  State  of  Colorado.  The  atlas  which  unites  all 
these  researches  (1877)  is  a  chef-d'oeuvre  of  cartography ;  it  is  in 
great  part  the  work  of  Mr.  Holmes,  the  artist-geologist,  of  whom 
one  admires  the  incomparable  sketches  scattered  in  profusion 
through  the  official  publications. 

In  order  to  explore  the  Rocky  Mountains  (1869  to  1875),  Mr. 
J.  W.  Powell  descended  by  water  the  celebrated  and  dangerous 
canons  of  the  Colorado,  and  made  a  report  which  has  become 
classic  on  the  phenomena  of  erosion.  During  the  same  epoch  Mr. 
Gilbert  made  an  extremely  remarkable  study  of  the  Henry  Moun- 
tains. 

At  the  same  time  the  Engineer  Department  of  the  United 
States  Army  was  charged  with  work  of  the  same  class  over  an 
immense  country  still  little  more  than  desert  and  very  little 
known.  The  title  of  this  new  service,  "  Geological  and  geographi- 
cal exploration  and  survey  of  the  one  hundredth  meridian,"  shows 
that,  in  this  case  also,  the  examination  of  the  constitution  of  the 


AMERICAN  EXPLORATION   TRIBUTE.  97 

soil  marched  side  by  side  with,  the  study  of  its  topography  and 
relief.  This  important  mission  was  placed,  in  1872,  under  the 
direction  of  Lieutenant  Wheeler,  who  in  the  preceding  year  had 
explored  a  portion  of  Nevada  and  Arizona.  The  choice  could  not 
have  been  better,  as  is  proved  by  the  career  since  then  of  the  dis- 
tinguished engineer.  His  purpose  was  to  reconnoitre  the  natu- 
ral resources  of  the  mountainous  country  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  chosen  parallel,  and  also  of  the  great  railroad  lines  of  the 
Union  and  Central  Pacific  between  the  one  hundred  and  fourth 
and  one  hundred  and  twentieth  degrees  of  longitude  west  from 
Greenwich.  After  having  examined  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  the 
Coast  Ranges,  Prof.  Whitney,  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey 
of  California,  pushed  his  investigations  toward  the  Pacific  slope. 
But,  between  California  on  the  west  and  the  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  on  the  east,  exploited  by  Hayden,  there  remained  a 
vast  gap  of  sixteen  degrees  of  longitude  which  was  little  known. 
Under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Clarence  King  this  gap  was  very  well 
filled.  A  general  knowledge  was  acquired  of  the  great  mountain 
system  of  North  America  and  that  in  its  greatest  expansion.  We 
possess  now  results  sufficient  to  make  clear  the  important  problem 
of  the  dynamics  of  mountain  chains. 

Since  1879  all  the  geological  studies  executed  at  the  expense  of 
the  central  Government  have  been  confided  to  a  single  adminis- 
tration bearing  the  title  of  the  Geological  Survey. 

Organized  by  Clarence  King,  it  passed  in  the  following  year 
under  the  direction  of  J.  W.  Powell,  in  whose  able  hands  it  has 
since  remained.  Its  end,  as  is  defined  by  the  organic  law,  is  the 
reconnoissance  of  the  geological  structure  of  the  country,  of  its 
mineral  resources,  and  finally  the  execution  of  a  geologic  map. 

The  researches  carried  forward  in  very  different  directions  of 
science  have  been  apportioned  to  many  divisions:  Geography, 
geology,  paleontology,  and  others.  Geologists,  to  the  number  of 
about  twenty,  are  each  one  charged  with  special  functions,  and 
their  results  are  gathered  each  year  into  a  report  of  the  director 
under  the  name  of  Annual  Report.  It  is  a  large  volume  pub- 
lished in  magnificent  shape,  in  which  are  likewise  collected  mem- 
oirs upon  divers  subjects,  with  an  accompaniment  of  numerous 
maps,  engravings,  and  photolithographs.  Already  ten  annual 
reports  have  appeared. 

Besides  these  reports  the  survey  has  published  from  time  to 
time  monographs  upon  subjects  particularly  interesting,  likewise 
under  the  form  of  very  beautiful  volumes,  accompanied  with 
many  figures,  and  occasionally  by  a  voluminous  atlas. 

Also  under  the  title  of  bulletins,  of  which  already  have  ap- 
peared sixty  papers  relating  to  subjects  new  and  interesting.  And, 
finally,  a  statistical  publication  bearing  the  name  of  Mineral 

VOL.    XLIII. — 8 


98  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Resources  of  the  United  States  appears  annually  and  makes 
known  not  only  the  figures  of  production  but  also  the  numerous 
theoretical  considerations  which  interest  the  miner. 

As  to  the  geographic  work  which  the  Geological  Survey  also 
possesses  among  its  attributes,  a  numerous  personnel  of  topogra- 
phers and  engineers  work  actively  at  the  execution  of  the  map  in 
the  most  diverse  parts  of  the  country  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
H.  Gannett.  Already  more  than  six  hundred  sheets  have  been 
surveyed  and  drawn,  and  about  four  hundred  have  appeared. 

Besides  geology  and  geography  ought  to  be  mentioned  a  con- 
siderable work,  of  which  Mr.  Powell  is  the  founder,  in  the  domain 
of  the  pre-Columbian  archaeology,  the  linguistics,  the  ethnology, 
and  the  anthropology  of  the  Indians  of  North  America,  splendidly 
illustrated  by  Mr.  Holmes.  The  last  publication  of  Mr.  Powell 
upon  the  classification  of  American  languages  is,  according  to  the 
best  judges,  of  great  importance. 

Not  being  able  to  give  here  a  complete  list  of  all  the  actual 
collaborators  of  the  survey,  or  of  their  services,  we  must  content 
ourselves  with  noticing  those  who  have  taken  the  principal  part 
in  the  execution  of  the  works  already  published.  These  are  in 
alphabetical  order:  Messrs.  Becker,  Chamberlin,  Cross,  Davis, 
Day,  Diller,  S.  F.  Emmons,  Fontaine,  Gannett,  Gilbert,  Hague, 
Hayes,  Holmes,  Iddings,  McGee,  Marsh,  Newberry,  Peale,  Russell, 
Shaler,  Van  Hise,  Walcott,  Ward,  Upham,  Weed,  C.  A.  White, 
Whitfield,  A.  Williams,  G.  H.  Williams,  and  H.  S.  Williams.  It 
is  but  just  that  we  should  not  omit  the  names  of  those  who  are 
dead :  Messrs.  Hayden,  Irving,  Lesquereux,  Leidy,  Marvine,  and 
Newton ;  or  of  those  who  no  longer  belong  to  the  survey :  Messrs. 
Bradley,  Cope,  Curtis,  Dutton,  Eiidlich,  Hill,  Howell,  Clarence 
King,  St.  John,  Stevenson,  and  Wheeler.  Many  of  these  names 
will  remain  justly  illustrious. 

It  will  be  impossible  to  give  in  this  report  even  a  summary 
idea  of  the  most  remarkable  discoveries,  which  are  due  to  the 
Geological  Survey.  They  belong  to  branches  very  diverse:  re- 
gional geology,  monographs  concerning  metalliferous  deposits, 
general  and  comparative  stratigraphy,  mineralogy  and  petrogra- 
phy, volcanic  phenomena,  glacial  phenomena,  ancient  Quaternary 
lakes,  and  a  history  of  the  Atlantic  littoral. 

Among  the  most  considerable  results  must  be  mentioned  the 
paleontological  discoveries  made  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Since 
the  day  in  which  Hayden  undertook  his  memorable  explorations, 
we  have  learned  that  the  site  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  was  con- 
tinuously a  part  of  the  continent  during  the  greater  portion  of 
the  Secondary,  Tertiary,  and  Quaternary  epochs.  Upon  this  vast 
continent  the  quadrupeds  could  develop  during  extended  time, 
freely,  without  any  interruption  to  their  evolution,  and  thus  they 


AMERICAN  EXPLORATION  TRIBUTE.  99 

became  numerous,  gigantic,  and  sometimes  strange.  The  paleon- 
tologists attached  to  the  Geological  Survey  have  brought  to  light 
these  curious  creatures.  The  monographs  of  the  regretted  Leidy, 
of  Cope,  and  of  Prof.  Marsh  are  among  the  most  beautiful  pale- 
ontologic  works  accomplished  since  Cuvier. 

Magnificent  researches  have  also  been  made  concerning  the 
invertebrates  and  the  fossil  vegetables. 

To  resume,  under  the  powerful  impulse  which  the  Federal 
Government  has  given  to  it,  the  geologic  service  of  the  United 
States  has  produced  in  twenty-five  years  results  very  considerable 
and  very  skillfully  attained.  It  must  be  said  that  in  no  other 
region  of  the  globe  have  been  made  such  discoveries  in  so  short  a 
space  of  time.  Moreover,  this  organization,  all  perfect  as  it  is-, 
could  not  have  given  such  fruits  if  the  galaxy  of  savants  who 
have  taken  part  in  it  had  not  given  proof,  at  all  times,  of  a  valor 
and  of  a  tenacity  which,  in  the  diverse  and  inhospitable  regions  in 
which  they  were  exercised,  recall  the  heroism  of  an  army  attack- 
ing the  most  arduous  and  most  inaccessible  obstacles. 

The  work  of  the  Geological  Survey,  with  the  magnificent  col- 
lection of  results  that  it  comprises,  merits  then  that  we  should 
render  to  it  a  striking  homage  for  the  light  so  vivid  and  so  unex- 
pected that  it  has  thrown  upon  the  geologic  history  and  the  min- 
eral riches  of  North  America. 

The  Cuvier  prize  is  decreed  to  this  grand  collective  work,  not 
only  to  the  actual  collaborators,  but  also  to  those  who  have  ceased 
their  labors.  It  will,  we  hope,  be  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the 
Geological  Survey  as  a  witness  of  the  high  esteem  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences. 


His  studies  of  the  planet  Jupiter  for  the  past  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  have 
satisfied  M.  Terby  that  the  conditions  existing  there  are  more  stable  than  astrono- 
mers have  of  late  years  been  supposing.  Even  if  the  phenomena  of  the  spots  and 
bands  are  atmospheric,  their  permanency  and  regularity  point  to  some  fixed  cause, 
on  the  real  surface  of  the  planet,  controlling  them.  Besides  the  "  red  spot,"  which 
has  now  attracted  attention  for  many  years,  he  finds  permanent  spots,  even  on  the 
equatorial  zone,  having  a  movement  of  rotation  corresponding  with  that  of  this 
object.  The  supposition  may  be  legitimately  drawn  from  this  fact  that  this  period 
of  rotation  agrees  with  that  of  the  rotation  of  the  planet  itself. 

AT  present,  the  Hon.  Rollo  Russell  contends,  in  his  book  on  the  Causes  and 
Prevention  of  Epidemic  Plagues  and  Fevers,  the  science  of  "public  life-saving" 
is  far  ahead  of  the  practice.  We  teach,  he  observes,  in  compulsorily  attended 
schools  the  names  of  "ancient  and  unworthy  kings,"  of  lakes,  mountains,  rivers, 
and  so  on;  while  we  neglect  to  instruct  in  the  weightier  matters  that  concern, 
life,  health,  prosperity,  and  happiness.  The  remedy  lies  in  placing  the  knowledge 
of  the  first  principles  of  hygiene  within  the  acquisition  of  every  person  of  the 
cornmunitv. 


ioo  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


HOW   SCIENCE   IS   HELPING  THE  FARMER. 

BT  CHAKLES  S.  PLUMB,  B.  S., 

DIRECTOR   INDIANA  AGRICULTURAL   EXPERIMENT   STATION. 

A  SCORE  or  more  years  ago,  when  Horace  Greeley  and  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  were  telling  the  American  public  what  they 
knew  about  farming,  there  was  quite  a  general  tendency  on  the 
part  of  the  agricultural  class  to  hold  up  to  ridicule  what  was 
termed  "  scientific  farming."  Great  claims  were  then  made  as  to 
the  importance  of  a  knowledge  of  science,  so  that  the  farmer 
might  analyze  the  soil,  crops,  fertilizers,  etc.  Especial  stress  was 
laid  upon  having  a  knowledge  of  chemistry,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
analyze  something.  Chemistry  was  to  be  the  panacea  for  all  the 
farmer's  ills,  and  writers  indiscriminately  quoted  Liebig,  Boussin- 
gault,  Johnston,  Lawes,  and  Gilbert,  and  other  famous  agricul- 
tural chemists.  There  was  much  book  farming  done  that  was  a 
source  of  amusement  for  practical  agriculturists.  Much  of  the 
written  matter  and  advice  published  was  worthless,  and  time  and 
the  labors  of  science  conclusively  demonstrated  as  much.  Early 
investigators,  engaged  in  faithful  and  hard  work,  gleaned  much 
information  of  scientific  importance,  and  eventually  overturned 
numerous  theories  that  had  hitherto  seemed  plausible.  Chief 
among  these  was  the  analysis  of  soils,  whereby  one  could  know 
the  composition  of  his  soil  and  at  once  determine  in  what  ingredi- 
ents of  plant  food  it  was  deficient,  so  that  he  might  feed  back  to 
it  the  lacking  elements.  Time  and  study  have  shown  that  soil  is 
a  very  complex  substance,  and  one  analysis  is  usually  quite  un- 
satisfactory, because  a  little  sample  of  soil  represents  only  a  small 
piece  of  ground,  perhaps  representing  quite  unfairly  the  entire 
field.  Consequently,  as  remarked  by  Dr.  Caldwell,*  soil  analyses 
are  not  thoroughly  practical,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  in  secur- 
ing a  sample  of  a  few  pounds  that  shall  correctly  represent  the 
millions  of  pounds  of  soil  in  even  a  single  acre,  to  say  nothing  of 
a  field  of  many  acres. 

Fifty  years  ago  Justus  von  Liebig,  a  German  chemist,  through 
an  interest  in  rural  economy  which  resulted  in  far-reaching  dis- 
coveries, established  himself  as  the  father  of  agricultural  chem- 
istry. His  investigations  largely  related  to  the  composition  of 
the  soil  and  plant  nutrition.  He  was  the  first  to  prove  that  plants 
fed  on  certain  ingredients  of  the  soil,  and  that  different  classes  of 
soils  and  plants  varied  in  their  composition.  Liebig's  was  the 
pioneer  work,  and  from  his  time  to  the  present  a  mass  of  scientific 
information  has  been  gradually  accumulating  that  in  numerous 
ways  is  serving  a  good  purpose. 

*  Agricultural  Science,  vol.  i,  p.  25. 


HOW  SCIENCE  IS  HELPING    THE  FARMER.         101 

Never  before  in  history  have  scientific  workers  been  so  prac- 
tical as  now.  We  live  in  essentially  a  practical  age,  and  men 
live  better,  more  intelligently,  and  more  easily  than  ever  before. 
Practical  problems  engage  the  attention  of  the  scientist  over  all 
others ;  and  so,  instead  of  ridicule,  science  as  applied  to  the  farm 
is  now  receiving  most  respectful  consideration,  for  the  work  is 
practical,  and  sound  practice  always  receives  respectful  attention. 

Science  is  knowledge.  There  is  no  scientific  farming.  The 
highest  type  of  farming  is  intelligent  farming.  The  intelligent 
farmer  of  to-day  is  simply  making  use  of  certain  scientific  facts 
that  have  a  practical  application. 

For  a  half  century  science  has  been  laboring  in  the  interests 
of  agriculture.  This  year  the  United  States  appropriates  nearly 
one  million  dollars  for  scientific  experimentation  as  applied  to 
agriculture.  And  yet  but  few  farmers  realize  how  material  is  the 
assistance  being  given  the  agricultural  classes  of  the  country 
through  the  direct  application  of  accomplished  scientific  work. 
In  view  of  this  condition  of  affairs,  in  the  following  pages  I  pro- 
pose to  give  illustrations  of  what  is  now  in  practical  use,  show- 
ing how  science  has  helped  and  is  helping  the  farmer.  These 
examples  signify  something.  They  mean  a  saving  of  millions  of 
dollars  to  the  people  of  the  country.  Millions  have  been  saved  to 
the  farmers  in  the  past ;  millions  will  be  saved  in  the  future ; 
and  all  through  the  aid  of  scientific  research. 

The  first  real  substantial  assistance  received  by  the  farming 
public  from  science  was  in  the  examination  and  inspection  of 
commercial  fertilizers.  Liebig  demonstrated  that  plants  secured 
most  of  their  nutrition  from  soil  ingredients.  Nitrogen,  potash, 
and  phosphoric  acid  were  those  most  in  demand  by  the  plant,  and 
where  crops  were  removed  from  the  soil  these  articles  of  plant 
food  were  diminished,  thereby  reducing  cropping  capacity.  Soil 
exhaustion  in  a  measure  followed  if  these  substances  were  not 
returned  to  feed  subsequent  crops.  Natural  manures  (animal 
excrement)  contained  nitrogen,  potash,  and  phosphoric  acid ;  con- 
sequently soil  fertility  could  be  maintained  by  the  application  of 
these.  But  chemistry  here  came  to  the  farmer's  aid,  by  suggest- 
ing that  the  various  essentials  of  plant  food  be  supplied  in  arti- 
ficially prepared  form.  Nitrogen  could  be  obtained  from  Peruvian 
guano  and  animal  matter,  potash  from  wood  ashes  or  German 
salts,  and  phosphoric  acid  from  bones ;  consequently  these  sub- 
stances could  be  supplied  as  desired.  With  the  propagation  of 
this  idea  was  developed  the  commercial  fertilizer,  and  artificial 
manures  were  made  and  sold  on  the  market  as  is  any  other  com- 
modity. However,  it  was  not  long  before  much  fraudulent  ma- 
terial found  its  way  into  the  buyer's  hands ;  many  dealers  were 
not  honest,  and  farmers  were  often  outrageously  swindled.  Here, 


102  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

again,  the  chemists  came  to  the  assistance  of  agriculture.  Ferti- 
lizers could  be  analyzed,  their  component  parts  determined,  and 
purchasers  might  learn  how  many  pounds  of  plant  food  a  ton  of 
artificial  manure  contained.  Nitrogen,  potash,  and  phosphoric 
acid  each  had  a  commercial  value  per  pound ;  consequently  the 
chemist  could  easily  determine  in  a  fair  manner  the  value  of  a 
ton  of  fertilizer. 

In  1872,  through  the  efforts  of  Dr.  C.  A.  Goessmann,  Professor 
of  Chemistry  in  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Legislature  passed  a  law  appointing  a  State  inspector 
of  fertilizers,  requiring  that  all  fertilizer  manufacturers  making 
a  fertilizer  having  a  valuation  of  over  twelve  dollars  a  ton  should 
print  on  a  tag  attached  to  the  bag  or  barrel  containing  the  same  the 
percentage  of  nitrogen,  potash,  and  phosphoric  acid  in  the  brand 
sold.  Samples  of  all  fertilizers  selling  for  over  twelve  dollars  per 
ton  had  first  to  be  analyzed  by  the  State  chemist  before  they  could 
be  sold  in  the  market ;  and  this  officer,  designated  "  inspector," 
was  authorized  to  sample  and  analyze  any  or  all  fertilizers  sold 
in  the  State.  This  Massachusetts  law  was  at  first  more  or  less 
imperfect,  but  it  was  later  on  amended  and  made  eminently  satis- 
factory to  both  the  manufacturer  and  the  consumer.  Other  States 
followed  the  example  of  Massachusetts,  and  to-day  there  is  not  a 
State  in  the  Union  handling  fertilizers  to  any  extent  that  has  not 
upon  its  statute-books  laws  patterned  to  some  degree  after  the 
Massachusetts  idea,  and  as  a  result  manufacturers  can  not  with 
safety  sell  the  farmers  shoddy  fertilizers.  Now  and  then  a  fraud- 
ulent fertilizer  appears,  but  its  sale  is  quickly  stopped  by  the 
chemist's  exposure.  Only  a  short  time  ago  (the  summer  of  1890) 
two  fertilizers  were  suddenly  placed  upon  the  Indiana  market  and 
sold  for  $27.50  and  $22.50  per  ton,  respectively.  These  were  ana- 
lyzed by  the  State  chemist,  and  the  former  was  found  to  have  a 
value  of  $5.76  and  the  latter  of  $4.44  per  ton.  These  were  out- 
and-out  swindles ;  yet,  had  it  not  been  for  a  prompt  publication 
from  the  State  Experiment  Station  at  Purdue  University  as  to 
their  real  character,  many  farmers  of  the  State  of  Indiana  would 
have  been  unmercifully  swindled.  In  view  of  the  fact  that 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  fertilizers  are  sold  yearly  in  the 
United  States,  one  can  readily  understand  how  great  is  the  sum 
of  money  that  is  being  yearly  saved  to  the  farmers  of  the  country 
through  the  interposition  of  the  chemist. 

In  the  Eastern  and  more  populous  part  of  the  United  States, 
which  has  been  long  under  cultivation,  farm  manures  are  more 
highly  valued  than  in  the  newer  regions  of  the  country.  For 
years  investigators  have  advised  that  stable  manure  be  handled 
economicall}7".  Chemists  argued  that,  unless  properly  protected, 
these  manures  would  lose  much  of  their  valuable  properties, 


HOW  SCIENCE  IS  HELPING   THE  FARMER.         103 

mainly  through  rain  leaching  away  the  soluble  plant  food.  Fig- 
ures supplied  from  foreign  investigation  were  used  to  prove  the 
point.  Finally,  in  1889  the  Cornell  University  Agricultural  Ex- 
periment Station  did  some  practical  work  to  demonstrate  how 
farmyard  manure  would  deteriorate  by  leaching  and  fermenta- 
tion.* It  was  shown  that  one  ton  of  fresh  horse  manure  had  a 
valuation  of  $2.45,  but  exposed  outdoors  for  six  months  its  valu- 
ation was  $1.42,  a  loss  of  $1.03  per  ton,  or  forty-two  per  cent. 
Mixed  horse  and  cow  manure,  after  leaching  for  six  months, 
showed  a  loss  of  9'2  per  cent,  a  less  amount,  no  doubt,  than  occurs 
on  the  average  farm. 

At  the  present  time,  while  there  is  a  vast  loss  of  plant  food  to 
the  farms  through  the  improper  care  of  the  manure  produced 
thereon,  there  is  at  the  same  time  saved  to  economic  use  an  enor- 
mous amount  of  fertility  through  the  careful  husbanding  of  the 
materials  as  produced  upon  the  farms  of  those  who  are  intelli- 
gent and  economical.  We  must  give  scientific  investigation  the 
credit  for  thus  showing  husbandmen  how  important  farm  losses 
may  be  prevented ;  the  numerous  devices  at  present  used  on  the 
farm  for  conserving  manures,  such  as  manure  sheds,  pits,  cellars, 
etc.,  are  money-saving  equipments. 

In  a  somewhat  different  direction,  yet  in  a  line  where  the  work 
of  the  chemist  is  of  equal  if  not  greater  importance  than  in  fer- 
tilizer control,  is  the  inspection  of  milk.  Milk  is  the  most  essen- 
tial article  of  food  for  human  consumption,  for,  properly  used,  it 
is  as  nearly  a  perfect  food  as  is  known.  But  milk  is  a  fluid,  and 
as  such  is  easily  adulterated.  It  consists  of  from  eighty-five  to 
eighty-eight  per  cent  water,  and  twelve  to  fifteen  per  cent  solid 
substance — as  fat,  casein  (cheesy  matter),  albumen,  sugar,  and  ash. 
On  the  percentage  and  purity  of  solids  in  milk  is  its  quality 
mainly  dependent.  After  the  selling  of  milk  became  a  recognized 
industry,  adulteration  came  more  or  less  to  be  practiced.  The 
pump  was  brought  into  requisition.  Flour,  chalk,  and  other  in- 
gredients were  used  to  thicken  it.  In  1872  Dr.  C.  F.  Chandler,  of 
Columbia  College,  stated  f  that,  from  long-continued  investiga- 
tion, the  milk  supply  of  New  York  and  Boston  receives  on  an 
average  one  quart  of  water  to  every  three  quarts  of  pure  milk  be- 
fore reaching  consumers.  He  further  says, "  With  the  addition  of 
water  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  three  before  delivering  to  con- 
sumers, we  find  milk-growers  deprived  of  a  business  which  would 
return  to  them  $1,390,000  yearly,  at  an  average  first  price  of  fifteen 
cents  per  gallon,  city  consumers,  on  the  other  hand,  paying  more 
than  $3,700,000  annually  for  water." 

*  Cornell  University  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Bulletin  13,  December,  1889. 
t  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  for  1872,  p.  335. 


104  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Here  the  dairy  farmer  was  either  injuring  his  own  interests  or 
some  other  fellow  was  hurting  it.  The  intelligent  producer  real- 
izes that  anything  that  is  done  to  injure  the  character  of  market 
milk  injures  the  general  trade.  Were  pure  milk  always  placed 
on  the  market,  a  better  price  could  be  secured  for  it,  and  there 
would  not  be  the  extensive  sale  for  patent  baby  foods  and  con- 
densed milk  that  there  now  is.  To  remedy  this  evil  it  became 
necessary  to  treat  milk  in  a  measure  as  the  fertilizers  were  treated, 
or,  in  other  words,  determine  the  character  of  milk  by  analysis. 
As  in  fertilizer  control,  so  in  milk  inspection,  Massachusetts  was 
a  pioneer  worker.  The  first  act  to  punish  fraud  in  the  sale  of 
adulterated  milk  in  Massachusetts  was  passed  by  the  Legislature 
in  1856.  This  law  was  ineffective,  so  in  1859  a  new  law  was  en- 
acted, which  provided  for  the  appointment  of  milk  inspectors  in 
towns  and  cities,  whose  duties  it  should  be  to  detect  adulteration 
of  milk,  and  secure  the  conviction  and  punishment  of  offenders. 
This  law  has  since  been  frequently  amended  and  improved.  At 
the  present  time  the  Massachusetts  law  requires  all  milk  to  con- 
tain at  least  thirteen  per  cent  solids,  and  milk  containing  less  than 
that  amount  is  condemned.  Since  the  Massachusetts  law  was 
first  enacted  the  more  progressive  dairy  States  of  the  Union  have 
passed  laws  to  prevent  deception  in  the  sale  of  dairy  products, 
and  usually  twelve  per  cent  of  solids  is  required  in  the  milk 
sold  in  the  market.  The  London  (England)  milk  supply  is  care- 
fully watched  by  inspectors.  The  Aylesbury  Dairy  Company 
of  London  is  the  largest  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  During  1891 
chemists  analyzed  21,855  samples  of  the  milk  of  this  company, 
and  found  before  delivery  12*75,  during  delivery  1274,  and  after 
delivery  12'81  per  cent  solids,  showing  a  very  good  grade  of 
milk.* 

That  substance  which  makes  milk  most  palatable  is  the  fat  in 
it.  Good  milk  should  have  four  or  five ;  cream,  eighteen  to  twen- 
ty-five, and  butter,  eighty  to  eighty-five  per  cent  of  fat.  Skim 
milk,  or  thin,  insipid,  disagreeable  milk,  contains  a  small  amount 
of  milk  fat.  When  we  speak  of  rich  milk,  we  mean  that  which 
contains  a  large  percentage  of  this  substance.  There  are  in  the 
United  States  many  thousands  of  cows,  each  of  which  does  not 
produce  over  one  fourth  or  one  half  the  amount  of  butter  it 
should.  The  claim  is  made  f  that  the  average  yield  of  our  dairy 
cows  is  not  over  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  pounds  of  butter  a 
year,  whereas  it  should  be  three  hundred  pounds  at  the  least. 
Some  cows  produce  a  much  larger  percentage  of  fat  or  butter  in 
their  milk  than  do  others.  The  farmer  should  own  the  better 


*  Milch  Zeitung,  xxl,  Nos.  11  and  12. 

f  The  Dairy  Industry,  by  Peter  Collier,  New  York,  1889,  p.  8. 


HOW  SCIENCE  IS  HELPING   THE  FARMER.         105 

class  of  the  two,  the  butter  dairyman  can  only  afford  to  keep  prof- 
itable cows,  and  the  thousands  of  creameries  over  the  country 
can  not  afford  to  purchase  good  and  poor  milk  for  one  and  the 
same  price,  for  that  is  unjust  to  the  person  supplying  the  best 
grade  of  milk.  Consequently,  for  some  years  chemists  have  been 
laboring  to  invent  some  simple  method  of  determining  the  per- 
centage of  fat  in  milk,  so  that  creamery  men  and  farmers  with  a 
common  education  might  be  able  to  use  it,  and  thus  test  their 
milk  accurately.  The  first  method  for  practical  application  among 
farmers  to  attract  very  general  attention  was  that  devised  by  Mr. 
F.  G.  Short,  chemist  to  the  Wisconsin  Experiment  Station,  whose 
method  was  published  in  1888.*  This,  however,  was  somewhat 
complex,  and  too  slow  of  operation.  Other  methods  were  after- 
ward developed  by  Messrs.  Patrick,  Parsons,  Cochran,  Babcock, 
etc.  Dr.  S.  M.  Babcock,  while  chemist  at  the  New  York  State  Ex- 
periment Station,  did  much  valuable  work  in  the  study  of  milk 
and  its  products,  and  in  1889,  after  becoming  chemist  of  the  State 
Experiment  Station  at  Madison,  Wis.,  he  developed  and  brought 
out  a  method  for  testing  the  fat  in  milk  or  cream  that  is  now  a 
recognized  success.  The  method  is  simple,  and  can  easily  be  per- 
formed by  any  person  of  fair  intelligence.  Equal  quantities  of 
milk  and  sulphuric  acid  are  placed  in  specially  constructed  bot- 
tles, and  these  put  in  a  simple  machine,  largely  consisting  of  a  tin 
cylinder  or  wheel,  about  fifteen  or  twenty  inches  in  diameter,  re- 
volving on  its  side,  within  which,  after  the  manner  of  spokes,  are 
cups  or  pockets,  in  which  these  bottles  are  placed.  The  wheel  is 
revolved  by  a  crank  and  cog  movement,  and  by  centrifugal  force 
and  the  action  of  the  acid  the  fat  in  the  milk  is  separated  from 
the  rest  of  the  fluid.  Enough  hot  water  is  added  to  each  bottle 
to  fill  the  measuring  neck,  and  the  fat,  after  five  or  six  minutes' 
turning  of  the  machine,  comes  to  the  top  clear  and  yellow,  after 
which  the  amount  present  may  be  read  upon  the  graduated  lines 
on  the  sides  of  the  long  neck  of  the  bottle.  The  milk  of  as  many 
as  twenty-four  cows  can  be  tested  in  an  hour.  Machines  of  from 
four  to  fifty  bottles  capacity  are  manufactured: 

This  invention,  the  result  of  long  and  laborious  scientific  re- 
search, is  not  patented,  and  is  largely  used  in  the  creameries  of 
Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Illinois,  and  many  other  States  in  the  purchas- 
ing of  milk.  The  patrons  of  the  creameries  are  paid  for  their 
milk  according  to  its  quality,  as  decided  by  the  Babcock  machine. 
Such  a  method  as  this  is  a  blessing  to  the  country,  for  it  informs 
the  farmer  if  his  milk  is  inferior  to  that  of  his  neighbor,  and  will 
consequently  incite  him  to  improve  his  stock. 

*  University  of  Wisconsin  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Bulletin  No.  16,  July,  1888. 
A  New  Method  for  determining  Fat  in 


106  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  Babcock  milk-testing  macliine  is  now  just  as  generally 
sold  by  dairy  firms  as  is  an  improved  churn  or  butter- worker. 

One  of  the  most  wonderful  of  agricultural  inventions  is  the 
centrifugal  or  milk  separator.  Briefly,  this  machine  is  designed 
to  separate  the  cream  from  the  milk  as  soon  as  drawn  from  the 
cow,  thus  dispensing  with  the  old  process  of  setting  milk  and 
waiting  for  the  cream  to  rise  by  gravity.  At  the  International 
Dairy  Show  at  Hamburg,  in  1877,  an  instrument  was  exhibited* 
consisting  of  two  wheels  in  a  stand,  one  of  which  actuated  the 
other  by  means  of  a  belt.  In  the  upper  wheel  four  glass  tubes 
containing  milk  were  securely  placed,  and  the  lower  wheel  was 
then  revolved,  giving  the  upper  upward  of  one  thousand  revolu- 
tions per  minute.  Whirling  at  this  speed  brought  centrifugal 
force  to  bear  on  the  milk  in  the  tubes,  and  the  cream,  being  light- 
est, collected  at  one  end  and  the  skim  milk  at  the  other,  f 

In  1879  De  Laval,  a  Swede,  exhibited  to  the  British  public  at 
Kilburn  a  centrifugal  separator  entirely  unlike  the  preceding  one, 
and  this  machine  of  De  Laval,  in  principle  and  general  plan,  is 
the  form  now  commonly  used  over  Europe  and  America.  Milk, 
warm  from  the  cow,  is  conveyed  into  a  hollow  steel  drum  about 
ten  inches  in  diameter,  which  is  made  to  revolve  six  thousand  to 
seven  thousand  times  per  minute  within  a  slightly  larger  metal 
chamber.  The  skim  milk,  being  heavier,  is  thrown  to  the  outside, 
and  passes  off  through  a  tube  which  rises  from  a  point  in  the 
skim  milk  where  the  least  amount  of  fat  exists  to  the  upper  edge 
of  the  drum ;  while  the  lighter  cream  rises  near  the  center  of  the 
drum  and  passes  off  through  another  hole,  coming  out  of  the 
separator  on  the  opposite  side  from  the  skim  milk.  One  or  two 
thousand  pounds  of  milk  an  hour  may  be  creamed  with  this  ma- 
chine, when  run  by  horse  or  steam  power.  Several  other  designs 
of  centrifugals  have  more  recently  been  invented,  some  of  greater 
capacity  than  the  De  Laval,  but  at  the  present  day  the  modern  De 
Laval's  is  unsurpassed.  For  small  dairies  De  Laval  invented  a 
hand  separator,  which  is  known  as  "the  baby  separator."  With 
the  No.  2  size  one  person  can  separate  the  cream  from  three  hun- 
dred pounds  of  milk  in  an  hour,  the  drum  making  six  thousand 
revolutions  per  minute  to  forty-two  turns  of  the  crank. 

The  manufacture  of  this  cream  separator  has  been  followed 
by  the  invention  and  introduction  within  the  past  two  years  of  a 
combined  cream  separator  and  butter  extractor,  which  makes  it 


*  Sheldon,  Dairy  Farming,  p.  303. 

f  An  editorial  in  Farm  and  Fireside,  for  June  1,  1892,  states  that  the  cream  separator 
has  been  in  process  of  evolution  for  thirty-three  years,  and  that  the  first  known  application 
of  centrifugal  force  for  creaming  milk  was  made  in  1859.  Dairy  authorities,  so  far  as  I  can 
learn,  give  no  data  on  the  subject  preceding  that  quoted  above  in  the  text. — C.  S.  P. 


HOW  SCIENCE  IS  HELPING    THE  FARMER.         107 

practicable  to  run  milk  into  the  machine  and  take  from  it  butter, 
thus  avoiding  the  handling  of  the  cream  at  all. 

The  cream  separator  enables  the  dairyman  to  dispense  with 
numerous  utensils  ordinarily  used  in  setting  milk,  and  in  hot 
climates  is  invaluable,  as  it  saves  much  of  the  great  expense  of 
ice.  Centrifugal  cream  is  unexcelled.  In  a  comparatively  few 
years  these  valuable  dairy  utensils  will  be  commonly  found  in  use 
on  the  dairy  farms  of  the  country. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  man  have  agricultural  plants 
apparently  suffered  so  greatly  from  parasitic  vegetable  growths 
and  injurious  insects.  The  conditions  of  growth  have  been  made 
so  much  more  intense  for  many  plants  that  they  have  in  conse- 
quence, in  certain  directions,  thus  made  themselves  more  vulner- 
able to  the  attacks  of  parasites  and  insects.  Some  insects  have 
been  deprived  of  their  normal  food  in  a  large  degree,  and  have 
sought  sustenance  in  agricultural  crops.  The  destruction  of  these 
ravagers  meant  the  saving  of  valuable  crops ;  consequently  much 
important  experimental  work  has  been  accomplished  with  fungi- 
cides and  insecticides. 

For  two  score  of  years  the  grape  rot  has  caused  immense 
damage  in  the  vineyards  of  the  Eastern  United  States.  A  small 
plant,  so  minute  as  to  require  a  high-power  microscope  to  bring 
it  to  view,  feeds  upon  the  juices  of  the  tender  leaves  and  ber- 
ries of  the  grape,  blasting  and  ruining  the  fruit.  The  parasite 
matures  and  ripens  its  spores  or  seeds  in  vast  quantities,  and 
these  are  blown  over  adjacent  vines  and  the  disease  more  widely 
scattered. 

Within  a  few  years  the  botanists  of  both  Europe  and  America 
began  to  devise  means  to  prevent  this  malady.  After  long  ex- 
perimental work  with  fungicides  and  spraying  machines,  a  mix- 
ture of  sulphate  of  copper  (six  pounds),  unslaked  lime  (four 
pounds),  and  water  (forty-five  gallons),  termed  Bordeaux  mixture, 
was  adopted,*  which,  when  sprayed  on  the  vines  several  times 
during  the  growing  season  before  the  grapes  became  ripe,  com- 
pletely prevented  the  ravages  of  the  rot.  Applications  are  made 
after  the  buds  have  started,  and  four  or  five  times  later  on.  Ex- 
periments, generally  conducted  by  scientists  with  the  Bordeaux 
mixture,  have  shown  it  to  be  most  excellent  for  preventing  nu- 
merous diseases  of  plants  caused  by  parasitic  growth.  The  method 
is  cheap,  and  small  hand  machines,  or  large  pump  tanks  with 
spraying  attachments  and  drawn  by  teams,  are  made,  by  which 
one  can  rapidly  and  effectively  spray  large  areas  at  comparatively 
slight  expense.  So  extensive  is  the  use  of  Bordeaux  mixture  be- 
coming that  all  along  the  Hudson  and  in  other  grape  regions,  in 

*  American  Gardening,  April,  1892,  p.  260. 


io8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

vineyards  of  the  country,  this  is  the  method  employed  to  save  the 
crop  from  black  rot,  mildew,  etc. 

In  the  cereal-growing  regions,  oats  and  wheat  are  frequently 
damaged  by  the  ravages  of  smut,  a  disease  nearly  all  farmers  are 
familiar  with,  which  destroys  the  seed  or  the  entire  head.  This 
smut  is  a  mass  of  spores  or  seeds  of  a  parasitic  plant  ripened  in 
the  seed  grain.  The  spores  are  scattered  over  the  field,  and  min- 
gle among  the  grain  when  thrashed  out.  The  grain  is  planted  in 
the  fall  or  spring,  and  the  spores  of  the  parasite  germinate  and 
grow  along  with  the  young  plant,  feeding  on  its  juices.  When 
the  head  of  the  plant  begins  to  mature  its  seed  it  is  blasted  by  the 
smut. 

A  simple  remedy  has  been  devised  to  combat  the  smut  of  oats 
and  what  is  known  as  "  bunt "  or  stinking  smut  of  wheat.  Inves- 
tigations begun  by  Prof.  Jensen,  a  Danish  scientist,  and  also  con- 
ducted at  the  Kansas  and  Purdue  University  Experiment  Sta- 
tions, conclusively  show  that  by  soaking  the  seeds  of  these  cereals 
in  water  at  a  temperature  of  135°  to  140°  Fahr.  for  five  minutes 
all  the  spores  were  killed,  and  the  crop  from  the  treated  seed 
would  grow  free  of  the  malady.  This  simple  method,  costing 
nothing  for  materials,  bids  fair  to  be  extensively  used  in  future. 
It  is  estimated,  as  a  result  of  investigation,  that  ten  per  cent  of  the 
oat  crop  is  destroyed  by  smut.  In  1889  the  oat  crop  of  Indiana 
amounted  to  28,710,935  bushels.  The  value  of  the  estimated  ten 
per  cent  of  loss  is  $797,526  for  3,190,104  bushels  of  oats  at  25  cents 
a  bushel.  Certainly,  if  this  sum  can  be  saved  it  should  be. 

Few  people  realize  the  enormous  loss  to  agriculture  through 
the  ravages  of  insects.  In  his  annual  address  before  the  Associa- 
tion of  Economic  Entomologists  at  Washington  in  August,  1891, 
Mr.  James  Fletcher,  the  president,  gave  important  facts  concern- 
ing the  extent  of  the  losses  from  insect  ravages.  In  1864,  Dr. 
Shimer  estimated  the  loss  to  the  corn  and  grain  crops  of  Illinois 
to  be  $73,000,000.  In  1874,  Dr.  Riley  estimated  a  loss  to  Missouri 
by  insects  of  $19,000,000.  In  1887,  Prof.  Osborne,  of  the  Iowa  Agri- 
cultural College,  estimated  the  loss  to  Iowa  by  insects  at  $25,000,- 
000.  Mr.  L.  O.  Howard,  in  1887,  estimates  $60,000,000  losses  from 
chinch  bug  in  nine  States ;  and  Prof.  Comstock  estimates  that  the 
cotton  Aletia  in  1879  caused  a  loss  of  $30,000,000  in  the  cotton 
States.  Finally,  Mr.  Fletcher  estimates  $380,000,000  as  the  sum 
total  per  year  for  losses  from  insect  ravages. 

There  are  numerous  illustrations  available  to  demonstrate 
how  great  are  the  services  of  scientific  research,  from  an  ento- 
mological point  of  view,  to  agriculture,  but  I  will  refer  to  only 
three,  as  these  are  of  striking  interest  and  serve  to  illustrate  the 
work. 

The  citrus  industry  of   California  is  a  great  one,  involving 


HOW  SCIENCE  IS  HELPING   THE  FARMER.         109 

hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars.  What  is  known  as  the  fluted 
scale  insect  had  for  about  twenty-five  years  a  foothold  in  the 
orange  and  lemon  groves,  and  bade  fair  to  cause  enormous  losses 
to  the  orchardists.  A  study  was  made  of  the  parasites  affecting 
this  scale  insect,  and  in  1888  the  United  States  Government  sent 
two  entomologists  to  Australia  to  study  the  parasites  of  the  scale 
insects  in  that  country,  and  bring  live  specimens  to  California  to 
distribute  in  the  orange  and  lemon  groves.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
these  parasites  rapidly  multiplied  and  fed  upon  both  the  white 
and  fluted  scale,  to  their  destruction.  With  surprising  rapidity 
the  beneficial  insect  destroyed  the  injurious  one.  Says  Dr.  C.  V. 
Riley,  United  States  Entomologist,*  "  The  history  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  pest  (scale  insect),  its  spread  for  upward  of  twenty 
years,  and  the  discouragement  which  resulted,  the  numerous  ex- 
periments which  were  made  to  overcome  the  insect,  and  its  final 
reduction  to  unimportant  numbers  by  means  of  an  apparently  in- 
significant little  beetle  imported  for  the  purpose  from  Australia, 
will  always  remain  one  of  the  most  interesting  stories  in  the  rec- 
ords of  practical  entomology." 

I  have  just  quoted  Mr.  Howard's  statement  that  the  chinch 
bug  in  1887  caused  $60,000,000  of  losses  in  nine  States.  A  few 
years  ago  the  attention  of  entomologists  was  drawn  to  the  fact 
that  chinch  bugs  occasionally  died  in  large  numbers  from  a  pecul- 
iar disease.  The  bugs  were  found  on  the  ground  dead  and  cov- 
ered with  a  white  fungus.  This  disease  seemed  to  be  infectious, 
and  several  entomologists  gave  special  attention  to  the  matter. 
Prof.  F.  H.  Snow,  of  the  University  of  Kansas,  pushed  the  inves- 
tigation and  thought  it  possible  to  artificially  induce  the  disease 
and  communicate  it  to  healthy  bugs,  and  thus  diminish  their 
numbers,  and  for  the  past  three  years  Prof.  Snow  has  worked 
upon  this  line.  The  Legislature  of  Kansas  appropriated  $3,500 
for  carrying  on  his  investigations  during  1891-'92. 

In  his  annual  report  to  the  Governor  of  Kansas,  describing  his 
investigations,  Prof.  Snow  gives  a  list  of  1,400  persons  who  con- 
ducted experiments  under  his  direction  in  1891,  to  assist  in  dis- 
seminating the  disease.  Of  these  1,071  were  successful,  181  unsuc- 
cessful, and  148  doubtful,  in  their  attempts.  As  a  result  of  their 
season's  work,  Prof.  Snow  estimates  that,  on  the  basis  of  the  re- 
ports rendered,  $200,000  in  crops  were  saved  to  those  1,071  persons 
who  worked  under  his  instruction.!  Four  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  farmers  reported  to  him  an  estimated  saving  of  $87,244.10 
through  scattering  the  diseased  insects  among  the  healthy,  thus 


*  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  Report,  1889,  pp.  334,  335. 
f  University  of  Kansas  Experiment  Station,  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Director,  for  the 
Year  1891,  p.  171. 


no  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

resulting  in  the  rapid  destruction  of  all.  While  this  is  experi- 
mental work,  and  may  not  invariably  give  the  satisfactory  results 
to  be  wished  for,  it  illustrates  in  a  striking  manner  one  way  in 
which  science  is  working  in  the  interests  of  agriculture. 

In  1887  what  is  known  as  the  gypsy  moth  (Ocneria  dispar)  was 
discovered  in  eastern  Massachusetts.  This  insect  was  originally 
brought  to  Massachusetts  from  France,  where  it  is  exceedingly  de- 
structive to  vegetation,  and  especially  the  foliage  of  trees.  When 
first  found  in  Massachusetts  its  character  was  not  known  by  the 
finder,  but  when  later  examined  by  Prof.  Fernald,  of  the  State 
Agricultural  College,  he,  knowing  its  nature,  at  once  began  an  in- 
vestigation to  ascertain  how  much  of  a  foothold  it  had  in  the 
State.  It  was  located  in  numerous  towns.  The  Legislature  was 
advised  of  the  dangerous  character  of  the  insect.  A  State  law 
was  enacted  to  provide  against  the  depredations  of  the  gypsy 
moth.  Several  commissioners  were  appointed  and  money  appro- 
priated to  eradicate  the  insect.  During  the  entire  growing  season 
of  1892  bands  of  men  were  engaged  in  destroying  this  insect  in 
its  various  forms,  and  every  effort  is  being  made  to  prevent  its 
further  increase. 

Perhaps  the  most  serviceable  labor  given  by  science  to  the 
cultivator,  in  its  application  to  insects,  is  the  invention  and  per- 
fection of  insecticides.  A  great  number  of  experiments  have 
been  conducted  in  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  stations 
over  the  country  with  solutions  and  powders  with  which  to  kill 
injurious  insects.  Arsenic  in  different  preparations,  carbolized 
plaster,  kerosene,  hellebore,  pyrethrum,  hot  water,  and  Bordeaux 
mixture  have  been  in  use  and  tested  in  many  ways,  so  that,  as  a 
result  of  this  work,  standard  insecticides  can  be  recommended  to 
farmers  generally,  which  may  be  easily  made  at  home  out  of  sim- 
ple ingredients.  What  is  termed  the  kerosene  emulsion  is  per- 
haps, all  things  considered,  the  best  general  insecticide  in  use. 
This  may  be  made  as  follows,  following  Cook's  directions :  *  Dis- 
solve in  two  quarts  of  water  one  quart  of  soft  soap  or  one  fourth 
pound  of  hard  soap,  by  heating  to  boiling ;  then  add  one  pint  of 
kerosene  oil,  and  stir  violently  for  from  three  to  five  minutes. 
This  can  then  be  diluted  with  twice  its  bulk  of  water  for  use. 
This  emulsion  will  destroy  lice  on  both  live  stock  and  plants. 

Finally,  we  have  in  the  United  States  nearly  fifty  experiment 
stations  where  trained  men  are  working  in  the  interests  of  agri- 
culture— men  whose  one  aim  is  to  conduct  research  of  benefit  to 
mankind.  Considering  this  fact,  and  that  numerous  scientists 
outside  of  the  stations  are  also  engaged  in  a  class  of  work  that  of 

*  Michigan  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Bulletin  76,  October,  1891,  p.  5.  Kero- 
sene emulsion. 


DIETARY  FOR   THE  SICK.  111 

necessity  is  of  value  to  agriculture,  farmers  should  feel  satisfied 
that  their  interests  are  being  well  looked  after  outside  the  pale  of 
politics.  It  requires  no  effort  to  emphatically  show  that  already 
many,  many  millions  of  dollars  have  been  gained  to  agriculture 
through  the  disinterested  efforts  of  scientists.  Scientific  investi- 
gation will  continue  in  the  future  as  it  has  in  the  past,  and  it  is 
fair  to  assume  that  each  year  will  see  much  good  work  done. 
Certainly  no  other  class  of  labor  is  receiving  greater  benefits  from 
science  than  is  agriculture  at  the  present  day. 


DIETARY  FOR  THE  SICK. 

BY  SIR  DYCE  DUCKWORTH,  M.D.,  LL.D., 

PHYSICIAN  AND   LECTURER   ON  MEDICINE   AT    ST.    BARTHOLOMEW'S   HOSPITAL; 
HON.   PHYSICIAN  TO   H.  R.  H.   THE   PRINCE   OF   WALES. 

IN"  the  practice  of  medicine  as  now  carried  on,  one  marked 
feature  is  the  particular  and  detailed  attention  directed  to  the 
diet.  It  thus  happens  that  as  much  heed  is  paid  to  "kitchen 
physic"  as  to  pharmaceutical  agents.  Dietetics,  according  to 
modern  enlightenment,  has  secured  careful  study,  more  particu- 
larly within  the  last  quarter  of  this  century,  and  the  subject  was 
certainly  insufficiently  appreciated  before  that  time.  Now,  guided 
by  the  researches  of  the  physiologist  and  the  chemist,  we  have 
more  exact  knowledge  to  bring  to  bear  in  the  dietetic  treatment 
of  many  morbid  states,  and  a  good  deal  of  this  knowledge  is  now 
well  established  and  beyond  dispute. 

The  duty  of  the  practical  physician  is  to  apply  this  knowledge 
and  to  test  it  in  his  efforts  to  re-establish  health.  And  here,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  employment  of  drugs,  we  have  to  consider  the 
clinical  side  of  the  question,  apart  from  the  researches  of  the 
physiologist  and  the  chemist  in  their  laboratories.  The  progress 
of  our  art  depends  on  the  steady  work  of  both  sets  of  investiga- 
tors. The  ultimate  appeal  is  to  the  clinical  results.  In  the  matter 
of  diet  we  meet  with  strange  differences  of  opinion — differences 
relating  to  the  employment  and  value  of  sometimes  very  simple 
forms  of  aliment.  Some  of  these  plainly  arise  from  ignorance  in 
respect  of  the  properties  and  qualities  of  certain  foods.  Some  of 
them  result  from  the  foisting  of  mere  personal  or  of  very  limited 
experience  of  such  articles  on  patients ;  and  some  of  them  can  only 
be  described  as  mere  vagaries  and  "  fads." 

The  whole  subject  has  naturally  a  large  interest  for  several 
classes  of  patients,  notably  among  the  well-to-do,  the  luxurious, 
the  hypochondriacal,  and  the  dyspeptic.  Such  persons  having 
exhausted  many  methods  of  drug  treatment,  resorted  to  spas, 


112  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

undergone  massage  with  incarceration,  and  found  temporary  sal- 
vation in  sipping  hot  water,  pass  from  one  consultant  to  another 
seeking  the  last  new  paradox  in  dietetics.  They  will  continue  to 
do  so,  and  the  more  if  they  fall  into  the  hands  of  those  who  give 
them  really  judicious  advice.  They  dislike  that,  and  it  is  indeed 
seldom  helpful  to  such  persons.  In  this  brief  communication  I 
shall  have  nothing  to  say  in  respect  of  them. 

We  may  fairly  remark  that  we  are  in  danger  of  being  per- 
plexed by  the  number  of  patent  and  proprietary  articles  of  food 
daily  brought  under  our  notice.  The  chemists,  especially  the 
Continental  and  American,  try  to  help  us  in  our  daily  work  by 
contriving  the  most  subtle,  and  often  palatable,  preparations  of 
nutrient  materials.  And,  not  content  with  this,  they  would  fain 
abolish  almost  the  entire  Pharmacopoeia,  and  offer  food  and  physic 
in  one  ;  aiding  themselves  in  this  bold  effort  by  the  most  fantastic 
and  obtrusive  advertisements,  which  pass  one's  best  ingenuity  to 
escape  from.  Strange  to  say,  they  compel  attention  from  persons 
who  should  know  better,  and  should  use  calm  judgment  in  sweep- 
ing most  of  them  aside.  So  it  happens  that  one  frequently  finds 
many  of  these  vaunted  preparations  in  use  by  persons  who  have 
not  even  a  bare  knowledge  of  their  qualities  and  powers  for  good 
or  evil. 

The  mischief  of  all  this  in  respect  of  foods  and  new  drugs  is, 
as  I  have  before  now  stated,  that  the  practitioners  in  trying,  as 
they  think,  to  keep  pace  with  the  times,  lose  their  hold  of  well- 
approved  methods  and  therapeutic  agents,  which  drop  out  to  make 
way  for  something  new  and  unapproved.  They  thus  fail  in  the 
art  of  medicine,  which  I  make  bold  to  say  is  less  well  established 
to-day  than  it  was,  in  many  respects,  half  a  century  ago,  and 
chiefly  because  of  this  pursuit  of  novelties. 

We  have  witnessed  many  changes  of  opinion  respecting  some 
of  the  commonest  articles  of  diet  for  the  sick.  The  old  view,  that 
calves'-feet  jelly  was  of  exceeding  nutritive  value,  was  at  one  time 
so  controverted  that  the  jelly  ceased  to  be  much  used.  It  is  now 
sanctioned  as  having  a  place  in  dietetics,  and  I  believe  it  may  be 
safely  regarded  as  a  temporary  form  of  nourishment  of  no  incon- 
siderable value. 

Beef-tea  has  been  in  and  out  of  repute,  but  we  have,  or  should 
have,  no  doubt  now  as  to  its  stimulant  and  reparative  properties. 
We  can  not  think  lightly  of  it  as  commonly  prepared,  for  it  can 
certainly  prove  harmful,  when  not  desirable,  as  in  the  case  of 
rheumatic  fever.  I  believe  it  is  right  to  withhold  it  in  such  cases. 
Again,  it  is  so  far  apt  to  act  as  an  aperient  that  it  is  best  not  to 
employ  it  in  enteric  fever,  or  in  diarrhoea,  when  the  bowels  are 
in  an  irritable  condition.  Mutton,  veal,  or  chicken  essences  can, 
however,  be  used,  having  no  such  aperient  action.  We  have  to 


DIETARY  FOR   THE  SICK.  113 

distinguish  between  a  dietary  suitable  for  acute  disease,  when  we 
have  to  wait  and  tide  over  difficulties,  and  one  that  may  be  better 
adapted  to  restore  a  convalescent  or  weakly  patient.  The  highest 
nutritive  value  may  not  be  (I  think  it  is  not)  the  most  essential 
point  to  have  regard  to  in  selecting  a  dietary  in  acute  diseases.* 

In  most  cases  of  acute  disease,  beef  tea,  freshly  prepared,  can 
well  be  taken  and  digested.  It  is  now  often  peptonized,  and  I  be- 
lieve for  clinical  purposes  this  is  generally  unnecessary,  unless 
there  is  manifest  failure  of  secretion  of  gastric  juice.  This  re- 
mark applies  equally  to  milk,  which  is  also  too  often  given  pep- 
tonized. I  feel  sure  that  we  do  best  to  administer  nutriment  in 
the  most  natural  and  unaltered  forms  when  possible — that  is,  with 
as  little  of  culinary  or  medicinal  interference  as  may  be ;  to  give 
it,  in  fact,  fresh  from  Nature's  laboratory. 

In  many  illnesses  it  is  well  to  vary  the  broths  given,  changing 
from  beef  to  mutton,  veal,  or  chicken,  and  so  providing  variety 
for  the  patient.  Milk  and  veal  broth  may  often  be  given  together^ 
Alcoholized  liquids  are  best  not  administered  with  animal  broths. 
These  are  better  given  separately,  but  brandy,  rum,  or  whisky 
may  be  given  with  milk. 

It  is,  unfortunately,  a  good  rule  to  boil  milk  before  using  it, 
especially  in  the  case  of  children  and  young  persons.  This  no 
doubt  averts  many  of  the  evils  of  milk  diet,  and  may  also  prevent 
some  specific  diseases.  I  say  unfortunately,  because  I  suspect 
boiling  much  damages  the  nutritive  value  of  a  secretion  such  as 
milk.  Dilution  with  barley  water,  lime  water,  or  the  addition  of 
sodium  bicarbonate,  certainly  aids  its  digestibility  in  children  and 
adults,  both  in  health  and  disease ;  the  bicarbonate  being  prefer- 
able if  there  is  constipation.  Whey  is  of  considerable  value  for 
many  dyspeptics,  and  also  in  enteritis,  typhlitis,  and  intestinal 
obstruction,  and  may  be  freely  given.  Isinglass  boiled  in  milk  is 
very  useful,  and  children  readily  take  this  in  the  form  of  blanc- 
mange when  not  too  firm  in  consistence.  Alum  whey  is  of  much 
avail  in  diarrhoea,  and  in  cases  of  enteric  fever  with  haemorrhage. 
One  drachm  of  powdered  alum  is  added  to  a  pint  of  hot  milk,  and 
the  whey  strained  off.  Cream  with  an  equal  volume  of  hot  water 
can  often  be  taken  when  milk  disagrees. 

Koumiss  has  considerable  value  in  cases  of  great  irritability  of 
the  gastric  mucous  surface.  Koumiss  one  week  old  I  find  the  most 
useful,  and  I  have  often  known  troublesome  vomiting  checked  by 
it.  Few  plans  are  better  than  that  of  employing  milk  with  one 


*  Thus  alcohol,  which  is  by  some  denied  to  have  any  nutrient  property  whatever,  will, 
with  water,  maintain  life  for  days  hi  some  cases  of  acute  illness,  to  the  exclusion  of  any 
other  articles  of  diet.  I  consider  alcoholized  liquids  as  /ooc?,  for  both  ordinary  and  clinical 
purposes 

VOL.  XLIII. — 9 


u4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

third  of  its  volume  of  lime  water,  given  in  teaspoonful  doses  each 
quarter  of  an  hour  by  the  clock,  in  rebellious  vomiting  of  reflex 
origin.  This  quantity  will  be  retained  when  larger  ones  will  be 
rapidly  rejected. 

The  inability  to  digest  amylaceous  food  when  pyrexia  is  present 
is  generally  recognized :  hence  the  principle  of  milk  and  beef -tea 
diet  in  fever.  I  would  strongly  urge  the  employment  of  occasional 
draughts  of  pure  water  in  fever.  This  is  much  neglected.  Patients 
are  plied  with  strong  essence  of  beef,  Brand's  jelly,  and  milk  with 
stimulants — all  this  ad  nauseam,  but  a  cooling  draught  of  water  is 
withheld.  Water,  however,  is  generally  relished,  and  is  of  real 
service.  It  promotes  appetite  for  the  next  food,  and  cleans  the 
mouth. 

The  nutritive  value  of  purely  amylaceous  foods  has  been  de- 
cried, but,  I  think,  with  no  satisfactory  clinical  reason.  Arrow- 
root prepared  with  water  only,  or  with  milk,  is  certainly  sufficiently 
sustaining  for  many  invalids  who  temporarily  can  not  take  bread. 
In  gastric  and  gastro-enteric  catarrh  it  is  of  much  service,  and 
diarrhoea  may  sometimes  be  checked  by  stirring  into  a  cupful  of 
milk-arrowroot  half  a  teaspoonful  of  raw  arrowroot  powder,  and 
ten  grains  of  powdered  cinnamon. 

Eggs  often  disagree  because  of  their  albuminous  constituents. 
The  yolk  alone  can  often  be  taken  with  advantage  in  soup  or  in 
milk,  or  beaten  up  with  spirit. 

In  the  treatment  of  febrile  states,  tea  and  coffee  are  too  often 
omitted,  without  reason,  from  the  dietary.  They  will  enable  cases 
to  go  on  well  with  a  diminished  amount  of  alcohol.  Cold  tea  with 
cream  is  an  excellent  refreshment  early  in  the  morning  after  pro- 
fuse sweats  in  phthisis.  One  meets  with  patients  who  have  been 
forbidden  butcher's  meat,  but  allowed  to  eat  chicken  or  game.  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  reason  for  this.  I  recognize  the 
greater  digestibility  of  the  latter  as  a  rule,  although  I  much  doubt 
if  there  is  really  any  difference  if  the  beef  or  mutton  be  tender 
and  of  good  quality.  If,  as  I  conceive,  there  is  an  idea  that  the 
one  tends  to  plethora  and  vascular  tension,  or  is  apt  to  induce  uric- 
acid  disturbances,  while  the  other  does  not,  I  should  be  prepared 
to  controvert  that  idea,  believing  that  all  these  flesh  foods  fall  into 
the  same  category.  With  fish  the  case  is  different,  and  large  meat- 
eaters  may  sometimes  with  advantage  be  ordered  to  substitute 
fish.  It  is  hardly  possible  for  any  one  to  overeat  himself  on  fish, 
and,  whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of  the  fact,  I  am  satisfied 
that  great  mental  energy  and  capacity  may  be  secured  by  occa- 
sional meals  of  white  fish  to  the  exclusion  of  other  animal  food. 

It  were  well  if  greater  heed  were  paid  to  the  treatment  of  the 
patient  than  is  commonly  bestowed  on  that  of  the  disease.  One 
not  rarely  finds  measures  adopted  for  the  latter,  and  no  thought 


DIETARY  FOR   THE  SICK.  115 

bestowed  on  the  subject  of  it.  It  is  always  necessary  to  treat  the 
patient,  and  sometimes  what  is  seemingly  necessary  for  his  ail- 
ment is  very  poor  treatment  for  him,  if  too  long  kept  up.  We 
especially  note  this  in  respect  of  the  employment  of  wine  and 
stimulants,  and  in  the  conduct  of  cases  of  Bright's  disease  and  of 
chronic  gout. 

I  think  well  of  the  skim-milk  treatment  in  cases  of  chronic 
tubal  nephritis.  But  it  is  not  always  well  borne  by  the  patient. 
He  may  fail  to  be  sufficiently  nourished  by  it,  and  a  time  comes 
when  the  diet  must  be  altered.  There  is  a  large  variety  of  foods 
available  in  this  condition :  bread,  biscuit,  butter,  light  farinaceous 
pudding,  sometimes  with  egg  in  it,  potatoes,  spinach  and  other 
green  vegetables,  with  cooked  fruit.  The  albuminuria  is  often 
not  materially  increased  in  chronic  cases  if  fish  be  given  once  a 
day,  or  the  yolks  of  two  eggs  be  added  to  the  diet.  Fat  bacon 
may  also  be  taken.  And  on  alternate  days  we  may  sometimes 
give  a  little  mutton  or  chicken,  without  any  apparent  harm  to 
the  disease,  and  with  material  benefit  to  the  patient.  The  con- 
dition of  the  urine  must  be  carefully  noted  in  making  these 
amendments.  Certainly,  in  some  cases,  the  "  large  white  kidney  " 
is  an  expression  of  a  frail  and  feeble  constitution,  and  has  not 
always  the  same  significance.  A  better  level  of  general  nutrition, 
directed  in  relation  to  the  renal  adequacy,  may  much  aid  in  help- 
ing the  kidneys  to  recovery.  It  is  surely  wrong  to  starve  the 
patient  while  aiming  only  to  rid  him  of  his  ailment.  Of  course, 
age,  habits,  constitution,  and  tissue-proclivity  must  be  had  regard 
to  in  all  such  cases. 

The  treatment  of  acute  phases  of  dysentery  by  absolute  milk 
diet  I  believe  to  be  excellent ;  and  I  agree  with  those  Indian  au- 
thorities who  forbid  the  least  addition  of  animal  broth  or  of  fari- 
naceous matters  to  it,  possibly  for  many  consecutive  weeks. 

In  many  cases  of  gout  and  gouty  habit  of  body  I  often  find  in- 
adequate diet  prescribed,  and  a  frail,  painful  condition  of  body  as 
the  result.  In  such  cases,  again,  each  person  is  to  be  studied  as  to 
his  previous  habits,  inherited  proclivities,  and  textural  condition. 
The  prohibition  of  meat  and  wine  is  often  bad,  and  gouty  mani- 
festations will  be  held  in  check,  not  seldom,  by  a  good  diet  and 
the  use  of  some  trustworthy  wine.  The  tendency  now  is  to  make 
all  gouty  persons  avoid  meat,  and  drink  whisky  in  routine  fash- 
ion, or  to  take  to  water-drinking.  The  latter  plan  has  its  place, 
but  many  sufferers  from  gout,  in  both  sexes,  are  better  with  some 
wine.  If  they  starve  themselves  of  what  they  formerly  took, 
perhaps  in  moderation,  and  of  what  their  progenitors  took  per- 
haps too  freely,  they  will  not  so  much  have  gout  as  gout  will 
have  them — as  has  been  quaintly  remarked.  Such  persons  must 
attain  their  highest  level  of  good  health,  and  live  above  their 


ii6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

gout,  or  they  will  never  be  free  from  untoward  symptoms,  and 
will  become  miserable.  Water-drinking  at  this  stage  of  our 
social  evolution  is  not,  I  feel  very  sure,  the  summum  bonum  for 
humanity. 

The  tendency  to  drink  whisky,  now  so  common,  is  not  all  due 
to  medical  prescription,  as  is  often  alleged.  If  good  wines  were 
readily  procurable  at  fair  prices,  especially  at  hotels,  more  would 
be  drunk.  People  resort  to  whisky  because  they  know  it  is  com- 
monly to  be  depended  on,  whereas  wine  is  dear  and  bad,  and  they 
seek  at  once  to  relieve  their  digestion  and  save  their  purses.  They 
take  far  more  alcohol,  and  lose  the  wholesomeness  of  the  many 
other  good  things  to  be  found  in  a  moderate  use  of  honest  and 
sound  wine.  "  Cheap  claret "  has  done  no  good  in  England,  but 
much  harm,  and  intelligent  persons  now  hardly  know  the  differ- 
ence between  a  vintage  of  the  MeMoc  and  the  abominable  stuffs 
that  issue  from  Bordeaux,  gathered  from  all  other  wine-growing 
countries,  and  called  "  claret."  This  has  been  well  termed  "  red 
ink  at  a  shilling,  or,  it  may  be,  six  shillings,  a  bottle."  These 
compounds  are  disastrous  to  digestion,  and  it  is  small  wonder  that 
invalids  and  others  resort  to  whisky.  Real  Mddoc  wine  is  never 
advertised  for  sale,  but  consumers  have  now  ready  means  of 
knowing  where  to  procure  it. 

The  present  agitations  in  favor  of  temperance,  which  should 
rather  be  termed  efforts  to  abolish  all  alcoholic  drinks,  have,  I 
believe,  led  members  of  our  profession  to  neglect  this  important 
part  of  the  subject  of  dietetics,  and  prevented  their  gaining  an  ade- 
quate knowledge  of  the  nature  and  qualities  of  wine,  a  knowledge 
every  physician  should  possess.  Were  this  more  commonly  in 
possession,  we  should  not  hear  such  discrepant  statements  respect- 
ing wines  dogmatically  laid  down  by  members  of  our  profession. 

Perhaps  I  should  offer  an  apology  for  many  of  the  remarks  I 
have  ventured  to  make  in  this  communication,  both  because  I 
have  set  down  little  that  is  new,  and  may  also  have  appeared  to 
uproot  some  well-grown  opinions.  I  will  only  add,  however,  that 
I  believe  I  have  stated  nothing  that  will  not  be  found  to  be  true 
and  helpful  in  the  daily  practice  of  our  art. — The  Practitioner. 


A  NOVELTY  in  scientific  photography  is  the  photograph  of  a  meteor,  which  was 
obtained  by  Mr.  John  E.  Lewis,  of  Ansonia,  Conn.,  while  trying  to  photograph 
Holmes's  comet.  The  path  of  the  meteor  is  shown  as  a  bright,  clear-cut,  almost 
straight  diagonal  line  running  across  the  plate,  and  reaching  across  about  eighteen 
degrees  of  the  heavens.  Where  the  line  enters  the  field  it  shows  minute  varia- 
tions indicating  irregularities  in  the  amount  of  the  meteor's  light ;  the  rest  of  the 
line  is  sharp  and  level,  and  of  about  the  breadth  of  a  lead-pencil  mark.  At  every 
point  it  appears  brighter  after  only  an  instantaneous  exposure  than  any  of  the 
stars,  which  were  subjected  to  an  exposure  of  thirty-three  minutes. 


SKETCH   OF  SAMUEL   WILLIAM  JOHNSON.         117 


SKETCH  OF  SAMUEL  WILLIAM  JOHNSON. 

PROF.  SAMUEL  WILLIAM  JOHNSON  is  eminent  for  the 
services  which,  he  has  rendered  to  scientific  agriculture  as  an 
experimenter,  a  contributor  to  its  literature,  and  a  teacher ;  and 
for  his  agency,  always  active  and  earnest,  in  securing  the  intro- 
duction of  whatever  could  advance  its  standards  or  add  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  farming  interest.  A  descendant  of  Robert  John- 
son, one  of  the  founders  of  the  town  of  New  Haven,  he  was  born 
in  Kingsboro,  Fulton  County,  New  York,  July  3,  1830.  When  he 
was  four  years  old  the  family  removed  to  Deer  River,  Lewis 
County,  in  the  "Black  River  country  "  He  was  taught  in  the 
common  school  and  in  Lowville  Academy,  where  he  studied  Latin, 
Greek,  French,  algebra,  physics,  botany,  and  chemistry.  His 
home,  says  the  American  Agriculturist,  was  upon  a  large,  pro- 
ductive, and  well-managed  farm,  where  he  became  familiar  with 
a  wide  range  of  agricultural  practice.  He  taught  in  the  common 
schools  during  the  winters  of  1846-'47  and  1847-'48,  and  during 
1848-'49  was  teacher  of  natural  science  in  the  Flushing  Institute, 
Long  Island.  In  1850  he  entered  the  Yale  Scientific  School,  where 
he  spent  eighteen  months  under  Profs.  John  P.  Norton  and  B. 
Silliman,  Jr.,  studying  agricultural  chemistry.  He  served  during 
the  winter  of  1851-52  as  instructor  in  the  natural  sciences  in  the 
New  York  State  Normal  School  at  Albany.  Having  spent  the 
succeeding  winter  in  work  in  the  laboratory  at  New  Haven,  he 
went  to  Germany  in  January,  1853,  where  he  spent  two  years  in 
study  at  Leipsic  and  Munich,  under  Erdmann,  Liebig,  von  Kobell, 
and  Pettenkofer.  Thence  he  went  to  England,  visiting  the  Paris 
Exposition  on  the  way,  and  spent  the  summer  of  1855  in  study 
under  Frankland. 

In  September,  1855,  he  became  Chief  Assistant  in  Chemistry  in 
the  Scientific  School  of  Yale  College,  and  took  charge  of  the  labo- 
ratory. The  next  year  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  Analytical 
Chemistry  in  that  school,  and  in  1857  he  took  charge  also,  succeed- 
ing Prof.  John  A.  Porter,  of  the  chair  of  Agricultural  Chemistry. 
In  1875  he  became  Professor  of  Theoretical  and  Agricultural 
Chemistry ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  performance  of  these  several 
duties,  he  has  taught  organic  chemistry  since  1870. 

With  the  establishment  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  of 
Connecticut  in  1866,  Prof.  Johnson  was  constituted  one  of  its 
members.  On  expiration  of  his  term  of  service,  two  years  after- 
ward, he  was  appointed  chemist  to  the  board,  and  has  served  in 
that  capacity  ever  since.  He  began  to  advocate  the  establish- 
ment of  a  State  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  as  early  as  1873. 
The  act  of  the  Legislature  organizing  the  station  was  passed  in 


ii8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

1877,  and,  on  its  going  into  effect,  Prof.  Johnson  was  appointed 
director.  "  For  many  years,"  says  the  Rural  New-Yorker,  "  the 
station  was  confined  to  two  small  rooms,  and  the  appliances  and 
works  of  reference  were  for  the  most  part  loaned  from  Yale 
College  or  borrowed  from  the  professor's  private  laboratory  and 
library." 

Mr.  Johnson  began  his  literary  work  while  still  a  student, 
writing  for  the  agricultural  papers.  Among  the  earliest  of  his 
publications  of  general  interest  was  an  address  before  the  State 
Agricultural  Society  of  Connecticut,  in  1866,  on  Fraud  in  Chem- 
ical Fertilizers.  This  was  followed  by  the  adoption  of  measures 
intended  to  protect  buyers  of  fertilizers  against  imposition  through 
adulterations.  As  chemist  to  the  State  Agricultural  Society  he 
made  a  series  of  reports  on  fertilizers  in  1857, 1858,  and  1859,  by 
means  of  which  knowledge  on  the  subject  was  extended,  and 
frauds  received  a  further  check.  Besides  his  official  reports, 
"  which  have  been  models  for  works  of  their  kind,"  Prof.  John- 
son's writings  include  many  contributions  to  the  agricultural 
press,  which  have  been  highly  appreciated,  and  several  books  on 
the  special  subjects  of  his  studies.  The  best  known  of  these  are 
How  Crops  Grow ;  How  Crops  Feed ;  Peat  and  its  Uses  as  Fer- 
tilizer and  Fuel.  The  earliest  and  best  known  of  these  books — 
How  Crops  Grow,  published  in  1868 — embodied  the  results  of 
stvdies  undertaken  by  the  author  in  preparing  instruction  in 
agricultural  science.  Together  with  its  companion  volume — How 
Crops  Feed — it  was  intended  to  present  concisely  but  fully  the 
state  of  the  science  at  the  time  regarding  the  nutrition  of  the 
higher  plants,  and  the  relations  of  the  atmosphere,  water,  and  soil 
to  agricultural  vegetation.  In  it  the  chemical  composition  of 
agricultural  plants  was  described  in  detail,  the  substances  indis- 
pensable to  their  growth  were  indicated,  and  an  account  was 
given  of  the  apparatus  and  processes  by  which  the  plant  takes  up 
its  food.  The  book  was  received  with  great  favor  in  America  and 
in  Europe.  It  was  republished  in  England  under  the  joint  editor- 
ship of  Profs.  Church  and  Dyer,  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Col- 
lege at  Cirencester ;  a  translation  of  it  was  published  in  Germany 
under  the  instigation  of  Prof.  Liebig ;  and  other  versions  of  it 
have  been  made  in  Swedish,  Italian,  and  Japanese,  and  twice  in 
Russian. 

In  view  of  the  great  advance  that  had  been  made  in  all  branches 
of  science,  a  new  edition  of  How  Crops  Grow  was  issued  in  1890, 
in  which  the  purpose  was  guarded  of  bringing  the  treatise  up  to 
date  as  fully  as  possible  without  greatly  enlarging  its  bulk  or 
changing  its  essential  character. 

The  account  of  the  sources  of  the  food  of  plants,  which  were 
noticed  in  this  volume  in  only  the  briefest  manner,  was  reserved 


SKETCH  OF  SAMUEL    WILLIAM  JOHNSON.         119 

for  the  next  book,  its  complement,  How  Plants  Feed,  published 
in  1870.  It  was  exclusively  occupied  with  the  subject  of  vege- 
table nutrition.  The  writer,  the  author  said,  did  not  flatter  him- 
self that  he  had  produced  a  popular  book.  "  He  has  not  sought 
to  excite  the  imagination  with  high-wrought  pictures  of  over- 
flowing fertility  as  the  immediate  result  of  scientific  discussion 
or  experiment ;  nor  has  he  attempted  to  make  a  show  of  revolu- 
tionizing his  subject  by  bold  or  striking  speculations.  His  office 
has  been  to  digest  the  cumbrous  mass  of  evidence  in  which  the 
truths  of  vegetable  nutrition  lie  buried  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
ordinary  inquirer,  and  to  set  them  forth  in  proper  order  and  in 
plain  dress  for  their  legitimate  and  sober  uses."  The  author's 
method  was  to  bring  forth  all  accessible  facts,  to  present  their 
evidence  on  the  topic  under  discussion,  and  dispassionately  to 
record  their  verdict.  The  books  were  therefore  commended  to 
students  of  agriculture  on  the  farm  or  in  the  school.  Besides  these 
books,  Prof.  Johnson  edited  Fresenius's  Quantitative  Analysis, 
and  two  editions  of  his  Qualitative  Analysis. 

The  American  Agriculturist  names  Prof.  Johnson  as  one  of 
the  trio,  consisting  of  Johnson,  Gossman,  and  the  late  Dr.  Cook, 
of  New  Jersey,  "  who  have  done  so  much  for  agricultural  science 
and  experimentation." 

The  purposes  and  efforts  of  Prof.  Johnson  to  make  the  Con- 
necticut Agricultural  Experiment  Station  of  practical  benefit  to 
farmers  are  obvious  to  every  one  who  inquires  into  the  character 
of  the  work  done  there,  or  who  will  peruse  a  series  of  the  re- 
ports of  the  institution.  These  reports  are  consistently  animated 
by  the  single  thought  of  those  particular  features  of  agricultural 
science  in  which  the  farmers  are  most  immediately  interested. 
One  of  the  predominant  crops  of  the  State  is  grass ;  the  thing  the 
farmers  most  need  to  make  their  agriculture  profitable  is  econom- 
ical and  efficient  fertilizers.  Accordingly,  we  find  these  among 
the  subjects  most  conspicuously  presented.  It  would  be  impracti- 
cable to  go  over  all  the  reports  seeking  instances  of  this  happy 
adaptation  of  investigations  to  the  peculiar  wants  of  the  people 
whom  it  was  the  station-director's  purpose  to  serve ;  but  two  or 
three  from  the  later  reports  will  illustrate  this  characteristic  of 
his  work.  Attention  is  directed  in  the  report  for  1886  to  the 
important  relation  of  the  mechanical  constitution  of  soils  to  the 
growth  of  plants.  Very  little  practical  benefit,  the  author  ob- 
serves, is  commonly  obtained  from  the  analysis  of  any  special 
soil  beyond  the  detection  of  some  deleterious  ingredient,  or  prov- 
ing the  relative  deficiency  of  one  or  more  needful  elements.  In 
most  of  the  cases  where  the  station  had  undertaken  to  make  soil 
analyses,  the  results  had  probably  disappointed  those  who  sup- 
plied the  samples.  It  was  pointed  out  as  an  obvious  defect  of  the 


120  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ordinary  chemical  analysis  that  it  could  give  at  the  best  only  an 
imperfect  or  one-sided  view  of  the  character  of  the  soil.  Two 
soils  might  agree  fairly  in  chemical  composition,  and  yet  differ 
extremely  in  their  fertility.  Again,  two  soils  might  be  about 
equally  productive,  and  yet  have  unlike  chemical  composition. 
The  physical  characters  of  a  soil— the  texture,  porosity,  tenacity, 
amenability  to  tillage,  retentiveness  for  water,  capacity  for  heat, 
etc. — equally  with  the  chemical  composition,  influence  its  product- 
iveness and  value.  These  considerations  had  been  appreciated  for 
a  long  time,  attempts  had  been  made  to  take  account  of  the  phys- 
ical capacities  of  soils  ;  and  of  late  years  much  attention  had  been 
bestowed  upon  their  mechanical  analysis — that  is,  on  separating 
into  various  grades,  according  to  the  dimensions  of  their  parti- 
cles. Such  mechanical  analysis  was  in  most  cases  essential  to 
any  conclusive  investigation  of  a  soil. 

In  the  report  for  1887  the  intention  was  declared  to  include 
in  the  forage  garden  of  the  station  specimens  of  all  the  grasses 
found  in  Connecticut.  There  were  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
species  of  grasses  in  the  State,  of  which  eighty-one  were  then 
growing  in  the  garden.  Prominence  was  given  to  persistent 
meadow,  pasture,  and  lawn  grasses,  and  to  those  which  continu- 
ally reproduce  by  culture  and  seeding ;  also  to  other  forage  plants, 
sedges,  etc.  The  question  of  methods  of  improving  Connecticut 
grass  lands  so  as  to  make  them  more  productive  and  more  perma- 
nent, wherever  that  was  desirable,  was  declared  a  question  of  the 
first  importance.  To  answer  such  questions,  it  is  needed  to  know 
more  about  the  plants  of  this  character  which  would  grow  in  the 
State  with  less  care  than  others,  and  with  no  expense  for  seeding, 
their  habits  of  growth,  seed  production,  fitness  for  meadow  and 
pasture  on  different  soils,  feeding  value,  rooting  peculiarities, 
growth  with  other  varieties,  possible  improvement  by  cultivation 
or  by  selection  of  seed,  and  the  effect  of  different  fertilizers.  A 
more  general  and  closer  observation  of  the  appearance  and  be- 
havior of  all  the  useful  grasses  was  also  needed,  so  that  they 
might  be  known  by  botanists  and  farmers  at  sight  through  the 
spring,  summer,  and  fall.  Names  were  needed,  also,  which  should 
be  current  everywhere,  free  from  all  confusion ;  because  without 
names  there  could  be  no  discussion  of  grasses  away  from  the 
grasses  themselves. 

With  this  eminently  practical  direction  and  purpose  of  his 
work,  Prof.  Johnson  is  a  devoted  student  of  science,  and  an  ear- 
nest advocate  of  scientific  methods  of  investigation.  He  has  a 
pleasant,  modest  manner,  a  full  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and 
"a  practical  conception  of  what  farmers  want  of  agricultural 
experiment  stations."  As  a  writer,  "  his  style  is  clear  and  con- 
cise, yet  delightfully  smooth,  and  most  agreeably  finished." 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


121 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


SOUND   WORDS  ON  EDUCATION. 

THE  article  of  President  Eliot  to 
which  we  called  attention  three 
months  ago  dealt  with  the  subject  of 
education  mainly  in  its  intellectual  as- 
pect. In  a  recent  number  of  the  Con- 
temporary Review  we  find  an  article 
entitled  The  Teacher's  Training  of  Him- 
self, which  discusses  the  same  subject, 
but  mainly  from  the  moral  point  of 
view.  The  author  is  Dr.  Weldon,  head 
roaster  of  Harrow,  and  the  article  is  a 
reproduction  of  an  address  delivered  by 
him  before  the  Birmingham  Teachers' 
Association.  Seldom,  if  ever,  have  we 
found  more  of  sound  sense  and  right 
feeling  in  any  discussion  of  the  general 
subject  of  education  than  is  contained 
in  this  essay  of  Dr.  Weldon's.  From 
first  to  last  it  may  be  said  to  be  a  plea 
for  that  which,  according  to  Dr.  J.  M. 
Rice,  is  so  conspicuously  lacking  in  most 
of  our  own  public  schools — sympathy. 
The  writer  sees  that  this,  above  all 
things,  is  needed  to  vivify  education  and 
make  it  what  it  ought  to  be,  a  blessing 
both  to  the  giver  and  the  receiver — to 
prevent  it,  indeed,  from  becoming  posi- 
tively injurious  in  its  effects.  Is  it  due 
simply  to  mental  inertness  and  inferi- 
ority on  the  part  of  the  mass  of  society 
that  there  is  on  the  whole  so  little  love 
of  knowledge  and  so  little  pleasure  in 
intellectual  effort  ?  May  it  not  be  in  a 
measure  due  to  the  fact  that  in  child- 
hood the  acquisition  of  knowledge  was 
carried  on  under  more  or  less  repulsive 
conditions  with  the  mental  faculties  only 
half  aroused  and  the  sympathetic  or  emo- 
tional nature  wholly  untouched,  except 
in  so  far  as  it  may  have  been  moved  to 
opposition  ? 

It  is  the  first  step,  says  Dr.  Weldon, 
in  the  teacher's  self- culture  to  realize 
the  dignity  of  his  profession,  which, 
though  it  may  lack  the  distinction  be- 


longing to  the  pulpit,  the  platform,  or 
the  bar,  has  "this  signal  advantage,  that 
in  all  its  branches  and  among  its  hum- 
blest no  less  than  its  highest  representa- 
tives, it  aspires  constantly  to  two  ob- 
jects that  are  among  the  worthiest  of 
which  human  nature  is  capable — name- 
ly, the  promotion  of  virtue  and  the  in- 
crease of  knowledge."  He  places  the 
promotion  of  virtue  first,  but  in  actual 
practice  we  fear  that  the  amount  of  at- 
tention given  in  public  schools  of  the 
ordinary  type,  here  or  elsewhere,  to  that 
special  object  is  far  from  commensurate 
with  its  recognized  importance.  The 
discipline  of  the  school  is  often  said  to 
be  of  itself  a  powerful  moral  influence  ; 
and  so  it  would  be  if  the  discipline  were 
maintained  in  any  large  degree  by  the 
help  of  sympathy  ;  but  if  it  is  enforced 
in  the  thoroughly  unsympathetic  way 
described  by  Dr.  Rice  we  fear  it  can 
hardly  be  counted  on  for  any  very 
moralizing  effects. 

We  must,  however,  pass  over  much 
that  we  would  wish  to  note  in  Dr.  Wel- 
don's address,  in  order  to  leave  space  for 
a  few  of  his  more  striking  remarks. 
The  following  are  worth  quoting  and 
remembering : 

"  If  a  teacher  is  to  train  others,  still 
more  must  he  train  himself.  .  .  .  The 
reason  is  that  the  influence  of  every 
teacher  depends  not  upon  what  he  says, 
nor  even  upon  what  he  does,  but  upon 
what  he  is.  He  can  not  be  greater  or 
better  than  himself.  He  can  not  teach 
nobly,  if  he  is  not  himself  noble. 

"  It  is  sadly  true  that  we  as  teachers 
may  make  mistakes.  We  may  break  the 
bruised  reed ;  we  may  quench  the  smok- 
ing flax.  By  making  the  young  dislike 
us  we  may  make  them  dislike  the  sub- 
jects we  represent.  Strongly  would  I 
impress  upon  you  and  upon  myself  the 
terrible  responsibility  which  belongs  to 


122 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


us  of  making  one  of  these  little  ones  to 
offend.  Perhaps  if  I  might  sum  up  in  a 
single  phrase  the  teacher's  true  temper 
toward  his  pupils,  especially  boys  in  a 
large  school,  I  should  say  it  is  one  of 
sympathetic  severity.  .  .  .  Severity  is 
not  worth  much  if  it  stands  alone.  It 
may  be  said  that  severity  without  sym- 
pathy is  a  guarantee  of  failure. 

"There  is  one  word,  and  only  one, 
that  I  have  simply  begged  my  colleagues 
never  to  use  in  their  reports  of  boys — 
the  word  '  hopeless.'  Masters  and  mis- 
tresses may  perhaps  be  hopeless,  I  can 
not  tell ;  but  boys  and  girls — never. 

"  An  angry  schoolmaster,  or  rather 
a  schoolmaster  who  can  not  control  his 
anger,  is  the  drunken  helot  of  the  pro- 
fession. In  an  angry  moment  words  are 
spoken,  deeds  are  done,  that  are  irrep- 
arable. Fling  away  from  you  the  poi- 
soned shafts  of  sarcasm ;  they  are  for- 
bidden to  the  humanities  of  school  life. 

"  It  appears  to  be  the  particular 
danger  of  schoolmasters  and  schoolmis- 
tresses that  their  profession  has  natural- 
ly a  cramping  or  narrowing  influence 
upon  the  mind ;  it  is  therefore  the  pri- 
mary duty  of  all  teachers  to  take  every 
opportunity  of  enlarging  and  liberalizing 
their  views.  The  schoolmaster  must  not 
be  a  schoolmaster  only ;  he  must  be  more 
than  a  schoolmaster.  He  must  be  a  man 
of  wide  interests  and  information;  he 
must  move  freely  in  the  world  of  affairs. 
Fill  your  pitchers,  however  humble  they 
may  be,  at  the  wide  and  ever-flowing 
stream  of  human  culture.  It  is  my  coun- 
sel, as  a  precaution  against  narrowness, 
that  you  indulge  largely  and  lavishly  in 
reading.  You  can  hardly  read  too  much. 
It  may  be  a  paradox  to  say  so ;  but  I 
doubt  if  it  matters  much  what  you  read, 
so  long  as  you  read  widely.  .  .  .  Novel- 
reading  I  conscientiously  recommend. 
It  will  take  you  out  of  yourselves,  and 
that  is  perhaps  the  best  holiday  that  any 
one  can  have.  It  will  give  your  minds 
an  edge,  an  elasticity.  The  peril  of 
reading  no  novels  is  much  more  serious 
than  that  of  reading  too  many.  . 


Apollo  himself  does  not  keep  his  bow 
on  the  stretch  forever,  and  most  of  us 
need  relaxation  as  much  as  Apollo." 

The  above  is  good  advice,  and  happy 
is  it  for  those  who  can  take  it  to  heart 
and  act  upon  it — for  those  whose  facul- 
ties have  not  been  already  so  deadened 
by  a  mechanical  routine  as  to  be  incapa- 
ble of  the  ambition  of  individual  culture. 
Dr.  Weldon  speaks  and  writes  from  the 
elevated  standpoint  of  head  master  of 
one  of  the  great  English  public  schools, 
a  position  of  as  great  independence 
probably  as  any  the  educational  world 
affords,  and  one  in  which  there  is  infi- 
nite scope  for  the  exercise  of  individu- 
ality. The  position  of  the  average  pub- 
lic-school teacher  is  very  different.  To 
the  latter  functionary  individuality  may 
be  a  personal  advantage,  but  it  may 
easily  become,  from  a  professional  point 
of  view,  a  burden  and  a  drag  through 
the  lack  of  encouragement  or  even  op- 
portunity for  its  exercise.  That  the  ad- 
vice given  by  Dr.  "Weldon  as  to  reading 
is  not  very  widely  followed  out  by  teach- 
ers in  this  country  was  proved  some  few 
years  ago  by  some  one  who  took  the 
trouble  to  write  to  all  the  principal 
public  libraries  to  ascertain  to  what  ex- 
tent teachers  took  advantage  of  the 
privileges  which  these  institutions  af- 
forded. We  forget  the  precise  result  of 
the  inquiry;  but  it  showed  that  the 
teachers,  as  a  body,  used  the  libraries 
almost  less  than  any  other  class  of  the 
community.  We  recall  this  fact  in  no 
unfriendly  spirit,  but  solely  with  a  view 
of  showing  to  a  public  that  is  hard  to 
convince  on  this  point  how  far  we  are 
from  having  as  yet  commanded  the  most 
successful  conditions  for  general  educa- 
tion.   

THE  SCIENTIFIC  ALLIANCE. 

THE  formation  of  the  Scientific  Alli- 
ance of  New  York  marks  an  important 
step  in  the  scientific  movements  of  this 
city,  and  will  not  be  without  beneficial 
influence,  we  believe,  in  the  advance- 
ment of  research  in  the  country  at 


EDITOR'S    TABLE. 


123 


large.  New  York,  long  recognized  as 
the  great  financial  and  commercial  cen- 
ter of  the  Union,  and  pre-eminent  in 
some  other  departments  of  the  life  of 
the  century,  has  not  been  eminent  in 
science.  It  has,  indeed,  as  President 
Low  said  at  the  late  joint  meeting  of 
the  Alliance,  many  scientific  men  of  the 
first  order,  and  has  a  record  of  scientific 
work  of  the  highest  character  that  has 
been  done  by  such  men  as  Draper,  Morse, 
Rutberfurd,  Newberry,  and  Edison  ;  but 
the  fame  of  that  work  has  been  dissi- 
pated :  it  has  never  been  concentrated, 
as  in  other  metropolitan  cities  and  many 
much  smaller  towns,  under  the  panoply 
of  a  single  organization,  central  for  all  the 
branches  of  research.  London  has  its 
Royal  Institute  and  Royal  Society ;  Par- 
is, Berlin,  and  other  European  capitals 
have  their  Academies  of  Sciences,  where 
the  work  ot  the  whole  nation  has  a  com- 
mon home,  and  contributes  to  the  fame 
of  its  chief  city.  In  the  United  States, 
Boston  has  its  Academy;  Philadelphia, 
its  Academy  and  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society;  Brooklyn,  the  Brook- 
lyn Institute ;  and  other  cities,  down  to 
many  relatively  small  ones,  have  central 
organizations  through  which  the  scien- 
tific work  done  by  citizens  receives  all 
the  credit  it  is  entitled  to;  but  New 
York,  which  should  have  been  in  the 
advance  of  all  of  these,  has  had  only  a 
few  struggling  societies  devoted  to  spe- 
cialties— nothing  comprehensive  enough 
to  command  the  allegiance  of  students 
of  different  branches  and  the  attention 
of  the  public.  To  use  President  Low's 
words  again,  "These  bodies  have  re- 
vealed at  once  the  strength  and  the 
weakness  of  New  York  in  these  direc- 
tions. They  have  made  clear  beyond  a 
doubt  the  vast  resources  of  the  city, 
both  in  men  and  means.  But  they  have 
also  revealed  the  fact  that  these  re- 
sources are  as  yet  insufficiently  organ- 
ized." To  this  time,  by  reason  of  the 
division  among  these  special  societies 
and  the  want  of  a  general  one,  the  sci- 
entific spirit  of  the  city  has  lacked  in- 


tensity of  expression.  It  will  be  the 
object  of  the  Scientific  Alliance,  as 
President  Low  believes  it  has  the  ca- 
pacity, to  give  to  New  York  the  agency 
which  it  has  long  needed  to  develop  to 
the  utmost  its  activities  of  investigation 
and  experiment  in  the  direction  of  pure 
science. 

Seven  societies,  each  of  which  is  well 
known  and  has  done  creditable  work 
in  its  special  field,  have  united  in  the 
formation  of  the  Scientific  Alliance. 
They  are  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Sciences,  the  Torrey  Botanical  Club,  the 
New  York  Microscopical  Society,  the 
Linnsean  Society  of  New  York,  the  New 
York  Mineralogical  Club,  the  New  York 
Mathematical  Society,  and  the  New 
York  Section  of  the  American  Chemical 
Society. 

The  advantages  which  are  expected 
to  accrue  to  these  societies  and  their 
work  from  united  organization  were 
well  presented  in  the  address  of  Mr. 
Charles  F.  Cox.  Among  them  are  "  the 
stimulating  and  re- energizing  effect 
which  will  be  wrought  in  them  by  the 
demand  made  upon  them  for  an  in- 
creased output  of  effort  for  the  public 
good  " ;  the  re-enforcement  and  encour- 
agement they  and  their  members  will 
receive  from  contact  with  one  another; 
the  saving  of  work  in  doing  over  again 
what  has  been  already  done  which  will 
be  effected  by  bringing  these  laborers 
in  different  fields  into  co-operation  and 
consultation  with  one  another,  and  en- 
abling them  to  contribute  their  several 
results  to  a  common  stock ;  in  short,  a 
union  of  forces  to  produce  the  best  re- 
sults. 

The  need  of  endowment  for  scientific 
research  and  publication  was  presented 
at  the  meeting  for  organization  in  an 
address  by  the  Hon.  Addison  Brown. 
The  existence  of  such  a  body  as  the 
Alliance,  proving  its  efficiency  by  its 
work  and  extending  its  influence,  may 
be  expected  to  attract  the  gifts  of  lib- 
eral-minded capitalists,  as  do  other  en- 
terprises for  the  public  good  that  ac- 


124 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


complish  something.  Still  another  ad- 
vantage that  may  be  derived  from  the 
organization  is  revealed  in  Prof.  Bol- 
ton's  idea  of  its  furnishing  accommo- 
dations in  a  single  building  for  all  the 
libraries  of  the  societies  and  for  such 
other  libraries  of  scientific  works  as 
may  seek  a  domicile  there ;  each  library 
to  be  kept  distinct,  but  accessible  alike 
to  all  the  societies,  and  one  supplement- 
ing the  others.  For  this  and  other  pur- 
poses of  the  Alliance  a  building  will  be 
necessary,  and  a  plea  in  behalf  of  this 
was  made  by  Prof.  N.  L.  Britton. 

Another  view  of.  the  advantages 
that  may  be  derived  from  this  move- 
ment is  afforded  by  the  advances  which 
are  being  made  in  all  departments  of 
enterprise  in  which  scientific  research 
is  the  original  and  most  important  fac- 
tor. "  The  practical  men,"  said  the 
Hon.  Addison  Brown,  basing  his  re- 
mark on  the  confession  to  him  of  an 
electrical  expert  who  had  made  several 
very  interesting  and  important  inven- 
tions, "  do  not  work  at  random,  but 
upon  the  basis  of  what  scientific  re- 
search and  publication  have  previously 
put  within  their  grasp."  Capitalists 
and  corporations  have  derived  immense 
wealth  and  power  from  the  fruits  of 
this  work ;  and  yet  science,  which  has 
furnished  them  the  instruments  of  their 
success,  has  received  the  most  niggardly 
treatment  from  them,  and  has  been 
spurned  and  scorned  by  them  as  un- 
practical. A  society  that  will  serve  as 
a  center  for  its  scattered  forces  and 
give  it  a  voice  by  which  it  can  assert 
itself  and  emphasize  its  claim  for  recog- 
nition can  not  fail  to  help  it  greatly  in 
commanding  the  homage  of  its  debtors. 


MORAL  EVOLUTION. 

THE  recent  articles  of  Prof.  St. 
George  Mivart  on  Happiness  in  Hell, 
in  spite  of  what  must  seem  to  many 
their  fanciful  character,  may  reason- 
ably be  regarded  as  an  encouraging 
sign  of  the  progress  the  modern  world 


is  making  in  the  direction  of  reasona- 
ble views  and  humane  sentiments.  Mr. 
Mivart  states  at  the  outset  that  "  not  a 
few  persons  have  abandoned  Christian- 
ity "  on  account  of  the  popular  doctrine 
of  a  hell  involving  unending  torture  for 
untold  multitudes  of  human  beings,  and 
that  this  doctrine  now  "  constitutes  the 
very  greatest  difficulty  for  many  who 
desire  to  obtain  a  rational  religious  be- 
lief and  to  accept  the  Church's  teach- 
ing." The  object  which  he  has  in  view 
is  to  show  that  the  absurd  and  cruel 
ideas  which  have  gathered  round  the 
conception  of  hell  are  no  essential  or 
authoritative  part  of  Christian  doctrine. 
Whether  he  has  succeeded  in  doing  so, 
we  must  leave  to  the  professional  the- 
ologians to  discuss  and,  if  possible,  de- 
cide ;  but,  meantime,  some  of  the  writ- 
er's utterances  deserve  to  be  put  on 
record  as  evidences  of  the  moral  evo- 
lution which  theology  itself  is  under- 
going. 

"To  think,"  says  Prof.  Mivart, 
"  that  God  could  punish  men  however 
slightly,  still  less  could  damn  them  for 
all  eternity,  for  anything  which  they 
had  not  full  power  to  avoid,  or  for  any 
act  the  nature  or  consequences  of  which 
they  did  not  fully  understand,  is  a  doc- 
trine so  monstrous  and  revolting  that 
stark  atheism  is  plainly  a  preferable 
belief."  The  writer  of  these  words 
could  evidently  not  subscribe  to  the 
Westminster  Confession,  nor  to  the 
views  of  those  Congregationalists  who 
have  lately  been  so  much  exercised 
over  the  daring  theory  advanced  by 
some  of  their  brethren  that  fairly  de- 
cent heathen  may  perchance  escape 
hell  without  any  aid  from  missionaries. 
A  Catholic  authority  whom  Mr.  Mivart 
quotes  says  that  "  if  there  is  one  thing 
certain  it  is  this — that  no  one  will  ever 
be  punished  with  the  positive  punish- 
ments of  the  life  to  come  who  has  not 
with  full  knowledge,  complete  con- 
sciousness, and  full  consent  turned  his 
back  upon  Almighty  God."  The  same 
authority  further  says  that  "the  God 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


125 


of  all  justice  must,  and  will,  make  every 
allowance  for  antecedent  passion,  for 
blindness,  for  ignorance,  for  inadvert- 
ence " ;  and  this,  Mr.  Mivart  explains, 
will  apply  to  that  "large  proportion 
of  men's  actions  which  can  not  be  freely 
controlled  by  them  on  account  of  an- 
cestral influences,  early  associations  or 
intellectual  and  volitional  feebleness." 
As  we  read  these  declarations  we  begin 
to  find  ourselves  somewhat  at  a  loss  to 
conceive  the  kind  of  person  who  would 
really  constitute  an  eligible  candidate 
for  the  place  which  Mr.  Mivart  so  far 
offends  ears  polite  as  to  mention.  How- 
ever, some  do  get  there,  and  then  they 
fare  according  to  their  deserts.  Their 
great  loss  consists  in  being  shut  out 
from  what  theologians  describe  as  "  the 
beatific  vision  " — that  is,  from  the  hap- 
piness of  heaven  ;  but  they  have  appar- 
ently all  the  means  of  enjoyment  and 
even  of  moral  improvement  open  to 
them  which  they  had  on  earth,  though 
without  hope  of  ever  changing  their 
fundamental  state  of  separation  from 
God. 

Waiving  all  questions  as  to  the  real- 
ity of  the  matter  which  Mr.  Mivart 
discusses,  we  venture  to  express  the 
opinion  that  the  view  he  puts  forward 
is  far  more  favorable  to  the  interests  of 
religion,  and  much  better  adapted  to 
produce  moral  thoughtfulness,  than  the 
heretofore  current  notions,  which  no 
amount  of  sophistical  ingenuity  can  tor- 
ture into  conformity  with  justice,  be- 
nevolence, or  reason.  So  far  we  ex- 
tend to  the  distinguished  naturalist  and, 
as  it  would  appear,  not  inexpert  theo- 
logian our  sympathy,  and  bid  him  God- 
speed. 

THE  Index  to  Volumes  I  to  XL  of 
The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  an- 
nounced as  in  preparation  some  months 
ago,  has  been  completed,  and  up  to  March 
25th  about  fifty  pages  had  been  put  in 
type.  It  will  make  nearly  three  hun 
dred  pages,  and,  as  setting  the  type  for 
such  a  book  is  slow  work,  we  must  ask 


a  little  more  patience  from  the  many 
who  have  been  anxiously  inquiring  for 
the  volume. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 

A  HANDBOOK  OF  PATHOLOGICAL  ANATOMY  AND 
HISTOLOGY.  With  an  Introductory  Sec- 
tion on  Post-mortem  Examinations  and  the 
Methods  of  Preserving  and  Examining 
Diseased  Tissues.  By  FRANCIS  DELA- 
FIELD,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.,  and  T.  MITCHELL 
PRUDDEN,  M.  D.  Fourth  edition.  New 
York:  William  Wood  &  Co.  1892.  Pp. 
xvii+3'to  715. 

THE  fourth  edition  of  this  standard  work 
has  an  increase  of  more  than  one  hundred 
pages  of  text,  with  the  addition  of  seventy- 
six  engravings,  while  many  portions  of  the 
book  have  been  rewritten,  so  that  it  may  in- 
clude the  principal  discoveries  that  have  been 
made  in  pathology  since  the  publication  of 
the  third  edition  in  1889. 

In  the  section  on  the  methods  of  prepar- 
ing pathological  specimens  for  study  there 
has  been  added  a  description  of  the  phloro- 
glucin  method  of  decalcifying  bone,  which  is 
one  of  the  best  that  can  be  used,  and  there 
is  also  a  description  of  the  satisfactory  method 
of  hardening  tissues  by  Lang's  corrosive-sub- 
limate solution. 

The  chapter  on  the  composition  and  struc- 
ture of  the  blood  has  received  important  ad- 
ditions in  the  description  of  oligocythsemia 
and  of  the  determination  of  the  presence  of 
the  micro,  macro,  and  poikilocytes,  as  well 
as  a  description  of  the  polynuclear  neutro- 
phile  and  eosinophile  leucocytes  and  lympho- 
cytes ;  and  there  is  a  section  on  the  methods 
of  examination  necessary  to  study  these  va- 
rious forms. 

One  of  the  most  important  additions  to 
the  volume  is  the  section  on  hypertrophy, 
hyperplasia,  regeneration,  and  metaplasia; 
the  authors  calling  attention  to  the  patho- 
logical importance  of  a  knowledge  of  caryo- 
cinesis,  because  a  recognition  of  mitotic  fig- 
ures may  permit  a  decision  regarding  the 
particular  cells  involved  in  the  formation  of 
new  tissue. 

The  chapter  on  inflammation  has  been 
practically  rewritten  and  rearranged,  the  sub- 
jects of  tubercular  and  syphilitic  inflamma- 
tions being  now  considered  under  the  sections 
relating  to  the  diseases  producing  them. 


126 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


The  chapter  on  animal  parasites  contains 
a  reference  to  the  Amoeba  coli  and  its  relation 
to  dysentery,  and  also  brief  reference  to  the 
presence  of  coccidia  in  certain  epithelial 
growths.  The  chapter  on  vegetable  para- 
sites contains  reference  to  ptomaines,  toxins, 
and  toxalbumins,  as  well  as  an  excellent  sum- 
mary of  the  important  question  of  immunity, 
though  the  authors  do  not  commit  themselves 
to  any  doctrine  regarding  that  subject. 

The  subject  of  infectious  diseases  induced 
by  the  pyogenic  bacteria  has  been  rearranged 
and  placed  as  one  of  the  earlier  chapters  in 
the  work,  which  seems  to  us  to  be  an  excel- 
lent plan.  An  illustration  of  the  caution  dis- 
played by  the  authors  is  shown  in  the  section 
on  lupus,  in  which  reference  is  made  to  the 
fact  that,  while  that  disease  is  a  form  of  tu- 
bercular inflammation,  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
in  the  clinical  group  of  diseases  called  lupus 
there  may  be  lesions  that  are  not  caused  by 
the  tubercle  bacillus,  a  point  that  must  be 
decided  by  more  exact  bacterial  studies. 
This  same  caution  is  shown  in  accepting  the 
bacillus  described  by  Lustgarten  as  the  cause 
of  syphilitic  inflammation. 

The  skepticism  expressed  in  the  former 
edition  regarding  the  causative  relationship 
of  Loffler's  Bacillus  diphtherice  to  diphtheria, 
has  been  supplanted  by  a  frank  acceptance 
of  that  organism,  the  first  sentence  in  the 
section  on  diphtheria  defining  that  as  an 
acute  infectious  disease  caused  by  the  Bacil- 


New  sections  on  rhinoscleroma,  tetanus, 
influenza,  smallpox,  scarlatina,  measles,  and 
actinomycosis,  and  descriptions  of  the  Bacil- 
lus cedematis  maligni,  Bacillus  pneumonias, 
and  Bacillus  coli  communis  have  been  added. 

The  chapter  on  tumors  contains  a  refer- 
ence to  the  structures  that  have  been  found 
in  and  between  the  cells  of  tumors,  "  inclu- 
sions "  that  the  authors  consider  to  be  invagi- 
nated  epithelial  or  other  cells,  or  cell  nuclei 
that  have  undergone  various  degenerative 
metamorphoses,  fragmentation,  etc.  They 
state  that  some  of  the  cell  inclusions  in  car- 
cinoma may  be  coccidia  or  allied  organisms ; 
but  while  not  asserting  that  tumors  can  not 
be  caused  by  parasites,  they  do  not  believe 
that  adequate  ground  exists  for  believing 
that  they  are  so  caused,  because  the  trans- 
plantation of  tumors  from  one  species  of  ani- 
mal to  another  has  almost  uniformly  failed, 


while  it  has  been  impossible  to  cultivate 
either  directly  or  by  inoculation  any  constant 
organisms  from  these  morbid  growths.  This 
matter  is  one  that  is  attracting  the  attention 
of  pathologists  in  several  countries,  and  the 
more  thorough  study  of  the  subject  of  the 
etiology  of  cancer  will  probably  determine 
the  status  of  the  coccidia  in  relation  thereto. 

The  section  on  chronic  arteritis  has  been 
rewritten,  the  authors  believing  that  the  mor- 
bid changes  in  the  arteries  are  the  results  of 
a  combination  of  chronic  productive  inflam- 
mation and  of  degeneration  occurring  in  con- 
nective tissue — a  point  of  view  that  regards 
the  arteries  as  definite  parts  of  the  body,  and 
as  likely  to  become  the  seat  of  chronic  in- 
flammation as  the  liver  or  kidneys. 

The  subject  of  colitis  is  another  valuable 
addition,  and  the  text  is  enriched  by  some 
excellent  engravings  of  the  several  varieties 
of  pathological  conditions  that  occur  in  in- 
flammation of  the  large  intestine. 

In  the  section  on  the  organs  of  generation 
reference  is  made  to  the  adenomata  that  lie 
on  the  border  between  the  distinctly  benign 
and  the  definitely  malignant  new  epithelial 
tissue  growths,  attention  being  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  more  benign  forms  are  extremely 
prone  to  develop,  both  in  structure  and  ma- 
lignancy, into  carcinomata. 

While  the  substitution  of  the  terms  "lymph 
nodes"  and  "lymph  nodules"  for  "lymph 
glands  "  and  "  lymph  follicles  "  respectively 
was  recommended  in  the  last  edition,  the 
change  has  been  made  throughout  the  text 
in  this  volume. 

The  work  is  fully  abreast  of  the  scientific 
knowledge  of  the  day,  and  it  will  undoubtedly 
be  accorded  a  popularity  similar  to  what  it 
has  received  in  the  past. 

THE  STORY  OF  COLUMBUS.  By  ELIZABETH 
EGGLESTON  SEEL  YE.  New  York:  D.  Ap- 
pleton  &  Co.  Pp.  303.  Price,  $1. 

THIS  volume  is  the  first  of  a  series  enti- 
tled Delights  of  History,  and  a  delightful 
book  has  been  made  of  it.  Beginning  with 
the  wonderful  journeys  of  the  Polos,  and 
the  expeditions  sent  out  by  Prince  Henry 
of  Portugal,  events  which  may  well  have 
fired  the  imagination  of  the  youthful  Co- 
lumbus, we  are  brought  at  length  to  the 
gates  of  Genoa.  Here  we  learn  something 
of  the  condition  of  the  weavers  among  whom 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


127 


the  Colombos  were  numbered.  Even  the 
house  in  which  the  family  lived  is  pointed 
out.  Then  follows  the  story  of  Columbus's 
journey  to  Portugal,  his  weary  waiting  in 
Spain,  his  voyages,  discoveries,  misfortunes, 
and  last  days  spent  in  pleading  with  the  un- 
appreciative  Ferdinand.  The  tale  is  related 
in  very  simple  but  graphic  fashion,  with 
many  touches  of  humor,  while  the  varied 
illustrations  constantly  keep  fresh  the  flavor 
of  the  time.  Only  those  anecdotes  are  given 
that  come  from  authentic  sources,  and  the 
recent  labors  of  Mr.  Henry  Harrisse  and 
Signer  Stalieno  have  added  so  largely  to 
the  fund  that  there  are  enough  to  make  the 
narrative  sufficiently  life  like.  No  attempt 
is  made  to  screen  the  failings  of  Columbus 
— his  pursuit  of  wealth,  his  curious  theories, 
and  the  evil  which  is  chargeable  to  him  as 
an  exponent  of  his  time,  the  establishment 
of  slavery  in  the  New  World.  On  the  other 
hand,  these  are  not  enlarged  until  they  ob- 
scure his  courageous  project  and  unflagging 
zeal.  He  still  remains  "  the  most  conspicu- 
ous figure  in  the  history  of  his  age."  He 
crossed  the  sea  of  darkness,  and  we  rightly 
honor  him  for  his  great  achievement. 

THE  VISIBLE  UNIVERSE.  By  J.  ELLARD  GORE, 
F.  R.  A.  S.  London :  Crosby  Lockwood 
&  Son.  New  York:  Macmillan  &  Co. 
Pp.  346.  Price,  $3.75. 

ALTHOUGH  astronomers  have  not  yet 
solved  the  problem  of  celestial  construction, 
the  author  of  this  volume  refrains  from  add- 
ing any  new  conjecture  to  the  list.  He  ex- 
amines critically  all  the  explanations  worth 
serious  mention,  and  this  task  may  well  have 
served  to  keep  him  within  the  dry  land  of 
fact.  Besides  the  theoretical  discussions,  the 
book  contains  the  latest  observations  of  the 
position  of  stars  and  nebulae  and,  so  far  as 
known,  their  motions  and  chemical  compo- 
sition. 

Five  principal  objections  have  been 
brought  against  the  nebular  theory ;  most  of 
these  have  been  well  answered  by  M.  Roche. 
According  to  M.  Wolf,  two  points  are  yet  un- 
determined— how  large  planets  were  formed 
from  the  nebulous  mass,  and  how  the  equa- 
torial and  orbital  inclinations  were  produced. 
M.  Faye,  however,  finds  the  fifth  objection — 
the  retrograde  motion  of  the  satellites  of 
Uranus  and  Neptune — destructive  of  La- 


place's theory  and  advances  another  hy- 
pothesis in  his  work,  Sur  1'Origine  du  Monde, 
with  which  Mr.  Gore  agrees.  In  this  he  as- 
sumes that  the  earth  was  formed  before  the 
sun,  and  that  its  internal  heat  sufficed  for 
the  evaporation  of  water  and  for  the  uni- 
form vegetation  that  existed  for  aeons  of 
time.  Laplace  did  not  explain  the  origin  of 
the  primitive  nebula,  therefore  Dr.  Croll  con- 
sidered the  hypothesis  incomplete  and  fur- 
nished a  cause  in  his  impact  theory.  Two 
dark  bodies  endowed  with  enormous  veloci- 
ty collided  in  space  and  produced  a  perfect 
nebula ! 

A  contention  which  promises  no  settle- 
ment is  the  duration  of  the  sun's  heat  in  past 
time.  Noted  physicists  allow  only  twelve 
millions  of  years  as  the  maximum  period  on 
the  gravitation  theory.  This  is  insufficient 
for  the  geologists,  who  demand  a  hundred 
millions  for  the  denudation  of  rocks.  Dr. 
Croll's  careful  estimate  is  ninety  millions ; 
while  biologists  ask  for  a  still  longer  period 
for  the  evolution  of  species.  Most  astrono- 
mers concur  in  the  theory  of  Helmholtz  that 
the  heat  of  the  sun  is  caused  by  the  shrink- 
age of  its  mass  through  gravitation.  To  this 
philosopher  also  is  due  the  vortex-ring  idea 
— that  matter  consists  of  whirling  portions 
of  the  luminiferous  ether.  This  wondrous 
fluid,  supposed  to  fill  interstellar  space  and 
act  as  a  medium  for  the  transmission  of 
light,  is  enormously  elastic  and  wholly  un- 
like matter,  since  planetary  motion  is  not 
retarded  by  it  as  it  would  be  by  the  most 
attenuated  gas. 

The  spectroscope,  which  has  revealed  so 
much  of  the  constitution  of  the  stars,  shows 
also  another  defect  in  the  nebular  theory, 
unless  chemists  may  come  to  the  rescue. 
The  spectra  of  various  nebulae  give  only  hy- 
drogen and  one  other  unknown  element.  If 
the  solar  system  was  evolved  from  a  nebu- 
lous mass  by  condensation,  whence  the  dozen 
elements  of  the  sun  and  the  sixty-five  of  our 
own  planet  ?  It  has  been  suggested  that  all 
our  elements  may  be  further  resolved  into 
one  original  element.  In  anticipation  of  its 
discovery  this  has  been  named  protyle. 

Lockyer's  hypothesis  was  that  the  upper 
reaches  of  the  atmosphere  contained  parti- 
cles of  magnesium,  manganese,  iron,  and  car- 
bon, and  that  nebulae  were  swarms  of  mete- 
oritic  dust  His  observations  in  regard  to 


128 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  magnesium  flutings  are  not  accepted  by 
other  astronomers,  and  experiments  do  not 
confirm  his  explanation  of  the  aurora.  Most 
puzzling  of  all  astronomical  problems  per- 
haps is  the  arrangement  of  stars.  If  we 
could  observe  from  some  other  point  in  the 
heavens  the  system  might  be  disclosed  to 
us,  or  even  if  we  could  compute  the  distance 
of  every  star,  the  design  might  appear.  In 
all  cases,  however,  the  parallaxes  are  so 
small  that  the  measurements  are  exceeding- 
ly difficult.  The  number  of  visible  stars  is 
estimated  by  the  author  as  seventy  millions. 
Outside  of  this  finite  universe  there  may  ex- 
ist vast  systems  in  space  whose  light  has  not 
yet  reached  us,  or  which  may  be  forever 
hidden,  because  light  itself  is  extinguished 
in  a  separating  void. 

Some  fine  photographs  of  stars  and  nebu- 
lae accompany  the  text ;  an  index  and  notes 
are  also  added. 


HUMAN  EMBRYOLOGY.  By  CHARLES  SEDG- 
WICK  MINOT.  Illustrated.  New  York : 
William  Wood  &  Co.  1892.  Pp.  xxiii 

+  815. 

THE  appearance  of  another  v/ork  on  em- 
bryology justifies  the  assertion  that  was  re- 
cently made  in  these  columns  that  there  was 
a  growing  appreciation  of  the  importance  of 
this  subject.  The  present  volume  has  been 
expected  for  some  time  past,  as  the  announce- 
ment was  made  some  years  ago  that  Prof. 
Minot  was  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  a 
work  upon  this  topic.  The  ten  years'  labor 
that  has  been  directed  to  making  original  in- 
vestigations and  to  collecting  and  reviewing 
the  literature  of  the  subject,  is  presented  in 
this  splendid  volume  that  is  a  worthy  repre- 
sentation of  American  scholarship  and  re- 
search. 

On  account  of  the  intimate  relations  be- 
tween the  uterus  and  the  embryo,  the  author 
devotes  his  first  chapter  to  a  careful  presen- 
tation of  the  anatomy  and  the  histology  of 
the  uterus,  together  with  a  description  of  the 
changes  that  occur  during  pregnancy.  In  the 
second  chapter  there  is  a  general  outline  of 
human  development,  in  which  there  are  re- 
trogressive and  progressive  histories  of  the 
foetus  and  its  envelopes. 

The  author  calls  attention  to  the  limita- 
tion of  the  term  genoblast  to  the  sexual  ele- 
ments proper,  to  the  spermatozoon  or  the 


egg-cell  after  maturation,  and  not  to  the  sper- 
matophore  or  the  egg-cell  before  maturation. 
The  subjects  of  spermatozoa,  ova,  ovulation, 
and  impregnation  are  described  with  refer- 
ence to  the  latest  investigations.  The  author 
believes  that  the  ovum  draws  the  spermato- 
zoa toward  itself  by  chemical  influence,  act- 
ing as  an  attracting  stimulus,  in  a  similar 
manner  to  the  attraction  Pfeffer  has  shown 
certain  chemical  substances  may  have  for 
moving  spores ;  the  attractive  power  of  the 
ovum  being  annulled  or  weakened  by  the 
formation  of  the  male  pronucleus.  As  a  so- 
lution of  the  origin  of  sexuality  the  attractive 
hypothesis  is  offered  that  sexuality  is  coexten- 
sive with  life  ;  that  in  protozoa  the  male  and 
female  are  united  in  each  of  the  conjugating 
cells,  and  impregnation  is  double  ;  and,  finally, 
that  in  the  metazoa  the  male  and  female  of  the 
cells  separate  to  form  genoblasts  or  true  sexual 
elements,  and  impregnation  is  single. 

The  author  presents  a  great  deal  of  evi- 
dence to  support  the  theory  that  concrescence 
is  the  typical  means  of  forming  the  primitive 
streak  in  the  vertebrate,  the  primitive  axis  of 
which  is  formed  by  the  growing  together  in 
the  axial  line  of  the  future  embryo  of  the  two 
halves  of  the  ectental  line. 

The  origin  of  the  mesoderm,  the  forma- 
tion of  the  coalom  and  mesothelium,  and  the 
origin  of  the  mesenchyma,  are  carefully  de- 
scribed in  connection  with  a  review  of  the 
principal  theories  in  regard  to  the  morpho- 
logical significance  of  the  mesoderm,  the  au- 
thor believing  that  Hatschek's  germ-band 
theory  offers  the  best-founded  explanation 
of  the  vertebrate  mesoderm. 

Emphasis  is  laid  on  the  fact  that  the 
splanchnocoele  (pleuroperitoneal  cavity)  is  al- 
most, if  not  quite,  from  the  start  divided  into 
a  precociously  enlarged  cervical  portion  (am- 
nio-cardial  vesicles),  and  a  rump  portion  (ab- 
dominal cavity),  the  boundary  between  the 
two  portions  being  marked  by  the  omphalo- 
mesaraic  veins,  that  run  from  the  area  vas- 
culosa  into  the  embryo  proper  at  nearly  right 
angles  to  the  embryonic  axis. 

The  author  agrees  with  Ziegler  that  the 
red  blood-cells  of  all  vertebrates  arise  by  pro- 
liferation of  the  endothelial  lining  of  the  ves- 
sels, basing  this  conclusion  upon  the  facts 
that  hi  various  vertebrates  certain  parts  of 
the  vascular  system  are  at  first  solid  cords  of 
cells,  the  central  portion  becoming  blood-cells 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


129 


and  the  peripheral  portion  the  vascular  wall, 
and  in  birds  the  red  cells  arise  from  the  walls 
of  the  venous  capillaries  of  the  bony  marrow. 
In  other  words,  the  blood-cell  is  a  liberated, 
specialized  endothelial  cell. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  valuable 
chapters  in  the  volume  is  that  on  the  germi- 
nal area  and  the  embryo  and  its  appendages, 
in  which  there  is  a  synopsis  of  the  published 
descriptions  of  embryos  not  over  three  weeks 
old ;  from  these  it  is  learned  that  no  human 
ovum  has  been  observed  to  have  a  primitive 
streak,  which  is  the  first  stage  of  the  series 
formulated  by  the  author.  In  this  stage 
(twelfth  or  thirteenth  day)  the  human  ovum 
is  a  rounded,  somewhat  flattened  sac  of  three 
or  four  millimetres  in  diameter,  bearing  an 
equatorial  zone  of  short,  unbranched  villi  that 
are  probably  formed  by  the  ectoderm  only ; 
the  wall  of  the  sac  is  ectoderm,  whether  un- 
derlaid by  somatic  mesoderm  or  not  is  uncer- 
tain ;  a  mass  of  cells  is  attached  to  the  inner 
wall  of  the  sac,  over  one  of  the  bare  poles  of 
the  ovum,  constituting  the  rudiment  of  the 
embryo.  The  second  stage  is  characterized 
by  the  appearance  of  the  medullary  plate,  the 
third  by  the  appearance  of  the  medullary 
groove,  the  fourth  by  the  formation  of  the 
heart  and  medullary  canal,  the  fifth  by  the 
development  of  the  first  external  gill-cleft, 
the  sixth  by  the  appearance  of  two  external 
gill-clefts,  the  seventh  by  the  appearance  of 
three  gill-clefts,  and  the  eighth  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  four  external  gill-clefts. 

The  fourth  part  of  the  work  includes  de- 
scriptions of  the  chorion,  the  amnion  and 
proamnion,  the  yolk-sac,  allantois,  and  um- 
bilical cord,  and  the  placenta. 

The  final  portion  of  the  volume  is  de- 
voted to  chapters  on  the  growth  and  devel- 
opment of  the  various  organic  systems  of  the 
foetus. 

Each  section  and  chapter  aims  to  present 
a  comprehensive  review  of  the  literature  re- 
garding the  subject  therein  considered,  the 
author  stating  the  reasons  for  accepting  cer- 
tain theories  in  preference  to  others.  One 
blemish  in  the  volume  is  the  free  use  of  Ger- 
man embryological  terms.  The  author's  de- 
votion to  German  has  often  led  him  to  use, 
also,  forms  of  expression  that,  while  correct 
in  German,  are  faulty  English.  This  is,  how- 
ever, a  minor  and  remediable  fault  in  what 
is  a  most  excellent  book. 
VOL.  XLIII. — 10 


PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE.  By  OLIVER  LODGE, 
F.  R.  S.  London  :  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1893. 
Pp.  404.  Price,  $2.50. 

THIS  work  consists  of  a  course  of  eight- 
een lectures  on  the  history  and  progress 
of  astronomical  research,  with  biographical 
sketches  of  each  pioneer  and  an  examina- 
tion of  their  influence  on  the  progress  of 
thought.  It  is  divided  into  two  parts.  The 
first,  which  is  entitled  From  Dusk  to  Day- 
light, contains  ten  lectures  giving  a  brief 
outline  of  the  physical  science  of  the  an- 
cients, with  an  interesting  account  of  the 
progress  of  astronomy  from  Thales,  640  B.  c., 
to  the  death  of  Newton,  1727  A.  D.  The 
second  part  is  called  A  Couple  of  Centu- 
ries' Progress,  and  embraces  the  period  of 
astronomical  discovery  from  the  publication 
of  Newton's  Principia  to  the  present  time. 

The  author  shows  considerable  power  of 
lucid  condensation  in  his  description  of  the 
labors  of  the  early  astronomical  scientists, 
and  while  giving  a  brief  history  of  their 
discoveries — notably  those  of  Archimedes, 
Ptolemy,  and  Roger  Bacon — he  brings  us  at 
a  bound  over  the  void  of  the  middle  ages 
to  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
(1543)  when  Copernicus  (Nicolas  Copernik) 
published  his  famous  work,  De  Revolutioni- 
bus  Orbium  Coelestium,  in  which  he  proved 
that  the  earth  is  a  planet  like  the  others,  and 
that  it  revolves  round  the  sun — thus  shatter- 
ing the  accepted  Ptolemaic  system  and  revo- 
lutionizing all  other  (speculative  and  theo- 
logical) doctrines  concerning  the  form  of  the 
earth  and  the  motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

This  period  is  called  by  Mr.  Lodge  "  the 
real  dawn  of  modern  science."  His  sketch  of 
Tycho  Brah6  is  most  interestingly  written ; 
and  in  the  summaries  of  facts  which  preface 
each  lecture  will  be  found  some  curious  coin- 
cidences of  the  dates  of  the  birth  and  death 
of  the  famous  philosophers  from  Copernicus 
to  Newton.  While  admitting  the  great  labors 
and  immense  value  to  astronomical  research 
of  Galileo's  discoveries,  the  author  does  not 
class  him  with  Copernicus,  Kepler,  or  New- 
ton ;  in  fact,  he  says  that  "  Archimedes  and 
Galileo  can  only  be  considered  in  the  light 
of  experimental  philosophers."  Lord  Bacon, 
who  flourished  about  the  same  time  as  Des- 
cartes, is  very  summarily  dismissed ;  he  does 
not  admit  him  into  his  list  of  philosophers, 
and  says:  "His  (Bacon's)  methods  are  not 


1 3o 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


those  which  the  experience  of  mankind  has 
found  serviceable;  nor  are  they  such  as  a 
scientific  man  would  have  thought  of  devis- 
ing." 

Mr.  Lodge  pays  reverent  tribute  to  the 
genius  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  and  claims  for 
him  the  palm-wreath  among  all  other  phi- 
losophers— ancient  or  modern.  His  treat- 
ment of  the  biographical  sketch  of  Newton 
and  of  his  discoveries  and  the  preparation 
of  his  laws  of  gravitation,  motion,  etc.,  as 
contained  in  the  Principia,  are  most  interest- 
ing as  well  as  valuable. 

The  second  part  of  the  work  (eight  lec- 
tures) is  rather  condensed.  Laplace's  mathe- 
matical genius  is  briefly  described,  while  the 
birth  of  stellar  astronomy  and  the  works 
of  Sir  William  and  Caroline  Herschel  are 
excellently  portrayed.  The  volume  closes 
with  chapters  upon  Comets  and  Meteors,  and 
Tides  and  Planetary  Evolution.  It  is  pro- 
fusely illustrated. 

HYGIENIC  MEASURES  IN  RELATION  TO  INFEC- 
TIOUS DISEASES.  By  GEORGE  H.  F.  NUT- 
TALL,  M.  D.,  Ph.  D.  (Gottingen).  New 
York :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1893.  Pp. 
112.  Price,  75  cents. 

THIS  is  a  very  useful  little  work  and 
should  have  a  place  in  every  home  library. 
There  seems  to  be  an  almost  general  ignorance 
of  both  the  causes  of  infectious  diseases  and 
how  to  prevent  their  spread;  and  Dr.  Nut- 
tall  has  produced  this  little  handbook  in  a 
form  that  is  so  simple  and  instructive  that 
even  the  least  scientific  reader  can,  without 
any  difficulty,  prepare  and  use  ample  means 
for  the  disinfection  of  persons,  houses,  fur- 
niture, etc. — no  matter  from  what  cause  the 
infectious  material  may  exist. 

The  author  warns  people  against  using 
"  made  and  patent  disinfectants " ;  for,  as 
he  says,  "the  term  disinfection  means  the 
absolute  destruction  of  infectious  material," 
and  "many  preparations  sold  as  disinfect- 
ants are  nothing  of  the  kind,"  but  belong 
to  the  antiseptic  and  deodorant  classes.  He 
gives,  as  the  best  and  most  certain  methods, 
those  by  fire,  dry  heat,  steam,  and  chemicals, 
and  in  a  foot-note  to  the  paragraph  "  Disin- 
fection by  Boiling,"  he  quotes  Fliigge  most 
instructively :  "  The  ordinary  treatment  to 
which  soiled  linen  and  clothes  are  subjected 
in  the  laundry  (one  half -hour's  boiling)  would 


be  quite  sufficient  for  their  disinfection  were 
it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  process  of  boiling 
is  preceded  by  the  processes  of  sorting,  soak- 
ing, and  rinsing  in  cold  water" 

The  volume  contains  practical  directions 
for  the  treatment  of  infectious  diseases  in 
private  houses  and  other  places;  and  the 
second  part  is  devoted  to  excellent  "  infor- 
mation as  to  the  causes  and  mode  of  spread- 
ing of  certain  infectious  diseases  and  the  pre- 
ventive measures  that  should  be  resorted  to." 

REST  AND  PAIN.  By  the  late  JOHN  HILTON, 
F.  R.  S.  London  and  New  York :  George 
Bell  &  Sons.  Pp.  614.  Price,  $2. 

THIS  work,  which  its  editor  speaks  of  as 
"  acknowledged  to  be  one  of  our  few  surgical 
classics,"  has  reached  its  fifth  edition  in  Eng- 
land, and  is  now  offered  to  medical  students 
and  practitioners  in  America.  Its  special 
claim  to  attention  is  that  it  presents  certain 
facts  in  a  different  grouping  from  that  of 
the  usual  treatises,  thus  throwing  a  new  light 
upon  the  bearing  of  much  that  may  seem  use- 
less or  abstruse  to  the  student.  It  has  the 
two  objects  of  preaching  to  physicians  a  let- 
alone  gospel,  designed  to  secure  greater  reli- 
ance upon  the  work  of  Nature,  and  of  point- 
ing out  how  much  can  be  learned  in  regard 
to  various  disorders  from  the  pains  that  ac- 
company them.  The  volume  consists  of  a 
course  of  lectures  delivered  by  the  author  as 
consulting  surgeon  to  Guy's  Hospital,  under 
the  title,  The  Therapeutic  Influence  of  Rest 
and  the  Diagnostic  Value  of  Pain  in  Acci- 
dents and  Surgical  Diseases.  It  deals  with 
injuries  and  diseases  of  the  brain,  spinal  col- 
umn, the  joints,  the  sacro-iliac  region,  with 
abscesses,  and  miscellaneous  other  disorders. 
A  large  number  of  cases  are  quoted  in  this 
treatise,  and  the  text  is  illustrated  with  105 
cuts. 

DOMESTIC  SCIENCE.  By  JAMES  E.  TALMAGE. 
Salt  Lake  City:  George  Q.  Cannon  & 
Sons.  Pp.  389. 

THE  field  of  this  book  embraces  the  ap- 
plications of  science  to  the  affairs  of  domes- 
tic life — a  field  concerning  which  there  has 
always  been  a  great  amount  of  ignorance. 
The  dispelling  of  this  ignorance  was  one  of 
the  tasks  that  enlisted  the  efforts  of  the 
founder  of  this  magazine,  who  published  his 
Handbook  of  Household  Science  over  thirtv 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


13* 


years  ago.  Dr.  Talmage's  treatise  is  very  like 
the  Handbook  as  to  scope  and  method,  and 
the  author  quotes  his  predecessor  frequently 
in  foot-notes.  It  is  divided  into  four  parts, 
treating  respectively  of  Air  and  Ventilation 
with  chapters  on  Heating  and  Lighting,  Wa- 
ter, Food  and  its  Cookery,  Cleansing  Agents, 
to  the  last  of  which  is  added  Poisons  and 
their  Antidotes.  In  each  of  these  divisions 
the  laws  of  Nature  that  especially  concern 
the  matters  in  hand  are  stated,  and  the  evil 
effects  of  disregarding  these  laws  in  each 
case  are  pointed  out.  The  text  is  much 
strengthened  by  illustrations.  The  book  has 
been  adopted  as  a  text-book  for  the  Territory 
of  Utah,  and  the  present  is  a  second  and  re- 
vised edition  prepared  for  such  use.  The  in- 
troduction of  this  subject  into  the  schools  can 
not  fail  to  do  much  good. 

INTRODUCTION  TO  PHYSIOLOGICAL  PSYCHOLOGY. 
By  Dr.  THEODOR  ZIEHEN.  Translated  by 
C.  C.  VAN  LIEW  and  Dr.  OTTO  BEYER. 
New  York :  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  284. 
Price,  $1.50. 

THE  recent  introduction  of  the  inductive 
and  evolutionary  mode  of  treatment  into  the 
field  of  mental  science  has  brought  forth 
abundant  fruit  where,  for  a  long  time,  bar- 
ren speculation  had  held  sway.  Psychology, 
or  a  division  of  it  at  least,  has  become  a 
natural  science,  and  knowledge  of  mental 
processes  has  been  rapidly  extended  in  con- 
sequence. Especially  has  this  work  gone  on 
actively  in  Germany,  and  the  facts  obtained 
have  received  two  distinct  interpretations — 
the  one  held  by  Wundt  and  his  school,  the 
other  by  Miinsterberg  and  Ziehen.  Only  one 
treatise  on  physiological  psychology  —  the 
large  work  by  Prof.  Ladd,  of  Yale — has  ap- 
peared hi  English,  hence  the  translators  have 
thought  that  such  a  small  introductory  com- 
pendium as  the  present  volume  would  be  de- 
sirable. The  work  originated  in  a  series  of 
lectures  that  Dr.  Ziehen  has  delivered  at  the 
University  of  Jena  for  several  years.  It  has 
been  the  aim  of  the  author  throughout  to 
develop  all  explanations  from  physical  or 
physiological  data,  and  to  account  for  the 
presence  of  certain  functions  by  an  applica- 
tion of  the  laws  of  evolution.  The  doctrines 
that  he  presents  differ  essentially  from 
Wundt's  theory  and  conform  closely  to  the 
English  psychology  of  association.  By  intro- 


ducing an  especial  auxiliary  function,  the  so- 
called  apperception,  for  the  explanation  of 
certain  psychical  processes,  Wundt  evades  nu- 
merous difficulties  in  demonstration.  This 
book  is  intended  to  show  that  such  an  "  aux- 
iliary function"  is  superfluous,  and  that  all 
psychological  phenomena  can  be  explained 
without  it. 


CHEMICAL  LECTURE  EXPERIMENTS.  By  G.  S. 
NEWTH,  F.  I.  C.  London  and  New  York : 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  1892.  Pp.  323. 
Price,  $3. 

THIS  book  is  of  some  importance  to 
chemical  lecturers  and  teachers,  as  well  as 
being  a  valuable  assistance  to  the  chemical 
student.  It  consists  of  six  hundred  and 
thirty-two  illustrated  experiments,  which  are 
given  with  remarkable  lucidity,  the  author 
claiming  that  "  no  account  of  any  experiment 
has  been  introduced  upon  the  authority  sole- 
ly of  any  verbal  or  printed  description,  but 
every  experiment  has  been  the  subject  of  his 
own  personal  investigation,  and  illustrated 
by  woodcuts  from  original  drawings."  It  is 
arranged  in  such  a  manner  that  students  may 
learn  from  it  the  methods  of  preparation  and 
most  of  the  important  properties  of  the  non- 
metallic  elements  and  their  more  common 
compounds.  As  a  companion  to  the  lectures 
which  he  may  attend,  the  chemical  student 
will  find  fully  described  in  this  book  most, 
if  not  all,  of  the  experiments  he  is  likely  to 
see  performed  upon  the  lecture  table,  there- 
by relieving  him  from  the  necessity  of  labori- 
iously  noting  the  apparatus,  etc.,  used  by  the 
demonstrator.  Many  of  the  experiments  are 
novel  and  interesting,  and  the  tables  which 
form  the  appendix  will  be  found  to  contain 
important  information  for  which  books  of 
reference  are  usually  needed. 

An  overgrown  volume  of  nearly  fifteen 
hundred  pages  on  Education  in  the  Industrial 
and  Fine  Arts  in  the  United  States  comes  to 
us  from  the  Bureau  of  Education.  This  is 
only  the  second  part  of  a  special  report  by 
Isaac  Edwards  Clarke,  and  the  editor  states 
that  most  of  the  matter  intended  for  this  vol- 
ume has  been  relegated  to  a  third  part.  There 
is  first  an  Introduction  of  over  a  hundred 
pages,  in  which  the  editor  devotes  several  of 
the  early  pages  to  telling  how  his  first  part 
bus  been  praised.  Soon  after  this  come  three 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tributes  to  deceased  educators,  which  would 
be  better  published  elsewhere.  A  little  far- 
ther on  the  editor  has  a  tilt  with  Prof.  C.  M. 
Woodward,  and  near  the  end  several  defenses 
of  the  public  schools,  having  no  bearing  on 
the  proper  subject  of  the  report,  are  brought 
in.  The  report  proper  consists  of  five  hundred 
pages  of  well-digested  material,  being  mostly 
accounts  of  the  instruction  in  industrial  art 
and  the  use  of  mechanical  tools  that  has  been 
introduced  in  various  places.  This  is  followed 
by  eight  hundred  pages  of  appendixes  made 
up  of  miscellaneous  reports,  essays,  and  ad- 
dresses, parts  of  which  are  valuable,  other 
parts  pleasant  but  vague,  and  much  of  the 
whole  merely  duplicating  other  matter  in  the 
volume.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  matter  in 
these  appendixes  that  only  makes  the  vol- 
ume clumsy  and  impedes  the  earnest  student 
of  pedagogy.  Here  and  there  we  find  poeti- 
cal quotations  or  wholly  unnecessary  lists  of 
names,  and  in  one  place  a  lot  of  "  after-din- 
ner "  speeches  with  the  "  applause  "  duly  in- 
terjected. It  is  no  wonder  that  the  public 
printer  can  not  get  these  bulky  reports  out 
until  they  are  stale,  and  that  so  many  copies 
go  unread  back  to  the  paper- vat. 

A  little  text-book  devoted  wholly  to  men- 
suration has  been  prepared  by  Alfred  J. 
Pearce,  and  is  published  by  Longmans,  Green 
&  Co.,  under  the  title  Longmans'  School  Men- 
suration (80  cents).  It  comprises  reduction 
of  denominate  numbers  and  the  calculation 
of  lengths,  areas,  and  volumes.  There  are  a 
large  number  of  examples  at  the  end  of  each 
section,  and  several  sets  of  examination  pa- 
pers have  been  introduced.  A  simple  proof 
of  nearly  every  rule  is  given.  The  diagrams 
illustrating  the  various  figures  and  solids  are 
very  numerous,  and  have  been  carefully  pre- 
pared. 

The  Step-by- Step  Primer,  prepared  by  Mrs. 
E.  B.  Burnz  (Burnz  &  Co.,  24  Clinton  Place, 
New  York,  25  cents),  embodies  a  thoroughly 
scientific  mode  of  teaching  reading.  The 
phonetic  principle  is  the  basis  of  its  method, 
and  the  author  does  not  allow  any  such  host 
of  exceptions  and  deviations  from  this  prin- 
ciple as  often  makes  what  passes  for  "  phonic 
teaching  "  into  a  mongrel  practice.  The  au- 
thor insists  that  the  letters  shall  be  regarded 
as  standing  for  spoken  sounds,  just  as  defi- 
nitely as  the  characters  in  a  piece  of  music 
stand  for  musical  sounds.  No  one  can  ques- 


tion that  this  was  the  intention  of  the  an- 
cient inventors  of  the  alphabet,  but  the  fact 
is  too  often  lost  sight  of,  especially  by  teach- 
ers of  reading.  la  this  primer  each  letter  is 
made  to  show  what  sound  it  stands  for,  and 
the  learner  has  only  to  combine  these  several 
sounds  to  get  the  whole  word.  This  is  ef- 
fected by  means  of  the  Burnz's  Pronouncing 
Print,  the  chief  feature  of  which  is  that 
when  a  letter  has  an  irregular  sound  this 
sound  is  indicated  by  a  small  subscript  letter 
cast  on  the  shoulder  of  the  type.  Webster's 
diacritics  are  also  made  use  of,  and  silent 
letters  are  denoted  by  Leigh's  hair-line  type. 
Some  Hints  on  Phonic  Teaching  are  ap- 
pended to  the  book.  The  primer  is  attract- 
ively illustrated  and  neatly  printed. 

In  a  volume  of  443  p  ages,  John  C.  Bran- 
ner,  Ph.  D.,  State  Geologist  of  Arkansas,  has 
issued  Vol.  Ill  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
Arkansas.  This  volume  concerns  "  whet- 
stones and  the  novaculites  of  Arkansas,"  and 
was  prepared  by  L.  S.  Griswold,  assistant 
geologist.  The  whetstone  industry  is  very 
exhaustively  treated,  and  the  admirable  illus- 
trations and  maps  will  be  found  very  useful. 
The  last  chapter  is  devoted  to  an  interesting 
account  of  The  Fossils  of  the  Novaculite 
Area,  and  contains  articles  by  R.  R.  Gurley, 
H.  D.,  and  Charles  S.  Prosser,  on  The  Geo- 
logical Age  of  the  Graptolite  Shales  of  Ar- 
kansas and  Notes  on  Lower  Carboniferous 
Plants.  (Little  Rock,  Ark.,  Press  Printing 
Company,  1892.) 

Under  the  title  Coal  Pits  and  Pitmen, 
R.  Nelson  Boyd,  M.  Inst.  C.  E.,  has  recast 
his  publication  Coal  Mines  Inspection  ;  its 
History  and  Results.  In  this  volume  of  256 
pages  the  author  reviews  the  conditions  of 
the  mining  operatives  of  Great  Britain,  and 
gives  in  somewhat  of  detail  a  history  of  the 
legislation  for  the  prevention  of  the  employ- 
ment of  women  and  children  in  coal  mines. 
Considerable  space  is  devoted  to  an  exami- 
nation of  the  causes  of  explosions  in  mines, 
and  there  are  some  excellent  suggestions  as 
to  required  legislation  in  the  direction  of  in- 
creased inspection.  In  treating  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  coal  industry  in  England 
the  author  gives  some  very  interesting  facts : 
for  instance,  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  yearly  output  was  estimated  to 
be  ten  millions  of  tons — giving  employment 
to  fifty  thousand  work-people,  whereas  the 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


133 


output  of  coal  in  1891  reached  the  enormous 
total  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  millions 
of  tons — giving  employment  to  about  six 
hundred  thousand  persons.  The  book  con- 
tains some  excellent  illustrations,  and  will  be 
read  with  interest  by  those  who  desire  to 
study  the  social  and  labor  questions.  (Lon- 
don: Whittaker  &  Co.  New  York  agents, 
Macmillan  &  Co.  1892.) 

Few  persons  outside  those  connected  with 
engineering  business  are  aware  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  pattern-maker.  In  a  volume 
of  180  pages  A  Foreman  Pattern-maker  has 
embodied  the  most  useful  hints  to  appren- 
tices and  students  in  technical  schools  under 
the  title  The  Principles  of  Pattern-making. 
The  book  is  fully  illustrated  with  one  hun- 
dred and  one  engravings,  and  includes  a 
useful  glossary  of  the  common  terms  em- 
ployed both  in  pattern-making  and  molding. 
Considering  the  size  of  the  volume  it  is  real- 
ly surprising  to  find  such  a  fund  of  useful 
information  upon  the  fundamental  principles 
of  pattern-making  condensed  into  so  small 
a  space.  The  illustrations  were  nearly  all 
made  by  the  author  himself,  and  are  almost 
self-explanatory.  It  is  published  by  Whit- 
taker  &  Co.,  London.  (New  York  agents, 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Price,  90  cents.) 

The  Microscopical  Examination  of  Pota- 
ble Water  is  a  little  volume  of  160  pages 
which  contains  a  good  deal  of  useful  infor- 
mation concerning  the  best  methods  and  ap- 
paratus necessary  for  the  microscopical  and 
bacteriological  examination  of  water.  The 
author,  George  W.  Rafter,  devotes  consider- 
able space  to  an  explanation  of  the  advan- 
tages of  filtration  by  sand  over  the  Parkins 
cloth  method,  and  gives  minute  details  of 
several  examinations  and  analyses  of  the 
various  public  water  supplies  of  the  country, 
basing  the  arguments  which  follow  upon  the 
results  of  an  examination  of  the  Boston  Sud- 
bury  River  Water  Supply.  The  remarks 
upon  the  effect  of  light  upon  the  formation 
of  starch  in  the  algae  are  interesting,  and  he 
claims  that  in  certain  lights  the  starch  re- 
mains protoplasmic,  and  that  a  low  tempera- 
ture and  darkness  are  unfavorable  to  the 
growth  of  algae  in  the  water  supplies.  The 
book  is  No.  103  of  the  Van  Nostrand  Science 
Series. 

In  a  volume  of  322  pages  entitled  Figure 
Skating,  Simple  and  Combined,  Messrs.  Mon- 


tagu S.  Monier -Williams,  Winter  R.  Pidgeon, 
and  Arthur  Dry  den,  the  most  eminent  of 
British  figure  skaters,  have  given  an  elabo- 
rate treatise  upon  the  development  of  figure 
skating  in  England.  It  is  profusely  illus- 
trated with  cuts  and  diagrams,  and  is  pub- 
lished by  Macmillan  &  Co.,  New  York  ($2.25). 

Leonard  Dobbin,  Ph.  D.,  and  James  Walk- 
er, Ph.  D.,  D.  Sc.,  have  issued  a  useful  hand- 
book of  240  pages  entitled  Chemical  Theory 
for  Beginners.  It  is  written  with  the  object 
of  assisting  beginners  in  obtaining  an  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  the  principles  upon 
which  modern  chemistry  is  based.  The 
chapters  on  Elements  and  Compounds, 
Chemical  Action,  Vapor  Density,  and  The 
Kinetic  Molecular  Theory  are  interesting 
from  a  standpoint  far  advanced  from  the  be- 
ginner. The  use  of  symbols  has  been  disre- 
garded in  this  work,  so  that  a  very  young 
student  in  chemistry  will  have  no  difficulty 
in  understanding  the  most  intricate  exam- 
ples of  chemical  compounds,  etc.,  which  are 
given.  The  kinetic  theory  of  gases,  as  dis- 
covered by  Clerk  Maxwell  and  Clausius,  is 
very  simply  demonstrated.  The  book  is  pub- 
lished by  Macmillan  &  Co.,  of  London  and 
New  York  (70  cents). 

In  a  volume  of  978  pages  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  has  issued  its  Third 
Annual  Report  on  iht  Statistics  of  Railways 
in  the  United  States.  It  is  a  comprehensive 
tabulation  of  the  classification,  mileage,  earn- 
ings, expenditures,  and  capital  of  the  various 
railway  systems  of  the  country.  In  the  read- 
ing matter  which  prefaces  the  voluminous 
and  interesting  statistics  there  is  a  com- 
plaint that  the  statistical  data  procurable 
from  the  monthly  reports  of  the  different 
railway  corporations  is  of  little  value  to  pub- 
licists and  economists;  and  it  is  claimed 
that  the  present  system  of  bookkeeping  in 
vogue  among  the  accountants  of  the  differ- 
ent roads  "  leads  inevitably  to  an  erroneous 
balance-sheet."  The  remarks  upon  and  the 
statistics  of  the  enormous  increase  of  mile- 
age will  be  read  with  interest  by  economists, 
and  the  fact  that  this  increase  is  propor- 
tionately far  greater  in  the  Southern  States 
will  be  a  surprise  to  those  who  have  not 
carefully  observed  the  industrial  progress  of 
that  section  of  the  country. 

D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston,  have  issued 
a  new  publication  entitled  The  Complete 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Musical  Reader,  which  is  designed  for  "  high 
and  normal  schools,  academies,  and  semi- 
naries." It  is  compiled  and  edited  by  Charles 
E.  Whiting,  and  is  really  a  most  useful  addi- 
tion to  the  repertoire  of  school  music  books. 
The  first  forty-eight  pages  are  devoted  to 
musical  notation,  embracing  exercises  and 
solfeggios  of  a  very  educational  type.  The 
collection  of  two,  three,  and  four  part  songs 
is  excellent ;  but  in  the  two  latter  sections 
some  of  the  selections  are  rather  difficult 
for  beginners.  Among  the  three-part  songs 
is  a  novel  arrangement  of  a  solo  with  voice 
(duet)  accompaniment — a  style  of  voice  cul- 
ture that  will  probably  become  more  general. 
The  hymn  tunes  are  easy,  and  will  be  found 
useful  by  teachers  in  connection  with  the 
rudimentary  exercises  and  solfeggios.  It 
contains  224  pages,  and  is  published  at  85 
cents. 

Recognizing  the  great  agricultural  de- 
pression existing  in  England  and  the  appar- 
ent impossibility  of  farmers  being  able  to 
prosper  from  the  cultivation  of  grain  crops, 
J.  Cheal,  F.  R.  H.  S.,  suggests  that  cultiva- 
tors of  the  land  should  consider  what  other 
means  might  be  adopted  in  the  way  of  yield- 
ing crops  that  would  give  more  satisfactory 
returns.  In  his  book  entitled  Practical  fruit 
Culture,  which  is  published  by  George  Bell 
and  Sons,  London,  1892,  he  advocates  that, 
taking  into  consideration  the  "  enormous 
quantities  of  fruit "  imported  into  England 
for  consumption  there,  fruit  culture  would 
be  one  of  the  best  if  not  the  most  important 
means  toward  a  renewed  agricultural  pros- 
perity. The  volume  contains  some  excellent 
information  upon  the  fruits  most  adaptable 
to  the  climate  of  Great  Britain,  and  instruct- 
ive hints  as  to  their  planting,  cultivation,  etc. 
(194  pages ;  price,  75  cents). 

In  a  volume  of  241  pages,  C.  W.  Bardeen, 
of  Syracuse.  N.  Y.,  has  published  three  series 
of  songs  "  for  schools,"  which  contain  over 
three  hundred  selections.  The  first  series  is 
entitled  The  Song  Budget,  and  is  devoted  to 
nursery  rhymes  and  songs  for  young  chil- 
dren ;  the  second  is  called  The  Song  Century, 
embracing  some  of  the  most  popular  stand- 
ard songs ;  and  the  third,  The  Song  Patriot, 
gives  examples  of  patriotic  songs,  war  songs, 
and  national  hymns.  It  is  a  useful  cheap 
edition  of  song  music,  but  the  compiler  has 
made  some  rather  unfortunate  omissions  in 


neglecting  to  give  the  composers'  names, 
while  in  at  least  one  important  instance 
wrong  authorship  is  claimed.  This,  however, 
does  not  affect  the  arrangement  of  the  music, 
which  is  excellent  (price,  50  cents). 


PUBLICATIONS  RECEIVED. 

Abbe,  Cleveland.  The  Mechanics  of  the 
Earth'8  Atmosphere.  Smithsonian  Institution. 
Pp.  324. 

Abbott,  Samuel  W.,  M.  D.  On  the  Geograph- 
ical Distribution  of  Certain  Causes  of  Death  in 
Massachusetts.  Boston.  Pp.  116. 

American  Young  People.  Monthly.  Volume 
I,  No.  1.  Pp.  52.  10  cents.  $1  a  year. 

Ball  Sir  Robert  Stawell.  An  Atlas  of  Astron- 
omy. New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  57. 
With  72  Plates.  $4. 

Baumgarten,  G.,  M.  D.  The  St.  Louis  Medical 
College.  An  Historical  Address.  St.  Louis.  Pp. 
19. 

Bedell,  Frederick,  and  Crehore,  Albert  Gushing. 
Alternating  Currents.  New  York:  The  W.  J. 
Johnston  Co.,  Limited.  Pp.  325. 

Bidgood,  John.  A  Course  of  Practical  Biol- 
ogy. New  York:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 
Pp.  353.  $1.50. 

Bishop,  Louis  F.  A  New  Measurement  in  the 
Study  of  Fever.  Pp.5. 

Boland,  Mary  A.  A  Handbook  of  Invalid 
Cooking.  New  York:  The  Century  Co.  Pp.  323. 
$2. 

Bolles,  Frank.  Students'  Expenses.  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  Harvard  University.  Pp.  45. 

Booth,  Charles.  Life  and  Labor  of  the  Poor  in 
London.  Volume  TV.  New  York:  Macmillan  & 
Co.  Pp.354.  $1.50. 

Bradford,  E.  F.,  M.D.,  and  Lewis,  Louis, 
M.  D.  Handbook  of  Emergencies  and  Common 
Ailments.  Boston:  B.  B.  Russell.  Pp.  448. 

Bradstreet  Company,  New  York.  A  Record, 
not  a  Prospectus.  Pp.  16.— Its  Work  in  Relation 
to  Mercantile  Credit.  Pp.  4. 

Brinton,  D.  G.,  Philadelphia.  The  Anthropo- 
logical Sciences.  Proposed  Classification  and 
Nomenclature.  Pp.  2.— Reminiscences  of  Pennsyl- 
vania Folk  Lore.  Pp.  10.— Columbus  Day  Address, 
1892.  Pp.8. — Books  on  American  Languages.  Pp. 
4.—"  Further  Notes"  on  Fuegian  Languages  (pp.  5) 
and  on  the  Betoya  Dialects.  Pp.  8.— The  Etrnsco- 
Libyan  Elements  in  the  Song  of  the  Arval 
Brethren.  Pp.  8.— Analytical  Catalogue  of  Works 
and  Scientific  Articles.  Pp.  16. 

Calderwood,  Henry.  Evolution  and  Man's 
Place  in  Nature.  New  York:  Macmillan  &  Co. 
Pp.  349.  $1. 

College  Association  of  the  Middle  States  and 
Maryland.  Fourth  Annual  Convention.  New 
York:  Educational  Review.  Pp.  86. 

Colas,  Jules  A.  Poole  Brothers'  Celestial 
Handbook.  Chicago:  Poole  Brothers.  Pp.  110. 
With  Plates.  Poole  Brothers1  Celestial  Plani- 
sphere (Revolving  Card). 

Comstock,  Theo.  B.  Utilization  of  the  Sul- 
phide Ores  of  Arizona,  Tucson,  Ariz.  Pp.  20. 

Current  Topics.  Monthly.  February,  1893. 
Chicago.  Pp.  80.  With  Portrait.  15  cents.  $1 
a  year. 

Duluth,  Minn.  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  1892.  Pp.  113. 

Egbert,  Seneca.  The  Bicycle  in  its  Relation  to 
the  Physician.  Boston:  A.  A.  Pope.  Pp.  11. 

Farquhar,  Henry.  Competition  and  Combina- 
tion in  Nature.  Pp.  3. 

Fassig,  Oliver  L.  Report  of  Bibliographer  and 
Librarian  of  the  U.  S.  Signal  Office.  Pp.  22. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


Gilbert,  G.  K.  Continental  Problems.  Roch- 
ester, N.  Y.:  Geological  Society  of  America. 
Pp.12. 

Glazebrook,  R.  T.,  and  Shaw,  W.  N.  Practical 
Physics.  New  York:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 
Pp.  633.  $2.50. 

Hague,  Arnold.  Geology  of  the  Eureka  Dis- 
trict, Nevada.  Pp.  419.  With  Plates  and  an  Atlas. 

Henderson,  C.  Hanford.  The  Cretaceous  Fold 
of  the  Alps,  between  the  Linth  and  the  Sihl.  Pp. 
22.  With  Chart. 

Hogg,  Prof.  Alex.,  Fort  Worth,  Texas.  The 
Railroad  as  an  Element  in  Education.  Pp.  70. 

Hudson,  W.  H.  Idle  Days  in  Patagonia.  New 
York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  256.  $4. 

James,  Joseph  F.  Paleontology  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati Group.  Part  IV.  Pp.  16. 

Jenkins,  Oliver  P.  Primary  Lessons  in  Human 
Physiology.  Pp.  211.  Advanced  do.  Pp.  318. 
Indianapolis,  Ind. :  Indiana  School  Book  Co. 

Jones,  Prof.  George  William.  Logarithmic 
Tables.  Macmillan  &  Co.,  and  the  Author,  Ithaca, 
New  York.  Pp.  160. 

Joelin,  R.  Wait.    Industrial  Union.    Pp.  21. 

Loney,  S.  L.  Mechanics  and  Hydrostatics  for 
Beginners.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.304.  $1.25. 

Lysacht,  Sidney  Royse.  The  Marplot.  Mtc- 
millan&Co.  Pp.425.  $1.50. 

McDonald,  Marshall.  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Fish  and  Fisheries  for  1888.  Washing- 
ton: Government  Printing  Office.  Pp.  902. 

Marine  Biological  Laboratory.  Fifth  Annual 
Report.  Pp.  62. 

Martin,  Lillie  J.  Laboratory  Exercises  in 
Physics.  Pp.  36.— Outline  of  Laboratory  Work 
in  Chemistry  in  San  Francisco  Girls'  High  School. 
Pp.16. 

New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira.  Sev- 
enteenth Year  Book. 

Nichols,  Rev.  George  W.  Miscellanies  Re- 
ligious and  Personal,  and  Sermons.  Bridgeport, 
Conn.  Pp.  379.  $1.25. 

Oliver,  Charles  A.  Symmetrically  placed 
Opacities  of  the  Cornea,  occurring  in  Mother  and 
Son.  Pp.  3. 

Owen,  D.  A.,  Franklin,  Ind.  Observations  on 
Heloderma  Suspectum.  Pp.  3. 

Pancoast,  Henry  S.  Representative  English 
Literature,  from  Chaucer  to  Tennyson.  New 
York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.  Pp.514.  $1.60. 

Parton,  James.  General  Jackson.  D.  Appleton 
&Co.  Pp.332. 

Pater,  Walter.  Plato  and  Platonism.  Mac- 
millan &  Co.  Pp.  256.  $1.75. 

Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology 
and  Ethnology.  Report.  Pp.  13. 

.  Philadelphia     Polyclinic,     February,      1893. 
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Pilling,  James  Constantine.  Bibliography  of 
the  Athapascan  Languages.  Washington:  Bu- 
reau of  Ethnology.  Pp.  125. 

Pohlman,  Julius,  M.  D.  Duration  of  Life  bf 
the  Nervous  American.  Pp.  8. 

Pope,  Albert  A.  Memorial  to  Congress  on  the 
Subject  of  a  Road  Department.  Pp.  96. 

Raymon,  George  Lansing.  Genesis  of  Art- 
form.  New  York:  G.P.Putnam's  Sons.  Pp.311. 
$2.25. 

Robinson's  New  Rudiments  of  Arithmetic. 
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Salazar,  A.  E.,  and  Newman,  Q.  Sur  la  con- 
servation des  dissolutions  de  I'acide  sulfhydrique 
(On  the  Preservation  of  Solutions  of  Sulphydric 
Acid).  Translation  from  the  Spanish.  Paris.  Pp. 
16. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Marmion.  American  Book 
Company.  Pp.247.  20  cento. 


Sherwood,  Sidney.  The  History  and  Theory 
of  Money.  Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co. 
Pp.  413.  ft, 

Shufeldt,  R.  W.  On  the  Classification  of  the 
Longipennes.  Pp.  5. 

Smith,  Roderick  H.,  New  York.  The  Silver 
Question  settled.  Pp.  31. 

Stebbins,  Genevieve.  Dynamic  Breathing  and 
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Stephen,  Leslie.  An  Agnostic's  Apology,  and 
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Pp.380. 

Tenney,  D.  K.,  Chicago.  Never-ending  Life 
assured  by  Science.  Pp.  15. 

Trumbull,  General  M.  M.  Earl  Grey  on  Reci- 
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Publishing  Co.  Pp.27.  10  cents. 

United  States  National  Museum.  Report  for 
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Watts,  Francis.  Introductory  Manual  for 
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&  Co.  Pp.  151.  $1.50. 

Willink,  Arthur.  The  World  of  the  Unseen. 
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Wright,  G.  Frederick.  Unity  of  the  Glacial 
Epoch.  Pp.  24.— Extra-Morainic  Drift  in  the 
Susquehanna,  Lehigh,  and  Delaware  Valleys.  Pp. 
25.— Replies  to  Criticisms.  Pp.  8. 

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POPULAR  MISCELLANY, 

Number  of  Glacial  Periods.— An  article 
by  Prof.  George  F.  Wright,  in  the  American, 
Journal  of  Science,  is  devoted  chiefly  to  show- 
ing that  certain  points  of  evidence  relied 
upon  by  those  who  believe  that  the  "  Glacial 
epoch"  consisted  of  two  periods  of  glacia- 
tion  of  similar  extent  separated  by  a  long 
interglacial  epoch,  are  insufficient  to  afford  a 
basis  for  such  a  conclusion.  Furthermore, 
the  author  adds  to  this :  "  As  bearing  against 
the  duality  of  the  Glacial  period,  it  may  be 
urged  with  great  force  that  it  is  improbable 
that  two  periods  should  so  nearly  duplicate 
one  another  as  these  two  are  supposed  to 
have  done.  To  those  who  maintain  the  suf- 
ficiency of  Croll's  astronomical  cause,  how- 
ever, this  is  rather  an  argument  in  favor. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  that  cause  would 
also  demand  a  long  succession  of  periods 
during  all  the  geological  ages,  and  of  these 
we  lack  sufficient  proof;  while  it  would 
throw  the  two  periods  which  Prof.  Chamber- 
lin  recognizes  back  much  farther  than  the 
facts  will  admit.  It  must  be  said,  however, 
that  it  is  not  wholly  out  of  analogy  with 
known  earth  movements  to  suppose  that 


i36 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


there  has  been  in  connection  with  the  Glacial 
period  a  succession  of  oscillations  of  the 
earth's  crust  nearly  duplicating  one  another. 
Such  oscillations  seem  to  have  occurred  in 
various  geological  ages,  as,  for  instance,  dur- 
ing the  coal  period,  when  the  successive  coal 
beds  were  formed.  And,  indeed,  much  can 
be  said  in  favor  of  the  view  that  such  an 
oscillation  when  once  begun  would  perpetu- 
ate itself.  .  .  .  But  our  knowledge  of  these 
matters  is  too  vague  to  reason  of  it  with  any 
confidence,  as  is  that  also  of  the  other  causes 
which  have  been  suggested  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  phenomena  of  the  period.  In 
conclusion,  it  is  sufficient  to  remark  that  our 
present  state  of  knowledge  on  the  subject 
seems  so  imperfect  that  it  is  not  conducive 
to  success  in  investigation  to  hold  any  theory 
as  to  the  unity  or  duality  of  the  period  with 
great  positiveness.  Overconfidence  on  this 
point  at  the  present  time  is  likely  to  blind 
the  eyes  of  the  investigator,  and  to  hinder 
progress  both  in  the  collection  and  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  multitudinous  and  com- 
plicated facts  which  everywhere  invite  our 
close  attention." 

Preservation  of  Leaves  as  Fossils. — In 

a  paper  on  the  Preservation  of  Plants  as  Fos- 
sils, Mr.  Joseph  F.  James,  of  Cincinnati, 
names  as  one  of  the  requisites  to  secure  the 
preservation  of  any  plant,  that  it  must  be  in 
a  position  to  be  almost  immediately  covered 
by  some  material.  A  leaf  or  branch  falling 
to  the  ground  and  likely  to  be  exposed  to 
the  elements  has  a  poor  prospect  of  being 
preserved.  But  if  it  fall  into  the  water  and, 
sinking  to  the  bottom  of  a  lake  or  swamp  or 
morass,  be  covered  by  mud  or  sand ;  or  if  it 
lie  on  the  seashore  and  be  covered  by  sand 
brought  in  with  the  tide,  it  may  at  least  leave 
its  mark.  Or  it  may,  through  certain  chem- 
ical properties  it  possesses,  so  act  upon  the 
stone  on  which  it  lies  as  to  be  preserved,  not 
in  actual  substance,  but  as  an  intaglio.  The 
author  was  impressed  with  the  possibilities 
of  the  last  process  while  walking  along  the 
street  in  the  rain  and  looking  at  the  fallen 
leaves  on  the  pavements.  He  first  noticed 
numerous  irregular,  discolored  patches  on 
the  stone  slabs.  Looking  more  closely,  he 
says  :  "  I  found  that  these  discolorations  had 
been  caused  by  the  leaves,  which  had  left 
their  impress  on  the  stone.  In  many  cases 


this  impression  was  so  distinct  that  there 
was  no  difficulty  in  recognizing  the  species. 
The  leaves  were  those  of  the  soft  maple,  one 
or  two  species  of  oak,  tulip  tree,  and  syca- 
more. There  is  here  a  possibility  of  the 
preservation  of  the  remains  of  plants,  or,  at 
all  events,  of  their  impress  upon  stone,  had 
it  occurred  under  more  favorable  circum- 
stances. But  on  a  pavement,  where  people 
were  passing  constantly,  the  impressions  were 
worn  off  and  soon  disappeared.  The  rain, 
however,  did  not  seem  to  wash  them  away, 
so  they  were  something  more  than  mere  sur- 
face markings."  A  similar  phenomenon  was 
observed  and  described  in  1858  by  Mr.  Charles 
Peach  in  a  paper  on  the  Nature  Printing  of 
Sea-weeds,  on  the  rocks  of  one  of  the  Ork- 
ney Islands  in  Scotland. 

Breath  Figures. — Some  interesting  ex- 
periments are  described  by  W.  B.  Croft  in 
the  production  of  "  breath  figures  "—or  la- 
tent impressions  on  contact  of  objects  with 
glass  and  electrifying,  which  are  made  visi- 
ble by  breathing  upon  them.  While  there 
appears  to  be  no  limit  to  the  durability  of 
these  figures  if  they  are  carefully  protected, 
they  usually  become  obscured  by  dust  gath- 
ering on  them  after  being  often  breathed 
upon.  But  certain  changes  or  developments 
take  place  after  the  lapse  of  some  weeks  or 
months.  In  coin  pictures,  the  object  is  near 
to  the  glass,  but  not  in  contact  with  it ;  for 
in  the  best  specimens  the  rim  of  the  coin 
keeps  the  inner  part  clear  of  the  surface. 
Even  if  a  coin  only  rest  for  a  while  on  glass, 
an  outline  of  the  disk  and  sometimes  faint 
traces  of  the  inner  detail  will  be  produced 
when  the  spot  is  breathed  upon.  An  exami- 
nation paper,  printed  on  one  side,  put  be- 
tween two  plates  of  glass  and  left  for  ten 
hours,  either  in  the  dark  or  the  daylight,  will 
leave  a  perfect  breath  impression  of  the  print, 
both  on  the  glass  that  lay  against  the  print, 
and  on  that  which  faced  the  blank  side  of 
the  paper.  Sometimes  both  impressions  are 
white,  and  sometimes  they  are  both  black ; 
or  one  may  be  part  white  and  part  black,  or 
may  even  change  while  being  examined.  The 
impressions  were  very  easy  to  produce  during 
a  sharp  frost  with  east  winds  early  in  March, 
1890.  The  following  experiments  easily  suc- 
ceed at  any  time :  Stars  and  crosses  of  paper 
are  placed  for  a  few  hours  beneath  a  plate  of 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


glass  ;  clear  white  breath  figures  of  the  de- 
vice will  appear.  A  piece  of  paper  is  folded 
several  times  each  way  to  form  small  squares, 
then  spread  out  and  placed  under  glass ;  the 
raised  lines  of  the  folds  produce  white  breath 
traces,  and  in  one  instance  a  letter-weight 
that  was  above  left  a  latent  mark  of  its  cir- 
cular rim.  Some  writing  made  on  paper  with 
ordinary  ink  and  well  dried,  left  a  very  last- 
ing white  breath  image  after  a  few  hours' 
contact.  Plates  of  glass  lying  for  a  few  hours 
on  a  table  cover  worked  with  silk  acquired 
strong  white  figures  from  the  silk.  Two  cases 
have  been  reported  where  blinds  with  em- 
bossed letters  left  a  latent  image  on  the  win- 
dow near  which  they  lay  ;  it  was  revealed  in 
misty  weather,  and  had  not  been  removed  by 
washing.  A  glass  which  has  lain  above  a 
picture  for  several  years,  but  has  been  kept 
from  contact  by  the  mount,  will  often  show 
on  its  inner  side  an  outline  of  the  picture, 
always  visible  without  breath.  The  words 
white  and  black  in  the  descriptions  of  the 
impressions  relate  to  the  adherence  of  the 
breath  to  the  reliefs  (white)  or  its  non-adher- 
ence (black).  The  exact  cause  of  the  phe- 
nomenon is  not  known,  but  is  supposed  to  lie 
in  some  of  the  unknown  regions  of  molecular 
agency. 

Exclusive  Communities. — The  number  of 
ants  dwelling  together  in  a  community,  ac- 
cording to  Sir  John  Lubbock,  is  sometimes 
as  great  as  five  hundred  thousand.  They  are 
always  friendly  toward  each  other,  no  quar- 
rel ever  having  been  observed  between  two 
ants,  members  of  the  same  community.  They 
are,  however,  very  exclusive,  and  regard  an 
immigrant  with  horror.  When  an  ant  of  the 
same  species  belonging  to  another  nest  ap- 
pears among  them,  he  is  promptly  taken  by 
the  leg  or  antenna  and  put  out.  It  would 
naturally  be  surmised  that  this  distinction 
was  made  by  means  of  some  communication. 
To  test  whether  they  could  recognize  each 
other  without  signs,  attempts  were  made  to 
render  them  insensible,  first  by  chloroform 
und  afterward  by  whisky.  "None  of  the 
ants  would  voluntarily  degrade  themselves 
by  getting  drunk."  Finally,  fifty  ants  were 
taken,  twenty-five  from  one  community  and 
twenty-five  from  another,  and  dipped  into 
whisky  until  intoxicated.  They  were  then 
appropriately  marked  with  a  spot  of  paint 


and  placed  on  a  table  where  the  ants  from 
one  nest  were  feeding.  The  sober  ones  no- 
ticed the  drunkards  and  seemed  much  per- 
plexed. At  length  they  took  the  interlopers 
to  the  edge  of  the  moat  surrounding  the  ta- 
ble and  dropped  each  one  into  the  water. 
Their  comrades,  however,  they  carried  home 
and  placed  in  the  nest,  where  they  slept  off 
the  effects  of  the  liquor. 

The  Comma  Bacillus,  Cholera,  and  Sani- 
tation.— Experiments  by  Prof,  von  Petten- 
kofer  and  Prof.  Emmerich,  in  which  they 
swallowed  fresh  cultures  of  comma  bacillus 
upon  empty,  neutralized  stomachs,  show  con- 
clusively to  von  Pettenkofer  that  the  com- 
ma bacillus,  during  its  sojourn  in  the  intes- 
tine, does  not  produce  the  specific  poison  that 
causes  Asiatic  cholera.  This  agrees  with  the 
results  obtained  by  Bouchard,  who  was  able 
to  induce  the  symptoms  of  cholera  in  rabbits 
by  giving  them  the  excreta  of  human  cholera 
patients,  but  not  by  giving  them  pure  cultures 
of  comma  bacilli  or  their  metabolic  products. 
While  he  does  not  deny  that  the  comma  ba- 
cillus has  some  etiological  importance,  von 
Pettenkofer  can  not  believe  it  is  the  x  which, 
without  the  assistance  of  y,  can  cause  epi- 
demics of  cholera ;  and  he  reiterates  his  well- 
known  views  on  the  influence  of  the  soil,  es- 
pecially in  connection  with  the  rainfall.  His 
practical  teaching  may  be  summarized  in  the 
formula  that  it  is  the  y — that  is,  the  local 
physical  and  sanitary  conditions — that  must 
be  attended  to ;  each  place  must,  in  short, 
be  made  cholera-proof  by  sanitation. 

Children  and  Flowers. — In  a  paper  read 
before  the  Society  of  American  Florists,  on 
training  children  to  love  and  cultivate  flow- 
ers, Mr.  Robert  Farquhar  argued  that  we 
could  either  stifle  or  strengthen  the  love  of 
Nature  which  is  planted  in  every  young  heart. 
If  we  encourage  and  cultivate  this  love  the 
mind  of  the  growing  child  will  be  opened  to 
the  beauties  of  Nature,  and  we  shall  in  thia 
way  provide  for  it  a  means  of  healthy  exer- 
cise out  of  doors  and  a  source  of  delightful 
recreation  all  through  life.  Children  should 
have  gardens  of  their  own  to  care  for,  and 
they  should  be  instructed  in  garden  practice. 
They  should  be  allowed  to  sow  the  seed  and 
care  for  the  plants  themselves,  although  they 
should  be  directed  in  all  these  operations. 


138 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Florists  who  do  business  in  villages  and 
towns  enjoy  opportunities  for  doing  effective 
work  among  children  by  explaining  to  their 
young  visitors  the  methods  of  propagation. 
The  claims  of  children  should  never  be  for- 
gotten hi  making  up  the  lists  of  premiums 
for  agricultural  and  horticultural  fairs.  Prizes 
should  be  given  for  plants  grown  by  them 
and  for  bouquets  and  collections  of  wild 
flowers  made  by  them.  Village  improve- 
ment societies  are  doing  excellent  work  in 
many  sections.  Some  have  distributed  seeds 
and  plants  to  the  school  children  with  most 
satisfactory  results. 

African  Pluck.— Mr.  Alfred  Coode  Hore, 
in  his  Eleven  Years  in  Central  Africa,  speaks 
well  of  the  tribes  of  the  Tanganyika  region, 
which  he  finds  are  peaceable  and  industrious 
for  the  most  part,  but  turbulent  and  aggres- 
sive when  they  have  learned  to  dread  moles- 
tation by  strangers.  "  It  seems  hard,"  he 
says,  "  that  a  man  should  be  called  lazy  be- 
cause he  has  ample  leisure  between  his  busy 
times ;  who  has  made  with  his  own  hands 
from  Nature's  raw  materials  his  house,  his 
axe,  hoe,  and  spear,  his  clothing  and  orna- 
ments, his  furniture  and  corn-mill,  and  all 
that  he  has,  and  who,  though  liable  often  in 
a  lifetime  to  have  to  commence  that  whole 
process  over  again,  has  the  energy  and  enter- 
prise to  do  so.  Too  often  have  the  same 
people  been  called  savage  and  bloodthirsty 
who,  through  all  experience  and  by  all  their 
traditions  regarding  armed  strangers  as  ene- 
mies, defend  themselves  and  their  own  with 
the  desperate  energy  which,  as  displayed  by 
our  own  ancestral  relations,  we  term  patriot- 
ism and  courage." 

Impurities  in  Ice. — The  once  popular 
theory  that  water  is  purified  by  freezing  is, 
as  Mr.  Charles  Platt  shows  in  Science,  not  in 
accordance  with  facts.  While  water  in  its 
crystalline  state  should  theoretically  be  near- 
ly pure,  still,  owing  to  its  formation  in 
needle-like  crystals,  considerable  foreign  mat- 
ter present  in  the  water  in  suspension  may 
be  and  is  mechanically  held  within  the  mass. 
Another  view,  that  in  the  freezing  of  still 
water  a  certain  concentration  of  some  spe- 
cies of  bacteria  on  the  surface  of  the  water 
may  take  place,  and  the  first  inch  of  ice  may 
contain  these  in  increased  numbers  as  com- 


pared with  a  sample  of  water  from  the  same 
lake,  may  be  well  founded,  but  it  is  not  yet 
proved  that  these  bacteria  have  an  increased 
or  any  vital  activity.  But  when  the  ice  is 
melted  and  the  temperature  of  the  water  is 
considerably  raised,  "  then  we  have  another 
problem,  that  of  possible  decomposition  and 
organic  change  in  those  organisms  that  may 
induce  results  equal  to  and  exceeding  those 
of  the  bacteria  themselves."  Disease  hag 
undoubtedly,  Mr.  Platt  affirms,  been  pro- 
duced by  the  use  of  ice  from  impure  sources 
and  this,  too,  when  mere  analysis  of  the  ice 
in  comparison  with  water  standards  would 
not  condemn  it.  But  the  standards  in  the 
analysis  of  ice  must  be  higher  than  in  that 
of  water.  The  Massachusetts  Board  of 
Health  has  pointed  out  that  it  is  not  the 
number  of  bacteria  alone  that  is  to  be  con- 
sidered, but  their  kind,  and  insists  that  no 
water  supply  that  is  not  fit  for  drinking  pur- 
poses should  be  used  as  a  supply  for  ice. 
This  is  done  when  ice  is  gathered  from  stag- 
nant ponds  and  sluggish  canals  that  receive 
the  drainage  from  various  sources.  Snow 
ice  and  ice  that  has  been  formed  by  flooding 
ice  fields  with  surface  water  are  very  liable 
to  be  contaminated.  In  making  artificial  ice 
it  is  customary  to  use  the  entire  contents  of 
the  water  tanks.  In  that  case  the  impuri- 
ties, repelled  at  first  by  the  ice  forming  at 
the  sides  of  the  vessels,  are  driven  to  the 
center  and  there  concentrated,  to  be  at  last 
included  in  the  freezing  of  the  entire  mass. 

Protection  of  Orchards  against  Frost, 

— According  to  Charles  Howard  Shinn,  in 
Garden  and  Forest,  experiments  are  carried 
on  on  a  practical  scale  for  the  protection  of 
fruit  against  frost  hi  the  orange  groves  at 
Riverside,  Cal.  In  some  winters  the  tem- 
perature falls  so  low  that  the  oranges  are 
destroyed  or  injured.  As  a  remedy  the  cul- 
tivators are  using  appliances  for  warming 
the  orchards  on  a  large  scale.  Their  experi- 
ments show  that  the  temperature  can  be 
raised  from  four  to  ten  degrees  by  the  use 
of  fires.  The  moment  the  thermometer  falls 
to  the  danger  point  electric  bells  can  be  rung 
and  tanks  of  crude  petroleum  lighted.  One 
man  has  fitted  up  an  eighty-acre  orchard  at  a 
cost  of  $10,000  or  $12,000.  He  claims  that 
his  grove  is  absolutely  protected,  and  that 
the  running  expense  will  be  very  little.  Other 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


139 


growers  use  coal-oil  cans  filled  with  kindling 
wood  and  coal  and  placed  in  the  orchard  at 
the  rate  of  from  eight  to  twenty-five  per 
acre.  Some  provide  themselves  with  two- 
gallon  iron  kettles  and  use  reduced  petro- 
leum. Ten  dollars  per  acre  will  pay  for  the 
plant  and  the  expense  of  one  night's  burn- 
ing. Horticulturists  in  other  citrus  colonies 
are  following  in  the  track  of  Riverside  and 
preparing  for  future  "  cold  snaps." 

Curious  Fauna  of  La  Plata. — A  curious 
medley  of  animal  life  is  described  by  Mr- 
W.  H.  Hudson  as  existing  in  the  pampas  re- 
gion of  La  Plata :  A  poisonous  toad  which 
kills  horses ;  the  wrestler  frog,  which  suddenly 
pinches  its  enemy  with  its  fore  legs  and  then 
runs  away ;  a  large,  venomous,  man-chasing 
spider,  which  pursues  men  on  foot  and  on 
horseback ;  dragon  flies,  a  single  individual 
of  which  will  cause  clouds  of  gnats,  mos- 
quitoes, and  sand  flies  to  disappear  in  an  in- 
stant; and  an  opossum,  fully  adapted  to  life 
in  trees,  which  yet  lives  in  a  desert  destitute 
of  trees,  and  when  brought  to  a  tree,  which 
it  may  never  have  seen  before,  will  clasp  it 
and  climb  it  with  all  the  agility  of  its  forest- 
dwelling  relatives  of  North  America. 

Manufacture  of  Fans. — The  manufac- 
ture of  fans  is  chiefly  carried  on  now  in 
France,  Spain,  China,  Japan,  and  India. 
The  fashions  are  established  in  France  prin- 
cipally at  Sainte-Genevieve,  Audeville,  Cor- 
beil-Cerf,  Le  Deluge,  Coudray,  and  the  vi- 
cinity of  Beauvais  and  Meru.  At  Sainte- 
Genevieve  they  work  in  bone,  mother-of- 
pearl,  and  ivory ;  at  Le  Petit-Fercourt,  and 
Andecourt,  in  mother-of-pearl  and  horn; 
at  Le  De"luge  and  Corbeil-Cerf,  pear  tree, 
apple  tree,  and  hornbeam  wood;  at  Boir- 
siere,  in  bone ;  and  at  Paris,  in  shell.  The 
leaf  of  the  fan  is  generally  made  and  the  fan 
mounted  at  Paris.  Fans  have  been  made  in 
Spain  only  for  some  sixty  or  seventy  years, 
notably  at  Madrid,  Barcelona,  Valencia,  Mala- 
ga, and  Cadiz.  Most  of  the  Chinese  fans  are 
made  hi  Canton  and  E-moui,  but  the  manu- 
facture is  generally  diffused  through  the 
country,  for  the  fan  is  a  part  of  the  na- 
tional costume.  Every  Chinese  of  good  so- 
cial standing  holds  a  fan  during  visits  of 
ceremony,  and  the  custom  of  writing  on  fans 
is  spread  throughout  the  empire.  The  prin- 


cipal centers  of  production  in  Japan  are  the 
cities  of  Osaka,  Kioto,  and  Nagoya.  In  that 
country  the  fan  is  a  part  of  the  costume  of 
both  sexes,  and  is  to  be  seen  in  the  hand  of 
the  soldier  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  monk. 
When  a  gentleman  gives  alms  to  a  beggar, 
he  often  puts  the  coin  upon  his  fan ;  and 
salutes  are  made  by  waving  the  fan  as  they 
are  hi  Europe  by  tipping  the  hat.  There  are 
also  fan  factories  in  some  other  countries. 
Lace  fans  are  made  at  Brussels  and  De 
Grammont,  in  Belgium ;  fans  of  braided 
straw,  at  Fiesole  and  Vicenza  in  Italy ;  and 
fan-standards  of  braided  grass  and  cloth  em- 
broidered with  gold  and  silver,  in  Tunis  and 
Morocco ;  but  France  holds  the  first  place  in 
the  manufacture  of  luxurious,  and  China  in 
that  of  cheap,  fans. 

Origin  of  «  Hot  Waves."— A  theory  is 
published  by  Prof.  F.  Hawn,  of  Leavenworth, 
Kan.,  that  our  southwest  winds  are  tropical 
currents,  which  rise  to  great  elevations  in 
the  upper  atmosphere,  and  then  flow  north 
and  reach  the  ground  again  in  latitude  34°, 
bringing  subtropical  heat.  As  other  results 
of  his  theory  he  concludes  that  the  close  at- 
mospheric relations  between  the  upper  and 
lower  currents  attest  their  common  origin ; 
that  the  atmospheric  temperature  is  inci- 
dentally if  not  perpetually  higher  in  the 
upper  than  on  the  lower  levels ;  that  these 
relatively  higher  thermal  conditions  of  the 
upper  atmosphere  control  the  lower  atmos- 
phere in  the  spring  and  summer,  and  indi- 
dentally  in  the  winter ;  that  the  hot  waves 
of  the  Northwest  have  their  origin  in  a 
superheated  upper  atmosphere,  and  are  con- 
densed by  gravitation  in  their  descent  to  the 
surface,  evolving  heat  in  a  ratio  inverse  to 
the  humidity;  and  that  thefoehn  winds  (hot 
waves),  with  their  resultant  temperatures  of 
more  than  100°  in  the  temperate  seasons 
and  from  65°  to  73°  in  the  winter,  are  not 
local  west  of  the  eighty-eighth  meridian,  but 
at  intervals  simultaneously  cover  the  north- 
ern half  of  the  United  States. 

Qualities  of  Slates. — From  experimental 
studies  with  roofing  slates,  Mr.  Mansfield 
Merriman  has  drawn  the  conclusions  that  those 
with  soft  ribbons  are  of  an  inferior  quality 
and  should  not  be  used  in  good  work ;  the 
stronger  the  slate  the  greater  are  its  tough- 


140 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ness  and  softness  and  the  less  its  porosity 
and  corrodibility ;  softness  or  liability  to  abra- 
sion does  not  indicate  inferiority,  but  is  an 
indication  of  strength  and  good  weathering 
qualities.  The  strongest  slate  stands  high- 
est in  weathering  qualities,'  so  that  a  flexural 
test  affords  an  excellent  index  of  all  its  prop- 
erties, particularly  if  the  ultimate  deflection 
and  the  manner  of  rupture  be  noted.  The 
strongest  and  best  slate  has  the  highest  per- 
centage of  silicates  of  iron  and  aluminum,  but 
is  not  necessarily  the  lowest  in  carbonates  of 
lime  and  magnesia.  Chemical  analyses  give 
only  imperfect  conclusions  regarding  the 
weathering  qualities  of  slate,  and  they  do  not 
satisfactorily  explain  the  physical  properties. 
The  soft  roofing  slates  weigh  about  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-three  pounds  per  cubic  foot, 
and  the  best  qualities  have  a  modulus  of  rup- 
ture of  from  seven  thousand  to  ten  thousand 
pounds  per  square  inch.  The  test  of  a  slate 
by  balancing  it,  striking  it,  and  observing  its 
ring  is  a  good  one,  but  is  not  susceptible  of 
quantitative  expression. 

Pasteur's    Seventieth    Birthday. — The 

seventieth  birthday  of  Louis  Pasteur  was  im- 
posingly celebrated  December  27th,  in  the 
presence  of  eminent  men  of  science  and  states- 
men of  different  countries.  The  first  address 
was  made  by  the  French  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction,  who  spoke  of  the  occasion  as  the 
"  festival  of  France  and  of  mankind."  Ad- 
dressing M.  Pasteur,  he  said  that  while  his 
work  could  be  analyzed  only  by  the  scientific, 
the  ignorant  and  the  learned  alike  knew  that 
he  had  accomplished  something  great.  All 
his  success  was  due  to  his  unswerving  "  apos- 
tle's faith  "  in  science.  Had  he  devoted  him- 
self to  pure  science,  the  topmost  place  would 
have  been  his.  Happily  for  himself  and  for 
mankind,  he  deserted  that  path  and  hence- 
forth passed  his  days  in  inventing  antidotes 
for  diseases  that  had  for  centuries  decimated 
the  animal  and  human  populations.  Prof. 
Joseph  Lister  acknowledged  the  obligations 
of  the  professors  of  the  healing  art  to  M.  Pas- 
teur. Numerous  testimonials  and  offerings 
of  different  kinds  were  presented  to  M.  Pas- 
teur, with  a  splendid  gold  medal,  the  product 
of  an  international  subscription. 

Origin  of  the  Asteroids. — A  paper  on 
Groups  of  Asteroids,  by  Prof.  Daniel  Kirk- 


wood,  illustrates  the  theory  that  these  bodies 
were  formed  by  the  resolution  of  nebulous  as- 
teroids. When  the  number  of  telescopic  plan- 
ets had  grown  to  hundreds,  and  when  the  peri- 
helion distance  of  some  of  them  had  become 
greater  by  many  millions  of  miles  than  the 
aphelion  of  others,  the  theory  of  explosion 
was  necessarily  abandoned.  But  the  doc- 
trine of  similarity  of  origin,  the  author  holds, 
was  not  so  easily  disposed  of.  The  original 
dimensions  of  nebulous  asteroids  were  proba- 
bly many  times  greater  than  those  of  the  pres- 
ent bodies.  The  disrupting  tendency  of  the 
great  bodies  of  the  system,  especially  when 
resisted  only  by  the  slight  central  attraction  of 
nebulous  asteroids,  is  easily  imagined.  Such 
separation,  in  short,  has  no  improbability  what- 
ever. The  dismemberment  of  comets,  as  is 
well  known,  has  actually  occurred  under  our 
own  eyes.  Why  not  also  the  pulling  asunder 
of  nebulous  planets  ?  The  fact  that  in  many 
cases  the  motions  of  asteroids  indicate  a  com- 
mon origin,  affords  strong  presumptive  evi- 
dence in  favor  of  the  nebular  hypothesis. 
Possibly,  indeed,  its  true  form  may  have  dif- 
fered from  that  proposed  by  Laplace.  How 
many  primitive,  separate  nebulae  were  con- 
tained in  our  system,  and  how  many  of  these 
primitive  masses  suffered  dismemberment 
while  Mars  and  the  then  future  earth  were 
yet  floating  in  the  solar  atmosphere,  can  not 
now  be  told.  An  indefinite  number  may,  how- 
ever, undoubtedly  be  traced.  "  May  not  simi- 
lar processes  be  also  indicated  in  the  slow 
evolution  of  binary  and  multiple  stars  in  the 
sidereal  heavens  ?  " 

Early  Fans.— The  extreme  antiquity  of 
fans  is  attested  by  their  appearance  in  ancient 
Egyptian  and  Assyrian  sculptures,  where  they 
have  the  shape  of  a  semicircle  with  a  long 
handle  attached  at  the  center.  They  were 
probably  used  in  worship  to  protect  the  offer- 
ings and  sacred  objects  against  contamination 
by  dust  and  flies.  They  were  known  also  in 
India,  where  they  were  perhaps  introduced 
from  China.  The  story  of  their  origin  in  the 
latter  country  runs  that  the  daughter  of  a 
powerful  mandarin  was  obliged,  on  account 
of  the  heat,  to  take  off  her  mask  during  the 
feast  of  lanterns,  in  violation  of  the  law  and 
convention.  She  shook  it  rapidly  in  front  of 
her  face,  both  to  give  herself  air  and  by  the 
quick  motion  to  veil  her  identity  as  fully  as 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


141 


possible.  Other  women  followed  her  exam- 
ple, and  the  fan  was  invented.  The  Chinese 
historians  trace  the  use  of  the  fan  in  their 
country  back  to  a  contemporary  of  Rameses 
II  of  Egypt ;  and  it  is  mentioned  by  a  writer 
of  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era. 
In  ancient  Grecian  life,  a  eunuch,  in  one  of 
the  tragedies  of  Euripides,  relates  how  he 
waved  a  fan,  "according  to  the  Phrygian 
fashion,"  before  the  hair,  face,  and  bosom  of 
the  fair  Helen.  Fans  were  early  adopted  by 
Roman  matrons,  who  had  two  kinds — the 
flabella  of  ostrich  plumes,  and  the  lobelia  of 
thin  woven  stuff  stretched  over  a  frame.  A 
Roman  woman  never  went  out  without  a  slave 
(flabettiferd)  whose  duty  it  was  to  fan  her. 
It  is  not  known  whether  the  fan  was  used  in 
Europe  as  an  article  of  the  feminine  toilet  be- 
tween the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the 
eleventh  century,  for  it  is  not  mentioned  in 
that  relation ;  but  it  was  certainly  used  a 
great  deal  in  the  ceremonies  of  Roman  Cath- 
olic worship,  when  the  deacons  and  the  aco- 
lytes waved  it  over  the  altar  at  mass.  This 
usage  Pere  Bonami  assumes  to  have  traced 
back  to  the  apostles.  Fans  are  represented 
in  manuscripts  and  on  monuments  of  the 
twelfth  century  and  inventories  of  the  four- 
teenth, under  different  names,  but  without 
specification  of  their  use.  They  seem  to  have 
been  disused  in  the  church  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  to  appear  again  after  the  Crusades  in 
the  warmer  countries — Spain  and  Italy — as 
an  accessory  to  woman's  dress  ;  but  were  not 
seen  in  France  till  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
they  were  introduced  at  court  by  the  Italian 
perfumers  who  came  in  the  suite  of  Catherine 
de  Medicis. 

American    and    ifrican   Deserts. — The 

most  striking  contrast  between  the  North 
American  "  deserts "  and  those  of  North 
Africa  is  described  by  Prof.  Johannes  Wal- 
ther,  of  Berlin,  as  consisting  in  the  far 
greater  wealth  of  vegetation  which  charac- 
terizes the  former.  In  every  direction  the 
eye  is  met  by  the  yellow-blossoming  ha- 
lophytae,  silver- gray  artemisiae,  and  prickly 
cacti ;  between  the  opuntias  are  found  cush- 
ions of  moss,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  hills 
juniper  trees  seven  feet  high  with  trunks  a 
foot  thick.  Such  are  the  features  of  the 
landscape  of  the  deserts  of  Utah,  where 
plant-growth  has  completely  disappeared 


only  in  those  places  in  which  the  saline 
complexion  of  the  soil  kills  vegetation.  The 
Van  Horn  deserts  in  western  Texas,  and  the 
Gila  deserts  in  California  are  equally  rich 
in  vegetation ;  the  altitude  of  these  deserts 
above  the  sea-level  makes  no  important 
difference.  Either  the  mean  rainfall  in  the 
American  deserts  is  greater  than  in  those  of 
Africa,  or  else  the  flora  of  the  American 
deserts  is  better  adapted  to  a  dry  atmos- 
phere. Although  the  deserts  of  the  two 
continents  present  fundamental  differences 
as  regards  vegetation,  there  is  a  surprising 
similarity  between  them  as  regards  certain 
important  and  characteristic  desert  phe- 
nomena, especially  with  respect  to  the  to- 
pography of  the  country.  There  is  the 
prevalence  of  plains,  with  mountains  rising 
from  them  like  islands,  with  no  intervening 
heaps  of  debris  passing  from  the  plains  to 
the  steep  mountain  slopes.  This  phenome- 
non is  the  more  striking,  as  there  are  no 
rubbish  deltas,  even  at  the  outlet  of  valleys 
a  thousand  feet  deep.  Another  feature  com- 
mon to  both  is  the  large  number  of  isolated 
"island"  mountains  and  of  amphitheatre 
formations  in  the  valleys ;  also  the  intensive 
effect  of  insolation,  which  splits  the  rocks 
and  flints,  and  disintegrates  the  granite  into 
rubbish.  The  denuding  influence  of  the 
wind  is  visible  not  only  in  the  characteristics 
of  the  surface  forms  just  mentioned,  which 
differ  in  important  points  from  erosion 
forms,  but  it  can  be  directly  observed  in  the 
mighty  dust-storms  which  rush  through  the 
desert.  In  view  of  such  agreement  of  im- 
portant and  incidental  geological  phenomena 
in  regions  so  remote  from  each  other,  the 
phenomenon  of  desert  formation  must  be 
considered  to  be  a  telluric  process  which 
runs  its  course  according  to  law,  just  as  the 
glacial  phenomena  of  the  polar  zone  or  cu- 
mulative disintegration  in  the  tropics. 

Wind  Effects. — In  a  paper  on  The  Wind 
as  a  Factor  in  Geology,  published  in  the 
Engineer's  Magazine,  Mr.  George  P.  Merrill, 
after  mentioning  several  familiar  examples 
of  the  formation  of  dunes  in  Europe,  passes 
to  the  account  of  similar  phenomena  in  the 
United  States.  In  May,  1889,  a  dust-storm 
occurred  in  Dakota  during  which  the  soil 
was  torn  up  to  a  depth  of  four  or  five  inches 
and  scattered  in  all  directions ;  while  drifts 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


of  sand  were  formed,  several  feet  deep  in 
favorable  places,  packed  as  snow-drifts  are 
packed  by  a  blizzard.  In  parts  of  the  West- 
ern plains  the  fine,  loose  sand  has  been 
blown  away  at  times,  leaving  every  pebble 
and  large  bowlder  standing  out  in  bold  re- 
lief. The  loose  material  often  gathers  in  the 
form  of  drifts  or  dunes,  which  travel  across 
the  country  with  frequent  changes  of  out- 
line. A  few  miles  north  of  Winnemucca 
Lake,  in  western  Nevada,  is  a  belt  of  these 
drifting  sand  hills,  described  by  the  geolo- 
gist Russell  as  some  seventy-five  feet  in 
thickness  and  about  forty  miles  in  length  by 
eight  miles  in  breadth.  Another  range  of 
sand  dunes,  at  least  twenty  miles  long,  and 
forming  hills  some  two  or  three  hundred 
feet  high,  is  on  the  eastern  end  of  Alkali 
Lake  in  the  same  State.  Dunes  of  equal 
height  have  been  formed  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  at  Grand  Ha- 
ven and  Sleeping  Bear  have  drifted  over  the 
woodlands,  so  as  to  leave  only  the  dead  tops 
of  trees  exposed.  The  erosive  power  of 
these  drifting  sands  is  often  an  important 
agent  in  wearing  away  the  rocks  upon  which 
they  strike.  Carried  along  by  the  force  of 
the  winds,  they  work  effectively  in  undermin- 
ing cliffs,  scouring  down  mountain  passes, 
and  giving  curious  and  fantastic  forms  to 
prominent  rocks. 

The  Whistled  Language  of  the  Canary 
Islands* — As  a  result  of  his  studies  of  the 
whistled  language  of  Gomera,  in  the  Canary 
Islands,  M.  J.  Lajard  affirms  that  it  is  not  a 
special  idiom  or  a  whistle  which  tries  to  imi- 
tate the  Spanish  language;  but  it  is  the 
Spanish  language  strengthened  by  the  aid 
of  whistling.  "  The  Gomerian,  while  he  is 
speaking,  puts  one,  two,  or  four  fingers  in 
his  mouth,  as  we  sometimes  see  done  hi  the 
street  in  order  to  make  shrill  sounds,  and  at 
the  same  time  he  whistles  with  force.  There 
results  a  mixture  of  words  and  whistle,  un- 
intelligible to  ears  not  accustomed  to  it,  but 
in  which  can  be  distinguished  the  words  of 
the  language.  .  .  .  The  whistling,  then,  is 
only  an  artifice  employed  to  carry  to  a  dis- 
tance the  sound  of  the  voice,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  its  distinctness  and  tone-quality. 
This  last  inconvenience  is  so  great  that  up 
to  this  time  travelers  have  been  unable  to 
understand  the  whistled  language.  To  be 


able  to  understand  it,  you  must  know  how 
to  whistle  yourself."  It  is,  however,  very 
limited  in  its  compass,  and  whistled  conver- 
sations are  of  short  duration.  It  exists  in 
other  of  the  Canary  Islands  than  in  Go- 
mera, and  there  is  reason  for  believing  that 
it  was  formerly  more  widespread  and  more 
prevalent  than  now.  Rudiments  of  a  whis- 
tled language,  the  mechanism  of  which  is 
like  that  of  the  Canaries,  exist  even  in 
Paris ;  it  is  employed  by  butchers  and  by 
thieves. 

What  constitutes  a  Polluted  Water. — 

A  water  is  said  to  be  polluted,  according  to 
Prof,  von  Pettenkofer,  when  it  is  no  longer 
clear  and  inodorous,  when  fishes  and  plants 
perish  in  it,  and  when  it  contains  more 
organic  matter  and  less  oxygen  than  are  to 
be  found  in  the  unpolluted  portions  of  the 
flow  of  the  stream.  Such  contamination  is 
essentially  different  from  the  transient  tur- 
bidity due  to  heavy  rains  or  to  melting  snow. 
Still,  even  the  permanent  pollutions  disappear 
in  the  further  course  of  the  river  bed,  by 
deposition  and  other  agencies.  Here  the 
rapidity  of  the  stream  and  the  quantity  of 
the  water  exert  a  preponderating  effect.  The 
most  formidable  impurities  are  supposed  to 
consist  of  the  putrescent  refuse  which  flows 
out  of  sewers  of  cities,  and  quickly  produces 
an  offensive  odor  at  the  places  where  it 
accumulates.  Prof,  von  Pettenkofer  has  for 
many  years  given  his  attention  to  the  ques- 
tion of  the  extent  to  which  rivers  are  polluted 
by  such  agencies,  and  has  had  researches 
conducted  by  his  pupils.  But  nothing  has 
hitherto  altered  the  opinion  which  he  ex- 
pressed long  ago,  that  sewage  may  be  safely 
permitted  to  flow  into  a  river  if  its  volume 
is  not  more  than  one  fifteenth  that  of  the 
river  water,  and  its  rate  of  flow  is  decidedly 
greater  than  that  of  the  current.  Taking  the 
city  of  Munich,  which  has  280,000  inhabit- 
tants,  he  computes  the  pollution  of  the  Isar 
by  its  sewage  as  amounting  to  only  TWOTFOS 
of  the  discharge  of  the  river — a  pollution  so 
inconsiderable  that  it  can  not  be  detected  by 
the  eye  when  a  corresponding  mixture  is  made 
up  experimentally.  But  it  is  also  not  perma- 
nent, for  at  Ismaning,  seven  kilometres  below 
Munich,  the  sewage  influx  is  no  longer  to  be 
detected  ;  and  at  Freising,  thirty-three  kilome- 
tres below,  the  chemical  and  bacteriological 


NOTES. 


tests  show  that  it  has  lost  nearly  all  its  power 
of  pollution.  Thus,  the  number  of  198,000 
bacteria  per  cubic  centimetre  found  by  Praus- 
nitz  at  the  mouth  of  the  Munich  sewer  was 
reduced  at  Ismaning  to  16,231,  and  at  Frei- 
sing  to  3,602.  A  similar  result  was  obtained 
by  Frankel  with  the  water  of  the  Spree  at 
and  below  Berlin.  The  mere  number  of 
bacteria  found  has,  however,  no  sanitary  sig- 
nificance, since  these  particular  microbes  are 
mostly  harmless,  and  in  fact  destroy  the  patho- 
genic microbes  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
The  purifying  action  of  rivers  is  ascribed  by 
von  Pettenkofer  to  the  oxygen  dissolved  in 
the  water  in  a  free  state  or  separated  from 
organisms.  In  the  latter  respect  the  green 
algae  and  even  non-chlorophyllic  plants  come 
prominently  into  consideration.  This  vegeta- 
tion should  be  preserved ;  but  it  may  be  de- 
stroyed by  a  too  great  concentration  of  the 
water  to  be  purified ;  and  to  prevent  this,  in- 
dustrial waste  waters  which  destroy  vegeta- 
tion must  be  kept  out  till  they  have  been 
purified. 

Bacteriological  Processes  against  Dis- 
ease.— According  to  a  summary  in  the  Satur- 
day Review,  attempts  by  bacteriological  pro- 
cesses to  remove  from  the  human  system  the 
germs  of  infectious  disease  have  been  made 
by  six  different  methods.  The  first  is  by 
Pasteur's  preventive  inoculation,  in  which  a 
minute  quantity  of  an  attenuated  culture  of 
the  virus  is  administered  to  produce  a  light 
attack  of  the  disease.  The  second  is  M. 
Pasteur's  method  in  rabies,  in  which  a  miti- 
gated virus  is  injected  into  a  person  already 
attacked  with  the  disease,  to  overtake  it. 
The  third  is  the  employment  of  the  virus  of 
a  comparatively  mild  disease  to  protect 
against  a  more  severe  one,  as  in  vaccination 
for  smallpox.  Next  in  order  is  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  disease-producing  bacteria  by  the 
administration  of  antiseptics  or  bactericides. 
A  fifth  method  is  the  re-enforcement  of  natural 
means  possessed  by  our  systems  for  combat- 
ing disease  germs :  by  re-enforcing  the  leuco- 
cytes or  white  blood-corpuscles,  which  de- 
stroy bacteria,  by  means  of  the  injection  of 
the  blood  of  animals  insusceptible  to  the 
disease ;  by  raising  or  lowering  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  body  of  the  patient;  by  alter- 
ations of  diet,  climate,  or  surroundings ;  or 
by  injection  of  phagocyte  invigorators.  The 


sixth  method  is  by  the  injection  of  the  "  tox- 
albumens "  formed  by  the  bacteria  growing 
in  artificial  cultures,  as  is  done  in  Koch's 
method  for  tuberculosis.  That  these  methods 
have  not  proved  entirely  satisfactory,  and 
bacteriological  treatment  is  now  apparent- 
ly at  a  standstill,  is  not  due,  it  is  thought, 
to  any  innate  defect  in  the  system,  but  to 
some  technical  detail.  "  When  the  ingenuity 
of  man  has  arrived  at  the  point  of  being  able 
to  prove  absolutely  that  organisms,  complete- 
ly invisible  to  all  but  the  highest  magnifying 
powers  attainable,  cause  each  its  particular 
infectious  disease ;  when  these  tiny  things 
may  be  made  to  grow  like  plants  in  a  garden, 
separately  and  in  order ;  when  we  can  keep 
rows  of  tubes  each  with  its  deadly  contents 
on  our  laboratory  shelves,  or  in  our  incuba- 
tors, like  druggists'  bottles  of  inert  powders 
or  crystals — surely  we  shall  not  stop  at  this 
stage  in  our  control  over  this  '  world  of  the 
infinitely  little.' " 


NOTES. 

A  CLARIFICATION  of  muddy  liquids  and 
partial  separation  of  micro-organisms  is 
effected  by  M.  R.  Lez6  by  subjecting  the 
liquid  to  a  rapid  rotation.  Thus,  cider,  in 
turbid  fermentation,  after  being  whirled  in 
a  turbine  wheel,  came  out  clear ;  and  while 
specimens  kept  in  bottles  at  86°  soon  gen- 
erated bacteria,  the  yeast  and  alcoholic  fer- 
mentation had  all  disappeared.  This  method 
may  be  found  useful  in  bacteriological  inves- 
tigation ;  and  in  industrial  operations,  for  rid- 
ding impure  and  unhealthy  waters  of  most 
of  the  organisms  contained  in  them. 

CHEMICAL  analysis  has  been  applied  by 
M.  Berthelot  to  the  solution  of  a  problem  in 
archaeology.  Taking  a  piece  of  copper  found 
by  M.  de  Sarzec  in  his  explorations  of  the 
ruins  in  Mesopotamia,  which  was  obtained 
from  one  of  the  most  ancient  sites,  he  made 
an  exact  determination  of  its  composition. 
It  contained  no  tin  or  zinc,  and  only  slight 
traces  of  lead  and  arsenic.  It  had  been  oxi- 
dized throughout,  and  presented  itself  as  a 
suboxide  or  a  mixture  of  protoxide  and  me- 
tallic copper.  Hence,  while  the  question 
can  not  yet  be  considered  decided,  the  speci- 
men is  a  contribution  of  evidence  hi  favor  of 
the  existence  of  an  age  of  copper. 

THE  physicians  of  Massachusetts  have  in 
recent  years  noticed  a  development  of  ma- 
larial disease  in  Cambridge  and  the  vicinity 
of  Boston  and  in  other  towns  of  the  State. 
The  origin  of  the  cases  in  Cambridge  seems, 
from  the  investigations  thus  far  made,  to  be 


144 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


associated  with  the  excavations  of  brickyards. 
The  examination  of  cases  in  the  suburbs  of 
Boston  points  to  the  upper  waters  of  certain 
streams. 

A  VERT  simple  remedy  for  the  annexa- 
tion fever  now  beginning  to  prevail  in  Cana- 
da and  the  exodus  to  this  country  which  is 
in  full  flow,  is  proposed  by  Mr.  Allen  Prin- 
gle.  It  is  to  "  take  down  the  bars  "  between 
Canada  and  her  natural  market — to  culti- 
vate friendly  and  intimate  commercial  rela- 
tions with  the  United  States. 

A  PATENTED  substance  called  alumino- 
ferric  is  prepared  by  English  manufacturers, 
to  promote  the  precipitation  of  sewage.  It 
is  used  solid,  in  slabs  twenty-one  inches  long 
by  ten  inches  wide  and  four  inches  thick, 
which  are  placed  in  a  cage  fixed  in  the  flow 
of  the  sewage,  or  in  solution.  The  "  sludge  " 
is  deposited,  to  be  separately  carried  off  or 
made  into  manure,  and  clear  water  flows 
away.  The  use  of  this  substance  has  been 
very  successful. 

PROF.  H.  CARRINGTON  BOLTON  has  been 
elected  President  of  the  New  York  Academy 
of  Sciences. 

THE  Department  of  Ethnology  and  Archae- 
ology of  the  Columbian  Exposition  intends 
to  provide  as  complete  an  anthropological 
library  as  possible,  by  aid  of  which  students 
and  educators  may  be  enabled  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  mass  of  literature  on  the 
subject.  All  authors,  societies,  museums, 
and  publishers  are  invited  to  contribute  from 
their  stoves  all  publications  on  the  various 
branches  of  the  subject.  A  complete  cata- 
logue of  the  collection  will  be  published  and 
widely  distributed.  The  library  will  be  con- 
veniently and  properly  arranged  and  accessi- 
ble to  students,  and  full  information  will  be 
given  them  respecting  the  books.  At  the 
close  of  the  Exhibition  loaned  books  will  be 
returned,  and  the  rest  of  the  library  will  be 
placed  in  the  permanent  Memorial  Museum 
of  Science  which  is  to  be  established  in  Chi- 
cago. 

IT  is  said  that  the  passage  of  boats  con- 
taining naphtha  has  had  the  effect  of  poi- 
soning the  waters  of  the  Volga.  A  great 
deal  of  the  liquid  is  transported  in  badly 
built  wooden  barges,  with  a  resultant  loss  by 
leakage  of  about  three  per  cent.  Consequent- 
ly the  fish  are  decreasing  rapidly,  and  have 
already  become  extinct  in  some  places  where 
the  boats  stop.  The  naphtha  likewise  kills 
off  the  insect  life  on  which  the  fish  feed,  by 
being  carried  in  times  of  flood  to  the  adja- 
cent meadows  and  destroying  the  larvas  there. 

THE  New  York  branch  of  the  American 
Folk  Lore  Society  was  organized  at  the  house 
of  Mrs.  Henry  Draper,  February  24th,  when  a 
constitution  was  adopted,  and  officers  were 
elected  as  follows :  President,  H.  Carrington 


Bolton;  vice-presidents,  G.  B.  Grinnell,  R. 
W.  Gilder;  treasurer,  H.  M.  Lester;  secre- 
tary, William  B.  Tuthill.  These  officers  and 
Mrs.  Harriet  M.  Converse,  Mrs.  Anna  P. 
Draper,  and  Mrs.  Mary  J.  Field,  constitute 
the  Executive  Committee.  Papers  were  read 
at  the  meeting  by  Prof.  Bolton  on  Divination 
by  the  Mirror  as  practiced  in  New  York  To- 
day, and  by  George  Bird  Grinnell  on  How 
the  Pawnees  stole  the  Corn.  Mr.  G.  F. 
Kunz  exhibited  a  human  tooth  inlaid  with 
jadeite.  Mr.  Newell,  founder  and  secretary 
of  the  National  Society,  was  present  and 
made  some  remarks. 


OBITUARY  NOTES. 

THE  death  was  announced  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  of  General  Axel  Wilhel- 
movitch  Gadolin,  of  the  Russian  army,  an  emi- 
nent mineralogist  and  physicist,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Russian  Academy  of  Sciences.  He 
engaged,  when  not  active  in  military  duties, 
in  research  into  the  molecular  forces  that 
act  in  the  formation  of  crystals.  His  chief 
work,  which  is  also  known  to  the  world 
through  a  German  translation,  was  his  Deduc- 
tion of  all  the  Systems  of  Crystals  and  their 
Derivates  from  a  Unique  Principle.  A  paper 
on  the  resistance  of  the  walls  of  a  gun  to  the 
pressure  of  gunpowder  gases  is  also  notice- 
able for  having  given  a  new  formula  of 
minimal  resistance. 

NIKOLAI  IVANOVITCH  KOKSHAROFF,  who 
died  in  St.  Petersburg  January  2d,  was  an 
eminent  mineralogist  and  author  of  a  work  in 
eleven  large  quarto  volumes,  to  which  a 
twelfth  is  to  be  added,  of  contributions  to 
the  mineralogy  of  Russia. 

M.  FRANCOIS  VAN  RYSSELBERGHE,  Pro- 
fessor of  Electrotechnics  in  the  University  of 
Ghent,  and  a  famous  inventor,  died  suddenly 
at  Antwerp,  Belgium,  February  3d,  in  the 
forty-seventh  year  of  his  age.  Among  his 
inventions  were  a  universal  meteorograph, 
exhibited  at  Paris  in  1881,  which  registered 
periodically  on  a  strip  of  paper  the  pressure, 
temperature,  humidity,  depth  of  rainfall,  and 
direction  and  force  of  the  wind ;  and  a  sys- 
tem of  simultaneous  telegraphic  and  tele- 
phonic transmission  which  has  come  into 
general  use  on  urban  and  suburban  lines. 
He  was  counsel  in  electrical  matters  for  the 
Belgian  administration  of  railroads,  posts, 
and  telegraphs. 

MR.  HENRY  F.  BLACKFORD,  a  distinguished 
geologist  and  meteorologist  of  India,  died  in 
January.  Originally  attached  to  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  of  India,  in  connection  with 
which  he  wrote  several  memoirs  of  much 
value,  he  afterward  became  Superintendent 
of  the  Meteorological  Department  of  Bengal, 
and  ultimately  of  the  whole  of  India ;  and  in 
connection  with  this  position  also  he  pub- 
lished useful  books  and  papers. 


ARCHIBALD    GEIKIE. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


JUNE,    1893. 
IRRIGATION  IN  THE  ARID   STATES. 

BY  CHARLES  HOWARD  SHINN. 

A  MOST  vital  change  is  going  on  in  the  region  west  of  central 
Kansas — a  change  which  will  in  the  near  future  profoundly 
affect  many  if  not  all  classes  of  agriculturists  in  other  American 
States,  and  incidentally  in  Europe  also.  I  refer  to  the  change 
that  has  been  brought  about  by  the  success  of  private  irrigation 
enterprises,  by  important  alterations  in  the  laws  respecting  irri- 
gation, by  district  irrigation  under  such  laws,  and  by  the  steady 
growth  of  a  public  sentiment  favorable  to  the  irrigator,  even 
when  his  necessities  override  ancient  precedent. 

It  is  my  purpose  in  this  article  to  give,  as  far  as  may  be,  a 
faithful  and  conservative  account  of  the  present  condition  of  arid- 
land  irrigation  enterprises.  My  account  will  be  statistical  as  far 
as  acreage,  flow  of  water,  cost  of  construction,  and  similar  items ; 
it  will  be  descriptive,  and  largely  from  personal  knowledge,  as 
regards  practical  methods  and  their  results.  The  entire  subject, 
it  seems  to  me,  possesses  an  immeasurable  interest  for  farmers 
elsewhere,  and  for  all  who  are  in  any  way  dependent  upon  the 
farming  class.  Successful  irrigation  upon  a  large  scale  intro- 
duces, it  is  true,  a  new  kind  of  competition,  but  it  also  urges  in- 
telligent farmers  to  adopt  improved  methods  of  farming  in  their 
own  defense,  and  often  leads  them  to  apply  the  water  of  neglected 
streams  upon  their  lands.  Even  the  general  reader  is  often  inter- 
ested in  discussions  upon  farm  mortgages,  farm  rents,  wages  of 
laborers,  taxes  on  crops,  cost  of  fertilizers,  and  similar  agricul- 
tural problems  of  the  present  time,  because  he  has  learned  that 
they  affect  his  own  welfare.  Much  broader  is  the  application  of 
arid-land  irrigation  to  every  occupation  and  industry.  America 

VO!  .    XLIII. 1  1 


IRRIGATION  IN   THE  ARID    STATES. 


H7 


has  many  and  greater  valleys  of  the  Nile  waiting  to  pour  forth 
enormous  harvests  whenever  the  legislative  and  executive  work 
of  the  irrigator  has  been  accomplished. 

If  I  were  writing  a  history  of  irrigation  in  America — and  a 
wonderful  story  it  is — I  should  have  to  devote  a  chapter  to  the 
Spanish  influence  in  all  the  lands  from  Texas  to  southern  Cali- 
fornia, where  men,  whose  mountaineer  ancestors  had  learned  the 
value  of  water  in  arid  districts  from  the  builders  of  the  Alham- 
bra,  made  reservoirs  and  led  many  a  fertilizing  stream  to  acres  of 
vines  and  oranges  on  the  high  plains  about  old  missions,  or  in 
the  adobe- walled  gardens  of  newly  founded  towns,  such  as  San 
Antonio,  Santa  F6,  and  Los  Angeles.  I  should  have  to  tell  about 
the  ruined  irrigation  canals  of  forgotten  tribes  in  Arizona,  south- 
ern Utah,  and  other  regions  of  the  Southwest  where  hundreds  of 
square  miles  were  covered  with  a  network  of  water  ditches,  small 
and  great.  The  modern  irrigator  often  adopts  the  grades  of  these 
prehistoric  channels  for  his  enterprises,  finding  that  no  engineer 
can  improve  upon  them.  I  should  have  to  describe  the  fields 
under  the  red  and  yellow  heights  of  Zuni  or  Acoma,  where  the 
Pueblo  Indians  still  raise  their  spotted  corn  by  irrigation,  as  their 
ancestors  did  centuries  ago,  .in  the  bottoms  of  narrow  canons 
where  the  ruins  of  their  fortressed  cliff -dwellings  still  remain. 
But  these  things,  except  perhaps  for  a  passing  allusion,  are  for- 
eign to  the  purpose  of  this  investigation. 

The  arid  States  and  Territories  are  beginning  to  organize  as  a 
group  of  communities  that  have  common  interests  and  a  common 
purpose.  Their  respective  areas  and  populations  are  shown  in 
the  following  table : 


NAME. 

Area,  square  miles. 

Population  in  1890. 

Texas 

265  780 

2  235  523 

New  Mexico         

122  580 

153  593 

Arizona      .                            ... 

113  020 

59  620 

•California 

158  360 

1  208  130 

Colorado  

103  925 

412  198 

Utah  ...              .    .                  ..    . 

84  970 

207  905 

Nevada 

110  700 

45  761 

Kansas  (west  of  97°)  

56000 

807  000 

NVhrasku  

76  855 

1  058  910 

Wyoming  ... 

97  890 

60  705 

South  Dakota                        .                                      ) 

328  808 

North  Dakota  f 

149,100 

182  719 

Montana  

146  080 

132  159 

Idaho  

84  800 

84  385 

(  >n'"on  (eastern) 

48  000 

113  767 

Washington  (eastern)  

35000 

149,390 

Total... 

1,652,060 

7.480.573 

IRRIGATION  IN   THE  ARID    STATES.  149 

The  total  area  is  more  than  half  of  the  United  States  (without 
Alaska),  and  the  total  present  population  is  less  than  one  eighth 
of  the  population  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  difficult,  perhaps  impracticable,  to  divide  States  once  cre- 
ated. Although  a  respectable  minority  in  California  and  Texas 
favor  division  schemes,  which  would  make  of  the  former  three 
States,  and  of  the  latter  four,  the  tendencies  of  the  time  are 
against  it.  But  with  the  Territories  it  is  different ;  and  if  admis- 
sion is  long  delayed,  so  that  irrigation  developments  will  have 
enabled  the  soil  to  sustain  a  dense  population,  such  Territories  as 
Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  Utah  are  very  likely  to  be  divided. 
Eastern  Oregon  and  Washington  are  separated  by  diverse  inter- 
ests from  the  western  slopes  of  those  States  in  somewhat  the  same 
way  as  southern  California  is  separated  from  the  northern  coun- 
ties. If  the  desire  for  smaller  States  should  increase  in  the  fu- 
ture, it  is  not  impossible,  therefore,  that  the  States  and  Territories 
of  the  arid  belt  should  some  time  contain  twenty-five  or  thirty 
political  divisions  instead  of  sixteen,  as  at  present.  It  is  perhaps 
too  much  to  say  that  the  balance  of  power  can  ever  be  transferred 
from  the  Mississippi  Valley  to  the  ultimate  West  of  the  Rockies, 
the  Great  Basin,  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande,  the  irrigated 
leagues  of  the  Nevada  and  Arizona  deserts,  the  vast  valley  plains 
of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin,  the  mountains  of  Coast 
Range,  Cascade,  and  Sierra.  But  if  such  a  change  is  ever  brought 
about,  the  irrigator  will  be  the  principal  cause  of  the  transfer  of 
leadership  from  the  man  of  the  corn  lands  to  the  man  of  the  fruit 
lands. 

Twenty  years  ago  no  one  in  America  knew  how  to  utilize 
water  on  a  large  scale  for  irrigation.  A  few  colonies  in  different 
parts  of  the  arid  zone,  a  few  settlers  in  isolated  valleys,  were  mak- 
ing experiments.  Half  a  dozen  ranchers  would  come  together 
and  plow  an  open  ditch  two  or  three  feet  wide,  to  irrigate  their 
crops  in  years  of  severe  drought.  As  for  the  districts  where  the 
average  annual  rainfall  was  below  the  required  amount,  no  one 
tried  to  live  there.  But  some  of  the  most  successful  of  recent  en- 
terprises have  been  upon  lands  where  there  is  "  no  rainfall."  Even 
ten  years  ago,  though  the  number  of  colonists  had  increased, 
the  total  area  under  water  ditches  in  the  arid  region  was  hardly 
more  than  two  million  acres.  In  1886  it  had  increased  to  five  and 
a  half  million  acres,  and  the  following  table  shows  the  state  of 
affairs  in  1891 : 


150 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Irrigated  Areas  in  Arid  Region. 


STATE  OB  TERRITORY. 

Acreage  under 
ditch. 

Acreage  cultivated 
by  the  irrigators. 

Artesian 
welle. 

California            

4,500,000 

3,550,000 

3,500 

WVominff                                             .  .    . 

3,031  484 

185,000 

6 

Colorado 

3  007  050 

1  800  000 

4500 

Montana  

1,250,000 

419,000 

36 

Idaho  

1,200,000 

330,000 

12 

Kansas  (west  of  97°)     

990,000 

120,000 

50 

Utah 

735  000 

423,000 

2  524 

New  Mexico 

700  000 

405  000 

10 

Arizona 

660  000 

315  000 

42 

Texas  

350,000 

160,000 

1,000 

Nebraska                             

200,000 

40,000 

1  000 

\Vashi  ngton 

176  000 

75000 

10 

Nevada 

150  900 

75  000 

76 

Oregon  

125,000 

45,000 

6 

South  Dakota      .                   .... 

100,000 

54,000 

960 

North  Dakota 

2  500 

2,000 

670 

Total 

17  177  843 

7  998  000 

13492 

Some  of  the  artesian  wells  are  of  enormous  size,,  and  yield  four 
and  five  million  gallons  of  water  daily,  capable  of  irrigating  a  sec- 
tion of  land.  The  greater  number  are  small,  however,  and  prob- 
ably not  capable  of  irrigating  more  than  five  or  ten  acres.  Half 
a  million  acres  is  the  utmost  limit  of  the  present  wells.  Some 
artesian  districts  contain  at  least  that  acreage,  so  that,  if  the  water 
supply  is  sufficient,  a  vast  area  will  be  reclaimed  by  this  method. 

In  the  above  table  the  most  noticeable  fact  is  that  less  than 
half  the  area  lying  beneath  the  water  ditches,  and  capable  of  irri- 
gation, is  now  cultivated.  This  is  because  it  takes  a  number  of 
years  to  settle  the  country,  break  up  the  soil,  and  bring  it  into 
cultivation.  In  progressive  communities  the  possible  acreage 
keeps  ahead  of  the  demand  until  the  water  supply  or  the  land 
supply  is  exhausted.  Judging  the  future  by  the  past,  and  taking 
into  consideration  many  projected  ditch  lines,  there  will  be  from 
thirty  to  thirty -five  million  acres  under  some  irrigation  system  by 
the  close  of  the  decade,  and  the  actually  cultivated  area  may  be 
close  upon  twenty  million  acres. 

California  has  had  a  longer  and  more  extensive  experience  with 
irrigation  than  any  other  division  of  the  arid  belt,  and  immense 
sums  have  been  wasted  in  litigation  and  experiment.  The  sys- 
tems now  in  use  in  different  districts  illustrate  all  the  details  of 
the  business.  All  the  larger  problems  connected  with  irriga- 
tion, such  as  seepage,  drainage,  reservoirs,  alkali  deposits,  econ- 
omy in  distribution,  can  be  studied  in  the  valleys  of  California. 
More  particularly  one  sees  private  ownership  and  district  owner- 
ship in  operation  side  by  side,  often  in  the  same  county. 

The  Wright  irrigation  act,  passed  in  1887,  gave  a  great  impetus 


IRRIGATION  IN   THE  ARID    STATES. 


to  the  process  of  uniting  land  and  water  in  a  permanent  union. 
No  less  than  thirty-eight  districts  have  been  organized  already,  and 
they  include  a  total  of  about  two  and  a  half  million  acres,  upon 
which  bonds  to  the  extent  of  twelve  million  dollars  have  been 
voted.  About  three  million  dollars  in  bonds  have  been  actually 
issued  and  sold ;  seven  districts  have  some  of  their  ditches  con- 
structed and  full  of  water ;  one  has  completed  its  entire  irrigation 
system  and  is  in  successful  operation.  It  will  take  a  considerable 
time  to  obtain  the  desired  capital  and  complete  all  the  districts 
organized.  Some  of  them  are  very  large,  and  will  greatly  add  to 
the  irrigated  area.  The  following  table  shows  the  acreage  and 
estimated  cost  of  water  supply  in  the  ten  largest  districts : 

Irrigation  Districts. 


NAME. 

Acreage. 

Estimated  cost. 

Sunset     

363,000 

$2,000,000 

Madera          

308,000 

850,000 

Selma                                     

271,000 

1,000,000 

Turlock                                                    

176,000 

1,200,000 

Central          

156,000 

750,000 

Alta       .  ,                        .    .            

129,000 

675,000 

Colusa 

100,000 

600,000 

Kern  and  Tulare 

84,000 

700,000 

80,000 

1,400,000 

Palradale                                       

160,000 

175,000 

Total.  . 

1,717,000 

$9,350,000 

The  bulk  of  the  district  acreage  is  included  in  these  ten  dis- 
tricts, nine  of  which  are  situated  in  the  San  Joaquin  and  Sacra- 
mento Valleys.  The  lowest  estimate  of  cost  in  any  of  the  thirty- 
eight  districts  is  $2.56  per  acre,  and  the  highest  is  $83.  The 
last  is  in  the  famous  orange  colony  of  Riverside,  where  the  water 
is  piped  to  the  land,  and  where  the  science  of  irrigation  is  perhaps 
better  understood  than  in  any  other  colony  in  America.  The  aver- 
age first  cost  of  water  per  acre  is  a  little  over  eight  dollars.  Bonds 
issued  are  a  lien  upon  all  the  real  estate  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  district,  as  well  as  upon  the  irrigation  system  itself,  and  are 
considered  by  conservative  bankers  as  excellent  security. 

Beyond  doubt  the  irrigation  district  laws  of  California  are  full 
of  suggestion  for  cheap  and  effective  work  by  the  land-owners 
themselves.  They  are  best  adapted  to  communities  that  have 
learned  something  of  the  value  of  irrigation  and  can  work  to- 
gether. There  are  many  places  where  no  irrigation  will  be  done 
until  the  Government  or  some  private  corporation  takes  hold  with 
the  required  skill  and  capital  to  secure  the  water  and  distribute  it 
to  the  land ;  then  the  scattered  settlers  will  use  it,  and  others  will 
come  in  and  buy  the  land  and  water.  Some  of  the  irrigation  dis- 


156  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tricts  already  organized  are  meeting  with  bitter  opposition  from 
large  land-owners  who  do  not  wish  to  sell,  nor  to  pay  higher  taxes 
upon  more  valuable  because  more  fruitful  land.  The  average 
farmer  with  his  hundred  or  five  hundred  acres,  where  crops  fail 
one  year  in  three  or  two  in  five,  is  compelled  to  have  water  or  be- 
come bankrupt.  The  owner  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  thousand  acres 
pastures  cattle  there  and  makes  a  living  that  suits  him.  If  the 
small  farmers  form  an  irrigation  district,  the  cattle  baron  is  apt 
to  fight  it  on  general  principles,  and  if  they  outvote  him  and 
include  any  of  his  land  in  the  taxable  area,  he  fights  them  to  the 
end.  Several  of  the  most  promising  district  ditches  of  California 
are  lying  unfinished  at  the  present  time  because  of  the  stub- 
born opposition  of  the  large  land-owners,  some  of  them  living  in 
Europe. 

Private  ownership  of  irrigation  canals  exists  more  or  less  in 
every  county  of  California.  It  is  too  soon  to  decide  the  compara- 
tive cost  of  water  under  the  two  systems,  but  the  logic  of  the 
situation  requires  supervision  of  private  enterprises  by  either  the 
State  or  the  General  Government.  The  danger  in  many  private 
schemes  is  the  sale  of  more  water  than  can  be  supplied  in  seasons 
of  drought,  and  the  consequent  loss  of  crops  planted  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  receiving  an  abundance.  There  is  a  golden  mean 
between  this  extreme  and  the  other,  now  less  frequent  than  for- 
merly, of  claiming  ten  times  as  much  water  as  can  be  used  and 
allowing  it  to  go  to  waste.  One  of  the  greatest  corporate  irriga- 
tion enterprises  in  the  United  States  is  in  Merced  County.  The 
late  Charles  Crocker,  of  San  Francisco,  was  the  leading  stock- 
holder. Three  and  a  half  million  dollars  has  now  been  spent  upon 
a  fifty-mile  canal  from  the  Merced  River,  with  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  of  lesser  ditches ;  a  giant  reservoir,  Lake  Yosemite,  covering 
a  square  mile  thirty  feet  deep,  and  the  purchase  of  large  tracts  of 
land.  The  company  now  has  water  to  irrigate  six  hundred  thou- 
sand acres.  The  carrying  capacity  of  the  main  canal  is  not  less 
than  four  thousand  cubic  feet  per  second.  Colonies  are  springing 
up  along  the  line  of  the  canal,  and  thousands  of  acres  have  been 
planted  to  crops  that  justify  irrigation. 

A  still  better  illustration  of  what  private  enterprise  has  done 
in  this  field  is  shown  in  the  Kern  region.  Seven  hundred  miles 
of  large  irrigating  ditches  have  been  dug  in  this  imperial  county, 
which  contains  more  than  five  million  acres.  The  annual  rain- 
fall is  from  three  to  five  inches,  so  that  irrigation  is  absolutely 
necessary.  Thirty  large  canals  have  been  taken  out  of  Kern 
River,  which  rises  in  the  highest  part  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Moun- 
tains. The  most  famous  of  these  canals  is  the  Calloway,  eighty 
feet  wide  on  the  bottom  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  wide  at 
the  top,  seven  feet  in  depth,  and  usually  full  to  within  a  few 


IRRIGATION  IN    THE  ARID    STATES.  159 

inches  of  the  top  of  the  bank.  It  irrigates  two  hundred  thousand 
acres  through  sixty-five  laterals,  of  an  aggregate  length  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles.  0 

But  the  glory  of  Kern  is  the  enormous  irrigation  system  upon 
the  Kern  Delta,  constructed  by  two  San  Francisco  capitalists — 
Lloyd  Tevis  and  J.  B.  Haggin.  All  in  all,  it  is  the  largest  enter- 
prise of  the  kind  of  which  I  have  any  knowledge.  The  total 
expenditure  has  been  fully  four  million  dollars.  For  this  the 
owners  have  obtained  a  system  of  twenty-seven  main  canals 
with  an  aggregate  length  of  three  hundred  miles,  besides  about 
eleven  hundred  miles  of  permanent  laterals.  Six  hundred  thou- 
sand acres  can  be  watered  from  these  artificial  rivers.  The  sandy 
plain  slopes  south  and  west  upon  a  grade  of  five  or  six  feet  to  the 
mile.  Very  little  of  the  land  requires  leveling.  The  great  reser- 
voir, a  former  lake  basin,  covers  twenty-five  thousand  acres  and 
contains  fifty  billion  gallons  of  water.  The  various  canals  of  this 
company  and  others  take  from  Kern  River  alone  a  total  of  twelve 
thousand  cubic  feet  of  water  per  second. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  value  of  such  land  was  less  than  a  dollar 
an  acre.  No  settler  could  live  on  a  quarter  section,  and  like  Fres- 
no, Tulare,  and  in  fact  most  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  it  was 
used  only  for  pasturage.  To-day  there  are  fields  of  hundreds  of 
acres  of  alfalfa,  where  the  best  of  Jerseys  and  Holsteins  are  kept ; 
there  are  orchards  of  peaches,  apricots,  prunes,  and  almonds — 
thousands  of  acres — loaded  each  year  with  fruit ;  cotton,  sugar 
beets,  the  sugar  cane  of  Louisiana,  tobacco,  corn,  cassava,  and  a 
multitude  of  the  products  of  the  temperate  and  semitropic  re- 
gions thrive  here  and  can  be  grown  as  staple  crops. 

Irrigation  is  often  supposed  to  belong  only  to  the  arid  lands. 
There,  it  is  true,  it  produces  the  most  surprising  changes  and  the 
greatest  proportionate  increase  of  values.  Water  poured  upon  a 
rainless  desert  makes  it  blossom  under  the  tropic  sun  as  if  some 
magician's  wand  had  been  waved  over  it.  Vines,  fruits,  flowers, 
green  lawns,  golden  wheat,  and  silver  barley,  for  miles  on  miles, 
all  lifted  by  the  sparkling  rivers  above  the  fluctuations  of  the 
season — such  are  the  changes  the  irrigator  brings  to  the  desert. 
But  thousands  of  valleys  and  hillsides  in  the  arid  regions  have 
enough  rainfall  to  enable  farmers  to  struggle  along,  and  not 
enough  to  make  their  crops  a  certainty  every  year.  Here  there 
is  an  even  more  immediate  need  of  water  to  supplement  the  nat- 
ural supply.  No  available  statistics  can  illustrate  the  extent  to 
which  pioneers  in  the  Rockies,  Sierras,  and  Coast  Range  are  de- 
veloping cheaply  and  easily  a  local  supply  of  water  for  their 
ranches.  The  last  census,  which  says  there  are  about  thirteen 
thousand  irrigators  in  California  (there  are  really  twice  as 
many),  is  very  incomplete  in  this  direction.  Besides  the  organ- 


IRRIGATION  IN  THE  ARID   STATES.  161 

ized  districts  and  the  great  irrigation  corporations,  there  are  illus- 
trations in  thousands  of  beautiful  and  fertile  valleys,  and  upon 
many  a  sunny  hillside,  that  it  pays  to  irrigate. 

In  the  old  placer-mining  regions  of  California  one  sees  much 
of  the  local  use  of  water,  ranch  by  ranch,  spring  by  spring, 
cheaply,  easily,  and  effectually.  The  miners  have  long  been 
familiar  with  the  management  of  water.  They  built  hundreds 
of  miles  of  hydraulic  mining  ditches,  triumphs  of  engineering 
skill,  bringing  whole  rivers  from  the  snow  peaks  to  the  beds  of 
gold-bearing  gravel  below.  They  siphoned  streams  over  moun- 
tains ;  they  belted  their  flumes  in  mid-air  to  perpendicular  cliffs 
of  granite  a  thousand  feet  from  base  to  crest ;  they  changed  little 
Alpine  valleys  into  mountain  lakes.  Such  men  as  these  find  it 
only  child's  play  to  water  their  hillside  gardens,  to  wall  up  the 
"  flats "  by  mountain  streams  and  flood  them  so  that  the  white 
clover  or  alfalfa  keeps  green  there  all  the  year.  Thus  one  finds 
oases  of  verdure  and  fruitfulness  about  the  cottage  houses  of 
thousands  of  mountaineers  in  Shasta,  Trinity,  Butte,  Lassen,  El 
Dorado,  and  the  whole  Sierra  range  of  mining  counties  south  of 
"  Old  Tuolumne."  Such  men  as  these  live  in  all  the  mountain 
ranges  of  the  western  half  of  the  continent,  and  not  the  least  at- 
tractive chapter  of  the  story  of  irrigation  is  that  which  tells  of 
their  home  acres.  Even  where  the  annual  rainfall  is  more  than 
sufficient  for  the  ordinary  field  crops  and  the  deciduous  fruits  to 
thrive  without  irrigation,  the  dry  air  and  sunlight  of  the  semi- 
tropic  summers  often  make  the  application  of  water  desirable 
for  specialized  horticulture,  or  for  the  greatest  obtainable  profit 
from  ordinary  crops. 

Here,  then,  are  the  primary  schools  of  the  irrigator  in  the 
thousands  of  hidden  valleys  of  Idaho,  Dakota,  Utah,  Colorado, 
Nevada,  and  California.  Out  of  them,  upon  the  wide  valley 
plains,  upon  the  vast  distances  of  the  high  desert  mesa  lands,  the 
young  men  of  the  coming  generation  of  irrigation  adepts  pass  on 
to  greater  victories.  Artesian  fountains  spring  up  along  their 
paths  ;  rivers  from  regions  of  mountains,  of  forests  and  abundant 
rainfall,  follow  in  their  footsteps ;  they  lead  these  rivers  into  the 
desert  and  plant  gardens  there — the  grape,  the  olive,  the  date 
palm,  the  orange,  the  lemon,  the  banana,  the  pomegranate. 

The  facts  and  figures  which  I  have  used  to  show  the  progress 
of  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  arid  region  are  crowded  with 
infinite  suggestions  and  possibilities.  Some  time,  it  is  not  im- 
probable, men  may  speak  of  the  overflowing  granaries,  the  un- 
paralleled horticultural  wealth  along  the  Rio  Grande,  the  Colo- 
rado, the  Sacramento,  the  San  Joaquin,  and  other  great  river 
plains,  as  history  speaks  of  Egypt  and  Assyria  in  their  splendid 
prime.  What  are  the  duties  of  the  American  people  toward  irri- 

TOL.   XL1II. — 12 


i6z  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

gation  in  these  all-important  years  of  the  beginnings  of  new  com- 
monwealths based  upon  new  industries  ?  Millions  of  acres  of 
land  are  forever  worthless  without  water.  Who  shall  own  the 
streams  and  reservoirs — a  few  far-sighted  men,  or  the  people 
themselves  ?  Irrigation  journals  and  conventions  of  irrigators 
discuss  the  matter  from  the  standpoint  of  the  present,  and  en- 
deavor to  shape  legislation  to  profitable  ends.  The  slow,  dumb 
masses  have  not  yet  recognized  the  magnitude  of  the  problems 
involved.  An  effort  is  being  made  to  have  the  United  States 
give  all  the  arid  lands  to  the  several  States  and  Territories  in 
which  they  lie,  but  the  plan  is  dangerous.  Only  the  Federal 
Government  can  protect  the  sources  of  water  supply;  utilize, 
reservoir,  and  distribute  that  supply,  and  unite  water  and  land  in 
an  indissoluble  marriage  bond. 


THE  INADEQUACY  OF  "  NATURAL  SELECTION." 

BY  HERBERT  SPENCEE. 
[Concluded.} 

THIS  very  pronounced  opinion  will  be  met  on  the  part  of  some 
by  a  no  less  pronounced  demurrer,  which  involves  a  denial 
of  possibility.  It  has  been  of  late  asserted,  and  by  many  believed, 
that  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  can  not  occur.  Weis- 
mann,  they  say,  has  shown  that  there  is  early  established  in  the 
evolution  of  each  organism,  such  a  distinctness  between  those 
component  units  which  carry  on  the  individual  life  and  those 
which  are  devoted  to  maintenance  of  the  species,  that  changes  in 
the  one  can  not  affect  the  other.  We  will  look  closely  into  his 
doctrine. 

Basing  his  argument  on  the  principle  of  the  physiological 
division  of  labor,  and  assuming  that  the  primary  division  of  labor 
is  that  between  such  part  of  an  organism  as  carries  on  individual 
life  and  such  part  as  is  reserved  for  the  production  of  other  lives, 
Weismann,  starting  with  "  the  first  multicellular  organism,"  says 
that — "  Hence  the  single  group  would  come  to  be  divided  into  two 
groups  of  cells,  which  may  be  called  somatic  and  reproductive — 
the  cells  of  the  body  as  opposed  to  those  which  are  concerned  with 
reproduction"  (Essays  upon  Heredity,  p.  27). 

Though  he  admits  that  this  differentiation  "  was  not  at  first 
absolute,  and  indeed  is  not  always  so  to-day,"  yet  he  holds  that 
the  differentiation  eventually  becomes  absolute  in  the  sense  that 
the  somatic  cells,  or  those  which  compose  the  body  at  large,  come 
to  have  only  a  limited  power  of  cell-division,  instead  of  an  un- 
limited power  which  the  reproductive  cells  have ;  and  also  in  the 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  '  NATURAL   SELECTIONS   163 

sense  that  eventually  there  ceases  to  he  any  communication  be- 
tween  the  two,  further  than  that  implied  by  the  supplying  of 
nutriment  to  the  reproductive  cells  by  the  somatic  cells.  The  out- 
come of  this  argument  is  that,  in  the  absence  of  communication, 
changes  induced  in  the  somatic  cells,  constituting  the  individual, 
can  not  influence  the  natures  of  the  reproductive  cells,  and  can 
not  therefore  be  transmitted  to  posterity.  Such  is  the  theory. 
Now  let  us  look  at  a  few  facts — some  familiar,  some  unfamiliar. 

His  investigations  led  Pasteur  to  the  positive  conclusion  that 
the  silkworm  diseases  are  inherited.  The  transmission  from  par- 
ent to  offspring  resulted,  not  through  any  contamination  of  the 
surface  of  the  egg  by  the  body  of  the  parent  while  being  deposited, 
but  resulted  from  infection  of  the  egg  itself — intrusion  of  the 
parasitic  organism.  Generalized  observations  concerning  the  dis- 
ease called  pebrine  enabled  him  to  decide  by  inspection  of  the 
eggs  which  were  infected  and  which  were  not:  certain  modifi- 
cations of  form  distinguishing  the  diseased  ones.  More  than  this, 
the  infection  was  proved  by  microscopical  examination  of  the 
contents  of  the  egg ;  in  proof  of  which  he  quotes  as  follows  from 
Dr.  Carlo  Vittadini : 

"  II  resulte  de  mes  recherches  sur  les  graines,  &  1'epoque  oil  commence  le  de- 
veloppement  du  germe,  que  les  corpuscles,  une  fois  appams  dans  I'oeuf,  augmen- 
tent  graduellement  en  nombre,  &  mesure  que  1'embryon  se  d6veloppe;  que,  dans 
les  derniers  jours  de  1'inctibation,  I'oauf  en  est  plein,  au  po.int  de  faire  croire  que 
la  majeure  partie  des  granules  du  jaune  se  sont  transformes  en  corpuscules. 

"  Une  autre  observation  importante  est  que  1'embryon  aussi  est  souil!6  de  cor- 
puscules, et  a  un  degre  tel  qu'on  peut  soupconner  que  1'infectiou  du  jaune  tire  son 
origine  du  germe  lui-meme ;  en  d'autres  termes  que  le  germe  est  primordiale- 
ment  infecte,  et  porte  en  lui-meme  ces  corpuscules  tout  comme  les  vers  adultes, 
frappes  du  meme  mal."  * 

Thus,  then,  the  substance  of  the  egg,  and  even  its  innermost 
vital  part,  is  permeable  by  a  parasite  sufficiently  large  to  be  mi- 
croscopically visible.  It  is  also  of  course  permeable  by  the  invisi- 
ble molecules  of  protein,  out  of  which  its  living  tissues  are  formed, 
and  by  absorption  of  which  they  subsequently  grow.  But,  accord- 
ing to  Weismann,  it  is  not  permeable  by  those  invisible  units  of 
protoplasm  out  of  which  the  vitally  active  tissues  of  the  parent 
are  constituted :  units  composed,  as  we  must  assume,  of  variously 
arranged  molecules  of  protein.  So  that  the  big  thing  may  pass, 
and  the  little  thing  may  pass,  but  the  intermediate  thing  may 
not  pass ! 

A  fact  of  kindred  nature,  unhappily  more  familiar,  may  be 
next  brought  in  evidence.  It  concerns  the  transmission  of  a  dis- 
ease not  unfrequent  amorig  those  of  unregulated  lives.  The  high- 

*  Les  Maladies  des  Vers  a  Soie,  par  L.  Pasteur,  i,  39. 


164  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

est  authority  concerning  this  disease,  in  its  inherited  form,  is  Mr. 
Jonathan  Hutchinson;  and  the  following  are  extracts  from  a 
letter  I  have  received  from  him,  and  which  I  publish  with  his 
assent : 

"I  do  not  think  that  there  can  be  any  reasonable  doubt  that  a  very  largo  ma- 
jority of  those  who  suffer  from  inherited  syphilis  take  the  taint  from  the  male 
parent.  ...  It  is  the  rule  when  a  man  marries  who  has  no  remaining  local 
lesion,  but  in  whom  the  taint  is  not  eradicated,  for  his  wife  to  remain  apparently 
well,  while  her  child  may  suffer.  No  doubt  the  child  infects  its  mother's  blood, 
but  this  does  not  usually  evoke  any  obvious  symptoms  of  syphilis.  ...  I  am  sure 
I  have  seen  hundreds  of  syphilitic  infants  whose  mothers  had  not,  so  far  as  I 
could  ascertain,  ever  displayed  a  single  symptom." 

See,  then,  to  what  we  are  committed  if  we  accept  Weismann's 
hypothesis.  We  must  conclude  that,  whereas  the  reproductive 
cell  may  be  effectually  invaded  by  an  abnormal  living  element  in 
the  parental  organism,  those  normal  living  elements  which  con- 
stitute the  vital  protoplasm  of  the  parental  organism,  can  not 
evade  it.  Or  if  it  be  admitted  that  both  intrude,  then  the  impli- 
cation is  that,  whereas  the  abnormal  element  can  so  modify  the 
development  as  to  cause  changes  of  structure  (as  of  the  teeth), 
the  normal  element  can  cause  no  changes  of  structure !  * 

We  pass  now  to  evidence  not  much  known  in  the  world  at 
large,  but  widely  known  in  the  biological  world,  though  known 
in  so  incomplete  a  manner  as  to  be  undervalued  in  it.  Indeed, 
when  I  name  it  probably  many  will  vent  a  mental  pooh-pooh. 
The  fact  to  which  I  refer  is  one  of  which  record  is  preserved  in  the 
museum  of  the  College  of  Surgeons,  in  the  shape  of  paintings  of 
a  foal  borne  by  a  mare  not  quite  thoroughbred,  to  a  sire  which 
was  thoroughbred — a  foal  which  bears  the  markings  of  the  quag- 
ga.  The  history  of  this  remarkable  foal  is  given  by  the  Earl  of 
Morton,  F.  R.  S.,  in  a  letter  to  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society 
(read  November  23, 1820).  In  it  he  states  that  wishing  to  domes- 


*  Curiously  enough,  Weismann  refers  to,  and  recognizes,  syphilitic  infection  of  the  re- 
productive cells.  Dealing  with  Brown-Sequard's  cases  of  inherited  epilepsy  (concerning 
which,  let  me  say,  that  I  do  not  commit  myself  to  any  derived  conclusions),  he  says :  "  In 
the  case  of  epilepsy,  at  any  rate,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  [many  of  Weismann's  arguments  are 
based  on  things  '  it  is  easy  to  imagine ']  that  the  passage  of  some  specific  organism  through 
the  reproductive  cells  may  take  place,  as  in  the  case  of  syphilis  "  (p.  82).  Here  is  a  sam- 
ple of  his  reasoning.  It  is  well  known  that  epilepsy  is  frequently  caused  by  some  periph- 
eral irritation  (even  by  the  lodging  of  a  small  foreign  body  under  the  skin),  and  that,  among 
peripheral  irritations  causing  it,  imperfect  healing  is  one.  Yet  though,  in  Brown-Sequard's 
cases,  a  peripheral  irritation  caused  in  the  parent  by  local  injury  was  the  apparent  origin, 
Weismann  chooses  gratuitously  to  assume  that  the  progeny  were  infected  by  "  some  spe- 
cific organism,"  which  produced  the  epilepsy !  And  then,  though  the  epileptic  virus,  like 
the  syphilitic  virus,  makes  itself  at  home  in  the  egg,  the  parental  protoplasm  is  not  ad- 
mitted ! 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  "NATURAL  SELECTION."   165 

ticate  the  quagga,  and  having  obtained  a  male,  but  not  a  female, 
he  made  an  experiment. 

"  I  tried  to  breed  from  the  male  quagga  and  a  young  chestnut  mare  of  seven - 
eighths  Arabian  blood,  and  which  had  never  been  bred  from  ;  the  result  was  the 
production  of  a  female  hybrid,  now  five  years  old,  and  bearing,  both  in  her  form 
and  in  her  color,  very  decided  indications  oi  her  mixed  origin.  I  subsequently 
parted  with  the  seven-eighths  Arabian  mare  to  Sir  Gore  Ouseley,  who  has  bred 
from  her  by  a  very  fine  black  Arabian  horse.  I  yesterday  morning  examined  the 
produce,  namely,  a  two-year-old  filly  and  a  year-old  colt.  They  have  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Arabian  breed  as  decidedly  as  can  be  expected,  where  fifteen-sixteenths 
of  the  blood  are  Arabian ;  and  they  are  tine  specimens  of  that  breed ;  but  both  in 
their  color  and  in  the  hair  of  their  manes,  they  have  a  striking  resemblance  to  the 
quagga.  Their  color  is  bay,  marked  more  or  less  like  the  quagga  in  a  darker  tint. 
Both  are  distinguished  by  the  dark  line  along  the  ridge  of  the  back,  the  dark 
stripes  across  the  fore-hand,  and  the  dark  bars  across  the  back  part  of  the  legs."  * 

Lord  Morton  then  names  sundry  further  correspondences.  Dr. 
Wollaston,  at  that  time  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  who  had 
seen  the  animals,  testified  to  the  correctness  of  his  description, 
and,  as  shown  by  his  remarks,  entertained  no  doubt  about  the  al- 
leged facts.  But  good  reason  for  doubt  may  be  assigned.  There 
naturally  arises  the  question — How  does  it  happen  that  parallel 
results  are  not  observed  in  other  cases  ?  If  in  any  progeny  cer- 
tain traits  not  belonging  to  the  sire,  but  belonging  to  a  sire  of 
preceding  progeny,  are  reproduced,  how  is  it  that  such  anoma- 
lously-inherited traits  are  not  observed  in  domestic  animals,  and 
indeed  in  mankind  ?  How  is  it  that  the  children  of  a  widow  by  a 
second  husband  do  not  bear  traceable  resemblances  of  the  first 
husband  ?  To  these  questions  nothing  like  satisfactory  replies 
seem  forthcoming ;  and,  in  the  absence  of  replies,  skepticism,  if 
not  disbelief,  may  be  held  reasonable. 

There  is  an  explanation,  however.  Forty  years  ago  I  made 
acquaintance  with  a  fact  which  impressed  me  by  its  significant 
implications ;  and  has  for  this  reason,  I  suppose,  remained  in  my 
memory.  It  is  set  forth  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural 
Society,  vol.  xiv  (1853),  pp.  214  et  seq.,  and  concerns  certain  results 
of  crossing  English  and  French  breeds  of  sheep.  The  writer  of 
the  translated  paper,  M.  Malingie'-Nouel,  Director  of  the  Agri- 
cultural School  of  La  Charmoise,  states  that  when  the  French 
breeds  of  sheep  (in  which  were  included  "  the  mongrel  Merinos  ") 
were  crossed  with  an  English  breed,  "  the  lambs  present  the  fol- 
lowing results.  Most  of  them  resemble  the  mother  more  than  the 
father ;  some  show  no  trace  of  the  father."  Joining  the  admis- 
sion respecting  the  mongrels  with  the  facts  subsequently  stated, 
it  is  tolerably  clear  that  the  cases  in  which  the  lambs  bore  no 

*  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  for  the  Year  1821,  Port  I,  pp.  20-24. 


i66  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

traces  of  the  father  were  cases  in  which  the  mother  was  of  pure 
breed.  Speaking  of  the  results  of  these  crossings  in  the  second 
generation  "having  75  per  cent  of  English  blood,"  M.  Nouel 
says :  "  The  lambs  thrive,  wear  a  beautiful  appearance,  and  com- 
plete the  joy  of  the  breeder.  .  .  .  No  sooner  are  the  lambs  weaned 
than  their  strength,  their  vigor,  and  their  beauty  begin  to  decay. 
...  At  last  the  constitution  gives  way.  ...  he  remains  stunted 
for  life,"  the  constitution  being  thus  proved  unstable  or  un- 
adapted  to  the  requirements.  How,  then,  did  M.  Nouel  succeed 
in  obtaining  a  desirable  combination  of  a  fine  English  breed  with 
the  relatively  poor  French  breeds  ? 

"He  took  an  animal  from  'flocks  originally  sprung  from  a  mixture  of  the  two 
distinct  races  that  are  established  in  these  two  provinces  [Berry  and  La  Sologne],' 
and  these  he  'united  with  animals  of  another  mixed  breed.  .  .  .  which  blended 
the  Tourangelle  and  native  Merino  blood  of  La  Beauce  and  Touraine,  and  ob- 
tained a  mixture  of  all  four  races  '  without  decided  character,  without  fixity.  .  .  . 
but  possessing  the  advantage  of  being  used  to  our  climate  and  management.' 

"Putting  one  of  these  'mixed-blood  ewes  to  a  pure  New-Kent  ram.  .  .  .  one 
obtains  a  lamb  containing  fifty-hundredths  of  the  purest  and  most  ancient  Eng- 
lish blood,  with  twelve  and  a  half  hundredths  of  four  different  French  races, 
which  are  individually  lost  in  the  preponderance  of  English  blood,  and  disappear 
almost  entirely,  leaving  the  improving  type  in  the  ascendant.  ...  All  the  lambs 
produced  strikingly  resembled  each  other,  and  even  Englishmen  took  them  for 
animals  of  their  own  country.' " 

M.  Nouel  goes  on  to  remark  that  when  this  derived  breed  was 
bred  with  itself,  the  marks  of  the  French  breeds  were  lost.  "  Some 
slight  traces  could  be  detected  by  experts,  but  these  soon  disap- 
peared." 

Thus,  we  get  proof  that  relatively  pure  constitutions  predomi- 
nate in  progeny  over  much  mixed  constitutions.  The  reason  is 
not  difficult  to  see.  Every  organism  tends  to  become  adapted  to 
its  conditions  of  life ;  and  all  the  structures  of  a  species,  accus- 
tomed through  multitudinous  generations  to  the  climate,  food, 
and  various  influences  of  its  locality,  are  molded  into  harmoni- 
ous co-operation  favorable  to  life  in  that  locality:  the  result 
being  that  in  the  development  of  each  young  individual,  the 
tendencies  conspire  to  produce  the  fit  organization.  It  is  other- 
wise when  the  species  is  removed  to  a  habitat  of  different  charac- 
ter, or  when  it  is  of  mixed  breed.  In  the  one  case  its  organs, 
partially  out  of  harmony  with  the  requirements  of  its  new  life, 
become  partially  out  of  harmony  with  one  another  ;  since,  while 
one  influence,  say  of  climate,  is  but  little  changed,  another  influ- 
ence, say  of  food,  is  much  changed ;  and  consequently,  the  per- 
turbed relations  of  the  organs  interfere  with  their  original  stable 
equilibrium.  Still  more  in  the  other  case  is  there  a  disturbance 
of  equilibrium.  In  a  mongrel  the  constitution  derived  from  each 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  "NATURAL  SELECTION."  167 

source  repeats  itself  as  far  as  possible.  Hence  a  conflict  of  tend- 
encies to  evolve  two  structures  more  or  less  unlike.  The  tenden- 
cies do  not  harmoniously  conspire ;  but  produce  partially  incon- 
gruous sets  of  organs.  And  evidently  where  the  breed  is  one  in 
which  there  are  united  the  traits  of  various  lines  of  ancestry, 
there  results  an  organization  so  full  of  small  incongruities  of 
structure  and  action,  that  it  has  a  much-diminished  power  of 
maintaining  its  balance ;  and  while  it  can  not  withstand  so  well 
adverse  influences,  it  can  not  so  well  hold  its  own  in  the  offspring. 
Concerning  parents  of  pure  and  mixed  breeds  respectively,  sev- 
erally tending  to  reproduce  their  own  structures  in  progeny,  we 
may,  therefore,  say  figuratively  that  the  house  divided  against 
itself  can  not  withstand  the  house,  of  which  the  members  are  in 
concord. 

Now  if  this  is  shown  to  be  the  case  with  breeds  the  purest  of 
which  have  been  adapted  to  their  habitats  and  modes  of  life  dur- 
ing some  few  hundred  years  only,  what  shall  we  say  when  the 
question  is  of  a  breed  which  has  had  a  constant  mode  of  life  in 
the  same  locality  for  ten  thousand  years  or  more,  like  the  quagga  ? 
In  this  the  stability  of  constitution  must  be  such  as  no  domestic 
animal  can  approach.  Relatively  stable  as  may  have  been  the 
constitutions  of  Lord  Morton's  horses,  as  compared  with  the  con- 
stitutions of  ordinary  horses,  yet,  since  Arab  horses,  even  in  their 
native  country,  have  probably  in  the  course  of  successive  con- 
quests and  migrations  of  tribes  become  more  or  less  mixed,  and 
since  they  have  been  subject  to  the  conditions  of  domestic  life, 
differing  much  from  the  conditions  of  their  original  wild  life,  and 
since  the  English  breed  has  undergone  the  perturbing  effects  of 
change  from  the  climate  and  food  of  the  East  to  the  climate  and 
food  of  the  West,  the  organizations  of  the  horse  and  mare  in  ques- 
tion could  have  had  nothing  like  that  perfect  balance  produced  in 
the  quagga  by  a  hundred  centuries  of  harmonious  co-operation. 
Hence  the  result.  And  hence  at  the  same  time  the  interpretation 
of  the  fact  that  analogous  phenomena  are  not  perceived  among 
domestic  animals,  or  among  ourselves ;  since  both  have  relatively 
mixed,  and  generally  extremely  mixed,  constitutions,  which,  as  we 
see  in  ourselves,  have  been  made  generation  after  generation,  not 
by  the  formation  of  a  mean  between  two  parents,  but  by  the  jum- 
bling of  traits  of  the  one  with  traits  of  the  other,  until  there  exist 
no  such  conspiring  tendencies  among  the  parts  as  cause  repetition 
of  combined  details  of  structure  in  posterity. 

Expectation  that  skepticism  might  be  felt  respecting  this  al- 
leged anomaly  presented  by  the  quagga-marked  foal,  had  led  me 
to  think  over  the  matter;  and  I  had  reached  this  interpretation 
before  sending  to  the  College  of  Surgeons  Museum  (being  unable 
to  go  myself)  to  obtain  the  particulars  and  refer  to  the  records. 


i68  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

When  there  was  brought  to  me  a  copy  of  the  account  as  set  forth 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions,  it  was  joined  with  the  infor- 
mation that  there  existed  an  appended  account  of  pigs,  in  which  a 
parallel  fact  had  been  observed.  To  my  immediate  inquiry— 
"  Was  the  male  a  wild  pig  ?  " — there  came  the  reply :  "  I  did  not 
observe/''  Of  course  I  forthwith  obtained  the  volume,  and  there 
found  what  I  expected.  Jt  was  contained  in  a  paper  communi- 
cated by  Dr.  Wollaston  from  Daniel  Giles,  Esq.,  concerning  his 
"  sow  and  her  produce,"  which  said  that 

"she  was  one  of  a  well-known  black  and  white  breed  of  Mr.  Western,  the  Mem- 
ber for  Essex.  About  ten  years  since  I  put  her  to  a  boar  of  the  wild  breed,  and 
of  a  deep  chestnut  color,  which  I  had  just  received  from  Hatfield  House,  and 
which  was  soon  afterward  drowned  by  accident.  The  pigs  produced  (which 
were  her  first  litter)  partook  in  appearance  of  both  boar  and  sow,  but  in  some 
the  chestnut  color  of  the  boar  strongly  prevailed. 

"The  sow  was  afterward  put  to  a  boar  of  Mr.  Western's  breed  (the  wild  boar 
having  been  long  dead).  The  produce  was  a  litter  of  pigs,  some  of  which,  we 
observed  with  much  surprise,  to  be  stained  and  clearly  marked  with  the  chestnut 
color  which  had  prevailed  in  the  former  litter.1' 

Mr.  Giles  adds  that  in  a  second  litter  of  pigs,  the  father  of  which 
was  of  Mr.  Western's  breed,  he  and  his  bailiff  believe  there  was  a 
recurrence,  in  some,  of  the  chestnut  color,  but  admits  that  their 
"  recollection  is  much  less  perfect  than  I  wish  it  to  be."  He  also 
adds  that,  in  the  course  of  many  years'  experience,  he  had  never 
known  the  least  appearance  of  the  chestnut  color  in  Mr.  Western's 
breed. 

What  are  the  probabilities  that  these  two  anomalous  results 
should  have  arisen,  under  these  exceptional  conditions,  as  a  matter 
of  chance  ?  Evidently  the  probabilities  against  such  a  coinci- 
dence are  enormous.  The  testimony  is  in  both  cases  so  good  that, 
even  apart  from  the  coincidence,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  re- 
ject it;  but  the  coincidence  makes  acceptance  of  it  imperative. 
There  is  mutual  verification,  at  the  same  time  that  there  is  a  joint 
interpretation  yielded  of  the  strange  phenomenon,  and  of  its  non- 
occurrence  under  ordinary  circumstances. 

And  now,  in  the  presence  of  these  facts,  what  are  we  to  say  ? 
Simply  that  they  are  fatal  to  Weismann's  hypothesis.  They  show 
that  there  is  none  of  the  alleged  independence  of  the  reproductive 
cells ;  but  that  the  two  sets  of  cells  are  in  close  communion.  They 
prove  that  while  the  reproductive  cells  multiply  and  arrange  them- 
selves during  the  evolution  of  the  embryo,  some  of  their  germ- 
plasm  passes  into  the  mass  of  somatic  cells  constituting  the 
parental  body,  and  becomes  a  permanent  component  of  it.  Fur- 
ther, they  necessitate  the  inference  that  this  introduced  germ- 
plasm,  everywhere  diffused,  is  some  of  it  included  in  the  repro- 
ductive cells  subsequently  formed.  And  if  we  thus  get  a  demon- 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  "NATURAL  SELECTION."  169 

stration  that  the  somewhat  different  units  of  a  foreign  germ-plasm 
permeating  the  organism,  permeate  also  the  subsequently-formed 
reproductive  cells,  and  affect  the  structures  of  the  individuals 
arising  from  them,  the  implication  is  that  the  like  happens  with 
those  native  units  which  have  been  made  somewhat  different  by 
modified  functions:  there  must  be  a  tendency  to  inheritance  of 
acquired  characters. 

One  more  step  only  has  to  be  taken.  It  remains  to  ask  what  is 
the  flaw  in  the  assumption  with  which  Weismann's  theory  sets 
out.  If,  as  we  see,  the  conclusions  drawn  from  it  do  not  corre- 
spond to  the  facts,  then,  either  the  reasoning  is  invalid,  or  the 
original  postulate  is  untrue.  Leaving  aside  all  questions  concern- 
ing the  reasoning,  it  will  suffice  here  to  show  the  untruth  of  the 
postulate.  Had  his  work  been  written  during  the  early  years  of 
the  cell-doctrine,  the  supposition  that  the  multiplying  cells  of 
which  the  Metazoa  and  the  Metaphyta  are  composed,  become  com- 
pletely separate,  could  not  have  been  met  by  a  reasonable  skepti- 
cism ;  but  now,  not  only  is  skepticism  justifiable,  but  denial  is 
called  for.  Some  dozen  years  ago  it  was  discovered  that  in  many 
cases  vegetal  cells  are  connected  with  one  another  by  threads  of 
protoplasm — threads  which  unite  the  internal  protoplasm  of  one 
cell  with  the  internal  protoplasms  of  cells  around.  It  is  as  though 
the  pseudopodia  of  imprisoned  rhizopods  were  fused  with  the 
pseudopodia  of  adjacent  imprisoned  rhizopods.  We  can  not  reason- 
ably suppose  that  the  continuous  network  of  protoplasm  thus  con- 
stituted has  been  produced  after  the  cells  have  become  adult. 
These  protoplasmic  connections  must  have  survived  the  process 
of  fission.  The  implication  is  that  the  cells  forming  the  embryo- 
plant  retained  their  protoplasmic  connections  while  they  multi- 
plied, and  that  such  connections  continued  throughout  all  subse- 
quent multiplications — an  implication  which  has,  I  believe,  been 
established  by  researches  upon  germinating  palm-seeds.  But  now 
we  come  to  a  verifying  series  of  facts  which  the  cell-structures 
of  animals  in  their  early  stages  present.  In  his  Monograph  of 
the  Development  of  Peripatus  Capensis,  Mr.  Adam  Sedgwick, 
F.  R.  S.,  Reader  in  Animal  Morphology  at  Cambridge,  writes  as 
follows : — 

"All  the  cells  of  the  ovum,  ectodermal  as  well  as  endodermal,  are  connected 
together  by  a  fine  protoplasmic  reticulum  "  (p.  41). 

"  The  continuity  of  the  various  cells  of  the  segmenting  ovum  is  primary,  and 
not  secondary;  i.e.,  ill  the  cleavage  the  segments  do  not  completely  separate 
from  one  another.  But  are  we  justified  in  speaking  of  cells  at  all  in  this  case? 
The  fully  segmented  ovum  is  a  syncytium,  and  there  are  not  and  have  not  been  at 
any  stage  cell  limits"  (p.  41). 

"  It  is  becoming  more  and  more  clear  every  day  that  the  cells  composing  the 
tissues  of  animals  are  not  isolated  units,  but  that  they  are  connected  with  one 


1 70  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

another.  I  need  only  refer  to  the  connection  known  to  exist  between  connective- 
tissue  cells,  cartilage  cells,  epithelial  cells,  etc.  And  not  only  may  the  cells  of 
one  tissue  be  continuous  with  each  other,  but  they  may  also  be  continuous  with 
the  cells  of  other  tissues  "  (pp.  47,  48). 

"  Finally,  if  the  protoplasm  of  the  body  is  primitively  a  syncytium,  and  the 
ovum  until  maturity  a  part  of  that  syncytium,  the  separation  of  the  generative 
products  does  not  differ  essentially  from  the  internal  gemmation  of  a  Protozoon, 
and  the  inheritance  by  the  offspring  of  peculiarities  first  appearing  in  the  parent, 
though  not  explained,  is  rendered  less  mysterious;  for  the  protoplasm  of  the 
whole  body  being  continuous,  change  in  the  molecular  constitution  of  any  part  of 
it  would  naturally  be  expected  to  spread,  in  time,  through  the  whole  mass  "  (p.  49). 

Mr.  Sedgwick's  subsequent  investigations  confirm  these  con- 
clusions. In  a  letter  of  December  27,  1892,  passages,  which  he 
allows  me  to  publish,  run  as  follows : 

"  All  the  embryological  studies  that  I  have  made  since  that  to  which  you  refer 
confirm  me  more  and  more  in  the  view  that  the  connections  between  the  cells  of 
adults  are  not  secondary  connections,  but  primary,  dating  from  the  time  when 
the  embryo  was  a  unicellular  structure.  .  .  .  My  own  investigations  on  this  sub- 
ject have  been  confined  to  the  Arthropoda,  Elasmobranchii,  and  Avts.  I  have 
thoroughly  examined  the  development  of  at  least  one  kind  of  each  of  these  groups, 
and  I  have  never  been  able  to  detect  a  stage  in  which  the  cells  were  not  continu- 
ous with  each  other;  and  I  have  studied  innumerable  stages  from  the  beginning 
of  cleavage  onward." 

So  that  the  alleged  independence  of  the  reproductive  cells  does 
not  exist.  The  soma— to  use  Weismann's  name  for  the  aggregate 
of  cells  forming  the  body — is,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Sedgwick,  "  a 
continuous  mass  of  vacuolated  protoplasm  " ;  and  the  reproductive 
cells  are  nothing  more  than  portions  of  it  separated  some  little 
time  before  they  are  required  to  perform  their  functions. 

Thus  the  theory  of  Weismann  is  doubly  disproved.  Inductively 
we  are  shown  that  there  does  take  place  that  communication  of 
characters  from  the  somatic  cells  to  the  reproductive  cells,  which 
he  says  can  not  take  place ;  and  deductively  we  are  shown  that 
this  communication  is  a  natural  sequence  of  connections  between 
the  two  which  he  ignores:  his  various  conclusions  are  deduced 
from  a  postulate  which  is  untrue. 

From  the  title  of  this  essay,  and  from  much  of  its  contents, 
nine  readers  out  of  ten  will  infer  that  it  is  directed  against  the 
views  of  Mr.  Darwin.  They  will  be  astonished  on  being  told  that, 
contrariwise,  it  is  directed  against  the  views  of  those  who,  in  a 
considerable  measure,  dissent  from  Mr.  Darwin.  For  the  inher- 
itance of  acquired  characters,  which  it  is  now  the  fashion  in  the 
biological  world  to  deny,  was,  by  Mr.  Darwin,  fully  recognized 
and  often  insisted  on.  Such  of  the  foregoing  arguments  as  touch 
Mr.  Darwin's  views,  simply  imply  that  the  .cause  of  evolution 
which  at  first  he  thought  unimportant,  but  the  importance  of 


THE  INADEQUACY   OF  "NATURAL  SELECTION."  171 

which  he  increasingly  perceived  as  he  grew  older,  is  more  im- 
portant than  he  admitted  even  at  the  last.  The  neo-Darwinists, 
however,  do  not  admit  this  cause  at  all. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  this  explanation  implies  any  dis- 
approval of  the  dissentients,  considered  as  such.  Seeing  how  little 
regard  for  authority  I  have  myself  usually  shown,  it  would  be 
absurd  in  me  to  reflect  in  any  degree  upon  those  who  have  re- 
jected certain  of  Mr.  Darwin's  teachings,  for  reasons  which  they 
have  thought  sufficient.  But  while  their  independence  of  thought 
is  to  be  applauded  rather  than  blamed,  it  is,  I  think,  to  be  re- 
gretted that  they  have  not  guarded  themselves  against  a  long- 
standing bias.  It  is  a  common  trait  of  human  nature  to  seek 
some  excuse  when  found  in  the  wrong.  Invaded  self-esteem  sets 
up  a  defense,  and  anything  is  made  to  serve.  Thus  it  happened 
that  when  geologists  and  biologists,  previously  holding  that  all 
kinds  of  organisms  arose  by  special  creations,  surrendered  to 
the  battery  opened  upon  them  by  The  Origin  of  Species,  they 
sought  to  minimize  their  irrationality  by  pointing  to  irrationality 
on  the  other  side.  "Well,  at  any  rate,  Lamarck  was  in  the 
wrong."  "  It  is  clear  that  we  were  right  in  rejecting  his  doctrine." 
And  so,  by  duly  emphasizing  the  fact  that  he  overlooked  "  Natural 
Selection"  as  the  chief  cause,  and  by  showing  how  erroneous 
were  some  of  his  interpretations,  they  succeeded  in  mitigating  the 
sense  of  their  own  error.  It  is  true  their  creed  was  that  at  success- 
ive periods  in  the  Earth's  history,  old  Floras  and  Faunas  had 
been  abolished  and  others  introduced ;  just  as  though,  to  use  Prof. 
Huxley's  figure,  the  table  had  been  now  and  again  kicked  over 
and  a  new  pack  of  cards  brought  out.  And  it  is  true  that  La- 
marck, while  he  rejected  this  absurd  creed,  assigned  for  the  facts 
reasons  some  of  which  are  absurd.  But  in  consequence  of  the 
feeling  described,  his  defensible  belief  was  forgotten  and  only 
his  indefensible  ones  remembered.  This  one-sided  estimate  has 
become  traditional ;  so  that  there  is  now  often  shown  a  subdued 
contempt  for  those  who  suppose  that  there  can  be  any  truth  in 
the  conclusions  of  a  man  whose  general  conception  was  partly 
sense,  at  a  time  when  the  general  conceptions  of  his  contempo- 
raries were  wholly  nonsense.  Hence  results  unfair  treatment — 
hence  result  the  different  dealings  with  the  views  of  Lamarck 
and  of  Weismann. 

"Where  are  the  facts  proving  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters "  ?  ask  those  who  deny  it.  Well,  in  the  first  place, 
there  might  be  asked  the  counter-question — Where  are  the  facts 
which  disprove  it  ?  Surely  if  not  only  the  general  structures  of 
organisms,  but  also  many  of  the  modifications  arising  in  them, 
are  inheritable,  the  natural  implication  is  that  all  modifications 
are  inheritable ;  and  if  any  say  that  the  inheritableness  is  limited 


172  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  those  arising  in  a  certain  way,  the  onus  lies  on  them  of  prov- 
ing that  those  otherwise  arising  are  not  inheritable.  Leaving 
this  counter-question  aside,  however,  it  will  suffice  if  we  ask 
another  counter-question.  It  is  asserted  that  the  dwindling  of 
organs  from  disuse  is  due  to  the  successive  survivals  in  posterity 
of  individuals  in  which  the  organs  had  varied  in  the  direction  of 
decrease.  Where  now  are  the  facts  supporting  this  assertion  ? 
Not  one  has  been  assigned  or  can  be  assigned.  Not  a  single  case 
can  be  named  in  which  panmixia  is  a  proved  cause  of  diminution. 
Even  had  the  deductive  argument  for  panmixia  been  as  valid  as 
we  have  found  it  to  be  invalid,  there  would  still  have  been  re- 
quired, in  pursuance  of  scientific  method,  some  verifying  induc- 
tive evidence.  Yet  though  not  a  shred  of  such  evidence  has  been 
given,  the  doctrine  is  accepted  with  acclamation,  and  adopted  as 
part  of  current  biological  theory.  Articles  are  written  and  let- 
ters published  in  which  it  is  assumed  that  this  mere  speculation, 
justified  by  not  a  tittle  of  proof,  displaces  large  conclusions  previ- 
ously drawn.  And  then,  passing  into  the  outer  world,  this  unsup- 
ported belief  affects  opinion  there  too ;  so  that  we  have  recently 
had  a  Right  Honorable  lecturer  who,  taking  for  granted  its  truth, 
represents  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  as  an  exploded 
hypothesis,  and  thereupon  proceeds  to  give  revised  views  of 
human  affairs. 

Finally,  there  comes  the  reply  that  there  are  facts  proving  the 
inheritance  of  acquired  characters.  All  those  assigned  by  Mr. 
Darwin,  together  with  others  such,  remain  outstanding  when  we 
find  that  the  interpretation  by  panmixia  is  untenable.  Indeed, 
even  had  that  hypothesis  been  tenable,  it  would  have  been  inap- 
plicable to  these  cases ;  since  in  domestic  animals,  artificially  fed 
and  often  overfed,  the  supposed  advantage  from  economy  can  not 
be  shown  to  tell;  and  since,  in  these  cases,  individuals  are  not 
naturally  selected  during  the  struggle  for  life  in  which  certain 
traits  are  advantageous,  but  are  artificially  selected  by  man  with- 
out regard  to  such  traits.  Should  it  be  urged  that  the  assigned 
facts  are  not  numerous,  it  may  be  replied  that  there  are  no  per- 
sons whose  occupations  and  amusements  incidentally  bring  out 
such  facts;  and  that  they  are  probably  as  numerous  as  those 
which  would  have  been  available  for  Mr.  Darwin's  hypothesis, 
had  there  been  no  breeders  and  fanciers  and  gardeners  who,  in 
pursuit  of  their  profits  and  hobbies,  furnished  him  with  evidence. 
It  may  be  added  that  the  required  facts  are  not  likely  to  be 
numerous,  if  biologists  refuse  to  seek  for  them. 

See,  then,  how  the  case  stands.  Natural  selection,  or  survival 
of  the  fittest,  is  almost  exclusively  operative  throughout  the  vege- 
tal world  and  throughout  the  lower  animal  world,  characterized 
by  relative  passivity.  But  with  the  ascent  to  higher  types  of 


THE   CEREMONIAL    USE   OF  TOBACCO.  173 

animals,  its  effects  are  in  increasing  degrees  involved  with  those 
produced  by  inheritance  of  acquired  characters ;  until,  in  animals 
of  complex  structures,  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  becomes 
an  important,  if  not  the  chief,  cause  of  evolution.  We  have  seen 
that  natural  selection  can  not  work  any  changes  in  organisms 
save  such  as  conduce  in  considerable  degrees,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, to  the  multiplication  of  the  stirp ;  whence  failure  to  ac- 
count for  various  changes  ascribed  to  it.  And  we  have  seen  that 
it  yields  no  explanation  of  the  co-adaptation  of  co-operative  parts, 
even  when  the  co-operation  is  relatively  simple,  and  still  less 
when  it  is  complex.  On  the  other  hand,  we  see  that  if,  along 
with  the  transmission  of  generic  and  specific  structures,  there 
tend  to  be  transmitted  modifications  arising  in  a  certain  way, 
there  is  a  strong  a  priori  probability  that  there  tend  to  be  trans- 
mitted modifications  arising  in  all  ways.  We  have  a  number  of 
facts  confirming  this  inference,  and  showing  that  acquired  char- 
acters are  inherited — as  large  a  number  as  can  be  expected,  con- 
sidering the  difficulty  of  observing  them  and  the  absence  of 
search.  And  then  to  these  facts  may  be  added  the  facts  with 
which  this  essay  set  out,  concerning  the  distribution  of  tactual 
discriminativeness.  While  we  saw  that  these  are  inexplicable  by 
survival  of  the  fittest,  we  saw  that  they  are  clearly  explicable  as 
resulting  from  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters.  And  here 
let  it  be  added  that  this  conclusion  is  conspicuously  warranted 
by  one  of  the  methods  of  inductive  logic,  known  as  the  method 
of  concomitant  variations.  For  throughout  the  whole  series  of 
gradations  in  perceptive  power,  we  saw  that  the  amount  of  the 
effect  is  proportionate  to  the  amount  of  the  alleged  cause.— Con- 
temporary Review. 


THE  CEREMONIAL  USE  OF  TOBACCO. 

BY  JOHN  HAWKINS. 

COMPARING  the  stone  age  of  the  New  World  with  that  of  the 
**J  Old,  an  important  point  of  difference  comes  at  once  into 
view.  The  American  race  is  distinguished  in  culture  from  all 
other  savages  by  the  possession  and  use  of  an  implement  to  which 
nothing  analogous  is  found  among  the  prehistoric  relics  of  the 
Eastern  hemisphere.  That  implement  is  the  tobacco  pipe. 

Among  the  aborigines  of  America  the  use  of  tobacco  was 
widely  prevalent.  The  practice  of  cigar-smoking  was  observed 
by  the  companions  of  Columbus  on  his  first  voyage;  and  in  the 
brilliant  series  of  discoveries  which  followed  the  great  admiral's 
achievement,  as  well  as  in  the  slower  process  of  exploration  and 
colonization,  the  pipe,  the  cigar,  and  the  snuff  mortar  revealed 


174  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

themselves  at  every  step.  Even  if  written  records  were  wanting, 
the  ancient  American  smoking  implements  which  enrich  the  mu- 
seums of  this  country  and  Europe  would  enable  us  to  assert  the 
general  use  of  tobacco  throughout  the  New  World.  Combining 
the  written  and  unwritten  records,  our  information  on  this  point 
is  complete.  On  the  southern  continent,  although  pre-Columbian 
pipes  are  occasionally  found,  smoking  was  not  so  extensively 
practiced  as  in  the  north.  Still,  several  varieties  of  the  tobacco 
plant  occur  here,  and  the  natives  were  doubtless  well  acquainted 
with  its  use.  Cabral,  in  1515,  observed  in  Brazil  the  practice  of 
chewing  tobacco,  and  on  the  western  coast  the  abundance  of 
small  mortars,  carved  like  the  mound  pipes  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  in  the  shape  of  various  animals,  attest  the  extensive  use  of 
tobacco  as  snuff.  Leaving  South  America  and  crossing  the  tenth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  we  approach  the  native  land  of  the  pipe. 
A  province  of  Yucatan  is  thought  by  some  to  have  given  a  name 
to  the  tobacco  plant.  A  tubular  pipe  occurs  in  the  sculptures  of 
Palenque.  In  Mexico  the  common  custom  of  smoking  was  noted 
by  Cortes  in  1519,  and  the  truth  of  his  statement  is  evinced  by 
the  quantities  of  elaborately  decorated  clay  pipes  since  unearthed 
in  that  country,  as  well  as  by  some  of  the  pictured  figures  of  the 
ancient  manuscripts.  Pipes  of  clay  or  stone  are  found  in  abun- 
dance throughout  the  United  States,  those  from  the  mounds,  sculp- 
tured in  the  form  of  various  quadrupeds  and  birds,  and  occasion- 
ally of  men.  being  among  the  most  interesting  examples  of  native 
art.  Still  farther  north  the  great  narcotic  had  established  its 
sway,  prior  to  the  advent  of  Europeans,  beyond  the  Great  Lakes, 
in  the  far  Northwest,  and  in  the  East,  where  the  French  gave  to  a 
tribe  of  inordinate  smokers  the  name  of  Petuns,  from  petune,  a 
native  name  of  the  tobacco  plant. 

The  use  of  tobacco  excited  in  the  first  Europeans  who  wit- 
nessed it  feelings  of  astonishment  and  disgust.  If  Montesquieu 
is  to  be  believed,  the  Spanish  casuists  of  the  fifteenth  century  of- 
fered to  the  public  conscience,  in  extenuation  of  the  enslavement 
of  the  Indians,  the  fact,  among  others,  that  they  smoked  tobacco. 
There  is  other  evidence  to  show  that  the  early  explorers  of  the 
New  World  regarded  the  custom  of  smoking  as  the  extremity  of 
barbarism;  nor  have  advocates  of  this  view  been  lacking  from 
that  day  to  this.  But,  in  spite  of  all  objections,  tobacco  has  ex- 
tended its  reign  over  the  entire  earth ;  it  is  an  important  source 
of  revenue  to  the  most  enlightened  of  modern  governments ;  it 
numbers  among  its  devotees  men  of  all  races  and  of  all  ranks ;  it 
solaces  the  dreary  life  of  the  Eskimo  and  of  the  Central  African 
savage ;  but  a  little  while  ago  it  furnished  inspiration  to  the  genius 
of  one  of  the  world's  great  poets.  Concerning  the  adoption  by 
civilized  people  of  a  barbarous  custom  like  that  under  discussion 


THE  CEREMONIAL    USE  OF  TOBACCO.  175 

much  might  be  said ;  but  leaving  this  for  the  present,  I  desire  to 
call  attention  to  a  phase  of  the  subject  which  has  received  but  lit- 
tle attention,  namely,  the  ceremonial  use  of  tobacco  by  the  natives 
of  America. 

Since  the  world-wide  diffusion  of  the  tobacco  habit,  its  earliest, 
and  perhaps  original,  use  has  been  in  a  great  measure  overlooked. 
With  the  aborigines  of  America,  smoking  and  its  kindred  prac- 
tices were  not  mere  sensual  gratifications,  but  tobacco  was  re- 
garded as  an  herb  of  peculiar  and  mysterious  sanctity,  and  its  use 
was  deeply  and  intimately  interwoven  with  native  rites  and  cere- 
monies. With  reasonable  certainty  the  pipe  may  be  considered 
as  an  implement  the  use  of  which  was  originally  confined  to  the 
priest,  medicine-man,  or  sorcerer,  in  whose  hands  it  was  a  means 
of  communication  between  savage  man  and  the  unseen  spirits 
with  which  his  universal  doctrine  of  animism  invested  every  ob- 
ject that  came  under  his  observation.  Similar  to  this  use  of  the 
pipe  was  its  employment  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  which  in 
savage  philosophy  is  always  thought  to  be  the  work  of  evil  spirits. 
Tobacco  was  also  regarded  as  an  offering  of  peculiar  acceptability 
to  the  unknown  powers  in  whose  hands  the  Indian  conceived  his 
fate  for  good  or  ill  to  lie ;  hence  it  is  observed  to  figure  promi- 
nently in  ceremonies  as  incense,  and  as  material  for  sacrifice.  It 
will  be  my  task  to  collect  here  some  of  the  many  observations  of 
travelers,  and  of  students  of  Indian  custom  and  belief,  which  illus- 
trate these  remarks. 

Embalmed  in  poetry  and  frequently  described  in  prose,  per- 
haps the  most  familiar  example  of  the  ceremonial  employment  of 
tobacco  is  the  use  of  the  calumet,  or  peace  pipe.  In  its  pungent 
fumes  agreements  were  made  binding,  enmity  was  disarmed.  It 
was  at  once  the  implement  of  Indian  diplomacy,  the  universally 
recognized  emblem  of  friendship,  the  flag  of  truce  used  in  ap- 
proaching strange  or  hostile  tribes,  the  seal  of  solemn  compacts. 
Upon  its  use  was  founded  the  widely  diffused  calumet  dance,  a  per- 
formance reserved  for  occasions  when  it  was  desired  to  express  spe- 
cial friendship.  Like  many  other  usages  connected  with  the  pipe, 
the  calumet,  with  the  traditions  which  surround  it,  have  survived 
to  the  present  day.  In  many  parts  of  Canada  and  the  western 
United  States  the  visitor  to  the  Indian  villages  is  still  expected  to 
present  pipes  and  tobacco  as  evidences  of  amity  and  good  will. 

There  were  other  sacred  pipes  besides  the  calumet,  and  these 
were  called  into  requisition  on  every  possible  occasion — in  the 
election  of  chiefs,  in  the  ceremony  of  adoption  into  the  tribe,  at 
the  beginning  of  a  hunt,  on  going  to  war,  at  the  end  of  the  har- 
vest, and  in  innumerable  other  acts  of  Indian  life,  both  public  and 
private,  as  well  as  in  many  dances  and  festivals.  Tobacco,  in 
short,  was  intimately  connected  with  the  entire  social  and  reli- 


176  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

gious  systems  of  the  Americans.  References  to  these  minor  usages 
are  so  abundant  in  the  writings  of  those  who  have  described  the 
customs  and  arts  of  the  aborigines,  and  so  familiar  to  the  general 
reader,  that  they  may  be  here  omitted. 

Of  more  importance  are  the  accounts  of  the  employment  of  to- 
bacco as  sacrifice  and  incense.  Hariot,  the  historian  of  Sir  Rich- 
ard Grenville's  expedition  to  Virginia  in  1584,  after  speaking  of 
the  cultivation  and  use  by  the  natives  of  tobacco,  or  uppowoc, 
says:  "This  uppowoc  is  of  so  precious  estimation  among  them 
that  they  think  their  gods  are  marvellously  delighted  therewith ; 
whereupon  they  sometimes  make  hallowed  fires,  and  cast  some  of 
the  powder  therein  for  a  sacrifice.  Being  in  a  storme  upon  the 
waters,  to  pacifie  their  gods  they  cast  some  up  into  the  aire,  and 
into  the  water ;  so  a  weare  for  fish  being  newly  set  up,  they  cast 
some  therein,  and  into  the  aire ;  also  after  an  escape  of  danger 
they  cast  some  into  the  aire  likewise;  but  all  done  with  such 
strange  gestures,  stamping,  sometimes  dancing,  clapping  of  hands, 
holding  up  of  hands,  and  staring  up  into  the  heavens,  uttering 
therewithal,  and  chattering  strange  words  and  noises."  In  the 
narrative  of  the  voyage  of  Drake,  in  1572,  it  is  noted  that  the  na- 
tives brought  little  rush  baskets  filled  with  tdbak,  offering  them 
to  the  whites,  as  the  narrator  says,  "  upon  the  persuasion  that  we 
were  gods."  The  Jesuit  missionary  Allouez,  in  1671,  visited  the 
Foxes,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Green  Bay,  and  after  some  trouble 
succeeded  in  inducing  them  to  listen  to  his  preaching,  which  was, 
as  Parkman  relates,  so  successful  at  length  that  when  he  showed 
them  his  crucifix  they  would  throw  tobacco  on  it  as  an  offering. 
An  early  missionary  among  the  Hurons  states  that  they  wor- 
shiped an  okiy  or  spirit,  who  dwelt  in  a  certain  rock,  and  who 
could  give  success  to  travelers.  Into  the  clefts  of  the  rock  they 
were  accustomed  to  place  offerings  of  tobacco,  praying  for  protec- 
tion from  their  enemies  and  from  shipwreck.  Early  explorers 
frequently  refer  to  offerings  of  tobacco  found  near  prominent 
hills,  rocks,  and  trees,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  dangerous  rapids  and 
falls — places,  as  the  poet  Moore  has  it — 

"  Where  the  trembling  Indian  brings 
Belts  of  porcelain,  pipes,  and  rings, 
Tributes,  to  be  hung  in  air, 
To  the  fiend  presiding  there." 

In  the  narrative  of  his  captivity  among  the  Indians  of  Lake 
Superior  John  Tanner  gives  a  prayer  which  he  heard  recited  by 
the  leader  of  a  fleet  of  canoes  upon  the  lake,  asking  for  a  safe 
voyage.  At  its  conclusion  the  chief  threw  tobacco  into  the  water, 
and  the  occupants  of  each  canoe  followed  his  example.  Coming 
down  to  more  recent  times,  the  presence  of  two  sacred  bowlders 


THE   CEREMONIAL    USE   OF  TOBACCO.  177 

near  the  famous  red  pipestone  quarry  of  the  Coteau  des  Prairies 
is  mentioned  by  Catlin,  who  says  that  the  Indians  never  went 
quite  to  them,  but  standing  some  distance  away  they  would  throw 
plugs  of  tobacco  to  them,  thus  asking  permission  of  the  indwell- 
ing spirits  to  dig  and  remove  the  precious  pipestone. 

Still  later  survivals  of  the  ancient  customs  connected  with  the 
use  of  tobacco  may  be  noted.  According  to  Colonel  Garrick 
Mallery,  an  instance  of  the  use  of  tobacco  as  incense  was  fur- 
nished by  the  Iroquois  as  late  as  1882.  The  following  words 
were  addressed  to  the  fire :  "  Bless  thy  grandchildren ;  protect 
and  strengthen  them.  By  this  tobacco  we  give  thee  a  sweet- 
smelling  sacrifice,  and  ask  thy  care  to  keep  us  from  sickness  and 
famine."  The  Iroquois  still  make  an  annual  sacrifice  of  a  white 
dog,  on  which  occasions  tobacco  is  solemnly  burned.  The  idea 
underlying  this  employment  of  tobacco  is  well  shown  in  the 
prayer  which  accompanies  the  ceremony :  "  I  now  cast  into  the 
fire  the  Indian  tobacco,  that  as  the  scent  rises  up  into  the  air  it 
may  ascend  to  thy  abode  of  peace  and  quietness ;  and  thou  wilt 
perceive  and  know  that  thy  counsels  are  duly  observed  by  man- 
kind, and  wilt  recognize  and  approve  the  objects  for  which  thy 
blessing  has  been  asked."  Another  late  custom  of  the  Iroquois  is 
thus  related  by  Mrs.  Erminnie  A.  Smith :  "  In  a  dry  summer  sea- 
son, the  horizon  being  filled  with  distant  thunderheads,  it  was  cus- 
tomary to  burn  what  the  Indians  call  real  tobacco,  as  an  offering 
to  bring  rain.  .  .  .  Every  family  was  supposed  to  have  a  private 
altar  upon  which  its  offerings  were  secretly  made ;  after  which 
that  family  must  repair,  bearing  its  tithe,  to  the  council  house 
where  the  gathered  tithes  of  tobacco  were  burned  in  the  council 
fire.  .  .  .  Burning  tobacco  is  the  same  as  praying.  In  times  of 
trouble  or  fear,  after  a  bad  dream,  or  any  event  which  frightens 
them,  they  say,  'My  mother  went  out  and  burned  tobacco/" 
The  Cohuilla  Indians  of  California  believe  in  evil  spirits  called 
sespes,  and  when  they  can  not  sleep  they  make  offerings  to  these 
of  tobacco.  In  making  their  buffalo  medicine  the  Dakotas  were 
accustomed  to  burn  tobacco  to  bring  the  herds.  Some  American 
Indians  before  killing  a  rattlesnake  would  make  an  offering  to  its 
spirit  by  sprinkling  a  pinch  of  tobacco  on  its  head.  Others  would 
beg  pardon  of  a  bear  which  they  had  killed,  and  by  placing  the 
peace  pipe  in  its  mouth  and  blowing  the  smoke  down  its  throat, 
ask  its  spirit  not  to  take  revenge.  The  Sioux  in  Hennepin's  time 
looked  toward  the  sun  when  they  smoked,  and  when  the  calumet 
was  lighted  they  held  it  aloft,  saying,  "  Smoke,  sun."  A  like  cus- 
tom prevailed  among  the  Creeks.  Gordon  William  Lillie  ("  Paw- 
nee Bill "),  speaking  of  the  pipe  dance  of  the  Pawnees,  says  that 
"  before  lighting  their  pipes  they  throw  a  pinch  of  the  tobacco 
into  the  air.  This,  with  the  first  three  puffs  of  smoke,  which  are 

VOL.    XLIII. 13 


178  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

also  blown  high,  in  the  air,  goes  to  the  good  spirit.  The  ashes  they 
are  very  particular  to  throw  to  the  fire,  and  this  is  ill  luck  to  the 
bad  spirit.  The  pipe  (the  Indian's  idol  and  shrine)  is  to  the  Paw- 
nee what  the  Bible  is  to  the  white  man,  and  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  all  the  principal  dances." 

The  facts  of  this  paragraph  are  gleaned  from  the  interesting 
reports  made  by  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher  upon  her  studies  of  vari- 
ous Indian  tribes :  At  the  Uncpapa  festival  of  the  white  buffalo,  a 
priest  must  be  present  to  fill  the  pipe,  a  ceremony  performed  with 
a  ritual  of  words,  and  it  is  believed  that  should  the  person  saying 
it  make  a  mistake,  or  omit  a  word,  he  would  incur  death  from  the 
sacrilege.  Relating  the  details  of  this  festival  for  publication,  the 
narrators  seated  themselves  toward  the  sunrise,  lighted  the  pipe, 
bowed  to  the  earth,  and  passed  it,  uttering  a  prayer.  In  the  Elk 
mystery  or  festival  of  the  Ogallala  Sioux  the  pipe  is  introduced, 
together  with  little  bunches  of  tobacco  rolled  in  cloth.  It  figures 
also  in  the  ghost-lodge  ceremony  of  the  same  Indians.  The  pipe 
dance  of  the  Omahas  is  an  elaborate  ceremony  which  can  not  here 
be  adequately  described.  It  is  sometimes  exchanged  between  dif- 
ferent gentes  of  the  same  tribe,  but  generally  between  two  tribes. 
The  two  "  pipes "  peculiar  to  this  dance  are  not  pipes  at  all,  but 
only  stems,  the  pipe-bowls  being  replaced  by  the  heads  of  ducks. 
The  stems  are  hollowed  carefully,  however,  and  smoking  is  some- 
times simulated,  in  which  cases  the  symbolism  is  as  binding  as 
when  the  fumes  are  present.  The  perforation  of  the  stems  is  made 
quite  large,  to  prevent  clogging,  which  is  regarded  as  a  great  ca- 
lamity. Among  the  Pawnees,  if  a  stoppage  occurs  in  smoking  a 
peace  pipe,  the  bearer  loses  his  life.  Only  a  man  who  has  proved 
himself  valiant  in  battle,  or  wise  in  council,  or  who  has  given 
away  horses,  can  make  one  of  these  pipes.  The  pipes  are  wrapped 
in  the  skin  of  a  wild  cat,  and  the  bearing  of  this  roll  is  a  special 
office.  This  ceremony,  which  is  accompanied  by  an  elaborate 
ritual  comprising  a  number  of  songs,  handed  down  with  their 
archaic  words  through  many  generations,  was  one  of  the  means 
in  ancient  times  by  which  possessions  were  accumulated  and  ex- 
changed, and  honors  counted  and  received.  It  seems  to  symbolize 
fellowship  or  kinship.  The  same  dance,  with  a  few  minor  points 
of  difference,  is  common  to  the  Omaha,  Ponca,  Otoe,  Pawnee,  and 
Sioux  tribes.  In  their  journeys  to  and  fro  the  dance  parties  are 
regarded  as  peacemakers  by  all  who  meet  them,  because  of  the 
presence  of  the  pipes.  Should  a  war  party  come  in  sight,  the 
warriors  would  make  a  wide  detour  to  avoid  the  group,  even 
though  it  belonged  to  the  tribe  about  to  be  attacked. 

The  investigations  of  the  Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey  among  the 
Omahas  also  reveal  many  survivals  of  ancient  ceremonies  which 
illustrate  the  sacred  characteristics  pertaining  to  the  pipe.  This 


THE   CEREMONIAL    USE   OF   TOBACCO.  179 

tribe  possesses  but  two  sacred  pipes,  which  are  in  the  keeping  of  a 
certain  gens,  though  seven  gentes  are  said  to  have  once  possessed 
pipes  which  were  reserved  for  ceremonial  usages.  The  two  now 
in  existence  are  called  sacred  pipes,  or  red  pipes,  and  are  made  of 
the  famous  red  pipestone.  The  filling  of  the  pipes  is  not  done  by 
the  keepers,  but  by  a  man  of  another  gens ;  and,  when  this  official 
does  not  go  to  the  council,  the  pipes  can  not  be  smoked,  since  no 
one  else  can  fill  them.  The  ancient  ritual  for  this  ceremonial  fill- 
ing of  the  pipes  must  not  be  heard,  so  he  sends  all  the  others  out 
of  the  lodge.  He  utters  some  words  when  he  cleans  out  the  bowl, 
others  when  he  fills  it.  The  pipes  are  then  lighted  by  the  keep- 
er, and  are  ready  for  use.  In  opening,  handling,  smoking,  and 
emptying  them  certain  regulations  must  be  carefully  observed. 
Any  violation  of  these  laws  they  believe  will  be  followed  by 
the  death  of  the  offender.  In  smoking  they  blow  the  smoke  up- 
ward, saying,  "  Here,  Wakanda,  is  the  smoke."  If  the  presence 
of  enemies  renders  necessary  the  sending  out  of  scouts,  the  pipes 
are  filled  and  offered  to  them,  and  they  are  solemnly  admonished 
to  report  on  their  return  only  the  exact  truth,  and  to  be  careful 
to  observe  well.  When  the  first  thunder  is  heard  in  the  spring 
the  sacred  pipes  are  filled  and  held  toward  the  sky,  while  the 
thunder-god  is  admonished  to  depart  and  cease  from  frightening 
his  grandchildren.  In  the  time  of  a  fog  the  men  of  the  Turtle  sub- 
gens  draw  on  the  ground  the  figure  of  a  turtle  with  its  face  toward 
the  south.  On  the  head,  tail,  middle  of  the  back,  and  on  each  leg 
are  placed  small  pieces  of  breechcloth  with  some  tobacco.  This 
is  to  make  the  fog  disappear.  Should  an  enemy  appear  in  the 
lodge  and  put  the  pipe  in  his  mouth,  he  can  not  be  injured  by 
any  member  of  the  tribe,  as  he  is  bound  for  the  time  by  the  laws 
of  hospitality,  and  must  be  protected  and  sent  to  his  home  in 
safety.  These  Indians  use  the  pipe  when  declaring  war  and  when 
making  peace.  Among  the  Poncas  at  the  election  of  chiefs,  the 
chiefs-elect  must  put  the  sacred  pipes  to  their  mouths  and  inhale 
the  smoke.  If  they  should  refuse  to  inhale  it  they  would  die,  it 
is  thought,  before  the  end  of  the  year.  The  election  of  Omaha 
chiefs  is  similar. 

Major  J.  W.  Powell  states  that  when  the  Wyandot  tribal  coun- 
cil meets,  the  chief  of  a  certain  gens  fills  and  lights  a  pipe,  sending 
one  puff  of  smoke  to  the  heavens  and  another  to  the  earth.  The 
pipe  is  then  handed  to  the  sachem,  who  fills  his  mouth  with  smoke, 
and,  turning  from  left  to  right  with  the  sun,  slowly  puffs  it  out 
over  the  heads  of  the  councilors  who  are  sitting  in  a  circle.  He 
then  hands  the  pipe  to  the  man  on  his  left,  and  it  is  smoked  in  turn 
by  each  person  until  it  has  passed  around  the  circle,  after  which 
the  sachem  explains  the  object  for  which  the  council  was  called. 

A  possible  evidence  of  the  religious  veneration  with  which  the 


i8o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

pipe  was  regarded  in  America  is  furnished  by  the  mound  pipes, 
upon  which  the  native  sculptors  expended  a  much  greater  amount 
of  patient  and  careful  labor  than  they  devoted  to  any  other  im- 
plement. So  skillfully  executed  are  they  that  Dr.  Rau  does  not 
hesitate  to  affirm  that  modern  artists  would  find  no  small  diffi- 
culty in  reproducing  them,  even  with  the  great  advantage  of 
metallic  tools.  These  facts  seem  to  have  impressed  themselves 
strongly  upon  the  mind  of  the  late  Sir  Daniel  Wilson,  who  many 
years  ago  investigated  thoroughly  the  narcotic  arts  and  super- 
stitions of  the  Americans,  and  to  whom  the  writer  is  indebted  for 
the  main  idea  of  the  present  paper.  The  mound  pipes  are,  indeed, 
a  suggestive  theme,  though  the  conclusions  which  archaeologists 
have  drawn  from  them  are  by  no  means  unanimous.  A  remark- 
able depository  of  carved  pipes  was  unearthed  by  Squier  and 
Davis  in  one  of  the  mounds  of  the  group  known  as  Mound  City, 
in  Ohio.  From  a  single  hearth  they  took  nearly  two  hundred 
finely  sculptured  pipes,  many  of  them,  however,  being  broken  and 
injured  by  the  action  of  fire.  Recalling  the  sacred  associations 
connected  in  the  mind  of  the  Indian  with  the  tobacco  plant  and 
the  instrument  of  its  use,  theorists  have  found  in  this  mound  a 
possible  altar  devoted  exclusively  to  nicotian  rites.  Without  dis- 
cussing the  motives  which  may  have  led  the  builders  of  the 
mounds  to  deposit  so  many  of  these  pipes  in  one  place,  we  may 
assume  with  some  confidence  that  the  carved  pipes  were  most 
probably  totems.  "Their  sacred  nature,"  remarks  Henshaw, 
"  would  enable  us  to  understand  how  naturally  pipes  would  be 
selected  as  the  medium  for  totemic  representations." 

Leaving  for  a  time  the  regions  where  the  pipe  occupies  so 
prominent  a  place  in  religious  rites,  we  find,  on  approaching  the 
Rio  Grande,  that  the  use  of  tobacco  becomes  of  far  less  frequent 
occurrence.  In  the  pueblos  of  the  Southwest  very  few  pipes  have 
been  found.  The  Indians  of  this  region  have,  however,  a  sacred 
cigarette,  the  antiquity  of  which  is  indicated  by  repeated  allusions 
to  it  in  the  pueblo  folk  lore.  The  Navajos  share  with  the  Moquis 
the  smoke-prayer,  in  which  the  sacred  smoke  of  the  cigarette  is 
blown  east,  north,  west,  and  south,  to  propitiate  the  good  spirits 
and  drive  away  the  evil  ones.  Gushing  observed  that  the  older 
men  of  Zuni,  in  smoking  cigarettes,  would  blow  the  smoke  in  dif- 
ferent directions,  closing  their  eyes,  and  muttering  a  few  words 
which  he  regarded  as  invocations.  In  Mexico  and  Central  Amer- 
ica the  pipe  reappears,  though  here  it  is  evidently  of  much  less 
importance  than  in  the  North.  One  prominent  example  of  its 
application  to  religious  uses  is  furnished  by  Diego  de  Landa.  In 
his  Relacion  de  Cosas  de  Yucatan,  describing  the  curious  native 
ceremony  of  baptism  he  says :  "  Tras  esto  (the  priest)  ivan  los 
dernas  ayudantes  del  sacerdote  con  un  manojo  de  flores  y  un 


THE   CEREMONIAL    USE    OF   TOBACCO.  181 

humago  que  los  indios  usan  chupar ;  y  amagavan  con  cada  uno 
dellos  nueve  vezes  a  cado  mochacho,  y  despues  davanle  a  oler  las 
flores  y  a  chupar  el  humago."  That  this  is  not  an  isolated  instance 
of  the  use  of  tobacco  in  religious  practices  in  these  regions  is 
shown  by  the  pipes  and  cigars  pictured  in  some  of  the  ancient 
manuscripts.  Bancroft  states  that  after  some  of  the  hideous 
human  sacrifices  made  by  the  people  of  Central  America,  great 
fires  were  built,  into  which  the  men  threw  pipes,  among  other 
offerings.  Among  the  remarkable  sculptures  of  the  "  Palace  of 
the  Sun,"  at  Palenque,  occurs  the  figure  of  a  priest  dressed  in  a 
leopard's  skin,  a  complicated  head  dress,  and  rufiies  around  his 
wrists  and  ankles.  In  his  mouth,  supported  by  both  hands,  is  a 
tubular  pipe,  similar  in  shape  and  decoration  to  many  that  have 
been  found  in  California  and  in  other  parts  of  the  United  States. 
In  this  figure  the  learned  Dr.  Hamy  sees,  and  doubtless  correctly, 
the  performance  of  an  act  of  worship.  He  says :  "  Le  pontif e  soufiie 
en  Thonneur  du  Dieu  dont  1'image  est  sculpte'e  au  fond  de  la 
chapelle  une  large  bouftMe  de  tabac,"  and  proceeds  to  trace  the 
analogies  which  exist  between  this  practice  of  the  builders  of 
Palenque  and  the  rites  of  the  mound-builders  and  California  In- 
dians, of  whose  tubular  pipes  he  says :  "  Elles  servent  a  soufiler 
une  fume'e  consacre'e,  dans  certaines  ce're'rnonies  religieuses,  et  le 
medicine-man  sait,  suivant  les  besoins,  les  transformer  soit  en 
tubes  a  ventouse,  soit  en  porte-moxa." 

The  treatment  of  disease  by  means  of  tobacco  and  tobacco 
pipes,  which  is  here  suggested,  may  now  claim  attention.  The 
"  sucking  cure,"  in  which  the  medicine-man  or  sorcerer  applies  to 
the  patient's  body  a  tube  of  stone  or  bone  and  pretends  to  extract 
through  it  some  small  object,  such  as  a  stick  or  stone,  is  of  world- 
wide distribution.  In  America  the  tube  used  is  frequently  the 
tobacco  pipe,  sometimes  empty,  and  sometimes  filled  with  burn- 
ing tobacco.  Vanegas,  an  early  historian  of  California,  asserts 
that  stone  tubes  sometimes  filled  with  lighted  tobacco  were  often 
applied  to  the  suffering  part  of  the  patient's  body.  Forbes  states 
that  in  the  same  region,  in  1728,  Father  Luyanto,  of  the  Loreto 
Mission,  "  as  a  preliminary  to  baptism  insisted  on  the  abjuration 
of  faith  in  the  native  jugglers  or  priests,  and  demanded  the  break- 
ing and  burning  of  their  smoking  tubes  and  other  instruments 
and  tokens  of  superstition  in  proof  of  this."  Among  the  modern 
Apaches  the  medicine-man's  diagnosis  of  a  case  is  made  by  the 
pretended  swallowing  of  a  pipe  filled  with  burning  tobacco.  It 
works  out  of  his  arm  or  leg,  and  if  white  the  patient  will  recover ; 
if  colored,  he  is  likely  to  die.  Tubular  pipes  occur  in  many  parts 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  California  they  are  numerous.  While 
they  were  designed  primarily  as  smoking  implements,  they  were 
no  doubt  often  used,  as  here  indicated,  in  the  treatment  of  disease. 


182  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

From  the  point  of  view  here  taken  in  regard  to  tobacco  its 
most  interesting  use  by  far  is  for  the  purpose  of  producing  a  state 
of  ecstasy  or  delirium  in  which,  according  to  the  barbaric  theory 
of  animism,  the  person  under  its  influence  could  hold  communica- 
tion in  dreams  and  visions  with  the  spirits  who  brought  disease 
and  death,  and  also  with  those  to  whom  the  savage  felt  himself 
indebted  for  life  and  all  its  blessings.  The  importance  attached 
to  dreams  by  savages  is  well  known.  Schoolcraf  fc,  in  1823,  noted 
the  besotted  and  spellbound  condition  of  the  Indians  of  the  Great 
Lake  regions,  due  to  their  implicit  belief  in  the  prophetic  nature 
of  dreams.  "  Their  whole  lives,"  he  remarks,  "  are  rendered  a  per- 
fect scene  of  doubts  and  fears  and  terrors  by  them.  Their  jug- 
glers are  both  dreamers  and  dream  interpreters."  In  ancient 
Mexico  the  will  of  the  gods  was  made  known  to  the  four  chief 
medicine-men  in  dreams,  and  Bandelier  recalls  the  familiar  story 
that  Montezuma,  previous  to  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards,  being 
alarmed  by  mysterious  prognostics,  called  upon  the  old  men  and 
women,  and  upon  the  medicine-men,  to  report  what  they  might 
dream  or  had  dreamed  within  a  certain  lapse  of  time.  In  the  same 
country  certain  men  were  particularly  expert  in  dream  interpre- 
tation, so  much  so  that  they  were  generally  applied  to  for  that 
purpose. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  capacity  of  the  Indian  to 
withstand  the  effect  of  narcotics  is  much  less  than  that  of  the 
European,  and  that  the  native  practice  of  inhaling  the  smoke 
secured  a  far  deeper  and  more  lasting  effect  than  the  modern 
method.  Oviedo  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  tobacco  was 
greatly  valued  by  the  Caribbees,  "  who  call  it  koliiba,  and  im- 
agined when  they  were  drunk  with  the  fumes  of  it  that  they  were 
in  some  sort  inspired."  The  Carib  sorcerer,  in  evoking  a  demon  or 
spirit  from  his  patient,  would  puff  tobacco  smoke  into  the  air  as 
an  agreeable  perfume  to  attract  the  spirit  from  the  afflicted  body. 
With  the  aid  of  tobacco  smoke  and  darkness  he  could  also  hold 
communion  with  his  own  familiar  demon  or  guardian  spirit. 
"  In  La  Espanola  and  the  other  islands,"  says  Benzoni,  "  when 
their  doctors  wanted  to  cure  a  sick  man,  they  went  to  the  place 
where  they  were  to  administer  the  smoke,  and  when  he  was 
thoroughly  intoxicated  by  it  the  cure  was  mostly  effected.  On 
returning  to  his  senses  he  told  a  thousand  stories  of  his  having 
been  at  the  counqils  of  the  gods,  and  other  high  visions."  The 
Indians  of  California  sometimes  stupefied  children  with  narcotic 
drink,  in  order  to  gain  from  the  ensuing  vision  information  about 
their  enemies.  Dr.  E.  B.  Tylor  notes  similar  practices  in  Darien, 
Brazil,  and  Peru.  The  Brazilian  tribes  took  tobacco  to  produce 
ecstasy,  and  in  this  state  had  supernatural  visions.  The  same 
custom  obtained  in  North  America.  A  peculiar  use  of  the  sweat 


THE   CEREMONIAL    USE    OF   TOBACCO.  183 

lodge  (a  common  institution  in  America)  was  observed  by  Loskiel 
among  the  Delaware  Indians.  After  a  feast  in  honor  of  the  fire- 
god  and  his  twelve  attendant  manitous,  a  hut  was  constructed  of 
skins  stretched  upon  twelve  poles  tied  together  at  the  top.  Into 
this  hut  twelve  men  were  crowded,  twelve  red-hot  stones  were 
placed  among  them,  and  upon  these  stones  an  old  man  threw 
twelve  pipef uls  of  tobacco.  The  men  had  to  remain  inside  as  long 
as  they  could  endure  the  heat  and  smoke,  and  when  taken  out  at 
last  they  were  almost  suffocated,  generally  falling  in  a  swoon. 
The  precise  object  of  this  ceremony  is  not  mentioned,  but  it  is 
probable  that  the  dominant  idea  was  that  of  a  spiritual  inter- 
course between  the  swooning  men  and  the  deities. 

The  origin  of  the  custom  of  smoking  tobacco  may,  with  some 
degree  of  probability,  be  traced  to  the  ceremonies  here  recounted. 
That  stage  of  primitive  culture  which  is  characterized  by  a  strong 
belief  in  the  reality  of  dream  figures  and  the  prophetic  nature  of 
visions  tended  inevitably  to  engender  a  class  of  professional 
dreamers  and  soothsayers.  When  dreams  were  in  great  demand, 
it  was  natural  that  some  man  in  every  savage  community,  on  ac- 
count of  a  mental  peculiarity — a  taint  of  insanity,  or  some  power- 
ful nervous  derangement — should  become  distinguished  above  his 
fellows  for  vivid  and  frequent  visions.  As  the  business  of  the 
prophet  and  seer  increased,  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  adopt 
artificial  measures  for  bringing  on  the  condition  of  stupor  which 
was  essential  to  the  exercise  of  his  calling.  He  therefore  resorted 
to  fasting,  or,  more  frequently,  to  the  use  of  narcotic  drugs. 
Along  the  Amazon  the  seeds  of  Mimosa  acacioides  were  thus  em- 
ployed ;  among  the  Peruvians  and  the  Darien  Indians  it  was  the 
Datura  sanguined  ;  in  Brazil,  the  West  Indies,  and  North  Amer- 
ica the  great  narcotic  was  tobacco. 

In  like  manner  it  may  be  reasonably  conjectured  that  tobacco 
did  not  become  an  article  of  sacrifice  and  incense  until  it  had 
passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  medicine-men,  by  whom  alone  it 
was  at  first  used.  In  every  age  men  have  offered  in  sacrifice  that 
which  they  valued  most — the  best  and  first  fruits,  and  the  most 
precious  of  their  flocks.  Tobacco  must  have  come  into  general 
use  and  become  one  of  the  Indian's  most  prized  possessions  before 
it  was  offered  as  a  gift  to  his  deities.  It  is  not  difficult  to  trace 
this  advance  from  its  restricted  use  by  professional  dreamers  as 
just  described.  When  men  had  learned  that  the  sacred  herb  could 
drive  away  disease,  recall  the  past  and  reveal  the  future,  they 
naturally  wished  to  try  its  effects  upon  themselves — to  walk  in 
.person  in  the  hidden  land  of  spirits,  instead  of  sending  the  medi- 
cine-man as  a  deputy.  Thus,  in  time,  every  man  became  his  own 
seer,  tobacco  rose  in  the  estimation  of  the  Indian  above  all  his 
other  possessions,  and  smoking  became  a  common  practice. 


184  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

AN  ETHNOLOGIC  STUDY  OF  THE  YURUKS. 

BY  ALCIDE  T.  M.  1>'ANDRIA. 

THE  Yuruks  are  nomadic  tribes  whose  existence  is  a  phenom- 
enon difficult  to  understand  and  to  explain.  Ethnologists 
consider  them  as  direct  descendants  of  the  Turkomans,  whose  dis- 
tinctive features  they  have  preserved ;  while  those  properly  called 
Turks,  though  descendants  of  the  Turkomans,  have  mingled  with 
Aryan  and  Semitic  races,  and  lost  their  original  characteristics. 
Mr.  Riegler  states  that  the  Turks,  owing  to  numerous  crossings 
with  various  foreign  races  for  several  centuries,  present  nowadays 
important  modifications  in  their  type;  while  the  ungovernable 
Yuruks  are  proud  of  their  savage  origin,  and  value  themselves 
as  superior  to  the  Turks  among  whom  they  live. 

The  Yuruk  has  generally  a  large  head,  round  face,  high  fore- 
head, projecting  chin,  and  long  though  not  oblique  eyes.  His  skin 
is  brown,  his  hair  dark  or  auburn ;  he  has  a  very  strong  osse- 
ous frame,  and  is  of  medium  height.  Such  is  the  physical  descrip- 
tion of  the  Yuruks. 

As  for  the  etymology  of  their  name,  it  is  entirely  Persian,  and 
is  derived  from  the  verb  yurumek,  which  means  to  walk.  In 
some  provinces  of  Asia  Minor  they  are  called  Gueutchebe.  This 
word  has  the  same  meaning  as  yurumek,  and  is  derived  from  the 
verb  gueutchmek,  which  may  be  rendered  in  English  by  to 
change  lodging.  The  literal  meanings  of  their  names  show  suffi- 
ciently the  most  striking  side  of  their  nature — they  are  nomadic. 
Their  tribes  are  scattered  over  the  Asiatic  peninsula.  Some  eth- 
nologists place  their  number  at  three  hundred  thousand,  and  M. 
Elise*e  Reclus  reckons  as  many  as  a  hundred  different  tribes.  Each 
tribe  appoints  a  chief  called  a  sheik.  His  authority  is  absolute, 
and  he  fills  the  office  of  a  judge  to  settle  their  quarrels. 

The  chief  occupation  of  the  Yuruks  is  the  breeding  of  cattle. 
In  winter  they  set  their  tents  near  their  barns ;  but  when  spring 
approaches  they  fold  them  and  remove  to  lands  more  favorable 
for  the  welfare  of  their  animals.  Through  the  warm  months  -of 
the  summer  they  live  in  the  open  air.  If  they  happen  to  be  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  forest,  they  apply  themselves  to  wood-felling,  and 
they  dispose  of  the  product  of  their  labor  in  the  neighboring  cities 
or  villages. 

Their  wives  and  daughters  are  very  skillful  in  weaving  carpets, 
particularly  one  kind  known  as  kilim.  Each  tribe  manufac- 
tures carpets  having  the  same  design  and  size  ;  each  family  trans- 
mits to  the  children  the  design  it  possesses,  and  the  young  girls 
learn  easily  the  art  of  weaving  without  the  help  of  a  pattern. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  nomadic  life  is  dear  to  them,  as 


AN  ETHNOLOGIC  STUDY   OF  THE    YURUKS.       185 

can  be  testified  by  the  following  quatrain,  which  is  taken  from  one 
of  their  patriotic  songs : 

"  There  is  no  rest  for  the  sovereign, 
And  glory  requires  many  toils  and  pains. 
For  me,  I  would  not  exchange  my  poor  attire 
For  all  the  universe !  " 

The  Ottoman  Government  has  often  tried  to  stop  their  wander- 
ing life,  and  many  severe  edicts  have  been  issued  for  this  purpose. 


FIG.  1. — YUBUK  WOMEN  AT  THE  SPRING. 


The  Sultan's  idea  was  to  destroy  their  tents,  so  as  to  confine  them 
in  one  place  where  they  might  apply  themselves  to  agriculture. 
The  nomads  submitted  for  a  time,  but  their  cattle  in  many  places 
suffered  so  much  from  the  sterility  of  the  soil  that  the  authorities 
were  obliged  to  grant  them  again  a  permit  for  emigration. 


i86 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


The  language  of  the  Yuruks  resembles  much  the  Turkish.  In 
their  dialect,  words  and  even  syntactic  forms  are  also  found  which 
recall  the  Persian  and  Arabic  languages. 

Their  creed  is  Islamism,  although  they  do  not  observe  all  its 
precepts.  Thus,  they  build  no  mosques,  and  do  not  confine  them- 


selves to  the  obligation  of  the  five  daily  prayers  imposed  upon  all 
good  Mohammedans.  Neither  do  they  undergo  the  long  and  pain- 
ful fasting  of  the  Ramazan.  Their  women  do  not  cover  their  faces 
as  do  the  Turkish  ladies. 

The  Yuruks  who  dwell  in  the  plains  which  extend  from  the 


AN  ETHNOLOGIC  STUDY   OF  THE   YURUKS.       187 

Sipylus  to  the  Tmolus  Mountains  are  named  "  Kizil-Bach."  Their 
tribe  is  the  most  important  and  the  most  numerous ;  they  comprise 
nearly  two  thirds  of  the  Yuruk  element.  In  the  ethnologic  point 
of  view  their  study  presents  the  most  interest. 

The  Kizil-Bach,  as,  in  fact,  all  the  Yuruks,  are  the  followers  of 
Ali,  whom  they  consider  as  their  prophet.  Therefore,  Mohammed 
has  no  worshipers  among  them,  and  this  explains  why  they  do  not 
observe  the  precepts  of  the  Koran. 

A  curious  thing  to  notice  is  also  a  slight  mixture  of  paganism 
in  their  creed.  For  instance,  in  the  spring  and  fall  of  every  year 
they  set  large  tents  in  a  remote  place,  and  when  night  comes  men 
and  women  gather  to  celebrate  religious  banquets  and  mysterious 
ceremonies,  followed  by  songs  and  dances. 

Their  principal  poems  express  veneration  for  Ali.  They  also 
possess  remarkably  exalted  hymns  to  chant  their  adoration  to  the 
Supreme  Being  and  their  love  for  their  brethren.  The  dance,  per- 
formed only  by  the  women,  has  an  original  and  Asiatic  character ; 
its  rhythm  is  grave  and  slow,  the  gestures  and  motions  of  the 
dancers  show  kindness  and  amiability  for  their  guests.  Only 
those  initiated  in  their  mysteries  are  allowed  to  attend  the  above 
ceremonies,  while  vigilant  and  unmerciful  guardians,  posted  in 
the  surroundings,  prevent  the  approach  of  strangers  on  pain  of 
immediate  death. 

Besides  these  banquets  and  nocturnal  ceremonies,  which  recall 
the  Saturnalia  of  the  Romans  in  the  time  of  Tiberius,  another  fact 
leads  me  to  believe  that  the  Yuruks  have  preserved  pre-Islamitic 
doctrines  that  we  can  also  trace  in  the  darkest  paganism.  For  in- 
stance, their  belief  in  metempsychosis.  The  Yuruks,  indeed,  assert 
that  human  souls  return  into  the  bodies  of  animals,  and  that  the 
spirits  of  the  latter  take  also  a  human  form  and  appear  at  deter- 
mined epochs.  This  is  certainly  the  reason  why  they  are  so  kind 
to  animals.  M.  Elise*e  Reclus  says  that  a  Yuruk  loves  his  horse  as 
much  as  his  family.  The  horses  have  their  place  under  the  tent, 
and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  them  warmly  wrapped  in  a  mag- 
nificent robe  when  the  Yuruk  and  his  children  are  covered  with 
rags.  Some  other  customs  attest  also  a  pagan  origin;  in  the 
Orient  everybody  knows  that  the  Yuruks  worship  certain  trees 
and  rocks.  These  facts  yield  sufficient  evidence  that  monotheism 
is  by  no  means  the  essential  dogma  of  their  religion. 

Among  the  qualities  possessed  by  the  Yuruk,  hospitality  is,  no 
doubt,  prominent.  Deprived,  by  the  very  influence  of  his  adventur- 
ous life,  of  all  the  fierce  instincts  which  characterize  the  Turko- 
mans; restricted,  because  of  his  occupations,  to  the  woods,  the 
plains,  or  the  mountains ;  constantly  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of 
the  seasons,  to  dangers  and  enemies  of  all  kinds,  the  Yuruk  has 
conceived  a  generous  and  noble  idea  of  hospitality,  and  he  prac- 


AN   ETHNOLOGIC   STUDY    OF   THE    YURUKS.        189 

tices  it  with  disinterestedness  and  pleasure.  His  tent,  whether 
in  his  presence  or  absence,  is  always  opened  to  the  traveler, 
ajid  food  and  drink  in  abundance  are  given  him.  The  tents  of 
the  Yuruks  are  square,  and  made  of  a  sort  of  thick  black  woolen 
cloth. 

Aside  from  the  information  I  have  given  here,  nothing  precise 
is  known  of  their  private  life.  For  instance,  nobody  ever  knew 
what  became  of  their  dead,  as  no  one  has  ever  seen  a  cemetery.  All 
I  am  able  to  say  is  that  the  body  of  the  deceased  is  placed  on  a  black 
mule,  destined  exclusively  for  that  use,  and  thus  carried  to  a 
mountain.  There,  I  am  not  aware  whether  it  is  cremated  or  bur- 
ied ;  but,  as  I  was  told  that  they  also  take  a  sheaf  of  firewood,  it 
is  safe  to  believe  that  cremation  takes  place. 

No  traveler  has  ever  seen  a  Yuruk  pray  according  to  any  rite. 
Yet  it  seems  that  they  are  not  left  without  religious  instruction, 
as  a  venerable  old  man,  his  hair  dressed  as  a  Persian  dervish,  comes 
once  a  year  from  Syria  and  remains  awhile  among  them.  The 
pilgrim  becomes  the  object  of  their  respect  and  devotion,  and  they 
give  him  the  name  of  father. 

Now,  who  is  this  man  ?  What  affinity  between  him  and  these 
Turkomans  ?  What  does  he  teach  them  ?  Why  do  they  call  him 
father  ?  All  these  questions  involve  as  many  mysteries. 

Men  are  often  absent  in  the  woods  or  on  the  mountains,  and 
their  wives  remain  alone  in  the  tents,  but  they  are  secure  from 
all  danger,  as  they  have  weapons  and  know  how  to  use  them. 
Among  the  women  they  select  one  in  each  tribe  whose  age  and 
personal  merits  render  her  deserving  of  distinction,  and  they  in- 
vest her  with  a  superior  authority.  All  the  women  show  her  a 
profound  veneration  and  blindly  obey  her  orders.  Even  men  kiss 
her  hand,  and  it  is  customary  that  every  stranger  who  arrives  in 
the  tribe  should  do  the  same. 

All  people  agree  in  acknowledging  the  good  morality  of  the 
Yuruk,  also  his  peaceful  character,  his  sober  habits  and  honesty. 
The  very  thought  of  stealing  is  a  crime  in  his  mind,  and  the  weap- 
ons he  carries  he  only  uses  for  personal  defense. 

Here  are  a  few  interesting  details  about  the  way  their  mar- 
riages are  contracted :  First  of  all,  I  must  say  that  no  religious 
ceremony  is  performed,  as  they  have  neither  mosques  nor  priest, 
and  no  person  among  them  is  invested  with  a  sacred  character. 
Marriages  among  young  people  of  different  races  are  strictly  pro- 
hibited. Therefore,  when  a  young  man  has  remarked  among  the 
girls  of  his  tribe  the  one  whom  he  would  like  to  marry,  he  dele- 
gates a  third  person,  who  is  usually  a  friend,  to  the  father  of  the 
girl,  to  announce  his  intention.  If  the  father  sees  no  objection' 
the  delegate  presents  him  a  small  sum  of  money,  and  that  gift  in 
their  dialect  is  called  aghirlik — that  is,  weight.  Afterward  the 


AN  ETHNOLOGIC  STUDY   OF  THE   YURUKS.       191 

parents  and  friends  of  the  intended  go  to  the  tent  of  the  young 
lady,  where,  as  soon  as  they  arrive,  they  are  offered  the  sherbet 
or  sorbet,  a  beverage  made  with  water,  lemon,  sugar,  amber  and 
other  spices.  The  purpose  of  this  visit  is  to  appoint  a  day  for  the 
marriage.  When  the  time  comes  the  young  man  engages  a  numer- 
ous escort  of  friends,  and  they  start  all  together  for  the  tent  of 
the  young  woman.  The  bride  has  also  gathered  around  her  a  large 
number  of  her  friends  to  protect  her.  When  the  escort  of  the 
groom  is  near,  the  bride's  protectors  utter,  at  a  signal,  the  wildest 
cries,  run  to  the  aggressors,  insult  them,  and  endeavor  to  defend 
the  access  of  the  tent.  Insults  and  even  blows  are  profusely  ex- 
changed between  the  two  camps.  This  sham  fight  ends  when  one 
of  the  bravest  succeeds  in  carrying  off  a  goat  or  a  sheep  belonging 
to  the  father-in-law,  and  immolates  it  at  once. 

The  blood  shed  is  considered  as  a  sacred  libation,  and  from  that 
moment  the  rights  of  the  groom  over  his  wife  are  recognized.  The 
two  families  and  all  their  friends  are  invited  to  a  banquet  in  which 
they  eat  the  sheep  that  was  sacrificed. 

Before  night  the  bride  is  escorted  to  the  tent  of  her  husband  on 
horseback.  There,  before  alighting,  she  must  remove  the  reins 
from  her  horse  and  throw  them  with  force  over  the  tent.  If  she 
succeeds  in  flinging  them  on  the  other  side,  without  their  touching 
the  tent,  they  all  declare  it  a  happy  omen. 

At  last  some  women  execute  dances  appropriate  to  the  circum- 
stances, and,  as  they  dance,  all  armed  for  the  occasion,  the  effect 
of  their  graceful  movements,  in  the  magnificence  and  freshness  of 
the  Oriental  twilight,  is  very  impressive. 

When  all  these  formalities  are  accomplished,  the  guests  re- 
tire, and  the  husband,  accompanied  by  his  most  intimate  friends, 
is  led  to  the  tent  where  his  young  wife  awaits  him.  All  the 
Yuruks  espouse  one  woman  at  a  time;  polygamy  is  prohibited 
and  severely  punished. 


DE.  D.  G.  BRINTON  and  Dr.  de  la  Tourette  are  agreed  that  nervous  diseases 
and  hysteria  are  not  specially  developed  by  civilization,  as  is  commonly  supposed. 
Dr.  Brinton,  in  Science,  quotes  travelers  for  evidence  that  violent  and  epidemic 
nervous  seizures  are  very  common  in  uncultivated  nations.  Castian  describes 
them  among  the  Sibiric  tribes.  An  unexpected  blow  on  the  outside  of  a  tent  will 
throw  its  occupants  into  spasms.  The  early  Jesuit  missionaries  painted  extraordi- 
nary pictures  of  epidemic  nervous  maladies  among  the  Iroquois  and  Llurons. 
Scenes  of  this  kind  were  witnessed  in  the  middle  ages  that  are  impossible  to-day. 
The  hypothesis  is  advanced  by  Dr.  I.  0.  Rosse,  of  Georgia  Medical  College,  that  a 
sudden  change  in  the  social  habit  and  condition  of  any  race,  at  any  stage  of  ad- 
vancement, may  result  in  a  prompt  development  of  nervous  disease;  and  that 
a  stable  high  civilization  may  excite  nervous  disorders  less  than  unstable  condi- 
tions of  lower  grades  of  advancement. 


i92  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

MODERN   MIRACLES. 

BY  PROF.  E.  P.  EVANS. 

IF,  as  it  has  often  been  stated,  the  age  of  miracles  in  the  his- 
tory of  religions  is  past,  it  is  certain  that  the  age  of  marvels  in 
the  evolution  of  science  is  just  beginning.  The  Orient,  which 
from  time  immemorial  has  been  the  chief  seat  and  source  of  theo- 
sophic  systems  and  theurgic  traditions,  is  still  peculiarly  prolific 
in  all  sorts  of  magical  phenomena  and  other  mysterious  mani- 
festations. 

In  illustration  of  this  fact  we  may  refer  to  the  performances 
of  the  Arabian  fakirs  which  excited  so  great  astonishment  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  of  1889,  and  to  the  more  recent  but  equally 
wonderful  feats  of  the  East  Indian,  Soliman,  in  the  Panoptikum 
at  Berlin.  These  fakirs  are  called  ' Aissavidya  from  the  name  of 
the  founder  of  the  fraternity,  Sid  Mohammed  Ben  'Aissa,  a  saint 
of  royal  lineage  born  at  Mekinez,  in  Morocco,  about  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  'Alssa,  or  '  Yissa,  is  the  Arabic  for  Jesus : 
'Aissavtdya  is  therefore  etymologically  synonymous  with  Jesuits, 
and  both  orders  are  really  somewhat  akin  in  scope  and  spirit, 
although  to  a  superficial  observer  the  Mohammedan  society  may 
seem  to  have1-  little  in  common  with  that  founded  by  Ignatius 
Loyola,  except  the  name  and  the  general  principle  of  absolute 
obedience,  which  is  thus  forcibly  inculcated  in  one  of  'Aissa's 
statutes :  "  Thou  shalt  be  in  the  hands  of  thy  sheik  like  a  corpse 
in  the  hands  of  the  embalmer ;  his  commands  are  the  commands 
of  God  himself."  In  this  injunction  the  Jesuitical  doctrine  of  the 
"  sacrifice  of  the  intellect "  is  pushed  to  its  extreme  consequences. 
It  is  also  a  curious  coincidence  that  'Aissa  should  have  established 
in  northern  Africa  a  religious  order  having  for  its  general  aim 
the  revival  and  propagation  of  Islam,  at  the  same  time  that  Loyola 
established  a  religious  order  in  Paris  under  the  same  name,  hav- 
ing for  its  object  the  revival  and  propagation  of  Catholicism. 
Both  orders  are  likewise  exceedingly  intolerant  and  fanatical,  not- 
withstanding wide  differences  in  their  methods  of  procedure  and 
the  manner  in  which  this  zealotry  manifests  itself. 

Besides  the  common  purpose  of  propagandism  as  an  associa- 
tion, each  individual  member  of  the  order  aspires  by  means  of  a 
severely  ascetic  life  and  long-continued  physical  and  spiritual  dis- 
cipline to  attain  perfection  through  emancipation  from  the  flesh 
with  all  its  trammels  and  torments.  In  order  to  arrive  at  this 
state,  called  Tauhidi,  and  corresponding  to  the  Jtvanmukti  (release 
from  the  body  before  death)  of  the  Hindu  Yogi,  the  candidate 
passes  through  seven  stages  of  penitential  purification,  each  more 
rigorous  than  the  preceding  one,  resulting  not  only  in  the  com- 


MODERN  MIRACLES.  193 

plete  subjection  of  the  moral  and  mental  faculties  of  the  adept  to 
the  will  of  his  superior,  but  also,  as  it  would  seem,  in  a  change  of 
the  vital  processes  and  a  suspension  of  the  ordinary  conditions  of 
bodily  existence,  which  give  him  immunity  from  pain  and  enable 
him  to  inflict  upon  himself  wounds  that  would  be  fatal  to  common 
mortals. 

At  Paris  the  performance  took  place  every  evening  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  upper  story  of  the  Moorish  ca/e,  in  the  Rue  du 
Caire,  of  the  Oriental  quarter.  Four  'A'issavidya,  with  their  sheik, 
squatted  in  Eastern  fashion  on  a  carpeted  platform,  in  the  center 
of  which  stood  a  brazier  of  burning  coals.  The  exhibition  began 
with  a  monotonous  sing-song,  the  burden  of  which  was  the  in- 
vocation of  'Aissa  and  Allah,  accompanied  by  a  sort  of  tambourine 
or  tom-tom  edged  with  bells.  The  music  was  at  first  slow  and 
rather  low,  but  soon  went  faster  and  grew  louder,  until  it  rose  to  a 
fearful  howl  and  furious  din.  At  this  juncture  one  of  the  fakirs 
sprang  up  and,  throwing  off  his  upper  garment,  began  to  dance 
with  his  hands  on  his  hips,  his  head  bent  forward,  and  his  eyes  in- 
tently fixed  on  the  sheik.  This  dance,  called  Ishdeb,  became  at 
every  moment  wilder  and  the  swaying  motion  of  the  dancer's  body 
more  violent,  until  he  fell  down  in  a  fit  of  exhaustion,  foaming  at 
the  mouth  and  his  eyes  in  a  "  fine  frenzy  rolling."  In  this  state  of 
ecstasy  he  is  supposed  to  be  possessed  by  the  spirit  of  'Ai'ssa  and 
thereby  rendered  invulnerable  to  the  sharpest  weapons  and  proof 
against  the  deadliest  poisons.  We  may  add  that  Soliman  at  Berlin 
prepared  himself  for  the  ordeal  of  fire  and  sword,  not  by  music 
and  dancing,  but  by  burning  a  powder  and  inhaling  the  smoke, 
which,  however,  did  not  produce  any  perceptibly  stupefying  or 
exhilarating  effect  upon  him.  He  is  a  member  of  the  order  of 
Saadi,  founded  in  1335  by  Saadeddin  Jebari.  Each  order  seems  to 
have  its  own  method  of  procedure  in  this  respect,  which  forms  a 
part  of  its  secret  science. 

In  a  short  time  the  fakir  had  sufficiently  recovered  from  his 
trance  to  stand  up,  and,  when  the  sheik  pointed  to  the  brazier,  he 
thrust  his  hand  into  it,  seized  some  of  the  live  coals,  blew  them 
till  they  emitted  sparks,  bit  off  pieces  of  them,  as  one  would  bite 
an  apple,  and  eagerly  ate  them  up.  He  then  went  to  a  large 
prickly  cactus,  which  was  standing  on  the  platform,  plucked  a  leaf 
armed  with  strong  spines,  bit  off  a  piece,  and  swallowed  it.  With 
equal  avidity  he  crunched  and  consumed  thin  sheets  of  glass. 
Fragments  of  the  cactus  and  the  glass  were  handed  to  the  specta- 
tors, who  examined  them  and  convinced  themselves  that  they  were 
really  the  substances  they  were  represented  to  be.  An  attendant 
brought  in  a  shovel,  the  iron  part  of  which  was  red-hot,  so  that  a 
bit  of  paper  thrown  upon  it  flashed  at  once  into  flame.  The  fakir 
took  the  wooden  handle  of  the  shovel  with  his  right  hand,  placed 

VOL.   XLIII. — 14 


i94  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

his  left  hand  on  the  glowing  iron  plate,  which  he  also  licked  with 
apparent  relish,  and  then  stood  upon  it  with  his  bare  feet  until  it 
became  black.  This  last  exploit  filled  the  air  with  a  faint  odor  of 
burned  horn.  A  sword,  so  sharp  that  it  cut  a  piece  of  paper  in 
two  when  drawn  across  the  edge,  was  handed  to  the  fakir,  who 
thrust  it  with  all  his  force  against  his  throat,  his  breast,  and  his 
sides.  The  sword  was  then  held  in  a  horizontal  position  about 
three  feet  from  the  ground  with  the  edge  upward,  by  the  servant 
who  took  hold  of  the  point,  which  was  wrapped  in  several  folds 
of  cloth  for  the  protection  of  his  hand,  and  by  another  'Aissaui, 
who  held  it  by  the  hilt.  The  fakir  placed  his  hands  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  two  men  and,  leaping  up  barefoot  on  the  edge  of  the 
sword,  stood  there  for  some  seconds.  He  then  stripped  and,  rest- 
ing his  naked  abdomen  on  the  edge  of  the  sword,  balanced  himself 
in  the  air  without  touching  the  floor  with  his  feet,  the  sheik  mean- 
while pressing  down  upon  the  fakir's  back  with  the  whole  weight 
of  his  body.  The  fakir  also  thrust  a  dagger  from  the  inside  of  his 
mouth  through  his  cheek,  so  that  the  point  projected  more  than 
an  inch.  Finally,  he  took  a  serpent  out  of  a  box,  and,  after  irri- 
tating it  into  fierce  anger,  let  it  bite  various  parts  of  his  person ; 
at  last  he  himself  bit  off  the  head  of  the  venomous  reptile  and 
devoured  nearly  half  of  its  body. 

Having  thus  gorged  his  barbarous  appetite,  he  resumed  his 
dance  in  the  same  rapid  measure,  in  which  he  had  finished  it, 
but  the  movement  became  gradually  slower,  and  in  due  time, 
after  kissing  the  yellow  turban  of  the  sheik,  he  sat  down  again, 
"  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind." 

Another  fakir  danced  himself  into  a  trance  and  fed  upon 
snakes  and  scorpions,  apparently  relishing  this  limited  but  piquant 
bill  of  fare.  In  conclusion,  the  sheik  himself  performed  the  most 
marvelous  feat  of  all :  with  the  point  of  a  dagger  he  lifted  his 
right  eye  out  of  its  socket,  so  that  one  could  see  into  the  cavity, 
the  cornea  assuming  a  dull,  glassy  appearance  so  long  as  the 
eye  rested  on  the  point  of  the  dagger,  but  no  sooner  was  it 
replaced  and  gently  rubbed  than  it  became  clear  again  and 
seemed  to  be  as  serviceable  as  ever.  Several  medical  and  sci- 
entific men  examined  the  fakir  thoroughly  after  the  performance 
was  over,  and  unanimously  declared  that  none  of  these  feats  left 
the  slightest  trace  of  a  wound  on  any  part  of  his  body,  nor  did 
they  draw  a  single  drop  of  blood.  They  furthermore  affirmed 
that,  so  far  as  they  could  discover,  no  jugglery  or  sleight  of  hand 
was  practiced. 

That  these  things  actually  happened  is  as  conclusively  estab- 
lished as  the  occurrence  of  any  event  can  be  by  human  and  even 
expert  testimony.  The  literature  of  the  subject  is  quite  volumi- 
nous and  rapidly  increasing  in  extent,  corresponding  in  this  respect 


MODERN  MIRACLES.  195 

with  the  growth  and  development  of  anthropology  and  ethno- 
psychology.  Missionaries,  tourists,  government  officials,  and  the 
most  eminent  English,  French,  German,  and  Italian  scientists, 
who  have  witnessed  these  exhibitions  in  India  and  other  Ori- 
ental countries,  all  agree  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  phenomena, 
although  no  one  has  yet  been  able  to  give  a  satisfactory  explana- 
tion of  them.  If  we  accept  the  argumentum  ex  consensu  gentium 
as  valid,  the  evidence  is  overwhelming  and  the  proof  complete. 

Indeed,  one  need  not  go  so  far  away  in  search  of  such  mani- 
festations. The  so-called  Choreutse  (dancers)  of  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  the  Flagellants  of  a  later  period,  and  simi- 
lar fanatical  sects,  are  not  to  be  considered  in  this  connection, 
since  their  object  was  to  inflict  pain  upon  themselves,  the  physical 
suffering  being  regarded  as  a  sacrament  or  efficient  means  of 
grace.  There  is,  however,  quite  a  remarkable  resemblance  be- 
tween the  marvelous  feats  of  Arabian  and  Indian  fakirs  and  those 
performed  by  Jansenist  convulsionaries  in  the  last  century  (1730- 
1762)  at  the  grave  of  their  ascetic  saint,  Francis  of  Paris,  in  the 
suburban  church  of  St.  Medardus,  the  genuineness  of  which  is  not 
denied  by  their  bitter  enemies,  the  Jesuits,  and  is  even  admitted 
by  such  scrutinizing  skeptics  as  Hume  and  Diderot.  These  re- 
ligious enthusiasts  maltreated  their  bodies  much  in  the  same  way 
as  the  fakirs  and  with  like  impunity,  and  regarded  such  actions 
as  contributing  to  their  spiritual  growth  and  perfection.  It  was  a 
sort  of  homoeopathic  treatment,  the  principle  of  similia  similibus 
applied  to  the  cure  of  souls,  whose  infirmities  were  indicated  by 
bodily  symptoms  and  required  vigorous  remedies.  Thus,  an  op- 
pression of  the  chest,  which  had  a  pathological  significance  in  re- 
lation to  the  spirit,  pointed  to  the  therapeutic  necessity  of  beating 
it  with  the  greatest  violence ;  if  the  convulsionary  had  a  sense  of 
burning  heat,  he  exposed  himself  to  the  flames ;  an  acute  and  bor- 
ing pain  in  the  mouth,  neck,  eye,  or  any  other  organ  required  a 
dagger  to  be  thrust  into  the  afflicted  part,  but,  strangely  enough, 
no  force  could  make  the  sharpest  instrument  enter  the  flesh  or 
inflict  a  wound.  If  we  are  to  accept  autoptic  testimony,  given  by 
shrewd  observers,  who  would  have  been  glad  to  expose  any  impos- 
ture, these  enthusiasts  could  eat  the  most  injurious  things,  swal- 
low poisons,  and  lie  for  hours  in  the  fire,  like  salamanders,  without 
singeing  a  hair  or  having  any  smell  of  burning  on  their  persons. 

Doubtless,  as  Charcot,  Lombroso,  Mendel,  and  other  scientists 
suggest,  hypnotism  may  furnish  a  partial  solution  of  this  physio- 
logical and  psychological  puzzle ;  but  hypnotism,  although  recog- 
nized as  a  fact,  still  remains  a  mystery,  and  differs  from  a  miracle 
only  in  being  attributed  to  natural  instead  of  supernatural  causes. 
It  is  well  known  that,  in  obedience  to  hypnotic  suggestion,  persons 
will  eat  the  most  unpalatable  and  even  disgusting  substances  as 


196  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

though  they  were  the  rarest  delicacies ;  the  hypnotic  state  is  also 
attended  by  "  analgesia "  or  freedom  from  pain,  and  serves  as  an 
effective  anodyne  in  dental  and  surgical  operations ;  but  we  can 
recall  no  well-authenticated  case  in  which  it  has  rendered  the  hu- 
man body  incombustible.  The  hypnotizer  can  prevent  the  sub- 
ject of  his  experiment  from  feeling  the  surgeon's  knife,  or  cause 
him  to  regard  the  cutting  as  an  agreeable  sensation,  but  we  are 
not  aware  that  he  is  able  to  make  the  flesh  impenetrable  to  the 
scalpel,  although  it  is  possible  for  him,  as  Donato  has  shown,  to 
thrust  sharp  instruments  into  the  arm  of  a  hypnotized  person 
without  drawing  blood  or  leaving  a  visible  wound.  By  hypnotic 
suggestion  a  man  may  believe  himself  to  be  a  dog,  a  wolf,  or  any 
other  animal,  and  act  accordingly;  and  this  imaginary  meta- 
morphosis may  perhaps  explain  the  supposed  existence  of  were- 
wolves. In  like  manner,  pure  water  may  produce  an  intoxicating 
effect,  while,  on  the  contrary,  alcohol  ceases  to  inebriate ;  and  a 
simple  piece  of  paper  placed  on  the  skin  may  raise  a  blister,  al- 
though the  strongest  irritant  fails  to  do  so.  Here  we  have  to  deal 
with  enigmas  of  the  physical  and  psychical  organization,  hitherto 
unsuspected,  the  study  of  which  opens  up  a  wide  and  fruitful  field 
for  research. 


THE  PHENOMENA  OF  DEATH  IN  BATTLE. 

BY  GEOEGE  L.  K1LMEB. 

IN  an  article  printed  in  the  Monthly  for  June,  1892, 1  presented 
some  of  the  phenomena  of  the  soldier's  first  actions  under  a 
death-hurt.  A  field  for  investigation  lying  just  beyond  that — as 
I  infer  from  the  incomplete  records  and  deductions  offered  by 
men  of  science — is  that  of  the  phenomena  of  death  itself.  In  a 
casual  way  I  stated  in  my  paper  that  the  symptoms  attending 
death  in  battle  might,  in  certain  cases,  be  determined  by  the  ap- 
pearances of  the  bodies,  and  cited  a  remarkable  scene  at  Antie- 
tam,  where  dead  Confederates  in  one  place,  to  the  number  of  sev- 
eral hundred,  seemed  to  have  been  killed  instantly,  and  to  have 
retained  in  death  something  of  the  last  attitudes  of  their  combat- 
ive life.  After  my  manuscript  had  been  given  to  the  editor,  my 
attention  was  called  to  a  brief  discussion  of  this  question  in  a 
sketch  by  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  in  the  Century  for  February, 
1892.  The  views  of  Dr.  Mitchell  are  not  openly  declared  in  his 
Century  article,  but  he  quotes,  on  the  lips  of  fictitious  characters, 
the  opinions  of  Generals  Grant,  Sherman,  and  Sheridan,  and  re- 
fers to  Dr.  J.  H.  Brinton,  an  army  surgeon,  who  is  on  record  as  a 
very  positive  witness  in  this  matter.  General  Sherman,  accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Mitchell,  told  the  story  of  a  soldier  killed  by  a  bullet  in 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF  DEATH  IN  BATTLE.         197 

the  brain  while  kneeling  at  a  spring  to  drink,  who  retained  his 
extraordinary  attitude  naturally  in  death.  General  Grant,  when 
appealed  to,  said  that  it  could  not  be  true,  as  he  had  never  seen  a 
single  instance  where  a  soldier,  shot  dead,  retained  the  posture 
held  in  life,  and  his  attention  had  never  been  called  to  it  in  the 
war.  General  Sheridan  stated  that  he  had  often  seen  it.  I  wrote 
what  I  recalled  of  the  Antietam  scene  thirty  years  after,  and,  never 
having  had  a  doubt  raised  but  such  things  could  be  and  were  not 
rare  in  war,  I  assumed  the  phenomenon  to  be  fairly  well  estab- 
lished, and  that  citation  without  proof  would  not  tax  the  credulity 
of  readers.  Yet  the  denial  by  General  Grant  caused  me  to  ques- 
tion my  own  senses  or  my  memory.  As  against  both  Sherman 
and  Sheridan,  the  one  sanguine  and  imaginative,  the  other  impul- 
sive and  good-natured,  it  would  seem  that,  all  things  being  equal, 
a  question  of  fact  would  have  the  more  competent  judge  in  Grant. 
General  Grant  went  no  further  in  his  denial  than  to  say  that  he 
had  never  seen  the  phenomenon.  There  are  veterans  who,  having 
had  the  best  of  opportunities  for  seeing  all  phases  of  the  battle- 
field, not  only  say  that  they  never  saw  a  case  of  the  kind,  but, 
resting  upon  professional  knowledge,  assert  its  impossibility.  For 
my  own  part,  I  can  report  only  what  I  saw  in  my  capacity  as  a 
combatant — that  is,  extraordinary  attitudes  of  dead  men  on  cer- 
tain fields.  Reports  of  comrades  of  analogous  cases,  and  the  quite 
prevalent  belief  that  the  manifestation  was  possible,  led  to  the 
acceptance  of  it  as  a  natural  yet  withal  a  rare  occurrence.  The 
fact  that  military  men,  and  more  especially  surgeons  who  have 
been  on  the  field,  are  skeptical  on  the  point,  that  such  phenomena 
are  comparatively  rare,  and  that  scientific  observations  have  been 
recorded  in  but  few  instances,  makes  the  subject  one  for  extreme 
caution  and  conservatism  in  treatment.  In  my  paper  on  wounded 
soldiers  I  cited  the  cases  of  officers  killed  while  leading  the  charge, 
who  in  death  held  their  sword-arms  out  as  when  last  seen  in  life. 
The  inference  drawn  was  that  death  must  have  been  instanta- 
neous. The  Antietam  scene  described  was  of  similar  character, 
yet  extraordinary  in  the  number  of  examples  of  the  same  order. 
I  confess  that  I  did  not  see  on  any  other  of  the  score  of  fields 
where  I  was  present  a  scene  at  all  comparable  to  that  at  Antietam, 
but  competent  witnesses  have  reported  similar  things  on  other 
fields,  as  well  as  on  different  parts  of  that  field. 

The  field  of  Antietam  was  peculiarly  favorable  for  the  devel- 
opment of  the  phenomenon,  which  for  brevity,  borrowing  a  term 
from  Surgeon  Brinton's  record  of  research,  I  will  call  battlefield 
rigor.  It  was  the  hardest  fought  battle  in  the  East — perhaps  in 
the  whole  country.  The  Confederates  were  at  bay,  with  the  Po- 
tomac River  behind  them,  and  the  Union  soldiers  were  exultant 
over  the  enemy's  dilemma,  and  the  fact  that  for  once  battle  was 


198  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

invited  on  their  own  soil.  Circumstances  have  relegated  it  to  the 
background,  but  at  one  time  it  was  deemed  worthy  the  best  efforts 
of  descriptive  writers.  Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  the  war  corre- 
spondent and  historian,  wrote  of  one  of  the  scenes  there  in  lan- 
guage that  will  seem  to  many  overcolored.  Speaking  of  an  ac- 
tion almost  contemporaneous  with  that  at  the  north  cornfield  of 
which  I  have  written,  he  says :  "  The  Confederates  had  gone  down 
as  grass  before  the  scythe.  .  .  .  Resolution  and  energy  still  lin- 
gered on  the  pallid  cheeks,  in  the  set  teeth,  in  the  griping  hand. 
I  recall  a  soldier  with  the  cartridge  between  his  thumb  and  finger, 
the  end  of  the  cartridge  bitten  off,  and  the  paper  between  his 
teeth,  when  the  bullet  pierced  his  heart  and  the  machinery  of  life 
— all  the  muscles  and  nerves — came  to  a  standstill.  A  young  lieu- 
tenant had  fallen  in  trying  to  rally  his  men ;  his  hand  was  still 
firmly  grasping  his  sword,  and  determination  was  visible  in  every 
line  of  his  face." 

Curiously  enough,  Surgeon  Brinton's  field  records,  which  form 
the  basis  of  a  paper  referred  to  in  Dr.  Mitchell's  remarks  on  the 
subject,  include  three  Antietam  scenes.  The  doctor  confesses  in 
the  opening  paragraph  of  his  article  (American  Journal  of  the 
Medical  Sciences,  vol.  xix,  p.  87)  that  this  line  of  investigation  was 
a  comparatively  new  one  at  the  close  of  the  war,  1865.  He  says : 
"  I  have  been  greatly  surprised  at  the  extraordinary  attitudes  pre- 
sented by  the  bodies  of  those  who  had  fallen  with  wounds  appar- 
ently instantaneously  fatal — as  in  the  head  or  heart.  In  many 
instances  the  body  was  rigid  throughout,  and  the  position  unques- 
tionably that  of  the  last  moment  of  life.  The  muscles  had,  as  it 
were,  been  surprised  by  death,  and  the  limbs  remained  set  and 
fixed  in  the  position  held  at  the  moment  of  the  reception  of  the 
fatal  wound." 

In  the  cornfield,  along  the  sunken  road  at  Antietam  (the 
scene  of  Mr.  Coffin's  description),  Dr.  Brinton  saw  a  Confederate 
corpse  semi-erect,  one  foot  on  the  ground,  one  knee  against  a  bank 
of  earth,  and  one  arm  stretched  forward  on  a  low  breastwork.  His 
musket,  with  rammer  in,  lay  on  the  ground,  and  the  appearances 
indicated  that  he  had  been  killed  while  rising  to  load  and  fire.  He 
was  shot  through  the  center  of  the  forehead.  In  the  field  adjoin- 
ing the  doctor  counted  nearly  forty  dead  Confederates,  some  with 
their  arms  rigidly  in  the  air,  some  with  legs  drawn  and  fixed,  and 
many  with  trunks  drawn  and  fixed.  The  positions  were  "not 
those  of  the  relaxation  of  death,"  but  were  due  to  "  final  muscular 
action  at  the  last  moment  of  life,  in  the  spasm  of  which  the  mus- 
cles set  and  remained  rigid."  The  wounds  were  chiefly  in  the 
chest,  though  some  were  in  the  head  and  abdomen.  His  observa- 
tions were  made  thirty-six  hours  after  death. 

Another  Antietam  case  included  in  Dr.  Brinton's  list,  but  re- 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF  DEATH  IN  BATTLE.         199 

ported  by  Surgeon  Thomas  B.  Read,  was  the  corpse  of  a  Union 
soldier  with  his  right  arm  raised  above  his  head  and  rigidly  fixed, 
his  hand  still  holding  the  cap  with  which  he  had  been  cheering  on 
his  comrades. 

Aside  from  the  desperate  nature  of  the  fighting  at  Antietam, 
the  situation  was  especially  favorable  to  these  phenomena,  par- 
ticularly on  the  Confederate  side.  They  had  fought  nine  battles 
and  engagements  within  one  month,  besides  marching  over  two 
hundred  miles.  The  troops  engaged  on  the  portions  of  the  field 
under  consideration  had  fought  at  South  Mountain  two  days  be- 
fore— September  14th — had  been  alert  all  night  on  the  14th,  15th, 
and  16th,  marching,  countermarching,  and  skirmishing  constant- 
ly, and  were  run  down  physically  from  hunger  and  general  ex- 
haustion. They  had  subsisted  for  several  days  upon  green  corn 
and  apples,  and  had  been  one  month  on  half  rations  of  meal  and 
bacon.  The  day — September  17th — was  about  like  sultry  August 
weather  in  the  North,  close  and  lowery  in  the  morning,  followed 
by  a  burning  sun.  The  night  of  the  battle  was  sweltering  hot  on 
the  field.  These  circumstances  may  have  played  a  part  in  the  de- 
velopment of  instantaneous  rigor. 

The  first  cases  that  came  to  the  eye  of  Dr.  Brinton  were  at 
Belmont,  Mo.,  November  7, 1861.  One  was  a  Union  soldier  kneel- 
ing by  a  tree,  in  the  act  of  firing,  and  shot  obliquely  through  the 
head,  front  to  back.  His  warm  body  rested  on  right  knee  and 
leg,  left  leg  bent,  with  foot  on  the  ground ;  the  left  hand  firmly 
clinched  the  barrel  of  his  musket,  which  rested  with  the  butt  on 
the  ground.  The  soldier's  head  drooped  to  the  chest,  and  rested 
against  the  tree.  Attitude  generally  forward,  jaw  fixed,  rigidity 
perfect.  The  doctor  supposed  him  to  be  alive,  and  could  scarcely 
believe  that  death  rested  upon  a  statue  so  lifelike.  Another  Union 
soldier,  shot  near  the  heart,  mounted  a  straying  mule  and  rode 
beside  the  doctor  some  distance.  Soon  the  glazed  eyeballs  gave 
unequivocal  signs  of  death,  but  the  body  rode  on  upright.  After 
a  time  the  mule  was  needed  for  a  live  victim,  and  the  body  of  the 
other  was  so  firm  and  rigid  that  it  required  force  to  loosen  the 
knee-grip  on  the  animal's  shoulders. 

Belmont  was  fought  in  autumn,  yet  the  physical  activity  was 
such  as  to  generate  great  bodily  heat.  It  was  a  running  fight  for 
seven  hours  through  wood  and  marsh.  The  desperate  nature  of 
the  struggle  is  shown  by  the  list  of  casualties.  On  the  average 
during  the  war  the  proportion  of  killed  and  mortally  wounded  to 
wounded  was  one  to  three.  In  four  of  the  five  regiments  engaged 
at  Belmont  the  proportion  was  over  one  to  two.  The  Seventh  Iowa 
lost  188  killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  The  death-list  reached  74, 
leaving  114  for  surviving  wounded — over  one  and  a  quarter  to  two. 

At  Williamsburg,  Va.,  May  5, 1862,  Surgeon  Kead  reported  a 


200  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Zouave  with,  one  leg  half  over  a  fence,  body  crawling  forward, 
one  hand  clinched  and  raised  to  level  of  forehead,  with  palmar 
surface  outward,  as  if  to  ward  off  evil.  Williamsburg  was  fought 
during  a  rain,  but  the  men  wore  overcoats,  the  ground  was  low 
and  heavily  wooded,  the  troops  new  to  war— like  those  at  Bel- 
mont — and  the  mental  strain  and  excitement  would  be  favorable 
to  bodily  heat.  That  field  also  brought  forth  a  bit  of  the  kind 
of  historical  description  termed  fanciful.  It  is  from  the  pen  of 
Warren  Lee  Goss,  who  has  published  several  narratives  of  the 
civil  war.  He  was  a  soldier  in  the  Union  ranks  at  Williams- 
burg,  and  states  that  after  the  engagement  he  visited  the  scene  of 
a  charge  in  front  of  the  Confederate  fort.  "  Advancing  through 
the  tangled  mass  of  logs  and  stumps,  I  saw  one  of  our  men  aim- 
ing over  the  branch  of  a  fallen  tree  which  lay  among  the  tangled 
abatis.  I  called  to  him,  but  he  did  not  turn  nor  move.  Advanc- 
ing nearer,  I  put  my  hand  on  his  shoulder,  looked  in  his  face,  and 
started  back.  He  was  dead — shot  through  the  brain — and  so  sud- 
denly had  the  end  come  that  his  rigid  right  hand  grasped  his 
musket,  and  he  still  preserved  the  attitude  of  watchfulness,  liter- 
ally occupying  his  post  after  death." 

A  case  reported  to  Dr.  Brinton  from  Goldsboro,  N.  C.,  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  on  record,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  particu- 
lars as  to  atmospheric  and  other  conditions  are  wanting.  Other- 
wise the  details  are  most  complete.  A  party  of  Union  cavalry 
met  some  dismounted  Confederates,  and  the  latter,  taking  alarm, 
sprang  to  their  saddles.  The  Union  men  fired  a  volley,  and  all  of 
the  Confederates  rode  off  save  one.  He  was  in  position  preparing 
to  mount,  his  face  turned  toward  the  advancing  enemy,  who  were 
about  to  fire  again  when  their  leader  restrained  them,  and  told 
them  to  capture  him.  Riding  up,  they  found  a  corpse  with  one 
foot  in  the  stirrup,  left  hand  grasping  the  bridle  and  mane  of  the 
horse,  right  hand  clasping  carbine  near  muzzle,  stock  resting  on 
ground.  Every  muscle  was  rigid  in  death,  and  it  was  difficult  to 
detach  the  fingers  from  the  carbine,  bridle,  and  mane.  The  body 
was  laid  down,  and  the  same  positions  and  inflexibility  were  re- 
tained by  all  the  members.  There  were  two  wounds,  one  at  the 
right  of  the  spine,  emerging  near  the  heart,  the  other  in  the  right 
temple. 

Another  case  reported  at  second  hand  to  Dr.  Brinton,  but 
vouched  for  to  him,  was  that  of  a  cavalryman  of  the  Fourth  Wis- 
consin, who  in  a  skirmish  in  Louisiana  was  shot  through  the 
heart.  His  comrades  placed  him  alone  in  a  buggy,  which  was 
dragged  for  an  hour  by  a  rope  attached  to  a  saddle,  the  man  dying 
meanwhile,  and  his  body  sitting  bolt  upright  and  rigid. 

The  cases  examined  by  Dr.  Brinton  were  sufficient  to  fully  es- 
tablish all  that  he  claims — namely,  the  existence  of  a  rigor  pecul- 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF  DEATH  IN  BATTLE.        201 

iar  to  the  battlefield  which  is  as  instantaneous  as  the  death  with 
which  it  is  synchronous.  He  states  that  he  frequently  passed 
without  examination  corpses  holding  muskets  in  grasp,  pointing 
forward  as  if  in  a  charge;  bodies  prone,  face  to  earth;  trunks 
bent,  limbs  apparently  rigid.  From  other  sources  come  reports 
of  similar  phenomena  in  more  or  less  details.  In  a  compilation 
of  surgical  reports  by  J.  G.  Chenu  (Rapport  au  Conseil  de  Saute* 
des  Arme'es,  1865),  Surgeon  Perir,  from  the  field  of  Alma,  Boudin 
from  Inkerman,  and  Armand  from  Magenta,  named  many  general 
and  special  appearances  of  the  phenomena.  At  Magenta  many 
bodies  held  to  their  weapons,  even  those  lying  face  downward. 
The  conclusion  of  M.  Armand,  appended  to  his  report,  was  that 
death  came  so  suddenly  that  the  hands  had  not  time  to  let  go. 
These  were  head  shots.  The  fighting  at  Magenta  was  again  ter- 
rific, and  it  was  warm  June  weather.  The  struggle  on  the  part  of 
the  French  side  was  for  possession  of  the  town,  the  key  to  the 
position,  and  it  was  carried  house  by  house.  On  the  scene  of  one 
hand-to-hand  combat  a  corpse  was  found  with  the  arms  raised  in 
front,  one  bent,  one  extended,  with  fists  clutched;  also  a  dead 
hussar  on  a  fallen  horse,  almost  intact  in  saddle,  but  leaning  on 
the  right  side,  holding  his  saber  at  a  thrust.  The  Magenta  cases 
were  seen  by  the  surgeons  when  forty-eight  hours  old. 

At  Inkerman,  fought  in  November,  during  a  dull,  foggy  rain, 
M.  Boudin  saw  numberless  cases  where  the  bodies  rested  on  the 
knees,  with  guns  in  firm  clasp,  cartridges  in  the  mouth,  and  in 
some  instances  arms  upraised,  as  though  parrying  blows.  "  Long 
files  of  the  dead  seemed  to  need  but  the  impulse  of  vital  breath  to 
recommence  the  action  of  battle."  An  eye-witness's  off-hand  de- 
scription of  scenes  on  that  field  is  found  in  W.  H.  Russell's  corre- 
spondence to  the  London  Times.  He  said :  "  The  battle  of  Inker- 
man admits  of  no  description.  It  was  a  series  of  dreadful  deeds 
of  daring,  of  sanguinary  hand-to-hand  fights,  of  despairing  rallies, 
of  desperate  assaults,  in  glens  and  valleys,  in  brushwood  glades 
and  remote  dells.  .  .  . 

"  The  British  and  French,  many  of  whom  had  been  murdered 
by  the  Russians  as  they  lay  wounded,  wore  terrible  frowns  on 
their  faces,  with  which  the  agonies  of  death  had  clad  them. 
Some  in  their  last  throes  had  torn  up  the  earth  in  their  hands, 
and  held  the  grass  between  their  fingers  up  toward  heaven." 

At  Alma,  M.  Perir  saw  a  great  number  of  cases.  One  in  par- 
ticular he  reported  where  the  body  lay  upon  the  side,  legs  bent, 
hands  lifted  at  joints,  and  head  thrown  back  as  if  in  prayer. 
Alma  was  fought  in  September  (in  the  Crimea).  Russell  termed 
it  one  of  the  most  bloody  and  determined  struggles  in  the  annals 
of  war.  The  allies  charged  through  the  waters  of  the  Alma  up 
the  steeps  to  the  Russian  batteries  on  the  crest. 


202  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Instantaneous  rigor  following  violent  death  has  been  assumed 
to  be  ordinary  rigor  mortis,  hastened  in  development  by  circum- 
stances, or  a  rigidity  of  tetanic  character.  Dr.  Carpenter,  the 
English  physician,  held  to  the  latter  theory,  and  believed  that  the 
rigidity  ceased  after  a  few  hours,  to  be  succeeded  by  relaxation 
and  ordinary  rigor  mortis  in  turn.  Dr.  Brinton,  reviewing  all 
other  theories,  claimed  that  the  phenomena  on  the  battlefield  are 
unique.  " Ordinary  rigor  mortis"  he  wrote,  " is  developed  after 
muscular  irritability  has  ceased,  but  before  putrefaction  sets  in. 
The  appearance  of  battlefield  rigor  is  probably  synchronous  with 
violent  death. 

"  In  ordinary  rigor  mortis  the  march  is  downward ;  the  parts 
first  affected  are  the  neck  and  jaw ;  the  lower  jaw,  if  previously 
relaxed,  is  drawn  up ;  flexor  muscles  are  supposed  to  be  affected 
in  a  greater  degree.  Battlefield  rigor  affects  probably  all  regions 
alike  at  once. 

"  Ordinary  rigor  mortis  is  usually  of  twenty-four  to  thirty-six 
hours'  duration ;  battlefield  rigor  remains  longer  than  is  supposed. 
.  .  .  The  prolonged  continuance  shows  that  it  is  not  tetanic  nor 
followed  by  rigor  mortis  proper."  The  doctor  saw  cases  of  it 
twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours  and  once  sixty  hours  after 
death.  Armand  saw  it  at  Magenta  twenty-four  hours  old  and 
Perir  at  Alma  forty-eight  hours  after  death.  Dr.  Brinton's  paper 
closes  with  this  brief  summary  of  the  distinctive  features  of  bat- 
tlefield rigor : 

"  The  rigor  is  developed  at  the  instant  of  death. 

"  The  cadaveric  attitudes  are  those  of  the  last  moment  of  life. 

"  The  death  most  probably  is  instantaneous  and  unaccompanied 
by  convulsions  or  agony. 

"  The  rigor  is  probably  more  lasting  than  is  usually  supposed. 

"  It  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  this  instantaneous  rigor  of 
sudden  death  or  rigor  of  the  battlefield  is  succeeded  by  flexibility, 
in  its  turn  to  be  followed  by  ordinary  rigor  mortis." 

This  subject  lies,  of  course,  beyond  the  realm  of  experiment. 
If  rigor  mortis  is  due,  as  is  believed,  to  solidification  of  the  juices 
of  the  muscles  by  the  acid  conditions  developed  therein,  marked 
chemical  changes,  either  rapid  or  prolonged,  follow  death  under 
ordinary  circumstances.  In  what  degree  may  the  solidification  be 
hastened  by  extraordinary  violence  in  death  ?  We  learn  that  pro- 
toplasm is  subject  to  peculiar  changes  under  peculiar  conditions ; 
that  it  contracts  under  electric  shocks,  and  that  certain  forms  of 
it  coagulate  under  temperatures  varying  from  100°  to  122°  Fahr., 
a  species  of  "heat-stiffening"  illustrated  by  the  coagulation  of 
the  white  of  an  egg.  The  presence  of  certain  salts  will  cause 
muscle  juice  (myosin)  to  coagulate  at  a  temperature  possible  to 
be  attained  in  the  system  of  a  hard-working  man  on  a  hot  day, 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF  DEATH  IN  BATTLE.         203 

and  a  slight  degree  of  acidity  in  the  muscle  juice  lowers  the  tem- 
perature for  coagulation ;  so  that  hard-worked  and  heated  mus- 
cles are,  upon  chemical  grounds,  susceptible  to  the  onset  of  rigor. 
The  most  remarkable  cases  of  battlefield  rigor  seem  to  develop 
under  extraordinary  heat.  Given  heat  and  the  release  of  blood 
pressure,  the  sudden  check  of  muscular  energy  consequent  upon 
the  wound  cuts  off  from  the  protoplasm  all  healthy  expenditure 
of  waste,  and  its  action  may  be  brought  to  a  halt  so  sudden  and 
so  effectual  as  to  preclude  the  slightest  change  of  attitude  beyond 
what  may  be  caused  by  external  forces.  Reduced  to  its  plainest 
terms  the  idea  is  as  follows :  Muscular  action  and  excitement  de- 
velop heat  and  chemical  action.  The  myosin,  or  muscle  juice, 
normally  alkaline,  is  by  hard  work  and  excitement  rendered  acid. 
Heat  and  acidity  being  present  in  the  muscles,  tetanic  or  early 
rigor-mortis  contractions  might  be  expected  in  case  of  sudden 
death. 

Again,  the  outstretched  hand  of  the  soldier,  the  grasp  of  weap- 
ons— even  the  fixing  of  the  eyeballs  in  angry  stare — are  acts  of 
the  will.  If  death  cuts  short  the  power  to  will  a  reaction  in  the 
muscles  involved  by  instantly  destroying  the  nerve  centers  con- 
trolling the  expanded  member,  why  should  the  muscles  contract 
any  more  than  they  would  expand,  if  death  came  at  the  moment 
of  contraction  ? 

The  immediate  effect  of  an  electric  current  of  lethal  energy 
comes  nearest  to  what  must  be  supposed  as  the  manifestations 
attending  instantaneous  death  in  the  heat  of  individual  action. 
In  an  electric  chair,  at  the  moment  of  contact  with  the  deadly 
current,  the  entire  muscular  system  of  the  victim  is  thrown  into 
a  state  of  sudden  and  severe  rigidity,  lasting  until  the  electrode 
is  removed.  All  bodily  sensation,  motion,  and  consciousness  are 
suspended  at  the  same  time ;  that  is  to  say,  the  cessation  of  con- 
sciousness and  the  physical  death — "  total  paralysis  of  all  the  vital 
organs  and  the  nervous  centers  by  which  they  are  directly  or  in- 
directly vitalized,  and  by  which  the  muscles  of  the  extremities 
are  actuated  so  that  when  the  current  is  broken  there  can  be  no 
reflex  action  of  the  muscles,  such  as  would  indicate  the  presence 
of  residual  life  energy  or  the  possibility  of  resuscitation" — are 
synchronous.  In  the  case  of  McElvaine,  executed  at  Sing  Sing, 
February  8, 1892,  the  reflex  action  of  the  voluntary  muscles  was 
tested  approximately  two  or  three  minutes  after  the  breaking  of 
the  current,  and  was  found  to  be  "absolutely  unresponsive  to 
ordinary  mechanical  stimuli."  Dr.  Van  Gieson,  in  his  report  of 
the  experiment,  says:  "This  tends  to  show  how  superlatively 
complete  and  far-reaching  the  effects  of  the  current  are  in  abol- 
ishing life,  not  only  in  the  concrete  form,  but  also  in  the  integral 
activities  of  the  body,  which,  in  other  forms  of  sudden  and  vio- 


204  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

lent  death,  is  liable  to  persist  for  a  time  after  life  is  extinct.  From 
observation  at  this  execution,  as  well  as  at  the  subsequent  exami- 
nation of  the  body,  the  current  appears  at  first  not  only  to  extin- 
guish life  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  so  far  as  conscious- 
ness, feeling,  and  volition  are  concerned,  with  overwhelming  sud- 
denness, but  reaches  beyond  this,  and  destroys  the  energies  of  the 
individual  component  parts  of  the  body,  so  that  they  can  not  be 
raised  into  activity  by  artificial  mechanical  stimulation,  as  is  usu- 
ally the  case  in  sudden  violent  death/' 

The  same  thought  has  been  applied  to  the  phenomena  of  bat- 
tlefield rigor.  M.  Armand  wrote  of  the  Magenta  cases  in  1859, 
"Death  came  so  sudden  that  hands  holding  weapons  had  not  time 
to  let  go."  Dr.  Brinton,  in  1865,  wrote,  "  The  muscles  had,  as  it 
were,  been  surprised  by  death,  and  limbs  remained  set  and  fixed 
in  the  position  held  at  the  moment  of  receiving  the  fatal  wound." 

Lightning  strokes  have  produced  like  phenomena.  Men  and 
animals  have  been  found  dead  in  upright  postures,  a  horse  even 
standing  on  all  fours,  with  his  eyes  wide  open  and  nostrils  dilated 
by  the  terror  which  the  storm  evoked.  If  rigidity  can  be  instan- 
taneous in  any  one  case,  why  not  in  another  where  similar  causes 
work  upon  the  same  elements  ? 

There  is  still  a  link  awaiting  further  physiological  research 
to  connect  the  manifestations  attending  deaths  in  battle  action 
with  those  under  the  electric  current.  Huxley  asserted  that  the 
matter  of  life  depends  on  carbonic  acid,  water,  and  ammonia 
brought  together  under  certain  conditions,  and  that  the  with- 
drawal of  any  one  of  them  puts  an  end  to  vital  phenomena ;  also, 
that  every  form  of  human  action  is  resolvable  into  muscular  con- 
tractions, or  transitory  changes  in  the  relative  positions  of  the 
parts  of  a  muscle.  In  1868  he  said :  "  Perhaps  it  would  not  yet 
be  safe  to  say  that  all  forms  of  protoplasm  are  affected  by  electric 
shocks ;  and  yet  the  number  of  cases  in  which  the  contraction  of 
protoplasm  is  shown  to  be  affected  by  this  agency  increases  every 
day." 

Therefore  the  sudden  appearance  of  agents  in  the  nature  of 
electricity  and  heat  may  change  the  combination  of  acid,  water, 
and  ammonia  that  causes  the  constant  transition  of  the  molecules 
of  a  muscle,  and  when  that  proportion  changes  and  transition 
ceases,  everything  is  at  a  dead  stop  until  other  combinations  set 
in  motion  other  changes  that  give  rise  to  a  new  order  of  phe- 
nomena. The  first  stage  is  vital  life,  the  last  putrefaction,  and 
the  interim  rigidity.  The  electric  current  causes  unconsciousness 
and  muscular  death  at  one  stroke.  In  battle  the  wound  may  pro- 
duce swift  unconsciousness.  May  it  not  also  let  loose  a  stored 
supply  of  heat  to  augment  the  already  intense  heat  distributed 
by  the  energy  of  passion  and  physical  action  and  thus  stiffen  the 


THE  PHENOMENA    OF  DEATH  IN  BATTLE.         205 

muscle  jelly  ?  Or  has  the  capacity  for  spasmodic  reaction  been 
exhausted  by  the  previous  overexertion  of  the  soldier — volition 
being  cut  short  by  the  wound  ? 

Some  men  of  science  not  only  admit  the  validity  of  the  evi- 
dence offered  as  to  the  appearancce  of  phenomenal  rigor  under  war 
wounds  as  well  as  electric  shocks,  but  assume  it  as  an  established 
physiological  fact,  without,  however,  accounting  for  it.  Dr. 
Mitchell,  in  his  indirect  suggestions  before  mentioned,  leaves  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  he  believes  in  it.  Dr.  Brinton  and  other 
army  surgeons  familiar  with  the  phenomenon  have  speculated  as 
to  its  causes,  and  almost  all  medical  men  who  are  not  familiar 
with  it  in  actual  experience  are  curious  as  to  what  proof  or  ex- 
planations may  be  produced. 

There  is  one  other  form  of  manifestations  of  the  battlefield 
almost  as  unique,  though  not  so  startling,  as  instantaneous  rigor, 
and  being  more  frequently  encountered  has  doubtless  impressed 
itself  more  widely  upon  the  minds  of  soldiers  and  visitants  to  the 
field.  At  first  thought  it  seems  but  reasonable  that  the  intensity 
of  battle  passion  and  energy  should  leave  its  mark  upon  the 
forms  and  features  of  combatants  who  die  in  the  midst  of  the 
fray.  Per  contra,  it  seems  odd  that  corpses  made  so  by  violence 
in  the  midst  of  violence  should  sometimes  wear  on  their  faces  the 
peaceful  look  of  calmness  usually  associated  with  quiet  death- 
beds. I  mentioned  in  the  paper  of  last  year,  on  wounds,  that 
many  of  the  dead  appear  to  have  passed  away  in  a  state  of  mental 
composure  and  freedom  from  pain.  Often  in  contemplating  these 
scenes  one  is  surprised  at  the  contrasts  between  the  happy  smile 
on  the  dead  warrior's  face  and  the  blood,  the  spent  missiles,  the 
weapons,  and  other  ghastly  symbols  of  the  strife  that  has  passed, 
lying  beside  him.  Here,  again,  Nature  has  wrought  a  good  work. 
Wrath  is  soon  spent,  the  inciting  din  of  battle  quickly  hushed ; 
pain  and  melancholy  thoughts,  even  surprise  that  life  remains, 
swiftly  loosen  the  chords  that  once  bound  the  now  suffering 
man  to  the  warrior's  terrible  trade.  Thought,  fanciful  it  may 
be  but  yet  enchanting,  takes  him  miles  and  leagues  away,  the 
while  his  torn  body  lies  not  ten  feet  from  the  cannon  that  mangled 
it,  and  the  smoke  of  the  fatal  discharge  still  hovers  about  the 
scene.  Again  he  is  only  a  man.  He  tries  bravely  to  live,  for- 
getting to  hate ;  makes  light  of  his  condition,  and  may  be  helps 
another  victim  supposed  to  be  worse  off  than  himself.  Finally, 
death  steals  on  while  some  noble  or  pleasant  thoughts  play  upon 
the  features.  We  sometimes  found  our  dead  comrades  a  long 
distance  away  from  the  landmarks  on  the  spots  where  they  fell. 
This  brings  up  a  practical  suggestion.  Those  who  fall  asleep 
peacefully  die  as  we  would  have  them  if  die  they  must.  They 
usually,  however,  show  unmistakably  that  they  survived  their 


206  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

wound  some  little  time,  and  the  wound  often  seems  trivial  to  have 
caused  death.  Since  surgical  aid  to  all  is  out  of  the  question,  why 
should  not  every  soldier  be  his  own  surgeon  ?  Suppose  his  pack 
contained  a  tourniquet,  bandages,  and  lint,  to  the  use  of  which  he 
has  been  trained ;  also,  a  draught  of  some  strong  cordial  which 
might  sustain  his  own  life  or  that  of  a  comrade  in  extremities, 
until  the  relief  corps  should  appear.  A  simple  knowledge  of  the 
tourniquet,  of  bandages,  and  lint,  and  readiness  to  improvise  sub- 
stitutes, have  saved  countless  lives.  Lack  of  knowledge,  some- 
times, and  sometimes  an  inexcusable  lack  of  materials,  have  sac- 
rificed thousands.  A  wounded  soldier  of  our  civil  war  stopped  a 
severe  haemorrhage  in  the  neck  by  clogging  the  artery  with  balls 
made  of  sand  and  blood-clot.  He  had  nothing  better  at  hand. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  WITCHCRAFT. 

BY  EENEST  HART. 


IN  the  byways  of  science,  as  on  the  scenes  of  a  theatre  and  in 
the  pages  of  fiction,  an  alias  is  often  found  to  serve  a  very 
convenient  purpose.  But  it  is  always  a  little  disappointing,  to 
those  in  search  of  a  veritable  novelty,  to  find  in  place  of  it  only 
a  discredited  piece  of  antiquity,  though  varnished,  polished,  and 
faced  with  a  new  color;  and  it  is  not  inspiriting,  even  to  the 
dilettante  of  the  drama  or  of  fiction,  to  be  put  off  with  old  and 
worn-out  characters,  masquerading  under  new  names,  with  fan- 
tastic costumes  and  modern  effects,  however  ingenious  and 
startling. 

The  modern  Athenians,  who  dignify  themselves  with  the  title 
of  psychical  researchers,  have  for  some  time  been  inviting  us  to 
the  investigation  of  what  they  have  led  us  to  believe  were  altogeth- 
er new  departures  into  the  domain  of  mental  philosophy.  A  new 
horizon  was  opened  out  before  us ;  methods  of  the  communication 
of  thought  were  described  which  set  distance  at  naught,  which 
dispensed  with  speech  or  gesture,  touch,  sight,  or  smell.  Sensa- 
tion, we  were  told,  was  transmissible  without  material  expression ; 
mental  impressions  could  be  conveyed  by  the  unexpressed  power 
of  the  will,  character  could  be  transferred  by  subtle  and  invisible 
channels  into  those  whose  morality  required  strengthening,  or 
whose  self-control  needed  bracing.  All  this  has  been  indicated 
with  some  confidence,  and  with  a  careful  and  measured  approxi- 
mation to  methods  of  rational  inquiry,  by  some  English  observers 
whose  competence  in  literature  and  some  departments  of  physical 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  207 

research  were  calculated  to  invite  confidence.  But  it  must  be 
confessed  that  the  results  which  they  had  obtained,  and  the  very 
rudimentary  evidence  which  they  had  adduced  in  this  country, 
were  far  from  sufficing  to  persuade  any  but  a  very  select  band 
of  idealists  that  there  was  anything  substantial  either  in  their 
premises  or  their  conclusions.  For  the  last  year  or  two,  however, 
public  attention  has  been  invited  to  a  series  of  phenomena  which 
were  seriously  alleged  to  afford  positive  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  a  variety  of  endowments  of  the  human  body,  and  of  marvelous 
powers  of  mental  action,  which  realized  some  of  the  promised 
wonders  of  "  the  new  psychology."  France  was  now,  as  in  the  last 
century,  the  chosen  land  of  marvel.  There  appears  to  be  some- 
thing in  the  temperament  of  the  Latin  race  which  lends  itself 
easily  to  neurotic  disorder,  to  hysterical  excitement,  and  to  the 
production  of  startling  displays  of  mental  eccentricity.  We  have 
never  been  celebrated  in  this  country,  even  in  the  middle  ages, 
for  our  demoniacs,  our  dancing  hysterics,  or  our  miraculous  cures. 
We  have  nothing  to  rival  the  ancient  histories  of  St.  Medard  and 
Port  Royal,  or  the  modern  pilgrimages  of  Lourdes.  But  if  the 
modern  hypnotists,  psychists,  and  faith-curers  are  allowed  the 
full  play  which  has  recently  been  given  to  them,  in  infecting  the 
public  mind  with  the  follies  of  the  "  new  hypnotism/'  the  "  pro- 
found hypnosis/'  the  "  new  mesmerism/'  the  "  magnetization  of 
hypnotics/'  and  the  "  externalization  of  sensation,"  which  they 
have  been  so  solemnly  propounding  and  so  profusely  describing  in 
the  pages  of  our  leading  newspapers  and  serials,  we  may  yet  see 
here  an  abundant  harvest  of  mentally  disordered  and  pathological 
creatures,  such  as  have  now  for  some  years  been  permanently 
on  show  across  the  Channel ;  we  may  expect  also  to  find  our  more 
solid  literature  poisoned  with  this  evil  influence,  as  our  literature 
of  romance  and  fiction  already  has  been.  From  what  I  hear  and 
know  of  the  attractions  which  these  false  phenomena,  these  dan- 
gerous tricks,  and  this  practice  of  mental  subordination  to  another 
will,  are  already  exercising  on  some  ladies  of  the  upper  class  in 
England  and  on  some  writers  of  influence,  it  appears  high  time 
that  a  thorough  exposure  should  be  made  of  the  imposture  and 
the  self-deception  which  underlie  the  performances.  Some  of  them 
have  been  rehearsed  before  eminent  British  journalists  on  their 
visits  to  Paris,  and  by  them  described  in  good  faith,  with  no 
small  literary  power  and  considerable  although  imperfect  detail, 
to  the  readers  of  the  great  English  journals.  The  most  vivid  de- 
scriptions of  the  modern  development  of  the  new  superstitions 
appeared  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  early  in 
last  December,  and  in  the  Times  at  the  end  of  December  and  the 
beginning  of  the  present  year.  I  was  induced  thereby  to  devote  a 
fortnight  at  the  end  of  the  year  to  an  investigation  of  the  facts 


208  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

described  and  the  phenomena  produced,  and  to  an  endeavor  to 
find  out  how  they  were  produced,  and,  as  is  always  important  in 
an  inquiry  of  the  sort,  in  what  sort  of  people  they  took  place. 
As  a  result  I  was  able  briefly  to  affirm  in  the  columns  of  the  Times 
that  I  found  the  whole  series  of  performances  to  be  based  upon 
fraud,  and  that  I  had  succeeded  in  reproducing  the  phenomena 
without  employing  any  occult  means  or  invoking  any  new  powers 
of  mind  or  body.  This  statement  was  welcomed  by  persons  whose 
opinion  I  value,  and  by  many  of  whom  the  articles  in  question 
had  been  read,  as  Prof.  Tyndall  writes,  with  "  disfavor  and  indeed 
dismay."  I  am  urged  to  lose  no  time  in  sweeping  away  this  mass 
of  rubbish,  and  "  the  disgusting  superstitions  "  which  these  letters 
and  publications  have  tended  to  promote.  This  I  will  attempt  to  do 
by  stating  in  some  detail  precisely  what  the  performances  at  the 
Charite*  are,  and  removing  from  them,  the  halo  of  false  science 
which  has  rendered  them  attractive  and  credible,  and  has  to  some 
extent  obscured  their  demoralizing  character.  The  business  of 
demonstrating  the  marvels  of  the  new  hypnotism  has  been  going 
on  now  for  upward  of  twenty  years,  with  very  mischievous  effects. 
It  has  culminated  in  performances  of  the  patients  of  Dr.  Luys  in 
the  wards  of  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  historically  celebrated 
of  the  Paris  hospitals.  The  Hospital  of  La  Charite'  is  a  hospital 
with  great  traditions,  dignified  by  great  names,  and  still  the  seat 
of  sound  and  able  clinical  instruction  by  a  staff  who  must,  I  am 
sure,  feel  humiliated  at  finding  the  name  of  the  great  institution 
to  which  they  belong  becoming  thus  notorious  throughout  Europe 
for  its  connection  with  proceedings  which  they  can  but  view  with 
extreme  disfavor. 

In  the  first  place,  two  patients  were  presented  (who  must  be 
among  the  patients  referred  to),  for  they  are  and  have  been  for 
some  time  the  main  subjects  for  demonstration  at  La  Charite*. 
One  of  these  is  a  man  named  Mervel,  an.  unhappy  being  of  whom 
Dr.  Luys  promised  to  give  me  the  clinical  history,  and  of  whom, 
briefly,  it  may  be  said  that  he  has  been  all  his  life  a  wretched  hys- 
teric, subject  to  fits,  to  sleep-walking,  and  to  catalepsy.  He  has 
passed  through  all  the  phases  of  this  form  of  extreme  nerve  dis- 
order. If  he  had  been  let  alone,  as  he  would  have  been  in  this 
country,  or  treated  to  a  sound  course  of  tonics,  cold  water  (inter- 
nally and  externally),  and  field  labor,  he  might  have  lived  a  more 
healthy  life.  He  is  now  a  miserable  object,  trained  to  all  the 
tricks  and  the  pathological  aptitudes  for  simulation  of  a  highly 
trained  hypnotic,  and  on  him  were  demonstrated  phenomena 
which  might  indeed  be  "  marvels  "  if  they  were  not  almost  wholly 
frauds.  I  will  run  rapidly  over  a  series  of  this  man's  perform- 
ances as  they  were  shown  to  me  in  the  wards  by  Dr.  Luys  in  the 
presence  of  observers,  and  I  will  presently  add  some  of  the  other 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  209 

performances  of  other  patients  and  trained  subjects  of  Dr.  Luys 
who  have  differing  aptitudes  and  a  various  repertoire.  The  man 
was  brought  in  from  the  waiting-room  and  put  in  an  arm-chair ;  a 
finger  held  up  before  his  eyes  sufficed  to  plunge  him  into  induced 
sleep.  This  was  clearly  not  simulated,  and  in  a  highly  trained 
subject  is  exceedingly  common.  The  eyelids  were  then  lifted,  and 
a  little  performance  was  gone  through,  which  is  described  in  the 
programme  set  out  in  Dr.  Luys's  Legons  Cliniques  as  the  prise 
du  regard.  A  finger  is  held  before  him ;  he  gazes  at  it,  sits  bolt 
upright,  and  follows  it  as  though  fascinated  around  the  room. 
This  is,  of  course,  a  very  ordinary  performance,  and  is  only,  so  to 
speak,  the  lever  de  rideau.  He  is  taken  back  to  his  chair,  and 
then  begins  the  second  performance.  He  is  shown  a  magnetic 
bar,  and  here  the  true  stage  play  begins,  as  it  does  in  so  many  of 
these  mesmeric  performances,  with  the  utterly  irrelevant  introduc- 
tion of  the  apparatus  of  magnetism.  He  sees  now  from  one  pole 
of  the  magnet  the  "  odic  "  effluvia,  the  blue  flames,  which  are  famil- 
iar to  the  readers  of  Reichenbach.  He  is  delighted  with  them ; 
he  caresses  the  bar  like  a  child  with  a  toy ;  he  follows  it  all  over 
the  place,  and  when  the  opposite  pole  of  the  magnet  is  presented 
to  him,  he  is  struck  with  horror  at  the  red  flames  which  issue 
from  it,  and  shows  every  sign  of  fear  and  disgust.  There  are  in- 
finite variations  of  this  marvel.  Thus,  a  photograph  of  the  poles 
of  a  magnet  affects  him  in  a  similar  way,  no  matter  how  old  the 
photograph.  On  the  face  of  Dr.  Luys  he  sees  red  flames  proceeding 
from  the  eyes  and  nostrils  on  one  side  of  the  face  and  blue  flames 
on  the  other,  which  is  supposed  to  coincide  with  the  duality  of 
the  nerve-centers  of  the  brain  and  the  opposite  polarity  of  the  two 
sides  of  the  body — puerile  deductions  which  bear  upon  their  face 
ignorant  credulity,  but  which  are  supposed  to  derive  evidential 
strength  from  these  heightenings  of  the  visual  perception  of  this 
individual  and  the  other  performers  of  the  same  school.  For 
these  subjects  quickly  learn  how  to  pretend  to  see  the  same  thing ; 
and  Colonel  de  Rochas  d'Aiglun,  the  administrateur  of  the  Poly- 
technic School  in  Paris,  whom  Dr.  Luys  was  good  enough  to  in- 
troduce to  me,  has  subjects  who  have  made  for  him  also  a  con- 
siderable series  of  drawings  showing  these  flames  playing  about 
magnets  and  parts  of  magnets,  surrounding  crystals,  and  irradiat- 
ing the  features  of  himself  and  others.  One  patient  has  done  me 
the  honor  of  making  my  portrait  with  all  its  magnetic  accompani- 
ments. To  the  heightened  visual  perception  of  these  ladies  and 
gentlemen  it  seems  that  from  one  side  of  my  face  issues  a  sheet  of 
lambent  blue  flame,  and  my  eyes  dart  rays  of  blue  fire ;  the  other 
side  is  equally  luminous  with  red  flame,  while  down  the  middle 
of  my  face  is  a  bright  streak  of  yellow.  Mervel  drew  this  inter- 
esting picture,  and  the  others  confirmed  it ;  and  as  this  was  done 

TOL.   XLIII. — 15 


210  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

in  the  wards  of  a  hospital  and  by  a  patient  in  a  state  of  "  lucid 
somnambulism,"  and  of  good  faith,  I  suppose  I  ought  to  have  as- 
sumed that  "  there  was  no  room  for  fraud  or  imposture."  I  ven- 
tured, however,  to  think  otherwise.  I  took  with  me  on  the  third 
occasion  a  magnet  lent  me  by  Dr.  Johnson,  of  London,  which  had 
been  thoroughly  demagnetized  by  being  thrust  into  the  fire,  and  a 
series  of  steel  pins  which  had  been  variously  magnetized  in  in- 
verse senses,  and  I  found  that  the  heightened  senses  of  Mervel 
were  quite  incapable  of  distinguishing  between  the  inert  magnet, 
the  variously  magnetized  needles,  and  the  true  magnet.  I  even 
placed  the  needles  and  the  magnet  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Luys  and 
asked  him  to  determine  what  Mervel  saw.  He  saw  always,  in  reply 
to  Dr.  Luys's  questions,  the  orthodox  thing.  I  then  gently  sug- 
gested to  Dr.  Luys  that  he  should  try  some  test  experiments  and 
use  an  electro-magnet,  in  which  he  could  at  will  put  on  and  take 
off  the  current  and  try  for  himself  whether  the  patient  did  or  did 
not  really  perceive  what  he  described.  I  ventured  to  repeat  the 
same  suggestion  when  Mervel  was  describing  the  colored  lights  he 
saw  around  the  poles  of  a  f  aradic  machine.  My  suggestions,  how- 
ever, were  not  favorably  received ;  and  Dr.  Luys  observed  that  he 
must  be  allowed  to  make  his  experiments  in  his  own  way.  At 
these  sittings  Dr.  Sajous,  Dr.  Lutaud,  M.  Cremiere,  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  others,  were  present.  To  end  this  part  of  the  matter,  I 
should  state  that  I  took  successively  three  other  subjects  of  dem- 
onstration whom  Dr.  Luys  has  presented  to  his  classes,  and  tested 
still  more  decisively  their  pretended  powers  of  distinguishing 
emanations  from  the  north  and  south  poles  of  the  magnet  and  see- 
ing the  colored  flames  of  Reichenbach.  These  subjects  were  a 
person  named  Jeanne,  an  accomplished  impostor,  and  the  most 
distinguished  and  highly  trained  of  M.  Luys's  subjects,  whose 
portrait  occurs  repeatedly  in  the  illustrations  of  his  lectures,  and 
who  describes  herself  as  his  premier  sujet ;  a  person  named 
Clarice,  whose  marvelous  powers  are  also  much  described  in  the 
publications  of  Dr.  Luys ;  and  a  patient  now  in  the  wards  named 
Marguerite.  I  tested  these  subjects  repeatedly  in  the  presence 
sometimes  of  the  gentlemen  above  named,  sometimes  of  Dr.  Oli- 
vier, of  Dr.  Meurice,  and  of  others  whom  I  need  not  at  present 
name.  The  results  were  that  Mervel,  whether  sent  to  sleep  by  Dr. 
Luys,  or  by  myself,  or  by  the  wardsman,  was  never  really  asleep 
to  the  extent  of  not  being  able  to  gather  verbal  and  visual  sugges- 
tions as  to  his  course  of  action,  as  to  what  he  ought  to  do  and 
what  he  ought  to  see,  and  that  his  hysterical  or  hypnotic  slumber 
did  not  prevent  him  from  simultaneously  carrying  on  a  course 
of  elaborate  imposture.  When  I  rapidly  displaced  the  magnetic 
photographs  of  Dr.  Luys  or  my  own,  he  blundered  over  them,  but 
immediately  he  understood  that  he  was  blundering  he  corrected 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  211 

his  mistake  and  saw  what  he  ought  to  have  seen.  He  was  quite 
unable  to  distinguish  an  inert  piece  of  iron  from  a  true  magnet, 
and  unless  he  were  guided  by  words  let  fall  by  the  bystanders,  or 
by  the  adoption  of  a  systematic  proceeding  to  which  he  was  accus- 
tomed, he  was  quite  at  sea.  Clarice  and  Jeanne,  in  their  lucid 
somnambulistic  state,  never  knew  whether  the  current  was  on  or 
off ;  unless  they  had  a  clew  to  the  answers  they  ought  to  give, 
they  were  ludicrously  wrong.  They  saw  enormous  flames  issuing 
from  the  powerful  magnet  which  I  used.  When  I  told  the  assist- 
ant to  .put  on  the  current,  acting  on  my  previous  instructions,  he 
always  did  exactly  the  opposite  of  what  I  said,  and  they  always 
fell  into  the  trap.  The  culminating  absurdity  of  this  phase  of 
the  performance  was  the  famous  show  for  which  this  clinique  has 
become  famous,  known  as  the  magnetic  skullcap,  with  its  thera- 
peutic and  physical  influences.  "  In  this  magnetic  circlet,"  said 
Dr.  Luys  (speaking  in  the  presence  of  his  somnambulistic  patient, 
who  was  supposed  not  to  hear),  "  are  stored  up  the  thoughts  and 
mental  characteristics  of  an  individual  who  suffered  from  melan- 
cholia and  hallucinations  of  persecution.  I  will  now  put  it  on 
Mervel's  head,  and  you  will  see  what  follows  " ;  whereupon  Mervel 
showed  dramatic  signs  of  the  hallucination  of  persecution,  suffer- 
ing apparently  great  pain  of  mind  and  body.  Possibly  it  was  too 
cleverly  acted  to  be  wholly  simulation,  but  it  afforded  a  good  ex- 
ample of  the  mixture  of  hysterical  readiness  to  accept  any  sugges- 
tion with  unlimited  powers  of  deception ;  for  this  took  place  at 
the  same  sitting,  and  in  the  same  state  in  which  he  pretended  to 
see  red  flames  and  blue  flames  at  random,  accordingly  as  he  sup- 
posed the  magnet,  or  the  photographs  which  I  showed  him,  or  the 
prints,  or  the  pins,  to  be  of  the  north  pole  or  of  the  south  pole.  I 
repeated  the  experiment,  always  with  the  like  results.  Dr.  Olivier, 
the  editor  of  the  Revue  des  Sciences  Physiques,  writes  to  me  that 
the  exposure  was  complete. 

There  was  no  correspondence  between  the  phenomena  manifested  by  the  hyp- 
notized person  and  the  production  of  the  current  of  magnetization,  etc.  You 
repeated  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Luys  and  those  of  M.  de  Rochas,  avoiding  all 
suggestion,  whether  involuntary  or  unconscious,  capable  of  vitiating  the  results, 
and  you  were  careful  to  conceal  from  the  subjects  of  experiment  the  moment  at 
which  the  opening  or  the  closing  of  the  current  of  the  magnet  took  place. 

At  any  rate,  therefore,  we  may  exclude  from  the  positive  re- 
sults which  I  attained  in  the  presence  of  many  witnesses  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  electrical  or  magnetic  current  having  any  real  rela- 
tion whatever  to  the  phenomena  shown,  and,  as  far  as  the  utmost 
care  could  go,  we  may  exclude  also  the  influence  of  suggestion  in 
any  occult  sense.  Where  the  subjects  thought  they  knew  what 
was  expected  of  them  in  their  state  of  lucid  somnambulism,  they 
did  it  or  saw  it,  whether  I  operated,  or  Dr.  Luys,  or  his  ward 


212  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

assistant.  Where  they  did  not  know  they  tried  to  guess,  and  with 
ludicrous  results.  Habitually  they  produced  results  exactly  oppo- 
site to  those  which  should  have  occurred,  had  the  magnetic  cur- 
rent had  any  influence  whatever  as  a  causal  agent.  I  will  now  go 
further,  and  will  affirm  that  there  never  was,  any  more  than  there 
now  is,  the  slightest  ground  for  believing  that  the  most  powerful 
magnets  are  capable  of  exercising  any  such  influence  as  Dr.  Luys 
and  others  are  in  the  habit  of  assuming  that  they  can  exert  over 
the  animal  organism.  Opportunely  enough,  I  find  in  the  New 
York  Medical  Journal  of  the  31st  of  December  a  report  of  the  ex- 
periments made  by  F.  Peterson  and  A.  E.  Kennelly,  with  the  most 
powerful  magnets  in  the  Edison  laboratory,  of  which  Mr.  Ken- 
nelly  is  the  chief  electrician.  Very  powerful  electro-magnets  of 
2,000  to  5,000  C.  G.  S.  units  to  the  square  centimetre  were  em- 
ployed. Not  only  was  no  visible  effect  produced  in  the  polariza- 
tion within  the  magnetic  field  of  the  haemoglobin  of  blood,  or  in 
the  circulation  in  the  web  of  the  frog's  foot,  but  when  a  dog  was 
placed  for  five  hours  under  the  influence  of  a  magnetic  field  with 
an  intensity  of  from  1,000  to  2,000  C.  G.  S.  units  to  the  square  cen- 
timetre the  dog  was  in  no  way  affected  and  was  very  lively  when 
liberated.  A  photograph  is  given  of  a  boy  sitting  in  a  cylinder 
two  feet  in  diameter  and  seven  inches  deep,  upon  which  a  set  of 
field  magnets  converged :  he  was  in  no  way  affected.  The  next 
experiments  were  made  by  introducing  the  head  into  the  field  of 
a  very  powerful  electro-magnet  (2,000  C.  G.  S.  units).  The  current 
could  be  turned  on  or  off  the  coils  of  the  electro-magnet  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  subject.  No  effect  on  consciousness,  sensa- 
tion, circulation,  respiration,  or  tendon  reflex  could  be  perceived. 
The  subject  was  quite  unable  to  say  when  the  current  was  turned 
on  or  off.  The  last  series  of  experiments  were  made  with  an  elec- 
tro-magnet in  which  the  current  was  reversed  two  hundred  and 
eighty  times  a  second.  No  effect  whatever  was  perceived  when 
the  head  was  introduced  within  the  magnetic  field  of  this  potent 
instrument.  The  authors  conclude  that  the  human  organism  is 
in  no  wise  appreciably  affected  by  the  most  powerful  magnets 
known  to  modern  science  ;  that  neither  direct  nor  reversed  mag- 
netism exerts  any  perceptible  influence  upon  the  iron  contained  in 
the  blood,  upon  the  circulation,  upon  ciliary  or  protoplasmic  move- 
ments, upon  sensory  or  motor  nerves,  or  upon  the  brain.  The 
authors  further  observe  that  they  find  it  difficult  to  understand 
why  magnetism  appears  to  have  no  influence  whatever  upon  the 
human  organism.  The  experiments  of  like  kind  recorded  by  Sir 
William  Thomson  and  in  Pfliiger's  Archiv  gave  equally  negative 
results. 

The  complete  exposure  which  the  results  of  my  experiments 
effected  of  the  valuelessness  of  the  so-called  magnetic  effects  on 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  213 

the  patients  of  Dr.  Luys  tallies  with  the  negative  results  of  Peter- 
son and  Kennelly,  but  it  is  perhaps  too  much  to  hope  that  it  will 
put  an  end  to  the  habitual  exploitation  of  magnetic  superstitions 
in  this  connection. 

I  come  now  to  another  series  of  phenomena  which  various  emi- 
nent journalists  have  noted  as  illustrations  of  what  the  Times  cor- 
respondent described  as  a  perfectly  genuine  exhibition,  and  one 
which,  as  he  said,  in  concluding  his  description  of  it, "  proved  that 
suggestions  and  impressions  can  be  conveyed  from  one  person  to 
another  by  mere  contact,  and  even  across  an  intervening  space." 
As  he  professes  to  be  an  impartial  and  guarded  observer,  I  will 
quote  his  report,  which,  so  far  as  some  obvious  occurrences  are 
concerned,  describes  accurately  what  appears  to  go  on  in  the  ex- 
travagant folly  which  they  have  described  so  seriously,  known  as 
"  1'envou.tement."  This  is  a  title  taken  from  the  practices  of  the 
middle  ages,  when  the  magicians  of  France  and  Italy  exercised 
(as  the  magicians  of  the  far  East  do  now)  their  powers  of  sorcery 
upon  a  wax  image,  which,  being  duly  endowed  with  mystical  rela- 
tionship to  a  human  subject,  was  pinched,  tortured,  wasted,  or  de- 
stroyed, with  corresponding  results  to  the  unhappy  individual  in 
whose  effigy  it  was  made.  Here  is  the  modern  counterpart  in  the 
new  mesmerism  of  which  the  modern  historian  gives  the  explana- 
tion which  I  have  just  quoted  : 

There  remains,  however,  one  set  of  recent  experiments,  which,  from  their 
novel  and  startling  character,  deserve  special  attention.  I  refer  to  the  transfer- 
ence of  sensibility  from  a  hypnotic  subject  to  inanimate  objects.  I  have  been  for- 
tunate enough  to  witness  some  of  these  experiments,  and  will  describe  what  I 
saw.  They  were  not  carried  out  by  Dr.  Luys,  but  by  an  amateur  who  attends  his 
clinique.  This  gentleman  had  a  roughly  constructed  figure,  about  a  foot  high, 
resembling  the  human  form,  and  made  of  gutta  percha  or  some  such  material,  and 
he  experimented  with  it  on  a  hysterical  young  woman,  one  of  the  hospital  pa- 
tients, and  an  extremely  sensitive  subject.  She  was  placed  in  an  arm-chair  and 
hypnotized,  and  he  seated  himself  immediately  opposite  in  close  contact  with  her, 
their  legs  touching,  and  her  hands  upon  his  knees.  After  some  preliminary  busi- 
ness of  stroking  her  arms  and  so  forth,  he  produced  the  figure  and  held  it  up  in 
front  of  her,  presumably  to  be  charged  with  her  magnetism,  for  these  experiments 
rest  on  the  magnetic  theory.  Then  he  placed  it  out  of  her  sight  and  pinched  it. 
Sometimes  she  appeared  to  feel  it  and  sometimes  she  did  not,  but  he  was  all  the 
time  in  actual  contact  with  her.  Then  he  held  it  where  she  could  see  it,  and  this 
time  she  obviously  suffered  acutely  whenever  he  touched  the  figure  and  in  the 
place  where  he  touched  it,  although  she  did  not  look  at  it  or  seem  to  observe  it. 
Especially  when  he  touched  the  sole  of  the  foot,  it  evidently  tickled  her  beyond 
endurance.  Then  the  figure  was  placed  aside  on  a  table  out  of  the  sight  both  of 
the  girl  and  of  the  operator,  while  another  put  one  hand  on  the  operator's  back 
and  the  other  on  the  image.  I  was  in  such  a  position  as  to  see  them  all,  and 
whenever  the  second  gentleman  touched  the  figure  the  girl  felt  it.  Then  she  was 
told  that  she  was  to  feel  it  just  the  same  after  being  woke  up,  and  an  attempt  was 
made  to  wake  her,  but  she  was  by  this  time  very  profoundly  affected,  and  the 


2i4  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

statement  was  only  partially  successful.  In  this  state— that  is»,  still  somnambu- 
listic— she  stood  up  and  moved  from  her  place,  the  operator  did  the  same,  and, 
being  separated  from  her  by  some  feet,  he  turned  his  back  to  her  and  held  the 
figure  in  such  a  position  that  she  could  not  possibly  see  it.  Then  he  pinched  at 
the  back  of  the  neck,  and  she  felt  it  at  the  same  moment,  but  at  the  wrong  place. 
The  place  where  she  did  feel  it  caused  her  some  embarrassment,  though  harmless 
enough,  as  she  informed  him  of  the  locality  in  a  whisper,  which  I  overheard.  / 
can  answer  for  it  that  she  felt  something  at  the  moment  when  he  touched  the 
image,  but  that  she  could  not  see  it  and  was  not  in  contact  with  him,  because  I 
was  standing  almost  between  them.  But  she  felt  it  far  more  acutely  when  he 
pinched  his  own  wrist  under  the  same  circumstances.  That  brought  the  experi- 
ments to  a  conclusion.  They  occupied  at  least  half  an  hour,  and  included  a  num- 
ber of  interesting  details  which  I  have  been  obliged  to  omit. 

Thus  Ms  exhibition,  which  was  "  perfectly  genuine,"  proved 
that  suggestions  and  impressions  can  be  "  conveyed  across  space." 
The  fact  is  that  it  did  not  prove  the  one  any  more  than  the  other ; 
and  if  the  writer  had  instituted  a  few  control  experiments  such  as 
those  which  I  forthwith  carried  out  on  the  same  subject,  he  would 
have  saved  himself  from  having  been  the  medium  of  introducing 
thus  impressively  to  the  English  reading  public,  through  the 
pages  of  a  great  newspaper,  a  solemn  description  of  what  was 
easily  proved  to  be  a  common  imposture  of  a  vulgar  kind,  by 
which  the  good  faith  and  unquestionable  sincerity  and  honor  of 
the  amateur  of  whom  he  speaks,  and  of  Dr.  Luys,  had  been  sur- 
prised. There  is  no  secret  about  the  name  of  the  amateur,  for  he 
has  published  much  about  the  matter  in  great  detail,  with  an 
abundance  of  highly  technical  and  scientific  nomenclature,  and 
the  performances  had  already  been  described,  under  his  name,  in 
the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  in  this  country,  and  in  La  Justice  and 
L'Echo  de  Paris,  and  other  journals  in  France.  Colonel  de  Rochas 
d'Aiglun,  who  was  the  operator  in  this  case  in  the  ward  of  La 
Charite*,  gave  a  similar  demonstration  for  my  benefit  at  the  in- 
vitation of  Dr.  Luys  in  the  ward  of  La  Charite*  in  the  presence  of 
several  witnesses.  Subsequently  he  gave  me  and  Dr.  Sajous  a  like 
demonstration  with  fuller  developments  at  the  Ecole  Poly  tech- 
nique, of  which  he  is  the  administrateur ;  and  I  gave  him  a 
counter-demonstration  in  the  rooms  of  Dr.  Sajous  before  leaving 
Paris.  To  appreciate  all  the  details  of  these  performances  one 
should  read  his  book,  entitled  Les  Etats  profonds  de  THypnose.* 

To  the  subject,  Madame  Vix,  being  plunged  into  "profound 
hypnosis,"  as  it  was  alleged,  was  handed  a  glass  of  water.  To 
this  she  transferred  by  contact  her  sensitiveness ;  the  atmosphere 

*  Les  fitats  profonds  de  1'Hypnose.  Par  le  Lieutenant-Colonel  de  Rochas  d'Aiglun,  Ad- 
ministrateur de  1'Ecole  Polytechnique.  Paris  :  Chamuel,  29  Rue  de  Trevise ;  and  G.  Carre, 
68  Rue  St.  Andr6-des-Arts,  1892.  See  also  Les  Limites  de  PInconnu,  by  Georges  Vitoux. 
Chamuel,  29  Rue  de  Trevise,  Paris,  1892  ;  and  Le  Figaro,  January  10,  1893,  p.  2. 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  215 

surrounding  her  was  also  similarly  charged  with  her  sensibility ; 
she  herself  becoming  anaesthetic.  When  pinches  were  made  in  the 
air  at  given  distances,  which  were  supposed  to  represent  points  of 
contact  and  lines  of  cleavage  of  the  atmospheric  planes,  such 
pinches  at  these  given  points  were  always  felt  by  her  and  gave 
what  is  above  described  as  "  evident  pain."  I  was  shown  draw- 
ings of  these  planes.  When  the  water  was  removed  to  a  distance 
and  the  glass  was  stroked  or  imaginary  pinches  made  in  the  air 
just  above  the  water,  or  the  water  itself  was  touched,  she  gave 
similar  manifestations.  This  water,  we  were  told,  was  charged 
with  her  vitality,  and  terrible  consequences  might  ensue  if  the 
water  were  maltreated,  either  then  or  subsequently.  Fantastic 
stories  are  related  by  Colonel  de  Rochas  of  the  terrible  effects  fol- 
lowing from  the  throwing  away  of  this  water  and  from  people 
stepping  on  it,  or  from  watering  the  flowers  with  it.  In  one  case, 
where  some  one  incautiously  drank  the  water,  the  patient  fell  into 
a  swoon  which  lasted  for  a  fortnight;  The  only  correct  proceed- 
ing was  to  allow  the  subject  herself  to  drink  the  water  at  the 
close  of  the  seance,  and  thus  enable  her  to  protect  herself  from 
the  sad  effects  which  might  follow  any  careless  treatment  of  it. 
She  herself  was  supposed  to  be  insensitive  while  under  operation, 
and  her  sensibilities  were  externalized  and  communicated  to  others 
either  by  "  contact"  directly  to  the  operator,  or  in  another  hypno- 
tized patient  who  was  placed  in  contact  with  her,  or,  as  the  re- 
porter solemnly  describes,  "across  space."  Whenever  her  mag- 
netizer  was  touched  she  felt  it  in  the  same  place. 

Now,  Madame  Vix  furnishes  seances  for  a  fixed  consideration. 
On  page  28  of  his  book  on  the  profound  stages  of  hypnosis,  Colo- 
nel de  Rochas  refers  to  her  as  being  a  subject "  well  known  in 
Paris,"  "  very  distinctly  polarized,"  and  "  who  passes  with  extreme 
regularity  "  through  all  the  phases  described  at  length  in  his  first 
chapter,  and,  besides,  "  through  some  phases  of  an  indeterminate 
character  up  to  the  point  of  syncope."  She  presented  indeed, 
"  when  the  left  hand  was  placed  on  her  head  instead  of  the  right, 
general  paralysis  so  closely  resembling  death  in  appearance,"  that 
he  did  not  dare  to  continue  his  experiments.  She  did  the  wax- 
image  business,  the  state  of  sympathy  by  contact,  and  the  rest, 
with  such  perfection  before  me  under  the  manipulations  of  Colo- 
nel de  Rochas  at  the  Charitd  and  at  the  Polytechnique  School, 
that  I  asked  her  to  favor  me  with  some  professional  sittings, 
which  she  readily  consented  to  do.  She  had  an  extensive  reper- 
toire, and  on  three  separate  occasions  she  went  through  her  per- 
formances with  great  precision  and  completeness  in  the  presence 
of  a  variety  of  witnesses,  some  of  whose  names  I  have  already 
cited.  I  determined,  however,  to  do  everything  en  faux.  On  the 
first  occasion  I  solemnly  went  through  all  the  series  of  passes  and 


216  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

strokings  and  head  pressure  with  the  right  hand,  which  Colonel 
de  Rochas  considers  so  essential,  and  we  had  all  the  correct  success- 
ive stages  of  credulity  (or  credivite),  of  lethargy,  catalepsy,  again 
lethargy,  somnambulism,  lethargy,  and  rapport,  and  I  then  tested 
the  statements  of  Colonel  de  Rochas.  In  the  first  place  I  found 
that  in  all  the  phases  of  the  stage  of  rapport  the  subject  perceived 
other  objects  and  other  persons  quite  as  well  as  the  individual, 
my  humble  self,  who  was  supposed  to  be  "the  magnetizer." 
When  any  one  pretended  to  be  in  contact  with  me,  it  had  the 
same  effect  upon  her  as  if  he  were  really  in  contact,  and  it  was  evi- 
dent that  she  guessed  at  what  we  were  doing.  Visions  were  as 
easily  produced  by  pressure  with  the  left  hand  as  with  the  right, 
and,  as  to  the  seeing  of  colored  odic  flames  from  the  magnet,  she 
saw  them  "  six  yards  long  " ;  but,  in  fact,  when  proper  tests  were 
applied,  she  was  found  to  be  absolutely  incapable  of  distinguish- 
ing a  true  magnet  from  a  false  one.  She  never  knew  whether  the 
current  was  on  or  off  my  electro-magnet ;  and  her  whole  perform- 
ance in  this  respect,  although  she  was  not  made  aware  of  it,  was  so 
manifest  and  ludicrous  an  imposture  that  the  bystanders  had  great 
difficulty  in  retaining  their  gravity.  I  tested  now  the  phenomena 
to  which  the  sham  scientific  terms  of  "  externalization  of  sensation," 
"communication  by  contact,"  and  "transference  across  space," 
are  pretentiously  applied.  Behind  a  little  pile  of  books  on  the 
writing  table  I  concealed  a  tumbler  containing  some  water.  In 
duly  solemn  fashion  I  poured  out  from  a  carafe  a  little  water  into 
a  similar  glass  and  placed  it  in  her  hands.  I  then  quickly  substi- 
tuted, without  her  perceiving  it,  the  hidden  glass  of  water,  which 
she  had  neither  seen  nor  touched.  We  had  then  a  full-dress  re- 
hearsal of  all  the  performances  which  I  had  previously  witnessed. 
She  showed  the  same  "  obvious "  marks  of  pleasure  or  of  pain 
when  the  water  was  caressed  or  pinched  as  were  witnessed  by  the 
Times  correspondent  or  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  reporter.  When  one 
of  the  spectators  was  placed  in  imaginary  contact  with  me,  she 
became  equally  sensible  of  his  actions ;  she  writhed,  she  smiled, 
she  was  tickled,  she  was  hurt,  she  was  pleased,  and  she  was  "  ex- 
hausted "  in  the  orthodox  manner.  I  now  introduced  the  "  wax 
figure."  Skeptic  as  I  was,  but  willing  to  be  convinced,  I  had  pur- 
chased two  rather  pretty  little  sailor  dolls,  twin  brothers  of  the 
navy,  at  a  neighboring  toy  shop.  One  of  these  she  held  until 
it  was  sufficiently  "  charged  with  her  sensitiveness  "  by  contact. 
I  then  rapidly  substituted  the  twin  doll  from  my  pocket,  and  put 
away  the  sensitivized  doll  for  future  service.  To  make  the  per- 
formance quite  regular,  I  cut  off  a  minute  lock  of  her  hair  and 
pretended  to  affix  it  to  the  doll.  To  this  proceeding,  which  I  had 
seen  Colonel  de  Rochas  gravely  go  through,  she  rather  objected 
in  her  profound  sleep,  much  to  our  quiet  amusement.  "  C'est  trop, 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  217 

c'est  trop,"  she  murmured,  apparently  thinking  that  I  was  taking 
too  much  hair  for  the  money.  I  need  not  say  that  I  did  not  affix 
it  to  the  head  of  the  doll,  although  I  went  through  the  motions  of 
doing  so.  I  have  now,  and  shall  preserve,  the  two  little  doll  "  wit- 
nesses "  and  the  valuable  tress  of  hair  as  mementos  of  this  inter- 
esting performance.  It  may  take  its  place  by  the  side  of  the  fa- 
mous tress  cut  from  the  locks  of  the  spirit  form  of  Katie  King. 
We  then  produced,  with  the  aid  of  the  untouched  doll,  just  un- 
rolled from  the  tissue  paper  of  the  toy  shop,  all  the  phenomena  of 
the  envoutement  of  the  sorcerers,  of  which  so  much  has  been  heard 
lately  and  which  have  figured  so  largely  in  the  pages  of  the  great 
newspapers  of  England  and  France.  She  felt  acutely  when  its 
imaginary  lock  was  touched  and  pulled,  whether  by  myself  or  by 
Dr.  Sajous,  by  M.  Cremiere,  or  by  any  one  else  in  the  room.  She 
greatly  resented  its  being  pricked ;  she  felt  all  sorts  of  indescriba- 
ble and  generalized  heats  and  pains  when  the  doll  was  touched  in 
places  of  which  she  could  not  well  make  out  the  locality  owing  to 
our  backs  being  turned  to  her,  and  she  was  duly  suffocated  when 
we  pretended  to  sit  down  on  the  doll.  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that 
the  real  doll  was  lying  there  all  the  time,  cruelly  stabbed  by  me 
to  the  heart  with  a  stout  pin,  of  which  she  was  unconscious.  Its 
maltreatment,  which  ought  theoretically  to  have  been  fatal  to  her, 
produced  no  visible  effect.  These  performances  she  went  through 
three  times.  On  the  third  occasion  Colonel  de  Rochas  was  him- 
self present,  and  assisted  to  put  her  into  a  complete  state  of 
hypnosis,  for  by  this  time  I  had  become  a  little  indifferent  to  the 
stages  of  preliminary  mummery,  and,  as  there  were  three  subjects 
on  hand  at  the  final  sitting,  I  rather  abbreviated  the  proceeding. 
Colonel  de  Rochas  was  a  little  astonished  when  I  produced  my 
toy-shop  doll,  clothed  in  woolen  trousers  and  jacket,  for  demon- 
strating the  envoutement ;  but  he  explained  that  he  was  not  so 
surprised  as  he  should  have  been  at  an  earlier  date,  for  he  had 
only  that  week  observed  that  in  a  classic  author,  where  these 
magical  proceedings  were  described,  it  was  noted  that  woolen 
stuff  was  a  very  good  conductor ;  and  he  quoted  a  passage  from 
a  Latin  author — of  which  I  am  sorry  that  I  do  not  retain  the  ex- 
act recollection — in  evidence  of  the  fact  that  the  woolen  dress 
might  prove  an  effective  medium;  otherwise,  he  observed,  he 
should  have  been  doubtful  of  securing  good  results,  as  the  doll 
was  of  composition  and  not  of  wax.  It  did  prove  a  very  good  con- 
ductor. In  the  course  of  the  experiment,  however,  he  skeptically 
tweaked  the  nose  of  the  little  composition  doll  face  (of  the  doll 
which  had  not  been  "  sensitivized  "),  and  we  had  all  of  us  the  sat- 
isfaction of  observing  that  the  material  made  no  difference  to 
Madame  Vix,  and  that  the  result  was  as  perfectly  satisfactory  as 
if  it  had  been  made  of  real  wax,  for  she  immediately  exclaimed 


2i8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

that  somebody  was  pulling  her  nose,  and  resented  it  accordingly. 
At  the  close  of  this  final  seance,  at  which  I  had  invited  the  pres- 
ence of  Colonel  de  Rochas,  I  explained  to  him  the  extent  of  the 
imposture,  and  showed  him  the  false  glass  of  water  and  the  twin 
doll,  the  sham  magnet,  and  the  method  which  we  had  pursued  in 
working  the  electro-magnet  under  a  system  of  contradictory  direc- 
tions. I  may  venture  to  repeat  that  Colonel  de  Rochas  acted  in 
this,  as  throughout,  as  a  gentleman  of  the  most  perfect  good  faith. 
He  was  duly  and  adequately  impressed  with  this  new  order  of 
facts.  It  is  of  course  impossible  to  say  what  may  be  the  conclu- 
sions at  which  he  will  ultimately  arrive,  but  I  understood  him  to 
incline  to  the  vague  belief  that  "  it  was  all  suggestion." — Nine- 
teenth Century. 

(To  be  continued.) 


ADAPTATIONS  OF  SEEDS  AND   FRUITS. 

BY  J.  W.  FOLSOM. 

IF  we  consider  the  great  variety  of  seeds  and  fruits,  we  natu- 
rally inquire  its  meaning ;  and  if  we  are  sufficiently  interested 
to  observe  carefully  the  part  which  seeds  play  in  Nature,  we  soon 
find  that  in  innumerable  ways  they  are  adapted  to  their  surround- 
ings. On  the  seed,  primarily,  rests  the  all-important  responsi- 
bility of  perpetuating  the  species,  and  success  or  failure  in  this 
duty  depends  upon  the  manner  in  which  the  seed  is  adapted  to 
encounter  the  dangers  that  threaten  it. 

The  manifold  adaptations  of  this  kind  which  Nature  exhibits 
have  been  brought  about  chiefly  by  natural  selection,  resulting 
from  the  co-operation  of  two  laws :  the  law  of  heredity  and  the 
law  of  variation.  Under  the  former,  characteristics  of  a  parent 
are  transmitted  to  its  offspring.  In  obedience  to  the  latter,  no 
offspring  is  exactly  like  its  parent,  but  differs  from  it  more  or  less. 
The  variation  being  inherited  by  the  succeeding  generation  will, 
if  of  favorable  nature,  tend  to  be  perpetuated  indefinitely.  Con- 
trarily,  variation  in  an  unfavorable  direction  will  conduce  to 
extermination  of  the  species  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case. 
Thus  it  follows  that  the  accumulation  of  advantageous  variations, 
however  slight,  and  the  necessary  destruction  of  species  possess- 
ing unfriendly  characteristics,  results  in  producing  kinds  well 
fitted  for  existence. 

Bearing  the  above  in  mind  as  a  general  explanation,  let  us  con- 
sider some  of  its  effects  as  displayed  in  seeds  and  fruits. 

We  usually  find  seeds  in  a  seed  vessel  of  some  sort,  the  whole 
affair  constituting  the  "  fruit."  Common  to  all  immature  fruits 
is  their  necessity  for  protection,  and  this  is  met  in  various  ways. 


ADAPTATIONS    OF  SEEDS  AND  FRUITS.  219 

Winds  which  would  break  them  off  are  effectually  resisted  by 
their  strong  yet  flexible  footstalks ;  and  possible  injury  by  bruis- 
ing is  averted  by  tough,  elastic  walls,  often  cushioned  by  prickles 
or  other  appendages. 

Sudden  changes  of  temperature,  before  they  can  penetrate  to 
the  unripe  seeds,  are  rendered  harmless  by  the  blanketing  effect 
of  pulp  or  other  material. 

For  protection  from  the  animal  world,  immature  fruits  have 
developed  a  number  of  interesting  devices.  Almost  universally 
"  green"  fruits  so  harmonize  with  surrounding  color  as  readily  to 
escape  detection.  In  fact,  the  hazelnut  is  enveloped  in  a  leafy 
coat  which  renders  it  very  inconspicuous.  The  nutritious  albu- 
men of  the  seed  is  often  fortified  by  such  impenetrable  shells  as 
those  of  the  cocoanut  and  others.  Perhaps  there  is  a  formidable 
armament  of  prickles,  as  in  the  chestnut ;  or  of  stinging  hairs,  as 
is  the  case  with  some  pods.  Characteristic  of  immature  fruits  are 
disagreeable  taste  and  consistence.  Compare  an  unripe  peach, 
sour  and  stringy,  with  the  same  fruit  in  its  luscious  maturity. 

But  all  these  contrivances  fail  to  repel  certain  enemies  of 
growing  fruits.  The  apple's  inconspicuousness,  toughness,  and 
sourness  are  of  little  avail  against  the  young  progeny  of  the  genus 
Homo. 

In  many  remarkable  instances  plants  by  their  movements  are 
able  to  protect  their  precious  seeds  from  injury.  In  our  common 
fall  dandelion  the  whole  flower  closes  up  while  the  seeds  are 
ripening,  but  reopens  at  their  maturity.  Furthermore,  the  up- 
right flower  stalk  sinks  to  the  ground  when  the  flowers  fade,  but 
erects  itself  again  when  the  seeds  are  ready  to  be  scattered  by  the 
wind.  In  one  of  our  winter  house  plants,  the  common  cyclamen, 
the  flower  stalk  coils  up  after  flowering,  bringing  the  pod  to  the 
ground  to  ripen ;  and  our  sweet  white  water  lily,  after  expanding 
and  withering  above  water,  sinks  to  mature  its  seeds  in  safety. 
Other  more  remarkable  but  less  common  cases  might  be  cited 
to  show  the  extreme  care  with  which  plants  preserve  their  seeds 
from  possible  destruction. 

At  maturity  the  one  object  of  the  seed  is  to  secure  the  advan- 
tages of  wide  dispersion,  and  to  effect  this  purpose  Nature  uses  all 
means  at  hand.  The  agencies  against  which  she  so  lately  con- 
trived are  now  most  sedulously  sought,  and  almost  endless  are  the 
modifications  of  structure  which  enable  seeds  to  spread  far  and 
wide. 

"  Dehiscence,"  the  splitting  open  of  a  ripe  pod,  is  manifestly  a 
provision  for  seed  dispersion.  In  its  simplest  form  dehiscence 
merely  exposes  seeds  to  various  conveying  agencies :  to  the  wind, 
in  the  milkweed ;  to  birds,  in  the  case  of  some  brightly  colored 
beans.  Other  plants,  however,  do  more  than  this.  Our  wild 


220  .    THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

columbine  is  particularly  well  adapted  for  having  its  seeds  scat- 
tered by  the  wind.  They  are  held  in  open  seed  vessels  surmount- 
ing a  slender  stalk  which,  although  nodding  at  flowering  time, 
has  become  upright.  A  slight  breeze  easily  shakes  this  stalk, 
causing  the  seeds  to  be  thrown  for  quite  a  distance.  The  poppy 
throws  its  seeds  in  a  similar  way,  and  the  little  eaves  which  stand 
over  the  holes  in  the  pod  are  even  said  to  close  in  wet  weather, 
not  allowing  the  seeds  to  escape. 

In  many  wonderful  instances  the  ripe  pod  projects  its  seeds 
forcibly  into  the  air.  In  some  of  our  wild  violets  the  pod,  after 
dehiscence,  consists  of  three  spreading  valves,  each  shaped  like  a 
boat,  bearing  within  several  seeds  which  are  pear-shaped,  hard, 
and  smooth.  In  drying,  the  valve  walls  contract,  approach  each 
other,  and  squeeze  out  the  seeds,  which  are  thus  thrown  several 
feet.  Our  wild  witch-hazel  throws  its  seeds  often  to  the  distance 
of  thirty  feet.  Many  of  us  recollect  the  sudden  bursting  and  coil- 
ing up  of  the  pods  of  the  "  touch-me-not,"  whose  yellowish,  spurred 
flowers  are  so  common  in  moist  places.  The  object  of  this  action 
is  to  expel  the  seeds.  Curious  is  the  case  of  the  squirting  cucum- 
ber of  southern  Europe.  The  ripe,  cucumber-like  fruit  is  greatly 
distended  by  its  contents.  At  a  slight  touch,  as  from  a  browsing 
animal,  it  breaks  from  the  stalk,  and  through  the  hole  thus  formed 
the  pressure  of  the  elastic  walls  forces  the  seeds  in  a  viscid  liquid 
for  twenty  or  thirty  feet. 

Fruits  that  do  not  split  open  are  invariably  scattered  by  ex- 
ternal means,  inanimate  and  animate.  Of  inanimate  agencies 
the  wind  is  far  of tenest  employed,  and  seeds  have  evidently  found 
it  extremely  efficient,  judging  from  their  many  adaptations  for 
wind  dispersion.  The  seeds  of  our  elms,  maples,  pines,  etc.,  are 
surrounded,  as  we  know,  by  thin  expansions  called  "wings," 
whose  purpose  plainly  is  to  present  a  large  surface  for  the  wind 
to  act  upon.  Wings  are  characteristic  alone  of  trees  or  tall 
shrubs,  and  never  occur  on  low  herbs,  where  they  would  clearly 
be  out  of  place.  Instead  of  a  wing,  a  tuft  of  hairs  frequently 
serves  the  same  purpose.  A  common  example  is  furnished  by 
the  milkweed,  whose  seed  is  surrounded  by  a  spreading  "  pappus  " 
of  long,  silky  hairs.  The  dandelions  and  thistles  have  adopted 
this  means  of  distribution,  and  this  explains  their  abundance 
everywhere.  In  the  smoke-bush  of  our  gardens  only  a  few 
flower  stalks  bear  fruit,  the  rest  become  slender  and  feathery, 
forming  a  light  network  which  is  borne  along  in  the  wind,  carry- 
ing the  few  small  fruits  which  have  formed. 

Flowing  water  transports  many  large  nuts,  some  depending 
upon  it  almost  exclusively.  Drifting  along  in  our  fresh-water 
streams  one  may  often  see  the  "  key  fruits  "  of  the  red  maple,  and 
the  soaking  they  thus  receive  must  further  germination.  The 


ADAPTATIONS    OF  SEEDS  AND  FRUITS.  221 

prevalence  on  our  river  banks  of  oaks,  hickories,  and  maples  is 
also  very  noticeable.  Again,  ocean  currents  are  of  great  impor- 
tance in  distributing  plants.  The  cocoanut,  buoyed  by  its  loose 
husk  and  protected  by  an  impenetrable  shell,  floats  in  the  sea 
until  it  is  brought  often  to  some  coral  island  where  it  may  grow. 
Many  small  seeds  are  also  conveyed  by  ocean  currents,  and  it  is 
very  probable  that  they  retain  their  vitality,  for  Mr.  Darwin  has 
recorded  some  interesting  experiments  showing  that  a  good  pro- 
portion of  seeds  can  withstand  injury  from  salt  water  for  a  con- 
siderable length  of  time.  The  action  of  freezing  water,  as  mani- 
fested in  frost,  has  the  well-known  effect  of  freeing  nuts  from 
their  protecting  envelopes;  and  frozen  water,  in  the  shape  of 
glaciers  and  icebergs,  is  of  a  little  importance  in  transporting 
seeds.  It  is  possible  that  during  the  Glacial  period  seeds  were 
conveyed  from  place  to  place  incased  in  ice. 

Of  all  devices  for  dispersion  the  most  remarkable  are  those  by 
which  the  aid  of  animals  is  secured,  and  this  aid  is  so  valuable 
that  plants  spare  no  expense  to  obtain  it.  Usually  animals  are 
well  paid  for  their  services,  but  many  plants,  however,  do  not 
hesitate  to  deceive  their  benefactors  by  all  sorts  of  trickery. 
This  latter  class,  though,  has  not  been  nearly  as  successful  as  the 
others  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

It  is  now  well  known  that  what  are  popularly  called  "  fruits  " 
exist  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  plants  and  the  lower  animals — not 
for  man.  And  it  is  generally  believed  that  these  fruits  have 
developed  their  attractive  qualities  through  natural  selection. 
The  results  reached  by  man  in  selecting  and  propagating  the  best 
varieties  of  fruits  are  the  strongest  grounds  for  thinking  that 
these  fruits  were  once  evolved  from  very  crude  conditions  through 
similar  selection  by  the  lower  animals,  particularly  birds.  Such 
fruits,  for  instance,  as  by  natural  variation  became  at  all  agree- 
able to  birds  would  be  sought  out  by  them,  to  the  exclusion  of 
less  attractive  fruits.  In  consequence,  the  favored  fruits  would 
stand  better  chances  of  setting  seeds  than  would  their  less  favored 
companions.  Variations  being  transmitted  from  parent  to  off- 
spring, it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  favorable  variations  would 
become  still  more  favorable  by  further  selection,  until,  by  the 
accumulation  of  even  slight  variations  through  geologic  ages, 
there  would  result  fruits  highly  attractive  to  certain  animals  by 
their  color,  perfume,  and  taste.  In  the  mean  time,  fruits  possess- 
ing unfavorable  characteristics  have  for  this  very  reason  been 
exterminated,  or  else  have  attained  a  less  degree  of  success  than 
the  others. 

Insects  are  the  lowest  animals  known  to  assist  in  seed  dissem- 
ination. Mr.  Darwin  tells  us  of  locust  excrement  containing 
seeds  which  grew  when  planted.  Considering  that  locusts  often 


222  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

occur  in  vast  swarms,  they  can  hardly  fail  to  be  highly  effective 
agents  in  seed  dissemination,  thus  repaying  to  some  extent  for 
the  immense  damage  they  often  do. 

Fishes  are  known  to  swallow  seeds  of  many  kinds,  and  must 
transport  them  from  place  to  place;  but  the  value  of  fishes  as 
seed  conveyers  is  hard  to  estimate. 

We  have  just  said  that  our  edible  fruits  are  really  contriv- 
ances for  securing  seed  dissemination,  especially  through  the 
agency  of  birds.  Take,  for  example,  some  of  our  common  fruits 
— the  currant,  grape,  plum,  peach,  apple,  etc.  All  these  are  con- 
structed with  this  end  in  view.  When  ripe,  they  are  colored 
brightly  to  attract  animals;  some  possess  agreeable  odors,  and 
most  have  a  delicious  taste  and  consistence.  In  short,  they  are 
highly  adapted  to  become  the  food  of  animals.  While  swallow- 
ing such  food  animals  can  hardly  help  swallowing  seeds  as  well, 
and  such  seeds  are  finally  emitted  under  conditions  admirably 
conducive  to  germination.  Why  our  most  delicious  fruits  are 
often  offset  by  their  disagreeable  seeds  may  have  occurred  to 
many  of  us.  The  fact  is,  by  this  means  seeds  are  protected  from 
possible  injury  in  the  alimentary  canals  of  animals.  Take,  for 
example,  the  small,  hard  seeds  of  the  grape  or  fig,  and  the  similar 
so-called  seeds  of  the  strawberry,  blackberry,  and  others.  Far 
from  being  destroyed  by  the  digestive  juices,  the  seeds  are  prob- 
ably facilitated  in  their  germination  by  the  warmth  and  moisture 
received. 

The  rapid  ripening  of  fruits  doubtless  prevents  their  prema- 
ture destruction.  The  accompanying  change  in  color  is  remark- 
able. Whereas  young  fruits  harmonize  completely  with  sur- 
rounding color,  mature  fruits  are  extremely  conspicuous.  Recall 
the  barberry,  rose,  sumach,  mountain  ash,  and  many  more.  In 
some  honeysuckles  each  cluster  of  scarlet  berries  stands  in  violent 
contrast  against  a  green  leaf.  In  the  blackberry  lily  of  our  gar- 
dens the  sides  of  the  pod  roll  back  and  display  their  white  linings, 
conspicuously  relieving  the  black,  berry-like  seeds.  The  burning- 
bush  is  a  brilliant  example  with  its  flaming  scarlet.  In  the  West 
Indies  is  a  plant  whose  pods  are  red  within,  containing  seeds  that 
are  blue.  Other  instances  might  be  named,  but  they  are  indefi- 
nitely numerous  and  easily  observed  by  any  one. 

Many  of  our  fruits  are  covered  with  a  waxy  "  bloom  "  as  it  is 
called.  This  is  plainly  a  protection,  for  it  is  commonly  known  that 
fruits  will  long  resist  decay  provided  this  coating  is  uninjured. 
Its  probable  effect  is  to  resist  decomposition  by  moisture  and  fungi. 

The  edible  portion,  however,  is  of  most  interest  to  us,  not  only 
scientifically,  but  also  in  a  practical  way.  How  highly  it  is  es- 
teemed by  some  animals  may  be  judged  from  the  expense  we 
often  incur  in  buying  fruits  out  of  season. 


ADAPTATIONS   OF  SEEDS  AND  FRUITS.  223 

The  use  of  poisonous  fruits  is  an  interesting  subject  for  con- 
sideration. How  is  a  plant  benefited  by  producing  them  ? 

Mr.  Grant  Allen  suggests  with  regard  to  a  near  relative  of  our 
Jack-in-the-pulpit  that  its  brilliant  scarlet  berries  are  readily  de- 
tected and  eaten  by  birds ;  that  such  birds  are  consequently  poi- 
soned, and  by  decaying  provide  abundant  nourishment  for  the 
germinating  seeds.  He  adds  that  birds  can  not  profit  by  experi- 
ence and  avoid  the  berries,  as  no  bird  ever  lives  to  tell  the  tale. 

At  first  this  explanation  seems  very  reasonable,  and  perhaps 
it  is ;  but  we  have  reason  for  doubting  it,  for  we  find  that  many 
fruits  poisonous  to  mammals  are  eaten  by  birds  without  the 
slightest  injury.  The  beautiful  apple-like  manchineel,  which  is 
most  virulently  poisonous,  is  eaten  by  tropical  birds  with  the 
greatest  impunity. 

On  the  whole  it  seems  very  likely  that  some  fruits  are  fatal  to 
other  animals  but  not  to  birds,  and  under  all  explanations  poisons 
are  doubtless  a  protection,  at  least,  to  the  fruits  which  possess 
them. 

Many  fruits  have  been  so  highly  cultivated  by  man  that  they 
can  no  longer  set  their  seeds  as  originally.  Our  wild  red  cherry 
is  a  convenient  morsel  for  even  small  birds ;  but  its  highly  cul- 
tured relatives  of  the  garden  must  submit  their  flesh  to  birds  who 
can  not  eat  stones  as  well.  The  case  of  the  strawberry  is  differ- 
ent, however,  for  birds  can  scarcely  take  a  morsel  that  does  not 
contain  numbers  of  the  small,  hard  "straws/'  which  are  really 
the  most  essential  parts  of  the  plant,  for  each  one  incloses  a 
seed. 

In  many  cases  Nature  economically  develops  as  little  sweet 
pulp  as  will  serve  her  purpose.  In  the  wild  red  cherry,  for  in- 
stance, the  stone  occupies  almost  the  entire  fruit,  there  being  only 
a  thin  layer  of  food  substance.  Often  there  is  none  whatever, 
and  instead  the  fruit  attains  its  ends  by  simulated  attractiveness. 
The  rosary  bean  temptingly  displays  its  brilliant  red  seeds, 
which  are  in  reality  of  stony  hardness.  Yet  it  does  not  wholly 
rely  upon  this  artifice,  for  it  is  very  probable  that  part  of  the 
seeds  are  scattered  by  the  twisting  dehiscence  of  the  tough  pod. 

In  some  instances  the  deception  is  really  wonderful.  Some 
pods  and  seeds  mimic  insects  so  closely  as  probably  to  entice  in- 
sectivorous birds  to  carry  them,  at  least  until  the  birds  find  out 
their  mistake.  It  may  be  also  that  this  appearance  protects  them 
from  graminivorous  birds.  There  are  pods  which  curiously  re- 
semble worms  and  spiders  and  caterpillars.  Our  common  castor- 
oil  bean  bears  a  superficial  likeness  to  a  beetle.  Yet  there  are 
some  most  remarkable  cases  of  mimicry  where  beetles  are  coun- 
terfeited in  the  minutest  detail. 

Fruits  are  also  disseminated  by  mammals  as  well  as  birds. 


224  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Berries  are  the  favorite  food  of  many  of  our  native  mammals,  the 
woodchuck  and  others.  Wild  apples  are  frequently  carried  off 
by  squirrels,  and  it  is  well  known  that  squirrels  store  up  large 
quantities  of  nuts  which  oftentimes  are  never  eaten.  Fruits  too 
large  to  be  swallowed  by  most  birds  are  easily  devoured  by  the 
larger  mammals,  the  apple,  for  instance,  whose  seeds  are  protected 
by  tight  husks  well  adapted  to  slip  through  the  alimentary  canal 
of  an  animal  without  receiving  the  least  injury. 

The  gourd  fruits,  so  much  liked  by  man  here,  are  equally  at- 
tractive to  his  quadrumanal  brothers  in  the  tropics. 

For  utilizing  the  services  particularly  of  mammals  many 
fruits  have  developed  hooks  or  horns  to  catch  in  the  fleece  of 
passing  creatures,  who  thus  transport  the  seeds  from  place  to 
place.  An  autumn  tramp  through  our  pastures  will  soon  con- 
vince one  of  the  efficiency  of  this  mode  of  dissemination. 

A  very  familiar  example  of  this  kind  we  find  in  the  common 
burdock ;  but  the  hooks  of  the  burdock  are  insignificant  affairs 
compared  with  some  which  exist.  In  the  Southern  States  grows  a 
fruit,  Martynia  proboscidea,  having  two  recurving  horns  several 
inches  long.  The  appearance  of  the  fruit  would  justify  its  having 
an  even  more  formidable  name.  Another  fruit,  HarpagopJiyton 
by  name,  is  a  bristling  mass  of  powerful  hooks.  It  is  said  that 
lions  trying  to  free  themselves  from  its  clutches  get  it  into  the 
mouth  and  die  in  torture.  Instead  of  hooks,  seeds  sometimes 
effect  the  same  purpose  by  being  sticky. 

It  is  a  suggestive  fact  that  hooked  fruits  occur  on  low  plants, 
never  on  trees ;  also  that  in  geologic  time  hooks  appeared  simul- 
taneously with  land  mammals. 

Lastly,  we  must  recollect  that  man  himself  disseminates  seeds 
in  a  thousand  ways.  War  often  introduces  new  plants  into  a 
region.  Commerce  is  of  vast  importance  in  this  respect.  In  the 
vicinity  of  our  woolen  mills  a  strange  flora,  from  seeds  intro- 
duced with  the  raw  wool,  is  struggling  with  native  plants.  Agri- 
culture is  certainly  of  unbounded  effect  in  the  way  we  are  consid- 
ering. In  short,  human  will  has  almost  limitless  control  over  the 
circumstances  of  plant  life. 

After  dispersion  most  seeds  simply  rest  on  the  ground  to  await 
germination,  perhaps  protected  by  color  resemblance,  as  in  nuts, 
or  by  mimicry,  sometimes  mimicking  a  dry  twig  to  perfection. 
Some  seeds,  though,  do  more  than  this.  The  parasitic  seeds  of 
the  mistletoe,  dropped  by  birds  on  the  boughs  of  trees,  would  soon 
fall  to  the  ground  and  die  were  they  were  not  very  sticky.  The 
seed  of  Mysodendron  has  three  long,  flexible  appendages  which 
twine  round  any  suitable  branch  to  which  it  is  blown. 

There  are  a  few  seeds  which  literally  corkscrew  themselves  into 
the  ground.  One  of  our  natives — Erodium,  or  cranesbill — has 


ADAPTATIONS   OF  SEEDS  AND  FRUITS.  225 

seeds  which  are  small,  pointed,  and  covered  with  hairs.  The  poste- 
rior end  is  prolonged  into  a  hairy,  corkscrew-like  awn,  which  twists 
or  untwists,  according  to  the  amount  of  moisture.  This  awn  ends 
in  a  feather-like  affair  with  backward-pointed  hairs.  On  moist 
ground  the  seed-hairs  stand  out  so  as  to  place  the  seed-point  down- 
ward, and  the  awn  untwists ;  but  the  barbed  feather  preventing 
upward  movement,  because  it  catches  in  the  herbage,  the  seed  is 
forced  into  the  soil.  However,  if  the  awn  dries  and  contracts,  the 
feather  is  easily  drawn  down  while  the  seed  is  not  drawn  up.  By 
successive  moistenings  and  dryings  the  seed  is  ultimately  driven 
completely  into  the  earth. 

As  to  vitality,  seeds  present  widest  differences.  Very  short- 
lived seeds  are  those  of  the  coffee  and  magnolia.  On  the  other 
hand,  under  abnormal  conditions,  some  seeds  have  retained  vital- 
ity for  many  centuries,  apparently.  Raspberry  seeds,  found  in  a 
Celtic  tumulus  along  with  coins  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  germi- 
nated, according  to  good  authority,  after  a  possible  interval  of 
several  centuries.  Other  seeds  from  old  Roman  tombs  grew  after 
a  lapse  of  many  hundred  years,  but  these  are  exceptional  in- 
stances. Accurate  experiments  show  that  a  few  kinds  live  for 
fifteen  years,  or  thereabouts,  while  the  majority  are  much  shorter 
lived.  Stories  of  wheat  raised  from  seed  found  in  mummy  wrap- 
pings are  founded  upon  no  trustworthy  evidence  whatever. 

When  a  forest  has  been  removed  by  fire,  or  otherwise,  it  com- 
monly happens  that  a  fresh  growth  of  entirely  new  plants  im- 
mediately springs  up.  This  may  be  partly  due  to  the  unusual 
opportunity  for  growth  thus  given  to  foreign  seeds ;  but  the  usu- 
ally accepted  explanation  is  that  the  new  growth  is  from  seeds 
which  have  long  lain  dormant. 

Finally,  as  regards  germination,  seeds  accommodate  themselves 
to  surrounding  conditions  with  considerable  readiness.  Some 
seeds  are  so  tenacious  of  life  as  to  germinate,  not  only  when  old, 
but  also  when  a  large  share  of  their  food  substance  has  been 
destroyed,  provided,  of  course,  that  the  germ  itself  is  uninjured. 
No  seed,  however,  will  germinate  without  the  proper  amount  of 
moisture,  free  oxygen,  and  warmth,  although  other  disadvantages 
are  often  withstood  successfully. 

We  have  now  described  some  of  the  more  evident  adaptations 
to  surroundings  displayed  in  seeds  and  fruits,  but  by  no  means 
all ;  for  here,  as  everywhere  else,  Nature  presents  a  variety  which 
is  almost  infinite.  Although  endless  differences  in  structure  are 
still  unexplained,  we  must  believe  that  they  are  adaptations  to 
circumstances  present  or  past,  and  our  knowledge  leads  us  con- 
fidently to  expect  that  future  discovery  will  reveal  in  increased 
vastness  the  complexity  of  the  relations  by  which  everything  in 
Nature  is  adapted,  more  or  less  perfectly,  to  everything  else. 

VOL.    XLIII. — 16 


226  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

i 
WHY  GROW  OLD? 

BY  DR.  N.  E.  YORKE-DAVIES. 

IT  may  seem  a  curious  assertion  to  make,  but  it  is  nevertheless 
an  absolutely  true  one,  namely,  that  a  man's  life  is  not  meas- 
ured by  the  years  that  he  has  lived,  but  by  the  way  in  which  he 
has  spent  them.  Many  a  person  may  be  as  young  and  active  at 
seventy  as  another  at  twenty-five,  and  the  length  of  his  life,  his 
health,  and  his  ability  to  enjoy  green  old  age,  depend  in  a  great 
measure  on  what  the  surroundings  have  been  in  the  earlier  years 
of  existence.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  every  one  may  not  be  born 
with  a  strong  and  healthy  constitution.  There  are  certain  consti- 
tutional defects  that  are  hereditary  in  certain  families,  and  these 
under  certain  circumstances  may  influence  length  of  life.  For 
instance,  we  may  inherit  the  scrofulous  taint  and  fall  victims,  if 
not  careful,  in  early  life  to  consumption.  We  may  inherit  the 
gouty  taint,  and  be  subject  to  all  the  ills  that  this  disease  entails 
in  middle  age  in  those  who  do  not  learn  how  to  diet  themselves. 
We  may  be  born  of  families  in  whom  the  tendency  to  obesity  is 
more  than  usually  developed,  and  this  in  advancing  life  may  be  a 
serious  drawback  to  comfort,  and  will  undoubtedly  tend  to  shorten 
existence.  But  all  these  weaknesses  and  idiosyncrasies  of  in- 
herited constitution  may  be  wonderfully  improved,  and  even, 
eventually,  entirely  remedied,  if  in  early  life  proper  care  in  re- 
gard to  exercise,  food,  fresh  air,  and  those  surroundings  which 
tend  to  strengthen  the  system  and  improve  constitutional  stam- 
ina, are  made  a  part  of  the  daily  routine. 

A  boy  or  a  girl  should  be  trained  to  indulge  in  athletic  exer- 
cises of  some  kind,  so  that  the  habit  of  taking  exercise  may  be- 
come established,  and  this,  once  acquired,  is  seldom  neglected  even 
as  years  advance.  The  boy  who  is  fond  of  football,  cricket,  ten- 
nis, and  other  athletic  games  will,  from  the  simple  love  of  emula- 
tion, always  keep  up  his  muscular  and  nervous  strength,  and  this 
will  stand  him  in  good  stead  in  middle  age,  and  even  in  a  greater 
degree  in  old  age. 

In  a  former  article  in  this  magazine  I  gave  some  statistics 
with  regard  to  the  after  career  of  university  men,  and  those 
statistics  proved  that  their  lives  were  longer  than  those  of  others 
who  in  college  life  were  of  a  more  sedentary  habit.  That  is,  they 
lived  and  are  living  to  beyond  the  average  duration  of  life  at  any 
given  age.  Some  who  have  come  to  me  of  late,  to  remedy  by 
dietetic  means — the  only  means  I  adopt — the  tendency  to  obesity 
or  gout,  have  been  fine  specimens  of  physique. 

We  all  know  that  a  seed  planted,  whether  it  be  a  grain  of 
wheat  or  an  acorn,  depends  for  its  proper  development  upon  care- 


WHY  GROW  OLD?  227 

ful  manuring  and  proper  attention  in  its  early  existence,  as  to 
whether  it  becomes  a  strong  plant  or  dies  in  its  infancy.  If  it  is 
planted  in  congenial  soil,  and  is  properly  watered  and  cared  for, 
it  will  live  and  grow  luxuriantly ;  but  if  in  improper  soil,  and  left 
to  take  care  of  itself,  it  will  possibly  soon  die.  It  is  the  same 
with  a  human  being,  and  however  weakly  it  may  be  as  an  infant, 
if  it  is  properly  nursed  and  taken  care  of,  the  foundation  is  often 
laid  of  a  mature  and  sound  constitution. 

The  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  may,  in  some  instances, 
be  a  cruel  one;  but  it  is  a  beneficent  one,  for  it  does  not  seem 
right  that  those  entering  the  world  should  be  handicapped  with 
the  weaknesses  of  their  ancestors,  and  those  who  have  the  well- 
being  of  the  race  at  heart  hold  the  opinion  that  constitutions  that 
inherit  any  strongly  marked  hereditary  weakness  should  not  be 
allowed  to  contract  obligations  that  may  and  will  entail  suffering 
upon  a  future  generation. 

We  do  not  attempt  to  rear  plants  and  flowers  from  imperfect 
specimens,  nor  does  the  agriculturist  breed  his  stock  from  any 
but  the  best  and  healthiest  in  any  class  that  he  may  wish  to 
propagate,  and  surely  the  same  amount  of  care  and  selection 
should  be  used  with  regard  to  our  own  species.  In  the  higher 
ranks  of  life  we  see  better  specimens  of  the  English  race  than  in 
the  lower  ones,  for  more  care  is  exercised  in  this  respect.  Some- 
thing more,  of  course,  must  be  allowed  for  this  greater  care  and 
attention  bestowed  up  to  adolescence.  Whereas  it  is  estimated 
that  out  of  every  million  people  born,  only  ninety  thousand  reach 
the  age  of  eighty,  eleven  thousand  that  of  ninety,  and  two  thou- 
sand the  age  of  ninety-five — really,  treble  that  number  should 
reach  these  respective  ages ;  in  fact,  if  all  the  surroundings  of  life 
in  every  way  were  as  they  should  be,  there  is  no  reason  why  six 
times  the  number  should  not  reach  these  ages. 

Much  of  the  comfort  of  middle  and  old  age  depends  upon  early 
training  and  early  feeding,  and  I  refer  here  more  particularly  to 
school  life.  Neither  mind  nor  body  should  be  forced.  While  the 
intellectual  faculties  are  being  trained,  the  bodily  requirements 
should  be  attended  to.  The  constitution  is  being  built  up  during 
the  years  that  a  boy  is  being  educated  for  his  pursuits  in  after 
life.  I  can  remember  my  own  life  at  a  well-known  school  in  a 
fashionable  town  five-and-thirty  years  ago,  and  I  often  wonder  I 
survived  it  when  I  recall  many  circumstances.  No  proper  care 
was  taken  of  us;  hunger,  thirst,  badly  cooked  meat  and  vege- 
tables, sanitary  defects,  were  the  rule.  Many  a  time,  hungry  as  a 
schoolboy  should  be,  have  I  had  put  before  me  for  dinner  meat 
that  was  scarcely  warmed  outside,  and  this  or  nothing  had  to  be 
my  meal.  Had  it  not  been  for  an  old  man  who  used  to  come  to 
the  playground  selling  buns  and  cakes,  I  do  not  know  how  at 


228  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

times  we  should  have  endured  the  pangs  of  hunger,  or  subsisted 
on  the  scanty  fare  allowed,  even  had  it  been  properly  cooked, 
which  it  seldom  was.  Fortunately,  nowadays,  I  believe,  the  cui- 
sine in  public  schools  is  much  improved,  and  more  care  is  taken 
that  growing  boys  should  have  a  sufficiency  of  those  foods  that 
lay  the  foundations  of  a  sound  constitution  in  after  life.  A  parent 
would  do  well,  before  sending  his  progeny  to  school,  to  see  that 
the  ventilation  of  the  rooms,  the  sanitary  arrangements  of  the 
school,  and  the  diet  and  the  capabilities  for  gymnastics  and  out- 
door exercise  are  adequate.  These  things  are  of  as  much,  if  not 
of  more,  importance  than  the  knowledge  of  Greek  and  dead  lan- 
guages, etc.  There  is  every  reason  why,  while  the  intellectual 
faculties  are  being  trained,  proper  care  should  be  taken  of  the 
material  part ;  in  fact,  a  boy's  mind  can  not  be  stored  with  in- 
formation which  may  be  useful  to  him  in  after  life  and  the  health 
maintained  at  a  standard  to  resist  disease,  if,  at  the  same  time,  the 
brain  is  not  fed  by  proper  food,  and  the  constitutional  stamina 
kept  up  by  exercise  and  fresh  air. 

There  are  some  diseases  due  to  carelessness  in  early  life  that 
leave  traces  that  may  handicap  their  possessor  throughout  exist- 
ence, and  possibly  the  worst  of  all  is  rheumatic  fever.  In  this 
case,  mischief  may  be  done  to  the  heart  that  can  never  be  reme- 
died, and  therefore  it  is  necessary  in  the  days  of  adolescence, 
when  the  individual  is  careless  of  consequences,  that  a  boy  or  a 
girl  should  be  properly  clad,  and  more  especially  that  the  cover- 
ing next  the  skin  should  be  flannel.  The  tendency  that  rapid 
changes  of  temperature  have  to  induce  this  disease  where  an  indi- 
vidual inherits  the  gouty  and  rheumatic  diathesis,  should  make 
its  prevention  a  matter  of  great  importance,  and  much  may  be 
done  by  forethought  and  care  to  obviate  the  risk.  Another  result 
of  school  life  that  may  bear  bitter  fruit  in  after  life,  that  never 
seems  to  have  attracted  the  attention  it  should  do,  is  that  the 
weak  and  the  strong  are  allotted  the  same  amount  of  intellectual 
work.  This  should  not  be.  "  The  wind  should  be  tempered  to 
the  shorn  lamb,"  and  the  amount  of  intellectual  work  of  each  boy 
should  bear  some  proportion  to  his  physical  and  mental  power. 

Of  course,  it  would  be  useless  to  expect  the  young  to  apply  to 
themselves  rules  that  bear  fruit  when  they  get  to  middle  and  old 
age.  They  are  too  young  to  have  forethought  and  to  understand 
that,  like  a  bottle  of  new  port,  they  ought  to  carefully  mature, 
so  as  to  improve  as  time  goes  on.  It  is  a  melancholy  circum- 
stance, as  I  have  seen  even  recently,  a  lad,  unfortunately  left  with 
boundless  wealth  and  a  great  name,  beginning  life  at  seventeen 
years  of  age,  and  becoming  a  prematurely  old  man  at  twenty-four, 
and  there  are  few  medical  men  of  large  experience  who  can  not 
recall  numerous  instances  of  men  who  have  overdrawn  their  con- 


WHY  GROW   OLD?  229 

stitutional  bank  before  the  age  of  twenty  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  account  can  never  be  placed  on  the  right  side  on  this  side  the 
grave. 

If  I  were  asked  what  factors  would  conduce  to  green  old  age, 
and  the  ability  to  enjoy  life  to  past  the  eighties,  I  should  say  it 
was  a  matter  of  plenty  of  good  food,  fresh  air,  and  exercise  in 
early  life.  But,  alas !  how  few  people  take  the  trouble  to  consider 
for  one  moment  what  food  would  be  most  suitable  for  their  par- 
ticular requirements,  or  the  requirements  of  their  children,  at  a 
time  when  this  is  all-important !  We  can  not  put  old  heads  on 
young  shoulders,  but  we  can  suggest  to  those  who  have  young 
lives  in  their  charge  that  they  have  a  serious  trust,  and  what  their 
duty  is  in  this  respect. 

We  know  that  meat  and  bread  furnish  all  that  is  necessary  to 
sustain  life,  but,  of  course,  we  do  not  live  on  meat  and  bread 
alone.  The  ordinary  living  is  made  up  of  thousands  of  different 
articles  in  daily  use.  Still,  there  are  certain  rules  that  particu- 
larly apply  in  this  way,  that  certain  constitutions  require  a  larger 
proportion  of  one  particular  class  of  food  than  other  constitutions, 
and  the  man  who  does  a  large  amount  of  physical  labor  requires 
a  different  mode  of  dieting  from  one  who  is  sedentary.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  enter  into  a  subject  of  this  kind  at  length  in  a 
short  article.  Diet,  however,  undoubtedly  has  much  to  do  with 
long  life,  and  this  more  especially  applies  in  its  application  to  the 
particular  calling  of  each  individual.  The  engine  of  an  express 
train  is  coaled  differently  from  that  of  a  slow  one.  A  race-horse 
is  fed  and  exercised  differently  from  a  cart-horse,  etc. 

A  man  brought  up  in  an  active  occupation  that  entails  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  muscular  exercise  can  take  an  amount  of  food 
that  a  man  of  sedentary  habits  would  not  stand,  and  therefore  a 
certain  difference  should  be  made  in  the  composition  of  the  diet 
taken  by  the  two.  Food  is  simply  fuel,  and  in  a  general  way  an- 
swers the  same  purpose. 

As  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson,  in  his  interesting  work,  Diseases  of 
Modern  Life,  observes :  "  The  English  middle  class,  who  may  be 
exhibited  as  types  of  comfortable  people,  moderately  provided  for, 
take  on  an  average  twelve  ounces  of  mixed  solid  food  for  break- 
fast, twelve  ounces  for  midday  meal,  or  luncheon,  and  from  twenty 
to  thirty  ounces  for  their  late  modern  dinner  or  ancient  supper. 
A  total  of  from  forty-fiye  to  fifty  ounces  of  solid  sustenance  is  in 
fact  taken,  to  which  is  added  from  fifty  to  sixty  ounces  of  fluid  in 
the  way  of  tea,  coffee,  water,  beer,  wine.  This  excess  is  at  least 
double  the  quantity  required  for  the  sustainment  of  their  mental 
and  bodily  labor." 

He  then  gives  a  good  illustration  of  this,  and  says :  "  I  was 
once  consulted  in  respect  to  the  symptoms  with  which  the  idle  in- 


23o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

mates  of  a  large  and  wealthy  establishment  suffered.  I  was  told 
that  an  affection  very  much  like  dysentery  had  become  developed, 
and  was  unusually  obstinate  of  cure.  The  water  supply  of  the 
establishment,  the  drainage,  the  ventilation,  had  all  in  turn  been 
blamed,  and  altered  to  no  effect.  I  found  the  unfortunate  suffer- 
ers were  sitting  down  regularly  to  four  heavy  meals  a  day,  with 
animal  food  at  each  meal ;  that  they  took  between  meals  no  exer- 
cise adequate  for  utilizing  a  little  of  the  potential  energy  that  was 
stowed  up  in  their  tightly  packed  organisms. 

"  This  one  fact  seemed  to  me  sufficient  to  account  for  the  phe- 
nomenon, and  the  instant  relief  that  followed  the  cruel  prescrip- 
tion of  e  double  the  work  and  halve  the  food '  was  proof  direct 
that  the  process  of  cure  was  immediate." 

This  quotation  I  reproduce  as  illustrating  what  I  have  pointed 
out,  that  the  amount  of  food  should  be  adapted  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  system,  and  to  the  amount  of  physical  or  intellectual 
work  done,  if  it  is  not  to  be  harmful  in  some  way.  If  these  indi- 
viduals had  been  huntsmen  or  whippers-in  to  a  pack  of  hounds, 
the  food  would  probably  have  been  just  sufficient  for  the  require- 
ments of  the  system.  If  we  want  to  see  good  illustrations  of  green 
old  age,  we  must  look  for  it  in  men  who  are  noted  for  their  physi- 
cal and  intellectual  vigor ;  and  a  man  who  takes  active  exercise, 
whether  in  cutting  down  trees  or  in  brisk  walking  and  other 
physical  pursuits,  and  in  addition  to  this  does  plenty  of  brain 
work,  lives  carefully,  and  drinks  but  very  moderately,  may,  long 
after  he  is  an  octogenarian,  control  the  destinies  of  a  mighty  na- 
tion, and  give  indications  of  mental  and  bodily  vigor  that  would 
shame  many  half  his  age.  The  wiry  frame  of  such  a  man  will  be 
vigorous  when  the  obese  and  sedentary  individual  of  the  same 
age  has  drifted  into  senility  and  second  childhood. 

There  is  no  more  fatal  barrier  to  long  life  than  obtains  in  the 
case  of  a  man  who  has  until  middle  age  been  used  to  active  occu- 
pation, and  been  employed  in  business  pursuits  that  have  en- 
grossed his  time  and  energies,  and  then  suddenly  retires  to  a  life 
of  ease,  luxury,  and  enjoyment.  The  revulsion  that  such  a  change 
entails  seems  to  throw  the  whole  human  machine  out  of  gear. 
The  surroundings  in  the  way  of  diet  and  exercise  are  seldom  con- 
sidered and  adapted  to  the  altered  circumstances,  and  the  result 
is  that  the  different  organs  that  looked  to  the  stimulation  of  active 
occupation  to  keep  them  in  working  order,  become  clogged  with 
waste ;  and  those  diseases  that  depend  upon  such  a  state  of  affairs, 
such  as  congested  liver,  indigestion,  obesity,  gout,  bronchial  trou- 
bles, etc.,  soon  manifest  themselves.  Does  not  this  equally  apply 
to  any  piece  of  mechanism  ?  Even  take  a  clock,  for  instance ;  if 
dust,  rust,  and  dirt  are  allowed  to  accumulate  in  its  working  parts, 
how  soon  (be  its  steel  ever  so  highly  tempered)  does  the  friction 


WHY  GROW  OLD?  231 

of  adventitious  matter  throw  its  harmony  of  movement  out  of 
order ! 

Work  of  some  kind  or  another  seems  essential  to  the  well-being 
of  the  human  organism.  Even  a  machine  keeps  in  better  order 
when  it  is  worked,  looked  after,  and  oiled,  than  when  it  is  neg- 
lected and  allowed  to  rust.  Up  to  middle  age  persons  may  in- 
dulge in  any  amount  of  hard  physical  exercise — that  is,  if  they 
are  wiry  and  of  proper  physical  proportion ;  but  if  a  tendency  to 
corpulency  supervenes,  certain  changes  in  the  blood-vessels  and 
other  organs,  on  whose  healthy  action  robust  health  depends,  take 
place.  These  become  weakened  and  altered  in  texture,  so  that 
any  attempt  at  undue  exercise  is  attended  with  a  certain  amount 
of  risk.  Hence,  any  one  who  wishes  to  live  to  old  age,  and  enjoy 
it,  should  look  with  anxiety  at  the  first  indication  of  corpulency. 
How  many  patients  have  consulted  me  to  whom  I  have  pointed 
out  personally,  or  by  correspondence,  that  they  have  carried  for 
years  an  unnecessary  burden  in  the  way  of  surplus  weight ;  and 
after,  by  proper  dietic  treatment,  they  have  been  relieved  of  it, 
with  improvement  in  health  and  condition,  they  have  regretted 
that  for  so  many  years  they  should  have  been  weighted  with  a 
useless  and  uncomfortable  load. 

Of  course,  the  tendency  to  corpulency  is  a  very  common  one, 
and  I  know  of  no  condition  that  tends  to  shorten  life  and  to  make 
it  more  of  a  misery,  especially  as  years  advance.  The  extra  work 
of  carrying  unnecessary  fat  entailed  on  the  heart  alone  is  quite 
sufficient  to  shorten  life ;  but,  worse  than  this  even,  it  lays  the 
system  more  open  to  congestive  diseases,  and  less  able  to  bear 
treatment  for  their  cure.  It  is  the  greatest  bar  to  enjoyable  old 
age.  I  suppose  my  experience  of  this  condition  is  exceptional,  as 
I  devote  the  whole  of  my  professional  time  to  remedying  it  and  a 
few  other  diseases  of  malnutrition,  by  a  system  of  scientific  diet- 
ing now  well  known.  As  this  condition  is  the  result  of  taking 
certain  foods  in  undue  proportions,  its  remedy  lies  in  properly 
apportioning  these ;  and  as  soon  as  those  who  unduly  increase  in 
weight  are  taught  what  the  injurious  ingredients  of  their  daily 
diet  are,  and  advised  to  curtail  them  for  a  time,  the  result  is  that 
they  lose  unnecessary  tissue  rapidly  and  safely,  with  improvement 
in  every  way. 

For  a  month  or  two  the  daily  intake  of  food  and  its  constitu- 
ents must  be  carefully  adjusted.  No  purgative  or  other  medicine 
is  necessary  for  the  purpose ;  indeed,  violent  purgative  medicines 
are  absolutely  injurious,  as  they  simply  wash  the  food  through, 
without  giving  it  time  to  nourish  the  system,  and  debility,  palpi- 
tation of  the  heart,  and  loss  of  condition  result.  Of  course,  a 
little  mild  aperient,  in  the  shape  of  some  natural  mineral  water, 
such  as  the  Franz  Josef,  is  always  harmless,  and  most  people, 


232  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

from  errors  in  diet,  require  something  of  this  kind  occasionally. 
Electrical  appliances  and  electric  baths  are  quite  useless  as  fat- 
reducing  agents.  Quack  remedies  of  all  descriptions  should  be 
avoided  like  poison ;  if  they  reduce  weight  they  do  it  at  the  ex- 
pense of  health.  Of  this  I  have  seen  repeated  examples,  and  this 
induces  me  more  particularly  to  make  these  observations. 

The  meager  diet  and  quantity  of  water  drunk  at  some  of  the 
spas  abroad,  of  course,  clears  the  system  of  waste ;  but  this  is  only 
a  temporary  benefit,  as  the  individual  is  not  taught  what  little 
alteration  he  should  permanently  make  in  his  diet.  He  comes 
home  to  his  luxurious  surroundings,  and  rapidly  recharges  the 
system  with  fat,  gout  poison,  and  other  injurious  products  that 
form  the  elements  of  certain  food  which  he  takes  in  too  great 
excess. 

Exercise,  proper  selection  in  diet,  and  a  little  abstinence  are 
better  means  of  warding  off  an  attack  of  gout  than  all  the  spas  in 
existence,  and  the  symptoms  of  an  impending  attack  are  well 
known  to  sufferers.  As  soon  as  the  system  is  overcharged  with 
the  poison,  an  acute  attack  comes  on.  How  much  better  to  pre- 
vent the  system  being  charged  at  all  with  an  unnecessary  poison, 
and  this  is  only  to  be  done  by  a  proper  selection  in  diet !  Hard- 
worked  laborers  and  the  poor  never  suffer  from  gout,  and  the 
Scotch  are  entirely  free.  It  is  a  disease  of  overfeeding — more 
especially  in  certain  articles  of  food  and  drink — and  underwork- 
ing, and  entails  on  its  victim  much  misery,  if  not  worse,  and  his 
progeny  inherit  the  curse  for  generations  after. 

The  evils  that  arise  from  errors  in  diet  are  properly  remedied 
by  diet.  An  excess  of  fat  invariably  depends  upon  the  individual 
indulging  to  too  great  an  extent  in  sweets  and  farinaceous  food, 
and  in  not  taking  sufficient  exercise  to  work  it  off.  The  surplus 
in  such  a  case  becomes  stored  in  the  system  as  fat,  and  can  easily, 
as  previously  pointed  out,  be  got  rid  of  by  a  properly  constructed 
dietary.  This  may  be  very  liberal  indeed,  but  all  fat-forming  in- 
gredients must  be  carefully  cut  off.  I  have  known  twenty-five 
pounds  of  fat  lost  in  a  month  by  dietetic  means  alone,  with  vast 
improvement  in  the  general  health  and  condition.  Indeed,  a  loss 
of  surplus  fat  always  means  a  great  improvement  in  condition  as 
well  as  in  activity  and  vigor.* 

Different  constitutions  have  peculiarities  in  regard  to  the  way 
in  which  they  assimilate  food,  and  the  old  adage  that  what  is  one 
man's  meat  is  another's  poison  is  a  very  true  one.  There  is  no  ail- 
ment more  common  in  middle  life  and  in  old  age  than  indigestion. 
This,  of  course,  depends  upon  improper  food  taken  too  frequently 

*  See  Foods  for  the  Fat :  the  Dietetic  Cure  of  Corpulency,  by  Dr.  Yorke-Davies.  Lon- 
don :  Chatto  &  Windus. 


WHY  GROW   OLD? 


233 


and  in  undue  quantity.  As  a  rule,  the  victim  of  indigestion  flies 
to  medicines  for  relief,  or  to  one  of  the  thousand-and-one  quack 
remedies  that  are  advertised  to  cure  everything. 

How  much  more  rational  would  it  not  be  to  alter  the  diet,  and 
to  give  the  stomach  the  food  for  which  it  is  craving!  If  the 
stomach  could  talk,  I  can  imagine  it,  after  pills,  and  gin  and  bit- 
ters, and  quack  remedies  of  every  description  have  been  poured 
into  it,  begging  to  be  relieved  of  such  horrors,  and  saying,  "  Give 
me  a  little  rest,  and  a  cup  of  beef  tea  and  a  biscuit,  and  go  and 
take  a  little  fresh  air  and  exercise  yourself."  Instead  of  this,  the 
miserable  organ  has  to  be  dosed  with  all  sorts  of  horrible  concoc- 
tions in  the  way  of  drugs,  brandies  and  sodas,  and  champagne,  to 
endeavor  to  stimulate  it  into  action.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
stomach  that  requires  stimulants  and  potions  to  enable  it  to  act 
efficiently,  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  in  a  healthy  state,  or  can  long 
continue  to  do  its  work  properly. 

The  digestive  organs,  unfortunately,  are  the  first  to  sympathize 
with  any  mental  worry.  They  are  like  a  barometer,  and  indicate 
the  errors  of  malnutrition  and  their  consequences.  The  healthy 
action  of  every  organ  depends  upon  the  proper  assimilation  of 
the  food  taken.  As  soon  as  the  digestive  process  fails,  every- 
thing fails,  and  ill-health  results  with  all  its  disastrous  con- 
comitants. 

Indigestion  is  more  particularly  the  ailment  of  those  engaged 
in  sedentary  pursuits,  and  if  a  person  who  is  frequently  the  victim 
of  it  would,  instead  of  flying  to  drugs,  try  such  a  diet  as  the  fol- 
lowing for  a  few  days,  he  would  not  regret  doing  so.  At  least, 
this  is  my  experience : 

He  should  begin  the  day  at  7  A.  M.  with  a  tumbler  of  milk  and 
soda  water,  or  a  cup  of  Liebig's  beef  tea,  or  of  bovril.  At  half 
past  seven  he  should  take  a  tepid  or  cold  sponge  bath  and  rub  the 
skin  thoroughly  with  a  coarse  towel  or,  better  still,  before  the 
bath,  with  a  massage  rubber.  At  half  past  eight  for  his  break- 
fast, one  or  two  cups  of  weak  tea,  with  a  little  milk  and  no  sugar. 
A  little  stale  bread  or  dry  toast.  A  grilled  sole  or  whiting,  or  the 
lean  of  an  underdone  mutton  chop,  or  a  newly  laid  egg  lightly 
boiled.  For  luncheon  at  one,  a  few  oysters  and  a  cut  of  a  loin  of 
mutton,  some  chicken  or  game,  or  any  other  light  digestible  meat. 
A  little  stale  bread  and  a  glass  of  dry  sherry  or  moselle.  Such  a 
one  should  avoid  afternoon  tea  as  he  would  poison,  and  at  six  or 
seven  have  his  dinner,  which  should  consist  of  plainly  cooked  fish, 
mutton,  venison,  chicken,  grouse,  partridge,  hare,  pheasant,  tripe 
boiled  in  milk,  sweetbread,  lamb,  roast  beef,  and  stale  bread. 
French  beans,  cauliflower,  asparagus,  vegetable  marrow,  or  sea 
kale,  may  be  used  as  vegetable,  and  half  a  wineglassful  of  cognac 
in  water  may  be  drunk.  If  he  takes  wine,  one  or  two  glasses  of 


234  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

dry  sherry  after  dinner,  and  before  retiring  to  bed  a  cup  of  Lie- 
big's  beef  tea  and  a  biscuit  may  be  taken. 

During  the  day  brisk  walking  exercise  to  an  extent  short  of 
fatigue  should  be  indulged  in,  or  riding  or  cycling,  as  the  case 
may  be. 

Such  an  individual  in  a  few  days  would  find  himself  a  differ- 
ent person.  Slight  ailments  of  this  kind,  and  errors  of  malnutri- 
tion, are  much  better  treated  by  diet  than  by  medicine.  Of 
course,  there  are  certain  habits  that  are  not  conducive  to  long 
life,  such  as  immoderate  indulgence  in  the  passions,  whatever 
they  may  be,  and  the  abuse  of  alcohol.  There  is  no  reason  why  a 
man  should  not  enjoy,  in  moderation,  all  the  good  things  of  this 
life,  and  really  the  enjoyment  of  them  means  taking  them  in 
moderation.  The  man  who  enjoys  wine  is  the  man  who  takes  just 
sufficient  to  do  him  good,  and  the  man  who  drinks  wine  to  excess, 
and  suffers  the  next  morning  from  headache  as  a  consequence, 
can  not  be  said  to  do  so.  Excess  in  alcoholic  stimulants  in  early 
life  means  sowing  seeds  that  will  bear  bitter  fruit  in  mature  age 
— if  the  individual  lives  to  see  it.  The  habit  of  "  nipping  "  is  con- 
ducive to  shortening  life  more  than  any  other  habit.  It  stimu- 
lates the  different  organs  of  the  body  into  unnatural  activity,  and 
the  result  is  that  certain  of  them,  such  as  the  liver  and  the  heart, 
by  the  work  thrown  upon  them,  become,  through  the  enlargement 
and  engorgement  of  their  tissues  with  blood,  diseased  after  a 
time.  This  leads  to  their  being  useless  as  organs  of  elimination 
or  of  healthy  structure,  with  the  result  that,  when  middle  age  is 
just  over,  the  individual  becomes  prone  to  such  complaints  as 
Bright's  disease,  dropsy,  cirrhosis  of  the  liver,  and  other  vital  in- 
dications of  decay.  These  habits  are  acquired  in  early  life.  The 
wind  is  sown  then  and  the  whirlwind  is  reaped  later  on.  It  is 
seldom  that  the  young  will  learn  the  importance  of,  if  I  may  so 
express  it,  training  for  old  age,  but  there  are  exceptions  to  this 
rule.  Only  a  few  days  ago  a  man  came  to  consult  me ;  he  be- 
longed to  the  luxurious  classes,  and,  though  only  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  seemed  to  have  the  forethought  of  a  man  of  sixty. 
A  fine,  handsome  young  fellow  of  nearly  six  feet,  he  said  to  me : 
"  Doctor,  as  most  of  my  family  have  died  young  through  becom- 
ing excessively  fat,  I  want  to  know  what  I  am  to  do  to  avoid  this. 
I  am  already  heavier  than  I  should  be."  Now,  a  man  in  the  full 
enjoyment  of  health  and  bodily  vigor,  who  had  so  much  fore- 
sight, and  who  wished  to  learn  the  means  of  attaining  green  old 
age,  which  he  saw  would  be  sapped  by  a  hereditary  tendency  to 
obesity,  undoubtedly  deserves  to  do  so,  especially  as  the  particu- 
lar condition  that  he  dreads  can  be  so  easily  benefited  without 
debarring  him  almost  every  luxury  within  his  reach. 

If  more  people  followed  this  example,  how  many  years  longer 


WHY   GROW   OLD?  235 

would  the  average  life  be,  and  how  much  more  pleasant  would 
life  become!  One  of  the  greatest  barriers  to  the  enjoyment  of 
life  in  old  age  is  the  condition  that  this  young  man  dreaded ;  and 
my  experience  is  that  the  food  of  old  people  is  by  no  means 
always  what  it  is  wise  for  them  to  take.  It  seems  to  be  the  gen- 
eral opinion  that  old  people  should  be  always  eating,  that  they 
should  be  stuffed,  and  that  farinaceous  food  is  what  they  should 
principally  take.  This,  every  one  knows,  tends  to  develop  corpu- 
lency, which  is,  as  I  have  explained,  a  most  undesirable  con- 
dition. 

I  find  that  if  old  people  are  put  on  a  good  meat  diet  in  the  way 
of  strong  soup,  beef  tea,  and  animal  food,  and  only  just  sufficient 
farinaceous  food  and  fats  and  sugar  to  maintain  the  heat  of  the 
body,  they  increase  wonderfully  in  energy  and,  as  they  often  ex- 
press it,  feel  twenty  years  younger.  This  is  only  natural ;  it  is  a 
food  of  energy ;  the  food  that  builds  up  muscle,  nerve,  and  con- 
stitutional stamina. 

The  requirements  of  the  system  in  old  age,  as  a  rule,  are  not 
very  great,  and  more  harm  is  done  by  taking  too  much  food  than 
by  taking  too  little.  I  have  known  people  considerably  over 
seventy  derive  the  greatest  benefit  from  a  thorough  change  in 
diet.  It  seems  to  rejuvenate  them.  Of  course,  in  old  age  care 
should  be  taken  that  the  body  is  not  subjected  to  rapid  changes 
of  temperature.  When  the  nervous  power  is  decreasing  as  the 
result  of  age,  and  the  system  is  losing  the  power  of  combating 
cold  and  strain  upon  its  energy,  a  stimulating  diet  invigorates, 
and  is  conducive  to  maintaining  constitutional  stamina  better 
than  any  other. 

Any  natural  death  but  from  old  age  and  general  decay  is  an 
accidental  death;  that  is,  it  is  due  to  causes  which  might,  and 
even  perhaps  could,  have  been  entirely  avoided  and  remedied  in 
earlier  years.  But,  of  course,  all  the  secrets  of  attaining  extreme 
age  are  not  even  now  within  our  reach,  and  the  few  that  I  have 
pointed  out  are  but  a  very  few,  and  those  of  the  commonest.  It 
is  the  inevitable  law  of  Nature  that  we  must  die.  The  vital  en- 
ergy that  is  implanted  in  the  body  at  birth  is  only  meant  to  sus- 
tain it  for  a  certain  number  of  years.  It  may  be  husbanded  or 
wasted,  made  to  burn  slowly  or  rapidly.  It  is  like  the  oil  in  a 
lamp,  and  may  be  burned  out  to  little  effect  in  a  little  time,  or 
carefully  husbanded  and  preserved,  and  thus  made  to  last  longer 
and  burn  brighter.  It  is  a  moot  question  whether  every  indi- 
vidual is  not  at  birth  gifted  with  the  same  amount  of  vital  energy 
and  of  life-sustaining  power.  The  probability  is  that  each  is. 
The  circumstances  of  the  environment  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave  determine  its  future  destiny. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  half  of  the  infants  born  in  certain 


236  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

crowded  streets  in  Liverpool  die  before  they  arrive  at  the  age  of 
one  year,  whereas,  under  ordinary  or  healthy  surroundings,  a  half 
would  not  die  within  the  first  five  years  of  life.  Why  is  this  so? 
Simply  because  the  surroundings  are  so  detrimental  to  healthy 
development.  Again,  consumption  is  fatal  to  sixty  thousand 
people  in  England  alone,  annually,  and  this  is  a  disease  born  of 
hereditary  taint,  due  to  unhealthy  surroundings  and  other  health- 
depressing  influences.  In  fact,  as  I  have  before  said,  most  of  the 
diseases  which  destroy  in  early  life  are  due  to  causes  which  ought 
not  to  exist,  and  in  time,  as  sanitary  science  advances,  will  not 
exist.  We  know  that  already  the  improved  sanitation  of  the 
country  is  bearing  fruit,  that  the  average  life  is  lengthening  year 
by  year,  that  many  diseases  that  carried  off  tens  of  thousands  in 
the  days  of  our  grandfathers  are  almost  harmless  now. 

Smallpox  has  lost  its  terrors.  The  causes  of  such  fatal  diseases 
as  typhoid,  diphtheria,  etc.,  are  well  established,  and  doubtless,  in 
time,  these  plagues  will  be  rooted  out. 

Last  year  we  escaped  an  epidemic  that  might  have  carried  off 
hundreds  of  thousands,  and  why  ?  Because  we  know  its  ways, 
and  have  not  allowed  it  to  spread  in  the  country.  The  highest 
duty  of  the  state  is  to  guard  the  health  of  the  people,  and  public 
opinion  of  recent  years  is  waking  up  to  this  fact.  An  epidemic  is 
no  respecter  of  persons ;  it  may  have  its  origin  in  the  hovel  of  a 
pauper,  but  its  baneful  influence  reaches  the  lordly  palace  of  the 
noble,  and  it  ingulfs  all  classes  in  its  deadly  embrace.  The  aris- 
tocrat and  the  plebeian  are  socially  separated  by  a  very  wide  gulf, 
but  as  far  as  epidemic  disease  goes  they  are  conterminous.  Social 
distinctions  are  no  barrier  when  the  angel  of  death  is  following  in 
the  wake  of  those  plagues  that  destroy  life  before  its  natural  ter- 
mination in  old  age  and  general  decay. 

To  sum  up,  if  old  age  is  to  be  put  off  to  its  furthest  limits,  the 
individual  who  wishes  to  attain  it  should  live  carefully  up  to 
middle  age,  taking  plenty  of  exercise,  and  so  adapting  the  diet 
that  corpulency,  gout,  and  other  diseases  due  to  taking  too  much 
and  improper  food  without  doing  sufficient  physical  work  to  con- 
sume it,  can  not  be  developed.  Mental  and  physical  occupation 
are  an  absolute  necessity,  if  the  constitution  is  to  be  kept  in 
healthy  working  order,  and  this  applies  equally  to  both  sexes. 
The  human  economy  will  rust  out  before  it  will  wear  out,  and 
there  are  more  killed  by  idleness  than  by  hard  work.  Human 
energy  must  have  some  outlet,  and  if  that  outlet  is  not  work  of 
some  kind,  habits  are  acquired  that  are  not  always  conducive  to 
long  life. 

Old  age  is  the  proper  termination  of  human  life,  and,  as  Cicero 
says :  "  The  happiest  ending  is  when,  with  intellect  unimpaired, 
and  the  other  senses  uninjured,  the  same  Nature  which  put  to- 


WHY   GROW   OLD?  237 

gether  the  several  parts  of  the  machine  takes  her  own  work  to 
pieces.  As  the  person  who  has  built  a  ship  or  a  house  likewise 
takes  it  down  with  the  greatest  ease,  so  the  same  Nature  which 
glued  together  the  human  machine  takes  it  asunder  most  skill- 
fully." 

Death  by  extreme  old  age  may  be  considered  the  desirable  end 
of  a  long-continued  and  at  times  weary  journey.  The  pilgrim  be- 
gins it  in  infancy,  full  of  hope  and  lifej  continues  it  through 
adolescence  in  its  roseate  hue ;  and  onward  until  middle  age,  with 
its  cares  and  anxieties,  begins  to  dispel  the  illusion.  Then  comes 
the  time  of  life  when  vitality  begins  to  decline,  and  the  body  to 
lose  its  capacity  for  enjoyment ;  then  comes  the  desire  for  rest, 
the  feeling  that  foreshadows  the  great  change ;  and  if  this  occurs 
in  extreme  age,  the  sufferer  seems  to  fall  asleep,  as  he  might  do 
after  severe  fatigue. 

So  the  long  and,  in  many  cases,  the  weary  pilgrimage  of  life  is 
brought  to  a  close  with  little  apparent  derangement  of  mental 
powers ;  the  final  scene  may  be  short  and  painless,  and  the  phe- 
nomena of  dying  almost  imperceptible.  The  senses  fail  as  if  sleep 
were  about  to  intervene,  the  perception  becomes  gradually  more 
and  more  obtuse,  and  by  degrees  the  aged  man  seems  to  pass  into 
his  final  slumber. 

In  such  an  end  the  stock  of  nerve-power  is  exhausted — the 
marvelous  and  unseen  essence,  that  hidden  mystery,  that  man 
with  all  his  powers  of  reasoning,  that  physiology  with  all  the  aid 
that  science  has  lent  it,  and  the  genius  of  six  thousand  years,  has 
failed  to  fathom.  In  that  hour  is  solved  that  secret,  the  mystery 
of  which  is  only  revealed  when  the  Book  of  Life  is  closed  forever. 
Then,  we  may  hope,  when  Nature  draws  the  veil  over  the  eye  that 
is  glazing  on  this  world,  at  that  same  moment  she  is  opening  to 
some  unseen  but  spiritual  eye  a  vista,  the  confines  of  which  are 
only  wrapped  by  the  everlasting  and  immeasurable  bounds  of 
eternity. — The  Gentleman's  Magazine. 


G.  A.  LEBORET,  writing  of  the  late  disaster  at  St.  Gervais,  Switzerland,  from 
the  breaking  of  a  glacial  dam,  and  recalling  other  stupendous  calamities  of  like 
character,  charges  British  geologists,  living  in  a  country  where  Nature's  moods 
are  mild,  with  being  too  averse  to  admitting  cataclysmal  phenomena  and  of  being 
disposed  unconsciously  to  belittle  and  almost  ignore  the  occasional  violent  action 
of  the  various  rock-destroyers.  With  such  catastrophes  in  mind  as  have  occurred 
several  times  in  the  Alps,  of  which  that  of  St.  Gervais  is  only  one  specimen ; 
with  the  flood  in  the  Indus  in  1835,  beside  which  these  sink  into  insignificance — 
and  not  forgetting  our  Johnstown  flood — one  must  hesitate  before  assigning  too 
uniform  a  degree  of  intensity  to  the  various  agents  of  denudation;  nor  can  one 
easily  avoid  the  conclusion  that,  as  regards  some  of  them,  their  rate  of  work  was 
occasionally  far  greater  in  past  than  in  present  times. 


238  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


CHILDREN'S  QUESTIONS. 

MY  little  daughter  is  sitting  very  quietly  on  the  floor  beside 
me,  busily  engaged  in  arranging  her  colored  house  blocks 
in  streets  and  lanes.  She  seems  so  completely  absorbed  in  her  play 
that  I  am  careful  not  to  speak  to  her,  or  even  to  look  at  her,  lest  I 
should  disturb  her.  Suddenly,  however,  she  drops  her  little  houses 
and,  looking  earnestly  at  me  with  her  blue  eyes,  she  asks : 

"  Mother,  does  everybody  die  ?  " 

"  Yes,  dear ;  everybody,"  I  answer,  struck  by  her  question. 

"  The  very  good  ones  too  ?  "  she  questions  on  timidly. 

"  Yes,  the  good  ones  too.  God  takes  them  to  him  because  he 
loves  them,  and  wants  them  to  be  with  him  in  his  beautiful 
heaven." 

For  a  while  the  little  one  remains  quiet ;  then  again,  coming 
up  and  nestling  at  my  side,  she  says : 

"  Mother,  wouldn't  it  be  all  the  same  to  the  loving  God  if  he 
didn't  take  me  into  heaven,  but  left  me  always  here  with  you  ?  " 

Drawing  her  closer  to  me,  I  try  by  caresses  and  loving  words 
to  calm  all  the  doubts  of  her  little  heart.  She  is  in  an  inquiring 
mood,  however,  and  shortly  begins  anew : 

"  Mother,  does  the  angel  who  brings  the  little  babies  carry  them 
in  a  box  or  just  in  his  hand  ?  " 

Unprepared  for  this  question,  I  answer  hesitatingly,  "  No,  not 
in  a  box." 

"  But  they  have  dresses  on,  haven't  they  ?  " 

"  No,  darling,  the  little  babies  come  naked  into  this  world." 

"  But  then,  mother,  how  can  the  parents  tell  whether  it  is  a  girl 
or  a  boy  ?" 

Once  more  I  am  at  a  loss,  but  make  out  to  say,  "  Oh,  we  see 
that  in  their  faces." 

The  little  one  is  satisfied  for  the  moment,  for  she  turns  again 
to  her  toys.  Suddenly  an  idea  strikes  her.  "  Mother,  father  said 
the  other  day  that  I  had  the  face  of  a  boy.  Perhaps  I  am  not  a 
girl  at  all."  This  time  I  can  answer  without  hesitation:  "No, 
dear,  you  are  certainly  mother's  own  dear  little  girl.  But  now 
don't  ask  any  more  questions,  but  come  and  help  me  to  bake  in 
the  kitchen." 

The  child  is  quite  content  to  do  as  I  say,  and,  following  me,  de- 
votes her  mind  with  as  much  seriousness  to  the  cooking,  or  rather 
to  watching  it,  as  she  had  before  shown  in  trying  to  arrive  at  the 
origin  of  mankind.  Truly,  there  is  something  wonderful  in  the 
growing  mind  of  a  child.  The  world  and  life  are  full  of  insoluble 
problems  for  the  adult  understanding,  but  to  the  mind  of  a  child 
every  new  phase  of  things  comes  as  a  riddle  and  a  mystery.  What 


CHILDREN'S   QUESTIONS.  239 

wonder,  therefore,  if  in  their  struggle  for  knowledge,  and  the 
efforts  they  make  to  leari|  from  the  experience  of  their  elders,  their 
whole  being  becomes,  as  it  were,  one  big,  interminable  question ! 

At  times,  of  course,  it  can  not  be  denied,  the  questions  become 
irksome,  but  who  would  wish  a  child  to  ask  no  questions  ?  Julius 
Sturm  tells,  in  one  of  his  pretty  fairy  tales,  how  a  grandfather, 
driven  into  impatience  by  the  constant  questionings  of  his  grand- 
child, exclaimed,  "  I  wish  your  tongue  were  out  of  joint ! "  but 
when,  unexpectedly,  his  wish  was  fulfilled,  and  the  child  became 
dumb,  how  he  joyfully  exchanged  one  of  the  two  years  which  an 
angel  had  prophesied  he  was  yet  to  live  for  the  privilege  of  hear- 
ing the  little  one's  prattle  again. 

A  child  whose  questions  are  not  answered  by  its  parents  will 
either  turn  to  others  who  are  willing  to  gratify  its  desire  for  knowl- 
edge, but  who  perhaps  are  unable  to  distinguish  between  what 
is  good  for  a  child  to  know  and  what  is  not,  or  else  it  will  lose  its 
fine  natural  susceptibility,  and  learn  to  look  upon  life  in  a  dull, 
spiritless  way,  without  interest  or  curiosity.  Worse,  however, 
than  not  answering  a  child's  questions  is  to  ridicule  them.  Noth- 
ing wounds  a  child  so  deeply  as  finding  its  inexperience  abused 
and  its  earnestly-meant  questions  made  the  subject  of  mockery. 
How  common  a  thing  it  is  to  hear  a  child's  question  impatiently 
and  even  contemptuously  condemned  as  "  silly  "  I  Yet,  in  most 
cases  of  the  kind,  the  silliness  is  not  with  the  child,  but  with  the 
older  person  who  fails  to  understand  how  a  child's  mind  works. 
Every  child  has  involuntarily  a  feeling  of  distrust  for  grown-up 
people,  which  is  only  expelled  through  trust  in  the  love  of  its 
parents.  This  trust  once  thoughtlessly  abused  and  shaken  may 
perhaps  never  be  restored  to  its  original  purity  and  strength ;  and 
who  could  have  the  heart  deliberately  to  impair  such  sweet  con- 
fidence ? 

It  is  true  children  sometimes  ask  questions  which  it  is  not  easy 
to  answer,  at  least  not  in  the  short,  simple  form  suited  to  the 
mind  of  the  questioner.  For  example : 

"Do  the  little  sparrows  know  they  are  sparrows  ? " 

"  Do  animals  go  to  heaven,  too  ?  " 

"  Can  God  do  everything  ?  » 

"  Can  he  make  my  birthday  come  twice  in  one  year  ?  " 

Or,  again : 

"  Why  does  the  fire  burn  ?  " 

"Why  is  ice  cold?" 

To  answer  such  questions  may  baffle  our  knowledge,  but  we 
should  at  least  make  an  honest  and  patient  effort  to  say  something 
helpful.  If  we  can  not  give  all  the  light  we  could  wish,  we  can  at 
least  give  sympathy  and  encouragement. — Translated  for  The  Pop- 
ular Science  Monthly  from  the  German,  by  F.  M.  J. 


24o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

EAST  CENTRAL  AFRICAN  CUSTOMS. 

BY  JAMES  MACDONALD. 
PART   II. 

AN  institution  peculiar  to  Central  Africa  is  the  prophetess,* 
who  combines  with  her  prophetic  functions  the  office  of 
witch  detective.  As  she  is  the  most  terrible  character  met  with  in 
village  life,  a  detailed  account  of  her  office  and  method  of  pro- 
cedure may  be  interesting.  It  is  to  the  prophetess  the  gods  or 
ancestral  spirits  make  known  their  will.  This  they  do  by  direct 
appearance,  and  in  dreams  or  visions.  The  prophetess,  who  is 
frequently  the  chief's  free  wife,  dreams  her  dreams  and  then  gives 
forth  oracles  at  intervals,  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  case. 
These  are  generally  delivered  in  a  kind  of  hysterical  frenzy. 
When  she  sees  the  gods  face  to  face,  which  always  happens  at  the 
dead  hour  of  night,  she  begins  by  raving  and  screaming.  This 
she  continues  till  the  whole  village  is  astir,  and  she  herself  utterly 
prostrated  by  her  exertions.  She  then  throws  herself  on  the 
ground,  and  remains  in  a  state  of  catalepsy  for  some  time,  while 
the  villagers  gather  round  her,  awe-stricken,  waiting  for  her  rev- 
elations. At  last  she  speaks,  and  her  words  are  accepted  without 
question  as  the  oracles  of  God.  Has  she  not  seen  the  ancestors 
face  to  face  ?  Has  she  not  heard  their  voice  sending  a  message 
to  their  children  ?  Is  she  not  their  friend,  to  whom  they  have 
shown  favor  ?  Must  not  all  hear  the  words  of  those  who  have 
gone  before  ? 

After  these  revelations,  the  prophetess  may  impose  impossible 
tasks  on  men,  and  they  will  be  attempted  without  question.  She 
may  order  human  sacrifices,  and  no  one  will  deny  her  victims. 
Suppose  she,  for  any  reason,  declares  that  a  person  must  be  offered 
in  sacrifice  to  a  mountain  deity — for  there  are  gods  of  the  valleys 
and  gods  of  the  hills,  deities  of  the  rivers  and  of  the  forests — the 
victim  is  conducted  to  a  spot  indicated  by  her,  and  bound  hand 
and  foot  to  a  tree.  If  during  the  first  night  he  is  killed  by  beasts 
of  prey,  the  gods  have  accepted  the  sacrifice,  and  feast "  on  his 
fat/7  which  is  "as  the  smell  of  spices  in  their  nostrils."  Should 
the  victim  not  be  devoured,  he  is  left  to  die  of  starvation,  or  is 
thrown  into  lake  or  river  with  a  sinker  attached.  "  The  slave  was 
not  worthy  of  the  god's  acceptance.  He  is  worth  nothing  to  any 
one."  Fowls  and  other  animals  killed  in  sacrifice  are  not  burned ; 
they  are  simply  left  near  the  "  prayer  tree,"  and  when  devoured 
during  the  night  the  sacrifice  is  accepted.  Among  the  tribes 

*  Walolo  tribe  and  Lake  Shirwa  district  generally. 


EAST  CENTRAL  AFRICAN  CUSTOMS.  241 

farther  south,  animals  sacrificed  are  cooked  and  eaten,  with  the 
exception  of  the  sacred  portions,  which  are  burned  with  fire. 

As  a  detective  of  wizards  and  witches,  the  prophetess  is  in  con- 
stant demand.  When  traveling  on  official  duty  in  this  capacity, 
she  goes  accompanied  by  a  strong  guard,  and  when  she  orders  a 
meeting  of  a  clan  or  tribe,  attendance  is  compulsory  on  pain  of 
confessed  guilt.  When  all  are  assembled,  our  friend,  who  is  clad 
with  a  scanty  loin-cloth  of  leopard  skin,  and  literally  covered  from 
head  to  foot  with  rattles  and  fantasies,  rushes  about  among  the 
crowd.  She  shouts  and  rants  and  raves  in  the  most  frantic  man- 
ner, after  which,  assuming  a  calm,  judicial  aspect,  she  goes  from 
one  to  another,  touching  each  person's  hand.  As  she  touches  the 
hand  of  the  bewitcher  she  starts  back  with  a  loud  shriek,  and 
yells :  "  This  is  he,  the  murderer ;  blood  is  in  his  hand ! "  I  am  not 
certain  if  the  accused  has  a  right  to  demand  the  mwai,  but  it  ap- 
pears this  may  be  allowed.  My  impression  is  that  the  law  does 
not  require  it,  and  that  the  prophetess's  verdict  is  absolute  and 
final.  The  condemned  man  is  put  to  death,  witchcraft  being  a 
capital  crime  in  all  parts  of  Africa.  But  the  accuser  is  not  con- 
tent with  simply  discovering  the  culprit.  She  proves  his  guilt. 
This  she  does  by  "smelling  out" — finding — the  " horns "  he  used 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  unlawful  art.  These  are  generally  the 
horns  of  a  small  species  of  antelope,  and  which  are  par  excellence 
"  witch's  horns."  The  prophetess  "  smells  out "  the  horns  by  going 
along  the  bank  of  a  stream,  carrying  a  water  vessel  and  an  ordinary 
hoe.  At  intervals  she  lifts  water  from  the  stream,  which  she  pours 
upon  the  ground,  and  then  stoops  to  listen.  She  hears  subter- 
ranean voices  directing  her  to  the  wizard's  hiding  place,  at  which, 
when  she  arrives,  she  begins  to  dig  with  her  hoe,  muttering  incan- 
tations the  while,  and  there  she  finds  the  horns  deposited  near  the 
stream  to  poison  the  water  drunk  by  the  person  to  be  bewitched. 
As  they  are  dug  from  the  ground,  should  any  one,  not  a  magician, 
touch  them,  even  accidentally,  the  result  would  be  instant  death. 

Now,  how  does  the  detective  find  the  horns?  By  what  devil's 
art  does  she  hit  upon  the  spot  where  they  are  concealed  ?  The  ex- 
planation is  very  simple.  Wherever  she  is  employed  she  must 
spend  a  night  in  the  village  before  commencing  operations.  She 
does  not  retire  to  rest  like  the  other  villagers,  but  wanders  about 
the  live-long  night,  listening  to  spirit  voices.  If  she  sees  a  poor 
wight  outside  his  house  after  the  usual  hour  for  retiring,  she 
brings  that  up  against  him  next  day  as  evidence  of  guilty  inten- 
tion, and  that,  either  on  his  own  account,  or  on  account  of  his 
friend  the  wizard,  he  meant  to  steal  away  to  dig  up  the  horns. 
The  dread  of  such  dire  consequences  keeps  the  villagers  within 
doors,  leaving  the  sorceress  the  whole  night  to  arrange  for  the 
tableau  of  the  following  day. 

VOL.   XLIII. — 17 


242  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

In  addition  to  the  horns,  arms  and  pieces  of  human  flesh  may 
be  dug  up  in  suspicious  places,  and  this  is  the  carrion  on  which 
witches  and  wizards  feed.  Any  one  tasting  a  morsel  of  such  food 
is  himself  thereby  converted  into  a  wizard.  Witches  and  wizards 
have  midnight  feasts,  so  says  the  legend,  at  which  they  gorge 
themselves  with  human  carrion.  Hence  it  is  that  in  many  parts 
the  dead  are  not  buried  till  putrefaction  sets  in,  and  graves  are 
watched  a  considerable  period  after  interment.  The  detective 
may  not  be  known  as  such  to  a  wizard,  and  may  pretend  to  follow 
the  same  art  in  order  to  gain  his  confidence.  If,  then,  the  wizard 
offers  the  detective  human  carrion,  no  further  proof  of  guilt  is 
needed.  Whether  such  food  is  ever  offered  to  these  rogues  it  is 
difficult  to  say,  as  their  word  is  accepted  without  question  or 
inquiry. 

Witches  can  cause  milk  to  flow  down  through  a  straw  from  the 
roof  of  a  house,*  and  by  this  means  rob  their  neighbors  of  the 
milk  of  their  goats  and  cows.  When  I  read  of  this  superstition 
for  the  first  time  it  reminded  me  of  an  incident,  connected  with  a 
similar  Celtic  superstition,  which  happened  in  Sutherlandshire 
about  twelve  years  ago.  In  that  region  a  superstition  still  lingers 
that  witches  can  "  steal  the  feet "  of  cows  by  walking  through  the 
fields  while  the  dew  is  on  the  grass,  dragging  a  rope  made  of  cow- 
hair  after  them.  A  Thurso  mason,  well  acquainted  with  north 
country  superstitions,  was  employed  in  the  district  at  the  time  re- 
ferred to,  and  got  a  quantity  of  new  milk  daily  from  a  crofter's 
wife.  At  the  beginning  of  August  she  sent  to  say  she  could  no 
longer  let  him  have  new  milk,  as  that  went  to  the  shooting  lodge, 
but  he  could  have  milk  from  which  the  cream  had  been  taken. 
The  wily  rogue  sent  her  the  following  message :  "  Tell  your  moth- 
er I  do  not  wish  to  be  nasty,  but  I  must  have  new  milk,  if  not 
by  fair  means,  then  otherwise.  I  shall  take  it  from  the  rafters  of 
the  house  rather  than  want."  Next  morning  the  girl  appeared 
with  skimmed  milk,  thin  and  blue.  Malcolm  had  meantime  made 
his  preparations.  He  had  bored  one  of  the  roof  couples,  and  fixed 
a  bladder  filled  with  milk  in  the  thatch  so  as  to  empty  its  contents 
through  the  hole  when  required.  He  then  carefully  plugged  the 
hole.  When  he  saw  the  quality  of  the  milk  sent,  he  asked  the 
girl  into  the  house  that  she  might  see  what  happened  there.  He 
next  took  an  auger  and  bored  the  plug  away,  when  down  came  a 
stream  of  rich  milk  and  cream.  After  that  he  had  but  to  ask 
what  he  required.  No  one  dared  refuse  his  most  extravagant  de- 
mands. His  reputation  as  a  wizard  spread  far  and  near  over  the 
country  side,  and  still  lingers  there  among  the  superstitious. 

Wizards  visit  their  victims  while  asleep,  and  "  instill "  a  power- 

*  This  is  pretty  general  in  East  Central  and  South  Africa. 


EAST   CENTRAL  AFRICAN  CUSTOMS.  243 

f  ul  poison,  known  only  to  themselves,  into  the  ear.*  For  this  there 
is  no  cure ;  the  patient  withers  away,  and  dies  "  when  all  the  flesh 
has  melted  off  the  bones."  They  bewitch  fowls,  cattle,  crops, 
everything  a  man  possesses.  They  make  his  wives  barren,  and 
himself  incapable  of  begetting  children.  They  put  enmity  be- 
tween him  and  his  friends.  In  one  word,  there  is  no  evil  but  they 
practice,  and  a  great  deal  of  the  legislation  of  the  country  is  de- 
signed to  put  down  this  crime,  and  punish  those  who  are  found 
guilty  of  it. 

In  South  Africa  war  resolves  itself  into  a  cattle  hunt ;  in  the 
lake  region  of  East  Central  Africa  it  is  largely  a  slave  hunt.  A 
dangerous  neighbor  or  rival  can  be  effectually  curbed  by  carrying 
away  a  large  number  of  his  subjects  and  sending  them  to  mar- 
ket. This  resolves  war  largely  into  raiding  by  means  of  a  sudden 
and  unexpected  descent.  The  elaborate  preparation  of  the  South 
would  warn  the  whole  country,  and  while  the  doctor  was  engaged 
"  charming "  the  army,  and  distributing  magic  tokens  to  render 
the  braves  invulnerable,  the  enemy  would  have  put  "  seven  hills  " 
between  himself  and  the  advance  column.  All  the  same,  there  is 
a  close  resemblance  between  the  war  usages  of  the  South  and 
what  we  find  in  Central  Africa.  There  we  find,  especially  among 
the  Angoni,  the  Basuto  habit  of  cutting  out  an  enemy's  heart  and 
liver,  and  eating  them  on  the  spot.  We  also  find  the  habit  of 
mutilation,  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  the  parts  to  ashes,  to  be 
stirred  into  a  broth  or  gruel,  which  must  be  "  lapped  "up  with  the 
hand  and  thrown  into  the  mouth,  but  not  eaten  as  ordinary  food 
is  taken,  to  give  the  soldiers  courage,  perseverance,  fortitude, 
strategy,  patience,  and  wisdom.  Should  a  brave  leader  retire  to 
a  mountain,  and  die  there  unconquered,  his  spirit  becomes,  accord- 
ing to  Yao  tradition,  the  guardian  of  the  rain  clouds  that  gather 
there,  and  to  him  offerings  and  prayers  are  presented  at  the  great 
national  gatherings  for  rain.  Mantanga  inhabits  Mangohi,  the 
mountain  the  Yao  remember  as  their  home,  and  to  him  they  pray 
and  sacrifice  for  rain.  He  is  liberal  to  his  children,  and  bestows 
great  plenty.  Chitowe,  on  the  other  hand,  is  surly,  and  is  associ- 
ated with  drought,  famine,  and  leanness.  He  sometimes  appears 
as  an  emaciated  child  or  a  young  woman.  These,  and  many  others, 
are  the  spirits  of  warriors  who  perished  centuries  before  the  white 
man  came  to  bring  a  new  and  terrible  implement  of  destruction, 
and  to  introduce  strange  customs  and  stranger  gods  to  people 
whose  ways  have  been  uniform  since  before  the  Flood. 

Death  is  largely  caused  by  wizards.  The  very  introduction  of 
death  into  the  world  has  a  suspicious  look  of  witchcraft  about  it ; 
in  any  case,  it  was  caused  by  a  woman  who  taught  two  men  to  go 

*  Manganga,  Angoni,  Yao,  Walolo. 


244  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  sleep.  One  day  while  they  slumbered,  she,  more  cruel  than 
Jael,  held  the  nostrils  of  one  till  his  breath  ceased  and  he  died.* 
So  it  happens  that  "  death  and  sleep  are  one  word."  When  a  man 
dies,  if  his  death  was  caused  by  witchcraft,  there  is  no  safety  for 
any  one  till  the  suspected  person  drinks  the  poison  bowl.  How 
such  are  discovered  has  been  already  indicated ;  the  poor  wretch 
who  must  drink  the  poison  may  be  the  man's  most  intimate 
friend,  his  nearest  relative,  or  perhaps  his  wife.  There  are  even 
occasions  when  a  large  quantity  of  mwai  is  prepared  and  num- 
bers take  it  together.  In  this  case  wizards  and  witches  are 
"  cleaned  out "  wholesale.  The  practice  is  not  uncommon  on  the 
Shire  and  the  Zambesi. 

Apart  from  the  discovery  of  the  culprit,  the  dead  are  mourned 
for  by  a  persistent  beating  of  drums  by  night  and  by  day,f  and 
also  by  a  continued  howling  kept  up  by  relatives  and  others,  of 
whom  many  may  be  hired  for  the  occasion.  The  louder  the  drum- 
ming, the  greater  the  grief.  Relatives  shave  their  heads,  and  in 
the  case  of  a  chief  this  is  done  by  all  his  tribesmen.  At  the  grave 
offerings  are  made,  and  the  same  is  continued  for  a  varying  period 
at  the  votive  pot  placed  on  the  site  of  the  deceased's  house. 

At  times,  in  the  case  of  persons  of  social  importance,  as  gen- 
erals in  the  army  and  councilors,  mourning  is  prolonged  for  many 
days  before  sepulture  takes  place,  and  in  that  case  the  body  is  in- 
cased in  bark  and  placed  in  a  suitable  position,  with  a  hole  dug  in 
the  floor  underneath  to  receive  the  decomposed  and  putrefied  mat- 
ter which  exudes  from  it.  The  body  is  ultimately  buried  in  the 
house,  which  is  razed,  and  the  materials  carried  away,  that  the 
spot  may  be  leveled  and  a  votive  pot  placed  there.  A  slave  is 
frequently  killed  and  put  in  the  same  grave  with  his  deceased 
master,  that  the  latter  may  not  have  "  to  go  alone."  Enemies 
killed  in  war  are  not  buried. 

When  sepulture  is  to  occur  in  the  usual  place,  and  according 
to  the  general  custom  of  the  country,  the  body  is  wrapped  in  a 
mat,  usually  the  person's  bed,  and  a  curious  custom  observed  by 
Yao  and  Wayisa,  who  perform  this  office,  is  washing  their  hands 
as  a  ceremonial  act.  This  is  quite  distinct  from  the  idea  of  un- 
cleanness  after  handling  a  dead  body,  which  requires  bathing 
in  running  water  before  eating  or  associating  with  their  fellow- 
men.  After  the  ceremonial  act  of  washing  is  performed,  the  body 
is  carried  to  the  grave  suspended  along  its  length  to  a  bamboo 
pole.  When  the  grave  is  dug,  it  is  carefully  lined  with  palisades 
and  green  branches.  At  either  end  a  forked  stick  is  driven  se- 


*  Yao  tradition,  told  also  by  Wayisa. 

f  Macdonald,  Description  of  Funeral  and  Mourning  Customs  in  Nyassa  Regions.     Mock 
funerals  are  most  common  among  the  Angoni. 


EAST  CENTRAL  AFRICAN   CUSTOMS.  245 

curely  into  the  ground  at  the  bottom  of  the  grave,  and  the  body 
suspended  to  the  bamboo  pole  is  placed  in  position,  the  ends  of 
the  bamboo  resting  on  the  forked  sticks,  and  preventing  its  touch- 
ing the  ground.  A  canopy  of  boughs  is  then  placed  over  it  to 
prevent  the  earth  falling  down  on  the  body,  and  the  grave  is  filled 
in  as  is  usual.  A  slave  may  be  killed  to  accompany  the  deceased, 
but  not  necessarily.  The  house  occupied  by  him  is  burned,  and  a 
votive  pot  placed  on  its  site.  Similar  pots  are  also  placed  on  the 
grave.  When  the  chief  of  a  tribe  dies,  he  is  buried  in  his  house, 
which  is  not  taken  down  nor  burned,  and  in  this  case  the  votive 
pot  is  placed  outside  the  door,  under  the  veranda.  The  personal 
articles  of  the  deceased — pipes,  broken  spear,  walking-sticks,  orna- 
ments, badges  of  office,  charms,  and  wallet — are  placed  in  the 
grave,  and  this  seems  to  be  common  among  all,  or  almost  all, 
African  tribes.  When  mourning  for  the  dead  is  concluded,  which 
is  after  a  varying  period,  there  are  feasting,  drinking,  revelry,  and 
a  second  shaving,  after  which  the  dead  is  forgotten,  or  at  all  events 
seldom  or  never  mentioned  except  as  an  ancestor  to  be  worshiped, 
and  then  not  by  name,  but  by  relation — "  my  father/'  "  my  broth- 
er," "  my  chief,"  "  my  chiefs  son,"  etc. 

A  man  worships  the  spirits  of  his  own  ancestors ;  a  village, 
those  of  its  departed  heads;  a  tribe,  those  of  its  chiefs.  The 
names  of  great  warriors  are  kept  long  in  remembrance,  and  we 
meet  with  many  such  whose  history,  exploits,  and  country  are 
quite  lost,  but  whose  memory  tradition  preserves  as  great  spirits 
who  are  high  in  rank  above  ordinary  ancestral  gods,  and  on  whose 
will  depends  the  destiny  of  peoples  and  the  conditions  of  life  as 
regards  plenty  or  scarcity.  This  is  common  to  almost  all  Bantu 
tribes.  Worship  takes  the  form  of  prayer,  offering,  and  sacrifice. 
Reference  has  been  made  to  the  manner  of  human  sacrifice,  and 
its  frequency  among  certain  tribes  is  appalling.  When  the  gods 
are  offended,  men  must  die ;  when  hungry,  cattle  or  fowls  serve 
their  turn ;  and  when  only  to  be  propitiated,  as  in  view  of  a  favor 
desired,  flour  or  corn  is  acceptable  to  them.  At  great  national 
gatherings — as  for  rain — the  magician,  in  the  priestly  character, 
conducts  the  sacrifice  and  the  prayers,  as  also  in  cases  of  disaster 
and  national  mourning.  In  connection  with  rain-making,  the 
chief  supplicates  his  own  special  god  or  guardian  ancestor.  A 
dance  is  held  in  his  honor,  and  the  chief  throws  up  water  to  indi- 
cate that  he  prostrates  himself  and  his  people  at  the  spirit's  feet, 
who  has  the  giving  or  withholding  of  that  for  which  they  pant 
and  die.  At  times  Mpambe  (lightning),  in  the  form  of  a  deity  of 
the  clouds,  is  invoked  for  rain  by  Yao  and  Shirwa  tribes,  but  Mu- 
lunga,  the  great  spirit — or  more  properly  great  ancestor — is  the 
deity  to  whom  men  look  for  help  in  times  of  distress  and  drought. 
This  worship  of  Mulunga  leads  to  a  kind  of  tribal  pantheism  in 


246  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  lake  region,  for,  after  all,  is  not  the  Earth  the  mother  of  us 
all,  Mulunga  himself  included?  In  the  more  private  devotions  of 
the  people  of  the  Nyassa  region  Mulunga  does  not  appear,  but  a 
man  may  not  only  pray  and  sacrifice  to  his  own  ancestors,  but 
also  to  the  old  inhabitants  who  occupied  the  country  before  his 
forefathers  took  possession  of  it.  The  people  are  gone,  all  dead, 
but  their  spirits  live,  and  dwell  in  the  old  place,  and  see  all  that 
goes  on  in  which  they  take  an  interest.  There  do  not  seem  to  be 
family  and  tribal  distinctions  as  such  among  spirits ;  in  any  case, 
they  do  not  fight  about  territory  as  men  do.  No  Milton  has  yet 
appeared  in  Central  Africa  to  set  the  spirits  by  the  ears. 

The  dead,  however,  may  reappear  in  the  form  of  animals,  but 
only  for  pure  mischief.*  Widows  are  often  held  in  bondage  and 
terror  by  their  lords  returning  in  the  guise  of  a  serpent.  This 
brute  will  enter  the  house,  hide  in  the  thatch,  and  look  at  its  vic- 
tim from  between  the  rafters.  It  will  coil  itself  by  the  fire  and 
steal  into  the  beds ;  it  will  glide  over  articles  of  food  and  explore 
the  interior  of  cooking  utensils.  For  this  persistent  persecution 
there  is  but  one  remedy,  and  that  is  to  kill  the  serpent,  when  there 
is  nothing  left  but  "  pure  spirit,"  which  can  not  appear  in  material 
form  any  more. 

A  Yao  spirit  appearing  in  material  form  is  different  from  a 
spirit's  messenger,  which  also  appears  in  animal  guise.  The  lat- 
ter may  be  a  bird,  a  form  which  a  spirit  can  not  assume,  but  which 
can  be  sent  as  a  messenger,  to  make  known  the  spirit's  will,  some- 
what after  the  manner  of  those  sacred  chickens  which  the  stout 
old  Roman  threw  over  the  side  when  they  refused  to  eat.  The 
African,  too,  can  deal  somewhat  summarily  with  bird  messages 
when  his  interests  and  inclination  lie  in  that  way,  but  this  im- 
plies a  degree  of  courage  which  is  phenomenal. 

Among  the  Angoni  and  the  people  dwelling  on  the  western 
side  of  Lake  Nyassa  there  is  a  common  belief  that  demons  hover 
about  the  dying  and  dead  before  burial,  to  snatch  away  their  souls 
to  join  their  own  evil  order.  By  the  beating  of  drums  and  firing 
of  guns  such  evil  spirits  are  driven  away,  but  a  more  certain 
method  of  avoiding  their  machinations  is  to  have  a  mock  funeral, 
and  so  mislead  and  confound  them.  When  it  is  determined  to 
have  such  a  funeral,  an  artificial  body  is  manufactured  of  any 
convenient  substance,  and  treated  exactly  as  is  done  with  the 
bodies  of  the  dead.  This  lay  figure  is  carried  a  considerable  dis- 
tance to  a  grave,  followed  by  a  great  crowd,  weeping  and  wailing 
as  if  their  hearts  would  break.  Drums  are  beaten,  guns  fired,  and 
every  species  of  noise  made.  Meantime  the  real  corpse  is  interred 
near  the  dwelling  as  quietly  and  stealthily  as  possible.  The  evil 

*  Angoni,  Mauganga,  Waomba,  Anyasa,  etc. 


EAST  CENTRAL  AFRICAN  CUSTOMS.  247 

spirits  are  effectually  deceived ;  when  the  mourners  retire,  there 
is  nothing  in  the  mock  grave  but  a  bundle  of  rushes,  while  the 
true  grave  they  do  not  know  and  can  not  find.  Traces  of  this 
still  linger  in  the  South. 

As  the  African  must  account  for  the  origin  of  death,  so,  too, 
he  has  a  theory  regarding  the  first  appearance  of  man  on  the  earth. 
Both  he  and  all  other  animals  came  out  of  a  hole  in  the  ground, 
after  which  Mulunga— the  great  ancestor — closed  up  the  opening. 
The  place  is  now  desert,  no  man  dwells  there,  and  the  spot  is 
Known  to  none.  The  gods  refuse  to  reveal  it.  Whether  this  is 
that  it  may  not  be  opened,  and  other  creatures  be  allowed  to  es- 
cape from  it,  their  philosophy  does  not  very  clearly  explain,  but 
what  is  very  certain  is,  that  monkeys  were  men  at  the  time  of 
their  exit  from  the  earth,*  but  having  quarreled  with  their  friends, 
went  to  "  dwell  in  the  bush."  To  vex  and  harass  those  whom  they 
left,  they  began  to  pick  the  seed  from  the  ground  after  it  was 
sown,  and  this  habit  having  grown  to  be  hereditary,  monkeys  can 
not  grow  corn,  as  they  te  could  not  leave  their  own  seed  in  the 
ground,"  which  is  perhaps  as  good  a  definition  of  the  difference 
between  men  and  monkeys  as  any  given  by  scientists. 

Reference  to  monkeys  reminds  one  of  that  wonderful  proces- 
sion seen  by  the  pasha,  where  each  carried  a  torch  to  light  him  in 
his  depredations  among  the  corn-fields — a  story  which  one  man 
explains  by  referring  it  to  Ernin's  defective  eyesight,  another  to  a 
possibility  of  monkeys  being  able  to  produce  fire  by  friction. 
Without  giving  any  opinion  regarding  the  accuracy  of  the  ob- 
server, a  statement  made  to  me  by  a  South  African  native,  a 
Pondonusi,  may  throw  as  much  light  upon  it  as  all  our  science. 
At  the  time  I  paid  little  attention  to  it,  and  indeed  it  passed  quite 
from  my  mind  till  I  came  across  the  pasha's  story  in  Mr.  Stanley's 
book.  It  was,  so  far  as  I  can  recollect,  in  the  following  words — 
the  connection  in  which  it  was  told  is  of  no  importance :  "  The 
master  is  surprised.  There  are  monkeys  in  the  mountains  "  (the 
gorges  of  the  Drakensberg)  "  that  go  to  the  fires  men  leave  in  the 
bush,  and  carry  away  burning  sticks ;  they  even  go  up  the  trees 
with  them,  and  then  throw  them  down.  I  have  not  seen  it  myself, 
but  I  have  heard  say  that  when  women  leave  a  fire  near  the  edge 
of  the  bush,  they  come  out  to  the  grass  openly  with  burning 
pieces  of  wood,  and  play  with  them — some  say  they  carry  them 
back  to  the  fire  to  make  them  burn  better."  If  this  is  a  true  and 
sober  version  of  what  is  not  uncommon,  a  little  less  science  and  a 
little  more  ordinary  intercourse  might  have  saved  the  eminent  if 
erratic  German  a  good  deal  of  idle  speculation.  One  can  quite 
fancy  monkeys  playing  with  fire-brands  found  near  the  edge  of 

*  This  tradition  Mr.  Macdonald  found  common  in  the  Shirwa  and  Nyassa  regions. 


248  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  forest,  carrying  them  off  in  their  march  to  the  corn-fields,  to 
cast  them  aside  when  the  work  of  depredation  began. 

If  man's  origin  can  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for,  his  destiny 
is  shrouded  in  impenetrable  gloom.  All  spirits  live,  nor  can  they 
be  killed ;  but  how  employed  or  what  country  they  inhabit  is 
known  to  no  one.  It  is  true  a  man's  ancestors  watch  over  his  life, 
and  the  chiefs  ancestors  guard  the  honor  of  the  tribe,  but  beyond 
this  all  is  uncertainty  and  doubt.*  A  man's  spirit  is  not  at  his 
grave,  though  it  maybe  met  there;  it  is  not  at  his  old  home,  but 
still  it  sees  the  offerings  placed  in  the  votive  pot.  It  does  not  in- 
habit his  son's  house,  though  he  can  not  cut  his  nails  or  trim  his 
hair  without  his  father's  eye  being  upon  him ;  and  should  he  fail 
to  bury  the  clippings  of  his  nails  or  to  burn  the  produce  of  the 
barber's  shears,  he  may  expect  to  be  reminded  of  it  in  the  most 
unpleasant  manner.  Nor  is  it  a  man's  own  actions  alone  that  come 
under  the  cognizance  and  censorship  of  his  father's  ghost.  Should 
his  wife,  while  he  is  on  a  journey,  anoint  herself  with  the  oil  or 
fat  in  daily  use,  she  will  not  only  suffer  herself,  but  bring  calamity 
upon  her  husband ;  should  she  dream  during  his  absence,  she  must 
offer  a  private  gift  for  herself  and  the  absent  one.  So  far  the 
wishes  of  spirits  are  known,  but  how  they  employ  themselves  in 
the  spirit  land,  and  what  are  the  mutual  relations  between  them, 
has  never  been  told.  A  chief  remains  such  in  virtue  of  his  office, 
but  as  to  the  relations  between  rival  chiefs  and  old  enemies,  "  the 
people  who  are  here  do  not  know ;  it  never  was  known,  for  they 
never  told." 

Turning  from  speculations  regarding  creation,  life,  and  death 
to  the  daily  concerns  of  this  world,  we  meet  with  a  number  of  very 
curious  minor  customs  and  institutions  among  the  Yao  and  allied 
tribes.  One  of  these  is  that  of  surety,  or  what  we  might  call  God- 
parent. Every  girl  has  a  surety,  and  when  her  hand  is  sought  in 
marriage  it  is  this  official  who  is  approached,  and  not  her  parents. 
He  makes  the  necessary  arrangements,  and  sees  what  provision  is 
to  be  made  for  her  and  her  children,  should  she  have  any ;  and 
also,  in  the  event  of  her  being  sent  away  without  just  cause,  how 
she  is  to  be  supported  and  cared  for.  When  a  free  wife — for  this 
institution  applies  only  to  free  women — is  dismissed,  she  returns 
to  her  surety,  and  he  redresses  her  wrongs,  and  makes  such  ad- 
justments as  the  circumstances  admit  of. 

In  the  ordinary  conduct  of  affairs,  domestic  and  public,  women 
have  no  voice ;  everything  is  regulated  by  the  men,  who  may  be 
said  to  sit  perpetually  in  council.  A  Yao  woman,  asked  if  the 


*  The  following  customs  are  gleaned  from  notes  and  references  by  missionaries  in  the 
Nyassa  and  Tanganyika  Lake  regions,  no  particular  tribes  being  named.  The  customs  seem 
common. 


EAST  CENTRAL  AFRICAN  CUSTOMS.  249 

child  she  is  carrying  is  a  boy  or  girl,  frequently  replies,  "  My  child 
is  of  the  sex  that  does  not  speak."  The  position  of  woman  is  prac- 
tically that  of  a  chattel.  Women  kneel  when  addressing  men, 
and  go  off  the  public  path  into  the  grass  or  bush  when  they  meet 
any  of  the  opposite  sex  as  a  sign  of  subordination  and  subjection. 
Young  girls  do  not  take  milk ;  if  they  did  it  would  make  them 
barren.  Women,  especially  Makololo,  wear  a  lip-ring  the  size  of 
a  small  table  napkin-ring  in  the  lip,  not  suspended,  as  earrings 
are,  but  inserted  into  the  lip  as  the  "  eyes  "  through  which  "  reef 
points "  pass  are  inserted  between  the  canvas  of  the  sail  and  its 
"  bolt-rope."  It  causes  the  lip  to  project  an  inch  and  a  half  in 
front  of  its  natural  position,  and  at  right  angles  to  the  teeth  and 
gums.  A  small  brass  or  lead  ornament  is  suspended  from  the  side 
of  the  nose,  which  is  pierced  for  the  purpose  as  the  lobe  of  the  ear 
is  for  earrings.  Some  of  the  front  teeth  are  knocked  out  as  a 
beauty  mark,  and  the  arms,  cheeks,  breast,  and  shoulders  are  tat- 
tooed with  strange  and  fantastic  devices.  Necklets  of  teeth,  shells, 
or  bits  of  wood  are  common,  and  brass  wire  is  in  great  demand 
for  bracelets  and  anklets.  The  dress  consists  of  a  loin-cloth  of 
skin,  cotton,  or  bark.  The  latter  is  made  by  stripping  a  piece  of 
bark  from  a  tree,  and  then  beating  it  with  an  ebony  hammer  till 
soft  and  pliant.  It  is  easily  torn,  and  even  when  treated  with  the 
greatest  care  does  not  last  long.  On  the  Shire  and  round  Lake 
Nyassa  the  people  have  hardly  any  stock  except  fowls  and  a  few 
goats,  and  are  thus  precluded  from  having  the  comfortable  sheep- 
skin garments  so  common  among  the  Kaffirs.  Domestic  animals 
are  precious  in  Central  Africa,  so  when  chickens  are  hatched  the 
abandoned  egg-shells  are  collected  and  hung  up  in  the  house  to 
protect  the  brood  from  hawks  and  accidents  of  all  kinds. 

The  principal  industries  among  the  tribes  whose  customs  I  am 
considering  consist  of  pottery  and  working  in  iron.*  They  manu- 
facture clay  pots  of  beautiful  design,  and  burn  them  with  consid- 
erable skill.  There  is  a  tradition  lingering  in  odd  corners  that 
once  upon  a  time  their  ancestors  used  hollow  stones  as  pots  before 
the  art  of  pottery  was  discovered.  If  this  is  true — of  which  there 
is  no  adequate  proof,  however — it  effectually  disposes  of  Don  San- 
tos's idea  that  the  East  Central  African  had  gradually  degenerated 
from  a  higher  civilization,  and  points  rather  to  a  record  of  prog- 
ress. And  there  seems  to  be  beyond  question  steady,  if  slow, 
progress  in  their  skill  in  working  metal  and  fashioning  imple- 
ments of  war  and  husbandry.  There  is  no  question  that  within  a 
comparatively  recent  period  they  tilled  the  ground  with  wooden 


*  The  Angoni  own  a  tribe  of  inner  Africa  which  they  have  reduced  to  the  position  of 
domestic  slaves.  They  are  the  best  smiths  in  the  lake  region.  Whence  they  came  I  do 
not  know,  but  they  were  not  natives  of  that  region  originally. 


250  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

implements,  for  the  memory  of  it  lives  in  universal  tradition 
among  them.  At  no  very  remote  date  a  Tubal-Cain  appeared, 
and  since  his  day  the  iron-headed  hoe  has  found  its  way  into  the 
remotest  hamlet,  and  the  national  ingenuity  has  found  exercise  in 
fashioning  and  ornamenting  weapons  of  war.  The  improvements 
made  in  the  manufacture  of  implements  of  husbandry  and  tools 
for  the  craftsman  are  insignificant  compared  with  the  advance  in 
the  manufacture  of  spear  and  battle-axe.  The  iron  they  smelt 
from  its  native  ore  by  a  primitive  process  of  blast  furnace,  and 
then  work  and  temper  it  much  as  was  done  by  our  country  smiths 
two  or  three  hundred  years  ago.  I  have  seen  spears  of  African 
manufacture,  made  by  Baralong  smiths,  tempered  so  finely  that 
it  required  a  good  Sheffield  blade  to  turn  their  edge.  This  is, 
however,  exceptional,  and  the  vast  majority  of  articles  made  are 
soft,  and  the  iron  coarse  in  texture  when  broken.  In  woodwork 
their  progress  has  been  slower,  and  beyond  polishing  spear-han- 
dles and  the  manufacture  of  musical  instruments,  pillows — a  regu- 
lar article  of  commerce — pipes,  walking-sticks,  and  mallets,  not 
much  is  done,  the  manufacture  of  canoes,  their  greatest  triumph, 
being  always  excepted. — Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute. 

[Concluded.  ] 


THE  BAY  OF  FUNDY  TIDES  AND  MARSHES. 

BY  FRANK  H.  EATON. 

/CONCERNING  the  Bay  of  Fundy  the  school-books  generally 
^-J  note  the  single  fact  that  "  here  the  tides  rise  higher  than  any- 
where else  in  the  world."  But  so  meager  a  reference  to  what  is  in 
itself  an  imposing  exhibition  of  gravitational  energy,  helpful  as  it 
may  be  in  a  mnemonic  way  to  the  learner  of  geographical  cata- 
logues, gives  no  hint  either  of  the  extraordinary  series  of  physio- 
graphical  conditions  which  are  the  cause  of  this  phenomenon  or 
of  those  which  it  creates.  The  Bay  of  Fundy  is  remarkable  not 
only  for  the  grandeur  of  its  tidal  phenomena,  but  equally  so  for 
the  exquisitely  picturesque  sculpturing  of  its  coast  line,  and  the 
diversity,  range,  and  richness  of  geological  evidence  thereby  re- 
vealed ;  for  the  unique  character  of  the  extensive  alluvial  tracts 
that  skirt  its  head  waters,  and  for  the  wealth  of  legend,  tradition, 
and  romantic  incident  embodied  in  the  early  history  of  the  people 
that  dwell  about  it. 

What  is  the  cause  of  the  extraordinary  height  of  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  tides  ?  What  part  have  they  played  in  the  creation  of  the 
Acadian  marshes  ?  Whence  have  been  derived  the  materials  for 
this  enormous  alluvial  deposit  ?  And  what  is  the  source  of  its  ex- 


THE  BAY   OF  FUNDY    TIDES  AND   MARSHES.      251 

haustless  fertility  ?  These  are  questions  often  asked  by  tourists, 
and  which  are  answered,  imperfectly  no  doubt,  in  the  following 
pages. 

North  of  Cape  Cod  the  continental  coast  line  recedes  abruptly 
westward,  and  then  sweeps  in  a  long  curve  northeastwardly  till 
the  head  waters  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  are  reached.  Turning  again 
on  itself,  its  course  is  westward  to  Cape  Sable,  from  which  it  again 
stretches  away  toward  the  east  as  the  southern  shore  of  Nova 
Scotia.  Thus,  between  Capes  Cod  and  Sable  lies  the  long,  narrow* 
open  Bay  of  Maine,  which  terminates  toward  the  north  and  east 
in  the  landlocked  Bay  of  Fundy.  In  the  shallow  waters  of  this 
larger  open  bay  the  tidal  impulse,  which  over  ocean  depths  moves 
only  as  a  wave  of  vertical  oscillation,  is  changed  into  one  of  trans- 
lation. As  the  effect  of  this  transformation  the  whole  body  of 
water  moves  first  landward,  and  then,  sweeping  round  with  the 
curving  coast  line,  skirts  the  southern  shores  of  Maine  and  New 
Brunswick,  till  it  reaches  the  narrow  strait  between  Briar  Island 
and  Grand  Manan.  Compressed  between  these  closer  limits  the 
water  is  forced  onward  with  increasing  velocity  into  the  Bay  of 
Fundy.  Part  finds  its  way  into  the  Annapolis  Basin  and  its 
tributary  rivers,  while  the  main  current  moves  onward  till  it 
meets  the  tongue  of  land  which  terminates  in  Cape  d'Or.  Here  it 
divides,  the  northern  portion  filling  Shepody  and  Cumberland 
Basins ;  while  the  southern  half  rushes  onward  through  the  nar- 
row entrance  to  the  Basin  of  Minas.  As  it  passes  Cape  Blomi- 
don  this  swirling,  eddying,  foaming  torrent  reaches  its  greatest 
velocity — a  rate  of  ten  or  twelve  miles  an  hour. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  long,  sickle-curved  Maine  coast  gradually 
gathers  up  the  water  rolled  upon  it  twice  a  day  by  the  rhythmic 
ocean  movements,  and,  throwing  it  backward,  presses  it  at  last 
into  the  funnel-shaped  Bay  of  Fundy  and  its  adjacent  basins, 
covering  with  a  semidaily  flood  the  low  and  unprotected  marsh- 
lined  shores  and  filling  the  channels  of  the  tributary  rivers  for 
many  miles  inland  to  a  height  of  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  feet  above 
their  fresh-water  levels.  Such,  in  a  general  way,  is  the  set  of  con- 
ditions under  which  the  spectacular  and  physiographical  effects 
of  ordinary  tidal  phenomena  are  exaggerated  in  the  Fundy  tides 
far  beyond  their  normal  limits.  At  some  points  the  extreme  eleva- 
tion of  the  flood  tide  above  low- water  mark  is  as  great  as  seventy 
feet.  In  some  of  the  rivers,  particularly  in  the  Peticodiac  of  New 
Brunswick  and  in  the  Shubenacadie  of  Nova  Scotia,  the  upward 
flow  against  the  fresh-water  current  forms  a  rapidly  moving  wall 
or  bore  several  feet  in  height,  the  rushing  sound  of  which  can 
be  heard  at  a  considerable  distance,  while  in  others  the  two  cur- 
rents meet  and  mingle  so  quietly  that  an  observer  can  hardly  tell 
where  the  backward  flow  begins. 


252  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Lining  the  shores  of  the  head  waters  of  the  bay  and  spreading 
far  inland  up  the  valleys  of  its  river  tributaries  are  extensive 
tracts  of  alluvial  marsh  land  of  remarkable  fertility,  and  differ- 
ing in  their  origin  from  other  so-called  marshes.  In  general, 
alluvial  deposits  are  formed  in  river  basins,  by  materials  washed 
down  from  higher  levels  by  fresh- water  floods;  but  here  the 
whole  deposit  is  of  tidal  origin,  the  result  of  a  landward  rather 
than  a  seaward  transportation.  Every  incoming  tide  is  freighted 
with  a  finely  comminuted  sediment,  the  product  of  the  wearing 
action  of  the  currents  upon  the  sides  and  bottom  of  the  bay. 
During  the  interval  between  the  flood  that  covers  the  undiked 
river  and  basin  margins  and  the  ebb  that  leaves  them  bare  again, 
the  sediment  is  deposited  as  a  film  of  soft  and  glistening  mud 
upon  the  somewhat  hardened  material  left  by  previous  tides. 
Thus  layer  after  layer  accumulates,  until  the  flat  becomes  too 
high  for  any  but  extraordinary  tides  to  cover. 

Instructive  illustration  these  marsh  flats  often  give  of  Na- 
ture's methods  in  the  preservation  of  the  records  by  which  the 
geologist  reads  the  physical  history  of  the  earth.  So  plastic  and 
impressionable  is  the  mud  which  an  outgoing  tide  has  left  that 
it  easily  takes  and  holds  the  tracings  of  any  disturbing  contact. 
A  wind-blown  leaf,  a  resting  insect,  a  drop  of  rain,  may  make 
in  it  a  tiny  mold  which,  hardened  somewhat  before  the  next 
incoming  flood,  receives  thereafter  successive  linings  to  which  it 
gives  its  form  and  markings.  In  this  way  even  the  rain-prints 
of  a  passing  shower  have  been  fixed,  and  then  completely  cov- 
ered up ;  and  yet  when  subsequently  exposed,  so  perfectly  were 
the  spatter  marks  preserved,  that  one  could  tell  in  which  direction 
the  wind  was  blowing  when  the  shower  fell. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  deposition  of  tidal  sediment  can,  in  gen- 
eral, be  made  only  between  the  lower  and  the  higher  limit  levels 
of  the  ebb  and  flow.  The  accumulation  of  greater  depths  of  mud 
than  such  a  range  permits  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  sup- 
position of  a  gradual  subsidence '  of  the  littoral  areas — a  move- 
ment which  would  also  widen  the  area  of  tidal  inundations.  That 
such  a  steady  and  prolonged  subsidence  of  the  Fundy  marsh-lined 
shores  has  been  in  progress  since  the  marsh  began  to  form  is  at- 
tested to  not  only  by  the  surprising  depths  of  mud  accumulated, 
but  also  by  the  occurrence  in  many  places,  especially  along  the 
shores  of  the  Cumberland  Basin,  of  deeply  buried  forests  which 
were  clearly  once  above  the  coexistent  tidal  levels. 

A  general  idea  of  the  geological  features  of  the  great  depres- 
sion in  which  the  Bay  of  Fundy  lies  is  necessary  to  a  fuller 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  these  Acadian  marshes,  and 
especially  of  the  sources  of  their  wonderful  fertility.  In  early 
geological  times,  and  until  long  after  the  close  of  the  Carbonifer- 


THE  BAY  OF  FUNDY  TIDES  AND  MARSHES.     253 

ous  period,  the  bay  was  much,  wider  and  somewhat  longer  than  it 
is  now.  The  long  ridge  of  trap  rock,  known  as  the  North  Moun- 
tain, which  stretches  as  a  huge  wall  between  the  Annapolis  Val- 
ley along  its  southern,  and  the  waters  of  the  bay  along  its  north- 
ern base,  did  not  then  exist,  and  the  waters  of  the  bay  extended 
uninterruptedly  over  the  whole  of  the  Annapolis  Valley  to  the 
base  of  the  Silurian  hills  which,  under  the  name  of  the  South 
Mountain,  now  form  the  southern  inclosure  of  the  valley.  East- 
wardly  the  head  waters  of  the  ancient  bay  washed  the  Devonian 
and  Carboniferous  rocks  of  the  Cobequid  Hills,  while  the  north- 
ern shore  line  of  the  present  bay,  skirting  the  southern  limit  of 
the  Palaeozoic  rocks  of  New  Brunswick,  is  substantially  identical 
with  that  of  the  original  bay. 

In  general  character  the  tidal  movements  of  this  larger  Atlan- 
tic inlet  were  the  same  as  in  the  smaller  modern  bay.  And  the 
semidaily  ebb  and  flow  of  the  waters  produced,  by  their  incessant 
attrition  with  the  carboniferous  limestones,  shales,  and  sand- 
stones, and  the  other  ancient  rocks  that  formed  the  bed  and  mar- 
gins of  the  bay,  immense  quantities  of  sand  and  mud — sediment 
that  was  redistributed  over  the  greater  part  of  the  Fundy  Valley. 
Subsequent  changes  of  level  caused  a  recession  of  the  waters  to 
within  their  present  limits,  and  brought  to  view,  as  the  Triassic, 
or  new  red  sandstone,  extensive  areas  of  these  deposits.  These 
red  sandstone  strata  are  still  to  be  seen  in  shreds  and  patches  at 
various  points  in  the  Annapolis  Valley  and  on  the  shores  of  the 
Minas  and  Annapolis  Basins.  Their  general  dip  toward  the 
north  indicates  that  the  epoch-closing  movement  which  nar- 
rowed the  Bay  of  Fundy  within  its  present  confines  was  a  sinking 
of  the  bed  along  its  northern  or  New  Brunswick  border. 

Following  this  subsidence,  and  as  the  concluding  events  in  the 
series  of  seismic  convulsions  by  which  the  region  gained  its  pres- 
ent topographical  features,  occurred  the  volcanic  eruptions  in 
which  the  North  Mountain  had  its  origin.  This  long,  trappean 
wall  forms  the  southern  boundary  of  the  bay  from  Cape  Split  to 
the  extremity  of  Digby  Neck,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  miles,  the  only  interruption  to  its  continuity  being 
the  singular  gap  called  Digby  Gut,  which  gives  an  entrance  into 
the  beautiful  Annapolis  Basin.  Though  there  were  probably 
many  volcanic  vents  along  this  extended  line  of  fracture,  yet  the 
scene  of  greatest  activity  was  undoubtedly  near  Cape  Split,  at  the 
entrance  to  Minas  Basin,  scattered  along  the  shores  of  which  on 
either  side  are  isolated  patches  of  amygdaloidal  trap.  Transverse 
ridges  of  the  same  volcanic  rock  run  at  intervals,  also,  across  the 
bottom  of  the  bay. 

It  is  the  grinding  action  of  the  Fundy  waters  upon  these  two 
Triassic  rocks,  the  trap  and  its  underlying  sandstone,  that  provides 


254  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  tidal  currents  with  an  unfailing  supply  of  muddy  sediment. 
It  is  mainly  in  the  erosion,  transportation,  and  reprecipitation  of 
these  two  rocks,  and  especially  of  the  latter,  that  the  process  of 
marsh  formation  consists.  The  incessantly  destructive  tide-work 
may  be  seen  at  many  points  along  the  shore  line,  perhaps  most 
conspicuously  at  the  base  of  Blomidon.  Here  the  sandstone 
foundation  is  continuously  being  cut  away  from  under  the  super- 
incumbent columnar  trap ;  and  at  intervals,  especially  in  the 
spring  time,  large  masses  of  the  igneous  rock  are  loosened  from 
the  precipitous  mountain  side  and  crushed  upon  the  beach  below, 
where  the  solvent  and  abrading  action  of  the  waters  can  reach 
them.  It  is  after  one  of  these  spring  slides  that  the  richest  har- 
vests of  amethystine  and  zeolitic  crystals,  for  the  beauty  and 
abundance  of  which  the  Minas  shores  are  noted,  can  be  secured. 
But  it  is  along  the  bottom  of  the  bay  that  the  destructive  tidal 
work  is  most  extensive  and  effective.  Here  exist  great  troughs, 
furrowed  out  of  the  soft  sandstone,  many  fathoms  deep  along  the 
channel  bed,  with  here  and  there  the  interruption  of  the  trans- 
verse trappean  dikes  already  spoken  of. 

The  sandstone  yields,  of  course,  the  greater  part  of  the  marsh- 
creating  sediment.  Its  detritus  consists  of  a  large  percentage  of 
silica,  a  little  clay,  the  iron  which  mainly  determines  its  reddish 
color,  and  the  calcareous  matter  which  served  as  cement  in  the 
parent  rock.  This  material,  in  the  extremely  comminuted  form 
in  which  it  occurs  in  marsh-land  soil,  would  itself  afford  condi- 
tions highly  favorable  to  the  support  of  vegetable  life.  But  an 
additional  cause  of  the  wonderful  fertility  of  the  Acadian  marshes 
is  the  richness  of  the  trap  rock  in  various  salts  of  potash,  lime, 
and  alumina  which  the  action  of  the  water  mingles  freely  with 
the  sandstone  mud.  The  plant-supporting  power  of  this  complex 
soil  is  increased  still  further  by  contributions  from  the  upland 
soils  through  the  medium  of  the  streams  and  rivers  flowing 
toward  the  bay. 

The  great  fertility  of  this  alluvium  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  portions  of  the  Annapolis,  Cornwallis,  Grand  Prd,  and 
Cumberland  marshes  have  been  producing  annually  for  nearly 
two  centuries  from  two  to  four  tons  per  acre  of  the  finest  hay. 
Besides,  it  is  a  common  practice,  after  the  hay  has  been  removed, 
to  convert  the  marshes  into  autumn  pastures,  on  the  luxuriant 
tender  after-growth  of  which  cattle  fatten  more  rapidly  than  on 
any  other  kind  of  food.  Thus,  virtually,  two  crops  are  annually 
taken  from  the  land,  to  which  no  fertilizing  return  is  ever  made. 
The  only  portions  of  the  Acadian  marshes  that  have  as  yet 
shown  signs  of  exhaustion  are  those  about  the  Chiegnecto  branch 
of  the  bay,  on  the  cliffs  and  bed  of  which  the  Triassic  rocks  do 
not  occur,  but  in  their  stead  a  series  of  blue  and  gray  "grind- 


THE  BAY   OF  FUNDY  TIDES  AND  MARSHES.      255 

stone  grits  "  of  an  earlier  formation.  In  this  region  the  marshes 
situated  well  up  toward  the  head  of  the  tide,  where  the  red  soil 
of  the  uplands  has  been  mingled  with  the  gray  tidal  mud,  are 
good,  while  those  lower  down  are  of  inferior  quality  and  less 
enduring.  Efforts  are  being  made  to  renew  and  improve  these 
inferior  tracts  by  admitting  the  tide  upon  them. 

In  general,  however,  the  necessity  for  periodic  inundations  by 
the  muddy  waters  of  the  bay  in  order  to  maintain  the  productive- 
ness of  the  marshes,  as  implied  in  the  passage  from  Evangeline — 

"  Dikes  that  the  hand  of  the  farmer  had  raised  with  labor  incessant, 
Shut  out  the  turbulent  tides ;  but  at  stated  seasons  the  flood-gates 
Opened  and  welcomed  the  sea  to  wander  at  will  o'er  the  meadows  " — 

not  only  does  not  exist,  but,  on  the  contrary,  some  two  or  three 
years  are  required  for  the  grass  roots  to  recover  from  the  injury 
done  them  by  the  salt  water,  when,  as  occasionally  happens,  an 
accident  to  the  protecting  dikes  admits  the  imwelcome  flood. 

The  exceedingly  fine  texture  of  the  soil,  and  its  consequent 
compactness  and  retentiveness  of  moisture,  render  it  for  the  most 
part  quite  unsuitable  for  the  production  of  root  crops,  and  at  the 
same  time  adapt  it  admirably  for  the  growth  of  hay  and  of 
cereals,  especially  oats,  barley,  and  wheat.  As  a  rule,  however, 
the  succession  of  grass  crops  is  interrupted  only  at  intervals  of 
from  five  to  ten  or  more  years  by  a  single  crop  of  grain.  The  re- 
productive power  of  the  grass  roots  declines  perceptibly  with 
long-continued  cropping,  so  that  a  renewal  of  the  stock  by  re- 
seeding  is  occasionally  necessary.  For  this  purpose  the  marsh  is 
plowed  in  the  autumn  or  spring  and  new  seed  sown  ;  but  to  avoid 
the  loss  of  a  season,  since  grass  does  not  mature  for  harvesting 
the  first  year,  grain  is  also  sown  and  a  large  yield  usually  ob- 
tained. This  plowing  and  reseeding  at  intervals  often  of  many 
years  is  the  only  cultivation  the  soil  receives  or  requires.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  abundant  harvests  of  grain  might  not 
be  obtained  annually  for  an  indefinite  period,  but,  as  this  would 
involve  annual  tilling,  the  hay  crop  is  more  profitable. 

Along  the  river  estuaries  the  encroachment  of  the  land  upon 
the  sea  is  in  continual  progress,  so  that  there  are  always  consider- 
able areas  of  unreclaimed  salt  marsh,  the  lower  portions  of  which 
are  flooded  every  day,  while  the  higher  portions  are  covered  only 
by  the  highest  tides.  The  reclamation  of  such  new  marsh  is 
effected  by  building  around  its  seaward  margin  a  wall  or  dike  of 
mud  to  prevent  all  tidal  overflow.  After  two  or  three  years  the 
salt  will  have  sufficiently  disappeared  to  permit  the  growth  of  a 
crop  of  wheat,  and  in  a  year  or  two  more  the  best  quality  of  Eng- 
lish grass  will  grow. 

At  the  head  of  Cumberland  Basin  an  interesting  experiment  in 


256  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  reclamation  of  worthless  land  has  been  successfully  tried. 
Large  areas  of  swamp  and  in  some  instances  shallow  lakes  have 
been  connected  with  the  tidal  waters  of  the  neighboring  rivers  by 
channels  cut  through  intervening  ridges  of  upland,  thus  effecting 
the  double  purpose  of  draining  and  of  admitting  the  mud-laden 
tides.  In  this  way,  in  five  or  ten  years,  many  acres  of  worthless 
swamp  have  been  converted  into  valuable  dike-land. 

The  use  of  marsh  mud  as  a  fertilizer  is  very  general  among 
farmers  to  whom  it  is  accessible.  It  is  taken  in  the  autumn  or 
winter  from  the  bank  of  some  tidal  creek  or  river,  where  the  daily 
depositions  can  soon  replace  it,  and  spread  directly  on  the  upland. 
Its  effects  are  twofold  :  it  enriches  with  valuable  supplies  of  plant 
food  the  soil  to  which  it  is  applied,  and  it  greatly  improves  the 
texture  of  all  light  and  open  soils,  making  them  more  compact 
and  firm,  and  so  more  retentive  of  moisture  and  of  those  ingredi- 
ents which  are  otherwise  easily  washed  away.  This  permanent 
effect  upon  the  physical  character  of  the  soil  which  the  marsh 
mud  produces  renders  undesirable  its  application  to  clayey  soils 
already  compact  and  firm  and  moist  enough ;  for  it  makes  them 
more  difficult  to  work,  and  more  impervious  to  atmospheric  influ- 
ences. To  well-drained  hay  fields,  however,  which  need  but  little 
cultivation,  the  mud  may  be  advantageously  applied,  even  though 
the  soil  be  naturally  stiff  and  heavy. 

The  French  settlers  were  the  first  Acadian  dike-builders. 
They  brought  the  art  from  the  Netherlands;  and  to  this  day 
no  other  class  of  provincial  workmen  is  as  skillful  in  the  often 
difficult  work  of  dike  construction  as  the  Acadian  French.  It 
was  no  doubt  the  existence  of  these  vast  areas  of  marsh  land,  whose 
potential  value  was  even  then  clearly  seen,  that  induced  the  first 
New  World  immigrants  to  settle  about  the  Bay  of  Fundy  shores ; 
and  it  was  these  same  broad,  fertile  marshes  left  unoccupied  by  the 
expulsion  of  the  Acadian  French  that  attracted  the  New  England 
settlers,  whose  descendants  now  derive  from  them  an  income 
aggregating  not  less  than  a  million  dollars  annually. 


As  described  by  B.  F.  S.  Baden-Powell,  in  his  In  Savage  Isles  and  Settled 
Lands,  the  aboriginals  of  Australia  are  an  extraordinary  people — to  look  at, 
u  quite  unlike  any  other  human  beings  I  ever  saw.  A  thick,  tangled  mass  of 
black  hair  covers  their  heads ;  their  features  are  of  the  coarsest ;  very  large,  broad, 
and  flattened  noses;  small,  sharp,  bead-like  eyes  and  heavy  eyebrows.  They 
generally  have  a  coarse,  tangled  bit  of  beard ;  skin  very  dark,  and  limbs  extraordi- 
narily attenuated  like  mere  bones.  But  they  always  carry  themselves  very  erect. 
.  .  .  They  wander  about  stark  naked  over  the  less  settled  districts,  and  live  en- 
tirely on  what  they  can  pick  up.  ...  If  not  the  lowest  type  of  humanity,  they 
would  be  hard  to  beat.  They  show  but  few  signs  of  human  instinct,  and  in  their 
ways  seem  to  be  more  like  beasts." 


SKETCH  OF  SIR  ARCHIBALD    OEIKIE.  257 


SKETCH  OF  SIR  ARCHIBALD  GEIKIE. 

THE  most  prominent  features  in  Sir  Archibald  Geikie's  geo- 
logical work  are  his  studies  of  the  effects  of  volcanic  force, 
beginning  in  Scotland  and  extending  to  many  countries  ;  and  his 
explanations  of  the  fundamental  part  which  geological  processes 
have  played  in  shaping  the  topographical  features  of  the  land, 
and  in  the  origin  of  natural  scenery. 

Prof.  Geikie  was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  1835 ;  was  educated  at 
the  high  school  and  the  university  in  that  city ;  was  appointed  an 
assistant  on  the  Geological  Survey  of  Scotland  in  1855 ;  acquitted 
himself  so  well  in  that  capacity  that  when  the  Scottish  branch  of 
the  survey  was  made  a  separate  establishment  in  1867,  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison  appointed  him  its  director.  In  December,  1870,  he  was 
appointed  to  the  new  professorship  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh of  Geology  and  Mineralogy,  founded  by  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison,  with  a  concurrent  endowment  by  the  crown.  He  held 
this  position  till  the  beginning  of  1881,  when  he  resigned  it,  to 
take  the  place  of  Sir  Andrew  C.  Ramsay  as  Director-General  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  Director  of 
the  Museum  of  Practical  Geology  in  London. 

The  published  record  of  Prof.  Geikie's  life  relates  exclusively 
to  his  investigations,  papers,  addresses,  and  books  on  subjects  re- 
lating to  geology.  In  this  field  he  has  labored  with  unceasing 
diligence,  and  to  it  he  seems  to  have  devoted  the  whole  energy  of 
his  active  career.  Complicated  problems  presented  themselves  to 
him  when  he  entered  upon  the  surveys,  of  which  he  was  called 
upon  to  work  out  the  solutions.  One  of  the  first  to  attract  his 
attention  was  the  relation  of  the  crystalline  rocks  of  the  High- 
lands to  the  Silurian  strata  on  which  they  rest,  which  Murchison 
had  accepted  as  normal ;  an  assumption  from  which  logically  fol- 
lowed the  hypothesis  that  these  gneisses  were  altered  sediments. 
Mr.  Geikie  gradually  became  dissatisfied  with  this  view,  and  com- 
missioned two  assistants  to  review  the  fields  in  which  the  most 
decisive  evidence  was  to  be  obtained,  instructing  them  "  to  divest 
themselves  of  any  prepossession  in  favor  of  published  views,  and 
to  map  existing  facts  in  entire  disregard  of  theory."  From  the 
evidence  afforded  by  this  survey,  Murchison's  view  was  proved  to 
be  a  mistaken  one ;  and  for  it  was  substituted  the  theory  that  the 
elevation  of  the  mountains  and  the  metamorphism  of  the  gneisses 
were  the  effect  of  enormous  pressure  resulting  in  the  folding  and 
breaking  of  the  whole  border  of  the  dry  land.  The  mountains 
have  been  reduced  to  their  present  shape  by  denudation,  by  which 
also  much  of  the  evidence  of  plication  has  been  washed  away, 
while  the  remains  of  the  disturbed  rocks  occupy  the  position 

TOL.    XLIII. — 18 


258  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

which  suggested  Murchison's  view.  The  displacements  were  ac- 
companied by  modifications  of  the  rocks,  of  which  Geikie  wrote 
that  "  in  exchange  for  this  (Murchison's)  abandoned  belief  we  are 
presented  with  startling  new  evidence  of  original  metamorphism 
on  a  colossal  scale,  and  are  admitted  some  way  into  the  secret  of 
the  processes  whereby  it  has  been  produced." 

Sir  Archibald  Geikie's  chief  geological  work,  according  to  the 
estimate  of  Nature,  seems  to  be  his  exhaustive  review  of  the  vol- 
canic history  of  the  British  Isles.  The  northwestern  part  of  Great 
Britain  is  marked,  like  the  Snake  River  region  in  our  own  coun- 
try, by  the  evidences  of  the  outpouring  over  the  land  of  immense 
sheets  of  lava,  which  in  the  present  instance  took  place  in  Tertiary 
times.  Sir  Archibald  made  it  his  task  in  the  investigation  of  this 
phenomenon  "  to  discern  the  site  of  the  centers  of  eruption,  and 
determine  the  old  chimneys,  the  remnants  of  which  give  a  glimpse 
into  the  lowest  parts  of  ascending  lavas ;  to  discriminate  the  vol- 
canic necks,  the  intrusive  sheets  and  dikes,  the  bedded  lavas  and 
the  tuffs."  Evidences  of  still  earlier  volcanic  activity  were  also 
found  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Scotland,  and  in  the  oldest 
formations  of  England  and  Wales.  In  order  to  prepare  himself 
more  thoroughly  for  the  investigation  of  this  phenomenon,  Mr. 
Geikie  traveled  over  much  of  Europe,  from  northern  Norway  to 
the  Lipari  Islands;  then  came  over  to  Canada  and  the  United 
States,  and  followed  the  course  of  our  geological  surveys,  particu- 
larly in  the  Western  States  and  Territories  and  the  lava-covered 
regions.  In  another  department  of  the  same  investigation  he  gave 
more  attention  to  petrological  studies  than  any  Englishman  had 
done  before  him.  Besides  giving  rise  to  many  valuable  memoirs 
relating  directly  to  what  he  had  seen  and  observed,  these  studies 
contributed  greatly  to  the  enlargement  of  Prof.  Geikie's  views 
and  to  the  increase  of  the  breadth  of  his  work ;  and  some  of  their 
results  may  be  seen  in  the  greater  richness  of  illustration  appar- 
ent in  his  subsequent  writings.  Their  mature  fruit  is  presented 
as  a  whole  in  his  presidential  addresses  of  1891  and  1892.  He  was 
especially  interested,  they  being  exactly  in  the  line  of  his  princi- 
pal study,  in  the  lava*beds  of  Snake  River ;  and  in  his  essay  on 
the  Lava  Fields  of  Northwestern  Europe  refers  to  them  as  the  site 
which  first  enabled  him  to  realize  the  conditions  of  volcanic  action 
described  by  Richtofen — the  emission  of  vast  floods  of  lava  with- 
out formation  of  cones  and  craters — and,  without  acquiescing  in 
all  that  author's  theoretical  conclusions,  to  judge  of  the  reality  of 
the  distinction  "  which  he  rightly  drew "  between  massive  erup- 
tions and  ordinary  volcanoes  with  cones  and  craters. 

We  have  referred  to  Prof.  Geikie's  work  in  tracing  the  origin 
of  the  present  shaping  of  land  surfaces  and  of  natural  scenery  to 
its  geological  factors  as  constituting  one  of  his  special  titles  to 


SKETCH  OF  SIR  ARCHIBALD    GEIKIE.  259 

fame.  To  his  aptitude  in  this  application  Nature  largely  ascribes 
the  success  of  his  more  popular  works,  which,  it  says,  "  will  be 
easily  understood  if  we  remember  that  in  Sir  Archibald's  works 
the  traditional  barrenness  of  geology  is  always  smoothed  and 
adorned  by  a  deep  and  intense  feeling  for  Nature.  Nobody  has 
done  more  than  he  to  associate  geological  science  with  the  appre- 
ciation of  scenery."  Mr.  G.  K.  Gilbert,  in  a  review  of  his  Text- 
Book  of  Geology,  remarks  as  a  single  departure  in  the  volume 
the  elevation  of  physiographical  geology  to  the  rank  of  a  major 
division.  "  The  same  title,  it  is  true,  has  been  placed  by  Dana  at 
the  head  of  a  primary  division  of  the  subject,  but  it  was  used  by 
him  in  a  different  sense.  With  Dana  it  is  a  synonym  for  physical 
geology;  with  Geikie  it  is  'that  branch  of  geological  inquiry 
which  deals  with  the  evolution  of  the  existing  contours  of  the 
dry  land/  So  far  as  the  subject  has  had  place  in  earlier  treatises, 
it  has  been  regarded  as  a  subdivision  of  dynamical  geology,  and 
the  classification  which  placed  it  there  was  certainly  logical.  In 
dynamical  geology,  as  formulated  by  Geikie,  the  changes  which 
have  their  origin  beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth  (volcanic  action, 
upheaval,  and  metamorphism)  and  the  changes  which  belong  ex- 
clusively to  the  surface  (denudation  and  deposition)  are  separately 
treated.  In  physiographical  geology  the  conjoint  action  of  these 
factors  of  change  is  considered  with  reference  to  its  topographical 
results.  Starting  from  geological  agencies  as  data,  we  may  pro- 
ceed in  one  direction  to  the  development  of  geological  history,  or 
in  another  direction  to  the  explanation  of  terrestrial  scenery  and 
topography,  and  if  the  development  of  the  earth's  history  is  the 
peculiar  theme  of  geology,  it  follows  that  the  explanation  of  to- 
pography, or  physiographical  geology,  is  of  the  nature  of  an  inci- 
dental result — a  sort  of  corollary  to  dynamical  geology.  The  sys- 
tematic rank  assigned  to  it  by  Geikie  is  an  explicit  recognition  of 
what  has  long  been  implicitly  admitted — that  geology  is  con- 
cerned quite  as  really  with  the  explanation  of  the  existing  fea- 
tures of  the  earth  as  with  its  past  history." 

The  subject  was  first  formally  presented  from  this  point  of 
view  in  the  Lectures  on  the  Scenery  of  Scotland  viewed  in  Con- 
nection with  its  Physical  Geology,  which  were  delivered  in  1865. 
At  this  time,  as  Mr.  A.  H.  Green  remarks  in  his  review  of  a  new 
edition  of  the  lectures  in  1887,  the  controversy  respecting  Hut- 
ton's  theory  of  denudation  as  the  main  and  most  efficient  agency 
in  shaping  the  earth's  surface  was  at  its  height.  The  author  ac- 
knowledged in  the  preface  to  his  second  edition  that  his  views 
when  first  published  ran  directly  counter  to  the  prevailing  im- 
pressions on  the  subject ;  but  now,  after  a  lapse  of  twenty-two 
years,  they  were  accepted  as  part  of  the  general  stock  of  geologi- 
cal knowledge.  "  How  largely,"  Mr.  Green  says,  "  this  result  is 


260  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

due  to  his  own  steady  and  powerful  advocacy  all  geologists  are 
aware ;  but  he  gracefully  reminds  us  that  we  also  owe  much  to 
the  labors  of  those  American  geologists  who  have  found  in  the 
Western  Territories  such  convincing  instances  of  the  work  of 
denudation  in  shaping  the  surface."  The  first  part  of  the  book, 
comprising  the  lectures,  deals  with  land-sculpture  in  general,  and 
describes  the  working  of  Nature's  sculpturing  tools.  The  reader 
is  then  taken  in  succession  to  the  different  characteristic  regions 
in  the  country  and  shown  in  detail,  with  much  wealth  of  illustra- 
tion, how  the  hills  and  valleys  and  salient  features  have  been 
wrought  out.  The  subject  could  very  well  be  treated  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  make  the  presentation  of  it  formal  and  dry  in  the 
extreme ;  but,  says  Mr.  Green,  the  'author  "  knows  and  loves  his 
fatherland  too  well  to  look  upon  it  merely  as  the  object  of  geo- 
logical research.  Legend  and  history,  old  ballads  and  modern 
poetry,  have  all  been  pressed  into  his  service,  and  he  interweaves 
into  his  narrative  allusion  and  quotation  in  a  way  that  enlivens 
even  the  most  technical  parts  of  the  volume.  The  chapter  on 
The  Influence  of  the  Physical  Features  of  Scotland  upon  the 
People  shows  well  what  a  vast  amount  of  human  interest  attaches 
even  to  so  special  a  science  as  geology." 

Prof.  Geikie  himself  predicted  in  an  address  before  the  Geo- 
logical Society  of  Edinburgh,  in  1873,  for  the  future  of  his  theory : 
"  Of  one  thing  I  feel  surely  confident :  When  the  din  of  strife  has 
ceased  and  men  come  to  weigh  opinions  in  the  dispassionate  light 
of  history,  the  profound  influence  of  the  Huttonian  doctrines  of 
the  present  time  on  the  future  course  of  geology  will  be  abun- 
dantly recognized.  By  their  guidance  it  will  be  possible  to  recon- 
struct the  physical  geography  of  the  continents  in  successive  ages 
back  into  some  of  the  earliest  periods  of  geological  history." 

Prof.  Geikie's  theory  is  further  elaborated  and  applied  in  his 
five  lectures,  delivered  at  the  Royal  Institution,  in  1884,  on  The 
Origin  of  the  Scenery  of  the  British  Isles.  In  these  lectures  the 
author  held  that  "  the  present  surface  of  Britain  is  the  result  of 
long,  complicated  processes  in  which  underground  movements, 
though  sometimes  potent,  have  only  operated  occasionally,  while 
superficial  erosion  has  been  continuous  so  long  as  any  land  has 
remained  above  the  sea.  The  order  of  appearance  of  the  existing 
features  is  not  necessarily  that  of  the  chronological  sequence  of 
the  rocks.  The  oldest  formations  have  all  been  buried  under 
later  accumulations,  and  their  re-emergence  at  the  surface  has 
only  been  brought  about  after  enormous  denudation."  The  lect- 
ures conclude  with  an  indication  of  the  connection  between  the 
scenery  of  a  country  and  the  history  and  temperament  of  its  peo- 
ple. This  subject  was  considered  from  four  points  of  view,  the 
influence  of  landscape  and  geological  structure  being  traced  in  the 


SKETCH  OF  SIR  ARCHIBALD    GEIKIE.  261 

distribution  of  races,  national  history,  industrial  and  commercial 
progress,  and  national  temperament  and  character.  Prof.  Geikie 
found  in  the  United  States  an  emphatic  confirmation  of  his  theory 
in  one  of  the  most  impressive  features  of  our  geology,  which  he 
records,  in  1887,  in  a  review  of  Newberry  and  Macomb's  Survey 
of  the  Upper  Colorado.  "The  whole  of  this  Colorado  basin  or 
plateau  is  justly  regarded  as  the  most  magnificent  example  on 
the  face  of  the  globe  of  how  much  the  land  may  have  its  features 
altered  by  the  action  of  running  water." 

The  method  based  upon  this  theory  prevails  in  Prof.  Geikie's 
Physical  Geology,  which  is  described  by  Dr.  Jukes  as  "  an  ex- 
ample of  the  treatment  of  geographical  questions  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  geologist."  The  author  is  actuated,  the  reviewer 
continues,  "  by  the  conviction  of  the  necessity  for  a  broader  and 
more  vivid  presentation  of  the  action  and  reaction  upon  one  an- 
other of  the  various  forces  acting  and  reacting  upon  the  surface 
of  the  globe  than  is  usually  found  in  works  on  physical  geogra- 
phy, in  order  to  convey  a  just  idea  of  the  character  and  signifi- 
cance of  the  features  which  it  presents." 

The  subject  is  again  presented  in  the  presidential  address  at 
the  Edinburgh  meeting  of  the  British  Association  in  1892,  the  spe- 
cial topic  of  which  was  the  commemoration  of  the  centenary  of 
Button's  theory  and  unif  ormitarianism,  and  in  which  special  stress 
is  laid  on  Hutton  and  Playfair's  recognition  of  the  fact  that  exist- 
ing inequalities  in  topographical  detail "  are  only  varying  and 
local  accidents  in  the  progress  of  the  one  great  process  of  the 
degradation  of  the  land." 

This  breadth  of  view  concerning  the  methods  and  purposes  of 
geological  study  marks  those  of  the  author's  addresses  of  which 
that  was  the  principal  subject.  In  the  opening  lecture  before  the 
class  in  geology  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  delivered  in  1871, 
he  advises  his  hearers,  "  Let  us  turn  from  the  lessons  of  the  lec- 
ture-room to  the  lessons  of  the  crags  and  ravines,  appealing  con- 
stantly to  Nature  for  the  explanation  and  verification  of  what  is 
taught." 

The  introduction  to  his  Class  Book  of  Geology,  published  in 
1886,  concludes  with  the  words :  "  Geology  is  essentially  a  science 
of  observation.  The  facts  with  which  it  deals  should,  as  far  as 
possible,  be  verified  by  our  own  personal  examination.  We  should 
lose  no  opportunity  of  seeing  with  our  own  eyes  the  actual  prog- 
ress of  the  changes  which  it  investigates,  and  the  proofs  which 
it  adduces  of  similar  changes  in  the  far  past.  To  do  this  will 
lead  us  to  the  banks  of  rivers  and  lakes,  and  to  the  shores  of  the 
sea.  We  can  hardly  take  any  country  walk,  indeed,  in  which, 
with  duly  observant  eye,  we  may  not  detect  either  some  geological 
operation  in  actual  progress,  or  the  evidence  of  one  which  has  now 


262  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

been  completed.  Having  learned  what  to  look  for  and  how  to  in- 
terpret it  when  seen,  we  are  as  it  were  gifted  with  a  new  sense. 
Every  landscape  comes  to  possess  a  fresh  interest  and  charm,  for 
we  carry  about  with  us  everywhere  an  added  power  of  enjoyment, 
whether  the  scenery  has  been  long  familiar  or  presents  itself  for 
the  first  time.  I  would  therefore  seek  at  the  outset  to  impress 
upon  those  who  propose  to  read  the  following  pages  that  one  of 
the  main  objects  with  which  this  book  is  written  is  to  foster  a 
habit  of  observation  and  to  serve  as  a  guide  to  what  they  are 
themselves  to  look  for,  rather  than  merely  to  relate  what  has 
been  seen  and  determined  by  others."  At  the  very  outset  in  this 
work,  geology  is  regarded,  "  not  as  an  amusement  for  the  collector 
and  a  means  of  learning  where  he  will  get  pretty  and  curious 
objects  for  his  cabinet ;  not  as  a  field  where  the  ingenuity  or  per- 
versity of  the  classifying  mind  may  delight  itself  with  grouping 
natural  products  as  reason  prompts ;  not  in  any  other  of  those 
limited  aspects  beyond  which  it  is  feared  the  wisdom  of  some 
geologists  never  reaches;  but  as  a  history — the  history  of  the 
earth  in  ages  long  gone  by." 

Believing  that  no  branch  of  the  study  should  be  overlooked, 
we  find  him  lamenting,  in  1871,  that  while  in  all  that  relates  to 
stratigraphic  geology  the  British  had  kept  ahead  of  other  nations, 
they  had  allowed  petrography,  or  the  study  of  rock  species,  to 
fall  into  disuse.  Matters  had  improved,  partly  perhaps  under  his 
own  influence,  in  1880,  when,  writing  of  the  Mineralogical  Society 
of  Great  Britain,  he  remarked  upon  a  revival  of  interest  in  min- 
eralogy, which  had  before  been  neglected  for  fossil-hunting. 

In  one  of  the  reviews  of  Prof.  Geikie's  Science  Primer  of 
Geology,  in  1874,  a  curious  omission  is  remarked,  in  that  the 
author  had  not  referred  to  Darwin's  theory  of  coral  islands  as 
a  "  proof  that  a  part  of  the  crust  of  the  earth  has  sunk  down " 
— the  reviewer  suggesting  that  to  lead  pupils  up  to  this  theory, 
and  then  test  it  as  Darwin  had  tested  it,  was  "  an  excellent  exer- 
cise in  that  peculiar  kind  of  reasoning  about  past  causation  which 
is  of  the  essence  of  geology."  Prof.  Geikie  appears  to  have  built, 
as  the  saying  is,  better  than  he  knew ;  for  in  1884  he  confessed 
himself  reluctantly  compelled,  in  view  of  Mr.  Murray's  observa- 
tions in  the  Challenger  Expedition,  to  admit  that  Mr.  Darwin's 
theory  could  no  longer  be  accepted  as  a  complete  solution  of  the 
problem  of  coral  reefs. 

Prof.  Geikie  has  long  taken  an  intense  interest  in  the  Ameri- 
can geological  surveys,  and  has  followed  them  up  with  the 
closest  attention  for  many  years ;  and  his  notices  of  their  reports 
and  summaries  of  their  results  constitute  a  very  considerable 
part  of  his  frequent  contributions  to  Nature.  He  was  fully  im- 
pressed with  the  magnitude  and  extent  of  the  geological  phe- 


SKETCH   OF  SIR  ARCHIBALD    GEIKIE.  263 

nomena  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  value  of  the  study  of 
them  for  the  contributions  it  affords  to  our  general  knowledge 
of  the  subject  and  the  explanations  it  furnishes  of  phenomena 
in  other  countries. 

Writing  on  the  subject  in  1875,  he  said  the  United  States  had 
certainly  done  noble  work  in  the  exploration  and  mapping  of  its 
vast  empire.  Having  spoken  commendatorily  of  the  style  in  which 
the  reports  were  prepared  and  distributed,  he  added,  "  But  what- 
ever be  their  external  guise,  these  narratives  are  pervaded  by  an 
earnestness  and  enthusiasm,  a  consciousness  of  the  magnitude  of 
the  scale  on  which  the  phenomena  have  been  produced,  and  yet  a 
sustained  style  of  quiet  description,  which  can  not  but  strike  the 
reader."  In  reviewing  Hay  den's  Report  at  the  end  of  1883,  he 
ascribes  a  singular  fascination  to  American  geology.  "  Its  fea- 
tures are  as  a  whole  so  massive  and  colossal,  their  infinite  detail  so 
subordinated  to  breadth  of  effect,  their  presentation  of  the  great 
elements  of  geological  structure  so  grand,  yet  so  simple  and  so 
clearly  legible,  that  they  may  serve  as  types  for  elucidating  the 
rest  of  the  world.  The  progress  of  sound  geology  would  assuredly 
have  been  more  rapid  had  the  science  made  its  first  start  in  the 
far  West  of  America,  rather  than  among  the  crumpled  and  broken 
rocks  of  western  Europe.  Truths  that  have  been  gained  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  by  the  laborious  gathering  together  of  a 
broken  chain  of  evidence  would  have  proclaimed  themselves  from 
thousands  of  plateaux,  canons,  and  mountain  ranges,  in  language 
too  plain  to  be  mistaken.  No  European  geologist  can  visit  these 
Western  regions  without  realizing  more  or  less  distinctly  what  an 
amount  of  time  has  been  wasted  over  questions  about  which  there 
should  never  have  been  any  discussion  at  all.  This  impression  is 
renewed  by  every  new  geological  memoir  which  brings  to  us 
fresh  revelations  of  the  scenery  and  structure  of  the  Western 
Territories." 

On  the  occasion  of  his  appointment  as  Director-General  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Prof.  Geikie  was 
presented  in  March,  1882,  by  past  and  present  students  of  the 
geology  class  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh  with  an  illumi- 
nated address,  recording  their  sense  of  loss  on  his  leaving  the  uni- 
versity ;  referring  to  the  distinguished  services  he  had  rendered 
the  science;  recognizing  the  signal  success  with  which  he  had 
maintained  the  reputation  of  the  Scottish  school  of  geology,  and 
of  Edinburgh ;  and  expressing  the  sympathy  and  affection  with 
which  they  regarded  him.  Prof.  Geikie  responded  in  similar 
spirit,  and  said  that  he  believed  he  was  the  first  in  Scotland,  if  not 
in  Britain,  to  organize  a  practical  class  for  the  study  of  miner- 
alogy and  the  microscopic  investigation  of  rocks.  He  had  tried 
always  to  make  the  cultivation  of  field  geology  a  prominent  part 


264  TEE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  the  work  of  the  class  ;  and  some  of  their  pleasantest  associa- 
tions had  been  among  the  glens  of  the  Highlands  and  the  hills  and 
shores  of  the  Lowlands. 

Prof.  Geikie  is  a  prolific  writer  on  all  subjects  relating  to  geol- 
ogy. When  he  was  appointed  in  1871  to  the  chair  in  Edinburgh  he 
had  the  whole  department  to  organize — a  difficult  task,  but  also 
an  educating  one — and  to  that,  says  Nature,  we  are  indebted  for 
the  undisputed  superiority  which  he  has  displayed  in  his  Text- 
Book,  as  well  as  in  his  other  educational  writings, "  such  as  the 
Class  Book,  a  very  model  of  clearness,  whereby  it  has  been  once 
more  demonstrated  that  those  only  are  qualified  for  writing  ele- 
mentary books  who  are  in  the  fullest  possession  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter." Likewise  he  is  the  author  of  small  books  or  primers  on 
Physical  Geology  and  Physical  Geography,  of  which  some  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  copies  have  been  sold,  and  which  have  been 
translated  into  most  European  languages,  as  well  as  several  Asi- 
atic tongues.  He  is  also  author  of  numerous  memoirs  in  the 
Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society,  the  Transactions  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  the  memoirs  of  the  Geological 
Survey,  the  Quarterly  and  North  British  Reviews,  Nature,  etc. ;  of 
the  Story  of  a  Boulder,  1858;  in  conjunction  with  the  late  Dr. 
George  Wilson,  of  The  Life  of  Prof.  Edward  Forbes,  1861 ;  of  the 
Phenomena  of  the  Glacial  Drift  of  Scotland,  1863 ;  The  Scenery  of 
Scotland  viewed  in  Connection  with  its  Physical  Geology,  1865, 
and  a  new  edition,  largely  rewritten,  in  1887 ;  in  conjunction  with 
the  late  J.  B.  Jukes,  of  a  Student's  Manual  of  Geology,  1871 ;  of 
the  Science  Primers  of  Physical  Geography,  and  Geology,  1873 ; 
Memoir  of  Sir  Roderick  I.  Murchison,  with  notices  of  his  Scien- 
tific Contemporaries,  and  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  Palaeozoic 
Geology  in  Britain,  2  vols.,  1874 ;  of  the  Geological  Map  of  Scot- 
land, 1876 ;  of  the  Class  Book  of  Physical  Geography,  1877 ;  of 
Outlines  of  Field  Geology,  1879 ;  of  Geological  Sketches  at  Home 
and  Abroad,  1882 ;  of  A  Text-Book  of  Geology,  1882 ;  of  A  Class 
Book  of  Geology,  1886.  Prof.  Geikie  was  associated  with  Sir 
Roderick  Murchison,  in  the  Scottish  Highlands,  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  memoir  of  that  district,  and  of  a  new  Geological  Map  of 
Scotland,  both  published  in  1861.  He  was  elected  to  the  Royal 
Society  before  reaching  the  age  of  thirty  years,  and  is  now  its 
foreign  secretary.  He  is  past  President  of  the  Geological  Soci- 
ety. He  received  the  Murchison  Medal  of  the  Geological  Society 
in  1881,  and  has  been  twice  awarded  the  McDougal  Brisbane  medal 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh.  He  is  an  associate  of  the 
Berlin  Academy,  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Sciences  at  Gottingen, 
of  the  Imperial  Leopold  Caroline  Academy,  of  the  Imperial  Soci- 
ety of  Naturalists  at  Moscow,  and  a  correspondent  of  the  French 
Academy  of  Sciences. 


CORRESP  ONDENCE. 


265 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE   FIRST   TRANSATLANTIC    STEAMER. 

Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly : 

SIR :  On  page  424  of  the  January  number 
(1893)  of  The  Popular  Science  Monthly 
is  given  a  precis  of  the  log  of  the  ship  Savan- 
nah, which  is  correct ;  but  the  heading,  The 
First  Transatlantic  Steamer,  is  totally  wrong. 

The  Savannah  was  not  the  first  trans- 
atlantic steamer,  but  a  sailer,  with  propelling 
contrivances  to  be  used  in  smooth  water; 
moreover,  she  did  not  carry  fuel  enough  to 
take  her  across  to  England  by  steam,  and 
she  proved  a  failure  as  far  as  transatlantic 
steam  navigation  was  concerned.  All  this  is 
proved  by  her  log.  The  transportation  of  a 
steam  engine  and  paddles  by  a  sailing  ship 
does  not  constitute  her  a  steamer  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word. 

The  first  genuine  pioneer  steamship  to 
cross  the  Atlantic  Ocean  by  steam  alone,  and 
the  first  complete  success  in  steam  naviga- 
tion, was  the  steamship  Royal  William,  built 
at  Quebec,  Canada,  through  the  enterprise 
of  Canadian  merchants,  by  Canadian  ship- 
builders, and  with  Canadian  money.  It  was 
sent  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  1833,  and 
proved  to  be  the  origin  of  the  Cunard  line  of 
steamers.  It  was  sold  to  the  Spanish  Gov- 
ernment for  a  man-of-war  and  called  the 
Isabela  Segunda,  being  the  first  war  steamer 
in  the  world,  and  was  engaged  in  action 
against  the  Carlists.  Some  years  later  she 
went  to  Bordeaux,  France,  for  repairs,  but 
her  hull  was  condemned  and  a  new  vessel 
was  built  on  her  model,  in  which  the  old 
engines  were  placed.  This  vessel  went  into 
service  under  the  same  name,  but  was 
wrecked  in  1860  on  the  coast  of  Algeria, 
where  no  doubt  the  Royal  William's  engines 
may  now  be  found. 

I  send  you  our  Transaction,  No.  20,  con- 
taining the  whole  attested  account  of  the 
Royal  William,  which  is  incontrovertible 
proof  of  what  I  say,  and  proves  that  the 
honor  of  first  transatlantic  steam  navigation 
belongs  to  Canada  and  Quebec  city,  and  not 
to  the  United  States  at  all. 

The  Savannah  was  a  fraud,  a  veritable 
sailing  ship,  built  as  such,  subsequently  took 
on  an  engine  and  propelling  contrivances 
which  could  only  be  used  in  smooth  water ; 
with  these  she  steamed  out  of  port,  then 
sailed  to  England,  steaming  only  eighty  hours, 
not  consecutively,  out  of  a  passage  of  twenty- 
nine  days  and  a  half,  but  took  good  care  to 
let  down  her  paddles  on  coming  into  port, 
making  believe  that  she  steamed  the  whole 
way  across  the  Atlantic,  and,  moreover,  re- 
peated this  performance  at  every  port  she 


visited.     The  Royal  William  was  the  first 
veritable  transatlantic  ocean  steamship. 

F.  C.  WURTELE, 

Librarian  of  the  Literary  and  Historical 
Society  of  Quebec. 

QUEBEC,  March  23,  1893. 

[All  that  Mr.  Wurtele  says  of  the  defects 
of  the  Savannah  appears  on  the  face  of  the 
article  we  published.  The  title,  if  not  strict- 
ly accurate,  reflects  current  speech  on  the 
subject.  We  are  glad  to  give  our  Canadian 
neighbors  the  credit  that  is  their  due  in  the 
matter  of  the  Royal  William. — ED.] 


FOOD  OF  THE  GARTER  SNAKE. 

Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly. 

SIR  :  In  your  February  number,  Mr.  Alfred 
G.  Mayer,  in  speaking  of  the  habits  of  the 
garter  snake,  says  that  he  is  not  aware  of 
their  eating  birds  or  mice.  They  will,  when 
kept  in  captivity,  at  least,  eat  the  latter  ani- 
mals. I  once  kept  one  under  observation  for 
a  considerable  time,  and  its  only  food  was 
mice.  These  it  ate  with  apparent  relish  and 
in  greater  numbers  than  I  supposed  at  first 
would  be  eaten.  Its  mode  of  capturing  and 
killing  a  mouse  was  also  different  from  that 
by  which  the  snakes  secure  frogs.  It  lay 
quietly  coiled,  with  its  head  slightly  elevated, 
for  a  little  time  after  the  mouse  was  put  into 
the  box.  The  latter  ran  to  and  fro  over  the 
coils  of  the  snake,  as  though  utterly  unaware 
of  the  presence  of  an  enemy.  Presently  the 
snake  darted  forward,  seized  the  mouse  in 
its  jaws,  and  with  lightning-like  rapidity 
coiled  itself  around  its  body — the  head  of 
the  snake  and  the  mouse  being  invisible 
from  without  the  coil.  The  quickness  of 
the  movement  was  decidedly  startling.  After 
about  one  minute  the  coils  began  to  slacken, 
and  the  mouse  rolled  out,  completely  crushed 
and  quite  dead.  The  snake  moved  away, 
but  within  an  hour  devoured  it.  This  snake 
was  Eutcenia  sirtalis.  I  have  not  found  any 
one  else  who  has  seen  it  take  its  food  in  this 
way,  and  can  not  account  for  the  actions  of 
this  particular  specimen.  A  full-grown  cop- 
perhead, under  similar  conditions,  behaves 
very  differently.  With  marvelous  rapidity 
it  would  shoot  its  head  forward,  apparently 
merely  touching  its  victim.  The  mouse  would 
give  a  faint  squeak,  and  in  thirty  seconds 
would  be  dead  and  perfectly  stiff.  His 
snakeship  then  devoured  it  at  his  leisure. 

WILBUR  S.  JACKMAN. 
COOK  COUNTY  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


266 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 
"TTTE  have  read  with  considerable 
V  V  interest  a  book  by  Mr.  Henry  M. 
Boies,  elsewhere  notdced  in  this  num- 
ber, having  for  its  title  Prisoners  and 
Paupers.  We  have  read  it  not  only 
with  interest  but  with  sympathy,  for  Mr. 
Boies  is  much  in  earnest,  and  his  aim  is 
the  noble  one  of  serving  the  community 
by  checking  the  evils  of  criminality, 
pauperism,  and  mental  and  physical  de- 
generation, which  in  these  latter  years 
have  been  assuming  so  threatening  pro- 
portions. With  much  that  the  author 
says  we  entirely  agree,  and  many  of  his 
suggestions  seem  to  be  of  a  very  prac- 
tical and  useful  kind.  Here  and  there 
is  perhaps  a  touch  of  undue  national 
vaingloriousness  which  does  not  harmo- 
nize very  well  with  the  fact  that  the 
book  is  in  the  main  a  revelation  of  the 
weaknesses  of  American  society.  Here 
and  there,  too,  the  author  seems  to  con- 
tradict himself,  as  where,  on  page  95, 
he  speaks  of  the  upward  tendencies  in 
this  country  being  more  powerful  than 
the  downward  ones,  and  afterward  (page 
258)  says  that,  while  "we  are  listening 
to  the  delusive  enchantments  of  physical 
prosperity  and  national  growth,  millions 
of  remorseless  teredos  from  the  lower 
depths  are  honeycombing  the  hull  of 
our  ship  of  state  " ;  and  again  (page  259) 
that  "the  condition  politically  is  desper- 
ate, but  not  hopeless  " ;  and  again  (page 
278)  that tk  signs  of  a  general  degeneracy 
are  attracting  public  attention."  The 
important  thing,  however,  is  that,  in  the 
statements  and  observations  he  makes, 
Mr.  Boies  gives  us  plenty  to  think  about, 
and  makes  it  very  plain  that  something 
more  than  thinking  is  called  for — that 
prompt,  strenuous,  and  intelligent  action 
is  an  urgent  necessity  of  the  moment. 

It  all  amounts  to  this,  that,  while  the 
men  of  this  generation  are  eating  and 


drinking  and  taking  their  ease,  marry- 
ing and  giving  in  marriage,  running  po- 
litical machines,  and  blowing  hot  or  cold, 
as  the  case  may  be,  upon  the  stock  mar- 
ket ;  while  luxury  is  on  the  increase, 
and  practical  Science  is  recording  her 
most  magnificent  triumphs,  the  founda- 
tions of  society  are  being  sapped  by  the 
incessant  growth  of  unsound  social  ele- 
ments. In  early  ages  mankind,  in  only 
less  degree  than  the  lower  animal  tribes, 
had  the  benefit  of  the  rude  but  effect- 
ive surgery  of  Nature  to  keep  them 
up  to  a  certain  level  of  physical  effi- 
ciency; and  in  a  later  period  the  ex- 
treme severity  of  the  laws  had  the  effect 
of  removing  from  the  community  large 
numbers  of  those  who  were  least  adapt- 
ed for  citizenship.  As  a  result  of  these 
processes  the  civilization  of  to-day,  with 
its  more  humane  and  philanthropic 
spirit,  became  possible ;  but  it  is  now 
beginning  to  be  found  out  that  philan- 
thropy, as  heretofore  practiced,  is  no 
match,  so  far  as  the  physical  purification 
of  society  is  concerned,  for  the  methods 
of  Nature,  as  described  by  Malthus  and 
Darwin,  or  even  for  the  penal  discipline 
of  our  forefathers.  Mr.  Boies  fully  ac- 
cepts this  view  of  the  matter,  as  the 
following  extract  from  his  book  will 
show: 

"  The  civilized  man  is  the  product  ot 
the  survival  through  all  the  ages  of  the 
strongest,  most  stalwart,  and  capable 
savages.  In  the  progress  of  his  civiliza- 
tion the  development  of  the  sentiment 
of  human  brotherhood  and  the  princi- 
ples of  Christianity  has  caused  an  inter- 
ference with  the  natural  law  provided 
for  the  extinction  of  the  unfit  by  impel- 
ling the  strong  to  maintain  and  care  for 
the  weak  and  defective.  At  the  same 
time,  advances  in  the  sciences  of  hygiene, 
medicine,  and  surgery  enable  many  of 
the  unfit  to  survive  the  tests  of  child- 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


267 


hood  and  disease  which,  in  a  state  of 
nature,  would  be  fatal.  It  is  necessary, 
when  humanity  thus  restrains  the  op- 
eration of  the  laws  of  Nature,  that  it 
should  supply  a  correlative  supplement 
to  prevent  disastrous  consequences.  If 
civilization  and  philanthropy  can  not 
permit  Nature  to  accomplish  its  inexo- 
rable decrees  in  its  own  way,  they  must 
provide  some  other  way,  or  finally  be 
overwhelmed." 

The  practical  question  may  therefore 
be  very  simply  stated :  Can  a  sufficient 
amount  of  public  attention  be  concen- 
trated on  the  evils  that  threaten  us, 
through  the  disproportionate  multipli- 
cation of  criminals',  paupers,  and  phys- 
ically defective  persons,  to  cause  effect- 
ive measures  to  be  taken  to  combat  those 
evils,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  extirpate 
their  cause  or  causes?  Mr.  Boies  shows 
clearly  enough  the  measures  to  be  taken, 
and,  on  the  whole,  we  must  say  that  we 
find  very  little  to  dissent  from  in  his  sug- 
gestions. He  pours  just  denunciation  on 
our  present  method  of  turning  criminals 
loose  upon  the  community  after  a  cer- 
tain term  of  imprisonment  without  the 
slightest  guarantee,  moral  or  other,  for 
their  future  good  behavior.  He  calls  at- 
tention for  the  thousandth  time  to  the 
evils  wrought  by  our  unwholesome  meth- 
ods of  jail  administration.  "It  is  the 
unanimous  testimony,"  he  says,  "of 
every  one  who  is  conversant  with  the 
management  of  county  jails  that  they 
are  nothing  more  or  less  than  breeders 
of  criminals,  where  they  are,  as  is  gen- 
erally the  case,  committed  to  the  super- 
intendence of  political  sheriffs."  Of  the 
jails  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania — and 
here  the  author  professes  to  speak  from 
personal  knowledge — he  says  :  "  These 
jails  permit  a  promiscuous  and  unre- 
strained commingling  of  the  most  de- 
praved and  vilest  professional  convicts 
with  children,  accused  persons,  and  de- 
tained witnesses,  without  let  or  hin- 
drance. In  many  cases  even  sexes  are 
not  separated."  Upon  a  recent  visit  to 
the  jail  of  Sunbury,  Northumberland 


County,  the  author  found,  among  fifty- 
four  inmates  of  all  classes,"  two  bright, 
nice-looking  boys,  one  thirteen  and  the 
other  fourteen  years  old,  who  had  been 
incarcerated  already  two  months  and 
would  have  to  remain  two  months 
longer  before  trial.  They  were  accused 
of  stealing  four  bottles  of  ginger  beer !  " 
Along  with  them  was  a  depraved  and 
vicious-looking  boy  charged  with  at- 
tempted rape.  There  are,  we  are  told, 
in  the  United  States,  seventeen  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  county  jails  and  only 
forty- four  j  u venile  reformatories.  Great 
Britain,  on  the  other  hand,  supports 
over  four  hundred  reformatories  and  in- 
dustrial schools,  and  has  in  consequence 
been  able  to  close  fifty-six  out  of  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  prisons  and  jails 
within  ten  years.  In  this  country  dur- 
ing the  same  period  there  has  been  a 
constantly  increasing  expenditure  for 
prisons  and  jails,  as  might  be  supposed 
from  the  fact  stated  by  the  author  at 
the  outset,  that  our  criminal  population 
has  increased  in  almost  double  ratio  to 
the  general  population. 

The  most  important  suggestion  made 
by  the  author  is,  that  incorrigible  crimi- 
nals and  all  the  hopelessly  defective 
members  of  the  community  who  are 
thrown  upon  the  public  care  should  be 
segregated  under  conditions  that  shall 
absolutely  prevent  them  from  propagat- 
ing their  kind.  He  proposes,  indeed, 
that  the  problem  shall  be  simplified  by 
calling  in  the  aid  of  surgery  "  to  remove 
or  sterilize  the  organs  of  reproduction," 
an  operation,  he  adds,  which  if  "  be- 
stowed upon  the  abnormal  inmates  of 
our  prisons,  reformatories,  jails,  asy- 
lums, and  public  institutions,  would  en- 
tirely eradicate  those  unspeakable  evil 
practices  which  are  so  terribly  preva- 
lent, debasing,  destructive,  and  uncon- 
trollable in  them."  The  proposed  ap- 
plication of  this  remedy  will  be  consid- 
ered by  most  too  sweeping;  but  as 
regards  incorrigible  criminals,  particu- 
larly those  whose  crimes  take  the  form 
of  violence  and  lust,  it  will  not  be 


z68 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


long,  we  believe,  before  public  opinion 
will  sanction  its  employment  in  their 
case. 

The  conclusion  of  the  matter  for  the 
present  is,  that  society  is  taking  far  too 
little  interest  in  the  questions  which  Mr. 
Boies  so  ably  and  earnestly  discusses. 
It  must  be  aroused  from  its  easy-going 
indifference,  or  our  boasted  civilization 
will  not  be  worth  many  generations' 
purchase.  Philanthropy  has  taken  the 
job  of  keeping  up  the  standard  of  the 
human  race  out  of  the  hands  of  natural 
selection  ;  and  it  now  devolves  upon  it 
to  show  that,  aided  by  science,  it  is  equal 
to  its  self-imposed  task,  and  can  indeed 
accomplish  results  that  never  could  have 
been  accomplished  by  the  operation  of 
unconscious  laws. 


LITERARY  NOTICES, 

PRISONERS  AND  PAUPERS.  A  Study  of  the 
Abnormal  Increase  of  Criminals,  and  the 
Public  Burden  of  Pauperism  in  the  United 
States ;  the  Causes  and  Remedies.  By 
HENRY  M.  BOIES,  M.  A.  New  York :  G. 
P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1893.  Pp.  318.  Price, 
$1.50. 

MR.  BOIES  had  peculiar  facilities  for  the 
production  of  such  a  work  as  this  and  he  has 
used  them  ably.  In  his  preface  he  says  that 
he  has  in  this  work  not  only  endeavored  to 
give  a  general  view  of  the  subject  as  it  ap- 
pears in  this  country,  "  to  emphasize  the 
waste  of  human  sympathy  and  public  funds 
which  results  from  what  appears  to  be  incon- 
siderate and  misdirected  methods  of  treat- 
ment," but  he  proposes  a  most  feasible — 
he  says,  "  positive  remedy." 

The  eleventh  census  of  the  United  States, 
which  is  now  being  published,  "  furnishes 
statistics  of  a  national  growth  in  numbers, 
wealth,  and  general  prosperity  unparalleled 
in  the  history  of  civilization."  Nevertheless, 
this  census,  says  the  author,  makes  some  dis- 
closures which  are  "  appalling  in  the  highest 
degree  to  our  confidence  in  the  future."  One 
of  these  is  the  extraordinary  increase  in  the 
criminal  classes  ;  and  he  shows  that  while  in 
1850  the  proportion  of  criminals  was  1  in 
3,500  of  the  population,  it  increased  in  1890 
to  1  in  786'5,  or  445  per  cent ;  while  the  in- 


crease of  population  in  the  same  period  was 
only  170  per  cent. 

Mr.  Boies  claims  that  "  such  a  dispropor- 
tion can  not  continue  indefinitely  without  a 
relapse  into  barbarism  and  social  ruin."  And 
he  explains  his  statement  by  telling  that  such 
a  condition  of  affairs  does  not  exist  in  any 
other  civilized  nation.  He  attributes  the  first 
cause  for  crime  and  pauperism  to  the  unnatu- 
ral increase  of  intemperance ;  the  second, 
"  the  crowding  of  the  people  to  the  centers." 

The  third  cause  lies  in  the  existing  laws  for 
the  punishment  of  criminals  and  the  unintel- 
ligent manner  in  which  they  are  administered. 
And  having  thus  briefly  summarized  the  con- 
ditions of  paupers  and  prisoners  generally  and 
the  causes  for  their  existence,  the  author  re- 
views the  awful  criminal  condition  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  in  the  sixth  chapter  begins  an 
examination  of  the  classes  which  form  the 
prison  and  pauper  population  of  the  country. 

In  this  part  of  the  work  it  is  stated  that 
that  portion  of  the  population  which  is  for- 
eign-born, or  having  one  or  both  parents  for- 
eign-born, furnishes  over  one  third  of  the 
criminals  and  three  fifths  of  the  paupers  of 
the  country,  whereas  they  constitute  only  one 
fifth  of  the  whole  number.  From  this  the 
author  concludes  that  to  avert  the  danger 
"  which  has  become  imminent,  and  threatens 
our  very  existence,  .  .  .  Congress  must  regu- 
late immigration  as  the  initial  remedy." 

The  excessive  increase  of  criminals  from 
the  negro  population  occupies  the  next  chap- 
ter, and  the  anomalous  proportion  of  crimi- 
nals among  the  population  of  African  descent 
is  so  startling  that  Mr.  Boies  analyzes  the 
causes  very  minutely.  It  appears,  he  says, 
that  although  "  they  constitute  less  than  13-51 
per  cent  of  the  total  population,  yet  they  con- 
tribute one  third  of  our  convicts,  though  only 
8'8  per  cent  of  our  paupers."  Further  on  he 
says  that  this  alarming  increase  "  is  quite  as 
important  and  threatening  as  the  foreign  ele- 
ment," which  has  been  considered.  The 
cause  for  this  disparity  of  criminals  and  pau- 
pers he  claims  is  that  "  a  ruling  white  minor- 
ity (in  the  South),  possessing  the  wealth, 
stands  over  a  black  majority  which  is  paid 
for  their  labor  actually  less  than  the  fairly 
comfortable  subsistence  which  they  received 
as  slaves,  and  denies  to  them  every  right  of 
equality.  .  .  .  This  is  as  hostile  to  true  Amer- 
icanism as  was  slavery."  And  he  continues, 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


269 


that  as  a  remedial  measure,  "  Congress  must 
therefore  enforce  ...  the  protection  of  the 
colored  race  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  rights 
it  has  conferred  upon  it  in  the  face  of  the 
world." 

In  the  chapter,  Intemperance  as  a  Cause, 
Mr.  Boies  claims  that  alcoholic  drink  is  the 
direct  or  indirect  cause  of  75  per  cent  of  all 
the  crimes  committed,  and  of  at  least  50  per 
cent  of  all  the  sufferings  endured  on  account 
of  poverty,  and  that  "  the  terrible  effects  of 
this  curse  of  humanity  are  displayed  to  all 
the  elements  of  our  population,  the  native, 
the  foreign,  the  colored,  and  the  urban  alike." 
As  one  of  the  remedies  against  intemper- 
ance he  suggests  the  establishment  of  cheap 
coffee  and  tea  houses  and  social  halls,  after 
the  fashion  of  those  established  by  the  Sal- 
vation Army  in  England ;  and  he  adds  that 
"  as  the  way  to  a  man's  heart  is  through  his 
stomach,"  give  him  good,  cheap  food,  and  his 
desire  for  stimulants  will  cease. 

The  author  entirely  disapproves  of  the 
present  general  conditions  of  the  arrest,  prose- 
cution, and  imprisonment,  or  rather  the  man- 
ner of  imprisonment,  of  criminals.  He  claims 
that  the  penal  code  should  be  reorganized, 
and  that  more  consideration  should  be  shown 
to  "  youthful  delinquents ; "  for  "  county  jails 
are  nurseries  of  crime,"  and  he  attributes  this 
to  the  "wrong  management  of  the  prisoners." 
"No  State,"  he  says,  "should  tolerate"  "the 
infamous  jails  as  they  at  present  exist  in 
county  towns."  And,  "until  the  whole  penal 
system  is  reorganized  upon  the  basis  of  com- 
mon sense,"  he  offers  some  excellent  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  segregation  of  the  different 
types  of  prisoners — the  one  from  the  other, 
as  well  as  to  how  the  number  of  prisons  could 
be  and  should  be  lessened. 

The  work  is  illustrated  with  fourteen 
plates,  and  is  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the 
social  and  economic  literature  of  the  nation. 

THE  GREAT  COMMANDERS  SERIES.  Edited  by 
General  JAMES  GRANT  WILSON.  New 
York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

ADMIRAL  FARRAGUT.  By  Captain  A.  T. 
MAHAN,  U.  S.  N.  Pp.  333.  Price,  $1.25. 
— GENERAL  TAYLOR.  By  General  0.  0. 
HOWARD.  Pp.  386.  Price,  $1.50. — GEN- 
ERAL JACKSON.  By  JAMES  PARTON.  Pp. 
332.  Price,  $1.60. 

THE  issue  of  what  gives  promise  of  being 
a  very  attractive  series  of  biographies  has 


been  begun  under  the  above  general  title. 
The  first  volume  is  a  life  of  Admiral  Farra- 
gut.  The  career  of  the  most  celebrated  of 
America's  naval  heroes  is  sufficiently  pic- 
turesque to  warrant  its  being  given  the  lead- 
ing place.  Captain  Mahan's  account  of  it  is 
of  a  popular  character,  being  neither  a  mono- 
graph on  naval  warfare  on  the  one  hand  nor 
a  juvenile  story  on  the  other.  A  few  pages 
suffice  to  tell  of  Farragut's  parentage,  birth, 
and  his  meeting  with  Commander  Porter, 
which  determined  the  course  of  his  life.  His 
boyhood,  before  the  beginning  of  his  naval 
career,  was  too  brief  for  much  incident,  for 
his  warrant  as  midshipman  dates  from  the 
middle  of  his  tenth  year.  The  record  pro- 
ceeds with  Farragut's  first  cruise  on  board 
the  Essex  during  the  War  of  1812.  A  dozen 
somewhat  eventful  years  followed,  bringing 
the  young  man  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant. 
The  years  from  1825  to  1860  take  compara- 
tively little  space,  for  they  represent  mostly 
the  routine  service  of  a  naval  officer  in  time 
of  peace.  Then  come  his  grand  achieve- 
ments in  the  civil  war — the  New  Orleans  ex- 
pedition, the  operations  at  Vicksburg  and 
Port  Hudson,  and  the  entrance  of  Mobile 
Bay.  These  events  are  described  with  much 
detail  and  vividness,  and  the  several  opera- 
tions are  illustrated  by  charts.  A  short 
chapter  is  devoted  to  the  admiral's  five  years 
of  life  after  the  war,  and  a  sympathetic  esti- 
mate of  his  character  closes  the  volume. 

In  the  life  of  Zachary  Taylor  is  given  a 
record  rich  in  those  details  which  often  re- 
veal more  of  the  subject's  character  than  his 
most  formal  and  deliberate  acts.  We  have 
a  glimpse  at  his  early  life  in  the  frontier  ter- 
ritory near  Louisville,  Ky.,  then  an  account 
of  his  first  few  years  in  the  army,  his  service 
in  the  Northwest  Territory  during  the  War  of 
1812,  his  campaigns  against  the  Indians  in 
Florida  and  elsewhere,  all  leading  up  to  his 
magnificent  achievements  in  the  Mexican 
War.  His  part  in  this  contest  is  described 
in  a  sympathetic  and  picturesque  manner. 
Close  upon  the  heels  of  it  comes  his  election 
to  the  presidency,  and  a  sketch  of  his  ad- 
ministration, of  little  over  a  year,  brings  his 
life  to  a  close. 

In  James  Parton's  biography  of  Jackson 
is  seen  the  hand  of  a  master  historian.  Vig- 
orous, as  befits  the  history  of  such  a  strong 
personality,  it  is  everywhere  judicious,  faith- 


270 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ful,  and  conscientious.  Jackson's  faults  and 
autocratic  acts  are  not  concealed,  Avhile  his 
sterling  qualities  and  remarkable  achieve- 
ments are  set  forth  in  due  prominence.  The 
account  of  Jackson's  campaign  in  defense  of 
New  Orleans  is  given  large  space  in  the  vol- 
ume. It  is  told  with  much  vivid  detail,  and 
has  the  fascination  of  a  tale  of  brave  and 
forceful  deeds,  which  it  is.  This  book  is 
notable,  too,  as  being  the  last  literary  labor 
of  its  author,  who  passed  away  two  months 
after  it  was  completed. 

The  series  is  to  be  continued  with  lives 
of  Washington,  Greene,  Sherman,  Grant, 
Lee,  and  many  others. 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS  OP  THE  ANGLO-SAX- 
ONS. By  the  Baron  J.  DE  BATE.  Trans- 
lated by  T.  B.  HARBOTTLE.  London : 
Swan,  Sonnenschein  &  Co.  New  York  : 
Macmillan  &  Co.  1893.  Pp.  135,  4to. 
Price,  $7. 

THIS  work,  which  is  illustrated  with  thir- 
ty-one cuts  in  the  text  and  seventeen  full- 
page  engravings,  although  of  considerable 
value  to  archaeological  students,  does  not 
shed  much  ethnographic  light.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  all  attempts  at  an  arrangement 
of  antique  arts  and  industries  must  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  be  arbitrary  and  artificial,  as 
chronological  classification  can  not  be  fully 
carried  out  in  the  present  condition  of  ar- 
chaeological research.  Baron  de  Baye  claims 
that  the  Jutes  occupy  the  first  place,  chrono- 
logically, among  the  invading  barbarians  of 
Great  Britain.  The  Saxons  and  Angles  fol- 
lowed soon  afterward,  and,  according  to  the 
author,  they  all  settled  in  Kent,  in  which 
county  the  most  perfect  archaeological  speci- 
mens of  the  ancient  Anglo-Saxon  industries 
are  found.  The  baron  uses  Eutropius, 
Ptolemy,  and  Tacitus  very  freely  in  his 
proofs  of  the  German  ancestry  of  the  early 
Britons ;  but  it  is  an  incontestable  fact  that 
long  before  the  advent  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
barbarians,  the  Kelts,  who  were  settled  in 
Ireland,  had  made  incursions  into  England. 
The  archaeological  specimens  of  Anglo-Saxon 
industries  which  are  illustrated  in  the  beau- 
tiful volume  we  have  under  observation 
clearly  resemble  the  accepted  evidences  of 
an  earlier  industrial  condition  among  the 
Irish  Kelts,  and,  more  distinctly  than  the 
authorities  quoted  by  Baron  de  Baye,  assert 
their  parentage  as  Keltic  and  not  Germanic. 


Apart  from  this  too  frequent  error  of 
the  ethnographer,  the  author  has  compiled  a 
very  valuable  addition  to  the  archaeological 
literature  of  England.  The  chapters  on 
Anglo-Saxon  fibulae  are  not  alone  interest- 
ing but  important,  although  they  stamp  the 
evidence  of  origin  as  Scandinavian  rather 
than  German.  In  these  chapters  the  author 
proves  with  tolerable  clearness  an  archaeo- 
logical point  which  has  occupied  the  atten- 
tion of  savants  for  centuries,  for  he  shows 
that  the  fibulae  which  have  been  discovered 
in  Kent  and  the  Isle  of  Wight  are  of  conti- 
nental origin,  and  precisely  similar  in  con- 
struction to  the  ornaments  of  Gothic  manu- 
facture which  have  been  found  in  the  bar- 
barian cemeteries  of  the  continent.  This  dis- 
covery at  once  establishes  a  proof  of  niter- 
course,  and  illustrates  the  artistic  influence 
exerted  over  that  part  of  Britain  which  was 
near  to  France ;  while  in  other  parts  of  the 
work  we  have,  upon  comparison  with  the 
catalogue  of  the  Museum  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy,  distinct  evidences  of  a  Keltic  ori- 
gin for  the  industrial  arts  of  the  early  Brit- 
ons. 

The  author's  analysis  of  the  uses  of  the 
beads  and  crystal  balls  which  have  been 
found  in  the  graves  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  is 
very  interesting.  In  Nenia  Britannica  it  is 
claimed  that  they  were  used  for  occult  pur- 
poses, whereas  Mr.  Roach  Smith  is  of  opin- 
ion that  "  all  the  objects  exhumed  are  ca- 
pable of  a  perfectly  simple  explanation." 
Baron  de  Baye,  however,  asserts  with  some- 
what of  authority  that  they  were  used  as 
talismans  against  sickness  and  "  to  neutral- 
ize the  force  of  the  enemy's  blows."  The 
work  is  excellently  printed  and  got  up,  and 
the  plates  and  references  will  be  found  to 
be  of  exceeding  interest  to  ethnographical 
students. 

FAITH-HEALING,  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE,  AND  KIN- 
DRED PHENOMENA.  By  J.  M.  BUCKLEY, 
LL.  D.  New  York:  The  Century  Com- 
pany. Pp.  308. 

BESIDES  the  subjects  named  in  the  title, 
those  of  Astrology,  Divination,  and  Coinci- 
dences; Dreams,  Nightmare,  and  Somnam- 
bulism ;  Presentiments,  Visions,  and  Appari- 
tions ;  and  Witchcraft,  are  treated  of  in  this 
volume.  In  his  discussions  the  author  has 
adopted  certain  principles  as  working  laws, 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


271 


namely :  "  That  before  endeavoring  to  explain 
how  phenomena  exist  it  is  necessary  to  de- 
termine precisely  what  exists;  and  that  so 
long  as  it  is  possible  to  find  a  rational  ex- 
planation of  what  unquestionably  is,  there  is 
no  reason  to  suspect,  and  it  is  superstition  to 
assume,  the  operation  of  supernatural  causes." 
His  course,  therefore,  is  to  ascertain  the  facts 
and  find  a  common-sense  explanation  for 
them.  In  investigating  phenomena,  some  of 
which  it  is  claimed  are  connected  with  re- 
ligion and  others  with  occult  forces,  it  is 
necessary  to  proceed  without  regard  to  the 
question  of  religion.  We  look  more  closely 
at  the  chapters  on  Faith-healing  and  Chris- 
tian Science  and  the  Mind  Cure  as  re- 
lating to  the  most  vital  subjects.  In  questions 
of  faith-healing  allowances  must  be  made  for 
the  operation  of  natural  causes,  unobserved 
or  concealed,  for  the  excited  minds  of  wit- 
nesses, and  for  other  circumstances  that 
mask  the  real  facts ;  but,  after  all  deduc- 
tions have  been  made,  the  author  believes 
it  must  be  admitted  that  "most  extraor- 
dinary recoveries  have  been  produced,  some 
of  them  instantaneously,  from  diseases  in 
general  considered  incurable  by  ordinary 
treatment,  in  others  known  to  be  curable  in 
the  ordinary  process  of  medicine  and  sur- 
gery." The  cases  remaining  to  be  accounted 
for  are  those  hi  which  the  effect  is  unques- 
tionably produced  by  a  natural  mental  cause, 
and  those  in  which  the  operation  of  occult 
causes  is  claimed.  In  these  cases,  of  both 
classes,  subjective  mental  states  are  impor- 
tant factors.  With  or  without  belief  they 
can  produce  effects  either  of  the  nature  of 
disease  or  cure.  Active  incredulity  is  often 
more  favorable  to  sudden  effects  than  mere 
stupid,  acquiescent  credulity.  Surprise  at 
seeing  an  unexpected  effect  may  lead  the 
mind  to  succumb  to  the  dominant  idea.  Con- 
centrated attention,  with  faith,  can  produce 
powerful  effects;  may  operate  efficiently  in 
acute  diseases,  with  instantaneous  rapidity 
upon  nervous  diseases,  or  upon  any  condition 
capable  of  being  modified  by  direct  action 
through  the  nervous  or  circulatory  system. 
Cures  may  be  wrought  in  diseases  of  accu- 
mulation with  surprising  rapidity  where  the 
increased  action  of  the  various  excretory 
functions  can  eliminate  morbid  growth.  Cer- 
tain inflammatory  conditions  may  suddenly 
disappear  under  similar  mental  states,  so  as 


to  admit  of  helpful  exercise;  which  exercise, 
by  its  effect  upon  the  circulation,  and  through 
it  upon  the  nutrition  of  diseased  parts,  may 
produce  a  permanent  cure.  The  mind  cure, 
apart  from  the  absurdities  associated  with  it, 
and  from  its  repudiation  of  medicine,  has  a 
basis  in  the  laws  of  Nature.  The  pretense  of 
mystery,  however,  is  either  honest  ignorance 
or  consummate  quackery.  All  the  practi- 
tioners are  unable  to  dispense  with  surgery 
where  the  case  is  at  all  complex  and  mechan- 
ical adjustments  are  necessary,  and  they  can 
not  restore  a  lost  member;  but  in  certain 
displacements  of  internal  organs  the  conse- 
quence of  nervous  debility,  which  are  some- 
times aided  by  surgery,  they  sometimes  suc- 
ceed by  developing  latent  energv  through 
mental  stimulus.  The  claims  of  Christian 
faith-healers  to  supernatural  powers  are  dis- 
credited by  facts  which  are  cited ;  and  faith 
cure,  technically  so  called,  as  now  held  by 
many  Protestants,  is  pronounced  "  a  pitiable 
superstition,  dangerous  in  its  final  effect." 
It  is  harmful  because  it  tends  to  produce  an 
effeminate  type  of  character  which  shrinks 
from  pain,  and  to  concentrate  attention  upon 
self  and  its  sensations.  It  sets  up  false 
grounds  for  determining  whether  a  person  is 
or  is  not  in  favor  with  God ;  it  opens  the 
door  to  every  superstition.  Practically  it 
gives  support  to  other  delusions  which  claim 
a  supernatural  element.  It  diminishes  the 
influence  of  Christianity  by  subjecting  it  to 
a  false  and  incon elusive  test ;  diverts  atten- 
tion from  the  moral  and  spiritual  transforma- 
tion which  Christianity  professes  to  work; 
destroys  the  ascendency  of  reason ;  and  irre- 
sistibly tends,  in  some  minds,  to  mental  de- 
rangement. "Little  hope  exists  of  freeing 
those  already  entangled,  but  it  is  highly  im- 
portant to  prevent  others  from  falling  into 
so  plausible  and  luxurious  a  snare,  and  to 
show  that  Christianity  is  not  to  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  aberrations  of  the  imagination, 
which  belong  exclusively  to  no  race,  clime, 
age,  party,  or  creed."  The  relation  of  the 
mind -cure  movement  to  ordinary  medical 
practice,  Dr.  Buckley  concludes,  is  im- 
portant. "  It  emphasizes  what  the  most 
philosophical  physicians  of  all  schools  have 
always  deemed  of  the  first  importance, 
though  many  have  neglected  it.  It  teaches 
that  medicine  is  but  occasionally  necessary. 
It  hastens  the  time  when  patients  of  dis- 


2/2 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


crimination  will  rather  pay  more  for  advice 
how  to  live  and  for  frank  declarations  that 
they  do  not  need  medicine  than  for  drugs. 
It  promotes  general  reliance  upon  those  pro- 
cesses which  go  on  equally  in  health  and  dis- 
ease. But  these  ethereal  practitioners  have 
no  new  force  to  oif er ;  there  is  no  causal  con- 
nection between  their  cures  and  their  theo- 
ries. .  .  .  Recoveries  as  remarkable  have 
been  occurring  through  all  the  ages  as  the 
results  of  mental  states  and  Nature's  own 
powers." 

A  DICTIONARY  OF  TERMS  USED  IN  MEDICINE 
AND  THE  COLLATERAL  SCIENCES.  By  the 
late  RICHARD  D.  HOBLYN,  M.  A.  Oxon. 
Twelfth  edition.  Revised  throughout, 
with  numerous  Additions,  by  JOHN  A.  B. 
PRICE,  B.  A.,  M.  D.,  Oxon.  New  York : 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  822.  Price,  $2.25. 

THE  appearance  of  the  twelfth  edition  of 
this  dictionary,  with  revisions  and  additions, 
which  include  even  the  terms  used  in  the 
very  modern  science  of  bacteriology  and  bring 
the  book  fully  up  to  date,  places  a  use- 
ful work  at  the  disposal  of  physicians  and 
students.  It  is,  of  course,  not  exhaustive; 
but  it  contains  descriptions  of  all  the  ordi- 
nary terms  relating  to  medicine,  and  these, 
although  necessarily  brief,  are  full  enough 
for  all  practical  purposes.  Under  the  head 
of  poisons,  eight  or  nine  pages  are  devoted 
to  a  classification  of  the  commoner  ones,  in 
which  the  symptoms  and  most  approved 
methods  of  treatment  are  given. 

Its  small  size  and  good  print  make  the 
contents  of  the  volume  readily  accessible, 
and  the  names  on  the  title-page  are  suffi- 
cient guarantees  of  accuracy. 

A  MANUAL  OF  PRACTICAL  MEDICAL  AND  PHYSI- 
OLOGICAL CHEMISTRY.  By  CHARLES  E. 
PELLEW,  E.  M.  New  York :  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.  Pp.  314.  Price,  $2.50. 

WITH  the  recent  attempts  to  regulate  the 
conferring  of  medical  degrees  by  means  of 
State  legislation  has  come  a  tendency  in  the 
more  prosperous  medical  schools  to  make 
their  curriculums  even  more  extended  than 
the  law  requires.  One  of  the  most  important 
innovations  hi  this  line  has  been  the  incor- 
poration into  the  regular  courses  of  a  system 
of  laboratory  work,  by  means  of  which  each 
student  is  given  facilities  for  the  actual 
chemical  and  microscopic  study  of  the  proxi- 


mate principles,  the  elements  entering  into 
the  composition  of  the  human  body  and  its 
secretions,  and  the  reactions  and  histological 
characteristics  produced  by  various  patho- 
logical conditions,  which  are  of  value  in 
diagnosis.  The  study  of  these  subjects,  in  a 
practical  way,  has  until  quite  recently  been 
confined,  in  this  country  at  any  rate,  to  a  few 
physiologists  and  post-graduate  workers,  so 
that  an  elementary  text-book  suited  to  less 
practiced  students  became  a  necessity.  Mr. 
Pellew's  book  was  designed  to  fill  this  need. 
Its  treatment  of  the  subject  is  neither  origi- 
nal nor  exhaustive,  but  it  is  very  well  adapt- 
ed to  the  use  of  elementary  students.  It  is 
printed  on  heavy  paper,  and  contains  several 
well-prepared  plates  and  numerous  line  draw- 


ETHNOGRAPHISCHE  BESCHRIJVING  VAN  DE 
WEST  EN  NOORDKUST  VAN  NEDERLANDSCH 
NIEUW-GUINEA  (Ethnographical  Descrip- 
tion of  the  Western  and  Northwestern 
Coasts  of  Dutch  New  Guinea).  By  F.  S. 
A.  DE  CLERCQ  and  J.  D.  E.  SCHUELTZ. 
One  vol.,  4to,  pp.  300,  plates  xlii.  Ley- 
den  :  P.  W.  M.  Trap. 

THIS  magnificent  work  describes  the  col- 
lections made  by  Mr.  F.  S.  A.  de  Clercq  in 
New  Guinea  in  the  years  1887  and  1888, 
which  are  now  in  the  Royal  Ethnographic 
Museum  at  Leyden,  Holland.  The  descrip- 
tive portion  of  the  work  is  mainly  by  Dr.  J. 
D.  E.  Schmeltz,  conservator  of  the  museum. 
The  book  is  a  model  of  its  kind.  It  is  fur- 
nished with  a  full  list  of  all  authorities 
quoted,  a  list  of  all  places  mentioned,  an 
excellent  map,  and  admirable  indices — all 
necessary,  but,  unfortunately,  often  omitted 
in  ethnographic  writings. 

The  main  portion  of  the  work  is  divided 
into  three  parts.  In  the  first  we  have  a  de- 
scription of  each  object — size,  form,  mate- 
rial, details,  and  provenance — with  references 
to  passages  in  any  author  where  similar  ob- 
jects have  been  described  or  illustrated. 
Where  necessary  for  comparison  or  illustra- 
tion, sketches  are  introduced  into  the  text. 
The  objects  described  are  divided  into  five 
groups:  a,  dress  and  adornment;  6,  houses 
and  domestic  utensils;  c,  objects  used  in 
trade,  fishing,  etc. ;  <Z,  weapons ;  e,  objects 
used  on  festal  occasions,  ceremonies,  etc. 
The  plates,  more  than  forty  in  number  and 
mostly  colored,  represent  the  objects  de- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


273 


scribed  admirably.  Among  some  of  the 
more  striking  and  interesting  may  be  men- 
tioned handsome  headdresses  of  feathers, 
ear  decorations  of  tortoiseshell,  boar-tusk 
and  red-bean  breastplates,  stone  pounders 
for  sago,  paddles,  drums,  spears  barbed  along 
both  edges,  narrow  shields  elaborately  deco- 
rated with  carving  and  color,  quaint  carved 
figures,  and  wooden  headrests  or  pillows. 
Two  plates  are  devoted  to  portraits  showing 
hairdressing,  tattooing,  and  face  ornaments. 
The  coloring  of  the  plates  is  done  in  Trap's 
best  style.  The  second  part  of  the  work  is  a 
study  in  geographical  distribution  of  the  ob- 
jects. A  brief  ethnographic  sketch  of  New 
Guinea  (based  on  Serrurier's  classification)  is 
presented.  Four  tables  are  then  given  in 
which  the  distribution  of  each  type  of  ob- 
jects is  shown,  and  the  fact  is  made  plain 
that  there  are  distinct  areas  of  culture  in  the 
great  island.  A  study  of  some  ten  pages 
follows  upon  the  relationships  shown  by  the 
ornamentation  of  the  various  objects.  In 
1884  Van  Rye  prepared  a  complete  bibli- 
ography of  New  Guinea ;  in  Part  III  of  this 
work  Dr.  Schmeltz  completes  this  to  the 
present  date. 

Messrs,  de  Clercq  and  Schmeltz  are  to  be 
congratulated  upon  their  work.  The  Nether- 
lands Government  is  also  to  be  greatly  com- 
mended for  the  encouragement  and  aid 
which  it  has  given  to  its  publication.  Pub- 
lic interest  in  ethnography  is  keen  and  intel- 
ligent in  Holland. 

GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  MISSOURI.  Vol.  II : 
A  Report  on  the  Iron  Ores  of  Missouri. 
Pp.  365.  By  FRANK  L.  NASON,  Assistant 
Geologist.  Also  Vol.  Ill :  A  Report  on 
the  Mineral  Waters  of  Missouri.  Pp.  256. 
By  PAUL  SCHWEITZER,  Assistant  Geologist. 
Published  by  the  Geological  Survey, 
Jefferson  City,  1892. 

THESE  volumes,  which  are  issued  by 
Arthur  Winslow,  State  Geologist,  are  ex- 
haustive treatises  upon  the  subjects  of  their 
titles.  Mr.  Nason  complains  in  his  preface 
that  the  lack  of  railroads  and  good  public 
roads  made  the  survey  difficult ;  but,  never- 
theless,  his  patient  work,  assisted  by  the  co- 
operation of  the  intelligent  citizens  of  the 
iron-ore  districts,  enabled  him  to  compile  a 
most  interesting  as  well  as  valuable  report 

In  Chapter  X  of  the  Report  on  the  Min- 
eral Waters  of  Missouri  Prof.  Schweitzer 
VOL.  XLIII. — 19 


makes  some  very  interesting  comparisons 
between  the  domestic  waters  and  the  mineral 
waters  of  Europe,  which  will  be  read  with 
profit  by  those  engaged  in  the  merchandising 
of  the  Missouri  waters.  In  these  compari- 
sons, the  author  was  largely  assisted  by  the 
observations  of  Prof.  Arthur  Winslow.  Both 
volumes  are  elaborately  illustrated.  Em- 
bodied with  Vol.  Ill  is  a  very  useful  ap- 
pendix, containing  a  bibliography  of  mineral 
waters,  chronologically  arranged. 

THE  MOUND-BUILDERS  :  THEIR  WORKS  AND 
RELICS.  By  Rev.  STEPHEN  D.  PEET,  Ph.  D. 
Vol.  I,  illustrated.  Chicago:  Office  of 
the  American  Antiquarian.  Pp.  370. 

DR.  PEET  claims  that  man's  first  appear- 
ance on  the  American  continent  was  not  con- 
temporaneous with  but  toward  the  close  of 
the  Glacial  period — about  ten  thousand  years 
ago.  As  to  the  appearance  of  this  prehis- 
toric individual  he  quotes  other  students  of 
the  subject  to  prove  that  the  great  French 
archaeologist  is  hi  error  when  he  claims  that 
man,  immediately  after  the  Glacial  period, 
was  "of  great  stature."  His  research  en- 
ables him  to  corroborate  Dr.  Thomas  Wil- 
son's summing  up  of  the  characteristics  of 
palaeolithic  man,  viz.,  "He  was  of  short 
stature  and  strong  of  limb." 

The  author  says,  in  his  first  chapter,  that 
"  In  Great  Britain  ...  we  go  back  of  the 
Celts  and  Saxons  to  find  the  Britons  and  the 
Basques,  who  were  comparatively  modern." 
This  is  an  error.  Authentic  records  prove 
that  not  only  were  the  Celts  pre-Briton,  but 
that  the  nomenclature  of  England  was  de- 
rived from  the  Celts  of  Ireland  and  Scotland, 
and  was,  at  that  time,  precisely  similar. 

The  chapter  entitled  The  Stone  Grave 
People  is  of  important  interest.  In  this  the 
author  devotes  several  pages  to  an  analysis 
of  the  mound-building  theory  as  it  applies  to 
America ;  and  from  the  specimens  of  pottery 
that  have  been  taken  from  the  stone  graves 
he  builds  a  probable  and  interesting  pre- 
sumption of  the  facial  characteristics  of  the 
prehistoric  dwellers  on  this  continent  In 
another  chapter  he  seems  to  recede  from  his 
contention  that  the  first  appearance  of  man 
in  America  was  after  the  Glacial  period; 
for  he  accounts  for  the  scarcity  of  images, 
etc.,  in  the  South  by  the  assumption  that 
during  the  dissolution  of  the  glacial  forma- 


274 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tion  the  mastodon  retreated  northward,  and 
man — "  the  hunters  " — followed. 

The  chapters  on  the  Migrations,  Village 
Life,  and  Defensive  Works  of  the  Mound- 
builders  will  be  read  with  considerable  pleas- 
ure and  benefit  by  archaeological  students. 
Dr.  Peet  has  given  the  results  of  his  research 
in  a  style  that  will  be  acceptable  even  to 
non-students.  The  work  is  profusely  illus- 
trated. 

PRACTICAL  POCKET-BOOK  OF  PHOTOGRAPHY. 
By  Dr.  E.  VOGEL.  Translated  by  E.  C. 
CONRAD,  F.  C.  S.  London:  Swan,  Son- 
nenschein  &  Co.  New  York :  Macmillan 
&  Co.  1893.  Pp.  202.  Price,  $1. 

PHOTOGRAPHY  now  exerts  such  an  influ- 
ence upon  current  literature  and  general 
events  that  a  handbook  such  as  that  which 
Dr.  Vogel  has  produced  is  not  alone  timely, 
but  useful.  One  of  the  great  difficulties  un- 
der which  beginners  in  the  art  of  photogra- 
phy labor  is  the  fact  that  the  foamulas  and 
instructions  in  most  guides  are  too  many,  too 
complex,  and  too  incomplete.  In  this  little 
volume  the  author  has  selected  only  the  sim- 
plest and  best  formulas  for  developers,  in- 
tensifiers,  etc.,  all  of  which  have  been  ac- 
cepted and  are  used  by  the  professors  of  the 
Royal  Technical  High  School  of  Berlin. 

The  first  chapter  is  devoted  to  an  exami- 
nation of  the  different  photographic  appara- 
tus in  vogue  among  German  experts,  and 
contains  also  some  very  useful  information 
on  photographic  objectives,  or  the  combina- 
tions of  lenses  that  are  capable  of  giving  an 
optical  image.  Instantaneous  photography 
is  also  treated  in  this  chapter,  and  some 
simple  rules  by  which  exposures  should 
be  determined  will  be  read  with  profit  by 
both  amateur  and  professional  photogra- 
phers. Among  the  formulas  for  developers, 
the  author  draws  attention  to  a  new  and  con- 
centrated para-amidophenol  developer,  which, 
under  the  name  of  "  rodinal,"  has  been  intro- 
duced by  the  Aktiengesellschaft  fiir  Anilin- 
fabrikation.  This  developer  only  needs  dilu- 
tion with  water  to  be  ready  for  use,  and  "  is 
especially  excellent  for  instantaneous  photo- 
graphs." 

In  the  fifth  part  of  Chapter  IY,  Dr.  Vogel 
gives  some  very  simple  instructions  for  the 
recovery  of  silver  from  residues,  which  will 
be  useful  for  those  who  use  developers,  in- 


tensifying baths,  etc.,  in  large  quantities. 
The  fifth  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  positive 
processes,  which  are  examined  in  brief  detail. 
The  book  is  illustrated  fully,  and  the  se- 
lection of  cuts  and  diagrams  is  admirably 
suited  to  the  subject  matter.  The  translator 
has  added  some  important  foot-notes  to  the 
general  text,  which  was  evidently  written  for 
the  use  of  German  students  by  Dr.  Vogel. 

MINERAL  SPRINGS  AND  HEALTH  RESORTS  OP 
CALIFORNIA.  By  WINSLOW  ANDERSON, 
M.  D.  San  Francisco:  The  Bancroft 
Company.  1892.  Pp.  384. 

HAVING  regard  to  the  value  of  the  inves- 
tigation of  balneotherapy  and  the  scientific 
internal  administration  of  mineral  waters, 
which  has  gone  on  with  great  benefit  in 
Europe  for  centuries,  Dr.  Anderson,  believ- 
ing that  California  possessed  valuable  min- 
eral springs,  spent  several  years  examining 
and  comparing  the  waters  of  that  State, 
and  gives  the  result  of  his  labors  in  this 
work.  It  is  a  perfect  revelation  of  the  min- 
eral waters  of  California,  and  apparently 
leaves  nothing  unsaid  either  as  to  their  effi- 
cacy as  health  restorers  or  of  their  compara- 
tive value  against  well-known  European  min- 
eral waters.  Although  the  greater  part  of 
the  work  is  devoted  to  an  exhaustive  ana- 
lytical examination  of  the  waters,  a  fund  of 
useful  information  is  added  on  the  ancient 
uses  of  mineral  springs,  their  classification, 
and  the  theory  of  their  origin,  with  the 
therapeutics  or  medicinal  uses  of  the  differ- 
ent waters.  The  book  is  profusely  illustrated 
with  cuts  of  the  mineral  springs  and  of  Cali- 
fornia's most  famous  health  resorts. 

ELEMENTARY  TEXT-BOOK  OF  ENTOMOLOGY.  By 
W.  F.  KIRBY,  T.  L.  S.  Second  edition. 
London :  Swan,  Sonnenschein  &  Co.  New 
York :  Macmillan  &  Co.  1892.  Pp.281. 
Price,  $3. 

THIS  work  is  elaborately  got  up,  contain- 
ing eighty-seven  plates  and  over  six  hundred 
and  fifty  figures,  representing  a  pictorial  li- 
brary of  the  insect  world.  In  his  introduction 
Mr.  Kirby  gives  an  unusually  lucid  explana- 
tion of  the  structures  and  zoological  nomen- 
clature of  the  insect  tribe,  which  he  divides 
into  four  classes  of  animals  having  bodies 
composed  of  a  number  of  joints  or  segments. 
He  pays  reverent  tribute  to  the  researches 
of  Linne,  who  divided  all  the  insects  known 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


275 


to  him  into  seven  orders  in  his  work  Sys- 
tema  Naturae  (1735).  Fabricius  (a  pupil  of 
Linne)  prepared  a  new  classification  of  in- 
sects, founded  on  the  structure  of  the  mouth, 
and  he  renamed  all  the  Linnaean  orders,  even 
where  they  coincided  with  his  own. 

From  these  and  other  sources  Mr.  Kirby 
selects  only  the  nomenclature  that  is  modern- 
ly  accepted,  and  he  gives  a  most  interesting 
study  in  this  volume.  The  chapters  on  the 
Hymenoplera  class  will  be  found  to  be  of 
more  zoological  value  than  any  account  of 
the  habits  of  bees,  wasps,  ants,  etc.,  that  has 
yet  been  published ;  and  as  this  family  is, 
industrially,  of  more  consequence  to  the  pub- 
lic than  any  other  of  the  insect  class,  the  se- 
lection of  the  Hymenoptera  species  for  his 
most  elaborate  history  is  well  chosen. 

The  analysis  of  the  Lepidoptera  family  is 
treated  very  exhaustively.  It  comprises  espe- 
cially butterflies  and  moths,  and  the  plates 
at  the  end  of  the  book  very  fully  illustrate 
the  principal  members  of  the  species. 

THE  STUDENT'S  HANDBOOK  OF  PHYSICAL  GE- 
OLOGY. By  A.  J.  JUKES-BROWN,  B.  A., 
F.  G.  S.  Second  edition,  revised.  Lon- 
don: George  Bell  &  Sons.  1892.  Pp. 
666.  Price,  $2.25. 

THIS  is  a  recast  of  Mr.  Jukes-Browne's 
Handbook  of  Geology,  to  which  he  has  added 
over  one  hundred  pages,  chiefly  dealing  with 
physiographical  geology  and  the  substructure 
of  the  earth's  crust.  He  shows  pretty  clearly 
that,  although  physiographical  geology  is  in 
the  nature  of  an  incidental  study,  it  is  nev- 
ertheless the  most  perfect  basis  upon  which 
to  form  accurate  geological  beliefs,  and  he 
places  this  part  of  the  work,  very  properly, 
immediately  following  the  chapters  on  Dy- 
namic and  Structural  Geology. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  section  of 
the  work  is  that  devoted  to  the  underground 
circulation  of  waters.  The  mechanical  ef- 
fects of  this  subterranean  water  circulation 
are  very  important  in  geological  research. 
In  England  and  in  many  parts  of  the  Conti- 
nent and  America  they  usually  consist  of 
landslips  and  cave  formations;  whereas  in 
Ireland  and  in  southern  Germany  the  shell 
of  land  above  the  water  is  oftentimes 
"  cracked,"  and,  becoming  detached  from  its 
moorings,  travels  a  mile  or  two  from  its 
original  location. 


In  the  chapter  on  Igneous  Rocks  as  Rock 
Masses,  Mr.  Jukes-Browne  has  given  some 
highly  interesting  examinations  of  the  por- 
phyritic  deposits  of  Wales,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland,  clearly  indicating  the  volcanic  struc- 
ture of  these  countries.  In  dealing  with  the 
influence  of  earth  movements,  the  author 
quotes  Prof.  Powell  in  connection  with  the 
probable  system  and  time  of  the  bed  forma- 
tion of  Colorado,  and  he  says :  "  All  the 
facts  concerning  the  relation  of  the  water- 
ways of  this  region  to  the  mountains,  hills, 
canons,  etc.,  lead  to  the  inevitable  conclu- 
sion that  the  system  of  drainage  was  de- 
termined antecedently  ...  to  the  formation 
of  the  eruptive  beds  (lavas)  and  (volcanic) 
cones."  The  work  is  profusely  illustrated. 

THE  EARTH'S  HISTORY.  An  Introduction  to 
Modern  Geology.  By  R.  D.  ROBERTS,  N.  A. 
New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
1893.  Pp.  270.  Price,  $1.50. 

THIS  is  a  useful  little  volume,  giving  an 
interesting  sketch  of  the  methods  and  chief 
results  of  geological  inquiry ;  but  the  author 
errs,  in  the  same  manner  that  do  most  Eng- 
lish scientists  and  writers  of  scientific  Eng- 
lish bibliology,  inasmuch  as  that  he  assumes 
that  "  the  geology  of  Great  Britain  is  indeed, 
in  epitome,  the  geology  of  the  world."  In 
his  preface  he  says  that  although  individual 
groups  of  rocks  may  be  found  developed  on 
a  grander  scale  hi  one  or  other  of  the  con- 
tinental areas,  and  that  "  particular  scenic 
features,  more  majestic  and  impressive,  may 
be  found  elsewhere ;  in  no  part  of  the  world 
can  so  great  a  variety  of  geological  phenom- 
ena (no  doubt  often  in  miniature),  and  so 
complete  a  system  of  natural  agencies,  either 
in  active  operation  or  displayed  in  their  re- 
sults, be  observed  than  in  Great  Britain." 
The  recent  geological  surveys  of  Arizona, 
California,  and  other  American  States  had 
not  apparently  reached  London  when  Mr. 
Roberts  wrote  his  book,  for  in  the  ascer- 
tained stratigraphical  conditions  of  these 
States  we  have  a  far  more  generous  field  for 
geological  research  than  the  well-ventilated 
analysis  of  British  geological  conditions  can 
ever  display.  Nevertheless,  the  author  has 
compiled  a  valuable  text-book  of  preliminary 
examination  of  the  study  of  geology,  and  in 
the  chapters  upon  Aqueous  Rocks  and  the 
Deposition  in  Past  Times,  and  the  Volcanic 


276 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Action  in  Past  Times,  he  has  materially 
added  to  the  existing  literature  upon  geo- 
logical research. 

Three  books  in  the  series  of  English 
Classics  for  Schools,  by  the  American  Book 
Company,  well  illustrate  the  excellent  idea 
on  which  the  issue  is  based — which  is  that 
of  presenting  the  best  English  books,  of  suit- 
able size,  with  the  accompaniment  of  full 
prefatory  information  concerning  the  sub- 
jects, environments,  and  authors  of  the 
works.  The  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers 
from  the  Spectator  is  introduced  with  an 
account  of  the  Tatler,  of  which  the  Spectator 
was  the  direct  outcome,  and  its  characteris- 
tics, and  biographical  sketches  of  Addison, 
Steele,  and  Budgell,  the  authors  of  the  Sir 
Roger  de  Coverley  papers.  To  a  similar  edi- 
tion of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  Marmion  are  pre- 
fixed a  characterization  of  Scott's  work  in 
the  poem,  a  description  of  the  Scottish  peo- 
ple of  the  time  of  the  action,  their  customs 
and  distinctions,  an  account  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  battle  of  Flodden  Field,  and 
maps  of  the  region  and  of  the  battle-ground. 
The  Second  Essay  on  the  Earl  of  Chatham, 
by  Lord  Macaulay,  is  furnished  with  bio- 
graphical sketches  of  the  author  and  of 
William  Pitt.  These  volumes  are  neat  in 
appearance,  moderate  in  price,  and  are  suit- 
able for  the  modest  library  as  well  as  for  the 
schoolroom. 

Robinsons  Arithmetics  (American  Book 
Company)  have  for  many  years  had  a  wide 
use  among  the  best  American  schools.  In 
preparing  new  and  revised  editions,  the  ob- 
ject has  been  kept  in  view  of  retaining  all 
the  features  which  have  contributed  to  their 
usefulness  and  popularity,  and  making  only 
such  changes  as  would  add  to  their  value 
and  bring  them  up  to  date.  In  the  Primary 
work,  stress  is  laid  upon  teaching  pupils  to 
recognize  numbers  of  objects  before  they  are 
required  to  represent  numbers  by  words  or 
by  figures.  A  valuable  feature  of  the  re- 
vision of  the  Rudiments  consists  in  the  addi- 
tion of  about  forty  pages  of  introductory 
exercises,  of  a  general  character,  which  adapt 
the  book  for  use  in  a  two-book  series,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Practical  Arithmetic,  or  it 
may  be  used  without  the  introductory  exer- 
cises, in  a  three-book  series.  The  scheme  of 
revision  of  the  Practical  Arithmetic  has  been 


rather  one  of  judicious  addition  than  of 
omission,  and  yet  by  an  economical  adjust- 
ment and  by  an  occasional  dropping  out  of 
useless  matter  it  has  been  possible  to  add 
many  valuable  features  and  much  new  matter 
without  materially  increasing  the  size  of  the 
book.  In  the  arrangement  of  subjects  atten- 
tion has  been  paid  to  placing  those  in  se- 
quence which  run  naturally  and  by  easy 
stages  into  one  another,  and  to  giving  early 
places  to  the  most  important  and  useful  ap- 
plications. 

^Edeology,  by  Dr.  Sydney  Barrington 
Elliot,  is  devoted  to  the  physiology,  hygiene, 
etc.,  of  the  generative  life  of  man.  The 
volume  is  compiled  from  a  great  variety  of 
sources,  and  is  characterized  by  that  vague 
generality  of  statement  which  appeals  to  a 
prurient  curiosity  without  doing  much  for 
the  enlightenment  of  the  reader.  Full  and 
explicit  instruction  in  the  physiology  of  the 
generative  system,  suitably  timed  and  adapt- 
ed in  the  education  of  the  young,  would  be 
of  great  service  to  society,  and  there  is  noth- 
ing in  this  class  of  publications  that  will  take 
the  place  of  it  or  approach  it  in  value.  (New 
York,  St.  Clair  Publishing  Co.,  260  pages ; 
price,  $1.50.) 

In  the  sixth  edition  of  M.  Foster's  Text- 
book of  Physiology,  the  appendix  by  Dr.  A. 
Sheridan  Lea,  on  The  Chemical  Basis  of  the 
Animal  Body,  is  bound  by  itself  as  Part  V 
(Macmillan,  $1.75).  It  has  been  enlarged, 
and  now  constitutes  a  treatise  on  the  chem- 
ical substances  occurring  in  the  animal  body. 
The  several  classes  of  proteids  are  first  de- 
scribed, after  which  the  chemistry  of  the 
enzymes,  or  soluble  unorganized  ferments,  is 
given.  Certain  amorphous  bodies  allied  to 
proteids — mucin,  gelatin,  keratin,  etc. — and 
the  few  carbohydrates  found  in  the  human 
body  then  receive  attention.  Other  groups 
are  the  fatty  acids  and  their  allies,  the 
amides  and  amido  acids,  the  uric-acid  group, 
the  ptomaines,  and  the  various  coloring  mat- 
ters. Cuts  showing  the  appearance  of  crys- 
tals of  many  of  the  substances  described  are 
scattered  through  the  text,  and  the  volume 
has  a  separate  index  and  a  list  of  authorities 
quoted. 

A  treatise  on  Varicocele  and  its  Treat- 
ment has  been  prepared  by  Prof.  G.  Frank 
Lydston,  M.  D.  (Keener).  After  a  description 
of  the  disorder,  its  causes  are  reviewed,  and 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


277 


various  modes  of  treatment,  palliative  and 
radical,  are  set  forth.  The  volume  has  an 
index  and  a  bibliography.  A  number  of  cuts 
illustrate  the  appearance  of  diseased  parts 
and  methods  of  operation. 

Studies  in  American  History,  by  Prof. 
Mary  Sheldon  Barnes  (Heath,  60  cents),  is  a 
teachers'  manual,  consisting  of  a  series  of 
outlines'  for  lessons.  It  is  designed  to  direct 
pupils  in  studying  history  from  the  original 
materials,  and  to  that  end  gives  lists  of  au- 
thorities, with  critical  comments,  summaries 
of  points  to  be  made  under  each  head,  notes, 
suggestions,  and  references  for  the  teacher's 
reading.  The  studies  are  divided  into  seven 
groups,  one  being  introductory  and  the 
others  covering  the  history  of  the  territory 
occupied  by  the  United  States  from  Colum- 
bus to  1892.  Machine  teachers  had  better 
let  this  book  alone ;  it  is  a  tool  they  can  not 
handle. 

An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Trigonometry, 
by  E.  W.  Hobson  and  C.  M.  Jessop,  has  been 
issued  from  the  press  of  Cambridge  University 
(Macmillan,  $1.25).  It  is  a  book  for  beginners 
in  its  subject,  and  parts  are  indicated  which 
students  are  advised  to  pass  over  until  they 
have  been  once  through  it.  A  large  number 
of  problems  are  given,  many  of  them  practi- 
cal, and  the  answers  are  put  at  the  end  of 
the  volume. 

Having  received  from  Prof.  Kiikenthal 
for  examination  some  specimens  of  Apus 
brought  from  Spitsbergen,  Mr.  Henry  Mey- 
ners  Bernard  has  made  a  study  of  the  species 
and  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  a  vari- 
ety of  Lepidurus  gladalis,  which  he  pro- 
poses to  call  L.  Spitzbergensis.  His  observa- 
tions of  this  Apus  form  Part  I  of  a  book, 
The  Apodidce,  which  he  has  contributed  to 
the  Nature  Series  (Macmillan,  $2).  In  Part 
I,  also,  he  undertakes  to  prove  that  Apus  is 
an  original  crustacean  easily  derivable  from 
an  annelid.  Going  on,  in  Part  II,  the  author 
maintains  that  Apus  is,  moreover,  the  origi- 
nal of  all  the  modern  crustaceans. 

The  Heredity  of  Acquired  Characters  is 
the  title  of  a  paper  by  Dr.  Manly  Miles,  Lan- 
sing, Mich.,  which  was  published  in  The  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science.  The  inheritance  of 
acquired  character  has  been  denied  by  Weiss- 
man,  who  claims  the  "continuity  of  the 
germ  plasma  as  originally  formulated,  and  all 


inheritable  variations  are  assumed  to  be  the 
result  of  fortuitous  changes  in  the  reproduc- 
tive germs."  Dr.  Miles  claims  that  it  is  im- 
possible that  a  living  substance,  undergoing 
constant  changes,  can  be  "a  substance  of 
extreme  stability"  to  "grow  enormously 
without  the  least  change  in  its  molecular 
structure,"  as  advanced  in  Weissman's  the- 
ory, and  he  adds  that  the  fact  of  the  germ 
plasma  being  brought  into  intimate  relations 
with  the  metabolism  of  the  body  plasma,  the 
habits  of  the  organism  in  modifying  the  gen- 
eral metabolism  of  the  body  must  also  exert 
an  influence  on  the  system  of  the  germ  cells, 
and,  through  their  constantly  changing  sub- 
stance, on  the  forms  of  activity  that  are 
transmitted  from  one  generation  to  another. 
From  Dr.  Miles's  standpoint  it  is  an  almost 
impossible  supposition  that  from  two  germs 
of  identical  qualities  and  tendencies,  two 
adult  forms  could  be  evolved,  precisely  alike 
in  every  detail.  To  arrive  at  such  a  perfect 
reproduction  it  would  be  necessary  to  have 
the  same  series  of  anastates  in  the  construc- 
tive processes  of  every  organ,  and  the  same 
destructive  metabolism  throughout  the  entire 
period  of  growth,  which,  of  course,  could 
very  rarely  occur  in  the  surrounding  condi- 
tions of  two  individuals  ;  but  he  admits  that 
the  repetition  of  an  acquired  habit  for 
several  generations,  uniformly  transmitted, 
might  establish  a  dominant,  inherited  family 
characteristic. 


PUBLICATIONS  RECEIVED. 

Baldwin,  C.  C.  Review  Extraordinary  of 
"  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period."  Pp.  22. 

Balfour,  Henry.  Evolution  of  Decorative  Art. 
New  York:  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  181.  $1.25. 

Bell,  Clark.  Bulletin.  Psychological  Section 
of  the  Medico-legal  Society.  New  York.  Pp.8. 

Blackwell,  Antoinette  Brown.  The  Philoso- 
phy of  Individuality.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons.  Pp.  593.  $3. 

Bolles,  Frank.  At  the  North  of  Bear  Camp 
Water.  Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp.  293.  $1.25.— Students'  Ex- 
penses. Cambridge,  Mass.,  Harvard  University. 
Pp.  45. 

Browning,  W.  W.  Modern  Homoeopathy. 
Philadelphia.  W.  J.  Dornan,  Printer.  Pp.  82. 

Bnrnham,  W.  P.  Three  Roads  to  a  Commis- 
sion in  the  United  States  Army.  New  York:  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  160.  $1. 

Bulletin,  U.  8.  Pish  Commission.  Volume  X. 
1890.  Government  Printing  Office.  Pp.  450. 
With  Maps  and  Plates. 

Catalogue,  Michigan  Mining  School.  Hough- 
ton.  Pp.  175. 

Clute,  O.  Sparry.  Flat  Pea.  Michigan  Aeri- 
cultural  Experiment  Station  Bulletin.  Pp.  18. 

Conn,  H.  W.  Bacteria  in  the  Dairy.  Pp.  20. 
Reprint. 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Dana,  Mrs.  W.  S.  How  to  know  the  Wild 
Flowers.  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
Pp.  298.  $1.50. 

Day,  David  T.  Mineral  Resources  of  the 
United  States.  Washington:  Government  Print- 
ing Office.  Pp.630. 

Denizen,  El  Dr.  G.,  and  Delano,  Manuel  A. 
(translator).  Esposizi6n  elemental  de  los  Prinzi- 
pos  fundamentals  de  la  Teorfa  Atomiqa  (Ele- 
mentary Exposition  of  the  Fundamental  Princi- 
ples of  the  Atomic  Theory).  Paris.  Pp.  35. 

Drummond,  A.  T.  Colors  of  Flowers  in  Rela- 
tion to  Time  of  Flowering.  Pp.  5.  Reprint. 

Everett,  Charles  Carroll.  The  Gospel  of  Paul. 
Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
Pp.307.  $1.50. 

Extermination  of  the  Gypsy  Moth.  Report  of 
the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Agriculture. 
Boston.  Pp.  93. 

Frazer.  Persifor.  Thomas  Sterry  Hunt.  Pp. 
13.  Reprint. 

Gilman,  N.  P.  Socialism  and  the  American 
Spirit.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp.  376.  $1.50. 

Gladden,  Washington.  Tools  and  the  Man. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp.  308.  $1.25. 

Glazebrook,  R.  T.  Laws  and  Properties  of 
Matter.  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  184. 

Gould,  George  M.,  M.  D.  The  Meaning  and 
the  Method  of  Life.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
297.  $1.75. 

Greppo,  C.  L'Esprit  Humain  (The  Human 
Mind).  Paris.  Pp.73. 

Halsted,  B.  D.  A  Study  of  Solanaceous  An- 
thracnosis.  Pp.  3.  Reprint. 

Hopkins,  W.J.  Telephone  Lines.  New  York: 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  Pp.  258.  $1.50. 

Houston,  E.  J.  Electrical  Measurements. 
New  York:  W.  J.  Johnson.  Pp.  429.  $1.— Out 
lines  of  Forestry.  Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott 
Co.  Pp.254.  $1. 

Journal  of  Physiology.  Volume  XIV,  Nos. 
2  and  3.  March,  1893.  Michael  Foster,  editor. 
Cambridge,  England.  Pp.  100.  With  Plates. 

Keen,  W.  W.  Tumor  of  the  Hard  Palate : 
Acute  Appendicitis;  Perinephritic  Abscess.  Pp. 
7.  Reprint. 

Keenan,  W.  J.,  and  Riley,  James.  The  Trans- 
mitted Word.  Dorchester  Press  Company,  Bos- 
ton. Pp.  113.  75  cents. 

Laurie,  S.  S.  John  Amos  Comenius.  Syra- 
cuse, N.  Y.:  C.  W.  Bardeen.  Pp.  272. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.  The  Political  Value  of  His- 
tory. D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  57.  75  cents. 

Lloyd,  J.  H.  A  Case  of  Syringo-myelia.  Pp. 
12.  With  Plates.  Reprint. 

Marine  Biological  Laboratory.  Report  of  the 
Trustees.  Boston.  Pp.  61. 

Morse.  Edward  S.  A  Curious  Aino  Toy.  Pp. 
7.— Latrines  of  the  East.  Pp.  16.  Reprints. 

Michelson,  A.  A.  Spectroscopic  Measure- 
ments. Smithsonian  Institution.  Pp.  24.  With 
Plates. 

Mivart,  St.  George.  American  Types  of  Ani- 
mal Life.  Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co.  Pp. 
374.  $2. 

Orchardson.  Charles.  Light  of  the  Ages. 
Quincy,  111.  Pp.  304. 

Orser,  Levi.  The  Natural  Method  of  writing 
Music.  Boston:  Eastern  Publishing  Company. 
Pp.67. 

Outdoors.  Boston:  Pope  Manufacturing  Co. 
Pp.  76. 

Palmberg,  Albert.  A  Treatise  on  Public 
Health.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.539.  $5. 

Pettee,  Rev.  J.  T.  Annual  Address  before  the 
Meriden  (Conn.)  Scientific  Association.  Pp.  31. 

Proctor,  R.  A.  The  Old  and  New  Astronomy. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  Pp.  816.  With  Plates. 


Sabine,  W.  C.  Physical  Measurements.  Boe- 
ton:  Ginn  &  Co.  Pp.  126. 

Salter,  W.  M.  America's  Compact  with  Des- 
potism in  Russia.  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.  Pp.  22. 

Sharp,  F.  C.  The  ^Esthetic  Element  in  Mo- 
rality. Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  131.  75  cents. 

Smith,  L.  H.  The  New  Education.  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y. :  Wilson  &  Young.  Pp.  24. 

Shufeldt,  R.  W.  The  Chionididae.  Pp.  7.— 
Ridgeway  on  the  Anatomy  of  the  Humming-Birds 
and  Swifts.  A  Rejoinder.  Pp.  5. 

Stephen,  Leslie.  An  Agnostic's  Apology.  G. 
P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp.  380. 

Stevenson,  J.  J.  Southeastern  Alaska  and  its 
People.  Pp.  18.  With  Map.  Reprint. 

Taft,  L.  R.,  Gladden,  H.  P.,  and  Coriell,  R. 
J.  Vegetable  Tests.  Pp.  30.— Spraying  Small 
Fruits.  Pp.  20.  Michigan  Agricultural  College 
Bulletins. 

The  First  Millennial  Faith.  By  the  Author  of 
Not  on  Calvary.  New  York:  Saalfield  &  Fitch. 
Pp.  84.  50  cents. 

The  New  Education.  Monthly.  W.  N.  and 
E.  L.  Hailmann,  editors.  New  York:  Simpson 
&  Co.  Pp.  24.  $1  a  year. 

Transactions  of  the  American  Institute  of  Elec- 
trical Engineers.  March,  1893.  Monthly.  Pp. 
50.  $5  a  year. 

Tucker,  Benjamin  R.  Instead  of  a  Book.  New 
York:  B.  R.  Tucker.  Pp.  512.  $1. 

Waldo,  Frank.  Modern  Meteorology.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons.    Pp.  400. 

Williams,  S.  G.  The  Natural  Sciences  in  Ele- 
mentary Education.  Pp.  10.  Reprint. 

Wright,  J.  Horticulture.  Macmillan  &  Co. 
Pp.  154.  35  cents. 

Youmans,  Leroy  F.  Columbus  Day  Address. 
Columbia,  S.  C.  Pp.  37. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

The  Telautograph. — A  new  system  of 
electric  transmission  was  recently  exhibited 
in  New  York  and  Chicago  which  promises  to 
rival  in  commercial  importance  the  telephone. 
This  is  the  writing  telegraph  of  Prof.  Elisha 
Gray.  By  means  of  it  any  one  can  with  an 
ordinary  lead  pencil  on  ordinary  paper  write 
a  message  or  make  a  sketch  and  have  it  re- 
produced with  exactness,  in  its  minutest  de- 
tail, in  the  receiving  instrument,  which  may 
be  hundreds  of  miles  away.  As  this  method 
of  communication  necessarily  provides  a  rec- 
ord, and  as  the  mistakes  so  easily  possible 
in  any  system  of  oral  communication  can 
not  occur,  it  should  find  a  wide  field  of  use- 
fulness in  the  business  world.  Facsimile 
telegraphs  are  almost  as  old  as  the  art  of 
telegraphy  itself,  but  no  such  system  has 
heretofore  come  into  extended  use,  as  they 
have  proved  unreliable  in  practice  and  have 
lacked  the  simplicity  essential  in  any  appa- 
ratus designed  for  general  use.  Nearly  all 
previous  attempts  to  provide  autographic  re- 
production have  depended  upon  synchronism 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


279 


in  the  movement  of  the  transmitting  and  re- 
ceiving instruments,  a  condition  practically 
impossible  of  realization.  Unlike  these  ear- 
lier devices,  the  system  of  Prof.  Gray  does 
not  depend  at  all  upon  the  timed  movements 
of  the  instruments  at  each  end  of  the  line, 
but  like  the  telephone  the  transmitter  posi- 
tively actuates  the  distant  receiver.  The 
fundamental  principle  of  the  apparatus  is 
that  first  applied  to  this  purpose  by  Mr.  E. 
A.  Cowper,  of  England,  some  fifteen  years 
ago;  but  Prof.  Gray  has  greatly  simplified 
the  construction  and  given  a  range  and  flexi- 
bility to  the  instruments  which  practically 
constitutes  a  new  departure  in  this  method 
of  transmission.  The  principle  involved  is 
the  familiar  geometric  one  that  any  plain 
curve,  no  matter  how  intricate,  may  be  de- 
composed into  component  parts  along  two 
lines  at  right  angles  to  each  other.  If,  then, 
a  point  be  affixed  at  the  junction  of  these 
lines,  all  that  is  necessary  to  reproduce  its 
movements  is  to  cause  two  other  similar 
lines  to  reproduce  the  movements  of  the 
first  two.  A  point  at  the  junction  of  the 
second  lines  will  then  travel  in  exact  con- 
formity with  the  first  point.  This  principle 
is  made  use  of  in  the  familiar  draughtsman  s 
instrument,  the  pantograph,  used  for  pro- 
ducing enlarged  or  reduced  copies  of  an  origi- 
nal drawing.  In  Prof.  Gray's  apparatus  the 
transmitting  instrument  consists  of  a  box 
provided  with  a  leaf  or  table,  upon  which 
the  paper,  which  is  fed  from  a  roll  mounted 
upon  the  instrument,  rests.  The  pencil  is 
placed  at  the  junction  of  two  silk  threads  at 
right  angles  to  each  other,  the  farther  ends  of 
which  are  wound  upon  drums  in  such  a  way 
that  the  motion  of  the  pencil  serves  to  ro- 
tate them  backward  and  forward  in  exact  ac- 
cordance with  the  linear  components  of  the 
curves  described  by  it.  These  drums  have 
each  an  arm  which  sweeps  over  a  series  of 
electrical  contacts,  thereby  sending  a  suc- 
cession of  electrical  impulses  into  its  line 
wire  proportional  to  its  movement.  A  con- 
tact playing  between  stops  serves  to  reverse 
the  current  with  the  reversal  of  the  motion 
of  the  drums.  The  receiving  instrument  con- 
sists of  a  pen  mounted  at  the  junction  of 
two  light  metal  arms,  the  movements  of 
which  are  controlled  by  the  electrical  im- 
pulses sent  to  line  by  the  transmitting  mech- 
anism. This  control  is  effected  by  means  of 


a  gear-wheel—one  for  each  metal  arm — 
which  is  actuated  by  clutch-weights,  which 
weights  are  in  turn  controlled  by  the  current 
through  the  medium  of  an  electro-magnet 
The  gear-wheels,  therefore,  move  in  one  di- 
rection or  the  other  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  currents  sent  over  the  line  wires  and  give 
motion  to  the  arms  carrying  the  transcribing 
pen.  The  pen  is  of  the  ordinary  form  in 
such  instruments,  namely,  a  glass  tube  drawn 
out  to  a  capillary  bore  near  the  point  and 
supplied  with  a  free-flowing  ink. 

Relations  of  Leaves  and  Roots. — As  a  re- 
sult of  investigations  of  the  influence  of  ma- 
nure on  the  development  of  roots,  M.  Deherain 
has  found  that  roots  in  unmanured  ground 
have  a  larger  growth  than  in  manured,  having 
to  spread  more  in  search  of  the  scanty  nutri- 
ment. It  having  been  previously  found  that 
transpiration  largely  depends  on  the  activity 
of  the  roots  as  well  as  on  the  evaporative 
surface,  and  is  not,  therefore,  strictly  pro- 
portional to  leafy  development,  it  follows 
that  if  a  plant  with  small  leafy  growth  evap- 
orates relatively  more  water  than  one  with 
more  abundant  foliage,  it  is  probably  due  to 
large  root-growth  procuring  more  water. 
Volkens  has  observed  that  desert  plants  have 
extraordinarily  long  roots.  M.  Deherain 
further  points  out  that  solar  rays  falling  on 
a  plant  have  the  twofold  work  of  assimila- 
tion and  transpiration  to  perform,  and  that 
these  are  complementary.  In  strong,  leafy 
plants,  assimilation  is  vigorous,  so  that  trans- 
piration is  limited ;  while  in  the  leaves  of  an 
"  anaemic  "  plant  a  large  fraction  of  the  solar 
energy  is  given  to  transpiration. 

Folk  Lore  of  the  Kootenay  Indians.— 

Among  the  Kootenay  Indians  of  southeast- 
ern British  Columbia  there  exist  some 
strange  ideas  of  mythology.  Their  folk  lore 
is  extremely  picturesque,  and  bears  strong 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  earlier  European 
and  Asiatic  races.  The  moon  is  regarded 
by  them  as  a  man,  and  the  sun  (ncUd-nik)  as 
a  woman.  There  was  no  sun  in  the  begin- 
ning (according  to  the  Kootenay-Indian 
mythology),  but  after  the  Indians  had  vainly 
endeavored  to  discover  it,  the  coyote  was 
successful  in  making  it  rise  above  the  moun- 
tains. Another  version  makes  the  chicken- 
hawk  cause  the  sun  to  rise,  and  the  coyote, 


280 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


getting  angry,  shoots  an  arrow  which  misses 
the  sun,  and  causes  the  prairie  to  take  fire. 
The  man  in  the  moon  is  an  Indian,  who 
chopped  wood  every  day,  including  Sunday, 
whereupon  the  moon  came  down  and  seized 
him,  and  he  has  been  up  there  ever  since. 
In  the  same  manner  the  stars  are  supposed 
to  be  Indians,  who  have  "  got  up  into  the 
sky  "  from  time  to  time ;  thunder  is  caused 
by  a  great  bird,  and  the  lightning  by  the 
arrows  which  it  shoots.  Their  version  of  the 
flood  is  a  very  quaint  piece  of  folk  lore,  and 
apparently  entirely  original  with  them.  In 
a  report  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  on  the  Northwest- 
ern Tribes  of  Canada,  Mr.  A.  F.  Chamberlain 
describes  this  legend  very  interestingly,  and 
in  his  pamphlet,  which  covers  almost  every 
trait  and  characteristic  of  the  Kootenays,  as 
well  as  statistics  of  the  development  of  their 
language  and  customs,  he  relates  the  strange 
history  of  their  sociology,  folk  lore,  physical 
characteristics,  etc.  The  monograph  is  pub- 
lished at  the  offices  of  the  association  at 
Burlington  House,  London. 

Animals  for  Pets. — What  is  required  for 
an  every-day  pet,  says  the  London  Spectator, 
is  that  it  shall  be  beautiful  and  intelligent ; 
that  it  shall  neither  be  too  large  nor  too  deli- 
cate ;  and,  if  a  bird,  that  it  shall  sing  or  talk 
— preferably  both.  The  limits  set  by  size 
and  constitution  are  the  main  consideration 
hi  the  choice  of  pets.  Yet  even  so,  the  pos- 
sible range  is  very  great,  and  might  well  ex- 
tend far  beyond  the  species  which  form  the 
main  body  of  those  usually  seen  at  home. 
Tame  rabbits  are  plenty,  but  tame  hares  are 
rare.  A  charming  little  foreign  pet  for  the 
house  is  the  suricate,  "  an  active  and  viva- 
cious little  fellow,  some  ten  inches  long,  with 
greenish-brown  fur,  large  bright  eyes,  a  short 
pointed  nose,  and  dainty  paws,  which,  like  the 
squirrel's  or  the  raccoon's,  are  used  as  hands, 
to  hold,  to  handle,  and  to  ask  for  more.  .  .  . 
The  creature  is  made  for  a  pet,  and  is  so  af- 
fectionate to  its  master  that  it  can  undergo 
any  degree  of  'spoiling'  without  injury  to 
its  temper."  A  larger  and  more  beautiful 
creature  is  the  brown  opossum  from  Tasmania 
— the  "  sooty  phalangist " — with  fur  of  the 
richest  dark  brown  covering  its  prehensile 
tail  like  a  fur  boa.  "  Its  head  is  small,  with 
a  pink  nose  and  very  large  brown  eyes ;  and 


it  has  a  '  compound '  hand,  with  claws  on  its 
fingers,  and  an  almost  human  and  clawless 
thumb,  with  the  aid  of  which  it  can  hold  a 
wineglass,  or  eat  jam  out  of  a  teaspoon. 
That  owned  by  the  writer  was,  without  ex- 
ception, the  most  fearless  and  affectionate 
pet  he  has  ever  known.  In  the  evening, 
when  it  was  most  lively,  it  would  climb  on 
to  the  shoulder  of  any  of  its  visitors,  and 
take  any  food  given  it.  It  had  a  mania  for 
cleanliness,  always  '  washing '  its  hands  after 
taking  food,  or  even  after  running  across  the 
room,  and  was  always  anxious  to  do  the  same 
office  by  the  hands  of  any  one  who  fed  it. 
It  made  friends  with  the  dogs,  and  would 
'  wash '  their  faces  for  them,  catching  hold 
of  an  old  setter's  nose  with  its  sharp  little 
claws,  to  hold  it  steady  while  it  licked  its 
face.  The  staircase  and  banisters  furnished 
a  gymnasium  for  exercise  in  winter,  and  in 
summer  it  could  be  trusted  among  the  trees 
in  the  garden."  The  American  gray  squir- 
rel, the  coati,  the  mongoose,  the  marmot, 
and  the  prairie  dog  are  commended  as  pleas- 
ant pets  in  their  various  ways ;  but  only  one 
monkey — the  capuchin — is  thoroughly  recom- 
mended as  an  indoor  pet.  No  other  monkey 
approaches  it  in  good  temper  and  pretty,  win- 
ning ways.  They  all  have  good,  round  heads, 
with  black  fur  on  the  top  and  light  brown  on 
the  cheeks.  Their  faces  are  most  expressive 
and  seldom  still,  for  they  take  deep  and  abid- 
ing interest  in  everything  in  or  about  their 
cages.  One  is  mentioned  which  had  learned 
to  put  out  burning  paper  by  beating  it  with 
its  hands  or  knocking  it  against  the  floor. 
Another,  if  it  got  a  match,  would  collect  a 
heap  of  straw,  strike  the  match,  light  its  bon- 
fire, and  dance  around  it.  "  The  capuchin  is 
so  small,  so  pretty,  and  so  clever  that  it  seems 
to  embody  all  the  good  and  none  of  the  bad 
points  of  monkey  nature." 

Spinal  CnrYatnre  in  Schools. — The  re- 
sult was  recently  presented  by  Dr.  Scudder, 
of  Boston,  of  an  investigation  into  the  seat- 
ing of  thirty-five  hundred  schoolgirls,  with 
especial  reference  to  its  effect  on  the  spine. 
Lateral  curvature  of  the  spine,  the  author 
said,  is  probably  due  to  several  factors,  among 
which  are  the  weight  of  the  body  falling  upon 
a  weakened  spine ;  weakness  of  the  spine  in 
bone,  muscle,  or  ligament;  and  a  position 
persistently  out  of  the  median  antero-poste- 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


281 


rior  plane  of  the  body.  The  author  had  made 
a  careful  examination  of  the  seating  in  schools, 
and  found  that  faulty  positions  are  certainly 
induced  because  of  the  lack  of  adaptation  of 
seat  to  pupil  and  of  pupil  to  seat.  It  was  not 
possible  to  say  how  much  of  a  factor  poor 
seating  is  in  causing  lateral  curvature,  but 
there  could  no  longer  be  any  doubt  that  it 
plays  an  important  part.  He  favored  as  a 
counteractive  measure  the  introduction  of 
general  neutral  movements  tending  to  de- 
velop the  whole  child  along  the  lines  of 
his  natural  muscular  evolution,  or  exercises 
iike  those  of  the  Swedish  gymnastic  system. 
Some  of  the  participants  in  the  discussion  of 
the  reading  of  the  paper  suggested  that  faulty 
school  attitudes  might  be  less  potent  in  pro- 
ducing curvature  than  bad  habits  acquired 
independently  of  them.  All  agreed  upon  the 
utility  of  suitable  exercise  as  a  counteractive. 

Contrasts  in  Mountain  Scenery. — Writing 
in  Appalachia  from  the  New  Hampshire 
mountains  of  his  visit  to  the  Sierra  Madre 
Mountains,  Mr.  Charles  E.  Fay  begins  by 
describing  the  contrast  between  the  two 
scenes,  than  which,  he  says,  there  can  hard- 
ly be  a  greater  one.  "The  cool,  balsamic 
air,  the  morning  sky  already  piled  with 
cumulus  cloud  prophetic  of  showers  in  mid- 
afternoon,  the  green  fields  cut  by  teeming 
brooks  undulating  away  to  meet  the  darker 
forest  green  that  drapes  the  varied  shapes  of 
Whiteface,  Passaconaway,  Paugus,  and  the 
lower  slopes  of  Chocorua,  are  a  striking  an- 
tithesis to  what  we  looked  on  there.  These 
mountains  woo  you,  and  there  is  an  anticipated 
satisfaction  in  the  promise  made  yourself  to 
stand  on  every  one  of  the  peaks  within  your 
range  of  vision,  attaining  them  by  pleasant 
journeys  through  ferny,  mossy,  pathless 
woods.  But  in  southern  California  the 
mountains  do  not  invite  one — at  least,  not 
for  their  own  sakes.  The  conditions  of  climb- 
ing are  most  unfavorable.  The  summer  heat 
is  intense.  They  lie  beyond  an  unattractive 
stretch ;  for  the  grass  and  flowers  that  in 
spring  cover  in  wonderful  profusion  the 
ground  that  slopes  upward  to  the  sudden  be- 
ginning of  the  steep  foothills  have  withered, 
and  in  July  all  is  parched  and  barren.  The 
scattered  live-oaks  in  the  foreground,  domi- 
neered by  the  will  of  the  prevailing  wind, 
have  a  half-frightened  air;  nothing  of  the 


repose  of  our  maples,  oaks,  and  white  pines. 
The  mountains  themselves,  rising  with  an 
almost  monotonous  uniformity  of  grade,  are 
also  burned  as  dry  as  a  cinder,  their  dead- 
white  rocks  pallidly  reflecting  the  remorse- 
less sunlight.  Not  until  near  the  summits  or 
deep  in  the  canons  do  you  find  forest  trees. 
The  dull  vegetation  of  the  slopes  of  lesser 
altitude  is  of  a  shrubbery  hard  to  penetrate, 
the  most  common  sorts  being  a  so-called 
greasewood  (not  the  plant  known  in  Colorado 
by  that  name)  and  a  disagreeable  thorn-bush, 
which,  however  slightly  broken  as  you  force 
your  way  through  it,  gives  forth  a  sticky, 
milk-white  juice ;  less  frequent  is  the  rnan- 
zanita,  its  smooth,  reddish  brown  being  pret- 
tier to  the  eye  than  yielding  to  the  push." 
These  slopes  abound  in  rattlesnakes,  and 
there  are  myriads  of  lizards  or  "  swifts." 

Amenities  of  Scientific   Controversy.— 

Says  the  Independent,  April  20,  1893  :  "Not 
on  the  ground  of  incompetency,  but  on  the 
ground  of  courtesy  and  decency,  we  will  say 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  certain  overhauling 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  Our 
attention  has  been  called  to  articles  in  the 
American  Anthropologist  and  the  Literary 
Northwest  by  William  J  McGee,  member  of 
the  Geological  Survey,  criticising  a  geological 
work  recently  written  by  a  competent  gentle- 
man not  connected  with  the  Survey,  but  who 
has  given  great  attention  for  many  years  to 
surface  geology.  This  review  is  sprinkled 
with  such  words,  applied  to  the  author  of 
this  volume,  as  '  idlers,'  '  pitiable  paupers,' 
'swindle,'  'harpies,'  'parasites,'  'shyster,' 
'  gull,'  '  mlture,'  and  '  betinseled  charlatan.' 
It  is  a  long  while  since  we  have  seen  so  inde- 
cent an  article." 

The  Channels  of  Mars. — A  new  explana- 
tion of  the  channels  of  Mars  is  offered  by 
Mr.  T.  W.  Kingsmill,  of  Shanghai,  China,  as 
follows:  As  Mars  revolves  round  the  sun, 
under  the  rule  of  gravitation,  it  must  have 
tides  on  its  surface  ;  and  since  its  moons  are 
not  suflSciently  large  to  cause  any  sensible 
rise,  its  tides  must  be  mostly  solar.  Now,  the 
best  views  we  have  of  this  planet  are  when 
it  is  in  opposition — that  is,  when  we  are  in- 
terposed between  it  and  the  sun,  so  that  we 
should  always  see  it  best  at  high  tide.  The 
writer  then  makes  rather  a  strong  point  of 


282 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  great  eccentricity  of  the  orbit  of  Mars, 
and  the  consequent  heavy  fall  it  makes  when 
plunging  toward  the  sun.  Situated  farther 
from  the  sun  than  we  are,  Mars  must  be  re- 
garded as  an  older  member  of  our  system ; 
and  since  it  is  smaller  than  the  earth,  it  is 
only  natural  that  its  surface  crust  should  be 
thicker  than  that  of  our  planet.  Granting 
this,  then  the  internal  pulp  would  not  have 
such  a  power  to  compensate  for  the  rapid  fall 
as  the  earth  does  internally,  for  there  would 
not  be  so  much  of  it,  so  that  an  external  com- 
pensation, assuming  the  crust  to  be  too  thick 
to  alter  its  form,  would  have  to  take  place  at 
the  surface.  On  the  surface,  of  course,  the 
water  is  the  only  power ;  therefore  we  should 
expect,  to  put  it  in  Mr.  Kingsmill's  own 
words,  "  that  the  water  in  the  ocean  would 
be  projected  into  the  Martial  hemispheres, 
and  as  the  planet  approached  the  sun,  tides 
would  sweep  round  the  planet ;  that  the  ca- 
nals should  sometimes  appear  and  sometimes 
be  duplicated  ...  is  only,  a  priori,  what 
might  be  anticipated." 

Factors  of  a  River's  Character.— Where 

a  river  shall  go,  what  kind  of  a  channel  it 
will  cut,  how  much  work  it  will  do,  says  A. 
P.  Brigham,  in  his  paper  on  Rivers  and  the 
Evolution  of  Geographic  Forms,  are  matters 
determined,  in  an  infinite  number  of  ways, 
by  the  underlying  strata.  A  river  flowing  on 
horizontally  bedded  rocks  will  tend  to  have, 
in  its  youth,  a  narrow  canon.  Alternations 
of  hard  and  soft  strata  give,  in  early  stages 
of  river  life,  alternations  of  rock  benches  and 
talus  slopes  ;  and  many  terrace-like  horizons 
on  the  sides  of  the  valley  mantled  commonly 
by  soil,  have  this  origin.  Thus  a  terrace  may 
be  built  up  or  carved  out,  and  it  may  consist 
of  alluvium,  glacial  rubbish,  or  bed  rock. 
Tilted  rocks  give  different  types  of  river  val- 
leys in  infinite  variety.  These  types  may  be 
said  to  be  just  now  beginning  to  attract  a  fair 
share  of  the  interest  of  geographers  and  ge- 
ologists. They  will,  in  years  to  come,  afford 
some  of  the  most  intricate  as  well  as  most 
fascinating  problems  which  are  open  to  in- 
quiry. 

The  Critical  Point  in  a  Thunderstorm. — 
The  belief  that  danger  from  lightning  ceases 
as  soon  as  the  rain  begins  to  fall  heavily — 
expressed  in  the  words  of  a  mother  reassur- 


ing her  children,  "  Don't  cry  any  more,  God 
is  sprinkling  the  earth  with  holy  water  " — 
prevails  extensively  among  the  Flemish  peas- 
ants. Usually,  according  to  M.  P.  J.  De  Rid- 
der,  lightning  flashes  from  storm-clouds  at 
the  line  between  the  heavy  rain  of  large 
drops  and  the  finer  rain — or  from  the  edge 
of  the  heavy  rain.  This  is  always  the  case 
in  cumulo-nimbus  storms,  and  as  the  number 
of  storms  of  that  kind  exceeds  all  others,  the 
belief  of  the  peasants  is  at  least  worthy  of 
attention.  In  nimbus  storms,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  critical  point  is  at  the  latter  end. 
In  those  of  them  which  are  developed  in  the 
veil  of  strato-cirrus,  as  when  the  sky  is  slow- 
ly covered,  the  rain  falls  at  first  without  in- 
tensity and  increases  gradually,  with  distant 
thunder,  while  the  storm  itself  does  not  seem 
to  make  much  headway.  But  suddenly  the 
rain  falls  more  rapidly,  and  the  dangerous 
moment  has  come.  The  roar  of  the  thunder 
becomes  terrible,  the  storm  ceases,  and  the 
sky  is  cleared. 

The  Agaves. — The  name  of  aloes  is  com- 
monly given  to  plants  of  peculiar  appearance 
which  have  long,  fleshy  leaves,  with  spines 
on  their  tips  and  sides ;  but  this  does  not  ex- 
plain why  the  name  has  been  given  to  species 
to  which  it  does  not  belong,  such  as  the  agave, 
which  do  not  resemble  them.  In  Central  Amer- 
ica, their  real  country,  where  they  have  been 
cultivated  on  a  large  scale  from  the  most  re- 
mote times,  they  are  called  pitu,  ozal,  istle, 
metl,  maguey,  etc.  Probably,  soon  after  the 
discovery  of  America,  a  species  of  agave  was 
introduced  in  the  south  of  Europe,  and  be- 
came quite  at  home  there.  Linnaeus,  not 
realizing  that  all  the  agaves  are  American, 
gave  it  the  specific  name  of  Agave  ameri- 
cana.  Now  there  are  more  than  a  hundred 
species  on  horticulturists'  catalogues,  but 
many  of  these  are  only  varieties.  The  uses 
to  which  these  plants  are  found  applicable 
are  constantly  increasing.  In  the  United 
States  and  Europe  they  are  only  garden  orna- 
ments.  In  Mexico  they  hold  the  first  place 
as  wine  plants  and  as  textile  plants.  The 
filamentous  substance  obtained  from  their 
leaves  is  known  all  over  the  world  as  aloes 
fibers.  These  fibers,  of  length  and  thickness 
depending  on  the  variety  and  locality,  are  so 
elastic  and  durable  as  to  be  in  great  demand 
for  ropes,  brushes,  harness,  and  coarse  woven 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


283 


goods.  The  national  drink  of  the  country — 
its  wine  and  cider,  there  called  pulque — is  pro- 
duced from  this  plant.  When  pulque  not 
yet  wholly  fermented — then  called  agua  miel 
or  maguey  juice — is  properly  distilled,  an  al- 
coholic drink  called  mescal  is  obtained.  The 
plants  are  cultivated  on  a  large  scale  in  the 
lower  and  middle  lands  of  which  the  agave 
is  native,  and  the  consumption  and  exporta- 
tion have  attained  a  great  development.  The 
maguey  enjoys  the  advantage  of  flourishing 
where  nothing  else  can  grow  ;  and  immense 
tracts  of  sterile  soil  on  the  seacoast  have 
been,  under  the  stimulus  of  profit,  made  to 
produce  remunerative  crops.  Yet  the  plant 
does  not  reject  fertilizers,  and  those  contain- 
ing potash  have  been  found  very  good.  The 
elevation  and  climates  of  the  several  prov- 
inces varying  considerably,  many  kinds  of 
agave  are  cultivated,  according  to  their  adap- 
tations, and  have  been  given  as  many  local 
names,  which  are  Aztec  or  Spanish.  Some 
ten  varieties  are  adapted  to  produce  fibers  of 
henequen,  or  Sisal  hemp — long,  silky,  elastic, 
and  durable  fibers  suitable  for  rope-making 
or  for  coarse  woven  fabrics.  Other  varieties 
called  lechuguilla  in  Mexico,  having  shorter 
and  coarser  fibers,  furnish  acceptable  sub- 
stitutes for  hog's  bristles  in  brush-making. 
These  fibers  are  called  istle  or  tampico.  The 
thick  and  fleshy  part  of  the  root  of  some  of 
these  agaves — called  amole — is  used  for  soap, 
and  when  roasted  furnishes  what  is  consid- 
ered a  "  savory  food."  The  Agave  ameri- 
cana  is  planted  in  Algeria  for  hedges.  The 
dry  flower  stalks  furnish  materials  for  light 
buildings  ;  and  the  pliant  pith  is  made  into 
insect  paste  and  dressing  for  razor  strops. 

The  Danger  of  the  Celluloid  Button.— 
An  instance  is  related  in  England  in  which 
a  lady  was  put  in  great  danger  while  stand- 
ing before  a  bright  but  not  blazing  fire  by 
the  burning  of  one  of  the  fancy  celluloid  but- 
tons of  her  dress.  Experiments  made  by 
Prof.  C.  Vernon  Boys  prove  that  articles 
composed  of  this  material  are  very  suscepti- 
ble to  heat  and  take  fire  very  readily.  Prof. 
Boys  advises  the  public  to  guard  themselves 
from  what  is  likely  to  be  a  grave  source  of 
harm,  even  to  the  extent  of  fatal  issues,  by 
taking  the  precaution  of  submitting  to  a  very 
simple  test  that  resembling  tortoiseshell,  hair- 
pins, combs,  and  other  ornaments,  and  toys. 


On  briskly  rubbing  the  button  on  cloth  a 
strong  smell  of  camphor  is  evolved.  If  this 
ready  test  fails,  a  small  portion  may  be  ig- 
nited ;  it  will  burn  energetically  with  a  flar- 
ing noise,  and  the  fumes  of  camphor  given 
off  can  not  be  mistaken.  If  the  article  is 
composed  of  other  material,  the  smell  will 
probably  bring  to  remembrance  that  pro- 
duced on  burning  feathers.  Celluloid,  it  is 
said,  may  be  made  uninflammable  and  safe 
by  mixing  with  it  certain  metallic  salts — 
among  them  the  chloride  of  tin. 

Evolution  of  the  Color  of  Birds — Mr. 

Charles  A.  Keeler,  of  the  California  Academy 
of  Sciences,  has  published  a  volume  of  336 
pages  on  The  Evolution  of  the  Colors  of 
North  American  Land  Birds.  In  explana- 
tion of  how  he  arrives  at  the  theories  which 
he  advances  he  quotes  the  experiments  and 
researches  of  many  celebrated  scientists  on 
the  evolution  of  the  colors  of  butterflies, 
goldfish,  spiders,  etc.,  and  dwells  particularly 
on  the  effects  of  climate  and  the  laws  of 
heredity — uninterrupted  transmission,  sexual 
transmission,  and  mixed  or  mutual  transmis- 
sion— as  the  chief  elements  in  the  evolution 
of  the  coloring  of  birds'  plumage.  Remark- 
ing, en  passant,  that  the  plumage  of  birds, 
confined  or  diseased,  loses  its  brilliancy,  and 
that,  should  the  confined  wild  bird  breed,  the 
plumage  of  the  offspring  would  be  of  less 
beautiful  colors  than  the  parent,  Mr.  Keeler 
cites  Mr.  Darwin,  who  says :  "  Each  of  the 
endless  variations  which  we  see  in  the  plu- 
mage of  our  fowls  must  have  had  some  effi- 
cient cause  ;  and  if  the  same  causes  were  to 
act  uniformly  during  the  lo^g  series  of  gen- 
erations on  many  individuals,  all  probably 
would  be  modified  in  the  same  manner." 
And  in  relation  to  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
general  constancy  of  coloration  in  the  wild 
birds,  he  remarks  that  this  uniformity  of  col- 
oration is  preserved  by  free  intercrossing, 
and  where  this  is  prevented  by  isolation  or 
migration,  variations  of  color  very  frequently 
take  place.  Young  birds  of  various  species, 
after  the  autumn  molt,  continue  through  the 
winter  to  assume,  by  degrees,  the  more  in- 
tense colors  characteristic  of  the  adults,  with- 
out changing  feather ;  and  Mr.  Yarrell  says 
that  many  birds  appear  to  become  more  bril- 
liant in  color  as  the  breeding  season  ap- 
proaches, without  either  molting  or  the 


284 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


wearing  away  of  the  tips  of  the  feathers. 
Of  the  effect  of  food  and  environment  upon 
the  colors  of  bird  plumage,  Mr.  Keeler  be- 
lieves that  the  direct  influence  of  the  envi- 
ronment plays  an  important  part  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  colors,  and  regarding  food  he  quotes 
Mr.  Frank  Beddard,  who  says  in  Animal 
Coloration :  "  If  the  nature  of  animal  colors 
is  borne  in  mind,  it  seems  impossible  to 
doubt  the  modifying  action  of  food;  those 
that  are  due  to  structural  peculiarities  of  the 
parts  colored  (e.  g.,  feathers  of  many  birds), 
may  be  altered  just  as  much  as  those  that 
are  caused  by  the  deposition  of  pigment ;  for 
the  '  structural '  colors  depend  largely  upon 
pigment  for  their  manifestation.  .  .  .  When 
there  is  an  obvious  relation  between  waste 
matter  and  the  skin  pigments,  it  can  not  be 
doubted  that  variation  only  in  the  amount  of 
the  food  may  lead  to  color  changes."  Some 
interesting  color  evolutions  are  given  in  the 
chapter  entitled  The  Direct  Influences  of 
the  Environment ;  for  instance,  if  a  yellow 
canary  is  fed  with  cayenne  pepper,  it  will 
cause  the  feathers  to  turn  red ;  carmine  was 
given  to  some  canaries  and  the  yellow  feath- 
ers became  white ;  while  Amazon  parrots 
change  from  green  to  yellow  when  fed  upon 
the  fat  of  certain  fishes.  Notwithstanding 
the  exhaustive  manner  in  which  Mr.  Keeler 
has  treated  the  subject,  he  says  that  "  the 
paper  is  written  more  with  the  hope  of 
stimulating  thought,  and  inciting  in  a  new 
and  as  yet  almost  untrodden  field  of  ornitho- 
logical inquiry,  than  with  the  expectation  of 
reaching  definite  results." 

BehaYior  of  Young  Snakes.— One  of  the 

most  curious  matters  connected  with  the 
breeding  habits  of  certain  snakes  is  the 
"egg-tooth,"  a  small  tooth  fixed  to  the 
united  premaxillary  bones,  and  projecting 
slightly  forward,  beyond  the  edge  of  the  up- 
per lip.  It  is  present  only  in  the  embryo, 
and  is  shed  very  shortly  after  the  escape  of 
the  young  snake  from  the  egg.  This  tooth 
is  employed  by  the  little  snake  in  ripping 
open  the  tough  egg-covering  in  its  efforts  to 
escape  from  its  prison.  The  young  of  the 
Heterodon  (a  snake  closely  allied  to  the  cop- 
perhead) are  perhaps  the  most  amusing 
youngsters  of  the  snake  family.  In  Volume 
XV  of  the  United  States  National  Museum, 
0.  P.  Hay,  hi  a  paper  entitled  On  the  Breed- 


ing Habits,  Eggs,  and  Young  of  Certain 
Snakes,  gives  a  very  interesting  account  of 
the  singular  habits  of  the  young  Heterodon 
from  personal  observation.  Having  received 
a  consignment  of  twenty-seven  eggs,  which 
were  supposed  to  be  those  of  the  copper- 
head snake,  he  watched  the  bursting  from 
the  tough,  parchment-like  egg-covering  of 
the  young  snakes,  and  exactly  eight  days 
after  the  receipt  they  were  all  hatched,  the 
length  varying  from  seven  to  eight  inches. 
"  From  the  moment  of  escape  from  the  egg 
all  were  quite  active  and  manifested  the 
characteristics  of  the  adults.  ...  A  faint 
hiss  was  uttered,  but  that  may  not  have  been 
voluntary.  One  would  sometimes  flatten  its 
head  and  body  and  rear  up  with  the  anterior 
third  of  its  length  from  the  ground.  If  one 
did  not  know  well  their  inoffensive  natures, 
one  would  be  excused  for  fearing  to  handle 
them.  An  exceedingly  singular  habit  pos- 
sessed by  the  adults  (which  is  also  practiced 
by  the  young)  is  that  of  feigning  death."  On 
being  struck  or  teased,  they  will  roll  over 
as  if  in  the  intensest  agony,  and  then  throw 
themselves  on  the  back  and  lie  there  as  if 
dead.  If  left  undisturbed  for  a  little  while 
they  would  turn  over  and  creep  slyly  away. 
In  this  paper  Mr.  Hay  treats  the  peculiar 
appearance  of  the  eggs  of  snakes,  which 
bring  forth  their  young  alive,  very  interest- 
ingly, and  it  would  seem  that  even  in  these 
also  there  is  present  the  singular  egg-tooth. 

Precautions  against  the  Lizard.— A  su- 
perstition prevails  among  the  Shuswap  In- 
dians of  British  Columbia  that  a  man  who 
sees  a  small  lizard  of  a  particular  species 
is  followed  by  it  wherever  he  may  go  during 
the  day,  till  at  length,  when  he  is  asleep  dur- 
ing the  following  night,  it  finds  him,  and,  en- 
tering his  body,  proceeds  to  tear  out  his 
heart,  so  that  he  quickly  dies.  The  late  Mr. 
Bennett,  of  Spallumsheen,  told  Dr.  Dawson 
in  1877  that  the  Indians  employed  by  him  in 
making  a  ditch  for  purposes  of  irrigation,  on 
coming  into  camp  in  the  evening,  would 
jump  several  times  over  the  fire  in  order  to 
lead  the  possibly  pursuing  lizard  to  enter  the 
fire  and  be  destroyed  in  attempting  to  cross. 
He  also  noticed  that  they  carefully  tied  up 
the  legs  of  their  trousers  when  retiring. 
If,  while  at  work  during  the  day,  they  saw 
one  of  these  little  lizards,  which  appeared  to 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


285 


be  abundant  in  that  locality,  it  would  be 
caught  in  a  forked  twig,  the  ends  of  which 
were  then  tied  together  with  a  wisp  of  grass, 
and  the  butt  end  of  the  twig  afterward 
planted  in  the  soil.  Thus  treated,  the  lizard 
soon  died  and  became  a  natural  mummy. 
If,  during  the  progress  of  the  work,  any  one 
found  and  carelessly  tossed  aside  one  of 
these  lizards,  the  Indians  would  throw  down 
their  tools  and  search  diligently  until  they 
found  it  and  secured  it  in  this  manner.  A 
similar  belief  to  the  one  here  recorded  is 
noticed  in  Nature  by  Mr.  C.  Bushe,  as  pre- 
vailing in  Ireland,  with  reference  to  water- 
newts,  which  are  there  called  man-eaters. 
One  woman  to  whom  a  specimen  was  shown, 
said  they  were  known  to  jump  down  peo- 
ple's throats,  to  their  certain  destruction. 

Life  in  Morocco. — The  present  popula- 
tion of  Morocco,  says  Nature,  is  a  puzzle  al- 
most as  difficult,  although  on  a  smaller  scale, 
as  that  of  China.  The  authors,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Sir  Lambert  Playfair  and  Dr.  Rob- 
ert Brown,  of  the  Bibliography  of  the  coun- 
try, give  4,000,000  as  an  estimate,  but  the 
guesses  of  various  authorities  vary  between 
1,500,000  and  15,000,000.  The  roads  shown 
on  the  map  are  merely  mule  and  camel  tracks 
made  by  the  feet  of  the  pack  animals,  un- 
aided by  any  engineer.  Ferries  are  rare,  and, 
of  course,  bridges  are  unknown  in  the  inte- 
rior. The  distribution  of  towns  and  villages 
is  often  at  variance  with  the  rules  holding 
for  civilized  countries.  The  villages  are 
built  out  of  the  way  of  the  main  tracks,  be- 
cause people  never  travel  in  Morocco  for 
the  good  of  the  inhabitants,  and  it  is  safer 
to  live  off  the  path  of  the  tax  collector  and 
the  government  official,  who  demand  free 
food  and  quarters.  The  great  number  of 
place-names  on  the  map  of  so  thinly  peopled 
a  country  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  tombs 
of  saints  are  such  important  landmarks  that 
they  must  be  indicated,  even  if  only  a  few 
persons  live  beside  them.  All  the  places 
beginning  with  Sidi  (Lord,  Master)  are  either 
actually  tombs,  or  the  tomb  has  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  town  or  village.  "  Sok,"  an- 
other affix  of  frequent  occurrence,  means 
market-place,  and  many  of  the  established 
sites  for  periodical  fairs  are  uninhabited  be- 
tween the  gatherings  of  people  from  far  and 
near.  Many  of  the  place-names  on  the  coast 


exist  in  two  forms  at  least — the  native  word 
and  its  Portuguese  or  Spanish  translation ; 
Casabianca  and  Dar-el-beida  (both  meaning 
white  house),  for  example. 

Sirius  and  its  Companion. — The  slight 
periodical  displacements  of  Sirius,  first  ob- 
served about  seventy  years  ago,  were  found 
by  Bessell  in  1851  to  be  due  to  its  revolution 
in  an  ellipse,  the  largest  diameter  of  which 
is  2-4",  which  is  accomplished  in  about  fifty 
years.  Sirius  was  therefore  concluded  to  be 
a  double  star,  with  a  satellite  of  considerable 
relative  importance,  which,  as  it  was  not 
seen,  was  supposed  to  be  dark.  The  satellite, 
which  is  not  quite  dark,  was  seen  for  the 
first  time  in  1862 ;  and  can  now,  by  taking 
proper  precautions,  be  found  at  will.  The 
period  of  revolution  of  the  group  has  been 
determined  by  M.  Auwers  at  forty-nine  years 
and  between  four  and  five  months,  and  the 
orbit  an  ellipse,  the  greater  axis  of  which  is 
2 '42".  Hence,  according  to  the  estimated 
distance  of  Sirius,  the  two  stars  are  about 
twenty  times  as  far  apart  as  the  distance  of 
the  earth  from  the  sun,  or  equal  to  the  dis- 
tance of  Uranus.  The  mass  of  the  whole 
system  has  been  computed  to  be  5 '24  tunes 
that  of  the  sun,  of  which  Sirius  has  2*20 
times  and  the  companion  T04  time.  The 
orbit  of  the  companion  is  larger  than  that  of 
Sirius.  The  distance  apart  of  the  two  stars, 
now  less  than  4",  will  diminish  for  two  years 
longer,  after  which  it  will  begin  to  increase 
again,  till  in  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  years 
it  will  exceed  11".  The  discovery  of  the 
system  and  of  the  rate  of  its  revolutions  af- 
fords proof  of  the  operation  of  the  force  of 
gravity  beyond  the  limits  of  the  solar  system. 

Origin  of  Cholera. — All  the  theories  of 
the  origin  of  cholera,  Mr.  C.  Egerton  Fitz- 
gerald suggests,  may  be  right.  The  disease 
will  eventually  be  found  to  be  a  miasmatic 
one,  of  which  the  hitherto  undiscovered  germ 
can  be  conveyed  through  the  air,  by  water, 
excreta,  infected  bodies,  and  clothing.  What 
the  special  germ  may  be  we  as  yet  know  not ; 
but  that  it  multiplies  with  enormous  rapidity 
under  favorable  conditions  of  heat,  moisture, 
and  dirt  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Each  indi- 
vidual as  he  is  attacked  becomes  a  fresh 
nidus,  a  hotbed  for  disease  germs,  which 
seek  and  require  only  a  suitable  soil  or  cul- 


286 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tivating  medium  for  their  propagation ;  but 
a  suitable  condition  of  the  atmosphere  exists 
only  under  certain  exceptional  circumstances. 
This  accounts  for  the  rapid  spread  of  cholera 
among  large  masses,  especially  dirty  masses, 
of  men.  Each  unit  of  infection  acts  on  suit- 
able media  exactly  as  would  a  particle  of 
yeast  if  introduced  into  a  mass  of  fermenti- 
ble  fluid  under  the  requisite  conditions  of 
temperature,  etc.  This  is  the  explanation 
of  the  fact  that,  although  cholera  may  arise 
sporadically  anywhere,  under  favorable  but 
exceptional  circumstances,  it  is  endemic  only 
in  India,  where,  presumably,  these  requisite 
conditions  constantly  prevail.  That  cholera 
does  spread  principally  along  the  lines  of 
human  intercourse,  that  it  may  be  conveyed 
by  man,  by  water,  by  fomites,  may  be 
readily  conceded  without  affecting  the  con- 
tention as  to  its  miasmatic  and  aerial  charac- 
ter and  method  of  propagation.  That  chol- 
era is  caused  by  Koch's  vibrio  is  to  the  last 
degree  improbable,  and  certainly  unproved, 
and  the  presence  of  that  microbe  in  the  de- 
jecta of  cholera  patients  may  be  due  simply 
to  its  finding  a  congenial  soil  there. 

Progress  in  Practical  Electricity.— The 

recent  inaugural  address  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Preece, 
as  President  of  the  English  Institution  of 
Electrical  Engineers,  was  devoted  to  a  review 
of  the  progress  of  the  practical  applications 
of  electricity  during  the  forty  years  of  the 
speaker's  service  in  developing  them.  He 
spoke  first  of  the  extension  of  the  telegraph ; 
then  of  the  oceanic  service  of  the  Eastern 
Telegraph  Company,  the  greatest  cable  cor- 
poration in  the  world,  whose  system  of  25,370 
miles  stretched  from  Cornwall  to  Bombay, 
connected  the  northern  and  southern  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  with  Malta,  and  joined 
the  various  other  islands  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean and  the  Levant.  This  company,  in  con- 
junction with  the  Eastern  Extension  and  the 
Eastern  and  South  African  Companies,  also 
gained  access  to  Australia  and  New  Zealand 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
on  the  other,  the  combined  mileage  reaching 
a  total  of  47,151  miles.  There  was  no  more 
perfect  apparatus  in  existence,  the  speaker 
said,  than  the  lightning  protector,  and  if  it 
ever  failed  to  do  its  duty  it  failed  from  man's 
neglect  of  some  simple  rule  or  his  failure  to 
keep  it  in  proper  order.  In  1892  not  an  ac- 


cident was  recorded  in  any  high-class  tele- 
graph instrument  in  the  whole  United  King- 
dom. To  railways,  electricity  had  proved  an 
invaluable  adjunct — in  the  repetition  of  sig- 
nals obscured  fr6m  the  view  of  the  signal- 
man, and  in  night  signals.  The  number  of 
telephones  hi  actual  use  might  be  put  down 
at  a  million.  The  speaker  had  recently  de- 
vised a  new  form  of  cable  which  would  prob- 
ably quadruple  the  rate  of  telegraphic  cable 
working  to  America.  There  was  no  theoret- 
ical reason  why  we  should  not  converse  be- 
tween London  and  every  capital  in  Europe, 
while  it  was  not  impossible  to  speak  even 
across  the  Atlantic.  Heating  and  cooking 
apparatus  worked  by  electricity  had  not  at 
present  a  very  favorable  outlook,  though 
many  appliances  had  been  shown  in  opera- 
tion. The  electric  light  was  essentially  the 
poor  man's  light.  Many  efforts  were  being 
made  to  utilize  the  waste  forces  of  Nature  in 
producing  electric  currents  for  the  econom- 
ical supply  of  the  light.  There  were  many 
towns  whose  streets  could  be  brilliantly  il- 
luminated by  the  streams  running  past  them. 
The  range  of  power  transmission  had  been 
enormously  extended  since  much  higher 
voltages  than  were  possible  with  continuous 
currents  could  be  employed.  Meanwhile, 
power  transmission  by  single-phase  alternat- 
ing current  had  also  been  developed.  The 
use  of  electrically  transmitted  power  in  mines 
had  been  greatly  extended  within  the  last  few 
years,  especially  hi  America,  and  the  use  of 
electrical  energy  for  working  railways  was 
making  gigantic  progress  in  the  United  States, 
while  it  had  begun  to  make  a  serious  move 
in  the  United  Kingdom. 

NOTES. 

IN  his  article  in  the  April  number  of  The 
Popular  Science  Monthly  entitled  Science 
and  the  Colleges,  President  D.  S.  Jordan 
made  the  statement  that  "it  is  not  many 
years  since  the  faculty  of  one  of  our  State 
universities  spent  a  whole  afternoon  discuss- 
ing the  proposition  to  abolish  laboratory 
work  hi  science."  He  now  writes  us  that  al- 
though the  statement  was  given  on  what  he 
regarded  as  good  authority,  he  has  been  in- 
formed by  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the 
institution  in  question,  who  took  part  in  the 
discussion,  that  the  question  was  not  whether 
laboratory  work  should  be  abolished,  but 
simply  whether,  in  the  course  leading  to  the 
degree  of  B.  A.,  laboratory  work  should  not 


NOTES. 


287 


be  made  optional  rather  than  obligatory.  In 
other  words,  the  movement  was  not  in  the 
direction  of  opposing  laboratory  work  in  sci- 
ence, but  in  the  direction  of  the  extension  of 
the  elective  system.  He  therefore  desires 
this  correction  to  be  made. 

THE  entertainments  called  the  Urania 
Spectacles  that  have  been  given  in  New  York 
and  Boston  during  the  past  two  winters  are 
very  successful  efforts  to  exhibit  some  of  the 
wonders  of  science  to  large  audiences.  They 
consist  of  numerous  photo-opticon  views,  in 
which  coloring  and  motion  as  well  as  form 
are  shown,  accompanied  by  an  explanatory 
lecture.  The  lecturer  is  Mr.  Garrett  P.  Ser- 
viss,  whose  ability  to  make  the  facts  of  as- 
tronomy interesting  is  well  known  to  the 
readers  of  the  Monthly.  The  spectacles  are 
now  three  in  number :  A  Trip  to  the  Moon, 
The  Seven  Ages  of  our  World,  and  The 
Wonders  of  America.  Among  the  more 
striking  pictures  in  the  first  of  these  are  an 
eclipse  of  the  sun,  close  views  of  lunar 
craters  and  canons,  and  the  rotating  earth 
as  it  would  be  seen  from  the  moon.  In  the 
second  the  progress  of  a  world  from  a  nebula 
to  a  burned-out  cinder  is  traced ;  and  in  the 
last  the  marvelous  scenery  of  our  own  land 
is  depicted. 

A  SPECIMEN  of  volcanic  dust  from  near 
Omaha,  Nebraska,  is  described  by  Prof.  J.  E. 
Todd.  It  was  from  a  stratum  of  whitish 
aspect,  about  eighteen  inches  in  thickness, 
found  in  the  bluffs  facing  the  Missouri  River. 
It  has  the  same  general  characteristics  as  the 
volcanic  dust  which  has  been  found  in  quanti- 
ty along  the  Republican  River,  in  southern  Ne- 
braska, and  in  Knox,  Gumming,  and  Seward 
Counties  in  the  same  State ;  but  it  differs  in 
being  stained  with  oxide  of  iron  and  the 
sharp  angular  grains  coated  with  carbonate 
of  lime.  This  locality  is  the  most  eastern 
exposure  of  the  volcanic  dust  stratum  which 
is  found  scattered  over  the  most  of  Nebraska. 

THE  summer  school  has  now  been  made 
an  integral  part  of  the  university  at  Cornell, 
and  will  be  open  for  1893  with  courses  con- 
siderably enlarged  in  scope.  Without  ex- 
cluding others  qualified  to  take  up  the  work, 
these  courses  are  offered  for  the  special  bene- 
fit of  teachers.  They  are  open  to  women  as 
well  as  to  men,  and  the  same  facilities  for 
work  are  afforded  to  those  students  as  to  the 
regular  students  of  the  university.  Every 
opportunity  will  also  be  afforded  for  original 
research.  Addresses  will  be  delivered  similar 
to  those  given  in  1892  by  President  Schur- 
mann  and  ex-President  White.  The  session 
will  continue  from  July  6th  till  August  16th. 

THE  sixth  session  of  the  Marine  Biologi- 
cal Laboratory,  Woods  Holl,  Massachusetts, 
will  begin  June  1st  and  continue  till  August 
80th.  The  Laboratory  for  Investigators  will 
be  open  during  the  whole  time,  and  in  it 
twenty  special  tables  will  be  provided  for 


those  who  are  prepared  to  begin  original 
work.  An  elementary  course  in  vertebrate 
embryology  will  be  introduced,  with  studies 
mainly  of  the  fish-egg,  conducted  by  Mr. 
Lillie  and  Prof.  Whitman,  to  open  July  5th 
and  continue  six  weeks.  The  Zoological  Lab- 
oratory for  Teachers  and  Students  will  be 
open  during  the  same  time,  with  regular 
courses  in  zoology  and  microscopical  tech- 
nique, in  which  students  will  be  permitted, 
under  special  conditions,  to  begin  their  indi- 
vidual work  as  early  as  June  15th.  The  Bo- 
tanical Laboratory  will  be  opened  July  5th 
for  study  of  the  structure  and  development 
of  types  of  the  various  orders  of  cryptogamic 
plants,  giving  special  attention  to  the  marine 
algae.  A  department  of  laboratory  supply 
has  been  established,  to  fill  orders  from  a  dis- 
tance, in  which  a  considerable  number  of 
species  are  kept  in  stock.  The  laboratory 
is  under  the  general  direction  of  Prof.  C.  0. 
Whitman,  with  whom  are  eleven  professors 
in  special  branches,  and  other  assistants. 

THE  opinion  expressed  by  Mr.  Alfred  G. 
Mayer,  in  his  article  on  the  Habits  of  the 
Garter  Snake,  published  in  the  Monthly  for 
February,  that  snakes,  as  feeders  on  frogs 
and  toads,  are  therefore  friends  of  insects  and 
indirectly  enemies  of  leaves,  is  criticised  by 
Garden  and  Forest  as  a  dangerous  generali- 
zation, "for,  although  the  snakes  will  eat 
frogs  and  toads,  as  well  as  anything  else  in 
the  line  of  small  animals  that  they  can  mas- 
ter, they  also  eat  a  great  many  insects,  and 
they  could  not,  under  any  circumstances,  in 
justice,  be  called  protectors  of  insects." 

THE  valuable  memoirs  of  T.  A.  Conrad 
on  the  Tertiary  fossils  of  the  United  States 
have  become  very  rare,  and  are  practically 
out  of  the  market.  Yet  the  work  is  of  great 
importance  to  students.  The  idea  of  reprint- 
ing the  work  has  accordingly  found  favor. 
A  reprint  of  the  volume  on  the  Eocene  is 
contemplated  by  Mr.  Gilbert  D.  Harris,  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institution ;  and  the  Wag- 
ner Free  Institute  of  Science,  of  Philadel- 
phia, proposes  to  reprint  the  volume  on  the 
Miocene — the  Medial  Tertiary — with  photo- 
gravure reproductions  of  the  original  plates 
and  an  introductory  chapter  and  a  table  show- 
ing the  present  state  of  the  nomenclature  of 
the  species;  the  whole  forming  an  octavo 
volume  of  about  150  pages,  with  49  plates. 
Subscriptions  are  asked  for  150  copies,  at 
$3.50  each. 

MR.  JOSEPH  E.  CARNE,  Curator  of  the  Min- 
ing and  Geological  Museum  at  Sydney,  Aus- 
tralia, has  been  appointed  a  geological  sur- 
veyor. 

RESEARCHES  into  the  conditions  of  the  lif e 
of  micro-organisms  have  shown  them  to  be 
variously  adapted  to  considerable  diversities 
of  temperature,  and  some  of  them  to  be 
adapted  to  great  ranges.  Forster  and  Bleek- 
rode  have  found  a  few  species  containing 


288 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


immense  numbers  of  individuals,  and  living 
in  various  media,  capable  of  developing  at 
the  freezing  point.  One  of  them,  a  sea-water 
species,  produces  phosphorescence  at  that 
temperature.  It  is  well  known  that  to  pre- 
serve meat  and  other  articles  of  food  success- 
fully it  is  necessary  to  employ  a  much  lower 
temperature  than  that  of  the  melting  of  ice, 
and  experience  has  further  shown  that  this 
is  best  done  when  the  atmosphere  is  deprived 
of  moisture. 

ELECTRIC  currents  were  proved  many  years 
ago  to  exist  in  plants ;  and  Kunkel  was  led 
to  think,  by  his  experiments,  that  they  were 
caused  by  the  mechanical  process  of  water- 
motion,  set  up  on  application  of  the  moist 
electrode.  A  new  investigation  of  the  sub- 
ject has  been  made  by  Herr  Haaske,  and  he 
concludes  that  it  is  unquestionable  that 
changes  of  matter  of  various  kinds  are  con- 
cerned in  the  production  of  the  electric  cur- 
rents, especially  oxygen-respiration  and  car- 
bonic-acid assimilation ;  and  that  while  water 
movements  may  possibly  share  in  their  pro- 
duction, their  share  is  certainly  only  a  small 
one. 

MR.  KEDAMATH  BASTJ  has  observed  that 
under  the  influence  of  enlarged  education 
and  refinement,  tattooing  and  the  use  of  red 
paint  on  the  forehead  and  crown  are  dimin- 
ishing among  the  women  of  Bengal.  These 
fashions  still  persist  in  the  Northwest  Prov- 
inces, along  with  the  insertion  of  thick  and 
heavy  wooden  plugs  in  the  lower  lobes  of 
their  ears. 

A  SPECIMEN  of  ruthenium,  weighing  two 
kilogrammes,  prepared  by  M.  Joly,  was  re- 
cently exhibited  in  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences.  The  metal  is  very  hard  and  brittle, 
having  a  specific  gravity  of  12,  and  melts  at 
the  temperature  of  the  electric  arc.  It  is 
usually  found  associated  with  iridium,  palla- 
dium, rhodium,  and  osmium,  in  platinum  ores. 

HERR  Du  BOIS-REYMOND  has  shown,  in  a 
communication  to  the  Physiological  Society 
of  Berlin,  that  a  sensation  of  heat  follows 
the  immersion  of  the  hand  in  a  receiver 
containing  gaseous  carbonic  acid.  A  like 
effect  is  produced  by  other  gases  which  do 
not  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  air. 
The  heat  sensation  may  be  compared  with 
that  produced  by  a  temperature  of  68°  Fahr. 
in  the  air.  The  phenomenon  results  from  a 
stimulation  of  the  nerves  sensitive  to  heat. 

EXPERIMENTS  are  described  by  Herr  We- 
sendonck,  the  object  of  which  was  to  deter- 
mine whether  electrification  is  produced  by 
the  friction  of  gases.  While  ordinary  air  gave 
considerable  charges,  negative  or  positive, 
according  to  the  adjustment  of  the  apparatus, 
no  electrification  was  produced  when  the  air 
had  been  previously  freed  from  dust  and 
moisture.  Oxygen  behaved  in  the  same  way. 
Carbonic  acid,  evaporated  from  the  liquid 
state,  imparted  a  strong  positive  charge, 


which  was,  however,  reversed  as  soon  as  the 
cold  led  to  the  precipitation  of  watery  vapor. 
Ordinary  atmospheric  dust  was  found  to  elec- 
trify the  brass  negatively,  and  the  charge 
was  increased  by  previous  drying.  It  seems, 
therefore,  that  pure  gases  are  incapable  of 
producing  electrification  by  friction,  and  that 
the  effects  observed  are  conditioned  by  the 
presence  of  solid  or  liquid  particles. 

AN  account  of  a  thunderstorm  in  which 
the  rain  was  mixed  with  live  land  mussels, 
which  is  said  to  have  occurred  at  Paderborn, 
Germany,  in  August,  1892,  is  published  in 
Das  Wetter.  A  yellowish  cloud  attracted  the 
attention  of  several  people,  both  from  its 
color  and  the  rapidity  of  its  motion,  when 
suddenly  it  burst.  A  torrential  rain  fell  with 
a  rattling  sound,  and  immediately  afterward 
the  pavement  was  found  to  be  covered  with 
hundreds  of  the  mussels. 

DR.  E.  LEWIS  STTTRTEVANT  has  presented 
to  the  Missouri  Botanic  Garden,  St.  Louis, 
his  entire  botanical  library,  which  is  particu- 
larly rich  in  pre-Linnsean  works. 

THE  question  of  evaporation  from  the  sur- 
face of  snow  is  discussed  in  a  Russian  mete- 
orological journal  by  M.  A.  Muller,  of  the 
Observatory  of  Ekaterinberg.  Authors  who 
have  prexiously  written  on  this  subject,  in- 
cluding Nuckner,  Woeikoff,  and  others,  have 
not  been  agreed  as  to  whether  the  evapora- 
tion exceeds  the  condensation  from  the  air 
in  contact  with  the  snow.  The  method  usu- 
ally adopted  has  been  to  compare  the  temper- 
ature at  the  surface  of  the  snow  with  the 
dew  point,  and  assume  that  if  it  is  superior, 
evaporation,  if  inferior,  condensation,  takes 
place.  M.  Miiller's  observations  were  made 
from  December  21,  1890,  to  February  28, 
1891.  His  conclusion  is  that,  according  to 
the  method  adopted,  evaporation  is  superior 
to  condensation  in  the  proportion  of  73  to  27, 

THE  report  of  a  parliamentary  committee 
on  the  plague  of  voles  in  Scotland  shows,  on 
the  authority  of  early  Celtic  chroniclers,  that 
as  early  as  the  year  895  Ireland  was  devas- 
tated by  a  plague  of  "  vermin  of  a  mole-like 
form,  each  having  two  teeth,"  which  "fell 
down  from  heaven,"  and  were  driven  out  only 
"  by  prayer  and  fasting."  There  is  also  a 
plague  of  voles  in  Thessaly  (a  Grecian  land), 
and  the  Mohammedans  there  have  sent  to 
Mecca  for  some  holy  water. 


OBITUARY  NOTE. 

THE  Rev.  F.  0.  Morris,  of  Yorkshire, 
England,  a  well-known  popular  writer  on 
natural  history,  died  April  10th,  aged  eighty- 
two  years.  Among  his  many  books  were  A 
History  of  British  Birds,  in  six  volumes,  and 
Natural  History  of  the  Nests  and  Eggs  of 
British  Birds. 


CHARLES    A.  JOY. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


JULY,    1893. 

THE  SPANISH   INQUISITION  AS  AN  ALIENIST. 

BY  HENRY  CHARLES  LEA. 

THE  degree  of  responsibility  attaching  to  insane  criminals  has 
in  all  ages  been  a  difficult  problem  for  the  dispenser  of  jus- 
tice. I  am  not  aware  that  the  contributions  made  to  its  eluci- 
dation by  the  Spanish  Inquisition  have  ever  received  attention, 
and  the  history  of  a  few  cases  which  throw  light  upon  this  phase 
of  the  subject  may  not  be  without  interest.* 

On  September  20, 1621,  Madrid  was  startled  by  the  report  of 
a  shocking  sacrilege  committed  in  the  chapel  of  the  archiepis- 
copal  prison.  A  vagrant  Catalan,  named  Benito  Ferrer,  had  been 
arrested  as  an  impostor  for  begging  in  clerical  garments  without 
being  in  orders.  The  offense  was  not  serious,  and  after  a  month's 
detention  he  was  about  to  be  discharged,  when,  at  the  morning 
mass,  as  the  bell  tinkled  to  announce  the  elevation  of  the  Host, 
Benito,  who  was  praying  with  a  rosary  in  an  upper  chamber, 
rushed  down  like  a  madman  to  the  chapel,  seized  the  Host,  which 
had  been  deposited  on  the  communion  cloth,  broke  it,  flung  the 
fragments  on  the  floor  and  trampled  on  them,  exclaiming,  "O 
traitor  God  of  darkness,  now  you  shall  pay  me!"  He  was 
promptly  seized  and  carried  to  the  courtyard,  where  he  was 
stripped  of  his  cassock,  and  when  some  fragments  which  had 
lodged  in  it  fell  to  the  ground  he  endeavored  to  stamp  on  them 
with  similar  ejaculations.  The  first  care  of  those  present  was  to 
gather  reverently  the  pieces  of  the  body  of  the  Lord ;  the  soles 
of  Benito's  shoes  were  carefully  scraped,  and  the  dust  and  sand 

*  I  am  indebted  to  the  custodians  of  the  Konigliche  Bibliothek  of  the  University  of 
Halle  for  the  opportunity  of  consulting  the  records  of  these  cases. 
VOL.  XLIII. — 20 


29o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  the  courtyard  were  swept  up  into  a  white  cloth.  He  was 
chained  hand  and  foot,  maintaining  a  sullen  silence  and  refusing 
to  answer  questions. 

The  affair,  of  course,  excited  the  utmost  horror.  The  young 
king,  Philip  IV,  then  only  five  months  on  the  throne,  sent  his 
favorite,  Count  Olivares,  to  ascertain  for  him  the  facts,  and  the 
papal  nuncio  eagerly  sought  the  details  to  report  them  to  Rome. 
The  archiepiscopal  vicar,  Diego  Vela,  was  at  first  disposed  to  take 
a  rationalistic  view  of  the  matter :  he  asserted  the  insanity  of 
his  prisoner,  and  proposed  to  discharge  him,  doubtless  thinking 
it  wiser  to  assume  that  no  Spaniard  in  his  senses  could  be  ca- 
pable of  an  offence  so  heinous.  He  was  soon,  however,  made  to 
understand  that  this  would  not  be  allowed,  and  it  came  near 
bringing  him  into  trouble.  The  Holy  Office  asserted  its  jurisdic- 
tion over  a  case  of  heresy  so  flagrant ;  on  the  23d  Vela  surren- 
dered Benito  to  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Inquisition,  and  he 
was  sent  to  the  tribunal  of  Toledo  (for  as  yet  there  was  none  in 
Madrid),  with  orders  that  his  trial  should  be  pushed  with  all  ex- 
pedition— an  urgency  that  was  soon  after  twice  repeated,  with 
the  significant  addition  that  the  king  took  special  interest  in  the 
matter  and  desired  to  know  its  progress. 

The  Toledan  inquisitors  were  prompt  and  zealous.  The  dila- 
tory and  cumbersome  forms  of  procedure  were  hurried  as  rapidly 
as  the  traditions  of  the  tribunal  would  permit,  and  in  exactly 
two  months,  on  November  23d,  they  were  ready  to  pronounce  sen- 
tence. Yet  the  end  was  still  far  off.  In  his  examinations  Benito 
had  been  made  to  give  the  details  of  his  life.  He  was  forty -three 
years  old,  born  at  Camprodon  of  an  Old  Christian  father  and  a 
mother  who  had  Jewish  blood  in  her  veins — a  fact  which  told 
heavily  against  him.  His  father,  who  was  a  cloth- shearer,  took 
him,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  to  Montserrat  and  placed  him  with 
an  uncle,  a  chaplain  in  the  monastery,  who  in  six  months  sent 
him  back  to  his  father  in  Barcelona.  For  some  time  he  served 
as  page  to  persons  of  quality,  and  finally  Don  Bernardo  Terres 
took  him  to  Flanders,  when  the  Cardinal  Archduke,  Albert  of 
Austria,  went  thither  in  1595.  There  he  had  a  succession  of 
masters,  with  one  of  whom  he  returned  through  France  to 
Catalonia.  Filled  with  desire  for  a  religious  life,  in  1603  he  en- 
tered the  Barefooted  Carmelite  convent  of  Mataron  as  a  novice, 
but  was  expelled  in  about  six  months.  After  vainly  seeking  to 
join  the  Carthusians  of  Monte  Alegre  and  the  Jeronymites  of 
Murta,  at  last  the  Observantine  Franciscans  of  Barcelona  gave 
him  the  habit,  but  deprived  him  of  it  in  about  eight  months. 
Then  two  years  were  spent  in  study  at  Tarragona,  which  he  left 
in  1606,  and  since  then  he  had  led  a  wandering  life  in  pious  pil- 
grimages. He  had  offered  his  devotions  at  the  shrine  of  his 


THE  SPANISH  INQUISITION  AS   AN  ALIENIST.    291 

namesake,  San  Vicente  Ferrer,  at  Vannes ;  twice  he  had  been  to 
Rome  and  once  to  Monte  Cassino  and  Sicily,  besides  traversing 
Spain  and  Portugal  in  all  directions.  About  1609  came  the 
shadow  which  darkened  his  subsequent  life.  Fray  Francisco  de  la 
Virgen,  the  master  of  the  novices  at  Mataron,  was  Antichrist, 
and  had  bewitched  him,  since  when  all  men  whom  he  met  were 
demons.  He  had  ceased  to  attend  mass  or  to  confess  and  take 
communion,  for  he  could  find  no  priest  who  was  not  a  demon. 
When,  in  the  upper  room  of  the  prison,  he  was  praying  and  heard 
the  bell  that  told  of  the  elevation  of  the  Host,  it  was  revealed 
to  him  that  the  officiating  priest  was  a  demon  and  the  Host  was 
another.  In  doing  what  he  did  he  performed  a  service  to  God, 
and  he  would  repeat  it  fifty  millions  of  times  if  the  occasion 
required.  This  Carmelite  Antichrist,  moreover,  had  in  1606  killed 
Philip  III  and  his  three  children,  and  their  places  had  since  then 
been  filled  by  demons.  There  was  also  some  wild  talk  about 
Toledo  being  no  longer  Toledo,  nor  Madrid  Madrid,  for  Saint 
Joseph  had  changed  them  all.  Barcelona  is  now  La  Imperial 
de  Santa  Ana,  and  is  on  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  for  Catalonia 
has  grown  so  that  it  is  now  larger  than  all  Spain  was  formerly. 
The  emperor  of  La  Imperial  is  Don  Dalman  de  Queralt,  who 
daily  sends  him  food  in  prison,  so  that  he  has  not  to  accept  it  from 
the  demon  alcaide  and  his  attendants.  The  inquisitors  have  no 
power  to  burn  him,  for  they  are  all  demons  and  he  is  in  the  hands 
of  God.  With  all  this  he  was  strictly  orthodox  in  his  replies  to 
the  searching  questions  of  the  inquisitors  as  to  his  belief  in  tran- 
substantiation  and  other  points,  except  that  he  attributed  five  per- 
sons to  the  Godhead — Michael  and  Gabriel  being  added  to  the 
Trinity.  Throughout  the  course  of  his  prolonged  trial  nothing 
could  make  him  swerve  from  these  hallucinations  or  modify  his 
story.  He  defied  the  inquisitors,  for  he  had  a  revelation  in  prison 
that  they  were  demons  and  had  no  power  to  harm  him. 

Anxious  as  were  the  inquisitors  to  push  the  trial  to  a  conclu- 
sion, they  felt  that  evidence  of  his  sanity  was  necessary.  For  this 
they  examined  the  alcaide  of  the  prison  and  his  assistant  and 
three  fellow-prisoners  confined  in  the  same  celL  All  testified  to 
Benito's  soundness  of  mind  as  evinced  in  his  daily  actions,  though 
he  was  silent  and  reserved  and  spent  most  of  his  time  in  prayer  or 
in  reading  his  breviary.  Then  three  physicians  were  made  to 
visit  him  several  times,  who  reported  that  he  talked  sanely  on 
most  subjects  but  wildly  on  others ;  the  insanity  seemed  feigned, 
and  according  to  the  rules  of  the  medical  art  he  was  sane.  Thus 
fortified,  on  November  23d,  the  inquisitors  called  together  the 
regular  consulta,  an  assembly  of  experts,  to  decide  on  the  case. 
There  were  nine  of  them  in  all — the  three  inquisitors,  the  Vicar 
General  as  representative  of  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  and  five 


292  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

consultores  or  assessors.  Opinions  were  not  harmonious.  Four 
voted  to  put  Benito  to  the  torture  to  verify  his  sanity,  and  if  this 
failed  then  to  make  inquiry  into  his  antecedents,  Three  voted  to 
relax  him  to  the  secular  arm  for  burning,  first  employing  learned 
theologians  to  convince  him  of  his  heresy.  Two  were  in  favor 
of  the  common-sense  plan  of  endeavoring  to  ascertain  his  sanity 
without  torturing  him. 

When,  in  the  customary  routine,  these  diverse  views  were  sub- 
mitted to  the  Inquisitor  General  and  Supreme  Council,  that  body 
considered  the  case  maturely.  Statements  of  the  leading  points 
involved  were  laid  before  three  skilled  theologians,  two  of  whom 
pronounced  Benito  to  be  a  sacrilegious  heretic  whose  delusions 
were  feigned.  The  third  opined  that  he  might  be  subject  to  de- 
moniacal possession,  for  which  he  should  be  exorcised  and  subse- 
quently tortured  to  ascertain  the  truth.  On  January  12,  1622,  the 
Council  sent  these  calificaciones  or  opinions  to  Toledo,  with  in- 
structions to  get  similar  ones  from  learned  men  there ;  also,  to  ex- 
amine more  carefully  into  Benito's  sanity  and  to  investigate  the 
causes  of  his  expulsion  from  the  convents  which  he  had  sought  to 
enter.  Accordingly,  on  January  15th,  the  Toledo  tribunal  assem- 
bled four  Dominican  masters  of  theology,  who  unanimously  pro- 
nounced Benito  a  heretic  and  an  impostor.  To  ascertain  details 
about  an  insignificant  novice  who  some  twenty  years  before  had 
passed  a  few  months  in  a  convent  might  seem  impossible,  but  the 
perfected  organization  of  the  Inquisition  was  equal  to  it.  The 
tribunals  of  Barcelona  and  Valencia  were  called  upon ;  ihefrailes 
who  had  been  novices  in  Benito's  time  were  hunted  up  in  the  con- 
vents to  which  they  had  scattered,  and  four  were  found  who  en- 
tertained some  recollection  of  him.  Three  of  these  described  him 
as  mentally  deficient,  and  one  of  these  remembered  his  having 
revelations ;  the  fourth  spoke  of  him  as  "  melancholy "  and  like 
one  possessed  by  the  devil. 

May  was  drawing  to  an  end  when  the  result  of  these  investiga- 
tions reached  Toledo,  and  the  summer  was  spent  in  fresh  examina- 
tions of  those  in  the  prison  who  had  access  to  Benito,  and  in  get- 
ting opinions  from  theologians  and  physicians.  That  he  showed 
signs  of  insanity  was  evident,  but  the  experts  held  that  the  proof 
of  soundness  of  mind  was  infallible  and  the  madness  feigned.  So 
when,  on  September  10th,  another  consulta  was  held,  the  vote  to 
burn  him  was  unanimous — the  two  assessors  who  had  previously 
advocated  simple  investigation  having  been  discreetly  omitted 
from  the  meeting.  On  this  decision  being  submitted  to  the 
Supreme  Council,  it  met  with  no  greater  acceptance  than  the 
former  one,  and  it  was  sent  back  September  17th,  with  orders  to 
torture  Benito  to  ascertain  his  intention  in  the  sacrilege  and  the 
fiction  of  his  insanity. 


THE  SPANISH  INQUISITION  AS  AN  ALIENIST.    293 

In  the  proceedings  of  the  Inquisition  torture  was  so  universal 
a  resource  in  cases  of  doubt,  that  its  use  for  the  diagnosis  of  insan- 
ity need  not  be  a  matter  of  surprise.  On  October  13th  it  was  duly 
applied.  Benito  was  brought  in  and  told  that  if  he  would  not  con- 
fess the  truth  he  would  be  tortured,  to  which  he  replied  quietly 
and  earnestly  that  he  had  told  the  truth  and  was  not  mad ;  he  had 
acted  only  as  a  faithful  Christian  and  at  the  command  of  the 
Eternal  Father.  In  the  administration  of  torture  the  nerve  of  the 
patient  was  tested  at  every  step  with  adjurations  to  tell  the  truth 
and  with  promises  of  mercy — lying  promises,  for  confession  would 
only  secure  the  boon  of  being  garroted  before  burning.  So  in 
this  case,  at  the  making  out  of  the  sentence  of  torture,  its  formal 
signing,  the  adjournment  to  the  torture  chamber,  the  stripping  of 
the  prisoner,  the  tying  him  to  the  banquillo  or  trestle,  the  adjust- 
ing of  the  cordeles  or  sharp  cords  around  each  thigh  and  each 
upper  arm — at  every  stage  he  was  entreated  affectionately  (con 
mucho  amor)  to  tell  the  truth  and  save  his  soul.  Benito's  resolu- 
tion was  immovable ;  to  every  adjuration  his  reply  was  the  same 
—he  had  told  the  truth,  and  the  inquisitors  were  demons.  Then 
the  torture  began,  scientifically  graduated,  and  at  every  interval 
came  the  adjuration  and  the  response.  First  a  single  cord  around 
each  member,  successively  tightened  and  twisted  into  the  flesh, 
then  another  and  another,  until  there  were  six  on  each  limb  and 
the  blood  was  dripping  from  them  all — in  spite  of  the  universal 
rule  that  torture  was  never  to  be  carried  so  far  as  to  cause  effusion 
of  blood.  The  official  report  of  the  examination  minutely  records 
his  shrieks  and  groans  and  writhings?  his  fruitless  prayer  for 
water,  his  despairing  appeals  to  Jesus,  Mary,  and  Joseph,  his  cries 
that  he  is  dying,  and  through  it  all  his  unvarying  response  that 
he  had  told  the  truth  and  that  the  inquisitors  were  demons — an 
assertion  which  he  once  offered  to  prove  if  they  would  give  him  a 
Bible.  When  the  capacity  of  the  cordeles  to  inflict  increased  tor- 
ment was  exhausted  he  was  threatened  with  the  rack,  but  to  no 
purpose.  It  was  made  ready  and  he  was  stretched  on  it,  but  this 
augmentation  of  agony  was  fruitless.  His  resolution  was  uncon- 
querable, and  at  last  his  wearied  judges  ordered  him  to  be  untied, 
still  threatening  him  with  a  continuation  of  the  infliction  if  he 
would  not  tell  the  truth.  Exhausted  nature  could  do  no  more ; 
with  a  final  ejaculation  that  he  had  told  the  truth,  for  they  were 
demons,  he  sank  motionless  and  remained  silent. 

For  three  unbroken  hours  the  torture  had  lasted,  and  the  in- 
quisitors said  that  it  was  too  late  for  more  that  day,  so  'they  sus- 
pended it,  warning  him  that  they  were  not  satisfied,  and  that  it 
would  be  resumed  if  he  did  not  tell  the  truth.  He  was  carried 
back  to  his  cell,  and  two  days  later  was  brought  before  the  tribu- 
nal again.  Even  in  the  pitiless  secular  criminal  legislation  of  the 


294  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

period  the  endurance  of  torture  without  confession  was  held  to 
purge  away  the  evidence  against  the  accused  and  to  entitle  him  to 
an  acquittal,  but  it  was  otherwise  in  the  Inquisition.  The  torture 
had  been  merely  to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  the  judges  and  to 
justify  the  foregone  conclusion  of  his  burning.  Therefore,  when 
they  now  examined  him  and  adjured  him  to  tell  the  truth,  and  he 
answered  by  referring  to  his  previous  statements  as  the  truth, 
they  had  him  carried  back  to  his  cell,  and  coolly  assembled  their 
consultores  to  pronounce  on  him  a  second  sentence  of  relaxation 
to  the  secular  arm  for  burning.  This  was  duly  submitted  to  the 
Supreme  Council,  which  postponed  its  answer  until  November 
24th.  Then  it  said  that  it  held  him  to  be  insufficiently  tortured, 
but  that  for  the  present  he  should  be  kept  in  prison  and  carefully 
watched  to  determine  his  sanity.  He  was  to  be  confined  with  per- 
sons who  could  be  relied  upon  and  sworn  to  secrecy,  who  should 
observe  him  and  report. 

Another  cell  was  accordingly  selected  for  him,  in  which  were 
two  friars  and  a  physician  awaiting  trial,  who  were  duly  sworn 
and  instructed.  So  matters  continued  for  a  year,  with  occasional 
examinations  of  his  fellow-prisoners.  The  friars  pronounced  him 
a  heretic  and  an  impostor ;  the  physician  a  sane  man  subject  to 
delusions.  Finally,  in  November,  1623,  another  consultation  was 
held  to  vote  upon  his  case,  and  he  was  unanimously  sentenced  to 
burning.  To  this  at  last  the  Supreme  Council  assented,  but  desired 
the  execution  to  take  place  in  Madrid,  where  the  sacrilege  had 
been  committed.  He  was  to  be  sedulously  kept  in  ignorance,  and 
to  be  secretly  conveyed  to  the  capital.  There,  on  the  Plaza 
Mayor,  January  21, 1624,  there  was  a  solemn  auto  dafe  celebrated, 
and  he  was  burned  alive  as  an  impenitente  negative. 

If  this  was  expected  to  strike  salutary  terror  into  the  hearts  of 
sacrilegious  heretics  and  to  instill  respect  for  the  Venerable  Sacra- 
ment, it  signally  failed  of  its  purpose.  In  less  than  six  months,  on 
Friday,  July  5,  1624,  Madrid  was  again  thrown  into  excitement 
by  a  double  sacrilege  that  had  every  appearance  of  organized 
premeditation.  During  the  celebration  of  morning  mass  in  the 
church  of  Sam  Felipe,  a  man  named  Rend  Perrault,  who  was 
kneeling  near  the  altar,  suddenly  leaped  forward  at  the  elevation 
of  the  Host,  and  crying  out,  "  Why  do  you  elevate  this  idol  of 
Christ,  so  that  the  people  commit  idolatry  and  offend  God  ? " 
he  snatched  it  from  the  hand  of  the  priest  and  scattered  it  in 
fragments  on  the  floor,' while  with  a  sweep  of  his  arm  he  over- 
turned the  cup  that  was  standing  on  the  altar.  At  the  same  mo- 
ment a  similar  scene  was  enacted  at  the  church  of  Santa  Bar- 
bara, by  a  man  named  Gabriel  de  Guevara.  It  was  with  diffi- 
culty that  the  offenders  were  rescued  from  the  summary  venge- 


THE  SPANISH  INQUISITION  AS   AN  ALIENIST.    295 

ance  of  the  worshipers,  and  they  were  forthwith  brought  before 
the  Inquisitor  General,  Andre's  Pacheco.  Apparently  his  experi- 
ence of  the  Toledo  Inquisition  in  the  previous  affair  had  not  been 
satisfactory,  for  he  at  once  himself  undertook  the  preliminaries 
of  the  case,  and  hastily  organized  for  its  trial  in  Madrid  a  tri- 
bunal which  sat  in  extemporized  quarters  in  the  convent  of  the 
Barefooted  Carmelites.  The  documents  concerning  Guevara  are 
not  accessible,  but  those  of  the  trial  of  Perrault  present  to  us  an- 
other aspect  of  the  dealings  of  the  Inquisition  with  insanity. 

Friday  was  busily  occupied  with  the  examination  of  witnesses, 
and  at  10  P.  M.  Perrault  was  brought  before  the  inquisitor.  He 
was  still  defiant,  and  told  his  story  without  hesitation  or  conceal- 
ment. He  was  about  forty  years  old,  born  at  Angers,  of  Catholic 
parents.  Brought  up  in  strict  orthodoxy,  he  had,  until  within  a 
fortnight,  always  been  a  good  Catholic,  regular  in  his  attendance 
on  confession,  communion,  and  mass.  For  twelve  years  he  had 
wandered  around  Spain  as  a  peddler  of  needles,  thimbles,  and 
such  small  wares,  till  a  fortnight  before  at  Talavera,  while  in  the 
street  seeking  customers,  a  sudden  revelation  from  God  showed 
him  that  there  was  only  one  God,  the  Creator ;  that  Christ  was 
an  impostor,  who  had  properly  expiated  on  the  cross  the  blas- 
phemy of  calling  himself  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  what  the  peo- 
ple adored  was  idolatry  and  an  offence  to  the  Almighty.  From 
that  time  this  idea  was  ever  present  to  him,  on  the  road  and  in 
the  house.  God  impelled  him  to  do  what  he  had  done,  and  to 
come  to  Madrid  for  the  purpose,  so  that  the  act  should  be  more 
conspicuous.  He  had  left  his  saddle-bags  at  Getafd,  a  village  a 
few  leagues  distant,  on  Tuesday,  July  2d,  and  had  come  with  his 
mule  to  Madrid.  There  he  first  looked  up  a  French  paper  and 
fruit  seller  named  Domingo  Diaz,  of  whom  he  inquired  the  address 
of  his  brother,  Pierre  Perrault,  an  embroiderer  living  in  Madrid. 
He  found  him,  and  told  him  of  the  revelation  and  his  consequent 
intention,  when  Pierre  earnestly  reasoned  with  him,  telling  him 
that  it  was  a  suggestion  of  the  devil,  and  that  he  would  denounce 
him  to  the  Inquisition  if  he  were  not  his  brother.  The  next  morn- 
ing Pierre  came  to  him  with  an  Italian,  a  tailor ;  they  bought 
some  food,  crossed  the  bridge  of  Toledo,  breakfasted  by  the  road- 
side, and  Rene'  agreed  to  return  to  Getaf 4.  After  parting  he  trav- 
eled half  a  league  on  his  mule ;  he  chanced  to  overtake  a  man 
going  thither,  by  whom  he  sent  word  to  his  host  to  forward  his 
saddle-bags  to  Madrid,  and  he  turned  back  to  the  city.  To  render 
his  act  more  symbolical,  he  resolved  to  postpone  it  until  Friday, 
so  he  had  a  day  and  a  half  on  his  hands.  These  he  spent  in  seeing 
the  sights  of  the  capital,  and  he  mentioned  his  disappointment  on 
going  to  the  theatre  and  finding  there  was  no  performance.  On 
Friday  morning,  at  breakfast,  he  abstained  from  his  customary 


296  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

flask  of  wine,  in  order  that  it  might  not  be  said  that  he  was  drunk. 
He  went  to  San  Felipe  and  committed  the  sacrilege. 

The  next  day,  when  brought  again  before  the  tribunal,  his  en- 
thusiasm had  evaporated.  Excitement  had  been  followed  by  re- 
action ;  he  realized  the  terrible  fate  in  store  for  him,  and  was 
eager  to  avert  it  in  any  way  he  could.  He  had  been  drunk,  he 
said,  the  day  before,  and  had  stumbled  against  the  priest ;  he  was 
crazy ;  people  had  given  him  food  which  rendered  him  insane, 
and  the  ill-treatment  to  which  he  had  been  exposed  habitually  on 
the  road  had  driven  him  mad.  At  Consuegra  he  had  been  beaten ; 
at  Medellin,  beaten,  imprisoned,  and  his  goods  confiscated ;  he 
was  a  good  Catholic,  and  believed  all  that  the  Church  believed, 
and  he  remembered  nothing  of  the  confession  of  yesterday ;  or,  if 
he  had  said  such  things,  he  must  have  been  out  of  his  senses. 
When,  later  in  the  day,  his  formal  defense  was  drawn  up  and 
presented  by  his  advocate,  it  was  that  he  had  been  drunk,  and  he 
now  supplicated  mercy  and  penance. 

Probably  no  trial  before  the  Inquisition,  since  the  abounding 
harvest  of  its  early  days,  was  ever  conducted  so  speedily.  Though 
all  the  formalities  were  observed,  on  Sunday,  July  7th,  the  con- 
sultation was  held  to  determine  the  sentence.  The  opinion  was 
unanimous  that  he  should  be  relaxed  to  the  secular  arm  for  burn- 
ing, but  on  the  question  of  preliminary  torture  a  difference  arose. 
The  Inquisition  was  naturally  desirous  to  know  whether  he  had 
accomplices;  the  simultaneous  crime  of  Gabriel  de  Guevara 
pointed  to  concerted  action ;  besides,  one  of  the  witnesses  had 
testified  that  Rene'  entered  San  Felipe  with  two  men  clad  in  the 
French  fashion,  who  departed  at  the  commencement  of  the  mass. 
'Rene'  had  consistently  denied  this,  asserting  his  independence  of 
action  and  sole  responsibility ;  but  heretic  plots  were  always  float- 
ing before  the  inquisitorial  imagination,  and  it  was  manifestly 
impolitic  to  burn  Rend  without  utilizing  him  for  the  conviction 
of  his  possible  confederates.  While,  therefore,  all  the  consulters 
agreed  that  he  should  be  subjected  to  unlimited  torture,  some 
held  that  it  should  be  in  caput  alienum,  to  discover  his  associates ; 
while  others,  in  view  of  his  varying  confessions,  humanely  urged 
that  it  should  be  employed  for  the  benefit  of  his  soul,  and  to  con- 
firm him  in  the  faith.  The  next  day  the  Supreme  Council,  in 
approving  the  sentence,  decided  that  the  torture  should  be  in 
caput  alienum. 

At  ten  o'clock  that  night  Rend  was  brought  before  his  judges 
and  questioned  as  to  accomplices,  but  he  only  repeated  his  story, 
with  a  few  additional  details.  In  the  torture  which  followed  he 
manifested  a  curious  mingling  of  strength  and  weakness.  Before 
it  commenced  he  flung  himself  on  his  knees  and  begged  piteously 
for  mercy,  but  refused  to  forfeit  his  soul  by  perjury,  for  he  had 


THE  SPANISH  INQUISITION  AS  AN  ALIENIST.    297 

no  associates,  and  no  Frenchmen  entered  San  Felipe  with  him. 
During  all  the  stages  of  graduated  torment  he  screamed  and 
struggled  desperately,  but  he  adhered  resolutely  to  this,  and  re- 
fused to  incriminate  any  one ;  he  had  never  breathed  his  inten- 
tion to  any  save  his  brother,  who  threatened  to  denounce  him  to 
the  Inquisition.  This  continued  till  half  past  one  o'clock,  when 
the  inquisitors,  finding  the  torture  fruitless,  announced  its  dis- 
continuance; but  next  morning  they  commenced  proceedings 
against  Pierre  Perrault  and  Domingo  Diaz.  What  was  the  re- 
sult of  these  we  do  not  know ;  but  had  anything  been  extracted 
from  them  further  compromising  Rend,  it  would  have  appeared 
in  the  records  of  his  trial. 

If  the  torture  thus  was  useless  in  caput  alienum,  it  at  all 
events  served  the  more  humane  purpose  of  confirming  the  suf- 
ferer in  the  faith.  On  July  12th  word  was  brought  to  the  inquis- 
itor Chacon  that  Rend  desired  to  return  to  the  Church :  he  has- 
tened to  the  temporary  prison  where  the  culprit  was  confined  and 
found  this  to  be  the  case.  Now  that  he  had  nothing  further  to 
hope,  Rend  said  that  his  first  statement  was  true.  He  had  been 
misled  and  tempted  by  Satan  for  fifteen  days  before  the  crime, 
and  had  believed  that  he  was  rendering  a  service  to  God ;  but  now 
God  had  enlightened  him,  and  he  reverted  to  his  former  belief  in 
the  Trinity,  in  the  passion  of  Christ,  and  the  transubstantiation 
of  the  sacrament,  and  he  desired  to  be  reconciled  to  the  Church. 

On  the  following  Sunday,  July  14th,  Madrid  enjoyed  the  re- 
ligious spectacle  of  an  auto  da  fe,  in  which  Rend  Perrault  was 
burned,  but  doubtless  his  recantation  obtained  for  him  the  priv- 
ilege of  being  garroted  before  the  pile  was  lighted.  Thus,  if 
Spain  furnished  to  Geneva  the  Unitarian  Miguel  Servet,  France 
returned  the  favor  with  Rend  Perrault. 

Another  case,  less  tragic  in  its  issue,  illustrates  a  different 
phase  of  the  subject.  At  Cobena,  a  village  not  far  from  Alcala 
de  Henares,  a  poor  carpenter  of  plows  named  Benito  Penas,  or  de 
Valdepeiias,  created  scandal  by  denying  that  Christ  had  died  on 
the  cross.  He  was  wholly  illiterate  but  devout,  and  once,  when 
visiting  Madrid  with  a  load  of  corn,  he  had  heard  in  the  church 
of  San  Felipe  a  sermon  by  &J raile ,  who  spoke  of  the  passion  and 
resurrection  as  metaphorical.*  The  idea  took  possession  of  his 

*  The  Spanish  preachers  of  the  period  allowed  themselves  the  largest  license  in  the 
effort  to  attract  attention,  and  shrank  from  no  grotesqueness  of  irreverence.  In  the  trial 
in  1592,  of  Fray  Joseph  de  Sigiienza,  a  distinguished  Jeronymite  friar  and  favorite  of  Philip 
II,  there  is  a  description  of  a  sermon  preached  before  the  king  by  Fray  Cristobal  de  Lafra, 
another  Jeronymite,  on  the  feast  of  the  Nativity  of  the  Virgin.  He  said  the  Minotaur  was 
Christ  and  the  Labyrinth  the  gospel  liber  generationis  ;  Ariadne  was  Our  Lady,  and  the 
child  she  bore  to  Theseus  was  Faith ;  and  that  if  any  one  desired  to  enter  the  Labyrinth 


298  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

brain  and  played  havoc  with  the  anthropomorphic  conceptions  of 
orthodox  theology,  including  the  humanity  of  Christ.  This  had 
been  going  on  for  several  years,  when  early  in  1640  the  attention 
of  the  archiepiscopal  visitor,  Bernardo  Garcia  de  San  Pedro,  was 
called  to  it  on  his  reaching  Cobena.  He  promptly  threw  Benito 
into  the  village  jail,  where  many  priests  and  friars  visited  him 
and  labored  fruitlessly  to  convince  him  of  his  error.  Then,  in 
July,  Dr.  Buendia,  the  physician  of  Cobena,  denounced  him  to 
the  nearest  commissioner  of  the  Inquisition,  Juan  Burgalez  Diaz, 
at  Fuente  el  Saz.  The  affair  was  now  fully  in  train.  Diaz  has- 
tened to  Cobena,  took  testimony  of  some  of  the  chief  inhabitants, 
and  forwarded  the  papers  to  the  tribunal  of  Toledo.  The  inquis- 
itors submitted  to  calificadores  the  propositions  contained  in  the 
reports  of  Benito's  talk,  and  they  were  duly  condemned  as  heret- 
ical and  Manicheean.  The  Inquisition,  however,  appears  to  have 
thought  little  of  the  matter,  and  it  would  probably  have  gone  no 
further,  had  not  a  zealous  cleric  of  Cobena,  toward  the  end  of  the 
year,  written  that  the  people  were  scandalized  at  the  delay  in  act- 
ing in  an  affair  so  notorious.  Thus  stimulated,  on  January  25, 
1641,  the  inquisitors  issued  an  order  to  bring  Benito  to  Toledo, 
and  to  sequestrate  his  property — the  latter  being  the  customary 
precaution  for  the  event  of  a  sentence  of  confiscation. 

It  was  the  invariable  practice  of  the  Inquisition,  whenever 
possible,  to  make  the  accused,  whether  innocent  or  guilty,  pay  all 
the  expenses  attending  his  trial.  The  familiar  to  whom  the  order 
was  sent  was  therefore  required,  in  sequestrating  Benito's  prop- 
erty and  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  a  receiver,  to  keep  thirty  ducats 
for  expenses ;  if  there  was  no  money  or  grain,  then  he  was  to  sell 
at  auction  enough  to  realize  this  amount,  and  he  was  also  to 
reserve  a  bed  and  bring  it  with  him  for  Benito's  use  in  prison. 
These  customary  instructions  were  rigidly  carried  out  as  far  as 
practicable.  A  reversionary  interest  in  some  money  left  by  a  dead 
brother  was  garnisheed,  and  security  taken  to  await  the  result  of 
the  trial.  The  only  ready  money  in  Benito's  possession  amounted 
to  nineteen  copper  coins  or  cuartos,  worth  in  all  about  two  reales 
and  a  half ;  so  on  Sunday,  February  10th,  his  pitiful  store  of  furni- 
ture, tools,  and  clothing  was  sold  by  auction  in  the  public  square 
after  high  mass,  reserving  only  the  garments  on  his  back  and  one 
of  two  old  shirts  for  him  to  wear ;  even  the  rosary  in  his  hands 


he  must  pray  to  the  Virgin  for  her  child.  He  also  said  that  God  was  the  heifer  lo,  who 
converted  Jews ;  that  wherever  God  trod  he  left  his  footprints,  which  are  his  works  ;  ask- 
ing who  made  these  admirable  works  of  the  sun,  the  moon,  etc.,  the  answer,  Yo  Yo,  gave 
the  name,  which  is  God — the  name  impressed  by  the  steps  of  the  heifer.  It  is  therefore 
by  no  means  improbable  that  Benito  Penas  may  have  heard  a  sermon  which  conveyed  to 
him  the  impression  he  described  and  led  to  his  misfortunes. 


THE  SPANISH  INQUISITION  AS  AN  ALIENIST.    299 

was  taken  and  sold.  The  total  proceeds  amounted  only  to  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  and  a  half  reales,  or  less  than  twenty-two  ducats, 
and,  after  deducting  costs,  the  commissioner  handed  over  to  the 
familiar  twenty  ducats.  The  expenses  of  guards  and  the  journey 
to  Toledo  consumed  more  than  half  of  this ;  and  when  Benito  was 
delivered  on  February  16th  at  the  carceles  secretas,  there  were  but 
one  hundred  and  five  and  a  half  reales  left,  which  were  duly  en- 
tered on  the  prison  books.  The  timid  suggestion  of  the  familiar 
of  some  remuneration  for  his  time  was  left  unnoticed. 

When  on  February  18th  Benito  was  examined,  he  willingly  re- 
peated all  the  articles  of  the  creed  except  "  suffered  under  Pontius 
Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried,  and  on  the  third  day  arose 
from  the  dead,"  which  he  obstinately  refused  to  utter.  It  was 
easy  to  entangle  him  in  a  theological  discussion  in  which  he  was 
led  to  deny  the  incarnation  and  conception  by  virtue  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  birth  and. death,  and  the  second  advent.  The  efforts 
made  to  convince  him  of  his  error  of  course  only  hardened  him 
in  his  belief,  and  he  resolutely  accepted  the  inferences  drawn  from 
it  until  he  came  virtually  to  deny  the  Trinity — the  three  names  were 
but  three  different  designations  for  the  one  God.  He  was  ready, 
he  declared,  to  die  in  defense  of  his  belief,  and  all  the  theologians 
in  France  and  Spain  could  not  convert  him.  When  the  counsel 
assigned  to  him  by  the  Inquisition  found  him  immovable,  he 
formally  withdrew  from  the  defense  in  order  not  to  incur  the 
penalties  decreed  against  advocates  who  undertook  to  defend  her- 
etics. 

In  March  the  inquisitors  began  to  entertain  doubts  as  to 
Benito's  sanity,  and  sent  to  Cobena  to  obtain  testimony  respecting 
it.  The  evidence  was  emphatic  as  to  his  soundness  of  mind.  The 
euro,  had  known  him  for  forty  years,  and  had  never  entertained  a 
doubt  of  it ;  the  alcalde  and  others  who  knew  him  said  the  same. 
It  was  true  that  for  a  year  or  more  prior  to  his  arrest  he  had 
grown  very  devout,  praying  much  and  frequenting  the  church ; 
moreover,  on  one  occasion  he  had  remained  shut  up  in  his  house 
for  some  days,  until  the  alcalde  and  cur  a  broke  in  and  found  him 
lying  with  a  rosary  in  his  hand  in  a  trance,  from  which  they 
aroused  him  with  a  rope's  end,  and  he  had  repeated  this  in  a  her- 
mitage near  the  town,  but  in  all  the  relations  of  life  he  had  shown 
himself  in  full  posession  of  his  faculties. 

Thus  the  case  went  on  with  the  deliberation  customary  in  the 
Inquisition,  until  in  July  it  was  resolved  to  make  a  more  thorough 
investigation  as  to  his  sanity.  Two  learned  theologians  were  de- 
puted to  examine  him,  who  reported  him  to  be  crazy :  his  answers 
bore  no  relation  to  the  questions  put  to  him ;  he  talked  of  the  om- 
nipotent God  and  the  sweet  name  of  Jesus ;  the  Virgin  was  cre- 
ated without  father  and  mother,  and  was  anterior  to  Eve ;  when 


300  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

we  die  our  bodies  are  not  converted  into  dust ;  in  fine,  lie  was  not 
a  case  for  the  Inquisition,  but  for  a  madhouse.  Then  two  more 
theologians  were  called  in,  and  their  opinions  were  the  same. 
Evidently  under  the  paternal  care  of  the  Inquisition  his  insanity 
was  developing  rapidly. 

In  August  the  three  physicians  of  the  Holy  Office  were  sum- 
moned to  examine  him.  Two  of  them  questioned  and  cross-ques- 
tioned him,  and  were  prepared  to  pronounce  him  sane  when  the 
third  arrived,  and  in  the  course  of  examination  chanced  to  ask  him 
what  signs  he  had  of  his  own  salvation,  to  which  he  replied  that 
when  he  commended  himself  to  God  he  saw  lights  like  stars  de- 
scend from  heaven  to  him.  This  convinced  them,  and  they  re- 
ported that  he  was  insane  or  was  subject  to  diabolic  illusions. 
The  alcaide  of  the  prison  and  his  assistant  were  then  interro- 
gated ;  they  had  no  doubt  of  his  insanity  from  his  disordered  talk 
and  from  the  fact  that  they  always  found  him  kneeling  in  prayer. 
Then  as  a  last  effort  two  more  distinguished  theologians  were  de- 
puted to  convince  him  of  his  errors,  but  they  found  their  labors 
hopeless,  and  declared  that  he  was  crazy. 

It  was  impossible  to  resist  this  cumulative  evidence,  and  when, 
on  August  29th,  the  customary  consultation  was  held  to  decide 
upon  his  fate,  the  opinion  was  unanimous  that  he  was  irresponsi- 
ble. It  was  agreed  to  write  to  the  authorities  of  Cobena  to  that 
effect ;  his  relatives  must  send  for  him  and  take  care  of  him ;  he  was 
never  to  be  allowed  to  leave  the  town,  and  must  henceforth  wear 
a  doublet  half  gray  and  half  green.  To  this  the  response  was  that 
he  had  no  kindred,  but  Juan  de  San  Pedro  was  sent  to  bring  him 
home,  while  a  plaintive  allusion  to  the  expense  of  the  journey 
and  the  absence  of  all  property  from  which  to  defray  it  received 
no  attention. 

Thus  the  poor  wretch  was  beggared,  deprived  of  all  means  of 
livelihood,  and  condemned  to  the  disgrace  of  exhibiting  his  shame 
in  a  party-colored  garment  at  a  time  when  such  insignia  had  a  pe- 
culiarly sinister  significance.  According  to  the  convictions  of  the 
period,  it  was  all  for  the  greater  glory  of  God ;  but  as  an  alienist, 
the  Inquisition  was  clearly  not  a  success. 


IN  his  ascent  of  Mount  Dulit  in  Borneo,  5,090  feet  high,  Mr.  Charles  Hose 
found  a  cave  above  four  thousand  feet,  with  wild  tobacco  growing  at  its  mouth 
and  several  remarkable  ferns,  of  one  of  which  the  fronds  were  fourteen  feet  long. 
The  fauna  illustrated  the  widespread  distribution  in  the  highlands  of  Borneo  of 
Himalayan  forms.  A  magnificent  view  was  had  from  the  moss-clad  summit  of 
the  mountain  of  distant  ranges.  Some  natives  reported  having  heard  a  tiger 
roaring  in  the  neighborhood,  but  Mr.  Hose  found  that  the  sound  proceeded  from 
a  gigantic  toad,  which  measured  fourteen  inches  and  a  half  round  the  body. 


FOSSIL  FORESTS   OF  THE   YELLOWSTONE.         301 


FOSSIL  FORESTS  OF  THE  YELLOWSTONE. 

BY  PROF.  SAMUEL  E.  TILLMAN. 

THE  fossil  forests  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  are  among  its  most 
interesting  features,  but  they  are  as  yet  not  within  ready 
reach  of  the  tourist,  and  so  little  has  been  published  about  them 
that  only  a  few  have  definite  knowledge  of  them.  It  is  accord- 
ingly believed  that  the  accompanying  notes  in  regard  to  them  will 
be  of  general  interest. 

The  locality  to  which  the  term  fossil  forest  has  especial  refer- 
ence is  along  the  west  rim  wall  of  the  valley  of  the  Lamar  River, 


FIG.  1. — POINT  OF  SPECIMEN  KIDGE  :  a,  6,  c,  PETRIFIED  STUMPS. 

or  East  Fork  of  the  Yellowstone,  opposite  the  mouth  of  Soda  Butte 
Creek.  The  same  arrangement  of  petrified  stumps  and  trees  is, 
however,  found  at  many  other  places  in  this  region  separated  by 
considerable  distances — as  much  as  thirty  miles.  The  general 
physical  conditions  that  brought  about  the  existing  state  of  affairs 
is  so  plainly  shown  by  the  present  exposures  that  they  can  not  be 
mistaken. 

The  petrifactions  were  visited  at  several  places,  but  the  descrip- 
tion appended  refers  to  a  part  of  the  ridge  designated  on  the  map 
of  the  Geological  Survey  as  Specimen  Ridge,  at  a  point  about  six 
miles  east  of  the  junction  of  the  Lamar  and  Yellowstone  Rivers. 


302  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  fossil  trees  exposed  at  this  point  are  along  the  upper  slope 
of  the  southern  wall  of  Lamar  Valley.  The  slope  here  makes  an 
angle  of  about  thirty-three  degrees  with  the  horizon,  and  is  about 
nine  hundred  feet  long.  The  petrifactions  are  standing  all  the 
way  up  this  slope,  interspersed  with  the  living  conifers  of  to-day, 
represented  at  Fig.  1.  At  first  sight  it  appears  that  either  these 
ancient  trees  grew  upon  the  slope  now  exposed,  and  that  there  had 
been  no  change  in  the  slope  from  that  day  to  this,  or  that  the 
present  had  brought  back  exactly  the  same  surface  conditions  as 
existed  when  the  now  silicified  trees  were  alive.  Such  an  appar- 
ently simple  conclusion  would,  however,  involve  more  remarkable 
phenomena  than  are  yielded  by  the  true  explanation. 

A  little  consideration,  taken  in  connection  with  the  formation 
of  the  bluffs  that  connect  Lamar  Valley  with  the  higher  lands  to 


±  ____  *  ____  Jf  ___  J:  _____  ---  ^t  ____  X.  __ 


----  *  ____  t.  --  _jr  ____  ±—  -X  ____  v     , 


-*.__*M. >     ^ 


t  ---  ±  ____  X  ---    —  ±  ___  t.  ___  *  ___  -*__ 


T  AHC/ENT  fonesT  T*EES.      I  PETRIFIED  REMAINS.  A    LIVING  TREES. 


the  south  and  west,  shows  clearly  the  action  that  has  placed  the 
living  and  petrified  trees  upon  the  same  slope  at  this  and  at  many 
other  points  in  the  region. 

A  series  of  forests  has  grown  upon  successive  levels,  each 
level  having  been  produced  by  an  accumulation  of  volcanic  mate- 
rial which  destroyed  the  then  existing  forest.  This  explanation 
will  be  readily  understood  from  Fig.  2.  The  level  upon  which  the 
first  forest  grew  is  indicated  by  1.  The  level  of  the  volcanic 
accumulation  which  destroyed  this  growth  of  trees  is  shown  at  2. 
Upon  this  second  level  came  another  growth  of  trees,  which  in 
turn  was  destroyed  by  the  accumulation  extending  to  the  level  3. 
Still  another  forest  grew  upon  3,  which  in  course  of  time  was 
destroyed.  This  alternate  growth  and  destruction  was  repeated 


FOSSIL  FORESTS    OF  THE   YELLOWSTONE.         303 

until  at  this  place  (Specimen  Ridge)  there  grew  and  were  destroyed 
certainly  nine  successive  forests  and  very  probably  twelve.  This 
is  all  indicated  in  Fig.  2. 

The  number  of  growths  was  determined  in  two  ways :  first, 
where  the  roots  of  the  petrified  trees  are  shown  at  different 
heights  in  the  same  vertical  plane  the  horizons  of  growth  may  be 
counted  directly ;  second,  when  the  roots  do  not  show,  a  sufficient 
vertical  distance  must  be  allowed  between  horizons  to  insure  that 
the  projecting  body  at  one  level  does  not  have  its  roots  in  the  hori- 
zon next  below. 

In  the  second  method  it  was  sometimes  possible  to  settle  the 
point  by  following  the  volcanic  ledges  to  the  right  or  left  until 
a  petrifaction  with  roots  exposed,  decided  the  question. 

In  later  times,  when  the  volcanic  accumulations  had  ceased 
and  the  agents  of  denudation  began  their  work,  the  layers  of  lava 
and  the  great  sheets  of  volcanic  conglomerate  were  gradually 
eaten  away,  and  a  valley  formed  extending  in  the  figure  from  e 
to/.  Along  the  southern  slope  of  this  valley  are  growing  the 
conifers  of  to-day,  and  on  the  same  slope  also  stand  the  petrified 
stumps,  the  relics  of  many  successive  forest  growths.  Thus, 
though  the  living  and  the  petrified  trees  now  stand  on  a  com-, 
mon  slope,  the  latter  did  not,  like  the  former,  all  grow  at  the 
same  time,  but  succeeded  each  other  at  intervals  of  considerable 
length. 

These  standing  silicified  stumps  and  fallen  trees  were  found 
varying  in  diameter  from  one  to  seven  feet.  Two  sections  of  trees 
were  found  so  perfect  that  the  rings  of  annual  growth  throughout 
could  be  counted,  except  a  few,  perhaps  fifteen  or  twenty,  near  the 
heart  and  bark.  One  tree,  measuring  three  feet  in  diameter,  had 
two  hundred  and  twenty-two  rings  of  growth ;  and  another,  of  three 
feet  five  inches  diameter,  had  two  hundred  and  forty-three — this 
without  any  allowance  for  a  few  missing  rings  at  the  center  and 
toward  the  bark.  The  larger  of  these  trees  was  only  about  half 
the  size  of  the  largest  seen.  Many  were  found  varying  in  diame- 
ter from  five  to  seven  feet,  but  none  of  this  size  were  seen  exposing 
the  rings  throughout  the  entire  section.  Judging  from  the  close- 
ness of  the  rings  in  certain  well-preserved  portions  of  these  larger 
trees,  many  of  them  must  have  been  at  least  five  hundred  years 
in  attaining  their  growth,  if  the  rings  were  truly  annual.  Tak- 
ing one  half  this  number,  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  as  the  more 
probable  age  of  the  successive  forests  at  this  point,  it  is  seen  that 
the  earliest  of  these  trees  were  living  more  than  two  thousand 
years  before  the  latest,  during  which  time  there  were  alternating 
conditions  of  growth  and  accumulation  of  volcanic  material. 

This  estimate  makes  no  allowance  for  the  time  necessary  for 
the  formation  of  a  soil  upon  the  volcanic  material,  which  at  first 


3°4 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


sight  would  seem  necessary  for  the  support  of  such  a  vigorous 
vegetation.  It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  any  considerable 
time  was  necessary  for  this  purpose,  for,  with  rare  exceptions, 
each  succeeding  forest  took  root  and  began  to  grow  very  prompt- 
ly after  the  destruction  of  its  predecessor.  In  most  cases  the 
destroying  flood  consisted  largely  of  mud,  ashes,  conglomerate, 
and  other  volcanic  material,  which  formed  an  excellent  base  for 
vegetation,  and  it  was  doubtless  covered  with  a  luxuriant  growth 
as  soon  as  it  was  dried  or  cooled  sufficiently,  and  this  would  re- 
quire only  a  short  time. 

In  some  cases  the  trees  grew  upon  a  true  lava  base ;  but  even 
then  the  growth  began  very  promptly  after  the  flow;  for  the 
upper  surface  of  the  lava  soon  weathered  sufficiently  for  vegeta- 


FIG.  3.  —  A,  B,  PETRIFIED  STUMPS  NEA.B 


TWENTY  MILES  EAST  OF  THE  MAMMOTH 


SPRINGS. 


tion  to  gain  a  footing.  The  growing  trees  then  too,  as  at  present, 
were  frequently  supported  by  very  shallow  and  wide-spreading 
roots.  We  now  often  see  large  trees  with  such  roots  standing 
over  rocks  barely  covered  with  soil ;  the  petrified  trees  exhibit  the 
same  phenomena. 

Besides  the  standing  stumps,  the  fossil  forests  contain  many 
specimens  lying  upon  the  ground.  Some  of  these  were  petrified 
standing  and  then  fell,  and  others  were  down  before  the  petrifying 
action  began.  It  is  frequently  possible  to  distinguish  between  the 
two  by  position  :  the  first  lie  upon  the  present  slope  of  the  ground ; 
the  second  often  show  the  original  surface  and  consequently  pro- 


FOSSIL  FORESTS   OF  THE   YELLOWSTONE.        305 

ject  at  different  levels  from  the  bluff  and  making  angles  with,  the 
present  slope. 

It  is  rather  remarkable  that  only  one  standing  stump  was 
seen  with  a  limb  in  position.  This  is  probably  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  living  trees  were  generally  covered  by  the  volcanic 
material  to  a  less  height  than  that  of  their  lowest  limb,  and  con- 
sequently the  upper  portions  of  the  trees  were  not  preserved,  but 
suffered  aerial  decomposition.  In  general,  the  silicified  tree 
would  crumble  down  as  rapidly  as  the  rock  material  surround- 
ing it  would  wear  away,  so  that  only  short  stumps  would  now 
be  found,  though  greater  lengths  were  petrified.  The  absence 
of  limbs  in  position  is,  however,  mainly  due  to  the  fact  first 
named.  In  the  cases  of  trees  that  were  petrified  after  they  had 
fallen,  both  limbs  and  roots  projecting  upward  were  seen  in 
position. 

Specimens  of  rotten  wood  far  progressed  toward  complete  de- 
composition were  found  perfectly  preserved  in  stone.  Petrifac- 
tions of  bark  were  of  frequent  occurrence,  and  the  channeling  and 
borings  of  worms  or  insects  were  beautifully  preserved  in  some 
of  the  specimens,  so  that  we  literally  have  petrified  wormholes. 

In  some  of  the  finer  water-collected  debris  were  found  beau- 
tifully preserved  impressions  of  leaves,  showing  two  kinds  of 
deciduous  trees,  of  course  entirely  different  from  any  trees  now 
growing  in  the  region.  The  impressions  of  conifer  leaves  and 
the  petrified  part  of  the  same  wood  were  also  found. 

These  fossil  tree  remains  are  found  over  a  wide  area  in  the 
park  region.  Along  Soda  Butte  Creek  they  stand  up  the  slope 
from  each  bank,  but  along  the  Lamar  River,  below  the  mouth 
of  this  creek,  they  exist  on  the  left  bank  only,  the  imbedding 
material  having  been  entirely  removed  from  the  right  bank  by 
erosion.  The  lowest  level  at  which  a  petrified  tree  was  seen 
in  position  was  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Yellowstone,  opposite 
the  mouth  of  Hell-roaring  Creek,  at  an  approximate  altitude  of 
6,100  feet.  The  highest  was  seen  opposite  the  mouth  of  Soda 
Butte  Creek  at  an  altitude  of  about  8,180  feet.  These  trees  are 
twelve  or  fifteen  miles  apart,  and  the  original  slope  of  the  ground 
between  them  is  not  known,  so  that  they  can  not  be  taken  to  fix 
the  highest  and  lowest  levels  of  the  original  forest  growths  in 
this  area. 

At  Specimen  Ridge,  where  the  closest  examination  was  made, 
the  lowest  stump  seen  in  position  was  at  an  altitude  of  about 
7,000  feet,  and  the  highest  a  little  over  7,500  feet.  There  were 
here  between  these  limiting  growths  certainly  nine  successive 
forests,  and  of  course  an  equal  or  greater  number  of  incursions 
of  imbedding  materials. 

In  what  has  gone  before  I  have  not  attempted  to  designate 

YOL,  XLIII.— 21 


306  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

definitely  the  imbedding  material  which  ingulfed  and  destroyed 
the  living  trees,  and  in  which  the  petrifactions  are  now  preserved. 
It  is,  as  a  rule,  a  volcanic  conglomerate,  or  more  properly  a  vol- 
canic agglomerate.  Both  the  matrix  and  the  imbedded  particles 
are  truly  volcanic,  the  latter  varying  from  dust  particles  through 
all  sizes  up  to  those  of  a  ton  or  more  in  weight.  That  the  ma- 
terial has  been  accumulated  under  the  partial  influence  of  water 
or  liquid  conditions  is  evident  from  the  more  or  less  perfect 
stratification  which  generally  pervades  it.  But  the  fragments  are 
too  angular,  brecciated,  to  have  suffered  transportation  and  de- 
position as  subaqueous  or  as  ordinary  river  deposits.  The  at- 
tractive and  satisfactory  explanation  of  conglomerate  formation 
in  the  Utah  plateau  region,  as  given  by  Captain  Dutton,  I  do  not 
think  is  here  applicable. 

From  what  is  said  in  regard  to  the  series  of  forest  growths,  and 
also  from  the  evident  thinness  of  the  layers  of  debris,  it  is  seen 
that  there  have  been  many  successive  sheets  of  the  material  laid 
down  at  the  same  place.  In  some  cases  and  at  certain  places  a 
true  lava  flow  has  spread  over  the  surface,  but  the  lava  ledges  can 
at  points  be  seen  to  shade  into  the  brecciated  layers.  While  not 
believing  that  the  great  mass  of  breccia,  covering  perhaps  hun- 
dreds of  square  miles,  has  been  literally  ejected  from  volcanoes, 
as  has  been  held  in  regard  to  such  formations,  I  am  of  the  opin- 
ion that  the  accumulation  of  it  is  the  direct  and  immediate  result 
of  such  eruption. 

Extruded  lava  from  any  source,  not  being  perfectly  liquid, 
would  cool  with  an  irregular  surface,  and  terminate  in  precipitous 
ledges.  This  unevenness  of  surface,  combined  with  the  original 
slope  that  must  have  existed  to  permit  any  flow,  would  soon  cause 
the  whole  area  involved  to  be  abundantly  floored  with  volcanic 
fragments  of  all  sizes.  During  subsequent  eruptions  these  frag- 
ments would  be  swept  along  by  and  with  the  liquid  matter,  com- 
mingled with  dense  showers  of  ejected  material,  amid  heavy  flows 
of  water  from  accompanying  rains  and  perhaps  melting  snows,  to 
be  deposited  in  layers  at  varying  distances  from  the  centers  of 
eruption,  the  condition  in  which  it  is  now  found.  Most  of  the 
material  of  which  the  agglomerate  is  composed  I  believe  to  have 
come  by  the  ordinary  process  of  weathering  of  previously  erupted 
rocks,  and  then  to  have  been  commingled  with  finer  ejected  ma- 
terial and  distributed  by  the  floods  which  accompanied  some  if 
not  all  the  outflows.  The  interstratified  beds  of  varying  degrees 
of  fineness  are  the  results  of  less  tumultuous  periods. 

Such  explanation  involves  the  necessity  for  many  centers  of 
eruption  in  the  park  region,  for  the  agglomerate  is  of  wide  ex- 
tent, and  it  could  not  be  formed  at  great  distances  from  these 
centers. 


PRIVATE  RELIEF   OF  THE  POOR.  307 

The  above  facts  and  conclusions  are  from  personal  observa- 
tions begun  by  me  in  the  summer  of  1891,  and  continued  in  the 
summer  of  1892  in  connection  with  Prof.  James  Mercur,  of  the 
United  States  Military  Academy.  Not  until  we  had  embodied 
our  conclusions  in  an  official  report  to  the  War  Department  did 
I  become  aware  that  anything  had  been  published  in  relation  to 
these  forests.  I  then  learned  that  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  formerly  of 
the  Hayden  Survey,  had  made  reference  to  them  in  his  report  on 
The  Geology  of  the  Yellowstone  Park;  also  that  Mr.  W.  H. 
Weed,  of  the  present  Geological  Survey,  had  contributed  an  arti- 
cle upon  the  subject  to  the  School  of  Mines  Quarterly  for  April, 
1892.  It  is  believed  that  nothing  else  of  an  explanatory  or  de- 
scriptive nature  has  been  published  in  regard  to  these  interesting 
objects. 


PRIVATE  BELIEF  OF  THE  POOR.* 

BY  HERBERT  SPENCER. 

T"  ESS  objectionable  than  administration  of  poor  relief  by  a  law- 
-L^  established  and  coercive  organization,  is  its  administration  by 
privately  established  and  voluntary  organizations — benevolent 
societies,  mendicity  societies,  etc.  "  Less  objectionable  "  I  say,  but 
still,  objectionable :  in  some  ways  even  more  objectionable.  For 
though  the  vitiating  influences  of  coercion  are  now  avoided  the 
vitiating  influences  of  proxy-distribution  remain.  If  we  have  not 
a  machinery  so  rigid  as  that  set  up  by  the  Poor  Law,  yet  we  have 
a  machinery.  The  beneficiary  is  not  brought  in  direct  relation 
with  the  benefactor,  but  in  relation  with  an  agent  appointed  by  a 
number  of  benefactors.  The  transaction,  instead  of  being  one 
which  advantageously  cultivates  the  moral  nature  on  both  sides, 
excludes  culture  of  the  moral  nature  as  much  as  is  practicable, 
and  introduces  a  number  of  bad  motives.  Note  the  ill  workings 
of  the  system. 

As  with  the  Poor  Law  (especially  the  old  Poor  Law),  those 
who  were  distressed  but  thrifty  and  well  conducted  got  no  help, 
while  help  came  to  the  improvident  and  ill-conducted ;  so  with 
philanthropic  societies  in  general.  The  worthy  suffer  rather  than 
ask  assistance ;  while  the  worthless  press  for  assistance  and  get  it. 
The  Mansion  House  Fund  of  1885-'S6,  for  instance,  was  proved  to 
have  gone  largely  for  the  support  of  "  idlers,  spendthrifts,  and 
drunkards."  "  They  did  not  see  why  they  should  not  have  some 
of  the  money  going  as  well  as  their  neighbors."  In  some  cases 
applicants  "  demanded  their  share."  Where,  as  in  another  case, 

*  From  the  author's  Principles  of  Ethics,  vol.  ii,  just  published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 


3o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

employment  was  offered,  less  than  one  fifth  proved  to  be  good  for 
anything ;  showing  that  the  unemployed,  so  generally  pitied  as 
ill-used  by  society,  are  unemployed  because  they  either  can  not 
or  will  not  work ;  and  showing,  by  implication,  that  charitable 
agencies  enable  them  to  evade  the  harsh  but  salutary  discipline 
of  Nature. 

The  encouragement  of  hypocrisy,  which  goes  along  with  this 
neglect  of  the  good  poor  who  do  not  complain  and  attention  to 
the  bad  poor  who  do,  becomes  conspicuous  when  religious  pro- 
fessions are  found  instrumental  to  obtainment  of  alms.  Clergy 
and  pious  women,  easily  deluded  by  sanctimonious  talk,  favor 
those  who  are  most  skilled  in  utterance  of  spiritual  experiences, 
and  in  benedictions  after  receiving  gifts.  Hence  a  penalty  on 
sincerity  and  a  premium  on  lying ;  with  resulting  demoralization. 

This  evil  is  intensified  by  sectarian  competition.  There  are 
competing  missions  which  collect  and  distribute  money  to  push 
their  respective  creeds,  and  bribe  by  farthing  breakfasts  and 
penny  dinners.  Nearly  half  the  revenue  of  one  mission  is  dis- 
tributed in  credit  tickets,  and  "  if  the  recipient  wishes  to  cash  his 
ticket,  he  can  not  do  so  until  after  the  evening  service":  this 
vicious  system  being  carried  even  to  the  extent  that  the  visitors 
try  "  to  force  its  tickets  on  the  most  respectable  and  independent 
people" — pauperizing  them  to  make  hypocritical  converts  of 
them.  Said  one  woman,  poor  but  clean  and  tidy,  who  saw  how 
the  emissaries  of  the  Church  favored  the  good-f or,-nothings :  "  I 
didn't  want  any  of  the  good  lady's  tickets  .  .  .  but  it's  very  'urt- 
ful  to  the  feelings  to  see  that  careless  drinking  people  living  like 
7ogs  gets  all,  and  them  as  struggles  and  strives  may  go  without." 
And  not  only  does  there  result  a  discouragement  of  virtue  and  an 
encouragement  of  vice,  but  there  results  a  subsidizing  of  super- 
stitions. Unless  all  the  conflicting  beliefs  thus  aided  are  right, 
which  is  impossible,  there  must  be  a  propagation  of  untruth  as 
well  as  a  rewarding  of  insincerity. 

Another  evil  is  that  easy-going  people  are  exploite  by  cunning 
fellows  who  want  to  make  places  for  themselves  and  get  salaries. 
A  crying  need  is  found;  prospectuses  are  widely  distributed; 
canvassers  press  those  on  whom  they  call ;  and  all  because  A,  B,  C, 
etc.,  who  have  failed  in  their  careers,  have  discovered  that  they 
can  get  money  by  playing  the  parts  of  manager,  secretary,  and 
collector.  Then,  if  the  institution  vehemently  urged  is  estab- 
lished, it  is  worked  in  their  interest.  But  it  is  not  always  estab- 
lished. As  there  are  bubble  mercantile  companies,  so  there  are 
bubble  philanthropic  societies — societies  kept  up  for  a  time  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  subscriptions.  Nay,  on  good  authority 
I  learn  that  there  are  gangs  of  men  who  make  it  their  business  to 
float  bogus  charities  solely  to  serve  their  private  ends. 


PRIVATE  RELIEF  OF  THE  POOR.  309 

Not  even  now  have  we  reached  the  end  of  the  evils.  There  is 
the  insincerity  of  those  who  furnish  the  funds  distributed :  flun- 
kyism  and  the  desire  to  display  being  often  larger  motives  than 
beneficent  feeling.  These  swindling  promoters  when  writing  to 
wealthy  men  for  contributions,  take  care  to  request  the  honor  of 
their  names  as  vice-presidents.  Even  where  the  institutions  are 
genuine,  the  giving  of  handsome  subscriptions  or  donations,  is 
largely  prompted  by  the  wish  to  figure  before  the  world  as  gen- 
erous, and  as  filling  posts  of  distinction  and  authority.  A  still 
meaner  motive  co-operates.  One  of  the  nouveaux  riches,  or  even 
one  whose  business  is  tolerably  prosperous,  takes  an  active  part 
in  getting  up,  or  in  carrying  on,  one  of  these  societies  supposed  to 
be  originated  purely  by  benevolence,  because  he  likes  the  pros- 
pect of  sitting  on  a  committee  presided  over  by  a  peer,  and  per- 
haps side  by  side  with  the  son  of  one.  He  and  his  wife  and  his 
daughters  enjoy  the  thought  of  seeing  his  name  annually  thus 
associated  in  the  list  of  officers ;  and  they  contemplate  this  result 
more  than  the  benefits  to  be  given. 

There  are  kindred  vitiations  of  other  organizations  having 
beneficent  aims — orphanages,  provisions  for  unfortunate  and  aged 
tradesmen,  etc.  Here  again,  the  least  necessitous,  who  have  many 
friends,  are  usually  those  to  benefit,  and  the  most  necessitous,  who 
have  no  friends,  are  neglected.  Then  there  is  the  costliness  and 
corruption  of  the  selecting  process — expensive  and  laborious  can- 
vassing, exchange  of  votes,  philanthropic  log-rolling.  Evidently 
the  outlay  for  working  the  system,  in  money  and  effort,  is  such  as 
would  be  equivalent  to  a  maintenance  for  many  more  beneficiaries, 
were  it  not  thus  wasted  in  machinery. 

Nor  is  it  otherwise  with  institutions  thought  by  most  people 
to  be  indisputably  beneficial — hospitals  and  dispensaries.  The 
first  significant  fact  is  that  thirty  per  cent  of  the  people  of  London 
are  frequenters  of  them;  and  the  largeness  of  this  proportion 
makes  it  clear  that  most  of  them,  not  to  be  ranked  as  indigent,  are 
able  to  pay  their  doctors.  Gratis  medical  relief  tends  to  pauperize 
in  more  definite  ways.  The  out-patients  begin  by  getting  physic 
and  presently  get  food ;  and  the  system  "  leads  them  afterward 
openly  to  solicit  pecuniary  aid."  This  vitiating  effect  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  during  the  forty  years  from  1830  to  18G9,  the  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  hospital  patients  has  been  five  times 
greater  than  the  increase  of  population ;  and  as  there  has  not  been 
more  disease,  the  implication  is  obvious.  Moreover,  the  promise 
of  advice  for  nothing  attracts  the  mean-spirited  to  the  extent  that 
"  the  poor  are  now  being  gradually  ousted  out  of  the  consulting 
room  by  well-to-do  persons."  People  of  several  hundreds  a  year, 
even  up  to  a  thousand,  apply  as  out-patients,  going  in  disguise : 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  out-patients  in  one  large  hospital  having 


3io  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  given  false  addresses  "  for  the  purpose  of  concealing  their  iden- 
tity. Swarming  as  patients  thus  do,  it  results  that  each  gets  but 
little  attention :  a  minute  being  the  average  for  each,  sometimes 
diminished  to  forty-five  seconds.  Thus  those  for  whom  the  gratis 
advice  is  intended  get  but  little.  Often  "  the  assistance  given  is 
merely  nominal " ;  and  "  is  both  a  deception  on  the  public  and  a 
fraud  upon  the  poor."  These  gratuitous  medical  benefits,  such  as 
they  are, "  are  conferred  chiefly  by  the  members  of  the  unpaid 
professional  staffs  "  of  these  charities.  Some  of  them  prescribe  at 
the  rate  of  three  hundred  and  eighteen  patients  in  three  hours 
and  twenty  minutes — a  process  sufficiently  exhausting  for  men 
already  hard-worked  in  their  private  practice,  and  sufficiently 
disheartening  to  men  with  little  private  practice,  who  thus  give 
without  payment  aid  which  otherwise  they  would  get  payment 
for,  very  much  needed  by  them.  So  that  the  six  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  a  year  of  the  metropolitan  hospitals,  which,  if  the 
annual  value  of  the  lands  and  buildings  occupied  were  added 
would  reach  very  nearly  a  million,  has  largely  the  effect  of  de- 
moralizing the  patients,  taking  medical  care  from  those  it  was 
intended  for  and  giving  it  to  those  for  whom  it  was  not,  and 
obliging  many  impecunious  doctors  and  surgeons  to  work  hard 
for  nothing.* 

These  various  experiences,  then,  furnished  by  societies  and  in- 
stitutions supported  by  voluntary  gifts  and  subscriptions,  unite 
to  show  that  whatever  benefits  flow  from  them  are  accompanied 
by  grave  evils — evils  sometimes  greater  than  the  benefits.  They 
force  on  us  the  truth  that,  be  it  compulsory  or  non-compulsory, 
social  machinery  wastes  power,  and  works  other  effects  than  those 
intended.  In  proportion  as  beneficence  operates  indirectly  instead 
of  directly,  it  fails  in  its  end. 

Alike  in  the  foregoing  sections  and  in  the  foregoing  parts  of 
this  work,  there  has  been  implied  the  conclusion  that  the  benefi- 
cence which  takes  the  form  of  giving  material  aid  to  those  in  dis- 
tress, has  the  best  effects  when  individually  exercised.  If,  like 
mercy,  it  "  blesses  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes/'  it  can  do 
this  in  full  measure  only  when  the  benefactor  and  beneficiary 
stand  in  direct  relation.  It  is  true,  however,  that  individual 
beneficence  often  falls  far  short  of  the  requirements,  often  runs 
into  excesses,  and  is  often  wrongly  directed.  Let  us  look  at  its 
imperfections  and  corruptions. 


*  The  evidence  here  summarized  will  be  found  in  Medical  Charity :  Its  Abuses,  and  how 
to  remedy  them,  by  John  Chapman,  M.  D.  Some  of  the  sums  and  numbers  given  should- 
be  greatly  increased;  for  since  1874,  when  the  work  was  published,  much  hospital  exten- 
sion has  taken  place. 


PRIVATE  RELIEF   OF  THE  POOR.  311 

The  most  familiar  of  these  is  the  careless  squandering  of  pence 
to  beggars,  and  the  consequent  fostering  of  idleness  and  vice. 
Sometimes  because  their  sympathies  are  so  quick  that  they  can 
not  tolerate  the  sight  of  real  or  apparent  misery ;  sometimes  be- 
cause they  quiet  their  consciences  and  think  they  compound  for 
misdeeds  by  occasional  largesse;  sometimes  because  they  are 
moved  by  that  other-worldliness  which  hopes  to  obtain  large  gifts 
hereafter  by  small  gifts  here;  sometimes  because,  though  con- 
scious of  mischief  likely  to  be  done,  they  have  not  the  patience 
needed  to  make  inquiries,  and  are  tempted  to  end  the  matter 
with  a  sixpence  or  something  less ;  men  help  the  bad  to  become 
worse.  Doubtless  the  evil  is  great,  and  weighs  much  against 
the  individual  exercise  of  beneficence — practically  if  not  theo- 
retically. 

The  same  causes  initiate  and  maintain  the  begging-letter  im- 
postures. Occasional  exposures  of  these  in  daily  papers  might 
serve  as  warnings ;  but  always  there  is  a  new  crop  of  credulous 
people  who  believe  what  they  are  told  by  cunning  dissemblers, 
and  yield  rather  than  take  the  trouble  of  verification ;  thinking, 
many  of  them,  that  they  are  virtuous  in  thus  doing  the  thing 
which  seems  kind,  instead  of  being,  as  they  are,  vicious  in  taking 
no  care  to  prevent  evil.  That  the  doings  of  such  keep  alive  num- 
bers of  scamps  and  swindlers,  every  one  knows ;  and  doubtless  a 
considerable  set-off  to  the  advantages  of  individual  beneficence 
hence  arises. 

Then,  again,  there  meets  us  the  objection  that  if  there  is  no 
compulsory  raising  of  funds  to  relieve  distress,  and  everything  is 
left  to  the  promptings  of  sympathy,  people  who  have  little  or  no 
sympathy,  forming  a  large  part  of  the  community,  will  contribute 
nothing ;  and  will  leave  undue  burdens  to  be  borne  by  the  more 
sympathetic.  Either  the  requirements  will  be  inadequately  met 
or  the  kind-hearted  will  have  to  make  excessive  sacrifices.  Much 
force  though  there  is  in  this  objection,  it  is  not  so  forcible  as  at 
first  appears.  In  this  case,  as  in  many  cases,  wrong  inferences  are 
drawn  respecting  the  effects  of  a  new  cause,  because  it  is  supposed 
that  while  one  thing  is  changed  all  other  things  remain  the  same. 
It  is  forgotten  that  in  the  absence  of  a  coercive  law  there  often 
exists  a  coercive  public  opinion.  There  is  no  legal  penalty  on  a 
lie,  if  not  uttered  after  taking  an  oath ;  and  yet  the  social  disgrace 
which  follows  a  convicted  liar  has  a  strong  effect  in  maintaining 
a  general  truthfulness.  There  is  no  prescribed  punishment  for 
breaking  social  observances ;  and  yet  these  are  by  many  conformed 
to  more  carefully  than  are  moral  precepts  or  legal  enactments. 
Most  people  dread  far  more  the  social  frown  which  follows  the 
doing  of  something  conventionally  wrong,  than  they  do  the 
qualms  of  conscience  which  follow  the  doing  of  something  intrin- 


3i2  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sically  wrong.*  Hence  it  may  reasonably  be  concluded  that  if 
private  voluntary  relief  of  the  poor  replaced  public  compulsory 
relief,  the  diffused  sentiment  which  enforces  the  one  would  go  a 
long  way  toward  maintaining  the  other.  The  general  feeling 
would  become  such  that  few,  even  of  the  unsympathetic,  would 
dare  to  face  the  scorn  which  would  result  did  they  shirk  all  share 
of  the  common  responsibility ;  and  while  there  would  probably  be 
thus  insured  something  like  due  contributions  from  the  indiffer- 
ent or  the  callous,  there  would,  in  some  of  them,  be  initiated,  by 
the  formal  practice  of  beneficence,  a  feeling  which  in  course  of 
time  would  render  the  beneficence  genuine  and  pleasurable. 

A  further  difficulty  presents  itself.  "I  am  too  much  occu- 
pied/' says  the  man  of  business  when  exhorted  to  exercise  private 
beneficence.  "  I  have  a  family  to  bring  up  ;  and  my  whole  time 
is  absorbed  in  discharging  my  responsibilities,  parental  and 
other.  It  is  impossible  for  me,  therefore,  to  make  such  inquiries 
as  are  needful  to  avoid  giving  misdirected  assistance.  I  must 
make  my  contribution  and  leave  others  to  distribute."  That 
there  is  force  in  the  reply  can  not  be  denied.  But  when  we  call 
to  mind  the  common  remark  that  if  you  want  anything  done  you 
must  apply  to  the  busy  man  rather  than  to  the  man  of  leisure,  we 
may  reasonably  question  whether  the  busy  man  may  not  occa- 
sionally find  time  enough  to  investigate  cases  of  distress  which 
are  forced  on  his  attention.  Sometimes  there  may  even  result, 
from  a  due  amount  of  altruistic  action,  a  mental  gain  conducive 
to  efficiency  in  the  conduct  of  affairs. 

At  any  rate  it  must  be  admitted  that  individual  ministration 
to  the  poor  is  the  normal  form  of  ministration ;  and  that,  made 
more  thoughtful  and  careful,  as  it  would  be  if  the  entire  responsi- 
bility of  caring  for  the  poor  devolved  upon  it,  it  would  go  a  long 
way  toward  meeting  the  needs :  especially  as  the  needs  would  be 
greatly  diminished  when  there  had  been  excluded  the  artificially 
generated  poverty  with  which  we  are  surrounded. 

But  now,  from  this  general  advocacy  of  individual  giving  ver- 
sus giving  by  public  and  quasi-public  agencies,  I  pass  to  the  spe- 
cial advocacy  of  the  natural  form  of  individual  giving — a  form 
which  exists  and  which  simply  needs  development. 

Within  the  intricate  plexus  of  social  relations  surrounding 

*  A  most  instructive  and  remarkable  fact,  which  illustrates  this  general  truth  at  the 
same  time  that  it  illustrates  a  more  special  truth,  is  that  respecting  the  rudest  of  the 
Musheras  of  India,  who  have  no  form  of  marriage,  but  among  whom  "  unchastity,  or  a 
change  of  lovers  on  either  side,  when  once  mutual  appropriation  has  been  made,  is  a  thing 
of  rare  occurrence";  and,  when  it  does  occur,  causes  excommunication.  So  that  among 
these  simple  people,  public  opinion  in  respect  of  the  marital  relation  is  more  potent  than 
law  is  among  ourselves.  (For  account  of  the  Musheras  see  Calcutta  Review,  April,  1888.) 


PRIVATE  RELIEF  OF  THE  POOR.  313 

each,  citizen,  there  is  a  special  plexus  more  familiar  to  him  than 
any  other,  and  which  has  established  greater  claims  on  him  than 
any  other.  Every  one  who  can  afford  to  give  assistance,  is  brought 
by  his  daily  activities  into  immediate  contact  with  a  cluster  of 
those  who  by  illness,  by  loss  of  work,  by  a  death,  or  by  other  ca- 
lamity, are  severally  liable  to  fall  into  a  state  calling  for  aid ;  and 
there  should  be  recognized  a  claim  possessed  by  each  member  of 
this  particular  cluster. 

In  early  societies,  organized  on  the  system  of  status,  there 
went,  along  with  the  dependence  of  inferiors,  a  certain  kind  of 
responsibility  for  their  welfare.  The  simple  or  compound  family 
group,  formed  of  relatives  standing  in  degrees  of  subordination, 
and  usually  possessing  slaves,  was  a  group  so  regulated  that  while 
the  inferiors  were  obliged  to  do  what  they  were  told,  and  receive 
what  was  given  to  them,  they  usually  had  a  sufficiency  given  to 
them.  They  were  much  in  the  position  of  domestic  animals  in 
respect  of  their  subjection,  and  they  were  in  a  kindred  position  in 
respect  of  due  ministration  to  their  needs.  Alike  in  the  primitive 
patriarchal  system  and  in  the  developed  feudal  system,  we  see 
that  the  system  of  status  presented  the  general  trait,  that  while 
dependents  were  in  large  measure  denied  their  liberty,  they  were 
in  large  measure  supplied  with  the  means  of  living.  Either  they 
were  directly  fed  and  housed,  or  they  were  allowed  such  fixed 
proportion  of  produce  as  enabled  them  to  feed  and  house  them- 
selves. Possession  of  them  unavoidably  brought  with  it  care  for 
them. 

Along  with  gradual  substitution  of  the  system  of  contract  for 
the  system  of  status,  this  relation  has  been  changed  in  such  man- 
ner that  while  the  benefits  of  independence  have  been  gained  the 
benefits  of  dependence  have  been  lost.  The  poorer  citizen  has  no 
longer  any  one  to  control  him ;  but  he  has  no  longer  any  one  to 
provide  for  him.  So  much  service  for  so  much  money,  has  be- 
come the  universal  principle  of  co-operation;  and  the  money 
having  been  paid  for  the  service  rendered,  no  further  claim  is 
recognized.  The  requirements  of  justice  having  been  fulfilled, 
it  is  supposed  that  all  requirements  have  been  fulfilled.  The 
ancient  regime  of  protection  and  fealty  has  ceased,  while  the 
modern  regime  of  beneficence  and  gratitude  has  but  partially 
replaced  it. 

May  we  not  infer,  with  tolerable  certainty,  that  there  has  to 
be  re-instituted  something  akin  to  the  old  order  in  a  new  form  ? 
May  we  not  expect  that  without  re-establishment  of  the  ancient 
power  of  superiors  over  inferiors,  there  may  be  resumed  some- 
thing like  the  ancient  care  for  them  ?  May  we  not  hope  that 
without  the  formation  of  any  legal  ties  between  individuals  of 
the  regulating  class,  and  those  groups  whose  work  they  severally 


3i4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

regulate  in  one  or  other  way,  there  may  come  to  be  formed 
stronger  moral  ties  ?  Already  such  moral  ties  are  in  some  meas- 
ure recognized.  Already  all  householders  moderately  endowed 
with  sympathy,  feel  bound  to  care  for  their  servants  during  ill- 
ness ;  already  they  help  those  living  out  of  the  house  who  in  less 
direct  ways  labor  for  them;  already  from  time  to  time  small 
traders,  porters,  errand-boys,  and  the  like,  benefit  by  their  kind 
offices  011  occasions  of  misfortune.  The  sole  requisite  seems  to  be 
that  the  usage  which  thus  shows  itself  here  and  there  irregularly, 
should  be  called  into  general  activity  by  the  gradual  disappear- 
ance of  artificial  agencies  for  distributing  aid.  As  before  im- 
plied, the  sympathetic  feelings  which  have  originated  and  sup- 
port these  artificial  agencies,  would,  in  their  absence,  vitalize  and 
develop  the  natural  agencies.  And  if  with  each  citizen  there  re- 
mained the  amount  now  taken  from  him  in  rates  and  subscrip- 
tions, he  would  be  enabled  to  meet  these  private  demands :  if  not 
by  as  large  a  disbursement,  yet  by  a  disbursement  probably  as 
large  as  is  desirable. 

Besides  re-establishing  these  closer  relationships  between  su- 
perior and  inferior,  which  during  our  transition  from  ancient 
slavery  to  modern  freedom  have  lapsed ;  and  besides  bringing 
beneficence  back  to  its  normal  form  of  direct  relation  between 
benefactor  and  beneficiary ;  this  personal  administration  of  relief 
would  be  guided  by  immediate  knowledge  of  the  recipients,  and 
the  relief  would  be  adjusted  in  kind  and  amount  to  their  needs 
and  their  deserts.  When,  instead  of  the  responsibility  indirectly 
discharged  through  poor-law  officers  and  mendicity  societies,  the 
responsibility  fell  directly  on  each  of  those  having  some  spare 
means,  each  would  see  the  necessity  for  inquiry  and  criticism  and 
supervision :  so  increasing  the  aid  given  to  the  worthy  and  re- 
stricting that  given  to  the  unworthy. 

And  here  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  greatest  of  the 
difficulties  attendant  on  all  methods  of  mitigating  distress.  May 
we  not  by  frequent  aid  to  the  worthy  render  them  unworthy ;  and 
are  we  not  almost  certain  by  helping  those  who  are  already  un- 
worthy to  make  them  more  unworthy  still  ?  How  shall  we  so 
regulate  our  pecuniary  beneficence  as  to  avoid  assisting  the  in- 
capables  and  the  degraded  to  multiply  ? 

I  have  in  so  many  places  commented  on  the  impolicy,  and  in- 
deed the  cruelty,  of  bequeathing  to  posterity  an  increasing  popu- 
lation of  criminals  and  incapables,'  that  I  need  not  here  insist 
that  true  beneficence  will  be  so  restrained  as  to  avoid  fostering 
the  inferior  at  the  expense  of  the  superior — or,  at  any  rate,  so 
restrained  as  to  minimize  the  mischief  which  fostering  the  in- 
ferior entails. 


PRIVATE  RELIEF  OF  THE  POOR.  315 

Under  present  circumstances  the  difficulty  seems  almost  insur- 
mountable. By  the  law-established  and  privately  established 
agencies,  coercive  and  voluntary,  which  save  the  bad  from  the 
extreme  results  of  their  badness,  there  have  been  produced  un- 
manageable multitudes  of  them,  and  to  prevent  further  multipli- 
cation appears  next  to  impossible.  The  yearly  accumulating 
appliances  for  keeping  alive  those  who  will  not  do  enough  work 
to  keep  themselves  alive,  continually  increase  the  evil.  Each 
new  effort  to  mitigate  the  penalties  on  improvidence,  has  the 
inevitable  effect  of  adding  to  the  number  of  the  improvident. 
Whether  assistance  is  given  through  State-machinery,  or  by 
charitable  societies,  or  privately,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  it  can 
be  restricted  in  such  manner  as  to  prevent  the  inferior  from  be- 
getting more  of  the  inferior. 

If  left  to  operate  in  all  its  sternness,  the  principle  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,  which,  as  ethically  considered,  we  have  seen  to 
imply  that  each  individual  shall  be  left  to  experience  the  effects 
of  his  own  nature  and  consequent  conduct,  would  quickly  clear 
away  the  degraded.  But  it  is  impracticable  with  our  present  sen- 
timents to  let  it  operate  in  all  its  sternness.  No  serious  evil 
would  result  from  relaxing  its  operation,  if  the  degraded  were 
to  leave  no  progeny.  A  short-sighted  beneficence  might  be  al- 
lowed to  save  them  from  suffering,  were  a  long-sighted  bene- 
ficence assured  that  there  would  be  born  no  more  such.  But 
how  can  it  be  thus  assured?  If,  either  by  public  action  or  by 
private  action,  aid  were  given  to  the  feeble,  the  unhealthy,  the 
deformed,  the  stupid,  on  condition  that  they  did  not  marry,  the 
result  would  manifestly  be  a  great  increase  of  illegitimacy; 
which,  implying  a  still  more  unfavorable  nurture  of  children, 
would  result  in  still  worse  men  and  women.  If  instead  of  a 
"submerged  tenth"  there  existed  only  a  submerged  fiftieth,  it 
might  be  possible  to  deal  with  it  effectually  by  private  industrial 
institutions,  or  some  kindred  appliances.  But  the  mass  of  effete 
humanity  to  be  dealt  with  is  so  large  as  to  make  one  despair ;  the 
problem  seems  insoluble. 

Certainly,  if  solvable,  it  is  to  be  solved  only  through  suffering. 
Having,  by  unwise  institutions,  brought  into  existence  large  num- 
bers who  are  unadapted  to  the  requirements  of  social  life,  and  are 
consequently  sources  of  misery  to  themselves  and  others,  we  can 
not  repress  and  gradually  diminish  this  body  of  relatively  worth- 
less people  without  inflicting  much  pain.  Evil  has  been  done 
and  the  penalty  must  be  paid.  Cure  can  come  only  through  afflic- 
tion. The  artificial  assuaging  of  distress  by  State-appliances,  is 
a  kind  of  social  opium-eating,  yielding  temporary  mitigation  at 
the  eventual  cost  of  intenser  misery.  Increase  of  the  anodyne 
dose  inevitably  leads  by  and  by  to  increase  of  the  evil ;  and  the 


316  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

only  rational  course  is  that  of  bearing  the  misery  which  must  be 
entailed  for  a  time  by  desistance.  The  transition  from  State- 
beneficence  to  a  healthy  condition  of  self-help  and  private  be- 
neficence, must  be  like  the  transition  from  an  opium-eating  life 
to  a  normal  life — painful  but  remedial. 


ARE  THERE  EVIDENCES  OF  MAN  IN  THE  GLACIAL 

GRAVELS  ? 

BY  MAJOR  J.  W.  POWELL. 

ri  THE  geologist  studying  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  is  ever  aston- 
-*-  ished  at  the  rapid  degradation  of  mountain  forms.  Cliffs, 
peaks,  crags,  and  rocky  scaurs  are  forever  tumbling  down.  The 
rocks  break  asunder  above  and  roll  down  in  great  slides  on  the 
flanks  and  about  the  feet  of  the  mountains.  As  the  slopes  are  thus 
diminished,  gradually  the  slides  are  covered  with  soil,  in  part 
through  the  decay  of  the  rocks  themselves,  in  part  by  wind-drifted 
sands,  but  perhaps  in  chief  part  by  the  washing  of  the  soils  above. 
In  this  manner  a  great  mountain  is  ultimately  buried  by  over- 
placement.  This  overplacement  gradually  washes  down,  to  be 
distributed  on  still  lower  grounds,  but  it  is  replaced  from  above 
from  the  newly  formed  soils.  The  process  goes  on  until  the 
mountain  is  degraded  into  hills  and  the  streams  have  carried 
away  the  greater  part  of  the  material  of  the  ancient  mountain. 
Now,  in  studying  these  mountains,  the  geologist  is  always  011  his 
guard  to  distinguish  overplacement  from  foundation  structure. 
When  the  mountains  are  all  gone  the  hills  are  degraded  in  the 
same  manner,  and  the  process  continues  until  a  grand  base-level 
is  established,  below  which  degradation  can  not  take  place  ;  then 
the  mountains  and  hills  have  all  been  carried  away  by  rivers  to 
the  sea.  As  mountains  and  hills  are  degraded,  so  valley  slopes 
are  brought  down.  The  river,  meandering  now  on  this  side  and 
now  on  that,  increases  the  length  of  its  course,  as  every  bend 
throughout  the  valley  is  cut  back ;  but  ultimately  bend  works 
back  against  bend,  until  shorter  channels  are  produced.  By  cut- 
off channels  the  course  of  the  river  is  diminished ;  by  increasing 
its  meanders  the  course  of  the  river  is  lengthened;  but  in  the 
grand  operation  the  one  about  compensates  for  the  other.  In  this 
manner  the  river  is  forever  rearranging  the  flood  plain.  The 
banks  of  the  stream,  left  dry  by  the  vicissitudes  of  river  cutting, 
tumble  down,  and  a  bank  goes  through  a  process  much  like  that 
of  the  mountain  slope ;  and  the  geologist  is  ever  on  the  lookout  to 
distinguish  overplacement  from  the  rocks  of  the  foundation  struc- 
ture. There  are  many  conditions  where  this  distinction  is  plain, 


ARE  THERE  EVIDENCES  OF  MAN  IN  THE  DRIFT?  317 

but  there  are  many  other  conditions  where  it  is  obscure.  Let  us 
see  how  some  of  these  obscurities  arise. 

In  the  United  States  and  in  British  America  there  is  a  vast 
district  of  country  covered  with  glacial  drift.  In  a  period  known 
to  geologists  as  the  Glacial  epoch  deep  snows  and  gigantic  accu- 
mulations of  ice  extended  from  a  region  far  to  the  northward 
down  into  the  United  States,  nearly  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio 
Kiver.  The  margin  of  this  great  ice  field  stretched  from  this  cen- 
tral point  eastward  and  northward  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and 
westward  and  northward  to  the  Great  Plains,  while  the  Rocky 
Mountains  were  covered  with  great  ice  fields.  This  enormous  ice 
sheet  was  ever  working  southward,  and  ever  melting  along  its 
southern  boundary.  As  it  moved  southward  it  plowed  the 
mountains,  dug  down  the  hills,  and  generally  filled  the  valleys 
with  the  debris ;  and  it  spread  over  much  of  the  great  area  a  vast 
sheet  of  rounded  gravels,  sands,  and  clays ;  and  it  fed  the  streams 
from  the  border  of  the  ice  sheet  with  fine  silt  that  was  distributed 
along  the  valleys  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  This  glacial  flour  is  now 
recognized  as  the  loess  of  the  South.  Since  the  disappearance  of 
the  great  ice  sheet  the  glacial  formations  that  were  made  by  it 
cover  much  of  the  dry  land.  Now,  these  glacial  formations,  being 
composed  of  incoherent  bowlders,  gravels,  sands,  and  clays,  are 
pretty  easily  distinguished  from  the  underlying,  more  indurated 
rocks ;  but  rains,  brooks,  creeks,  and  rivers  have  been  at  work 
carving  new  valleys,  and  remodeling  the  bluffs,  hills,  cliffs,  and 
mountains  of  all  the  country,  and  in  the  process  have  distributed 
over  the  land  formed  by  the  glacial  ice  extensive  bodies  of  over- 
placement.  This  overplacement  is  incoherent,  like  the  glacial 
formations.  There  is  no  diniculty  in  distinguishing  the  overplace- 
ment from  the  primeval  foundation,  but  there  is  great  diniculty 
in  distinguishing  it  from  the  glacial  formations,  and  it  requires 
nice  powers  of  observation  to  always  make  the  distinction  with 
certainty.  The  criteria  for  distinguishing  overplacement  from 
the  original  glacial  formations  have  been  gradually  discovered 
and  formulated  in  the  last  few  years. 

In  1882,  by  act  of  Congress,  the  Geological  Survey  was  author- 
ized and  directed  to  make  a  geological  map  of  the  United  States. 
The  survey  entered  upon  this  work  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. Among  many  problems  before  it,  one  of  the  more  important 
was  that  of  mapping  the  glacial  formations,  and  in  order  to  do  it 
two  things  were  necessary :  First,  it  was  necessary  to  distinguish 
the  glacial  formations  from  modern  overplacement ;  second,  it  was 
necessary  to  study  the  history  of  the  glacial  action  and  the  vari- 
ous structures  which  the  ice  produced,  for  there  are  many — such 
as  moraines,  osars,  kames,  and  bodies  of  till,  sand,  gravel,  and 
bowlders ;  and  it  was  sought  to  discover  the  history  of  their  forma- 


3i8  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tion,  and  especially  the  history  of  the  entire  Glacial  epoch.  The 
members  of  the  Geological  Survey  engaged  upon  the  general  work 
were  only  to  a  limited  extent  occupied  with  this  problem.  In  the 
special  fields  where  they  were  engaged  in  studying  the  primeval 
foundation  rocks  they  also  studied  the  glacial  formations  and  the 
modern  overplacements.  But  the  field  was  very  large,  and  many 
geologists  in  the  country  had  already  made  observations  and  en- 
gaged in  researches  of  this  character.  Most  of  these  geologists 
were  professors  in  the  various  colleges  of  the  country,  and  it  was 
decided  by  the  director  to  enlist  these  professorial  geologists  as 
far  as  possible  to  continue  the  work  and  solve  these  problems  for 
the  general  survey  of  the  United  States  upon  the  foundation  of 
observation  already  begun  by  them.  For  this  purpose  Prof. 
Chamberlin,  then  of  Beloit  College,  with  Prof.  Salisbury,  his  asso- 
ciate, and  many  other  professorial  assistants,  were  engaged  upon 
the  work.  Prof.  Shaler,  of  Harvard  University,  was  also  enlisted, 
with  a  large  corps  of  assistants.  Prof.  Emerson,  of  Arnherst  Col- 
lege, was  likewise  enlisted,  with  his  assistants ;  and  Prof.  Davis, 
of  Harvard  University,  with  his  assistants,  also  took  a  part.  Mr. 
Gilbert,  of  the  Geological  Survey,  with  his  assistants,  was  study- 
ing the  lake  basins  of  the  far  West,  but,  as  their  history  was  in- 
volved in  the  history  of  the  glacial  formations,  he  incidentally 
took  part  in  this  work.  Mr.  McGee,  permanently  employed  upon 
the  survey,  with  his  assistants,  was  engaged  in  studying  the 
estuarine  and  coastal-plain  formations  of  the  Atlantic  slope,  and 
he  soon  discovered  that  they  were  involved  with  the  glacial  de- 
posits that  had  come  down  from  the  Appalachian  Mountains. 
Besides  the  men  thus  occupied,  many  other  volunteers,  as  pro- 
fessors and  students,  took  part  in  the  work,  now  here,  now  there ; 
so  that  altogether  more  than  fifty  different  men  engaged  in  the 
solving  of  these  great  problems.  Nearly  all  the  men  who  engaged 
in  this  work  soon  discovered  that  the  preliminary  problem  was  to 
formulate  the  criteria  by  which  modern  overplacement  is  to  be 
distinguished  from  original  glacial  formation.  As  this  proceeded 
it  was  further  discovered  that  much  of  the  confusion  in  the  study 
of  the  glacial  rocks  themselves  was  cleared  away,  and  that  it  was 
possible  to  read  the  record  of  the  old  Glacial  epoch  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  discover  its  history. 

So  the  work  went  on  year  after  year,  in  small  part  by  the  regu- 
lar employees  of  the  survey,  in  chief  part  by  a  professorial  corps, 
aided  by  many  volunteers,  often  university  students.  Then  many 
of  the  State  geologists  were  enlisted,  and  the  work  proceeded, 
until  at  last  a  vast  body  of  facts  has  been  collected.  The  men 
often  conferred  with  one  another  and  visited  doubtful  points  to- 
gether. The  officers  of  the  Geological  Survey,  the  professorial 
geologists,  and  the  State  geologists  thus  associated  themselves 


ARE  THERE  EVIDENCES  OF  MAN  IN  THE  DRIFT?  319 

voluntarily,  and  made  many  excursions  together.  For  example, 
Mr.  McGee  believed  that  he  had  made  some  discoveries  in  Ala- 
bama and  Mississippi  which  were  inconsistent  with  conclusions 
reached  by  State  geologists.  Thereupon  he  conferred  with  Messrs. 
Hilgard,  formerly  of  Mississippi,  now  of  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia; Smith,  of  Alabama;  Holmes,  of  North  Carolina;  Safford, 
of  Tennessee;  Hill,  of  Texas;  and  Ward,  paleobotanist  of  the 
Geological  Survey;  and  they  visited  the  region  together,  all 
having  distinct  views  somewhat  differing  from  one  another. 
They  examined  the  problems  concerning  which  differences  of 
opinion  had  arisen,  and  they  all  united  in  a  common  conclusion. 
Subsequently  Messrs.  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury  visited  the  same 
region  in  company  with  Mr.  McGee,  and  came  to  substantial 
agreement  with  the  first  party.  Such  instances  of  harmonious 
co-operation  have  occurred  again  and  again  in  all  portions  of  the 
glaciated  area.  The  whole  body  of  men  engaged  in  the  research 
worked  together  for  a  common  purpose,  and  were  unwilling  to 
publish  material  conclusions  until  the  facts  could  be  submitted 
to  many  minds.  They  worked  with  a  harmony  and  a  patience 
for  dissenting  opinion  worthy  of  such  a  body  of  scientific  men. 
Mr.  Chamberlin,  first  the  Professor  of  Geology  at  Beloit  College, 
afterward  President  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  and  now  in 
charge  of  the  geological  department  of  the  new  University  of 
Chicago,  had  the  largest  share  in  all  this  work;  he  gave  more 
time  to  it  himself  and  he  employed  more  assistants  than  any  one 
else ;  in  fact,  he  was  considered  the  Nestor  of  the  work.  He  had 
long  before  been  the  State  Geologist  of  Wisconsin,  where  glacial 
formations  are  highly  developed,  and  had  made  a  special  study  of 
the  subject,  and  all  the  workers  in  the  field  deferred  largely  to 
his  judgment  in  suggesting  methods  of  research. 

Occasionally  some  observer  failed  to  make  the  necessary  dis- 
criminations, and  dropped  out  of  the  work.  Among  others  whom 
Prof.  Chamberlin  enlisted  was  Prof.  G.  F.  Wright,  of  Oberlin 
College,  who  devoted  some  summer  months  to  these  investiga- 
tions. Now,  some  of  the  observations  made  by  Prof.  Wright  were 
of  value,  but  he  seemed  to  fail  to  distinguish  overplacement  from 
glacial  formation ;  and,  after  trying  him  for  two  or  three  seasons, 
his  labors  were  dispensed  with.  Thereupon  Prof.  Wright  com- 
menced the  preparation  of  a  popular  work  upon  the  history  of 
the  Ice  period.  When  this  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Prof.  Cham- 
berlin, he  demurred.  Still,  Prof.  Wright  continued  his  work,  and 
ultimately  published  his  book.  On  its  appearance  it  was  found 
that  he  had  ignored  the  conclusions  of  his  co-workers — had  prac- 
tically denied  the  accuracy  of  their  observations — and  had  pub- 
lished a  work  on  the  history  of  the  Ice  period  which  they  believed 
to  be  erroneous  and  misleading.  But  they  let  the  subject  pass 


32o  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

with,  no  unfavorable  criticism,  believing  that  ultimately  the 
grand  results  of  the  combined  labors  of  so  many  men,  when 
published,  would  correct  all  errors. 

There  is  another  phase  to  this  question,  connected  with  the 
science  of  archaeology.  I  have  already  set  forth  the  distinction 
which  geologists  recognize  between  overplacement  formations  and 
fundamental  formations.  Certain  archaeologic  problems  which 
have  sprung  up  in  late  years  in  the  United  States  are  profoundly 
affected  by  the  discovery  and  formulation  of  these  distinctions. 
Many  years  ago  a  local  observer  at  Natchez,  Miss.,  claimed  to 
have  discovered  a  human  skeleton  in  the  loess  of  a  bluff  on  the 
Mississippi  River.  The  loess  is  a  formation  contemporaneous 
with  the  glacial  formation  of  the  North,  as  previously  explained. 
The  discovery  of  a  human  skeleton  in  this  situation  was  believed 
to  prove  that  man  dwelt  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  during 
the  loess-forming  epoch.  The  discovery  seemed  to  be  of  so  much 
importance  that  the  site  was  visited  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  who  on 
examination  at  once  affirmed  that  the  skeleton  was  not  found  in 
the  loess  itself,  but  in  the  overplacement  or  modified  loess — that 
is,  in  the  talus  of  the  bluff ;  and  all  geologists  and  archaeologists 
have  accepted  the  decision. 

From  time  to  time  other  supposed  discoveries  were  made  in 
this  country ;  but  one  after  another  was  abandoned,  until  a  series 
of  discoveries  were  made  along  the  line  of  hills  which  stretch 
from  the  Hudson  to  the  James  River.  This  line  of  hills  marks 
an  interesting  geological  displacement.  The  country  to  the  sea- 
ward of  the  line  has  been  differentially  displaced  from  the  coun- 
try mountainward  by  an  uplift  on  the  Appalachian  side  or  a 
downthrow  on  the  ocean  side,  or  both.  The  displacement  has 
given  rise  to  many  rapids  and  falls  in  the  streams.  Above  this 
line  of  displacement  the  waters  are  not  navigable,  the  declivity 
of  the  streams  being  too  great ;  below,  tidewater  always  flows  to 
the  foot  of  the  hills.  Now,  along  this  line  of  hills,  back  and  forth 
from  the  upper  country  to  the  lower,  are  many  glacial  gravels, 
many  hills  of  ancient  river  gravels,  and  many  hills  of  estuarine 
gravels,  all  of  Glacial  age.  But  there  are  other  gravels  of  still 
greater  age  intimately  associated  with  them,  and  in  making  the 
geological  survey  of  the  country  it  became  necessary  to  distin- 
guish the  older  gravels  of  Neocene  and  Cretaceous  age  from  the 
younger  gravels  of  the  Ice  period,  and  it  also  became  necessary 
to  distinguish  the  overplacement  of  modern  times.  In  these  same 
gravels  certain  archaeologists  had  discovered  what  they  believed 
to  be  palaeolithic  implements ;  and  as  some  of  the  gravels  were 
known  to  be  of  Glacial  age,  they  supposed  them  all  to  be  Glacial, 
and  that  they  thus  had  evidence  that  man  inhabited  the  coun- 
try during  the  Glacial  epoch.  These  implements  were  gathered 


ARE  THERE  EVIDENCES   OF  MAN  IN  THE  DRIFT?  321 

in  very  great  numbers  and  collected  in  various  museums  in  the 
United  States,  and  many  collections  were  sent  abroad  to  the  great 
museums  of  the  world.  Several  different  collectors  engaged  in 
this  enterprise  for  some  years,  and  acquired  great  reputation 
for  their  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  man  on  this  continent,  and  for 
their  zeal  in  discovering  the  evidence ;  and  to  recompense  them 
for  this  work  they  were  made  members  of  many  scientific  societies 
throughout  the  world,  and  decorated  with  ribbons,  and  some  were 
knighted.  Geologists,  however,  held  the  question  more  or  less  in 
abeyance,  not  feeling  sure  of  the  geological  evidence  for  the  age 
of  the  formations  in  which  the  supposed  stone  implements  were 
found.  Then  other  discoveries  were  made  in  Minnesota  and  else- 
where; and  finally  geologists,  with  some  misgivings  and  many 
ifs  and  perchances,  accepted  the  conclusion  that  Glacial  man  in 
America  was  a  reality. 

But  now  the  problem  of  these  formations  had  to  be  studied 
geologically  in  making  the  map  of  the  United  States,  for  they  had 
to  be  represented  thereon.  They  were  soon  found  to  be  of  dif- 
ferent ages,  but  had  been  confused  by  reason  of  the  overplacement 
which  is  so  abundant  everywhere.  At  the  same  time  a  new  class 
of  archseologic  investigations  began.  The  first  new  work  of  the 
character  was  undertaken  in  the  neighborhood  of  Washington,  on 
Piny  Branch.  It  had  been  discovered  that  the  gravels  of  this 
locality  were  of  Cretaceous  age,  and  if  the  flaked  stones  supposed 
to  be  found  therein  were  really  deposited  in  situ,  then  man  in 
America  was  not  only  of  Glacial  age  but  of  Cretaceous  age,  for  the 
very  same  class  of  implements  which  the  Indians  made  two  cen- 
turies ago  in  the  valley  of  the  Potomac  were  also  supposed  to  be 
found  in  the  Cretaceous  gravels  as  well  as  in  the  gravels  of  the 
Glacial  epoch.  Thereupon  Mr.  Holmes,  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnol- 
ogy in  the  Smithsonian  Institution — not  a  member  of  the  Geo- 
logical Survey — undertook  the  investigation,  and  he  commenced 
by  trenching  the  hills,  and  worked  patiently  for  months  at  the 
problem.  He  proved  that  all  the  supposed  stone  implements  be- 
longed, not  in  the  foundation  rocks  of  Cretaceous  age,  but  in  the 
overplacement.  Man,  then,  was  not  of  Cretaceous  age.  While 
these  investigations  were  in  progress  the  American  Association 
and  the  International  Geologic  Congress  met  in  Washington,  and 
many  of  the  scientific  men  visited  the  ground.  Most  of  the  as- 
sistants of  the  Geological  Survey  visited  it,  and  other  geologists, 
attracted  by  the  problem,  came  to  Washington  for  the  purpose ; 
so  that  the  whole  field  was  surveyed  and  the  evidence  weighed  by 
very  many  of  the  geologists  of  the  country  and  of  the  world,  and 
they  all  agreed  that  the  stone  implements  belonged  to  the  over- 
placement,  and  might  possibly  have  been  deposited  within  the  last 
three  hundred  years. 

VOL.    XL1II. — 22       . 


322  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

But  there  were  many  like  finds  in  Neocene  gravels  and  gravels 
of  Glacial  age  stretching  down  into  Virginia  and  northward 
through  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey.  One  after  another  these 
gravel  sites  were  explored  by  Mr.  Holmes  and  his  assistants  in 
the  same  manner,  and  in  every  instance  it  was  revealed  that  the 
stone  objects  were  found  in  the  overplacement,  that  in  no  case 
could  they  be  found  in  the  underlying  rocks.  Objects  of  the  same 
character  have  been  observed  all  over  the  United  States.  Within 
the  last  twenty  years  the  writer  of  this  article  has  seen  them  made 
by  Indians  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  region,  and  they  are  scattered 
far  and  wide  over  nearly  all  the  gravel  hills  of  this  country.  This 
creates  a  presumption  that,  where  there  are  so  many  of  mod- 
ern origin,  all  may  be  modern.  It  has  already  been  mentioned 
that  certain  implements  of  this  kind  had  been  found  in  gravels, 
supposed  to  be  of  Glacial  age,  in  Minnesota.  This  is  known  as  the 
Babbitt  find.  Finally,  Mr.  Holmes,  together  with  Prof.  Winchell, 
the  State  Geologist  of  Minnesota,  visited  the  locality.  They  made 
careful  examinations,  and  were  entirely  satisfied  with  the  evi- 
dence that  the  stone  objects  of  that  site  were  found  in  overplace- 
ment. 

Up  to  this  stage  one  locality  had  not  been  examined  with  care 
by  the  new  methods — the  locality  in  Trenton,  which  had  espe- 
cially become  historic  by  reason  of  the  many  collections  made 
therefrom  for  sundry  museums ;  and  this  Mr.  Holmes  finally  vis- 
ited. The  implements  collected  had  been  found  mainly,  perhaps 
not  wholly,  along  old  banks  of  streams,  and  two  localities  of  this 
nature  had  furnished  many  of  the  objects  of  the  museums.  When 
visited  by  Mr.  Holmes  and  other  geologists,  implements  could  not 
be  found  save  in  the  overplacement.  The  principal  of  these  sites 
was  a  low  bluff  of  gravel  in  the  city  of  Trenton,  and  property  con- 
ditions prevented  thorough  examination  of  the  site  by  trenching ; 
thus  it  seemed  that  final  observation  by  the  new  methods  was  no 
longer  possible.  But  at  this  stage  the  authorities  of  the  city  of 
Trenton  commenced  to  dig  a  sewer  parallel  to  the  bluff  and  but  a 
few  steps  back  from  its  face — a  deep  trench  to  carry  a  large  body 
of  sewage  to  a  distance  where  it  would  no  longer  be  noxious  to  the 
inhabitants.  Shortly  after  this  work  began  Mr.  Holmes  again 
visited  the  place,  and  returned  from  time  to  time  during  its  prog- 
ress, and  for  upward  of  a  month  kept  an  expert  assistant  watch- 
ing the  progress  of  the  digging.  With  all  the  examination  made 
no  stone  implement  was  ever  found.  This  led  him  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  flaked  stones  originally  found  on  the  bank  really 
belonged  to  the  overplacement  and  not  to  the  foundation  forma- 
tion of  Glacial  age. 

In  the  fall  of  1889  the  writer  visited  Boise  City,  in  Idaho. 
While  stopping  at  a  hotel  some  gentlemen  called  on  him  to  show 


ARE  THERE  EVIDENCES  OF  MAN  IN  THE  DRIFT?  323 

him  a  figurine  which  they  said  they  had  found  in  sinking  an  arte- 
sian well  in  the  neighborhood  at  a  depth,  if  I  remember  rightly, 
of  more  than  three  hundred  feet.  The  figurine  is  a  little  image  of 
a  man  or  woman  done  in  clay  and  baked.  It  is  not  more  than  an 
inch  and  a  half  in  length,  and  is  slender  and  delicate,  more  delicate 
than  an  ordinary  clay  pipestem,  and  altogether  exceedingly  fra- 
gile. Hold  the  figurine  at  the  height  of  your  eye  and  let  it  fall  on 
the  hearth  at  your  feet,  and  it  would  be  shivered  into  fragments. 
It  was  claimed  that  this  figurine  had  been  brought  up  from  the 
bottom  of  an  artesian  well  while  the  men  were  working,  or  about 
the  time  that  they  were  working  at  the  well,  and  that  as  it  came 
out  it  was  discovered.  When  this  story  was  told  the  writer,  he 
simply  jested  with  those  who  claimed  to  have  found  it.  He  had 
known  the  Indians  that  live  in  the  neighborhood,  had  seen  their 
children  play  with  just  such  figurines,  and  had  no  doubt  that  the 
little  image  had  lately  belonged  to  some  Indian  child,  and  said  the 
same.  While  stopping  at  the  hotel  different  persons  spoke  about 
it,  and  it  was  always  passed  off  as  a  jest ;  and  various  comments 
were  made  about  it  by  various  people,  some  of  them  claiming  that 
it  had  given  them  much  sport,  and  that  a  good  many  "  tenderf eet " 
had  looked  at  it  and  believed  it  to  be  genuine;  and  they  seemed 
rather  pleased  that  I  had  detected  the  hoax.  When  I  returned  to 
Washington  I  related  the  jest  at  a  dinner  table,  and  afterward  it 
passed  out  of  my  mind.  In  reading  Prof.  Wright's  second  book  I 
had  many  surprises,  but  none  of  them  greater  than  when  I  dis- 
covered that  this  figurine  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  and  that  he 
had  actually  published  it  as  evidence  of  the  great  antiquity  of 
man  in  the  valley  of  the  Snake  River. 

Consider  the  circumstances.  A  fragile  toy  is  buried  in  the 
sands  and  gravels  and  bowlders  of  a  torrential  stream.  Three 
hundred  feet  of  materials  are  accumulated  over  it  from  the  floods 
of  thousands  of  years.  Then  volcanoes  burst  forth  and  pour  floods 
of  lava  over  all ;  and  under  more  than  three  hundred  feet  of  sands, 
gravels,  clays,  and  volcanic  rocks  the  fragile  figurine  remains  for 
centuries,  under  such  magical  conditions  that  the  very  color  of 
the  burning  is  preserved.  Then  well-diggers,  with  a  pump  drill, 
hammer  and  abrade  the  rocks,  and  bore  a  six-inch  hole  down  to 
this  figurine  without  destroying  it,  and  with  a  sand-pump  bring 
it  to  the  surface,  to  be  caught  by  the  well-digger;  and  Prof. 
Wright  believes  the  story  of  the  figurine,  and  places  it  011  record 
in  his  book ! 

There  are  some  other  cases  that  ought  to  be  considered,  but 
none  of  them  differs  greatly  from  those  given,  and  enough  has 
already  been  said. 

Now  it  must  here  be  confessed  that  a  large  number  of  geolo- 
gists some  years  ago  were  willing  to  acknowledge  the  validity  of 


324  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  evidence  of  Glacial  man.  Many  of  them  had  committed  them- 
selves to  it,  and  yet  when  better  evidence  was  brought  they  were 
willing  to  withdraw  opinions  previously  affirmed.  The  writer 
himself  has  entertained  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  Glacial  man, 
and  there  is  still  some  evidence  in  California  that  has  not  yet 
been  examined  by  the  new  methods,  and  it  may  be  that  this  evi- 
dence is  good.  The  writer  has  much  linguistic  material  that 
points  to  the  high  antiquity  of  man  on  this  continent.  So  we  will 
all  withhold  final  judgment  until  the  evidence  is  in,  being  per- 
fectly willing  to  believe  in  Glacial  man,  or  Tertiary  man,  or  Cre- 
taceous man,  if  the  evidence  demands  it,  and  being  just  as  willing 
to  believe  that  man  was  introduced  on  this  continent  within  the 
last  two  thousand  years,  if  the  evidence  demands  it.  What  care 
we  what  the  truth  is,  if  it  is  the  truth  ? 

Some  years  ago  Mr.  McGee  found  in  a  lake  formation  of  the 
West  a  stone  implement,  like  those  still  made  by  the  Indians  of 
that  country,  in  beds  of  an  age  not  greatly  differing  from  those 
of  the  gravels  of  the  Eastern  shore ;  and  he  published  his  find.  In 
after  years  he  had  learned  to  distinguish  overplacement  from 
foundation  formation,  and  he  questioned  his  own  conclusions. 
This  was  before  the  present  controversy  arose,  before  Mr.  Holmes 
had  so  skillfully  trenched  the  hills  and  shown  the  true  age  of  the 
stone  implements  of  the  Atlantic  slope;  but  still  Mr.  McGee, 
warned  by  his  own  observations  of  the  difference  between  over- 
placement  and  under-formation,  concluded  that  he  might  have 
been  too  hasty,  and  published  a  long  article  on  the  subject,  from 
which  the  following  extract  is  made : 

"  It  is  a  fair  presumption  that  any  unusual  object  found  with- 
in, or  apparently  within,  an  unconsolidated  deposit  is  an  adven- 
titious inclusion.  Every  cautious  field  geologist  accustomed  to 
the  study  of  unconsolidated  superficial  deposits  quickly  learns  to 
question  the  verity  of  apparently  original  inclusions  ;  he  may,  it 
is  true,  exhaust  the  entire  range  of  hypothesis  at  his  command 
without  satisfying  himself  that  the  inclusion  is  adventitious ;  yet 
he  is  seldom  satisfied  that  he  has  exhausted  the  range  of  possible 
hypothesis  as  to  the  character  of  the  inclusion,  and  hesitates  long 
before  accepting  any  unusual  association  as  veritable.  His  case 
is  not  that  of  the  invertebrate  paleontologist  at  work  in  the 
Palaeozoic  rocks,  to  whom  a  single  fossil  may  carry  conviction ; 
for  not  only  are  the  possibilities  of  adventitious  inclusion  indefi- 
nitely less  in  solid  strata,  but  the  mineral  character  of  the  fossil 
is  commonly  identical  with  that  of  its  matrix,  and  so  affords  in- 
herent evidence  of  the  verity  of  the  association.  Nowhere,  indeed,, 
in  the  entire  range  of  the  complex  and  sometimes  obscure  and 
elusive  phenomena  of  geology  is  there  more  reason  for  withhold- 
ing final  judgment  based  upon  unusual  association  than  in  the 


ARE  THERE  EVIDENCES  OF  MAN  IN  THE  DRIFT?  325 

unconsolidated  superficial  deposits  of  the  earth;  and  it  is  only 
where  there  is  collateral  evidence  that  such  testimony  is  accept- 
able to  the  cautious  student.  Now,  the  sediments  of  Lake  Lahon- 
tan  are  generally,  and  in  Walker  River  canon  almost  wholly, 
unconsolidated,  and  so  the  probabilities  are  against  the  verity  of 
the  association." ' 

When  Prof.  Wright's  second  book,  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period, 
appeared,  the  subject  was  one  of  popular  interest,  and  it  was 
thought  that  the  book  would  do  harm.  Thereupon  his  fellow- 
workers  criticised  the  book  in  various  scientific  journals,  and 
sometimes  spoke  very  disparagingly  of  it,  as  being  unworthy  of 
acceptance — all  intended  to  warn  the  public  against  a  book  widely 
advertised  and  circulated  as  the  greatest  contribution  that  had 
ever  been  made  to  glacial  geology.  The  fact  that  in  support  of 
his  pretensions  the  author,  Prof.  Wright,  signed  his  name  as  a 
member  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  was  especially 
offensive  to  the  others  who  had  been  engaged  under  the  auspices 
of  the  survey,  whether  as  volunteers,  professorial  assistants,  or 
permanent  employees. 

When  Prof.  Wright  found  his  book  thus  attacked,  he  skill- 
fully evaded  the  real  issue — the  truth  or  error  of  his  conclusions 
— and  he  or  certain  of  his  personal  friends  raised  the  cry  of  per- 
secution by  the  official  geologists  of  the  United  States.  Most  of 
those  who  criticised  him  were  professorial  geologists,  like  him- 
self, who  had  aided  the  Geological  Survey  with  their  work.  Prof. 
Wright  was  thus  attacking  his  fellow-workers  in  the  field,  not 
deigning  to  make  scientific  reply  to  scientific  objections,  but 
making  only  general  statements  in  relation  thereto,  and  turning 
the  issue  on  the  right  of  geologists  to  criticise  his  work,  which 
he  assumed  was  not  official,  though  he  had  placed  his  name  on 
his  book  with  an  official  title. 

All  this  required  no  reply  from  me,  until  at  last  Mr.  Wright 
enlisted  the  championship  of  The  Popular  Science  Monthly.  An 
article  by  Mr.  Clay  pole,  of  Ohio,  was  published  in  the  April  num- 
ber of  the  journal,  making  a  bitter  attack  upon  the  professorial 
geologists  and  upon  the  regular  employees  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  and  in  no  covert  way  attacking  the  admin- 
istration of  the  survey  itself.  This  attack,  based  as  it  was  on 
error  in  every  paragraph,  would  still  have  called  for  no  response 
from  myself,  but  would  have  been  passed  by,  had  not  the  editor 
of  the  journal  attempted  to  draw  a  lesson  therefrom  in  con- 
demnation of  the  work  of  the  Geological  Survey  and  of  that  of 
the  professorial  geologists  and  volunteer  assistants  connected 
with  the  universities,  colleges,  and  State  surveys  of  the  entire 

*  American  Anthropologist,  vol.  ii,  1889,  pp.  301-312. 


326  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

country.  It  seems  now  to  be  incumbent  upon  me  to  make  a 
simple  explanation  of  the  facts.  This  I  have  done  briefly,  with 
confidence  that  the  editor  of  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  find- 
ing that  he  has  been  misled  in  the  matter,  will  cheerfully  correct 
the  impression  that  his  editorial  will  naturally  make  upon  those 
unacquainted  with  the  circumstances. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  the  writer  of  this  article  has 
been  engaged  in  conducting  and  supervising  scientific  research 
in  various  portions  of  the  United  States.  During  the  history  of 
this  work  there  have  been  published  under  his  auspices  about 
two  hundred  volumes,  as  annual  reports,  monographs,  bulletins, 
and  other  miscellaneous  works.  In  all  this  body  of  literature 
there  is  very  little  of  controversy.  The  hundreds  of  men  em- 
ployed have  worked  together  in  practical  harmony.  They  have 
not  always  agreed,  but  agreement  has  been  singularly  common, 
and  when  disagreements  have  arisen  they  have  been  stated 
courteously  and  with  little  exhibition  of  temper.  It  is  believed 
that  no  other  publications  of  the  same  magnitude  can  be  found 
in  the  world  where  so  little  controversy  is  shown  and  where  dis- 
agreement is  so  uniformly  courteous.  There  have  been  some  con- 
troversies, but  they  have  been  confined  to  the  journals,  and  have 
not  found  their  way  into  the  official  publications.  And  the  jour- 
nalistic controversies  have  been  very  few;  and  in  only  two  in- 
stances within  my  knowledge  have  they  been  bitter,  the  case  of 
this  book  being  one  of  them.  The  controversy  on  this  subject 
has  not  appeared  in  the  official  publications,  but  only  in  the  jour- 
nals. It  has  been  wholly  unofficial. 

Prof.  Wright  stands  almost  alone  in  his  advocacy  of  a  sci- 
entific doctrine.  He  has  a  few  sympathizers,  and  some  defenders 
of  portions  of  his  theory,  but  the  great  body  of  his  work  is 
repudiated  by  nearly  every  geologist  in  America,  and  especially 
by  the  professorial  corps.  The  controversy  which  broke  out  in 
the  journals  was  at  the  time  unknown  to  the  Director  of  the  Geo- 
logical Survey.  He  was  away  from  home  and  an  invalid.  He 
had  never  by  word  or  circumstance  directed  or  suggested  it.  and 
knew  nothing  of  it  until  after  it  had  occurred.  Most  of  the 
gentlemen  who  engaged  in  it  and  expressed  their  indignation  at 
what  they  believed  to  be  a  pseudo-scientific  work,  were  connected 
with  universities  and  colleges,  and  were  wholly  out  of  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Geological  Survey.  Nor  are  they  men  accustomed 
to  brook  such  dictation.  Only  one  of  the  controversialists  was 
a  permanent  member  of  the  Geological  Survey. 

After  the  above  statement,  it  only  remains  for  the  editor  of 
The  Popular  Science  Monthly  to  render  that  judgment  which  the 
facts  demand. 


MORAL   LIFE   OF   THE  JAPANESE.  327 

MORAL   LIFE  OF  THE  JAPANESE. 

BY  DR.  W.  DELANO  EASTLAKE. 

A  MONG  the  many  interesting  features  that  a  close  acquaint- 
•£^-  ance  with  Japan  and  its  people  reveals  to  foreigners,  the 
ethics  of  the  Japanese  will  surely  claim  the  paramount  attention 
of  the  ethnologist.  The  people  are  unlike  any  other ;  and  we  find 
that  this  strong  national  individuality — so  fascinating  to  visitors 
to  Japan — reaches  far  beyond  the  quaint  homes,  graceful  costumes, 
obsequious  courtesy  of  both  rich  and  poor,  and  the  picturesque 
beauty  of  the  country  itself ;  finding  its  origin  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  people,  inculcated  by  the  lives  and  precepts  of  generation 
upon  generation  of  warriors,  poets,  and  statesmen. 

The  moral  life  of  the  Japanese  has  found  many  exponents  in 
the  literature  of  the  Occident,  and,  on  account  of  the  contradic- 
tory character  of  many  of  the  writings  on  the  subject,  the  ideas 
gained  by  the  reading  public  can  not  be  other  than  confusing  and 
vague.  Any  just  consideration  of  the  ethics  of  the  Japanese 
admits  of  no  equivocation,  and  conventional  prudery  must  in  all 
cases  be  replaced  by  simple,  ungarnished  facts.  I  would  neither 
seek  to  confirm  nor  deny  the  varied  statements  of  other  observers, 
believing  that  a  clearer  insight  may  be  gained  from  a  brief  por- 
trayal of  the  various  ethical  influences — either  domestic,  social,  or 
religious— that  touch  the  life  of  the  people  from  early  childhood 
until,  after  life  is  done,  their  mortal  remains  are  packed  into  a 
square  pine  box,  not  unlike  an  ordinary  dry-goods  case,  and  con- 
signed to  the  keeping  of  Mother  Earth. 

Japan  has  been  frequently  referred  to  as  the  "  Children's  Para- 
dise," and  with  considerable  justice,  for  in  no  other  country  is  child- 
hood made  so  much  of,  and  are  children  surrounded  by  so  many 
devices  for  their  amusement.  In  every  town  there  are  numbers 
of  street  venders  and  hawkers  whose  sole  customers  are  children. 
One  class  of  these  venders  carry  two  charcoal  stoves,  or  furnaces, 
swung  in  the  conventional  manner  of  the  country  from  the  ends 
of  a  pole  which  rests  across  the  shoulder.  Arriving  at  a  conven- 
ient corner,  the  load  is  put  down,  and  a  group  of  eager  children 
quickly  gather.  For  the  moderate  sum  of  one  or  two  rin  *  the 
children  are  each  supplied  with  a  tiny  cup  of  sweetened  batter 
and  a  spoon.  Thus  equipped,  they  proceed  to  bake  their  own 
cookies  on  the  smooth  iron  top  of  the  stoves,  fashioning  the  dain- 
ties into  whatever  shape  they  please,  and  when  they  are  crisp  and 
brown,  devouring  them.  The  ame  vender  also  devotes  his  skill  to 

*  The  Japanese  rin  is  the  tenth  part  of  one  sen,  or  cent;  1,000  rin,  therefore,  equal  one 
yen,  or  dollar. 


328 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


children.     His  "stock  in  trade"  consists  of  dried  reeds   and   a 
quantity  of  midzu  ame,  a  sort  of  malt  paste.     Some  of  the  ame 


THE  MIDZI:-AME  ARTIST.     An  amuser  of  children,  seen  in  every  Japanese  city. 

is  put  on  the  end  of  a  reed,  and  is  molded  or  blown  into  some 
fantastic  shape  by  the  vender.     The  young  customers  dictate  as  to 


MORAL   LIFE   OF   THE  JAPANESE. 


329 


the  figures,  and  butterflies,  flowers,  gourds,  or  what  not  are  shaped 
from  the  sweet  paste.  The  children,  after  having  satisfied  their 
tastes  for  artistic  design,  eat  the  finished  work,  the  reed  handle 
preventing  their  fingers  from  becoming  sticky.  There  is  another 
of  the  child  amusers  that  can  be  seen  in  the  streets  of  Tokyo  or 
any  other  Japanese  city.  This  artisan  molds  fruits,  flowers,  and 


S**k 


A  BUDDHIST  PRIEST  IN  FULL  CANONICALS. 


vegetables  from  colored  rice-flour  dough,  and  does  his  work  so 
deftly  that  it  is  really  difficult  to  distinguish  the  artificial  from 
the  real  fruit. 

This  universal  love  and  regard  for  children  is  also  displayed  at 
every  temple  festival,  where  numerous  booths,  gay  with  toys,  flags, 
and  games,  form  always  a  prominent  feature. 

And  what  of  the  life  of  and  influences  surrounding  these  little 
folks  ?  Well,  the  first  event  of  importance  after  they  have  been 
ushered  into  this  world  occurs  when  they  are  one  hundred  days 
old.  This  is  a  feast  day  for  the  family,  in  which  the  baby  plays 
the  chief  role.  Toys,  money,  gowns,  and  sweets  are  lavished  upon 
him  by  admiring  friends  and  relatives.  Among  the  poorer  classes 
the  baby  is  then  considered  old  enough  to  be  strapped  on  the  back 


330  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  its  brother  or  sister  (usually  the  latter)  and  to  go  about  with 
them  during  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  from  that  time  spend 
at  least  half  the  day  in  the  open  air.  As  soon  as  the  child  is  old 
enough  and  strong  enough  to  run  about,  a  small  doll-like  bundle 
is  strapped  to  its  back,  the  weight  of  which  is  frequently  increased 
as  the  child  grows  stronger ;  so,  by  the  time  the  next  arrival  in  the 
family  has  put  in  an  appearance,  a  well-broken  and  docile  little 
human  "  pack-horse  "  will  be  found  ready  for  him.  The  newcomer 
is  put  through  a  similar  course  of  training  in  due  time;  and  so 
on,  and  so  on — but  let  us  trust  not  ad  infinitum  ! 

The  relations  between  parents  and  children  are  entirely  natural, 
free,  and  unrestrained.  The  truths  of  life  and  Nature  are  unfolded 
to  them  as  soon  as  the  children  are  old  enough  to  inquire  about 
them.  Nothing  is  left  for  them  to  learn  from  outside  sources. 
The  result  of  this  perfect  candor,  so  far  from  developing  any  un- 
due precocity  in  the  children,  serves  to  preserve  that  indefinable, 
unconscious  grace,  so  beautiful  in  childhood,  which,  by  the  secret 
acquisition  of  some  hidden  knowledge,  is  so  apt  to  be  replaced  by 
that  glance  of  definable  conscious  disgrace  seen  in  the  faces  of  so 
many  prematurely  "  old  "  children  of  the  Occident. 

There  are  two  national  children's  festivals  during  the  year : 
Sekku,  for  boys,  and  Ohinasama,  for  girls.  Sekku,  or  "  boys'  day," 
is  celebrated  on  the  5th  of  May.  At  this  time  gifts  are  made  to 
the  boys  of  the  home,  and  for  every  male  child  in  the  family  a 
huge  paper  carp  (koi),  of  some  brilliant  hue,  is  hung  out  on  a  pole 
above  the  house-top.  During  this  festival  a  Japanese  town  looks 
like  a  great  aerial  fish-pond.  Ohinasama,  "the  honorable  goddess 
of  maidenhood,"  rules  Japanese  homes  on  the  3d  of  March,  pro- 
vided there  are  any  daughters  in  the  household.  It  is  virtually 
"  dolls'  day,"  for  all  the  dolls  hold  high  carnival,  and  are  brought 
forth  with  all  their  belongings — such  as  miniature  ceremonial  tea- 
sets,  ornaments,  and  utensils — and  set  out  in  state ;  while  in  the 
tokonoma,  or  alcove,  hangs  a  silken  picture  of  Ohinasama  her- 
self ;  and  a  vase  filled  with  odorous  blossoms  is  placed  before  her. 
Presents  to  the  daughters  of  the  household,  of  flowers,  cakes,  and 
sweets,  are  also  in  order. 

The  school  education  of  Japanese  children  begins  at  the  age  of 
six  years  ;  and  in  the  primary  departments  the  boys  and  girls  are 
taught  together,  although  occupying  different  parts  of  the  school- 
room. It  would  be  impossible,  in  this  article,  to  discuss  the 
present  status  of  education  in  Japan ;  suffice  it  to  say  that  there 
are  business  colleges,  mining  and  engineering  schools,  law  schools, 
universities,  and  even  musical  conservatories — all  of  which  rank 
most  high.  Regarding  the  education  of  women,  this  usually  con- 
sists in  an  eight  years'  grammar-school  course,  and  frequently  two 
or  three  additional  years  in  the  shihan-gakko ,  or  normal  school. 


MORAL   LIFE   OF   THE  JAPANESE.  331 

The  moral  education  of  Japanese  children  is  conducted  partly  at 
home  and  partly  in  school,  and  is  based  largely  upon  the  teachings 
of  the  history  of  the  country.  Intrepid  valor,  zeal,  sobriety,  direct- 
ness of  speech,  extreme  courtesy,  implicit  obedience  to  parents 
and  superiors,  and  deferential  reverence  and  regard  for  old  age — 


THE  INNER  GATE  LEADING  TO  THE  TOMB  OF  THE  SHOGUN  TOKUGAWA,  SHIBA,  TOKYO. 

these  are  among  the  chief  characteristics  looked  for  in  boys ;  while 
industry,  gentleness,  faithfulness,  and  cheerful  demeanor  are  re- 
quired of  girls. 

Little  or  no  importance  is  attached  to  the  religious  training 
of  children.     Whether  the  parents  be  Buddhists  or  Shintoists  it 


332 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


matters  not,  for  in  either  case  the  children  rarely  take  any  part 
in  the  religious  life  of  their  parents  or  elders,  and  indeed  usually 
grow  up  in  blissful  ignorance  as  to  what  it  is  all  about.  True, 
they  may  be  occasionally  taken  to  the  temple,  and  taught  to  rub 
their  palms  together,  clap  thrice,  and  incline  their  heads  toward 
the  shrine,  as  they  toss  their  offering  of  rin  through  the  wooden 
grating  of  the  huge  money- till.  They  may  have  some  vague 
notion  that  there  is  something  meritorious  in  all  this,  but  noth- 
ing more,  although  every  Japanese  home  has  a  latticed  niche, 
or  kamidana,  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the  household  Lares  and 


INTEBIOB  OF  THE  SHRINE  AT  THE  TOMB  OF  THE  TOKUGAWA  SHOGUNS  AT  SHIBA,  TOKYO. 
Relics  of  the  hero  are  preserved  in  the  rear. 

Penates,  or  Daikoku  and  Ebisu  as  they  appear  in  Japan.  These 
quaint  figures — Daikoku  with  his  bag  of  rice,  and  Ebisu  with  his 
wise  smile  and  accompanying  fish — are  regarded  more  as  symbols 
of  good  luck  than  supreme  beings,  and  are  retained,  in  many 
homes  at  least,  in  the  same  spirit  as  we  Occidentals  would  fasten 
a  horseshoe  over  a  doorway. 

The  entire  absence  of  demonstrative  affection  in  Japanese  fam- 
ilies seems  almost  incompatible  with  the  deep  feeling  of  parental 
and  filial  love  and  tenderness  that  exists.  Petting  and  caressing 
are  dispensed  with  as  soon  as  babyhood  is  over ;  and  even  during 
this  time  the  mother  but  rarely  presses  her  lips  to  the  child's 


334  THE   POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

face,  although  the  ministering  love  and  tender  care  of  the  parent 
are  not  lessened  one  whit  with  the  advancing  maturity  of  the 
child.  Again,  while  the  relationship  between  brothers  and  sisters 
is  most  sincere  and  cordial,  embracing,  kissing,  or  any  other  caress 
is  never  thought  of.  An  old  Japanese  precept  goes  so  far  as  to 
command  that,  after  the  age  of  seven,  brothers  and  sisters  should 
not  even  sit  together ;  and  up  to  the  present  dynasty  this  rule  was 
strictly  adhered  to.  So,  when  the  father  of  the  family  would  read 
aloud  to  the  assembled  children,  the  daughters  would  always  sit 
apart,  half  hidden  by  a  screen.  In  contradistinction  to  these 
apparently  formal  relations,  brother  or  sister,  even  after  having 
attained  the  age  of  puberty,  will  have  no  hesitation  in  disrobing 
or  bathing  before  one  another;  while  the  utmost  freedom  in  con- 
versation is  admissible.  This  formality  between  the  sexes,  even 
in  the  same  family,  may  be  briefly  summed  up  in  the  words, 
"  Hands  off ! "  and  apart  from  this  the  closest  intimacy  and  affec- 
tion may  exist. 

The  word  "  kiss  "  finds  no  exact  equivalent  in  the  Japanese 
language ;  the  nearest  approach  to  it  being  ~kuchi-su,  literally  "  to 
suck  the  mouth  " — a  caress  only  admissible  in  conjugal  relations. 
The  principal  years  of  a  girl's  life  that  are  specially  celebrated 
are  the  third,  seventh,  and  fifteenth,  at  which  latter  age  she  is  re- 
garded as  a  woman,  and  no  longer  a  child.  The  most  important 
years  of  a  boy's  life  are  the  third,  fifth,  and  fifteenth,  and  at  this 
last  age  he  is  supposed  to  put  off  childishness,  and  is  regarded  as 
a  man  and  of  age.  Besides  the  two  children's  festivals  already 
referred  to,  there  are  four  other  minor  boys'  festivals  and  four 
girls'  festivals  in  the  year,  so  that  practically  every  month  has  its 
"  children's  day." 

So  much  for  the  ethics  of  child  life  in  Japan ;  and  much  that 
has  been  said  concerning  the  same  holds  good  also  during  later 
years,  in  so  far  as  the  family  relationships  are  concerned.  We 
now  can  turn  to  a  consideration  of  the  various  relationships  be- 
tween the  sexes. 

Engagements  for  marriage  are  either  arranged  by  the  parents 
of  both  families,  while  the  principals  are  yet  children,  or  else 
through  the  mediumship  of  a  nakodo,  or  go-between,  who  must 
be  a  friend  of  both  families.  In  the  former  case,  it  is  usually 
with  the  desire  of  uniting  the  houses,  and  the  engagement  is 
arranged  by  the  parents  while  the  contracting  parties  are  only 
infants ;  or  even — conditionally,  of  course — before  the  birth  of 
either  child.  The  children  thus  engaged  are  brought  up  to  re- 
gard each  other  as  affianced,  although  their  relationship  toward 
each  other  is  no  more  than  playmate  or  friend,  until  the  consum- 
mation of  the  marriage. 

When  a  youth  chooses  a  wife  for  himself,  and  has  settled  upon 


MORAL   LIFE    OF   THE  JAPANESE. 


335 


his  choice,  he  summons  a  mutual  friend  to  act  as  nakodo.  In 
this  case  the  engagement  is  usually  of  very  short  duration ;  fre- 
quently not  more  than  a  few  days  or  weeks.  The  nakodo  arranges 


everything — the  dower,  the  wedding  itself,  and  the  subsequent 
entertainment.  The  engaged  couple  may  see  each  other,  but 
never  alone.  Their  previous  acquaintance  may  have  been  a  long 
one,  and  the  young  people  themselves  may  have  come  to  a 
mutual  understanding  ;  but  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  groom 
elect,  prior  to  the  betrothal,  has  merely  been  a  friend  of  the 
family  in  general.  The  Occidental  custom,  or  rather  usage,  which 


MORAL   LIFE    OF   THE  JAPANESE.  337 

permits  the  daughters  of  the  home  to  entertain  their  male  guests 
alone,  would  be  regarded  as  unpardonable  in  Japan. 

As  I  have  said,  the  engagement  is  either  the  matter  of  a  life- 
time or  else  of  a  few  days  or  weeks.  The  date  of  the  wedding 
having  been  fixed  upon,  and  finally  arriving,  the  first  step  is  taken 
by  the  ceremonious  removal  of  the  bride's  effects  to  the  home  of 
the  groom  elect.  Apart  from  a  nominal  civic  marriage,  which 
practically  only  consists  in  registration,  the  ceremony  is  purely 
of  a  domestic  nature. 

The  wedding  invariably  takes  place  in  the  groom's  house. 
The  bride  elect  is  escorted  to  her  future  home  by  her  parents,  and 
is  received  by  a  young  girl,  who  acts  as  the  machi-joro,  "  waiting 
lady/'  by  whom  she  is  conducted  to  the  dressing-room.  In  the 
mean  time  the  parents  of  both  parties  have  assembled  in  the 
guests'  chamber,  with  a  few  intimate  friends  and  the  inevitable 
nakodo.  Before  the  tokonoma,  or  alcove,  is  a  lacquered  table,  in 
the  center  of  which  is  a  miniature  pine  tree — the  symbol  of  good 
fortune  and  prosperity ;  and  beneath  the  tree  are  two  miniature 
figures  of  an  old  man  and  woman,  each  with  a  broom — symbols 
of  household  thrift  and  long  life ;  while  at  the  root  of  the  tree  is 
an  ancient  turtle  of  bronze,  also  symbolic  of  longevity  and  good 
fortune.  This  odd  ornament  is  known  as  the  takasago,  and  is 
always  placed  between  the  bride  and  groom  during  the  ceremony. 
There  are  also  in  readiness  the  me-o-chocho  (male  and  female 
butterflies),  a  boy  and  a  girl  of  about  eight  years  old,  who  wait 
upon  the  bridal  couple  and  take  the  place  of  our  "  best  man  "  and 
"  maid  of  honor."  The  nakodo  is  also  present  with  a  nest  of  three 
sake  cups  of  different  sizes,  and  a  supply  of  hot  sake,  a  rice  spirit. 
The  bride  and  groom  having  taken  their  places  on  either  side  of 
the  takasago,  the  ceremony  proper,  or  san-san-ku-do}  or  "  three 
times  three  toasts,"  is  next  performed.  The  nakodo  takes  one  of 
the  cups  and  passes  it  to  the  groom.  It  is  then  filled  with  sake 
by  the  "  best  man,"  and  then  the  groom  drinks  and  returns  the 
cup  to  the  nakodo,  who  passes  it  to  the  bride.  It  is  now  filled  by 
the  "  maid  of  honor  "  and  emptied  by  the  bride,  and  again  re- 
turned via  the  nakodo  to  the  groom,  and  again  emptied.  This 
same  form  is  gone  through  with  the  two  remaining  cups,  after 
which  the  couple  are  regarded  as  man  and  wife.  Then  the  na- 
^do,  or  parent  of  the  bride,  chants  the  takasago,  or  nuptial  ode, 
as  follows : 

"Takasagoya,  kono  ura  bune  ni, 

Ho-o-aget6  tsuki  morotomo  ni,  ideshi-o  no, 

Narai  no  awaji  no  shima  kageya, 

To-oku  naruo-no  oki  sugite, 

Haya  suminoye  ni 

Tsuki  ni  ken." 
vw  .  XLIU. — 23 


338  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  render  this  in  verse ;  approximately  it 
may  be  Englished  as  follows : 

Takasago,  ye  married  ones,  have  sailed  now 

From  the  bay  of  lone  estate, 
The  moon  of  love  has  risen  with  the  tide  of  joy 
And  casts  its  silver  beams  upon  the  waters  of  your  lives. 
The  shadow  of  Awaji's  Island  steals  across  the  rippling  bay, 
And  now  the  waters  are  all  enshadowed,  e'en  to  Saminoy6 — 
Let  peace  and  joy  remain,  for  ye  are  one! 

I  have  endeavored  to  ingraft  the  hidden  meaning,  or  imi,  into 
the  above.  Literally  the  ode  would  signify  but  little  to  us.  The 
chant  being  finished,  the  few  friends  and  relatives  now  offer  their 
congratulations.  In  the  evening  there  are  a  general  reception 
and  congratulations  and  good  wishes  all  around.  Among  the 
merchant  classes  it  is  customary  for  the  nakodo  to  take  the  bride 
around  among  her  new  neighbors  the  day  after  the  wedding.  The 
costume  of  both  bride  and  groom  at  the  wedding  is  ordinary 
"  full  dress,"  of  a  somber  hue,  but  it  must  bear  the  family  crest. 
Naturally,  the  details  of  marriage  etiquette  differ  somewhat  ac- 
cording to  the  social  standing  of  the  contracting  parties,  but  the 
wedding  itself  always  remains  the  same. 

An  interesting  description  of  a  sumptuous  marriage  and  feast 
is  contained  in  the  following  story,  which  also  goes  to  show  that 
the  Japanese  fox — that  wary  beast — also  takes  a  keen  interest  in 
weddings : 

THE  REVENGE  OF  THE  FOX.* 

About  fifty  years  ago,  when  the  Shogun  Tokugawa  was  at  the 
head  of  the  feudal  chiefs,  there  was  a  prince  in  the  province  of 
Mikawa,  whose  prime  minister  was  a  man  of  great  renown  for 
his  wisdom.  This  minister  had  lost  his  wife  in  the  early  years  of 
wedlock,  after  the  birth  of  a  little  daughter.  The  child  grew  to 
maidenhood,  and  often  wandered  far  into  the  woods  that  sur- 
rounded the  grounds  adjoining  the  homestead,  searching  for  wild 
flower's.  The  thousand  sweet  odors  and  the  graceful  blossoming 
plants  filled  her  with  intense  enjoyment.  One  day  she  strolled 
deeper  into  the  odorous  shade  of  the  thick  forest  than  was  her 
custom,  and  discovered  a  large  hole,  which  she  knew  was  the  den 
of  a  fox.  With  childlike  whim  and  thoughtlessness  she  began  to 
throw  little  stones  into  the  opening ;  but  when  the  shadows  of  the 
great  trees  grew  longer  and  longer,  she  suddenly  remembered 
that  the  hour  was  late,  and  with  a  flutter  of  the  heart  hastened 
homeward  to  her  father. 


*  Originally  translated  into  German  by  F.  Wanington  Eastlake,  Ph.  D.,  and  read  before 
the  Gesellschaft  fiir  Volkerkunde  in  Ost-Asien. 


MORAL   LIFE    OF   THE  JAPANESE. 


339 


Full  twelve  months  passed  without  any  noteworthy  occur- 
rence. The  minister's  daughter  grew  more  subtly  beautiful  day 
by  day,  and  many  noble  lovers  sought  to  win  her  favor.  But  the 


BHONZE  BELL  IN  UYENO  PARK,  TOKYO. 
About  the  bell  are  hung  the  straw  sandals  of  devout  pilgrims. 

maiden's  heart  was  not  unlocked ;  her  eyelids  closed  upon  dream- 
less slumbers,  anther  gentle  soul  knew  no  dawning  thought  of  love. 
Then  one  morning  came,  when  a  gold-bedecked  rider  with  a 
dazzling  retinue  drew  up  before  the  door  of  the  mansion,  and  a 


34o  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

servant  with  low  prostrations  made  known  that  the  son  of  the 
prime  minister  of  a  neighboring  prince  had  arrived.  So  soon  as 
the  handsome  youth  had  dismounted,  he  was  ceremoniously  wel- 
comed, and  the  cause  of  his  visit  inquired  into.  He  answered 
that  the  fame  of  the  young  girl's  beauty  had  reached  his  province, 
and  he  had  hastened  hither  to  ask  for  her  hand  in  marriage. 
Greatly  overjoyed,  the  proud  father  at  once  gave  his  consent,  and 
ordered  the  attendants  to  summon  his  daughter ;  but  the  young 
knight  interposed,  saying  that  he  must  return  without  delay,  and 
wished  his  bride  to  accompany  him.  With  courteous  mien  he 
added  that  all  necessary  arrangements  could  be  equally  well 
carried  out  upon  arriving  at  his  father's  house — such  as  the 
dower,  wedding  gifts,  and  everything  relating  to  the  marriage 
ceremony.  No  pomp  or  pageant  would  lack  in  fit  magnificence 
by  being  postponed  a  little  later,  and  the  bride  should  be  heralded 
by  flowers,  torches,  and  the  marriage  song ;  but  their  immediate 
departure  was  inevitable. 

For  a  moment  the  lordly  father  was  silent  and  embarrassed 
by  doubts ;  but  fearing  that  he  might  lose  so  brilliant  a  fortune 
for  his  only  child,  he  gave  his  full  consent.  Within  an  hour 
the  blushing  girl,  in  bridal  robes  and  splendid  draperies,  came 
through  the  outspread  inner  doors,  and  stood  in  all  the  "  alarm 
of  beauty  and  troubled  pride,"  ready  for  the  journey.  Her  wait- 
ing maids  and  servants,  who  were  to  accompany  her,  clustered 
around  her,  wondering  whence  sprang  all  this  blaze  of  wealth  in 
so  short  a  space  of  time. 

In  a  moment  the  kago  (palanquin)  for  the  bride  was  brought 
forth,  and  before  she  and  her  maids  could  realize  the  fact,  the 
kagp,  the  horsemen,  and  the  courtly  suite  were  in  motion.  This 
time  the  palanquins  of  the  bride  and  retinue  of  women  took  the 
precedence  and  headed  the  rest,  as  with  joyous  music,  and  heralded 
by  the  blare  of  trumpets  and  roll  of  drums,  the  procession  left  the 
minister's  door.  It  seemed  not  long  before  the  bridal  cavalcade 
drew  up  before  a  palatial  building.  The  young  groom  sprang 
from  his  saddle,  and,  hastening  to  the  kago  of  his  bride,  softly 
announced  that  this  was  his  dwelling,  and  requested  her  to  step 
out  and  enter  the  guest-chamber.  She  did  so,  while  shadowy 
servitors  bowed  low  within  the  halls  as  they  entered.  The  bride 
said  nothing,  but  opened  her  soft  eyes  half  in  fright,  and  then 
with  wonder  and  admiration,  at  the  beauty  of  the  palace.  Stately 
halls  opened  into  still  statelier  chambers.  Such  unrivaled  mag- 
nificence!— carved  cedar,  gold  lacquer,  and  vessels  of  solid  gold. 
In  one  fairy  room,  a  mimic  glade  and  shady  forest  with  branching 
stems  interlaced,  recalled  to  her  the  woodland  walks  at  home, 
while  the  very  air  seemed  laden  with  the  sweet  odor  of  blossoms 
and  wild  flowers  she  used  to  gather. 


342 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Upon  reaching  the  largest  room  a  regal  feast  was  spread. 
Here,  too,  small  woodland  intricacies  and  miniature  trees  were  in 
each  nook  and  niche.  The  rich  luster  of  the  banquet-room,  so 
filled  with  perfume  and  brilliancy,  with  mirrors  on  the  walls, 
making  twin  pictures  of  all  this  loveliness,  utterly  bewildered  the 
young  bride.  Then  the  groom  reassuringly  pressed  her  hand  and 
told  her  that  this  feast  had  been  prepared  for  her  and  her  at- 
tendants. Happiness  stole  over  her,  and  her  rosy  cheeks  seemed 
to  absorb  the  delight  of  her  lover  as  he  gazed  upon  her.  Joy  and 
gladness  pervaded  the  guests,  and  the  youthful  bride  tasted  with 
delight  the  dainty  dishes  set  before  her. 

Then,  suddenly,  a  war  cry  resounded  through  the  halls,  and 
clearly  could  be  heard  the  neighing  of  excited  steeds  and  the 


THE  TOMB  OF  OGURIHANGUAN.     A  typical  Japanese  grave.     The  body  is  buried  in  a  square 
casket,  and  is  placed  in  a  crouching  position. 

clash  of  drawn  swords.  The  bride  sprang  up  in  terror,  and  her 
trembling  maidens  surrounded  her  as  they  beheld  a  full-armed 
knight,  with  threatening  aspect,  ride  toward  her.  She  turned 
quickly  to  her  bridegrom  for  protection — but  where  was  he  ? 
She  shrieked,  but  nothing  but  the  shriek  and  its  echo  were  heard. 
Where  was  the  gorgeous  palace  with  all  its  new-born  delights  ? 
All  had  vanished.  The  stately  music  and  the  soft- voiced  lutes 
had  ceased.  A  deadly  silence,  that  seemed  like  a  horrid  presence, 
was  all  that  remained.  Bridegroom  and  friends,  paintings  and 


MORAL   LIFE    OF   THE  JAPANESE.  343 

carvings,  vases  and  embroideries,  palace  and  court  were  all  gone. 
All  was  blighted.  She  and  her  maidens  were  standing  in  the 
middle  of  a  shady  recess  in  the  woods ;  before  her  gaped  only  the 
dark  opening  of  a  fox's  hole;  and  around  them,  instead  of  the 
splendors  of  the  feast  table,  were  refuse,  offal,  and  all  manner  of 
offensive  things.  At  this  moment  a  horse  and  rider  galloped  up 
hurriedly  beside  them,  and  told  the  weeping  maiden  that  he  was 
the  real  son  of  the  neighboring  prime  minister.  He  had  heard 
that  a  deceiver  had  made  use  of  his  name,  and  had  carried  off  the 
lovely  daughter  of  the  minister  of  Mikawa.  He  had  come  to  find 
the  wretch  and  avenge  the  dishonor,  but  had  met  no  one  but  this 
little  group  of  weeping  girls  in  the  wood. 

Good  counsel  was  dearly  purchased.  Heart-struck,  the  young 
bride,  with  weak  hand,  motioned  him  to  be  silent,  for  she  knew 
now  that  she  had  been  enchanted  by  the  cruel  fox,  and  that  all 
that  had  occurred  was  a  wizard's  revenge.  Sad  and  ashamed, 
with  one  beseeching  glance,  she  turned  away ;  and  with  her  maids 
and  servants  entered  her  father's  house  again,  and  recounted  all 
that  had  befallen  her  with  browbeaten  air,  her  fair  form  trem- 
bling with  apprehension. 

The  minister  was  shocked  and  overcome  with  emotion,  but 
carefully  commanded  that  the  affair  should  be  kept  a  profound 
secret ;  as  it  was  considered  an  entailed  disgrace  when  a  samurai, 
or  high  noble,  or  his  children,  allowed  themselves  to  be  bewitched 
by  a  fox. 

Despite  all  warnings  and  every  precaution  on  the  part  of  his 
minister  and  his  retainers,  the  rumor  of  the  disgraceful  enchant- 
ment reached  the  ears  of  the  prince.  He  was  terribly  angry. 
"  Surely,  it  must  be  a  weak-minded  fool/'  thought  he,  "  who  could 
so  easily  fall  a  victim  to  the  intrigues  of  a  fox,"  and  he  at  once 
determined  to  banish  the  minister  and  his  family  from  his  king- 
dom. The  honorable  minister  w*aited  upon  his  princely  master, 
and  entreated  a  milder  punishment,  but  without  any  success ; 
leave  he  must  with  his  daughter  and  servants.  He  journeyed  to  a 
distant  province  and  died  soon  after,  heartbroken  by  the  dis- 
grace. His  daughter  never  married.  It  is  true,  her  hand  was 
sought  by  other  men  of  rank,  but  she  had  had  more  than  enough 
experience  with  her  first  bridegroom,  and  refused  all  others. 

This  was  the  revenge  of  the  fox  ! 

The  system  of  legalized  concubinage,  still  existing  in  Japan, 
is  far  from  being  akin  to  polygamy  in  a  social  sense.  In  taking 
up  this  question,  I  am  forcibly  reminded  of  Pierre  Loti's  "  Madame 
Chrysantheme."  This  story,  while  in  many  respects  faulty  in  its 
portrayal  of  Japanese  life,  and  at  best  revealing  a  rather  degrad- 
ing and  unfortunate  view,  by  no  means  typical  except  in  seaport 


344 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


towns  where  the  foreign  element  is  strong,  nevertheless  serves  to 
reflect  with  considerable  truth  the  attitude  of  so  many — so  very 
many — foreigners  toward  the  women  of  Japan. 

In  Japanese  households  the  concubine  or  mekake  occupies  a 
position  similar  to  that  of  a  servant,  so  far  as  her  rights  are  con- 
cerned. The  wife  is  always  the  mistress  of  the  house,  and  looks 
upon  her  husband's  mekake  in  the  light  of  a  maid.  Should  the 
concubine  become  a  mother,  she  has  no  claim  upon  the  child,  who 
belongs  to  her  master  and  mistress,  and  who  is  taught  to  regard 
them  only  as  his  natural  parents.  Indeed,  most  frequently  a 


THE  GKBA.T  TEMPLE  GATE  OF  YENGAKUJI. 

mekake  is  employed  in  a  family  for  the  sole  purpose  of  securing 
an  heir  ;  and  no  sooner  has  the  child  been  born  and  weaned,  than 
the  concubine  is  discharged. 

The  mekake  has  no  prerogatives  above  the  other  servants  of 
the  house,  and  is  subject  to  immediate  dismissal  whenever  the 
master  of  the  house  desires  it.  No  pseudo-marriage,  such  as  sug- 
gested by  Pierre  Loti,  ever  exists  between  the  master  of  the  house 
and  the  mekake.  She  is  simply  a  convenience,  and  has  been  se- 
cured from  some  employment  bureau,  just  as  any  other  servant, 
and  receives  regular  wages. 


MORAL   LIFE    OF   THE  JAPANESE.  345 

Concubines  are  rarely,  if  ever,  employed  by  unmarried  men— 
at  least  among  the  Japanese  ;  I  do  not  refer  to  the  foreign  element 

it  being  regarded  as  a  grave  breach  of  social  laws.     Where  the 

mekakes  mostly  find  a  place  is  in  the  home  of  a  long-married  or 
childless  couple.  How  does  the  wife  tolerate  the  presence  of  the 
concubine  ?  In  the  majority  of  cases,  very  well ;  for  but  few  Jap- 
anese wives  expect  absolute  loyalty  on  the  part  of  their  husbands. 


THE  DAI  Bursu  AT  KAMAKURA.  This  is  the  second  largest  figure  of  Buddha  in  Japan.  It 
was  formerly  inclosed  in  a  temple,  but  the  latter  was  destroyed  by  an  earthquake  sev- 
eral centuries  ago. 

Although,  as  a  rule,  the  husband  remains  true  to  his  wife,  he  nev- 
ertheless is  not  bound  to  do  so  by  any  legal  or  moral  obligation. 

There  have  been  several  efforts  made  by  reformers  to  discoun- 
tenance the  system  of  concubinage,  and  to  make  it  illegal.  But 
it  would  be  decidedly  a  case  of  "  people  in  glass  houses,"  should 
the  present  Emperor  of  Japan  enforce  any  such  law,  or  allow  it  to 
be  enacted.  For  not  only  is  the  Emperor  himself  the  child  of  a 
mekake,  but  so  is  also  the  present  heir  apparent  to  the  throne, 


346  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

both  the  Empress  Dowager  and  the  present  Empress  being  child- 
less. Then,  besides  this,  the  Emperor's  household  includes  sev- 
eral mekakes  chosen  from  noble  families. 

Regarding  divorces,  up  to  the  present  time  the  husband  has 
always  had  the  privilege  of  divorcing  his  wife  at  will,  and  send- 
ing her  back  to  her  parents'  home  for  apparently  trivial  reasons. 
But,  as  easy  as  it  is  to  sever  the  nuptial  bonds,  this  privilege  is 
rarely  taken  advantage  of,  except  in  extreme  cases,  for  divorces 
are  looked  upon  with  anything  but  tolerance  by  the  Japanese. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  only  thing  which  warrants  a  wife  in  leav- 
ing her  husband  is  cruel  treatment,  in  which  case  she  may  return 
to  her  father's  house,  and  the  marriage  may  be  annulled. 

There  are  two  other  classes  of  Japanese  women  that  I  would 
make  mention  of :  geisha,  or  professional  entertainers,  and  joro, 
or  prostitutes.  The  geisha  is  a  time-honored  institution,  and  may 
be  seen  at  almost  any  public  dinner  or  entertainment.  They  are 
professional  musicians,  dancers,  and  entertainers  in  general,  and 
are  licensed  as  such.  Frequently  the  geisha  will  take  out  a  pros- 
titute's license  as  well.  From  this  it  will  be  understood  that 
what  has  been  said  concerning  the  reserved  nature  of  social  and 
domestic  relationships  in  Japanese  society  is  entirely  absent  with 
geisha.  The  women  of  the  Japanese  household  rarely  if  ever 
take  part  in  the  public  social  life  of  their  husbands,  and  there- 
fore all  social  or  official  dinners  among  men  are  held  at  some 
restaurant  or  tea-house,  and  geishas  employed  to  furnish  music 
and  entertainment.  They  frequently  are  accompanied  by  two  or 
three  dancers  (oshakku),  girls  between  twelve  and  fifteen  years  of 
age,  who  dance  while  the  geishas  furnish  music  and  song.  The 
moral  instincts  of  the  geisha  are  crude,  to  say  the  least,  and  many 
progressive  Japanese  look  eagerly  forward  to  the  day  when  the 
geisha  will  not  be  an  inevitable  feature  of  entertainments. 

Prostitution  is  under  strict  government  control  and  supervis- 
ion, and  all  houses  of  ill  fame  relegated  to  certain  portions  of  the 
town  known  as  the  yoshiwara.  A  prostitute's  license  is  only  for 
three  years,  for  which  period  of  time  she  sells  herself  to  the  keeper 
of  one  of  these  houses  for  a  lump  sum.  •  Not  infrequently  among 
the  poorer  families,  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  home  is  thus 
practically  sold  to  a  life  of  dishonor  by  her  parents,  in  order  to 
keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  I  know  of  many  sad  cases  of  this 
kind;  and  while  this  heartless  procedure  is  legal,  yet  it  is  re- 
garded with  equal  repugnance  and  abhorrence  by  the  Japanese 
public  as  it  would  be  with  us,  and  is  as  loudly  condemned.  After 
the  three  years'  service  is  over,  the  daughter  may  again  return  to 
the  parental  roof. 

Regarding  the  moral  life  of  women  of  the  poorer  classes,  it  is 
in  the  main  similar  to  that  of  the  higher.  The  maids  employed 


348  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 

by  the  second-rate  hotels  and  tea-houses  bother  themselves  but 
little  about  any  moral  obligation ;  but,  011  the  whole,  the  immo- 
rality laid  at  the  door  of  Japanese  women  is  unjust  and  mislead- 
ing. 

Regarding  the  religious  life  of  women  as  affecting  the  ethics 
of  the  country,  little  remains  to  be  said.  The  enamored  maiden 
may  write  the  name  of  her  lover  and  herself  on  two  strips  of  pa- 
per, and,  twisting  them  together,  tie  the  spell  to  the  lattice  work 
of  the  temple  of  Kwannon,  the  goddess  of  love,  trusting  that  her 
offering  and  prayers  may  be  of  avail,  and  unite  their  lives  and 
hearts. 

Religion  enters  mostly  into  the  lives  of  the  Japanese  people 
when  the  sands  of  life  are  nearly  run  out.  It  is  then  that  the 
people,  and  more  especially  the  old  women,  turn  to  Buddhism  or 
Shintoism  with  great  avidity,  and  if  wealthy  will  make  lavish 
gifts  to  the  temples,  or  cause  votive  stone  lanterns  to  be  erected 
at  their  expense  along  the  approach  to  the  temples,  and  will 
readily  yield  themselves  to  the  commands  of  the  astute  priests,  so 
that  they  may  be  assured  of  future  peace  and  happiness.  The 
Buddhist  faith  undoubtedly  offers  the  greatest  inducements  to 
believers  and  condemnation  to  heretics.  The  Shinto  faith,  which 
is  the  present  court  religion,  is  practically  a  hero  worship,  and  the 
Shinto  priests  are  not  celibates.  Some  of  the  more  popular  saints 
or  deities  have  been  adopted  by  both  creeds — as  a  matter  of  policy 
— notably  the  "  Seven  Wise  Ones,"  Sichi  Fuku  Jin,  among  whom 
are  Daikoku  and  Ebisu,  the  household  Lares  and  Penates.  In 
the  Shinto  temples  there  are  no  idols,  but  relics  of  the  deified  hero 
are  preserved ;  and  before  the  shrine  stands  a  huge  mirror  of  pol- 
ished metal,  into  which  the  worshiper  gazes,  seeking  to  place 
himself  face  to  face  with  his  own  soul.  In  the  Buddhist  temples 
there  are  idols  and  superstitions  galore. 

Such  are  briefly  the  most  salient  features  of  the  ethics  of  the 
Japanese,  in  the  account  of  which  I  have  unavoidably  been  com- 
pelled to  omit  much  that  is  interesting  and  novel.  As  I  have  said, 
on  the  whole  the  Japanese  people  have  been  done  a  great  injustice 
to,  when  a  lack  of  moral  instinct  has  been  charged  to  them.  In 
no  other  country,  and  surely  in  no  other  language,  has  love  found 
an  apter  exponent.  Filial  piety,  connubial  affection,  parental  ten- 
derness, fraternal  fondness — all  these  have  been  sung  about  in 
Japanese  poetry  in  a  thousand  dainty  ways,  and  may  be  daily 
witnessed  in  the  lives  of  the  people,  and  above  all  this  is  that 
ardent  spirit  of  patriotism  and  love  for  home  that  so  preserves 
the  unity  of  the  Japanese  people ;  and  should  we  seek  for  the  key- 
note of  the  wondrous  ancient  heroism  and  present  rapid  advance 
of  the  country  we  will  surely  find  it  in  the  words  MiJcune  no  tame, 
"  For  my  country's  sake." 


EDUCATION  AND    SELECTION.  349 

EDUCATION  AND   SELECTION. 

BY   M.    ALFRED   FOUILLKK. 

MOST  of  the  controversies  which  are  rife  in  reference  to  the 
vital  question  of  education  appear  to  have  originated  in 
failure  to  rise  to  a  sufficiently  general  point  of  view  of  the  subject 
—to  a  national,  international  or  perhaps  an  ethnic  view.  M.  M. 
Guyau,  who,  in  his  Education  et  I'Heredite,  has  discussed  prob- 
lems relative  to  morals,  religion,  aesthetics,  and  education,  from 
the  sociological  point  of  view,  has  put  the  question  into  a  really 
scientific  form  :  Given  the  hereditary  merits  and  faults  of  a  race, 
to  what  extent  can  we  by  education  modify  the  existing  heritage 
to  the  advantage  of  a  new  heritage  ?  For  nothing  less  is  involved ; 
we  have  not  only  individuals  to  instruct,  but  a  race  to  preserve  and 
increase.  Education,  therefore,  must  rest  on  the  physiological  and 
moral  laws  of  the  cultivation  of  races.  We  do  not  overlook  this 
in  breeding  useful  animals,  but  in  dealing  with  human  beings  we 
forget  it — as  if  the  education  of  men  was  concerned  only  with  in- 
dividuals. 

The  ethnic  point  of  view  is  the  correct  one.  We  need,  by  edu- 
cation, to  create  hereditary  qualities  physically  and  intellectually 
useful  to  the  race;  besides  cerebral  and  physiological  heredity, 
we  should  assure  such  social  hereditary  forms  as  traditions,  cus- 
toms, social  conscience,  and  public  opinion.  Society  is,  in  fact, 
an  organism  endowed  with  a  certain  collective  consciousness,  al- 
though it  is  not  concentrated  in  a  self.  We  should,  therefore, 
regard  as  a  form  of  heredity  and  organic  identity  through  ages, 
everything  that  maintains  among  a  people  continuity  of  charac- 
ter, spirit,  habits,  and  aptitudes ;  in  short,  a  national  conscious- 
ness and  a  national  will. 

It  being  admitted  that  the  ultimate  aim  of  education  is  to  in- 
sure the  development  of  the  race,  the  question  arises  as  to  the  best 
means  of  insuring  it.  There  is  one  which  we  desire  to  set  promi- 
nently in  the  light— selection.  The  history  of  mankind  shows  us 
the  struggles  of  races,  nationalities,  and  individuals — not  for  life 
only,  but  for  the  progress  of  life  under  all  its  forms,  including  in- 
tellectual, sesthetic,  and  moral  life.  In  our  talk  about  the  struggle 
for  existence  we  forget  the  metamorphosis  which  selection  under- 
goes in  passing  from  the  domain  of  brutal  into  that  of  intellec- 
tual and  moral  forces.  We  have,  therefore,  to  reach  a  comprehen- 
sion of  the  analogies  and  the  differences  between  natural  and 
social  selection.  As  a  first  step  toward  this,  we  should  ask  to 
what  extent  ideas  rule  the  world,  and  how  a  selection  of  ideas  is 
first  induced  in  the  brain  by  education.  We  might  call  this  psy- 
chological selection.  The  power  of  instruction  and  education, 


350  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

which  some  exaggerate  and  others  deny,  is  simply  the  force  of 
ideas  and  feelings.  We  can  not  bring  too  much  scientific  exact- 
ness to  the  determination  of  the  extent  and  limitations  of  this 
force.  We  start  from  the  principle  that  every  idea  tends  to  real- 
ize itself;  and  it  does  so  in  fact,  if  it  is  not  counterbalanced  by  a 
superior  force.  The  principle  of  the  struggle  for  existence  and  of 
selection  is  applicable,  therefore,  to  ideas  not  less  than  to  living 
individuals  and  species.  A  selection  is  produced  in  the  brain  in 
favor  of  the  strongest  and  most  exclusive  idea,  which  carries  the 
whole  organism.  The  child's  brain  is  a  battlefield  of  ideas  and 
the  impulses  they  generate ;  every  new  idea  is  an  additional  force 
encountering  ideas  already  installed  and  impulses  already  devel- 
oped. Education  is,  then,  a  work  of  intellectual  selection.  Let  us 
suppose  a  mind  still  void,  into  which  is  abruptly  introduced  the 
representation  of  movement,  the  idea  of  some  action,  as  of  raising 
the  arm.  The  idea  being  solitary  and  without  any  counterpoise, 
the  disturbance  begun  in  the  brain  takes  the  direction  of  the  arm, 
because  the  nerves  abutting  in  the  arm  have  been  disturbed  by 
the  representation  of  it;  consequently  the  arm  rises.  To  think 
of  a  movement  is  to  begin  it.  A  movement  once  existing  can  not 
be  lost,  but  is  communicated  as  of  necessity  from  the  brain  to  the 
organs — unless  it  is  arrested  by  some  other  representation  or  im- 
pulsion. This  propagation  of  motion  is  assured  physiologically 
by  the  symmetry  of  the  limbs,  which  tend  to  execute  the  same 
movement  in  succession.  The  brain  provides  the  theme  and  the 
limbs  reproduce  it,  and  we  have  sympathy  and  synergy  of  the 
organs.  The  contagion  of  the  idea  to  the  limbs  is  infallible  if  the 
idea  is  solitary  or  predominant.  We  call  this  the  law  of  idea- 
forces. 

Chevreul's  well-known  experiments  with  the  exploratory 
pendulum  and  the  divining  rod  show  that,  if  we  represent  to  our- 
selves a  motion  in  any  direction,  the  hand  will  unconsciously 
realize  it  and  communicate  it  to  the  pendulum.  The  tipping  table 
realizes  a  movement  we  are  anticipating,  through  the  interven- 
tion of  a  real  movement  of  the  hands,  of  which  we  are  not  con- 
scious. Mind-reading,  by  those  who  divine  by  taking  your  hand 
where  you  have  hidden  anything,  is  a  reading  of  imperceptible 
motions  by  which  your  thought  is  translated  without  your  being 
conscious  of  them.  In  cases  of  fascination  and  vertigo,  which  are 
more  visible  among  children  than  among  adults,  a  movement  is 
begun  the  suspension  of  which  is  prevented  by  a  paralysis  of  the 
will,  and  it  carries  us  on  to  suffering  and  death.  When  a  child,  I 
was  navigating  a  plank  on  the  river  without  a  thought  that  I 
might  fall.  All  at  once  the  idea  came  like  a  diverging  force,  pro- 
jecting itself  across  the  rectilinear  thought  which  had  alone 
previously  directed  my  action.  It  was  as  if  an  invisible  arm 


EDUCATION  AND    SELECTION.  351 

seized  me  and  drew  me  down.  I  cried  out,  and  continued  stagger- 
ing over  the  whirling  waters,  till  help  came  to  me.  The  mere 
thought  of  vertigo  provoked  it.  The  board  lying  on  the  ground 
suggests  no  thought  of  a  fall  when  you  walk  over  it ;  but  when  it 
is  over  a  precipice  and  the  eye  takes  the  measure  of  the  distance 
to  the  bottom,  the  representation  of  a  falling  motion  becomes  in- 
tense, and  the  impulse  to  fall  correspondingly  so.  Even  if  you 
are  safe,  there  may  still  be  what  is  called  the  attraction  of  the 
abyss.  The  vision  of  the  gulf  as  a  fixed  idea,  having  produced  an 
"  inhibition  "  on  all  your  ideas  and  forces,  nothing  is  left  but  the 
figure  of  the  great  hole,  with  the  intoxication  of  the  rapid  move- 
ment that  begins  in  your  brain  and  tends  to  turn  the  scales  of  the 
mental  balance.  Temptation,  which  is  continual  in  children  be- 
cause everything  is  new  to  them,  is  nothing  else  than  the  force  of 
an  idea  and  the  motive  impulse  that  accompanies  it. 

The  force  of  an  idea  is  greater  as  the  thought  is  more  distinctly 
selected  than  others  in  the  consciousness.  This  selection  of  an 
idea  that  becomes  so  exclusive  that  the  whole  consciousness  is 
absorbed  in  it  has  been  called  monideism.  The  state  is  like  that 
of  a  hypnotized  person.  The  hypnotizer  creates  an  intellectual 
void  in  the  brain  by  inducing  artificial  sleep,  and  suggests  a 
thought  which,  being  alone  and  unhampered,  is  at  once  realized 
in  movements ;  and  hypnotic  suggestion  is  nothing  else  than  this 
artificial  selection  of  a  single  idea  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  The 
same  force  of  the  idea  prevails  in  natural  somnambulism.  The 
somnambulist  no  sooner  thinks  of  anything  than  he  performs  it, 
with  his  hands  and  feet  as  well  as  with  his  brain.  The  movement 
of  the  overexcited  brain  is  so  lively  and  the  resistance  offered  by 
the  sleeping  organs  is  so  weak  that  the  impulse  is  communicated 
to  the  limbs  by  the  mere  fact  that  it  has  been  conceived.  The 
kind  of  dream  in  which  children  sometimes  live  is  not  without 
some  analogy  with  somnambulism.  The  fixed  idea  is  another  ex- 
ample of  the  same  phenomenon  which  is  produced  in  the  waking 
state,  and  increasing  may  go  on  to  monomania — a  kind  of  un- 
healthy monideism.  Children,  having  few  thoughts,  would  be 
likely  to  have  fixed  ones,  except  for  the  mobility  which  perpetual 
novelty  causes  in  them.  In  this  way  all  the  facts  may  be  ex- 
plained that  are  grouped  under  the  name  of  auto-suggestion. 
Generalizing  the  law,  we  might  say  that  every  conceived  idea  is 
an  auto-suggestion,  the  suggestive  effect  of  which  is  counterbal- 
anced only  by  other  ideas  producing  a  different  auto-suggestion. 
This  fact  is  especially  exemplified  in  children,  who  execute  very 
quickly  what  passes  in  their  heads. 

The  force  of  example  is  likewise  brought  back  to  the  commu- 
nicative and  selective  force  of  all  representation.  In  the  same 
manner  is  explained  the  form  of  suggestion  in  which  the  idea 


352  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

suggesting  the  act  occurs  not  to  one's  self,  but  is  introduced  by 
another.  In  this  line  M.  Guyau  has  pointed  out  a  possible  appli- 
cation of  suggestion  in  moral  therapeutics  "  as  a  corrective  of  ab- 
normal instincts  or  as  a  stimulant  of  too  weak  normal  instincts." 
He  looks  upon  suggestion  as  an  instinct  in  the  nascent  state  cre- 
ated by  the  hypnotizer.  Many  and  important  results  have  been 
realized  from  suggestion  since  his  remark  was  made.  Of  course, 
M.  Guyau  does  not  advise,  but  expressly  condemns  the  introduc- 
tion of  hypnotism  into  normal  education.  He  cites  these  patho- 
logical facts  in  order  to  deduce  from  them  consequences  relative 
to  the  normal  condition.  He  considers  hypnotic  suggestion  as 
simply  the  unhealthy  and  grossly  artificial  exaggeration  of  sug- 
gestive phenomena  which  are  produced  in  a  state  of  perfect 
health.  Normal  suggestion,  which  alone  should  find  a  place  in 
education,  is  psychological,  moral,  and  social ;  it  consists  in  the 
transmission  of  ideas  or  impulsive  feelings  from  one  person  to  an- 
other, and  in  the  possibility  of  fixing  them.  While  in  the  normal 
condition  we  are  not  under  the  power  of  a  determined  magnetizer, 
it  does  not  follow  that  we  are  not  "  accessible  to  an  infinity  of  lit- 
tle suggestions ;  now  acting  contrary  to  one  another,  now  acting 
cumulatively  and  producing  a  very  sensible  average  effect/' 
Children  in  particular  are  open  to  all  the  suggestions  of  the  me- 
dium. The  state  of  an  infant  on  coming  into  the  world  is  com- 
pared by  M.  Guyau  to  that  of  a  hypnotized  person.  There  is  the 
same  absence  of  thoughts  of  its  own  or  the  same  predominance  of 
a  single  thought.  "  Everything  that  the  infant  will  hear  or  see 
will  therefore  be  a  suggestion.  This  suggestion  may  be  the  foun- 
dation of  a  habit  which  may  be  developing  during  the  child's 
whole  life,  as  impressions  of  terror  inculcated  in  children  by 
nurses  often  do."  If  the  introduction  of  new  feelings  is  possible 
by  a  wholly  physiological  means,  it  should  be  equally  possible  by 
psychological  and  moral  means. 

Suggestion,  which  creates  artificial  instincts  capable  of  balanc- 
ing hereditary  instincts,  constitutes  a  new  power  comparable  with 
heredity.  Education,  says  M.  Guyau,  being  a  collection  of  co-or- 
dinated and  reasoned  suggestions,  we  can  understand  the  impor- 
tance, the  efficiency  which  it  may  acquire  in  both  a  psychological 
and  a  physiological  respect.  In  our  own  view,  suggestion  is  only 
a  particular  instance  of  the  more  fundamental  law  of  idea-forces 
which  rules  in  all  pedagogic  science. 

Ideas  have  been  sometimes  despised  and  treated  as  having 
hardly  any  influence  on  the  conduct.  The  philosophers  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  with  Descartes  and  Pascal,  on  the  contrary, 
regarded  the  feelings  and  passions  as  confused  thoughts,  as  "  pre- 
cipitations "  of  thoughts.  There  is  truth  in  this.  Under  all  our 
feelings  there  is  a  collection  of  imperfectly  analyzed  ideas,  a  flood 


EDUCATION  AND   SELECTION.  353 

of  hasty  and  confused  reasons,  on  the  mass  of  which  we  are  lifted 
up  and  borne  off.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  feelings  under  all 
our  ideas  which  breed  even  under  the  cooling  cinders  of  abstrac- 
tions. The  mind  itself  has  a  force,  because  it  arouses  all  the 
feelings  which  it  summarizes.  Thus  the  simple  words  "  honor  " 
and  "  duty  "  resound  through  our  consciousness  in  infinite  echoes, 
giving  rise  to  legions  of  images. 

We  talk  of  dead  formulas,  but  they  are  few.  The  idea  and  the 
word  are  formulas  of  possible  actions  and  of  feelings  ready  to  pass 
into  acts ;  they  are  "  verbs."  Every  feeling,  every  impulse  that 
comes  to  the  point  of  formulating  itself  into  a  kind  of  fiat,  ac- 
quires by  that  fact  a  new  and  in  some  sort  creative  force.  It 
finds  itself  cleared  up,  defined,  specified,  and  squared  with  the  rest, 
and  thus  directed.  It  is  this  that  renders  formulas  relating  to 
actions  powerful  for  good  or  evil.  A  child  has  a  vague  tempta- 
tion, an  inclination  he  can  not  account  for.  Pronounce  the  for- 
mula to  him,  change  the  blind  impulse  into  a  clear  idea,  and  you 
give  him  a  new  suggestion,  which  will,  perhaps,  cause  him  to  fall 
on  the  side  to  which  he  is  inclining.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are 
formulas  and  generous  suggestions  that  need  only  to  be  pro- 
nounced to  carry  entire  masses.  It  sometimes  falls  to  the  man  of 
genius  to  translate  the  aspirations  of  his  epoch  into  ideas;  he 
pronounces  the  word  and  a  whole  people  follow.  Great  moral, 
religious,  and  social  revolutions  occur  when  feelings,  long  re- 
strained or  hardly  recognized,  come  to  be  formulated  into  ideas  or 
words.  The  way  is  then  opened,  the  object  is  revealed  with  the 
means,  selection  takes  place,  and  all  the  desires  are  turned  at  once 
in  the  same  direction,  like  a  torrent  that  finds  a  point  where  pas- 
sage is  possible. 

Conduct  depends,  therefore,  to  a  large  extent  on  the  circle  of 
the  ideas  which  one  has  received  under  the  influence  of  experi- 
ence, social  relations,  and  aesthetic  and  intellectual  cultivation. 
Every  man  possesses  at  the  bottom  a  collection  of  general  notions 
and  maxims  which  becomes  the  source  of  his  resolutions  and 
actions,  because  the  aggregate  is  fused  into  a  sentiment  and  a 
habit.  The  tendency  to  translate  everything  into  maxims  is 
manifested  even  in  children,  because  the  maxim  is  a  generaliza- 
tion that  satisfies  the  thought.  If,  then,  the  circle  of  ideas  proves 
incomplete  at  any  important  point,  if  false  notions  or  immoral 
maxims  insinuate  themselves,  we  are  condemned  to  incurable 
weakness  or  to  vice,  like  a  nation  whose  code  contains  bad  funda- 
mental laws. 

The  mental  faculties,  like  the  physical  faculties,  develop  in  the 
individual  into  a  relation  of  reciprocal  action ;  but  mental  activity 
is  more  dependent  than  the  other.  If  you  have  false  ideas  on  a 
point  of  fact  or  reasoning,  it  is  possible  for  me  in  a  little  while  to 

VOL.    XLIII. — 24 


354  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

enable  you  to  put  your  finger  on  your  error,  or  by  a  demonstration 
to  convince  you  of  it.  But  it  will  take  months  or  years  to  modify 
a  feeling,  an  inclination,  or  a  habit.  Intelligence  is,  therefore, 
more  flexible,  more  movable,  more  progressive,  than  the  rest  of 
our  constitution,  and  for  that  reason  we  can  act  upon  it  with  more 
facility.  Put  over  the  eye  of  a  near-sighted  man  glasses  that  will 
make  things  visible  to  him,  and  he  will  be  obliged  to  agree  that  he 
sees  them ;  show  an  ignorant  man  a  drop  of  water  in  the  micro- 
scopic field,  and  he  will  have  to  recognize  that  it  is  inhabited. 
Intelligence  is  to  the  other  faculties  of  our  mind  what  the  eyes  are 
to  the  organs  of  our  body — a  touch  at  a  distance.  Hence  intellec- 
tual activity  has  a  superior  power  to  direct  and  transform  the 
other  kinds  of  activity.  As  it  discovers  new  sides  in  things,  it 
thereby  produces  a  double  effect.  It  excites  new  feelings  and 
opens  new  ways  to  action.  Every  new  idea  tends  thus  to  become 
a  sentiment  and  an  impulse,  and  consequently  an  idea-force.  The 
intelligence  is  the  great  instrument  of  voluntary  selection.  It  is  a 
shortening  means  of  evolution ;  it  accelerates  and  accomplishes  in  a 
few  years  selections  that  might  otherwise  have  required  centuries. 

If,  instead  of  the  individual,  we  regard  the  social  organism,  we 
shall  find  that  here,  too,  the  diverse  activities  and  the  diverse 
products  of  civilization  are  conditioned  upon  one  another,  while 
the  products  of  intelligence  and  knowledge  stimulate  or  direct  all 
the  social  functions.  Religious,  moral,  sesthetic,  political,  and 
economical  creations  are  determined  by  the  progress  made  by 
mankind,  whether  in  the  real  knowledge  of  things  or  in  the  dis- 
covery of  new  ideals.  Instruction  is  a  motor  of  prime  importance 
in  the  social  mechanism ;  but  on  condition  that  it  is  brought  to 
bear  on  truly  directive  and  selective  ideas,  on  those  which,  by 
their  intimate  relation  with  feeling  and  will,  conspicuously  merit 
the  name  of  idea-forces. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  medium  between  prepossessions  for  and 
against  education.  If  education  does  not  manifest  all  the  power 
of  which  it  is  capable,  it  is  because  it  is  rarely  directed  toward  its 
true  end  and  by  means  adapted  to  that  end.  From  this  results  a 
loss  of  living  forces  by  the  mutual  neutralization  and  disorder  of 
ideas.  We  sow  ideas,  as  it  were,  at  haphazard  in  the  mind.  They 
germinate  in  like  manner  according  to  the  chances  of  circum- 
stances, of  internal  predispositions  and  of  the  external  medium. 
This  is  fortuitous  selection,  as  in  the  domain  of  material  forces. 
It  is  not  sufficient  to  instruct ;  instruction  itself  must  become  an 
education,  a  process  of  reflected  and  methodical  selection  between 
ideas  that  tend  to  assume  reality  in  acts.  We  say  continually, 
instruction ;  other  peoples  say  cultivation,  and  they  are  right.  The 
former  word  leads  us  to  consider  the  material  bearing  of  what  is 
acquired ;  the  latter  the  degree  of  fertility  gained  by  the  mind. 


EDUCATION  AND   SELECTION.  355 

Education  should  not  be  a  simple  acquisition  of  knowledge,  but  a 
cultivation  of  living  powers  for  the  purpose  of  assuring  the  pref- 
erence of  the  highest  idea-forces. 

After  psychological  selection,  internal  to  the  individual,  we 
have  to  consider  social  selection,  which  takes  place  between  dif- 
ferent individuals,  or  between  races  or  peoples.  There  are,  for  any 
race,  physiological  and  psychological  essential  conditions  of  supe- 
riority. The  race  must  first  of  all  be  physiologically  strong,  and 
here  only  are  the  ordinary  laws  of  selection  applicable,  because  we 
are  in  the  domain  of  life.  The  sound  mind  can  not  exist  except  in 
the  sound  body  ;  all  the  delicacies  of  mind  are  not  worth  as  much 
to  a  race  as  health,  vigor,  and  fertility.  Even  geniuses  can  not  be 
born  except  of  a  strong  race ;  the  intellectual  faculties  can  not  be 
kept  up  long  and  advance,  except  among  a  vigorous  people,  and 
selection  can  not  be  efficient  and  produce  the  best  by  nature — a 
necessary  condition  of  all  progress — except  in  a  fruitful  and  nu- 
merous and  consequently  strong  race.  Whenever,  therefore,  we 
overwork  the  mind  at  the  expense  of  the  body,  we  lower  the  phys- 
iological, and  therefore  the  intellectual,  level  of  the  race ;  for  gen- 
erations physiologically  weakened  will  sooner  or  later  suffer  the 
weakening,  with  their  cerebral  power,  of  their  mental  capacity. 
The  laws  of  heredity  are  fatal :  to  bequeath  impoverished  organs 
to  children  is  to  prepare  for  what  Pascal  would  call  the  stultifica- 
tion of  the  race  at  a  more  or  less  distant  epoch.  In  the  struggle 
and  selection  of  peoples  as  recorded  in  history,  when  young  and 
perhaps  barbarian  blood  has  not  been  infused  with  the  aged  body 
of  a  nation,  it  has  fallen  steadily,  become  sterilized,  and  disap- 
peared or  declined,  while  other  peoples  were  ascending. 

Instruction  may,  we  think,  lead  to  two  kinds  of  results  :  either 
in  dynamic  effects — that  is,  augmentation  of  cerebral  force — or  in 
purely  mechanical  effects  ;  like  scientific  and  literary  routine.  In 
the  former  case,  it  acts  upon  heredity  and  can  produce  a  hereditary 
transmission  of  cerebral  force  ;  in  the  second  case,  it  does  not  act, 
or  it  acts  mischievously  to  the  exhaustion  of  the  nervous  system. 
It  is  intellectual  force,  not  acquired  knowledge,  that  is  transmitted 
by  heredity  from  one  generation  to  another.  Hence  the  criterion 
which  we  propose  for  estimating  methods  of  education  and  teach- 
ing ;  if  there  is  an  augmentation  of  mental,  moral,  and  aesthetic 
force,  the  method  is  good ;  if  a  simple  storing  up  in  the  memory, 
the  method  is  bad,  for  the  brain  is  not  a  storehouse  to  be  filled, 
but  an  organ  to  be  fortified. 

The  physical  and  mental  inconveniences  of  overwork  may, 
therefore,  very  properly  occupy  attention  at  this  time.  Good 
scholars — those  who  wish  to  succeed  in  an  examination  or  enter 
certain  schools — are  the  ones  who  are  overworked  under  our  pres- 
ent systems ;  for  the  majority  of  pupils  there  is  no  overwork,  but 


356  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

simply  almost  complete  loss  of  time,  years  passed  in  wearing  out 
the  benches  of  the  school.  Of  all  that  is  paraded  before  their 
minds  they  retain  nothing  but  a  few  vague  and  confused  notions; 
they  attend,  as  idlers,  the  excursions  of  their  successive  professors 
through  all  kinds  of  sciences,  and  what  is  overwork  for  the  others 
is  for  them  only  intellectual  vagabondage.  If  all  children  were 
overworked,  the  race  would  soon  be  lost.  The  idle,  says  M. 
Guyau,  save  it  physically.  On  the  other  hand,  unfortunately, 
they  contribute  to  keep  it  in  intellectual  and  moral  mediocrity, 
and  to  give  a  false  direction  to  public  affairs.  The  advantages  of 
their  idleness  might  have  been  preserved  without  suffering  its  in- 
conveniences if  instead  of  requiring  from  all  so  much  knowledge, 
most  of  which  is  useless,  we  had  required  strictly  necessary  knowl- 
edge and  such  moderate  number  of  the  finer  branches  as  would 
lift  up  the  mind  while  interesting  it.  In  this  way  we  could  sup- 
press a  large  number  of  the  idlers  without  falling  into  overwork 
and  without  depreciating  the  race  under  pretense  of  elevating  it. 
We  need  not  concern  ourselves  about  the  number  of  things  a  child 
knows,  but  about  the  way  he  knows  and  has  learned  them,  and 
about  the  general  vigor  he  derives  from  his  exercises,  which  alone 
gives  a  net  profit  to  the  species.  How  does  the  earth  recreate  it- 
self ?  In  the  sun,  the  air,  and  the  rain,  by  the  free  action  of  forces 
which  work  upon  it  incessantly.  Quiet  on  the  surface,  it  works 
and  buds  beneath.  So  with  the  mind.  We  should  at  certain  times 
let  Nature  act,  and  not  interrupt  the  unconscious  and  spontaneous 
work  of  organization  that  is  going  on  in  the  depth  of  the  brain, 
as  we  let  the  force  which  is  germinating  grass  and  oaks  work  in 
the  depth  of  the  soil,  in  solitude.— Translated  for  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly  from  the  Eevue  des  Deux  Mondes. 


PEOF.  W.  FLINDERS  PETEIE  is  quoted  as  having  said  that  the  Egypt  of  the 
early  monuments  was  a  mere  strip  a  few  miles  wide  of  green,  amid  boundless 
deserts,  and  beneath  a  sky  of  the  greatest  brilliancy ;  a  land  of  extreme  contrasts 
of  light  and  shadow,  of  life  and  death.  These  conditions  were  reflected  in  the 
art.  On  the  one  hand  was  the  most  massive  and  overwhelming  construction, 
and  on  the  other,  the  most  delicate  and  detailed  reliefs;  on  the  one  hand,  the 
most  sublime  and  solid  statuary ;  on  the  other,  the  course  and  accidents  of  daily 
life  freely  treated ;  on  the  one  hand,  masses  of  smooth  buildings  that  far  outdo 
the  native  hills  on  which  they  stand,  gaunt  and  bare;  and  on  the  other,  the 
vivid  and  rich  coloring  in  the  interiors.  In  consequence  of  the  climate  also  Egypt 
is  a  land  of  great  simplicity  of  life,  and  simplicity  is  the  characteristic  of  the  oldest 
Egyptian  buildings. 

FROM  the  ages  of  persons  who  have  died  in  France  during  the  last  thirty-two 
years,  M.  Turquan  computes  that  the  average  length  of  life  in  that  country  has 
been  about  thirty-eight  years  for  women,  thirty-six  years  for  men,  and  thirty- 
seven  years  for  the  whole.  This  is  now  exceeded,  and  the  average  has  risen  to 
more  than  forty  years. 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  357 

EVIL   SPIRITS. 

BY  J.  H.  LONG. 

OF  all  the  dark  chapters  in  the  history  of  the  world  none  is 
more  terrible  than  that  which  deals  with  sorcery  and  demo- 
niacal possession.  To-day  this  belief  has  almost  entirely  disap- 
peared in  civilized  lands :  it  lingers  only  in  some  remote  hamlet 
in  "lucky  and  unlucky  days,"  good  and  bad  signs,  and  similar 
harmless  idiosyncrasies;  although  most  grown  persons  can  re- 
member that  in  their  childhood  certain  uncanny  individuals  were 
regarded  as  "witches,"  just  as  certain  houses  were  said  to  be 
"  haunted."  But,  after  all,  the  belief  was  only  vague  and  nebu- 
lous ;  while  now  among  even  the  children  ghosts  and  fairies  and 
witches  are  regarded  with  profound  skepticism.  It  is  extremely 
difficult,  then,  for  us  to  grasp  the  idea  that  "  for  fifteen  hundred 
years  it  was  universally  believed  that  the  Bible  established  in  the 
clearest  manner  the  reality  of  witchcraft,  and  that  an  amount  of 
evidence  so  varied  and  so  ample  as  to  preclude  every  possibility 
of  doubt  attested  its  continuance  and  prevalence.  The  clergy  de- 
nounced it  with  all  the  emphasis  of  authority.  The  legislators  of 
almost  every  land  enacted  laws  for  its  punishment.  Acute  judges, 
whose  lives  were  spent  in  sifting  evidence,  investigated  the  ques- 
tion on  countless  occasions,  and  (as  a  result)  condemned  the  ac- 
cused. Nations  that  were  completely  separated  by  position,  by 
interest,  by  character,  were  united  on  this  question."  More  than 
this.  In  the  city  of  Treves  alone  seven  thousand  witches  were 
burned.  At  Toulouse,  the  seat  of  the  Inquisition,  four  hundred 
persons  perished  in  one  single  execution.  Re'my,  the  judge  of 
Nancy,  in  France,  boasted  that  he  had  put  to  death  eight  hun- 
dred witches.  In  the  little  Italian  district  of  Como  one  thousand 
perished  in  one  year.  The  Judge  Voss  of  Fulda  burned  seven 
hundred,  and  said  that  he  hoped  to  make  it  one  thousand.  Bene- 
dict Karpzow  boasted  .that  he  had  signed  twenty  thousand  death- 
warrants  for  witchcraft.  In  Sweden  in  1690  seventy  persons  were 
condemned,  and  most  of  them  burned.  In  Great  Britain,  chiefly 
in  Scotland,  in  twenty  years  alone  between  three  and  four  thou- 
sand were  put  to  death.  The  executions  in  Paris  in  a  few  months 
were,  a  contemporary  writer  says,  "  almost  infinite."  Indeed,  not 
to  mention  imprisonment  and  torture — torture  beyond  the  wildest 
flight  of  modern  fancy — the  number  of  persons  who  perished, 
chiefly  by  fire,  in  Christian  Europe  and  America  has  been  cal- 
culated as  from  one  million  to  nine  million.  Probably  four  mill- 
ion is  a  correct  estimate.  The  annals  of  the  world  may  be 
searched  through  and  through,  and  nothing  can  be  found,  I  be- 
lieve, to  compare  in  tragic  interest  with  the  chapter  on  witch- 


358  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

craft  and  sorcery.  It  seems  a  dreadful  thing  to  say,  but  I  believe 
it  is  true :  all  the  heathen  persecutions  of  Christians  put  together 
are  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  horrors  of  the  crusade  against 
witches  set  on  foot  by  members  of  the  Christian  Church  and  by 
civil  rulers  in  sympathy  therewith. 

Nor  is  any  single  church  entirely  exempt  from  this  charge. 
"  The  Roman  Church  proclaimed  in  every  way  in  her  power  the 
reality  and  the  continued  existence  of  the  crime.  She  taught,  by 
all  her  organs,  that  to  spare  a  witch  was  a  direct  insult  to  the 
Almighty ;  and  to  her  ceaseless  exertions  is  to  be  attributed  by  far 
the  greatest  part  of  the  blood  that  was  shed."  Bulls  were  issued 
by  Pope  Innocent  VIII,  who  commissioned  the  inquisitor  Spren- 
ger,  whose  book  was  long  the  standard  authority  on  witchcraft, 
and  who  (Sprenger)  condemned  to  death  hundreds  every  year. 
Bulls  were  issued  also  by  Pope  John  II,  by  Adrian  VI,  and  by 
many  another  occupant  of  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  "  The  universal 
practice  was  at  service  to  declare  magicians  and  sorcerers  to  be  ex- 
communicated, and  a  form  of  exorcism  was  inserted  in  the  ritual 
of  the  church.  .  .  .  Ecclesiastical  tribunals  condemned  thousands 
to  death ;  and  countless  bishops  exerted  all  their  influence  to  mul- 
tiply the  victims."  The  same  was  the  case — although  not  to  so 
great  an  extent — with  the  non-Roman  churches.  Luther  said: 
"  I  would  have  no  compassion  on  these  witches :  I  would  burn 
them  all."  In  England  the  Reformation  was  marked  by  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  persecutions;  the  prominent  theolo- 
gians, both  within  and  without  the  established  Church,  holding 
firmly  to  the  belief  in  witchcraft.  In  Scotland  persecution  was 
carried  on  with  peculiar  atrocity,  while  the  executions  in  Puritan 
Massachusetts  form  one  of  the  darkest  pages  in  the  history  of 
America. 

Now,  the  remarkable  thing  about  witchcraft  is  that  it  was  be- 
lieved in  not  only  by  the  ignorant,  but  also  by  the  learned ;  not 
only  by  the  clergy,  but  also  by  the  laity.  "  The  defenders  of  the 
belief  maintained  that  no  historical  fact  was  more  clearly  attest- 
ed. ...  The  subject  was  examined  in  every  European  land  by  tri- 
bunals which  included  the  acutest  lawyers  and  ecclesiastics  of  the 
age,  on  the  scene  and  at  the  time  of  the  alleged  acts,  and  with  the 
assistance  of  innumerable  sworn  witnesses.  The  judges  had  no  mo- 
tive whatever  to  desire  the  condemnation  of  the  accused ;  indeed, 
they  generally  had  the  strongest  motive  to  proceed  with  caution 
and  deliberation,"  in  view  of  the  awful  penalties  attached  to  con- 
viction. Cudworth,  one  of  the  most  learned  theologians  the  An- 
glican Church  has  ever  produced ;  Bacon,  one  of  the  acutest  law- 
yers and  philosophers  of  the  age ;  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  chief  justice 
toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century — these  are  only  three 
from  a  host  of  names  that  might  be  cited  of  those  who  believed  in 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  359 

witchcraft.  Sir  Matthew  Hale  lays  it  down  in  one  of  his  rulings 
that  it  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  witch- 
craft, and  that  witches  ought  to  be  punished.  Even  Shakespeare 
shared  in  the  general  belief  ;  the  witches  in  Macbeth  were  to  him, 
not  poetic  creations,  stern  realities. 

The  question  is,  then :  How  did  this  marvelous  delusion  arise  ? 
Three  causes,  I  believe,  produced  it.  1.  To  quote  Lecky,  the  his- 
torian :  "  A  religion  that  rests  largely  on  terrorism  will  engender 
the  belief  in  witches  or  magic  ;  for  the  panic  which  its  teachings 
create  overbalances  the  faculties  of  the  multitude."  This  is  true: 
a  cruel  religion,  as  Christianity  became  when  it  began  to  rest 
more  and  more  on  the  basis  of  eternal  punishment  and  the  wrath 
of  God,  will  inevitably  be  haunted  by  the  fear  of  evil  spirits. 
Therefore  it  is  that  the  religion  of  Zoroaster  and  that  of  Brahma 
have  been  free  from  the  reproach  of  the  persecution  of  witches 
and  sorcerers,  2.  The  support  from  the  Bible.  Now,  there  is  no 
doubt  at  all  that  the  Bible  does  support  the  doctrine  of  evil  spirits 
and  witchcraft.  And  this  fact  alone  is  sufficient  to  destroy  the 
orthodox  theory  of  what  Dr.  Briggs  calls  "  biblical  inerrancy,"  or 
freedom  from  error,  for  not  one  person  out  of  one  hundred  now 
believes  in  the  reality  of  possession  by  evil  spirits.  There  is,  I 
say,  no  doubt  that  the  Bible  does  teach  this  doctrine.  "Thou 
shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live,"  was  the  repeated  command  in 
the  Levitical  law ;  this  command  was  the  foundation  stone  upon 
which  the  putting  to  death  of  witches  rested.  We  all  know  the 
story  of  the  witch  of  Endor,  as  told  in  the  twenty-eighth  chapter 
of  the  First  Book  of  Samuel.  Again,  the  devil  afflicted  Job  in 
various  ways,  one  way  being  the  sending  of  a  tempest  which  de- 
stroyed Job's  sons.  Great  atmospheric  disturbances  were  always 
ascribed  to  Satanic  agency,  although  a  nice  distinction  prevailed : 
when  the  destruction  was  great,  it  was  ascribed  directly  to  Satan ; 
when  small,  to  angels,  the  word  angels  being  used  in  a  double 
sense,  as  messengers  of  evil  and  messengers  of  good.  To  come  to 
the  New  Testament.  Philip  baptizes  Simon  the  sorcerer ;  and 
Saul  of  Tarsus  finds  in  Paphos  a  certain  sorcerer,  a  false  phophet, 
a  Jew  named  Bar- Jesus. 

Whatever  view  we  may  take  of  the  Bible,  one  thing  is  certain, 
it  abounds  with  references  to  evil  spirits,  the  Bible  characters 
believed  implicitly  in  the  existence  of  such  spirits,  and  there  is  no 
intimation  given  that  the  reign  of  such  evil  spirits  should  cease 
to  exist  until  the  end  of  all  things.  We  are  expressly  told,  indeed, 
that  "when  Christ  had  called  unto  him  his  disciples,  he  gave 
them  power  against  unclean  spirits  to  cast  them  out";  and 
again:  "And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe:  in  my 
name  shall  they  cast  out  devils." 

The  third  cause  of  the  growth  of  this  delusion,  and  the  most 


360  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

important  of  all,  was  the  belief  that  natural  phenomena  of  a 
hurtful  type  are  the  result  of  the  action  of  evil  spirits.  As  a 
writer  has  said :  "  The  phenomena  which  impress  themselves  most 
firmly  on  the  mind  of  the  savage  are  not  those  which  are  mani- 
festly the  operation  of  natural  laws  and  which  are  productive  of 
beneficial  effects.  They  are,  on  the  contrarj7,  those  results  which 
are  disastrous  and  apparently  abnormal.  Gratitude  is  less  vivid 
than  fear,  and  the  smallest  apparent  infraction  of  a  natural  law 
produces  a  deeper  impression  than  the  most  sublime  of  its  ordi- 
nary operations.  When,  therefore,  the  more  startling  and  terrible 
aspects  of  Nature  are  presented  to  his  mind,  when  the  more  deadly 
forms  of  disease  or  natural  convulsion  desolate  his  land,  the  sav- 
age derives  from  these  .things  an  intensely  realized  perception  of 
diabolical  presence.  In  the  darkness  of  the  night,  amid  the 
yawning  chasms  and  the  wild  echoes  of  the  mountain  gorge, 
under  the  blaze  of  the  comet  or  the  solemn  gloom  of  the  eclipse, 
when  famine  has  blasted  his  land,  when  the  earthquake  and  the 
pestilence  have  slaughtered  their  thousands,  in  every  form  of  dis- 
ease which  refracts  and  distorts  the  reason,  in  all  that  is  strange, 
portentous,  and  deadly,  he  feels  and  cowers  before  the  supernatu- 
ral. Completely  exposed  to  all  the  influences  of  Nature,  and  com- 
pletely ignorant  of  the  chain  of  sequence  that  unites  its  various 
parts,  he  lives  in  continual  dread  of  what  he  deems  the  direct  and 
isolated  acts  of  evil  spirits/' 

These  three  causes,  then,  combined  to  produce  a  belief  in  witch- 
craft and  Satanic  possession. 

Let  us  now  trace  its  growth  as  far  as  Christianity  is  concerned. 
But  to  understand  this  we  must  go  back  for  a  moment  to  the 
classic  nations  among  whom  Christianity  was  planted.  Magic 
or  sorcery  prevailed  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  all  sects 
accepting  its  existence  except  one  sect,  that  of  the  Epicureans.  It 
is  true,  occasional  laws  were  enacted  against  its  practice ;  in  some 
instances  magicians  were  condemned  to  death ;  but  the  persecution 
in  general  was  only  occasional  and  was  not  severe,  as  magic  was 
regarded  as  an  offense  not  against  God  or  the  gods,  but  as  against 
the  state  or  the  individual.  The  magician  was  punished  because 
he  injured  man,  not  God.  And  punishments  for  injuries  to  men 
have  always  been  less  severe  than  punishments  for  supposed  in- 
juries to  God.  This  is  the  rule  of  history :  punishments  for  reli- 
gious offenses  have  been  much  greater  than  those  for  civil  or 
criminal  offenses,  the  greatness  of  the  crime  being  measured  by  the 
greatness  of  the  being  injured.  At  times  it  was  found  that  the 
prognostications  of  the  soothsayers  from  the  flight  of  birds,  the 
positions  of  the  stars,  and  other  data,  tended  to  produce  conspira- 
cies against  the  emperor ;  and  so  punishments  were  inflicted  and 
repressive  laws  passed.  But,  in  general,  magic  and  soothsaying 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  361 

were  not  regarded  with  disfavor,  the  augur,  the  haruspex,  and  the 
keeper  of  the  sibyl's  books  being  considered  as  part  of  the  regular 
state  life  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

With  the  advent  of  Christianity,  however,  there  came  a  great 
change.  In  the  matter  which  we  are  considering,  as  in  many  an- 
other, old  things  had  passed  away  and  all  things  had  become  new. 
Before  very  long  after  the  death  of  Jesus  the  Christians  were 
filled  with  a  sense  of  the  awful  presence — in  fact,  the  omnipres- 
ence— of  Satan,  which  colored  their  every  thought  and  act.  This, 
added  to  the  idea  of  eternal  punishment — a  fate  reserved  for  all 
those  about  them  who  were  not  of  the  new  faith — gave  to  the  early 
Christians  an  intensely  realistic  sense  of  evil  and  an  eager  readi- 
ness to  believe  in  agents  of  evil  of  a  supernatural  order.  To  their 
minds  the  world  about  them,  with  its  imperial  government  and 
especially  its  non-Christian  church  ritual,  was  simply  a  great 
object-lesson  of  Satan's  unbridled  sway.  Everywhere  they  saw 
the  finger  of  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils.  These  facts,  or 
rather  supposed  facts,  together  with  various  philosophical  sys- 
tems, such  as  the  system  of  Plato  and  that  of  the  Gnostics,  made 
the  early  Christians  believe  the  earth,  the  sea,  the  very  air,  to  be 
full  of  evil  spirits,  the  emissaries  and  agents  of  Satan.  Some  of 
these  were  the  spirits  which  had  rebelled  against  God  and  had 
been  hurled  "sheer  o'er  the  crystal  battlements  of  heaven." 
Others  were  spirits  which  had  gone  hither  and  thither,  deluding 
man  in  the  antediluvian  world.  Others  were  heathen  deities — 
Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus,  and  so  on — all  of  whom,  whether  they  were 
of  good  or  of  evil  report  among  the  Greeks  or  Romans,  were  equal- 
ly evil  spirits  to  the  Christians.  The  spirits  who,  by  these  Greeks 
or  Romans,  were  worshiped  under  the  names  of  departed  heroes — 
heroes  who  had  achieved  so  many  acts  of  splendid  and  philan- 
thropic heroism — these  were  to  the  Christians  not  the  real  spirits 
of  the  dead,  but  merely  devils  who  had  answered  the  name  and 
assumed  the  honors  of  the  dead.  No  relation  of  life  was  free  from 
this  scourge  of  evil  spirits;  they  even  became  the  husbands  or 
wives  of  the  Christians  themselves.  Like  the  locusts  of  Pharaoh 
of  old,  they  were  over  all  the  land.  It  is  very  hard  for  us  now  to 
imagine  what  all  this  means — it  seems  so  laughable,  these  trans- 
formations and  artifices  and  disguises  to  which  the  spirits  resort- 
ed to  do  their  master's  bidding !  But  to  these  Christians  of  the 
second  and  succeeding  centuries  it  was  all  stern  reality — a  matter 
of  eternal  life  and  death. 

Now,  what  followed  from  all  this  ?  Simply  that  no  truce  was 
to  be  kept  with,  no  mercy  shown  to,  the  sorcerer  or  magician ;  he 
it  was  who  could  send  forth  and  summon  back  these  spirits ;  he 
it  was  whom  they  must  obey.  He  was  worse,  far  worse,  then, 
than  the  evil  spirits,  for  the  latter  only  followed  the  instincts  of 


362  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

their  nature,  the  former  went  outside  the  realm  of  his  human  na- 
ture to  blight  by  supernatural  means  the  happiness  of  others  and 
to  destroy  the  peace  of  the  Church.  He  was  therefore  held  in  ex- 
ecration— the  enemy  of  God  and  man.  And  after  a  time — i.  e.,  in 
the  fourth  century — the  Church  obtained  secular  power,  Chris- 
tianity became  the  state  religion.  Then  began  those  awful  perse- 
cutions that  have  left  an  indelible  stain  upon  the  Christian  name. 
Constantino,  the  first  Christian  emperor,  had  been  reared  a  pagan. 
He  was  inclined,  therefore,  to  be  lenient.  But  Constantius  and  his 
successors  enacted  the  severest  laws.  "All  who  attempted  to  fore- 
tell the  future  were  emphatically  condemned.  Magicians  who 
were  captured  in  Rome  were  to  be  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts,  and 
those  who  were  seized  in  the  provinces  to  be  put  to  excruciating 
torments  and  at  last  crucified.  If  they  persisted  in  denying  their 
crime,  their  flesh  was  to  be  torn  from  their  bones  with  hooks  of 
iron.  These  fearful  penalties  were  directed  against  rites  which 
had  long  been  universal ;  and  which,  if  they  were  not  regarded  as 
among  the  obligations,  were  at  least  among  the  highest  privileges 
of  paganism."  Of  course,  the  sufferings  produced  by  these  laws 
may  have  been  exaggerated — the  laws  are  plain,  they  are  still  pre- 
served in  the  official  Latin — and  of  course  a  large  part  of  the  bar- 
barity is  to  be  laid  not  to  the  Christian  priests  or  to  the  better 
classes  of  the  Christians,  but  to  fanatical  mobs  and  cruel  officers. 
But  still  two  things  are  plain :  the  Christians  believed  in  magic 
and  witchcraft  as  the  results  of  Satanic  agency ;  and,  again,  they 
indulged  in  very  severe  persecution  against  suspected  persons. 
These  laws,  however,  proved  ineffective;  they  but  showed  two 
things  which  the  world  has  not  quite  learned  even  yet :  First,  that 
the  mere  passing  of  a  law  does  not  change  human  nature ;  and, 
second,  that  a  law  that  is  not  sustained  very  strongly  by  public 
opinion  is  worse  than  useless.  It  was  thus  found  impossible  by 
law  to  suppress  the  old  pagan  magic  handed  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  among  those  who  had  not  become  Christians. 
And  so,  by  a  very  natural  process,  there  grew  up  in  the  Church 
a  counter-system,  a  sort  of  rival,  the  talismans  of  which  were 
holy  water,  crucifixes,  and  other  signs  and  symbols,  which  became 
in  the  succeeding  centuries  the  visible  means  wherewith  the  de- 
signs of  the  evil  spirits  were  thwarted. 

Gradually  paganism  grew  weaker,  but  it  did  not  entirely  dis- 
appear. It  merged  itself  into  Christianity,  a  fact  never  to  lose 
sight  of,  for  it  explains  so  many  apparent  mysteries.  Just  as 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to-day  in  various  lands — e.  g.,  in 
Spanish  America — has  accepted  old  heathen  customs  and  festivals, 
and  has  changed  them  into  Christian  customs  and  festivals  ;  just 
as,  to  take  another  group  of  examples,  the  Druidical  May  day  and 
Harvest  Home,  and  the  Oriental  Christmas  were  adopted  by  the 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  363 

Christian  Church ;  so  at  the  time  of  which  I  am  now  speaking — 
i.  e.,  the  sixth  century  after  Christ — the  Church  adopted,  under 
somewhat  changed  aspects,  many  of  the  beliefs  and  customs  of 
paganism.  The  mantle  of  the  ancient  faith  fell  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  new  Church. 

In  the  sixth  century  the  dark  ages  began,  and  lasted,  roughly 
speaking,  until  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.  And  dark 
indeed  they  were.  The  old  light  of  classic  learning  and  letters 
had  died  away ;  the  new  light  had  not  yet  dawned.  The  world 
was  sunk  in  ignorance  and  superstition.  Evil  spirits  and  sorcery 
held  unquestioned  sway.  As  a  writer  says :  "  There  had  never 
been  a  time  when  the  minds  of  men  were  more  completely  mold- 
ed by  supernatural  conceptions,  or  when  the  sense  of  Satanic 
power  and  presence  was  more  profound  and  universal.  Many 
thousands  of  cases  of  possession,  exorcism,  miracles,  and  appa- 
ritions of  the  evil  one  were  recorded  which  were  accepted  with- 
out the  faintest  doubt.  There  was  scarcely  a  great  saint  who 
had  not  on  some  occasion  encountered  a  visible  manifestation  of 
an  evil  spirit.  Sometimes  the  devil  appeared  as  a  grotesque  and 
hideous  animal ;  sometimes  as  a  black  man  ;  sometimes  as  a  beauti- 
ful woman ;  sometimes  as  a  priest  haranguing  in  the  pulpit ;  some- 
times as  an  angel  of  light;  sometimes  actually  in  the  form  of 
Christ.  But  the  sign  of  the  cross  or  a  few  drops  of  holy  water,  or 
the  name  of  Mary,  could  put  him  to  an  ignominious  flight.  The 
Gospel  of  St.  John  around  the  neck,  a  rosary,  a  relic  of  Christ  or 
of  a  saint,  any  one  of  the  thousand  talismans  distributed  to  the 
faithful,  sufficed  to  baffle  the  utmost  efforts  of  diabolical  malice." 

In  the  twelfth  century,  however,  a  new  idea  appeared,  that  of 
the  witch  proper.  Up  to  this  time  the  idea  of  a  formal  compact 
with  the  evil  one  had  not  taken  definite  form ;  but  in  the  twelfth 
century  the  conception  of  a  witch,  as  we  now  conceive  it — that  is 
to  say,  of  a  woman  who  had  entered  into  a  deliberate  compact  with 
Satan,  and  who  was  endowed  with  the  power  of  working  miracles 
whenever  she  pleased,  and  who  was  transported  through  the  air  to 
pay  her  homage  to  the  evil  one — this  idea  first  appeared.  The  panic 
created  by  this  belief  advanced  at  first  slowly,  but  after  a  time 
with  fearfully  accelerated  rapidity.  Thousands  of  victims  were 
sometimes  burned  alive  in  a  few  years,  and  every  country  of  Eu- 
rope was  stricken  with  the  wildest  panic.  But  this  very  twelfth 
century  has  been  called  the  turning  point  of  the  European  intel- 
lect. It  began  to  awaken  from  its  sleep  of  centuries;  foreign 
lands  were  visited  by  travelers ;  Arabian  learning  began  to  per- 
meate Europe ;  and  gradually  the  people  became  just  a  little  skep- 
tical. Men  learned  to  doubt,  but  there  was  as  yet  no  science,  as 
we  understand  that  word ;  there  was  no  independent  inquiry ; 
men  began  to  doubt — but  to  doubt  was  still  a  crime.  The  Church 


364  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

saw  the  change ;  and,  as  was  her  custom,  proceeded  to  crush  the 
new  movement,  for  rebellion  against  authority  was,  in  her  eyes, 
the  one  unpardonable  sin.    The  church  teaching  began  to  assume, 
therefore,  a  more  somber  cast ;  the  people  became  more  gloomy 
and  fanatical.     This  is  clearly  seen  in  art,  which,  before  the  in- 
vention of  printing,  served  as  an  index  to  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
For  example,  up  to  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  Christ  was  always 
represented  in  painting  as  having  a  peaceful,  gentle  face,  and  as 
being  engaged  in  works  of   mercy.     The  parable  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  was  the  favorite  subject  for  the  artist.    But  in  the  elev- 
enth century  this  began  to  change:   the  painters  deal  with  the 
death  of  Christ  and  with  the  last  judgment.    Moreover,  Christ's 
face  becomes  sterner  and  mournful.    In  the  twelfth  century  the 
change  is  complete :  Christ  appears  stern  and  unyielding,  like  the 
God  of  old,  whom  it  repented  that  he  had  made  man.    In  this  age 
and  the  succeeding  ages  occurred  also  a  succession  of  physical, 
social,  and  political  events,  all  tending  to  heighten  and  deepen  the 
gloom  which  seemed  to  have  settled  upon  men's  minds.    Chief 
among  these  was  that  awful  scourge,  "  the  Black  Death,"  in  all 
probability  the  greatest  calamity  that  has  ever  visited  the  world, 
by  which  in  six  years  twenty-five  millions  of  persons,  or  one  quar- 
ter the  population  of  Europe,  were  swept  away.    Then  began  a 
veritable  reign  of  terrorism :  men's  minds  were  paralyzed  with 
dread,  uncertain  fear.     They  knew  not  whither  to  look;  they 
abandoned  themselves  to  the  anguish  of  despair.    Then  it  was 
that  reappeared  the  Flagellants,  scourging  themselves  and  crying 
aloud  like  the  prophets  of  old.    Then  it  was  that  there  wandered 
from  land  to  land  those  bands  of  monks  whose  bodies  were  ever 
bleeding  with  self-inflicted  torture  ;  and  then  there  loomed  upon 
the  horizon  of  a  startled  world  the  dread  figure  of  the  Inquisition, 
to  whose  autos  da  fe  had  been  given  the  task  of  crushing  out 
heresy  and  witchcraft.     The  trials  for  witchcraft  increased  ten- 
fold, and  in  the  fifteenth  and  the  sixteenth  century  the  persecu- 
tion reached  its  climax.     And  truly  the  aspect  which  Europe  pre- 
sented at  that  time  was  in  many  ways  full  of  discouragement  for 
those  who  believed  in  the  ultimate  progress  of  humanity.     As  a 
great  writer  has  said :  "  The  Church,  which  had  been  all  in  all  to 
Christendom,  was  heaving  in  what  seemed  the  last  throes  of  dis- 
solution.    The  boundaries  of  religious  thought  were  all  obscured. 
Conflicting  tendencies  and  passions  were  raging  with  a  tempestu- 
ous violence,  .  .  .  and  each  of  the  opposing  sects  proclaimed  its 
distinctive  doctrines  essential  to   salvation.    Yet   over  all  this 
chaos  there  were  two  great  conceptions  dominating  unchanged. 
They  were  the  sense  of  sin  and  of  Satan,  and  the  absolute  ne- 
cessity of  a  correct  dogmatic  system  to  save  men  from  the  agonies 
of  hell."    This  was  the  state  of  Europe  at  the  time  of  the  Protest- 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  365 

ant  Reformation,  a  seething  mass  of  conflicting  theological  parties 
and  opinions :  the  old  Church,  acknowledged  even  by  its  defenders 
to  be  corrupt,  making  what  seemed  to  many  its  death-stand 
against  Protestantism ;  and  Protestantism  divided  into  number- 
less hostile  camps,  each  only  with  difficulty  united  against  the 
common  foe. 

In  these  matters  of  history  our  minds  ought  to  be  espe- 
cially free  from  prejudice.  For  example,  the  Reformation  in  the 
end  undoubtedly  accomplished  a  vast  amount  of  good.  It  fos- 
tered among  the  Protestant  churches  a  spirit  of  liberty  and  of 
free  inquiry.  It  rejected  multitudes  of  superstitions  and  of  worn- 
out  theologic  dogmas,  it  simplified  the  ritual,  it  encouraged  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures,  it  curtailed  the  power  of  the  clergy. 
The  good  effects  of  the  Reformation  were  felt  also  after  a  time  by 
the  Roman  Church  itself — in  greater  definiteness  of  statement,  in 
purified  morals,  in  increased  zeal.  The  Protestant  Reformation, 
in  fact,  produced  the  reaction  in  favor  of  Roman  Catholicism,  and 
ushered  in  that  brilliant  era  of  Roman  Catholic  missionary  effort 
which  still,  like  an  aureole  of  glory,  crowns  that  ancient  Church. 
But,  although  this  is  undoubtedly  true,  yet  it  can  not  be  denied 
that  the  immediate  effects  of  the  Reformation  were  not  entirely 
beneficial.  It  unsettled  men's  minds,  it  increased  the  doubt  and 
uncertainty  that  weighed  down  upon  men,  and  it  in  no  wise 
lightened  the  gloom  in  which  they  groped  their  way.  Moreover, 
"  it  was  for  a  time  only  an  exchange  of  masters.  .  .  .  The  Protest- 
ant believed  in  his  own  infallibility  quite  as  firmly  as  his  oppo- 
nent believed  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope.  '  Faith '  still  meant 
an  unreserved  acceptance  of  the  opinions  of  others.  As  long  as 
such  a  conception  existed  a  period  of  religious  convulsion  was 
necessarily  a  period  of  extreme  suffering  and  terror." 

As  far,  then,  as  the  belief  in  evil  spirits  and  other  agents  of 
Satan  is  concerned,  the  Protestant  churches  stood  upon  the  same 
ground  as  that  upon  which  stood  the  Roman  Church.  By  both 
sections  of  the  Christian  world  Satan  and  his  angels  were  believed 
to  be  almost  omnipresent.  For  example,  Luther,  courageous,  full 
of  common  sense  as  he  was,  tells  us  that  in  the  cloisters  at  Wit- 
tenberg he  used  to  hear  the  devil  talking  to  him  ;  in  fact,  he  was 
so  accustomed  to  this  that  he  naively  relates  that  once,  upon  be- 
ing awakened  by  the  noise,  he  looked,  and  seeing  that  it  was  only 
the  devil,  he  went  to  sleep  again.  The  black  stain  on  the  wall  of 
the  cell  at  Wartburg  still  remains :  Luther  had  thrown  an  ink- 
bottle  at  Satan.  He  ascribed  all  his  ailments  except  earache — I 
do  not  know  why  he  made  an  exception  of  that — to  the  agency  of 
evil  spirits.  He  tells  us  that  the  devil  frequently  caught  travelers 
and  strangled  them,  and  transported  persons  through  the  air.  He 
had  known  Satan  to  appear  in  court  as  an  innocent  barrister; 


3 56  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and,  although  Luther  was  extremely  fond  of  children,  yet  he  ad- 
vised with  great  earnestness  the  family  of  a  boy  to  throw  him  into 
the  river  because  he  was  possessed  with  a  devil. 

And  thus,  by  Protestants  as  well  as  by  Romanists,  witches  were 
tortured  and  put  to  death  in  numbers  so  vast  as  to  seem  to  us  now 
utterly  incredible,  the  total  number  of  persons  who  suffered  death 
in  Europe  and  America  being  at  least  four  millions.  In  most  cases 
there  was  a  regular  judicial  trial ;  in  many  cases,  however,  there 
were  various  processes  for  testing  the  reality  of  the  witchcraft. 
These  methods  resembled  the  ordeals  of  the  olden  time.  A  favor- 
ite method  was  to  throw  the  accused  into  water.  Then,  if  she  did 
not  drown,  that  was  a  sign  of  possession.  For  how  could  she  be 
saved  except  by  Satan's  aid  ?  if  she  did  drown,  that  was  not 
conclusive  proof  of  innocence,  because  God  might  have  taken 
the  punishment  into  His  own  hands.  However,  at  that  stage  of 
the  case,  the  trial  did  not  possess  any  further  interest  to  the  ac- 
cused :  it  was  simply  a  question  of  clearing  her  memory. 

I  have  used  the  feminine  pronouns  she  and  her.  This  brings 
up  the  question  why  it  was  that  women  were  supposed  to  be  al- 
most always  the  ones  who  entered  into  this  compact  with  Satan. 
The  answer  is,  not  so  much  because  of  the  sensibility  of  their 
nervous  constitution  and  their  consequent  liability  to  religious 
monomania,  as  because,  from  various  causes  (for  example,  that 
Eve  tempted  Adam,  and  that  women  in  olden  times  held  an  in- 
ferior position  as  to  legal  rights),  women  were  considered  as  in- 
her.ently  more  wicked  than  men.  In  Roman  times  Cato  had  said, 
"  If  the  world  were  only  free  from  women,  men  would  not  be  with- 
out the  converse  of  the  gods."  And  Chrysostom,  the  great  father, 
the  golden-mouthed  orator,  had  declared  woman  to  be  "  a  natu- 
ral temptation,  a  desirable  calamity,  a  domestic  peril,  a  deadly  fas- 
cination." When  celibacy  was  introduced  into  the  Church,  it  was 
regarded  as  the  highest  form  of  virtue,  and  theologians  exhausted 
all  the  resources  of  their  eloquence  in  describing  the  iniquity  of 
that  sex  whose  charms  had  rendered  celibacy  so  rare.  So  it  came 
to  pass  that  women  were  believed  to  be  especially  prone  to  enter 
into  compacts  with  the  Evil  One.  These  and  hundreds  of  other 
matters  connected  with  witchcraft  are  to  be  found  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  subject  which  has  come  down  to  us  from  those  far-off 
days.  •  Endless  discussions  upon  all  phases  and  aspects  of  the 
question,  the  volumes  stand  now  in  the  great  libraries  of  Europe 
a  monument  to  human  credulity  and  superstition.  All  phases  and 
aspects  of  the  question,  I  have  said.  For  example,  there  was  the 
point  whether  a  witch  felt  torture  or  not.  The  general  belief 
was  that  she  did  feel  it,  but  not  so  acutely  as  do  others,  and  that 
therefore  the  torture  ought  to  be  more  severe.  Then  there  was  an- 
other point,  that  of  self-confession.  As  all  know,  a  confession  of 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  367 

a  crime  now  is  not  looked  upon  as  conclusive  in  law,  and  the  ac- 
cused is  not  obliged  to  confess.  But  in  these  trials  for  witchcraft 
the  whole  aim  of  the  court  seemed  to  be  to  extort  a  confession. 
For  this  object  torture  was  resorted  to,  with  the  results  that  mul- 
titudes confessed  that  they  were  witches  and  persisted  in  their 
confessions  until  death  relieved  them.  For  the  confession  meant 
death,  its  object  not  being  to  spare  the  accused,  but  to  justify  the 
accuser.  As  a  writer  has  said,  "  Madness  is  always  particularly 
prevalent  during  great  religious  and  political  revolutions  " — many 
therefore  confessed  through  madness.  Others,  of  a  timid,  doubting 
mind,  made  themselves  believe  that,  unknown  to  themselves,  they 
were  witches.  While  "  very  often  the  terrors  of  the  trial,  the  pros- 
pect of  the  most  agonizing  of  deaths,  and  the  frightful  tortures 
that  were  applied  to  the  weak  frame  of  an  old  and  feeble  woman, 
overpowered  her  understanding ;  her  brain  reeled  beneath  the  ac- 
cumulated suffering,  the  consciousness  of  innocence  disappeared, 
and  the  wretched  victim  went  raging  to  the  flames,  convinced  that 
she  was  about  to  sink  forever  into  perdition/' 

Another  very  interesting  point  discussed  at  great  length  in 
these  old  books  was  whether  the  same  body  could  be  in  two  places 
at  once.  That  the  body  might  be  in  one  place  and  the  mind  in 
another — this  was  agreed  upon  ;  but  whether  the  body  might  be 
in  two  places — that  was  a  harder  question.  However,  it  was  de- 
cided eventually  that  this  was  quite  possible,  and  thereafter  the 
fact  that  wives  were  at  home  with  their  husbands  was  not  accept- 
ed as  proof  that  they  were  not  elsewhere  in  the  same  form  as 
witches.  Indeed,  several  early  saints  had  this  same  gift.  St.  Am- 
brose celebrated  mass  in  France  and  Italy  at  the  same  time,  and  St. 
Clement  is  well  known  to  have  consecrated  a  church  at  Pisa  while 
performing  mass  at  Rome.  There  is  no  doubt  as  to  this  latter 
point,  for  there  is  blood  as  a  proof  upon  the  altar  at  Pisa ;  and  if 
this  is  not  his  blood,  whose  is  it  ?  Closely  allied  to  this  was  what  is 
called  "  lycanthropy  " — i.  e.,  the  taking  of  the  form  of  an  animal 
by  Satan  or  one  of  his  angels.  There  are  some  most  wonderful 
stories  of  transformation  to  be  found  in  the  old  records,  all  of 
which  are  very  ludicrous  to  us  in  this  nineteenth  century,  but 
when,  three  hundred  years  ago,  it  was  a  question  of  the  stake  here 
and  everlasting  fire  hereafter,  they  did  not  appear  so  full  of  humor. 
A  French  judge  named  Boguet  devoted  himself  especially  to  this 
branch  of  witchcraft,  wrote  a  book  upon  it,  and  burned  multitudes 
of  these  lycanthropes,  his  rule  being  to  strangle  other  witches  first, 
but  to  burn  these  without  strangling. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries 
the  skies  of  continental  Europe  were  lurid  with  the  flames  of 
burning  women,  and  every  market  place  had  its  fagot  and  its 
stake. 


368  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

But  after  a  time  men's  hearts  and  minds  revolted  from  this 
hideous  slaughter.  The  first  book  on  the  Continent  that  made 
an  effective  attack  upon  the  system  was  by  John  Wier,  a  learned 
doctor  of  Cleves.  In  this  book  Wier  took  the  ground  that,  al- 
though devils  are  everywhere  about  us,  and  although  many  per- 
sons are  possessed  with  devils,  yet  there  are  no  such  beings  as 
witches,  and  therefore  no  one  ought  to  be  punished  as  a  witch. 
He  said  further  that,  in  his  humble  opinion,  a  good  many  persons 
supposed  to  be  possessed  with  devils  simply  had  some  disease  or 
other  which  doctors  ought  to  try  to  cure.  This  Dr.  Wier  was  a 
strange  sort  of  man.  He  published  another  book,  giving  various 
particulars  about  the  lower  regions.  He  was  very  exact  in  his 
figures ;  and  he  ascertained  that  at  that  time  these  regions  were 
ruled  by  seventy-two  princes,  and  the  number  of  devils  was 
7,405,926.  This  book  of  Wier's  brought  out  the  ablest  defense 
ever  made  of  witchcraft — a  volume  by  Bodin,  esteemed  the  most 
learned  of  all  Frenchmen.  This  book  was  not  answered  ;  and  as 
far  as  authorities  and  figures  and  biblical  texts  and  judicial  rul- 
ings go,  it  can  not  be  answered.  Still,  it  did  not  stem  the  rising 
tide  against  the  belief  in  witchcraft.  Humanity  and  common 
sense  were  asserting  their  sway,  and  persecution  was  doomed. 
In  1588,  the  very  year  of  the  Armada,  Montaigne,  the  great 
Frenchman,  published  the  first  really  skeptical  work  in  the  French 
language.  This  work  ushered  in  the  new  treatment,  the  modern 
treatment  of  all  such  questions.  He  calmly  ignored  the  mass  of 
authority.  "I  do  not  attempt,"  he  said,  "to  untie  the  knot:  I 
simply  cut  it.  It  is  more  probable  that  we  are  deceived,  or  that 
men  should  tell  falsehoods,  than  that  witches  should  exist.  And 
further,  it  is  setting  too  high  a  value  on  our  opinions  to  roast 
people  if  they  will  not  accept  these  opinions."  Montaigne  had 
calmly  risen  above  the  mists  of  superstition  into  the  clear  realm 
of  common  sense  and  reason.  The  last  witch  in  France  was  burned 
in  1718.  After  that  there  were  one  or  two  trials,  but  the  prisoners 
were  acquitted;  for  "the  star  of  Voltaire  had  risen  above  the 
horizon,  and  the  unsparing  ridicule  which  his  followers  cast  upon 
every  anecdote  of  witches  intimidated  those  who  did  not  share  in 
the  credulity." 

In  Great  Britain  the  first  regular  enactment  against  sorcery 
was  in  1541 — i.  e.,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation — although 
it  had  been  known  before  that  time.  In  fact,  Joan  of  Arc  had 
been  put  to  death  by  the  command  of  the  English,  although  on 
the  soil  of  France  and  under  the  sentence  of  a  French  judge. 
Great  Britain,  indeed,  was  not  so  violently  affected  by  this  de- 
lusion as  was  the  Continent.  This  for  various  reasons,  her  in- 
sular position  and  greater  freedom  being  the  chief.  So,  although 
Cranmer,  the  great  churchman,  he  to  whom  is  so  largely  owing  the 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  369 

Book  of  Common  Prayer,  directed  his  clergy  to  seek  out  witches 
and  sorcerers;  and  although  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII  and 
Elizabeth  there  were  a  few  executions,  it  was  not  until  the  time 
of  James  I  that  really  severe  measures  were  taken ;  for  James  I 
had  been  reared  in  Scotland  under  Puritan  influences,  and  the 
Puritans  were  always  especially  severe  upon  witchcraft.  The 
king,  in  fact,  had  written  a  pamphlet  on  the  subject;  had  pre- 
sided at  the  excessively  cruel  torture  of  a  person  who  had,  it 
was  alleged,  caused  a  storm  at  sea ;  and  was  particularly  fond  of 
boasting  that  Satan  considered  him,  the  king,  as  by  far  the  ablest 
opponent  he  (Satan)  had  as  yet  encountered  in  this  world.  And 
thus  in  this  reign — the  era  of  Bacon  and  Coke  and  Shakespeare- 
England  became,  like  the  Continent,  the  theater  of  persecution. 
But  all  this  was  as  nothing  compared  to  that  carried  on  in  the 
time  of  the  Commonwealth,  when  the  Puritans  held  sway.  Crom- 
well himself  was  not  inclined  to  be  cruel ;  but  the  whole  teaching 
of  Puritanism  tended  toward  the  belief  in  witchcraft  and  the  per- 
secution of  witches.  It  forbade  amusements,  and  had  thus  a  tend- 
ency to  make  the  people  somber  and  gloomy.  It  was  intensely 
earnest:  the  finger  of  God  and  the  finger  of  Satan  were  seen 
everywhere.  Moreover,  it  developed  especially  a  taste  for  the 
reading  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  abounds  with  references  to 
supernatural  events,  and  the  characteristic  of  which  is  severity 
toward  those  who  are  not  the  Lord's  people.  And  the  Puritans 
were  the  Lord's  people,  to  whom  had  gone  forth  the  command  "  to 
bind  the  kings  with  chains  and  their  nobles  with  fetters  of  iron." 
So,  notwithstanding  all  their  many  good  qualities,  the  Puritans 
did  not  err  on  the  side  of  leniency  toward  the  unfortunate 
witches.  Indeed,  in  the  county  of  Suffolk  alone  sixty  persons 
were  hanged  in  a  single  year.  But  the  Puritan  regime  came  to  an 
end,  the  Cavaliers  returned;  and  these,  being  of  a  more  light- 
hearted  although  less  earnest  mind,  and  also  being  full  of  dislike 
for  everything  that  savored  of  Puritanism,  allowed  the  laws 
against  witchcraft  in  great  part  to  remain  unenforced.  Further, 
the  people  were  becoming  more  intelligent  and  humane,  and  the 
Royal  Society  for  the  study  of  science  had  just  been  established, 
and  French  philosophy  became  the  fashion  ;  and  gradually  Eng- 
land forgot  her  witchcraft  and  her  persecution.  The  last  execu- 
tions were  in  1712,  in  which  same  year  the  judge  on  the  bench  at 
another  trial  charged  the  jury  against  the  belief  in  witchcraft. 

Scotland,  however,  was  not  so  fortunate.  As  a  writer  has  said : 
"The  misery  of  man,  the  anger  of  the  Almighty,  the  fearful 
power  and  the  continual  presence  of  Satan,  the  agonies  of  hell — 
these  were  the  constant  subjects  of  the  preaching.  All  the  most 
ghastly  forms  of  human  suffering  were  accumulated  as  faint 
images  of  the  eternal  doom  of  the  immense  majority  of  mankind. 

VOL.    XLIII. — 25 


37o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Countless  miracles  were  represented  as  taking  place  within  the 
land,  but  they  were  almost  always  miracles  of  terror.    Disease, 
storm,  famine,  every  awful  calamity  that  fell  upon  mankind  or 
blasted  the  produce  of  the  soil  was  attributed  to  the  direct  inter- 
vention of  spirits ;  and  Satan  himself  is  represented  as  constantly 
appearing  in  a  visible  form  upon  the  earth.  .  .  .  Such  teachings 
necessarily  created  the  superstition  of  witchcraft ;  it  was  the  re- 
flection by  a  diseased  imagination  of  the  popular  theology.    More- 
over, it  was  produced  by  the  teaching  of  the  clergy,  and  was 
everywhere  fostered  by  their  persecution."    Thus  it  is  that  the 
annals   of  Puritanism  and  Calvinism  in  Scotland  are  red  with 
tales  of  the  thumbscrew  and  the  boot  and  the  witches'  bridle  and 
the  axe  and  the  stake.    While  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church 
in  England  were  comparatively  free  from  any  desire  to  persecute, 
while  torture  was  only  very  rarely  resorted  to ;  while,  in  a  word, 
persecution  was  carried  on  by  the  people  in  a  very  half-hearted 
way,  in  Scotland  there  were  being  enacted,  at  the  express  com- 
mand of  the  clergy,  scenes  which  rivaled  those  in  Roman  Catho- 
lic Europe.    "  And  yet  these  Presbyterian  clergymen  of  Scotland 
were  men  who  had  often  shown,  in  the  most  trying  circumstances, 
the  highest  and   most   heroic  virtues.     They  were  men  whose 
courage  had  never  flinched  when  persecution  was  raging ;  men 
who  had  never  paltered  with  their  conscience  to  attain  the  favors 
of  a  king ;  men  whose  self-devotion  and  zeal  in  their  sacred  call- 
ing had  seldom  been  surpassed ;  men  who  in  all  the  private  rela- 
tions of  life  were  doubtless  amiable  and  affectionate.    They  were 
but  illustrations  of  the  great  truth  that  when  men  have  come  to 
regard  a  certain  class  of  their  fellow-creatures  as  doomed  by  the 
Almighty  to  eternal  and  excruciating  agonies,  and  when  their  the- 
ology directs  their  minds  with  intense  and  realizing  earnestness 
to  the  contemplation  of  such  agonies,  the  result  will  be  an  indiffer- 
ence to  the  suffering  of  those  whom  they  deem  the  enemies  of 
their  God,  as  absolute  as  it  is  perhaps  possible  for  human  nature 
to  attain." 

But  Scotland  also  became  sick  of  blood  and  fire.  The  last 
execution  for  witchcraft  was  held  in  1722,  although  in  1773  the 
divines  of  the  associated  Presbytery  passed  a  resolution  declar- 
ing their  belief  in  witchcraft  and  deploring  the  general  skep- 
ticism. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  upon  the  history  of  witchcraft  in 
America.  Its  details  are  known  to  all.  Nothing  so  clearly  brings 
to  one's  mind  the  reality  of  this  delusion  and  the  persecution  it 
entailed  as  the  court  papers,  preserved  as  they  are  in  the  archives 
of  Essex  County,  Massachusetts.  As  one  looks  upon  those  faded 
records  and  reads  of  question  and  cross-question,  of  plea  for 
mercy  and  stern  refusal,  he  can  again  see  those  awful  trials ;  he 


EVIL   SPIRITS.  371 

can  once  more  behold  the  dread  procession  wending  its  way  amid 
jeers  and  scoffs  and  pitiless  execration  to  what  is  still  "  The  Gal- 
lows-hill of  Salem." 

It  is,  in  fact,  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  sufferings  produced 
throughout  Christendom  by  this  superstition.  "It  is  probable 
that  no  class  of  victims  endured  sufferings  so  unalloyed  and  so 
intense.  Not  for  them  the  wild  fanaticism  that  nerves  the  soul 
against  danger  and  almost  steels  the  body  against  torments.  Not 
for  them  the  assurance  of  a  glorious  eternity  that  has  made  the 
martyr  look  with  exultation  upon  the  rising  flame  as  on  Elijah's 
chariot  that  is  to  bear  his  soul  to  heaven.  Not  for  them  the  sol- 
ace of  lamenting  friends  or  the  consciousness  that  their  memories 
would  be  cherished  and  honored  by  posterity.  They  died  alone, 
hated  and  unpitied;  their  very  kinsmen  shrank  from  them  as 
tainted  and  accursed.  The  superstitions  they  had  imbibed  in 
childhood,  blending  with  the  illusions  of  age  and  with  the  horrors 
of  their  position,  persuaded  them  in  many  cases  that  they  were 
indeed  the  bond-slaves  of  Satan,  and  were  about  to  exchange 
their  torments  on  earth  for  an  agony  that  was  as  excruciating,  but 
was  eternal/'  And  it  is  wonderful  how  long  this  delusion  lasted 
after  judicial  punishment  in  most  countries  had  ceased.  In  Spain 
a  witch  was  burned  in  1780  ;  in  1807  a  beggar  was  tortured  and 
burned  in  France ;  in  1850,  in  France,  a  man  and  wife  tortured 
and  killed  a  woman  suspected  of  witchcraft,  and  it  was  with  some 
difficulty  that  they  were  punished  at  all,  on  account  of  the  linger- 
ing belief  in  sorcery ;  in  1860  a  woman  was  burned  in  Mexico,  as 
was  the  case  with  several  persons  in  1874;  in  1879  and  1880 
witches  were  burned  in  Russia ;  while  up  to  that  date,  and  possi- 
bly later,  regular  judicial  trials  were  held  in  Austria  and  Prussia. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  almost  up  to  the  present,  even  in  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States,  persons  have  been  attacked  by  mobs 
and  private  individuals,  because  it  was  believed  that  they  were 
in  league  with  Satan. 

But,  roughly  speaking,  this  superstition  has  entirely  disap- 
peared ;  and  it  has  disappeared,  not  so  much  through  religion  as 
through  enlightenment  and  rationalism.  The  crushing  of  this 
hydra-headed  monster  of  superstition  is  one  small  part  of  the 
debt  the  world  owes  to  science. 


SOME  drawings  recently  found  by  Ilerr  J.  Naue  at  a  prehistoric  station  near 
Schaff hausen,  Germany,  comprise,  on  one  side  of  a  piece  of  limestone,  a  horse,  a 
foal,  and  a  reindeer,  and  on  the  other  side  several  horses.  The  style  is  not  so 
fine  as  that  of  the  Thayngen  drawings  of  France,  but  the  pictures,  according  to 
the  finder,  display  a  power  of  keen  observation.  Herr  Naue  also  remarks  that  it 
was  more  difficult  to  work  on  stone  than  on  a  bone  still  fresh. 


372  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


STRUCTURAL  PLAN  OF  THE  HUMAN  BRAIN. 

BY  PKOF.  CHAELES  SEDGWICK  M1NOT, 

OF  THE   HARVARD   MBDICAL   SCHOOL. 

THE  human  brain  is  the  most  complicated  organ  known,  and 
although  its  anatomy  has  been  the  object  of  innumerable  in- 
vestigations, often  by  observers  of  the  highest  ability,  we  are  still 
far  from  understanding  its  organization.  Within  recent  years, 
however,  embryologists  have  turned  to  the  study  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  brain,  and  have  succeeded  in  elucidating  many  of  the 
obscure  features.  Here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  embryology 
has  furnished  the  master-key  to  unlock  the  mystery  of  the  adult 
anatomy.  The  series  of  conceptions  which  we  have  derived  from 
our  present  knowledge  of  the  development  of  the  brain  are  so 
clearly  established  that  I  regard  them  as  impregnable.  They  are 
so  far  in  advance  of  all  previous  achievements  in  the  study  of  the 
brain  that  they  may  be  called  almost  revolutionary,  and  they  are 
of  so  fundamental  a  character  that  the  entire  anatomy  of  the 
brain  and  the  entire  physiology  of  the  brain  must  be  recast  to 
agree  with  our  embryological  results. 

The  present  article  is  an  attempt  to  summarize,  as  simply  as 
possible,  the  principal  conclusions  of  recent  researches  on  the 
nervous  system. 

Physiologists  have  long  been  accustomed  to  divide  nerve  fibers 
into  two  classes :  efferent,  or  those  which  carry  out  impulses ;  and 
afferent,  or  those  which  carry  in  nerve  impulses  to  the  nervous 
system.  Not  infrequently  the  less  accurate  terms  sensory  and 
motor  are  used  as  synonymous  with  afferent  and  efferent  respect- 
ively. The  nerves  are  bundles  of  nerve  fibers,  and  each  nerve  is 
supposed  to  have  typically  two  roots — one  sensory,  by  which  all 
the  sensory  fibers  enter,  and  the  other  motor,  by  which  all  the 
efferent  fibers  leave,  the  nervous  system.  It  was  supposed  that 
every  nerve  fiber  was  connected  with  a  nerve  cell  in  the  central 
nervous  system,  and  that  the  nerve  fibers  grew  out  from  the  cen- 
tral nervous  system.  It  has  long  been  known  that  various  nerves 
have  thickenings  at  certain  points;  the  thickenings  are  the  so- 
called  ganglia  and  they  contain  nerve  cells.  The  cells  in  these 
ganglia  were  supposed  to  have  migrated  from  the  central  parts 
along  the  nerves. 

The  preceding  recapitulation  of  familiar  elementary  facts  will 
serve  to  emphasize  the  following  new  conclusions :  1.  The  nerv- 
ous system  consists  of  two  parts,  which  differ  so  markedly  in  their 
origin  and  differentiation  that  it  would  be  hardly  an  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  there  are  two  nervous  systems,  for  the  original 
duality  is  never  obliterated.  The  two  parts  I  shall  term  the 


STRUCTURAL  PLAN   OF  THE  HUMAN  BRAIN.      373 

medullary  and  the  ganglionic  respectively.  Each  part  has  its 
special  typical  cells  and  nerve  fibers.  It  is  further  probable  that 
there  is  still  a  third  class  of  nerve  fibers — namely,  those  connected 
with  the  sensory  apparatus  of  the  special  sense  cells.  2.  There 
are  three  sets  of  nerve  roots — namely,  the  true  dorsal  roots,  which 
are  formed  solely  by  ganglionic  nerve  fibers ;  and  the  lateral  and 
the  ventral  roots,  which  are  formed  solely  of  medullary  nerve 
fibers;  the  lateral  roots  have  been  hitherto  generally  confused 
with  the  dorsal  roots ;  they  have  been  traced  heretofore  only  in 
the  brain  and  in  the  cervical  nerves,  but  I  consider  it  more  than 
possible  that  the  posterior  roots  of  the  spinal  nerves  will  be  found 
to  represent  both  dorsal  and  lateral  roots.  3.  Nerve  fibers  grow 
out  from  a  cell  and  the  end  of  each  fiber  branches ;  but,  so  far  as 
observed,  none  of  the  branches  become  materially  continuous, 
either  with  other  nerves  or  nerve  cells  or  with  any  other  cells  or 
other  protoplasmatic  structures.  4.  The  entire  brain  and  spinal 
cord  is  divided  into  four  principal  longitudinal  divisions,  which  I 
have  named  after  their  discoverer  the  zones  of  His.  The  zones 
are  in  pairs — that  is  to  say,  on  each  side  there  is  a  dorsal  (i.  e.,  in 
the  spinal  cord  "  posterior  ")  and  a  ventral  (i.  e.,  in  the  spinal  cord 
"  anterior  ")  zone.  These  zones  are  of  fundamental  importance, 
because  all  the  fibers  which  belong  to  the  ganglionic  portion  of 
the  nervous  system  ramify  in  the  dorsal  zone,  while  all  the  fibers 
belonging  to  the  medullary  portion  leave  the  spinal  cord  (or 
brain)  through  the  ventral  zone.  Both  zones  persist  throughout 
life,  and  preserve  their  fundamental  relations  to  the  two  kinds  of 
nerve  fibers. 

Let  us  now  attempt  to  acquire  fuller  and  more  exact  concep- 
tions in  regard  to  the  four  discoveries  above  enumerated.  We 
may  hope  to  do  this  without  entering  into  technical  details  and 
with  the  use  only  of  terms  readily  understood.  At  the  same  time 
we  shall  learn  wherein  the  significance  of  the  four  discoveries  lies. 

THE  FIRST  DISCOVERY. — The  division  of  the  nervous  system 
into  a  medullary  portion  and  a  ganglionic  portion  has  to  be  ex- 
plained. The  division  has  long  been  a  familiar  fact  to  anatomists, 
but  its  true  character  and  fundamental  significance  have  been 
known  a  short  time  only,  because  it  is  owing  to  very  recent  em- 
bryological  discoveries  that  the  independent  development  of  the 
ganglionic  portion  has  been  elucidated.  The  existence  of  the  gan- 
glia has  long  been  known,  but  their  development  independently 
of  the  rest  of  the  nervous  system  is  a  new  conception.  Their  in- 
dependence is,  of  course,  not  absolute  but  relative,  for  every  part 
of  the  body  develops  in  intimate  relations  with,  and  in  depend- 
ence upon,  the  neighboring  parts. 

By  the  medullary  portion  we  understand  the  brain  proper 
plus  the  spinal  cord  or  marrow  and  the  nerve  fibers,  which  grow 


374 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


out  from  the  brain  and  spinal  cord.  The  brain  and  spinal  cord, 
since  the  days  of  the  celebrated  investigations  of  Karl  Ernst  von 
Baer,  have  been  identified  as  modifications  of  a  single  long  tube, 
the  so-called  medullary  tube  of  embryology.  This  tube,  as  the 
embryo  advances,  gradually  increases  in  complexity,  especially  in 
the  region  of  the  head,  until  it  is  converted  into  the  brain  and 
spinal  cord.  The  complications  which  occur  may  be  conveniently 
grouped  under  four  heads — namely,  the  flexures,  the  widening  of 
the  cavity  or  its  obliteration  in  a  way  varying  for  each  region, 
changes  in  the  thickness  of  walls,  and  lastly  an  extreme  differ- 
entiation of  the  microscopic  organization.  Without  detailed  ex- 
planation it  may  be  readily  conceived  that  by  the  varying  co- 


Dorsal  zone  white 
Ventral  zone  shaded 


Olfactory  Lobe 


Infundibulum. 


operation  of  these  factors  great  differences  arise  in  the  sundry 
parts  of  the  originally  simple  medullary  tube.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  the  most  fundamental  characteristic,  the  production  of  nerve 
fibers,  the  same  principle  governs  brain  and  spinal  cord  alike. 
There  appear  very  early  certain  cells,  which  soon  become  recog- 
nizable as  young  nerve  cells  (neuroblasts)  because  of  their  size 
and  pointed  shape;  the  pointed  end  now  elongates  into  a  very 
delicate  thread,  the  nerve  fiber,  which  is  at  first  very  short  but 
rapidly  lengthens  almost  like  a  growing  root ;  the  growing  fiber 
takes  its  course  for  a  certain  distance,  varying  according  to  cir- 
cumstances, within  the  wall  of  the  medullary  tube,  but  ultimately 
passes  outside  the  tube  into  the  neighboring  tissues  together  with 
other  nerve  fibers  of  similar  origin.  It  must  be  added  that  some 


STRUCTURAL  PLAN   OF  THE  HUMAN  BRAIN.      375 

of  the  nerve  fibers  are  of  the  Golgi  type — that  is  to  say,  they  end 
as  well  as  begin  within  the  central  nervous  system.  The  bundle 
of  nerve  fibers  which  pass  out  together  constitute  a  nerve,  or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  a  nerve  root.  So  far  as  yet  observed  no  ex- 
ception occurs ;  therefore  we  may  safely  assert  that  every  nerve 
cell  of  the  brain  or  spinal  cord  produces  one  nerve  fiber  and  only 
one,  and  this  fiber  grows  out  from  the  nervous  system  into  the 
tissues  of  the  body.  The  fiber  is  single  at  its  origin,  but  since  we 
always  find  the  peripheral  fibers  branching,  we  may  add  that  the 
fiber  is  multiple  at  its  termination.  The  nerve  cells  acquire  also 
other  secondary  branches — the  so-called  protoplasmatic  processes 
or  dendrites — which  grow  out  from  the  cells,  but  are  not  nerve 
fibers  and  are  confined  in  their  growth  to  the  nervous  tissue  itself. 
The  secondary  branches  present  highly  characteristic  variations  in 
the  different  regions  of  the  brain,  as  described  in  the  text-books. 

By  the  ganglionic  portion  we  now  understand  the  nerve  cells 
which  lie  in  little  groups  outside  of  the  medullary  tube.  These 
cells  produce  fibers,  which  grow  in  two  directions — on  the  one 
side  into  the  brain  or  spinal  cord,  on  the  other  away  from  the 
brain  and  cord  into  other  tissues  and  organs.  It  has  been  ob- 
served that  the  ganglionic  nerve  cells  elongate  and  become  spin- 
dle-shaped ;  each  pointed  end  of  the  cell  grows  out  into  a  nerve 
fiber ;  as  the  nerve  cell  connects  the  two  fibers,  we  may  describe 
the  actual  condition  accurately  as  resulting  in  a  single  nerve  fiber, 
which  has  a  nerve  cell  interpolated  in  its  course.  Each  group  of 
nerve  cells  forms  a  bundle  of  nerve  fibers,  which  constitute  the 
posterior  (or  so-called  dorsal  or  sensory)  root  of  the  anatomists. 
If  we  follow  a  ganglionic  fiber  into  the  spinal  cord  or  brain,  we 
find  that  it  forms  two  branches,  as  first  recorded  by  Ramon  y 
Cajal,  a  distinguished  Spanish  histologist ;  of  these  two  branches, 
one  runs  upward,  or  in  the  brain  forward,  and  the  other  runs 
downward,  or  in  the  brain  backward  ;  each  fork  gives  off  second- 
ary branches  (collaterals),  that  ramify  still  further,  and  are  all 
situated  within  the  central  nervous  system  proper.  If  we  study 
the  termination  of  the  ganglionic  fiber  at  its  other  end — that  is  to 
say,  in  the  tissues  or  organs — we  find  that  there  also  there  occur 
several  ramifications.  These  fibers,  like  the  medullary  fibers,  have 
each  a  single  origin,  but,  unlike  the  medullary  fibers,  have  two 
sets  of  multiple  terminations.  Although  both  the  peripheral  and 
central  terminations  have  been  carefully  studied,  they  have  never 
been  found  connected  with  other  structures  or  cells,  but  only  to 
be  in  contact  with  them. 

The  true  history  of  the  ganglia  and  their  nerve  fibers  has  been 
elucidated  chiefly  through  the  masterly  researches  of  Wilhelm 
His,  Professor  of  Anatomy  at  Leipsic,  who  is  the  recognized  high- 
est living  authority  on  the  development  of  man.  This  addition 


376  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  our  knowledge  of  the  nervous  system  is  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant which  has  been  made  during  the  last  generation.  It 
teaches  us  that  the  nervous  system  comprises  two  sets  of  nerve 
cells  and  fibers,  which  differ  not  only  in  their  situation,  but  also 
in  their  development  and  distribution.  We  are  already  in  a  posi- 
tion to  say  that  the  entire  physiology  of  the  brain  must  hence- 
forth be  based  upon  this  discovery  of  the  independence  of  the 
ganglionic  system,  because  the  same  laws  can  not  apply  without 
change  to  structures  so  differently  organized  as  are  the  two  por- 
tions which  we  have  briefly  characterized,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  functions  are  as  fundamentally  divergent  as  is  the 
organization.  It  is,  however,  still  too  soon  for  cerebral  physiology 
to  have  remodeled  itself,  but  that  remodeling  must  follow,  since 
physiology  always  bases  itself  on  the  anatomical  facts. 

Besides  the  two  classes  of  nerve  fibers,  the  medullary  and  gan- 
glionic, we  may  have  to  add  a  third.  In  the  organs  of  special  sense 
(sight,  hearing,  smell,  and  taste)  there  are  found  the  peculiar  sen- 
sory cells,  which  all  present  two  special  features :  First,  they  have 
characteristic  modifications  of  cellular  structure,  by  which  they 
are  adapted  to  receive  sensory  impressions;  second,  they  are  each 
united  with  a  single  nerve  fiber.  It  has  long  been,  and  indeed 
still  is,  the  prevalent  theory  that  the  nerve  fiber  arose  from  the 
brain,  grew  to  the  cell,  and  united  with  it.  Merkel  was,  I  think, 
the  first  to  suggest  that  the  sensory  cells  are  also  true  nerve  cells, 
the  nerve  fiber  springing  from  them  and  growing  to  the  brain. 
This  view  has  been  brought  into  fresh  prominence  by  the  discov- 
ery made  by  Michael  von  Lenhosse'k  that  Merkel's  supposition  is 
true  in  the  case  of  the  earthworm,  which  has  cells  scattered  in  its 
skin,  each  cell  giving  rise  to  a  nerve  fiber,  which  must  arise  from 
the  sensory  cell  since  it  is  connected  with  no  other  cell,  although 
it  enters  the  central  nervous  system  and  there  ramifies. 

THE  SECOND  DISCOVERY. — For  the  recognition  of  the  three 
sets  of  nerve  roots  also  we  are  indebted  to  the  researches  of  His, 
published  in  1888.  Previous  to  that  time  anatomists  recognized 
two  roots  only — the  posterior  or  dorsal  roots,  and  the  anterior  or 
ventral  roots.  In  the  spinal  cord  it  was  easy  to  maintain  Bell's 
law,  that  the  posterior  roots  are  sensory ;  the  anterior,  motor  or 
efferent.  The  cephalic  nerves,  however,  could  not  be  brought  into 
accord  with  this  law,  because  of  numerous  difficulties,  of  which 
one  may  be  mentioned  as  an  example.  The  nerve  called  the  facial 
was  found  physiologically  to  be  both  sensory  and  motor,  and  yet 
was  shown  embryologically  to  correspond  to  a  posterior  root. 
Through  His  we  learned  that  the  cephalic  nerves  corresponding  to 
the  posterior  roots  have  in  reality  compound  roots,  being  double. 
In  fact,  the  nerves  of  the  class  referred  to  consist  each  of  a  bundle 
of  ganglionic  fibers  which  enter  the  brain  and  branch  in  its  dor- 


378  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sal  regions,  and  of  a  bundle  of  medullary  fibers,  which  arise  in 
the  ventral  portions  of  the  brain  and  pass  out  from  it  immediate- 
ly below  the  entrance  of  the  ganglionic  fibers.  Evidently  there 
are  two  roots,  which,  from  their  close  juxtaposition,  have  been 
hitherto  unrecognized ;  the  ganglionic  bundle  is  the  true  dorsal 
root,  the  medullary  bundle  the  lateral  root.  If,  now,  we  modify 
Bell's  law  by  saying  that  all  medullary  fibers  are  efferent  or  mo- 
tor, and  all  ganglionic  fibers  afferent  or  sensory,  we  can  under- 
stand the  double  function  of  the  facial  nerves  and  of  the  other 
nerves  resembling  it — to  wit,  the  trigeminal,  glosso-pharyngeal, 
and  vagus. 

The  recognition  of  the  lateral  root  as  distinct  from,  though 
joined  with,  the  dorsal  sensory  root,  removes  many  obscurities  in 
the  anatomy  of  the  nervous  system.  We  know  that  lateral  roots 
are  not  confined  to  the  nerves  of  the  head,  but  they  also  occur  in 
the  upper  cervical  nerves,  and  I  regard  it  as  highly  probable  that 
with  the  progress  of  research  they  will  be  found  sharing  in  the 
formation  of  other  spinal  nerves.  Should  this  expectation  be  ful- 
filled, the  long-established  conception  of  the  posterior  roots  as 
purely  sensory  will  have  to  be  modified,  although  it  has  reigned 
for  three  quarters  of  a  century  as  one  of  the  fundamental  concep- 
tions of  physiology. 

THE  THIRD  DISCOVERY. — The  third  discovery  is  that  neither 
the  nerve  cells  nor  nerve  fibers  are  directly  continuous  either  with 
other  nerve  cells  or  with  the  cells  or  structures  of  other  tissues 
and  organs.  Every  nerve  cell,  together  with  its  fiber,  is  an  entity, 
and  is  not  organically  continuous  with  anything  else.  It  is  cer- 
tainly premature  to  affirm  this  discovery  positively,  for  we  can 
say  at  present  only  that  the  consensus  of  the  best  opinion,  of  such 
men,  for  instance,  as  His  and  Kolliker,  is  in  favor  of  the  concep- 
tion that  every  nerve  cell  plus  its  nerve  fiber  is  an  isolated  ele- 
ment. Until  recently  the  hypothesis  was  received  with  favor  that 
the  cells  of  brain  and  spinal  cord  were  connected  by  threads  of 
protoplasm,  or,  to  speak  more  precisely,  by  branches  of  the  pro- 
cesses of  the  cells ;  according  to  this  hypothesis,  there  would  be  a 
direct  protoplasmatic  continuity  between  the  different  parts  of 
the  nervous  system,  and  therefore  a  nerve  impulse  brought  by  a 
sensory  fiber  to  the  brain  could  be  conceived  as  traveling  along 
an  uninterrupted  pathway  of  living  matter  until  it  produced  its 
final  action.  In  many  text-books  of  physiology  there  are  dia- 
grams to  illustrate  the  theory  of  a  continuous  pathway.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  if  there  is  no  such  connection  between  nerve  cells  as 
assumed,  then  we  must  radically  alter  our  conceptions  of  the 
process  of  the  transmission  of  nerve  force  through  the  brain. 

In  the  question  before  us,  Camillo  Golgi  and  his  followers 
must  lead  the  way.  Golgi,  whom  the  world  will  probably  rank 


STRUCTURAL  PLAN   OF  THE  HUMAN  BRAIN.      379 

among  men  of  genius,  has  unquestionably  done  more  than  any 
other  man  living  to  enlarge  our  knowledge  of  the  minute  struc- 
ture of  the  brain,  for  we  owe  to  him,  besides  invaluable  re- 
searches, the  invention  of  an  entirely  novel  method  of  study,  by 
which  a  few  of  the  cells  of  the  brain  are  marked  out  with  the  ut- 
most distinctness  by  a  deep  deposit  of  color,  while  most  of  the  cells 
and  tissues  of  the  brain  are  left  translucent  and  lightly  tinged. 
The  finest  ramifications  of  these  cells  can  be  followed  in  such 
preparations  under  the  microscope,  yet  they*  have  never  been 
proved  to  unite  with  the  ramifications  of  other  cells.  Another 
method  is  that  which  consists  in  treatment  by  chloride  of  gold,  as 
long  employed  in  histology  for  tracing  the  finest  thread  of  nerv- 
ous substance,  yet  with  this  also  it  has  hitherto  been  impossible 
to  demonstrate  any  actual  continuity  of  cell  with  cell.  There  are, 
however,  certain  authorities  who  still  uphold  the  older  view. 
Thus  Adam  Sedgwick,  guided  by  certain  general  theoretical  con- 
siderations as  to  the  laws  of  cell  connection,  expects  to  find  the 
continuity  hypothesis  re-established.  Recently  Prof.  Dogiel,  of 
the  Siberian  University  at  Tomsk,  has  published  an  article  in 
Russian,  in  which  he  apparently  seeks  to  verify  the  same  hypo- 
thesis by  actual  observation,  but  unfortunately  his  results  are 
not  yet  fully  accessible  to  me.  The  settling  of  the  problem  is 
beset  with  the  greatest  difficulties. 

The  physiological  consequences  of  the  theory  of  non-continuity 
reach  very  far.  Thus,  if  the  sensory  fibers  simply  branch  within 
the  brain,  then  there  must  occur  a  leap  from  those  fibers  to  the 
cells  which  are  to  send  out  the  reflex  response  to  the  sensation. 
So  in  other  cases  there  must  be  a  leap  from  one  cell  to  another. 
Perhaps  the  leap  or  transfer  is  comparable  to  an  electric  induc- 
tion. But  it  is  obviously  useless  to  ramble  into  sheer  speculation. 

THE  FOURTH  DISCOVERY.— The  zones  of  His  were  vaguely 
recognized  by  Lowe,  but  to  His  belongs  the  honor  of  having  first 
clearly  recognized  them  and  established  their  morphological  im- 
portance. There  are  four  zones  of  His — two  on  each  side ;  they 
run  the  entire  length  of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  except  that  in 
the  partially  aborted  end  of  the  latter  the  zones  are  imperfectly 
developed.  Each  zone  is  a  thickening  of  the  wall  of  the  medullary 
tube.  We  distinguish  the  dorsal  and  ventral  zones.  The  dorsal 
zone  was  termed  by  His  the  Fliigelplatte  (wing  plate)  and  the 
ventral  zone  the  Grundplatte  (basilar  plate),  but  the  new  names 
proposed  appear  to  me  preferable.  At  an  early  stage  of  develop- 
ment the  two  zones  are  very  clearly  marked  off  from  one  another ; 
but  after  a  more  advanced  stage  is  reached,  although  they  pre- 
serve their  characteristic  differences,  their  delimitation  is  far  less 
conspicuous.  They  persist  throughout  life,  and  can  be  identified 
in  the  adult.  Thus,  for  example,  in  the  cerebral  region  proper,  or, 


380  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

as  commonly  termed,  the  region  of  the  third  ventricle,  is  a  groove 
known  as  the  sulcus  of  Munro,  which  runs  from  the  opening 
which  is  termed  the  foramen  of  Munro,  along  the  lateral  wall  of 
the  ventricle,  backward  to  the  narrow  continuation  of  the  ventri- 
cle which  has  received  the  fanciful  name  of  the  aqueduct  of  Syl- 
vius. This  groove,  the  exact  position  of  which  I  have  thus  indi- 
cated for  the  sake  of  possible  anatomical  readers,  is  the  boundary 
between  the  dorsal  and  ventral  zones.  The  superficial  character 
of  our  previous  knowledge  of  the  brain  is  emphasized  by  the  fact 
that  the  sulcus  of  Munro  is  usually  not  mentioned  or  figured  in 
anatomical  text-books,  and  yet  we  can  say  now  that  it  is  the  most 
important  landmark  to  be  found  in  the  part  of  the  brain  in  which 
it  occurs.  It  will  suffice  to  give  one  other  example  :  In  the  spinal 
cord  the  structure  known  by  the  name  of  the  posterior  fissure — a 
singular  misnomer,  since  it  is  not  a  fissure — arises  by  the  growing 
together  of  the  two  dorsal  zones ;  a  line  drawn  from  the  bottom  of 
the  so-called  posterior  fissure  to  the  entrance  of  the  posterior 
nerve  roots  would  represent  approximately  the  boundary  between 
the  dorsal  and  ventral  zones.  These  two  examples  can,  of  course, 
be  clear  only  to  anatomists,  but  they  demonstrate  the  permanency 
of  the  zonal  divisions. 

We  have  already  learned  that  the  fibers  which  arise  from  the 
nerve  cells  of  the  ganglia  outside  the  nervous  system  proper  enter 
the  dorsal  zone  of  His  and  there  fork,  the  forks  running  longitu- 
dinally within  the  zone  but  in  opposite  directions.  Gradually  the 
number  of  fibers  running  in  the  zone  increases  until  they  form  a 
fibrous  tract  of  considerable  size.  The  tract  is  originally  situated 
next  the  outer  surface  of  the  nervous  system ;  in  the  case  of  the 
spinal  cord  it  remains  permanently  upon  the  outside,  and  there- 
fore, as  the  nerve  fibers  ultimately  become  white  in  color,  there  is 
the  so-called  "  white  substance  "  covering  the  outer  portion  of  the 
dorsal  zone  of  the  spinal  cord,  and  it  is  this  covering,  which  is 
known  anatomically  as  the  posterior  columns,*  and  which  over- 
lies all  the  medullary  nerve  cells  that  form  part  of  the  interior 
or  "  gray  matter."  In  the  brain  also  there  enter  several  nerves, 
the  ganglionic  fibers  which  are  distributed  in  precisely  the  same 
way  as  those  just  described — that  is,  they  produce  a  superficial 
layer  in  the  dorsal  zone ;  they  may  be  seen  in  this  position  during 
early  stages  in  the  part  of  the  brain  (medulla  oblongata)  adjoining 
the  spinal  cord.  By  secondary  processes  there  follows  a  spread- 
ing of  the  nervous  tissues  over  the  outside  of  this  white  matter. 
We  then  have  a  white  matter  buried  and  isolated,  but  it  remains, 
what  it  was  primitively,  the  direct  continuation  of  the  superficial 

*  Including  the  postero-lateral  columns,  the  columns  of  Burdach,  and  perhaps  also  the 
columns  of  Gol. 


STRUCTURAL   PLAN    OF  THE  HUMAN  BRAIN.      381 

layer  of  the  spinal  cord.  The  bundle  of  nerve  fibers  is  known  as 
the  solitary  tract.  Although  the  relations  are  complicated  and 
not  easily  rendered  clear,  I  hope  enough  has  been  said  to  demon- 
strate that  the  dorsal  zone  always  remains  what  it  is  at  first — the 
zone  into  which  the  ganglionic  fibers  enter  and  in  which  they 
chiefly  ramify. 

As  every  one  knows,  the  two  largest  divisions  or  parts  of  the 
human  brain  are  the  cerebrum  or  hemispheres  and  the  cerebel- 
lum. These,  we  have  now  learned,  are  both  structures  developed 
exclusively  from  the  dorsal  zones  of  His,  and  have  therefore  a 
very  different  morphological  value  from  what  has  hitherto  been 
assumed — not  being  modifications  of  the  whole  brain,  but  only 
local  developments  of  the  dorsal  half  of  the  brain.  Just  as  primi- 
tively the  medullary  fibers  which  arise  in  the  dorsal  zone  pass 
into  the  ventral  zone,  so  in  the  specialized  cerebral  hemispheres 
and  in  the  cerebellum  there  arise  very  numerous  nerve  fibers, 
but  these  still  obey  the  primal  law  and  take  their  courses  into  the 
portions  of  the  brain  representing  the  ventral  zones,  and  thence 
the  fibers  are  distributed  to  their  various  destinations.  Until  the 
relations  of  the  zones  to  the  nerve  fibers,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
the  hemispheres  and  cerebellum  on  the  other,  had  been  embryo- 
logically  determined,  it  could  not  be  known  that  the  course  of 
the  cerebral  and  cerebellar  fibers  is  in  accordance  with  a  funda- 
mental law  of  nervous  organization.  We  can  foresee,  though 
somewhat  vaguely,  that  essential  physiological  deductions  will 
follow  the  application  of  the  law  to  the  study  of  the  functions  of 
the  brain. 

The  relations  of  the  zones  in  the  entire  brain  are  indicated  by 
the  diagram  011  page  374,  which  scarcely  calls  for  comment, 
since  it  sufficiently  explains  itself.  I  need  only  add  that  the  posi- 
tion of  the  dividing  line  of  the  zones  in  the  region  of  the  corpora 
quadrigemina  is  somewhat  uncertain.  In  the  embryo  this  region 
is  known  as  the  mid-brain,  and  shows  the  primary  division  very 
clearly ;  but  as  the  further  development  has  not  been  worked  out 
properly  yet,  we  can  not  decide  positively  as  to  the  exact  demar- 
cation of  the  zones  in  the  adult.* 

The  ventral  zone  of  the  brain  may  be  defined,  as  we  have  al- 
ready learned,  as  the  territory  of  the  medullary  fibers,  for  it  fur- 
nishes the  pathway  for  those  fibers  to  collect  in  bundles,  which 
may  either  form  nerve  roots  (ventral  or  lateral),  or  may  cross,  as 
so-called  commissural  fibers,  from  one  side  to  the  other  in  order  to 
establish  the  nervous  connection  between  the  two  halves  of  the 

*  I  am  led  to  suppose  that  the  dorsal  zones  of  the  mid-brain  unite,  but  that  the  ventral 
zones  do  not,  and  that  therefore  the  aqueduct  of  Sylvius  lies  entirely  between  the  ventral 
zones,  the  dorsal  portion  of  the  original  cavity  in  that  region  of  the  brain  being  obliterated. 
It  is  very  possible  that  this  supposition  is  incorrect. 


382  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

brain  or  spinal  cord.  Most  all  the  nerve  fibers  produced  within 
the  brain  enter  the  ventral  territory,  for  in  this  territory  we  observe 
not  only  the  fibers  which  it  obviously  must  include — namely, 
those  which  are  produced  by  the  nerve  cells  of  the  ventral  zone — 
but  also  the  nerve  fibers  produced  by  the  nerve  cells  of  the  dorsal 
zone.  So  far  as  at  present  known,  the  nerve  cells  of  the  dorsal 
zone  all  produce  nerve  fibers,  but  these  fibers  always  pass  into  the 
ventral  division  of  the  nervous  system.  These  fibers  of  dorsal 
origin  are  the  chief,  perhaps  the  only  ones,  which  are  commis- 
sural — that  is  to  say,  which  pass  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  brain ; 
others  of  these  fibers  take  longitudinal  courses  within  the  ven- 
tral zone ;  while  still  others  participate  in  the  formation  of  the 
nearest  ventral  (or  anterior)  nerve  roots.  If,  therefore,  we  as- 
sume that  the  sensory  nerve  impulses  are  carried  into  the  dorsal 
zone  and  there  transferred  to  the  medullary  nerve  cells,  we  must 
conclude  that  from  those  cells  the  impulse  may  be  sent  along  me- 
dullary fibers  either  into  the  opposite  side,  or  up  and  down  the 
ventral  zone,  or  into  a  neighboring  nerve  root.  The  center  of 
divergence  is  the  dorsal  zone,  but  the  actual  divergence  of  the 
fibers  takes  place  in  the  ventral  zone. 

Although  the  ventral  zone  receives  medullary  fibers  and  itself 
produces  nerve  fibers,  it  sends,  so  far  as  yet  observed,  no  fiber  into 
the  dorsal  zone,  but  all  the  fibers  which  leave  the  ventral  zone 
form  nerve  roots  and  leave  the  nervous  system  altogether.  These 
roots,  as  we  have  already  learned,  are  in  two  sets — the  lateral  and 
ventral. 

SUMMARY. — The  numerous  facts  which  we  have  marshaled  in 
hasty  review  so  greatly  widen  our  knowledge  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem that  it  is  important  to  render  them  as  clear  as  possible.  If 
what  has  been  presented  be  critically  considered,  it  will  be  found 
that  what  we  have  gained  is  an  enormous  accession  of  knowledge 
in  regard  to  the  nature,  origin,  distribution,  and  connections  of 
nerve  fibers.  In  order  to  make  the  typical  variations  of  nerve 
fibers  as  evident  as  possible,  I  have  constructed  the  accompanying 
diagram,  which  is,  I  think,  correct  for  all  which  it  attempts  to 
give.  We  notice :  First,  that  the  central  nervous  system  is  a  med- 
ullary tube,  the  walls  of  which  form  two  dorsal  zones  and  two 
ventral  zones.  Second,  that  every  nerve  fiber  arises  from  a  single 
cell  only,  and  is  nowhere  united  with  any  other  cell.  Third,  that 
every  nerve  fiber  has  a  branching  termination.  Fourth,  there  are 
three  kinds  of  nerve  fibers :  (1)  Medullary,  which  arise  from  the 
nerve  cells  of  the  central  nervous  system  proper ;  of  the  medul- 
lary fibers  three  kinds  are  distinguished — namely,  those  which 
pass  out  to  form  the  ventral  root,  those  which  pass  out  to  form 
the  lateral  root,  and  those  which  pass  as  commissures  to  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  tube ;  there  are  also  medullary  fibers  which  run 


THE  AMERICAN  WOMAN.  383 

lengthwise  of  the  nervous  system,  but  these  are  not  represented 
in  the  diagram ;  second,  ganglionic  fibers,  which  run  from  the  bi- 
polar ganglionic  nerve  cells  in  two  directions,  and  have  two  ter- 
minations, one  branching  within  the  medullary  tube,  the  other 
branching  to  form  peripheral  sense  organs ;  third,  peripheral  sen- 
sory fibers,  which  spring  from  the  nerve-sense  cells ;  that  fibers  of 
such  origin  exist  is  well  known,  but  that  they  enter  the  central 
nervous  system  and  there  ramify,  as  here  depicted,  has  as  yet  been 
actually  demonstrated  only  in  the  earthworm.  Fifth,  that  all  the 
ganglionic  and  peripheral  sensory  fibers  enter  the  dorsal  zone  only, 
while  all  the  medullary  fibers  make  their  exit  from  the  ventral 
zone  only. 

If  we  can  reason  from  the  structure,  we  must  conclude  that 
all  the  complicated  functions  of  the  brain  depend  upon  four  pri- 
mary sets  of  functions — namely,  1,  2,  and  3,  the  functions  of  the 
three  classes  of  nerve  cells,  together  with  their  connected  fibers  ; 
and  4,  the  function  of  transferring  nerve  impulse  from  one  fiber 
to  another.  Until  physiologists  and  psychologists  shall  have 
learned  to  differentiate  the  four  sets  of  functions,  and  have  in- 
vented successful  means  for  their  separate  investigation,  cerebral 
physiology  is,  in  my  opinion,  likely  to  remain,  what  it  has  so  long 
been,  a  science  of  unsolved  problems. 


THE  AMERICAN  WOMAN. 

BY  M.  C.  DE  VAKIGNY. 

IN  essential  characteristics — by  tradition,  by  nature,  and  by 
education — the  American  woman  is  the  direct  antithesis  of  the 
woman  of  the  East,  of  her  of  whom  the  HitopadeVa  says,  "A 
woman  should  be  under  the  watch  of  her  father  during  infancy,  of 
her  husband  in  middle  age,  of  her  sons  in  old  age,  and  never  inde- 
pendent." In  the  United  States  she  is  under  the  watch  of  no  one, 
but  under  the  protection  of  all. 

If  by  the  aid  of  historical  documents  we  reconstitute  the  colo- 
nial situation  in  America  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  we  find  the 
man  absorbed  in  daily  work  out  of  doors  and  the  woman  in  her 
tasks  within,  and  equality  of  the  sexes  resulting  from  equality  of 
burdens  and  responsibilities ;  then,  as  prosperity  increases,  the 
task  of  the  woman  diminishes  while  the  burden  of  the  man  re- 
mains the  same,  and  the  leisure  of  the  former  contrasts  with  the 
severe  labor  of  the  other.  Woman's  intelligence  develops  and 
extends ;  man's  becomes  concentrated  and  specialized,  his  education 
is  limited,  and  remunerative  labor  awaits  him  and  takes  him  away 
early  in  life.  She,  the  equal  and  companion  of  man  at  the  begin- 


384  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ning,  becomes  gradually  superior  to  him,  by  the  leisure  which  he 
creates  for  her  and  the  use  she  makes  of  it,  in  intellectual  culti- 
vation, in  the  variety  and  extent  of  her  knowledge,  and  by  the 
lead  which  she  is  able  to  take  and  keep.  She  is  the  resultant  of 
a  concurrence  of  circumstances  which  have  not  yet  been  found 
united  in  a  like  degree  anywhere  else,  and  which  have  all  con- 
tributed to  make  her  a  superior  type  of  the  race.  In  her  are 
combined  and  fused  the  characteristic  traits  which,  more  special- 
ized in  the  man,  appear  accentuated,  magnified,  exaggerated,  as 
well  by  the  free  play  of  natural  instincts  as^  by  the  necessity  of 
furnishing  himself  with  arms  in  the  struggle  for  existence  and  of 
demanding  from  them  the  maximum  of  force  and  of  practical 
utility.  In  the  woman  these  characteristics  persist,  but  they  are 
tempered  and  held  in ;  she  smooths  their  angles  and  polishes 
their  facets,  and  of  a  dull  pebble  makes  a  precious  stone.  The 
constituent  parts  remain  the  same,  but  a  judicious  cutting  sets 
the  luster  and  beauty  of  the  stone  in  clear  relief. 

Those  who  find  more  to  blame  than  to  approve  in  the  Ameri- 
can young  woman,  who  are  shocked  at  the  freedom  of  her  ways, 
at  her  independence,  at  her  scorn  of  social  conventions,  at  her 
luxurious  tastes  and  her  fondness  for  admiration,  have  often  made 
those  traits  the  text  of  their  accusations  against  the  democratic 
institutions  of  the  United  States.  According  to  their  reasoning, 
the  result  could  not  be  otherwise,  given  the  same  premises  as  a 
point  of  departure,  namely,  the  customary  association  of  young 
women  and  young  men,  equality  of  the  sexes  raised  to  an  axiom^ 
abdication  of  parental  dictatorship,  independence  of  children,  and 
freedom  of  matrimonial  choice.  The  eccentricities  noticed  by 
them  are,  in  their  view,  the  inevitable  consequences  of  a  democ- 
racy hostile  by  instinct  to  the  principle  of  authority,  endeavoring 
to  reduce  it  everywhere  to  its  minimum  of  action  and  control,  ex- 
tolling equality  with  an  apostolic  zeal  and  practicing  it  with  the 
fervor  of  a  neophyte.  And  now  these  pretended  apostles  of  equal- 
ity, these  self-styled  levelers  of  privilege,  have  ended  with  re-estab- 
lishing inequality  with  the  advantage  on  the  woman's  side,  with 
making  her  the  eminently  privileged  person,  and,  reversing  the 
Asiatic  conception,  of  elevating  her  into  a  despot  and  converting 
the  man  into  a  subject.  It  seems  to  us,  however,  that  the  influ- 
ence of  political  institutions  on  social  habits  has  been  very  much 
exaggerated.  Unstable  and  mobile,  the  former  change  at  the 
caprice  or  the  passions  or  the  necessities  of  the  moment.  Not  so 
with,  that  aggregation  of  usages  and  customs  which  rests  upon 
uninterrupted  traditions,  upon  a  long  transmission.  They  un- 
dergo modification,  but  slowly ;  they  are  the  results  of  the  experi- 
ence of  centuries,  and  never  proceed  by  jumps  in  their  evolution. 
More  of  the  fundamentally  primitive  than  is  usually  believed  re- 


THE  AMERICAN  WOMAN.  385 

mains  common  to  the  Americans  and  the  English  in  their  rela- 
tions to  women;  and  the  large  place  given  to  woman  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  greater  independence  she  enjoys,  flow  as 
much  from  the  change  of  medium  as  from  the  advanced  intel- 
lectual position  which  she  was  able  to  take  at  the  beginning  and 
has  long  held. 

But  as  the  United  States  grows  and  becomes  more  refined, 
the  difference  between  the  sexes  in  this  respect  is  diminishing. 
Yet  while  man  has  to  a  large  extent  recovered  possession  of  the 
vantage-ground  in  mental  cultivation  occupied  by  woman,  and 
while  his  stronger  faculties,  more  robust  organization,  and  more 
sustained  will  give  him  the  superiority  everywhere  else,  there  is 
a  social  domain  from  which  he  could  not  and  would  not  dispossess 
her — a  domain  hers  by  tradition  and  by  concessions  which  he  has 
made  and  she  has  accepted  and  extended.  At  this  poii!t  becomes 
manifest  the  contrast  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Latin 
races,  the  antithesis  between  the  conception  of  the  East  and  that 
of  the  West,  the  two  poles  of  which  are  Asia  and  the  United 
States,  while  its  mean  term  is  found  in  central  and  southern  Eu- 
rope. To  these  two  poles  correspond,  in  effect,  a  maximum  and  a 
minimum  of  human  personality.  This  personality  is  nowhere  so 
intense  as  in  the  United  States,  and  nowhere  less  so  than  in  the 
extreme  East.  England  transmitted  to  the  United  States,  with 
that  basis  of  personality  peculiar  to  the  English  race  and  more 
accentuated  there  than  anywhere  else  in  Europe,  that  respect  for 
individuality  which  made  itself  manifest  at  an  early  period  in 
British  laws  and  institutions. 

Cantoned  in  her  family  and  social  domain,  the  American 
woman  has  till  this  time  made  only  rare  and  timid  incursions  into 
the  field  of  politics.  But  in  the  field  in  which  she  usually  moves, 
we  are  struck,  on  a  close  examination  of  the  various  phases  and 
details  of  life  in  the  United  States,  with  the  important  place  she 
occupies.  This  is  true  to  a  higher  degree  in  modest  conditions,  in 
the  agricultural  districts,  in  the  farms  and  settlements  and  in 
populations  of  working  people,  than  in  the  large  cities.  Not  that 
these,  too,  do  not  contain  curious  types  for  study,  essentially 
original,  and  tending  in  a  high  degree  to  reconcile  the  exigencies 
of  the  external  features  of  modern  life  with  lofty  aspirations  and 
an  active  philanthropy. 

Given,  as  the  points  of  departure  for  woman's  position  in  the 
United  States,  equality  with  man,  intellectual  and  social  predomi- 
nance, with  the  charms  of  her  sex  refined  and  developed  by 
natural  selection,  by  unions  between  young  women  free  to  choose 
and  a  race  of  colonists  energetic,  vigorous,  deeply  imbued  with 
religious  convictions,  and  respecting  the  conjugal  bond,  woman 
must  necessarily  appear,  at  any  given  moment,  as  the  definite  ex- 

VOL.    XLIII. — 26 


386  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

pression,  the  superior  type  of  the  race  and  the  medium.  She  is 
to-day,  what  the  American  exhibits  her  in  Europe  with  a  legiti- 
mate pride,  the  most  finished  work  of  the  country's  two  centuries 
of  civilization. 

It  seems  as  if  on  the  American  soil,  essentially  democratic, 
Nature  showed  herself,  in  what  concerns  woman,  more  aristocratic 
than  elsewhere,  and  that  the  genius  of  natural  selection  was  work- 
ing perpetually  for  the  advancement  of  its  elect.  Of  all  these 
gifts  which  it  has  lavished  upon  her,  one  of  the  most  character- 
istic is  certainly  adaptability.  Few  women  in  Europe  possess  in 
the  same  degree  as  the  American  woman  the  faculty  of  identify- 
ing themselves  with  their  medium,  of  changing  country,  climate, 
and  surroundings  with  so  wonderful  suppleness.  More  perfectly 
than  others,  she  accommodates  herself  to  circumstances,  while  she 
preserves  her  individuality  in  a  strange  surrounding. 

Wherever  we  meet  the  American  women — and  we  meet  her 
everywhere,  in  the  ranks  of  the  English  peerage  and  of  the 
highest  European  aristocracy,  as  well  as  in  more  modest  con- 
ditions— we  are  struck  with  that  marvelous  adaptability  in 
which  wise  men  see  the  sign  of  the  superiority  of  a  race  or  of  a 
species.  It  is  revealed  notably  by  that  good  humor  with  which 
she  accepts  the  numerous  petty  annoyances  that  every  change 
of  medium  implies  and  which  put  the  best  characters  on  trial. 
She  submits  to  them  without  effort,  and  criticises  them  without 
bitterness ;  she  is,  further,  prepared  for  them  by  her  education, 
and  does  not  expect  to  find  everything  easy.  Then  the  necessity 
of  manual  labor  does  not  seem  to  her  like  a  degrading  condition ; 
at  most  only  one  or  two  generations  separate  her  from  the  time 
when  her  grandmother  kneaded  the  family  bread  in  the  primitive 
settlements.  These  stories  are  familiar  to  her,  and  the  lessons 
deduced  from  them  are  not  discouraging  or  humiliating.  She  is 
the  (laughter  of  a  race  of  emigrants  who  have  become  a  great 
people  through  work,  energy,  and  determination.  She  has  in 
this  at  her  command  a  whole  treasury  of  traditions  from  which 
she  draws,  not  without  pride.  We  might  say,  in  listening  to 
these  stories,  that  we  were  hearing  one  of  those  grandes  dames 
of  the  past  century,  emigrants  and  poor,  telling  with  pride  in 
their  memoirs  how,  to  supply  their  wants,  they  worked  in  Lon- 
don or  in  Germany,  utilizing  their  accomplishments  and  their 
correct  taste,  and  making  trimmings  and  embroidering  robes  with 
their  own  aristocratic  hands. 

The  American  woman  has  no  more  false  shame  and  silly  con- 
ceit than  they  had.  We  can  observe  her  at  Paris,  Nice,  Pau,  or 
in  Switzerland,  everywhere  at  ease,  the  first  to  laugh  at  her  mis- 
takes in  language,  or  at  her  ignorance  of  continental  usages. 
Wherever  she  may  be  she  seems  to  be  at  home  ;  and  the  country 


THE  AMERICAN  WOMAN.  387 

that  pleases  her  is,  during  the  time  she  lives  in  it,  her  adopted 
country.  The  thought  never  occurs  to  her  that  she  may  be 
ridiculous  or  may  appear  so  ;  or  that  a  woman  can  be  ridiculous 
or  a  man  think  it  of  her.  Such  is  the  confidence,  justified  by  ex- 
perience, which  the  privileges  of  her  sex  give  her,  that  she  has 
neither  timorous  reserve  nor  sickly  timidity.  Homage  paid  to 
her  as  a  woman  does  not  embarrass  her,  attention  does  not  dis- 
concert her.  She  is  accustomed  to  them,  and  freely  confesses  the 
pleasure  they  cause  her. 

She  is  the  resultant  of  a  mode  of  education,  of  a  kind  of  life 
that  differs  profoundly  from  ours.  She  has  been  taught  to  rely 
upon  herself,  to  judge  for  herself.  In  her  relations  with  men  she 
has  always  been  free  but  responsible,  guardian  of  her  own  honor, 
and  artisan  of  her  future.  She  has  seen  and  observed ;  she  is  not 
ignorant  of  the  duties  of  life,  or  of  the  perils  of  independence.  If 
the  objection  is  made  that  this  too  premature  knowledge  is  often 
liable  to  render  her  under  a  brilliant  and  sportive  exterior  coldly 
calculating  and  too  early  cautious,  we  may  answer  that  she  will 
sooner  or  later  have  to  deduce  her  own  conclusions  from  what 
surrounds  her,  of  the  world  in  which  she  lives,  and  that  it  may 
be  better  for  her  eyes  to  be  opened  to  evidence  and  her  judgment 
to  be  formed  before  making  the  decisive  choice  of  her  life. 

It  is  hard  in  examining  such  a  question  to  abstract  one's  self 
sufficiently  from  the  usages  and  the  ideas  of  the  medium  in  which 
one  lives — to  be  absolutely  impartial.  By  instinct  we  are  inclined 
toward  accepted  ideas,  usual  customs,  and  current  axioms.  Our 
own  ideas  are  still  too  far  away  from  those  of  the  people  across  the 
sea  for  strong  contradictions  not  to  arise  between  them.  In  such 
a  matter  experience  only  is  of  value,  and  we  can  judge  equitably 
only  by  results.  Here  experience  is  conclusive  and  the  results 
are  satisfactory. 

If  the  American  Union  is  to-day  one  of  the  first  countries  in 
the  world,  it  owes  the  fact  to  a  large  extent  to  the  American 
woman,  who  was  and  still  is  an  important  factor  in  its  astonish- 
ing prosperity.  The  United  States  owes  it  to  her  that  it  has  pre- 
served the  religious  faith,  the  principle  of  vitality,  imported  by  the 
Pilgrim  fathers  to  the  American  shores.  She  has  been  the  effica- 
cious artisan  of  the  work.  She  has  maintained  it,  extended  and 
enlarged  it  in  the  church  and  the  school.  In  hours  of  difficulty, 
as  during  the  war  of  independence  and  the  war  of  secession,  the 
patriotism  of  the  woman  sustained  the  courage  of  the  man.  Under 
all  circumstances  she  was  his  companion  and  his  equal.  As  such 
he  respected  her,  and  that  respect  which  she  inspired  in  him  by  her 
self-denial  and  her  courage  in  the  beginning,  by  her  intelligence  and 
good  breeding  afterward,  by  her  charms  and  her  confidence  in  his 
protection,  has  fashioned  American  manners,  and  has  strongly 


388  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

impregnated  them  with  the  idea  that  respect  for  his  companion 
was  for  the  man  one  of  the  prime  conditions  of  moral  life.  This 
moral  life  is  her  own  work.  She  created  and  she  maintains  it.  In 
the  cult  of  which  she  is  the  object,  in  the  homage  which  man  ren- 
ders to  her,  there  is  more  than  the  mysterious  attraction  which 
sex  inspires :  there  is  the  instinctive  recognition  of  a  great  and 
salutary  influence  nobly  exercised. — Selected  and  translated  for 
The  Popular  Science  Monthly  from  the  author's  article  in  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Monde s. 


TEACHING  PHYSICS. 

BY  PROF.  FEEDEEICK  GUTHEIE,  F.  E  S. 

is  110  physical  science  without  exactness,  and  there  is 
-  no  exactness  without  measurement.  Far  as  we  are  still  from 
understanding  the  mystery  of  life,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the 
greatest  advances  in  biology  have  been  due  to  exactness  in  ob- 
servation and  quantitative  comparison.  This  is  more  markedly 
the  case  with  the  sciences  of  geology  and  astronomy.  Still  more 
is  this  to  be  insisted  on  in  the  study  of  the  forces  of  inanimate 
Nature.  I  have  always,  for  instance,  tried  to  persuade  those  of 
my  friends  who  are  engaged  in  teaching  chemistry  that  they 
would  do  well  to  begin  at  once  with  quantitative  methods  and 
determinations  in  the  laboratory,  synthetic  as  well  as  analytic. 

This  quantitative  element  is  still  more  essential  in  physics. 
There  everything  should  be  quantitative  and  exact.  But  there 
are  different  degrees  of  exactness.  No  one  would  expect  from  the 
average  student  of  chemistry  that  all  his  analyses  should  be  of 
the  same  degree  of  refinement  as  though  he  were  determining  the 
atomic  weight  of  an  element.  Let  his  analyses  be  sufficiently 
exact  to  convince  him  of  the  faithfulness  of  Nature  and  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the  statements  of  the  science. 

Now,  in  bringing  before  you  to-night  a  short  account  of  the 
system  of  teaching  practical  or  laboratory  physics  which  has  been 
adopted  at  the  Government  Science  Schools  with  which  I  am  con- 
nected, I  must  speak  a  few  words  as  to  the  origin  of  that  system. 

The  problem  was  briefly  this.  Given  a  class  of  students  of 
various  ages,  from  sixteen  to  sixty,  and  of  various  degrees  of  gen- 
eral knowledge  and  ability.  Assume  that  they  are  all  anxious  to 
learn,  and  that  none  of  them  have  worked  systematically  before 
in  a  physical  laboratory,  and  let  the  instruction  be  limited  to  a 
few  months — say  four. 

The  problem  is  to  give  them  a  sound  but  necessarily  element- 
ary training  in  the  science,  so  that  all  shall  have  an  opportunity  of 
acquiring  such  a  knowledge  of  physics  as  no  educated  man  should 


TEACHING  PHYSICS.  389 

be  without,  and  no  scientific  man  dare  to  be  without,  and  to  those 
who  have  the  ability,  the  opportunity,  and  the  desire,  a  trust- 
worthy foundation  on  which  to  base  their  further  studies. 

The  scheme  almost  necessarily  formed  itself  into  the  follow- 
ing :  The  student  attends  a  lecture  every  morning,  except  Satur- 
day, at  ten  o'clock.  These  lectures,  in  the  present  case,  are  about 
seventy  in  number.  At  eleven  o'clock  he  goes  into  the  laboratory, 
provided  with  a  few  tools ;  there  he  finds  the  necessary  material 
for  making  apparatus  relating  to  the  lecture.  He  has  also  printed 
instructions  directing  him  how  to  make  and  how  to  use  the  appa- 
ratus when  made.  He  finds  also  working  models  of  such  appa- 
ratus for  his  guidance.  These  instructions  he  carries  out  under 
the  supervision  and  advice  of  a  skilled  assistant. 

The  instruments  the  student  of  average  skill  can  and  does 
make  under  proper  instruction  with  these  means  are  far  more 
accurate  than  those  he  is  at  all  likely  to  be  able  to  buy.  I  do  not 
say  that  his  divided  circles  will  be  as  accurate  as  those  of  Trough- 
ton  and  Sims,  nor  will  his  spectroscope  compare  with  one  of  Hil- 
ger's,  nor  his  resistance  coils  with  those  of  Elliott,  nor  his  ba- 
rometer with  the  one  at  Kew ;  but  I  do  say  that  his  barometer  is 
a  far  more  exact  instrument  than  one  for  which  he  would  have  to 
give  several  pounds ;  that  his  spectroscope  will  divide  the  sodium 
line ;  that  his  coils  are  true  to  the  thousandth  of  their  nominal 
value ;  that  he  can  determine  the  wave-length  of  light  to  within 
YoVo-  of  the  truth,  the  specific  heat  of  a  metal  to  Tfo >  and  the  length 
of  a  sound-wave  to  ^^-g-  of  the  truth.  The  only  bought  instrument 
of  precision  which  the  student  uses  in  the  elementary  course 
is  the  balance.  He  has  generally,  however,  acquired  some  skill 
with  this,  and  in  the  manipulation  of  glass,  in  the  chemical  labo- 
ratory. 

Starting  with  a  tuning  fork  which  is  given  to  him,  and  the 
monochord  which  he  makes,  the  student  is  able  to  verify  the  in- 
tervals of  the  gamut  as  dependent  on  length  of  string.  He  then 
examines  the  effects  of  variation  of  diameter,  of  tension,  and  of 
weight  of  the  string. 

Tuning  forks  are,  however,  seldom  exact.  The  actual  pitch  of 
the  fork  is  found  by  the  method  of  sinuosities.  A  smoked  glass 
plate  is  dropped  in  front  of  a  style  on  the  fork,  and  so  the  fork 
writes  its  own  number.  Hence,  by  means  of  the  length  of  the 
resonant  cavity,  the  velocity  of  sound  in  air  is  obtained  with  some 
accuracy,  and  by  the  method  of  longitudinal  vibrations  the  ve- 
locity in  wood,  glass,  and  brass,  etc.,  follows.  The  rule  of  the 
transverse  vibrations  of  rods  is  examined.  The  production  of 
harmonics  on  strings,  rods,  and  in  tubes  is  shown,  and  a  number 
of  experiments  follow  concerning  the  velocity  of  sound  in  differ- 
ent gases  as  determined  by  dust  figures. 


390  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Having  made  and  graduated  both  a  direct  alcohol  and  a  differ- 
ential air  thermometer,  the  absolute  expansions  of  water  and  alco- 
hol are  determined.  Very  accurate  results  may  easily  be  got  as 
to  the  latent  heats  of  water  and  steam.  Then  the  student,  having 
made  his  calorimeter,  determines  the  specific  heats  of  iron,  copper, 
zinc,  tin,  and  lead.  The  specific  heats  of  a  few  liquids  are  deter- 
mined either  by  direct  comparison  with  water  or  indirectly  with 
the  metals. 

In  light,  the  chief  work  consists  of  the  following  :  The  making 
and  use  of  the  diaphanous  and  shadow  photometers ;  the  making 
of  an  instrument  for  examining  the  rules  of  reflection  and  refrac- 
tion, and  the  verification  of  these  rules ;  the  determination  of 
refractive  indices  of  liquids  and  their  dispersive  powers;  the 
images  from  curved  mirrors,  the  measurement  of  focal  lengths, 
and  the  curvative  and  refractive  indices  of  lenses.  A  few  experi- 
ments concerning  plane  polarized  light  are  followed  by  the  de- 
termination of  the  wave-length  by  a  grating,  and  the  construction 
and  use  of  the  spectroscope. 

The  principal  pieces  of  apparatus  constructed  for  work  in  elec- 
tricity are :  A  gold  leaf  electroscope ;  a  differential  condenser ;  a 
sand-dropping  accumulator ;  a  Leyden  jar ;  an  electrophorus ;  a 
dry  pile ;  a  voltaic  cell ;  a  differential  galvanometer ;  a  resistance 
bridge ;  a  set  of  resistance  coils ;  a  tangent  galvanometer ;  a  po- 
tentiometer ;  a  thermo-element ;  a  thermopile.  And  by  these  ap- 
paratus typical  experiments  and  measurements,  of  which  the  fol- 
lowing are  a  few,  are  made :  The  study  of  magnetic  curves ;  the 
action  of  the  current  on  the  needle ;  the  relation  between  length, 
weight,  and  resistance  in  wires ;  the  effect  of  temperature  on  re- 
sistance ;  the  law  of  divided  circuits ;  specific  resistance ;  electro- 
motive force  ;  internal  resistance  of  cells,  and  so  on. 

Electricity,  especially  voltaic,  lends  itself  perhaps  more  abun- 
dantly to  exact  measurements  in  the  elementary  laboratory  than 
the  other  branches,  and  it  is  on  this  account,  and  because  it  is  the 
last  subject  treated  of,  and  so  claims  any  spare  time  at  the  end  of 
the  term,  that  it  occupies  a  rather  prominent  part.  I  do  not  hold 
that  it  has  really  any  greater  educational  value  than  the  other 
branches,  and  certainly  in  a  general  educational  course  it  is  not 
for  me  to  give  it  prominence,  because  just  now  it  has  a  consider- 
able technical  development.  I  trust  the  time  may  never  come 
when  any  branch  of  physics  will  be  considered  as  of  compara- 
tively little  importance  in  general  education. 

To-day  I  have  particularized  the  method  of  teaching  one 
branch  of  science.  I  have  had  to  use  strong  language,  for  I  feel 
strongly,  and  I  have  been  addressing  strong  people.  Of  this,  at 
least,  you  and  all  men  may  be  well  assured,  that  I  will  not  cease 
to  proclaim,  as  long  as  strength  is  given  to  me,  that  the  hope  of 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  391 

science  is  the  hope  of  the  world ;  that  while  I  yield  to  none  in 
my  love  of  imagination,  of  literature,  and  of  all  the  fine  arts,  they 
are  as  the  gracious  flowers  of  the  mind-plant  whose  leaves  and 
roots  are  the  truths  of  science.  True  that  the  living  plant  is  most 
beautiful  when  it  is  in  blossom.  He  who  plucks  off  the  flower, 
while  marring  the  beauty  of  the  plant,  destroys  the  fruit  forever. 
— Abridged  from  the  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Arts. 


RECENT  SCIENCE. 

By  PEINCE   KROPOTKIN. 


T^vURING  the  last  thirty  years  the  data  of  meteorology  have 
L'  been  accumulated  with  a  very  great  rapidity,  and  the  chief 
desideratum  of  the  moment  is,  to  construct  with  these  data  such 
a  general  theory  of  the  circulation  of  the  atmosphere  as  would 
embody  the  distribution  of  heat,  pressure,  moisture,  and  winds 
over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  represent  them  as  consequences 
of  well-established  mechanical  laws.  The  old  provisory  hypothe- 
sis of  atmospheric  circulation,  advocated  by  Hadley  in  1735,  and 
further  elaborated  by  Dove  in  our  century,  can  be  held  no  more, 
and  a  new  theory  has  become  of  absolute  necessity. 

We  all  have  learned  Dove's  theory  at  school,  even  though  we 
often  found  it  difficult  to  understand.  The  air,  greatly  heated 
on  or  near  the  equator,  rises  in  the  same  way  as  it  rises  in  the 
summer  over  a  sunburned  plain.  On  reaching  the  higher  strata  of 
the  atmosphere  it  flows  toward  the  poles,  but,  owing  to  the  speed 
of  rotation  which  it  has  acquired  in  the  lower  latitudes,  it  is  de- 
flected— to  consider  the  northern  hemisphere  only — to  the  right, 
and  blows  in  the  upper  strata  as  a  current  from  the  southwest. 
To  compensate  this  flow,  air  rushes  on  the  earth's  surface  toward 
the  equator,  and  as  it  also  is  deflected  from  its  course  by  the  same 
inertia  of  rotation,  it  appears  in  the  tropics  as  a  trade  wind  blow- 
ing from  the  northeast.  However,  the  upper  warm  current  does 
not  flow  all  the  way  to  the  pole  in  the  upper  regions ;  it  is  grad- 
ually cooled  down,  and  in  about  the  thirtieth  degree  of  latitude  it 
begins  to  descend  to  the  earth's  surface,  where  it  meets  with  the 
cold  polar  current.  A  struggle  between  the  two  winds  ensues,  and 
it  lasts  until  they  make  a  temporary  peace  by  blowing  side  by 
side,  or  one  above  the  other,  the  struggle  giving  origin  to  storms 
and  to  changes  of  wind  which  are  fully  analyzed  in  Dove's  theory. 
A  rope  without  end  rolling  over  two  pulleys,  one  of  which  lies 
horizontally  near  the  equator,  and  the  other  stands  upright  in 


392  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

higher  latitudes — such  was  the  simplest  expression  of  Dove's  the- 
ory given  in  text-books.* 

Under  this  provisory  hypothesis  meteorology  made  an  im- 
mense progress,  and  some  five-and-thirty  years  ago,  Leverrier  in 
France,  and  Fitzroy  in  England,  ventured  for  the  first  time  to 
foretell  weather  twenty-four  hours  in  advance,  or  at  least  to  send 
out  warnings  as  to  the  coming  storms.  This  bold  step  brought 
meteorologists  face  to  face  with  a  quite  new  problem.  From  the 
air  pressure,  the  temperature,  the  moisture,  and  the  winds  ob- 
served at  a  certain  hour  of  the  day  at  various  spots  and  tele- 
graphed to  a  central  station,  they  had  to  infer  the  next  probable 
state  of  weather.  So,  leaving  aside  the  great  problems  of  atmos- 
pheric circulation,  they  directed  their  attention  to  the  changes  of 
weather  rather  than  to  the  causes  of  the  changes,  f  For  this  pur- 
pose purely  empirical  laws  were  of  great  value.  When  the  me- 
teorologist saw  on  a  weather  chart  a  region  of  low  atmospheric 
pressure,  with  winds  blowing  in  spirals  round  and  toward  its 
center,  he  named  it,  by  analogy  with  real  cyclones,  a  "  cyclonic 
disturbance  "  or  a  "  cyclone,"  giving  the  name  of  "  anticyclone  " 
to  the  region  of  high  atmospheric  pressure — and  he  studied  the 
tracks  of  both  disturbances  in  their  advance  across  the  oceans  and 
the  continents.  He  did  not  inquire  for  the  moment  into  the  causes 
of  the  disturbances ;  he  took  them  as  facts,  and,  following  Buys 
Ballot's  law,  he  said  that  the  wind  will  blow  as  a  rule  from  the 
region  of  high  barometic  pressure  (the  anticyclone)  to  the  region 
of  low  pressure  (the  cyclone),  with  a  certain  deflection  to  the  right 
or  to  the  left.  Immense  researches  were  made  to  study  the  routes 
followed  by  the  centers  of  barometrical  minima,  and  we  now  have 
splendid  atlases  showing  the  normal  tracks  of  cyclones  across  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  over  Europe  and  the  States,  in  Japan,  in  the  In- 
dian Ocean,  and  so  on,  at  various  seasons  of  the  year.J  With  these 
empirical  data  meteorologists  attained  such  a  perfection  in  their 
weather  forecasts  that  in  five  cases  out  of  six  their  previsions  are 
now  correct,  while  the  coming  gales  are  even  foretold  with  a  still 
greater  accuracy. 


*E.  E.'Schmid,  Lehrbuch  der  Meteorologie,  Leipsic,  1860,  p.  568. 

f  See  W.  Bezold's  short  sketch  of  meteorological  progress  in  Sitzungsberichte  der  Ber- 
liner Akademie  der  Wissenschaften,  1890,  ii,  1295,  sq. 

\  Besides  the  earlier  works  of  Ley  (Laws  of  the  Winds  prevailing  in  Western  Europe, 
Part  I,  1872)  and  Koppen  (Wissenschaftliche  Ergebnisse  aus  der  monatlichen  Uebersichten 
des  Wetters,  l«73-'78),  we  have  now  the  splendid  work  of  W.  J.  Van  Bebber,  which  em- 
bodies the  tracks  of  all  cyclones  in  Europe  for  the  last  fifteen  years  (Die  Zugstrassen  der 
barometrischen  Minima,  fiir  1875-'90),  the  researches  of  Blanford,  S.  E.  Hill,  and  Elliot  in 
the  Indian  Meteorological  Memoirs  and  Cyclone  Memoirs,  Part  IV  (published  by  the  Mete- 
orological Department  of  India),  the  work  of  E.  Knipping  for  Japan,  in  Annual  Meteoro- 
logical Report  for  1890,  Part  II,  Appendix,  and  several  excellent  works  for  Russia. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  393 

However,  the  very  progress  achieved  demonstrated  the  neces- 
sity of  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  too  much  neglected  up- 
per currents  of  the  atmosphere.  In  Dove's  scheme,  the  upper 
equatorial  current,  after  part  of  it  had  been  sent  back  to  the  equa- 
tor, was  entirely  abandoned  to  itself,  to  make  its  way  as  best  it 
could  against  the  opposed  polar  winds;  but  the  existence  of  a 
strong,  nearly  permanent,  and  relatively  warm  upper  wind  blow- 
ing toward  the  east  in  our  latitudes — which  was  only  probable 
thirty  years  ago* — became  more  and  more  evident,  especially 
since  the  movements  of  clouds  began  to  be  systematically  studied 
and  observatories  were  erected  on  high  mountains ;  and  this  wind 
remained  unexplained  in  Dove's  theory,  while  in  Maury's  scheme 
of  atmospheric  circulation,  which  is  still  in  great  vogue  in  our 
schools,  there  was  even  substituted  for  it  a  current  in  an  opposite 
direction,  which  does  not  exist,  and  which  Maury  himself  could 
ndt  account  for.f  An  entire  revision  of  the  subject  was  thus  ne- 
cessary, and  this  revision  has  been  done  by  the  American  meteor- 
ologist Ferrel,  in  a  series  of  elaborate  works  which  are  only  now 
beginning  to  receive  from  meteorologists  the  attention  they  fully 
deserve. 

FerrePs  theory  is  based  upon  considerations  as  to  the  laws  of 
motion  of  liquids  and  gases  of  different  densities.  If  the  whole 
atmosphere  were  equally  heated  in  all  its  parts,  and  at  full  rest, 
the  air  would  be  disposed  in  horizontal  layers,  of  greater  density 
at  the  bottom,  and  of  decreasing  density  toward  the  top.  Consid- 
ering some  part  only  of  the  atmosphere,  from  pole  to  equator,  and 
neglecting  the  curved  surface  of  the  earth,  we  should  thus  have 
something  analogous  to  a  trough  filled  with  layers  of  different 
liquids.  If  one  end  of  the  trough  were  now  warmed,  and  the 
other  end  were  cooled,  the  layers  would  be  horizontal  no  more. 

*  Observations  in  Siberia — namely,  at  the  graphite  works  on  Mount  Alibert,  at  a  height 
of  eight  thousand  feet  (52°  north  latitude) — were  especially  conclusive.  Alibert's  observa- 
tions, buried  in  the  Russian  Trudy  of  the  Siberian  expedition,  proved  the  existence  of  a 
nearly  permanent  west  and  west-northwest  wind  on  the  top  of  the  peak,  and  they  showed 
at  the  same  time  that  the  average  yearly  temperature  on  the  top  of  the  peak  was  by  some 
fourteen  to  eighteen  Fahrenheit  degrees  higher  than  it  otherwise  ought  to  be.  When  I 
visited  the  then  abandoned  mine  in  1864,  and  saw  the  peak  dominating  all  surrounding 
mountains,  and  could  judge  of  the  force  of  the  west  wind  from  the  immense  works  accom- 
plished to  protect  the  road  which  was  traced  on  the  western  side  of  the  peak,  I  could  not 
refrain  from  explaining  the  extraordinary  great  height  of  the  snow-line  in  east  Siberia  by  the 
existence  of  a  relatively  warm  equatorial  current  blowing  with  a  great  force  at  a  height  of 
from  eight  to  ten  thousand  feet  in  the  latitude  of  52°  north.  Later  on  the  observations 
which  I  brought  from  the  Voznesensk  mine  (60°  north,  altitude  twenty-six  hundred  and 
twenty  feet)  induced  my  friend  Ferd.  Miiller,  who  calculated  those  observations,  to  conclude 
that  in  higher  latitudes  the  same  current  descends  still  lower  to  the  earth's  surface,  and  still 
maintains  some  of  its  initial  warmth. 

f  See  James  Thomson's  paper  On  the  Grand  Currents  of  the  Atmosphere,  in  Philosoph- 
ical Transactions,  A.  1892,  p.  671. 


394  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

They  would  be  inclined,  but  in  two  different  ways :  the  lower  ones 
would  be  inclined  toward  the  warm  part,  while  in  the  upper  layers 
the  inclination  would  be  the  reverse.  A  full  circuit  of  the  lighter 
liquids  flowing  one  way  on  the  surface,  and  of.  heavier  liquids 
flowing  the  other  way  on  the  bottom,  would  thus  be  established. 
The  same  would  happen  in  our  atmosphere  with  the  lighter  warm 
currents  and  the  heavier  cold  currents  if  the  earth  had  no  rota- 
tion on  its  axis.  But  it  rotates — the  solid  globe  as  well  as  its 
gaseous  envelope — and  this  modifies  the  whole  circulation.  The 
air  which  flows  from  the  equator  to  the  poles  maintains,  not  its 
velocity  of  rotation,  as  has  been  hitherto  taught,  but  its  energy  of 
rotation,  which  means  that  it  obeys  the  law  of  preservation  of 
areas ;  therefore,  when  it  is  transported  from  the  equator  to  a 
higher  latitude  it  is  endowed  (in  the  northern  hemisphere)  with  a 
much  greater  easterly  velocity  than  if  it  simply  maintained  its 
speed  of  rotation.  On  the  other  side,  the  air  which  is  flowing 
from  the  higher  latitudes  toward  the  equator  also  obeys  the  same 
law  and  acquires  a  westward  velocity,  but  much  smaller  than  the 
eastward  velocity  of  the  former ;  this  is  why  the  west  winds  have 
such  a  preponderance  in  our  latitudes.*  Moreover,  in  virtue  of 
the  centrifugal  force,  all.  masses  of  air  moving  in  any  direction — 
not  only  north  or  south,  but  also  due  west  or  east — are  also  de- 
flected to  the  right  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  and  to  the  left  in 
the  southern  hemisphere.!  Consequently  the  air  flows  in  great 
spirals  toward  the  poles,  both  in  the  upper  strata  of  the  atmosphere 
and  on  the  earth's  surface  beyond  the  thirtieth  degree  of  latitude ; 
while  the  return  current  blows  at  nearly  right  angles  to  the  above 
spirals,  in  the  middle  strata  as  also  on  the  earth's  surface,  in  a 
zone  comprised  between  the  parallels  30°  north  and  30°  south.]; 

Such  are,  very  briefly  stated,  the  leading  features  of  the  theory 
which  Ferrel  laboriously  worked  out  during  the  last  thirty  years, 
submitting  all  its  parts  to  the  test  of  both  observation  and  mathe- 
matical analysis.  By  the  end  of  his  life  (he  died  in  1891)  he  em- 
bodied his  theory  in  a  well-written  and  suggestive  popular  work, 

*  Full  tables  giving  the  eastward  (or  westward)  velocities  for  each  latitude,  under  the  two 
different  hypotheses,  have  been  calculated  for  the  Meteorologische  Zeitung,  1890,  pp.  399 
and  420. 

f  Ferrel  seems  not  to  have  been  aware  that  the  same  had  been  demonstrated  by  R.  Lenz 
for  rivers  (about  the  year  1870),  in  a  discussion  of  Baer's  law,  applied  to  the  Amu  River,  in 
the  Me'moires  of  the  St.  Petersburg  Academy. 

\  William  Ferrel,  A  Popular  Treatise  on  Winds,  comprising  the  General  Motion  of  the 
Atmosphere,  Monsoons,  Cyclones,  Tornadoes,  Waterspouts,  Hailstorms,  etc.  New  York : 
Wiley,  1889.  See  also  analysis  of  it  by  W.  M.  Davis  (in  Science,  xv,  p.  142 ;  translated  in 
Meteorologische  Zeitung,  1890;  Literaturbericht,  p.  41),  who  gave  the  best  diagram  of  cir- 
culation according  to  Ferrel' s  theory,  and  by  H.  F.  Blanford  in  Nature,  xli,  124.  A  full 
bibliography  of  Ferrel's  works  was  given  after  his  death  in  the  American  Meteorological 
Journal,  October,  1891. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  395 

wliich  fully  deserves  being  widely  known.  All  taken,  his  views 
so  well  agree  with  the  facts  relative  to  the  movements  of  the  at- 
mosphere, and  they  give  such  a  sound  method  for  further  investi- 
gation, that  they  are  sure  to  become  for  some  years  to  come  the 
leading  theory  of  meteorology.  They  already  have  given  a  strong 
impulse  to  theoretical  research,  and  have  created  a  whole  litera- 
ture in  Austria  and  Germany.* 

Another  theory  of  the  general  circulation  of  the  atmosphere 
which  is  also  awakening  a  good  deal  of  interest  among  physical 
geographers  was  propounded  in  1886  by  Werner  Siemens,  and 
further  developed  by  him  in  1890.  f  Siemens  did  not  consider 
that  air  might  flow  down  the  density  surfaces,  as  supposed  by 
Ferrel  and  Helmholtz,  and  admitted  by  many  meteorologists,  and 
he  maintained  that  the  source  of  the  energy  required  for  all  dis- 
turbances of  equilibrium  in  the  atmosphere  must  be  looked  for  in 
the  unequal  heating  of  its  different  strata  by  the  sun,  and  in  the 
unequal  loss  of  heat  through  radiation  in  space.  From  these 
considerations  he  inferred  the  existence  of  an  ascending  current 
in  the  equatorial  belt,  an  upper  warm  current,  and  a  cold  polar 
current.  As  to  the  eastward  and  westward  directions  of  these 
currents,  he  made  the  very  just  remark  that  the  energy  of  rota- 
tion of  the  whole  atmosphere  must  remain  constant  and  un- 
changed, even  though  masses  of  air  move  from  one  latitude  to 

*  Roth  has  already  abandoned  the  mathematical  objections  he  had  raised  against  Fer- 
rel's  theory  in  the  Wochenschrift  fur  Astronomie,  1888.  The  objections  raised  by  Teis- 
serenc  du  Bort  and  Supan  against  the  "  density  surfaces "  have  been  answered  by  Prof. 
Davis  in  Science,  and  are  not  shared  by  the  most  prominent  meteorologists.  And  the 
mathematical  analysis  of  Prof.  Waldo,  Sprung  (the  author  of  the  well-known  Treatise  of 
Meteorology),  M.  Moller,  and  Pernter  has  further  confirmed  the  accuracy  of  the  theory. 
So  also  Hildebrandsson's  observations  of  upper  clouds  (Annuaire  de  la  Societe  meteoro- 
logique  de  France,  xxxix,  338),  Teisserenc  du  Bort's  high-level  isobar?,  and  Guaran  de 
Trommelin's  researches  relative  to  coast  winds.  The  transport  of  the  Krakatoa  dust  and 
Abercromby's  observations  of  clouds  having  rendered  the  existence  of  an  upper  east  cur- 
rent very  probable  on  the  equator,  Pernter  has  mathematically  deduced  from  Ferrel's  the- 
ory the  existence  of  such  a  current  in  a  belt  4°  45'  wide  on  both  sides  of  the  equator,  and 
he  therefore  has  withdrawn  the  restrictions  he  had  previously  made  in  a  lecture  (published 
in  Nature,  1892,  xlv,  593)  in  favor  of  Siemens's  views.  It  must  be  added  that  the  idea  of 
three  superposed  currents  blowing  in  spirals  may  have  been  suggested  to  Ferrel  by  a  com- 
munication of  James  Thomson  to  the  British  Association  in  1857.  Such  was,  at  least,  the 
claim  raised  and  developed  at  some  length  by  the  Glasgow  professor  before  the  Royal 
Society  in  a  Bakerian  lecture,  now  published  in  the  Transactions  (A.  1892,  pp.  653-685). 
Though  Thomson's  paper  was  never  published,  and  only  given  in  a  very  short  abstract  with- 
out a  diagram  (the  diagram  in  the  Transactions  is  now  published  for  the  first  time),  the  few 
lines  in  which  his  theory  was  stated  (British  Association  Reports,  Dublin,  1857,  pp.  38,  39) 
contained  the  idea  clearly  expressed.  It  is  certainly  a  matter  of  great  regret  that  James 
Thomson  has  not  returned  to  this  subject. 

f  Ueber  die  Erhaltung  der  Kraft  im  Luf tmeere,  in  Sitzungsberichte  der  Berliner  Aka- 
demie  der  Wissenschaften,  March,  1886,  p.  261 ;  Ueber  das  allgemeine  Windsystem  der 
Erde,  in  same  publication,  1890,  ii,  p.  629. 


396  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

another.  The  velocity  of  rotation  of  the  atmosphere  in  tropical 
latitudes  must  therefore  lag  behind  the  rotation  of  the  earth,  and 
it  must  outstrip  it  in  higher  latitudes,  mathematical  calculation 
proving  that  the  thirty-fifth  parallel  is,  in  both  hemispheres,  the 
line  of  division  between  the  two.  The  general  system  of  air  cir- 
culation deduced  from  these  principles  is  very  similar  in  its  re- 
sults to  the  system  of  Ferrel ;  but  the  interest  and  importance  of 
Siemens^  views  lie  elsewhere.  His  memoirs  were  an  appeal  and 
an  attempt  to  apply  the  principles  of  thermodynamics  to  the 
aerial  currents,  and  they  have  opened  the  way  for  a  series  of  im- 
portant researches,  which,  however,  are  not  yet  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced to  be  discussed  in  these  pages. 

And,  finally,  a  third  new  point  of  view  has  been  introduced 
into  the  same  discussions  by  Helmholtz.  Sitting  one  day  by  the 
seaside,  and  observing  how  wind  blows  on  the  surface  of  the  sea 
by  sudden  gushes,  how  it  originates  waves,  and  how  they  grow 
when  wind  blows  with  an  increasing  force,  Helmholtz  came  to 
consider  what  would  happen  with  two  air  currents  blowing  one 
above  the  other  in  different  directions.  A  system  of  air  waves, 
he  concluded,  must  arise  in  this  case,  in  the  same  way  as  they  are 
formed  on  the  sea.  The  upper  current,  if  it  is  inclined  toward 
the  earth's  surface  (as  is  often  the  case),  must  originate  in  the 
lower  current  immense  aerial  waves  rolling  at  a  great  speed. 
We  do  not  generally  see  them,  but  when  the  lower  current  is  so 
much  saturated  with  moisture  that  clouds  are  formed  in  it,  we  do 
see  a  system  of  wavelike  parallel  clouds,  which  often  extend  over 
wide  parts  of  the  sky.  To  calculate  the  sizes  of  the  waves  in 
different  cases  is  extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible;  but  by 
taking  some  simpler  cases  Helmholtz  and  Oberbeck  showed  that 
when  the  waves  on  the  sea  attain  lengths  of  from  sixteen  to  thirty- 
three  feet,  the  air  waves  must  attain  lengths  of  from  ten  to  twenty 
miles,  and  a  proportional  depth.  Such  waves  would  make  the 
wind  blow  on  the  earth's  surface  in  rhythmical  gushes,  which  we 
all  know,  and  they  also  would  more  thoroughly  mix  together  the 
superposed  strata,  dissipating  the  energy  stored  in  strong  cur- 
rents. These  views  are  so  correct  that  they  undoubtedly  will 
throw  some  new  light,  as  they  already  begin  to  do,  upon  the 
theory  of  cyclones.* 

At  the  same  time,  Bezold  is  now  endeavoring  to  reconstruct 
meteorology  from  the  point  of  view  of  thermodynamics ;  f  and 
the  well-known  Austrian  meteorologist,  J.  Hann,  whose  work  is 

*  H.  Helmholtz,  Zur  Theorie  von  Wind  und  Wetter,  and  Die  Energie  der  Wogen  und 
des  Windes,  in  the  Sitzungsberichte  of  the  Berlin  Academy,  1889,  ii,  and  1890,  ii.  Ober- 
beck's  calculations  of  the  waves  are  given  in  the  Meteorologische  Zeitung,  1890,  p.  81. 

f  Zur  Thermodynamik  der  Atmosphare,  in  Sitzungsberichte  of  the  Berlin  Academy  of 
Sciences,  1888,  p.  485;  same  year,  p.  1189;  1890,  p.  355;  and  1892,  p.  279. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  397 

exciting  just  now  a  great  deal  of  interest,  has  openly  broken  with 
the  old  theory  as  regards  the  origin  of  cyclones  and  anticyclones.* 
From  observations  made  for  several  years  in  succession  on  the 
top  of  the  Sonnblick — a  peak  twelve  thousand  feet  high,  of  the 
Tyrolese  Alps — as  well  as  from  observations  made  on  several 
high-level  stations,  he  has  concluded  that  a  cyclone  can  not  be  due 
to  a  local  heating  of  the  earth's  surface  and  to  an  ascending  cur- 
rent of  warm  air  provoked  by  this  cause,  just  as  an  anticyclone 
can  not  be  due  to  a  local  cooling  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  to  a 
consequent  condensation  of  the  air.  Contrary  to  the  previsions 
of  the  meteorologists,  the  ascending  column  of  air  within  a  cy- 
clone, up  to  a  height  of  some  ten  thousand  feet,  is  not  warmer 
than  the  surrounding  air ;  it  is  cooler  within  the  cyclone,  and  its 
upward  motion  thus  can  not  be  due  to  its  temperature.  So  also  in 
an  anticyclone  the  descending  current  of  air  is  warmer  than  it  is 
under  normal  conditions,  and  its  downward  motion  must  be  due 
to  some  other  cause  than  an  increase  of  density  resulting  from  a 
lowering  of  its  temperature.  The  decrease  of  pressure  in  the  one 
case,  and  its  increase  in  the  other,  thus  can  not  be  caused  by  dif- 
ferences of  heating  or  cooling  of  the  lower  strata ;  and  both  cy- 
clones and  anticyclones  must  be  considered  as  parts  of  the  general 
circulation  of  the  atmosphere,  such  as  it  was  conceived  by  Ferrel.f 

Such  a  deep  modification  of  the  current  views,  though  sup- 
ported to  a  great  extent  by  weighty  evidence,  will  obviously  not 
be  accepted  without  opposition;  but  it  is  already  making  its  way, 
and  certainly  will  exercise  a  deep  influence  on  the  further  devel- 
opment of  meteorology. 

Abandoning  now  the  domain  of  theoretical  investigation,  I 
must  mention  a  work — also  a  life's  work — which  may  safely  be 
placed  side  by  side  with  the  best  achievements  in  theory.  I  mean 
the  beautiful  charts  of  Mr.  Buchan,  representing  the  distribution 
of  pressure,  temperature,  and  winds  over  the  surface  of  the  globe, 
embodied  in  the  last  volume  of  the  Challenger  Expedition  Re- 
ports. When  Mr.  Buchan  published  twenty-three  years  ago  his 
first  maps  of  monthly  isobars  and  prevailing  winds,  they  were 
quite  a  revelation,  even  though  the  data  upon  which  they  were 
based  were  very  incomplete  at  that  time.J:  But  better  data  have 

*  Das  Luftdruckmaximum  vom  November  1889,  in  Denkschrift  der  Wiener  Akademie 
der  Wissenschaften,  1890,  Bd.  Ivii,  p.  401.  Bemerkungen  iiber  die  Temperatur  der  Cyclonen 
und  Anticyclonen,  in  Meteorologische  Zeitschrift,  1890,  p.  328. 

f  See  the  discussion  of  this  subject  between  Hazen  and  J.  Hann  in  Science,  1890,  xv, 
382-384,  and  Meteorologische  Zeitschrift,  1890,  p.  328. 

\  To  trace  the  isobars,  or  lines  of  equal  atmospheric  pressure,  reduced  to  the  sea-level, 
the  real  altitude  of  each  meteorological  observatory  must  be  known  from  direct  geometrical 
levelings;  but  in  1869  the  altitude  of  not  one  single  station  in  Siberia,  .central  Asia,  or 
even  the  Urals  was  known.  A  leveling  across  Siberia,  as  far  as  Lake  Baikal,  has  been 


398  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

been  collected  since,  and  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Buchan  they  have 
undergone  such  a  careful  and  able  analysis  that  the  Challenger 
Reports  charts  may  be  taken  as  the  best  reliable  representation  of 
the  winds,  the  temperatures,  and  the  pressure  in  the  lowest  strata 
of  the  atmosphere,  a£  well  as  the  surest  basis  for  further  generali- 
zations.* The  theories  which  have  been  mentioned  in  the  preced- 
ing pages  give  the  grand  lines  of  atmospheric  circulation;  on 
Buchan's  maps  we  see  how  the  grand  lines  are  modified  in  the 
lowest  strata  by  the  distribution  of  land  and  sea,  and  the  unequal 
heating  or  cooling  of  continents  and  oceans.  The  leading  features 
indicated  by  theory  are  still  maintained,  and  they  become  even 
still  more  apparent  if  we  consult  isobars  traced  for  a  certain 
height,  like  those  of  Teisserenc  de  Bort ;  but  the  immense  plateaus 
of  East  Asia  and  North  America  act  in  winter  as  colossal  refriger- 
ators, where  cold  and  heavy  air  accumulates,  to  flow  down  in  all 
directions  toward  the  lowlands.  We  see  also  how  in 'July  the  air 
is  heated  in  the  lower  lands  of  northwest  India,  in  the  corner  be- 
tween the  Afghanistan  and  the  Thibet  plateau,  how  pressure  is 
lowered  there  by  the  ascending  current,  and  how  winds  blow 
toward  this  region  of  lowered  pressure.  We  see  more  than  that : 
on  looking  on  the  maps  it  strikes  the  eye  how  the  moisture  or  the 
dryness  of  the  climate  is  dependent  upon  the  distribution  of  press- 
ure, and  how  the  dry  anticyclonic  winds  make  barren  deserts  of 
parts  of  North  and  South  America,  of  Africa,  and  central  Asia, 
and  how  they  will  continue  to  dry  the  lakes  and  the  rivers  of 
these  regions  and  occasion  total  failures  of  crops  so  long  as  that 
distribution  of  pressure  lasts  on  the  globe,  and  man  has  not  yet 
learned  to  eschew  its  effects  by  getting  water  from  the  depths  of 
the  earth.  The  life  of  the  globe\  during  the  present  period  is 
written  on  these  splendid  charts. — Nineteenth  Century. 


M.  THOEADDSEN,  in  the  narrative  of  his  travels  in  Iceland,  observes  a  peculiar 
feature  of  the  oases  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Hecla.  These  oases  are  subject  to  con- 
stant displacement  by  the  violent  sandstorms  which  are  common.  On  the  wind- 
ward side  all  vegetation  is  gradually  destroyed,  while  on  the  other  side  grass  takes 
root,  and  in  a  wonderfully  short  time  the  level  and  sterile  surfaces  are  converted 
into  good  pasture  lands. 

made  since,  Mr.  Buchan's  isobars  having  been  one  of  our  best  arguments  to  press  the  neces- 
sity of  the  leveling.  But  Mr.  Buchan  may  not  be  aware  that  the  leveling  beyond  the 
ninetieth  degree  of  longitude  is  now  considered  by  Russian  geodesists  as  utterly  unreliable; 
it  is  supposed  to  contain  some  substantial  error,  so  that  a  new  leveling  between  Krasno- 
yarsk and  Lake  Baikal  is  insisted  upon.  The  incertitude  in  the  isobars  on  an  immense  space 
in  northeast  Asia  resulting  from  this  cause  may  attain  as  much  as  one  or,  perhaps,  even 
three  tenths  of  an  inch. 

*  An  excellent  resume  of  the  whole  work  and  its  results  in  a  popular  form  has  been 
published  by  Buchan  himself  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Geographical  Society,  March,  1891. 


IS    CRIME  INCREASING?  399 


IS  CRIME  INCREASING? 

THE  question  whether  crime  is  increasing  or  decreasing  in 
England  and  Wales  has  been  the  subject  of  an  interesting 
discussion  in  The  Nineteenth  Century  between  the  Rev.  William 
Douglas  Morrison,  chaplain  to  the  prison  at  Wandsworth,  and 
Sir  Edmund  F.  Du  Cane.  Mr.  Morrison  remarks  upon  the  incer- 
titude and  diversity  of  opinion  prevailing  on  the  subject  as 
something  which  it  is  desirable  to  clear  away,  and  attributes  the 
perplexity  of  the  public  mind  in  the  matter,  in  the  main,  to  the 
erratic  and  haphazard  manner  in  which  criminal  statistics  are 
frequently  handled.  One  of  the  most  obvious  mistakes,  and  yet 
one  which  is  frequently  committed  in  dealing  with  questions  of 
crime,  is  to  draw  sweeping  inferences  from  the  criminal  statistics 
of  a  single  year,  or  even  of  a  short  series  of  years.  "  It  has  to  be 
remembered  that  criminal  returns  are  largely  affected  by  the 
fluctuating  conditions  of  social  existence,  some  of  the  more  im- 
portant of  these  being  the  rise  or  decay  of  political  or  industrial 
agitation,  the  ebb  and  flow  of  commercial  prosperity,  and,  more 
rarely,  the  emotions  aroused  among  the  population  by  a  state  of 
war.  In  order  as  much  as  possible  to  neutralize  the  disturbing 
effect  of  these  inconstant  social  factors,  it  is  essential  that  all  sta- 
tistics relating  to  crime  on  which  it  is  proposed  to  build  any  gen- 
eral conclusions  should  cover  a  decade  at  the  least,  and  unless  this 
principle  is  adhered  to  misleading  ideas  are  almost  certain  to 
arise."  Sir  Edmund  Du  Cane  thinks  that  even  ten  years  are 
hardly  a  long  enough  period  on  which  to  base  correct  conclusions. 

In  Mr.  Morrison's  investigation  of  the  subject  three  methods 
of  treatment  present  themselves  for  consideration.  The  total 
number  of  offenses  as  reported  to  the  police  may  be  taken  as  a 
criterion ;  or  the  number  of  cases  tried,  both  summarily  and  by 
indictment ;  or  the  total  number  of  convictions.  In  order  to  ap- 
preciate the  movement  of  crime  in  all  its  various  aspects,  each  of 
these  three  methods  is  more  or  less  necessary. 

The  returns  of  the  yearly  average  of  trials  in  the  three  decades 
1868  to  1889  reveal  an  increase  from  466,087  in  the  first  decade  to 
701,060  in  the  third,  satisfying  Mr.  Morrison  that  the  total  volume 
of  crime  has  increased  very  materially  within  the  period.  Among 
the  causes  which  have  fostered  this  growth,  he  assigns  an  impor- 
tant place  to  the  development  of  social  legislation.  Offenses 
against  the  Elementary  Education  Acts  alone,  he  says, "  have  fur- 
nished considerably  more  than  half  a  million  cases,  and  other 
acts  of  a  like  character  have  produced  similar  results.  But  the 
growth  of  offenses  arising  from  a  continuous  widening  of  the 
sphere  of  legislative  effort  is  to  some  extent  counterbalanced  by 


400  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  abolition  in  recent  years  of  several  old  penal  laws,  as  well  as 
by  the  greater  reluctance  of  the  police  to  set  the  law  in  motion 
against  trivial  offenders.  .  .  .  Offenses  may  be  growing,  but  the 
population  may  be  increasing  still  faster ;  the  question,  therefore, 
requires  to  be  considered,  to  what  extent  the  total  number  of 
cases  tried  is  keeping  pace  with  the  general  growth  of  the  com- 
munity. Basing  our  calculations  upon  the  estimated  population 
at  each  decade,  it  comes  out  that  in  1S60-'G9  one  case  was  tried 
annually  for  every  forty- four  of  the  inhabitants  of  England  and 
Wales;  in  1870-'79,  one  for  every  thirty-seven  inhabitants;  and 
in  1880-'89,  one  for  every  thirty-eight.  According  to  these  statis- 
tics, the  proportion  of  crime  to  the  population  has  remained  al- 
most the  same  for  the  last  two  decades ;  but,  if  the  last  two  decades 
are  compared  with  the  first,  the  growth  of  crime  has  outstripped 
the  growth  of  population." 

The  question  whether  crime  is  increasing  in  seriousness  along 
with  its  expansion  in  volume  may  be  answered  best  by  an  analysis 
of  the  number  and  nature  of  the  indictable  offenses  brought  up 
for  trial  during  the  three  decades.  The  figures  disclose  a  continu- 
ous decrease;  but  opposed  to  this  is  the  fact  that  the  cases  of 
offenses  against  property  without  violence,  constituting  two  thirds 
of  the  whole  number  tried  in  the  first  decade,  were  more  usually 
dealt  with  summarily  during  the  two  subsequent  decades.  For 
arriving  at  a  more  accurate  estimate  of  the  serious  crimes  com- 
mitted in  the  first  decade,  Mr.  Morrison  selects  as  a  type  murder, 
concerning  which  no  material  change  in  public  feeling  or  judicial 
procedure  has  taken  place  within  the  last  thirty  years.  The  fig- 
ures— 12G  in  the  first  decade  to  153  in  the  third — show  that  this, 
the  most  serious  of  all  crimes,  has  steadily  increased  within  the 
last  three  decades,  and  that  in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  popu- 
lation it  was  nearly  as  common  in  the  last  decade  as  in  the  first. 
The  author  believes,  therefore,  that  the  apparent  decrease  in  in- 
dictable offenses  is  attributable  to  a  change  of  criminal  procedure 
rather  than  to  an  actual  decrease  of  serious  crime.  Even  after  the 
Summary  Jurisdiction  Act  was  passed,  by  which  a  large  number 
of  cases  were  taken  out  of  the  indictable  list,  every  form  of  serious 
crime  appears  to  have  relatively  increased.  Large  increases  in  the 
average  of  commitments  to  prison,  the  extension  of  juvenile  and 
reformatory  schools,  and  the  rapid  and  uninterrupted  augmenta- 
tion of  the  police  force,  are  further  adduced  as  pointing  to  the  con- 
clusion that "  crime  during  the  last  thirty  years,  for  which  we 
possess  official  returns,  has  not  decreased  in  gravity,  and  has  been 
steadily  developing  in  magnitude." 

The  explanation  of  this  supposed  increase  is  sought  in  the  con- 
centration of  men  in  large  cities  and  industrial  centers. 

Sir  Edmund  Du  Cane  criticises  Mr.  Morrison's  methods,  fig- 


IS    CRIME  INCREASING?  401 

ures,  and  conclusions  unsparingly,  and  declares  as  the  best  opinion 
he  has  been  able  to  form  on  a  review  of  all  the  facts,  and  from  the 
expressions  of  persons  whose  practical  connection  with  the  subject 
gives  weight  to  their  views,  that  crime  is  decreasing.  He  cites 
the  returns  of  the  prison  population  since  1877  as  showing  a  con- 
tinuous annual  decrease,  which  none  of  the  explanations  offered 
adequately  account  for  except  those  which  ascribe  it  to  the  de- 
pression of  trade  cutting  off  the  supply  of  money  for  drinking 
with,  or  to  the  growing  dislike  of  a  certain  class  of  criminals  for 
life  in  prison — both  of  which  imply  a  decrease  of  crime.  He  as- 
cribes the  decrease  to  Christian  philanthropy,  which  he  says  has 
never  attained  a  higher  development  than  now,  when  it  is  per- 
haps one  of  the  principal  features  of  the  present  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion. It  "  has  led  to  an  entirely  new  way  of  dealing  with  crime — 
namely,  by  prevention  instead  of  by  punishment ;  and  one  of  the 
principal  results  of  this  philanthropic  idea  is  the  establishment 
of  industrial  schools,  in  which  young  persons  who  seem  likely  to 
fall  into  crime  and  to  develop  into  adult  criminals  may  be  trained 
into  a  better  way  and  made  into  useful  members  of  society. 

"  It  has  led  to  those  movements  for  providing  better  dwellings, 
and  otherwise  raising  the  condition  of  those  who  are  sometimes 
called  '  the  disinherited/  sometimes  '  the  submerged/  which  help 
to  remove  temptations  to  crime,  and  purify  the  atmosphere  in 
which  those  who  may  develop  into  criminals  have  been  compelled 
to  live. 

"  It  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  curious  features  in  the  proof 
offered  of  the  increase  of  crime  that  the  adoption  and  develop- 
ment of  the  very  means  by  which  it  is  diminished  are  cited  as 
corroborations  of  the  doctrine  that  it  has  increased — among  them 
being  the  increase  in  the  number  of  juveniles  committed  to  in- 
dustrial schools.  To  show  this  we  are  given  the  number  of  those 
committed  to  'reformatories  and  industrial  schools'  added  to- 
gether. The  reformatories  are  penal  and  reformatory  institu- 
tions for  young  persons  convicted  of  crime,  and  correspond, 
therefore,  to  prisons.  The  industrial  schools,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  preventive  institutions  for  children  who  have  not  been  con- 
victed, but  might  fall  into  crime  for  want  of  proper  care  and 
training.  To  mix  the  two  together  obviously  obscures  the  facts, 
and  the  more  thoroughly  because  the  committals  to  reformatories 
have  decreased  during  the  last  ten  years,  so  that  the  increase  in 
the  united  numbers  is  solely  due  to  the  development  of  the  dis- 
tinctly preventive  institutions,  to  which  there  is  little  doubt  the 
decrease  in  crime  and  criminals  is  largely  due,  and  which  are  the 
product  of  the  Christian  civilization  of  which  Rousseau  thought 
so  little.  In  fact,  mixing  the  two  together  is  as  if  an  increased 
prevalence  of  small-pox  was  proved  by  adding  together  the  num- 

VOL.    XLIII. — 27 


402  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ber  of  people  who  developed  the  disease  and  the  number  who 
were  vaccinated  to  guard  against  it.  Further  than  this,  the  fig- 
ures given  in  the  article  [Mr.  Morrison's]  compare  the  three  de- 
cades beginning  in  1860,  1870,  and  1880,  and  show,  what  is  true 
enough,  that  the  number  of  inmates  of  these  two  classes  of  insti- 
tutions has  increased  in  each  ten  years ;  but  this  does  not  show 
an  increase  of  convicted  or  even  of  potential  criminals,  but  only 
reminds  us  that  there  were  comparatively  few  such  schools  until 
the  great  development  of  these  institutions  took  place  after  the 
Eeformatory  and  Industrial  Schools  Acts  were  passed,  in  1866, 
for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  them,  and  that  advantage  has 
been  taken  of  them  with  still  greater  vigor  in  connection  with 
the  Education  Acts  passed  in  and  since  1870. 

"  In  a  similar  way  the  increase  in  the  police  force  is  cited  as  a 
proof  of  the  increase  of  crime.  If  this  view  were  sound,  we  should 
expect  to  find  that  when  there  was  no  police  force  at  all  it 
was  because  there  was  no  crime — a  paradox  which,  perhaps,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  spend  time  in  refuting.  Many  years  ago  110 
traveler  could  cross  Hounslow  Heath,  Wimbledon  Common,  or 
similar  desolate  approaches  to  the  metropolis,  without  a  good 
chance  of  being  robbed.  Hanging  those  who  were  caught  did  not 
check  this  inconvenience ;  but  at  last  Sir  John  Fielding  hit  upon 
the  idea  that  it  might  be  prevented,  and  established  the  armed 
horse  patrol,  which  soon  put  a  check  on  the  highwaymen.  Their 
appointment  was  no  sign  that  highway  robbing  had  increased ;  it 
was  only  a  better  mode  of  preventing  it.  Another  most  potent  mode 
of  preventing  crime  is  by  making  detection  more  certain.  .  .  .  An 
increase  in  the  police  force,  with  a  view  to  their  greater  prevent- 
ive efficiency,  is  no  more  a  sign  that  crime  has  increased  than  an 
increase  in  the  amount  spent  in  drainage  and  water  supply,  when 
towns  and  localities  become  alive  to  their  advantage,  is  a  proof  of 
increased  unhealthiness  in  places  which  have  adopted  such  pre- 
ventive precautions.  If  an  inquiry  into  the  health  of  a  town  was 
to  assume  that  the  increased  activity  of  drainage  was  a  sign  of 
increasing  bad  health,  and  was  altogether  to  ignore  and  pass  over 
the  evidence  afforded  by  the  improved  death-rate  and  the  opinion 
of  the  medical  men  of  the  town,  it  would  be  precisely  similar  to 
taking  the  increased  activity  in  progressive  development  of  these 
preventive  institutions  as  a  sign  of  increase  of  crime,  omitting 
altogether  any  investigation  into  their  effect  on  the  number  of 
the  criminal  classes  or  disorderly  houses,  and  ignoring  the  direct 
testimony  of  the  police,  who  must  know  how  these  matters  stand." 

A  large  proportion  of  the  duties  of  the  police,  moreover,  have 
nothing  to  do  with  crime.  The  mere  collection  of  large  numbers 
of  people  together  makes  a  police  necessary  without  any  reference 
to  the  crime  they  actually  commit. 


IS   CRIME  INCREASING?  403 

The  police  every  year  furnish  a  return  of  the  number  of  the 
criminal  classes.  A  comparison  of  the  numbers  given  in  these 
returns  affords  what  seems  to  be  irresistible  testimony  of  an  im- 
mense improvement.  Since  the  year  1867-'68  the  decrease  in  their 
number  has  been  practically  continuous.  Is  it  conceivable  that, 
while  the  criminal  classes  have  diminished  in  this  manner,  crime 
has  increased  ? 

The  direct  testimony  of  the  police  themselves  may  be  cited. 
The  commissioner  of  police  of  the  metropolis  adduces  facts  and 
figures  from  which  it  "  appears  that  there  was  greater  security  for 
person  and  property  in  the  metropolis  during  1890  than  in  any 
previous  year  included  in  the  statistical  returns  " ;  and  this,  not- 
withstanding the  increasing  growth  of  the  city  at  the  rate  of  a 
million  a  decade,  makes  it  continually  more  difficult  for  the  police 
to  deal  with  crime.  The  chief  constable  of  Liverpool  says  that 
"  never  since  the  first  publication  of  returns  of  crime  in  Liverpool 
(i.  e.,  since  1857)  have  the  statistics  disclosed  so  small  an  amount 
of  crime  or  so  large  a  success  in  making  criminals  amenable  to 
justice  as  those  for  the  year  ended  the  29th  of  September,  1891." 
The  report  for  1892  is  to  the  same  effect,  except  that  crimes  of 
violence  had  slightly  increased. 

Mr.  Grosvenor,  of  the  Home  Office,  in  a  paper  on  The  Abate- 
ment of  Crime,  read  to  the  Statistical  Society  in  1890,  spoke  of 
the  abatement  having  taken  place  in  nearly  all  classes  of  crime 
during  the  last  twenty  years ;  of  the  "  reduction  in  the  number  of 
known  thieves  and  other  suspected  persons  at  large,  as  well  as  of 
houses  of  bad  character  which  they  frequent/"  and  of  the  extraor- 
dinary diminution  in  the  number  of  receivers  of  stolen  goods. 
Adding  to  this  the  fact  of  the  great  increase  in  the  population  of 
the  country,  "  we  must  admit,"  he  says,  "  that  the  many  agencies 
enlisted  for  the  purpose  of  diminishing  the  number  of  criminals 
have  been  most  successfully  applied,  and  the  result  can  not  fail  to 
afford  the  utmost  satisfaction  and  encouragement  to  all  who  are 
anxious  for  the  improved  moral  and  physical  advancement  of  our 
nation." 

Before  considering  the  figures  that  measure  the  fluctuation  in 
the  actual  crimes,  Sir-  Edmund  Du  Cane  tries  to  define  what  is 
meant  by  the  word  crime  as  used  in  the  discussion.  One  studying 
the  tables  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  the  fluctuations  in  crime, 
looking  merely  at  the  total  number  at  the  foot  of  them,  would 
probably  conclude  that  the  total  volume  of  crime  has  increased 
very  materially,  for  the  tables  show  apparently  a  very  consider- 
able increase  ;  "  but  if  we  look  a  little  more  closely  at  these  totals 
of  which  the  figures  are  made  up,  we  see  that  a  very  large  propor- 
tion of  these  offenses  are  not  '  crimes '  at  all,  as  the  word  is  or- 
dinarily understood.  For  instance,  offenses  against  the  Education 


4o4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Acts  could  not  be  committed  before  1870,  but  they  count  for  96,601 
in  the  latter  year.  Few  people,  however,  would  say  that '  crime ' 
was  increasing  and  civilization  demoralizing  us  because  we  now 
compel  parents  to  send  their  children  to  school,  and  hale  before 
the  magistrates  those  who  fail  to  do  so,  not  having  yet  been  accus- 
tomed to  accept  the  new  law.  Offenses  against  local  acts  and 
borough  by-laws,  which  are  not  '  crimes/  have  in  the  same  time 
increased  from  35,681  to  59,108  ;  begging  and  other  offenses  against 
the  vagrant  acts,  from  41,780  to  46,019  ;  offenses  against  the  high- 
way and  similar  acts,  from  29,837  to  32,889.  If  the  efforts  that  are 
being  made  to  make  it  a  penal  offense  to  work  more  than  eight 
hours  a  day  are  successful,  we  might  expect  to  find  several  hun- 
dred thousand  added  to  the  number  of  offenses  brought  before  the 
magistrates,  but  nobody  would  consider  this  a  proof  of  increase  of 
'  crime/  To  find  out,  therefore,  whether  crime  has  increased  or 
decreased,  it  is  necessary  to  extract  from  the  mass  of  figures  those 
which  really  illustrate  this  point.  The  judicial  statistics  have 
provided  an  excellent  classified  analysis  of  the  offenses  in  which 
those  that  consist  of  breaches  of  the  laws  for  the  protection  of  the 
person  or  property  are  set  forth  in  five  classes,  which  constitute 
substantially  what  people  have  in  their  minds  when  they  speak  of 
an  increase  or  decrease  of  crime.  The  tables  distinguish  between 
offenses  summarily  dealt  with  and  those  not  so  treated  as  indict- 
able offenses.  Offenses  of  the  latter  class  only  are  included  in  the 
classification.  These  consist  of  offenses  against  the  person,  includ- 
ing assaults;  offenses  against  property,  with  violence;  offenses 
against  property,  without  violence;  malicious  offenses  against 
property ;  and  forgery  and  offenses  against  the  currency."  The 
tables,  as  summarized  by  the  author,  afford  clear  evidence  of  a 
continuous  decrease  in  the  number  of  crimes  committed  both  in- 
dictable and  summary,  which  is  fatal  to  the  theory  of  an  inevi- 
table increase. 

Such  results,  Sir  Edmund  Du  Cane  observes,  should  be  no  mat- 
ter of  surprise,  as  they  have,  to  all  appearances,  followed  the  pre- 
ventive measures  taken  in  order  to  effect  them,  among  which  are 
particularly  specified  the  establishment  of  institutions  to  guard 
young  people  from  falling  into  crime.  This  is  further  corrobo- 
rated by  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  first  convictions,  and  the 
diminution  in  the  number  of  young  persons  (under  sixteen  years 
of  age)  committed  to  prison  (which  includes  all  those  sent  to  re- 
formatories). 

The  author  makes  no  reference  in  his  review  to  punishment  as 
in  any  degree  the  cause  of  the  decrease  in  crime  which  he  sets 
forth,  "  though,"  he  says  in  his  concluding  paragraph,  "  I  well 
remember  that,  when  crime  was  increasing,  it  was  at  once  set 
down  to  the  prison  system.  I  will  not  endeavor  to  appraise  the 


SKETCH  OF  CHARLES  A.  JOY.  405 

share  which  punishment  has  in  the  decrease  of  crime,  but  will 
repeat  that  in  my  opinion  prevention  is  far  and  away  better 
than  any  possible  cure,  and  that  next  to  prevention  stands  cer- 
tainty of  detection  and  of  bringing  to  justice.  Punishment,  then, 
naturally  comes  into  operation  to  serve  as  a  warning  and  a  deter- 
rent to  the  wavering,  and  to  the  detected  culprit  a  chastening  ex- 
perience, that  should  always  be  accompanied  by  influences  calcu- 
lated to  reform/' 


SKETCH  OF  CHARLES  A.  JOY. 

BY  MARCUS  BENJAMIN,  PH,  D. 

IN  tracing  the  growth  of  science  in  this  country  it  is  interesting 
to  observe  how  its  development  may  be  followed  in  the  biog- 
raphies of  its  leaders ;  thus,  many  of  our  scientists  received  their 
first  inspiration  from  the  elder  Silliman,  while  those  of  a  later 
date  acquired  their  great  fondness  for  the  life-work  to  which  they 
devoted  themselves  from  Louis  Agassiz.  From  the  leaders  the 
growth  of  science  passed  to  the  institutions  with  which  originally 
they  were  connected;  then  broadening,  it  located  itself  perma- 
nently with  those  having  the  best  instruction.  In  a  less  degree, 
but  equally  true,  is  such  the  case  in  our  cities.  The  story  of  the 
development  of  science  in  New  York  city  can  be  acquired  almost 
entirely  by  reading  the  lives  of  such  men  as  Samuel  Latham 
Mitchell,  James  Renwick,  John  Torrey,  John  William  Draper, 
and  John  Strong  Newberry.  From  these  men  its  growth  passed 
in  time  to  such  institutions  as  Columbia  College,  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Science,  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
and  the  Columbia  College  School  of  Mines. 

In  the  development  of  chemistry  in  this  city  CHARLES  ARAB 
JOY  took  a  prominent  part ;  and  if,  perhaps,  his  name  is  not  as 
well  known  as  some  others,  it  must  be  attributed  to  the  long 
years  of  retirement — many  of  which  were  years  of  suffering — 
that  he  passed  in  Europe  and  in  his  country  home  prior  to  his 
recent  death. 

Prof.  Joy  was  born  in  Ludlowville,  Tompkins  Coiinty,  New 
York,  on  October  8, 1823.  His  father  was  a  well-known  merchant, 
but  a  fondness  for  literary  pursuits  seems  to  have  been  the  habit 
of  the  family.  An  elder  brother  became  distinguished  as  an  able 
physician,  and  a  sister  married  an  eminent  clergyman.  With  his 
brother  he  studied  at  excellent  preparatory  schools  in  Ovid,  N.  Y., 
and  in  Lenox,  Mass.,  and  then  was  sent  to  Union  College,  where 
he  was  graduated  in  1844.  Choosing  law  as  his  profession,  he  en- 
tered Harvard,  where  he  graduated  in  course  at  its  law  depart- 
ment in  1847,  receiving  the  degree  of  LL.  B.  Meanwhile  he  had 


4o6  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

acquired  a  fondness  for  science.  The  beginnings  of  the  applica- 
tion of  electricity  to  e very-day  life  were  manifesting  themselves 
in  the  development  of  telegraphy  under  the  direction  of  Samuel 
Finley  Breese  Morse.  The  wonderful  richness  of  the  Lake  Supe- 
rior region  in  mineral  wealth  had  just  been  made  known  and  the 
first  copper  mines  opened,  revealing  almost  pure  metallic  copper 
to  the  astounded  world.  It  was  also  while  Joy  was  a  student  at 
Harvard  that  Louis  Agassiz  gave  his  first  course  of  lectures  be- 
fore the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston,  and  it  may  have  been,  indeed 
perhaps  was,  these  lectures  that  led  him  to  abandon  the  following 
of  a  legal  career  in  order  to  become  a  scientist.  Moreover,  he  was 
happy  at  this  time  in  meeting  Charles  T.  Jackson,  one  of  the  most 
interesting  characters  in  the  history  of  American  chemistry,  in 
whose  laboratory,  which  was  early  opened  to  private  students, 
the  original  researches  on  the  anaesthetic  properties  of  ether  are 
said  to  have  been  made. 

In  1847  Dr.  Jackson  was  commissioned  by  Congress  to  survey 
the  mineral  lands  of  Michigan,  and  promptly  on  finishing  his 
course  at  the  law  school  Joy  was  invited  to  become  a  member  of 
the  party,  and  continued  with  this  expedition  until  the  comple- 
tion of  its  work.  He  then  studied  for  a  time  in  Dr.  Jackson's 
laboratory ;  but  realizing  the  impossibility  of  acquiring  a  thor- 
ough training  in  chemistry  in  this  country,  he  turned  his  steps 
toward  the  Mecca  of  that  science,  and  for  two  years  studied  in 
Germany,  first  under  Heinrich  Rose  in  Berlin  and  then  under 
Friedrich  Wohler  in  Gottingen,  where  in  1852  he  took  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  For  an  inaugural  thesis  the  difficult 
subject  of  the  combination  of  alcohol  radicals  with  selenium  was 
assigned  to  him,  while  at  an  adjoining  desk  a  similar  research 
pertaining  to  the  tellurium  compounds  was  being  carried  on  by 
Prof.  John  W.  Mallett,  now  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  In 
after  years  Prof.  Joy  frequently  related  to  his  classes  how  that, 
owing  to  the  offensive  odors  generated  in  the  preparation  of  the 
selenium  and  tellurium  compounds,  he  and  his  fellow-student, 
Mallett,  were  often  the  only  two  who  remained  at  work.  These 
researches  were  among  the  earliest  contributions  to  a  class  of 
alcohol  radicals  combined  with  a  metallic  base  that  appeared  in 
chemical  literature.  After  receiving  his  degree  at  Gottingen  he 
spent  some  time  at  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris,  where  the  brilliant 
Dumas,  then  in  his  prime,  lectured  on  chemistry. 

With  a  scientific  training  seldom  equaled  by  any  young  man 
he  returned  to  America,  and  was  promptly  called  to  the  chair  of 
Chemistry  in  Union  College.  This  place  he  then  held  for  four 
years,  during  part  of  which  time  he  was  assisted  by  Charles  F. 
Chandler,  who  later  became  Professor  of  Analytical  and  Applied 
Chemistry  in  the  School  of  Mines  of  Columbia  College,  and,  sub- 


SKETCH   OF  CHARLES  A.  JOY.  407 

sequent  to  the  resignation  of  Prof.  Joy,  his  successor  in  the  chair 
of  Chemistry  in  Union. 

In  1857  Columbia  College  moved  to  its  present  site  in  Madison 
Avenue,  between  Forty-ninth  and  Fiftieth  Streets,  and  the  chair 
of  Natural  and  Experimental  Philosophy  and  Chemistry,  then  held 
by  Prof.  Richard  McCulloh,  was  divided  so  as  to  form  the  chair 
of  Mechanics  and  Physics,  which  was  retained  by  Prof.  McCulloh, 
while  a  call  to  that  of  Chemistry  was  given  to  Prof.  Joy.  It  is 
perhaps  worth  recording  that  the  only  other  candidate  suggested 
for  the  new  chair  was  Dr.  Wolcott  Gibbs,  an  alumnus  of  Columbia, 
in  the  class  of  1841,  then  Professor  of  Physics  and  Chemistry  at 
the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  whence,  in  1863,  he  was  called 
to  the  Rumf  ord  chair  in  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  of  Harvard. 

With  the  prestige  of  a  splendid  education,  a  successful  career 
at  Union,  and  with  fine  social  qualities,  Prof.  Joy  was  indeed  well 
fitted  to  advance  the  course  of  chemistry  in  Columbia.  Almost 
at  once  he  founded  in  connection  with  his  department  a  School  of 
Chemistry,  designed  to  give  a  complete  professional  education  in 
chemistry  to  such  as  desired  it.  In  the  prospectus  he  wrote, 
"  The  laboratory  is  furnished  with  the  best  modern  appliances  for 
acquiring  a  thorough  knowledge  of  chemistry  and  the  applications 
of  the  science  to  agriculture  and  the  arts."  Among  those  who 
availed  themselves  of  this  instruction  were  Major  Clarence  S. 
Brown,  Captain  William  Jay,  and  other  officers  of  the  United 
States  army ;  also  such  mining  engineers  as  George  William  May- 
nard,  Edward  M.  Pell,  and  others ;  while  classed  as  chemists  were 
Julius  H.  Tieman,  Peter  C.  Tieman,  and  William  J.  Youmans. 
The  success  of  this  experiment  made  it  easily  possible,  in  1863,  to 
interest  the  trustees  of  Columbia  College  in  accepting  the  plan 
proposed  by  Thomas  Egleston,  Jr.,  for  the  establishment  of  a 
School  of  Mines.  Prof.  Joy  was  a  pronounced  advocate  of  this  un- 
dertaking from  the  outset.  He  was  urged  to  assume  charge  of  the 
department  of  chemistry  in  the  new  school,  but  this  he  declined, 
and  recommended  that  his  assistant  at  Union,  Prof.  Charles 
F.  Chandler,  be  called  to  organize  the  department.  This  advice 
was  at  once  favorably  acted  on  by  the  trustees  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege, and  Prof.  Chandler  was  given  the  chair  of  Analytical  and 
Applied  Chemistry,  with  charge  of  the  laboratories.  Although 
his  duties  in  the  academic  department  were  already  quite  onerous, 
Prof.  Joy  promptly  volunteered  his  services  as  lecturer,  and  in 
the  first  catalogue  of  the  School  of  Mines  his  name  appears  as 
in  charge  of  organic  chemistry.  Later,  when  the  regular  fac- 
ulty was  organized,  he  was  made  Professor  of  General  Chemis- 
try, and  so  continued  until  his  retirement  in  1877;  also  in  the 
meanwhile  he  remained  at  the  head  of  the  chemical  department 
of  the  college  proper. 


4o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  atmosphere  of  a  large  city  is  not  conducive  to  much  origi- 
nal work  in  science,  and  especially  is  this  the  case  in  New  York 
city.  Things  of  a  more  practical  nature  force  themselves  upon 
the  attention  of  a  scientist,  and  his  opinion  is  in  constant  demand. 
In  consequence,  we  find  in  the  American  Contributions  to  Chem- 
istry but  two  papers  devoted  to  original  research  contributed  by 
Prof.  Joy  during  the  time  of  his  connection  with  Columbia  Col- 
lege. They  are  On  Glucinum  and  its  Compounds  (1863),  and 
Analysis  of  a  Meteorite  from  Chili  (1864),  both  of  which  were 
published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science.  Several  of  the 
analyses  of  minerals  that  appeared  in  Dana's  System  of  Miner- 
alogy by  him  were  also  made  at  this  time.  This  meager  record  is 
readily  explained  by  the  fact  that  Prof.  Joy's  literary  inclination 
was  promptly  taken  advantage  of  by  the  editors  of  prominent 
periodicals,  and  articles  from  his  skillful  pen  were  constantly  in 
demand.  He  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  Scientific  Ameri- 
can, and  every  week  prepared  columns  of  notes  for  Frank  Leslie's 
periodicals,  reviewing  all  of  their  foreign  scientific  exchanges  for 
them.  For  many  years  he  edited  the  Journal  of  Applied  Chem- 
istry, published  in  New  York,  and  also  wrote  most  of  the  articles 
on  chemistry  in  Appletons'  American  Cyclopaedia. 

Prof.  Joy  was  naturally  prominent  in  numerous  organizations, 
chiefly,  however,  in  those  of  a  scientific  character.  He  held  the 
chairmanship  of  the  Polytechnic  Association  of  the  American  In- 
stitute; he  was  also  President  of  the  American  Photographic 
Society.  During  1866-'67  he  was  President  of  the  Lyceum  of 
Natural  History,  now  the  Academy  of  Science,  from  which  place 
he  gracefully  and  generously  retired  after  a  brief  service  in  order 
to  afford  an  opportunity  to  Dr.  John  S.  Newberry  to  be  introduced 
to  the  scientific  circles  of  the  metropolis.  In  1874,  when  the 
American  chemists  gathered  at  the  grave  of  Priestley,  in  North- 
umberland, Pa.,  and  an  organization  was  effected  to  celebrate  the 
Centennial  of  Chemistry,  Prof.  Joy  was  chosen  one  of  the  vice- 
presidents.  He  was  a  Fellow  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  and  for  a  time  was  Foreign  Secretary  of 
the  American  Geographical  Society ;  he  was  likewise  an  enthu- 
siastic member  of  the  Century  Association.  It  is  but  fair  also  to 
record  his  active  interest  in  various  charitable  societies,  and  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

Among  the  many  interesting  experiences  of  his  life  none  per- 
haps gave  him  more  delight  than  his  connections  with  the  various 
World's  Fairs.  He  served  on  juries  of  those  held  in  London,  Paris, 
Vienna,  and  Philadelphia.  During  the  terrible  heat  in  1876, 
while  actively  engaged  in  his  duties  at  the  Centennial  Fair 
in  Philadelphia,  he  was  prostrated  by  sunstroke.  He  was 
promptly  brought  to  his  city  home,  but  a  cruel  illness  of  many 


SKETCH   OF  CHARLES  A.   JOY.  409 

months  followed,  and  at  last,  when  he  was  able  to  again  consider 
the  resumption  of  his  work,  strength  was  lacking.  In  considera- 
tion of  his  years  of  faithful  service,  the  college  trustees  retired 
him  with  a  pension,  and  he  returned  to  the  scenes  of  his  student 
days.  For  a  time  he  was  in  Hanover,  then  in  Switzerland,  also 
in  France,  and  in  Munich.  The  World's  Fair  in  Paris  during 
1889  attracted  him  there ;  but  finally,  after  an  absence  of  nearly 
ten  years,  he  turned  his  steps  homeward,  and  spent  the  winter  of 
1890-'91  at  his  own  country  home  in  Stockbridge,  Mass.  When 
the  spring  came  he  was  already  making  plans  to  visit  the  great 
World's  Fair,  to  be  held  in  Chicago,  but  suddenly  and  with 
scarcely  any  warning  a  trifling  indisposition  seized  him,  and  he 
died  on  May  29,  1891. 

As  has  been  shown,  Prof.  Joy  filled  many  places  of  high  honor 
with  distinction.  His  associates  and  pupils  held  him  in  worthy 
esteem,  and  from  the  scientific  world  at  large  he  deserves  a  more 
than  passing  notice,  for  it  may  be  said  it  was  his  efforts  that  in- 
directly brought  about  that  recognition  of  science  in  this  city  that 
culminated  in  the  organization  of  the  greatest  School  of  Mines  in 
the  United  States. 


THE  ice  scenery  of  the  mountains  of  New  Zealand  was  first  brought  to  notice 
by  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Green  in  1882,  who  that  year  explored  the  glacier  region  of 
Aorangi,  or  Mount  Cook.  Since  then  visitors  have  been  attracted  to  the  mount- 
ain region  in  increasing  numbers ;  a  hotel  has  been  built  in  a  convenient  situation 
near  the  foot  of  one  of  the  glaciers ;  surveys  have  been  undertaken ;  and  a  series 
of  exploratory  expeditions  has  been  begun  by  Mr.  G.  E.  Mannering  and  his  coad- 
jutors. The  southern  Alps  proper  of  New  Zealand  run  from  northeast  to  south- 
west for  about  a  hundred  miles,  nearer  to  the  western  than  to  the  eastern  coast  of 
the  South  Island.  Hence  the  valleys  fall  more  rapidly  toward  the  west  than  toward 
the  east ;  and  on  the  latter  side  a  wide  tract  of  plain  separates  the  sea  from  the  foot 
of  the  hills.  Being  pierced  more  deeply  by  the  lowlands,  although  the  New  Zea- 
land peaks  are  considerably  lower  than  those  of  the  European  Alps — the  summit 
of  Aorangi,  the  highest  of  them,  being  only  12,349  feet  high — they  tower  as  high 
and  as  steep  above  their  actual  bases.  Aorangi,  according  to  Mr.  Mannering,  rises 
"for  nearly  10,000  feet  from  the  Hooker  Glacier,  and  Mount  Sef ten  8,500  feet 
from  the  Mueller  Glacier,  while  the  western  precipices  of  Mount  Tasman  (11,475 
feet)  are  stupendous."  The^  snow-line  in  these  mountains  lies  much  lower  than  in 
Switzerland,  being  only  about  5,000  feet  above  the  sea.  Thus  the  glaciers  are 
greater  and  descend  lower  than  those  of  Switzerland.  The  Tasman  glacier  is  eight- 
een or  twenty  miles  long,  and  terminates  at  a  height  of  2,456  feet  above  the  sea. 
On  the  western  side  the  ice  approaches  occasionally  to  within  600  feet.  Thus  in 
the  New  Zealand  Alps,  says  Mr.  T.  G.  Bonney,  renewing  Mr.  Mannering's  book  in 
Nature,  "the  Alpine  climber  meets  with  the  same  difficulties  and  is  surrounded 
by  the  same  class  of  scenery  as  he  finds  in  the  Old  World  amid  peaks  and  passes 
3,000  feet  higher."  But,  great  as  are  these  glaciers,  Mr.  Bonney  adds,  they  are, 
like  those  of  Europe,  attenuated  representatives  of  their  predecessors,  for  New 
Zealand  also  has  had  its  Ice  age. 


4io 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


AN  AUTHOR'S  PROTEST. 
Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly  : 

MY  attention  has  just  been  called  to  the 
notice  you  have  given,  in  the  May 
number  of  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  of 
the  second  volume  of  the  report  upon  which  I 
am  engaged  (see  pages  131  and  132  of  the  May 
number).  I  am  gratified  by  the  approval  ex- 
pressed of  the  "  report  proper,"  "  five  hun- 
dred pages  of  well-digested  matter,"  etc.,  as 
that  is  in  an  especial  sense  my  own  work ;  but 
it  seems  to  me  the  writer  would  have  been 
more  just  if  he  had  stated  that  the  work  was 
avowedly  largely  a  work  of  reference,  and 
also  that  every  device  had  been  availed  of 
to  facilitate  such  reference. 

This  book  is  made  for  the  use  of  educa- 
tors and  teachers,  and  its  purpose  is  to  record 
what  has  already  been  done  in  this  country 
in  introducing  "  Manual  Training  in  Public 
Schools,"  and  also  to  furnish  those  con- 
sidering the  wisdom  of  making  any  changes 
in  this  direction,  with  the  experience,  opin- 
ions, and  plans  of  educators  who  have  seri- 
ously considered  or  undertaken  the  work.  All 
the  literature  on  these  topics  is  ephemeral  and 
not  within  reach  of  the  ordinary  teacher  nor 
to  be  found  in  ordinary  libraries.  It  largely 
consists  of  speeches,  papers,  addresses,  and 
local  reports.  The  movement  is  a  live  one, 
progressing  by  rapid  strides,  and  the  material 
grows  rapidly.  My  purpose  has  been  to  get 
together  and  put  in  the  hands  of  the  teach- 
ers all  the  material  and  the  latest  material 
possible.  Now,  the  work  of  planning,  collat- 
ing, preparing,  arranging,  proof-reading^  and 
indexing  this  big  book  falls  upon  myself  alone, 
with  aid,  part  of  the  time,  of  a  single  copy- 
ist. As  fast  as  the  matter  is  proof-read  it  is 
stereotyped ;  so  the  only  way  in  which  I  could 
add  later  matter  was  to  turn  the  "  Introduc- 
tion "  into  an  extra  appendix.  I  know,  as 
well  as  the  wise  reviewer,  that  if  I  could  have 
had  all  the  material  in  those  appendices  spread 
before  me  in  clean  printed  pages  as  he  finds 
it  in  this  volume,  I  also  could  have  made  a 
smaller  and  a  better-proportioned  book ;  but 
my  aim  was  to  be  of  most  use  to  the  educa- 
tors and  teachers,  and  my  reward  has  been, 
much  as  it  may  surprise  our  critical  friend,  to 
meet  with  the  hearty  approval  of  all  classes 
of  educators,  including  the  Presidents  of  Yale, 
The  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
Johns  Hopkins,  Tulane ;  the  superintendents 
of  education  throughout  the  country,  educa- 
tional authorities  like  Newell  and  MacAlister, 
and  countless  teachers ;  while  the  National 
Education  Association  in  convention  at  Sara- 
toga last  summer  took  occasion  to  pass  a  spe- 
cial resolution  of  approval. 

Now  to  consider  the  special  features  criti- 


cised for  a  moment.  The  contemptuous 
treatment  given  to  my  first  volume  by  The 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  and  especially  by 
the  New  York  Nation  and  the  Evening  Post, 
was  such  as  to  lead  me  to  think  that  it  might 
be  well  for  me  to  put  on  record  the  approv- 
ing judgment  of  such  educational  and  liter- 
ary authorities  as  the  veteran  educators  Henry 
Barnard  and  George  Bancroft,  the  poet  Whit- 
tier  for  his  appreciation  of  Philbrick,  and 
John  Sparkes,  the  head  of  the  Kensington 
Art  Schools.  The  press  of  the  United  States 
and  also  of  Great  Britain  and  France  gave 
generous  and  intelligent  approval  of  the  first 
volume  of  this  report ;  but  in  the  Cosmos  Club, 
of  this  city,  of  which  I  chance  to  be  one  of 
the  founder  members,  The  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  and  the  twin  sheets  over  which  Mr. 
Godkin  presides,  are  largely  read  ;  and,  of 
course,  my  standing,  in  the  opinion  of  those 
who  accept  these  as  divine  oracles,  suffered  ! 
I  proposed  that  this  abuse — for  the  Nation- 
Post  article  was  largely  abuse — should  be  off- 
set, so  that  in  case  any  of  the  Cosmos  follow- 
ers of  Godkin  chanced  to  open  my  second  vol- 
ume, they  might  find  that  there  were  other 
views  ! 

Your  reviewer  criticises  the  fact  that  the 
tributes  were  paid  to  Philbrick,  Smith,  and 
Perkins ;  but  surely,  if  anywhere  it  was  prop- 
er to  have  printed  tributes  to  these  three  great 
teachers,  it  was  in  this  report,  the  first  vol- 
ume of  which  was  but  a  record  of  their  great 
experiment,  as  this  second  volume  is  a  his- 
tory of  what  has  been  the  immediate  outcome 
of  their  endeavor.  I  should  have  felt  con- 
demned had  I  failed  to  pay  such  poor  tribute 
to  them  as  was  in  my  power.  Those  three 
citizens  did  more  for  their  country  than 
hundreds  of  ordinary  citizens  are  enabled 
to  do. 

One  hundred  pages  of  the  "  Introduction  " 
it  was  plainly  stated  were  made  use  of  as  an 
extra  "  appendix,"  since  that  part  of  the  book 
is  printed  last;  but  your  reviewer  suppresses 
that  fact,  and  implies  that  this  "  Introduc- 
tion "  is  all  a  mere  mass  of  useless  verbiage. 

It  is  the  easiest  of  all  things  to  sneer,  as 
your  reviewer  has  done ;  but  is  it  very  manly 
in  a  journal,  professing  to  be  respectable  and 
scientific,  to  treat  a  serious  work  in  such  a 
flippant  vein  ?  If  other  books  are  reviewed 
with  as  little  of  the  spirit  of  fairness,  or  with 
the  effect  of  so  plainly  seeking  to  belittle 
them,  as  is  shown  by  the  treatment  accorded 
to  this  volume,  I  shall  hardly  look  to  the 
Monthly  as  giving  any  very  valuable  informa- 
tion about  the  works  it  assumes  to  notice.  I 
have  thought  it  due  to  the  work  to  write  this 
much  of  protest  against  the  attitude  assumed 
toward  it  by  the  writer  in  the  Monthly ;  but 


CORRESP  ONDENCE. 


yet  it  seems  hardly  worth  while,  for  the  ver- 
dict of  approval  by  those  for  whom  the  re- 
port was  undertaken  had  been  given  long  be- 
fore this  notice  appeared ;  indeed,  the  de- 
mand by  teachers  and  educators  for  this 
"  overgrown  volume  "  and  for  its  predeces- 
sor is  so  much  greater  than  the  supply  that 
the  closing  reference  to  "  so  many  copies 
going  back  unread  to  the  paper  vat "  falls 
rather  flat  to  those  who  know  the  facts  ;  of 
course,  however,  the  falsehood,  which  is  there 
implied  as  a  truth  applicable  to  this  particu- 
lar publication,  helps  to  damn  book  and  au- 
thor in  the  opinion  of  the  ingenuous  and  gul- 
lible reader.  I.  EDWARDS  CLARKE. 

DEPARTMENT  or  THE  INTERIOR,  BUREAU  OF 
EDUCATION,  WASHINGTON,  April  29,  1893. 

[We  have  never  received  a  protest  which 
furnished  us  quite  so  much  evidence  in  sup- 
port of  our  own  position  as  does  this  letter 
of  Mr.  I.  Edwards  Clarke.  In  his  first  para- 
graph he  shows  that  we  discriminated  be- 
tween the  well-digested  part  of  his  second 
volume  and  the  gatherings  of  his  drag-net. 
In  his  second  paragraph  he  states  that  his 
purpose  has  been  to  get  together  "all  the 
material"  on  his  subject,  which  involved 
the  reprinting  of  much  "  ephemeral "  litera- 
ture, such  as  "  speeches,  papers,  addresses, 
and  local  reports."  He  does  not  show  that 
the  purposes  of  a  "  work  of  reference,"  as  he 
calls  his  report,  necessitate  the  reprinting 
of  these  speeches,  etc.,  in  full,  nor  does  he 
seem  to  see  that  the  reason  why  such  com- 
positions are  ephemeral  is  that  they  are  not 
sufficiently  condensed  to  be  suitable  for  per- 
manent preservation.  We  are  gratified  to 
learn  that  our  reviewers  of  Mr.  Clarke's  two 
volumes  arrived  independently  at  the  same 
opinion  of  his  work,  for  we  find  that  the 
person  who  noticed  the  second  volume  did 
not  know  what  another  writer  had  said  of 
the  first  in  the  Monthly  seven  years  ago. 
We  are  also  gratified  to  "find  ourselves  in  ac- 
cord with  such  an  able  critical  authority  as 
The  Nation.  It  is  not  surprising  that  a 
great  many  teachers  and  educators  have 
wanted  the  book  enough  to  ask  for  it.  We 
stated  in  our  notices  that  it  contains  much 
valuable  material,  and  complained  only  of 
the  quantity  of  chaff  among  the  wheat.  Mr. 
Clarke  has  evidently  done  his  work  consci- 
entiously, but  he  needs  the  wholesome, 
bracing  atmosphere  which  surrounds  the 
writers  of  books  that  must  pay  their  own 
expenses,  and  which  the  Government  book- 
maker is  protected  from.  Finally,  if  any 
more  evidence  of  his  tendency  to  diffuseness 
were  needed,  it  would  be  afforded  by  the 
length  of  the  letter  above. — EDITOR.] 


tPHE   TRACING  OF   THE  PENNSYLVANIA 
GLACIAL  MORAINE. 
; 


WE  have  received  the  following  letter 
from  Mrs.  H.  Carvill  Lewis,  in  reference  to 
some  remarks  recently  made  in  The  Popular 


Science  Monthly  concerning  the  work  of  the 
late  Prof.  Lewis  and  Prof.  G.  F.  Wright  in  trac- 
ing the  glacial  moraine  across  Pennsylvania. 
Having  given  our  authority  in  the  editorial 
(Correspondence  Department)  in  the  April 
number  for  the  statements  made  in  the  arti- 
cle Recent  Glacial  Discoveries  in  England,  in 
the  December  number,  we  publish  the  letter 
without  further  comment : 

HOTEL  LANG,  HEIDELBERG,  April  16, 18  3. 
Editor  Popular  Science  MonMy. 

DEAR  SIR:  In  reference  to  your  editorial 
on  Recent  Glacial  Researches  in  England, 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  March,  1893,  and 
to  my  statement  that  "  it  was  only  over  the 
last  third  of  the  work  (i.  e.,  in  the  tracing  of 
the  terminal  moraine  across  Pennsylvania 
from  June  to  October,  1881)  that  Prof.  Car- 
vill Lewis  had  the  pleasure  and  benefit  of 
Prof.  Wright's  companionship,"  may  I  take 
the  liberty  of  calling  your  attention  to  the  in- 
closed letters,  which  will  explain  themselves  ? 
The  question  as  to  whether  Prof.  Wright 
has  on  one  or  more  occasions  seen  the  whole 
or  "  three  fourths  "  of  the  moraine  in  Penn- 
sylvania does  not  seem  to  me  the  point  at 
issue.  It  is  simply  this : 

Is  the  statement  in  Mr.  Warren  Upham's 
sketch  of  Prof.  H.  Carvill  Lewis's  life  and 
work,  as  quoted  by  yourself,  that  in  "the 
following  year  (1881)  Profs.  Lewis  and  Wright 
together  traversed  the  southern  border  of 
the  drift  from  Belvidere  on . the  Delaware" 
etc.,  "  to  the  line  dividing  Pennsylvania  and 
Ohio,"  correct? 

To  this  question  an  exact  knowledge  of 
the  facts  of  the  case  compels  me  to  answer 
"  No,"  and  in  support  of  this  opinion  I  in- 
close you  two  letters,  the  latter  of  which  was 
published  by  Prof.  Wright  himself. 

The  matter  itself  is  of  little  consequence, 
but  as  the  accuracy  of  my  statement  is  for 
the  general  reader  of  the  Monthly  apparent- 
ly controverted  by  the  abstract  you  have 
given  from  Mr.  Upham's  article,  I  feel  it 
best  to  produce  proof  of  its  correctness. 

With  regard  to  the  map  of  the  glacia- 
tion  of  England,  which  prefaced  your  arti- 
cle in  the  December  number  of  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  I  regret  to  say  that  it  does 
not  "  represent  Prof.  Lewis's  work  as  com- 
pleted in  England  by  Prof.  Kendall."  I 
most  heartily  wish  that  it  did ! 

The  map  in  question  has  in  its  main  fea- 
tures been  copied  from  some  of  the  leading 
~  glish  authorities — possibly  from  one  of  the 
maps  in  Geikie's  Great  Ice  Age,  to  which  it 
jears  a  strong  resemblance. 

Over  this  older  map,  which  is  quite  at  vari- 
ance with  my  husband's  leading  conclusions, 
the  tracks  followed  by  Scotch  and  Lake  Dis- 
,rict  erratics,  as  traced  by  Prof.  Kendall,  and 
the  moraine  line  across  England  and  Wales 
only,  as  traced  by  my  husband,  have  been 
drawn.  The  moraine  line  is  tolerably  accu- 
rate. 


412 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


The  points  of  agreement  between  Prof. 
Kendall  and  my  husband,  and  the  proofs 
more  recently  found  by  Prof.  Kendall  in 
northwest  England  (a  part  of  the  country 
with  which  he  is  thoroughly  familiar)  of  the 
correctness  of  my  husband's  views  with  re- 
gard to  the  origin  of  the  interbedded  marine 
and  glacial  deposits  of  Lancashire  and  Chesh- 
ire, will  appear  in  full  in  the  first  appendix 
of  the  memoir  on  my  husband's  observations 
in  Great  Britain,  which  is  now  in  the  hands 
of  the  printer.  I  am,  with  respect, 

Faithfully  yours,         JULIA  F.  LEWIS. 

The  following  letter,  inclosed  in  Mrs. 
Lewis's  letter,  was  copied  by  her  from  the 
work  on  The  Terminal  Moraine  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, by  H.  Carvill  Lewis,  introduction, 
p.li. 

(Letter  of  TransmittaL) 
PROF.  J.  P.  LESLEY,  State  Geologist. 

DEAR  SIR  :  In  transmitting  to  you  the  fol- 
lowing notes  on  the  terminal  moraine,  I  de- 
sire to  express  my  thanks  to  the  Second  Geo- 
logical Survey,  which  has  afforded  me  the 
opportunity  to  undertake  an  exploration 


which  to  me  has  been  of  the  greatest  in- 
terest. 

I  desire  also  to  express  my  thanks  to 
those  citizens  and  railroad  companies  which 
have  rendered  assistance  in  the  prosecution 
of  my  field  work.  Especially  I  am  indebted 
to  my  friend  Prof.  George  Frederick  Wright, 
of  Oberlin,  Ohio,  who  for  six  weeks — about 
one  third  of  the  time  employed  in  field  work 
in  1881 — gave  me  valuable  assistance.* 
While  we  were  together  over  a  great  part  of 
the  field,  portions  of  the  moraine  in  central 
Lycoming  and  southern  Venango  Counties 
were  traced  by  him  alone,  and  his  experience 
in  the  glacial  phenomena  of  New  England 
has  been  of  great  value  in  correlating  similar 
deposits  in  Pennsylvania. 

Hoping  the  inclosed  report  will  meet  with 
your  approval, 

I  remain,  very  respectfully  yours, 

(Signed)  H.  CARVILL  LEWIS. 

GERMAN-TOWN,  October  15,  1882. 

The  other  letter  referred  to  by  Mrs. 
Lewis  is  a  letter  from  her  published  by  Prof. 
Wright,  to  whom  it  was  written,  in  Science 
of  May  27,  1892. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


THE  ATTACK  ON  PROF.  WRIGHT. 
"TTTE  publish  in  this  number  an  ar- 
VV  tide  by  Major  J.  W.  Powell,  Di- 
rector of  the  Geological  Survey  of  the 
United  States,  in  which  much  interest- 
ing information  is  given  as  to  the  prob- 
lems, or  some  of  them,  which  the  Sur- 
vey has  taken  in  hand  to  solve,  and  as 
to  the  methods  of  investigation  which 
have  been  employed.  Major  Powell's 
primary  object  is,  however,  to  clear  the 
Survey  of  the  charge  of  having  made  a 
concerted  and  most  bitter  attack  upon 
Prof.  G.  F.  Wright's  recently  published 
book  on  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period, 
and  in  this  respect  we  are  compelled  to 
say  that  we  think  his  article  a  failure. 
We  accept  without  the  slightest  reser- 
vation his  disclaimer  of  any  personal 
responsibility  in  the  matter ;  but  with 
the  evidence  before  us  we  find  it  impos- 
sible to  believe  that  a  number  of  indi- 
viduals, directly  or  indirectly  connected 
with  the  Survey,  did  not,  in  a  concerted 


manner,  set  themselves  to  attack  Prof. 
Wright's  book,  and  that  in  a  spirit  of 
personal  hostility  and  spite  far  more 
than  of  zeal  for  scientific  accuracy.  Con- 
sidering the  nature  of  the  language  in- 
dulged in  by  Mr.  W  J  McGee  in  regard 
not  only  to  Prof.  Wright's  hook,  hut  to 
Prof.  Wright  himself,  we  think  the  di- 
rector of  the  Survey  might  have  spared 
a  few  words  in  which  to  express  his  per- 
sonal disapprobation  of  it ;  but  we  look 
in  vain  in  his  article  for  anything  ot  the 
kind.  He  admits  that  upon  the  publica- 
tion of  the  work  in  question  "his  (Prof. 
Wright's)  fellow-workers  (on  the  survey) 
criticised  the  book  in  various  scientific 
periodicals  and  sometimes  spoke  very  dis- 
paragingly of  it,  as  being  unworthy  of  ac- 
ceptance ;  "  but  he  does  not  say  that  so 
prominent  a  member  of  the  Survey  as  Mr. 
McGee  penned  and  published  an  article 


*  I.  e.,  in  tracing  the  terminal  moraine  across 
Pennsylvania. — J.  F.  LEWIS. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


413 


breathing  from  the  first  page  to  the  last 
the  spirit  of  personal  insult,  and  so  far 
tried  to  set  the  key  for  the  criticisms  of 
other  "fellow-workers."  If  the  direct- 
or had  gone  on  and  made  this  state- 
ment, which  would  have  been  quite  rele- 
vant to  the  subject  and  purpose  of  his 
article,  we  think  he  would  have  felt  it 
incumbent  on  him  to  express  some  opin- 
ion as  to  the  expediency  and  propriety 
of  his  coadjutor's  method  of  vindicating 
scientific  orthodoxy  as  established  at 
Washington.  There  is  a  manifest  les- 
son to  be  learned  from  the  incident. 
The  Geological  Survey  is  a  body  with 
wide  ramifications,  and  whether  it  has 
already  done  so  or  not,  it  is  in  dan- 
ger, from  the  very  nature  of  its  organi- 
zation, of  becoming  a  kind  of  scientific 
hierarchy,  and,  as  such,  of  exercising  an 
influence  unfavorable  rather  than  favor- 
able to  the  increase  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge. We  learn  from  the  director  that 
when  Prof.  Wright  proposed  to  publish 
his  first  book,  The  Ice  Age  in  North 
America,  Prof.  Chamberlin,  under  whose 
direction  he  had  worked  as  an  assistant 
in  the  Survey,  "  demurred."  It  is  really 
hard  to  see  why  Prof.  Chamberlin  should 
have  taken  upon  himself  to  demur. 
Prof.  Wright  was  not  seeking  to  com- 
promise any  one  but  himself,  and  it  was 
known  that  his  work,  of  whatever  char- 
acter it  might  prove  to  be,  would  be  fully 
open  to  criticism.  If  some  scientific 
gentlemen  could  get  it  into  their  heads 
that  science  is  not  a  personal  matter, 
but  a  simple  question  of  the  establish- 
ment of  general  truths,  and  that  every 
man  is  free  to  labor  toward  that  end  by 
the  aid  of  such  lights  as  he  possesses, 
subject  to  correction  by  those  whose 
lights  are  stronger  and  clearer,  things 
would  go  more  smoothly  than  they  do 
in  the  scienti6c  world,  and  the  laity 
would  not  so  often  have  to  exclaim 
(with  sarcasm),  u  See  how  these  men 
of  science  love  one  another ! "  The 
services  of  Prof.  Wright  were  dispensed 
with  from  the  Survey — so  the  director 
tells  us— because  he  failed  to  distin- 


guish "overplacement"  from  original 
glacial  deposit.  We  are  not  in  a  posi- 
tion to  judge  of  the  adequacy  of  the 
reason;  but  admitting  that  it  was  a 
sound  one,  might  we  suggest  to  the  di- 
rector that  the  writing  of  so  discredit- 
able an  article  as  that  which  proceeded 
from  the  pen  of  Mr.  W  J  McGee  might 
perhaps  be  at  least  as  serious  a  reason 
for  removal  from  the  Survey  as  even 
the  non-recognition  now  and  then  of 
"  overplacement "  ?  As  our  readers  are 
aware,  the  general  soundness  of  Prof. 
Wright's  observations  was  defended  in 
a  carefully  written  article  by  Prof.  E. 
W.  Claypole,  which  appeared  in  the 
April  number  of  this  magazine.  It  is 
not  our  part  to  enter  into  the  con- 
troversy, but  we  can  not  help  remarking 
upon  the  magisterial  manner  in  which 
the  Director  of  the  Survey  dismisses 
Prof.  Claypole's  article  as  being  "  based 
upon  error  in  every  paragraph."  Let 
us  hope  that,  if  such  is  the  case,  some 
one  will  come  forward  and  prove  it 
otherwise  than  with  a  lofty  wave  of  the 
hand.  

A  BACKWARD  MOVEMENT. 
WE  have  often  had  occasion  to  notice 
the  valiant  struggles  of  our  contempora- 
ry, The  Nation,  in  the  cause  of  rational 
journalism,  and  we  earnestly  trust  it  may 
not  grow  weary  in  well-doing,  however 
potent  the  opposing  forces  may  appear 
to  be.  We  particularly  wish  it  success 
— some  measure  of  success,  for  there  is 
no  use  in  wishing  too  much — in  its  cru- 
sade against  the  fashion  lately  intro- 
duced by  many  of  the  daily  papers  of 
disfiguring  their  columns  with  wood- 
cuts, far  less  for  purposes  of  illustration 
in  the  true  sense  than  as  mere  distrac- 
tions for  idle  readers  (save  the  mark !), 
who  can  not  bear  the  stress  of  a  score 
of  lines  of  unbroken  print.  These  cuts, 
the  Nation  says,  with  a  measure  of 
truth,  are  a  natural  sequence  of  the  very 
childish  editorial  and  news  matter  which 
many  papers  have  for  years  past  been 
serving  up  to  the  public.  As  our  con- 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


temporary  puts  it,  "The  printed  mat- 
ter of  some  of  them  has  for  a  good 
while  been  doing  all  that  printed  matter 
can  to  reduce  the  popular  intelligence 
to  that  early  stage  which  makes  the  life 
of  nursery  governesses  and  mistresses  of 
kindergartens  so  hard,  in  which  all  the 
resources  of  pedagogy  have  to  be  ex- 
hausted to  keep  the  child's  attention 
fixed  on  anything."  In  a  later  article 
the  Nation  remarks  that,  for  the  pur- 
pose for  which  they  are  now  employed, 
the  "cuts"  do  not  in  the  least  need  to 
be  accurate.  Their  whole  and  sole  pur- 
pose is  to  give  a  grown-up  child  some- 
thing to  look  at,  and  whether  or  not 
they  represent  correctly  the  things  or 
persons  they  are  supposed  to  represent 
has  simply  "nothing  to  do  with  the 
case."  The  mind  exhausted  by  the  pe- 
rusal of  a  dozen  lines  of  letterpress  finds 
refreshment  and  repose  in  gazing  at  a 
picture  of  any  object,  however  common, 
connected  in  any  way,  however  insignifi- 
cant, with  any  incident,  however  trivial 
that  may  form  part  of  the  gossip  of  the 
day.  As  the  Nation  sarcastically  ob- 
serves :  "  The  great  question  of  cabmen's 
beards  might  have  been  discussed  indefi- 
nitely without  the  thorough  elucidation 
given  by  a  picture  of  a  cabman  with  a 
beard,  a  cabman  without  a  beard,  and 
two  or  three  cabmen  prominent  in  the 
agitation." 

Our  contemporary  fears  that  the 
end  is  not  yet,  that  there  is  perhaps 
some  lower  depth  of  mental  degradation 
to  be  sounded.  A  silly  letter  press  pre- 
pared the  way  for  yet  sillier  pictures, 
and  the  question  now  is  what  these  are 
likely  to  bring  forth  as  an  ulterior  result. 
If  it  is  any  comfort,  we  may  reflect  that 
the  complaint  of  a  growing  childishness 
of  the  public  mind  is  a  somewhat  an- 
cient one.  Without  going  further  back, 
we  recall  Cowper's  lines  published  in 
1782: 

"Habits  of  close  attention,  thinking  heads, 
Become  more  rare  as  dissipation  spreads ; 
Till  authors  hear  at  length  one  general  cry, 
'  Tickle  and  entertain  us,  or  we  die  ! '  " 


Nearly  fifty  years  ago  we  find  the 
poet  Wordsworth  inveighing  against 
"illustrated  books  and  newspapers"  in 
a  sonnet  which,  judging  by  later  devel- 
opments, does  not  appear  to  have  had 
much  effect,  but  which  seems  to  express 
our  contemporary's  views  exactly: 

"  Discourse  was  deemed  Man's  noblest  attri- 
bute, 

And  written  words  the  glory  of  his  hand  ; 
Then  followed  Printing,  with  enlarged  com- 
mand 

For  thought— dominion  vast  and  absolute 
For  spreading  truth,  and  making  love  ex- 
pand. 

Now  prose  and  verse,  sunk  into  disrepute, 
Must  lacquey  a  dumb  Art  that  best  can  suit 
The  taste  of  this  once  intellectual  land. 
A  backward  movement  surely  we  have  here, 
For  manhood— back  to  childhood ;  for  the 

age- 
Back  towards  caverned  life's  first  rude  ca- 
reer. 

Avaunt  this  vile  abuse  of  pictured  page  ! 
Must  eyes  be  all  in  all,  the  tongue  and  ear 
Nothing?    Heaven  keep  us  from  a  lower 
stage  ! " 

If  the  poet  found  so  much  to  object 
to  in  the  scanty  attempts  at  so-called 
illustration  made  at  the  date  at  which 
this  sonnet  was  penned  (1846),  what 
would  he  say  to  the  present  day  devel- 
opment of  the  illustration  business?  He 
could  have  seen,  had  he  lived  to  the 
present  t  me,  a  picture,  in  a  leading 
English  paper,  of  the  hide  taken  off  the 
cow  that  ran  down  Mr.  Gladstone ;  the 
cow  itself  was  unfortunately  killed  and 
cut  up  before  her  likeness  had  been 
taken,  but  why  that  should  have  pre- 
vented the  image  of  some  other  cow,  of 
any  cow,  being  offered  to  an  intelligent 
public  in  her  stead,  or  why  the  joints 
into  which  she  was  dissected  should  not 
have  been  severally  photographed,  and 
so  exhibited  as  well  as  the  hide,  we  have 
never  quite  understood. 

It  was  a  dictum  of  Auguste  Comte, 
delivered  about  the  time  that  Words- 
worth was  uttering  his  unavailing  and, 
we  must  say,  too  undiscriminating  pro- 
test against "  illustrated  books  and  news- 
papers," that  the  specific  weakness  of 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


415 


the  present  age  was  a  tendency  to  idio- 
cy, which  he  defined  as  a  condition  in 
which  mere  sensations  dominate  and 
suppress  mental  activity ;  or,  in  other 
words,  a  life  of  excessive  objectivity  and 
defective  subjectivity — insanity,  accord- 
ing to  him,  being  the  exactly  opposite 
condition.  If  The  Nation  is  right  in 
its  diagnosis  of  present  day  tendencies, 
Comte  was  not  very  far  wrong ;  and  as 
that  journal  is  certainly  right  in  part, 
the  question  arises,  What  are  we  going 
to  do  about  it  ?  The  first  thing  to  do  is 
clearly  to  recognize  the  nature. and  pro- 
portions of  the  evil.  Illustrations  in 
books  and  papers  are  useful  when  they 
either  serve  an  aesthetic  purpose  or  con- 
vey information  of  value  which  could 
not  otherwise  be  as  effectively  con- 
veyed. In  scientific  works  they  are,  of 
course,  indispensable.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  do  harm  and  not  good  when 
they  minister  to  simple  intellectual  in- 
dolence, or  help  to  gratify  an  aimless 
and  idle  curiosity.  We  are  inclined  to 
think  that  in  children's  books,  even 
good  illustrations  (from  an  artistic  point 
of  view)  may  have  the  specific  disadvan- 
tageous result  of  checking  the  exercise 
of  imagination.  The  mind  in  childhood 
can  make  its  own  pictures,  and  will  do  so 
if  nobody  steps  in  with  a  picture  ready 
made.  With  pictures  illustrating  every 
phase  and  turn  of  a  story,  there  is  little 
left  for  imagination  to  do  and  the  fac- 
ulty is  apt  to  remain  undeveloped  for 
want  of  exercise.  And  an  undeveloped 
imagination  means  an  undeveloped,  or 
at  least  ill-developed,  individuality. 
There  has  been,  we  believe,  a  great 
deal  of  misunderstanding  on  this  point 
in  the  past.  It  has  been  assumed  that 
the  more  pictures  children  could  be 
shown  the  more  their  minds  would  be 
stimulated ;  but,  for  the  reason  stated 
we  believe  this  to  be  a  great  mistake. 
We  can  not  further  discuss  the  subject 
to-day,  but  it  is  manifestly  one  of  much 
importance  for  old  and  young.  Idiocy,  or 
anything  approaching  to  it,  is  not  a  con- 
dition of  mind  to  be  lightly  cultivated. 


THE  "SAVAGERY"   OF  BELIEVING  IN 
GHOSTS. 

IT  is  a  good  rule  that  a  scientific 
writer,  before  castigating  the  expres- 
sions of  another,  should  acquire  a  right 
comprehension  of  what  is  meant  by 
them.  The  Popular  Science  News  seems 
to  have  forgotten  this  rule.  Referring 
to  our  article  in  the  March  number  on 
The  Everlasting  Ghost,  that  periodical 
says  that,  just  like  "any  superstitious 
savage,"  we  had  assumed  that  the  ap- 
pearances described  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Haweis  as  having  developed  themselves 
on  certain  photographic  plates  were 
"ghost  photographs."  If  our  contem- 
porary had  read  the  papers  in  the  case 
more  carefully — Mr.  Haweis's  article, 
for  instance,  or  even  only  the  heading 
of  it,  or  had  even  read  our  article  with 
closer  attention  to  its  bearing — it  would 
have  observed  that  the  precise  thing  we 
were  ridiculing  was  the  assumption  that 
the  appearances  on  the  plate  were 
"ghost  photographs,"  and  would  then 
have  been  able  to  direct  its  shafts  to- 
ward the  right  quarter.  We  do  not 
underrate  the  value  of  research  in  this 
domain,  or  in  any  part  of  the  field  of 
unexplained  phenomena  styled  psychi- 
cal; but  we  do  condemn  the  spirit  that 
enters  upon  the  investigation  occupied 
with  the  idea  that  a  certain  thing — as, 
for  example,  the  ghosts  in  this  case — is 
to  be  found.  The  savagery  in  the  pres- 
ent instance,  if  there  be  any,  appears  to 
be  illustrated  in  the  uncontrolled  impul- 
siveness that  prompted  an  attack  where 
there  was  no  offense. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 

EDUCATION  FROM  A  NATIONAL  STANDPOINT. 
By  ALFRED  FOUILLEE.  International  Edu- 
cation Series.  Vol.  XXIII.  New  York : 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  332.  Price, 
$1.60. 

VIVE  la  r6publique ! — the  welfare  of  the 
nation — is  the  keynote  of  this  book.  Edu- 
cators who  would  have  a  complete  and  well- 
balanced  understanding  of  their  own  field 
should  not  omit  to  study  the  relation  of  edu- 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


cation  to  national  interests.  Dr.  Harris  has 
chosen  an  excellent  tutor  for  them  in  M. 
Fouill6e,  an  eminent  scholar  and  one  of  the 
race  in  which  the  national  spirit  is  notably 
strong.  Assuming  that  each  nation  has  a 
continuity  of  character,  mind,  habits,  and 
aptitudes  which  forms  an  organic  heredity 
and  identity  persisting  from  age  to  age,  the 
author  inquires  how  education  can  be  made 
to  assist  in  perfecting  this  national  nature. 
After  a  word  on  the  importance  of  physical 
education  he  states  that  the  chief  objects  of 
intellectual  education  should  be — first,  the 
moral;  second,  the  beautiful;  and  last,  the 
true.  The  reader  should  be  cautioned  against 
accepting  fully  M.  Fouillee's  representation  of 
the  effects  of  the  study  of  science.  In  various 
places,  and  especially  in  the  chapters  on  the 
Scientific  Humanities,  he  denounces  the  pres- 
ent teaching  of  science  as  if  it  actually  rep- 
resented this  field  of  knowledge  at  its  best, 
and  declares  that  science  has  been  weighed 
and  found  wanting.  He  ignores  the  fact 
that  science  has  been  taught  often  by  un- 
sympathetic teachers,  without  suitable  mate- 
rials, and  for  a  very  short  period  at  all.  In 
his  chapters  on  the  Classical  Humanities  he 
is  much  more  sympathetic,  recommending 
these  subjects  as  the  very  best  means  of  fos- 
tering a  national  spirit.  He  criticises  se- 
verely what  is  known  in  France  as  a  modern 
education,  and  proposes  a  reformed  system 
of  secondary  training  which  should  embrace 
these  studies :  1,  the  literature  of  the  mother 
country ;  2,  Latin  literature ;  3,  general  his- 
tory; 4,  the  elements  of  mathematics  and 
physics.  Where  diversity  arises,  it  should 
be  in  only  the  following  special  subjects : 
Greek,  secondary  science  subjects  with  ap- 
plied science,  and  modern  languages.  In 
conclusion,  he  maintains  that  all  education 
will  prove  defective  from  the  national  stand- 
point unless  it  includes  moral  and  social  sci- 
ence, and  unless  its  several  parts  are  unified 
by  philosophy.  Programmes  illustrating  the 
author's  views  are  given  in  an  appendix. 

A  CONTRIBUTION  TO  OUR  KNOWLEDGE  OF 
SEEDLINGS.  By  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  JOHN 
LUBBOCK,  Bart.  New  York :  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.  In  two  volumes.  Price,  $10. 

THE  results  of  a  wide-reaching  botanical 
research  are  embodied  in  these  two  substan- 
tial and  copiously  illustrated  volumes.  The 


subject  of  this  research  is  the  forms  of  coty- 
ledons, which  not  only  differ  greatly  in  dif- 
ferent plants  but  are  generally  much  differ- 
ent from  the  forms  of  the  ordinary  leaves  in 
the  same  plant.  Some  cotyledons  are  broad, 
others  narrow;  those  of  the  mustard  are 
kidney-shaped,  of  the  cress  three-lobed,  of 
the  beech  fan-shaped,  of  the  sycamore  shaped 
almost  like  a  knife-blade,  of  Eschscholtzia 
divided  like  a  hay-fork,  of  the  bean  or  acorn 
thick  and  fleshy.  The  shape  of  the  seed 
seems  to  have  an  influence  on  the  shape  of 
the  cotyledons.  Where  the  cotyledons  are 
narrow  and  lie  straight  in  a  long,  narrow 
seed,  the  relation  is  simple,  but  such  cases 
are  few.  Often  narrow  cotyledons  are  found 
coiled  in  orbicular  seeds.  In  many  broad 
seeds  we  find  two  fleshy  cotyledons  laid  face 
to  face,  and  occupying  almost  the  whole  of 
the  seed.  In  the  nearly  spherical  radish 
seed  the  cotyledons  are  laid  face  to  face  and 
then  folded  along  the  middle.  In  other  spe- 
cies one  cotyledon  is  larger  than  the  other, 
or  the  halves  of  each  cotyledon  are  unequal ; 
still  other  cotyledons  are  lobed,  emarginate, 
auricled,  etc.,  and  for  all  of  these  features 
the  author  has  found  probable  causes  in  the 
shape  of  the  seed  or  the  way  in  which  the 
cotyledons  are  packed  within  it.  A  general 
statement  of  these  points  occupies  the  early 
part  of  the  first  volume,  while  the  rest  of  the 
work  is  devoted  to  descriptions  of  the  seed- 
lings in  a  large  number  of  genera.  In  pro- 
curing the  seedlings  for  these  descriptions 
the  author  has  been  permitted  to  make  large 
use  of  the  resources  of  Kew  Gardens.  A 
valuable  feature  of  the  work  is  the  carefully 
drawn  illustrations  of  seedlings,  sections  of 
seeds,  etc.,  of  which  there  are  six  hundred 
and  eighty-four.  An  index  and  a  bibliogra- 
phy are  appended. 

THE  THEORY  OP  WAGES  AND  ITS  APPLICATION. 
By  HERBERT  M.  THOMPSON.  London  and 
New  York:  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  140. 
Price,  $1. 

THIS  is  a  piece  of  close  and  clearly  ex- 
pressed reasoning  upon  one  of  the  great  prob- 
lems of  political  economy.  The  author  says 
that  his  economic  statements  are,  for  the 
most  part,  those  accepted  by  the  economists 
of  to-day.  These  statements'  he  sets  forth 
in  the  first  chapter,  and  upon  them  he  bases 
the  proposition  that  "  the  universal  product 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


417 


of  industry  and  abstinence  "  (the  "  universal 
dividend,"  as  it  might  be  called)  "  is  a  mass 
of  wealth  varying  in  amount,  and  divided  in 
varying  proportions  among  the  agents  to  its 
production."  Holding  this  view,  the  author 
obviously  can  not  accept  the  wage-fund 
theory  nor  the  theory  that  labor  is  the  re- 
sidual claimant  to  the  product  of  industry, 
nor  the  doctrine  that  "  rent  does  not  enter 
into  the  expenses  of  production,"  and  his 
next  three  chapters  are  devoted  to  criticisms 
of  these  doctrines.  In  his  criticism  of  the 
first-named  theory  he  comes  in  conflict  with 
Mill,  Fawcett,  and  Cairns ;  he  takes  Walker 
as  a  representative  of  the  second,  and  Mar- 
shall and  Sorley  as  supporting  the  last.  In 
his  fifth  and  final  chapter  he  applies  his 
theory  of  wages  to  the  eight-hour  movement, 
trades-unionism,  profit-sharing,  etc. 

How  NATURE  CURES,  COMPRISING  A  NEW 
SYSTEM  OF  HYGIENE  ;  also,  THE  NATURAL 
FOOD  OF  MAN.  By  EMMET  DENSMORE, 
M.  D.  London :  Swan,  Sonnenschein  & 
Co.  New  York:  Stillman  &  Co.  Pp. 
405. 

IN  this  work  Dr.  Densmore  makes  a  bold 
effort  to  shatter  all  existing  and  accepted 
systems  of  dietary,  and  ominously  warns 
his  readers  of  the  dangers  of  seeking  the 
assistance  of  the  medical  profession  in  cases 
of  sickness.  The  book  is  divided  into  three 
parts :  How  to  Doctor,  How  to  Get  Well  and 
Keep  Well,  and  The  Natural  Food  of  Man. 
In  the  first  chapter  of  Part  I  the  author 
gives  an  example  of  the  process  of  natural 
healing,  or,  as  he  terms  it,  "Nature's  en- 
gineering." He  says:  "A  sliver  becomes 
imbedded  in  the  flesh — a  frequent  accident. 
...  If  the  sliver  is  permitted  to  remain, 
Nature  at  once  sets  about  a  bit  of  engineer- 
ing. First,  there  is  pain  and  inflammation ; 
then  follows  a  formation  of  pus ;  this  in  due 
time  breaks  down  the  tissues  immediately 
surrounding  the  sliver,  especially  toward  the 
surface  of  the  limb ;  the  pus  increases,  breaks 
through,  runs  out,  and  sooner  or  later  carries 
the  sliver  with  it."  And  he  claims  that 
"  these  and  like  processes  of  Nature  are  all 
the  healing  force  there  is." 

Further  on,  he  asserts  that  the  deaths  of 
both  George  Washington  and  President  Gar- 
field  were  either  hastened  or  directly  caused 
by  the  drugs  of  the  physicians  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and  in  the  second  by  the  daily  prob- 
TOL.  XLIII. — 28 


ing  for  the  bullet,  which,  if  left  undisturbed, 
would  not  have  been  fatal.  All  through  the 
early  part  of  the  work  the  author  advances 
argument  after  argument  against  the  uses  of 
drugs  for  healing  purposes,  and  in  the  fifth 
chapter  he  makes  the  announcement  that, 
although  surgery  can  be  classed  as  a  science, 
"  medicine  is  not  a  science ;  it  is  empiricism 
founded  on  a  network  of  blunders." 

The  second  part  of  the  book  treats  of 
Ho\v  to  Get  Well  and  Keep  Well,  and  em- 
braces a  series  of  chapters  upon  the  uses 
and  abuses  of  certain  foods  and  their  relative 
values  for  promoting  health.  In  the  first 
chapter  of  this  part,  while  admitting  that 
"  bread,  cereals,  pulses,  and  vegetables  are 
the  bases  of  the  food  of  civilization,"  he 
denies  the  urgency  of  their  forming  the  bases 
of  food,  and  in  fact  distinctly  states  that 
these  and  all  other  starch  foods  are  not  bene- 
ficial to  the  system ;  and  he  urges  the  use  of 
ripe  sweet  fruits  in  their  place.  This  con- 
tention he  bases  upon  the  fact  that  starchy 
foods  such  as  bread,  cereals,  etc.,  are  not 
digested  in  the  first  stomach,  but  have  to 
pass  into  the  intestines,  which  they  overtax 
during  the  process  of  digestion. 

Considerable  space  is  devoted  to  argu- 
ments against  the  use  of  tea,  coffee,  tobacco, 
and  alcoholic  beverages ;  and  the  author 
scathingly  attacks  the  use,  or  rather  the 
abuse  of  the  use  of  opium  by  "orthodox 
physicians."  In  the  third  part  are  repeated 
his  ideas  upon  the  curative  powers  of  Nature, 
and  the  evils  of  using  starchy  foods.  In  this 
part,  also,  he  attacks  the  accepted  theory 
that  varying  the  diet  is  beneficial  to  the 
digestive  organs,  and  advises  a  similar  meal 
of  meat  and  fruit  every  day.  The  book  con- 
cludes with  a  number  of  "  Conf ormatory 
Chapters,"  in  which  Dr.  Densmore  seeks  to 
defend  his  theories. 

SPEECHES  OF  SIR  HENRY  MAINE.  With  a 
Memoir  of  his  Life,  by  the  Right  Hon.  Sir 
M.  E.  GRANT  DUFF.  New  York :  Henry 
Holt  &  Co.  Pp.  451.  Price,  $3.50. 

THE  man  who  is  here  portrayed  in  his 
public  utterances  and  official  writings  was 
one  of  the  leading  lights  of  the  century  in  the 
field  of  jurisprudence.  In  1847,  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-five,  he  was  made  Regius  Pro- 
fessor of  Civil  Law  at  Trinity  College,  Cam 
bridge.  Three  years  after  he  betook  himself 


418 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


to  legal  practice  in  London,  which,  together 
with  lecturing  and  literary  work,  occupied  his 
energies  for  twelve  years.  In  1861  he  pub- 
lished his  Ancient  Law,  which  at  once  be- 
came an  authority  and  a  text-book.  The  fol- 
lowing year  he  accepted  the  Law  Member- 
ship in  the  Council  of  the  Governor-General 
of  India.  He  held  this  position  until  1869, 
and  during  this  period  two  hundred  and  nine 
acts  were  passed.  The  speeches  and  minutes 
that  make  up  the  body  of  the  present  vol- 
ume relate  to  matters  of  East  Indian  legisla- 
tion which  demanded  his  attention  during 
these  years.  Some  of  these  matters  concern 
the  government  of  provinces — i.  e.,  Judicial 
Taxation,  The  Bengal  Legislature,  and  Over- 
Legislation  ;  others,  such  as  Divorce,  Emigra- 
tion, and  Whipping,  concern  the  daily  life 
of  the  people.  In  all  may  be  seen  Maine's 
breadth  of  view  and  his  temperate  and  con- 
vincing style  of  argument.  Besides  their 
biographical  interest  these  documents  have 
also  a  sociological  value  from  the  glimpses 
they  give  into  the  life  and  thought  of  the 
East  Indian  peoples.  Sir  Grant  Duff's  mem- 
oir tells  much  about  Maine's  university  days, 
his  writing  for  the  Saturday  Review  and 
other  journals,  and  recounts,  also,  the  ap- 
pointments and  honors  of  his  later  life. 

In  Volume  III  of  the  Journal  of  Ameri- 
can Ethnology  and  Archceology,  A.  E.  Ban- 
delier  gives  a  most  interesting  outline  of  the 
documentary  history  of  the  Zuni  tribe,  which 
will  serve  as  an  important  link  in  the  chain 
of  evidences  of  prehistoric  civilization  on  the 
northern  portion  of  this  continent. 

At  no  time  in  our  history  has  there  been 
such  an  influx  of  speculative  literature  con- 
cerning prehistoric  man  in  America  as  is 
now  offered  to  ethnological  students;  con- 
siderable discussion  existing  as  to  the  condi- 
tions of  prehistoric  man,  his  period  of  advent 
here,  and  probable  characteristics  and  civil- 
ization. From  among  the  many  works  upon 
this  interesting  subject  it  is  still  difficult  to 
accept  as  satisfactory  and  conclusive  evi- 
dence the  consequential  conclusions  of  the 
writers.  Their  researches  are  of  decided 
speculative  value  to  science;  but  they  ad- 
vance their  theories  and  make  their  conclu- 
sions solely  upon  the  vague  probabilities  of 
certain  conditions  and  appearances  of  archae- 
ological discoveries. 


The  material  used  in  this  monograph  is  ex- 
clusively derived  from  Spanish  documents, 
which  the  author  was  enabled  to  study  in  the 
archives  of  the  Mexican  Republic,  and  of  the 
Indies,  at  Seville,  Spain,  and  chiefly  concerns 
the  discoveries  of  certain  Spanish  monks  be- 
tween 1538  A.  D.  and  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  From  these  documents  it 
is  evident  that  a  high  degree  of  civilization 
existed  among  the  Zuni  people  early  hi  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  must  have  existed 
there  for  hundreds  of  years  prior  to  the 
discovery  of  the  country  by  the  Spaniards. 
Here  is  an  extract  concerning  the  expedition 
of  Fray  Marcos,  of  Nissa,  in  1538 :  "...  About 
a  month  and  a  half  ago  there  came  a  monk, 
lately  arriving  from  some  newly  discov- 
ered land  which,  they  say,  is  five  hundred 
leagues  from  Mexico,  .  .  .  and  toward  the 
north.  Of  this  country  it  is  said  that  it  is 
rich  in  gold  and  other  valuable  products,  and 
has  large  villages.  The  houses  are  of  stone 
and  earth,  the  people  use  weights  and  meas- 
ures, they  are  civilized,  marry  only  once, 
dress  in  woolen  goods,  and  ride  on  certain 
unknown  animals."  Another  witness  testi- 
fies that  "  there  were  many  cities  and  towns 
well  peopled;  that  the  cities  were  walled 
and  the  gates  guarded ;  that  the  people  were 
very  wealthy ;  that  there  were  silversmiths ; 
that  the  women  wore  jewels  of  gold,  and 
the  men  girdles  of  gold  and  white  woolen 
dresses ;  that  they  had  sheep,  cows,  and 
quails,  and  that  there  were  butchers  and 
smithies."  It  is  therefore  evident  that  the 
Zuni  Indians  possessed  a  civilization  long 
prior  to  the  advent  of  European  explorers ; 
and  as  the  authenticity  of  these  documents 
is  unquestioned,  we  have,  in  the  researches 
of  Mr.  Bandelier,  some  very  important  matter 
upon  which  to  build  further  and  reliable  in- 
quiry into  the  prehistoric  conditions  of  man 
on  this  continent.  Unfortunately,  the  almost 
total  destruction  of  the  archives  in  New 
Mexico  by  the  Indians,  in  1680,  renders  it 
difficult  to  secure  a  complete  history  of  the 
past  of  New  Mexico,  and  of  the  discoveries 
in  Arizona  which  were  made  by  explorers 
from  New  Spain  in  the  early  part  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  Nevertheless,  in  this  mono- 
graph considerable  light  is  thrown  upon  the 
conditions,  civilization,  and  characteristics  of 
the  early  dwellers  of  North  America. 

In  a  report  on  the  Relations  of  Soil  to 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


419 


Climate,  by  E.  W.  Hilgard,  Professor  of 
Agricultural  Chemistry  in  the  University  of 
California,  which  was  published  by  authority 
of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  there  are  a 
great  many  suggestions  concerning  the  ef- 
fects of  temperature  and  climate  upon  un- 
developed soil  and  upon  its  physical  charac- 
ter. It  does  not  enter  into  the  remedial  pos- 
sibilities of  the  question;  but  at  the  very 
opening  of  the  paper  Prof.  Hilgard  makes 
the  interesting  and  valuable  statement  that 
"  since  soils  are  the  residual  product  of  the 
action  of  meteorological  agencies  upon  rocks, 
it  is  obvious  that  there  must  exist  a  more  or 
less  intimate  relation  between  the  soils  of  a 
region  and  the  climatic  conditions  that  pre- 
vail." From  this  standpoint  he  discusses 
the  effect  of  the  phenomena. 

At  the  Marine  Biological  Laboratory, 
Woods  Holl,  Mass.,  according  to  the  Fifth 
Annual  Report,  some  important  biological 
discoveries  have  been  made;  among  them, 
for  the  first  time  in  history,  the  embryologi- 
cal  "feat  of  tracing  the  annelid  larvae 
through  every  stage  of  development  cell  by 
cell"  The  report  explains  the  purpose  and 
work  of  the  laboratory,  and  gives  schedules 
of  the  different  courses  of  instruction,  inves- 
tigation, etc.  Several  memoirs  on  amphibian 
development  are  in  progress  by  the  members 
of  the  laboratory,  one  of  which  is  completed. 
It  covers  the  whole  period  of  development 
up  to  the  establishment  of  the  fundamental 
features  of  the  embryo,  including  the  forma- 
tion of  the  egg  and  the  phenomena  of  fecun- 
dation. Director  Whitman  closes  his  report 
with  an  appeal  to  American  lovers  of  science 
to  assist  the  managers  of  the  laboratory  by 
providing  funds  to  enable  them  to  extend 
their  space  and  operations  in  giving  instruc- 
tion in  marine  biology. 

In  a  paper  entitled  Twenty  Years  of  Prog- 
ress in  the  Manufacture  of  Iron  and  Steel  in 
the  United  States,  James  M.  Swank  makes  an 
interesting  examination  of  these  industries. 
He  gives  some  statistical  comparisons  be- 
tween the  productions  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States,  which  point  to  the  fact 
that  this  country  has  not  only  passed  her 
great  rival  in  the  production  of  pig  iron,  but 
also  in  that  of  steel.  In  the  manufacture  of 
Bessemer  steel,  ingots,  and  rails  the  United 
States  has  more  than  doubled  the  production 
of  Great  Britain,  while  the  latter  country  still 


holds  first  place  in  the  manufacture  of  open- 
hearth  steel.  His  account  of  the  change 
from  iron  to  steel  in  the  manufacture  of  rails 
is  interesting,  and  shows  that  iron  rails  prac- 
tically ceased  to  be  manufactured  in  1892. 
In  a  paragraph  on  the  United  States  tin-plate 
industry  he  says,  "  The  new  tin-plate  industry 
has  made  remarkable  progress  since  the  new 
duty  went  into  effect ; "  and  this  he  illus- 
trates by  some  statistics  of  its  growth.  In 
the  summary  of  his  statistical  statement? 
Mr.  Swank  shows  that  the  United  States  is 
now  the  first  of  all  iron  and  steel  manufac- 
turing countries.  The  paper  is  an  extract 
from  the  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United 
States,  and  is  published  by  the  Department 
of  the  Interior — United  States  Geological 
Survey. 

Horace  V.  Winchell,  State  Geologist  of 
Minnesota,  makes  a  valuable  report  on  the 
Iron  Ores  of  the  Mesabi  Range  of  Lake  Su- 
perior. He  claims  that  the  iron  mines  of 
this  district  are  the  richest  "  known  in  the 
world  to-day,"  and  he  gives  some  interesting 
statistics  of  the  output  and  probabilities  of 
the  Mesabi  iron  range  since  its  discovery  in 
1890.  The  report  embraces  a  history  of  the 
mining  of  the  district,  a  list  and  approxima- 
tion of  the  outputs  of  the  mines  now  opened 
up,  tables  of  analyses  of  the  Lake  Superior 
ores,  and  comparisons  with  those  of  other 
States  and  of  Europe.  The  information  con- 
cerning the  methods  of  prospecting,  sam- 
pling, testing,  transportation,  etc.,  in  use  at 
this  range  will  be  read  with  interest. 

Mr.  William  Bowker  contributes  a  very 
useful  paper  on  the  relation  of  fisheries  to 
agriculture.  It  is  entitled  The  Harvest  of 
the  Sea,  and  was  read  by  him  at  the  winter 
meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Agri- 
culture. He  makes  a  strong  argument  in 
favor  of  utilizing  the  non-edible  and  un- 
wholesome fishes  that  abound  in  our  water? 
— as  well  as  fish  refuse — for  agricultural 
purposes.  He  gives  some  interesting  ex- 
tracts from  the  "  History  of  Plimoth  Planta- 
tion," showing  that  as  early  as  1621  the  In- 
dians were  aware  of  the  value  of  fish  as  a 
fertilizer,  and  he  calls  attention  to  the  re- 
markable fact  that  the  word  menhaden  was 
applied  to  the  fish  of  that  name  by  the  In- 
dians because  it  means  "  fertilizer,  that  which 
manures."  Mr.  Bowker  pooh-poohs  the  idea 
that  the  supply  of  fish  can  be  measurably 


420 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


diminished,  no  matter  what  methods  man 
may  use  for  their  capture ;  and  he  suggests 
the  establishment  of  experiment  stations  for 
developing  fish  and  other  plant-food  indus- 
tries. (Boston:  Wright  &  Potter,  1892.) 

In  pamphlets  202  and  203  of  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission  Bashford  Dean  con- 
tributes some  important  data  concerning  the 
science  of  oyster  culture.  The  first  of  these 
reports  deals  with  the  Physical  and  Biologi- 
cal Characteristics  of  the  Natural  Oyster 
Grounds  of  South  Carolina.  He  draws  at- 
tention to  the  appearance  of  immense  natural 
but  partly  obsolete  oyster  beds  on  the  coast 
of  this  State,  and  explains  how  oyster  culture 
might  be  again  profitably  developed  there. 
In  the  chapter  on  the  Absence  of  Oyster 
Spat  in  Deep  Water,  Mr.  Dean  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  extraordinary  silt  suspension  along 
the  coast,  and  points  out  that  this  matter  is, 
de  facto,  one  of  the  causes  why  oysters  do  not 
thrive  in  the  deeper  waters.  He  claims  that 
"  to  plant  in  deep  waters  clean  shells  as  spat 
collectors  would  in  this  region  be  futile"; 
but  that  an  abundance  of  both  oyster  seed 
and  oyster  food  exist  in  South  Carolinian 
waters,  and  that  in  the  marginal  waters, 
"  from  the  level  of  low  tide  to  about  a  fathom 
in  depth,"  oyster  culture  could  be  very  ad- 
vantageously developed. 

The  second  pamphlet  is  entitled  A  Report 
on  the  Present  Methods  of  Oyster  Culture  in 
France.  This  subject  is  very  interestingly 
discussed,  and  the  result  of  Mr.  Dean's  obser- 
vations will,  by  comparison,  be  of  pertinent 
value  to  those  who  are  interested  in  the  con- 
ditions, industry,  and  culture  of  the  oyster  in 
American  waters.  He  tells  the  entire  process 
of  oyster-raising  in  France,  from  the  time  the 
swimming  fry  becomes  attached  to  the  col- 
lectors until  the  grown  oyster  is  shipped  for 
consumption.  He  also  defines  the  difference 
between  the  American  oyster  and  the  French 
"flat"  oyster,  which  is  akin  to  the  English 
"native."  The  American  and  Portuguese 
are  monosexual,  whereas  the  "flats"  are  bi- 
sexual ;  so  that,  as  says  Mr.  Dean,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  reconcile  the  relationship  between 
both  species.  Both  reports  are  profusely 
illustrated  with  photographs  of  the  localities 
and  processes  of  collection  and  general  cul- 
ture. (Washington,  1892.) 

Edwin  T.  Dumble,  State  -Geologist  of 
Texas,  in  a  report  of  243  pages,  gives  an  ex- 


haustive treatise  on  the  "  character,  forma- 
tion, occurrence,  and  fuel  uses  "  of  the  brown 
coal  and  lignite  of  his  State.  These  coals 
are  widely  distributed  throughout  Texas,  the 
coal  measures  of  the  "  northern  central  por- 
tion of  the  State  "  occupying  an  area  of  sev- 
eral thousand  square  miles.  Recapitulating 
the  results  of  his  investigations — some  of 
which  were  made  in  Europe,  for  the  purpose 
of  comparison — Mr.  Dumble  claims  that 
"  brown  coal  and  lignite,  of  good  quality  and 
under  certain  conditions,  are  fully  capable  of 
replacing  bituminous  coal  for  any  and  all 
household,  industrial,  and  metallurgical  pur- 
poses." 

There  are  instructive  chapters  on  arti- 
ficial fuel,  the  composition  of  Texan  coal, 
and  its  utilization  and  formation.  And  the 
State  Geologist  adds  that  as  Texas  has  an 
abundant  supply  of  brown  coal  "  equal  to  the 
best  which  has  been  utilized,  and  far  supe- 
rior to  much  that  has  been  used  satisfacto- 
rily in  other  countries,"  there  is  no  economic 
reason  why  the  wonderful  coal  measures  of 
Texas  should  not  be  more  fully  developed. 
(Austin:  Ben  Jones  &  Co.,  1892.) 

Barton  W.  Everman,  Assistant  Commis- 
sioner of  Fish  and  Fisheries,  has  made  inter- 
esting reports  on  the  advisability  of  estab- 
lishing fish-hatching  stations  in  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region  and  Gulf  States.  In  making 
such  an  investigation  several  considerations 
have  to  be  taken  into  account.  The  chief 
requirement  is  a  constant  supply  of  pure 
water,  "  not  less  than  a  thousand  gallons  per 
minute,"  at  a  temperature  not  exceeding  50° ; 
but  of  equal  importance  is  the  selection  of  a 
stream  or  spring  free  from  contamination  and 
containing  as  few  as  possible  of  such  enemies 
of  the  Salmonidce  family  and  their  spawn  as 
the  blob,  etc.  The  first  part  of  the  report  is 
devoted  to  his  investigations  in  Montana  and 
Wyoming.  In  some  of  the  mountain  streams 
no  trout  were  found,  and  in  many  of  those 
streams  there  was  a  marked  absence  of  algae, 
chara,  and  other  suitable  water  vegetation. 
All  the  tributaries  of  the  Columbia  and  Mis- 
souri Rivers  were  investigated  —  fifty-nin'e 
streams  in  all — and  finally  Dr.  Everman  con- 
sidered that  the  most  advantageous  places  to 
select  as  a  hatchery  are  Horsethief  Springs, 
Botteler  Springs,  and  Davies  Springs.  All 
of  these  are  close  to  Yellowstone  National 
Park,  in  Montana,  but  he  prefers  Horsethief 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


421 


Springs,  which  flows  into  the  Madison  River. 
He  says  that  this  stream  "  most  nearly  fills 
all  the  natural  requirements."  It  abounds  in 
suitable  water  vegetation,  as  well  as  in  small 
mollusks  and  insect  larvae ;  it  is  already  used 
as  a  natural  hatchery  and  spawning  ground 
by  trout,  whitefish,  and  grayling ;  the  water 
never  freezes,  and,  says  the  assistant  commis- 
sioner, in  making  his  recommendation,  "  they 
are  among  the  most  remarkable  springs  that 
are  to  be  found  in  the  United  States."  In 
the  second  part  of  the  book  Dr.  Everman 
gives  a  report  on  his  investigations  made  in 
Texas  for  a  similar  purpose.  During  this 
investigation  thirty  new  species  of  fish  were 
discovered,  descriptions  of  which  are  given. 
Many  excellent  locations  for  a  fresh-water 
station  were  found  in  the  interior,  but  Dr. 
Everman  says  that  "  no  point  on  the  coast 
offers  entirely  satisfactory  conditions  for  the 
establishment  of  a  combined  fresh  and  salt 
water  station ;  but  the  Swan  Lake  site,  near 
Galveston,  might  prove  fairly  suitable."  The 
reports  are  illustrated  with  photographs  of 
the  localities  investigated  and  of  the  fishes 
inhabiting  each  locality. 

Coals  and  Cokes  in  West  Virginia  is  the 
title  of  a  pamphlet  compiled  by  William  Sey- 
mour Edwards,  which  gives,  "in  a  handy 
form,"  a  more  precise  knowledge  of  the  coal 
measures  and  industry  of  West  Virginia.  It 
consists  of  a  general  review  of  the  coal  fields, 
and  a  series  of  chapters  on  their  geological, 
stratigraphical,  chemical,  and  physical  con- 
dition. The  greater  portion  of  the  work  is 
devoted  to  tables  of  the  chemical  and  physi- 
cal analyses  of  the  coals  and  cokes  of  the 
State  "in  comparison  with  those  of  other 
States  in  America  and  Europe." 

Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Geological 
Survey  of  Texas.  E.  T.  Dumble,  F.  G.  S.  A., 
State  Geologist.  Austin :  Henry  Hutchings, 
1892.  Pp.  410,  with  maps  and  illustrations. 
This  report  embraces  not  only  the  geological 
and  mineralogical  conditions  of  Texas,  but 
also  gives  some  interesting  historical  facts 
connected  with  the  development  of  the  State. 
Accompanying  the  report  are  papers  on  ge- 
ological investigations  in  Houston  County, 
by  W.  Kennedy;  Section  from  Terrell  to 
Sabine  Pass;  Llano  Estacado,  or  Staked 
Plains,  by  W.  F.  Cummins,  notes  on  the 
geology  of  the  country  west  of  the  plains ; 
Stratigraphy  of  the  Triassic  Formation  in 


Northwest  Texas,  by  N.  F.  Drake ;  and  sev- 
eral other  reports  dealing  with  the  paleon- 
tology of  the  vertebrata  and  the  cretaceous 
area,  and  Trans-Pecos,  Texas.  A  consider- 
able portion  of  the  mineralogical  part  of  the 
report  is  devoted  to  Prof.  Dumble's  investi- 
gations of  the  coal  measures  of  the  State ; 
and  in  the  chapter  on  Agriculture  he  explodes 
the  idea  that  the  Staked  Plains  was  a  wide 
expanse  of  desert  sand.  They  were  marked 
so  on  all  "  the  old  maps  as  the  Great  Ameri- 
can Desert " ;  but  the  State  Geologist  says, 
"  This  has  been  proved  to  be  utterly  untrue, 
for  there  are  no  spots  on  this  wide  expanse 
upon  which  there  was  not  formerly  a  luxuri- 
ant growth  of  natural  grasses." 

In  Brochure  I  of  Volume  II  of  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Rochester  Academy  of  Science, 
Mr.  John  Walton  contributes  a  paper  on  the 
Mollusca  of  Monroe  County.  He  gives  some 
useful  advice  to  collectors  of  mollusca,  and 
illustrates  his  paper  with  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  cuts  of  as  many  different  varieties 
and  species.  Mr.  Charles  S.  Prosser's  paper 
on  The  Thickness  of  the  Devonian  and 
Silurian  Rocks  of  Western  New  York,  ap- 
proximately along  the  Line  of  the  Genesee 
River,  minutely  analyses  the  stratification 
of  the  Genesee  section.  The  brochure  also 
contains  an  article  on  the  Guelph  Formation 
in  Rochester,  and  an  interesting  synopsis  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  botanical  section  of 
the  academy.  (Edited  by  P.  Max  Foshay, 
secretary,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  1892.) 

The  seventeenth  year  book  of  New  York 
State  Reformatory  at  Elmira,  January,  1893, 
is  a  very  exhaustive  report  of  the  condition, 
financial,  educational,  industrial,  etc.,  of  the 
institution.  It  was  entirely  produced  by  the 
inmates  engaged  on  the  institutional  journal, 
The  Summary,  and  is  from  the  Reformatory 
press.  It  is  beautifully  printed  on  super- 
calendered  paper  and  is  profusely  illustrated. 
The  report  of  the  general  superintendent 
contains  a  plea  for  the  establishment  of 
"  well  organized  and  managed  reformatory 
prisons,"  and  he  draws  attention  to  the  fact 
that  most  of  the  criminals  are  the  product 
of  "civilization"  and  "emigration  to  our 
shores  from  the  degenerated  populations  of 
crowded  European  marts."  In  that  portion 
of  the  book  entitled  Results  there  is  a  very 
interesting  examination  into  the  causes  of 
criminality  of  certain  prisoners,  their  prog- 


422 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ress  during  imprisonment,  and  their  condi- 
tions, socially  and  industrially,  after  liber- 
ation. 

In  a  volume  of  194  pages  Mr.  Nathan 
Cree  contributes  a  useful  argument  for  Di- 
rect Legislation  by  the  People,  which  is  the 
title  of  his  work.  He  does  not  claim  that 
such  a  form  of  government  would  be  a 
"  remedy  for  all  the  political  ills  of  society," 
but  he  points  to  many  errors  in  the  existing 
systems,  and  argues  that  at  least  an  epoch  of 
direct  legislation  would  tend  to  better  and 
more  economic  government.  He  says  that 
"  popular  power  in  this  country  stands  in  no 
need  of  a  vindication,  either  of  its  rightfulness 
or  practicability,"  but  he  adds  that  the 
"power-holders  do  not  govern  directly,  al- 
though elected  by  a  widely  extended  suffrage." 
The  author  charges  that  the  electoral  bodies, 
which  are  the  ultimate  power  in  the  United 
States,  "  delegate  their  powers  to  agents,"  and 
he  seeks  to  prove  that  a  modification  of  the 
present  system  combined  with  the  primitive 
direct  government  would  not  alone  be  better 
and  more  interesting,  but  that  the  adoption 
of  it  is  within  the  natural  order  of  modern 
political  evolution.  (A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co., 
Chicago.  Price,  75  cents.) 

Bulletin  No.  7  (Part  I)  of  the  Geological 
and  Natural  History  Survey,  Minnesota,  N. 
H.  Winchetl,  State  Geologist,  consists  of  a 
descriptive  and  popular  account  of  the  fea- 
tures and  habits  of  the  Mammals  of  Min- 
nesota, by  C.  L.  HerricJc.  In  consequence 
of  the  delay  in  the  publication  of  the  re- 
ports, which  were  handed  over  in  1885, 
this  portion  of  the  work  contains  only  the 
descriptive  and  popular  portion  of  the  sur- 
vey. The  scientific  part,  which  embraces  the 
materials  collected  on  the  anatomy,  espe- 
cially the  myology  and  osteology  of  the 
Minnesota  mammals,  will  form  the  second 
part.  Part  I  is  clearly  written,  and  will  be 
welcomed  by  all  lovers  of  natural  history. 
It  is  illustrated  with  twenty-three  figures  and 
seven  plates,  and  is  published  by  Harrison  & 
Smith,  State  Printers,  Minneapolis. 

In  a  volume  of  128  pages,  Elizabeth  E. 
Evans  offers  to  the  public  a  peculiar  theo- 
logical discussion,  which  she  describes  as  "  a 
condensed  statement  of  the  results  of  scien- 
tific research  and  philosophical  critcism,  as 
applied  to  the  history  of  religion."  In  her 
argument  the  authoress  assails  every  Chris- 


tian belief,  and  in  the  preface  she  declares 
that  "  all  creeds  are  alike  false."  She  scoffs 
at  the  idea  of  a  Trinity  as  accepted  by  all 
Christians ;  says  that  Jesus  was  a  myth  or 
simply  a  pure  man  and  a  fanatic;  and  that 
"  the  idea  of  a  God  originated  from  the  fears 
of  man  in  the  presence  of  the  natural  forces 
which  he  is  unable  to  control."  She  seems 
to  lean  toward  the  doctrine  of  metempsycho- 
sis ;  and,  while  scoring  the  Roman  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  pays  tribute  to  the  purity  of 
intention  of  the  Buddhist  faith.  (New  York : 
Commonwealth  Company.) 

/.  E.  Usher,  M.  D.,  has  given  to  the  world 
an  interesting  and  useful  treatise  on  Alcohol- 
ism and  its  Treatment.  Comparing  the  dis- 
ease with  insanity,  he  says  that  although  the 
latter  is  a  deplorable  thing  in  any  form,  "  no 
phase  of  mental  breakdown  is  more  far- 
reaching  in  its  influence "  than  alcoholism. 
Tracing  the  disease  through  its  "  inherited  " 
and  "  acquired  "  forms,  he  brings  his  reader 
to  the  fourth  chapter,  which  is  entitled  Insan- 
ity and  Alcoholism.  Here,  in  four  pages,  he 
lays  bare,  with  admirable  skill,  the  awful  re- 
sultant danger  to  chronic  drunkards  from  the 
condition  of  insanity  into  which  their  over- 
indulgence has  plunged  or  may  at  any  mo- 
ment plunge  them. 

The  chapters  on  Alcoholic  Trance  and 
Crime  and  Cerebral  Automatism  or  Trance 
are  the  most  interesting  parts  of  the  work. 
They  are  devoted  to  the  examinations  of  cases 
of  murder,  forgery,  manslaughter,  robbery? 
etc.,  committed  while  the  automatic  action  of 
the  brain  continues  from  the  action  of  al- 
cohol. The  last  two  chapters  are  devoted  to 
the  best  means  of  treating  those  suffering 
from  alcoholism,  embracing  a  number  of  use- 
ful prescriptions  as  well  as  a  ringing  denun- 
ciation of  all  patent  nostrums  sold  for  this 
purpose.  (New  York :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons, 
1892.  Pp.  151.  Price,  $1.25.) 

In  a  book  of  184  pages,  Mr.  Arthur  Wil- 
ling, in  order  that  a  more  easily  comprehen- 
sive idea  of  God — whom  he  designates  the 
Unseen — may  be  attained,  says  that  his  ob- 
ject is  to  submit  as  a  proposition  that  "  it  is 
in  higher  space  that  we  are  to  look  for  the 
understanding  of  the  unseen."  He  carries 
us  by  a  rather  difficult  but  ingenious  road 
through  what  he  supposes  to  be  the  first, 
second,  and  third  directions  or  dimensions  of 
space  to  the  "  fourth  dimension  "or  "  high- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


423 


pace" ;  and  here  is  where  he  locates  the 
presence  of  God  and  also  that  of  the  depart- 
ed souls.  This  invention  he  apologizes  for  by 
saying  that  it  is  "  a  terribly  hard  thing  to  real- 
ize." Nevertheless  he  assumes  its  existence 
and  the  conditions  referred  to  for  the  pur- 
pose of  penetrating,  without  irreverence,  into 
the  secrets  of  the  unseen,  for  he  says :  "  Seek- 
ing for  the  truth  there  is  neither  presump- 
tion nor  irreverence,  nor  intrusion  into  for- 
bidden ground,  always  provided  that  the 
search  is  prosecuted  in  a  right  spirit."  Not- 
withstanding the  ultra-scientific  style  of  Mr. 
Willink  in  this  work,  and  although  it  will 
not  be  understood  by  many,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  but  that  his  motive  is  excellent,  and 
that  the  book  will  be  read  with  pleasure  by 
many  of  those  interested  in  the  higher  theo- 
logical subjects.  (The  World  of  the  Unseen. 
New  York :  Macmillan  &  Co.  Price,  $1.25.) 
In  issuing  a  second  edition  of  his  work 
on  the  Geographical  Distribution  of  Disease 
in  Great  Britain,  Dr.  Alfred  Haviland  has 
divided  it,  making  Part  I,  now  published, 
cover  Cumberland,  Westmoreland,  and  the 
Lake  District  (Macmillan,  $4.50).  In  this 
part  the  geology  and  physical  geography  of 
the  region  are  fully  described,  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  different  diseases  is  set  forth. 
There  are  several  colored  maps  showing  geo- 
logical formations,  contours,  and  the  distri- 
bution of  phthisis,  cancer,  and  heart  disease. 
In  this  edition  the  statistics  of  deaths  from 
1861  to  1870  are  added  to  those  from  1851 
to  1860,  used  in  the  first  edition.  An  ap- 
pendix contains  a  list  of  plants  growing  in 
limestone  districts,  tables  of  population,  etc. 
In  The  Dynamic  Theory  of  Life  and 
Mind  an  attempt  is  made  by  James  B.  Alex- 
ander, of  Minneapolis,  "  to  show  that  all  or- 
ganic beings  are  both  constructed  and  oper- 
ated by  the  dynamic  agencies  of  their  re- 
spective environments."  The  author  has 
gathered  into  his  thousand  octavo  pages  a 
great  number  of  accepted  facts  in  biology,  pa- 
leontology, physiology,  acoustics,  optics,  elec- 
tricity, and  psychology.  Scattered  through 
this  mass  of  material  is  a  limited  amount  of 
argument  in  support  of  his  contention  that 
"  organisms,  instead  of  being  hand-made  and 
purposive,  are  machine-built  machines,  and 
operated  when  built  by  forces  outside  of 
themselves."  That  is  to  say,  that  organs  are 
shaped  by  the  influence  of  functions  upon 


parts  not  yet  adapted  to  those  functions, 
and  that  the  activity  of  the  organism  is  de- 
termined by  stimuli  from  without.  The  data 
are  drawn  from  competent  sources,  and  all 
the  author's  statements  are  made  in  a  clear 
and  temperate  style.  Over  four  hundred  fig- 
ures illustrate  the  text. 

The  Geological  Survey  has  issued  a  mono- 
graph on  the  Geology  of  the  Eureka  District, 
Nevada,  by  Arnold  Hague,  with  an  atlas. 
The  area  covered  by  the  survey  here  recorded 
is  about  twenty  miles  square,  and  lies  in  the 
central  part  of  Nevada.  The  monograph  is 
a  quarto  volume  of  four  hundred  and  nine- 
teen pages,  embracing  a  general  description 
and  a  geological  sketch  of  the  district,  with 
discussions  of  the  rocks  of  the  several  epochs 
that  are  represented  within  the  area  in  ques- 
tion, and  an  account  of  the  ore-deposits  found 
there.  A  Systematic  List  of  Fossils,  by  C. 
D.  Walcott,  and  a  paper  on  the  Microscopical 
Petrography  of  the  Eruptive  Rocks,  by  J.  P. 
Iddings,  are  appended.  Eight  plates  illus- 
trate the  text.  The  atlas  contains  eleven 
folio  sheets,  one  covering  the  whole  district, 
and  the  others  representing  the  several  di- 
visions of  it  on  a  larger  scale. 


PUBLICATIONS  RECEIVED. 

Abbe,  Cleveland.  The  Mechanics  of  the  Earth's 
Atmosphere.  Washington  :  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion. Pp.  324. 

Agricultural  Experiment  Stations:  Connecticut. 
Annual  Report.  Pp.  168.— University  of  Illinois. 
Variations  in  Milk.  Pp.  36.— Massachusetts,  Tenth 
Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Control.  Pp.  354. 
—Commercial  Fertilizers.  Pp.  8.— New  York. 
Manufacture  of  Cheese.  Pp.  16.— Some  Celery 
Diseases.  Pp.  16. 

Bedell,  F.,  and  Crehore,  A.  C.  Alternating  Cur- 
rents. New  York:  The  W.  J.  Johnston  Co.,  Lim- 
ited. Pp.325. 

Bolton,  Prof.  H.  Carrington.  A  Modern  Oracle 
and  its  Prototypes:  A  Study  in  Catoptromancy. 
New  York.  Pp.  38. 

Bonar,  James.  Philosophy  of  Political  Econ- 
omy. New  York  :  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  410. 
$2.75. 

Bradford,  E.  F.,  and  Lewis,  Louis,  M.  D. 
Handbook  of  Emergencies  and  Common  Ailments. 
Sold  by  subscription.  Boston:  B.  B.  Russell. 
Pp.448. 

Brewer,  City  of,  Maine.  Mayor's  Address  and 
the  Annual  Reports.  Pp.  81. 

Brinton,  Daniel  G.  The  Pursuit  of  Happiness. 
Philadelphia:  David  McKay.  Pp.  292.  $1. 

Bruner,  Lawrence.  The  More  Destructive  Lo- 
custs of  America  North  of  Mexico.  Washington: 
Government  Printing  Office.  Pp.  40. 

Burbank's  Experimental  Grounds,  Santa  Rosa, 
Cal.  New  Creations  in  Fruits  and  Flowers.  Pp. 
52. 

Cassell  Publishing  Company,  New  York.  Por- 
trait Catalogue.  Pp.  112. 


424 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Cazin,  F.  M.  F.,  Hoboken,  N.  J.  Resistance 
to  Ship's  Motion,  Natural  Law  newly  discovered. 
Pp.  39 

Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass.  Report  of 
the  President  and  Departments.  Pp.  168. 

Columbia  College,  New  York.  School  of  Pure 
Science,  Circular  of  Information.  Pp.  49. 

Cope,  E.  D.    The  Genealogy  of  Man.    Pp.  14. 

Cross,  Anson  K.  Drawingin  the  Public  Schools. 
A  Manual  for  Teachers.  Boston:  The  Author. 
Pp.92.  With  Ten  Plates.  $1. 

Cuadrado,  Gaston  Alonzo.  Recuerdos  de  los 
Estados  Unidos.  Un  Viaje  al  Niagara  (A  Trip  to 
Niagara).  Pp.  32.— Constituci6n  Quimica  e  In- 
yestigaciones  del  Acido  Urico  en  la  Orino  (Chem- 
ical Constitution"  and  Investigations  of  Uric  Acid 
in  the  Urine).  Habana.  Pp.25. 

Dement,  R.  S.  Napoleon:  a  Drama.  Chicago: 
Knight,  Leonard  &  Co.  Pp.  183. 

Dibble,  F.  L.,  M.  D.  Vagaries  of  Sanitary  Sci- 
ence. Philadelphia  :  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.  Pp. 
462.  $2. 

Doliey,  C.  S.,  M.  D.  Thyrsos  of  Dionysos,  etc. 
Pp.8.  ' 

Dunscomb,  S.W.,  Jr.  Bankruptcy.  New  York: 
Columbia  College.  Pp.  167. 

Easton,  A.  Mortal  Man  (Verse).  Chicago:  The 
Easton  Company.  Pp.  47. 

Fisher,  A.  K.,  M.  D.  The  Hawks  and  Owls  of 
the  United  States  and  their  Relation  to  Agricul- 
ture. Washington :  Department  of  Agriculture. 
Pp.  209. 

Freyer,  John,  LL.  D.  IlluPtrated  Account  of 
the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  (in  Chinese). 
Shanghai,  China. 

Frink,  Henry  C.  Tax  the  Railroads,  thereby 
indirectly  Taxing  the  People.  Pp.  16. 

Funk  &  Wagnalls.  Standard  Dictionary  of 
the  English  Language.  Prospectus. 

Gadd,  W.  L.  Soap  Manufacture.  New  York: 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  222.  SI -50. 

Gilbert,  G.  K.  The  Morris  Face.  Washington: 
Philosophical  Society.  Pp.  50. 

Goldsmith,  E.  Notes  on  some  Minerals  and 
Rocks.  Philadelphia:  Academy  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences. 

Hessler,  Robert,  M.  D.  An  Extreme  Case  of 
Parasitism.  Pp.  6. 

Hill,  Robert  T.  Notes  on  the  Texas-New  Mex- 
ican Region.  Pp.  16.— Non-Mountainous  Topog- 
raphy of  the  Texas  Region.  Pp.  10.— The  Creta- 
ceous Formations  of  Mexico.  Pp.  15.— -Occurrence 
of  Hematite,  etc.,  in  Mexico.  (With  Notes  by  W. 
Cross.)  Pp.10. 

Hogeboom,  Charles  L.,  M.  D.  The  Vis  Medi- 
catrix  Naturae.  Pp.  8. 

Homes  in  City  and  Country.  New  York: 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  Pp.214.  $2. 

Hourwitch,  I.  A.  Economics  of  the  Russian 
Village.  New  York:  Columbia  College.  Pp.183. 

Hubbard,  Gardner  G.  Discoverers  of  America. 
Washington.  Pp.  20.  With  Two  Maps. 

Hulme,  F.  E.  The  Birth  and  Development  of 
Ornament.  New  York:  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp. 
340.  $1.25. 

Kapp,  Gilbert.  Alternating  Currents  of  Elec- 
tricity. New  York:  W.  J.  Johnston  &  Co.  Pp. 
155. 

Kron,  Prof.  William  O.  Laboratory  of  the 
Physiological  Institution  of  GOttingen.  Pp.  2.— 
Studies  of  Touch.  Pp.  16. 

Lachlan,  R.  Modern  Pure  Geometry.  New 
York:  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  228.  $2.25. 

Lake,  Philip.  Kayser's  Text-book  of  Com- 
parative Geology.  (Translation.)  New  York:  M.c- 
millan&Co.  Pp.426.  $4.50. 

Laurie  A.  P.  The  Food  of  Plants.  New  York: 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  77.  35  cents. 


Lecky,  W.  E.  H.  History  of  Ireland  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century.  Five  Volumes.  New  York- 
D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

Leslie,  Mrs.  Frank.  Are  Men  Gay  Deceivers  ? 
Chicago:  F.  T.  Neely.  Pp.  304. 

Leverett,  Frank.  Glacial  Succession  in  Ohio. 
Chicago:  University  Press.  Pp.  16. 

Lewis,  B.  B.  Cosmic  Ether  and  its  Problems. 
Bridgeport,  Conn.  Pp.  159. 

McDonald.  Marshall.  Report  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Fisheries,  1891-'92.  Pp. 
204. 

Mally,  F.  W.  Report  on  the  Boll  Worm  of  Cot- 
ton. Washington :  Government  Printing  Office. 
Pp.  73. 

Manson,  Marsden.  Geological  and  Solar  Cli- 
mates. University  of  California.  Pp.  49. 

Marshall,  A.  Milnes,  M.D.  Vertebrate  Em- 
bryology. New  York:  G.P.Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  An- 
nual Catalogue,  1892-'93.  Pp.  256. 

Maycock,  W.  P.  Electric  Lighting  and  Power. 
Distribution.  Part  II.  New  York:  Whittaker  & 
Co.  Pp.  130.  75  cents. 

Michigan  Mining  School.  Catalogue,  1891-'92- 
Houghton,  Mich.  Pp.  175. 

Mitchell,  Rev.  Thomas.  Conflict  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century.  New  York:  Universal  Book  Co. 
Pp.  456. 

Missouri  Botanical  Garden.  Fourth  Annual 
Report.  Pp.266.  With  Plates.  St.  Louis. 

Minnesota.  Vital  Statistics,  1890-'91.  Minne- 
apolis. Pp.  146. 

New  York  Academy  of  Sciences.  Transactions. 
Table  of  Contents.  Volume  II.  Pp.  16. 

Omaha,  City  of,  Report  of  the  City  Engineer. 
1892.  Pp.  60.  With  Maps. 

Outerbridge,  A.  E.,  Jr.  Model  Traveling  Cranes, 
Pp.  11. 

Queensland,  Letters  from.  By  the  Times  Spe- 
cial Correspondent.  New  York:  Macmillan  &  Co. 
Pp.  110.  80  cents. 

Pickering,  E.  C.  Researches  on  the  Zodiacal 
Light.  Cambridge,  Mass. :  Harvard  Observatory. 
Pp.  166. 

Riggs,  S.  R.  A  Dakota-English  Dictionary. 
Washington :  Bureau  of  Ethnology.  Pp.  665. 

Ripley,  F.  J.,  Ephianism.    Atlanta,  Ga.    Pp. 

Rockwell,  R.  P.  The  Mineral  Industry.  New 
York:  Scientific  Publishing  Co.  Pp.  628. 

Rugby  Academy,  Philadelphia.  Tusculum, 
Periodicum  Latiuum  Graecum.  10  cents.  $2  a 
year. 

Russell,  J.  W.  Elementary  Treatise  on  Pure 
Geometry.  New  York:  MacrnLlan  &  Co.  Pp. 
323.  $2.60. 

Saltus,  Edgar.  Madame  Sapphire.  Chicago 
and  New  York:  F.  T.  Neely.  Pp.  251. 

Sanborn,  G.  B.  Cause  of  Ocean  Currents,  Pp. 
34. 

Shakespeare,  William.  The  Comedy  of  the 
Merchant  of  Venice.  New  York :  American  Book 
Co.  Pp.  103.  20  cents. 

Shufeldt,  Dr.  R.  W.  Comparative  Ornitholog- 
ical Notes  on  Ichthyornis.  Pp.  7. 

Smithsonian  Meteorological  Tables.  Washing- 
ton: Smithsonian  Institution.  Pp.  262. 

Stern,  Dr.  Heinrich.  Die  Zersetzung  anima- 
lischen  Materie  (The  Decomposition  of  Animal 
Matters).  Pp.  32'— Vom  Thur  zn  Babel  (From 
the  Tower  of  Babel).  Pp.  6.  Milwaukee,  Wis.: 
Freidenker  Publishing  Company. 

Tariff  Reform.  Semi-monthly.  Pp.  24.  5  cents. 
Treat,  E.  B.  &  Co.,  Publishers.    The  Disease 
of  Inebriety.    Pp.400.    $2.75. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


425 


University  of  Pennsylvania.  Report  of  De- 
partment of  Archaeology  and  Paleontology.  Pp. 
35. 

Van  Nostrand,  D.,  &  Co.  Catalogues,  Books 
on  Steam.  Steam  Engines,  etc.  Pp.  30.— Books 
on  Electricity,  Electric  Light,  Telephone,  etc. 
Pp.18. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Mrs.  Schuyler.  Art  out  of 
Doors.  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  Pp. 
897.  $1.50. 

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Whitman,  C.  O.,  and  Allis,  E.  P.,  Editors. 
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Pp.184. 

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Winchell,  N.  H.  Geological  and  Natural  His- 
tory Survey  of  Minnesota.  Pp.  344. 

Wolff,  A.  R.  Heating  of  Large  Buildings.  Pp. 
16.  85  cents. 

Yale  University.  Graduate  Instruction,  1893- 
'94.  Pp.56. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

Copper  in  the  United  States.— Each  of 
the  main  geographical  subdivisions  of  the 
United  States,  according  to  Mr.  James  Doug- 
las, possesses  a  distinct  group  of  copper  de- 
posits. The  Appalachian  chain  of  mountains 
carries  throughout  its  entire  extent,  from  far 
beyond  the  northern  limits  of  the  United 
States  to  near  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  copper, 
which  is  chiefly  but  not  exclusively  con- 
tained in  masses  of  iron  pyrites  imbedded  in 
crystalline  slates.  Copper  mines  were  worked 
before  the  Revolution  in  Connecticut,  New 
Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania.  More  recently 
mines  have  been  worked  in  nearly  all  the 
Eastern,  Middle,  and  Southern  States  from 
Maine  to  Alabama,  but  most  extensively  in 
Vermont  and  Tennessee.  From  the  great 
trough  between  the  Appalachian  and  Rocky 
Mountain  chains,  drained  by  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Mississippi,  but  little  copper  has 
been  extracted  except  from  the  State  of 
Michigan.  There  have  been  small  workings 
in  other  places,  but  not  important.  The 
copper-bearing  beds  of  the  Keweenaw  series 
in  Michigan,  extending,  but  not  in  profitable 
veins,  into  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  consist 
of  beds  of  trap,  sandstone,  and  conglomerate 
of  doubtful  age.  Everywhere  in  Michigan 
the  copper  of  this  series  exists  exclusively  in 
the  metallic  state.  Three  classes  of  deposits 
are  worked  in  the  Keweenaw  promontory : 
the  veins  that  yielded  those  extraordinary 
masses,  stray  blocks  of  which  were  reverenced 
by  the  Indians,  which  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  Jesuit  fathers,  and  which  have  appealed 


to  the  popular  fancy  ;  copper  beds  of  amyg- 
daloid diabase,  locally  called  ash  beds,  and 
amygdaloid  traps ;  and  beds  of  conglomerate, 
of  which  the  cementing  material  consists  in 
part  of  copper.  There  are  sulphureted  ores 
of  copper  in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  outside 
of  the  Keweenaw  series,  but  mines  of  notable 
productiveness  have  not  been  opened  on  any 
of  them.  The  Rocky  Mountain  mines  may  be 
subdivided  into  two  groups — those  of  south- 
ern Arizona  and  those  of  northern  Montana. 
With  insignificant  exceptions,  all  Arizona 
copper  comes  from  three  groups  of  deposits : 
those  near  Clifton,  at  Bisbee,  and  near  Globe. 
The  ores  heretofore  yielded  by  these  mines 
have  been  naturally  oxidized,  and  with  the 
elimination  of  the  sulphur  have  been  purified 
from  certain  other  obnoxious  elements  which 
are  commonly  associated  with  sulphur.  The 
Butte  mines  in  Montana  came  into  produc- 
tive existence  almost  simultaneously  with  the 
mines  of  Arizona ;  but,  instead  of  maintain- 
ing an  almost  stationary  production,  their 
record  has  shown  an  extraordinary  augmen- 
tation of  yield  from  year  to  year.  Outside  of 
Butte,  no  district  promises  in  the  near  future 
to  be  largely  productive.  Promising  indica- 
tions of  copper  wealth  exist  in  the  Seven 
Devils'  district  in  Idaho,  but  they  have  not 
been  exploited.  Nevada,  Utah,  and  Wyo- 
ming have  all  yielded  more  or  less  copper,  and 
all  contain  ores  which  under  more  favorable 
circumstances  than  now  exist  will  be  utilized. 
Colorado  stands  in  the  list  as  a  producing 
State  of  growing  importance.  New  Mexico 
does  not  produce  much.  On  the  Pacific 
coast,  California  alone  has  been  notable  in 
production. 

Coal-tar  Perfumes.  —  The  revolution 
which  chemistry  has  brought  about  hi  the 
manufacture  of  colors  is  now  becoming 
apparent  in  the  perfumery  industry.  As 
vegetable  colors  are  being  giadually  replaced 
by  the  colors  derived  from  coal  tar,  so  artifi- 
cial perfumes  are  gradually  taking  the  place 
of  the  natural  ones;  and  these  derivatives 
from  coal  tar  promise  to  give  the  best  results 
in  the  future.  Artificial  perfumes  are  ob- 
tained by  means  of  the  ethers,  liquids  re- 
markable for  their  characteristic  odors ;  by 
suitably  composed  mixtures  by  which  imita- 
tions are  obtained  of  the  perfumes  of  fruits 
and  of  the  principal  alcoholic  drinks ;  and 


426 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


fixed  formulas  are  given  for  each  flavor  and 
for  each  liquor.  These  artificial  perfumes 
are  much  used  for  the  preparation  of  con- 
fections into  the  composition  of  which  neither 
fruit  nor  sugar  enters,  but  only  algae,  potato 
glucose,  and  artificial  flavors,  and  of  bonbons, 
jellies,  liquors,  etc.  The  essences  of  cognac 
and  rum  are  also  much  used  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  drinks  with  alcohols  of  grain,  sugar 
beet,  or  potato.  The  perfumes  of  flowers 
are  harder  to  imitate.  Eecourse  was  at  first 
had  to  mixtures  of  other  cheaper  or  more 
easily  obtainable  natural  perfumes.  An  ad- 
vance has  now  been  made,  and  chemistry  has 
succeeded  in  imitating  these  odors  with  sub- 
stances derived  from  plants  by  complex  re- 
actions. The  first  perfume  derived  from 
combinations  with  the  derivatives  of  coal  tar 
was  nitrobenzine,  which  was  obtained  by 
Mitscherlich  in  1834,  but  is  manufactured  on 
a  large  scale  only  by  Collas,  in  Paris,  under 
the  name  of  essence  of  mirbane.  It  has  an 
odor  like  that  of  bitter  almonds,  and  is  used 
for  perfuming  soaps.  Perfumes  of  similar 
origin  have  multiplied  very  much  in  recent 
years ;  and  we  now  have  among  them  artifi- 
cial wintergreen,  artificial  musk,  etc. 

Floral  Festivals. — In  the  arrangement  in 
the  Arsenal  Garden,  Tokio,  Japan,  of  special 
collections  of  plants  selected  for  the  purpose 
of  producing  a  display  of  flowers  at  different 
seasons  of  the  year,  Garden  and  Forest  per- 
ceives an  idea  which  can  perhaps  be  adopted 
advantageously  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 
It  is  the  expression,  it  says,  of  the  love  of  the 
Japanese  for  particular  flowers  and  of  the 
popularity  of  the  flower  festivals  held  in 
spring,  when  the  apricot  trees  and  the  cherry 
trees  bloom ;  in  summer,  when  the  wis- 
taria, the  irises,  and  the  morning-glories  are 
in  flower ;  and  in  the  autumn,  at  the  sea- 
son of  the  chrysanthemum,  and  when  the 
leaves  of  the  maple  trees  assume  their  bril- 
liant coloring.  Every  public  garden  in  Japan 
contains  collections  of  these  plants,  at  least  of 
the  apricots,  the  cherries,  and  the  maples, 
and  they  are  visited  by  the  greatest  number 
of  people  when  these  plants  are  in  flower. 
Their  flowering  is  the  excuse  for  parties  of 
pleasure,  and  the  intelligence  of  millions  of 
people  has  in  this  way  been  quickened  by 
their  interest  in  the  unfolding  of  petals  of 
cherry  trees  or  wistaria.  Similar  arrangements 


might  be  made  in  our  own  parks.  "  As  our 
cities  grow  large  and  absorb  the  surrounding 
country,  many  of  their  inhabitants  must  pass 
their  lives  in  ignorance  of  some  of  the  most 
beautiful  things  in  Nature,  without  behold- 
ing, for  example,  the  glory  of  an  apple  tree 
in  flower.  In  some  corner  of  any  one  of  our 
large  parks,  or  better,  in  different  parks  of  a 
series  or  system,  a  number  of  permanent  out- 
door flower  shows  might  be  arranged  which 
would  add  immensely  to  their  value  as  places 
of  resort,  and  would  have  a  powerful  influ- 
ence in  directing  and  educating  the  public 
taste.  There  are  many  trees,  for  example, 
with  showy  and  beautiful  flowers,  which  dis- 
play their  greatest  beauty  only  when  massed 
together  in  considerable  numbers ;  and  if  the 
people  of  our  cities  had  the  opportunity  to 
see  such  collections,  they  would  very  soon 
make  holidays  for  the  purpose,  and  flower 
festivals  before  many  years  would  become  as 
much  a  part  of  our  life  in  cities  as  they  have 
in  Japan." 

Superstitions  concerning  the  "Black 
Devil."— While  the  Dara  Deil  (Forficula 
oleus),  or  "  black  devil,"  a  kind  of  earwig, 
used  to  be  an  object  of  almost  universal  ab- 
horrence in  the  folk  lore  of  Ireland.  Its  serv- 
ices were  sometimes  invoked  in  labor  that 
demanded  extraordinary  physical  exertion. 
In  creeping  along,  whenever  it  hears  any 
noise  it  halts,  cocks  up  its  tail,  and  jerks  out 
its  sting,  which  is  similar  to  that  of  a  bee. 
No  reptile  has  been  so  much  feared  and 
dreaded  by  the  peasantry  as  this  insect,  and 
it  used  to  be  commonly  believed  that  it  be- 
trayed to  his  Jewish  enemies  the  way  the 
Saviour  went  when  leaving  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem. It  was  nc  smaP  gain  to  destroy  this 
insect,  for  seven  sins,  it  was  said,  were  taken 
off  the  soul  of  the  slayer.  The  people  be- 
lieved that  the  sting  of  the  Dara  Deil  was 
very  poisonous,  if  not  mortal,  and  that  it 
possessed  a  demoniac  spirit.  Under  this 
impression,  whenever  it  was  seen  in  a  house 
by  the  peasantry  they  always  destroyed  it  by 
placing  a  coal  of  fire  over  it,  and  when  it  was 
burned  the  ashes  were  carefully  swept  out. 
It  was  not  trodden  on  by  foot,  as  a  less  for- 
midable insect  would  be,  nor  was  it  killed  by 
a  stick,  for  it  was  believed  that  the  poisonous 
or  demoniac  essence  would  be  conveyed  to 
the  body  of  the  slayer  through  leather  or 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


427 


wood.  It  has  often  been  related  that  labor- 
ers have  been  enabled  to  perform  extraordi- 
nary feats  through  the  agency  of  the  black 
devil,  which  they  inserted  in  some  part  of 
their  implements  of  labor ;  but  the  few  who 
were  so  daring  as  to  have  recourse  to  such 
means  were  regarded  as  dabblers  in  the  black 
art,  and  were  looked  upon  as  reckless,  as 
"  utterly  left  to  themselves,"  and  almost  be- 
yond the  pale  of  salvation.  This  insect  is 
still  considered  extremely  dangerous;  it  is 
thought  to  be  a  kind  of  scorpion ;  but  very 
few,  indeed,  are  now  disposed  to  lift  it  to  the 
dignity  of  preternatural  influence. 

Growth  of  Willow  Trees. — Garden  and 
Forest  has  received  a  photograph  of  a  wil- 
low tree  standing  in  Waterbury  Centre,  Vt., 
the  trunk  of  which  measures  twenty-four 
and  a  half  feet  in  circumference,  and  whose 
symmetrical  top  shades  an  eighth  of  an  acre 
of  ground.  A  person  who  knows  the  early 
history  of  the  willow  testifies  that  in  1840  it 
was  a  tree  about  six  inches  in  diameter, 
which  had  grown  from  a  walking-stick  driven 
into  the  ground  a  few  years  before  by  some 
children.  In  that  year  it  was  cut  down  deep 
into  the  ground  in  the  hope  of  killing  it,  but 
it  started  a  new  growth,  and  has  reached  its 
present  dimensions  in  fifty  years.  The  rapid 
growth  of  the  willow  in  favorable  localities 
is  well  known,  and  Dr.  Hoskins  (from  whom 
the  photograph  was  received)  writes  of  another 
near  his  home,  which  sprang  from  a  cane  car- 
ried by  a  returning  soldier  in  1866,  and  thrust 
into  the  soil  in  his  dooryard.  It  is  now  more 
than  four  feet  in  diameter,  with  an  immense 
top,  and  bids  fair,  at  an  equal  age,  to  reach 
the  dimensions  of  the  one  spoken  of. 
i  i 

The  Jagir  Dnseens  of  North  Borneo.— 
The  Governor  of  British  North  Borneo,  vis- 
iting the  island  of  Banguey,  found  there  a 
tribe  of  Duseens,  differing  in  language,  re- 
ligion, and  customs  from  other  tribes  bear- 
ing that  name.  Among  one  of  these  people, 
called  Jagir,  spirits  are  believed  in,  and  also 
the  power  of  a  priestess  to  keep  them  in  or- 
der ;  "  for  she  is  acquainted  with  their  ways, 
and  knows  the  future  as  well  as  the  past." 
She  nominates  and  trains  her  successors,  but 
they  must  wear  black  robes  and  carry  wooden 
knives.  The  priestess  thanks  the  chief  spirit, 
on  behalf  of  the  tribe,  at  the  harvest  festi- 


val when  the  paddy  crop  has  been  successful ; 
but  the  people  never  appeal  to  the  spirits  or 
practice  any  religious  ceremony  in  connection 
with  births,  deaths,  sickness,  or  marriages. 
Marriages  are  performed,  without  public  gath- 
ering or  feast,  in  the  forest  in  the  presence 
of  the  two  families.  The  rite  consists  in  trans- 
ferring a  drop  of  blood  from  a  small  incision 
made  with  a  wooden  knife  in  the  calf  of  the 
man's  leg  to  a  similar  cut  in  the  woman's  leg. 
After  marriage  the  man  takes  the  bride  to 
her  home,  where  he  resides  in  future  as  a 
member  of  the  family.  These  people  have 
long  hair,  secured  with  a  wooden  pin  at  the 
back  of  the  head,  and  cut  short  on  the  fore- 
head. Their  only  covering  consists  of  a 
scanty  fragment  of  bark.  They  use  for  fire- 
making  both  flints  and  a  pointed  friction- 
stick,  which  differs  slightly  from  the-  one 
generally  used  in  the  archipelago.  The 
tribesmen  are  honest,  trustworthy,  and '  in- 
dustrious. 

A  Chinese  Naial  College.— The  Imperial 
Naval  College  at  Nankin,  China,  according 
to  Dr.  Fryer's  report,  was  opened  about  two 
years  ago  for  the  purpose  of  educating  young 
men  of  talent  for  official  positions  in  the 
southern  fleet  of  the  Chinese  navy,  the 
northern  fleet  having  been  already  provided 
for.  It  has  now  eighty  students  between 
seventeen  and  twenty-five  years  of  age,  about 
equally  divided  between  the  branches  of 
navigation  and  engineering.  Two  English 
teachers  are  engaged,  with  several  Chinese 
teachers  who  have  been  graduated  from  the 
Tientsin  Naval  College  and  are  employed  as 
instructors  in  drilling,  rifle  practice,  tor- 
pedo work,  and  other  branches.  The  second 
classes  of  both  the  navigation  and  the  en- 
gineering branches  are  also  taught  by  quali- 
fied natives.  The  Chinese  studies  are  di- 
rected by  literary  graduates,  who  teach  the 
classics  and  other  subjects  of  the  usual 
course.  With  the  good  beginning  it  has 
had,  and  ample  room  for  expansion,  there 
can  be  little  doubt,  says  the  report,  that  the 
college,  under  its  present  administration,  will 
eventually  grow  into  a  permanent  institution 
that  will  bear  comparison  with  some  of  those 
of  foreign  countries.  The  Chinese  mind 
seems  to  be  able  to  undergo  a  severe  amount 
of  study  and  discipline  that  is  simply  aston- 
ishing. Handicapped  by  having  to  keep  up 


428 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


their  own  classics  and  literary  style,  while  all 
they  learn  of  foreign  subjects  is  through  the 
medium  of  a  new  and  difficult  language, 
these  youths  must  be  made  of  the  finest  ma- 
terial to  make  any  progress  at  all.  The 
learning  capacity  and  memory  of  a  good 
Chinese  student  are  almost  beyond  credi- 
bility. It  is  only  in  the  invention  or  origi- 
nating of  new  ideas  or  in  making  deductions 
that  they  are  weak.  .Those  subjects  which 
depend  chiefly  on  the  use  of  mathematics 
have  received  the  most  particular  care  and 
attention. 

Sound  Economics. — Judging  from  the 
summary  in  the  London  Spectator,  some 
sound  economics  are  embodied  in  the  utter- 
ances in  a  recent  speech  by  Mr.  Balfour 
touching  upon  questions  of  labor  and  social 
relations.  The  speaker  animadverted  on  the 
unhappy  consequences  that  might  ensue  from 
admitting  that  every  one  who  wants  work 
has  a  right  to  get  it  from  the  municipality 
or  the  state  if  he  can  not  find  a  private  em- 
ployer. The  admission  of  such  a  principle 
means  municipal  or  state  bankruptcy  as  the 
not  distant  consequence  of  works  begun  only 
in  order  to  find  employment  for  the  unem- 
ployed without  any  guarantee  that  they  will 
pay  those  who  set  them  on  foot.  When  pri- 
vate employment  becomes  hard  to  obtain,  it 
is  generally  because  the  conditions  of  the 
time  are  unfavorable  for  effective  labor. 
Now,  if  just  at  this  crisis  the  public  em- 
ployer comes  in,  does  it  not  mean  that  either 
the  municipality  or  the  state  will  pay  as 
much  for  ineffective  and  ill-supervised  labor 
as  private  employers  have  been  paying  for 
effective  and  well-supervised  labor?  That 
is  only  saying,  in  other  words,  that  they  will 
be  paying  high  for  bad  labor.  Mr.  Balfour 
also  gave  a  warning  against  attempting  so  to 
improve  the  distribution  of  wealth  as  to  pre- 
vent its  production  where  it  is  now  success- 
fully accumulated.  The  worst  of  the  new 
combinations  against  the  present  rate  of  wages 
is  that  the  rate  of  profits,  already  low,  must 
fall  lower  if  higher  wages  are  to  be  paid,  and 
the  consequence  of  that  must  be  the  retire- 
ment of  a  good  deal  of  capital  from  produc- 
tive enterprises  altogether.  The  rich  manu- 
facturers say  to  themselves:  "We  are  as 
rich  now  as  we  really  care  to  be.  We  would 
go  on  if  we  could  secure  our  former  profits ; 


but  as  we  can  not,  we  may  as  well  wind  up 
business  and  retire."  The  consequence,  of 
course,  is  that  a  great  deal  of  wealth  which 
was  lately  employed  in  reproductive  opera- 
tions is  no  longer  so  employed,  and  the  rais- 
ing of  the  general  rate  of  wages  becomes 
more  and  more  impossible. 

Solid  Air. — At  the  meeting  of  the  Royal 
Society,  March  9th,  Prof.  Dewar  communi- 
cated the  results  of  his  experiments  upon  air 
at  very  low  temperatures.  Having  liquefied 
air  at  ordinary  atmospheric  pressure,  the  au- 
thor has  since  succeeded  in  freezing  it  into  a 
clear,  transparent  solid.  The  precise  nature 
of  this  solid  is  at  present  doubtful,  and  it  can 
be  settled  only  by  further  research.  It  may 
be  a  jelly  of  solid  nitrogen  containing  liquid 
oxygen,  much  as  calves'-foot  jelly-etai tains 
water  diffused  in  solid  gelatin.  Or  it  may  be 
a  true  ice  of  liquid  air  in  which  both  oxygen 
and  nitrogen  exist  in  the  solid  form.  The 
doubt  arises  from  the  fact  that  Prof.  Dewar 
has  not  yet  been  able  by  his  utmost  efforts 
to  solidify  pure  oxygen,  which,  unlike  other 
gases,  resists  the  cold  produced  by  its  own 
evaporation  under  the  air-pump.  Nitrogen, 
on  the  other  hand,  can  be  frozen  with  com- 
parative ease.  It  has  already  been  proved 
that  in  the  evaporation  of  liquid  air  nitrogen 
boils  off  first.  Consequently  the  liquid  is 
continually  becoming  richer  in  that  constitu- 
ent which  has  hitherto  resisted  solidification. 
It  thus  becomes  a  question  whether  the  cold 
produced  is  sufficiently  great  to  solidify  oxy- 
gen, or  whether  its  mixture  with  nitrogen 
raises  its  freezing  point,  or  whether  it  is  not 
really  frozen  at  all,  but  merely  entangled 
among  the  particles  of  solid  nitrogen,  like  the 
rose-water  in  cold  cream. 

Psychology  of  some  Words. — In  his  essay 
on  The  Language  of  the  Mississaga  Indians 
of  Skugog  (a  tribe  remnant  of  less  than  fifty 
members  living  on  Skugog  Lake,  opposite 
Port  Perry,  Ontario),  Mr.  A.  F.  Chamberlain 
touches  upon  some  questions  connected  with 
what  may  be  called  the  psychology  of  lan- 
guage. Only  a  few  of  the  words  appear  to 
have  an  onomatopoetic  origin.  Neither  the 
theory  of  Dr.  Carl  Abel  of  the  designation  by 
primitive  man  of  the  "  A  "  and  the  "  not  A  " 
by  the  same  word — no  trace  of  this  combina- 
tory  process  being  perceived — nor  that  of 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


429 


Wundt,  that  words  referring  to  things  or  ac- 
tions in  the  immediate  surrounding  of  the 
speaker  were  shorter  than  those  relating  to 
more  distant  objects  or  actions,  is  confirmed. 
A  few  specimen  words  of  various  classes  are 
given  to  illustrate  the  peculiar  nature  of  some 
of  the  names  :  The  word  for  the  proper  name  of 
man  signifies  "  chief  bird  " ;  that  for  woman, 
"  sun  in  center  of  sky  " ;  those  for  rainbow, 
"  he  covers  the  rain  " ;  for  milky  way,  "  the 
sturgeon  stirs  up  the  lake  of  heaven  with  his 
nose  and  makes  the  water  roily  " ;  eclipse  is 
"  dead  sun  " ;  moon, "  night  sun  " ;  spring  (the 
season)  is  "  good  water  " ;  Sunday,  "  worship 
day  " ;  the  toes  are  "  they  run  in  rotation  "  ; 
corn  is  "  grain  of  mysterious  origin  " ;  cran- 
berry, "  marsh  fruit " ;  hammer,  "  the  strik- 
er " ;  shot,  "  little  duck  ball " ;  horse,  "  it  has 
one  hoof  " ;  cat,  "  little  glutton  " ;  blanket, 
"  white  skin  " ;  and  shirt,  "  thin  skin."  The 
method  of  procedure  in  forming  words  by  com- 
bination varies  from  simple  juxtaposition  of 
words  to  complicated  agglutination  or  word  de- 
capitation. The  language  has  a  large  number 
of  radical  suffixes  and  affixes,  or  words  that 
have  no  independent  existence  as  words,  but 
take  the  place  of  real  words  in  composition. 
Some  of  the  animal  myths  and  beast  fables 
of  the  tribe  quoted  by  Mr.  Chamberlain  re- 
mind us  of  Uncle  Remus. 

Origin  of  Fashions. — The  question  of  the 
origin  of  fashions  has  been  much  discussed 
of  late,  without  any  fully  satisfactory  answer 
having  been  found  for  it.  Perhaps  as  nearly 
correct  a  theory  as  any  is  that  of  the  London 
Spectator,  which  believes  that  there  is  no  rul- 
ing mind  in  the  matter,  "  no  system  of  de- 
liberate invention  or  choice  at  all.  The  lead- 
ing dressmakers  of  London  and  Paris  find 
their  advantage  in  varying  their  designs  as 
frequently  as  possible  ;  and  wherever  a  nov- 
elty achieves  any  success,  whether  it  be  in 
London  or  in  Paris,  it  is  immediate  copied 
by  other  dressmakers,  and  its  general  adop- 
tion is  as  rapid  as  that  of  a  slang  word. 
Equally  rapid  is  its  course  toward  exaggera- 
tion ;  its  salient  features  are  further  and  fur- 
ther enlarged  until  the  exaggeration  becomes 
grotesque,  the  reaction  sets  in,  and  fashion 
swings  back  to  the  other  extreme.  Take,  for 
example,  those  peculiar  sleeves  which  are  now 
worn.  They  began  quite  modestly  in  the 
shape  of  a  little  puff  upon  the  shoulder; 


these  excrescences  grew  and  grew  until  they 
developed  into  the  enormous  and  unsightly 
humps  which  almost  eclipse  the  wearer's  head 
when  viewed  from  one  side.  The  next  stage 
will  be  the  gradual  retreat  back  from  this 
monstrosity  to  the  perfectly  plain  sleeve.  The 
plain  sleeve  will  begin  to  pall  again ;  some 
one  will  invent  a  swelling  at  the  elbow,  and 
a  swollen  elbow  will  become  fashionable,  un- 
til exaggeration  has  caused  it  to  swell  beyond 
all  bounds,  and  then  back  it  will  go  to  its 
primitive  simplicity,  until  the  whole  opera- 
tion begins  again  da  capo.  The  whole  work- 
ing of  fashion  may  be  divided  into  three  sep- 
arate processes — genuine  improvements  with 
an  idea  either  to  beauty  or  comfort,  which 
happen  to  hit  the  popular  taste ;  exaggera- 
tion of  these  improvements ;  reaction  from 
the  exaggeration.  That,  at  least,  is  how  it 
appears  to  us.  As  to  the  originators  of  the 
improvements,  we  believe  that  they  may  be 
counted  by  hundreds." 

Excessive  Schooling. — The  status  and 
prospects  of  education  were  recently  dis- 
cussed by  Lord  Justice  Bowen,  of  England, 
in  an  address  at  the  London  Workingmen'a 
College.  The  speaker's  view  is  described  as 
one  of  "subdued  hope."  While  education 
has  within  our  day  undergone  changes  that 
are  hardly  less  than  revolutionary,  he  admits 
that  they  have  not  been  wholly  for  good. 
"  The  stream  of  knowledge  has  spread  far 
and  wide  beyond  its  accustomed  banks ;  it 
does  not  flow  everywhere  at  its  old  depth. 
The  first  result  of  the  flood  is  to  fill  the  land 
with  what  seems  to  be  a  mighty  river ;  the 
next  is  to  hide  to  all  but  practiced  eyes  the 
course  of  the  true  stream.  There  is  a  wide 
expanse  of  waters,  but  they  are  almost  every- 
where shallow  and  very  often  muddy."  Our 
modern  education  has  been  too  largely  vul- 
garized. The  quality  of  the  supply  is  inevi- 
tably affected  by  the  quantity  of  the  demand. 
The  half-trained  multitude  can  not  distin- 
guish between  the  best  and  the  second  best ; 
and  prolific  mediocrity  is  at  a  premium.  Yet 
we  must  not  be  too  sadly  disappointed  that 
our  overwrought  expectations  have  not  been 
wholly  fulfilled.  The  more  prudent  advo- 
cates of  popular  education  never  pretended 
to  present  it  as  a  cure-all.  They  never 
thought  that  it  was  designed  to  supersede 
morality  and  religion.  They  never  expected 


43° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


that  it  would  at  once  remove  all  social  dis- 
tinctions or  polish  intellectual  pewter  into 
sterling  silver.  They  have  confined  them- 
selves to  a  modest  trust  that  it  may  do  some- 
thing. It  has  done  something  already,  and 
they  humbly  believe  it  will  do  more.  Time 
is  needed  to  measure  the  consequences  of  so 
great  a  social  change.  The  new  leaven  has 
been  spread  among  large  classes  of  the  na- 
tion hardly  touched  by  it  until  yesterday.  As 
one  great  benefit  it  has  rendered  the  com- 
petitive system  possible  in  the  public  service, 
and  has  saved  the  country  from  the  evils  of 
nepotism,  and  from  the  worse  evils  of  a  po- 
litical scramble  for  the  spoils.  But  compe- 
tition is  not  a  good  thing  in  itself — only  a 
"  sad  necessity."  "  The  cultivation  for  mar- 
ket purposes  of  brute  brain  power  "  may,  in- 
deed, have  its  uses.  It  probably  saves  a  large 
number  of  fairly  able  men  from  their  innate 
inclination  to  sheer  idleness,  and  it  probably 
provides  the  public  services  with  a  regular 
supply  of  fairly  competent  recruits.  But  it 
can  never,  except  by  accident,  breed  a  com- 
petent scholar.  Its  direct  tendency  is  to  di- 
vert the  thoughts  of  those  engaged  in  it  from 
all  that  the  real  lover  of  learning  and  litera- 
ture seeks  with  a  constant  love.  But  even 
the  diffusion  of  "  mediocre  culture  "  gives  the 
average  masses  a  better  chance  of  fulfilling 
their  vocation  than  did  the  reign  of  general 
ignorance  that  prevailed  among  them  not 
many  years  ago. 

Paradoxes  of  Animal  Courage. — Having 
mentioned  a  supposed  hostility  of  wild  dogs 
against  tigers,  a  writer  in  the  London  Spec- 
tator goes  on  to  remark  that  the  fierceness  of 
the  wild  dogs'  attack  seems  to  have  affected 
the  tiger — a  clever  and  "  reflecting  "  animal 
— with  a  kind  of  nervousness  which  extends 
to  all  dogs ;  and  enforces  his  remark  with 
the  story  of  a  tiger  which  ran  away  from  the 
bark  and  spring  of  a  domestic  spaniel.  "  It 
is,  of  course,  just  possible  that  the  tiger  was 
4  nervous,'  and  that  the  little  dog  merely  ex- 
hibited the  impudence  habitual  to  little  dogs 
who  know  that  they  can  worry  a  horse  or  a 
bullock  into  beating  a  retreat  when  quietly 
lying  down  in  a  field.  Extreme  nervousness 
is  often  the  accompaniment  of  great  courage 
hi  certain  animals,  especially  of  the  larger 
kinds.  Indian  rhinoceroses,  kept  by  a  rajah 
for  fighting  in  the  arena,  where  they  could 


exhibit  the  most  obstinate  courage  in  com- 
bats  with  elephant  or  buffalo,  would  tremble 
and  lie  down  at  the  unusual  sight  of  a  horse 
outside  their  pen ;  and  the  elephant  is  more 
liable  to  sudden  panics  and  alarms  than  any 
other  animal.  It  is  strange  to  think  of  the 
same  animal  advancing  boldly  to  face  a 
wounded  tiger  and  receiving  its  charge  upon 
its  tusks,  and  running  away  in  uncontrollable 
panic  from  a  piece  of  newspaper  blown  across 
the  road.  It  is  said  that  the  scent  or  roar  of 
a  bear  in  the  jungle  will  often  scare  elephants 
beyond  control ;  and  they  have  the  same  in- 
tense nervousness  shown  by  the  horse  at  the 
sight  of  things  unusual  or  out  of  place.  A 
big  elephant  which  was  employed  to  drag 
away  the  carcass  of  a  dead  bullock,  and  had 
allowed  the  burden  to  be  attached  by  ropes 
without  observing  what  it  was,  happened  to 
look  round,  and  instantly  bolted,  its  fright 
increasing  every  moment  as  the  unknown  ob- 
ject jumped  and  bumped  at  its  heels.  After 
running  some  miles,  like  a  dog  with  a  tin  can 
tied  to  its  tail,  the  elephant  stopped  and  al- 
lowed itself  to  be  turned  round,  and  drew  the 
bullock  back  again  without  protest.  Yet  an 
elephant,  with  a  good  mahout,  gives,  perhaps, 
the  best  instance  of  disciplined  courage — 
courage,  that  is,  which  persists,  hi  the  face 
of  knowledge  and  disinclination — to  be  seen 
in  the  animal  world." 

A  Whipping  Game. — The  whipping  game 
of  the  Arawacks  of  British  Guiana,  as  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  E.  F.  Im  Thurn,  is  played  by 
any  number  of  persons,  but  generally  only  by 
men  and  boys,  for  one,  two,  or  three  days  and 
nights — as  long,  that  is,  as  the  supply  of  pai- 
wari,  the  native  beer,  holds  out.  The  play- 
ere,  with  but  brief  intervals,  range  themselves 
in  two  lines  opposite  each  other.  Every  now 
and  then  a  pair  of  players,  one  from  each  line, 
separate  from  the  rest.  One  of  these  puts 
forward  his  leg  and  stands  firm ;  the  other 
carefully  measures  the  most  effective  distance 
with  a  powerful  and  special  whip  with  which 
each  player  is  provided,  and  then  lashes  with 
all  his  force  the  calf  of  the  other.  The  crack 
is  like  a  pistol  shot,  and  the  result  is  a  gash 
across  the  skin  of  the  patient's  calf.  Some- 
times a  second  similar  blow  is  given  and 
borne.  Next  the  position  of  the  pair  of  play- 
ers is  reversed,  and  the  flogged  man  flogs  the 
other.  Then  the  pair  retire,  drink  good-tern- 


NOTES. 


peredly  together,  and  rejoin  the  line,  to  let 
another  pair  take  their  turn  of  activity,  but 
presently,  and  again  and  again  at  intervals, 
to  repeat  their  own  performance.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  most  active  players  of  this  ex- 
traordinary game  are  the  men  and  boys.  But 
occasionally  the  women  take  a  part  also.  And 
it  is  noteworthy  that  when  this  is  the  case  a 
wooden  figure  of  a  bird,  a  heron,  is  substi- 
tuted for  each  of  the  whips,  and  a  gentle 
peck  with  this  bird  is  substituted  for  the  far 
more  serious  lash  of  the  whip.  "  I  do  not 
know,"  says  Mr.  Im  Thurn,  "that  any  equiva- 
lent example  of  the  fact  that  the  germ  of  the 
idea  of  courtesy  to  the  weaker  sex  exists 
among  people  even  in  this  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion is  on  record." 

€leansing  Function  of  the  Hair.— Dr. 

Henry  Sewell  calls  attention,  in  Science,  to 
an  example  of  the  subservience  of  form  to 
function  afforded  by  the  arrangement  of  the 
epidermic  scales  constituting  the  outermost 
layer  of  animal  hairs.  The  buried  edges  of 
the  scales  point  toward  the  root  of  the  hair, 
while  the  free  edges  project  obliquely  to- 
ward the  tip;  and  a  hair  glides  between 
the  thumb  and  finger  far  more  easily  when 
pulled  from  root  to  tip  than  when  pulled  in 
the  opposite  direction.  When  rolled  between 
the  fingers  it  will  gradually  move  parallel  to 
its  length  in  the  direction  of  the  root.  It 
follows  that  foreign  particles  may  be  easily 
moved  outward  toward  the  tip  of  the  hair 
and  away  from  the  body,  while  it  would  be 
hard  to  push  them  in  the  opposite  direction. 
Every  movement  of  the  hair,  especially  f  ric- 
tional  disturbance,  must  set  up  a  current  of 
foreign  particles  toward  the  hair  tip.'  The 
value  of  this  property  as  a  cleansing  factor 
is  evident. 

Telephotography.  —  Telephotography  is 
the  name  of  an  art  the  purpose  of  which  is 
the  production  of  photographs  of  objects  at 
considerable  distances  from  the  operator,  of 
such  quality  and  scale  that  they  can  be  ex- 
amined and  interpreted  in  a  manner  that 
would  be  impossible  to  the  naked  eye.  The 
terra  is  parallel  in  meaning  with  telescopy, 
and  the  art  has  as  its  aim  the  recording  on  a 
photographic  plate  of  a  combination  of  a 
number  of  distinct  and  separate  telescopic 
impressions  that  can  be  obtained  by  sweep- 


ing a  telescope  over  a  greater  field  than  that 
included  in  its  own  field  of  view,  in  the  same 
manner,  but  to  a  less  degree,  that  ordinary 
photographs  record  a  number  of  distinct  and 
separate  visual  images  or  impressions  ob- 
tained by  passing  the  eyes  rapidly  and  al- 
most unconsciously  through  the  "  wide  "  and 
u  deep "  fields  of  view,  as  they  are  termed. 
The  apparatus  consists  of  a  combination  of 
the  telescope  and  photographic  apparatus, 
with  special  supplementary  lenses  for  magni- 
fying the  image  and  obtaining  a  flat  field, 
the  descriptions  of  which,  by  Thomas  R. 
Dallmeyer,  the  inventor,  are  too  technical 
for  available  use  here.  By  it  magnified  and 
clearly  depicted  views  are  obtained  of  objects 
that  are  situated  at  such  distances  from  the 
photographer  that  ordinary  photographic 
means  have  hitherto  rendered  so  small  and 
insignificant  as  to  be  useless — views  that  are 
superior  beyond  comparison  to  enlargements 
of  ordinary  negatives. 


NOTES. 

JAPANESE  jugglers  have  exhibited  a  trick 
which  consists  in  throwing  knives  at  a  person 
extended  against  a  structure  of  boards,  in- 
to which  the  knives  appear  to  stick  alarm- 
ingly close  to  the  subject.  The  trick  has 
been  copied  or  imitated  by  European  presti- 
digitateurs ;  but  instead  of  real  knife  throw- 
ing and  sticking,  an  illusion  is  arranged. 
Knives  are  hidden  in  recesses  in  the  board 
structure,  skillfully  concealed  by  shutters, 
which  open  by  a  spring  controlled  by  the 
target-subject.  When  a  knife  is  thrown  he 
moves  one  of  these  springs,  and  causes  the 
hidden  knife  to  emerge  and  appear  as  if 
stuck  in  the  board,  while  the  shutters  in- 
stantly close;  or  the  same  is  effected  by 
means  of  wires  controlled  by  persons  behind 
the  scene.  The  operator  who  throws  the 
knife  either  casts  it  skillfully  behind  himself, 
among  the  scene-slides,  or  else  throws  it  so 
that  it  shall  strike,  not  into  the  boards,  but 
on  one  side,  where  it  falls  noiselessly  upon 
the  carpet.  The  latter  method  is  the  best, 
because  it  enables  the  spectator  to  see  the 
knife  pass  across  the  stage. 

A  FULL  account  of  the  Polynesian  canoe 
is  in  preparation  by  Dr.  N.  B.  Emerson,  of 
Honolulu.  The  author  points  out  in  an  arti- 
cle on  the  subject  that  the  various  migrations 
of  the  ancient  Polynesians  and  their  progen- 
itors, from  whatever  sources  derived,  must 
have  been  accomplished  in  canoes  or  other 
craft,  and  that  the  waa,  the  pahi,  etc.,  of 
to-day,  however  modified  they  may  be  under 
the  operation  of  modern  arts  and  appliances, 


432 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


are  the  lineal  descendants  of  the  seagoing 
craft  in  which  the  early  ancestors  of  the 
Polynesians  made  their  voyages  generations 
ago.  He  holds,  therefore,  that  a  comparative 
study  of  the  canoes  can  not  fail  to  shed  light 
on  the  problems  of  Polynesian  migrations  and 
relationships. 

THE  presidents  of  sections  of  the  British 
Association  for  its  meeting  at  Nottingham  in 
September  are :  Section  A,  Prof.  R.  B.  Clif- 
ton ;  Section  B,  Prof.  Emerson  Reynolds ; 
Section  C,  Mr.  J.  H.  Teal ;  Section  D,  Canon 
Tristram;  Section  E,  Mr.  Henry  Seebohm; 
Section  F,  Prof.  J.  S.  Nicholson ;  Section  G, 
Mr.  Jeremiah  Head ;  Section  H,  Dr.  Robert 
Munro. 

THE  summer  course  in  botany  of  the  Tor- 
rey  Botanical  Club  and  the  College  of  Phar- 
macy of  the  City  of  New  York  includes  an 
annual  course  of  ten  lectures  delivered  be- 
tween the  last  of  April  and  July  1st,  with 
ten  conducted  excursions — having  the  nature 
of  extended  out-of-door  lectures — into  the 
woods  and  fields.  The  course  is  provided  as 
a  means  of  instruction  for  business  and  pro- 
fessional men  and  women  desiring  to  become 
practically  acquainted  with  the  chief  princi- 
ples of  the  science  and  with  the  local  flora, 
but  who  have  not  the  ordinary  means  of 
study  provided  by  the  schools  and  colleges. 

A  MEMORIAL  volume  is  announced  to  be 
published  by  Wilhelm  Engelmann,  Leipsic, 
in  honor  of  the  seventieth  birthday  of  Ru- 
dolf Leuckhart.  It  will  include  numerous 
contributions  in  the  lines  of  their  work  by 
grateful  pupils  of  Leuckhart,  and  will  be  illus- 
trated by  a  portrait  in  heliogravure,  forty 
plates,  and  forty-three  figures  in  the  text.  In 
the  list  of  contributors  we  observe  the  Eng- 
lish names  of  Charles  W.  Stiles,  C.  L.  Her- 
rick,  G.  Herbert  Fowler,  Edward  Laurens 
Mark,  and  C.  0.  Whitman,  editor  of  the 
American  Journal  of  Morphology. 

A  DISCOVERT  made  by  Mrs.  Zelia  Nuttall 
and  a  reconstruction  of  the  calendar  system 
of  the  ancient  Mexicans  are  described  in  the 
Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  American 
Archaeology  and  Ethnology  as  showing  from 
astronomical  data  that  the  Mexican  calendar 
has  an  antiquity  of  at  least  four  thousand 
years. 

AN  interesting  testimonial  was  recently 
presented  by  Italian  men  of  science  to  Prof. 
Maurice  Schiff,  of  Geneva,  on  the  occasion 
of  his  seventieth  birthday.  Prof.  Schiff  was 
from  1863  to  1876  Professor  of  Comparative 
Physiology  in  the  Istituto  dei  Studi  Superiori 
in  Florence,  where  he  introduced  valuable 
improvements  in  teaching.  He  retired  from 
that  chair  in  consequence  of  the  agitation 
excited  against  him  by  the  anti-vivisection- 
ists.  He  went  to  the  school  at  Geneva, 
where  he  has  acquired  great  fame  and  popu- 
larity. During  his  career  he  has  enriched 
medical  literature  with  many  valuable  con- 


tributions. The  testimonial  to  him  is  an  illu- 
minated text  on  parchment,  conveying  the 
esteem  and  admiration  in  which  his  charac- 
ter and  career  are  held,  composed  in  Latin 
by  Prof.  Cavazza,  and  signed  by  an  impos- 
ing number  of  surgeons,  physicians,  and 
medical  teachers. 

INVESTIGATIONS  of  the  fermentation  of  to- 
bacco by  Suchsland  have  resulted  in  the  dis- 
covery of  different  kinds  of  micro-organisms 
as  active  agents  in  the  operation  in  the  sev- 
eral varieties.  Pure  cultures  of  bacteria  ob- 
tained from  one  kind  of  tobacco  and  inocu- 
lated upon  another  kind  generated  in  the  lat- 
ter a  taste  and  aroma  resembling  those  of 
the  tobacco  from  which  they  were  taken.  The 
discovery  is  greatly  calculated  to  simplify  the 
imitation  of  the  finer  varieties  of  tobacco. 

AN  immunity  against  cholera  is  claimed 
for  habitual  users  of  vinegar,  which  is  at- 
tributed by  Mr.  Hashimodo  to  the  acetic 
acid  contained  in  the  best  vinegar — a  sub- 
stance deadly  to  the  comma  bacillus.  These 
bacilli  were  killed  in  fifteen  minutes  in  an 
experiment  in  which  they  were  treated  with 
a  vinegar  containing  only  from  three  to  four 
per  cent  of  acetic  acid. 

THE  latest  application  of  aluminum  is  to 
visiting  cards,  which  are  described  as  being 
thin,  flexible,  brilliant  with  a  metallic  luster, 
light,  and  admitting  an  impression  of  the 
names  as  distinct  as  it  is  made  on  paper. 
They  can  be  made  at  a  cost  of  about  a  dollar 
a  hundred. 

THE  results  of  experiments  by  Prof.  Mar- 
shall Ward  tend  to  prove  that  the  action  of 
sunlight  is  a  far  more  powerful  agent  in  the 
purification  of  the  atmosphere  than  has  hith- 
erto been  recognized.  The  author  has  dis- 
covered, for  instance,  that  the  anthrax  bacil- 
lus, while  it  will  withstand  the  greatest  ex- 
tremes of  temperature,  is  killed  by  direct 
sunlight.  Water  is  also  thus  purified. 


OBITUARY  NOTES. 

LUDWIG  LINDENSCHMIT,  a  distinguished 
German  archaeologist,  who  died  at  Mainz, 
February  14th,  in  his  eighty-fourth  year, 
was  director  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Central  Romano  German  Museum  of  Mainz ; 
one  of  the  editors  of  the  Archiv  fiir  Anthro- 
pologie;  and  author  of  works  on  German 
archaeology.  He  began  a  general  handbook 
on  the  subject,  but  completed  only  the  vol- 
ume relating  to  the  Merovingian  period.  He 
was  an  advocate  of  the  theory  that  the  Aryan 
race  is  of  European  origin. 

M.  ALPHONSE  Louis  PIERRE  PYRAMUS  DE 
CANDOLLE,  the  famous  botanist,  died  hi  Ge- 
neva, Switzerland,  April  9th.  He  was  born 
in  Paris  in  1806,  but  spent  most  of  his  life 
in  Geneva,  where  he  became  famous  as  an 
author  and  authority  hi  his  special  branch. 


PAOLO    MONTEGAZZA, 


V 

•'       ;-•     , 
".Vs 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


AUGUST,    1893, 
STUDIES  OF  ANIMAL  SPEECH. 

BY  PROF.  E.  P.  EVANS. 

rpHE  enthusiasm  with  which  Mr.  Garner  has  devoted  himself 
JL  to  the  study  of  simian  speech,  and  the  general  interest  ex- 
cited by  his  discoveries,  naturally  suggest  a  comparison  of  his  in- 
vestigations with  those  of  his  predecessors  in  this  department  of 
linguistic  research.  Perhaps  the  most  serious  and  scientific  at- 
tempt of  this  kind  was  made  nearly  a  century  ago  by  Gottfried 
Immanuel  Wenzel,  who  published  at  Vienna,  in  1808,  a  volume  of 
216  pages  entitled  Neue  auf  Yernunft  und  Erfahrung  gegrun- 
dete  Entdeckungen  iiber  die  Sprache  der  Thiere  (New  Discoveries 
concerning  the  Language  of  Animals,  based  on  Reason  and  Ex- 
perience), in  which  he  maintained  that  the  lower  animals  are  ca- 
pable of  expressing  their  thoughts  and  emotions  by  means  of  ar- 
ticulate sounds,  and  that  these  utterances  are  not  only  intelligible 
to  their  kind,  but  may  also  be  understood  by  man,  indicated  by 
alphabetical  signs,  and  thus  reduced  to  writing.  He  made  a  list 
of  the  sounds  uttered  by  thirty  different  birds  and  beasts,  and  pre- 
pared a  dictionary  of  more  than  twenty  pages,  to  which  he  added 
a  number  of  translations  from  animal  into  human  speech.  These 
so-called  translations  are  very  free,  and  give  merely  a  paraphras- 
tic statement  of  what  he  supposes  to  be  the  significance  of  certain 
canine  and  feline  tones,  the  versions  being  confined  to  his  inter- 
pretations of  the  colloquies  of  cats  and  dogs.  As  an  illustration 
of  his  proficiency  in  this  language  and  the  practical  value  of  such 
knowledge,  he  relates  an  incident,  which  sounds  as  though  it 
might  belong  to  the  ancient  and  fabulous  literature  known  to  the 
Germans  as  Jcigerlatein,  or  hunters'  Latin.  He  once  went  to 
visit  a  friend,  who  was  a  great  huntsman,  but  on  learning  that  he 

VOL.   XLIII. — 29 


434  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

had  gone  out  with  his  gun  waited  for  him  to  return ;  meanwhile 
he  took  a  book  and  sat  down  under  a  tree  near  a  pen  in  which 
some  foxes  were  confined.  Suddenly  he  heard  them  utter  certain 
sounds  which  according  to  his  vocabulary  were  expressive  of  sur- 
prise and  joy,  and  after  listening  for  a  time  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  foxes  had  discovered  some  means  of  escape  and  were  ex- 
ulting over  the  prospect  of  regaining  their  freedom.  When  the 
hunter  returned,  Wenzel  informed  him  of  what  he  had  heard  and 
advised  him  to  look  into  the  matter,  but  was  only  laughed  at  for 
his  credulity  and  assured  that  the  pen  was  perfectly  secure.  They 
went  into  the  house,  where  they  were  taking  some  refreshments 
and  talking  about  other  affairs,  when  a  servant  rushed  in  greatly 
excited  and  announced  that  the  foxes  had  escaped. 

Wenzel  admits  that  the  language  of  animals  is  extremely  sim- 
ple and  limited,  and  consequently  monotonously  repetitious ;  the 
same  combination  of  sounds  uttered  with  a  stronger  or  weaker  in- 
tonation serves  to  denote  a  variety  of  mental  states  and  must  be 
largely  supplemented  by  lively  pantomime.  In  conclusion,  he  has 
eighteen  pages  of  what  he  calls  an  "  animal  pathognomic-mimetic 
alphabet,"  showing  the  value  and  function  of  each  part  of  the 
physical  organism,  from  the  teeth  to  the  tail,  as  a  vehicle  of  ex- 
pression. Dogs  and  cats  fairly  bristle  with  strong  emotions,  and 
birds  show  their  ruffled  feelings  in  their  feathers  and  wax  eloquent 
with  their  wings.  Wenzel  is  convinced  that  every  species  of  ani- 
mal has  its  own  dialect,  which  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  modification 
of  the  common  or  generic  language  of  the  race  to  which  it  belongs. 
Thus  he  seems  to  think  that  the  zebra  would  understand  the  ass 
more  readily  than  the  horse,  because  the  first  two  are  more  closely 
affiliated,  although  all  three  are  endowed  with  equine  speech.  The 
same  principle  applies  to  the  different  varieties  of  the  domestic 
hog  in  relation  to  other  suilline  quadrupeds. 

As  an  example  of  the  extent  to  which  animals  may  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  human  speech  he  prints  a  communication  from  a 
clergyman  who  had  taught  his  dog  to  fetch  books  from  his  library 
in  an  adjoining  room.  "  Fido,"  he  would  say,  "  on  the  table  near 
the  window  are  a  quarto,  an  octavo,  and  a  duodecimo ;  go  and  get 
the  quarto."  Fido  never  failed  to  bring  the  volume  designated. 
He  had  trained  the  dog  to  perform  this  service  by  showing  him  a 
book  and  saying  very  distinctly  and  repeatedly  quarto,  octavo,  or 
duodecimo,  and  then  laying  it  down  in  the  library  and  making 
him  fetch  it.  In  the  same  manner  the  dog  was  taught  to  bring 
many  other  objects,  the  names  of  which  he  seldom  confounded  or 
misunderstood.  The  clever  animal  could  also  be  sent  on  errands. 
"  Fido,"  the  clergyman  would  say,  "  go  to  Mr.  B.  and  tell  him  that 
I  shall  call  upon  him  to-day."  Thereupon  Fido  ran  to  Mr.  B/s 
house  and  on  finding  him  gave  three  short  barks,  which  were  per- 


STUDIES    OF  ANIMAL   SPEECH.  435 

f  ectly  intelligible  to  the  person  thus  addressed.  If  any  one  called 
when  the  clergyman  was  out,  Fido  barked  once ;  and  he  did  the 
same  if  his  master  did  not  wish  to  be  disturbed  and  bade  him  tell 
the  caller  that  he  was  not  at  home.  He  announced  a  visitor  by 
scratching  on  the  door  and  barking  twice.  A  Bavarian  family  at 
Munich  has  a  dog  that  deems  it  highly  improper  for  gentlemen 
to  wear  their  hats  in  the  house,  but  is  sufficiently  gallant  not  to 
find  fault  with  ladies  for  doing  so.  An  American,  who  wished  to 
test  the  animal's  discriminating  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things  in 
this  respect,  entered  the  room  and  sat  down  with  his  hat  on.  The 
dog  looked  at  him  disapprovingly  for  a  moment  and  then  began 
to  bark,  with  eyes  intently  fixed  upon  the  hat.  As  the  unmannerly 
visitor  continued  the  conversation  without  paying  any  attention 
to  these  admonitions,  the  dog  sprang  up  and,  seizing  the  hat  by 
the  brim,  pulled  it  off  and  quietly  laid  it  on  a  chair. 

Wenzel  also  tells  the  story  of  a  dog  whom  his  master  used  to 
send  to  the  market  for  meat,  and  who  would  stand  before  the  kind 
of  meat  he  was  instructed  to  get,  beef,  mutton,  or  veal,  and  bark 
once,  twice,  or  thrice,  according  to  the  number  of  pounds  desired. 
The  butcher  filled  the  order,  and  the  dog  trotted  home  with  his 
purchase  and  the  cheerful  consciousness  of  having  done  his  duty. 
Wenzel's  little  book  is  full  of  interesting  anecdotes  illustrating 
his  subject,  and  has  a  frontispiece  representing  a  landscape,  re- 
sembling the  traditional  pictures  of  the  garden  of  Eden  found  in 
old  Bibles,  with  an  ape,  a  dog,  a  horse,  and  a  bull  in  the  fore- 
ground, and  the  legend  underneath:  "They  do  not  lie;  their 
speech  is  truth." 

The  French  physicist,  R.  Radeau,  in  a  work  on  acoustics,  pub- 
lished in  1869,  treats  incidentally  of  the  language  of  animals, 
which  he  thinks  one  could,  by  careful  observation,  learn  to  under- 
stand and  even  to  speak  with  fluency.  Mersenne,  in  his  Harmonie 
Universelle,  asserts  that  men  speak  from  a  volitional  impulse  and 
utter  vocal  sounds  in  the  exercise  of  a  power  of  the  mind  which 
they  are  free  not  to  exercise  unless  they  choose  to  do  so,  whereas 
the  lower  animals  use  their  voices  under  the  influence  of  natural 
necessity,  howling,  shrieking,  singing,  etc.,  because  under  the  cir- 
cumstances they  can  not  do  otherwise,  being  subject  to  forces 
which  they  are  absolutely  unable  to  resist.  The  vexed  question 
of  the  freedom  or  necessity  of  the  will  in  human  action,  which 
metaphysics  has  vainly  endeavored  to  solve,  has  been  reopened 
by  natural  science  and  evolutionary  biology  and  is  now  discussed 
on  a  broader  basis  and  with  the  prospect  of  positive  result.  What- 
ever may  be  the  final  issue  of  these  investigations,  it  is  certain 
that  the  old  Cartesian  distinction  between  man  and  brute  in  this 
respect  can  no  longer  be  maintained.  Radeau  is  right  in  reject- 
ing Mersenne's  theory  as  involving  a  too  subtile  psychological 


436  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

distinction  and  in  declaring  that  his  doctrine  of  natural  necessity 
might  be  applied  with  equal  force  to  many  an  inveterate  gabbler 
who  can  not  hold  his  tongue. 

In  this  connection  he  relates  the  following  anecdote  on  the 
authority  of  Jules  Richard :  In  1857  this  gentleman  had  occasion 
to  visit  a  sick  friend  in  a  hospital,  where  he  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  an  old  official  of  the  institution  from  the  south  of  France, 
who  was  exceedingly  fond  of  animals,  his  love  of  them  being 
equaled  only  by  his  hatred  of  priests ;  he  claimed  also  to  be  per- 
fectly familiar  with  the  languages  of  cats  and  dogs,  and  to  speak 
the  language  of  apes  even  better  than  the  apes  themselves.  Jules 
Richard  received  this  statement  with  an  incredulous  smile,  where- 
upon the  old  man,  whose  pride  was  evidently  touched  by  such 
skepticism,  invited  him  to  come  the  next  morning  to  the  zoologi- 
cal garden.  "  I  met  him  at  the  appointed  time  and  place,"  says 
Mr.  Richard,  "  and  we  went  together  to  the  monkeys'  cage,  where 
he  leaned  on  the  outer  railing  and  began  to  utter  a  succession  of 
guttural  sounds,  which  alphabetical  signs  are  scarcely  adequate 
to  represent — '  Kirruu,  kirrikiu,  kuruki,  kirikiu ' — repeated  with 
slight  variations  and  differences  of  accentuation.  In  a  few  min- 
utes the  whole  company  of  monkeys,  a  dozen  in  number,  assem- 
bled and  sat  in  rows  before  him  with  their  hands  crossed  in  their 
laps  or  resting  on  their  knees,  laughing,  gesticulating,  and  answer- 
ing." The  conversation  continued  for  a  full  quarter  of  an  hour, 
to  the  intense  delight  of  the  monkeys,  who  took  a  lively  part  in  it. 
As  their  interlocutor  was  about  to  go  away,  they  all  became  in- 
tensely excited,  climbing  up  on  the  balustrade  and  uttering  cries 
of  lamentation ;  when  he  finally  departed  and  disappeared  more 
and  more  from  their  view,  they  ran  up  to  the  top  of  the  cage  and 
clinging  to  the  frieze  made  motions  as  if  they  were  bidding  him 
good-by.  It  seemed,  adds  Mr.  Richard,  as  though  they  wished 
to  say,  "  We  are  sorry  to  part  and  hope  to  meet  again,  and  if  you 
can't  come,  do  drop  us  a  line ! " 

No  one  who  has  observed  the  actions  and  listened  to  the  utter- 
ances of  a  clever  parrot  will  accept  Mersenne's  assertion  that  the 
exercise  of  the  vocal  organs  of  animals  is  not  free,  but  subject  to 
natural  and  irresistible  necessity,  or  that  speech  is  in  a  greater  de- 
gree the  product  of  inevitable  causation  in  the  mouth  of  the  cock- 
atoo than  in  that  of  the  cockney.  Humboldt  states  that,  after  the 
Aturians  on  the  Orinoco  had  become  extinct,  the  only  creature 
that  could  speak  their  language  was  a  very  aged  parrot,  con- 
demned by  adverse  fortune  to  spend  the  remnant  of  its  days  in 
comparative  solitude  as  the  sad  survivor  of  a  once  powerful  tribe. 
From  a  philological  point  of  view,  the  venerable  bird  was  as 
interesting  a  character  as  the  old  Cornish  woman  with  whose 
decease,  some  years  ago,  the  dialect  of  her  people  ceased  to  be  a 


STUDIES   OF  ANIMAL   SPEECH.  437 

spoken  tongue.  It  is  also  a  historical  fact  that  when,  in  1509, 
the  Spanish  freebooters  Nicuesa  and  Ojeda  wished  to  surprise  the 
village  of  Yurbaco,  on  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  in  order  to  capture 
a  cargo  of  slaves,  the  vigilant  parrots  in  the  tops  of  the  trees  an- 
nounced the  approach  of  the  enemy,  and  thus  enabled  the  inhab- 
itants to  escape. 

Perhaps  the  most  cultivated  and  certainly  the  most  celebrated 
parrot  of  which  we  have  any  record  belonged  from  1830  to  1840 
to  a  canon  of  the  cathedral  of  Salzburg,  named  Hanikl,  who  gave 
the  bird  regular  instruction  twice  a  day,  from  nine  to  ten  in  the 
morning  and  from  ten  to  eleven  in  the  evening.  The  parrot  made 
rapid  progress  in  the  development  of  its  mental  faculties,  and 
soon  showed  what  a  remarkable  degree  of  intelligence  it  is  pos- 
sible for  such  a  creature  to  attain  under  systematic  tuition.  The 
sayings  and  doings  of  this  parrot  which  lived  fourteen  years  after 
Hanikrs  death  and  died  in  1854,  have  been  reported  by  a  num- 
ber of  careful  and  competent  observers  and  are  unquestionably 
authentic.  One  day,  as  some  one  entered  the  room,  it  cried  out  in 
a  harsh  tone,  "  Where  do  you  come  from  ?  "  On  seeing  that  the 
person  was  an  ecclesiastical  dignitary,  it  added,  apologetically: 
"  Oh,  I  beg  pardon  of  your  Grace ;  I  thought  it  was  a  bird."  It  took 
part  in  general  conversation,  and  was  sometimes  so  loquacious 
that  it  had  to  be  told  to  stop ;  it  was  also  fond  of  talking  to  itself, 
and  imagining  all  sorts  of  exciting  scenes :  "  Beat  me,  will  you  ? 
Beat  me,  will  you  ?  Oh,  you  rascal !  Yes,  yes,  that's  the  way  of 
the  world."  It  whistled  tunes  and  sang  various  popular  songs, 
and  even  learned  an  entire  aria  from  Flotow's  opera  of  Martha. 

A  parrot  of  the  same  species  (Psittacus  eriihacus),  ash-gray, 
with  scarlet-red  tail,  is  now  in  the  possession  of  M.  Nicaise,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Paris.  This  bird  is  nearly 
fifty  years  of  age,  and  endowed  with  wonderful  versatility  of 
intellect.  It  imitates  to  perfection  all  the  calls  and  cries  of  the 
street,  and  when  in  1870  it  was  sent  aw,ay  from  the  beleaguered 
city  into  the  country,  it  came  back  with  its  repertory  immensely 
enlarged,  having  learned  to  reproduce  the  whistle  of  the  quail,  the 
hoot  of  the  owl,  the  merry  scream  of  the  magpie,  the  crow  of  the 
cock,  the  cluck  of  the  hen,  and  the  tones  of  a  great  variety  of 
wild  birds  and  domestic  fowls  and  quadrupeds.  One  of  its  his- 
trionic masterpieces  is  the  phonetic  representation  of  the  killing 
of  a  pig  which  it  witnessed  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
but  of  which  it  has  not  forgotten  a  single  characteristic  grunt  or 
squeal.  Nothing  is  omitted,  from  the  deep  gutturals,  alternating 
with  piercing  shrieks,  as  the  porker  is  dragged  to  the  place  of 
slaughter,  to  the  last  faint  groan  of  the  dying  animal.  Indeed,  the 
reproduction  of  the  scene  is  so  intolerably  realistic,  that  the  per- 
sons present  are  fain  to  stop  their  ears  and  to  bid  the  bird  keep  si- 


438  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

lence.  It  listens  attentively  to  any  conversation  that  is  going  on, 
and  expresses  its  approval  or  astonjshment  by  exclaiming  "  Oh ! " 
or  "Ah ! "  and  always  at  the  appropriate  time  or  place.  If  any  one 
tells  a  funny  story  or  gets  off  a  joke,  it  laughs  with  the  rest  of 
the  company,  although  this  outburst  of  merriment  is  doubtless 
due,  not  so  much  to  a  humorous  appreciation  of  what  is  said,  as 
to  the  contagion  of  the  general  hilarity.  When  it  wants  some- 
thing, it  calls  its  mistress  by  her  Christian  name,  Marie,  and, 
if  she  does  not  come  at  once,  calls  her  again  with  a  sharp  tone 
of  impatience.  Once,  when  a  firebrand  fell  on  the  hearth  and 
filled  the  room  with  smoke,  it  cried,  "Marie!  Marie!"  in  a 
voice  indicating  extreme  anxiety  and  alarm.  This  parrot  is 
a  provident  creature,  and  when  taking  its  dinner  always  lays 
aside  a  piece  of  bread  and  jam  for  its  supper,  thus  showing 
that  it  has  the  power  of  looking  before  and  after,  which 
Shakespeare  deems  a  peculiarly  human  attribute.  It  not  only 
sings  songs  correctly,  but  also  inprovises  musical  compositions, 
which  it  renders  each  time  with  new  variations,  and  performs, 
as  M.  Nicaise  assures  us,  "  with  a  taste  and  style  and  spirit  that 
might  excite  the  envy  of  any  pupil  of  the  conservatory."  The 
fact  that  these  pieces  invariably  close  on  the  tonic  or  keynote 
proves  that  all  the  modulations  are  referred  to  the  fundamental 
tone  of  the  chord,  and  gives  evidence  of  a  musical  feeling  and 
sense  of  harmony  such  as  only  human  beings  are  usually  supposed 
to  possess.  These  improvisations  are  whistled,  and  sound  as 
though  they  were  played  by  a  flute,  the  performance  being  uni- 
formly preluded  with  runs  and  trills  and  other  vocalizations. 

The  parrot  is  an  exception  to  the  rule  that  the  period  of  infancy 
is  longest  in  the  most  intelligent  creatures.  Its  babyhood  is,  in 
fact,  very  short,  although  its  average  life  seems  to  be  somewhat 
longer  than  that  of  a  man.  It  attains  the  full  splendor  of  its 
plumage  and  is  pubescent  at  the  early  age  of  two,  and  often  sur- 
vives all  the  members  of  the  human  family  in  which  it  has  been 
reared,  outliving  even  the  children  much  younger  than  itself. 
During  all  this  time  it  retains  its  mental  plasticity  and  progress- 
iveness,  never  ceases  to  learn,  and  goes  on  developing  its  inborn 
capacities  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  its  prolonged  exist- 
ence. It  is  quite  as  inquisitive  as  the  monkey,  and  quite  as  ca- 
pable of  close  and  continued  observation.  Merely  through  its 
association  with  man  it  is  constantly  making  new  acquisitions  of 
knowledge,  and  there  is  no  telling  what  might  not  be  accom- 
plished in  this  direction  by  systematic  instruction  carried  on 
through  successive  generations. 

If  Mr.  Garner's  object  had  been  to  ascertain  how  far  anfmals 
can  acquire  the  use  of  human  speech  and  what  effect  such  dis- 
cipline would  have  in  enlarging  their  intellectual  faculties,  he 


STUDIES   OF  ANIMAL   SPEECH.  439 

would  have  done  better  to  choose  parrots  instead  of  monkeys  for 
his  experiments ;  but  as  his  purpose  is  to  learn  the  language  of 
animals,  and  not  to  teach  them  his  own,  he  has  done  well  to  select 
apes  as  the  objects  of  his  study.  It  must  be  confessed,  however, 
that  the  results  of  his  investigations,  embodied  in  his  volume 
recently  published,  are  rather  disappointing,  and  are,  in  fact,  less 
comprehensive,  although  doubtless  more  accurate,  than  the 
observations  made  by  Wenzel  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century.  He  is  prone  to  lay  great  stress  upon  matters  that  are 
really  of  no  importance  whatever,  as,  for  example,  when  he  dis- 
covers that  "  No,"  accompanied  by  a  shake  of  the  heads  is  the  sign 
of  negation,  and  adds,  "The  fact  that  this  sign  is  common  to 
both  man  and  simian  I  regard  as  more  than  a  mere  coincidence, 
and  I  believe  that  in  this  sign  I  have  found  the  psycho-physical 
basis  of  expression/'  It  is  difficult  to  perceive  how  a  logical 
thinker  could  draw  such  a  sweeping  conclusion  from  so  slight 
premises.  If  he  finds  that  gorillas  and  chimpanzees  in  their 
native  wilds,  unaffected  by  human  associations,  express  dissent  by 
shaking  their  heads  and  shouting  "  No  ! "  it  will  be  a  fact  well 
worth  recording. 

Mr.  Garner's  superiority  to  his  predecesssors  in  this  depart- 
ment of  linguistic  research  consists  in  the  greater  excellence  of 
his  material  rather  than  of  his  mental  equipment.  The  possession 
of  the  phonograph  alone  gives  him  an  immense  advantage  in  this 
respect,  by  enabling  him  to  record  and  to  repeat  the  utterances  of 
monkeys  with  perfect  accuracy.  Armed  with  this  scientific 
weapon  of  phonetic  precision  and  all  the  instruments  and  appli- 
ances which  modern  invention  has  placed  at  his  disposal,  he  may 
perhaps  completely  conquer  a  province  of  investigation  hitherto 
but  partially  explored,  and,  by  making  important  contributions 
to  zooglottology  and  working  out  a  system  of  alphabetical  signs 
for  the  language  of  the  anthropoid  race,  become  the  Cadmus 
of  the  simian  world. 


A  BENGALI  in  India  has  made  &  contribution  toward  the  expenses  of  a  "  snake 
laboratory  "  which  it  is  proposed  to  establish  in  Calcutta.  The  work  of  the  estab- 
lishment will  include  the  scientific  examination  of  supposed  cures  for  snake-bite, 
and  the  investigation  of  the  properties  of  the  snake  poison.  The  laboratory  will 
be  the  only  institution  of  its  kind  in  the  world. 

THE  expedition  of  Sir  William  Macgregor  to  Mount  Owen  Stanley  in  New 
Guinea  found  a  remarkable  native  bridge  spanning  the  Vanapa  River.  It  is  a 
woven  bridge,  suspended  from  trees  on  each  bank,  and  is  similar  in  every  respect 
to  the  bridges  built  by  the  Malays  of  Sumatra  and  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo.  The 
view  of  it  given  in  Mr.  J.  P.  Thomson's  British  New  Guinea  shows  it  to  be  an 
elegant  and  picturesque  structure. 


440  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

LEARN  AND   SEARCH.* 

BY  PBOF.  RUD.OLPH  VIRCHOW. 

OUR  university  has  during  its  existence,  now  for  more  than 
eighty-two  years,  celebrated  the  beginning  of  a  new  univer- 
sity year  in  a  peculiarly  solemn  manner.  This  October  day  is  the 
one  among  the  festivals  it  observes  which  invites  it  to  enter  into 
self -contemplation,  to  a  review  of  its  acquired  results,  to  a  testing 
of  the  ways  it  has  struck  out,  and  again  to  the  consideration  of 
new  problems  and  to  a  look  into  the  future.  Have  we  solved 
the  problems  that  are  set  before  us  ?  Have  we  made  a  faithful 
use  of  the  means  for  training  youth  for  the  highest  objects  of  the 
state  and  of  manhood  ?  Can  we  surely  expect  that  the  hopes 
which  we  and  the  Fatherland  have  built  on  our  work  will  be 
realized  ?  It  is  incumbent  on  the  new  rector  to  be  the  interpreter 
of  these  problems.  But  whose  mouth  is  eloquent  enough  to  give 
common  expression  to  the  often  widely  diversified  thoughts  of  his 
associates  ?  How  few  of  us  succeed  in  obtaining  even  only  a  gen- 
eral view  of  the  ever  newly  changing  phases  of  single  special 
branches !  None  of  us,  we  often  confess,  is  a  bearer  of  all  knowl- 
edge. Each  of  us  can  do  no  more,  with  the  best  will,  than  judge 
from  the  point  of  view  of  his  own  branch,  of  his  own  single  experi- 
ence out  of  the  whole  course  of  studies  at  the  university.  Hence 
the  temptation  is  pressing  to  make  his  own  branch  rather  than 
the  generality  of  the  studies  the  subject  of  his  review.  I  shall  en- 
deavor to  avoid  this  rock. 

The  confidence  of  my  associates  has  called  me  to  this  high 
position  forty-six  years  after  I  entered  this  faculty  as  a  privat 
docent,  and  after  I  have  been  active  forty-three  years  as  an  ordi- 
narius  in  a  foreign  university  and  here.  Great  changes  have 
taken  place,  not  only  in  public  affairs,  but  also  in  knowledge — 
greater  than  in  hundreds  of  years  before.  All  the  single  fields 
of  human  activity  have  been  transformed,  many  fundamentally, 
or  at  least  subjected  to  the  incisive  attacks  of  criticism.  How 
could  one  who  has  participated  busily  in  public  life  have  passed 
through  so  great  experiences  without  realizing  it  and  with- 
out disturbance  ?  Yet  university  life  is  not  isolated  amid  tbe 
general  intellectual  life  of  the  people.  We  are  obliged  to  look 
around  from  our  instruction  upon  instruction  in  general,  the  ele- 
mentary and  preparatory  instruction  which  youth  eager  to  learn 
bring  to  us,  as  well  as  upon  the  instruction  in  the  various  higher 
or  technical  schools,  one  after  another  of  which  has  developed  the 
intelligible  effort  to  be,  or  at  least  to  be  called,  a  high  school.  To 

*  Rector's  address  at  the  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  University,  Berlin,  October  15,  1892. 


LEARN  AND   SEARCH.  441  , 

the  lower  institutions  the  university  is  a  perpetual  association  to 
prepare  their  pupils  so  that  they  shall  receive  our  instruction 
with  full  understanding;  for  the  higher  schools,  it  is  a  model 
after  which  they  may  shape  their  methods  and  regulations.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  university  is  called  upon  to  introduce  to  the 
state  and  society  successive  new  generations  of  young,  well-pre- 
pared men,  who,  filled  with  arranged  knowledge,  impelled  by 
moral  earnestness,  preserve  and  bear  the  sacred  flame  of  learning 
through  all  the  perplexities  and  dark  passages  of  daily  life. 

There  was  a  time  when  this  sublime  position  of  the  university 
was  not  only  generally  recognized,  but  was  also  distinguished  by 
great  prerogatives.  Many  of  them  have  since  been  lost.  We  have, 
perhaps,  only  temporarily,  but  still  happily,  passed  the  days  when 
the  strongest  attacks  were  made  against  the  universities  and  the 
narrowest  limitations  were  imposed  on  their  freedom.  But  we 
will  not  forget  that  even  this  university,  which  was  founded  in 
the  most  difficult  period,  in  order,  according  to  the  word  of  its 
founder,  King  Friedrich  Wilhelm  III,  to  be  "the  nursery  of  a 
better  future,"  was  subjected  to  a  suspicious  and  close  watch. 
Various  motives  worked  together  to  bring  about  this  unhappy 
condition.  One  of  them,  and  one  which  you,  dear  fellow-laborers, 
may  contemplate  with  advantage,  lay  in  the  behavior  of  many  of 
the  students,  and  consisted  in  a  widespread  misunderstanding  of 
the  purpose  of  the  study  and  the  position  of  the  student. 

No  less  a  person  than  Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte  first  occupied 
the  position  from  which  I  speak  to-day.  In  the  memorable  ad- 
dress "  On  the  One  Possible  Disadvantage  of  Academic  Freedom  " 
(Ueber  die  einzig  mogliche  Storung  der  akademischen  Freiheit), 
which  he  delivered  as  the  first  chosen  rector  of  our  university  on 
October  19, 1811,  he  spoke  the  significant  words,  worthy  of  being 
taken  to  heart :  "  He  only  is  a  student  who  just  studies."  With 
prophetic  mind  he  described  whither  the  course  tends,  when  the 
student,  instead  of  making  it  his  chief  purpose  to  learn,  instead 
of  "  sinking,  as  he  ought,  his  whole  thought  and  mind  in  learn- 
ing," spends  his  time  in  nursing  antiquated  traditions  of  a  special 
privileged  condition  of  students  and  in  maintaining  supposed  pre- 
rogatives. It  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  this  address,  which  every  stu- 
dent may  be  advised  to  read.  Fichte  at  that  time  expressly  dis- 
claimed speaking  of  conditions  which  existed  at  this  university, 
but  referred  to  the  cases  of  other  universities ;  and  the  earnestness 
of  his  admonitions  reveals  that  he  regarded  the  danger  as  menac- 
ing, and,  in  fact,  as  so  menacing,  that  he  saw  in  it  the  "  one  possi- 
ble disadvantage  of  academical  freedom." 

The  severe  crisis  which  came  on  a  few  years  later  and  in- 
volved all  the  German  universities  has  at  last  passed  away, 
and  it  has,  as  we  recognize  with  thanks,  left  unscathed  the  two 


442  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

chief  features  for  which,  we  have  every  reason  to  be  proud  in  a 
comparison  with  other  nations  of  Europe — freedom  in  teaching 
and  freedom  in  learning.  Teachers  and  pupils  have  still  that  in- 
dependence and  self-reliance  which  promote  vigilant  responsi- 
bility and  exclude  strange  control.  The  freedom  in  teaching  in 
particular,  which  was  preserved  till  the  dissolution  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  through  the  special  concessions  of  the  emperor  and 
the  nobles,  has  in  our  time  become  a  constitutional  right.  The 
free  choice  of  the  rector  by  the  regular  professors  has  also  re- 
mained to  us,  and  the  corporate  character  of  the  university  has 
not  been  attacked. 

Several  other  privileges,  indeed,  which  originated  in  the  time 
when  the  student  body  was  almost  sovereign  and  the  customs  of 
the  middle  ages  determined  the  form  of  the  student's  life,  exist  no 
more.  The  academical  jurisdiction  has  been  reduced  to  a  few 
disciplinary  rights ;  our  scepters,  which  were  conspicuous  on  days 
like  this,  are  more  ornaments  than  real  insignia  of  power.  The 
student  is  now  in  full  sense  subject  to  the  civil  law.  He  is  a  citi- 
zen like  the  others,  and  he  knows  that  he  has  no  other  privilege 
than  the  right  of  freedom  to  learn  preserved  to  him  on  the  ground 
of  what  he  represents,  and  the  .right  won  by  proficiency  in  uni- 
versity studies  of  obtaining  money  and  a  part  of  the  highest  posi- 
tions in  the  state.  In  other  respects  we  have  no  academical  free- 
dom different  from  general  civic  freedom.  The  student  has  no 
special  right.  The  academical  citizen  like  the  citizen  of  the  state 
looks  for  the  source  of  his  right  in  the  constitution  of  the  state. 
But  this  constitution  has  given  him  more  rights  than  he  formerly 
had ;  especially  the  right,  under  limitations  prescribed  by  the  con- 
stitution and  the  law,  to  participate  in  political  life  without  being 
subjected  to  any  exceptional  rule. 

Therefore,  dear  fellow-students,  take  the  sincere  counsel  to 
pursue  learning  as  your  first  and  most  important  object,  with  full 
knowledge  of  all  its  results  and  with  devoted  earnestness.  Self- 
evident  as  this  advice  may  seem  to  be,  experience  teaches  that  it 
can  not  be  repeated  too  often  and  too  impressively.  This  is  true 
as  well  for  the  later  semesters  as  for  the  first.  The  more  difficult 
and  comprehensive  the  branch  the  entering  student  selects,  the 
earlier  should  the  methodical  study  begin,  for  the  instruction  of 
the  later  semesters  is  comprehended  only  on  the  basis  of  the  ear- 
lier instruction.  The  temptation  to  the  young  student  first  to 
enjoy  academical  freedom  in  not-learning  is  certainly  very  great. 
To  one  who  passes  from  the  constraint  of  the  gymnasium  into  the 
golden  freedom  of  the  university  it  is  a  privilege  to  stretch  his 
limbs  and  to  conduct  himself  without  regard  to  later  things.  We 
all  know  this,  and  are  accustomed  to  exercise  "  academical  indul- 
gence "  toward  this  way  of  using  academical  freedom.  But  there 


LEARN  AND   SEARCH.  443 

must  be  limits  to  this  indulgence,  for  it  is  not  really  academical 
freedom  as  we  understand  it  and  as  the  state  should  understand 
it.  "  Academical  freedom  "  does  not  mean  "  freedom  in  not-doing  " 
or  "  freedom  in  pleasure,  or  in  the  gratification  of  the  passions," 
but  "  freedom  to  learn."  This  is  real  academic  freedom,  and  the 
university  has  been  opened  to  students  for  its  exercise. 

Neither  teachers  nor  scholars  should  forget  that  the  object  of 
the  university  is  a  very  high  one,  namely,  general  scientific  and 
ethical  cultivation  and  full  knowledge  of  the  special  branch  pur- 
sued. Once  at  least  in  his  life,  at  the  close  of  his  university  ca- 
reer, the  cultivated  young  man  should  be  so  far  advanced  that  his 
knowledge,  especially  in  his  own  branch,  should  correspond  with 
the  average  condition  of  scientific  research.  If  he  does  not  suc- 
ceed in  that,  there  is  little  hope  that  he  will  ever  become  an  hon- 
ored specialist  in  the  circle  of  his  associates.  He  has  every  pros- 
pect of  continuing  a  bungler  all  his  life.  Let  no  one,  therefore,  be 
deceived :  only  in  exceptional  cases  does  a  period  of  freedom  to 
learn  like  that  normally  possessed  by  the  academical  citizen  re- 
turn in  later  life. 

To  the  exercise  of  this  freedom  the  desire  to  learn  is  essential 
before  everything  else.  Whoever  desires  to  learn  at  the  univer- 
sity will  have  to  decide  at  once  what  and  how  he  will  learn.  The 
indifferent  pupil  shirks  this  decision.  His  choice  does  not  really 
concern  the  kind  of  learning ;  it  wavers  principally  between  learn- 
ing and  not-learning.  The  university  possesses  no  means  of  com- 
pulsion to  enforce  learning.  The  means  of  discipline  and  regula- 
tion at  its  command  are  not  adequate  to  secure  participation  in 
instruction;  only  the  medical  faculty  has  in  its  examinations 
obligatory  provisions  which  are  adapted  to  secure  a  certain  order 
in  the  succession  of  lectures  and  exercises.  Yet  experience 
teaches  that  complete  success  can  not  be  reached  without  the  de- 
sire to  learn.  How  can  this  desire  be  aroused  ? 

In  so  large  a  university  as  ours  the  personal  influence  of  the 
teacher  on  individual  students  is  naturally  very  limited;  only 
special  conditions  can  enable  him  to  form  close  relations  with 
a  smaller  circle  of  hearers,  or  exceptionally  with  single  hearers. 
His  influence  is,  therefore,  chiefly  exercised  upon  the  mass  of 
students,  and  he  often  first  learns  from  a  later  examination  how 
little  of  this  influence  the  individual  has  received.  We  can  de- 
clare with  pleasure  that  the  number  of  hearers  who  followed  the 
instruction  with  ardor  and  success,  even  with  distinguished  suc- 
cess, is  not  small.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  conceal  the  fact 
that  the  complaint  of  the  teacher  very  often  is  that  his  trouble 
has  been  in  vain.  Many  go  further,  and  assert  that  a  progressive 
diminution  in  the  work  accomplished  by  the  students  may  be 
remarked. 


444  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

This  is  especially  the  case  in  those  branches  the  substance  of 
which  is  all  strange  to  the  newly  entered  student,  and  is  endowed 
with  an  oppressive  copiousness  of  new  ideas,  as,  for  example,  in 
jurisprudence  and  medicine.  Precisely  in  these  branches  is  the 
course  of  the  student  in  the  first  semester  often  decisive  for  his 
whole  development,  and  indeed  for  his  whole  after  life.  For  in 
them  one  lecture  is  built  methodically  on  another,  and  no  one  can 
properly  understand  the  superstructure  without  having  become 
acquainted  with  the  substructure  in  all  its  parts.  Else  there 
arises  a  piece-work  of  fragmentary  knowledge  without  proper 
foundation.  All  the  teacher's  later  influence  can  not  fill  up  the 
gaps. 

Doubtless  the  difficulty  of  the  matter  contributes  to  make  be- 
ginners waver  in  their  zeal ;  and  yet  it  is  the  beginners  on  the 
gaining  of  whom  all  depends.  Does  the  responsibility  for  a  pause 
in  learning  occurring  so  often  in  the  first  semester  rest  upon  the 
university  teaching  ?  Such  a  reproach  can  not  be  raised,  even  on 
the  strictest  investigation,  and  it  has  not  been  raised  to  my 
knowledge,  at  least  not  in  a  corresponding  generality.  On  the 
contrary,  all  the  considerations  lead  to  the  question  of  preparatory 
training.  This  point  is  at  this  instant  engaging  most  extensive 
consideration.  The  attention  of  all  cultivated  persons,  and  no  less 
of  the  Government,  is  directed  to  the  question  of  what  changes 
in  the  instruction  in  the  higher  schools  are  demanded  in  order  to 
reach  that  measure  of  preparatory  training  which  can  assure  a 
wholesome  progress  in  the  studies  of  the  universities.  It  would 
far  pass  the  scope  of  my  address  to  discuss  this  highly  important 
question  in  all  its  parts.  The  debate  goes  on  concerning  the  sub- 
jects of  instruction,  the  amount  of  time  which  should  be  given  to 
each,  the  method  of  teaching,  and  finally  the  amount  of  work  to 
be  laid  upon  the  students,  and  also  upon  the  teacher.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  university  teacher  has  been  large  enough  to  enable 
him  to  form  a  judgment  upon  the  majority  of  these'  questions. 
It  will  be  sufficient  for  the  present  discussion  to  touch  upon  only 
a  few  of  the  less  frequently  mentioned  points. 

The  university  teacher  has  before  everything  else  two  demands 
to  make  upon  the  higher  schools,  which  are  in  close  connection 
with  each  other.  He  should  require  that  the  abiturients  bring 
with  them  the  desire  to  learn  and  the  capacity  for  independent 
work.  The  proof  of  positive  knowledge  of  any  particular  sort 
should  give  way  to  these  demands.  Individual  faculties  will 
make  various  requisitions  with  reference  to  them ;  but  it  will  be 
hard  to  show  a  serious  difference  concerning  the  main  point. 

The  desire  to  learn  is  originally  present  in  every  normally  en- 
dowed child.  We  daily  witness  the  joy  of  the  infant  when  he 
succeeds  in  comprehending  a  new  thing  or  perceives  some  new 


LEARN  AND   SEARCH.  445 

action  of  his  organs.  His  pleasure  increases  with  every  advance 
that  he  makes.  This  property  is  innate.  How  it  is  exercised  is  in 
the  first  place  dependent  on  the  condition  of  his  organs.  Many 
diversities  of  behavior  appear  among  children  early,  according  as 
they  are  limited  by  inborn,  and  often  inherited,  differences  in 
their  faculties. 

Is  this  property  peculiar  to  children  alone  ?  Surely  not.  It 
abides  in  the  man  till  his  mature  age,  provided  his  organs  are  nor- 
mal, and  as  long  as  no  disturbance  or  interruption  by  outer  influ- 
ences intervenes.  "What  pleasure  does  even  the  learned  man  ex- 
perience when  a  new  field  of  knowledge  is  unlocked  to  him ;  even 
in  his  old  age,  how  enlivened  is  his  thirst  for  learning  when  he 
succeeds  in  getting  a  glance  into  new  series  of  phenomena  of  Na- 
ture or  of  the  human  mind  which  had  been  previously  incompre- 
hensible or  inaccessible  to  him  !  How  does  it  happen  that  young, 
cultivated  men,  under  training  to  become  academical  freemen, 
escape  this  general  human  property  ?  It  is  in  them  without 
doubt,  but  has  not  rarely  been  repressed  by  some  objectless  treat- 
ment. Then  the  thing  to  be  done  is  not  to  call  it  out  for  the  first 
time,  but  to  revivify  it. 

From  the  desire  to  learn,  when  well  directed,  is  developed  the 
desire  for  knowledge.  Not  satisfied  with  the  knowledge  of  a  fact, 
with  the  perception  of  a  phenomenon,  the  desire  to  learn  urges 
on  to  the  understanding  of  it.  It  searches  for  the  connection  of 
phenomena  and  processes,  their  history  and  causes,  and  is  never 
quite  satisfied  till  it  has  grasped  their  genetic  and  causal  rela- 
tions. This  is  the  mark  of  a  real  desire  for  knowledge.  With  it 
comes  the  beginning  of  research.  A  disposition  to  investigate 
can  be  recognized  in  the  child  to  the  extent  that  it  divides  the 
object  it  has  in  hand  into  its  parts  and  tries  to  put  them  together 
again  into  a  whole ;  or  it  imitates  a  movement,  to  learn  what  it 
must  do  to  bring  it  about.  Training  thus  finds  all  the  elements 
present ;  it  has  only  to  use  them  and  direct  them  in  methodical 
ways.  This  comes  to  pass  when  attention  is  fixed  on  the  connec- 
tions, interest  is  stimulated,  the  study  is  directed  to  the  principal 
fact  and  diverted  from  the  subsidiary  ones. 

We  can  now  raise  the  question,  Does  this  take  place  in  our 
schools  ?  Even  in  the  lower  schools  the  desire  for  learning  is  so 
greatly  perverted  that  with  no  small  portion  of  our  people,  not 
the  love  of  knowledge,  but  only  its  lowest  form,  curiosity,  is  cul- 
tivated— that  disposition  which  is  satisfied  with  a  superficial  and 
therefore  incomplete  comprehension,  following  which  attention  is 
directed  to  new  objects.  Thus,  an  innate  and  naturally  worthy 
property  is  misdirected  and  brought  to  a  form  of  expression  which 
is  at  least  purposeless  and  not  rarely  injurious. 

When  the  love  of  knowledge  is  awakened  in  the  childish  mind 


446  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  the  child  is  also  led  to  a  consideration  of  genetic  and  causal 
relations,  attention  should  be  directed  to  historical  events.  With 
right  that  instruction  which  points  at  most  to  a  more  formal 
transmission  of  precepts — religious  instruction — is  not  limited  to 
mere  dogmatic  teaching,  but  seeks  in  sacred  history  a  means  of 
learning.  But  nothing  is  so  highly  adapted  to  such  teaching  as 
what  is  called  natural  history,  in  which  real  objects  are  dealt 
with,  and  genetic  processes  may  be  immediately  demonstrated. 
Our  Folk  schools  are  making  daily  progress  in  observational  in- 
struction, and  it  is  only  to  be  desired  that  the  application  of  mere 
pictures  may  be  supported  by  illustrations  from  real  objects. 

In  the  higher  schools  teaching  of  the  languages  has  had  the 
lion's  share  from  the  beginning.  As  the  gymnasia  grew  out  of 
the  Latin  schools  of  the  middle  ages,  the  preference  of  Latin  has 
remained  their  constant  inheritance.  The  Greek,  the  introduc- 
tion of  which  is  due  to  the  humanists,  has  taken  a  place  by  its 
side.  This  circumstance  has  had  the  happy  result,  we  thankfully 
recognize,  for  enlightened  Europe,  of  gaining  for  all  those  peoples 
who  have  had  a  part  in  it  a  common  basis  of  cultivation  which 
has  contributed  more  than  anything  else  to  promote  mutual  un- 
derstanding and  the  feeling  of  fellowship.  During  a  long  time 
the  general  use  of  the  Latin  language  by  the  learned  has  in  the 
most  opportune  manner  facilitated  the  intercourse  of  all  literary 
men. 

The  condition  has  now  become  different,  very  different ;  and 
even  those  who,  fully  recognizing  the  highly  beneficial  influence 
of  the  classical  languages  upon  European  civilization,  desire  a 
continuance  of  their  study,  must  grant  that  it  is  impossible  to 
restore  the  old  relations.  The  national  languages  have  come  into 
their  natural  right,  and  much  as  we  may  deplore  the  increasing 
polyglot  character  of  learned  works,  and  evidently  as  it  concerns 
us  that  we  are  not  qualified  to  read  a  multitude  of  excellent  trea- 
tises in  the  original,  we  must  still  recognize  that  no  power  in  the 
world  is  competent  to  produce  a  change  within  a  conceivable 
time.  Our  literary  schools  only  exceptionally  furnish  graduates 
who  can  speak  Latin  or  write  a  fluent  Latin  essay ;  and  the  uni- 
versities have  been  forced,  contrary  to  their  inclination,  to  re- 
move the  Latin  language  from  their  courses  of  instruction  and 
from  practical  use.  The  confusion  of  tongues  has  entered  the 
learned  world  and  secured  its  sanction. 

It  was  from  the  beginning  on  the  weak  side  of  the  humanistic 
institutions  that  they  preferred  Latin.  It  must  be  conceded  that 
they  could  not  do  otherwise.  They  found  the  Latin  the  univer- 
sal language  of  the  Church  and  the  land.  They  were  Latin 
schools.  They  simply  continued  what  had  been  the  general  praxis 
through  a  thousand  years  of  exercise.  But  they  received  with  it 


LEARN  AND   SEARCH.  447 

an  element  of  weakness.  For  the  classical  writers  of  Rome  were 
far  behind  those  of  Greece  in  their  achievements ;  indeed,  the  best 
among  them  owed  their  culture  to  Greek  predecessors,  and  the 
schools  of  Athens  always  held  the  first  rank  in  the  esteem  of  men. 
Their  teachings  constitute  the  background  of  all  literary  achieve- 
ment. Our  Western  civilization  has  received  its  most  peculiar 
moving  thoughts,  its  current  forms,  from  Grecian  literature. 
Homer,  Aristotle,  and  Plato  have  continued  to  be  the  teachers 
of  the  peoples  till  our  days. 

The  balance  of  decision  in  this  conflict  is  now  swinging  hither 
and  thither.  Professional  interest  in  the  Latin  has  declined  since 
the  Greek  writers  have  been  read  again  in  the  original,  yet  the 
Latin  language  has  remained  the  principal  subject  of  instruction. 
Its  reach,  however,  has  constantly  become  less.  Since  the  use  of 
language  as  such  has  steadily  diminished,  we  have  let  rhetoric 
drop  and  have  limited  ourselves  more  and  more  to  grammar. 
Indeed,  grammatical  teaching  has  gradually  become  so  predomi- 
nant that  even  the  Latin  essay  has  been  reduced  to  a  pious  desire. 
We  have  thus  reached  a  turning  point  with  the  classical  lan- 
guages. Schooling  in  grammar  is  not  that  aid  to  continuous 
growth  which  our  youth  need.  It  does  not  produce  that  desire  to 
learn  which  is  an  essential  preliminary  to  independent  advance- 
ment ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  evident  that  it  has  become  an 
object  of  aversion  to  many  pupils,  and  perhaps  for  more  parents. 
Greek  has  already  been  half  surrendered.  No  one  expects  any 
longer  that  the  mass  of  the  pupils  coming  from  the  schools  shall 
be  so  far  advanced  as  to  be  qualified  to  take  up  the  independent 
reading  and  explanation  of  the  Greek  writers.  Medical  men  had 
apparently  the  most  reason  for  regret,  for  their  science  is  the  only 
one  which  has  grown  up  during  more  than  two  thousand  years 
uninterruptedly  on  the  basis  of  the  Greek  writings.  But  it  can 
not  be  denied  that  Hippocrates  and  Galen  offer  so  few  points  of 
touch  with  present  doctors,  although  these  piously  adhere  to  the 
Greek  terminology,  that  the  study  of  them  is  of  the  least  signifi- 
cance to  the  understanding  of  pathological  processes.  The  real 
value  of  Greek  literature,  moreover,  lies  not  in  its  technical  parts, 
but  rather  in  the  philosophical  and  poetical  departments,  the  influ- 
ence of  which  in  cultivation  is  for  the  moment  underestimated. 

An  important  innovation  has  meanwhile  taken  form  in  the 
philological  department,  which  we  may  proudly  praise  as  emi- 
nently a  German  achievement :  I  mean  the  study  of  comparative 
linguistics.  With  it  a  properly  genetic  element  became  valid 
even  in  philology.  Wonderful  results,  of  inestimable  value  in  the 
history  of  human  civilization,  are  now  in  prospect.  Ever  new  re- 
searches keep  the  probability  in  view  that  comparative  linguistics 
will  continue  to  be  a  regular  constituent  of  the  higher  education. 


448  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

But  it  will  evidently  be  attainable  in  its  details  only  to  university 
students.  The  decision  of  what  shall  be  prescribed  to  the  higher 
schools  concerns,  therefore,  only  the  two  classical  and  the  modern 
languages.  The  university  teacher  has,  in  respect  to  this  deci- 
sion, to  insist  that,  whatever  language  is  prescribed,  it  shall  be  so 
taught  that  the  pupil  shall  learn  to  work  independently  in  it,  and 
that  he  preserve  his  pleasure  in  the  work.  It  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  new  methods  of  teaching  will  promote  this  object. 

We  can  now  show  upon  this  subject  that  there.are  other  fields 
of  teaching,  the  methods  of  which  have  been  so  well  shaped  out 
that  they  are  in  a  condition  completely  to  carry  out  what  is 
needed.  They  are  mathematics,  philosophy,  and  the  natural 
sciences.  They  have,  on  the  one  hand,  so  rich  and  diversified  a 
content  that  they  ever  stimulate  the  love  of  knowledge  anew,  and 
on  the  other  hand  they  are  so  well  adapted  to  an  ever  more  ex- 
tensive cultivation  as  to  afford  a  rich  opportunity  for  genuine 
research.  It  is  thus  made  clear  that  occupation  with  them  affords 
the  young  mind  so  sure  a  preparatory  training  that  it  can  make 
itself  at  home  with  peculiar  ease  in  every  faculty. 

Instruction  in  the  branches  we  have  named,  at  least  in  their 
elements,  was  introduced  long  ago  in  our  higher  schools.  Only 
the  measure  of  the  knowledge  which  should  be  prescribed  as  the 
purpose  of  this  instruction  has  been  variously  fixed  at  different 
times.  The  opinions  of  teachers  as  well  as  of  the  controlling  state 
officers  have  frequently  changed ;  and  the  excessive  tendency  of 
these  men  toward  the  philological  course  at  last  always  borne 
against  the  extension  of  the  designated  branches.  Only  the  ex- 
treme necessity  of  satisfying  the  demands  of  the  rapidly  advanc- 
ing technical  interest  and  the  industries  gaining  strength  evenly 
with  it,  irresistibly  forced  concessions,  and  when  it  was  believed 
that  these  could  not  be  carried  in  the  humanistic  institutions, 
a  separation  was  decided  upon.  Hence  arose  the  polytechnic 
schools  and  the  gymnasia,  and  as  a  further  result  the  technical 
high  schools. 

A  final  peace  has  not  been  reached  in  this  way.  Our  age  is  in 
the  midst  of  the  fight  over  the  claims  of  particular  kinds  of  high 
schools.  The  call  is  ever  anew  rising  for  specially  organized 
schools,  and  before  everything  for  a  far-reaching  reform  of 
gymnasial  teaching.  Not  all  these  demands  can  be  justified.  The 
universities  have  in  most  cases  not  sustained  the  claims  of  the 
real  schools  for  a  general  admission  of  their  graduates.  As  we 
have  already  observed,  the  interests  of  the  individual  faculties  in 
the  kind  of  preparation  of  their  students  are  not  identical.  Those 
faculties  which  look  in  their  teachings  for  immediate  support  in 
philological  aids  can  not  declare  themselves  satisfied  with  a  prepa- 
ration which  has  pushed  the  ancient  languages  more  or  less  into 


LEARN  AND   SEARCH.  449 

the  background.  Those  to  the  understanding  of  whose  branches 
the  ancient  languages  as  such  contribute  directly  no  essential  part 
have  to  consider  how  far  a  full  training  in  mathematics  and  sci- 
ence can  furnish  for  their  branches  and  for  general  cultivation  as 
well  an  adequate  substitute  for  the  want  of  classical  training. 
Experience  has  not  supplied  a  decision  on  this  point.  It  can  be 
remarked  only  that  among  the  foreigners  who  have  been  admitted 
to  our  classes  are  many  who  have  not  enjoyed  a  gymnasial 
training  in  our  sense,  and  who  yet  attend  the  lectures  with  com- 
mendable interest  and  with  evident  good  results. 

There  undeniably  exists  an  essential  difference  in  respect  to 
the  demands  which  individual  faculties  have  to  make  on  the 
preparation  of  those  coming  to  them  from  the  schools.  The  fu- 
ture must  teach  us  whether  a  single  kind  of  higher  schools  can 
satisfy  these  various  demands.  But  a  definite  answer  can  already 
be  given  respecting  one  of  them.  If  the  classical  languages  are 
no  longer  competent  to  supply  the  unifying  bond  that  formerly 
connected  all  the  different  directions  of  learned  culture,  a  substi- 
tute for  them  can  be  found  only  in  that  golden  triad  of  mathe- 
matics, philosophy,  and  science  on  the  development  of  which  all 
modern  civilization  touches. 

It  is  a  matter  of  secondary  importance  for  this  discussion 
whether  the  roots  of  this  culture  should  be  sought  still  further  in 
the  East,  in  Egypt  or  in  Babylonia.  The  continuity  of  Western 
civilization  actually  begins  for  us  on  the  western  coasts  of  Asia 
Minor  with  those  Ionian  Greeks  who  first  laid  mathematical  study 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  at  the  base  of  their  discussions  concerning 
the  universe,  and  who  produced  the  first  natural  philosophy,  in 
which  all  that  man  knew  about  Nature  was  reduced  to  a  harmoni- 
ous picture.  In  this  philosophy  lies  the  actual  beginning  of  that 
universal  consideration  of  the  world  which  has  been  significantly 
called  "  world  wisdom/'  and  which  has  gradually  led  to  a  funda- 
mental transformation  of  the  old  conceptions  of  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  and  of  man  himself.  That  is  the  imperishable  title  of 
the  Grecian  philosophy  to  be  held  in  honor. 

The  full  comprehension  of  this  fact  arose  very  late  among  the 
Western  peoples.  When,  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  Greek 
scholars  fled  to  Italy,  and  Greek  literature  spread  rapidly  at  that 
time,  when  the  humanists  arose  in  Germany,  and  one  university 
after  another  was  founded,  then  the  independent  spirit  of  investi- 
gation first  lifted  itself  up  in  all  nations.  Mathematicians  and 
naturalists  abounding  in  original  strength  appeared,  and  philoso- 
phers were  soon  active  in  adapting  the  conceptions  of  men  to  the 
new  views  and  in  grasping  the  fundamentals  of  intellectual  life. 

Right  in  the  beginning  of  this  memorable  period  appeared  the 
man  whose  great  achievement  mankind  has  just  been  festively 

VOL.   XLIII. — 30 


450  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

celebrating.  Day  before  yesterday  it  was  four  hundred  years 
since  Christopher  Columbus  descried  the  first  land  of  that  New 
World  in  which  now  many  millions  are  joyously  engaged  in  com- 
memorating him.  For  him  was  the  enviable  fortune  reserved 
of  demonstrating  at  a  stroke,  by  a  bold  experiment,  the  truth  of 
the  theory  that  the  earth  is  round,  and  of  opening  at  the  same 
time  to  human  enterprise  the  widest  field  that  had  ever  been  un- 
locked to  it.  Let  us  at  this  place  bring  the  deserved  offering  to 
his  genius  and  his  energy.  Let  us  not  forget  that  with  him,  not- 
withstanding his  mistakes,  which  have  been  perhaps  made  for  the 
moment  too  prominent,  a  new  era  began — an  era  of  new  thought 
and  new  traffic. 

Then  mental  activity  prevailed  everywhere;  great  mathema- 
ticians and  physical  astronomers  of  the  first  rank  arose ;  the  great 
reformation  in  the  Church  began,  and  the  foundations  of  modern 
medicine  were  laid.  We  are  still  in  the  midst  of  the  movement, 
but  it  is  victorious  everywhere.  Our  age  has  been  called  the  sci- 
.  entific  age.  None  of  the  humanities  have  escaped  this  influence. 
Even  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  endeavored  so  earnestly 
to  restrain  it,  has  joined  it ;  and  an  appointed  representative  of 
the  Evangelical  Church,  our  honored  colleague  Dillmann,  a  few 
years  ago  spoke  in  his  rectoral  address  the  strong  words,  "A 
church  which  can  not  bear  the  light  of  science,  or  which  has  to 
temper  it  with  colored  glasses,  should  be  laid  with  the  dead."  In 
fact,  the  modern  doctrine  of  the  universe  is  wholly  built  up  on 
the  ground  of  natural  science,  and  nobody  can  seriously  deny  that 
it  must  be  so. 

The  question  is  therefore  permissible,  whether  the  youth  of 
our  learned  schools  should  not  be  advanced  further  than  they  are 
now  in  this  new  knowledge.  It  can  be  readily  granted  that  there 
are  still  questions  that  have  not  yet  been  determined  among  the 
learned  concerning  the  instruction  that  should  be  excluded  from 
the  schools  and  the  instruction  in  specialties  that  should  be  re- 
served for  the  universities.  But  we  may  ask  that  a  young  man, 
credited  with  self-reliance  enough  to  make  good  use  of  academical 
freedom,  shall  be  in  a  condition  to  absorb  without  danger  the 
leading  facts  of  astronomy  and  biology.  Can  he  be  regarded  as 
really  mature  when  the  whole  world  around  him  is  to  a  certain 
extent  closed  to  him  ?  And  how  can  university  instruction  effect- 
ively influence  the  young  man  if  he  is  deprived  of  the  instrument 
he  needs  in  order  to  carry  on  his  hard  work  ? 

He  needs  mathematics,  not  for  its  own  sake,  and  not  merely 
in  order  that  he  may  understand  the  motions  of  the  heavenly 
bodies ;  even  physics  has  gradually  become  a  mathematical  sci- 
ence ;  and  in  chemistry  and  physiology  it  is  becoming  more  and 
more  necessary  to  carry  out  minute  calculations.  By  their  aid 


LEARN  AND   SEARCH.  451 

the  student  presses  into  the  comprehension  of  the  inner  processes, 
and  learns  not  only  to  estimate  the  measure  of  the  living  forces 
but  also  to  calculate  them  in  advance,  in  order  afterward  to  ad- 
just the  practical  using  of  them. 

Arithmetic  alone  is  not  enough ;  thought  is  also  necessary  to 
comprehension.  Many  conceive  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  make 
thought  itself  an  object  of  learning ;  but  there  can  not  be  success 
without  methodical  thinking.  Unfortunately,  logic  is  one  of  the 
studies  that  has  almost  been  forgotten.  At  most  of  the  schools 
one  is  supposed  to  have  done  enough  if  he  occasionally  expresses 
a  logical  theorem.  How  can  one  pursue  psychology  who  has 
never  become  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  thought  ?  How  can 
the  complicated  conditions  of  mental  life  be  made  perceptible  to 
the  outward  view  ?  The  young  doctor  is  a  little  more  favorably 
situated  in  respect  to  this  matter ;  but  what  can  be  expected  of 
the  jurist,  the  theologian,  and  the  pedagogue  ?  Respect  for  phi- 
losophy is  already,  at  least,  cultivated ;  that  is  much.  The  dis- 
position to  learn  to  think  philosophically  will  then  easily  be 
yielded  to. 

And  now,  finally,  the  natural  sciences.  What  profitable  objects 
for  learning  and  teaching  do  the  descriptive  sciences — botany, 
geology,  and  mineralogy — afford !  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
university  teachers  lay  most  weight  on  systematic  knowledge. 
Not  at  all.  The  systematic  method,  it  is  true,  is  learned  at  the 
universities.  It  does  no  one  harm  to  be  able  to  learn  and  distin- 
guish a  certain  number  of  plants,  animals,  or  stones.  But  the 
instruction  proper  should  consist  in  the  training  of  the  senses, 
especially  of  the  sight  and  feeling.  At  present  we  have  to  lament 
that  a  large  part  of  our  students  have  110  exact  knowledge  of 
colors,  that  they  make  false  estimates  of  the  forms  of  the  objects 
they  see,  and  they  manifest  no  comprehension  of  the  consistence 
and  exterior  constitution  of  bodies.  Nothing  should  be  easier 
than  to  cultivate  an  accurate  judgment  concerning  color  and 
form,  if  besides  the  comprehension  of  the  body  the  representation 
of  it  by  a  simple  or  colored  drawing,  though  it  were  only  a  sketch, 
were  learned.  Every  one  can  make  such  knowledge  useful.  It  is 
of  great  value  to  medical  men,  for  diagnoses  of  the  most  impor- 
tant conditions  are  not  rarely  dependent  upon  it. 

The  experimental  sciences,  especially  physics  and  chemistry, 
are  also  indispensable  in  school  instruction,  because  more  than  all 
other  branches  they  lead  to  the  knowledge  of  the  genetic  and 
causal  connection  of  the  processes,  and  prepare  for  the  methodical 
consideration  of  the  more  difficult  problems  of  biology.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  so  long  as  general  preparation  for  academical  studies 
alone  is  considered/only  the  simpler  and  more  easily  understood 
experiments  can  be  dealt  with  in  them.  But  every  pupil  who 


452  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

goes  out  from  the  school  should  still,  at  least,  have  been  intro- 
duced to  these  methods  of  studying  Nature,  in  order  to  obtain  a 
proper  faculty  of  observation. 

This  enumeration  of  what  belongs  to  a  good  preparation  has 
been  carried  out  to  a  considerable  length,  not  because  so  many 
subjects  have  to  be  brought  forward,  but  because  in  the  present 
stage  of  the  discussion  of  the  relation  of  the  university  to  the 
preparatory  schools,  the  question  of  the  measure  of  preparation 
that  should  be  required  for  university  instruction  occupies  the 
first  place.  In  order  to  avoid  mistakes,  it  may  be  added  that  to 
one  who  would  limit  himself  to  the  study  of  his  specialty,  much 
of  what  has  been  named  above  may  appear  superfluous.  But  if 
the  purpose  was  merely  to  secure  a  professional  training,  the  uni- 
versities would  be  superfluous.  Then  we  might  establish,  as  in 
France,  separate  ecoles,  or  as  in  England,  special  colleges,  or  as  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  isolated  convents.  If  we  regard  the 
university,  as  is  our  pride,  to  be  more  than  an  auxiliary  to  the 
professional  schools,  we  must  also  demand  an  effective  interwork- 
ing  of  the  faculties,  a  general  scientific  course  by  the  side  of  the 
professional  course.  If  this,  to  our  great  regret,  does  not  exist  to 
the  extent  it  ought  and  might,  the  blame  for  it  lies  in  that  want 
of  preparation  which  I  have  tried  to  sketch,  and  the  remedy  for 
which  I  expect  to  follow  a  more  exact  exposition  of  the  actual 
conditions. 

So  long  as  this  help  is  not  found  there  will  be  nothing  left  but 
to  take  up  in  the  universities  much  more  elementary  or,  at  least, 
preparatory  teaching,  which  burdens  and  degrades  the  instruction, 
and  which,  though  sufficient  in  a  very  few  cases,  fails  to  supply 
the  defects  of  preparation.  The  university  professor  has  the  less 
time  for  such  teaching,  because  the  university  is  not  merely  an 
institution  for  learning,  but  also  for  investigation.  It  is  that 
likewise  in  a  double  sense :  first,  because  our  nation  is  accustomed 
to  see  scientific  investigators  in  the  university  professors ;  and, 
secondly,  because  the  state  and  science  expect  us  to  train  at  least 
a  certain  portion  of  the  students  to  be  investigators.  In  this 
sense  we  call  the  attendants  as  well  as  the  institutions  of  the  uni- 
versity academical. 

The  ancient  name  of  the  academy,  which  has  received  from 
Plato  the  meaning  of  a  school  working  for  the  highest  objects  of 
mental  exertion,  has  been  applied  since  the  times  of  the  Medici  to 
designate,  as  against  the  professional  schools  and  the  teaching 
schools,  unions  of  prominent  thinkers  and  investigators  for  co- 
operative work.  From  them  have  proceeded  the  academies  of 
sciences.  A  more  recent  age  has  produced  besides  these  all  pos- 
sible sorts  of  academies  which  do  not  concern  us  here.  The  contin- 
uous investigation  of  scientific  problems  is  the  appointed  chief 


PROTECTION  FROM  LIGHTNING.  453 

purpose  of  only  academies  of  sciences.  But  there  are  in  Germany 
only  three,  at  most  four  such  academies,  and  they  are  far  from 
sufficient  to  assure  general  progress  over  all  the  wide  fields  of 
science.  A  part  of  their  function  has  thus  fallen  upon  the  uni- 
versities, and  they  have  performed  it  valiantly,  sometimes  glori- 
ously. This  is  the  reason  why  German  university  teachers  de- 
mand more  time  than  is  required  for  the  teaching  in  itself. 

The  universities  have  also  an  important  function  in  the  second 
direction,  as  I  have  said,  in  the  training  of  new  investigators  and 
teachers.  This  is  a  very  near  duty,  for  only  thus  can  that  indis- 
pensable constituent  of  the  teaching  body,  the  position  of  privat 
docent,  the  nursery  for  future  professors,  be  maintained  and  repro- 
duced. Therefore,  we  should  begin  early  to  train  independent 
workers  from  among  the  students. — Translated  for  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly. 


PROTECTION  FROM   LIGHTNING. 

BY   ALEXANDER  McADIE. 

DURING  the  year  1891  two  hundred  and  five  lives  were  lost 
(that  we  know  of)  in  the  United  States,  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  directly  through  the  action  of  lightning.  How  many 
were  lost  indirectly,  and  how  many  cases  there  were  of  shattered 
health  and  more  or  less  permanent  injury,  we  can  only  surmise. 
The  financial  loss  due  directly  to  lightning  was  certainly  not 
below  one  and  a  half  million  dollars.  To  get  at  something  like  a 
commercial  estimate  of  the  damage  done  by  lightning  in  thfc  past 
few  years,  in  this  country,  I  have  made  use  of  the  Chronicle  Fire 
Tables  for  the  six  years  1885-1890,  and  find  that  some  twenty-two 
hundred  and  twenty-three  fires,  or  1*3  per  cent  of  the  whole  num- 
ber, were  caused  by  lightning,  and  the  total  loss  was  $3,386,826,  or 
1'25  per  cent  of  the  whole  amount  lost  by  fire.  During  1892  we 
have  a  record  of  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  lives  lost.  The 
damage  may  be  estimated  at  as  high  a  figure  as  in  1891.  These 
losses  are  the  more  appalling  when  we  recall  that  the  year  is  vir- 
tually less  than  six  months.  Over  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the 
casualties  due  to  lightning  occur  between  the  months  of  April 
and  September.  It  is  therefore  qutie  pertinent  at  this  time  to  dis- 
cuss the  question  whether  or  not  we  are  able  to  protect  ourselves 
from  lightning.  Some  five  years  ago  the  question  would  have 
been  answered  readily  and  with  all  sincerity,  "  Yes,  a  good  elec- 
trical connection  with  the  earth — a  stout,  continuous  copper  rod, 
for  example — will  suffice."  To-day  no  such  answer  can  pass  un- 
challenged, for  reasons  which  we  shall  see. 

In  1888,  after  years  of  dispute,  we  had  just  settled  down  to  the 

VOL.    XLIII. 31 


454  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

calm  enjoyment  of  the  belief  that  rods  did  protect.  The  Light- 
ning-rod  Conference  had  shown,  in  quite  an  exhaustive  report, 
that  Faraday's  position  (as  opposed  to  the  opinions  of  Harris) 
was  correct,  viz.,  that  the  problem  was  one  of  simple  conductiv- 
ity ;  that  a  solid  rod  was  better  than  a  tube  or  tape  (which  would 
give  greater  surface  with  less  copper) ;  that  solid  volume  was 
everything,  superficial  area  nothing ;  and  that,  provided  the  me- 
tallic passage  afforded  the  flash  was  continuous,  any  flash  might 
be  successfully  carried  off  and  harmlessly  conducted  to  the 
ground. 

This  conference,  while  not  strictly  an  official  body,  was  one 
that,  from  the  character  of  its  members,  carried  great  weight.  It 
was  a  joint  committee  of  representative  members  of  the  Institute 
of  British  Architects,  the  Physical  Society,  the  Society  of  Tele- 
graph Engineers  and  Electricians,  the  Meteorological  Society, 
and  two  co-opted  members. 

In  1888  came  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge's  remarkable  course  of 
lectures  before  the  Society  of  Arts  upon  the  oscillatory  character 
of  the  lightning  flash.  Then  followed  the  famous  dicussion 
at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association.  As  this  debate  was 
one  in  which  quarter  was  neither  asked  nor  given,  and  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  was  clearly  understood  by  all  to  be  whether  a  light- 
ning conductor,  when  constructed  in  accordance  with  the  direc- 
tions of  the  conference,  would  absolutely  protect,  it  may  not  be 
out  of  place  to  give  here  a  synopsis  of  the  arguments  advanced. 
Mr.  Preece,  who  opened  the  discussion,  defined  the  functions  of  a 
lightning  conductor  as  twofold.  "  It  facilitates  the  discharge  of 
the  electricity  to  the  earth,  so  as  to  carry  it  off  harmlessly,  and  it 
tends  to  prevent  disruptive  discharges  by  silently  neutralizing 
the  conditions  which  determine  such  discharges  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  conductor.  To  effect  the  first  object,  a  lightning  con- 
ductor should  offer  a  line  of  discharge  more  nearly  perfect  and 
more  accessible  than  any  other  offered  by  the  materials  or  con- 
tents of  the  edifice  we  wish  to  protect.  To  effect  the  second  ob- 
ject, the  conductor  should  be  surmounted  by  a  point  or  points  ; 
fine  points  and  flames  have  the  property  of  slowly  and  silently 
dissipating  the  electrical  charges;  they,  in  fact,  act  as  safety 
valves.  If  all  those  conditions  be  fulfilled,  if  the  points  be  high 
enough  to  be  the  most  salient  features  of  the  building,  no  mat- 
ter from  what  direction  the  storm  cloud  may  come,  be  of  ample 
dimensions  and  in  thoroughly  perfect  electrical  connection  with 
the  earth,  the  edifice,  with  all  that  it  contains,  will  be  safe,  and  the 
conductor  might  even  be  surrounded  by  gunpowder  in  the  heavi- 
est storm  without  risk  of  danger.  All  accidents  may  be  said  to 
be  due  to  a  neglect  of  these  simple  elementary  principles.  The 
most  frequent  sources  of  failure  are  conductors  deficient  either  in 


PROTECTION  FROM  LIGHTNING.  455 

number,  height,  or  conductivity,  bad  points  or  bad  earth  connec- 
tions ;  .  .  .  and  there  was  no  authentic  case  on  record  where  a 
properly  constructed  conductor  failed  to  do  its  duty.  .  .  .  He  per- 
sonally had  under  his  supervision  at  that  present  moment  500,000 
lightning  conductors,  and,  fixed  throughout  the  offices  (post-office 


LIGHTNING  CLOUDS,  MULTIPLE  FLASH. 

and  telegraph),  had  apparatus,  protected  by  about  30,000  or  40,000 
lightning  protectors." 

Dr.  Lodge  said  that  "  if  his  views  were  correct,  very  few  build- 
ings are  effectively  and  thoroughly  protected  at  the  present  time. 
.  .  .  He  had  read  carefully  the  Conference  Report,  and  found  a 
large  number  of  entire  failures ;  .  .  .  one  noteworthy  one,  a  brass 
rod  an  inch  thick  on  a  steeple  which  was  smashed  to  pieces  and 
the  spire  destroyed.  Again,  the  best  protected  building  in  the 
world,  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at  Brussels,  on  which  M.  Melsens  had 


456  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

spent  so  much  time  and  trouble.  It  was  elaborately  protected ; 
protected  by  innumerable  conductors  with  admirable  earths  made 
in  a  variety  of  ways,  bristling  with  points  all  over  the  top — every- 
thing carried  out  in  the  most  approved  style,  regardless  of  ex- 
pense. Yet  in  the  month  of  June  the  building  was  struck  and 
set  on  fire.  ...  If  a  lightning  conductor  can  prevent  a  flash  from 
occurring  by  its  repellent  action,  well  and  good ;  but  he  had 


MULTIPLE  FLASH. 

shown  in  his  lectures  that  there  are  cases  where  a  point  has  no 
protective  action  whatever,  when  a  point  could  be  struck  by  a 
thick  and  heavy  flash.  There  were  other  cases  where  the  point 
acts  with  a  brush  or  fizz  and  neutralizes  the  electric  charge  with- 
out a  flash.  They  could  not  always  do  it.  And  so  the  lightning- 
rod  has  two  functions ;  one  is  to  be  repellent  if  it  can,  and  the 
other  is  to  carry  off  a  flash  when  it  can  not  help  receiving  it. 


PROTECTION  FROM  LIGHTNING.  457 

There  was  a  certain  amount  of  energy  which  they  must  dissipate 
somehow,  and  they  could  not  expect  to  hocus  pocus  it  out  of  exist- 
ence by  saying  they  could  conduct  it  to  the  earth.  The  quicker 
they  tried  to  conduct  it  down  to  the  earth  the  more  searching 
and  ramifying  disturbances  they  were  likely  to  get.  It  might  be 
better  to  let  it  trickle  down  slowly  by  using  a  moderately  bad 
conductor  than  to  rush  it  with  extreme  vehemence  down  a  good 
conductor,  just  as  it  would  be  safer  to  let  a  heavy  weight  sus- 
pended in  a  dangerous  position  down  slowly  rather  than  let  it 
drop  as  quickly  as  possible.  ...  If  a  man  holds  a  lightning  con- 
ductor when  a  flash  passes  down  it,  he  will  most  likely  be  killed. 
...  It  did  not  matter  about  the  earth ;  .  .  .  a  spark  was  likely  to 
occur  ...  he  had  made  experiments  in  the  laboratory  with  a 
rod  very  thick  and  a  yard  long,  in  circuit  with  a  Ley  den- jar  dis- 
charge. He  took  a  platinum  wire  as  fine  as  possible  to  make  the 
contrast  greater,  and  arranged  it  so  as  to  make  a  kind  of  tapping 
circuit ;  if,  then,  the  bottom  end  was  arranged  so  as  to  be  in  con- 
tact with  the  rod  and  then  let  the  top  end  be  an  eighth  of  an  inch 
away,  then  they  would  have  a  splendid  conductor,  better  than  any 
lightning  conductor  ever  was.  They  would  have  no  trouble  about 
earth.  It  seemed  absurd  for  any  portion  of  the  discharge  to  leave 
this  conductor  to  jump  across  and  make  for  the  little  strip  of 
wire.  Nevertheless,  a  portion  of  it  did,  and  from  every  spark  that 
went  to  the  conductor,  a  side  branch  went  to  that  little  wire.  .  .  . 
What  are  the  conditions  of  a  flash  ?  He  assumed  that  a  flash  be- 
haved like  experiments  in  the  laboratory,  but  it  was  a  ques- 
tion whether  a  cloud  discharge  was  of  this  kind.  A  cloud  is  not 
like  a  conductor ;  it  consists  of  globules  of  water  separated  from 
one  another  by  interspaces  of  air ;  it  may  be  compared  to  a  span- 
gle jar :  when  a  spangle  jar  discharges,  you  have  no  guarantee 
that  the  whole  of  it  discharges — it  discharges  in  a  slowish  manner. 
It  might  be  that  there  was  with  a  cloud  first  a  bit  of  a  discharge 
and  then  another  bit,  and  so  on,  so  that  there  might  be  a  kind  of 
dribbling  of  the  charge  out  of  it,  and  they  might  therefore  fail  to 
get  these  sudden  and  oscillatory  rushes.  .  .  .  But  we  must  pro- 
vide for  the  possibility  of  a  sudden  discharge." 

Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby  contributed  to  the  discussion  facts 
brought  out  by  an  examination  of  some  ninety  photographs  of 
lightning  flashes  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  In  one  in- 
stance the  whole  air  was  filled  with  threads  of  lightning  coming 
down  like  the  roots  of  a  tree  from  the  sky.  He  thought  it  was 
very  much  a  question  where  the  area  of  protection  would  be  when 
the  whole  air  seemed  to  be  pouring  lightning  down  upon  you. 
He  would  also  like  to  find  out  whether  buildings  were  struck 
during  rain  or  when  it  was  not  raining.  In  connection  with  the 
fact  that  thunderstorms  were  confined  to  the  lower  ten  thousand 


458  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

feet  of  the  air,  he  mentioned  the  fact  that  in  Norway  there  were 
two  kinds  of  thunderstorms :  one  occurred  in  the  summer,  he  be- 
lieved, when  the  lightning  clouds  were  high,  and  very  little  dam- 
age was  done ;  on  the  contrary,  in  winter  time  the  clouds  were 
very  low,  and  the  churches  were  frequently  struck. 

Lord  Rayleigh,  Sir  William  Thomson,  and  Prof.  Rowland  dis- 
cussed the  questions  whether  or  not  the  experiments  actually  rep- 
resented the  actual  conditions.  M.  de  Fonveille  called  attention 
to  the  most  extraordinary  lightning  conductor  in  existence,  the 
Eiffel  Tower,  and  the  fact  that  Paris  was  practically  free  from 
calamities  produced  by  lightning,  because  a  sufficient  number  of 
lightning  rods  had  been  erected  according  to  the  principles  advo- 
cated by  the  many  official  boards,  substantially  the  same  as  the 
conference.  Prof.  George  Forbes  thought  a  copper  alternative 
path  better  than  an  iron  one.  Sir  James  Douglas,  speaking  from 
an  experience  of  forty  years  with  a  large  number  of  conductors, 
was  of  the  opinion  that  the  rods,  when  properly  constructed,  were 
entirely  adequate.  In  the  matter  of  copper  versus  iron  he  pointed 
out  the  practical  consideration  that  iron  corroded  rapidly  com- 
pared with  copper.  Mr.  Walker  further  pointed  out  that  this 
corrosion  of  iron  was  not  a  question  of  weather  alone,  but,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  top  of  the  chimney  of  a  factory,  there  would  be 
some  chemical  action.  Mr.  Symons  brought  out  with  respect  to 
iron  conductors  that  galvanizing  would  not  entirely  overcome  the 
difficulty. 

We  now  come  to  Lodge's  book  upon  Lightning  Conductors 
and  Lightning  Guards,  and  shall  get  from  it  a  more  satisfactory 
understanding  of  his  experiments  and  deductions.  He  believes 
that  the  current  ideas  on  the  character  of  the  lightning  dis- 
charge were  not  altogether  correct,  because  the  momentum  of  an 
electric  current  and  the  energy  of  an  electrostatic  charge  had 
both  been  more  or  less  overlooked.  The  application  of  the 
known  fact  of  electrokinetic  momentum  revolutionized  the  treat- 
ment of  certain  phenomena.  The  old  drain-pipe  idea  of  convey- 
ing electricity  gently  from  cloud  to  earth  was  thus  proved  falla- 
cious, and  the  problem  of  protection  became  at  the  same  time 
more  complex  and  more  interesting.  His  position,  therefore,  is 
not  that  lightning  rods  are  useless,  but  that  few  or  none  of  the 
present  types  are  absolute  and  complete  safeguards ;  and  he  be- 
lieves it  possible  to  so  modify  existing  protective  systems  as  to 
afford  more  certain  protection.  The  problem  is  one,  he  very 
clearly  shows,  far  removed  from  the  old  idea  of  conduction. 

To-day  we  know  from  the  experiments  of  Hertz,  Lodge,  and 
others  that  when  an  electric  current  flows  steadily  in  one  direction 
in  a  conductor,  its  intensity  is  the  same  in  all  parts  of  the  wire ; 
but  if  it  be  of  an  oscillatory  character — i.  e.,  a  current  revers- 


PROTECTION  FROM  LIGHTNING. 


459 


ing  rapidly  in  direction — the  interior  of  the  conductor  may  carry 
far  less  than  the  surface  carries. 

All  of  which  goes  to  prove  the  correctness  of  Snow  Harris's 
opinion  (and  he  probably  studied  the  effects  of  lightning  more 
exhaustively  than  any  one  else)  that  surface  was  more  of  a  con- 
sideration in  the  form  of  a  protector  than  solid  section.  In  this 
matter  of  the  form  of  a  conductor  we  follow  Lodge,  and  prefer 


IMPULSIVE  RUSH  DISCHARGE,  SO-CALLED  DARK  FLASHES. 

the  tape  to  the  solid  rod.  Increase  of  surface  diminishes  imped- 
ance ;  and  as  impedance  is  probably  at  the  bottom  of  side  flashes 
and  spittings,  that  conductor  is  to  be  prefered  which  offers  less 
impedance,  and  hence  tape  appears  to  be  preferable  to  rod.  It  is 
also  more  convenient,  and  it  has  also  the  advantage  of  being  made 
either  continuous  or  in  very  long  lengths.  The  tape  must  be  of 
dimensions  sufficient  to  withstand  melting  or  deflagration. 


46o 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


"  Think  now,"  says  Lodge,  "  of  a  cloud  and  of  the  earth  under 
it  as  forming  the  two  coats  of  a  Leyden  jar,  in  the  dielectric  of 
which  houses  and  people  exist ;   we  now 
have  to  consider  what  determines  a  dis- 
••   charge,    and  what  happens  when   a    dis- 
charge   occurs.      The    maximum    tension 
which  air  can  stand  is  one  half  gramme 
weight  per  square  centimetre.     At  what- 
ever point  the  electric  tension  rises  to  this 
value,  smash  goes  the  air.     The  breakage 
need  not  amount  to  a  flash,  it  must  give 
way  along  a  great  length  to  cause  a  flash  ; 
if  the  break  is  only  local,  nothing  more 
than  a  brush  or  fizz  need  be   seen.     But 
g     when  a  flash  does   occur  it   must  be  the 
=      weakest  spot  which  gives  way  first  —  the 
I     place   of    maximum  tension — and  this   is 
<i     commonly  on  the  smallest  knob  or  surface 
=     which  rears  itself  into  the  space  between 
-*     the  dielectrics.     If  there  be  a  number  of 

O 

3     small  knobs  or  points,  the  glows  and  brushes 
£     become   so  numerous  that  the  tension  is 
g     greatly  relieved  and  the  whole  of  a  mod- 
^     erate  thunder-cloud  might  be  discharged 
s     in  this  way  without  the  least  violence.  .  .  . 
But  sometimes  a  flash  will  descend  so  quick- 
a     ly  or  it  will  have  such  a  tremendous  store 
£     of  energy  to  get  rid  of  that  no  points  are 
I     sufficiently  rapid  for  the  work,  and  crash  it 
all  comes  at  once.      One    specially  note- 
s'    worthy  case  is  when  one  cloud  sparks  into 
^  £      another  and  thence  to  the  ground;   or  in 
|         general  whenever  electric  strain  is  thrown 
k>^          quite  suddenly  upon  a  layer  of  air." 

Thus,  then,  we  begin  to  see  that  much 
^  ^  will  depend  upon  the  character  of  the  flash. 
|  *  There  are  many  flashes,  I  believe,  that  the 
^  body  could  experience  without  very  seri- 

ous  consequences  ;    and    there   are    many 
^  that  will  rive  solid  granite  and  shatter  in 

s  splinters  the  heaviest  masonry.     The  im- 

^  pulsive  rush  discharge  shown  on  the  pre- 

ceding page  was  doubtless  a  flash  of  the 
latter  character;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
with  a  kite  in  air  during  thunderstorms  with  a  wire  connection 
to  the  ground  I  have  experienced  sharp  shocks  with  lightning 


PROTECTION  FROM  LIGHTNING.  461 

flashes,  which  were  perhaps  sicle  branches  or  minor  spitting-off 
discharges. 

The  risk,  then,  will  vary  with  the  discharge,  and  this  is  influ- 
enced somewhat  by  locality,  and  therefore  the  methods  of  protec- 
tion to  be  employed  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  would  be  somewhat 
different  in  character  from  the  methods  appropriate  for,  say,  the 
New  England  coast ;  the  frequency  of  thunderstorms  in  the  one 
place  compared  with  the  other  being  about  four  to  one.  The 
character  of  the  storm  is  also  somewhat  different.  Then  again  the 
liability  for  places  comparatively  near  is  not  the  same.  "  If  I 
urge  on  Glasgow  manufacturers/'  said  Sir  William  Thomson,  "  to 
put  up  lightning  conductors,  they  say  that  it  is  cheaper  to  in- 
sure." These  manufacturers  answered  the  man  of  science  more 
wisely  perhaps  than  they  themselves  knew.  Thanks  to  the  inves- 
tigations of  the  Prussian  Bureau  of  Statistics,  we  know  now  that 
in  the  main  in  thickly  settled  communities  the  risk  is  small.  We 
can  state  with  some  certainty  that  there  is  but  little  need  for  the 
erection  of  expensive  or  elaborate  lightning  rods  upon  buildings 
standing  among  others  in  city  blocks.  We  do  not  say  that  such 
buildings  are  never  struck.  As  we  have  seen  above,  under  some 
conditions,  "exposure"  seems  to  have  little  to  do  with  the 
determination  of  the  path  of  discharge.  The  case  is  somewhat 
analogous  to  that  of  the  trees  and  rocks  upon  a  mountain  side. 
However  much  they  may  determine  the  course  of  small  streams 
and  "  trickles  "  down  the  mountain  side,  they  are  powerless  to  in- 
fluence the  course  of  an  avalanche  or  land-slide.  Sometimes,  there- 
fore, such  buildings  are  struck  and  severely  injured  (and  as  might 
be  expected,  with  seemingly  good  protectors,  do  not  entirely  es- 
cape) ;  but  these  cases  are  rare,  and  it  may,  we  think,  be  safely 
set  down  that  rods  upon  city  houses  are  not  (as  hitherto  insisted 
upon  by  some)  necessary.  With  country  houses  the  conditions 
are  different. 

Our  next  question  is,  In  flashes  of  ordinary  intensity  how 
much  confidence  may  be  placed  in  the  protection  afforded  by  a 
good  conductor,  rod  or  tape  ?  Few  questions  have  been  so  thor- 
oughly discussed  from  a  practical  standpoint,  and  the  verdict 
may  be  given  in  Sir  William  Thomson's  words :  "  There  is  a 
very  comfortable  degree  of  security,  if  not  of  absolute  safety, 
given  to  us  by  lightning  conductors  made  according  to  ortho- 
dox rules." 

If  the  reader  is  contemplating  the  erection  of  a  lightning  pro- 
tector, these  points  may  be  of  service  to  him : 

1.  Get  a  good  iron  or  copper  conductor  of  rod  or  tape  form, 
preferably  the  latter.     If  copper,  have  it  weigh  about  six  ounces 
to  the  foot ;  if  iron,  about  two  pounds  to  the  foot. 

2.  The  nature  of  the  locality  will  determine  to  a  great  degree 


462  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 

the  need  of  a  rod.     In  some  localities   rods   are  imperative;  in 
others,  needless. 

3.  The  very  best  ground  you  can  get  is,  after  all,  for  some 
flashes,  none  too  good ;  therefore  do  not  imagine  that  you  can 
overdo  it  in  making  a  good  ground.     For  most  flashes  ordinary 
"  grounds  "  suffice  ;  but  the  small  resistance  of  even  one  ohm  may 
be  dangerous  with  an  intense  flash. 

4.  "  If  the  conductor  at  any  part  of  its  course  goes  near  water 
or  gas  mains  it  is  best  to  connect  it  to  them.   Wherever  one  metal 
ramification  approaches  another  it  is  best  to  connect  them  metal- 
lically.    The  neighborhood  of  small-bore  fusible  pipes  and  indoor 
gas  pipes  in  general  should  be  avoided." — Lodge. 

5.  The  top  of  the  rod  should  be  plated,  or  in  some  way  pro- 
tected from  corrosion  and  rust. 

6.  Independent  grounds  are  preferable  to  water  and  gas  mains. 

7.  Clusters  of  points  or  groups  of  two  or  three  along  the  ridge 
rod  are  recommended. 

8.  Chain  or  link  conductors  are  of  little  use. 

9.  Area  of  protection.     Very  little  faith  is  to  be  placed  in  the 
so-called  area  of  protection. 

10.  Indifference  of  lightning  to  the  path  of  least  resistance. 
Nearly  every  one  who  has  written  in  late  years  has  taken  it  for 
granted  that  lightning  always  follows  the  path  of  least  resistance. 
This  is  not  true.     "  It  is  simply  hopeless  to  pretend  to  be  able  to 
make  the  lightning  conductor  so  much  the  easier  path,  that  all 
others  are  out  of  the  question,"  says  Lodge.     This,  however,  re- 
quires modification.     For  the  path  will  depend  largely  upon  the 
character  of  the  flash  ;  and  without  doubt,  for  almost  all  flashes, 
a  good  lightning  rod  well  earthed  is  the  most  appropriate  path  to 
earth. 

11.  Any  part  of  a  building,  under  certain  conditions,  may  be 
struck,  whether  there  is  a  protector  on  it  or  not.     There  are  cases 
on  record  where  edifices  seemingly  amply  protected  have  been 
struck  below  the  rods  (not  cases  of  defective  connection),  and  it  is 
now  beginning  to  dawn  upon  us  that  (paradox  of  paradoxes)  a 
building  may  be  seriously  damaged  by  lightning  without  having 
been  struck  at  all.     The  Hotel  de  Yille,  at  Brussels,  perhaps  the 
best  protected  building  in  the  world  against  lightning,  was  dam- 
aged by  fire,  caused  by  a  small  induced  spark  near  escaping  gas. 
During  the  thunderstorm  some  one  flash  started  up  "  surgings  " 
in  a  piece  of  metal  not  connected  in  any  way  with  the  protective 
train  of  metal.    "  The  building  probably  did  not  receive,"  says  Dr. 
Lodge,  "even  a  side  flash,  yet  the  induced  surgings  set  up  in  it 
were  so  violent  as  to  ignite  some  gas  and  cause  a  small  fire."    In 
other  words,  we  had  the  condition  of  an  "  oscillator  "  in  the  cloud- 
flash-earth  and  a  "  resonator  "  that  responded  with  its  little  spark. 


SUCCESS  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  MEETINGS.  463 

In  some  experiments  which  we  made  last  summer,  simultaneously 
with  some  flashes,  we  got  little  sparks  from  a  wire  in  the  air. 

12.  So  many  people  suffer  so  keenly  from  a  kind  of  nervous 
alarm  during  thunderstorms  that  it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  be  able 
to  point  out  that  the  danger  is  vastly  overestimated.    "  Heaven 
has  more  thunders  to  alarm  than  thunderbolts  to  punish,"  was 
the  old  irreverent  way  of  putting  it.     One  who  lives  to  see  light- 
ning need  not  worry  about  the  results. 

13.  The  notion  that  lightning  never  strikes  twice  in  the  same 
place  is  erroneous.     We  have  numerous  cases  disproving  this. 

14.  If  you  are  near  a  person  who  has  been  struck  by  lightning, 
go  to  work  at  once  to  try  and  restore  consciousness.     Try  to  stim- 
ulate the  respiration  and  circulation,  and   do  not  cease  in  the 
effort  to  restore  animation  for  at  least  one  hour. 


SUCCESS  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  AND  OTHER  MEETINGS. 

BY  GEOKGE  ILES. 

tendency  of  these  times  is  more  marked  than  that  toward 
organization.  It  manifests  itself  as  plainly  in  scientific 
inquiry,  literary  investigation,  or  the  cultivation  of  art  as  in  the 
sphere  of  industry  or  finance.  Let  chemistry,  folk  lore,  or  mu- 
sical education  engage  the  minds  of  a  group  of  people,  and  forth- 
with they  unite  themselves  to  further  the  interest  they  have  at 
heart.  The  societies  thus  created  have  often  manifold  utility; 
they  provide  rallying  centers  for  men  and  women  of  kindred 
aims,  whether  these  aims  are  of  popular  acceptance  or  not ;  they 
make  possible  a  co-operation  which  economizes  the  labor  of  obser- 
vation or  research ;  they  furnish  agencies  for  the  spread  of  infor- 
mation accessible  nowhere  else ;  in  their  "  proceedings  "  or  "  trans- 
actions" they  publish  valuable  papers  which  otherwise  would 
never  see  the  light  of  day,  and  often  these  volumes  are  the  sole 
registry  of  progress  in  important  branches  of  inquiry  or  revolu- 
tionary reform.  The  public  mind  may  be  profoundly  exercised 
joncerning  a  wrong  or  a  grievance,  but  its  discontent  is  powerless 
until,  let  us  say,  a  Free-trade  League  is  born  to  serve  as  a  nucleus 
>und  which  public  opinion  can  crystallize,  which  will  gather 
id  clarify  argument  to  be  echoed  by  a  thousand  friendly  voices, 
and  which  will  press  its  fight  at  every  opportunity.  Only  in  this 
way  can  an  interest  which  concerns  everybody  only  a  little  tell  in 
legislation  against  a  much  smaller  interest  which  concerns  a  few 
plunderers  a  great  deal. 

Of  course,  the  meeting  of  a  league  or  a  society,  whatever  its 
objects,  is  determined  in  character  by  that  of  the  organization 


464  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

itself.  If  a  purpose  really  worthy  has  prompted  to  union,  if, 
avoiding  faction,  the  best  men  have  been  put  at  the  head,  there  is 
no  reason  why  attractive  and  profitable  meetings  should  not  be 
held.  On  success  here  largely  turns  the  success  of  the  organi- 
zation, for  meetings  should  not  only  interest  the  membership, 
but  also  the  general  public  from  whom  support  is  sought,  from 
among  whom  recruits  for  active  service  must  come.  The  judi- 
cious management  of  such  gatherings  is  therefore  a  matter  of 
some  moment,  and  it  well  deserves  more  attention  than  it  com- 
monly receives. 

Of  scientific  bodies  in  the  United  States,  one  of  the  oldest  and 
in  many  respects  the  most  typical  is  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  whose  meetings  in  the  main 
have  been  the  most  popular  scientific  assemblies  held  in  this 
country.  The  association  has  suffered  severely,  and  inevitably, 
by  the  establishment  of  many  societies  for  the  prosecution  of 
branches  of  science,  electrical,  engineering,  and  what  not,  which 
scarcely  had  a  name  at  the  time  of  the  association's  nativity,  fifty- 
three  years  ago.  Then,  too,  the  formation  of  the  National  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences  has  drawn  off  certain  of  the  veterans  who  fail  to 
recognize  the  claims  of  the  association  on  their  allegiance,  who 
neglect  the  opportunity  the  association  affords  to  repeat  the  last 
word  of  discovery  to  the  people.  A  wide  variety  of  societies  for 
the  promotion  of  this  aim  or  the  suppression  of  that  evil  have 
done  well  to  follow  the  association's  lead  in  one  or  two  directions. 
First,  in  hospitality  to  all  in  sympathy  with  the  object  sought  to 
be  furthered,  without  asking  the  candidate  for  membership  what 
he  knows  or  what  he  has  done.  Of  course,  societies  for  advanced 
study,  such  as  the  Societies  of  Morphologists  and  Anatomists,  can 
not  set  before  everybody  this  open  door,  but  bodies  for  work  less 
specialized  find  their  account  in  creating  honorary  or  associate 
memberships  which  broaden  their  foundations  in  public  sym- 
pathy and  support;  especially  is  this  result  desirable  where  the 
research  promoted  is,  let  us  say,  astronomical,  and  bears  in  the 
market-place  no  price. 

The  American  Association,  too,  has  set  a  good  example  in  mi 
grating  from  place  to  place  year  by  year,  so  as  to  kindle  the 
widest  possible  interest.  To  cite  a  case  where  visits  of  this  kind 
have  borne  fruit,  Montreal  has  within  the  past  ten  years  been 
enriched  by  benefactions  for  education  which  give  her  rank  with 
the  most  highly  favored  cities  of  the  continent.  These  founda- 
tions, and  the  local  response  to  the  opportunities  they  offer,  are  in 
no  small  measure  traceable  to  the  important  scientific  meetings 
held  since  1881  in  the  Canadian  metropolis.  In  Canada,  as  in  the 
United  States,  there  is  much  sound  sentiment  regarding  the  fast- 
disappearing  woodland  wealth.  This  sentiment  is  largely  to  be 


SUCCESS  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  MEETINGS.  465 

credited  to  the  American  Forestry  Association,  a  comparatively 
small  body,  which,  in  its  peregrinations  north  and  south,  and  east 
and  west,  has  brought  many  thousands  of  people  to  its  way  of 
thinking,  and  with  them  not  a  few  of  their  lawmakers.  In  1891 
Congress  authorized  the  President  to  set  apart  as  a  reservation 
any  public  land  wholly  or  in  part  covered  with  trees;  in  two 
years  this  law  has  recovered  tracts  aggregating  twelve  million 
acres.  For  the  proper  forestry  administration  of  these  and  other 
lands  of  the  Federal  Government  the  association  is  the  only  or- 
ganized means  of  agitation  in  the  country.  Perhaps  one  reason 
why  the  American  Social  Science  Association  does  not  exert  the 
influence  it  merits  is  that  its  gatherings  always  take  place  in 
Saratoga ;  this,  too,  while  its  British  prototype  observes  the  rule 
of  itineracy.  Even  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  whose  in- 
vestigations are  of  the  most  recondite  order,  migrates  for  one  of 
its  semi-annual  meetings.  To  take  the  example  of  an  industrial 
organization  that  keeps  to  the  road  let  the  National  Electric  Light 
Association  be  named:  its  tours  throughout  the  land  serve  to 
refresh  men  devoted  to  an  arduous  profession ;  in  their  examina- 
tion, on  these  tours,  of  all  kinds  of  electrical  installations  practice 
everywhere  tends  to  rise  to  the  level  of  the  best ;  and  wherever 
the  association  goes  it  gives  a  local  stimulus  to  the  interest  in 
Nature's  master  force  in  all  that  it  means  for  the  relief  of  toil  and 
the  refinement  of  life.  When  an  organization  to  promote  science 
pure  or  applied  is  put  on  wheels  another  advantage  arises :  its 
visits  to  a  chain  of  towns  and  cities  rarely  fail  to  bring  out  a  good 
deal  of  amateur  talent — confirming  tastes  and  talents  which  do 
much  to  cheer  their  possessors  amid  the  drudgery  of  office  or 
shop.  The  trained  inquirer  may  look  askance  at  the  amateur,  but 
it  is  well  to  remember  that  Dr.  William  Huggins,  the  President 
of  the  British  Association  in  1891,  an  astronomer  who  has  notably 
furthered  the  science  and  art  of  stellar  spectroscopy,  calls  him- 
self but  an  amateur ;  Mr.  Thomas  D.  Anderson,  of  Edinburgh, 
another  amateur,  last  year  discovered  the  new  star  in  Auriga  so 
earnestly  discussed  as  probably  confirming  the  meteoritic  hy- 
pothesis of  stellar  accretions ;  an  amateur,  too,  it  was  who,  in  the 
person  of  James  Prescott  Joule,  first  ascertained  the  mechanical 
equivalent  of  heat,  the  basis  of  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of 
energy.  In  no  infrequent  case  an  intellectual  man  of  leisure,  who 
has  not  yet  formed  habits  of  idleness,  has  had  a  genuine  and  last- 
ing interest  aroused  by  the  advent  of  a  learned  or  scientific  society 
in  his  neighborhood. 

While  the  advancement  of  science  is  the  stated  purpose  of  the 
American  Association,  it  has  accomplished  much  else  that  could 
ill  have  been  spared.  It  has  periodically  brought  together  old 
friends  whom  the  exigencies  of  professional  or  business  careers 

VOL.    XLIII. 32 


466  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

have  separated  by  the  breadth  of  great  States  or  even  by  the 
width  of  America.  Its  social  meetings  have  often  been  as  gain- 
ful as  delightful.  Here  the  youth  just  across  the  threshold  of 
geology  or  astronomy  has  met  the  veteran  explorer  or  observer, 
and  thenceforward  his  work  has  known  the  ardor  of  disciple- 
ship  ;  there  are  men  now  eminent  in  American  science  who  recall 
as  among  their  first  inspirations  the  noble  and  kindly  faces  of 
Henry,  Gray,  Guyot,  and  Agassiz  at  association  meetings.  There 
is  always  a  good  deal  in  the  mind  of  a  man  of  science  that  he  does 
not  care  to  commit  to  a  formal  report  or  a  dignified  text-book ; 
his  appraisals  of  the  current  literature  of  his  special  field,  his  sug- 
gestive criticisms  of  the  latest  audacities  of  theory,  his  shrewd 
guesses  as  to  what  next  awaits  the  discoverer,  are  only  for  those 
who  meet  him  face  to  face.  Not  seldom  a  thinker  or  an  experi- 
menter in  a  remote  corner  of  the  country  cherishes  a  hypothesis 
or  proposes  an  apparatus  intended  to  solve  an  old  difficulty  in  a 
new  way.  At  an  association  meeting  he  finds  the  mechanician  or 
the  chemist,  who  of  all  men  can  best  disabuse  his  mind  of  its  har- 
bored fallacy,  or  point  out  how  for  success  his  project  must  be 
modified.  And  many  men  prosecute  masterly  work  at  lonely 
outposts,  or,  worse  still,  in  populous  centers  of  uninterested  peo- 
ple ;  they  are  spared  a  withering  sense  of  isolation  in  finding  at 
the  yearly  muster  that  it  is  after  all  a  goodly  army  in  which  they 
are  enlisted.  In  so  far,  too,  as  the  association  has  managed  to 
keep  specialists  of  eminence  in  its  ranks,  they  receive  at  the  an- 
nual assemblies  not  less  benefit  than  the  tyros.  The  observer 
with  microscopic  slides  or  test-tubes  constantly  at  his  eye  is  re- 
freshed when  he  meets  at  the  council  table  and  the  general  session 
his  peer  of  the  geologic  hammer  or  the  telescope.  Nor  must  the 
benefits  be  forgotten  which  the  association  has  conferred  upon 
men  of  affairs  drawn  into  its  audiences  and  interested  in  its  work. 
They  have  seen  somewhat  of  the  unselfish  labor  in  breaking  new 
ground  which  must  go  before  the  sowing  and  reaping  we  know 
as  industry  and  business.  Hence  have  arisen  generous  gifts  for 
research — which  might  well  be  multiplied ;  and,  apart  from  any 
question  into  which  gain  or  gift  can  enter,  the  association  has 
done  noble  work  in  bringing  to  the  people  a  glimpse,  at  least,  of 
that  inspiring  ray  which  ever  gilds  truth  as  it  emerges  from  the 
unknown. 

Much  that  can  be  said  of  the  good  born  of  this  association's 
meetings  is  true  of  those  of  many  societies  for  research,  educa- 
tion, or  reform,  which  year  by  year  and  almost  month  by  month 
spring  into  existence.  Let  us  glance  at  one  or  two  cases  where  a 
small  band  of  earnest  men  have  been  able  to  do  great  things,  not 
for  science,  but  for  righteousness.  The  Civil-service  Eeform 
Association,  founded  by  George  William  Curtis  and  his  friends 


SUCCESS  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  MEETINGS.  467 

in  1881,  has  in  its  agitation  of  twelve  years  been  the  chief  agency 
at  work  in  combating  the  claim  that "  to  the  victor  belong  the 
spoils."  To-day  one  fourth  the  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  Federal 
Government  are  subject  to  reform  rules,  with  promise  that  at  no 
distant  day  "the  aristocracy  of  'pull'  shall  make  way  for  the 
democracy  of  merit."  Mr.  Curtis  and  Mr.  Schurz,  in  their  stirring 
addresses  from  the  chair  of  the  association,  have  reached  audi- 
ences a  thousandfold  greater  than  those  within  sound  of  their 
voices ;  the  press  has  made  the  Rocky  Mountains  their  back 
benches.  Against  another  iniquity  battle  was  waged,  in  1883, 
when  the  Copyright  League  took  form.  The  league  began  as  a 
handful  of  men,  few  of  them  rich  or  influential,  attacking  a  com- 
pact and  well-armed  pirate  crew  and  a  solid  mass  of  unsound 
public  sentiment.  Within  eight  years  the  people  were  brought 
to  preferring  to  a  cheap  book  a  book  honestly  come  by,  Congress 
passing  a  bill  declaring  that  literary  property  is  property  still, 
even  when  a  foreigner  creates  it.  The  league  in  its  series  of  au- 
thors' readings  given  in  the  principal  cities  of  the  Union  had  a 
magnet  of  uncommon  power,  evoking  vastly  more  interest  in 
the  cause  of  international  justice  than  any  set  arguments  could 
have  done.  It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  agitation  which  the 
league  inherited  dated  back  to  1837 ;  it  may  be  worth  while  to  add 
that  the  money  cost  of  the  league's  work  was  but  ten  thousand 
dollars. 

Not  the  least  of  the  attractions  which  Chicago  offers  her  vis- 
itors this  year  is  her  programme  of  congresses.  Associations 
educational,  industrial,  scientific,  and  philosophical  are  assem- 
bling in  the  Western  metropolis  in  rapid  succession  and  under 
circumstances  in  which  the  art  of  their  management  can  easily 
be  carried  a  step  further  than  in  any  past  achievement  in  Amer- 
ica. The  local  committees  for  the  reception  of  visiting  bodies 
will  have  more  or  less  permanence,  and  will  therefore  through 
experience  grow  proficient,  an  exceptionally  large  number  of  the 
well  informed  and  inquiring  can  be  drawn  upon  from  the  throngs 
attending  the  fair,  and  the  manifold  departments  of  the  exhibi- 
tion will  furnish  in  profusion  illustrative  material  of  rare  qual- 
ity. Hon.  C.  C.  Bonney,  chairman  of  the  World's  Congress  Aux- 
iliary, is  in  permanent  charge  of  the  congresses  convened  during 
the  Columbian  Exposition.  He  supervises  the  working  details 
of  each  special  committee ;  and  his  chief  aim  in  his  work  is  that 
relations  among  the  leaders  of  thought  and  action  which  hitherto 
have  been  only  local,  shall  henceforth  become  international. 

To  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  attend  meetings,  scientific  and 
other,  remarkable  contrasts  in  their  management  are  familiar. 
The  success  of  a  meeting  is  earned  only  by  a  business-like  con- 
trol, which  makes  thorough  preparation  months  beforehand.  The 


468  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

executive  board,  by  whatever  name  it  may  be  called,  should  be  a 
body  of  competent,  resourceful,  and  hard-working  men.  Their 
main  task  is  to  insure  good  addresses  and  papers ;  however  little 
of  a  speechmaker  a  man  may  be,  he  always  talks  willingly  and 
acceptably  on  a  subject  he  has  mastered  and  which  is  dear  to  his 
heart ;  for  papers  a  selection  is  usually  feasible  from  manuscripts 
voluntarily  offered,  but  it  is  ever  found  that  the  one  way  to  have 
interesting  themes  treated  by  the  busy  people  who  have  a  first- 
hand knowledge  of  them  is  by  tactful  and  timely  solicitation. 

How  grievously  have  audiences,  learned  and  unlearned,  suf- 
fered from  the  coarseness  of  the  sieve  through  which  papers  are 
commonly  sifted !  At  the  Toronto  meeting  of  the  American  As- 
sociation, in  1889,  I  heard  a  paper  which,  admittedly,  had  been 
published  five  years  before.  It  is  a  case  all  too  frequent  that  a 
paper  is  prolix  or  trivial,  or  covers  ground  thoroughly  familiar, 
or  that  its  writer  imagines  dilution  to  be  simplification.  A  very 
ordinary  offense  is  the  technical  description  or  argument  which 
wears  its  bones  outside  and  spares  its  victims  no  jot  of  anatom- 
ical detail.  In  securing  contributions  of  high  value  the  American 
Economical  Association  sets  a  shining  example.  Jointly  with 
the  International  Statistical  Institute  it  will  hold  sessions  in  Chi- 
cago from  September  9th  to  16th ;  all  the  principal  papers  were 
arranged  for  months  ago  by  the  committee  in  charge.  When  a 
writer  is  in  this  way  given  abundant  time  to  prepare  his  manu- 
script he  can  do  justice  to  the  public  and  to  himself ;  he  has  op- 
portunity to  secure  publication  in  an  appropriate  journal  or  re- 
view, an  important  point  to  people  who  have  only  their  pens  to 
live  by.  The  presidents  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  are  chosen  two  years  and  the  presidents 
of. its  sections  one  year  before  the  delivery  of  their  addresses; 
with  this  ample  time  for  elaboration  and  revision  contributions 
to  scientific  literature  of  the  highest  rank  have  been  secured.  At 
the  Boston  meeting  of  1880,  the  most  interesting  ever  held  by 
the  association,  Prof.  George  F.  Barker  gave  his  address  on  Mod- 
ern Aspects  of  the  Life  Question,  a  luminous  summary  of  prog- 
ress in  physical,  physiological,  and  psychological  science,  which, 
enriched  with  its  numerous  references,  can  still  serve  the  student 
as  a  guide  post.  Prof.  S.  P.  Langley,  at  Cleveland  in  1888,  out- 
lined in  masterly  fashion  the  history  of  the  doctrine  of  radiant 
energy.  Two  years  later,  at  Indianapolis,  Dr.  Frank  Baker  traced 
The  Ascent  of  Man  in  an  address  which  is  a  model  scientific 
statement  made  plain  and  clear.  While  its  addresses  from  the 
chair  have  usually  been  excellent,  in  providing  popular  lectures 
the  association  has  left  much  to  be  desired.  Here  it  has  a  good 
deal  to  learn  from  its  British  namesake,  which  well  understands 
how  a  discourse,  by  interesting  the  community  visited  as  well  as 


SUCCESS  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  MEETINGS.  469 

the  visitors,  can  in  some  degree  requite  the  debt  of  hospitality. 
In  their  main  outlines  the  conquests  of  science,  in  the  hands  of  a 
skilled  exponent,  never  fail  to  awaken  the  enthusiasm  of  popular 
audiences.  To  the  essential  democracy  of  the  sympathies  of  re- 
search, conceived  on  broad  lines,  let  the  thousands  testify  who 
have  seen  Prof.  E.  S.  Morse  at  the  blackboard  busy  with  both 
hands  tracing  the  development  of  birds  from  reptilian  forms,  or 
Prof.  E.  E.  Barnard,  of  Lick  Observatory,  as  he  has  thrown  on 
the  screen  images  of  myriad  stars  seized  in  new  spheres  of  space 
only  through  the  exquisitely  sensitive  and  tireless  eye  of  the 
camera. 

There  is  sound  policy  as  well  as  justice  in  the  sedulous  culti- 
vation of  points  of  contact  between  e very-day  interests  and  the 
highly  specialized  work  which  only  remotely  may  issue  in  a  util- 
ity. A  chemist  may  be  enabled  to  experiment  on  di-nitro-sulpho- 
phenol,  and  publish  his  results,  because  an  intelligent  manu- 
facturer has  through  the  labor  of  chemists  found  a  market  for 
coal-tar  products,  or  furnace  slag,  once  thrown  away.  The  links 
between  science  pure  and  applied  might  well  receive  more  illustra- 
tion at  scientific  gatherings  than  they  commonly  do.  In  carefully 
maintaining  its  features  of  popular  instruction  in  this  and  other 
respects,  the  British  Association  has  done  much  to  win  its  long- 
sustained  pre-eminence.  To  what  else  can  that  primacy  be  attrib- 
uted ?  To  its  continuity  of  work  and  supervision  the  year  round. 
Its  committees,  some  fifty  in  number,  are  charged  with  investi- 
gations, botanical,  zoological,  and  other ;  they  confer  as  to  stand- 
ards of  measurement  and  establish  them;  they  ascertain  the 
properties  of  solutions,  or  consider  electrolysis  in  its  physical  and 
chemical  bearings.  All  this  labor  is  constantly  enrolling  new 
workers,  and  enabling  the  officers  to  appraise  the  talents  and 
availability  of  workers  new  and  old.  At  the  meetings  he  must 
be  a  specialist  indeed  who  does  not  find  his  particular  study  illu- 
minated in  the  committee  reports. 

Be  the  object  of  a  society  what  it  may,  on  the  programme  of  a 
meeting  the  main  items,  of  course,  are  the  addresses  and  papers. 
When  by  seasonable  solicitation  these  latter  are  in  hand,  printed 
copies  of  them,  subject  to  revision,  can  be  distributed  prior  to 
their  being  formally  offered.  This  plan,  adopted  by  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Mining  Engineers  and  a  few  other  organizations, 
should  become  general.  It  saves  time  at  a  session,  where  only 
abstracts  need  be  presented  ;  or,  where  the  writer  of  a  paper  can 
instead  of  an  abstract,  give  in  an  extemporaneous  word  the  gist 
of  his  manuscript,  the  printing  a  paper  in  advance  gives  those 
who  are  interested  in  its  subject  the  information  needful  for 
comment  and  criticism.  Discussion  is  of  the  very  essence  of  a 
meeting's  value,  and  the  institute  just  named  always  endeavors 


470  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

that  engineers  of  mark  shall  offer  their  opinions  on  the  papers 
presented.  In  the  planning  of  such  discussion  lies  a  way  of 
escape  from  the  narrowness  and  sterility  which  ever  threaten 
specialization  in  its  modern  extremes. 

It  has  often  been  suggested  that  some  broad  question,  as  the 
probable  age  of  the  earth,  be  considered  at  a  joint  meeting  of  all 
the  sections  of  the  American  Association.  Physicists,  geologists, 
and  naturalists  vary  by  millions  of  years  in  their  estimates  Of  the 
length  of  our  planet's  life.  The  surveys  of  the  special  sciences 
into  which,  for  convenience'  sake,  inquiry  here  is  parceled  out, 
plainly  do  not  fit  together  as  the  parts  of  an  accordant  map. 
Clearly  there  is  need  of  more  light,  of  exploration  of  intervening 
and  debatable  territory,  of  new  and  reconciling  generalization. 
It  is  in  its  untra versed  border  lands,  rather  than  in  its  measured 
and  cultivated  areas,  that  science  has  promise  and  inspiration  for 
the  investigator.  Discussions  are  difficult  to  arrange,  and  in  the 
ordinary  case  are  unsatisfactory,  but  in  overcoming  the  obstacles 
to  assigning  the  specialist  a  part  in  the  orchestration  of  high 
inquiry  is  rescue  from  the  danger  that  in  the  minute  study  of 
details  their  value  in  constructive  thought,  in  mutual  illumina- 
tion, may  be  forgotten.  At  this  point  re-enters,  too,  the  ever 
desirable  feasibility  of  interesting  the  general  public,  of  making 
the  people  feel  that  here  and  there  stand  open  doors  between  the 
questions  which  come  home  to  them  and  the  fields  tilled  by  men 
of  research. 

This  matter  of  interesting  the  public  can  at  times  find  its  op- 
portunity when  the  programme  is  elastic  enough  to  admit  the 
treatment  of  a  question  of  moment  which  springs  up  after  the 
programme  has  taken  form.  Last  August  the  American  Eco- 
nomic Association  met  at  Chautauqua ;  most  of  those  who  took 
part  in  its  sessions  passed  at  Buffalo  through  files  of  State  militia 
guarding  the  trains  against  strikers  and  rioters.  The  programme, 
an  excellent  one,  from  the  inevitable  absence  of  men  expected  to 
read  papers,  could  not  be  fully  carried  out.  Here  was  a  chance 
for  leading  teachers  in  politics  and  economics  to  express  them- 
selves regarding  a  battle  between  capital  and  labor  pitched  in  the 
very  neighborhood ;  outside  the  session  hall,  scarcely  anything 
else  was  talked  about ;  within  the  hall,  Buffalo  might  have  been 
in  Asia  for  all  the  attention  it  received.  Can  men  of  science  of 
the  academic  type  wonder  at  their  lack  of  popular  influence  when 
they  thus  ignore  the  world  of  action  and  passion  they  live  in ; 
when  they  speak  and  write  mainly  at  one  another,  and  usually 
in  a  language  hardly  comprehensible  to  common  people  when 
they  happen  to  overhear  it  ?  It  strikes  observers  in  New  York 
that  the  power  of  its  corrupt  rulers  has  arisen  in  no  small  degree 
because  the  leaders  among  them  have  been  fortunate  or  shrewd 


SUCCESS  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  MEETINGS.  471 

enough  to  share  the  e very-day  interests  of  every- day  people. 
Whether  from  limitation  or  choice,  no  sachem  of  Tammany  is 
ever  so  far  ahead  of  his  followers  as  to  be  hidden  from  them  by 
the  curvature  of  the  earth.  A  teacher  of  political  economy  in  a 
leading  American  university  declares  that  the  man  politically 
most  influential  in  this  country  is  the  bar-tender ;  if  so,  what  polit- 
ical text-book  or  society  for  political  instruction  has  ever  reck- 
oned with  him  ? 

A  few  of  the  more  noteworthy  organizations  which  meet 
statedly,  publish  their  discussions  as  well  as  their  papers — a 
praiseworthy  and  useful  thing  to  do.  This  plan  is  adopted  by 
the  American  Library  Association,  a  body  which  renders  invalu- 
able service  to  public  libraries,  and  hence  to  popular  education. 
The  papers  to  be  read  at  its  next  meeting,  at  Chicago,  July  13th 
to  22d,  have  been  assigned  to  representative  men  and  women  in 
such  wise  that  published  as  a  volume  they  will  form  a  complete 
handbook  of  library  economy.  This  introduction  of  a  compre- 
hensive purpose  in  gathering  contributions  that  otherwise  might 
be  disconnected  and  desultory  is  an  idea  well  worth  transplanting 
wherever  admissible.  The  Library  Association  owes  its  origin  and 
success  in  large  measure  to  a  secretary  of  uncommon  ability  and 
energy,  fertile  in  ideas  and  indefatigable  in  giving  them  effect. 
This  year  he  is  president.  An  efficient  executive  officer  is  indis- 
pensable in  arranging  the  details  for  a  successful  meeting.  With 
the  principal  papers  and  discussions  arranged  for,  he  pays  a  pre- 
liminary visit  to  the  place  of  meeting.  He  makes  sure  that  the 
sessional  halls  are  convenient,  ample,  and  suitably  furnished  and 
served ;  that,  if  need  be,  stereopticon  views  can  be  properly  shown, 
and  that  hotel  and  other  quarters  are  in  readiness.  He  confers 
with  the  reception  committee,  whom  he  finds  not  only  willing  but 
anxious  that  out  of  the  fullness  of  his  experience  of  shortcomings 
he  shall  freely  speak.  He  sees  that  the  printed  matter  of  his  asso- 
ciation is  put  where  people  can  get  it.  If,  as  the  civil-service 
reformers  do,  he  distributes  a  "  primer,"  it  does  not  fail  to  say 
how  one  can  join  the  organization  that  sent  it  forth.  He  co- 
operates with  the  local  press  in  telling  the  community  what  peo- 
ple of  eminence  or  note  are  coming,  what  they  are  eminent  or 
notable  for,  and  what  they  mean  to  read  and  discuss.  Aided  by 
having  the  principal  papers  in  print,  when  the  meeting  takes 
place  he  is  enabled  to  insure  fullness,  or  at  least  correctness,  in 
the  press  reports  of  sessions,  remembering  that  many  more  will 
read  these  reports  than  can  come  to  session  halls.  Each  day,  as 
early  as  he  can,  he  takes  pains  to  send  to  the  newspapers  the  next 
day's  programme.  He  engages  a  stenographer  to  take  down  the 
discussions;  they  may  not  be  published,  but  they  are  worth 
keeping  on  record,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  show 


472  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

how  hard  it  is  to  get  a  new  idea  into  people's  heads.  In  brief, 
this  officer  is  as  zealous  in  attracting  audiences,  in  arousing  com- 
munities, in  promoting  the  aims  of  his  society,  as  if  he  were  a 
man  of  business  creating  a  market  for  profitable  wares,  or  a  mis- 
sionary spreading  gospel  light.  Let  us  note  a  case  or  two  where 
the  lack  of  such  an  officer  in  the  receiving  or  visiting  body  has 
been  felt.  At  Rochester,  last  August,  the  American  Association 
was  tendered  a  reception  in  an  art  gallery  on  the  upper  floors  of 
an  office  building.  Its  owner  was  in  Europe,  which  doubtless 
accounted  for  the  catalogues  of  the  collection  being  not  lent  but 
sold  to  his  guests,  while  a  staring  sign  announcing,  "  To  the  steel 
tower — ten  cents/'  was  permitted  to  remain  uncovered.  At  Roch- 
ester, too,  a  city  famous  for  its  nurseries,  it  never  occurred  to  the 
local  committee  that  visitors  would  be  glad  to  see  these  nurseries. 
Their  gates,  of  course,  stood  open,  yet  a  very  little  trouble  taken 
to  provide  informed  guides  at  a  stated  time  would  have  added 
much  to  the  profit  and  pleasure  of  a  visit.  During  the  week  of 
last  Christmas  the  American  Psychological  Association  met  at 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Its  first  session  was  held  in  an 
upper  room  of  the  main  building,  the  second  took  place  in  an- 
other building  some  distance  off.  Because  there  was  no  public 
notification  of  this  change  of  place,  a  score  of  members,  teachers, 
and  reporters  wasted  an  afternoon,  and  missed  the  presidential 
address  which  three  of  them  had  come  a  hundred  miles  to  hear. 
A  few  years  ago  the  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers  met 
at  Lookout  Mountain.  One  of  the  party  was  the  late  Thomas 
Sterry  Hunt,  an  ex-president.  In  an  address  which  could  only 
come  from  a  master  in  both  chemistry  and  geology,  he  described 
the  history  of  the  region  at  his  feet.  As  he  spoke,  the  conclu- 
sions of  many  thoughtful  years  were  compressed  into  his  pithy 
sentences.  Because  he  had  prepared  no  notes,  and  because  no 
stenographer  was  engaged,  that  masterly  discourse  is  now  only  a 
fading  memory. 


M.  LIONEL  DECLE,  who  has  lately  returned  from  the  Zambesi  region  in  Central 
Africa,  recently  visited  the  underground  lake  of  Sinoie.  He  describes  it  as  pre- 
senting one  of  the  most  wonderful  specimens  which  can  be  given  to  man  to  con- 
template on  the  globe.  The  water  is  remarkably  blue,  far  more  so  than  that  of 
the  blue  grottoes  of  Capri. 

GIVING  his  personal  and  political  reminiscences  in  a  recent  address,  Sir  John 
Lubbock  said  that  he  took  the  first  photograph  (rather  daguerreotype)  ever  taken 
in  England.  Daguerre  was  a  great  friend  of  his  father's,  and,  when  he  had  com- 
pleted the  invention,  sent  him  over  a  lens  with  complete  apparatus.  Sir  John, 
who  was  then  a  very  small  child,  was  told  to  remove  the  cap,  and,  doing  so, 
achieved  the  feat. 


PROFESSOR   WEISMANN'S   THEORIES.  473 

PROFESSOR  WEISMANN'S  THEORIES.* 

BY  HEKBEKT  SPENCER. 

A  PART  from  those  more  special  theories  of  Prof.  Weismann  I 
-^>-  lately  dealt  with,  the  wide  acceptance  of  which  by  the  bio- 
logical world  greatly  surprises  me,  there  are  certain  more  general 
theories  of  his — fundamental  theories — the  acceptance  of  which 
surprises  me  still  more.  Of  the  two  on  which  rests  the  vast  super- 
structure of  his  speculation,  the  first  concerns  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  reproductive  elements  of  each  organism  and  the  non- 
reproductive  elements.  He  says : 

"  Let  us  now  consider  how  it  happened  that  the  multicellular  animals  and 
plants,  which  arose  from  unicellular  forms  of  life,  came  to  lose  this  power  of  living 
forever. 

"The  answer  to  this  question  is  closely  bound  up  with  the  principle  of  divi- 
sion of  labor  which  appeared  among  multicellular  organisms  at  a  very  early 
stage.  .  .  . 

"The  first  multicellular  organism  was  probably  a  cluster  of  similar  cell?,  but 
these  units  soon  lost  their  original  homogeneity.  As  the  result  of  mere  relative 
position,  some  of  the  cells  were  especially  fitted  to  provide  for  the  nutrition  of  the 
colony,  while  others  undertook  the  work  of  reproduction  "  (Essays  upon  Heredity, 
p.  27). 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  great  principle  of  the  division  of  labor, 
which  is  the  principle  of  all  organization,  taken  as  primarily  illus- 
trated in  the  division  between  the  reproductive  cells  and  the  non- 
reproductive  or  somatic  cells — the  cells  devoted  to  the  continuance 
of  the  species,  and  the  cells  which  subserve  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual. And  the  early  separation  of  reproductive  cells  from 
somatic  cells,  is  alleged  on  the  ground  that  this  primary  division 
of  labor  is  that  which  arises  between  elements  devoted  to  species- 
life  and  elements  devoted  to  individual  life.  Let  us  not  be  content 
with  words  but  look  at  the  facts. 

When  Milne-Edwards  first  used  the  phrase  "physiological 
division  of  labor,"  he  was  obviously  led  to  do  so  by  perceiving  the 
analogy  between  the  division  of  labor  in  a  society,  as  described  by 
political  economists,  and  the  division  of  labor  in  an  organism. 
Every  one  who  reads  has  been  familiarized  with  the  first  as  illus- 
trated in  the  early  stages,  when  men  were  warriors  while  the  cul- 
tivation and  drudgery  were  done  by  slaves  and  women ;  and  as 
illustrated  in  the  later  stages,  when  not  only  are  agriculture  and 
manufactures  carried  on  by  separate  classes,  but  agriculture  is 
carried  on  by  landlords,  farmers,  and  laborers,  while  manufac- 
tures, multitudinous  in  their  kinds,  severally  involve  the  actions 

*  A  postscript  to  the  essay  on  The  Inadequacy  of  "  Natural  Selection." 


474  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  capitalists,  overseers,  workers,  etc.,  and  while  the  great  function 
of  distribution  is  carried  on  by  wholesale  and  retail  dealers  in  dif- 
ferent commodities.  Meanwhile  students  of  biology,  led  by  Milne- 
Edwards's  phrase,  have  come  to  recognize  a  parallel  arrangement 
in  a  living  creature ;  shown,  primarily,  in  the  devoting  of  the  outer 
parts  to  the  general  business  of  obtaining  food  and  escaping  from 
enemies,  while  the  inner  parts  are  devoted  to  the  utilization  of 
food  and  supporting  themselves  and  the  outer  parts ;  and  shown, 
secondarily,  by  the  subdivision  of  these  great  functions  into  those 
of  various  limbs  and  senses  in  the  one  case,  and  in  the  other  case 
into  those  of  organs  for  digestion,  respiration,  circulation,  excre- 
tion, etc.  But  now  let  us  ask  what  is  the  essential  nature  of  this 
division  of  labor.  In  both  cases  it  is  an  exchange  of  services — an 
arrangement  under  which,  while  one  part  devotes  itself  to  one 
kind  of  action  and  yields  benefit  to  all  the  rest,  all  the  rest,  jointly 
and  severally  performing  their  special  actions,  yield  benefits  to  it 
in  exchange.  Otherwise  described,  it  is  a  system  of  mutual  de- 
pendence :  A  depends  for  its  welfare  upon  B,  C,  and  D ;  B  upon  A, 
C,  and  D,  and  so  with  the  rest :  all  depend  upon  each  and  each 
upon  all.  Now  let  us  apply  this  true  conception  of  the  division  of 
labor  to  that  which  Prof.  Weismann  calls  a  division  of  labor. 
Where  is  the  exchange  of  services  between  somatic  cells  and 
reproductive  cells  ?  There  is  none.  The  somatic  cells  render 
great  services  to  the  reproductive  cells,  by  furnishing  them  with 
materials  for  growth  and  multiplication ;  but  the  reproductive  cells 
render  no  services  at  all  to  the  somatic  cells.  If  we  look  for  the 
mutual  dependence  we  look  in  vain.  We  find  entire  dependence 
on  the  one  side  and  none  on  the  other.  Between  the  parts  devoted 
to  individual  life  and  the  part  devoted  to  species-life,  there  is  no 
division  of  labor  whatever.  The  individual  works  for  the  species ; 
but  the  species  works  not  for  the  individual.  Whether  at  the 
stage  when  the  species  is  represented  by  reproductive  cells,  or  at 
the  stage  when  it  is  represented  by  eggs,  or  at  the  stage  when  it 
is  represented  by  young,  the  parent  does  everything  for  it,  and  it 
does  nothing  for  the  parent.  The  essential  part  of  the  conception 
is  gone :  there  is  no  giving  and  receiving,  no  exchange,  no  mutu- 
ality. 

But  now  suppose  we  pass  over  this  fallacious  interpretation, 
and  grant  Prof.  Weismann  his  fundamental  assumption  and 
his  fundamental  corollary.  Suppose  we  grant  that  because  the 
primary  division  of  labor  is  that  between  somatic  cells  and  repro- 
ductive cells,  these  two  groups  are  the  first  to  be  differentiated. 
Having  granted  this  corollary,  let  us  compare  it  with  the  facts. 
As  the  alleged  primary  division  of  labor  is  universal,  so  the 
alleged  primary  differentiation  should  be  universal  too.  Let  us 
see  whether  it  is  so.  Already,  in  the  paragraph  from  which  I 


PROFESSOR   WEISMANWS   THEORIES.  475 

have  quoted  above,  a  crack  in  the  doctrine  is  admitted :  it  is  said 
that  "  this  differentiation  was  not  at  first  absolute,  and  indeed  it 
is  not  always  so  to-day."  And  then,  on  turning  to  page  74,  we 
find  that  the  crack  has  become  a  chasm.  Of  the  reproductive 
cells  it  is  stated  that—"  In  Vertebrata  they  do  not  become  distinct 
from  the  other  cells  of  the  body  until  the  embryo  is  completely 
formed."  That  is  to  say,  in  this  large  and  most  important  division 
of  the  animal  kingdom,  the  implied  universal  law  does  not  hold. 
Much  more  than  this  is  confessed.  Lower  down  the  page  we  read 
— "  There  may  be  in  fact  cases  in  which  such  separation  does  not 
take  place  until  after  the  animal  is  completely  formed,  and  others, 
as  I  believe  that  I  have  shown,  in  which  it  first  arises  one  or  more 
generations  later,  viz.,  in  the  buds  produced  by  the  parent." 

So  that  in  other  great  divisions  of  the  animal  kingdom  the 
alleged  law  is  broken  ;  as  among  the  Codenterata  by  the  Hydrozoa, 
as  among  the  Mollusca  by  the  Ascidians,  and  as  among  the  An- 
nuloida  by  the  Trematode  worms. 

Even  in  ordinary  life,  a  man  whose  supposition  proves  to  be 
flatly  contradicted  by  observation,  is  expected  to  hesitate ;  though, 
unhappily,  he  very  often  does  not.  But  in  the  world  of  science, 
one  who  finds  his  hypothesis  at  variance  with  large  parts  of  the 
evidence,  forthwith  abandons  it.  Not  so  Prof.  Weismann.  If  he 
does  not  say  with  the  speculative  Frenchman,  "  tant  pis  pour  les 
faits"  he  practically  says  something  equivalent : — Propound  your 
hypothesis ;  compare  it  with  the  facts ;  and  if  the  facts  do  not 
agree  with  it,  then  assume  potential  fulfillment  where  you  see  no 
actual  fulfillment.  For  this  is  what  he  does.  Following  his  ad- 
mission above  quoted,  concerning  the  Vertebrata,  come  certain 
sentences  which  I  partially  italicize : 

"Thus,  as  their  development  shows,  a  marked  antithesis  exists  between  the 
substance  of  the  undying  reproductive  cells  and  that  of  the  perishable  body-cells. 
We  can  not  explain  this  fact  except  J>y  the  supposition  that  each  reproductive  cell 
potentially  contains  two  kinds  of  substance,  which  at  a  variable  time  after  the 
commencement  of  embryonic  development,  separate  from  one  another,  and  finally 
produce  two  sharply  contrasted  groups  of  cells"  (p.  74). 

And  a  little  lower  down  the  page  we  meet  with  the  lines : 

"  It  is  therefore  quite  conceivable  that  the  reproductive  cells  might  separate 
from  the  somatic  cells  much  later  than  in  the  examples  mentioned  above,  without 
changing  the  hereditary  tendencies  of  which  they  are  the  bearers." 

That  is  to  say,  it  is  "quite  conceivable"  that  after  sexless 
CercaricR  have  gone  on  multiplying  by  internal  gemmation  for 
generations,  the  "  two  kinds  of  substance  "  have,  notwithstanding 
innumerable  cell-divisions,  preserved  their  respective  natures,  and 
finally  separate  in  such  ways  as  to  produce  reproductive  cells. 
Here  Prof.  Weismann  does  not,  as  in  a  case  before  noted,  assume 


4;6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

something  which  it  is  "  easy  to  imagine,"  but  he  assumes  some- 
thing which  it  is  difficult  to  imagine ;  and  apparently  thinks  that 
a  scientific  conclusion  may  be  thereupon  safely  based. 

But  now  to  what  end  are  we  asked  to  make  a  gratuitous  "  sup- 
position," to  accept  as  true  something  strange  which  is  "quite 
conceivable,"  and  to  strain  our  imaginations  without  the  slight- 
est aid  from  the  evidence  ?  Simply  to  save  Prof.  Weismann's 
hypothesis — to  shelter  it  against  a  great  body  of  adverse  facts. 
When  we  have  recognized  the  truth  that  what  he  regards  as  a 
primary  division  of  labor  is  no  division  of  labor  at  all — when  we 
see  that  the  corollary  he  draws  respecting  the  implied  primary 
differentiation  of  reproductive  cells  from  somatic  cells  is  conse- 
quently without  warrant ;  we  have  no  occasion  to  feel  troubled 
that  his  deductive  conclusion  is  inductively  disproved.  We  are 
not  dismayed  on  finding  that  throughout  vast  groups  of  organ- 
isms there  is  shown  no  such  antithesis  as  his  theory  requires. 
And  we  need  not  do  violence  to  our  thoughts  in  explaining  away 
the  contradictions. 

Associated  with  the  assertion  that  the  primary  division  of 
labor  is  between  the  somatic  cells  and  the  reproductive  cells,  and 
associated  with  the  corollary  that  the  primary  differentiation  is 
that  which  arises  between  them,  there  goes  another  corollary.  It 
is  alleged  that  there  exists  a  fundamental  distinction  of  nature 
between  these  two  classes  of  cells.  They  are  described  as  respect- 
ively mortal  and  immortal,  in  the  sense  that  those  of  the  one  class 
are  limited  in  their  powers  of  multiplication,  while  those  of  the 
other  class  are  unlimited.  And  it  is  contended  that  this  is  due  to 
inherent  unlikeness  of  nature. 

Before  inquiring  into  the  truth  of  this  proposition,  I  may  fitly 
remark  upon  a  preliminary  proposition  set  down  by  Prof.  Weis- 
mann.  Referring  to  the  hypothesis  that  death  depends  "upon 
causes  which  lie  in  the  nature  of  life  itself,"  he  says : 

*'I  do  not  however  believe  in  the  validity  of  this  explanation;  I  consider  that 
death  is  not  a  primary  necessity,  hut  that  it  has  been  secondarily  acquired  as  an 
adaptation.  I  believe  that  life  is  endowed  with  a  fixed  duration,  not  because  it 
is  contrary  to  its  nature  to  be  unlimited,  but  because  the  unlimited  existence  of 
individuals  would  be  a  luxury  without  any  corresponding  advantage  "  (p.  24). 

This  last  sentence  has  a  teleological  sound  which  would  be 
appropriate  did  it  come  from  a  theologian,  but  which  seems 
strange  as  coming  from  a  man  of  science.  Assuming,  however, 
that  the  implication  was  not  intended,  I  go  on  to  remark  that 
Prof.  Weismann  has  apparently  overlooked  a  universal  law  of 
evolution — not  organic  only,  but  inorganic  and  super  organic — 
which  implies  the  necessity  of  death.  The  changes  of  every  aggre- 


PROFESSOR   WEISMANN'S   THEORIES.  477 

gate,  no  matter  of  what  kind,  inevitably  end  in  a  state  of  equi- 
librium. Suns  and  planets  die,  as  well  as  organisms.  The  process 
of  integration,  which  constitutes  the  fundamental  trait  of  all  evo- 
lution, continues  until  it  has  brought  about  a  state  which  nega- 
tives further  alterations,  molar  or  molecular — a  state  of  balance 
among  the  forces  of  the  aggregate  and  the  forces  which  oppose 
them.*  In  so  far,  therefore,  as  Prof.  Weismann's  conclusions 
imply  the  non-necessity  of  death,  they  can  not  be  sustained. 

But  now  let  us  consider  the  above-described  antithesis  between 
the  immortal  Protozoa  and  the  mortal  Metazoa.  An  essential  part 
of  the  theory  is  that  the  Protozoa  can  go  on  dividing  and  subdi- 
viding without  limit,  so  long  as  the  fit  external  conditions  are 
maintained.  But  what  is  the  evidence  for  this  ?  Even  by  Prof. 
Weismann's  own  admission  there  is  no  proof.  On  page  285  he  says : 

"  I  could  only  consent  to  adopt  the  hypothesis  of  rejuvenescence  [achieved  by 
conjugation]  if  it  were  rendered  absolutely  certain  that  reproduction  by  division 
could  never  under  any  circumstances  persist  indefinitely.  But  this  can  not  be 
proved  with  any  greater  certainty  than  fehe  converse  proposition,  and  hence,  as  far 
as  direct  proof  is  concerned,  the  facts  are  equally  uncertain  on  both  sides." 

But  this  is  an  admission  which  seems  to  be  entirely  ignored  when 
there  is  alleged  the  contrast  between  the  immortal  Protozoa  and 
the  mortal  Metazoa.  Following  Prof.  Weismann's  method,  it 
would  be  "  easy  to  imagine  "  that  occasional  conjugation  is  in  all 
cases  essential ;  and  this  easily  imagined  conclusion  might  fitly  be 
used  to  bar  out  his  own.  Indeed,  considering  how  commonly  con- 
jugation is  observed,  it  may  be  held  difficult  to  imagine  that  it 
can  in  any  cases  be  dispensed  with.  Apart  from  imaginations  of 
either  kind,  however,  here  is  an  acknowledgment  that  the  immor- 
tality of  Protozoa  is  not  proved ;  that  the  allegation  has  no  better 
basis  than  the  failure  to  observe  cessation  of  fission;  and  that 
thus  one  term  of  the  above  antithesis  is  not  a  fact,  it  is  only  an 
assumption. 

But  now  what  about  the  other  term  of  the  antithesis — the 
alleged  inherent  mortality  of  the  somatic  cells  ?  This  we  shall,  I 
think,  find  is  no  more  defensible  than  the  other.  Such  plausi- 
bility as  it  possesses  disappears  when,  instead  of  contemplating 
the  vast  assemblage  of  familiar  cases  which  animals  present,  we 
contemplate  certain  less  familiar  and  unfamiliar  cases.  By  these 
we  are  shown  that  the  usual  ending  of  multiplication  among  so- 
matic cells  is  due  not  to  an  intrinsic  cause,  but  to  extrinsic  causes. 
Let  us,  however,  first  look  at  Prof.  Weismann's  own  statements : 

"  I  have  endeavored  to  explain  death  as  the  result  of  restriction  in  the  powers 
of  reproduction  possessed  by  the  somatic  cells,  and  I  have  suggested  that  such 

*  See  First  Principles,  part  ii,  chap,  xxii,  Equilibration. 


473  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

restriction  may  conceivably  follow  from  a  limitation  in  the  number  of  cell-genera- 
tions possible  for  the  cells  of  each  organ  and  tissue  "  (p.  28). 

"  The  above-mentioned  considerations  show  us  that  the  degree  of  reproductive 
activity  present  in  the  tissues  is  regulated  by  internal  causes  while  the  natural 
death  of  an  organism  is  the  termination — the  hereditary  limitation — of  the  process 
of  cell-division,  which  began  in  the  segmentation  of  the  ovum  "  (p.  30). 

Now  though,  in  the  above  extracts  there  is  mention  of  "  inter- 
nal causes  "  determining  "  the  degree  of  reproductive  activity  "  of 
tissue  cells,  and  though,  on  page  28,  the  tf  causes  of  the  loss  "  of  the 
power  of  unlimited  cell-production  "  must  be  sought  outside  the 
organism,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  external  conditions  of  life " ;  yet 
the  doctrine  is  that  somatic  cells  have  become  constitutionally 
unfitted  for  continued  cell-multiplication. 

"  The  somatic  cells  have  lost  this  power  to  a  gradually  increasing  extent,  so 
that  at  length  they  became  restricted  to  a  fixed,  though  perhaps  very  large,  num- 
ber of  cell-generations  "  (p.  28). 

Examination  will  soon  disclose  good  reasons  for  denying  this 
inherent  restriction.  We  will  look  at  the  various  causes  which 
affect  their  multiplication  and  usually  put  a  stop  to  increase  after 
a  certain  point  is  reached. 

There  is  first  the  amount  of  vital  capital  given  by  the  parent ; 
partly  in  the  shape  of  a  more  or  less  developed  structure,  and 
partly  in  the  shape  of  bequeathed  nutriment.  Where  this  vital 
capital  is  small,  and  the  young  creature,  forthwith  obliged  to 
carry  on  physiological  business  for  itself,  has  to  expend  effort  in 
obtaining  materials  for  daily  consumption  as  well  as  for  growth, 
a  rigid  restraint  is  put  on  that  cell-multiplication  required  for  a 
large  size.  Clearly  the  young  elephant,  starting  with  a  big  and 
well-organized  body,  and  supplied  gratis  with  milk  during  early 
stages  of  growth,  can  begin  physiological  business  on  his  own 
account  on  a  great  scale ;  and  by  its  large  transactions  his  system 
is  enabled  to  supply  nutriment  to  its  multiplying  somatic  cells 
until  they  have  formed  a  vast  aggregate — an  aggregate  such  as 
it  is  impossible  for  a  young  mouse  to  reach,  obliged  as  it  is  to 
begin  physiological  business  in  a  small  way.  Then  there  is  the 
character  of  the  food  in  respect  of  its  digestibility  and  its  nutri- 
tiveness.  Here,  that  which  the  creature  takes  in  requires  much 
grinding-up,  or,  when  duly  prepared,  contains  but  a  small  amount 
of  available  matter  in  comparison  with  the  matter  that  has  to  be 
thrown  away ;  while  there,  the  prey  seized  is  almost  pure  nutri- 
ment, and  requires  but  little  trituration.  Hence,  in  some  cases,  an 
unprofitable  physiological  business,  and  in  other  cases  a  profitable 
one;  resulting  in  small  or  large  supplies  to  the  multiplying 
somatic  cells.  Further,  there  has  to  be  noted  the  grade  of  vis- 
ceral development,  which,  if  low,  yields  only  crude  nutriment 
slowly  distributed,  but  which,  if  high,  serves  by  its  good  appli- 


PROFESSOR  WEISMANN'S   THEORIES.  479 

ances  for  solution,  depuration,  absorption,  and  circulation,  to 
yield  to  the  multiplying  somatic  cells  a  rich  and  pure  blood. 
Then  we  come  to  an  all-important  factor,  the  cost  of  securing 
food.  Here  large  expenditure  of  energy  in  locomotion  is  neces- 
sitated, and  there  but  little — here  great  efforts  for  small  portions 
of  food,  and  there  small  efforts  for  great  portions :  again  result- 
ing in  physiological  poverty  or  physiological  wealth.  Next,  be- 
yond the  cost  of  nervo-muscular  activities  in  foraging,  there  is 
the  cost  of  maintaining  bodily  heat.  So  much  heat  implies  so 
much  consumed  nutriment,  and  the  loss  by  radiation  or  conduc- 
tion, which  has  perpetually  to  be  made  good,  varies  according 
to  many  circumstances — climate,  medium  (as  air  or  water),  cover- 
ing, size  of  body  (small  cooling  relatively  faster  than  large) ;  and 
in  proportion  to  the  cost  of  maintaining  heat  is  the  abstraction 
from  the  supplies  for  cell-formation.  Finally,  there  are  three  all- 
important  co-operative  factors,  or  rather  laws  of  factors,  the  ef- 
fects of  which  vary  with  the  size  of  the  animal.  The  first  is  that, 
while  the  mass  of  the  body  varies  as  the  cubes  of  its  dimensions 
(proportions  being  supposed  constant),  the  absorbing  surface  va- 
ries as  the  squares  of  its  dimensions ;  whence  it  results  that,  other 
things  equal,  increase  of  size  implies  relative  decrease  of  nutri- 
tion, and  therefore  increased  obstacles  to  cell-multiplication.* 
The  second  is  a  further  sequence  from  these  laws — namely,  that 
while  the  weight  of  the  body  increases  as  the  cubes  of  the  dimen- 
sions, the  sectional  areas  of  its  muscles  and  bones  increase  as  their 
squares ;  whence  follows  a  decreasing  power  of  resisting  strains, 
and  a  relative  weakness  of  structure.  This  is  implied  in  the  abil- 
ity of  a  small  animal  to  leap  many  times  its  own  length,  while  a 
great  animal,  like  the  elephant,  can  not  leap  at  all :  its  bones  and 
muscles  being  unable  to  bear  the  stress  which  would  be  required 
to  propel  its  body  through  the  air.  What  increasing  cost  of  keep- 
ing together  the  bodily  fabric  is  thus  entailed,  we  can  not  say ;  but 
that  there  is  an  increasing  cost,  which  diminishes  the  available 
materials  for  increase  of  size,  in  beyond  question,  f  And  then,  in 
the  third  place,  we  have  augmented  expense  of  distribution  of 
nutriment.  The  greater  the  size  becomes,  the  more  force  must  be 
exerted  to  send  blood  to  the  periphery ;  and  this  once  more  entails 
deduction  from  the  cell-forming  matters. 

*  Principles  of  Biology,  §  46  (No.  8,  April,  1863). 

f  Ibid.  This  must  not  be  understood  as  implying  that  while  the  mass  increases  as  the 
cubes,  the  quantity  of  motion  which  can  be  generated  increases  only  as  the  squares ;  for  this 
would  not  be  true.  The  quantity  of  motion  is  obviously  measured,  not  by  the  sectioned 
areas  of  the  muscles  alone,  but  by  these  multiplied  into  their  lengths,  and  therefore  increases 
as  the  cubes.  But  this  admission  leaves  untouched  the  conclusion  that  the  ability  to  bear 
strcM  increases  only  as  the  squares,  and  thus  limits  the  ability  to  generate  motion,  by  rela- 
tive incoherence  of  materials. 


480  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Here,  then,  we  have  nine  factors,  several  of  them  involving 
subdivisions,  which  co-operate  in  aiding  or  restraining  cell-multi- 
plication. They  occur  in  endlessly  varied  proportions  and  com- 
binations ;  so  that  every  species  differs  more  or  less  from  every 
other  in  respect  of  their  effects.  But  in  all  of  them  the  co-opera- 
tion is  such  as  eventually  arrests  that  multiplication  of  cells  which 
causes  further  growth ;  continues  thereafter  to  entail  slow  decrease 
in  cell-multiplication,  accompanying  decline  of  vital  activities; 
and  eventually  brings  cell-multiplication  to  an  end.  Now  a  rec- 
ognized principle  of  reasoning — the  Law  of  Parsimony — forbids 
the  assumption  of  more  causes  than  are  needful  for  explanation  of 
phenomena ;  and  since,  in  all  such  living  aggregates  as  those  above 
supposed,  the  causes  named  inevitably  bring  about  arrest  of  cell- 
multiplication,  it  is  illegitimate  to  ascribe  this  arrest  to  some  in- 
herent property  in  the  cells.  Inadequacy  of  the  other  causes  must 
be  shown  before  an  inherent  property  can  be  rightly  assumed. 

For  this  conclusion  we  find  ample  justification  when  we  con- 
template types  of  animals  which  lead  lives  that  do  not  put  such 
decided  restraints  on  cell-multiplication.  First  let  us  take  an  in- 
stance of  the  extent  to  which  (irrespective  of  the  natures  of  cells 
as  reproductive  or  somatic)  cell-multiplication  may  go  where  the 
conditions  render  nutrition  easy  and  reduce  expenditure  to  a 
minimum.  I  refer  to  the  case  of  the  Aphides.  Though  it  is  early 
in  the  season  (March),  the  hothouses  at  Kew  have  furnished  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  these  to  show  that  twelve  of  them  weigh  a  grain 
— a  larger  number  than  would  be  required  were  they  full-sized. 
Citing  Prof.  Owen,  who  adopts  the  calculations  of  Tougard  to  the 
effect  that  by  agamic  multiplication  "  a  single  impregnated  ovum 
of  Aphis  may  give  rise,  without  fecundation,  to  a  quintillion  of 
Aphides"  Prof.  Huxley  says : 

"I  will  assume  that  an  Aphis  weighs  Y^Vo  of  a  grain,  which  is  certainly  vastly 
under  the  mark.  A  quintillion  of  Aphides  will,  on  this  estimate,  weigh  a  quatril- 
lion  of  grains.  He  is  a  very  stout  man  who  weighs  two  million  grains ;  conse- 
quently the  tenth  brood  alone,  if  all  its  members  survive  the  perils  to  which  they 
are  exposed,  contains  more  substance  than  500,000,000  stout  men — to  say  the 
least,  more  than  the  whole  population  of  China!  "* 

And  had  Prof.  Huxley  taken  the  actual  weight,  one  twelfth  of  a 
grain,  the  quintillion  of  Aphides  would  evidently  far  outweigh 
the  whole  human  population  of  the  globe :  five  billions  of  tons 
being  the  weight  as  brought  out  by  my  own  calculation!  Of 
course  I  do  not  cite  this  in  proof  of  the  extent  to  which  multipli- 

*  The  Transactions  of  the  Linnaean  Society  of  London,  vol.  xxii,  p.  215.  The  estimate 
of  Reaumur,  cited  by  Kirby  and  Spence,  is  still  higher — "  In  five  generations  one  Aphis 
may  be  the  progenitor  of  5,904,900,000  descendants;  and  it  is  supposed  that  in  one  year 
there  may  be  twenty  generations  "  (Introduction  to  Entomology,  vol.  i,  p.  175). 


PROFESSOR   WEISMANN'S   THEORIES.  481 

cation  of  somatic  cells,  descending  from  a  single  ovum,  may  go ; 
because  it  will  be  contended,  with  some  reason,  that  each  of  the 
sexless  Aphides,  viviparously  produced,  arose  by  fission  of  a  cell 
which  had  descended  from  the  original  reproductive  cell.  I  cite 
it  merely  to  show  that  when  the  cell-products  of  a  fertilized  ovum 
are  perpetually  divided  and  subdivided  into  small  groups  distrib- 
uted over  an  unlimited  nutritive  area,  so  that  they  can  get  materi- 
als for  growth  at  no  cost,  and  expend  nothing  appreciable  in  mo- 
tion or  maintenance  of  temperature,  cell-production  may  go  on 
without  limit.  For  the  agamic  multiplication  of  Aphides  has 
been  shown  to  continue  for  four  years,  and  to  all  appearance 
would  be  ceaseless  were  the  temperature  and  supply  of  food  con- 
tinued without  break.  But  now  let  us  pass  to  analogous  illustra- 
tions of  cause  and  consequence  open  to  no  criticism  of  the  kind 
just  indicated.  They  are  furnished  by  various  kinds  of  Entozoa, 
of  which  take  the  Trematoda  infesting  mollusks  and  fishes.  Of 
one  of  them  we  read :  "  Gyrodactylus  multiplies  agamically  by  the 
development  of  a  young  Trematode  within  the  body,  as  a  sort  of 
internal  bud.  A  second  generation  appears  within  the  first,  and 
even  a  third  within  the  second,  before  the  young  Gyrodactylus  is 
born."  *  And  the  drawings  of  Steenstrup,  in  his  Alternation  of 
Generations,  show  us,  among  creatures  of  this  group,  a  sexless 
individual,  the  whole  interior  of  which  is  transformed  into  smaller 
sexless  individuals,  which  severally,  before  or  after  their  emer- 
gence, undergo  similar  transformations — a  multiplication  of  so- 
matic cells  without  any  sign  of  reproductive  cells.  Under  what 
circumstances  do  such  modes  of  agamic  multiplication,  variously 
modified  among  parasites,  occur  ?  They  occur  where  there  is  no 
expenditure  whatever  in  motion  or  maintenance  of  temperature, 
and  where  nutriment  surrounds  the  body  on  all  sides.  Other  in- 
stances are  furnished  by  groups  in  which,  though  the  nutrition  is 
not  abundant,  the  cost  of  living  is  almost  unappreciable.  Among 
the  Ccelenterata  there  are  the  Hydroid  Polyps,  simple  and  com- 
pound ;  and  among  the  Mollusca  we  have  various  types  of  Ascidi- 
ans,  fixed  and  floating,  Sotryllidce-  and  Salpce,. 

But  now  from  these  low  animals,  in  which  sexless  reproduction, 
and  continued  multiplication  of  somatic  cells,  is  common,  and  one 
class  of  which  is  named  "zoophytes,"  because  its  form  of  life 
simulates  that  of  plants,  let  us  pass  to  plants  themselves.  In  these 
there  is  no  expenditure  in  effort,  there  is  no  expenditure  in  main- 
taining temperature,  and  the  food,  some  of  it  supplied  by  the 
earth,  is  the  rest  of  it  supplied  by  a  medium  which  everywhere 
bathes  the  outer  surface :  the  utilization  of  its  contained  material 
being  effected  gratis  by  the  sun's  rays.  Just  as  was  to  be  ex- 

*  A  Manual  of  the  Anatomy  of  Invertebrated  Animals,  by  T.  H.  Huxley,  p.  206. 
TOL.  XLIII. — 33 


482  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

pected,  we  here  find  that  agamogenesis  may  go  on  without  end. 
Numerous  plants  and  trees  are  propagated  to  an  unlimited  extent 
by  cuttings  and  buds  ;  and  we  have  sundry  plants  which  can  not 
be  otherwise  propagated.  The  most  familiar  are  the  double  roses 
of  our  gardens  :  these  do  not  seed,  and  yet  have  been  distributed 
everywhere  by  grafts  and  buds.  Hothouses  furnish  many  cases, 
as  I  learn  from  an  authority  second  to  none.  Of  "  the  whole  host 
of  tropical  orchids,  for  instance,  not  one  per  cent  has  ever  seeded, 
and  some  have  been  a  century  under  cultivation."  Again,  we  have 
the  Acorus  calamus,  "  that  has  hardly  been  known  to  seed  any- 
where, though  it  is  found  wild  all  over  the  north  temperate  hemi- 
sphere/' And  then  there  is  the  conspicuous  and  conclusive  case 
of  Eloidea  Canadensis  (alias  Anacharis)  introduced  no  one  knows 
how  (probably  with  timber),  and  first  observed  in  1847,  in  several 
places ;  and  which,  having  since  spread  over  nearly  all  England, 
now  everywhere  infests  ponds,  canals,  and  small  slow  rivers.  The 
plant  is  dioecious,  and  only  the  female  exists  here.  Beyond  all 
question,  therefore,  this  vast  progeny  of  the  first  slip  or  fragment 
introduced,  now  sufficient  to  cover  many  square  miles  were  it  put 
together,  is  constituted  entirely  of  somatic  cells;  and  this  cell- 
multiplication,  and  consequent  plant-growth,  show  no  signs  of  de- 
crease. Hence,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  these  somatic  cells  are 
immortal  in  the  sense  given  to  the  word  by  Prof.  Weismann ;  and 
the  evidence  that  they  are  so  is  immeasurably  stronger  than  the 
evidence  which  leads  him  to  assert  immortality  for  the  fissipa- 
rously-multiplying  Protozoa.  This  endless  multiplication  of  so- 
matic cells  has  been  going  on  under  the  eyes  of  numerous  ob- 
servers for  forty  odd  years.  What  observer  has  watched  for  forty 
years  to  see  whether  the  fissiparous  multiplication  of  Protozoa 
does  not  cease  ?  What  observer  has  watched  for  one  year,  or  one 
month,  or  one  week  ? 

Even  were  not  Prof.  Weismann's  theory  disposed  of  by  this 
evidence,  it  might  be  disposed  of  by  a  critical  examination  of  his 
own  evidence,  using  his  own  tests.  Clearly,  if  we  are  to  measure 
relative  mortalities,  we  must  assume  the  conditions  the  same  and 
must  use  the  same  measure.  Let  us  do  this  with  some  appropriate 
animal — say  Man,  as  the  most  open  to  observation.  The  mortality 
of  the  somatic  cells  constituting  the  mass  of  the  human  body  is, 
according  to  Prof.  Weismann,  shown  by  the  decline  and  final  ces- 
sation of  cell-multiplication  in  its  various  organs.  Suppose  we 
apply  this  test  to  all  the  organs :  not  to  those  only  in  which  there 
continually  arise  bile-cells,  epithelium-cells,  etc.,  but  to  those  also 
in  which  there  arise  reproductive  cells.  What  do  we  find  ?  That 
the  multiplication  of  these  last  comes  to  an  end  long  before  the 
multiplication  of  the  first.  In  a  healthy  woman,  the  cells  which 
constitute  the  various  active  tissues  of  the  body  continue  to  grow 


PROFESSOR  WEISMANN1  S   THEORIES.  483 

and  multiply  for  many  years  after  germ-cells  have  died  out.  If 
similarly  measured,  then,  these  cells  of  the  last  class  prove  to  be 
more  mortal  than  those  of  the  first.  But  Prof.  Weismann  uses  a 
different  measure  for  the  two  classes  of  cells.  Passing  over  the 
illegitimacy  of  this  proceeding,  let  us  accept  his  other  mode  of 
measurement,  and  see  what  comes  of  it.  As  described  by  him, 
absence  of  death  among  the  Protozoa  is  implied  by  that  unceasing 
division  and  subdivision  of  which  they  are  said  to  be  capable. 
Fission  continued  without  end,  is  the  definition  of  the  immortality 
he  speaks  of.  Apply  this  conception  to  the  reproductive  cells  in 
a  Metazoon.  That  the  immense  majority  of  them  do  not  multiply 
without  end  we  have  already  seen :  with  very  rare  exceptions  they 
die  and  disappear  without  result,  and  they  cease  their  multiplica- 
tion while  the  body  as  a  whole  still  lives.  But  what  of  those  ex- 
tremely exceptional  ones  which,  as  being  actually  instrumental  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  species,  are  alone  contemplated  by  Prof. 
Weismann  ?  Do  these  continue  their  fissiparous  multiplications 
without  end  ?  By  no  means.  The  condition  under  which  alone 
they  preserve  a  qualified  form  of  existence,  is  that,  instead  of  one 
becoming  two,  two  become  one.  A  member  of  series  A  and  a 
member  of  series  B  coalesce,  and  so  lose  their  individualities. 
Now,  obviously,  if  the  immortality  of  a  series  is  shown  if  its  mem- 
bers divide  and  subdivide  perpetually,  then  the  opposite  of  im- 
mortality is  shown  when,  instead  of  division,  there  is  union.  Each 
series  ends,  and  there  is  initiated  a  new  series,  differing  more  or 
less  from  both.  Thus  the  assertion  that  the  reproductive  cells  are 
immortal,  can  be  defended  only  by  changing  the  conception  of 
immortality  otherwise  implied. 

Even  apart  from  these  last  criticisms,  however,  we  have  clear 
disproof  of  the  alleged  inherent  difference  between  the  two  classes 
of  cells.  Among  animals  the  multiplication  of  somatic  cells  is 
brought  to  an  end  by  sundry  restraining  conditions ;  but  in  vari- 
ous plants,  where  these  restraining  conditions  are  absent,  the 
multiplication  is  unlimited.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said  that  the 
alleged  distinction  should  be  reversed  ;  since  the  fissiparous  mul- 
tiplication of  reproductive  cells  is  necessarily  interrupted  from 
time  to  time  by  coalescence,  while  that  of  the  somatic  cells  may 
go  on  for  a  century  without  being  interrupted. 

In  the  essay  to  which  this  is  a  postscript,  conclusions  were 
drawn  from  the  remarkable  case  of  the  horse  and  quagga  there 
narrated,  along  with  an  analogous  case  observed  among  pigs. 
These  conclusions  have  since  been  confirmed.  I  am  much  indebted 
to  a  distinguished  correspondent  who  has  drawn  my  attention  to 
verifying  facts  furnished  by  the  offspring  of  whites  and  negroes 
in  the  United  States.  Referring  to  information  given  him  many 


484  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

years  ago,  he  says:  "It  was  to  the  effect  that  the  children  of 
white  women  by  a  white  father  had  been  repeatedly  observed  to 
show  traces  of  black  blood,  in  cases  when  the  woman  had  previous 
connection  with  [i.  e.,  a  child  by]  a  negro."  At  the  time  I  received 
this  information,  an  American  was  visiting  me ;  and,  on  being 
appealed  to,  answered  that  in  the  United  States  there  was  an  es- 
tablished belief  to  this  effect.  Not  wishing,  however,  to  depend 
upon  hearsay,  I  at  once  wrote  to  America  to  make  inquiries- 
Prof.  Cope,  of  Philadelphia,  has  written  to  friends  in  the  South, 
but  has  not  yet  sent  me  the  results.  Prof.  Marsh,  the  distin- 
guished paleontologist,  of  Yale,  New  Haven,  who  is  also  collect- 
ing evidence,  sends  a  preliminary  letter  in  which  he  says :  "  I  do 
not  myself  know  of  such  a  case,  but  have  heard  many  statements 
that  make  their  existence  probable.  One  instance,  in  Connecticut, 
is  vouched  for  so  strongly  by  an  acquaintance  of  mine,  that  I  have 
good  reason  to  believe  it  to  be  authentic." 

That  cases  of  the  kind  should  not  be  frequently  seen  in  the 
North,  especially  nowadays,  is  of  course  to  be  expected.  The  first 
of  the  above  quotations  refers  to  facts  observed  in  the  South  dur- 
ing slavery  days;  and  even  then,  the  implied  conditions  were 
naturally  very  infrequent.  Dr.  W.  J.  Youmans,  of  New  York,  has, 
on  my  behalf,  interviewed  several  medical  professors,  who,  though 
they  have  not  themselves  met  with  instances,  say  that  the  alleged 
result,  described  above,  "  is  generally  accepted  as  a  fact."  But  he 
gives  me  what  I  think  must  be  regarded  as  authoritative  testi- 
mony. It  is  a  quotation  from  the  standard  work  of  Prof.  Austin 
Flint,  and  runs  as  follows  : 

"  A  peculiar  and,  it  seems  to  be,  an  inexplicable  fact  is,  that  previous  preg- 
nancies have  an  influence  upon  offspring.  This  is  well  known  to  breeders  of 
animals.  If  pure-blooded  mares  or  bitches  have  been  once  covered  by  an  inferior 
male,  in  subsequent  fecundations  the  young  are  likely  to  partake  of  the  character 
of  the  first  male,  even  if  they  be  afterward  bred  with  males  of  unimpeachable 
pedigree.  What  the  mechanism  of  the  influence  of  the  first  conception  is,  it  is 
impossible  to  say  ;  but  the  fact  is  incontestable.  The  same  influence  is  observed 
in  the  human  subject.  A  woman  may  have,  by  a  second  husband,  children  who 
resemble  a  former  husband,  and  this  is  particularly  well  marked  in  certain  in- 
stances by  the  color  of  the  hair  and  eyes.  A  white  woman  who  has  had  children 
by  a  negro  may  subsequently  bear  children  to  a  white  man,  these  children  present- 
ing some  of  the  unmistakable  peculiarities  of  the  negro  race."  * 

Dr.  Youmans  called  on  Prof.  Flint,  who  remembered  "investi- 
gating the  subject  at  the  time  his  larger  work  was  written  [the 
above  is  from  an  abridgment],  and  said  that  he  had  never  heard 
the  statement  questioned." 

Some  days  before  I  received  this  letter  and  its  contained  quo- 

*  A  Text-Book  of  Human  Physiology.  By  Austin  Flint,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.  Fourth  edition- 
New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1888,  p.  797. 


PROFESSOR  WEISMANN'S   THEORIES.  485 

tation,  the  remembrance  of  a  remark  I  heard  many  years  ago 
concerning  dogs,  led  to  the  inquiry  whether  they  furnished  analo- 
gous evidence.  It  occurred  to  me  that  a  friend  who  is  frequently 
appointed  judge  of  animals  at  agricultural  shows,  Mr.  Fookes,  of 
Fairfield,  Pewsey,  Wiltshire,  might  know  something  about  the 
matter.  A  letter  to  him  brought  various  confirmatory  statements. 
From  one  "  who  had  bred  dogs  for  many  years  "  he  learned  that — 

"  It  is  a  well-known  and  admitted  fact  that  if  a  bitch  has  two  litters  by  two 
different  dogs,  the  character  of  the  first  father  is  sure  to  be  perpetuated  in  any 
litters  she  may  afterward  have,  no  matter  how  pure-bred  a  dog  may  be  the  be- 
getter." 

After  citing  this  testimony,  Mr.  Fookes  goes  on  to  give  illustra- 
tions known  to  himself. 

"  A  friend  of  mine  near  this  had  a  very  valuable  Dachshund  bitch,  which  most 
unfortunately  had  a  litter  by  a  stray  sheep-dog.  The  next  year  her  owner  sent  her 
on  a  visit  to  a  pure  Dachshund  dog,  but  the  produce  took  quite  as  much  of  the 
first  father  as  the  second,  and  the  next  year  he  sent  her  to  another  Dachshund 
with  the  same  result.  Another  case :  A  friend  of  mine  in  Devizes  had  a  litter  of 
puppies,  unsought  for,  by  a  setter  from  a  favorite  pointer  bitch,  and  after  this 
she  never  bred  any  true  pointers,  no  matter  of  what  the  paternity  was." 

These  further  evidences,  to  which  Mr.  Fookes  has  since  added 
others,  render  the  general  conclusion  incontestable.  Coming  from 
remote  places,  from  those  who  have  no  theory  to  support,  and  who 
are  some  of  them  astonished  by  the  unexpected  phenomena,  the 
agreement  dissipates  all  doubt.  In  four  kinds  of  mammals,  widely 
divergent  in  their  natures — man,  horse,  dog,  and  pig — we  have 
this  same  seemingly  anomalous  kind  of  heredity  made  visible 
under  analogous  conditions.  We  must  take  it  as  a  demonstrated 
fact  that,  during  gestation,  traits  of  constitution  inherited  from 
the  father  produce  effects  upon  the  constitution  of  the  mother; 
and  that  these  communicated  effects  are  transmitted  by  her  to 
subsequent  offspring.  We  are  supplied  with  an  absolute  disproof 
of  Prof.  Weismann's  doctrine  that  the  reproductive  cells  are  in- 
dependent of,  and  uninfluenced  by,  the  somatic  cells ;  and  there 
disappears  absolutely  the  alleged  obstacle  to  the  transmission  of 
acquired  characters. 

Notwithstanding  experiences  showing  the  futility  of  contro- 
versy for  the  establishment  of  truth,  I  am  tempted  here  to  answer 
opponents  at  some  length.  But  even  could  the  editor  allow  me 
the  needful  space,  I  should  be  compelled  both  by  lack  of  time  and 
by  ill  health  to  be  brief.  I  must  content  myself  with  noticing  a 
few  points  which  most  nearly  concern  me. 

Referring  to  my  argument  respecting  tactual  discriminative- 
ness,  Mr.  Wallace  thinks  that  I— 


486  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"afford  a  glaring  example  of  taking  the  unessential  in  place  of  the  essential,  and 
drawing  conclusions  from  a  partial  and  altogether  insufficient  survey  of  the  phe- 
nomena. For  this  '  tactual  discriminativeness,'  which  is  alone  dealt  with  by  Mr. 
Spencer,  forms  the  least  important,  and  probably  only  an  incidental  portion  of  the 
great  vital  phenomenon  of  skin-sensitiveness,  which  is  at  once  the  watchman  and 
the  shield  of  the  organism  against  imminent  external  dangers  "  (Fortnightly  Re- 
view, April,  1893,  p.  497). 

Here  Mr.  Wallace  assumes  it  to  be  self-evident  that  skin-sensi- 
tiveness is  due  to  natural  selection,  and  assumes  that  this  must  be 
admitted  by  me.  He  supposes  it  is  only  the  unequal  distribution 
of  skin-discriminativeness  which  I  contend  is  not  thus  accounted 
for.  But  I  deny  that  either  the  general  sensitiveness  or  the  special 
sensitiveness  results  from  natural  selection ;  and  I  have  years  ago 
justified  the  first  disbelief,  as  I  have  recently  the  second.  In  The 
Factors  of  Organic  Evolution,  pp.  66-70,  I  have  given  various 
reasons  for  inferring  that  the  genesis  of  the  nervous  system  can 
not  be  due  to  survival  of  the  fittest ;  but  that  it  is  due  to  the  direct 
effects  of  converse  between  the  surface  and  the  environment ;  and 
that  thus  only  is  to  be  explained  the  strange  fact  that  the  nervous 
centers  are  originally  superficial,  and  migrate  inward  during  de- 
velopment. These  conclusions  I  have,  in  the  essay  Mr.  Wallace 
criticises,  upheld  by  the  evidence  which  blind  boys  and  skilled 
compositors  furnish ;  proving,  as  this  does,  that  increased  nervous 
development  is  peripherally  initiated.  Mr.  Wallace's  belief  that 
skin-sensitiveness  arose  by  natural  selection  is  unsupported  by  a 
single  fact.  He  assumes  that  it  must  have  been  so  produced  be- 
cause it  is  all-important  to  self-preservation.  My  belief  that  it  is 
directly  initiated  by  converse  with  the  environment  is  supported 
by  facts ;  and  I  have  given  proof  that  the  assigned  cause  is  now 
in  operation.  Am  I  called  upon  to  abandon  my  own  supported 
belief  and  accept  Mr.  Wallace's  unsupported  belief  ?  I  think  not. 
Referring  to  my  argument  concerning  blind  cave  animals, 
Prof.  Lankester,  in  Nature  of  February  3, 1893,  writes : 

"  Mr.  Spencer  shows  that  the  saving  of  ponderable  material  in  the  suppression 
of  an  eye  is  but  a  small  economy :  he  loses  sight  ot  the  fact,  however,  that  pos- 
sibly, or  even  probably,  the  saving  of  the  organism  in  the  reduction  of  an  eye  to  a 
rudimentary  state  is  not  to  be  measured  by  mere  bulk,  but  by  the  non-expenditure 
of  special  materials  and  special  activities  which  are  concerned  in  the  production 
of  an  organ  so  peculiar  and  elaborate  as  is  the  vertebrate  eye." 

It  seems  to  me  that  a  supposition  is  here  made  to  do  duty  as  a 
fact ;  and  that  I  might  with  equal  propriety  say  that "  possibly,  or 
even  probably/'  the  vertebrate  eye  is  physiologically  cheap :  its 
optical  part,  constituting  nearly  its  whole  bulk,  consisting  of  a  low 
order  of  tissue.  There  is,  indeed,  strong  reason  for  considering  it 
physiologically  cheap.  If  any  one  remembers  how  relatively 
enormous  are  the  eyes  of  a  fish  just  out  of  the  egg — a  pair  of  eyes 


PROFESSOR  WEISMANN'S   THEORIES.  487 

with  a  body  and  head  attached ;  and  if  he  then  remembers  that 
every  egg  contains  material  for  such  a  pair  of  eyes ;  he  will  see 
that  eye-material  constitutes  a  very  considerable  part  of  the  fish's 
roe ;  and  that,  since  the  female  fish  provides  this  quantity  every 
year,  it  can  not  be  expensive.  My  argument  against  Weismann 
is  strengthened  rather  than  weakened  by  contemplation  of  these 
facts. 

Prof.  Lankester  asks  my  attention  to  a  hypothesis  of  his  own, 
published  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  concerning  the  pro- 
duction of  blind  cave-animals.  He  thinks  it  can — 

u  be  fully  explained  by  natural  selection  acting  on  congenital  fortuitous  varia- 
tions. Many  animals  are  thus  born  with  distorted  or  defective  eyes  whose 
parents  have  not  had  their  eyes  submitted  to  any  peculiar  conditions.  Supposing 
a  number  of  some  species  of  Arthropod  or  Fish  to  be  swept  into  a  cavern  or  to 
be  carried  from  less  to  greater  depths  in  the  sea,  those  individuals  with  perfect 
eyes  would  follow  the  glimmer  of  light  and  eventually  escape  to  the  outer  air  or 
the  shallower  depths,  leaving  behind  those  with  imperfect  eyes  to  breed  in  the 
dark  place.  A  natural  selection  would  thus  be  effected  "  in  successive  genera- 
tions. 

First  of  all,  I  demur  to  the  words  "many  animals."  Under 
the  abnormal  conditions  of  domestication,  congenitally  defective 
eyes  may  be  not  very  uncommon;  but  their  occurrence  under 
natural  conditions  is,  I  fancy,  extremely  rare.  Supposing,  how- 
ever, that  in  a  shoal  of  young  fish,  there  occur  some  with  eyes 
seriously  defective.  What  will  happen  ?  Vision  is  all-important 
to  the  young  fish,  both  for  obtaining  food  and  for  escaping  from 
enemies.  This  is  implied  by  the  immense  development  of  eyes 
just  referred  to.  Considering  that  out  of  the  enormous  number 
of  young  fish  hatched  with  perfect  eyes,  not  one  in  a  hundred 
reaches  maturity,  what  chance  of  surviving  would  there  be  for 
those  with  imperfect  eyes  ?  Inevitably  they  would  be  starved 
or  be  snapped  up.  Hence  the  chances  that  a  matured  or  partially 
matured  semi-blind  fish,  or  rather  two  such,  male  and  female, 
would  be  swept  into  a  cave  and  left  behind  are  extremely  remote. 
Still  more  remote  must  the  chances  be  in  the  case  of  crayfish. 
Sheltering  themselves  as  these  do  under  stones,  in  crevices,  and 
in  burrows  which  they  make  in  the  banks,  and  able  quickly  to 
anchor  themselves  to  weeds  or  sticks  by  their  claws,  it  seems 
scarcely  supposable  that  any  of  them  could  be  carried  into  a  cave 
by  a  flood.  What,  then,  is  the  probability  that  there  will  be  two 
nearly  blind  ones,  and  that  these  will  be  thus  carried  ?  Then 
after  this  first  extreme  improbability,  there  comes  a  second,  which 
we  may,  I  think,  rather  call  an  impossibility.  How  would  it  be 
possible  for  creatures  subject  to  so  violent  a  change  of  habitat  to 
survive  ?  Surely  death  would  quickly  follow  the  subjection  to 
such  utterly  unlike  conditions  and  modes  of  life.  The  existence 


488  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  these  blind  cave-animals  can  be  accounted  for  only  by  suppos- 
ing that  their  remote  ancestors  began  making  excursions  into 
the  cave,  and,  finding  it  profitable,  extended  them,  generation 
after  generation,  further  in :  undergoing  the  required  adaptations 
little  by  little. 

I  turn  now  to  Dr.  Romanes.  He  says  that  I  do  not  under- 
stand Weismann ;  and  that  the  cause  of  degeneration  to  which 
he  gives  the  name  of  "  Panmixia  "  is  not  the  continued  selection 
of  the  smaller  variations.  Let  us  see  what  are  Weismann's 
words. 

"The  complete  disappearance  of  a  rudimentary  organ  can  only  take  place  by 
the  operation  of  natural  selection;  this  principle  will  lead  to  its  elimination,  inas- 
much as  the  disappearing  structure  takes  the  place  and  the  nutriment  of  other 
useful  and  important  organs"  (Essays  upon  Heredity,  p.  88). 

"  Those  fluctuations  on  either  side  of  the  average  which  we  call  myopia  and 
hypermetropia,  occur  in  the  same  manner,  and  are  due  to  the  same  causes,  as 
those  which  operate  in  producing  degeneration  in  the  eyes  of  cave-dwelling  ani- 
mals" (Ib.,  p.  89). 

Here,  then,  are  two  propositions  :  (1)  "  Fluctuations  011  either 
side  of  the  average  "  "  operate  in  producing  degeneration  in  the 
eyes  of  cave-dwelling  animals."  (2)  "  A  rudimentary  organ "  is 
removed  "by  the  operation  of  natural  selection."  Why  are 
"  fluctuations  on  either  side  of  the  average  "  named,  unless  it  is 
that  natural  selection  takes  advantage  of  them  by  preserving  the 
smaller  variations  ?  If  this  is  not  meant  the  use  of  the  expres- 
sion is  meaningless.  Yet  Dr.  Romanes  agrees  with  Weismann  in 
regarding  the  "  degenerated  eye  of  the  Proteus  as  a  good  example 
of  the  disappearance  of  a  complex  and  useless  structure  by  Pan- 
mixia." *  So  that  Panmixia  is  clearly  identified  with  the  selec- 
tion of  the  smaller  variations ;  and  for  the  reason  that  economy 
of  nutrition  is  so  achieved.  Where,  then,  is  the  misunderstand- 
ing ?  That  my  interpretation  is  correct  I  have  further  reason  for 
holding ;  namely,  that  it  is  the  one  given  by  Weismann's  adher- 
ent, Prof.  Lankester,  in  Nature,  March  27,  1890  (pp.  487, 488).  But 
while  I  can  not  admit  my  failure  to  understand  Weismann,  I  con- 
fess that  I  do  not  understand  Dr.  Romanes.  How,  when  natural 
selection,  direct  or  reversed,  is  set  aside,  the  mere  cessation  of 
selection  should  cause  decrease  of  an  organ  irrespective  of  the 
direct  effects  of  disuse,  I  am  unable  to  see.  Clearer  conceptions 
of  these  matters  would  be  reached  if,  instead  of  thinking  in  ab- 
stract terms,  the  physiological  processes  concerned  were  brought 
into  the  foreground.  Beyond  the  production  of  changes  in  the 
sizes  of  parts  by  the  selection  of  fortuitously  arising  variations, 
I  can  see  but  one  other  cause  for  the  production  of  them — the 

*  Contemporary  Review,  April,  1893,  p.  509. 


PROFESSOR    WEISMANWS    THEORIES.  489 

competition  among  the  parts  for  nutriment.  This  has  the  effect 
that  active  parts  are  well  supplied  and  grow,  while  inactive  parts 
are  ill  supplied  and  dwindle.*  This  competition  is  the  cause  of 
"  economy  of  growth  " ;  this  is  the  cause  of  decrease  from  disuse ; 
and  this  is  the  only  conceivable  cause  of  that  decrease  which  Dr. 
Romanes  contends  follows  the  cessation  of  selection.  The  three 
things  are  aspects  of  the  same  thing.  And  now,  before  leaving 
this  question,  let  me  remark  on  the  strange  proposition  which  has 
to  be  defended  by  those  who  deny  the  dwindling  of  organs  from 
disuse.  Their  proposition  amounts  to  this : — that  for  a  hundred 
generations  an  inactive  organ  may  be  partially  denuded  of  blood 
all  through  life,  and  yet  in  the  hundredth  generation  will  be  pro- 
duced of  just  the  same  size  as  in  the  first ! 

There  is  one  other  passage  in  Dr.  Romanes7  criticism — that 
concerning  the  influence  of  a  previous  sire  on  progeny— which 
calls  for  comment.  He  sets  down  what  he  supposes  Weismann 
will  say  in  response  to  my  argument.  "  First,  he  may  question 
the  fact/7  Well,  after  the  additional  evidence  given  above,  I 
think  he  is  not  likely  to  do  that ;  unless,  indeed,  it  be  that  along 
with  readiness  to  base  conclusions  on  things  "  it  is  easy  to  im- 
agine "  there  goes  reluctance  to  accept  testimony  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  doubt.  Second,  he  is  supposed  to  reply  that  "  the  germ- 
plasm  of  the  first  sire  has  in  some  way  or  another  become  partly 
commingled  with  that  of  the  immature  ova " ;  and  Dr.  Romanes 
goes  on  to  describe  how  there  may  be  millions  of  spermatozoa  and 
"  thousands  of  millions  "  of  their  contained  "  ids  "  around  the  ova- 
ries, to  which  these  secondary  effects  are  due.  But,  on  the  one 
hand,  he  does  not  explain  why  in  such  case  each  subsequent  ovum, 
as  it  becomes  matured,  is  not  fertilized  by  the  sperm-cells  pres- 
ent, or  their  contained  germ-plasm,  rendering  all  subsequent 
fecundations  needless ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  does  not  ex- 
plain why,  if  this  does  not  happen,  the  potency  of  this  remaining 
germ-plasm  is  nevertheless  such  as  to  affect  not  only  the  next 
succeeding  offspring,  but  all  subsequent  offspring.  The  irrecon- 
cilability of  these  two  implications  would,  I  think,  sufficiently 
dispose  of  the  supposition,  even  had  we  not  daily  multitudinous 
proofs  that  the  surface  of  a  mammalian  ovarium  is  not  a  sperma- 
theca.  The  third  difficulty  Dr.  Romanes  urges  is  the  inconceiva- 
bility of  the  process  by  which  the  germ -plasm  of  a  preceding  male 
parent  affects  the  constitution  of  the  female  and  her  subsequent 
offspring.  In  response,  I  have  to  ask  why  he  piles  up  a  mountain 
of  difficulties  based  on  the  assumption  that  Mr.  Darwin's  expla- 
nation of  heredity  by  "  Pangenesis  "  is  the  only  available  explana- 

*  See  Social  Organism  in  Westminster  Review  for  January,  1860 ;  also  Principles  of 
Sociology,  §  247. 

VOL.    XLIII. — 34 


490  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

tion  preceding  that  of  Weismann  ?  and  why  he  presents  these 
difficulties  to  me  more  especially,  deliberately  ignoring  my  own 
hypothesis  of  physiological  units  ?  It  can  not  be  that  he  is  igno- 
rant of  this  hypothesis,  since  the  work  in  which  it  is  variously 
set  forth  (Principles  of  Biology,  §§  66-97)  is  one  with  which  he 
is  well  acquainted:  witness  his  Scientific  Evidences  of  Organic 
Evolution ;  and  he  has  had  recent  reminders  of  it  in  Weismann's 
Germ-plasm,  where  it  is  repeatedly  referred  to.  Why,  then,  does 
he  assume  that  I  abandon  my  own  hypothesis  and  adopt  that  of 
Darwin,  thereby  entangling  myself  in  difficulties  which  my  own 
hypothesis  avoids  ?  If,  as  I  have  argued,  the  germ-plasm  con- 
sists of  substantially  similar  units  (having  only  those  minute 
differences  expressive  of  individual  and  ancestral  differences  of 
structure),  none  of  the  complicated  requirements  which  Dr. 
Romanes  emphasizes  exist,  and  the  alleged  inconceivability  dis- 
appears. 

Here  I  must  end :  not  intending  to  say  more,  unless  for  some 
very  urgent  reason,  and  leaving  others  to  carry  on  the  discussion. 
I  have,  indeed,  been  led  to  suspend  for  a  short  time  my  proper 
work  only  by  consciousness  of  the  transcendent  importance  of  the 
question  at  issue.  As  I  have  before  contended,  a  right  answer  to 
the  question  whether  acquired  characters  are  or  are  not  inherited, 
underlies  right  beliefs  not  only  in  Biology  and  Psychology,  but 
also  in  Education,  Ethics,  and  Politics. — Contemporary  Review. 


THE  COLOR  CHANGES  OF  FROGS. 

BY  PROF.  CLARENCE  M.  WEED. 

ONE  who,  with  observant  eye,  leisurely  paddles  among  the 
water  lilies  of  an  inland  lake  must  often  notice  how  closely 
the  colors  of  the  various  frogs  resting  upon  or  among  the  lily 
pads  resemble  their  environment.  In  the  open  sunshine,  where 
light  green  is  the  prevailing  tint,  the  colors  of  the  frogs  closely 
approximate  it,  but  in  the  dark  and  shady  recesses  of  the  forest- 
bordered  banks  the  batrachians  are  dull,  deep  brown,  with  darker 
spots  scattered  over  their  bodies.  These  are  the  effects  as  seen 
from  above.  If  one  were  to  dive  beneath  the  water  and  look  up- 
ward, he  would  see  in  either  case  only  the  whitish  undersides  of 
their  bodies  and  legs — if,  indeed,  these  were  visible  against  the 
general  lightness  of  the  upper  world. 

It  is  evident  that  this  resemblance  to  environment  might  re- 
sult in  either  of  two  ways:  first,  the  light-colored  frogs  might 
seek  the  light  surroundings  and  the  dark  ones  the  dark  surround- 
ings; or,  second,  the  frogs,  provided  they  had  the  power,  might 


THE   COLOR    CHANGES    OF  FROGS.  491 

change  their  color  to  agree  with  the  environment.  The  latter 
method  would,  of  course,  from  the  frog's  point  of  view,  be  decid- 
edly the  more  desirable,  saving  him  much  exertion  in  seeking 
safe  retreats ;  and  recent  researches  have  shown  that  this  is  in 
fact  the  method  adopted. 

The  ability  of  the  tree  frogs,  or  "tree  toads"  (Hylidce),  to 
change  their  color  has  long  been  known,  but  precise  studies  of 
the  color  changes  of  the  common  ground  frogs  (Ranidce)  have 
only  been  made  com- 
paratively recently, 
and  as  yet  the  record 
is  far  from  complete. 
A  few  years  ago  Dr. 
Fickert,  of  Tubingen, 
experimented  with  the 
color  adaptability  of 
the  common  European 
frog  (Rana  tempora- 
ria) :  "  Three  frogs  ap- 
proximately similar  in 
color  were  placed  in 
three  glass  vessels,  of 
which  the  first  stood 


on  a  black,  the  second  FlG  I._WOOD  FROG.    Adult. 

on    a   green,  and  the 

third  on  a  white  surface,  being  surrounded  up  to  a  height  of  some 
five  centimetres  with  the  same  color.  After  about  an  hour  and 
a  half  the  frog  a  on  the  black  surface  was  the  darkest,  b  on  the 
white  the  lightest,  while  the  frog  c  surrounded  by  green  was  in- 
termediate in  color  between  the  two.  Hereupon  the  frog  a  was 
transferred  to  the  glass  on  the  white,  frog  b  into  the  one  on  the 
black  surface.  After  three  quarters  of  an  hour  they  were  again 
examined,  and  a  was  the  lightest,  b  the  darkest.  Then  c  and  b 
were  interchanged,  and  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  c  was  the  darkest, 
while  b  was  intermediate  in  color  between  c  and  a.  When,  final- 
ly, b  and  a  were  interchanged,  a  change  of  coloring  appeared  im- 
mediately ;  b  became  light  again,  and  a  took  the  intermediate  tint 
between  b  and  c."  * 

A  similar  but  less  complete  experiment  with  the  same  species 
of  frog  was  made  many  years  previously  by  Sir  Joseph  Lister, 
who  found  that  "  a  frog  caught  in  a  recess  in  a  black  rock  was  it- 
self almost  black,  but  after  it  had  been  kept  for  about  an  hour  on 
white  flagstones  in  the  sun  was  found  to  be  dusky  yellow,  with 
dark  spots  here  and  there.  It  was  then  placed  again  in  the  hol- 

*  Eimer,  Organic  Evolution,  Cunningham's  translation,  p.  148. 


492 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


low  of  the  rock,  and  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  had  resumed  its  for- 
mer darkness/'  * 

I  have  recently  made  a  number  of  observations  upon  the  com- 
moner New  England  frogs  which  show  that  our  species  possess 
the  power  of  color  adaptation  to  a  large  extent.  The  prettiest  of 
our  frogs  is  the  common  wood  frog  (Rana  sylvatica),  a  pale,  red- 
dish-brown species,  nearly  an  inch  and  a  half  long  when  adult 
(Fig.  1),  but  very  often  found  in  the  smaller  immature  condition 
(Fig.  2).  It  is  most  commonly  seen  on  the  carpets  of  pine  needles 
in  the  woods,  where  its  color  is  precisely  like  that  of  the  bed  of 
needles  on  which  it  lives.  When  found  in  fields  and  meadows 
away  from  the  woods  it  is  seldom  reddish  brown,  being  usually 
either  light  fawn  color  or  dark  brown. 

A  fine  large  wood  frog  was  brought  to  my  laboratory  August 
8th,  and  placed  in  a  glass  vivarium  near  a  window.  I  began  to 
study  its  color  changes  August  llth,  at  noon,  adopting  as  a  color 
standard  the  plates  in  Ridgway's  admirable  Nomenclature  of 
Colors,f  and  the  figures  in  parentheses  hereafter  refer  to  those 
plates.  At  the  time  mentioned  the  frog  was  light  fawn  color 
(III,  22)  on  the  back.  That  night  it  escaped  from  the  vivarium 
and  wandered  about  the  laboratory,  being  found  the  next  day  at 
1  P.  M.  It  was  then  much  darker  than  before,  the  fawn  color  hav- 
ing changed  to  Van  Dyke  brown  (III,  5),  and  the  sides  being  dark 
clove  brown  (III,  2).  Mr.  Sylvatica  was  next  placed  in  a  dry  glass 

jar,  and  put  in  a  corner  of  the 


room  with  a  white  wall  on 
two  sides  of  it.  Three  days 
later  (August  15th,  11  A.  M.)  it 
was  an  extremely  light  fawn 
color  on  the  back  (III,  22,  but 
lighter),  with  the  sides  very 
light  drab,  approaching  e'cru 
drab  (III,  21). 

A  little  water  was  next 
placed  in  the  bottom  of  the 
jar,  and  it  was  put  beside  a 
blackboard,  where  it  was  left 
until  August  23d.  The  frog 

was  then  cinnamon  color  (III,  20),  with  sides  dark  drab.  I  then 
placed  it  in  an  open  window  on  a  whitish  bottom,  and  the  next 
day  it  was  light  brown.  At  2  P.  M.,  August  24th,  I  put  it  on  a  jet- 
black  shelf,  with  black  surroundings.  Forty-five  minutes  later 
it  was  very  dark,  nearly  mummy  brown  (III,  10),  but  darker.  At 


FIG.  2. — WOOD  FROG.     Immature. 


*  Poulton,  Colors  of  Animals,  p.  83. 

f  A  Nomenclature  of  Colors  for  Naturalists,  by  Robert  Ridgway,  Boston,  1886. 


THE  COLOR    CHANGES   OF  FROGS.  493 

3  P.  M.,  while  it  was  still  so  dark,  I  put  it  back  in  the  window  with 
white  surroundings;  at  3.05  it  was  considerably  lighter  brown, 
at  3.10  much  lighter,  and  at  3.15  it  had  become  cinnamon-colored 
— a  very  marked  change  thus  occurring  in  fifteen  minutes. 

These  experiments  were  repeated  a  number  of  times  with  sev- 
eral different  individuals,  and  similar  results  were  obtained. 

The  common  green  frog  (Eana  clamata)  has  the  power  of 
changing  its  color  to  a  considerable  extent.  Specimens  kept  for 
some  time  amid  light  surroundings  became  of  a  very  light  green 
color — even  lighter  than  apple  green — while  if  placed  amid  a  black 
environment  they  become  very  dark.  The  leopard  frog,  or  spotted 
frog  (E.  virescens),  is  not  able  to  change  its  appearance  so  com- 
pletely, the  permanent  color  markings  preventing ;  but  the  green 
ground  color  varies  somewhat.  The  few  observations  I  have 
been  able  to  make  on  the  bullfrog  (R.  catesbiana)  indicate  that 
its  ability  in  this  direction  is  very  similar  to  that  of  the  green 
frog. 

The  power  of  color  change  is  also  present  to  a  decided  extent 
in  our  common  toad  (Bufo  lentiginosus).  A  very  large  specimen 
of  this  species  was  found  in  wet  grass  June  1st,  at  11  p.  M.  It  was 
then  of  a  light  wax-yellow  color.  It  was  brought  to  the  labora- 
tory and  put  in  a  glass  jar  on  a  black  shelf.  Twenty-four  hours 
later  it  was  very  much  darker,  being  tawny  olive  brown.  Three 
days  later  it  had  become  still  darker,  being  almost  clove  brown. 
A  similar  power  has  been  observed  in  the  European  toad. 

It  is  conceivable  that  these  color  changes  might  occur  in  either 
of  two  ways :  First,  by  the  direct  action  of  the  light  reflected 
from  the  surroundings  upon  the  pigment  cells  of  the  skins,  and 
second,  by  an  indirect  action  through  the  eye  of  the  animal.  The 
second  method  is  the  one  involved.  Experiments  have  shown 
that,  when  blinded,  a  frog  does  not  change  its  -  color  to  agree  with 
the  environment.  Mr.  Poulton  describes  the  process  of  change 
by  saying  that  "  certain  kinds  of  light  act  as  specific  stimuli  to 
the  eye  of  the  animal,  and  differing  nervous  impulses  pass  from 
this  organ  along  the  optic  nerve  to  the  brain.  The  brain  being 
thus  indirectly  stimulated  in  a  peculiar  manner  by  various  kinds 
of  reflected  light,  originates  different  impulses,  which  pass  from 
it  along  the  nerves  distributed  to  the  skin,  and  cause  varying 
states  of  concentration  of  the  pigment  in  the  cells.  .  .  .  The  pig- 
ment cells  in  the  skin  are  often  of  various  colors,  and  are  ar- 
ranged in  layers,  so  that  very  different  effects  may  be  produced 
by  concentration  in  certain  cells,  leading  to  the  appearance  of 
those  of  another  color,  or  to  a  combined  effect  due  to  the  colors 
of  two  or  more  kinds  of  cells."  * 


*  Loc.  cit.,  p.  85. 
VOL.  XLIII. — 35 


494  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Probably  the  most  important  advantage  derived  by  the  frogs 
from  their  power  of  color  change  is  that  of  concealment  from 
birds  and  other  enemies.  Many  of  the  larger  waders  devour  these 
animals  whenever  opportunity  offers,  and  a  protective  resem- 
blance would  help  greatly  in  escaping  detection.  In  the  case  of 
the  wood  frog,  I  suspect  that  the  resemblance  to  the  carpet  of 
pine  needles  helps  to  preserve  them  from  birds  of  other  kinds — 
the  hawks  and  owls.  Last  summer  I  placed  a  wood  frog  in  a 
cage  containing  a  red-tailed  hawk  (Buteo  borealis),  and  it  was 
immediately  gobbled  up  by  the  bird. 

It  also  seems  likely  that  the  resemblance  to  the  environment 
may  be  of  benefit  to  the  species  in  enabling  it  more  readily  to  ob- 
tain its  insect  food,  but  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  vision  of  insects  one  can  not  place  very  much  stress  upon  this 
phase  of  the  subject. 


WHY  A  FILM  OF  OIL  CAN  CALM  THE  SEA. 

BY  G.  W.  LITTLEHALES, 

CHIEF   OF   DIVISION   OF   CHART   CONSTRUCTION,   UNITED   STATES  HYDROORAPHIC   OFFICE. 

"VTEXT  to  the  oil  which  is  used  in  the  beacons  of  the  world  to 
JJN  give  light  to  save  life,  that  which  is  most  effective  in  fore- 
stalling the  loss  of  life  and  the  destruction  of  property  is  the 
quantity  that  is  expended  by  mariners  in  forming  a  film  around 
their  vessels  to  subdue  the  violence  of  breaking  waves.  The  ex- 
tensive practice  of  using  oil  for  this  purpose  is  the  outgrowth  of 
an  age  of  quick  ocean  passages  which  has  impelled  seamen  to 
crowd  on  every  foot  of  canvas  and  every  pound  of  steam  in  the 
attempt  to  run  through  storm  and  calm  alike.  In  any  large  sea- 
port a  visit  to  the  docks  where  mariners  tell  the  experiences  of 
their  voyages  will  afford  evidence  of  the  extent  and  efficacy  of 
this  practice ;  but,  before  proceeding  to  point  out  the  principles 
involved,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  give  extracts  from  the  log-books 
of  a  few  vessels,  to  show  the  manner  and  effect  of  the  use  of  oil. 
From  the  official  notes  of  Captain  Tregarthen,  of  the  British 
steamship  Marmanhense,  the  following  extract  has  been  made : 
"  On  March  3d,  off  Cape  Hatteras,  in  a  very  strong  northwest  hur- 
ricane, finding  the  ship  could  make  no  headway,  I  hove  to.  The 
wind  was  blowing  in  hurricane  force  from  the  northwest,  and  the 
tremendous  sea  which  was  running  broke  on  board  and  did  great 
damage.  The  vessel  was  very  unsteady,  coming  up  and  falling 
off  several  points,  so  that  I  could  not  steer  her  nor  keep  her  head 
to  the  sea,  although  the  engines  were  working  well.  I  filled  the 
water-closet  bowls  with  oakum  and  poured  fish  oil  over  it,  keep- 
ing men  stationed  by  them  to  replenish  the  supply.  I  also  filled  a 


WHY  A  FILM  OF  OIL    CAN  CALM  THE  SEA.       495 

small  canvas  bag  with,  oakum,  saturated  with  the  same  kind  of 
oil,  and  towed  it  by  a  line  from  the  weather  bow  of  the  vessel  so 
that  it  would  drift  several  fathoms  to  windward.  The  vessel  now 
rode  much  more  easily  and  could  be  kept  head  to  sea.  Moreover, 
no  water  came  on  board,  and  the  sea  was  without  breaking  crests 
for  thirty  yards  to  windward  of  her.  I  feel  no  hesitancy  in  stat- 
ing that,  with  the  proper  use  of  oil,  I  shall  be  perfectly  willing  to 
encounter  the  hardest  gale  that  ever  blew ;  and  intend  at  the  first 
opportunity,  to  stop  the  engines,  place  several  oil  bags  to  wind- 
ward, and  let  the  vessel  drift  as  she  will.  I  feel  sure  that  the 
vessel  will  be  safe  under  these  conditions." 

Captain  Bower,  while  on  a  voyage  from  New  York  to  the  Medi- 
terranean last  December  in  the  steamship  Ponca,  encountered  a 
strong  gale  with  very  high  seas.  He  says:  "The  vessel  was 
deeply  laden  with  grain  and  became  unmanageable.  We  were 
running  before  the  seas  and  shipping  large  quantities  of  water, 
until  two  small  bags  filled  with  colza  oil  were  put  over  on  each 
side  of  the  bridge.  This  oil  was  found  to  be  too  light  and  of  little 
use ;  but  after  olive  oil  was  put  in  the  bags  no  more  water  was 
shipped  and  the  decks  became  almost  as  dry  as  in  fine  weather, 
although  the  gale  continued  for  two  days.  The  vessel  was  draw- 
ing twenty-six  and  a  half  feet  of  water,  and,  if  we  had  not  used 
oil,  I  do  not  think  she  could  have  withstood  the  storm." 

Captain  William  Peake,  master  of  the  schooner  J.  F.  Krantz, 
while  making  a  passage  from  Port  Spain,  Trinidad,  to  Boston,  met 
a  terrific  gale  off  Cape  Hatteras  and  had  the  following  experience : 
"  The  sails  were  blown  away,  men  washed  from  the  pumps,  and 
boats  and  other  things  above  the  deck  wrecked  by  the  heavy  seas. 
I  was  compelled  to  head  southward  and  scud  under  bare  poles. 
Then  I  thought  of  oil,  and  determined  to  see  what  effect  it  would 
have  on  the  sea.  Two  wooden,  ten-gallon  kegs,  containing  boiled 
linseed  oil,  were  lashed  to  the  quarters  of  the  vessel.  The  oil  was 
allowed  to  ooze  out  through  two  small  holes  in  the  heads  of  the 
kegs.  The  effect  was  all  that  could  be  desired.  After  the  oil  had 
spread,  no  water  came  on  board,  the  men  returned  to  the  pumps, 
the  vessel  was  pumped  out,  and  the  decks  were  cleaned  up.  Dur- 
ing the  sixteen  hours  in  which  oil  was  used  eight  gallons  were 
expended." 

An  examination  of  thousands  of  reports  like  the  preceding 
ones  demonstrates  that  a  small  quantity,  say  two  quarts  per  hour, 
of  the  thick  and  heavy  oils,  especially  those  of  animal  and  vege- 
table origin,  when  allowed  to  drop  into  the  sea  soon  spreads  over 
its  surface,  forming  an  oily  layer  within  the  area  of  which  the 
waves,  instead  of  breaking,  become  huge  rollers  upon  which  the 
vessels  rise  and  fall  without  shocks  and  without  shipping  any 
water. 


496  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

So  much  for  the  practical  effects  of  oil  on  broken  water.  Now 
let  us  proceed  to  examine  the  reasons  why  so  small  a  quantity  of 
oil  can  produce  these  effects.  In  order  to  understand  the  methods 
for  opposing  the  violence  of  waves,  it  is  essential  that  the  phe- 
nomena which  constitute  wave  motion  be  understood.  It  can  be 
said  with  some  degree  of  confidence  that  there  is  no  instance  in 
Nature  of  a  perfectly  quiescent  surface  of  water.  Air  and  water 
are  both  mediums  of  extreme  mobility,  and  the  individual  mole- 
cules of  both,  and  of  all  other  substances,  are  continually  in  a  state 
of  motion,  with  different  velocities,  in  paths  different  in  direction 
and  length.  There  is  thus  a  continual  interlacing  of  particles. 
When  air  covers  water,  some  of  the  particles  of  air,  in  their  ex- 
cursions, strike  the  surface  of  the  water,  producing  unequal  press- 
ures upon  it,  and  giving  rise  to  ripples  which  the  vision  is  not 
acute  enough  to  detect.  If  the  original  surface  of  the  water  were 
perfectly  smooth,  and  if  all  parts  of  it  continued  equally  exposed 
to  an  equal  wind,  waves  could  not  be  produced.  But  with  the  mi- 
nute corrugations  which  are  always  present  upon  the  smoothest 
water  it  is  to  be  observed  that  it  does  not  occur  that  water  is  all 
equally  exposed  to  equal  winds.  The  pressure  of  moving  air  upon 
the  crests  and  posterior  portions  of  the  minute  corrugations  is 
greater  than  that  on  the  hollows  and  anterior  portions.  There  is 
thus  a  tendency  to  heap  up  the  water  at  the  places  of  greatest 
pressure,  which  is  augmented  by  the  rotational  or  vortex  motion 
produced  by  the  viscosity  of  the  air.  These  actions  produce  new 
forms  and  inequalities,  which,  exposed  to  the  wind,  generate  new 
modifications  of  its  force  and  give  rise  to  further  deviations  from 
the  primitive  condition  of  the  fluid.  Imagine  an  isolated  example 
in  which  the  water  has  been  suddenly  heaped  up  by  a  gust  of 
wind.  The  action  of  gravity  causes  the  particles  of  water  in  the 
he.ap  to  push  forward  the  particles  immediately  in  front  of  them 
out  of  their  former  place  to  another  place  farther  on,  and  they 
repose  in  their  new  place  at  rest  as  before  the  original  heaping  up. 
Thus  in  succession  volume  after  volume  continues  to  carry  on  a 
process  of  displacement  which  only  ends  with  the  exhaustion  of 
the  displacing  force  originally  impressed  and  communicated  from 
one  to  another  successive  mass  of  water.  As  the  particles  of 
water  crowd  upon  one  another  in  the  act  of  going  out  of  their  old 
places  into  the  new,  the  crowd  forms  a  temporary  heap  visible  on 
the  surface  of  the  water,  and  as  each  successive  mass  is  displacing 
its  successor  there  is  always  one  such  heap,  and  this  heap  travels 
apparently  at  that  point  where  the  process  of  displacement  is  go- 
ing on ;  and  although  there  may  be  only  one  crowd,  yet  it  consists 
of  always  another  and  another  set  of  migrating  particles.  This 
moving  crowd  constitutes  a  true  wave.  The  velocity  of  the  wave 
is  the  velocity  with  which  the  heap  is  seen  to  move.  Its  form  is 


WHY' A  FILM  OF  OIL    CAN  CALM  THE  SEA.       497 


FIG.  1. 


the  form  of  the  heap.  Its  length  is  the  distance  from  crest  to 
crest,  and  its  height  is  the  distance  from  the  crest  to  the  surface 
of  the  water  before  the  disturbance. 

The  motions  of  the  individual  particles  of  water  are  different 
from  the  motion  of  translation  which  the  wave  has.  Consider  a 
particle  in  a  mass  of 
water  about  to  be 
traversed  by  a  wave 
form.  The  action  of 
gravity  on  the  heap 
behind  it  tends  to 
press  *..  it  forward, 
where  it  is  confront- 
ed by  a  solid  wall  of 
water.  Under  the  ac- 
tion of  these  two  op- 
posite forces  the  par- 
ticle is  driven  up- 
ward and  forward 

until  the  particles  which  have  displaced  it  have  made  room  for 
themselves ;  then  it  sinks,  and  finally  comes  to  rest  a  little  in  ad- 
vance of  'the  place  from  which  it  started.  The  motion  of  migra- 
tion of  each  individual  particle  is  thus  in  a  closed  orbit.  The 
propagation  of  the  wave  is  the  advancement  of  a  mere  form.  The 
actual  translation  of  water  in  the  propagation  of  unbroken  waves 
is  small.  The  motion  of  each  particle  takes  place  in  a  vertical 
plane  parallel  to  the  direction  of  propagation  of  the  wave.  The 
path  of  orbit  described  by  each  particle  is  approximately  elliptic, 
and  in  water  of  nearly  uniform  depth  the  longer  axis  of  the  ellip- 
tic orbit  is  horizontal  and  the  shorter  vertical.  When  at  the  top 
of  its  path,  the  particle  moves  forward  as  regards  the  direction  of 
propagation;  when  at  the  bottom,  backward,  as  shown  by  the 

curved  arrows  in  Fig.  1.  The 
straight  arrow  denotes  the  di- 
rection of  propagation. 

The  particles  at  the  sur- 
face describe  the  largest  or- 
bits. The  extent  of  the  mo- 
tion horizontally  and  vertically  diminishes  with  the  depth  below 
the  surface.  A  particle  in  contact  with  the  bottom  of  water  of 
moderate  depth  moves  backward  and  forward  in  a  horizontal 
straight  line,  as  at  D.  On  the  ocean,  where  the  water  is  deep  as 
compared  with  the  length  of  a  wave,  the  paths  of  the  particles  are 
nearly  circular,  and  the  motion  is  insensible  at  great  depths. 

When  waves  are  first  raised  at  sea  their  crests  are  smooth  and 
rounded,  as  represented  in  Fig.  2.    As  the  wind  freshens  the  crests 

VOL.   XLIII.— 36 


FIG.  2. 


498  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

rise  higher  and  become  more  acuminate.  Rankine  has  investi- 
gated the  limiting  forms  which  waves  assume  before  breaking, 
and  has  concluded  that  in  the  steepest  possible  oscillatory  waves 
of  the  irrotational  kind,  the  crests  become  .curved  at  the  vertex  in 
such  a  manner  that  a  section  of  the  crest  by  the  plane  of  motion 
presents  two  branches  of  a  curve  which  meet  at  an  angle  of  ninety 
degrees. 

After  the  prolonged  action  of  the  wind,  when  the  crests  of  the 
waves  rise  to  a  considerable  height  and  become  sharper  and 
sharper,  the  passage  of  the  air  over  them  with 
high  velocity  tends  to  impart  its  velocity  to 
them.    Owing  to  the  inertia  of  the  lower  masses 
of  water,  the  imparting  of  this  velocity  is  re- 
3.  sisted.    The  paths  of  the  particles  become  dis- 

torted, as  shown  in  Fig.  3,  the  front  of  each 
wave  gradually  becomes  steeper  than  the  back,  and  the  crests 
seem  to  advance  faster  than  the  troughs,  until  at  length  the  front 
of  the  wave  curls  over  and  breaks,  as  shown  in  Fig.  4. 

Large  sea- waves  seem  to  be  the  result  of  a  building-up  process 
carried  on  by  the  joint  action  of  large  and  small  waves.  If,  for 
any  cause,  there  be  one  wave  larger  than  those  surrounding  it,  its 
size  will  be  continually  increased  at  the  expense  of  the  smaller 
ones.  For  these  smaller  waves,  in  passing  over  the  tops  of  the 
larger,  offer  increased  obstruction  to  the  wind  and  cause  the  for- 
mation of  cusps  when  the  waves  coincide.  The  delicate  equilib- 
rium incident  to  a  cusped  form  is  easily  destroyed  by  the  action 
of  the  wind,  and  the  crests  of  the  waves  break  into  fragments 
which  go  to  increase  the  volume  of  large  waves,  leaving  the  small 
ones  yet  smaller.  Therefore,  whatever  influence  prevents  the 
breaking  of  waves  acts  also  as  an  agency  to 
prevent  their  increase  in  size.  No  fact  of  ob- 
servation and  no  method  of  sound  reasoning 
has  yet  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  spread- 
ing of  oil  on  the  surface  of  water  agitated  by  F™.  4. 
waves  can  exercise  any  sensible  effect  in  less- 
ening the  size  or  velocity  of  the  waves  themselves.  It  is  in  the 
breaking  of  the  waves  that  the  oil  finds  its  field  of  action. 

Having  reviewed  the  structure  of  sea  waves,  the  next  step  is 
to  show  why  oil  spreads  over  the  surface  of  water.  There  is  an 
attraction  of  one  particle  of  water  for  another,  and  there  is  an 
attraction  of  one  particle  of  oil  for  another,  but  there  is  a  repulsion 
between  a  particle  of  water  and  a  particle  of  oil.  If  we  attempt 
to  mix  oil  and  water,  the  two  liquids  separate  from  each  other  of 
themselves,  and  in  the  act  of  separation  sufficient  force  is  brought 
into  play  to  set  in  motion  considerable  masses  of  the  fluids. 

Imagine  an  individual  particle  of  water  within  a  mass  of  water. 


WHY  A  FILM  OF   OIL    CAN  CALM  THE  SEA.       499 


The  particles  on  every  side  of  the  individual  particle  attract  it, 
and  the  attraction  of  opposite  particles  on  every  side  tends  to  neu- 
tralize each  other,  so  that  the  individual  particle  has  almost  per- 
fect mobility.  The  surface  particles,  however,  inasmuch  as  all  the 
rest  of  the  fluid  is  below  them,  are  drawn  inward  toward  the  mass 
of  the  fluid,  and  a  certain  tension  is  produced.  This  tension 
is  potential  energy, 
and  is  inherent  in 
the  surface  particles 
in  virtue  of  their 
position.  If  we  con- 
sider an  oily  film  to 


Taw 


Tow 


be  spread  over  the 
surface  of  a  body  of 
water,  it  will  appear 
that  the  particles 
near  the  surfaces 
which  separate  the  FIG.  5. 

oil  from  the  water 

and  from  the  air  must  have  greater  energy  than  those  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  film.  The  excess  of  energy  due  to  this  cause  will  be 
proportional  to  the  area  of  the  surface  of  separation.  When  this 
area  is  increased  in  any  way,  work  must  be  done ;  and  when  it  is 
allowed  to  contract,  it  does  work  upon  other  bodies.  Hence  it 
acts  like  a  stretched  sheet  of  India  rubber,  and  exerts  a  tension  of 
the  same  kind. 

In  the  above  figure,  which  represents  an  exaggerated  picture  of 
a  layer  of  oil  on  the  surface  of  a  body  of  water,  let  Taw  represent 
the  superficial  tension  of  the  surface  separating  air  from  water ; 
let  Tao  represent  the  superficial  tension  of  the  surface  separating 
air  from  oil ;  let  Tow  represent  the  superficial  tension  of  the  sur- 
face separating  oil  from  water ;  and  let  P  be  a  point 
of  the  line  forming  the  common  intersection  of  the 
surfaces  separating  the  air,  oil,  and  water.  For  the 
equilibrium  of  these  three  media,  the  three  tensions 
Taw,  Tao,  and  Tow  must  be  in  equilibrium  along  the 
line  of  common  intersection,  and  since  these  tensions 
PIO  6  have  been  measured  and  are  known,  the  angles  which 
their  directions  make  with  one  another  can  be  easily 
determined ;  for,  by  constructing  a  triangle,  ABC,  having  sides 
proportional  to  these  tensions,  the  exterior  angles  will  be  equal  to 
the  angles  formed  by  the  three  surfaces  of  separation  which  meet 
in  a  line.  But  it  is  not  always  possible  to  construct  a  triangle 
with  three  given  lines  as  its  sides.  If  one  of  the  lines  is  greater  in 
length  than  the  sum  of  the  lengths  of  the  other  two,  the  triangle 
is  impossible.  For  the  same  reason,  if  any  one  of  the  superficial 


500 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tensions  is  greater  than  the  sum  of  the  other  two,  the  three  fluids 
can  not  be  in  equilibrium  in  contact. 

If,  therefore,  the  tension  of  the  surface  separating  air  from 
water  is  greater  than  the  sum  of  the  tensions  of  the  surfaces  sepa- 
rating air  from  oil  and  oil  from  water,  then  a  drop  of  oil  can  not 
be  in  equilibrium  on  the  surface  of  water.  The  edge  of  the  drop 
where  the  air  meets  the  oil  and  the  water  becomes  thinner  and 
thinner,  till  it  covers  a  vast  expanse  of  water. 

M.  Quinke  has  determined  the  superficial  tensions  of  different 
liquids  in  contact  with  one  another  and  with  air,  and  the  follow- 
ing is  an  extract  from  his  table  of  results.  The  tension  is  measured 
in  grammes  per  linear  centimetre  at  twenty  degrees  centigrade : 


LIQUID. 

Specific  gravity. 

Tension  of  surface 
separating  liquid 
from  air. 

Tension  of  surface 
separating  liquid 
from  water. 

Water      ...          

1  '  0000 

•08235 

•ooooo 

Olive  oil                                

0-9136 

•03760 

•02096 

Although  olive  oil  is  here  taken  as  the  representative  of  oils,  it 
is  not  considered  so  well  adapted  for  use  at  sea  as  some  of  the 
others..  Whale  oil  has  given  the  best  results,  but  its  surface  ten- 
sions do  not  seem  to  have  been  determined.  It  may  be  presumed 
that  they  do  not  differ  greatly  from  the  values  given  for  olive  oil. 

An  inspection  of  the  above  table  will  show  that  the  tension  of 
the  surface  separating  air  from  water  is  greater  than  the  sum  of 
the  tensions  of  the  surfaces  separating  air  from  oil  and  oil  from 
water,  which  explains  why  a  film  of  oil  will  spread  over  the  sur- 
face of  a  body  of  water. 

Through  the  operation  of  surface  tensions  much  of  the  force 
which  breakers  have  is  lost.  Let  us  imagine  a  "break"  to  occur 
after  the  surface  of  the  water  is  covered  by  the  oily  film.*  For 

*  Above  it  has  been  assumed  that  the  superficial  tension  per  unit  of  length  has  the  same 

numerical  value  as  the  superficial  energy  per  unit  of  area,  which  can  be  proved  as  follows : 

Y  Let  the  equation  to  the  curve  B  C  A 

be  y  =f(x).  Take  any  ordinate,  as 
C  D,  whose  length  is  y,  and  let  the 
whole  tension  exerted  across  the  line 
be  represented  by  <J>,  then  the  super- 
ficial tension  is  measured  by  the  ten- 
sion across  a  unit  length  of  y,  or, 
since  <£  is  the  tension  across  the 
whole  ordinate  y,  if  T,  which  is  con- 
stant, is  the  superficial  tension  per 
unit  of  length,  <f>  =  Ty  =  T.f  (x). 
Suppose  that  the  variable  ordinate # 
is  originally  in  contact  with  the  axis 
~x  0  B,  and  that  the  surface  included 


WHY  A  FILM  OF  OIL    CAN  CALM  THE  SEA.       501 

every  square  centimetre  of  film  torn  asunder  there  will  be  destroyed 
•05856  centigrammetre  of  potential  energy,  being  the  sum  of 
"03760  and  '02096,  the  potential  or  surface  energies,  in  centigram- 
metres  per  square  centimetre,  of  the  surfaces  separating  air  from 
oil  and  oil  from  water ;  and  there  will  be  generated  for  every 
square  centimetre  of  free  surface  of  water  formed,  "08235  centi- 
grammetre of  potential  energy.  The  mere  fact  of  breaking  the 
film  of  oil  causes  an  expenditure  of  energy,  because  it  lays  bare  a 
surface  having  a  tension  greater  than  the  sum  of  the  tensions  of 
the  surfaces  separating  air  from  oil  and  oil  from  water.  But 
there  is  a  further  loss  of  energy  in  these  circumstances.  Suppose 
after  a  "  break  "  has  occurred,  a  layer  of  water  glides  over  a  layer 
of  oil.  The  superficial  energy  in  the  surface  separating  the  oil 
from  the  air,  amounting  to  '03760  centigrammetres  per  square 
centimetre,  is  replaced  by  '10331  centigrammetre  per  square  cen- 
timetre, being  the  sum  of  '08235  and  '02096,  the  superficial  ener- 
gies per  square  centimetre  of  the  surfaces  separating  air  from 
water  and  water  from  oil  respectively.  Therefore,  when  water 
breaks  over  an  oily  film,  there  is  required  for  the  formation  of 
each  square  centimetre  of  a  layer  of  water  on  the  oily  film,  '10331 
minus  '03760,  or  '06571  centigrammetre  of  work. 

The  film  of  oil  also  acts  as  a  shield  to  prevent  the  derange- 
ment of  the  wave  mechanism  and  to  prevent  the  growth  of  waves 
and  the  formation  of  sharp  crests.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that, 
when  waves  are  propagated  across  any  body  of  liquid,  the  indi- 
vidual particles  of  the  liquid,  having  their  centrifugal  and  cen- 
tripetal forces  in  equilibrium,  describe  closed  orbits.  At  the 
highest  points  of  these  orbits,  or  in  the  crests  of  the  waves,  the 
particles  are  moving  in  the  direction  of  propagation  of  the  waves. 

When  the  wind  is  blowing  over  the  waves  with  a  velocity 
greater  than  the  velocity  of  propagation,  and  in  the  same  direction 
with  it,  the  moving  air  tends  to  impart  to  the  particles  of  water  a 
velocity  additional  to  the  normal  velocity  of  revolution  in  their 
orbits,  causing  the  distortion  of  the  orbits  and  the  disintegration 
of  the  crests  of  the  waves.  The  force  which  the  moving  air  exerts 
to  draw  the  water  along  with  it  is  due  to  the  viscosity  of  air. 


between  the  curve  and  the  two  axes  is  produced  by  drawing  the  ordinate  y  away  from  the 
axis  0  B  toward  the  right  by  the  action  of  the  force  <p.  If  we  consider  0  B  and  D  C,  which 
is  equal  to  y,  to  be  two  rods  wet  with  oil  and  placed  between  the  curve  and  the  axis  of  X, 
and  then  drawn  asunder,  the  oily  film  B  C  A  D  0  will  be  formed.  Let  E  represent  the 
superficial  energy  per  unit  of  area.  Then  the  work  done  in  forming  the  film  will  be  = 
Eff(x)  dx.  But  if  <J>  is  the  variable  force  required  to  draw  the  ordinate  y  from  the  axis 
0  B,  the  same  work  may  be  written  =/<£  dx.  Therefore,  work  —f^  dx  =Eff(x]  dx  (1). 
Substituting  the  value  <f>  =  Tf(x)  in  (1),  we  have  Tff(x)dx=  Eff(x)  dx,  or  T  =  E,  or  that 
the  numerical  value  of  the  superficial  tension  per  unit'  of  length  is  equal  to  the  superficial 
energy  per  unit  of  area. 


502  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

When  wind  blows  over  water,  all  the  air  does  not  pass  over  the 
surface  of  the  water.  On  account  of  the  high  degree  of  adhesion 
between  air  and  water,  a  thin  stratum  of  air  remains  in  contact 
with  the  water,  and  it  is  the  action  of  the  internal  friction  or  vis- 
cosity of  air  tending  to  draw  this  stratum  along  which  causes  the 
tractive  effect  of  wind  on  water. 

When  a  film  of  oil  is  spread  over  the  surface,  this  tractive 
force  is  not  brought  to  bear  on  the  surface  of  the  water  as  long  as 
the  film  remains  unbroken,  but  acts  upon  the  surface  of  the  film, 
whose  particles,  being  entirely  separate  from  the  particles  of 
water,  do  not  share  their  motion.  The  surface  of  the  water  is 
thus  shielded  from  the  action  of  the  wind  in  the  same  manner  as 
if  a  skin  of  India  rubber  were  spread  over  it,  and  the  only  action 
of  the  wind  in  such  a  case  is  to  move  the  film  over  the  surface  of 
the  water. 

It  is  calculated  that  a  wind  moving  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five 
miles  per  hour  or  one  hundred  and  twelve  centimetres  per  sec- 
ond, relatively  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  exercises  a  tractive 
effect  of  about  two  thousandths  of  a  gramme  upon  each  square 
centimetre  of  surface ;  and,  when  we  consider  that  this  force  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  a  system  of  particles  moving  in  their  orbits, 
in  the  direction  in  which  the  wind  blows,  with  a  speed  of  about 
eighty  centimetres  per  second,  it  will  be  apparent  that  the  inter- 
position of  a  film  of  oil  between  the  air  and  water  must  have  a 
powerful  effect  in  preventing  breaking  crests. 

Observation  has  shown  that,  in  the  generation  of  oscillatory 
waves,  ripples  or  capillary  waves  are  first  formed,  and  that  it  is 
to  the  union  of  conterminal  ripples  and  to  their  more  abundant 
formation  with  the  increased  force  of  the  wind  that  the  growth  of 
waves  is  due.  The  existence  of  a  certain  definite  tension,  equal  to 
'08235  gramme  per  lineal  centimetre,  at  the  common  surface  of  air 
and  water  has  been  pointed  out.  The  water  surface  under  this 
tension  is  in  perfect  equilibrium. 

When  wind  blows  over  the  surface  of  a  body  of  water,  the  tan- 
gential force  which  the  air,  in  virtue  of  its  viscosity,  exerts  on  the 
surface  of  the  water,  is  of  different  degrees  of  intensity  at  different 
places,  owing  to  the  minute  corrugations  which  are  always  pres- 
ent on  the  surface  of  a  body  of  water,  and  to  the  eddying  motion 
of  the  air.  At  the  places  where  the  tangential  force  is  greatest, 
the  surface  film  of  water  is  drawn  along  and  the  portions  of  the 
surface  immediately  in  front  of  them,  destroying  their  surface 
tension  or  energy  of  position,  and,  by  laying  bare  new  surface  in 
places  from  which  they  are  moved,  generating  a  like  amount  of 
surface  tension.  Through  this  action  heaps  or  ripples  are  formed, 
and  surface  tension  is  being  constantly  generated  and  destroyed. 
The  formation  of  ripples  takes  place  on  waves  already  in  exist- 


HOW  PLANTS  AND   ANIMALS   GROW.  503 

ence  in  the  same  manner  as  upon  a  surface  of  water  originally  at 
rest,  and  by  continually  uniting  with,  the  larger  waves  they 
impart  those  dangerous  qualities  to  the  wave  which  result  from 
high  and  acuminate  crests. 

When  a  film  of  oil  is  spread  over  the  surface  of  the  water, 
this  heaping-up  action,  which  in  the  case  of  the  water  film  results 
in  the  formation  of  ripples,  can  not  take  place.  In  the  figure,  let 
A  represent  the  crest  of  a  wave  covered  by 
the  film  of  oil  B  C,  and  let  P  be  a  point  of 
greatest  action  of  the  tangential  force  of 
the  wind,  which  is  supposed  to  move  in  the 
direction  of  the  arrow.  The  tendency  of  FIG.  7. 

this  action  is  to  drive  the  film  into  a  heap 

immediately  in  front  of  P.  By  this  action  a  greater  tension  is 
generated  in  the  film  at  b  and  a  lesser  tension  at  a.  The  greater 
tension  at  b  tends  to  draw  the  portion  at  b'  ahead,  and  the  lesser 
tension  at  a  allows  the  tension  at  a'  to  draw  the  portion  at  a 
ahead ;  so  that,  instead  of  a  tendency  toward  heaping  up,  there  is 
a  tendency  to  move  the  entire  surface  film  along  at  a  uniform 
rate.  The  formation  of  ripples  is  therefore  stopped,  and  the 
growth  of  waves  and  the  formation  of  breaking  crests,  as  far  as 
they  result  from  this  cause,  are  prevented. 


HOW  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS  GROW. 

BY  DR.  MANLY  MILES. 

TOO  little  is  known  in  regard  to  the  chemistry  of  foods,  or  the 
specific  use  made  of  their  proximate  constituents  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  nutrition,  to  serve  as  a  rational  guide  in  formulating 
diets,  or  estimating  the  relative  nutritive  value  of  different  arti- 
cles of  food.  Our  methods  of  chemical  investigation  are  not  as 
yet  sufficiently  delicate  and  refined  to  enable  us  to  trace  the  un- 
obtrusive transformations  of  matter  and  energy  involved  in  the 
nutrition  of  living  being's. 

Liebig's  chemical  theories  of  nutrition  are  now  discarded  by 
physiologists  as  fallacious  and  misleading,  but  they  are,  neverthe- 
less, confidently  adopted  by  popular  writers  on  the  economy  of 
foods  and  diets,  who  are  not  aware  of  the  progress  made  in  a 
more  consistent  knowledge  of  physiological  processes.  The  his- 
tory of  biological  science  furnishes  numerous  instances  of  error 
arising  from  the  undue  prominence  given  to  non-essential  details 
which  are  readily  observed,  while  the  dominant  factors  in  the 
phenomena  under  investigation,  which  are  not  so  obvious,  are 
overlooked  or  assigned  a  subordinate  position. 


5o4  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY, 

The  progressive  development  of  the  cell  theory  of  organic 
structure,  and  the  several  steps  which  have  led  to  a  recognition  of 
protoplasm  as  a  factor  in  evolution  and  in  the  processes  of  vege- 
table and  animal  nutrition,  may  be  profitably  reviewed  to  illus- 
trate the  erroneous  inferences  made  from  superficial  and  defective 
observation.  In  1755  Rosenhoff  described  the  Proteus  animal- 
cule, now  familiarly  known  as  the  Amoeba,  without  being  aware 
of  the  importance  of  the  discovery  in  furnishing  a  type  of  the 
form  or  conditions  of  matter  required  for  the  manifestations  of 
life. 

Bichat  laid  the  foundation  for  the  study  of  the  minute  struc- 
ture of  animals  in  his  work  on  anatomy,  published  in  1801,  in 
which  the  different  organs  of  the  body  were  described  as  made 
up  of  tissues,  to  each  of  which  was  assigned  a  special  function, 
and  the  attention  of  anatomists  was  then  given  to  the  distribu- 
tion and  arrangement  of  these  structural  elements,  while  their  in- 
timate relations,  arising  from  a  common  origin,  were  not  detected. 

The  next  step  of  real  progress  was  made  in  1838  by  Schleiden, 
who  traced  all  vegetable  tissues  to  the  common  form  of  nucleated 
cells  from  which  they  had  their  origin,  and  in  1839  Schwann  per- 
fected the  cell  theory  of  organization  by  extending  the  same  con- 
ception to  animal  tissues.  Cells  were  then  recognized  as  the  ulti- 
mate units  of  organic  structure,  which  were  variously  modified  to 
adapt  them  to  diverse  special  purposes.  This  cell  theory  of  or- 
ganized structure  was  generally  adopted,  and  cells  were  defined 
as  closed  membranes  or  sacs,  containing  a  more  or  less  fluid  sub- 
stance which  served  to  nourish  them.  The  cells  were  looked  upon 
as  independent  units,  which  multiplied  by  a  process  of  budding 
or  by  self-division,  and  a  new  factor  was  introduced  in  the  discus- 
sion of  the  mooted  question  as  to  what  constitutes  the  individual 
in  plants.  Schwann  "  regarded  the  plant  as  a  cell  community  in 
which  the  separate  elements  were  like  the  bees  in  a  swarm,"  and 
this  appeared  to  be  a  logical  inference  from  the  accepted  cell 
theory  of  organization. 

This  view  was,  however,  based  on  an  erroneous  assumption  as 
to  the  essential  constituents  of  the  cell,  and  the  progress  of  dis- 
covery gradually  led  to  the  demonstration  of  a  material  and 
physiological  bond  of  union  in  the  various  tissues  of  plants.  In 
1835  Dujardin  made  the  discovery  that  the  bodies  of  Foraminifera, 
a  group  of  animals  of  simple  organization,  including  the  Amoeba, 
were  composed  of  a  glairy  contractile  substance,  which  he  called 
sarcode  (rudimentary  flesh),  and  in  1846  Von  Mohl  called  atten- 
tion to  the  importance  of  the  inner  lining  of  the  cell  wall  of 
plants,  which  he  designated  the  primordial  utricle,  with  its  in- 
closed contents,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  protoplasm  (primi- 
tive plastic  or  organizable  matter),  and  these,  he  claimed,  repre- 


HOW  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS   GROW.  505 

sented  the  essential  constituents  of  the  cell  and  active  elements  in 
plant  nutrition. 

The  identity  in  essential  features  of  Dujardin's  sarcode  and 
Von  Mohl's  protoplasm  was  pointed  out  by  Cohn  in  1850,  and 
fully  demonstrated  by  Max  Schultze  in  1858,  who,  adopting  the 
term  protoplasm,  defined  the  cell  as  "a  unit-mass  of  nucleated 
protoplasm,  with  or  without  a  cell  wall,"  and  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal physiology  were  thus  placed  on  a  common  correlated  basis. 
The  original  cell  theory  was  materially  modified  and,  in  fact,  su- 
perseded by  the  conception  that  the  units  of  organized  structure 
are  masses  of  protoplasm,  more  or  less  intimately  related,  from 
and  by  which  organic  matters,  including  the  cells  and  various  tis- 
sues, were  formed. 

In  1868  Prof.  Huxley  translated  protoplasm  into  the  significant 
phrase,  "  the  physical  basis  of  life,"  and  all  vital  activities  were 
assumed  to  be  the  result  of  its  inherent  properties.  While  ad- 
mitting the  general  pertinence  of  this  assumption,  we  should  not 
fail  to  notice  that  many  of  the  inferences  from  the  facts  then 
known  have  not  been  verified  in  the  progress  of  knowledge,  and 
recent  investigations  have  materially  modified  our  views  as  to  the 
real  composition  and  constitution  of  protoplasm. 

From  what  was  known  in  regard  to  protoplasm  twenty  years 
ago,  it  appeared  to  be  reasonable  to  assume  with  Huxley  that 
there  is  "  one  kind  of  matter  which  is  common  to  all  living  beings, 
and  that  their  endless  diversities  are  bound  together  by  a  phys- 
ical as  well  as  an  ideal  unity  " ;  that  vegetable  and  animal  proto- 
plasm are  strictly  identical ;  that  "  an  animal  can  not  make  proto- 
plasm, but  must  take  it  ready  made  from  some  other  animal  or 
some  plant " ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  protoplasm  made  by 
plants  from  mineral  matters  is,  in  fact,  the  physical  basis  of  ani- 
mal life. 

At  the  present  time  we  may  look  upon  protoplasm  as  the  phys- 
ical basis  of  life  in  the  sense  that  some  form  of  it  is  the  essential 
and  active  constituent  of  every  living  cell  or  tissue,  whether  vege- 
table or  animal,  and  that  it  is  only  formed  through  the  physio- 
logical activities  of  living  organisms.  In  the  absence  of  life,  pro- 
toplasm can  not  be  formed,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  perceive,  there  are 
no  manifestations  of  life  without  it ;  but  we  can  no  longer  assume 
that  it  is  a  substance  of  the  same  chemical  composition  and  con- 
stitution in  all  the  varied  conditions  under  which  it  appears  in 
the  different  groups  of  plants  and  animals,  or  even  in  the  differ- 
ent organs  of  the  same  individual.  Protoplasm  is  a  convenient 
name  for  living  substance,  but  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  the 
most  complex  and  unstable  of  organic  substances,  and  varies 
widely  in  structure,  specific  properties,  and  probably  in  chemical 
composition. 


5o6  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  general  properties  of  protoplasm  may  be  readily  observed 
in  the  simplest  organic  forms,  like  the  Amoeba,  that  are  usually 
described  as  simple  masses  of  protoplasm  without  structure  or 
any  distinction  of  parts.  It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  nu- 
merous species  of  Amoeba  have  been  described,  differing  in  form 
and  to  some  extent  in  habits,  and  there  may  also  be  differences  in 
their  protoplasm  which  we  are  unable  to  detect  with  our  present 
means  of  investigation. 

Under  the  low  powers  of  the  microscope  an  Amoeba  appears  as 
a  semi-transparent,  jelly-like  mass,  which  glides  along  with  a 
flowing  movement  of  its  apparently  homogeneous  substance,  send- 
ing out  armlike  projections  from  any  part  of  its  body  to  close 
around  substances  which  it  can  feed  upon,  and  rejecting  other  ma- 
terials unsuitable  for  its  nutrition.  The  processes  of  prehension, 
digestion,  assimilation,  respiration,  excretion,  and  reproduction 
are  carried  on  by  the  entire  body,  or  by  any  part  of  it  indifferent- 
ly. The  body  of  an  Amoeba,  as  we  observe  it,  is  not,  however,  a 
simple  mass  of  protoplasm,  as  it  evidently  contains  particles  of 
undigested  food,  with  particles  representing  the  various  stages 
the  elements  of  the  food  pass  through  in  being  built  up  into  pro- 
toplasm, together  with  the  various  waste  products  on  the  way  to 
be  excreted,  so  that  what  we  call  protoplasm,  as  represented  in  an 
Amoeba,  contains  many  extraneous  substances  ;  and  substantially 
the  same  statement  may  also  be  made  in  regard  to  the  differen- 
tiated protoplasm  of  the  higher  plants  and  animals. 

From  this  it  must  be  seen  that  it  is  practically  impossible  to 
obtain  samples  of  pure  protoplasm  for  analysis,  and,  even  if  this 
could  be  done,  a  chemical  analysis  of  living  protoplasm  can  not  be 
made ;  but  there  is,  however,  evidence  to  show  that  there  must  be 
a  wide  difference  in  the  chemical  properties  of  living  and  of  dead 
protoplasm.  Carmine  and  other  coloring  matters,  for  example, 
do  not  color  living  protoplasm,  but  give  a  brilliant  stain  to  dead 
protoplasm ;  and  other  observations  show  that  living  substance  has 
properties  that  interfere  with  or  limit  the  ordinary  chemical  and 
physical  reactions  of  dead  matter. 

There  are  other  considerations  in  regard  to  the  composition  of 
protoplasm  which  require  a  reference  to  the  food  of  the  higher 
animals,  which  is  usually  said  to  consist  of  the  so-called  proteids, 
fats,  and  carbohydrates,  to  which  should  be  added  certain  mineral 
constituents  or  salts,  with  oxygen  introduced  by  the  lungs.  These 
groups  of  food-stuffs  have  not  the  physiological  significance  that 
was  formerly  attached  to  them,  and  they  do  not  represent  definite 
chemical  compounds  which  have  a  specific  role  in  the  processes  of 
nutrition,  as  each  group  includes  a  great  variety  of  complex  com- 
pounds. The  proteids  or  albuminoids,  as  they  are  sometimes 
called,  are  a  group  of  organic  substances  containing  carbon,  hy- 


HOW  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS   GROW.  507 

drogen,  and  oxygen,  with  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  per  cent  of 
nitrogen  and  a  variable  quantity  of  ash  constituents,  and  they 
present  marked  differences  in  their  general  appearance  and  prop- 
erties. The  white  of  an  egg,  the  casein  of  cheese,  the  glutin  of 
wheat,  and  the  legumin  of  peas  and  beans  are  often  referred  to 
as  typical  proteids,  but  they  in  fact  represent  several  kinds  of 
proteids  which  differ  in  many  properties,  and  can  not  be  assumed 
to  have  precisely  the  same  physiological  significance  and  value  as 
nutrients. 

The  group  of  fats  includes  a  great  variety  of  compounds  com- 
posed of  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen,  without  nitrogen,  and 
their  properties  are  various.  The  carbohydrates  are  likewise 
composed  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen,  without  nitrogen,  and 
they  include  starch,  sugar,  cellulose,  woody  fiber,  and  allied  sub- 
stances, differing  in  form  and  various  properties,  so  that  their 
physiological  value  can  not  be  the  same.  Oxygen  is  the  most 
abundant  element  of  the  animal  body  as  a  whole,  and  it  stands 
next  to  carbon  in  the  percentage  composition  of  the  proximate 
constituents  of  the  tissues.  Its  significance  as  a  food  element  is 
too  often  overlooked,  but  it  is  undoubtedly  as  important  a  factor 
in  tissue-building  as  any  other  food  constituent. 

Protoplasm  was  formerly  looked  upon  as  a  proteid,  but  it  is  now 
generally  admitted  that  its  composition  and  structure  are  very 
much  more  complex  than  any  form  of  proteid.  The  chemical 
composition  of  living  protoplasm,  as  already  pointed  out,  can  not 
be  determined,  but  there  is  evidence  that  proteids,  fats,  and  carbo- 
hydrates enter  into  the  composition  of  its  complex  molecules,  and 
it  gives  rise  to  all  three  of  these  groups  of  nutrients  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  destructive  metabolism,  and  it  should  also  be  noted  that 
several  varieties  of  proteid  matter  have  been  detected  in  dead 
protoplasm. 

Energy  has  been  defined  as  the  power  of  doing  work,  and  it  is 
expended  in  the  work  involved  in  building  protoplasm  out  of  the 
simpler  proteids,  fats,  and  carbohydrates  from  which  it  is  formed. 
An  essential  constituent  of  the  complex  molecules  of  protoplasm 
which  is  neglected  in  chemical  analysis  is  the  potential  energy 
stored  up  as  a  result  of  the  constructive  process,  which  is  liberated 
in  the  form  of  heat  in  destructive  metabolism.  The  properties  of 
living  protoplasm,  and  its  role  in  the  vital  activities  of  plants  and 
animals,  have  been  more  definitely  determined  than  its  chemical 
constitution,  and  although  it  is  generally  admitted  to  be  the  domi- 
nant factor  in  nutrition,  there  is  yet  much  to  learn  in  regard  to 
its  properties  and  specific  action  in  its  diverse  forms. 

Living  protoplasm,  or,  in  other  words,  living  substance,  must 
be  looked  upon  as  constantly  undergoing  changes  that  vary  with 
the  function  required  of  it.  These  changes,  without  attempting 


5o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

to  distinguish  between  them  as  chemical,  physical,  or  more  strictly 
biological,  are  conveniently  expressed  by  the  general  term  metab- 
olism. 

Dr.  M.  Foster  says :  "  We  may  picture  to  ourselves  this  total 
change  which  we  denote  by  the  term  '  metabolism '  as  consisting, 
on  the  one  hand,  of  a  downward  series  of  changes  (katabolic 
changes),  a  stair  of  many  steps,  in  which  more  complex  bodies 
are  broken  down  into  simpler  and  simpler  waste  bodies,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  of  an  upward  series  of  changes  (anabolic  changes), 
also  a  stair  of  many  steps,  by  which  the  dead  food,  of  varying 
simplicity  or  complexity,  is,  with  the  further  assumption  of  energy, 
built  up  into  more  and  more  complex  bodies.  The  summit  of  this 
double  stair  we  call '  protoplasm/  Whether  we  have  the  right  to 
speak  of  it  as  a  single  body  in  the  chemical  sense  of  that  word,  or 
as  a  mixture  in  some  way  of  several  bodies ;  whether  we  should 
regard  it  as  the  very  summit  of  the  double  stair,  or  as  embracing 
as  well  the  topmost  steps  on  either  side,  we  can  not  at  present 
tell.  Even  if  there  be  a  single  substance  forming  the  summit,  its 
existence  is  absolutely  temporary :  at  one  instant  it  is  made,  at 
the  next  it  is  unmade.  Matter  which  is  passing  through  the 
phase  of  life  rolls  up  the  ascending  steps  to  the  top,  and  forth- 
with rolls  down  on  the  other  side." 

The  greater  activity  of  the  nutritive  processes  in  young  and 
growing  animals,  with  a  gradual  decline  to  maturity  and  old  age, 
are  matters  of  common  observation.  Dr.  Minot  has,  however, 
shown  that  "with  the  increasing  development  of  the  organism 
and  its  advance  in  age  we  find  an  increase  in  the  amount  of 
protoplasm.*  This  seems  to  indicate  that  katabolism  is  relatively 
more  active  in  young  organisms,  and  that  they  use  protoplasm  in 
tissue-building  as  fast  as  it  is  formed.  In  old  age,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  anabolic  processes  resulting  in  the  formation  of  proto- 
plasm are  not  diminished  as  rapidly  as  the  katabolic  transforma- 
tions of  protoplasm  into  new  tissues,  to  replace  the  waste  arising 
from  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  system,  and  a  general  decline  of 
the  bodily  powers  follows. 

As  we  pass  from  the  simpler  to  the  higher  forms  of  life  we 
find  a  gradual  transition  from  the  comparatively  homogeneous 
protoplasm  of  the  lowest,  to  the  highly  differentiated  protoplasm 
of  the  Jtiighest  forms  which  provide  for  a  division  of  labor  in  the 
physiological  activities  of  the  different  organs.  In  the  highest 
organisms  the  functions  of  prehension,  digestion,  assimilation, 
respiration,  etc.,  as  in  the  Amoeba,  are  still  carried  on  through  the 
agency  of  protoplasm,  but  it  is  distributed  to  various  organs,  each 
of  which  has  a  special  function. 

*  Trans.  A.  A.  A.  S.,  1890,  p.  283. 


HOW  PLANTS  AND  ANIMALS   GROW.  509 

Plant  cells  are  not  independent  units  as  -assumed  in  the  cell 
theory  of  organic  structure,  as  recent  investigations,  with  im- 
proved microscopes  and  more  exact  methods  of  research,  have 
shown  that  the  protoplasm  of  adjacent  cells  is  connected  by  slen- 
der threads  which  pass  through  minute  openings  in  the  cell  walls, 
and  this  has  been  observed  in  so  many  cases  that  the  continuity 
of  their  protoplasm  is  believed  to  be  the  rule  in  the  structure  of 
plants.  The  various  tissues  and  cells  of  the  higher  plants  have, 
therefore,  a  common  bond  of  union  in  the  connecting  threads  of 
protoplasm  which  determine  their  harmonious  action. 

The  higher  powers  of  the  microscope  likewise  show  that  the 
protoplasm  of  plants  is  not  homogeneous,  but  contains  numerous 
granules  which  repeat  themselves  indefinitely  by  a  process  of 
self -division,  each  granule  having  a  genetic  relation  to  pre-exist- 
ing granules  of  the  same  kind.  Besides  the  granules,  each  proto- 
plasmic cell  has  a  nucleus  which  in  the  same  manner  is  formed 
by  the  self -division  of  a  pre-existing  nucleus.  The  granules,  and 
especially  the  nucleus,  may  prove  to  be  important  factors  in  the 
perpetuation  of  ancestral  characters,  and  consequently  more  inti- 
mately involved  than  other  elements  in  the  grand  mystery  of  life. 

The  chlorophyll  granules  which  constitute  the  green  coloring 
matter  of  plants  were  supposed  to  be  formed  from  the  proto- 
plasm in  which  they  appear ;  but  they  are  now  known  to  arise 
from  the  pre-existing  self -propagating  granules  of  protoplasm. 

The  conception  of  ascending  steps  of  constructive  metabolism 
resulting  in  the  formation  of  protoplasm  and  the  storing  of 
energy,  with  correlated  descending  steps,  by  which  protoplasm  is 
transformed  into  less  complex  compounds  (destructive  metabo- 
lism), with  a  liberation  of  energy,  serves  as  a  key  to  the  complex 
processes  of  nutrition  which  enables  us  to  trace  their  conformity 
to  general  laws  that  are  readily  recognized,  and  clears  up  the  ob- 
scurity arising  from  the  multiplicity  of  details  which  from  other 
points  of  view  could  not  be  brought  into  consistent  relations. 

In  the  light  of  these  principles  the  relations  of  protoplasm  to 
the  leading  features  of  vegetable  nutrition  may  be  traced  in  brief 
outlines,  as  a  prelude  to  the  more  highly  differentiated  processes 
of  animal  nutrition.  The  latest  discoveries  in  physiology  all  tend 
to  verify  the  conclusion  that  the  simple  chemical  elements  and 
binary  compounds,  which  constitute  the  food  of  plants,  are  built 
up  by  successive  steps  of  gradually  increasing  complexity  into 
protoplasm,  or  living  substance,  the  ultimate  product  of  construc- 
tive metabolism,  and  that  the  energy  expended  in  the  work  per- 
formed is  stored  in  the  form  of  potential  energy  as  an  essential 
element  or  condition  of  its  constitution.  From  the  instability  of 
the  exceedingly  complex  molecules  of  protoplasm,  destructive 
metabolism  immediately  follows,  and  the  proximate  constituents 


s  10  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

of  plants  known  as  proteids,  starch,  cellulose,  etc.,  are  formed  in 
the  downward  steps  of  its  progress  with  a  liberation  of  a  portion 
of  the  stored  energy  in  the  form  of  heat.  The  heat  liberated  in 
these  first  steps  of  destructive  metabolism  is  not,  however,  suffi- 
cient to  maintain  an  independent  temperature  in  plants,  as  it  is 
used  in  vaporizing  the  water  exhaled  in  the  processes  of  growth, 
or  lost  by  radiation  from  the  extended  surface  of  foliage.  The 
energy  expended  in  vaporizing  water  must  be  considerable,  as  ex- 
periments show  that  for  each  pound  of  dry  organic  substance 
formed  by  the  plant  about  three  hundred  pounds  of  water  are  ex- 
haled in  the  form  of  vapor.* 

The  products  of  the  downward  steps  of  metabolism  are  numer- 
ous, some  of  which,  as  waste  matters,  are  either  excreted,  as  in  the 
case  of  carbonic  acid  and  water,  or  deposited  in  the  more  stable 
tissues ;  while  others  called  plastic  products,  including  proteids, 
starch,  fats,  etc.,  are  stored  as  reserve  materials  to  be  used  in  con- 
structive metabolism  when  needed  by  the  plant.  These  reserve 
materials  are  not  as  a  general  rule  stored  in  the  place  where  they 
are  formed,  and  they  can  only  be  transported  when  changed  to  a 
soluble  form,  which  is  brought  about  by  certain  "  soluble  fer- 
ments," which  are  also  products  of  the  destructive  metabolism  of 
protoplasm.  Starch  formed  in  the  leaves  is  changed  to  glucose 
and  transported  to  other  parts  of  the  plants  where  it  is  recon- 
verted into  starch  and  stored  for  use,  sooner  or  later,  in  construc- 
tive metabolism.  Some  of  these  reserve  materials  are  apparently 
built  up  again  into  protoplasm  before  they  are  resolved  into  their 
ultimate  products.  This  is  seen  in  the  starch  deposited  in  oily 
seeds  which  is  used  in  forming  protoplasm,  and  the  oil  is  then 
formed  as  a  product  of  its  metabolism. 

The  many  forms  of  organic  acids — as  the  malic,  tartaric,  oxalic, 
citric,  etc. — and  a  variety  of  alkaloids  and  other  bodies  are  also 
products  of  destructive  metabolism,  which  may  be  deposited  in 
the  various  tissues  as  waste  materials,  or  some  of  them  may  be 
changed  by  soluble  ferments  into  forms  which  may  be  again  util- 
ized in  the  economy  of  the  plant.  The  organic  acids  and  tannin 
of  green  fruits,  for  example,  are  converted  into  sugar  in  the  pro- 
cess of  ripening  by  ferments  formed  from  the  protoplasm  of  the 
fruit  cells. 

In  general  terms  the  processes  of  nutrition  in  plants  may,  then, 
be  said  to  consist  in  the  construction  of  protoplasm  from  the  ele- 
ments of  their  food,  with  a  storing  of  energy,  and  the  conversion 
of  this  protoplasm  into  the  various  organic  substances  entering 
into  the  composition  of  their  tissues  (starch,  cellulose,  etc.),  with 
a  liberation  of  energy,  and  all  vital  activities  are  included  in 

*  Popular  Science  Monthly,  May,  1892,  p.  92. 


HOW  PLANTS  AND   ANIMALS   GROW.  511 

these  upward  and  downward  transformations  of  matter  and 
energy. 

In  the  higher  animals  the  various  functions  are  more  highly 
specialized,  but  we  still  find  that  protoplasm  is  the  essential  liv- 
ing substance  of  every  tissue  and  the  dominant  factor  in  nutri- 
tion. It  differs,  however,  from  vegetable  protoplasm  in  many  of 
its  properties,  and  it  can  not,  as  formerly  assumed,  be  formed  by 
plants,  or  built  up  from  the  simpler  elements  that  plants  feed  on, 
and  from  which  they  construct  vegetable  protoplasm. 

The  proteids,  fats,  and  carbohydrates  which  constitute  the  food 
of  animals  are,  as  we  have  seen,  products  of  the  destructive  me- 
tabolism of  the  protoplasm  of  plants,  and  it  was  formerly  sup- 
posed that  they  are  transformed  into  animal  proteids  and  fats, 
without  any  marked  change  in  their  chemical  constitution.  This 
assumption  is,  in  fact,  the  basis  of  the  fallacious  theory  of  nutri- 
tive ratios,  but  it  can  not  be  reconciled  with  the  known  facts  of 
animal  nutrition.  There  appears  to  be  conclusive  evidence  that 
the  proteids,  fats,  and  carbohydrates  of  the  food  can  not  be  con- 
verted into  the  proteids  and  fats  of  the  animal  body  without  un- 
dergoing profound  disruption  and  reconstruction  through  the 
agency  of  animal  protoplasm ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  products 
of  vegetable  protoplasm  can  not  be  made  available  in  the  con- 
struction of  animal  tissues  without  being  resolved  into  sim- 
pler compounds  and  formed  anew  in  the  laboratory  of  ani- 
mal life. 

Without  noticing  the  many  details  that  would  only  tend  to 
divert  the  attention  of  the  general  reader  from  the  significance 
of  the  results  produced,  the  essential  or  fundamental  processes  in 
the  nutrition  of  the  higher  animals  may  be  broadly  stated  as  fol- 
lows :  In  the  first  place,  the  proteids,  fats,  and  carbohydrates  of 
their  food  undergo  a  series  of  changes  in  the  processes  of  diges- 
tion (using  this  word  in  its  widest  sense)  that  reduces  them  to 
simpler  compounds  and,  in  fact,  almost  to  their  elements,  with 
a  liberation  of  energy  which  is  made  available  in  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  disintegrated  food  constituents. 

The  activities  of  the  various  organs  of  nutrition  are  primarily 
directed  to  the  elaboration  of  a  nutritive  fluid,  the  blood,  which 
is  distributed  to  all  of  the  tissues  through  the  circulatory  appara- 
tus provided  for  that  purpose,  funishing  them  the  pabulum  for 
their  nutrition,  and  receiving  the  excretory  and  other  products 
arising  from  their  metabolism.  "  An  average  uniform  composi- 
tion of  the  blood  "  is  maintained  through  the  action  of  numerous 
glandular  organs,  and  the  drafts  made  upon  it  in  the  constant  re- 
pair of  the  different  tissues.  The  various  ferments  required  in 
the  disintegration  or  digestion  of  the  food  elements  that  are  being 
transformed  into  blood  are  products  of  the  destructive  metabo- 


5i2  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

lism  of  the  protoplasm  of  the  special  secreting  organs  and  of  the 
general  tissues. 

From  the  common  nutritive  fluid,  the  blood,  protoplasm  is 
formed  in  all  the  tissues  of  the  body,  and  we  must  look  upon  the 
characteristic  elements  and  products  of  these  tissues  as  the  result 
of  its  destructive  metabolism.  In  each  organ  of  the  body  the 
protoplasm  appears  to  have  special  endowments  adapted  to  their 
specific  functions,  but  these  diverse  activities  are  correlated  to  serve 
a  common  purpose  in  the  life  of  the  individual.  The  contraction 
of  muscles,  the  specific  secretions  of  the  glandular  organs,  includ- 
ing the  salivary  glands,  the  liver,  the  pancreas,  the  mammary 
glands,  etc.,  and,  in  fact,  the  products  of  all  the  metabolic  tissues, 
as  well  as  their  characteristic  structural  elements,  must  be  consid- 
ered as  the  resulting  products  of  the  downward  steps  of  the  me- 
tabolism of  protoplasm. 

As  in  plants  the  food  elements  are  built  up  into  protoplasm 
before  they  are  converted  into  the  proximate  constituents  of  plant 
tissues  (proteids,  fats,  starch,  etc.),  so  in  animal  nutrition  it  ap- 
pears that  the  proteids,  fats,  and  carbohydrates,  together  with 
oxygen  introduced  by  the  lungs,  which  constitute  their  food,  must 
pass  through  the  intermediate  phases  of  blood  and  protoplasm  be- 
fore they  appear  as  animal  proteids  and  fats,  or  enter  into  the 
composition  of  the  different  tissues  of  the  animal  body,  so  that  a 
genetic  or  specific  relation  of  particular  tissues  to  special  food 
constituents  can  not  be  traced. 

For  example,  the  muscles,  from  their  comparative  bulk,  con- 
tain a  large  proportion  of  the  nitrogen  of  the  body,  and  they  are 
spoken  of  as  nitrogenous  tissues,  but  they  are  not  formed  directly 
from  the  proteid  or  nitrogenous  constituents  of  the  food.  Like 
all  other  tissues,  they  have  their  origin  in  protoplasm  that  is  built 
up  from  the  common  nutritive  fluid,  the  blood,  which  is  elabo- 
rated, as  we  have  seen,  from  the  disintegrated  elements  of  fats  and 
carbohydrates  as  well  as  proteids.  Moreover,  nitrogen  is  no  more 
essential  to  the  formation  of  muscle  than  carbon  or  oxygen,  or 
even  water,  which  are  more  abundant  constituents  of  all  living 
tissues. 

It  must  then  be  evident  that  we  can  not  formulate  the  propor- 
tions of  the  proximate  principles  of  foods  that  will  serve  the  best 
purpose  in  animal  nutrition.  The  extended  and  profound  series 
of  changes  that  intervene  between  the  food  constituents  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  resulting  animal  tissues  on  the  other  are  too 
complex  to  enable  us  to  trace  any  direct  chemical  relations  be- 
tween the  initial  elements  and  their  final  products.  Aside  from 
these  physiological  considerations  there  are  insuperable  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  prescribing  diets  that  are  even  approximately  suit- 
ed to  the  requirements  of  any  particular  individual,  or  group  of 


HOW  PLANTS  AND   ANIMALS   GROW.  513 

animals,  arising  from  individual  peculiarities  and  inherited  an- 
cestral habits.  Experiments  have  not  as  yet  been  made  with  a 
sufficient  number  of  individuals  or  with  a  sufficient  variety  of 
foods  to  warrant  any  generalizations  as  to  what  constitutes  a 
normal  diet  for  either  man  or  beast  under  even  average  condi- 
tions. 

The  recent  recognition  of  energy  as  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  in  physiology  has  led  to  the  rejection  of  the  purely  chem- 
ical theories  that  were  formerly  quite  generally  accepted  in  regard 
to  the  role  of  particular  food  constituents  in  the  processes  of  nu- 
trition. An  assumed  combustion  of  food  constituents  is  no  longer 
required  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  animal  heat,  which  is  noV 
known  to  be  but  a  phase  in  the  transformations  of  energy  in  the 
processes  of  nutrition. 

Energy  is  expended  in  building  organic  substance,  or,  in  other 
words,  in  converting  food-stuffs  of  any  kind  into  protoplasm,  the 
summit  of  the  double  stair  of  life,  and  its  potential  energy  is  the 
transformed  or  stored  energy  of  the  constructive  process.  This 
combined  energy,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  conservation, 
may  be  liberated  in  the  form  of  heat  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in 
various  ways  by  the  more  or  less  complete  disintegration  of  the 
organic  substance  in  which  it  is  stored.  If  the  process  of  disin- 
tegration is  carried  on  until  the  organic  substance  is  resolved  into 
its  original  elements,  the  heat  liberated  is  the  exact  equivalent  of 
the  energy  expended  in  its  construction. 

In  living  organisms  the  descending  steps  of  metabolism  are 
but  successive  phases  of  normal  vital  activities,  resulting  in  the 
formation  of  a  definite  series  of  organic  substances  which  contain 
less  potential  energy  than  the  protoplasm  from  which  they  are 
formed,  and  heat  must  therefore  be  liberated  as  they  are  elabo- 
rated. Dead  organic  matters  may  be  torn  apart  by  microbes  and 
resolved  by  a  widely  different  series  of  descending  steps  into  their 
original  elements,  as  in  the  processes  of  fermentation  and  putre- 
faction, with  a  complete  transformation  of  their  potential  energy 
into  heat.  The  same  ultimate  result  may  likewise  be  obtained  by 
burning  organic  substances,  but  the  intervening  steps  and  prod- 
ucts of  the  destructive  process  are  less  numerous  and  of  a  dif- 
ferent character  than  those  produced  by  vital  activities,  while  the 
heat  liberated  is  still  the  transformed  energy  of  the  constructive 
process. 

Plants  derive  the  energy  required  to  convert  simple  chemical 
elements  into  the  complex  molecules  of  protoplasm  from  the  heat 
and  light  of  the  sun,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  energy  expend- 
ed in  the  constructive  processes  of  animals  is  exclusively  derived 
from  the  potential  energy  of  their  food  (stored  energy  of  plants), 
and  a  disintegration  and  apparent  waste  of  the  material,  or  chem- 

VOL.    XLIII. — 37 


5 14  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ical  constituents  of  foods,  become  necessary  to  liberate  their  need- 
ed supplies  of  energy. 

As  all  the  food  constituents  contribute  to  the  blood-making 
processes,  they  all  in  like  manner  through  digestive  disintegration 
contribute  to  the  supplies  of  energy  required  in  the  animal  econ- 
omy. The  energy  provided  in  foods  in  the  potential  form  is  quite 
as  important  in  building  animal  tissues  as  the  chemical  elements 
entering  into  their  composition,  as  when  liberated  in  the  form  of 
heat  it  is  utilized  in  constructive  metabolism  and  stored  again  as 
potential  energy  in  the  animal  tissues  formed.  The  destructive 
metabolism  taking  place  in  these  tissues,  as  an  essential  concomi- 
tant of  their  vital  activities,  again  liberates  energy  in  the  form  of 
heat,  which,  with  that  derived  from  the  digestion  of  foods,  is  used, 
so  far  as  needed,  in  the  reconstructive  process,  and  the  balance 
appears  as  animal  heat. 

We  have  noticed  the  recently  discovered  continuity  of  the 
protoplasm  of  plants,  but  we  can  not  fairly  infer  that  there  is  a 
similar  continuity  of  the  protoplasm  of  the  higher  animals  that 
have  a  highly  specialized  nervous  system  which  brings  the  dif- 
ferent organs  and  functions  into  harmonious  action  more  com- 
pletely and  efficiently  than  they  could  be  by  simple  threads  of 
protoplasm  like  those  which  unite  the  cells  of  plants.  The  widely 
different  products  of  destructive  metabolism  in  the  various  tissues 
of  plants  and  animals,  aside  from  other  considerations,  furnish 
conclusive  evidence  that  while  the  general  role  of  protoplasm  is 
everywhere  the  same,  it  must  differ  materially  in  composition  and 
constitution  in  the  different  conditions  in  which  it  is  found.  As 
stated  by  Dr.  Foster,  "  It  is  obvious  that  the  varieties  of  proto- 
plasm are  numerous,  indeed  almost  innumerable.  The  muscular 
protoplasm  which  brings  forth  a  contractile  katastate  must  differ 
in  nature,  in  composition — that  is,  in  construction — from  glandu- 
lar protoplasm  whose  katastate  is  a  mother  of  ferment.  Further, 
the  protoplasm  of  the  swiftly  contracting  striped  muscular  fiber 
must  differ  from  that  of  the  torpid,  smooth,  unstriated  fiber  ;  the 
protoplasm  of  human  muscle  must  differ  from  that  of  a  sheep  or 
frog ;  the  protoplasm  of  one  muscle  must  differ  from  that  of  an- 
other muscle  in  the  same  kind  of  animal,  and  the  protoplasm  of 
Smith's  biceps  must  differ  from  that  of  Jones's." 

What  determines  these  differences  and  gives  direction  to  such 
diverse  metabolic  activities?  Chemical  and  physical  considera- 
tions fail  to  clear  up  the  mystery  of  life  and  its  varied  manifesta- 
tions. We  may  look  upon  protoplasm  as  the  physical  basis  of 
life,  and  consider  vital  activities  as  resulting  from  its  inherent 
properties ;  but  this  does  not  aid  us  in  gaining  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  mysterious  endowments  of  living  matter.  What  gives  rise 
to  these  diverse  properties  in  different  species  and  in  different 


HOW  PLANTS  AND   ANIMALS   GROW.  515 

organs  of  the  same  individual?  We  can  not  attribute  them  to 
organization  or  structure,  as  so  far  as  we  know  these  are  the  result 
of  vital  activities,  and  can  not,  therefore,  be  the  cause.  As  forci- 
bly stated  by  Prof.  Huxley  in  his  paper  on  the  cell  theory  (1852), 
cells  "  are  no  more  the  producers  of  the  vital  phenomena  than  the 
shells  scattered  in  orderly  lines  along  the  sea-beach  are  the  in- 
struments by  which  the  gravitative  force  of  the  moon  acts  upon 
the  ocean.  Like  these,  the  cells  mark  only  where  the  vital  tides 
have  been  and  how  they  have  acted." 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  various  factors  in  nutrition,  in- 
cluding even  "  structure  "  and  "  composition,"  must  be  looked  upon 
as  modes  of  motion  in  accordance  with  the  concepts  of  modern 
physics,  and  from  this  point  of  view  the  body  of  a  man  has  been 
mipared  to  a  fountain.  "  As  the  figure  of  the  fountain  remains 
the  same,  though  fresh  water  is  continuously  rising  and  falling,  so 
the  body  seems  the  same,  though  fresh  food  is  always  replacing 
the  old  man,  which  in  turn  is  always  falling  back  to  dust.  And 
the  conception  which  we  are  urging  now  is  one  which  carries  an 
analogous  idea  into  the  study  of  all  molecular  phenomena  of  the 
body." 

The  pertinence  and  significance  of  these  physical  considera- 
tions should  not,  however,  lead  us  to  assume  that  life  is  but  a 
form  of  energy.  We  can  not  doubt  that  energy  is  the  motive 
power  in  living  beings,  and  that  its  transformations  and  activities 
which  are  evident  in  all  organic  processes  are  properly  considered 
as  modes  of  motion,  but  we  must  discriminate  between  the  motive 
power  that  does  the  work  and  the  directing  force  which  guides  it 
in  the  lines  along  which  it  acts  and  determines  the  results  pro- 
duced. We  are  unable  to  detect  any  difference  in  the  potential 
energy  of  living  and  of  dead  protoplasm,  but  we  recognize  an  im- 
mense difference  in  their  significant  properties — a  difference  so 
wide  that  life  can  not  be  defined  as  a  form  of  energy. 

The  manifestations  of  energy  in  organic  processes  are  readily 
perceived,  and  there  are  definite  standards  with  which  to  measure 
them,  but  our  most  delicate  means  of  research  throw  no  light  on 
the  purely  vital  endowments  of  protoplasm,  which  not  only  direct 
and  control  its  activities,  but  are  transmitted  in  well-defined  char- 
acters from  parent  to  offspring.  There  is  no  life  without  pre- 
existing life  from  which  it  is  derived,  and  the  physical  basis 
through  which  it  acts,  or  is  made  manifest,  furnishes  no  satisfac- 
tory explanation  as  to  its  real  essence  and  constitution. 

In  discussing  the  economies  of  foods  and  diets,  if  we  keep  in 
mind  the  significant  facts  that  vital  activities  direct  and  deter- 
mine the  transformations  of  energy  and  the  collocations  of  matter 
in  plants  and  animals,  in  accordance  with  the  nutritive  require- 
ments of  every  organ  and  tissue,  and  that  in  the  higher  animals 


5i6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  food  supplies  of  the  various  tissues  that  differ  so  widely  in 
composition  and  function  are  derived  from  the  same  common 
pabulum,  the  blood,  which  under  the  varying  conditions  of  supply 
and  demand  maintains  a  comparatively  uniform  composition — the 
futility  of  assigning  to  each  or  any  element  of  the  food  a  specific 
role  in  the  processes  of  nutrition  must  be  obvious. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  WITCHCRAFT. 

BY  EKNEST   HAKT. 
II. 

FINALLY,  I  must  refer  to  another  set  of  experiments  which 
Dr.  Luys  conducted  before  us  at  La  Charite*  on  two  of  the 
patients  there  (on  whom  I  subsequently  performed  counter-experi- 
ments). Having  thrown  these  patients  into  the  state  of  artificial 
sleep,  he  took  from  his  pocket  some  sealed  glass  tubes.  "  This 
tube,"  he  said,  "  contains  alcohol."  He  placed  the  tube  in  contact 
with  the  skin  of  the  patient  inside  the  collar  of  her  dress.  After 
a  minute  she  began  to  complain  of  feeling  giddy  and  oppressed. 
Presently  she  manifested  all  the  signs  of  incipient  drunkenness — 
she  was  gay  and  disposed  to  sing.  A  little  later  she  fell  from  the 
chair  on  to  the  floor  in  a  state  of  complete  inebriety,  and  with  a 
simulation  of  the  various  stages  of  drunkenness  so  effectively 
dramatic  that  I  doubt  if  any  woman  so  uneducated  could  go 
through  such  a  performance,  except  an  hysteric  of  this  class,  when 
"  sleep-waking  "  and  freed  from  the  restraint  of  the  fully  conscious 
action  of  the  upper  brain.  It  is  this  mixture  of  hysteria,  partial!}' 
numbed  consciousness,  trained  automatism,  and  imposture,  which 
so  often  takes  in  either  the  wholly  credulous  or  ignorantly  skep- 
tical spectator.  Of  the  imposture  there  was,  as  I  shall  presently 
show,  pace  the  intelligent  reporters,  no  doubt  whatever.  Nor  do 
I  doubt  at  any  rate  that  this  girl  was  a  thorough-paced  hysteric 
and  trained  hypnotic,  and  that  she  was  in  an  artificially  induced 
and  pathological  condition  when  she  went  through  these  elaborate 
and  brilliantly  performed  antics.  She  was  lifted  into  the  chair 
and  another  hypnotized  person  placed  alongside  her  in  another 
chair.  Their  hands  were  clasped  together.  "  We  will  now  see/' 
said  Dr.  Luys,  whether  "  the  vibrations  will  be  communicated 
from  one  to  the  other/'  and  the  state  of  drunkenness  transferred. 
So  said,  so  done ;  and  a  similar  performance,  not,  however,  so  skill- 
fully executed,  was  gone  through  by  the  second  and  less  experi- 
enced subject.  On  the  following  day  we  had  yet  a  more  pictur- 
esque performance.  I  was  told  beforehand  that  this  was  "the  day 
of  the  cat/'  and  that  I  might  expect  to  see  a  highly  trained  sub- 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  517 

ject  who  usually  presented  herself  at  the  clinique  on  that  day  for 
what  was  commonly  spoken  of  as  "  the  cat  performance."  This 
was  a  Mile.  V.,  much  described  by  Dr.  Luys  in  his  Legons  Cli- 
nique s  sur  les  Phenomenes  de  V Hypnotisme. 

Of  her  Dr.  Luys  speaks  as  follows  in  his  lectures  to  his  pupils, 
to  whom  he  presents  her  in  set  phrase  as  "  an  example  of  the  de- 
gree of  exaltation  which  memory  and  imagination  may  acquire  in 
certain  somnambulic  subjects  when  other  regions  of  the  brain  are 
in  the  condition  of  functional  inhibition." 

Here  is  Mile.  V.,  a  professor  of  foreign  languages,  who  is  endowed  with  ex- 
quisite sensibility  for  hypnotic  phenomena.  For  her,  hypnotization  has  become 
an  actual  necessity,  like  morphine  for  morphinomaniacs.  She  is  interested  in  all 
questions  of  this  kind,  for  some  time  she  followed  punctually  all  the  lectures 
which  I  gave  here,  and,  as  you  will  see,  when  I  ask  her  if  it  interests  her,  she 
replies  that  she  comes  with  pleasure,  but  she  understands  nothing  about  it;  it  is 
too  technical.  She  only  comes,  she  says,  to  assist  in  the  experimental  part  of  my 
lectures,  and  now  when  I  question  her  she  will  tell  you  that  she  has  not  retained 
anything  in  her  mind;  that  she  lias  a  very  bad  memory,  and  that  she  is  incapable 
of  giving  the  least  account  of  the  matter.  That  is  what  she  is  in  the  normal  state, 
as  you  see,  and  you  can  accept  the  sincerity  of  her  words.  Now  I  will  throw  her 
into  somnambulism,  and  you  will  see  that  the  picture  will  change  altogether.  I 
say  to  her :  "  You  are  no  longer  Mile.  V.,  you  are  M.  Luys,  you  are  at  the  Charite, 
in  his  amphitheatre,  and  you  are  going  to  give  his  lecture  on  suggestion  in  his 
place."  You  see,  she  accepts  my  words  with  docility;  she  incarnates  herself  in 
my  person;  she  takes  my  habits  of  language  and  of  gesture,  and,  once  started, 
you  see  with  what  facility,  although  a  foreigner,  she  talks  French,  and  with  what 
correct  sequence  of  ideas  her  explanations  are  given.  She  is  never  wrong  ;  she 
finds  the  correct  technical  word;  she  varies  her  intonations,  and  presents  really 
the  innate  qualities  of  a  professor.  More  than  that,  you  will  now  see  a  curious 
scene.  I  have  a  subject  brought  in  and,  placed  in  this  arrn-chair  in  front  of  her, 
tell  her,  "  Here  is  a  hypnotizable  subject,  whom  you  will  send  to  sleep,"  and  yofl 
will  be  surprised  to  see  her  repeat  point  by  point  the  various  proceedings  for  pro- 
ducing hypnosis;  she  explains  to  you  accurately  the  symptomatic  characters  of 
lethargy,  those  of  catalepsy,  of  somnambulism,  in  which  state  she  is  herself  at  this 
moment  actually  plunged,  the  different  peculiarities  belonging  to  these  various 
states,  details  of  the  habits  and  manners  peculiar  to  hypnotics,  and,  if  I  were  not 
to  interrupt  her,  she  would  go  on  talking  thus  for  whole  hours,  until  her  strength 
was  completely  exhausted,  and  she  would  fall  back  again  into  lethargy. 

This  account  of  this  remarkable  person,  which  I  had  read  be- 
forehand, so  much  interested  me  that  I  was  desirous  to  see  her, 
and  very  sorry  that  she  was  not  there  on  the  usual  day  to  play 
the  cat.  But  not  to  disappoint  us,  the  male  patient,  of  whom  I 
have  spoken,  was  introduced  in  her  place.  He  was  rapidly  hyp- 
notized by  holding  a  finger  in  front  of  his  eyes,  and  when  he  had 
arrived  at  the  proper  stage  Dr.  Luys  took  out  a  tube  and  said, 
"  We  will  try  the  valerian  on  him,  but  I  am  not  sure  it  will  suc- 
ceed." The  tube  was,  however,  put  inside  his  coat-collar  in  con- 
tact with  his  skin.  Presently  he  became  very  uneasy,  disturbed 


5i8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 

in  countenance,  and  moving  awkwardly  about  in  the  chair.  I 
asked  him  what  was  the  matter.  "  He  can  not  answer  you,"  said 
Dr.  Luys  ;  "  he  is  dumb,  he  can  not  speak ;  he  is  transformed ;  he 
is  no  longer  a  man  and  can  not  use  the  speech  of  men ;  he  is  as- 
suming the  nature  of  a  cat."  And,  sure  enough,  presently  the  un- 
happy creature  threw  himself  on  to  the  ground  with  every  sign 
of  excitement  and  congestion ;  he  began  scratching  about  the  floor 
on  all  fours,  and  presently  mewing  like  a  cat — a  disagreeable  but 
striking  imitation — and  when  the  valerian  tube  was  taken  from 
his  neck  and  held  in  front  of  him  he  came  scratching  and  spitting 
along  the  floor  on  all  fours,  as  though  irresistibly  attracted,  as  a 
cat  might  be,  to  the  person  who  held  it.  This  astonishing  gym- 
nastic lasted  for  some  minutes  and  seemed  to  fatigue  him,  as  well 
it  might.  On  the  following  day  I  secured  the  presence  in  my 
apartments  of  Mile.  V.  above  mentioned.  On  calling  on  her  with 
M.  Cremiere  I  found  her  installed  as  a  hypnotizer  as  well  as  a 
hypnotic  subject,  and  with  a  plate  on  her  door  accordingly.  We 
arranged  for  a  seance  on  her  usual  terms.  She  insisted,  however, 
on  bringing  "her  subject"  with  her,  for  she  apparently  now  finds 
the  passive  and  performing  state  rather  fatiguing  and  not  suffi- 
ciently profitable,  and  prefers  the  double  emploi.  When  she  ar- 
rived a  very  amusing  scene  followed.  Acting  Dr.  Luys  to  the 
life,  she  proceeded  to  place  her  subject  before  her,  and  began  to 
give  us  the  magistral  demonstration  based  on  his  lectures  on  sug- 
gestion, which  he  describes  above  as  the  peculiar  endowment  of 
her  somnambulistic  condition,  and  of  which,  as  he  observes  art- 
lessly, he  believes  her  to  be  quite  incapable  in  her  waking  state, 
thinking  it  only  possible  when  her  faculties  are  peculiarly  "ex- 
alted "  by  his  manipulation.  I  have  no  doubt  that,  as  he  says,  she 
would  have  gone  on  indefinitely  and  until  she  was  exhausted ;  but 
we  were  very  soon  tired  of  her  glib  impudence,  and  stopped  the 
performance  after  she  had  shown  us  how  she  had  trained  this  new 
subject  in  three  weeks  to  a  number  of  the  required  manifesta- 
tions. We  had  the  "  passional  attitudes,"  "  fascination,"  the  prise 
du  regard,  etc.  The  eyelids  were  duly  opened  by  order  for  fur- 
ther performances,  for  she  intelligently  observed  : 

The  eyelids,  gentlemen,  are  the  windows  of  the  soul,  are  they  not?  and  in 
order  that  her  heightened  faculties  may  acquire  their  full  perception,  the  light 
must  penetrate;  but  she  sees  only  me,  she  knows  nothing  of  what  goes  on  around 
her,  she  thinks  my  thoughts,  she  is  en  rapport  with  me  alone. 

Here  we  stopped  her,  for  we  were  beginning  to  be  fatigued,  al- 
though she  was  not.  We  now  requested  herself  to  become  the 
subject,  and  duly  regretted  her  absence  at  the  dinique  of  Dr. 
Luys  on  the  previous  day. 

Oh  (she  said),  I  am  very  sorry  I  was  not  there,  hut  I  did  not  come  because  it 
is  the  off  season.  At  the  New  Year  every  one  is  making  holiday  ;  very  few  peo- 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  519 

pie  come  to  the  clinique,  and  there  are  not  many  strangers,  and  so  I  was  told  that 
it  was  not  worth  while  my  coming  for  the  next  week  or  two,  and  Dr.  Luys  did 
not  expect  me. 

She  then  gave  us  a  long  list  of  her  capacities,  which  run 
through  the  whole  gamut  of  the  phenomena  described  in  the  vol- 
umes of  the  professor  at  La  Charite'.  She  was  duly  put  to  sleep, 
and  then  I  produced  my  tube.  I  had  on  the  mantelpiece  a  num- 
ber of  tubes  which  I  had  taken  at  random  from  the  laboratory  of 
my  brother-in-law,  M.  Vignal,  containing  a  great  variety  of  crys- 
talline substances.  These,  however,  she  had  already  spied  on  the 
mantelpiece  on  coming  in,  and  she  said,  "  Oh,  I  must  warn  you 
that  I  am  not  at  all  susceptible  to  dry  powders  in  tubes,  only  to 
fluids,  and  you  won't  get  any  effects  with  those."  Respecting  her 
scientific  prudery  and  affected  hypnotic  exclusiveness,  I  humored 
her  by  immediately  sending  to  the  neighboring  chemist  for  some 
tubes  containing  alcohol,  valerian,  cherry -laurel  water,  distilled 
water,  and  solution  of  burned  sugar.  One  of  the  medical  frequent- 
ers of  the  Charite'  was  kind  enough  to  go  and  get  them,  and  he 
was  good  enough  to  see  also  that  all  the  tubes  were  incorrectly 
labeled.  A  private  mark  on  the  corks  indicated  the  true  con- 
tents, which  were  duly  entered  in  the  notes  of  the  sitting.  I  now 
said  to  him,  "  Kindly  give  me  the  valerian,"  in  a  low  voice  which 
she  was  supposed  not  to  hear.  This  was  duly  placed  in  contact 
with  the  skin  of  the  neck,  the  actual  contents  of  the  tube  being 
alcohol.  Then  came  the  cat  performance  to  perfection.  I  will  do 
Jeanne  (the  other  name  under  which  this  lady  will  be  found  spoken 
of  in  the  lectures  of  Dr.  Luys)  the  justice  to  say  that  she  was  by 
far  the  most  accomplished  performer  of  the  three  of  his  subjects 
whom  I  saw  go  through  this  performance  at  my  rooms  and  at  the 
Charitd  under  similar  circumstances.  She  scratched,  she  mewed 
to  perfection,  she  washed  imaginary  whiskers,  she  spat,  she  licked 
her  hands,  she  lapped  milk  from  a  saucer ;  and  when  you  "  pressed 
the  button  "  at  her  back  she  sat  up  rigid  as  on  hind  quarters  and 
caressed  her  face  with  her  paws  with  a  truly  feline  grace.  She 
came  back  to  her  chair,  or  was  supported  back,  for  she  was  still 
supposed  to  be  in  deep  somnambulism,  and  we  brought  into  use 
the  tube  which  was  labeled  cherry-laurel  water,  but  which  really 
contained  valerian.  Now  commenced  another  performance,  which 
among  the  trained  subjects  of  the  Charite'  is  supposed  to  be  iden- 
tified with  the  "  effect  at  a  distance  "  of  the  fluid  described  on  the 
label.  After  a  decent  period  of  waiting  she  fell  slowly  on  her 
knees,  her  face  assumed  the  characters  of  ecstasy,  her  eyes  were 
fixed  on  space,  and  her  features  composed  with  great  art  to  an 
affected  expression  of  pious  rapture  ;  the  hands  were  held  up  im- 
ploringly, then  her  head  dropped  and  her  arms  folded  across  her 
breast  as  in  prayer.  Her  hands  presently  were  extended  and  her 


52o  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

face  upturned  as  toward  a  vision  of  beauty,  and  she  exclaimed  in 
low  and  broken  tones  of  rapturous  emotion:  "She  comes,  she 
comes ;  she  is  all  in  white !  "  and  as  this  sacred  vision  died  away 
her  head  dropped  in  solemn  resignation,  and  after  a  short  interval 
of  resignation  and  grief  the  play  was  over,  and  she  was  brought 
back  once  more  to  her  chair  in  a  state  of  well-simulated  lethargy. 
This  same  performance  she  repeated  under  similar  conditions  at 
the  final  seance  at  Dr.  Sajous's  rooms,  where  I  organized  a  con- 
tinued representation  before  a  number  of  spectators  by  Jeanne,  by 
Madame  Vix,  and  Clarice,  in  all  cases  with  tubes  containing  any- 
thing else  but  valerians.  Clarice  was  a  third  subject  who  figures 
largely  in  the  writings  of  Dr.  Luys,  and  whom  I  met  at  his  clinique. 
She  also  was  for  a  long  time  a  patient ;  she  is  a  thorough  hysteric 
and  trained  hypnotic,  and  she  goes  through  some  of  these  perform- 
ances with  even  better  grace  and  more  seductive  accomplishment 
than  Madame  Jeanne.  We  repeated  with  her  twice  all  these  per- 
formances, and  also  some  others.  For  Clarice  is  now  also  a  "  pro- 
fessional" ;  she  is  younger  and  prettier,  and  charges  a  higher  fee 
than  that  of  the  others ;  she  has  hypnotic  specialties  of  her  own. 
She  requested  that  for  the  final  seance  she  might  be  permitted  to 
bring  "  her  pianiste"  for  she  told  us  that  what  she  was  particu- 
larly celebrated  for  were  the  beauty  and  grace  of  her  attitudes 
passionnelles,  which  were  best  performed  when  the  person  who 
hypnotized  her  could  play  to  her  appropriate  music,  gay  or  mel- 
ancholy. Accordingly,  on  the  final  occasion,  she  came  with  a 
pianist,  who  duly  made  a  few  customary  passes,  to  put  her 
into  the  somnambulistic  state,  then  put  her  in  the  middle  of  the 
room  and  began  playing  suitable  music.  He  supplied  her  with 
castanets,  and  she  danced  a  gay  and  lively  measure ;  he  rose 
from  the  piano  and  took  them  from  her,  and  then  sad  music 
threw  her  into  attitudes  of  picturesque  despair  and  delicately 
acted  grief.  We  had  no  time  to  go  through  the  whole  perform- 
ance, or  I  have  no  doubt  it  would  have  been  well  worth  the  money. 
I  need  not  go  through  the  entire  category  of  proceedings.  Prof. 
Luys  told  us  that  he  had  had  as  many  as  three  of  these  people  at 
once  engaged  in  their  cat  performance,  licking  their  paws,  mew- 
ing, jumping,  and  scratching  about  the  place ;  as  he  said,  "  un 
veritable  Sabbat"— a  true  witches'  Sabbath.  He  dwelt  upon  the 
importance  of  these  manifestations  (which  he  takes  quite  seri- 
ously) as  opening  up  new  realms  of  psychological  inquiry.  I 
quote  from  my  notes : 

Here  (he  said)  is  a  new  domain  for  psychical  researches.  It  will  enable  us, 
at  any  rate,  to  catch  glimpses  of  the  animal  mind,  and  perhaps  to  learn  what  they 
feel  and  think.  I  had  a  patient  who  in  the  somnambulistic  stage  was  trans- 
formed into  a  cock  and  entered  into  the  cock  nature.  I  tried  to  make  him 
remember  when  he  awoke  what  he  had  been  thinking  of  when  he  was  thus  trans- 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  521 

formed,  by  ordering  him  to  do  so  when  still  somnambulistic.  I  asked  him  what 
he  had  been  doing.  He  said  he  had  been  crowing.  I  asked  him  why  he 
crowed.  He  said  he  did  not  know,  he  crowed  because  he  conld  not  help  it.  I 
asked  him  what  he  had  been  thinking  of,  and  his  answer  was,  '•  Je  pensais  a  mes 
poules"  ("I  was  thinking  of  my  hens"). 

This,  however,  appeared  to  be  as  far  as  we  have  yet  got  in  this 
new  excursion  into  psychical  research  of  animals  ;  it  is  not  very 
instructive  or  edifying.  So  far  as  all  these  persons  went  they 
must  be  pronounced  impudent  impostors,  and  it  is  difficult  to  con- 
ceive how  they  can  have  succeeded  in  duping  serious  people,  or 
how  they  can  be  permitted  to  have  carried  on  the  fraud  for  so 
many  years.  So  also  with  the  imaginary  effects  of  the  various 
medicinal  substances  in  sealed  tubes.  I  repeated  this  perform- 
ance on  every  one  of  these  five  subjects  of  M.  Luys,  on  whom  he 
has  for  years  been  lecturing,  whom  he  has  photographed,  and  of 
whose  good  faith  he  gives  so  many  assurances.  We  made  notes 
(sometimes  written  by  myself,  sometimes  by  Dr.  Sajous,  some- 
times by  M.  Cremiere)  of  the  results.  The  subjects  were  never 
once  right,  even  by  accident.  When  Mervel  at  the  hospital  sup- 
posed the  tube  to  contain  mercury  although  it  really  contained 
diabetic  sugar,  he  suffered  agonies  of  the  kind  which  he  supposed 
mercury  to  produce.  He  had  gnawing  pains  ;  his  limbs  were  be- 
ing eaten  away,  and  he  was  in  dire  agony  from  the  worst  effects 
which  a  prolonged  mercurial  course  used  often  to  produce,  and  of 
which  the  repute  is  still  a  tradition  in  the  hospitals.  Madame  Vix, 
at  my  rooms,  had  another  opinion  of  the  effect  of  mercury,  gath- 
ered apparently  from  its  use  in  infantile  ailments  ;  for  she  was  a 
mother.  When  she  thought  the  tube  contained  mercury  she  be- 
gan to  suffer  acute  pains — "  colique  d'enfants,"  she  said  ;  and  to 
stop  the  comedy  I  had  to  apply  to  her  neck  what  was  supposed  to 
be  a  tube  of  cinnamon  water,  but  which  was  really  charged  with 
bisulphide  of  mercury.  This  quickly  calmed  her  pains,  which 
were  beginning  to  be  indecorous.  With  Mervel  at  the  hospital, 
when  I  had  him  to  myself  and  hypnotized  by  the  ward  attendant, 
all  the  effects  supposed  to  be  due  to  valerian  were  produced  with 
burned  sugar.  He  was  duly  and  quickly  transformed  into  a  cat, 
and  the  whole  drama  was  enacted  in  the  ward,  but  this  time  under 
the  influence  of  a  tube  of  sugar- water,  with  vivid  feline  effects. 
Strychnine,  of  which  I  was  warned  that  the  effects  were  most  dan- 
gerous, for,  as  Dr.  Luys  observed  to  me,  "  You  might  kill  a  patient 
with  it  through  incautiously  applying  the  tube,"  I  used  repeatedly 
and  most  incautiously  without  producing  any  effects,  for  I  was 
careful  never  to  mention  its  name.  I  may  emphasize  that  on  this 
occasion  it  was  not  I  who  hypnotized  Mervel,  but  a  person  who 
was  well  accustomed  to  do  so. 

Leaving  now  the  detail  of  the  various  scenes  of  this  tragi- 


5 22  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

comedy,  let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  interpretation  of  it  and 
the  lesson  it  teaches.  It  was  not,  I  think,  always  and  in  all  its 
stages  wholly  an  imposture,  although  generally  it  was.  Two  at 
least  of  the  subjects,  Mervel  and  Marguerite,  and,  I  think,  per- 
haps Clarice,  were  pronounced  hysterics  and  thoroughly  trained 
hypnotics ;  they  mingled  pathological  conditions  and  an  artificial- 
ly induced  state  of  partial  automatism  with  their  abundant  frauds. 
They  were  at  once,  as  Voltaire  puts  it,  speaking  of  like  impostors, 
"  duped  and  dupers,  deceived  and  deceivers."  Jeanne  and  Vix  ap- 
peared to  me  from  first  to  last  to  be  acting  a  part  with  full  con- 
sciousness of  all  their  frauds.  They  were,  moreover,  anxious  to 
accomplish  them  to  my  satisfaction,  and  in  such  a  way,  as  they 
both  openly  stated,  to  procure  from  me  what  Jeanne  called  "  a 
reclame  "  and  Vix  "  the  favor  of  my  recommendation."  After  I 
was  gone,  Jeanne,  the  "  professor  of  languages,"  and  "  sincere  sub- 
ject "  of  Dr.  Luys's  lectures,  sent  after  me  the  following  letter, 
which  I  think  too  interesting  a  document  not  to  put  upon  record. 
I  omit  the  address  and  the  final  paragraph,  but  I  preserve  the  origi- 
nal spelling : 

Monsieur  le  Docteur — Ayant  eu  1'honneur  Sarnedie  dernier  de  servir  de  Sujet 
a  une  Seance  d'hypnotisin  chez  vous,  Monsieur  le  Docteur,  j'espere  que  vous  vou- 
drez  Men  m'excuser,  Monsieur  le  Docteur,  la  liberte  qne  je  prends  de  vous  f;iire 
parvenir  une  petite  nomenclature — des  experiences  et  des  phenomenes — que  Mr. 
le  Dr.  Luys  obtien,  depuis  bien  tot  7  ans,  sur  moi. 

1.  On  obtien  sur  moi  tres  faoilement — 

Les  trois  £tats  classiqaes, 
Lethargie,  Catalepsie,  Somnainbulisme. 

En  Lethargie 
Anestesie  complete. 
Tous  les  differents   effects   et   contracture — au  ccntacte — des  differents 

Metaux. 

Les  Contractures  Neuro-Musculaires. 
Le  jeu  du  Diaphragm. 

En  Catalepsie 

Pri^e  du   regard — le   point  fixe — autometisme — les   attitudes — Effets  des 

Couleurs. 

Suggestions  par  gestes. 
Effets  des  Aimants. 
Cessation  du  battement  du  poux. 
Eaideur  cadaverique. 

Somnambulisme 

Tous  les  pbenomenes  de  1'hyperestesie  de  la  peau. 

Les  attractions. 

Effects  de  medicaments  a  distance. 

Suggestion — instantan^e  et  a  6cheance. 

Changement  de  personality. 

Mneumonie. 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  523 

Vision. 

Vue  absolue  a  travers  tous  les  corps  oppaques  sans  aucun  secour  des  yewx. 

Double  vue — transmission  des  pens6es. 

Voila  Mr.  le  Docteur  les  phenomenes  qu'on  obtien  tres  facilement  sur  moi — 
mmjamais  les  rdter.  Mr.  Le  Docteur  Luys  n'hesitera  pas  a  le  confirmer — d'ail- 
leurs  j'offre  de  le  prouver — quand  on  voudra. 

Je  travail  en  ce  moment  comme  Sujet  (passif)  a  la  Charit6  avec  Mr.  le  Dr. 
Louys — et  comrne  Sujet  active  avec  mes  sujets — chez  raoi  tous  les  jours  de  "2 
heures  a  6  heures — et  dans  tous  les  Salons  de  la  haute  Aristocratic  Parisienne  en 
soiree  bypnotique  ou  Spirite. 

Anciennements  Mdlle.  .  .  .  que  Samedi  Mr.  le  Docteur  j'avais  apercue  dans 
votre  Salon  * —  a  6te  employee  par  moi — pendant  8  mois  comme  mon  sujet.  J'ai 
ete"  force  de  la  conjedier  pour  un  fait— assez  serieux.  Cette  petite  dont  les  apti- 
tudes sont  absolument  aussi  nules  que  le  Cabotinage,  est  grand  profite  des  visites 
chez  moi  de  quelqnes  toutes  jeunes  dames  du  plus  grand  monde  qui  dans  1'apres 
midi  venaient  me  conpulter  et  naturellement  en  cachette  de  moi,  pour  grossire  ces 
gages  de  sujet,  cette  petite  fille  sans  conscience  vendai  de  la  morphine  an  morpbi- 
nomane  et  de  1'opiome  aux  opiomanes,  une  de  mes  cliente,  Mme.  la  Vicomtesse 
de  .  .  .  devenue  absolument  opiomane  par  1'opiom  procurai  en  secret  par  ...  a 
manque  payer  cela  de  sa  vie.  Par  un  hasard  ayant  decouvert  la  verite  j'ai  raise 
.  .  .  immediatement  d  la  porte.  Voila  pourquoi  j'ai  6t6  desagreablement  impres- 
sionee  voyant  cette  triste  personne  singer  avec  aplond  dans  le  salon  de  Mr.  le 
Docteur  tous  ce  qu'elle  m'avais  vu  faire  etant  chez  moi. 

This  document  is  perfect ;  its  spelling,  its  jargon,  its  revelation 
of  the  under  side  of  the  genuine  "  marvels  "  of  the  new  and  old 
mesmerism,  will  make  it  historic. 

We  see  here  to  what  excesses  this  so-called  science  of  hypno- 
tism may  lead,  and  we  catch  a  glimpse,  and  only  a  glimpse,  of 
some  of  its  evil  connections.  The  rest  remain  to  be  followed  out, 
and  ought  to  be  followed  out,  by  the  Paris  police,  and  no  doubt 
the  administrative  council  which  presides  over  the  hospital  sys- 
tem of  Paris  will  take  some  steps  in  the  matter.  It  is  hardly 
possible  (except  under  a  system  of  highly  concentrated  centrali- 
zation, in  which  the  true  central  governing  body  is  so  far  removed 
from  its  peripheral  members  as  to  take  little  notice  of  what  is 
going  on  there)  that  such  things  should  happen  or  should  continue. 
In  any  English  hospital  in  which  the  controlling  governors  are  on 
the  spot,  and  the  staff  in  habitual  communication  with  them, 
such  proceedings  would  long  before  have  attracted  inquiry,  and 
would  have  been  controlled.  That  is  by  the  way.  How  much 
harm  they  can  do  in  some  directions,  M.  Luys  knows  very  well 
and  expresses  very  clearly,  for  he  says  in  his  lectures :  f 


*  This  is  another  favorite  subject  of  the  Charite. 

f  Lesons  cliniques  sur  les  principaux  Phenomenes  de  1'Hypnotisme  dans  leurs  Rapports 
avec  la  Pathologic  mentale.  Par  J.  Luys.  Paris :  Georges  Carre,  Editeur,  58  Rue  St. 
Andr6- des- Arts,  1890. 


524  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

From  the  social  point  of  view  these  new  states  of  instantaneous  loss  of  con- 
sciousness into  which  hypnotic  or  merely  fascinated  subjects  may  be  made  to  ]>;iss 
deserve  to  be  considered  with  lively  interest.  As  I  shall  have  to  explain  to  you 
later,  the  individual  in  these  novel  conditions  no  longer  belongs  to  himself;  he  is 
surrendered,  an  inert  being,  to  the  enterprise  of  those  who  surround  him.  At  one 
moment,  in  the  passive  stage  in  this  condition  of  lethargy  or  of  catalepsy,  he  is  ab- 
solutely defenseless  and  exposed  to  any  criminal  attempt  on  the  part  of  those  who 
surround  him.  He  can  be  poisoned  and  mutilated.  Where  a  woman  is  concerned, 
she  may  be  violated  and  even  infected  with  syphilis,  of  which  I  have  recently  ob- 
served a  painful  example  in  my  practice.  She  may  become  a  mother  without  any 
trace  existing  of  a  criminal  assault,  and  without  the  patient  having  the  smallest 
recollection  of  what  has  passed  after  she  has  awakened.  Sometimes,  in  the  active 
condition,  the  state  of  lucid  somnambulism,  and  even  in  the  condition  of  simple 
fascination,  the  subject  may  be  exposed  to  the  influence  of  suggestions  of  the  most 
varied  kind  on  the  part  of  the  person  directing  his  actions.  He  may  be  induced 
to  become  a  homicide,  an  incendiary,  or  suicide,  and  all  these  impulses  deposited 
in  his  brain  during  sleep  become  forces  stored  up  silently,  which  will  burst  forth 
at  a  given  moment  with  the  precision,  accuracy  of  performance,  and  automatic 
impetuosity  of  acts  performed  by  the  really  insane.  Gentlemen,  bear  this  well  in 
mind;  all  these  acts,  all  these  phenomena  unconsciously  accomplished  are  no  mere 
vague  apprehensions  and  vain  suppositions;  they  are  real  facts  which  you  may 
meet  with  this  very  day  in  ordinary  life.  They  are  apt  to  develop,  and  to  appear 
around  you  and  before  you  in  the  most  inexplicable  manner. 

Of  course  the  question  will  be  asked,  Are  the  practical  uses  or 
the  applications  of  the  artificial  sleep  (the  induction  of  which  is 
the  residuum  of  this  psychological  puddle)  of  such  value  as  to 
counterbalance  its  evils  ?  As  to  its  surgical  uses,  which  at  first 
sight  are  the  most  obvious,  Luys  himself  says : 

At  the  fir.-t  appearance  of  hypnotism,  when  Braid  had  shown  that  hypnotized 
subjects  are  insensitive  to  external  stimuli,  surgeons  conceived  the  idea  of  using 
this  method  for  the  performance  of  certain  operations.  In  fact,  some  among 
them  had  the  opportunity  of  testing  it  with  a  certain  amount  of  advantage.  But 
since  the  wonderful  discovery  of  chloroform  (and,  it  might  be  added,  of  local 
ansestbesia  by  cocaine,  the  vaporization  of  ether,  etc.)  these  attempts,  so  far  as 
concern  surgical  anaesthesia,  have  been  justly  abandoned.  At  the  present  time 
the  application  of  hypnotism  to  surgical  therapeutics  is  of  absolutely  no  account, 
since  it  concerns  only  a  small  number  of  persons — namely,  the  class  of  hypnotiz- 
able  subjects.* 

In  the  domain  of  medicine  M.  Luys  is  naturally  more  hopeful 
and  more  affirmative;  but  obviously  inspires  less  confidence 
than  his  calmer  and  more  critical  colleagues  at  the  Salpetriere, 
who  have  abstained  from  following  him  in  these  new  develop- 
ments and  who  regard  them  with  disfavor  and  distrust.  To  me, 
the  so-called  medical  cures  by  hypnotism  seem  to  rank  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  class  as  those  of  the  faith-curer. 


*  Applications  therapeutiques  de  1'Hypnotisme.     Par  le  Dr.  J.  Luys.     Paris :  Imprirue- 
rie  F.  Leve,  17  Rue  Cassette,  1889. 


THE  REVIVAL    OF  WITCHCRAFT.  525 

The  hypnotic  endormeur  is  very  well  able  to  explain  the  mira- 
cles of  faith-cure  and  pilgrimage  by  the  light  of  his  own  expe- 
rience. They  result,  as  he  explains  accurately,  from  the  reaction 
of  mind  on  body,  the  effects  of  imagination,  of  self-suggestion,  or 
of  suggestion  from  without.  Those  who  benefit  by  them  are  es- 
pecially the  fervent  and  the  enthusiastic,  the  vividly  imaginative, 
the  mentally  dependent,  and,  above  all,  the  hysterical — male  or 
female.  But  clearly,  the  faith-curer  may  retort  upon  the  hypno- 
tizer  that  they  are  brothers  in  their  therapeutic  results,  if  not  in 
their  faith  and  philosophy.  The  one  can  work  about  the  same 
percentage  of  cures  as  the  other — and  no  more ;  and  the  interven- 
ing apparatus,  whether  of  magnets,  mirrors,  or  of  grottoes,  only 
serve  to  affect  the  imagination,  and  to  supply  "  the  external  stimu- 
lus "  which  is  necessary. 

To  this  category  belong  also  the  long  series  of  thousands  of 
asserted  cures  of  people  who  wear  what  they  are  pleased  to  call 
magnetic  belts,  or  who  used  to  wear  magnetic  rings,  who  were 
cured  by  the  Perkins  tractors,  whether  of  wood  or  of  iron — they 
are  the  prey  of  the  quacks  of  all  ages  and  countries. 

One  essential  part  is,  however,  I  conceive,  that  110  new  faculty 
was  ever  yet  developed  in  any  of  these  hypnotics.  The  frauds  of 
clairvoyance,  of  spirit  perceptions,  of  gifts  of  language,  of  slate- 
writing,  of  spirit-writing,  of  far-sight,  of  "communication  across 
space,"  of  "  transfer  of  mental  impressions/'  of  the  development 
of  any  new  sense  or  ghost  of  a  new  sense,  remain  now  as  ever,  for 
the  most  part,  demonstrable  frauds  or  perhaps  in  a  few  cases  self- 
deceptions.  At  the  Salpetriere,  at  Nancy,  wherever  the  facts  have 
been  impartially  and  critically  examined,  this  has  been  the  result. 
It  results  once  more  now  from  my  test  of  the  subjects  of  the 
Charite'  and  the  Ecole  Polytechnique.  It  will,  I  suppose,  be  too 
much  to  expect  that  we  shall  hear  no  more  of  the  "  New  Mesmer- 
ism," but  it  will  be  easy  for  any  one  thus  experimentally  to  re- 
duce it  to  its  true  dimensions. 

Finally,  as  to  the  practical  question,  which  has  perhaps  a 
greater  interest  for  the  sociologist  than  any  which  have  suggested 
themselves  up  to  this  point.  Since  the  hypnotist  faith-curer  of 
the  hospital  ward  and  the  priestly  faith-curer  of  the  grotto  are  in 
truth  utilizing  the  same  human  elements  and  employing  cognate 
resources,  although  masked  by  a  different  outward  garb,  we  may 
ask  ourselves  which  can  approximate  to  the  greater  successes  and 
which  does  the  least  harm. 

So  far  as  I  can  see,  the  balance  is  in  favor  of  the  faith-curer  of 
the  chapel  and  the  grotto.  The  results  at  least  are  proportion- 
ately as  numerous,  and  they  are  more  rapid.  Numerically  there 
are,  I  incline  to  think,  more  faith-cures  at  Lourdes  than  there  are 
"suggestion-cures"  in  the  Salpetriere  or  the  Charite'.  So  far  as 


526  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

hypnotism  is  good  for  anything  as  a  curative  agent,  its  sphere  is 
limited,  by  Charcot,  Fe're',  Babinski,  and  all  the  most  trustworthy 
medical  observers  of  Paris,  to  the  relief  of  functional  disorder  and 
symptoms  in  hysterical  patients.     The  Nancy  school  put  their 
pretensions  higher ;  but  any  one  who  will  analyze  for  himself,  or 
who  will  study  Babinski's  able  analysis  of  the  Nancy  reputed 
cases  of  cure,  will  easily  satisfy  himself  that  such  claims  are  not 
valid.     As  to  the  use  of  "  suggestion  "  as  an  anaesthetic  substitute 
of  chloroform  for  operation  purposes,  that  "  sugges  ion "  dates 
back  now  beyond  the  ages  of  Esdaile  and  of  Elliotson.    It  has 
been  given  up  and  fallen  into  disuse  because  of  its  unreliability 
and  limited  application.     It  is  now  sagely  proposed  to  use  hyp- 
notism for  "  tooth-drawing/7  for  the  treatment  of  drunkards  and 
a-\f  school  children.    The  proposition  is  self-condemned.    To  enable 
is,  by \tist  to  draw  a  tooth  painlessly,  the  average  man  or  woman 
automatoisries  of  sittings,  to  be  reduced  to  the  state  of  a  trained 
The  criminal  but  happily  only  a  very  small  proportion  can  be. 
to  the  "  suggestairts  have  seen  enough  of  hypnotic  dentists.    As 
ment  of  backward!  "  cure  of  drunkards  or  the  "  suggestion  "  treat- 
gent  suggestion  is  w.  or  naughty  children,  systematic  and  intelli- 
schoolmaster  tries  to  &at  every  clergyman,  every  doctor,  and  every 
cessfully — and  in  a  bett&rry  out  in  such  cases  and  often  does  suc- 
notism.     Moreover,  for  druiform  than  the  degrading  shape  of  hyp- 
go,  a  failure.  ^»ess  it  is,  so  far  as  my  inquiries 

If  a  striking  effect  is  to  be  produced 

powerfully  to  affect  the  imagination,  the  faY. an  apparatus  destined 
has  this  advantage  over  the  endormeur  of  tiitecurer  °f  tne  grotto 
hospital.  He  does  not  intrude  his  own  personalitp^a^orrn  or  ^ne 
patient  to  subject  his  mental  ego  to  that  of  his  "  opei,an(^  train  his 
"mesmerizer  "  seeks  to  dominate  his  subject ;  he  weakeiator-"  The 
power,  which  it  is  desirable  to  strengthen.  He  aims  at  bls  the  wil1 
the  master  of  a  slave.  I  do  not  need  to  emphasize  the  danpcoming 
this  practice.  I  need  not  even  relate  them.  I  have  briefly  q5ers  of 
the  warnings  of  one  of  its  apostles,  or  at  least  so  much  of  thenloted 
it  is  seemly  here  to  relate.  Cyi  as 

The  faith-curer  of  the  grotto  strengthens  the  weaker  indivic 
uality.    He  plays  upon  the  spring  of  self-suggestion.    The  patient^' 
is  told  to  believe  that  he  will  be  cured,  to  wish  it  fervently,  and  ^ 
he  shall  be  cured.     So  far  as  he  is  cured,  he  returns  perhaps  a 
better  and  a  stronger  man,  and  his  cure  is  quite  as  real  and  likely 
to  be  quite  as  lasting  as  if  he  had  become  the  puppet  of  a  hyp- 
notizer.     The  experiments  of  the  Salpetriere  have  served  to  en- 
able us  to  analyze  more  clearly  the  nature  of  faith-cures  gen- 
erally, and  they  have  thrown  a  ray  of  light  on  a  series  of  phe- 
nomena of  human  automatism  never  before  studied  so  clearly  or 


SOME  REMARKABLE  INSECTS.  527 

philosophically,  but  they  have  added  practically  little,  if  any- 
thing, to  our  curative  resources.  It  is  hardly  to  be  set  down  to 
their  discredit  that  they  have  incidentally  favored  the  reign  of 
the  platform  hypnotizer  or  the  vagaries  of  the  subjects  at  La 
Charite' ;  that  is  their  misfortune  rather  than  their  fault,  but  it  is 
a  grave  misfortune.  But  the  intervention  of  authority  might  at 
the  present,  in  respect  to  the  latter,  cut  short  these  absurdities 
and  put  an  end  to  some  social  mischiefs  which  have  fastened  on 
to  them  and  hang  to  their  skirts.  Thus  much  as  to  the  socio- 
logical question.  To  the  student  of  "  psychological  phenomena  " 
it  has  a  great  interest  to  note  how  successive  functions  may  be 
separately  abolished  as  the  brain  is  partially  set  to  sleep,  and  in 
what  exaggerated  forms  the  remaining  activities  may  be  brought 
upon  the  stage  when  restraining  self-consciousness  is  stilled.  The 
vulgar,  too,  may  find  an  ignoble  amusement  in  the  antics  of  these 
drinkers  of  petroleum  and  vinegar,  in  the  semi-idiotic  postures 
and  proceedings  of  the  hypnotized  manikin,  as  they  do  in  afan- 
tocchini  show  or  a  puppet  play.  But  against  such  philosophic 
satisfactions  and  vulgar  amusements  must  be  set  the  avowed  and 
the  unconfessed  mischiefs,  and  who  can  doubt  that  these  outbal- 
ance any  good  result  which  can  be  discerned  ? — Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury. 

[Concluded.] 


SOME  REMARKABLE  INSECTS. 

BY  WILLIAM  J.  FOX. 

THE  great  majority  of  persons  have  no  idea  of  the  numerous 
and  singular  forms  of  insects.  They  are  all  called  "  bugs  "  by 
most  people,  yet  not  one  tenth  of  their  number  are  really  bugs. 
These  latter  are  classed  by  themselves  and  are  called  Hemiptera. 
Beetles  are  not  bugs,  being  totally  different  things,  and  form  what 
are  known  as  the  Coleoptera,  which  means  sheath-wing,  because 
of  the  two  large  plates  on  the  back  that  cover  the  true  wings, 
which  consist  of  thin  membrane.  These  covers  are  called  elytra. 
The  butterflies  and  moths  form  another  one  of  these  orders,  being 
called  Lepidoptera,  or  scale-  wing,  on  account  of  the  tiny  scales 
with  which  the  wings  are  covered.  No  doubt  many  of  the  readers 
of  this  article  have  noticed  the  powdery  substance  which  comes 
off  a  butterfly  or  moth  on  handling  it.  These  are  the  scales,  and, 
should  any  reader  possess  a  microscope  and  place  the  wing  or 
part  of  one  under  it,  I  think  he  will  be  repaid  for  his  trouble. 
The  "  dragon  flies  "  and  "  devil's  needles  "  form  the  order  Neurop- 
tera,  which  means  vein-winged.  So  it  is  with  the  flies  and  the 


528 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


bees,  wasps,  and  ants,  the  flies  being  called  Diptera,  i.  e.,  two- 
winged,  and  the  bees,  wasps,  and  ants,  Hymenoptera,  or  mem- 
brane-wing. It  will  probably  be  said  by  some  that  ants  have 

no  wings ;  but  this  is 
only  the  case  with 
what  are  called  neu- 
ters or  workers,  the 
males  and  females  be- 
ing provided  with 
wings.  The  total 
number  of  different 
kinds  of  insects  that 
are  known  at  present 
is  over  two  hundred 
thousand,  of  which 
beetles  alone  num- 
ber one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  — 
this  being  about  twice 

as  many  as  all  the  other  known  animals  together.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  actual  number  of  different  kinds  of  insects  in  the  world 
is  over  one  million. 

The  Orthoptera,  to  which  grasshoppers  and  roaches  belong, 
present  many  oddities ;    foremost  among  them,  in  the   United 


FIG.  1. — PRAYING  MANTIS. 


FIG.  2.— THE  WALKING  LEAF. 


States,  is  the  mantis  or  "  praying  mantis."    It  is  very  common 
throughout  the  South.    It  will  be  seen  that  the  fore  legs  are  armed 


SOME  REMARKABLE  INSECTS. 


529 


FIG.  3. — NEMOPIERA  COA. 


with  strong  spines  or  teeth,  used  for  securely  holding  any  insect 

that  may  fall  into  its  clutches.    I  have  seen  this  insect  leisurely 

devouring  flies  held  between  these  legs.    From  it  there  was  no 

chance  of    escape.      A 

specimen    observed    in 

captivity  washed  itself 

in  the  same  manner  as 

a  cat,  rubbing  its  head 

and  face  with  its  fore 

legs.    In  South  Ameri- 
ca a  species  of  mantis  is 

said  to  seize  and  devour 

small  birds. 

Another  strange  or- 

thopter  is  known  as  the 

"  walking  stick,"  which 

so  closely  resembles  the 

stems   of   plants    upon 

which  it  lives  that  it 

is  very  difficult  to  find 

them.    One  species  (Di- 

apheromera   femorata) 

is  abundant  in  the  Middle  States.     This  species  is  green  when  the 

foliage  upon  which  it  lives  is  of  that  color,  but  when  this  changes 

in  the  autumn  the  color  of  the  walking  stick  changes  also.    It  is 

said  to  do  great  injury  to  oak  and  other  trees. 

In  the  East  Indies  is  found  an  insect  that  greatly  resembles  a 

leaf,  both  in  form  and  color,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  figure  on  page 

528.  It  is  very  appropri- 
ately called  the  "walking 
leaf,"  and  is  known  to  scien- 
tists as  Phyllium  siccifoli- 
um.  There  are  about  a  doz- 
en species  of  these  insects 
known,  all  of  which  are  from 
the  Oriental  regions. 

In  southern  Europe  there 
is  found  a  peculiar  insect 
that  belongs  to  the  Neurop- 
tera,  the  same  order  as  do 
the  "  dragon  flies,"  "  devil's 

needles,"  "  snake  doctors,"  etc.    The  scientific  name  of  this  insect 

is  Xemoptera  coca.    It  will  be  seen  that  the  first  pairs  of  wings  are 

very  broad,  but  this  is  not  the  peculiar  part  of  it ;  it  is  the  hind 

pair  that  are  remarkable,  being  extremely  long  and  narrow  and 

a  little  broader  toward  the  end,  which  gives  them  the  appearance 


FlO.   4.— DlACTOR  BILINEATU9. 


VOL.    XLIII. i 


53° 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


of  paddles.     There  is  nothing  more  in  this  group  of  insects  that 
is  very  striking. 

We  will  now  take  up  the  Hemiptera,  of  which  the  well-known 
bedbug  is  an  example.  One  species  from  tropical  America  (the 
Diactor  bilineatus)  has  very  slender  legs, 
except  the  tibiae  of  the  hind  pair,  these  be- 
ing broadly  expanded.  What  use  these  ex- 
pansions are  to  this  insect  is  not  known. 

Another  singular  species,  one  that  is 
found  throughout  most  parts  of  the  Unit- 
ed States,  namely,  Eanatra  fusca,  inhabits 
ponds  and  other  streams.  It  is  known  to  de- 
stroy the  eggs  of  fishes  and  to  attack  young 
fish.  It  is  when  they  attack  fish  that  their 
stout  fore  legs  come  into  play,  being  used 
for  grasping  and  holding  any  unfortunate 
fish  that  should  fall  within  their  reach.  It 
will  be  seen  how  well  adapted  these  legs  are 
for  the  purpose. 

Among  the  beetles,  or  Coleoptera,  there 
are  many  curious  forms,  of  which  I  will 
only  mention  a  few  of  the  most  prominent. 
Acrocinus  longimanus,  the  "  long-armed " 
beetle,  as  it  is  called,  has  the  fore  legs  greatly 
elongated,  being  twice  as  long  as  the  body 
and  about  three  times  as  long  as  either  of 
the  other  legs.  It  inhabits  tropical  Ameri- 
ca, where  it  is  said  to  be  quite  abundant. 

The  giants  among  insects  belong  to  the  genus  Dynastes,  and 
to  several  allied  genera.     Of  Dynastes,  one  (D.  hercules)  found  in 


FIG.  5. — RANATRA  FUSCA. 


FIG.  6. — DYNASTES  HERCULES. 


Africa  attains  a  length  of  six  inches,  and  is  remarkable,  not  only 
for  its  great  size,  but  for  the  long,  curved  horn  which  projects 
out  from  the  thorax ;  beneath  this  horn  there  is  another  much 


SOME  REMARKABLE  INSECTS. 


FIG.  7.— STAG  BEETLE. 


shorter  one,  which  projects  from  the  head,  being  armed  with  sev- 
eral huge  teeth.  Insects  of  the  male  sex  only  are  provided  with 
these  immense  horns,  those  of  the  opposite  sex  being  quite  a  dif- 
ferent-looking beetle,  be- 
ing without  any  trace  of 
these  projections.  There 
is  a  species  that  inhab- 
its the  southern  United 
States  that  also  belongs  to 
this  genus,  but  it  is  much 
smaller,  being  about  two 
and  a  half  inches  long. 

The  "stag  beetle"  of 
Europe  is  another  strange 

form,  the  mandibles  of  the  male  being  greatly  enlarged.  From 
the  shape  and  size  of  the  jaws  one  would  suppose  that  this  insect 
is  predaceous;  but  it  is  on  the  contrary  a  vegetable  feeder,  using 
its  great  jaws  to  wound  the  plant,  which  causes  the  sap  or  juices 
to  flow,  upon  which  it  feeds.  The  jaws  of  the  females  are  in  no 
way  conspicuous.  There  is  also  a  closely  allied  species  found  in 
the  United  States,  but  it  is  a  smaller  insect.  Many  other  curious 

forms  are  found  among  the  bee- 
tles, but  they  are  too  many  to 
mention. 

The  Lepidoptera,  or  butter- 
flies and  moths,  have  a  few  odd 
forms  among  them.  One  of 
the  most  interesting  is  what  is 
known  as  the  "  dead-leaf  "  but- 
terfly, found  in  the  Malay  Ar- 
chipelago. The  under  side  of 
this  butterfly  greatly  resembles 
a  dead  or  dried  leaf,  so  much  so 
that  it  is  next  to  an  impossibil- 
ity to  detect  it  when  it  alights 
among  withered  bushes.  Wal- 
lace, in  his  book  The  Malay 
Archipelago,  says  of  this  in- 
sect :  "  Its  upper  surface  is  of  a 
rich  purple,  variously  tinged 
with  ash  color,  and  across  the 

fore  wings  there  is  a  broad  bar  of  deep  orange,  so  that  when  on 
the  wing  it  is  very  conspicuous.  ...  I  often  tried  to  capture  it, 
without  success,  for,  after  flying  a  short  distance,  it  would  enter  a 
bush  among  dead  or  dried  leaves,  and,  however  carefully  I  crept 
up  to  the  spot,  I  could  never  discover  it  until  it  would  suddenly 


FIG.  8. — DEAD-LEAF  BUTTERFLY. 


532 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


FIG.  9. — UMBBELLA  ANT. 


start  out  again  and  then  disappear  in  a  similar  place.  At  length 
I  was  fortunate  'enough  to  see  the  exact  spot  where  the  butterfly 
settled,  and,  though  I  lost  sight  of  it  for  some  time,  I  at  length 
discovered  that  it  was  close  before  my  eyes,  but  that  in  its  posi- 
tion of  repose  it  so  resembled  a  dead  leaf  at- 
tached to  a  twig  as  almost  certainly  to  deceive 
the  eye  when  gazing  full  upon  it."  In  trop- 
ical America  there  are  a  number  of  species 
that  have  wings  so  transparent  that  it  is 
possible  to  read  small  print  through  them. 
Among  the  moths  the  "  death's  head  "  of  Eu- 
rope is  remarkable  for  having  on  the  top  of 
the  thorax  the  figure  of  a  skull  and  cross- 
bones.  It  is  an  object  of  great  terror  to  the 
ignorant  classes,  and  it  is  said  "has  more 
than  once  thrown  a  whole  province  into  con- 
sternation, the  people  thinking  it  was  some  infranatural  being 
sent  upon  the  earth  as  a  messenger  of  pestilence  and  woe." 

The  Hymenoptera,  which  include  the  bees,  wasps,  and  ants, 
contain  a  number  of  interesting  forms,  especially  among  the  ants. 
The  "  umbrella  ant "  of  Brazil  has  a  tremendous  head  in  propor- 
tion to  its  body,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  figure.  It  has  received  the 
name  of  the  umbrella-ant  because  of  its  habit  of  cutting  out 
round  pieces  of  the  leaves  of  orange  and  coffee  trees,  which  it  car- 
ries by  its  jaws  in  an  upright  posi- 
tion, so  that  it  looks  as  though  it 
were  utilizing  its  burden  to  keep  off 
the  heat  of  the  sun. 

The  "driver  ant"  of  Africa,  the 
sting  of  which  is  compared  to  the 
thrust  of  a  red-hot  needle,  is  another 
interesting  subject.  These  ants  are 
totally  blind,  and,  when  an  army  of 
them  gets  on  the  march,  all  animal 
life  in  their  path  gets  into  activity, 
for  woe  to  any  living  creature  of 
small  and  even  large  size  that  should 
fall  into  their  power !  They  also  en- 
ter houses,  driving  the  inhabitants 
from  them,  but  on  the  return  of  the 

latter,  after  the  ants  have  left,  they  find  their  place  of  abode 
cleared  of  all  vermin ;  rats,  mice,  and  all  other  pests  of  the  house 
are  destroyed  by  these  scavengers.  The  largest  serpents,  if  gorged, 
will  fall  a  victim  to  these  remorseless  creatures.  They  have  been 
known,  when  a  stream  interrupts  their  journey,  to  actually  link 
themselves  together  and  form  a  floating  bridge,  over  which  the 


FIG.  10. — DRIVER  ANT. 


THE  MATERIAL    VIEW   OF  LIFE.  533 

rest  of  the  army  passes.  When  a  stream  is  too  rapid  for  such  a 
bridge,  they  form  a  suspension  bridge  by  hanging  from  a  friendly 
branch,  and  when  wafted  across  by  a  breeze,  they  firmly  anchor 
on  the  opposite  shore,  thus  allowing  the  rest  to  cross  in  safety, 
and  swing  over  themselves  when  the  others  have  all  crossed. 


THE  MATERIAL  VIEW  OF  LIFE  AND  ITS  RELATION 
TO  THE   SPIRITUAL. 

BY  PROF.  GRAHAM  LUSK, 

ASSISTANT   PROFESSOR   OF   PHYSIOLOGY,    YALE   MEDICAL   SCHOOL. 

WE  live  in  a  material  age.  Old  beliefs  are  being  supplanted 
by  what  seem  to  be  new  truths.  The  student  finds  on  every 
hand  vast  volumes  of  learning  bequeathed  to  him  by  those 
who  have  labored  before  him ;  and  he  who  plunges  deeply  into 
this  onward-rushing  tide  of  material  truths  is  often  startled  to 
find  there  an  undertow  sucking  away  the  spiritual  foundation. 
Skeptics,  in  scorn  of  latter-day  religion,  refer  to  the  middle  ages 
as  the  ages  of  faith.  Christians,  half  dismayed,  ask  themselves, 
Is  mankind  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  abyss  of  materialism  ? 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  discuss  life  from  a  strictly 
material  standpoint,  and  afterward  to  show  that  belief  in  the 
material  interpretation  does  not  cut  one  off  from  belief  in  the 
spiritual. 

My  own  ideas  have  been  largely  influenced  by  German 
thought.  Those  who  have  had  the  privilege  of  listening  to  the 
lectures  of  Prof.  Carl  Voit  in  Munich  will  recognize  in  this  paper 
many  traces  of  his  teaching.  Through  him  I  received  instruction 
in  the  material  view  of  life. 

The  idea  of  the  world  held  by  Aristotle  was  that  all  things 
were  made  up  of  certain  elementary  matter,  qualified  by  four 
properties— hot,  cold,  wet,  and  dry.  Matter,  with  the  properties 
cold  and  dry,  was  earth  ;  with  cold  and  wet,  water ;  with  hot  and 
wet,  air;  and  with  hot  and  dry,  fire.  Different  bodies  varied 
from  each  other  as  they  contained  different  proportions  of  the 
properties.  These  properties  could  be  driven  off  from  matter — 
that  is  to  say,  were  separable  from  matter.  Thus,  the  alchemists 
of  the  middle  ages  thought  if  they  could  drive  a  certain  property 
out  of  mercury,  or  put  a  new  one  into  it,  clearly  they  would  pro- 
duce gold. 

In  like  manner  these  same  principles  came  into  use  for  the  ex- 
planation of  life.  During  life  there  was  a  property  present  which 
departed  at  death — a  living  principle,  a  "  vital  force." 

Galen,  who  was  born  at  Troy,  and  who  died  at  Rome  A.  D.  200, 


534 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


applied  the  learning  of  Aristotle  to  his  practice  of  medicine. 
Man,  he  said,  is  but  matter  containing  certain  properties.  If 
these  properties  be  in  correct  proportion,  well  and  good ;  but  if 
the  balance  be  upset,  sickness  results.  The  therapeutics  of  Galen 
consisted,  therefore,  in  restoring  the  lost  property.  If  the  patient 
had  a  chill,  he  put  him  in  a  warm  bath ;  if  he  had  a  fever,  he  put 
him  in  a  cold  bath. 

Van  Helmont,  whose  work  belongs  chiefly  to  the  first  half  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  tells  us  of  the  existence  of  an  Archeeus, 
and  in  this  theory  he  was  supported  by  Paracelsus.  The  Archseus 
was  a  spirit  which  had  its  abode  in  the  stomach  of  man.  If  the 
Archseus  were  well  nourished,  he  was  pleased  and  happy ;  but  if 
anything  disagreeable  reached  him,  he  made  his  displeasure  pain- 
fully evident,  and  if  something  were  not  done  to  appease  his 
anger,  he  betook  himself  off,  arid  the  man  was  dead. 

Our  present  views  are  entirely  different.  Properties  are  not 
separable  from  matter.  Properties  are  inherent  in  matter.  Upon 
this  knowledge  our  modern  opinions  are  based.  We  have  spoken 
of  a  belief  that  life  depended  on  a  property — a  "vital  force." 
A  "force"  may  be  defined  as  something  that  can  not  be  ex- 
plained. The  laws  of  gravitation  stand  as  Newton  left  them,  but 
what  the  force  of  gravitation  is  no  man  can  say.  Hence,  the 
expression  "  vital  force  "  was  but  a  confession  of  ignorance.  No, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  "  vital  force."  There  are  in  living  Na- 
ture and  in  the  inanimate  world  the  same  materials,  ruled  in  both 
cases  by  the  same  natural  chemical  and  physical  laws,  only  the 
conditions  in  living  Nature  are  different  from  the  conditions  in 
the  inanimate,  and  consequently  the  phenomena  observed  are  like- 
wise different. 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  of  the  discoveries  which  have  caused 
us  to  accept  this  material  view  of  life. 

Harvey,  in  1616,  first  taught  the  true  doctrine  regarding  the 
circulation  of  the  blood,  and  compared  the  heart  to  a  pump. 

Scheiner,  a  Jesuit  priest,  declared  the  action  of  the  eye  to  be 
like  that  of  a  camera  obscura,  the  lens  of  the  eye  acting  to  form  a 
picture  on  a  background. 

Keppler  developed  the  theory  of  spectacles. 

Borelli  explained  how  the  mechanism  of  breathing  was  due  to 
the  elasticity  of  the  lungs  and  to  the  muscles  acting  as  power 
upon  levers — the  ribs. 

Lavoisier  showed  that  animal  heat  was  due  to  the  decomposi- 
tion of  higher  chemical  compounds  of  the  food  eaten,  just  as  the 
heat  of  the  candle  is  produced  by  the  combustion  of  its  constitu- 
ents. 

All  these  facts  are  easily  seen  to  be  but  followings  after  Na- 
ture's laws.  Chemistry  brings  many  proofs  confirming  the  doc 


THE  MATERIAL   VIEW    OF  LIFE.  535 

trine  that  there  is  no  fundamental  difference  whether  of  proper- 
ties or  of  governing  laws  between  the  animate  and  the  inaminate. 
The  chemist  turns  starch  into  sugar  in  the  laboratory ;  the  intes- 
tines do  the  same. 

We  find  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  a  theory  supported 
by  Lavoisier  which  declared  that,  to  form  an  organic  compound, 
life  was  necessary.  The  organic  compounds  had  properties  essen- 
tially different  from  the  inorganic  or  mineral,  and  were  formed 
under  different  influences — under  the  influence  of  a  "  vital  force." 

The  greatest  blow  to  this  theory  was  the  discovery  by  Wohler, 
in  1828,  that  he  could  make  urea  in  the  laboratory.  Here,  then, 
was  a  characteristic  animal  substance,  which  was  actually  formed 
in  the  laboratory  without  the  intervention  of  any  "  vital  force " 
whatever.  Since  Wohler's  discovery  an  overwhelming  number  of 
similar  bodies  have  been  formed  in  like  manner.  Sugar  may  be 
made  from  its  elements — carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen.  There 
is  little  doubt  that  at  some  future  time  the  method  of  making  all 
the  materials  of  any  organization  will  be  known  to  the  chemist. 

It  has  been  said  that  organic  materials  are  more  easily  decom- 
posable than  inorganic ;  but  albumen,  if  dried,  will  keep  for  years, 
whereas  silver  iodide  on  the  sensitive  photographic  plate  is 
changed  by  light  in  the  hundred-thousandth  part  of  a  second. 

Hence,  it  is  not  difference  in  materials  that  can  distinguish  the 
organized  from  the  unorganized.  Indeed,  every  organization  con- 
sists in  major  part  of  water,  which  is  inorganic,  and  every  organi- 
zation must  contain  salts.  In  both  organic  and  inorganic  we  find 
crystals ;  white  of  egg  has  already  been  crystallized.  In  fact,  there 
is  no  boundary  to  be  drawn.  Over  the  organic  and  inorganic  rule 
the  same  natural  laws.  The  distinction  is  merely  conventional. 

The  difference  between  the  organized  and  the  unorganized 
does  not  lie  in  the  materials  represented,  only  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  materials.  The  element  of  life  is  the  minute  cell.  All  life 
in  the  organization  is  dependent  upon  the  activity  of  the  cells. 
I  have  said  that  the  conditions  in  the  organized  were  different 
from  those  in  the  unorganized.  The  cell  furnishes  the  conditions 
for  life.  Now,  the  arrangement  of  the  materials  in  the  cell  is  dif- 
ferent from  that  in  unorganized  matter.  In  the  piece  of  copper  or 
crystal  of  sugar  the  smallest  particles  are  everywhere  the  same. 
In  the  living  organized  cell  the  smallest  particles  are  everywhere 
different.  Such  arrangement  of  materials  that  the  conditions  for 
life  are  present  is  the  so-called  protoplasm. 

The  yeast  cell  is  a  microscopic  sausage-shaped  organization 
which,  under  proper  conditions,  changes  sugar  into  alcohol  and 
carbonic  acid.  This  is  a  characteristic  function.  In  the  same 
manner  the  cells  in  the  body  have  their  characteristic  functions 
in  decomposing  the  materials  furnished  by  the  blood. 


536  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  living  cell  is  made  up  of  organic  and  inorganic  constitu- 
ents. It  contains  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  sulphur, 
phosphorus,  chlorine,  sodium,  potassium,  calcium,  magnesium, 
fluorine,  silicon,  and  iron.  All  these  are  necessary  to  life.  Ab- 
straction of  one  of  these  elements  means  death  to  the  organization. 

We  have  traced  life  down  to  the  cell.  The  lowest  forms  of 
life,  both  animal  and  vegetable,  are  single  cells,  and  from  these 
single  cells,  according  to  the  theory  of  evolution,  all  life  has  been 
produced.  But  how  about  the  origin  of  the  first  cell  ?  We  do 
not  believe  in  spontaneous  generation — that  is  to  say,  no  case  of 
the  spontaneous  generation  of  life  from  its  elements  has  ever 
been  recorded  by  man.  But  we  may  reason  thus  :  All  substances, 
even  the  simplest,  require  certain  conditions  for  their  production. 
The  conditions  required  to  produce  a  living  cell  must  of  necessity 
be  extremely  complicated.  We  do  not  know  of  such  conditions, 
but  for  the  sake  of  argument  we  may  imagine  that  at  some 
former  period  of  the  world's  history  conditions  may  have  existed 
favorable  to  the  production  of  the  first  life. 

When  we  seek  to  define  life  we  uncover  a  difficult  problem. 
But  who  can  define  the  steam  engine  ?  There  is  no  satisfactory 
definition  for  either.  We  can  merely  say  that  life  is  the  result  of 
the  activity  of  the  cells. 

It  follows  from  this  that  it  is  useless  to  seek  for  a  seat  of  life. 
The  seat  of  life  has  been  placed  in  the  blood,  but  this  is  the  nour- 
ishing fluid ;  in  the  heart,  which  is  merely  the  pump  for  the  blood ; 
in  the  medulla  oblongata,  but  this  contains  the  nervous  center  for 
breathing.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  seat  of  life.  Life  is  the 
result  of  the  activity  of  all  the  organs  of  the  body. 

To  every  living  thing  there  at  last  must  come  an  end,  and  in 
this  fact  of  death  the  advocates  of  a  "  vital  force  "  saw  the  neces- 
sity for  their  theory.  But  this  is  explicable  in  a  material  man- 
ner. In  life,  as  in  death,  decompositions  are  continually  going  on. 
These  decompositions  are  in  kind  not  different,  only  during  life 
the  products  of  decomposition  are  removed,  and  at  death  these 
products  remain  in  the  body  and  poison  the  individual  cells — that 
is,  so  alter  them  that  their  conditions  no  longer  fulfill  the  require- 
ments of  life. 

The  uneducated  Indian  when  first  shown  a  watch  thought  that 
it  was  alive ;  we,  on  the  contrary,  have  come  to  regard  the  living 
organization  as  a  machine.  Upon  this  basis  alone  can  physiology 
endure  as  a  science,  and  physiology  is,  as  the  reader  knows,  noth- 
ing but  the  study  of  the  phenomena  of  life. 

I  have  endeavored,  up  to  this  point,  to  give  an  exposition  of 
the  material  view  of  life  as  complete  as  the  most  exacting  mate- 
rialist could  desire.  Many  men  reach  this  point  and  refuse  to  see 
further ;  they  make  materialism  their  creed,  and  cast  religion  to 


THE  MATERIAL   VIEW   OF  LIFE.  537 

the  winds.  Now,  is  this  rational  ?  Is  it  impossible  for  the  scien- 
tific mind  to  conceive  of  the  existence  of  the  soul  ?  Certainly  not. 

When  we  seek  for  explanation  of  intellectual  activity  we  find 
two  views  advanced — one,  the  purely  material  view  that  all 
thought  comes  uncontrolled  from  the  decomposition  of  matter, 
from  motion  in  the  molecules ;  the  other,  the  spiritual  view  that 
mental  activity  is  under  the  domination  of  a  soul.  Under  no  cir- 
cumstances can  the  soul  be  in  a  position  to  produce  something 
out  of  nothing;  it  must  rather,  in  the  production  of  thought, 
utilize  the  materials  furnished  to  the  brain  by  the  blood.  The 
existence  of  the  soul  has  never  been  scientifically  proved  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  no  material  thinker  can  pretend  that  the  purely  mate- 
rial view  explains  the  phenomena  of  intellectual  activity.  Let  us 
see,  therefore,  if  we  can  not  employ  some  reasoning  in  support  of 
the  spiritual  view,  which  declares  the  existence  of  the  soul. 

Matter  is  divided  into  ponderable  and  imponderable — ponder- 
able, that  which  can  be  weighed ;  imponderable,  that  which  can 
not  be  weighed.  We  place  a  body  under  the  bell  jar  of  an  air 
pump  and  exhaust  the  air  ;  all  the  ponderable  air  is  thus  removed. 
There  still  remains  the  imponderable  ether.  On  this  ether  light- 
waves travel,  and  the  object  in  the  vacuum  therefore  continues 
visible.  Here,  then,  is  a  something  in  the  vacuum  which  is  in- 
visible, imponderable,  and  yet  whose  existence  is  scientifically 
acknowledged  as  pervading  all  space.  This  ether  is  set  in  motion 
by  the  vibrating  object  we  have  under  consideration ;  this  motion 
is  communicated  to  the  nerve  endings  on  the  background  of  the 
eye,  travels  thence  along  the  nerve,  and  produces  in  the  visual 
sensorium  of  the  brain  the  sensation  of  what  we  call  light.  The 
existence  of  this  ether  has  never  been  scientifically  proved,  but  it 
gives  an  explanation  to  something  otherwise  inexplicable. 

A  man  dies ;  the  spirit  passes  from  him  ;  the  flesh  is  left.  The 
man  has  not  lost  in  weight ;  the  spirit  is  imponderable.  Now,  as 
there  is  a  connection  between  the  luminiferous  ether  and  the 
nerve  endings  for  sight,  why  can  not  there  be  a  connection  be- 
tween the  spirit  and  the  countless  mass  of  cells  and  fibers  where 
is  what  we  call  the  intellect  ?  And,  likewise,  may  there  not  be  a 
spiritual  ether  surrounding  us,  a  medium  through  which  impulses 
may  come  to  the  spirit  from  on  high,  and  from  the  spirit  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  intellect  ?  Such  influences  come  to  us  strongly  at 
times,  as  at  the  communion-table.  The  existence  of  the  soul,  I 
have  said,  has  not  been  scientifically  proved,  but  it  is  the  explana- 
tion of  something  otherwise  inexplicable. 

We  gain  our  experience  of  the  world  through  our  senses. 
Man  is  born  with  intellect,  and  through  the  senses  that  intellect 
is  trained.  The  newborn  baby  possesses  already  some  knowledge 
of  touch  acquired  before  birth,  and  this  knowledge  he  afterward 


538  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

rapidly  expands  by  constantly  feeling  his  body  over  and  over,  as 
if  in  exploration  of  unknown  territory.  Later  he  acquires  the 
faculties  of  hearing  and  seeing,  and  likewise  of  tasting  and  smell- 
ing. Now,  these  senses,  five  in  number,  are  they  which  train  the 
intellect.  They  are  all  very  imperfect.  Sight :  but  the  greater 
part  of  the  solar  spectrum  is  invisible — that  is  to  say,  more  rays 
which  come  to  us  from  the  sun  are  invisible  than  those  which  our 
eye  can  see.  Hearing :  but  there  are  sounds  so  low  and  sounds 
so  high  that  they  are  inaudible.  Taste  and  smell :  very  imperfect. 
Touch :  but  there  are  millions  of  particles  of  dust  to  the  square 
inch  of  the  hand  which  we  can  not  feel.  Yet,  even  with  these 
imperfect  means  of  education,  many  men  have  reached  the  con- 
clusion satisfactory  to  themselves  that  they  are  clever ;  but  the 
wisest  man  knows  nothing  in  comparison  with  perfect  wisdom. 

The  whole  of  the  known  universe  consists  of  matter  in  mo- 
tion. All  sensation,  everything  we  know  of  the  outside  world, 
comes  to  us  through  motion.  The  motion  sets  up  a  movement 
in  the  nerve  ending,  on  the  skin,  on  the  retina  of  the  eye,  or 
wherever  the  proper  ending  capable  of  receiving  the  particular 
motion  may  be  situated.  This  motion  is  carried  from  the  nerve 
ending  along  the  nerve  to  the  special  central  organ  of  the  brain 
where  it  is  interpreted.  Light,  sound,  touch,  taste,  and  smell  are 
the  only  forms  of  motion  we  are  capable  of  appreciating,  because 
for  each  of  these  forms  of  motion  we  have  a  special  apparatus 
which  can  receive,  transmit,  and  interpret.  There  are  other  forms 
of  motion  which  we  can  not  appreciate — magnetism,  for  example 
— and  this  simply  because  we  have  no  nervous  mechanism  which 
responds  to  that  kind  of  motion.  In  like  manner  there  can  exist 
around  us  forces  in  infinite  variety  of  which  we  have  absolutely 
no  knowledge  whatsoever. 

Now,  is  it  not  conceivable  that,  in  the  spirit  after  its  severance 
from  the  flesh,  our  present  imperfect  senses  may  become  perfect, 
and  the  influence  of  other  now  unthought-of  sensations  become 
possible  ?  What  the  new  sensations  and  the  new  life  will  be 
are  unknown,  unknowable.  A  man  is  born  blind.  He  attains 
through  touch,  hearing,  and  the  minor  senses  a  certain  amount  of 
knowledge  of  the  outside  world,  but  his  ideas  of  what  really  is 
must  of  necessity  be  absolutely  and  entirely  different  from  our 
own.  The  operation  for  cataract  is  performed ;  the  man  can  see, 
and  is  shown  a  familiar  object — a  book  for  example ;  but  he  can  not 
say  what  it  is ;  he  must  touch  it  first.  His  ideas  of  things  undergo 
an  immediate  and  radical  change.  So  it  will  be  at  death  with  our 
ideas  of  heaven.  The  blind  spirit,  released  from  the  influence  of 
the  flesh,  passes  into  perfect  understanding  of  infinite  knowledge. 

To  my  mind,  the  material  view  of  life  should  have  no  terrors 
to  believers  in  religion. 


SEALING  IN  THE  ANTARCTIC.  539 

SEALING  IN  THE  ANTARCTIC. 

BY  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  KECENT  BRITISH  WHALING  EXPEDITION. 

A  LAPSE  of  nine  months  has  brought  back  the  Antarctic 
Whaling  Expedition.  It  will  be  remembered  that  in  Sep- 
tember last  four  ships — the  Balsena,  the  Diana,  the  Active,  and 
the  Polar  Star — set  out  from  Dundee  to  try  their  fortunes  in  the 
south  polar  seas,  since  of  late  the  Davis  Strait  and  Greenland 
fishing  has  not  met  with  entire  success.  The  expedition  was  to 
try  to  obtain  a  whale  which  Sir  James  Ross  described  as  "  greatly 
resembling  and  by  some  said  to  be  identical  to  the  Greenland 
whale/7  and  was  to  restrict  its  researches  to  that  region  visited  by 
Ross  in  his  third  voyage  to  the  Antarctic  in  the  summer  1842-'43. 
At  the  request  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  and  of  the 
Royal  Meteorological  Society,  it  was  arranged  that  the  medical 
officers  accompanying  the  expedition  should,  under  the  guidance 
of  the  masters  and  with  the  assistance  of  the  other  officers,  make 
such  scientific  observations  as  were  compatible  with  an  expedi- 
tion so  purely  commercial  in  character.  With  this  understand- 
ing these  two  societies  gave  a  grant  of  instruments  which  Mr. 
Leigh  Smith  and  others  liberally  supplemented  with  other  scien- 
tific outfit.  Naturally,  therefore,  among  scientific  circles  a  certain 
amount  of  chance  scientific  work  is  being  looked  for.  The  ex- 
pedition has  added  considerably  to  our  knowledge  of  the  meteor- 
ology of  the  southern  end  of  the  globe  and  has  noted  geograph- 
ical and  other  features.  But,  on  account  of  the  overwhelming 
commercialism  of  the  expedition,  opportunities,  which  might 
have  been  taken  advantage  of,  have  been  allowed  to  pass. 

Owing  greatly  to  the  hurried  departure  of  the  expedition, 
much  setting  in  order  of  material  and  seeking  out  of  information 
regarding  these  scarcely  known  parts  employed  a  considerable 
amount  of  time  on  the  passage  out,  and  systematic  meteorological 
observations  were  commenced  from  the  outset ;  tow  netting  and 
other  collecting  was  reserved  for  latitudes  south  of  40°  south,  and 
for  the  homeward  voyage,  for  it  was  deemed  unwise  to  occupy 
space  and  make  use  of  preservatives  which  might  be  required  for 
material  obtained  in  high  southern  latitudes.  Nevertheless,  on 
the  passage  out,  it  was  thought  advisable  on  a  few  occasions  to 
take  a  cast  of  the  net.  For  the  whole  outward  passage,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  days  in  the  southeast  trades,  the  ships  were 
baffled  by  head  winds,  for  nearly  three  weeks  we  wished  our 
native  shores  more  distant,  and  for  fifteen  days  the  Roaring  For- 
ties racked  us  with  southwest  gales.  We  experienced  heavy 
squally  weather,  with  frequent  lightning  and  heavy  rain.  The 
maximum  temperature  of  the  air  was  83°  Fahr.  on  the  23d  and 


54o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

24th  of  October,  in  3°  56'  north,  25°  15'  15"  west,  and  2°  33'  north, 
25°  37'  west  respectively,  and  from  the  17th  to  22d,  25th,  and  31st 
October  and  the  2d  November  the  thermometer  registered  80'8° 
to  83°. 

On  the  8th  of  December  the  rising  sun  dispersed  a  dense  fog 
and  revealed  the  rugged  shores  of  West  Falkland,  the  first  land 
we  had  seen  for  three  months,  and  in  its  likeness  recalling  the 
last  glimpses  we  had  of  Cape  Wrath.  By  noon  we  had  dropped 
anchor,  and  during  the  next  few  days,  while  the  ship  was  being 
stocked  with  a  supply  of  fresh  meat  and  water,  the  surgeons  of 
the  vessels  were  able  to  make  one  or  two  short  excursions.  These 
excursions,  however,  had  to  be  extremely  brief,  for  not  knowing 
when  the  ships  would  depart  it  was  necessary  to  remain  in  sight 
of  them  the  whole  time.  A  few  plants,  stones,  and  insects  were 
hastily  gathered  together,  and  several  birds  shot.  Among  the  lat- 
ter were  the  notable  steamer  duck  and  the  upland  goose.  A  strik- 
ing feature  of  the  Falkland  Islands  is  the  great  absence  of  trees  ; 
the  camp,  as  the  open  country  is  termed,  is  clothed  with  a  short 
scrub  called  diddle-dee  (Empetrum  rubrum),  growing  upon  and 
indeed  chiefly  forming  the  enormous  peat-beds  that  this  country 
is  so  rich  in ;  the  largest  bush  native  to  the  country  is  the  gigantic 
woolly  ragweed,  which  grows  to  a  height  of  three  or  four  feet ; 
but  there  are  few  flowering  plants.  The  gorse  or  furze  has  been 
introduced  and  seems  to  thrive  well,  but  a  few  trees  that  have 
been  planted  about  Stanley  present  a  meager  appearance.  Mosses 
and  lichens  abound  everywhere  and  many  of  the  lichens  are  very 
beautiful.  Besides  the  above-mentioned,  one  must  note  the  ever- 
famous  balsam  bogs  and  tussock  grass,  and  the  enormous  banks 
of  kelp  that  fringe  the  coast,  the  stems  of  which  vary  in  length 
from  five  to  forty  feet.  Among  birds,  the  penguins  and  albatross 
must  not  be  forgotten.  Insects  are  rare.  The  famous  wolf-like 
fox  is  almost  extinct;  Darwin's  prophecy  is  coming  true — the 
wild  horses  and  cattle  now  no  longer  roam  the  plains,  their  place 
having  been  taken  by  the  more  remunerative  sheep.  The  fur-seal 
is  still  found,  but  so  eagerly  have  they  been  hunted  that  their 
numbers  have  been  greatly  reduced.  A  solitary  lizard  and  a  few 
insects  almost  complete  the  list  of  animals  found  in  these  islands. 
One  must  ever  remember  the  world-renowned  streams  of  stones 
and  the  characteristic  quartz  rocks  cutting  their  way  through  the 
quilt  of  peat.  But  Darwin,  Hooker,  and  others  have  so  ably  pic- 
tured the  natural  features  of  the  Falkland  Islands  that  it  would 
be  out  of  place  to  describe  them  again  after  so  short  a  visit. 
There  is  a  great  change,  however,  since  Darwin's  time — he  found 
it  a  settlement  of  thieves  and  murderers,  now  it  is  a  peaceful 
British  colony,  for,  after  a  disputed  possession  of  the  islands  by 
Britain,  Spain,  France,  and  Buenos  Ayres,  Britain  finally  took 


SEALING  IN  THE  ANTARCTIC.  541 

possession  of  them  in  1833  and  formed  a  colony  which  is  now 
ruled  by  a  governor  and  is  also  the  see  of  a  colonial  bishopric. 
The  colony  at  first  was  far  from  prosperous,  but  since  1885  the 
revenue  has  considerably  exceeded  the  expenditure.  During  our 
stay  at  Port  Stanley  his  Excellency  the  Governor  honored  our 
ships  with  a  visit,  as  well  as  several  of  the  residents  of  the  settle- 
ment, and  we  are  greatly  indebted  to  his  Excellency  and  Lady 
Goldsworthy  for  the  hospitality  they  showed  us. 

Early  on  Sunday  morning  we  took  leave  of  the  Falkland  Is- 
lands and  steered  for  the  ice,  and  on  December  16th,  in  latitude 
59°  18'  south,  longitude  51°  01'  west,  met  the  first  iceberg— it  was 
of  enormous  dimensions  and  tabular;  a  second  was  sighted  in 
the  evening.  The  same  day  we  met  myriads  of  cape  pigeons,  also 
many  blue  petrel  and  molly-hawks.  The  sea  was  literally  swarm- 
ing with  whales  of  the  finner  kind,  and  their  resounding  blasts 
could  be  seen  on  all  sides.  So  numerous  were  the  cape  pigeons, 
and  so  eager  were  they  for  any  scraps  thrown  over  the  ship's  side, 
that  any  number  of  them  could  have  been  caught  with  small 
hand-nets  only  large  enough  to  contain  one  at  a  time,  and  many 
of  them  were  thus  captured  by  the  crew.  That  night  it  became 
overcast  and  rainy,  and  at  midnight  a  fog  came  on ;  fogs  contin- 
ued, with  shorter  intervals  of  clearer  weather,  during  which  in- 
tervals we  were  able  to  push  southward  for  the  next  few  days, 
and  the  weather  was  squally,  the  wind  being  from  northeast^ 
north,  and  northwest,  varying  in  force  from  a  light  air  to  a  mod- 
erate gale.  After  six  days  of  this  inhospitable  weather,  the  wind 
on  the  afternoon  of  December  22d  shifted  more  to  the  south,  and 
the  fog  quickly  lifted.  On  December  17th  we  met  with  the  first 
seal — it  was  one  of  the  larger  kind  which  Ross  described,  nearly 
twelve  feet  long,  having  a  bearlike  head,  with  formidable  canine 
teeth ;  it  was  curled  up  and  asleep,  and  it  was  drifting  by  as  we 
lay  in  the  fog.  It  was  promptly  shot  and  brought  aboard  by  a 
boat  lowered  away  for  the  purpose.  Several  pieces  of  drift  ice 
were  seen  on  the  17th  of  December,  and  several  bergs,  nearly  all 
flat-topped.  On  the  evening  of  the  22d  we  first  met  with  a  flock 
of  ten  or  a  dozen  of  the  beautiful  sheathbill,  and  on  the  morning 
of  the  23d  sighted  and  passed  the  group  of  Danger  Islets,  lying 
off  the  extreme  west  of  Joinville  Land,  which  was  lying  behind 
them.  The  sea  in  the  evening  became  of  an  olive-brown  color, 
and  we  met  with  the  snowy  petrel,  two  indications  which  Ross 
noticed  of  the  main  pack  being  at  hand.  On  the  following  even- 
ing three  of  the  Dundee  ships  made  fast  to  a  very  large  floe.  On 
Christmas  day  observations  were  taken,  and  it  was  found  that 
we  were  a  little  south  of  Ross's  position  on  New- Year's  eve  of  the 
summer  of  1842-'43— viz.,  latitude  64°  13'  south,  longitude  55°  52 
west,  and  where  he  says  "  great  numbers  of  the  largest-sized  black 


542  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

whales  were  lying  upon  the  water  in  all  directions ;  their  enor- 
mous breadth  quite  astonished  us.  The  color  of  the  sea  was  a 
dirty  brown,  probably  occasioned  by  minute  ferruginous  infuso- 
ria, which  were  found  in  the  greenish-colored  mud  that  was 
brought  up  by  the  deep-sea  clams  from  a  depth  of  two  hundred 
and  seven  fathoms."  The  sea  was  as  Ross  describes  it,  and  sound- 
ings were  obtained  at  8  P.  M.  in  one  hundred  and  ninety-four  fath- 
oms, but  no  black  whale  did  we  see,  only  whales  with  fins'on  their 
backs,  but  be  it  noted  that  several  grampuses  or  killers  were  seen 
from  the  masthead,  and  they  are  noted  persecutors  of  the  black 
whale  in  the  north. 

Up  to  this  time  several  seals  had  been  obtained — the  large 
seal,  the  white  antarctic  seal,  and  the  sea  leopard ;  also  four  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  penguins,  including  a  few  of  the  large  emperor 
penguins,  and  one  seen  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Falklands. 
Besides  these,  we  had  met  with  a  good  many  sheathbills,  several 
snowy  petrel,  the  blue  petrel,  the  giant  petrel,  the  stormy  petrel, 
the  cape  pigeon,  a  gray  gull,  and  later  with  many  terns  and  a  few 
great  petrel.  Christmas  eve  and  Christmas  day,  when  we  were 
fast  to  the  floe,  will  long  be  remembered  by  the  members  of  the 
expedition.  There  was  a  perfect  calm;  the  sky,  except  at  the 
horizon,  had  a  dense  canopy  of  cumulus  rolls,  which  rested  on  the 
summits  of  the  western  hills,  and  when  the  sun  was  just  below 
the  horizon  the  soft  grays  and  blues  of  the  clouds  and  the  spot- 
less whiteness  of  the  ice  as  it  floated  in  the  black  and  glossy  sea 
were  tinted  with  the  most  delicate  of  colors — rich  purples  and 
rosy  hues,  blues,  and  greens,  passing  into  translucent  yellows.  At 
midnight  the  solitude  of  the  vacant  deck  was  grand  and  impress- 
ive, and  perhaps  more  so  since  we  had,  for  well-nigh  a  week, 
been  drifting  among  bergs  with  dense  fog  and  very  squally 
weather.  Nothing  broke  the  calm  peacefulness ;  now  a  flock  of 
the  beautiful  sheathbills  would  hover  round  the  vessel,  fanning 
the  limpid  air  with  their  wings  of  creamy  whiteness,  and  over 
yonder  was  a  foul  carrion  bird  with  outstretched  wings  feeding 
upon  the  gory  corpse  of  a  slaughtered  seal.  All  was  in  such  uni- 
son, all  in  such  perfect  harmony ;  but  it  was  a  passing  charm. 
Soon  we  had  to  think  of  more  prosaic  things,  and  reluctantly  we 
turned  our  thoughts  to  the  cargo  we  were  to  seek.  It  was  with 
the  produce  of  seals  that  we  were  destined  to  fill  our  ship,  and  till 
February  17th  we  were  literally  up  to  the  neck  in  blood.  All  the 
sails  are  stowed ;  the  captain  sits  in  the  crow's  nest  from  early 
morning  till  late  in  the  evening ;  the  two  engineers,  relieving  one 
another,  take  charge  of  the  engines ;  the  cook  or  the  steward  is  on 
the  lookout  on  deck  or  on  the  bridge ;  and  the  doctor  takes  the 
helm,  unless  he  can  manage  to  get  away  in  the  boats,  in  which 
case  some  other  .noncombatant  has  to  take  his  place — all  the  rest 


SEALING  IN  THE  ANTARCTIC.  543 

are  away  after  plunder.  Now  a  full  boat  is  making  its  way  to  the 
ship.  We  steam  toward  her.  As  we  near,  the  engines  are  stopped 
and  she  glides  alongside.  The  cook  or  the  steward  rushes  from 
the  lookout,  the  doctor  from  the  wheel,  one  working  the  steam 
winch  and  the  other  unswitching  the  skins,  while  the  boat's  crew 
swallow  a  hasty  meal.  The  boat  being  unloaded,  they  are  off 
again,  for  another  fill.  The  greatest  rivalry  exists  between  the 
boats7  crews,  each  endeavoring  to  get  the  greatest  load  for  the 
day.  Another  boat  is  seen  approaching,  and  away  we  go  again, 
dodging  this  piece  of  ice,  charging  that  piece  with  our  sturdy 
bows,  boring  away  where  the  ice  lies  closely  packed,  rounding 
this  berg,  and  on  to  the  next  until  we  reach  the  boat,  which  is 
down  to  the  gunwale  in  the  water,  with  its  crew  cautious,  plying 
their  oars  as  they  lie  crouched  upon  their  bloody  load.  So  it  goes 
on  from  day  to  day ;  hay  is  made  while  the  sun  shines,  and  the 
pile  of  skins  and  blubber  rises  high  upon  the  ship's  deck.  Then 
comes  a  gale  of  wind,  accompanied  by  fog,  sleet,  and  snow,  and 
we  lay  to  under  the  lee  of  a  stream  of  ice  or  a  berg.  The  deck 
becomes  busy  with  life,  the  blubber  is  "made  off"  and  put  into 
the  tanks,  and  the  skins  are  salted.  When  the  gale  is  over,  at  the 
end  of  two  or  three  days,  the  next  few  days  of  calm  weather  are 
again  taken  advantage  of  in  the  boats.  Thus  the  periods  of  gales 
and  calms  which  alternate  in  this  part  of  the  world  come  in  quite 
conveniently  for  sealing,  the  produce  obtained  in  the  calm  weath- 
er being  "made  off"  during  the  gales.  We  never  experienced 
much  swell,  being  sheltered  by  the  land,  our  work  lying  only  a 
little  east  of  Erebus  and  Terror  Gulf.  With  "  all  hands  and  the 
cook "  so  incessantly  occupied  in  the  calm  weather,  all  scientific 
observations  were  at  a  standstill,  but  in  the  evening,  and  some- 
times during  the  night,  a  few  chance  readings  could  be  obtained, 
and  during  gales  fairly  copious  meteorological  notes  were  ob- 
tained. 

The  seals  are  very  foolish  beasts.  The  present  generation 
have  never  seen  man,  and  they  survey  him  open-mouthed  and 
fearful,  during  which  process  they  are  laid  low  with  club  or  bul- 
let. Sometimes  they  are  so  lazy  with  sleep  that  a  man  may  dig 
them  in  the  ribs  with  the  muzzle  of  his  gun,  and,  wondering  what 
is  disturbing  their  slumbers,  they  raise  their  head,  which  quickly 
falls  pierced  with  a  bullet.  There  may  only  be  one  seal  on  a 
piece  of  ice,  which  is  usually  the  case  with  the  larger  kind ;  but 
the  smaller  kinds  lie  in  half-dozens  and  tens,  and  as  many  as 
forty-seven  were  seen  on  one  piece.  Seldom  do  any  escape — one 
cartridge  means  one  seal.  Besides  the  three  seals  mentioned  we 
came  across  a  fourth,  a  large  kind  with  a  small  head,  small  fore 
flippers,  very  thickly  blubbered,  and  a  more  woolly  skin.  The 
last  day  of  our  sealing  we  were  among  a  great  host  of  the  largest 


544  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

big-headed  seals,  and  as  we  were  returning  to  our  ship  they  were 
moaning  loudly.  This  was  said  to  be  a  sign  that  they  were  about 
to  start  upon  a  long  journey,  but  was  it  not  rather  a  sigh  of  relief 
when  they  saw  their  slaughterers7  craft  run  up  her  bunting  and 
announce  to  all  that  she  was  a  full  ship,  that  her  thirst  for  blood 
was  quenched  ?  Penguins  are  the  strangest  creatures  ever  seen. 
They  are  supremely  funny  as  they  quack  and  strut  about  with 
their  padded  feet  over  the  snow,  or,  coming  to  a  slope,  glide 
swiftly  downward  toboggan-fashion  upon  their  breasts.  If  one 
lands  on  the  piece  of  ice  they  are  resting  upon,  they  approach 
fearlessly  with  a  threatening  "  Quack !  quack ! "  For  their  in- 
quisitiveness  they,  too,  often  received  the  handle  of  the  club,  for  it 
was  soon  found  that  their  flesh  greatly  resembled  that  of  the  hare, 
and  upon  them  we  had  many  a  tasty  and  substantial  meal.  The 
emperor  penguin  is  very  difficult  to  kill ;  he  will  live  after  his 
skull  has  been  most  hopelessly  smashed ;  the  best  way  to  put  an 
end  to  them  is  to  pith  them.  Six  of  us  one  day  set  out  to  capture 
one  alive,  and  so  strong  was  the  bird  that  five  with  difficulty  kept 
their  hold,  and,  after  he  was  bound  with  strong  cords  and  nautical 
knots,  he  flapped  his  flippers  and  released  himself. 

The  drift  ice  we  came  across  was  not  heavier  than  that  of 
Davis  Strait,  but  the  bergs  were  of  very  different  character, 
nearly  all  flat,  not  pinnacled  and  not  so  lofty  as  those  of  the 
north,  but  of  huge  length,  frequently  being  four  miles  in  length, 
sometimes  eight  or  ten,  and  one  we  met  with  was  no  less  than 
thirty  miles  long,  taking  us  six  hours  to  steam  from  end  to  end  at 
five  knots.  These  are  valuable  when  one  can  lie  under  their  lee 
in  a  gale,  but,  when  they  are  to  leeward,  form  a  dangerous  lee 
shore,  and  more  especially  so  for  sailing  ships. 

One  of  the  doctors  had  the  good  fortune  to  effect  a  landing  in 
Erebus  and  Terror  Gulf,  obtaining  specimens  of  plants,  eggs,  and 
rocks. 

The  lowest  temperature  recorded  in  the  ice  was  +21'!°  Fahr., 
or  nearly  11°  of  frost;  this  was  on  the  17th  of  February,  but  usu- 
ally it  was  about  +32°  Fahr.,  more  or  less. 

On  the  17th  of  February  we  steered  for  the  Falklands,  and 
thence  homeward.  Our  homeward  passage  has  been  one  con- 
tinued spell  of  fine  weather ;  the  winds  were  mostly  light,  and  too 
frequently  head  winds.  The  highest  temperature  recorded  was 
84'4°  Fahr.,  in  latitude  1°  10'  north,  longitude  25°  21'  west,  on  the 
13th  of  April ;  for  the  previous  eight  days  80°  Fahr.  and  over  are 
recorded,  and  also  on  the  3d  of  April,  as  well  as  five  days  follow- 
ing the  13th  of  April.  From  the  ice  to  some  degrees  north  of  the 
line  floats  were  thrown  over  to  record  the  currents,  and  the  tow- 
net  was  over  frequently. 

While  in  the  ice  we  met  the  Jason,  a  Norwegian  bark  with 


HONEY  AND  HONEY  PLANTS.  545 

auxiliary  steam  power,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Larsen, 
and  with  her  we  kept  company  most  of  the  time.  He  reached  the 
ice  about  a  month  earlier  than  ourselves,  and  surveyed  the  pack 
edge  as  far  as  30°  west.  Captain  Larsen  also  landed  on  the  South 
Orkneys  and  on  Cockburn  Island,  where  he  obtained  several 
geological  specimens. — London  Times. 


HONEY  AND  HONEY  PLANTS. 

BY  DE.  G.  G.  GEOFF. 

THE  popular  idea  is  that  all  flowers  alike  produce  honey,  and 
that  bees  pass  from  blossom  to  blossom  indiscriminately 
collecting  the  sweet  fluid.  This,  however,  like  many  other  popu- 
lar notions,  is  incorrect.  By  no  means  all  flowers  yield  honey, 
and  most  of  them  yield  it  very  scantily.  Indeed,  those  plants  vis- 
ited by  honeybees  which  yield  any  considerable  amount  above 
that  consumed  by  the  bees  from  day  to  day  are,  in  any  one  section 
of  the  country,  limited  to  a  very  small  number,  and  usually  not 
more  than  one,  or  at  most  two,  of  these  plants  are  in  blossom  at 
one  time.  There  are,  however,  a  good  many  flowers  that  yield 
some  honey,  yet  are  for  various  reasons  not  visited  by  honeybees, 
among  which  we  may  name  the  honeysuckle  (visited,  however, 
sometimes  for  the  pollen),  and  plants  of  the  buttercup  family.  In 
some  cases  the  honeybees  can  not  reach  the  honey,  in  others  it  is 
probably  not  palatable  to  them. 

It  is  also  true  that  there  is  a  great  difference  in  the  amount  of 
honey  produced  in  different  years  by  the  same  species  of  plants. 
Sometimes  there  seems  to  be  almost  no  honey  at  all  in  white 
clover,  one  of  the  best  honey  plants  in  our  Northern  States, 
while  at  other  times  honey  is  in  the  blossoms  for  a  few  days,  and 
then  it  suddenly  disappears,  or  in  other  seasons  there  is  honey 
so  long  as  blossoms  of  clover  are  to  be  found.  The  secretion  of 
honey  does  not  depend  upon  the  season  being  moist,  for  usually 
the  honey  "flow"  is  greatest  in  dry  seasons.  There  does  seem 
to  be  some  connection  between  the  amount  of  honey  produced 
and  the  character  of  the  soil  upon  which  the  plants  grow.  Thus 
clover  growing  on  clayey  ground  seems  to  yield  more  honey  than 
that  growing  on  hillsides  where  there  is  but  little  clay.  The  same 
is  true  of  other  plants.  Often  there  is  honey  in  one  district  and 
none  in  another  not  far  distant. 

The  plants  which  yield  "  surplus  "  honey  in  the  North  Atlan- 
tic States  in  ordinary  seasons  are  the  red  and  black  raspberries, 
the  white  clover,  the  basswood,  and  the  buckwheat.  Some  other 
plants  may  yield  small  additional  quantities,  but  are  hardly  of 

TOL.    XLIII. — 39 


546  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

practical  importance.  There  are,  however,  some  early  spring 
flowers  giving  honey  which  is  useful  in  stimulating  brood-rearing 
in  the  hives,  without  which  there  is  no  hope  of  any  surplus.  We 
will  first  name  some  of  these  plants. 

The  practical  bee-keeper  knows  that  his  hopes  of  obtaining 
honey  all  depend  upon  his  having  his  hives  full  of  bees  when  the 
"flow"  comes.  Brood  is  produced  in  quantity  only  when  some 
honey  can  be  obtained  from  flowers  then  in  bloom.  Hence  the 
importance  to  the  apiarist  of  the  early  blooming  flowers. 

The  willows  of  several  species,  and  the  silver  and  red  maples, 
blossom  in  March  and  April,  depending  upon  the  season.  They 
yield  both  honey  and  pollen,  and  whenever  the  days  are  warm 
enough  the  bees  constantly  visit  them.  If  one  is  about  his  apiary 
on  warm  days  in  March  and  April,  he  will  notice  the  bees  coming 
in  with  pollen  even  at  times  when  no  flowers  have  been  observed. 
At  such  times  they  doubtless  have  found  blossoms  on  some  warm 
bank  and  are  making  good  use  of  them.  The  poplar  trees  also 
bloom  in  April,  a  little  later  than  the  willows.  Reference  is  here 
had  to  the  true  aspen  poplars,  not  the  tulip  poplar.  The  dande- 
lion and  strawberry  blossoms  are  much  visited  by  bees.  Later, 
about  the  first  of  May,  we  have  the  sugar  maple  and  the  blossoms 
of  the  fruit  trees — the  peach,  cherry,  plum,  apple,  pear,  quince, 
etc.  These  all  yield  honey  and  pollen.  During  some  warm  and 
early  springs,  in  very  strong  colonies,  honey  may  possibly  be 
stored  which  has  been  gathered  from  the  fruit  blossoms,  but,  as 
our  seasons  average,  the  honey  from  our  fruit  trees  goes  altogether 
to  stimulate  brood-rearing.  The  locust  trees  (both  the  honey  and 
the  black  locust)  blossom  after  the  fruit  trees  and  before  the  white 
clover.  Surplus  is  seldom  stored  from  these  blossoms,  though 
they  are  good  honey  producers.  Their  honey  goes  to  produce 
more  brood  or  to  feed  the  colony  until  the  clover  comes.  We 
next  consider  plants  which  produce  surplus  honey.  These  for  the 
Atlantic  States  are  few  in  number. 

Of  the  plants  which  produce  surplus  honey  the  white  clover  is 
first  named.  TMs  plant  grows  spontaneously  throughout  the 
whole  region.  In  the  well-cultivated  sections  it  is  almost  the  only 
honey-producing  plant  left  on  which  the  apiarist  can  any  longer 
depend.  It  begins  to  blossom  in  June  and  continues  on  into  July. 
The  honey  from  this  plant  is  the  whitest  and  finest  produced.  It 
is  entirely  free  from  any  peculiar  or  offensive  taste  or  odor,  and  is 
a  general  favorite. 

In  the  more  northern  States  the  red  raspberry  commences  to 
blossom  a  little  later  than  the  white  clover.  This  is  a  valuable 
honey  plant  of  which  bee-keepers  in  the  South  are  deprived.  This 
honey  is  considered  by  many  to  be  fully  equal  to  that  of  the 
white  clover.  In  July  the  basswood  blossoms.  This  tree  yields 


HONEY  AND  HONEY  PLANTS.  547 

a  great  amount  of  honey,  but  unfortunately  there  are  no  longer 
many  trees  to  furnish  blossoms  and  nectar.  This  honey  is  darker 
than  that  from  clover,  and  has  also  a  peculiar  odor,  which  is  un- 
pleasant to  many  persons. 

The  last  plant  of  value  as  a  honey  producer  is  buckwheat, 
which  begins  to  blossom  in  August  and  continues  until  frost. 
The  honey  from  buckwheat  is  dark  and  has  a  taste  of  its  own 
which  is  not  offensive.  This  honey  is  very  rich,  and  a  taste  for  it 
is  speedily  acquired.  The  cultivation  of  this  plant  is  becoming, 
year  by  year,  more  restricted,  and  is  now  confined  to  the  newer 
and  more  mountainous  sections. 

Those  regions  where  the  land  is  all  under  cultivation  have 
only  the  white  clover  to  depend  upon  for  honey,  unless  there  are 
a  few  basswood  trees  along  the  streams,  while  in  the  mountainous 
areas  will  be  found  clover,  basswood,  raspberries,  and  buckwheat 
It  takes  but  a  moment,  then,  to  decide  where  one  could  best  h'ope 
to  succeed  in  bee-keeping. 

We  place  among  the  plants  which  produce  a  small  or  variable 
amount  of  honey  the  mint  and  figwort  families ;  also  the  asters  and 
golden  rods.  Of  the  first  family,  the  mints,  we  have  the  hore- 
hound,  the  sage,  bergamot,  the  catnip,  and  the  motherwort,  all 
producing  considerable  honey.  Of  this  group,  the  most  remark- 
able is  the  motherwort  (Leonurus  cardiaca),  which  is  constantly 
visited  by  bees  while  it  is  in  blossom.  The  supply  of  honey  is 
limited  only  by  the  number  of  plants,  which  at  present  in  most 
places  is  small.  It  has  been  suggested  that  this  plant  be  culti- 
vated for  the  honey  it  yields.  It  is  now  a  rather  unsightly  weed. 
The  figwort  (Scrophularia  nodosa)  is  an  excellent  honey  plant. 
It  has  a  square  stem,  and  exteriorly  a  good  deal  resembles  the 
mints.  It  is  a  worthless  weed  except  for  its  honey-producing 
flowers.  It  is  not  very  abundant.  The  wild  mustard,  the  teasel, 
the  boneset,  the  wild  sunflowers,  the  Spanish  needles,  and  the  snap- 
dragons, as  also  the  smartweeds,  produce  some  honey,  though  in 
most  places  the  total  is  of  little  value.  In  Michigan,  Prof.  A.  J. 
Cooke  holds  the  golden-rods  in  high  esteem  as  honey  producers. 
In  Pennsylvania  the  writer  can  not  find  that  they  are  of  any  value 
at  all.  On  newly  cleared  land  the  sumac  springs  up,  and  it  is  held 
by  some  to  be  a  valuable  source  of  honey,  and  that  considerable 
amounts  are  some  years  collected  from  it. 

The  tulip  poplar,  popularly  called  "poplar,"  also  produces 
honey  in  its  beautiful  large  blossoms,  but  the  tree  is  too  scarce  to 
be  of  much  value  to  the  bee-keeper.  The  blossoms  of  the  black- 
berry, like  their  near  relatives,  the  raspberries,  are  honey  pro- 
ducers. The  milkweeds  are  also  secreters  of  honey.  Curiously, 
the  pollen  of  these  plants  often  sticks  to  the  heads  of  the  bees 
and  disables  them  so  much  that  they  perish.  Prof.  A.  J.  Cooke 


548  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

says  that  at  times  the  blossoms  of  the  Indian  corn  yield  both  honey 
and  pollen  to  the  bees,  but  we  think  to  no  great  extent.  We  have 
never  observed  the  bees  working  on  these  blossoms. 

The  laurel  (Kalmia)  yields  honey  which  is  poisonous.  Gener- 
ally the  bees  do  not  work  on  these  blossoms,  but  in  some  localities 
they  do,  and  we  frequently  read  of  persons  poisoned  by  honey 
which  probably  comes  from  this  plant.  It  is  thought  that  the 
poisoning  of  the  Greek  soldiers  under  Xenophon  was  by  honey 
from  this  family  of  plants  in  this  case  from  rhododendrons. 

The  plant  lice  (aphides)  which  infest  many  plants  secrete  a 
sweetish  fluid  of  which  bees,  ants,  and  other  insects  are  very  fond. 
In  seasons  when  real  nectar  is  scarce  or  altogether  lacking,  bees  will 
collect  and  store  this  material,  which  is  generally  known  as  honey- 
dew  or  manna.  There  is,  however,  another  variety  of  honeydew 
which  seems  to  be  secreted  by  the  leaves  of  plants  and  is  gathered 
by  the  bees.  This  material  is  hardly  fit  for  human  food,  nor  is  it 
for  bees  either,  and  it  is  doubtless  a  principal  cause  of  winter  loss 
of  colonies,  for  it  produces  in  the  bees  a  diarrhoea  from  which 
they  perish  if  the  winter  is  one  of  continuous  cold,  so  that  they 
can  not  take  an  occasional  cleansing  flight.  Cider,  juices  of 
grapes,  and  all  other  sweet  fluids  are  collected  and  stored  by  bees 
in  seasons  of  scarcity.  The  general  bad  effects  of  all  these  are  the 
same  as  of  the  honeydew — they  produce  intestinal  disorders  of 
which  the  bees  die. 

The  profitable  cultivation  of  plants,  otherwise  useless,  for  honey 
alone  has  never  yet  been  demonstrated,  and  the  low  price  of  sugar 
will  probably  preclude  any  such  efforts  in  the  near  future.  Honey 
will  remain  a  luxury,  and  as  such  will  be  produced  in  favorable 
locations — that  is,  on  poor  soil,  where  the  honey  plants  grow  natu- 
rally, and  where  the  land  can  be  utilized  for  nothing  else.  How- 
ever, in  the  planting  of  shade  trees  it  would  be  well  to  plant  those 
which  will  produce  honey  as  well  as  shade. 

The  effort  is  made  by  practical  bee-keepers  to  find  some  plant, 
like  the  buckwheat,  which  may  make  a  useful  farm  crop  and  at 
the  same  time  produce  honey.  Many  think  alsike  clover  will  do 
this.  Prof.  Cooke  thus  speaks  of  it :  "  Alsike  or  Swedish  clover 
(Trifolium  hybridum)  seems  to  resemble  both  the  red  and  the 
white  clover.  It  is  a  stronger  grower  than  the  white,  and  has  a 
whitish  blossom  tinged  with  pink.  This  forms  excellent  pasture 
and  hay  for  cattle,  sheep,  etc.,  and  may  well  be  sown  by  the 
apiarist.  It  will  often  pay  apiarists  to  furnish  neighbor  farmers 
with  seed  as  an  inducement  to  grow  this  par  excellent  honey  plant. 
Like  white  clover,  it  blooms  all  through  June  into  July.  It  should 
be  sown  early  in  spring  with  timothy,  five  or  six  pounds  to  the 
acre,  in  the  same  manner  that  clover  is  sown." 


SKETCH  OF  PAOLO  MANTEGAZZA.  549 

SKETCH  OF  PAOLO  MANTEGAZZA. 

BY  PROF.  FKEDERTCK  STARR. 

AS  a  nation  we  know  far  too  little  of  what  is  being  accom- 
plished in  the  world  outside.  We  do  in  some  degree  keep 
track  of  the  work  of  our  English  brothers,  and  occasionally  some 
French  or  German  worker  compels  our  recognition.  But  there 
are  many  intelligent  readers  who  do  not  know  that  Italy  is  to-day 
a  veritable  center  of  scientific  work.  Yet  such  is  the  case,  and  in 
such  sciences  as  astronomy,  zoology,  and  botany  great  progress  is 
making  there.  Nor  are  they  at  all  behind  in  anthropology ;  and 
the  man  who  leads  in  Italian  anthropology  is  Paolo  Mantegazza. 

No  doubt  to  many  American  readers  his  Physiognomy  and 
Expression,  lately  put  into  an  English  dress,  is  the  only  work  of 
Mantegazza's  known.  It  is  a  remarkable  book — not  only  on  ac- 
count of  its  matter,  which  is  of  great  value,  but  also  on  account  of 
its  style.  There  is  scarcely  a  scientific  book  in  any  language  that 
so  plainly  reflects  its  author,  in  his  individual  and  ethnic  charac- 
teristics. To  read  it  is  to  gain  a  wonderful  insight  into  the  Italian 
mind  and  into  the  Italian  mode  of  thought  and  expression. 

PAOLO  MANTEGAZZA  was  born  at  Monza,  near  Milan,  Italy,  on 
October  31,  1831.  His  mother  was  a  remarkable  woman — Laura 
Solera — well  known  for  philanthropy  and  patriotism.  No  small 
part  of  the  force  of  character,  the  strength  of  purpose,  and  the 
clearness  which  Mantegazza  shows  in  his  work  seems  to  be  in- 
herited from  this  woman.  She  established  the  first  creche  and 
founded  the  first  professional  school  for  women  in  Italy.  During 
the  wars  of  1848  and  1859  she  cared  for  the  wounded  soldiers. 
There  appears  to  have  been  an  unusual  love  between  this  mother 
and  son,  and  Mantegazza  refers  to  her  at  times  in  his  writings. 
He  always  deferred  much  to  her  opinion ;  and  in  1883,  when  some 
question  had  arisen  as  to  the  propriety  of  his  famous  book  upon 
the  Physiology  of  Love,  the  author  submitted  the  book  to  her  for 
judgment.  Her  letter  of  approval  is  presented  in  full  in  the  intro- 
ductory chapter  of  the  work,  and  ends  thus :  "  When  I  shall  have 
the  happiness  of  having  you  near  me,  I  shall  point  out  to  you  the 
passages  which  most  please  me.  Meantime  receive  the  enthusi- 
astic greetings  of  your  affectionate  mama." 

Mantegazza  studied  medicine  in  the  Universities  of  Pisa  and 
Pa  via.  Having  become  a  physician,  he  spent  several  months  in 
Paris  and  then  journeyed  over  a  large  part  of  Europe.  At  the 
age  of  nineteen  years  he  published  a  memoir  upon  Spontaneous 
Generation,  and  was  appointed  Acting  Professor  of  Chemistry  in 
the  Technical  School  at  Milan.  The  first  of  the  remarkable  series 
of  anthropological  works  which  has  rendered  his  name  famous — 


55o  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  Physiology  of  Pleasure — appeared  when  he  was  only  twenty- 
two  years  of  age.  It  has  been  published  and  republished,  trans- 
lated and  retranslated,  and,  although  forty  years  have  passed 
since  its  appearance,  it  is  still  issued  in  new  editions  in  Italy.  In 
1854  Dr.  Mantegazza  removed  to  South  America,  and  for  four 
years  practiced  medicine  at  Buenos  Ayres  and  Entrerios  in  the  Ar- 
gentine Republic  and  also  in  Paraguay.  Returning  to  Italy  in 
1858,  he  practiced  medicine  and  surgery  in  the  military  hospital 
during  the  war  of  1859.  In  1860  he  secured,  by  competitive  exami- 
nation, the  chair  of  General  Pathology  at  the  University  of  Pavia, 
and  established  in  connection  with  that  institution  the  first  labo- 
ratory in  experimental  pathology,  from  which  such  eminent 
physiologists  as  Bizzazzero  and  Golgi  have  gone  forth.  In  1870 
he  removed  to  Florence  to  take  the  first  chair  of  Anthropology. 
Here  he  has  remained,  constantly  busying  himself  in  every  way 
that  could  extend  the  science  to  which  he  is  so  entirely  devoted. 
Here  he  has  founded  the  National  Museum  of  Anthropology  and 
Ethnology,  the  Italian  Society  of  Anthropology,  and  the  journal 
Archivio  per  TAntropologia  e  la  Etnologia.  What  Broca  was  to 
Paris  and  to  France,  Mantegazza  is  to  Italy.  The  parallel  is  a 
strong  one,  for  not  only  is  Mantegazza,  like  Broca,  a  leader  in 
anthropological  science,  but  he  is  a  leader  of  the  most  liberal 
portion  of  the  workers  in  that  field. 

Of  all  sciences  anthropology  is  the  one  which  most  keeps  a 
man  in  touch  with  men  and  affairs.  Every  one  knows  the  slap 
that  the  German  emperor  gave  to  Virchow  recently  at  Berlin. 
The  occasion  was  the  birthday  celebration  of  the  two  great  scien- 
tists— Helmholtz  the  physicist,  and  Yirchow  the  anthropologist. 
His  Majesty  congratulated  Helmholtz  upon  having  devoted  him- 
self so  closely  to  his  science  that  he  had  never  meddled  in 
political  matters.  It  is  easy  for  the  physicist  to  do  so.  But  how 
can  a  man  who  stupes  mankind  hold  himself  aloof  from  human 
interests  ?  Mantegazza  has  long  been  in  public  life.  In  1845  he 
was  sent  from  Monza  as  representative  and  was  re-elected  four 
times;  while  in  1876  he  was  elected  senator  of  the  kingdom  of 
Italy.  He  has  never  been  a  political  leader,  but  has  always  been 
clearly  identified  with  the  Liberal  party. 

Mantegazza's  writings  are  exceedingly  numerous  and  varied. 
He  has  written  anthropological  memoirs,  works  on  medicine,  vol- 
umes of  travel,  monographs  upon  special  races,  biographical  stud- 
ies, and  romances.  Among  his  more  important  anthropological 
works  are  Physiology  of  Pleasure,  Physiology  of  Pain,  Physi- 
ology of  Love,  Physiology  of  Hate,  Love  in  Humanity,  Hygiene 
of  Love,  and  Physiognomy  and  Expression.  All  these  have 
been  translated  into  the  leading  languages  of  Europe  and  have 
exerted  an  immense  influence.  One  or  other  of  his  books  have 


SKETCH    OF  PAOLO  MANTEGAZZA.  551 

been  translated  into  fourteen  distinct  tongues.  His  three  works 
on  Love — Physiology,  Hygiene,  and  Ethnology — have  sold  by 
thousands  in  Germany  and  France.  Perhaps  the  only  one  of  his 
more  important  works  which  has  appeared  in  America  is  his 
Fisionomia  e  Mimica — Physiognomy  and  Expression.  This  has 
been  issued  in  at  least  two  forms  within  the  last  three  years  and 
has  sold  largely.  Although  we  have  already  referred  to  it  briefly, 
it  deserves  especial  mention.  It  is  an  excellent  example  of  Mante- 
gazza's  nervous,  impetuous  style.  Nothing  that  has  been  written 
elsewhere  upon  expression  can  approach  it.  Every  great  emotion 
of  mankind  is  taken  up,  and  the  form  of  expression  by  which  it 
makes  itself  known  is  exhaustively  analyzed.  The  subject  itself 
is  so  attractive  and  the  treatment  so  interesting  that  the  book — 
unlike  most  scientific  books — will  bear  reading  and  re-reading  for 
pleasure.  No  one  but  an  Italian  could  have  written  it.  Expres- 
sion is  at  its  best  where  the  blood  is  hot  and  vigorous,  and  where 
people  feel  as  they  live ;  in  such  a  country  as  Italy,  and  among  a 
people  like  the  Italians,  only  could  such  a  study  be  so  well  made. 

Analysis  is  the  word  which  describes  all  of  Mantegazza's  work. 
Analysis  shows  itself  in  his  writings ;  it  shows  itself  also  in  his 
museum,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
National  Museum  of  Anthropology  and  Ethnology.  Fair  in  eth- 
nography, good  in  general  anthropology,  it  is  remarkable  in 
somatology,  and  unique  in  psychology.  Who  but  the  writer  of 
Fisionomia  e  Mimica  could  analyze  so  cleverly  the  material  in 
Physical  Anthropology  ?  Who  but  so  good  an  analyst  could  fail 
so  utterly  in  combining  the  material  into  a  symmetrical  whole  ? 
Mantegazza's  Museum  of  Psychological  Anthropology  is  his  latest 
hobby.  Here  he  plans  to  show  by  material  objects  the  operations 
of  the  mind — the  development  of  religiosity,  the  expression  of 
love,  of  fear,  of  cruelty — of  every  emotion  of  our  kind. 

As  an  editor  Mantegazza  has  done  vast  service.  His  Archivio 
per  TAntropologia  e  la  Etnologia  is  a  standard  journal  in  the 
science,  but  of  course  reaches  only  a  select  circle  of  fellow-workers. 
The  Hygienic  Almanacs,  however,  which  have  appeared  under  his 
direction  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  in  editions  of  many  thou- 
sands, have  not  only  done  much  to  improve  sanitary  conditions 
among  his  own  people,  but  in  their  German  and  Hebrew  transla- 
tions have  reached  thousands  outside  of  the  land  of  his  birth. 
While  speaking  of  this  service,  we  may  mention  that  Mante- 
gazza's  contributions  to  medicine  have  been  neither  few  nor  unim- 
portant. It  was  he  who  introduced  coca  into  Europe,  and  his 
monograph  upon  this  valuable  plant  was  "  crowned." 

Mantegazza  is  to  visit  America  in  September,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  he  may  meet  that  hearty  kindness  from  us  which  he 
has  always  extended  to  American  men  of  science  in  Italy. 


552 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


A   GREAT  WORK  CONCLUDED. 

A  LT HOUGH  there  still  lacks  a  vol- 
J-JL-  ume  of  the  ten  originally  planned 
by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  for  the  exposi- 
tion of  his  Synthetic  Philosophy,  the 
publication  of  the  tenth  volume  of  the 
series  (the  second  and  concluding  one 
of  the  Principles  of  Ethics)  gives  very 
legitimate  occasion  for  rejoicing  to  all 
who,  like  ourselves,  regarding  the  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy  as  the  most  important 
contribution  yet  made  to  an  understand- 
ing of  the  laws  of  the  organic  world  in 
their  special  bearing  on  human  life,  con- 
sider the  portion  dealing  with  ethics  as 
the  most  important  of  the  whole  work. 
Mr.  Spencer,  we  understand,  having 
thus  crowned  the  edifice  of  his  philoso- 
phy, will  proceed  at  once  to  complete  it 
by  writing  the  one  volume  still  out- 
standing— namely,  the  third  of  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Sociology,  or  the  eighth  of  the 
series. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  long  road  on  which 
the  distinguished  author  looks  back 
when  his  thoughts  revert  to  the  pub- 
lication in  the  year  1855  of  the  first 
edition  of  his  Principles  of  Psychology. 
For  forty  years  very  nearly  has  he  been 
toiling  over  one  of  the  most  arduous 
tasks  that  any  man  ever  set  himself; 
and  with  what  perseverance,  unflagging 
resolution,  and  high  spirit  he  has  car- 
ried that  task  through  its  successive 
stages  the  world  at  large  has  been  a 
witness.  "You  who  write,"  says  Hor- 
ace, "  consider  well  and  long  what  your 
shoulders  will  bear  and  what  they  will 
not  bear."  It  has  seemed  at  different 
times  as  if  Mr.  Spencer  had  taken  on 
his  shoulders  a  burden  too  great  for  his 
physical  strength.  His  health,  as  every 
one  is  aware,  has  for  years  together 
been  such  as  greatly  to  limit  his  power 


of  work,  and  at  times  to  condemn  him 
to  complete  inactivity.  Still,  he  has 
persevered,  making  the  most  of  all  op- 
portunities, and  to-day  his  great  under- 
taking is  so  nearly  accomplished  that 
its  entire  completion  may  be  reasonably 
counted  on.  At  one  time  this  was  more 
than  the  author  himself  hoped  for,  and 
more,  we  have  little  doubt,  than  any 
will  less  resolute  than  his  own  would 
have  realized.  We  believe,  and  take 
pleasure  in  believing,  that  Mr.  Spencer 
has  been  largely  sustained  in  his  severe 
and  exhausting  labors  by  the  thought 
that  he  was  working  for  his  generation 
and  for  subsequent  generations.  His 
philosophy  is  meant  for  guidance.  He 
has  aimed  at  making  men  understand 
the  kind  of  world  they  live  in  and  the 
kind  of  laws  with  which  they  have  to 
reckon.  Theology  has  in  general  placed 
its  most  impressive  sanctions  in  a  super- 
natural order  of  things  and  in  a  future 
state  of  existence.  Mr.  Spencer  con- 
tents himself  with  showing  the  springs, 
conditions,  and  consequences  of  human 
action  in  the  present  order  of  things, 
leaving  those  who  are  so  disposed  to  find 
necessary  admonition  therein,  and  those 
who  are  otherwise  minded  to  take  their 
own  course,  whatever  it  may  be.  The 
question  has  often  been  raised  whether 
philosophy  can  constrain  men  to  right 
conduct.  The  answer  we  should  be 
disposed  to  give  is,  that  a  true  philoso- 
phy, one  resting  on  the  facts  and  laws 
of  life,  if  duly  blended  with  early  educa- 
tion, would  powerfully  incline  the  young 
to  virtue.  It  does  not  profess  to  be  a 
stimulus  for  jaded  appetites  or  exhaust- 
ed moral  vitality,  and  can  not  be  count- 
ed upon  as  an  agent  for  sudden  conver- 
sions ;  but,  given  as  the  daily  bread  of 
life,  it  can  nourish  and  strengthen  the 
moral  and  intellectual  natures  of  men. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


553 


"  Give  strong  drink  to  him  that  is  ready 
to  perish ;  "  but  do  not  cast  any  reflec- 
tions upon  bread  because,  at  such  a  mo- 
ment, it  might  rather  choke  than  aid  the 
sufferer. 

The  volume  which  Mr.  Spencer  has 
just  given  to  the  world  is  one  of  great 
value  and  interest.  In  our  book  notices 
will  be  found  a  summary  of  its  contents ; 
but  we  desire  here  to  add  our  commen- 
dation of  it  as  an  eminently  practical 
treatise  on  the  two  important  themes  of 
Justice  and  Beneficence.  The  portion 
dealing  with  Justice  was  published  sep- 
arately two  years  ago,  and  was  noticed 
in  these  columns  at  the  time.  Much  of 
the  matter  which  it  contains  is,  how- 
ever, of  such  urgent  importance  in  the 
present  day  that  we  hope  the  publica- 
tion of  the  complete  volume  will  have 
the  effect  of  calling  attention  anew  to 
its  analysis  of  rights  and  its  trenchant 
discussion  of  the  nature  and  functions 
of  the  state.  The  portions  dealing  with 
Beneficence  under  the  two  heads  of 
Negative  and  Positive  bring  out  in  a 
striking  manner  the  large  element  of 
sympathy  in  the  writer's  disposition. 
Careless  critics  have  heretofore  been  in 
the  habit  of  asserting  that  the  evolution 
philosophy,  as  expounded  by  Mr.  Spen- 
cer, enjoined  pure  selfishness.  There 
was  quite  sufficient  in  earlier  portions 
of  Mr.  Spencer's  writings — particularly 
in  the  Data  of  Ethics,  published  in  1879 
— to  disprove  this  assertion;  but  not 
even  a  careless  critic  could  make  it  after 
reading,  however  cursorily,  the  volume 
before  us.  Here  is  a  noble  passage  from 
the  chapter  on  Succor  to  the  HI  -  used 
and  the  Endangered:  "Doubtless  it  is 
well  for  humanity  at  large  to  maintain 
the  tradition  of  heroism.  One  whose 
altruistic  promptings  are  so  strong  that 
he  loses  his  own  life  in  an  almost  hope- 
less effort  to  save  another's  life,  affords 
an  example  of  nobility  which  in  a  meas- 
ure redeems  the  innumerable  cruelties, 
brutalities,  and  meannesses  prevailing 
among  men,  and  serves  to  keep  alive 


hope  of  a  higher  humanity  hereafter. 
The  good  done  in  occasionally  putting 
egoism  to  the  blush  may  be  counted  as 
a  set-off  against  the  loss  of  one  whose 
altruistic  nature  should  have  been  trans- 
mitted." 

Mr.  Spencer  has  himself  anticipated 
the  criticism  that  much  of  what  he  says 
in  regard  to  beneficence  will  not  seem 
to  have  any  very  clear  connection  with 
the  doctrine  of  evolution;  and  so  far 
he  professes  himself  disappointed  in  the 
outcome  of  the  work.  We  do  not  feel 
called  upon  to  share  in  his  disappoint- 
ment. The  doctrine  of  evolution  has 
served  in  the  earlier  volumes  to  inter- 
pret the  world  for  us,  to  enable  us  to 
understand  our  environment,  and  know 
both  how  it  has  come  to  be  what  it  is, 
and  how  we  have  come  to  be  what  we 
are.  That  it  should  also  serve  as  a  guide 
through  the  complexities  of  human  ac- 
tion is  more  than  we  ever  expected. 
Knowing  ourselves  and  our  environ- 
ment, the  conduct  we  ought  to  pursue 
as  being  likely  to  result  in  the  greatest 
amount  of  happiness  to  ourselves  and 
others  may  be  arrived  at  by  reflection 
and  experience.  Mr.  Spencer,  in  the 
last  two  sections  of  the  present  volume, 
analyzes  the  principal  situations  in  which 
individuals  are  liable  to  find  themselves, 
and  shows  in  an  instructive  manner  the 
conduct,  negative  and  positive,  appro- 
priate to  each.  We  do  not  see  how 
much  fault  can  be  found  with  any  of 
his  conclusions.  To  us  it  appears  that 
he  lays  down  many  of  the  most  impor- 
tant principles  of  correct  and  useful 
social  behavior,  and  that  his  treatise  as 
a  whole,  but  particularly  the  sections 
dealing  with  beneficence,  would  make 
the  best  kind  of  household  reading  for 
a  large  class  of  families.  Philosophy 
here  puts  on  a  homely  garb  and  walks 
hand  in  hand  with  the  wisdom  that 
every  day's  experience  teaches.  Un- 
til Philosophy  does  this,  her  work  is 
not  finished.  Mr.  Spencer's  last  words 
seem  to  us  his  best. 


554 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  ETHICS.  By  HERBERT 
SPENCER.  Vol.  II.  New  York :  D.  Ap- 
pleton  &  Co. 

OF  the  three  portions  into  which  Mr. 
Spencer's  new  volume  is  divided,  the  first 
was  published  separately  two  years  ago,  un- 
der the  title  of  Justice,  and  dealt  with  those 
things  which  human  beings  may  claim  as 
rights.  The  two  latter  portions  now  appear 
for  the  first  time,  and  deal  respectively  with 
Negative  Beneficence  and  Positive  Benefi- 
cence. Mr.  Spencer  recognizes  the  senti- 
ment of  justice  no  less  than  the  sentiment  of 
beneficence  as  altruistic,  the  first  implying  a 
voluntary  concession  of  the  claims  of  others 
to  free  activity  and  the  products  or  results 
of  free  activity,  and  the  second  a  disposition 
to  aid  others  in  obtaining  the  objects  of  their 
legitimate  desires.  In  the  preface  to  the 
present  volume  the  author  acknowledges 
that  the  new  parts  fall  short  of  his  expecta- 
tions. He  has  not  been  able  to  affiliate  them 
to  the  extent  that  he  hoped  to  the  doctrine 
of  evolution.  "  Most  of  the  conclusions,"  he 
says,  "  drawn  empirically,  are  such  as  right 
feelings  enlightened  by  cultivated  intelligence 
have  already  sufficed  to  establish."  It  is  in 
ethics  very  much  the  same  as  in  purely 
scientific  theory.  Specially  gifted  individuals 
will,  by  their  deeper  intuitions,  anticipate  the 
results  of  later  experience  or  reasoning,  and 
will  thus  succeed  in  formulating  principles 
in  advance  of  their  definitive  establishment. 
That  the  principal  conclusions  of  ethics  should 
not  stand  in  very  direct  relation  to  the  theory 
of  evolution  is  not,  however,  surprising,  inas- 
much as  these  conclusions  would  in  all  proba- 
bility be  the  same  even  if  the  history  of  hu- 
man development  had  been  materially  differ- 
ent in  its  earlier  stages  from  what  it  has  been. 
What  the  evolutionist  philosopher  has  to 
show,  as  it  seems  to  us,  is  that  there  is  no 
conflict  between  the  principles  of  ethics  and 
any  of  the  deductions  from  the  doctrine  of 
evolution.  If  that  doctrine  were  fundament- 
ally unsound,  the  proof  of  its  unsoundness 
might  lie  in  the  region  of  ethics,  but  the  at- 
tentive reader  of  Mr.  Spencer's  last  volume 
will  at  least  be  convinced  that  this  is  not  so. 

The  warrant  for  beneficence  as  distin- 
guished from  justice  lies  hi  the  fact  that  like 


justice  it  tends,  if  properly  regulated,  to 
promote  life  and  happiness;  but  being  in 
excess  of  justice,  and  therefore  a  more  or 
less  indefinite  thing,  the  need  for  its  proper 
regulation  is  very  obvious.  Mr.  Spencer,  as 
we  have  seen,  deals  with  it  under  the  two 
heads  of  Negative  and  Positive.  A  man  is 
negatively  beneficent  if  he  abstains  from 
actions  which  might  promote  his  private  in- 
terests, because  he  sees  that  such  abstinence 
will  promote  the  interests  of  another,  his 
own  being  already  sufficiently  secured.  Some 
of  the  examples  which  Mr.  Spencer  gives 
under  this  head  may  seem  a  little  trite ;  but 
there  are  different  ways  of  being  familiar 
with  a  principle  or  rule  of  action,  as  John 
Stuart  Mill  once  remarked.  It  is  one  thing 
to  assent  to  a  truth  in  a  general  way,  and  an- 
other to  accept  it  with  a  full  perception  of 
all  that  it  either  presupposes  or  involves. 
Some  of  Mr.  Spencer's  counsels  under  the 
head  of  Negative  Beneficence  seem  to  resolve 
themselves  into  the  familiar  formula,  "Live 
and  let  live  " ;  but  how  many  carry  out  that 
formula  as  fully  as  they  should  ?  It  is  an 
easy  thing  to  repeat  such  a  motto  as  "  Live 
and  let  live " ;  but  when  it  comes  to  fore- 
going a  business  advantage  clearly  within 
reach,  in  order  that  another  individual  may 
not  unduly  or  undeservedly  suffer,  the  motto 
is  very  apt  to  go  to  the  wall,  which,  as  every 
one  knows,  is  a  favorite  place  for  mottoes. 
The  question,  therefore,  is  not  whether  the 
specific  counsels  given  by  Mr.  Spencer  have 
previously  been  given  by  others — Mr.  Spen- 
cer admits  that  to  a  large  extent  they  have 
been — but  whether  they  are  severally  sound, 
and  whether  they  are  in  harmony  with  his 
general  system  of  philosophy.  A  motto  or 
maxim  floating  in  a  kind  of  disengaged 
way  in  the  moral  atmosphere  of  the  age 
does  not  carry  at  all  the  same  authority 
as  a  rule  of  action  forming  part  of  a  well- 
established  system  of  thought ;  and  the  hope 
may  therefore  be  indulged  that  an  attentive 
reading  of  Mr.  Spencer's  new  volume  will 
lead  many  to  see  that  maxims  of  conduct 
which  heretofore  they  have  felt  themselves 
free  to  act  upon  or  set  aside  according  to  the 
humor  of  the  moment  have  a  sanction  which 
can  not  rightly  be  disregarded.  Under  the 
several  heads  of  Restraints  on  Free  Competi- 
tion, Restraints  on  Free  Contract,  Restraints 
on  Undeserved  Payments,  Restraints  on  Dis- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


555 


plays  of  Ability,  Restraints  on  Blame,  and 
Restraints  on  Praise,  Mr.  Spencer  makes 
many  excellent  remarks  bearing  on  every-day 
conduct.  We  regard  these  chapters,  indeed, 
as  moral  discourses  of  the  highest  value,  and 
commend  them  to  the  earnest  attention  of 
all  whose  duty  it  is  to  give  moral  instruction 
to  old  or  young.  Many  a  Christian  minister 
might,  we  are  convinced,  infuse  new  life  into 
his  teaching  by  simply  assimilating  the  con- 
tents of  this  volume  and  thus  acquiring  a 
fresh  sense  of  the  truth,  the  authority,  and 
the  interdependence  of  moral  precepts  which 
have  heretofore  had  the  warrant  only  of  dog- 
ma or  of  sentiment. 

To  illustrate  the  class  of  matters  with 
which  Mr.  Spencer  here  deals,  we  may  quote 
the  following  from  the  chapter  on  Re- 
straints on  Displays  of  Ability : 

"  In  nearly  all  cases  the  intrusion  of  per- 
sonal feeling  makes  controversy  of  small 
value  for  its  ostensible  purpose — the  estab- 
lishment of  truth.  Desire  for  the  eclat  which 
victory  brings  often  causes  a  mercilessness 
and  a  dishonesty  which  hinder  the  arrival 
at  right  conclusions.  Negative  beneficence 
here  conduces  to  public  benefit  while  it  miti- 
gates private  injury.  Usually  the  evidence 
may  be  marshaled,  and  a  valid  argument  set 
forth,  without  discrediting  an  opponent  hi 
too  conspicuous  a  manner.  Small  slips  of 
statement  and  reasoning,  which  do  not  affect 
the  general  issue,  may  be  generously  passed 
over.  A  due  negative  beneficence  will  re- 
spect an  antagonist's  amour  propre ;  save, 
perhaps,  in  cases  where  his  dishonesty  and 
his  consequent  endeavor  to  obscure  the  truth 
demand  exposure.  Lack  of  right  feeling  in 
this  sphere  has  disastrous  public  effects.  It 
needs  but  to  glance  around  at  the  courses  of 
political  and  of  theological  controversy  to  see 
how  extreme  are  the  perversions  of  men's 
beliefs  caused  by  absence  of  that  sympa- 
thetic interpretation  which  negative  benefi- 
cence enjoins." 

If  any  have  heretofore  supposed  that  the 
evolution  philosophy  leaves  but  a  very  re- 
stricted field,  if  any,  for  the  exercise  of  prac- 
tical benevolence,  the  volume  before  us  should 
suffice  to  banish  the  idea.  There  is  a  wide 
scope,  as  Mr.  Spencer  shows,  for  negative 
beneficence,  or  self-restraint  in  the  interest 
of  weaker  individuals,  and  there  is  also  a 
wide  scope  for  the  exercise  of  positive  benefi- 


cence or  the  active  assistance  to  those  less 
favorably  circumstanced  than  ourselves.  The 
one  condition  to  be  kept  in  view  is  that  our 
assistance  be  not  of  a  nature  to  cause  subse- 
quently more  serious  trouble  or  suffering 
than  it  alleviates  in  the  present.  The  sub- 
divisions of  Positive  Beneficence  treated  by 
Mr.  Spencer  are  Marital  Beneficence,  Pa- 
rental Beneficence,  Filial  Beneficence,  Aid- 
ing the  Sick  and  Injured,  Succor  to  the  Ill- 
used  and  the  Endangered,  Pecuniary  Aid  to 
Relatives  and  Friends,  Relief  of  the  Poor, 
Social  Beneficence,  and  Political  Beneficence. 
Here  and  there  in  reading  these  chapters,  as 
also  indeed  in  the  section  on  Negative  Be- 
neficence, we  find  the  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween Beneficence  and  Justice  a  little  shad- 
owy. Both,  of  course,  are  subdivisions  of 
Ethical  Conduct  in  general,  and  that  the  two 
aspects,  which  Mr.  Spencer  for  convenience 
of  exposition  tries  to  keep  separate,  should 
now  and  then  seem  to  merge  in  a  higher 
unity  is  not  surprising.  The  man  who  has 
it  in  his  power  to  be  just  or  unjust,  and  who 
decides,  against  his  own  immediate  inter- 
est, in  favor  of  justice,  must  in  general  be 
moved  by  a  sentiment  of  beneficence ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  man  who  exercises  a 
wise,  rational,  and  restrained  beneficence  will 
probably  regard  his  own  conduct  as,  on  a 
broad  view  of  the  matter,  scarcely  going  be- 
yond the  limits  of  justice. 

It  might  possibly  puzzle  some  fairly  in- 
formed readers  to  understand  in  advance 
what  Mr.  Spencer  means  by  "  political  benefi- 
cence " :  the  virtue  is  certainly  one  not  much 
understood  in  political  circles.  Let  the  fol- 
lowing sentence  give  the  key  to  the  puzzle : 
"  Under  a  political  regime  like  that  into  which 
we  have  grown,  taking  a  share  in  political 
life  is  the  duty  of  every  citizen  ;  and  not  to 
do  so  is  at  once  short-sighted,  ungrateful,  and 
mean:  short-sighted,  because  abstention,  if 
general,  must  bring  decay  of  any  good  insti- 
tutions which  exist ;  ungrateful,  because  to 
leave  uncared  for  these  good  institutions 
which  patriotic  ancestors  established  is  to 
ignore  our  indebtedness  to  them ;  mean,  be- 
cause to  benefit  by  such  institutions  and  de- 
volve the  maintenance  and  improvement  of 
them  entirely  upon  others  implies  a  readiness 
to  receive  an  advantage  and  give  nothing  hi 
return."  A  passage  which  has  special  appli- 
cation to  this  country  is  the  following :  "In 


556 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


America,  where  party  organization  is  more 
developed  than  here,  whoever  declines  to  sur- 
render his  convictions  and  follow  in  the  mob 
which  is  led  by  a  'boss'  to  the  polls,  is 
labeled  with  the  contemptuous  name  of 
'  Mugwump,'  and  is  condemned  as  pharisaic 
and  of  an  unsocial  disposition.  In  the  '  land 
of  liberty '  it  has  become  a  political  crime  to 
act  on  your  own  judgment." 

Mr.  Spencer  has  not  for  a  long  time  given 
us  a  book  from  which  a  greater  number  of 
striking  and  helpful  quotations  could  be  made 
than  from  this ;  but  our  notice  has  already 
exceeded  the  limits  usual  in  these  columns, 
and  we  close  by  renewing  the  expression  of 
our  hope  that  the  admirably  practical  teach- 
ings which  the  book  contains  may  be  widely 
diffused  and  bring  forth  fruit  abundantly. 

DARWIN  ET  SES  PRECURSEURS  FRAN^AIS. 
ETUDE  SUR  LE  TRANSFORMISME  (Darwin 
and  his  French  Precursors.  A  Study  of 
Transformism).  By  A.  DE  QUATREFAGES. 
Paris:  Felix  Alcan.  Pp.  294.  Price, 
6  francs. 

THE  purpose  of  this  work,  as  defined  by 
the  author,  is,  looking  at  the  subject  from 
the  point  of  view  of  natural  science,  to  de- 
termine exactly  what  is  Darwin's,  find  what 
is  true  in  it  as  well  as  what  can  not  be  ac- 
cepted of  it,  and  to  try  and  assign  to  each  its 
value  and  the  deductions  which  are  drawn 
from  it.  Reduced  to  the  terms  of  a  descent 
of  all  animal  and  vegetable  species  by  suc- 
cessive transformations  from  three  or  four 
original  types  and  probably  from  a  primitive 
archetype,  it  is  found  to  offer  little  wholly 
new.  Darwin  himself  has  given  a  list  of 
twenty-six  naturalists  of  various  nationalities 
who  had  published  views  more  or  less  simi- 
lar to  his  before  him.  Of  these,  M.  Quatre- 
fages  has  compared  the  expressions  of  the 
French  naturalists,  including  Benoist  de 
Maillet  (or  Telliamed),  Robinet,  Buffon,  La- 
marck, Etienne  and  Isidore  Geoffroy-Saint- 
Hilaire,  Bory  de  Saint- Vincent,  and  M. 
Charles  Naudin.  Suggestions  of  these  ideas 
may  be  found  further  back  still,  even  among 
the  alchemists  of  the  middle  ages  and  the 
Greek  sophists ;  but  the  question  of  the 
formation  of  species  could  not  present  itself 
to  those  thinkers  with  the  same  significance 
that  it  has  done  with  us.  Beginning  with  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  proposed  solutions 
multiplied  rapidly.  The  author,  not  appre- 


ciating, perhaps,  the  patience  which  English 
philosophers  have  cultivated  in  the  matter, 
thinks  the  process  described  by  the  term 
evolution  too  slow  to  account  for  the  changes 
of  species,  and  prefers  transformism,  with 
transformists  as  the  appellation  of  the  advo- 
cates of  the  theory.  After  the  accounts  of 
Darwin's  French  precursors,  a  general  ex- 
position of  Darwinism  and  a  review  of  its 
agreement  with  certain  general  facts  are 
given;  following  which  the  Darwinian  sys- 
tem is  subjected  to  a  full  discussion  in  eight 
chapters.  As  every  one  knows,  M.  Quatre- 
fages  is  not  a  Darwinian ;  but  differences  of 
opinion  concerning  heretofore  unexplained 
phenomena,  he  says,  never  make  him  unjust 
toward  eminent  men.  While  he  contests 
their  doctrines  he  desires  to  render  a  sincere 
and  cordial  homage  to  their  works.  In  Dar- 
win he  admires  the  almost  chivalric  good 
faith  which  enables  him,  even  when  his 
mind  is  most  preoccupied  with  his  hypoth- 
eses, to  be  still  calm  enough  to  see  in  his 
own  labors  reasons  and  facts  that  militate  in 
favor  of  his  adversaries  and  sincerity  enough 
to  point  them  out.  "  There  is  a  real  charm 
in  following  such  a  mind  in  its  excursions." 
In  the  preface  to  a  second  edition  of  the 
work  he  dwells  upon  the  neutrality  of  the 
Darwinian  theory  as  concerns  religious  ques- 
tions, and  the  impartiality  with  which  it  is 
sustained  by  orthodox  and  by  agnostic  sup- 
porters, or  opposed  alike  by  adversaries  of 
either  school. 


EXTINCT  MONSTERS.  A  Popular  Account  of 
some  of  the  Larger  Forms  of  Ancient 
Animal  Life.  By  the  Rev.  H.  N.  HUTCH- 
INSON.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
Pp.  254. 

THE  object  of  this  book  is  twofold:  to 
describe  some  of  the  larger  and  more  mon- 
strous forms  of  the  past,  and  endeavor  by 
pen  and  pencil  to  present  them  as  they  were 
in  life ;  and  to  illustrate  how  in  animal  life 
the  past  has  grown  into  the  present  without 
the  long  and  abrupt  leaps  which  we  are  too 
liable  to  regard  as  one  of  the  chief  features 
of  the  transition.  Stress  is  laid  upon  the 
quality  of  the  illustrations.  They  are  still  to 
a  certain  extent  conjectural,  but  they  rest 
upon  larger  and  more  accurate  information 
than  any  portraits  of  the  giants  and  dragons 
of  old  that  have  previously  appeared.  Many 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


557 


of  the  former  pictures  of  these  creatures 
were  highly  sensational ;  in  some  of  the  later 
ones  neither  art  nor  Nature  had  fair  play, 
and  we  had  to  put  up  with  awkward-looking 
creatures  that  could  not  get  along  at  all  in 
life,  or  with  animals  in  attitudes  which  later 
researches  have  shown  were  not  theirs. 
Hence  our  ideas  upon  these  points  need  to 
be  revised.  The  discoveries  of  later  years 
have  shown,  as  Dr.  Henry  Woodward  ob- 
serves in  the  preface  he  furnishes,  "that 
the  dicynodon  and  labyrinthodon,  instead 
of  being  toadlike  in  form,  were  lacertilian 
or  salamander-like  reptiles,  with  elongated 
bodies  and  moderately  long  tails;  that  the 
iguanodon  did  not  usually  stand  upon  'all 
fours,'  but  more  frequently  sat  up  like  some 
huge  kangaroo  with  short  fore  limbs."  The 
discoveries  of  Marsh,  Cope,  Leidy,  and  others 
in  America  have  added  vastly  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  real  structure  of  these  animals. 
We  have  now  almost  complete  skeletons  and 
details  of  the  flying  membranes  of  long  and 
short  tailed  pterodactyles ;  the  archaeopte- 
ryx  and  Marsh's  hesperornis  and  ichthyornis 
have  given  more  definite  shape  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  primitive  birds ;  and  the  discovery 
by  Prof.  Fraas  of  the  outlines  of  the  skin 
and  fins  of  ichthyosaurus  have  established 
the  pertinency  of  the  term  fish-lizard  as  ap- 
plied to  it.  These  and  other  discoveries 
have  been  applied  in  the  text  and  illustra- 
tions of  this  book ;  and  we  have,  according- 
ly, the  saurians  of  the  sea  and  the  land,  the 
real  dragons  and  sea-serpents  of  old,  the 
monsters  of  America  and  of  India — mega- 
theriums, glyptodons,  mastodon,  mammoth, 
giant  birds,  Irish  elk,  and  Steller's  sea  cow 
— represented  with  a  clearer  approach  to  ac- 
curacy than  ever  before,  but  still  subject  to 
correction  by  future  discoveries. 

BIBLE  STUDIES.  By  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 
New  York :  Ford,  Howards,  &  Hulbert. 
Pp.438.  Price,  $1.50. 

THIS  is  a  volume  of  lectures  on  the  early 
Old  Testament  books  which  were  delivered 
in  Plymouth  Church  on  Sunday  evenings  in 
1878-'79,  as  part  of  an  unrealized  design 
eventually  to  cover  the  whole  Old  Testament 
with  the  course.  The  lectures  were  taken 
down  by  Mr.  T.  J.  Ellinwood,  according  to  his 
custom  of  stenographically  reporting  all  Mr. 
Beecher's  public  addresses,  and  are  now  pub- 


lished under  the  editorial  supervision  of  Mr. 
John  R.  Howard.  The  whole  force  of  them, 
Mr.  Howard  says,  "  goes  to  throw  off  all  the 
cramping  theory  of '  inspiration '  which  makes 
God  responsible  for  all  the  evil  that  was 
done  by  the  inchoate  Hebrew  people  in  his 
name.  Thus  the  student  is  left  free  to  fol- 
low this  master  expositor  in  rediscovering 
and  newly  appreciating  the  wisdom,  the 
goodness,  the  grand  foundation-work  of 
Moses  under  the  divine  impulse,  which  both 
served  to  build  up  the  Israelitish  nation,  and 
has  entered  into  many  of  the  soundest  ele- 
ments of  modern  civilization.  .  .  .  The  at- 
tentive reader  of  these  Bible  studies  will 
lose  no  living  belief  in  the  ancient  Scriptures 
as  containing  the  word  of  God  to  men,  while 
he  will  gain  new  and  larger  views  of  their 
worth  for  Christian  life  to-day — and  that  not 
in  spite  of  the  new  philosophy  of  growth,  but 
in  full  harmony  with  its  irresistible  advance." 
Of  special  interest,  as  bearing  upon  the  sub- 
ject in  its  generality,  are  the  first  three  lec- 
tures, on  The  Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  How 
to  read  the  Bible,  and  The  Book  of  Begin- 
nings. 

REPRESENTATIVE  ENGLISH  LITERATURE  FROM 
CHAUCER  TO  TENNYSON.  Selected  and 
supplemented  with  Historical  Connec- 
tions and  a  Map.  By  HENRY  S.  PAN- 
COAST.  New  York :  Henry  Holt  &  Co. 
Pp.  514.  Price,  $1.60. 

THE  author's  attempt  has  been  to  write  a 
book  which  should  answer  the  needs  of  those 
who  are  beginning  to  teach  the  subject  ac- 
cording to  new  methods.  The  tendency 
formerly  was  to  study  the  history  of  litera- 
ture without  coming  into  real  contact  with 
the  literature  itself ;  now,  in  our  anxiety  to 
avoid  this  error,  we  are  in  danger  of  rushing 
into  the  opposite  one,  and  of  studying  the 
literature  torn  from  its  living  historic  and 
human  relations.  In  the  present  work  the 
attempt  is  made  to  put  the  student  in  direct 
contact  with  some  representative  master- 
pieces, without  ignoring  the  study  of  litera- 
ture from  its  historical  side.  The  sketches 
and  selections  are  therefore  presented  in  the 
order  of  their  time  by  sequence,  with  a  distinct 
historical  thread  running  through  the  whole. 
The  authors  mentioned  and  quoted  are  pre- 
sented in  direct  connection  with  the  ages  and 
surroundings  in  which  they  lived  and  wrote. 
The  history  and  the  surroundings  are  described 


558 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


in  four  periods — the  period  of  preparation, 
ending  about  A.  D.  1400,  of  which  Chaucer  is 
the  principal  representative ;  the  period  of 
Italian  influence  (The  Revival  of  Learning 
and  the  Puritan  in  Literature),  1400  to  1600, 
represented  by  Spenser,  Bacon,  Milton,  the 
Elizabethans  and  the  Puritans ;  the  period  of 
French  influence,  1 660  to  about  1750,  of  which 
Dryden,  Addison  and  the  eighteenth  century 
essays,  and  Pope  are  the  most  conspicuous 
examples :  and  the  modern  English  period, 
including  the  earlier  writers  of  this  century 
and  recent  writers  to  Browning  and  Tenny- 
son. In  the  appendix  are  a  Literary  Map  of 
England,  a  list  of  authors  to  accompany  the 
map,  a  Chaucer  glossary,  and  an  index. 

THE  NATURALIST  ON  THE  RIVER  AMAZONS. 
By  HENRY  WALTER  BATES,  with  a  Mem- 
oir of  the  Author  by  EDWARD  CLODD. 
New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  396. 

WE  have  already,  in  our  biographical 
sketch  of  Mr.  Bates,  borne  testimony  to  the 
value  of  his  work  on  the  Amazons,  and  to 
the  value  and  interest  of  this  book,  and  now 
speak  of  the  peculiar  features  of  the  present 
edition.  It  is  a  reprint  of  the  original  una- 
bridged edition,  with  a  map  and  illustrations, 
including  a  double  colored  plate  of  butterflies 
to  illustrate  the  theory  of  mimicry.  The  de- 
scription of  the  book  in  the  subtitle  as  A 
Record  of  Adventures,  Habits  of  Animals, 
Sketches  of  Brazilian  and  Indian  Life,  and 
Aspects  of  Nature  under  the  Equator,  during 
Eleven  Years  of  Travel,  shows  how  compre- 
hensive and  varied  it  is.  The  memoir,  by  Mr. 
Edward  Clodd,  a  near  personal  friend,  who 
had  more  than  an  editor's  interest  in  com- 
posing the  tribute,  has  been  enriched  by  let- 
ters furnished  by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  and  Mr. 
Francis  Darwin,  with  letters  from  Sir  Joseph 
Hooker  and  the  elder  Darwin  to  Mr.  Bates. 

A  TREATISE  ON  PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  ITS  AP- 
PLICATIONS IN  DIFFERENT  EUROPEAN  COUN- 
TRIES. By  ALBERT  PALMBERG.  New  York: 
Macraillan  &  Co.  Pp.  539.  Price,  $5. 

THE  author  is  a  health  officer,  and  is  ac- 
tive in  movements  in  behalf  of  public  health 
in  Finland.  The  present  edition  of  his  work 
is  a  translation  from  the  French  original, 
made  at  his  request  by  Dr.  Arthur  News- 
holme,  of  Brighton,  who  has  also  brought 
up  to  date  and  completed  the  chapter  on 
England,  and  summarized  the  recent  legisla- 


tion. The  treatise  is  based  on  the  practice 
in  different  countries.  An  analysis  of  the 
part  relating  to  England  will  illustrate  the 
plan  and  scope  of  the  whole.  The  first 
chapter  gives  a  general  review  of  the  sani- 
tary administration,  with  accounts  of  the 
local  government  board,  local  sanitary  dis- 
tricts, and  local  boards  of  health,  duties  of 
the  several  health  officers,  statistical  tables, 
and  the  daily  progress  in  an  urban  sanitary 
office.  The  next  chapter  comprises  a  sum- 
mary of  sanitary  legislation  as  embodied  in 
the  Public  Health  Act  of  1875 — referring  to 
drainage,  utilization  of  sewage,  privies  and 
water-closets,  sweeping  and  cleansing  of 
streets,  courts,  and  houses,  water  supply, 
common  lodging  houses,  nuisances,  offensive 
trades,  etc.,  through  many  particulars  pro- 
vided for  in  the  law  named  and  in  other  sani- 
tary laws.  In  a  third  chapter  sanitary  regula- 
tions are  described  with  similar  detail.  The 
two  following  chapters  are  given  to  the  sani- 
tary conditions,  administration,  and  regula- 
tions of  London.  The  account  is  there  ex- 
tended to  include  other  countries  and  their 
principal  cities — Scotland  and  Edinburgh, 
Belgium  and  Brussels,  Austria  and  Vienna, 
Sweden  and  Stockholm,  and  Finland  and 
Helsingfors.  These  extracts  are  followed 
by  statistics  showing  the  importance  of  pub- 
lic hygiene.  The  book  is  rich  in  descriptions 
and  illustrations  of  sanitary  appliances  mod- 
ern and  practical.  The  author  has  confined 
his  accounts  to  countries  whose  methods  he 
has  seen  and  studied  personally  on  the  spot. 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  INDIVIDUALITY.  By  AN- 
TOINETTE BROWN  BLACKWELL.  New  York : 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp.  517.  Price, 

$3. 

THIS  work  or  essay  is  characterized  by  the 
author  as  "  a  revised,  a  broadened,  a  more  full 
attempt  at  verification  of  a  system  of  thoughts 
less  matured  in  the  author's  former  works, 
Studies  in  General  Science,  and  the  Physical 
Basis  of  Immortality."  Its  position  is  that 
"  the  character  of  every  perception  and  of 
every  cognition,  and  of  every  mental  act  of  all 
kinds  is  dependent  in  definite  degrees  upon 
each  and  all  of  the  co-operating  factors,  psy- 
chical and  physical,  which  together  make  up 
the  entire  process  of  every  act  in  which  the 
sensibility  is  consciously  concerned.  In  other 
words,  all  change,  all  action  (change  and 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


559 


action  include  both  feeling  and  motion)  is  so 
entirely  under  the  control  of  definite  law 
that  the  sequence  of  every  thought  is  fully 
determined  by  its  correlatives  of  all  kinds, 
in  the  sense  that  it  must  obey  the  associated 
laws  of  thought  and  of  things.  The  mind 
must  perceive  objects,  must  know  them,  and 
must  reason  about  them  legitimately  in  true 
accord  with  its  own  mental  attitude  working 
in  correspondence  with  the  organism  and  the 
extra-organic  world."  We  have  found  noth- 
ing in  it  clearer  than  this. 

AN  ELEMENTARY  MANUAL  ON  APPLIED  ME- 
CHANICS. By  ANDREW  JAMIESON.  Lon- 
don :  Charles  Griffin  &  Co.  1892.  Pp. 
268.  Price,  $1.25. 

THIS  manual  is  intended  especially  for 
students  beginning  the  subject,  and  forms  a 
companion  to  the  author's  other  elementary 
manuals  on  Steam  and  the  Steam  Engine  and 
Magnetism  and  Electricity.  The  subject  is 
treated  under  four  general  divisions,  the  first 
being  devoted  to  statics  or  forces  in  equi- 
librium, the  second  to  hydraulics  and  hy- 
draulic machines,  the  third  to  the  laws  of 
motion,  and  the  fourth  to  the  properties  and 
strength  of  materials. 

The  book  consists  of  twenty-four  lectures 
delivered  by  Prof.  Jaraieson,  to  his  students 
and  the  method  of  treatment  and  the  or- 
der of  arrangement  of  the  subject  matter 
are  based  upon  the  author's  experience  in 
teaching.  In  conformity  with  this,  he  has 
placed  the  consideration  of  the  laws  of  mo- 
tion after  that  of  hydraulics  and  hydraulic 
machines,  as  he  finds  that  it  is  much  better 
for  the  student  to  have  some  knowledge  of 
simple  mechanism  before  trying  to  under- 
stand the  abstract  laws  of  motion.  Illustra- 
tive examples  are  given  in  each  lecture,  and 
a  list  of  suitable  questions  at  the  end. 

PRACTICAL  ELECTRIC-LIGHT  FITTING.  By  F. 
C.  ALLSOP.  London :  Whittaker  &  Co. ; 
New  York :  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  275. 
Price,  $1.50. 

THIS  handbook  should  prove  of  interest 
and  value  not  only  to  the  practical  electric- 
light  fitter,  to  whom  it  is  primarily  addressed, 
but  to  the  householder  using  the  electric 
light  who  desires  to  take  an  intelligent  inter- 
est hi  the  subject  as  well.  The  author  be- 
gins his  exposition  with  a  brief  but  clear 
statement  of  the  meaning  and  relation  of 


current,  electromotive  force,  and  resistance, 
which  is  quite  free  from  technicalities  and 
understandable  by  any  one  without  previous 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  then  passes 
to  a  consideration  of  the  various  appliances 
and  details  of  construction  essential  to  a 
complete  electric-light  outfit.  Among  the 
subjects  considered  are  systems  of  central- 
station  supply,  switches,  cutouts,  incandes- 
cent and  arc  lamps  and  their  accessories, 
electroliers,  running  of  wires,  arrangement  of 
circuits  in  a  house,  sizes  of  wires  for  a  given 
number  of  lamps,  and  meters.  All  these 
subjects  are  treated  briefly  but  clearly,  so 
that  the  ordinary  householder  can  readily  un- 
derstand them.  A  full  statement  is  given  of 
the  rules  of  the  London  underwriters,  and 
the  work  closes  with  a  chapter  upon  private 
installations. 

MAGNETISM  AND  ELECTRICITY.  By  ARTHUR 
WILLIAM  POYSER,  M.  A.  London  and  New 
York:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  1892. 
Pp.  382.  Price,  $1.50. 

THIS  very  excellent  manual  is  designed  for 
advanced  students,  and  the  subject  is  treated 
so  as  to  give  the  student  an  experimental 
knowledge,  the  text  being  intended  to  be  an 
aid  to  the  experimental  study  and  not  a  sub- 
stitute for  it,  as  is  so  often  the  case. 

The  main  experimental  facts  of  the  sci- 
ence of  magnetism  and  electricity,  are  set 
forth  by  the  author,  and  simple  experiments 
suggested  which  the  student  can  perform 
without  the  use  of  elaborate  apparatus.  A 
chapter  is  devoted  at  the  close  of  the  book 
to  some  of  the  applications  of  the  principles 
of  the  science,  in  which  the  telephone,  mi- 
crophone, electric  lamps,  and  the  dynamo  are 
briefly  described,  and  a  short  but  instructive 
account  is  given  of  the  recent  researches  of 
Hertz  in  proof  of  the  electro-magnetic  theory 
of  light  of  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  those  of  Tesla 
with  currents  of  great  frequency. 

HEREDITARY  GENIUS.  By  FRANCIS  GALTON. 
London  and  New  York :  Macmillan  &  Co. 
1892.  Pp.  379.  Price,  $2.50. 

IN  republishing  this  inquiry  into  the  ques- 
tion whether  natural  ability  is  hereditary,  Dr 
Galton  has  chosen  to  leave  it  in  much  the 
same  form  in  which  it  first  appeared  more 
than  twenty  years  ago,  as  to  recast  it  and  in- 
corporate data  now  accessible  would  have  in- 
involved  greater  labor  than  he  could  well 


56o 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


undertake.  The  inquiry  was  originally  un- 
dertaken at  a  time  when  it  was  believed  that 
the  individual  mind  was  capable  of  almost 
indefinite  development,  if  only  it  was  proper- 
ly trained  and  had  coupled  with  it  the  neces- 
sary will  power  to  urge  it  on.  The  outcome 
of  the  researches  was,  however,  to  show  that 
the  mental  faculties  of  the  individual  are  as 
rigorously  limited  by  ancestral  conditions  as 
are  those  of  the  body.  In  support  of  his 
conclusions  Dr.  Galton  has  examined  the  kin- 
ship of  a  number  of  men  who  have  attained 
eminence  in  various  fields  of  labor,  and  has 
shown  that  the  number  of  relatives  who 
have  been  above  the  average  are  greatly  in 
excess  of  the  number  of  such  relatives  that 
would  exist  if  there  were  no  causal  relation. 
The  classes  of  eminent  men  passed  in  review 
comprise  the  English  judges,  statesmen, 
great  commanders,  literary  men,  men  of  sci- 
ence, poets,  musicians,  painters,  divines, 
senior  classics  of  Cambridge,  oarsmen,  and 
wrestlers.  While  the  range  of  Dr.  Galton's 
inquiries  is  necessarily  limited,  his  main  posi- 
tion seems  to  be  established  and  all  our  later 
knowledge  is  in  the  direction  of  its  support. 
The  important  bearing  of  this  research  is 
upon  the  future  of  the  race,  and  Dr.  Galton 
therefore  discusses  the  relation  of  fertility  to 
ability,  and  sees  reason  to  believe  that  in  the 
course  of  evolution  the  race  may  attain  a 
level  as  high  above  the  highest  now  existing 
as  this  is  above  the  lowest  at  the  present  time. 

ELECTRICAL  PAPERS.  By  OLIVER  HEAVISIDE. 
Two  volumes.  London  and  New  York: 
Macmillan  &  Co.,  1892.  Pp.  560,  587. 
Price,  80s. 

THESE  volumes  contain  the  contributions 
of  the  author  during  the  past  ten  years  to 
the  mathematical  development  of  electrical 
theory.  The  papers  have  been  contributed 
to  various  scientific  periodicals  without  any 
intention  originally  of  making  them  the  basis 
of  a  systematic  treatise,  but  aside  from  a 
few  miscellaneous  ones  at  the  beginning  of 
the  first  volume  they  are  of  sufficient  conti- 
nuity to  present  the  subject  in  an  orderly, 
logical  development.  The  papers  cover  the 
mathematical  treatment  of  the  relations  be- 
tween magnetic  force  and  electric  current, 
the  energy  of  the  electric  current,  induction 
of  currents  in  cores,  electro-magnetic  induc- 
tion and  its  propagation,  and  electro-mag- 


netic waves.  The  views  of  electrical  action 
and  the  propagation  of  electric  disturbances 
here  worked  out  are  those  first  propounded 
by  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  which  have  in  the 
last  decade  come  to  be  widely  accepted  by 
scientific  men,  and  are  forming  the  basis  of 
all  further  research.  Mr.  Heaviside's  discus- 
sions are  addressed  only  to  the  mathematical 
physicist,  and  are  quite  beyond  the  lay 
reader.  They  have  been  recognized  as  of  a 
high  order  of  merit  by  scientific  men,  and 
have  taken  their  place  as  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  the  scientific  literature  of  the 
subject. 

ALTERNATING  CURRENTS.  By  FREDERICK  BE- 
DELL, Ph.  D.,  and  ALBERT  GUSHING  CRE- 
HORE,  Ph.  D.  New  York  :  W.  J.  Johnston 
Co.;  London:  Whittaker  &  Co.  1893. 
Pp.  325.  Price, 

IN  this  work  Drs.  Bedell  and  Crehore,  of 
Cornell  University,  have  undertaken  to  de- 
velop the  theory  of  the  alternating  current 
in  a  more  complete  and  logical  form  than 
has  hitherto  been  done.  The  work  is  mathe- 
matical, and  appeals  only  to  the  scientific 
student  of  physics.  The  authors  divide  their 
treatment  into  two  main  divisions,  in  the  first 
of  which  the  problems  of  an  alternating  cir- 
cuit are  treated  analytically,  and  in  the  sec- 
ond graphically.  In  each  mode  of  treatment 
the  simpler  cases  of  circuits  containing  re- 
sistance and  self-induction  only,  and  resist- 
ance and  capacity  only,  are  first  taken  up, 
and  then  the  more  complex  cases  "of  circuits 
containing  resistance,  self-induction  and  ca- 
pacity, and  resistance  and  distributed  capaci- 
ty are  considered.  The  solutions  obtained  are 
of  universal  application,  though  for  the  sake 
of  clearness  the  authors  give  numerous  ex- 
amples of  the  application  of  the  general 
formulas.  Parts  of  the  work  have  appeared 
as  separate  papers  in  various  scientific  peri- 
odicals, and  have  met  with  very  favorable 
reception  from  scientific  men. 

AN  ATLAS  OF  ASTRONOMY.  By  Sir  ROBERT 
STAWELL  BALL.  A  Series  of  Seventy-two 
Plates,  with  Introduction  and  Index.  New 
York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Price,  $4. 

HAVING  received  an  invitation  to  prepare 
a  new  astronomical  atlas,  Prof.  Ball  under- 
took the  work  with  the  view  of  supplying  an 
elementary  series  of  maps,  such  as  had  been 
asked  for  by  the  readers  of  his  Starland. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


561 


The  scheme  gradually  developed,  however, 
so  that  while  suitably  supplying  the  wants 
of  beginners  in  astronomical  study,  the  atlas 
has  taken  on  a  scope  which  makes  it  more 
widely  serviceable.  The  plates  comprise  a 
general  star  map  in  twenty  sections,  a  series 
of  twelve  monthly  star  maps,  and  several 
other  important  single  maps  and  groups.  The 
moon  is  represented  in  charts  of  the  four 
quadrants,  and  there  are  also  telescopic 
views  of  the  moon  of  each  day's  age  from 
the  third  to  the  fourteenth.  Each  of  these 
pictures  is  furnished  with  a  key  and  index 
of  names,  and  it  is  believed  that  students  of 
our  satellite  will  find  these  plates  of  much 
service  in  identifying  the  various  lunar  ob- 
jects. Other  plates  represent  phases  and 
orbits  of  the  planets,  solar  phenomena,  com- 
ets, nebulae,  systems  of  satellites,  eclipses, 
etc.  An  introduction  of  fifty-seven  pages 
describes  the  plates  and  gives  a  list  of  select 
telescopic  objects  suitable  for  observation 
with  small  instruments.  Another  feature  of 
the  present  work  is  an  index  to  planets.  The 
identification  of  these  bodies  is  difficult  for 
a  beginner,  on  account  of  their  shifting  po- 
sitions. The  author  has  removed  this  diffi- 
culty for  the  next  decade  by  providing  a 
simple  method  of  learning  in  a  few  seconds 
the  approximate  position  of  every  important 
planet.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  me- 
chanical execution  of  the  volume  is  of  a  high 
grade. 

LIFE  AND  LABOR  OP  THE  PEOPLE  IN  LONDON. 
Edited  by  CHARLES  BOOTH.  Vol.  III. 
Blocks  of  Buildings,  Schools,  and  Immi- 
gration. Vol.  IV.  The  Trades  of  East 
London.  London  and  New  York :  Mac- 
millan  &  Co.  Price,  $1.50  each. 

THESE  volumes  consist  of  correlated  es- 
says on  various  features  of  its  subject  by 
a  number  of  special  writers.  They  form  a 
uniformly  straightforward  account,  abun- 
dantly fortified  by  statistics,  of  how  the  poor- 
er classes  of  London  work  and  live,  and  how 
their  children  are  educated.  There  is  no 
sentiment  and  few  comments  or  suggestions 
in  these  volumes ;  they  are  crowded  so  full 
of  facts  that  no  room  is  left  for  such  matter. 
Compact  tables  of  figures  are  introduced  fre- 
quently, and  in  Volume  III  colored  maps 
show  the  proportions  of  native  and  foreign- 
born  population  in  London  and  in  England. 
The  information  which  the  work  contains  is 
VOL.  XLIII. — 40 


of  the  highest  value  to  the  sociologist  and 
deeply  interesting  to  any  one  who  wishes  to 
know  "  how  the  other  half  lives  "  in  a  great 
city.  The  essays  are  far  from  dry,  in  spite  of 
their  meatiness.  Thus,  one  of  those  devoted 
to  model  buildings  is  a  sketch  of  life  in 
buildings,  which  is  notably  graphic.  In  the 
chapter  on  the  Jewish  Community  is  a  vivid 
account  of  the  progress  of  a  "  greener  "  from 
the  time  he  enters  the  Thames  on  board  an 
immigrant  steamer  until  he  is  established  in 
a  little  business,  perhaps  two  or  three  years 
later.  The  accounts  of  elementary  educa- 
tion and  of  the  secondary  education  of  boys 
and  of  girls  are  also  very  readable.  The 
trades  that  receive  attention  in  Volume  IV  are 
tailoring,  bootmaking,  dock  labor,  furniture- 
making,  tobacco-working,  silk  manufacture, 
and  women's  work ;  there  is  also  a  special 
chapter  on  Sweating  by  the  editor.  A  thor- 
ough insight  is  given  into  the  conditions  of 
work  in  these  trades,  and  some  idea  of  how 
both  male  workers  and  factory  girls  spend 
their  leisure  is  also  afforded.  These  vol- 
umes are  an  excellent  example  of  what  sort 
of  investigation  is  necessary  as  a  basis  for 
any  intelligent  efforts  toward  bettering  the 
condition  of  the  poor  in  a  large  city. 

The  Handbook  of  Emergencies  and  Com- 
mon Ailments  of  E,  F.  Bradford,  M.  D.,  as- 
sisted by  Louis  Lewis,  M.  D.  (B.  B.  Russell, 
publisher,  Boston),  is  a  really  valuable  work, 
larger  and  fuller  than  most  of  the  books  of 
similar  title,  but  less  bulky  and  diffuse,  and 
therefore  more  valuable  and  practical  than 
ordinary  books  of  household  medicine.  The 
author's  purpose  in  preparing  it  was  to  pre- 
sent to  non-professional  readers  directions 
for  the  diagnosis  and  treatment  of  the  class 
of  cases  described  in  the  title.  The  author's 
plan  has  been  to  treat  the  subjects  more 
fully  and  extensively  than  is  done  in  the  nu- 
merous handbooks  already  in  circulation,  and 
to  describe  in  sufficient  detail  the  latest 
remedies  and  methods  of  treatment,  or  such 
as  are  available  and  easily  understood.  The 
object  has  been  kept  in  view,  too,  besides 
pointing  out  specific  remedies  for  different 
ailments,  to  discuss  and  explain  some  of  the 
general  principles  upon  which  a  sensible 
practice  of  medicine  is  founded.  The  book 
is  divided  into  five  parts.  Part  I  presents 
some  general  introductory  remarks  on  symp- 


562 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


toms  and  the  signs  of  disease  and  of  death, 
and  on  the  use  of  medicines ;  Part  II  re- 
lates to  injuries  and  wounds  and  their  treat- 
ment; Part  III,  to  sudden  attacks,  painful 
attacks,  pain  in  the  chest,  and  pain  in  the 
stomach ;  Part  IV,  to  some  common  ailments 
and  diseases  of  the  skin ;  and  Part  V,  to  dis- 
eases of  infancy  and  childhood;  numerous 
particular  forms  of  attack  being  described 
under  each  heading. 

A  Manual  of  Physics  for  university  stu- 
dents, prepared  by  Prof.  William  Peddie,  of 
Edinburgh,  has  been  issued  by  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons  (price,  $2.50).  It  is  a  treatise  of  a  high 
grade,  and  is  confined  to  pure  science.  It 
makes  large  use  of  mathematics,  but  the  au- 
thor states  that  the  student  may  assume  the 
results  of  the  mathematical  portions,  and  use 
the  remainder,  which  is  much  the  larger  part, 
of  the  text  in  his  study  of  experimental 
physics.  The  volume  has  an  index,  and  there 
are  over  two  hundred  diagrams  in  the  text. 

The  ejection  of  blood  from  the  eyes  of 
the  lizards  of  the  genus  Phrynosoma — popu- 
larly called  horned  toads — is  now  attracting 
considerable  attention.  In  the  Proceedings 
of  the  United  States  National  Museum,  0.  P. 
Hay  gives  a  very  interesting  account  of  his 
experiments  with  this  lizard.  It  appears  that 
upon  irritating  the  animal  blood  spurts  from 
just  above  the  eye.  For  what  purpose  the 
horned  toad  thus  besprinkles  an  enemy  with 
his  own  blood,  what  is  the  source  of  the  blood, 
and  how  is  it  expelled  with  such  force,  are 
the  questions  that  are  puzzling  biologists.  It 
is  suggested  that  the  purpose  of  the  ejection 
is  to  defend  the  animal  from  the  attacks  of 
enemies,  although  it  seems  improbable  that 
the  discharge  would  seriously  pain  or  affect 
an  enemy ;  however,  Mr.  Hay  thinks  it  like- 
ly that  this  is  the  purpose  of  the  habit,  and 
he  says:  "A  discharge  of  blood  into  the 
eyes  of  some  pursuing  bird  or  snake  might 
so  seriously  interfere  with  its  clearness  of  vi- 
sion that  the  lizard  might  make  its  escape 
while  its  enemy  was  wiping  its  eyes." 

The  determination  of  the  source  of  the 
blood  has  offered  serious  difficulties  to  the 
investigations  of  biologists,  the  most  proba- 
ble theory  being  that  the  blood  or  matter  is 
lodged  in  a  blood  sinus  upon  each  side  of  the 
head,  a  portion  of  the  wall  lying  on  the  inner 
surface  of  the  eyelid.  This  sinus  is  supposed 
to  be  surrounded  with  muscular  tissue  of 


sufficient  force  to  cause  the  thin  wall  in  the 
lid  to  be  ruptured  and  the  blood  to  be  eject- 
ed to  a  considerable  distance.  These  toads 
are  found  in  nearly  all  parts  of  California, 
and  are  called  by  the  Mexicans  "  sacred 
toads,"  "  because  they  wept  tears  of  blood." 

In  the  Contemporary  Review  Prof.  A.  H. 
Sayce  contributes  a  valuable  paper  to  philo- 
logical literature,  which  he  entitles  The  Primi- 
tive Home  of  the  Aryans.  Until  recent  years 
the  accepted  belief  was  that  the  parent 
speech  had  its  home  in  Asia,  probably  on  the 
slopes  of  the  Hindu  Koosh.  The  parent 
speech  of  the  Indo-European  languages  was 
entitled  the  Ursprache,  or  "primeval  lan- 
guage " ;  but,  as  linguistic  history  developed, 
this  supposition  was  abandoned,  for  it  was 
found  to  differ  from  Sanskrit  or  Greek  only 
in  its  fuller  inflectional  character.  Sanskrit 
then  became  the  parent,  and  its  home  was 
determined  to  be  in  Asia,  the  choice  being 
fixed  upon  two  arguments,  the  first  of  which 
is  linguistic,  the  second  being  historical. 
"  On  one  hand  it  has  been  laid  down  by  emi- 
nent philologists  that  the  less  one  of  the  de- 
rived languages  has  deflected  from  the  parent 
speech  the  more  likely  it  is  to  be  geograph- 
ically nearer  to  its  earliest  home  "  ;  .  .  .  and, 
"  as  Sanskrit  was  held  to  be  the  most  primi- 
tive of  the  Indo-European  languages  to  re- 
flect clearly  the  features  of  the  parent  speech, 
the  conclusion  was  drawn  that  that  parent 
speech  had  been  spoken  at  no  great  distance 
from  the  country  where  the  hymns  of  Rig- 
Veda  were  first  composed."  Prof.  Sayce, 
however,  draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
result  of  recent  discoveries  has  been  a  com- 
plete revolution  in  the  study  of  Indo-Euro- 
pean etymology ;  and  that  whereas,  ten  years 
ago,  Sanskrit  was  invoked  to  explain  Greek, 
"  it  is  to  the  Greek  that  the  new  school  now 
turns  to  explain  Sanskrit."  He  claims,  with 
Dr.  Penka,  that  "  southern  Scandinavia  was 
the  primitive  '  Aryan  home,'  "  and  he  adds 
that  "  a  more  profound  examination  of  Teu- 
tonic and  Keltic  mythology,  a  more  exact 
knowledge  of  the  words  in  the  several  Indo- 
European  languages  which  are  not  of  Indo- 
European  origin,  and  the  progress  of  archaao- 
logical  discovery  will  furnish  the  verification 
we  need  "  to  establish  that  in  Europe  and  not 
Asia  was  the  home  of  the  parent  speech. 

The  Birth  of  Invention  is  a  most  interest- 
ing pamphlet,  by  Otis  T.  Mason,  Ph.  D.,  Cu- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


563 


rator  of  the  Department  of  Ethnology,  United 
States  National  Museum.  He  brings  his  read- 
er to  "  the  day  when  the  first  being  worthy 
to  be  called  a  man "  stood  upon  the  earth, 
and  he  describes  his  utter  poverty  of  cloth- 
ing, tools,  experience,  language,  etc.  "  All 
Nature  laughed  at  him."  But  "  the  one  en- 
dowment that  this  creature  possessed,  hav- 
ing in  it  the  promise  and  potency  of  all  future 
achievements,  was  the  creative  spark  called 
invention."  From  this  beginning  Mr.  Mason 
evolves  an  interesting  narrative  of  the  prog- 
ress of  invention,  using  "five  guides  upon 
his  interesting  journey."  The  first  is  history, 
the  second  philology,  the  third  folk  lore,  the 
fourth  is  archaeology,  and  the  fifth  ethnol- 
ogy. And,  as  a  result  of  the  assistance  of 
these  mediums,  he  claims  that  we  now  have 
on  earth  types  of  every  sort  of  culture  it  has 
ever  known. 

The  second  part  of  the  pamphlet  is  de- 
voted to  a  treatise  on  American  inventions 
and  discoveries  in  medicine,  surgery,  and 
practical  sanitation,  by  John  S.  Billings,  M.  D., 
Curator  of  the  United  States  Medical  Mu- 
seum. Dr.  Billings  draws  attention  to  the 
enormous  number  of  applicants  for  license  to 
prepare  and  sell  patent  and  secret  medicines, 
and,  while  denying  the  benefits  derivable 
from  such  nostrums,  he  claims  that  their  ex- 
istence is  solely  due  to  advertising ;  that  he 
knows  of  only  four  valuable  secret  remedies, 
and  that  proprietary  and  secret  remedies 
are  largely  responsible  for  the  establish- 
ment and  support  of  some  of  our  newspapers 
and  journals.  To  give  an  idea  of  how  far 
the  patent-medicine  craze  has  gone,  he  tells 
of  a  "  patent  automatic  doctor,"  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  "  put  a  quarter  in  the  slot  and  take 
out  the  pill  that  suits  your  case."  In  1880 
there  were  in  the  United  States  five  hundred 
and  ninety-two  establishments  devoted  to  the 
manufacture  of  drugs  and  chemicals,  the 
capital  invested  being  $28,598,458,  while 
there  were  five  hundred  and  ninety-three  es- 
tablishments devoted  to  the  manufacture  of 
patent  medicines  and  compounds,  the  capital 
invested  being  $10,620,880. 

As  a  pleasure  resort  and  a  reminiscence, 
the  White  Mountains  never  tire.  As  a  field 
for  scientific  exploration  they  are  likewise 
perennial.  That  their  powers  of  literary 
suggestiveness  have  not  yet  been  fully  drawn 
upon  is  proved  by  a  collection  of  out-of-door 


sketches  of  Mr.  Frank  Bolles,  entitled  At 
the  North  of  Bearcamp  Water  (Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  $1.25).  Bearcamp  Water  is  a 
little  river  that  flows  from  Sandwich  into 
the  Ossipee  Lakes.  "  At  the  north  "  of  it 
are  the  Chocorua  Lakes  and  the  mountains 
Chocorua  and  Passaconaway  and  their  less 
imposing  companions — Mr.  Bolles's  home, 
where  he  lives  when  he  is  not  drudging  at 
Harvard  University,  nearly  equally  related 
to  the  base  of  Chocorua — famous  as  the 
most  characteristic  and  picturesque  peak  in 
New  England,  and  the  lakes.  His  "  strolling 
chronicles,"  as  he  calls  them,  give  vivid 
photographs  of  this  most  interesting  region, 
the  lakes,  rivers,  valleys,  and  mountains, 
and  the  life  there  in  summer  and  winter. 
Mr.  Bolles  roams  around  them  at  will ;  regard- 
less of  season  or  weather,  pushes  boldly  into 
the  obscure  recesses  of  the  untrodden  wil- 
derness ;  spends  an  August  night  in  a  thun- 
der-shower alone  on  the  narrow  ledge  of 
Chocorua's  precipitous  peak;  essays  climb- 
ing the  mountain  through  the  snow ;  carves 
his  own  way  up  Paugus ;  and  accomplishes 
as  a  matter  of  course  that  which  the  ama- 
teur mountaineer  of  two  weeks  a  year  shrinks 
from  as  a  kind  of  modified  suicide.  He 
knows  the  birds,  the  bears,  and  the  squir- 
rels, and  has  an  Orphean  way  of  calling  the 
birds  around  him  in  flocks  at  will ;  and  he 
tells  of  all  these  things  with  the  air  of  one 
who  is  occupied  with  them  for  the  love  of 
them ;  and  in  telling  of  them  has  added  an- 
other to  the  most  valuable  and  attractive  of 
our  outdoor  Nature  books. 

An  excellent  United  States  belief  Map, 
published  by  the  Geological  Survey,  is  of 
convenient  size  and  shows  clearly  and  dis- 
tinctly the  elevations  of  all  the  parts  of  the 
country — including  coast  lands,  valleys,  pla- 
teaus, and  mountains  regions,  at  convenient 
intervals.  The  elevations  are  designated  by 
a  series  of  nine  distinct  shades  of  color, 
from  white  to  dark  brown,  showing  depres- 
sions below  sea  level  and  elevations  from 
sea  level  to  100  feet ;  from  100  to  500,  500 
to  1,000,  1,000  to  2,000,  2,000  to  5,000, 
5,000  to  8,000,  8,000  to  11,000,  and  above 
11,000  feet. 

Who  ?  When  ?  and  What?  (Parmake  & 
Chaffee,  publishers,  New  York)  is  a  chart  of 
the  famous  men  and  events  of  the  six  centu- 
ries, 1250  to  1850.  It  shows  the  centuries 


564 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


in  vertical  columns;  and  in  horizontal  red 
lines  within  the  columns  the  lives  of  the 
persons  whose  names  the  lines  respectively 
bear,  with  arrowheads  pointing  out  the 
years  of  their  birth  and  death.  The  chart 
is  otherwise  arranged  in  three  grand  divi- 
sions, viz.,  literature,  thought,  discovery,  in- 
vention, etc. ;  second,  fine  arts ;  and,  third, 
music ;  while  prominent  movements  and 
events  marking  the  progress  in  each  division 
are  duly  and  plainly  noticed.  Attached  to 
the  chart  is  an  index,  by  the  aid  of  which 
each  name  recorded  may  be  easily  found. 

A  series  of  seventy-two  Normal  Tem- 
perature Charts,  by  Decades,  for  the  United 
States  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  com- 
piled by  Mr.  A.  J.  Henry,  and  published 
by  the  Signal  Department  under  General 
Greely,  comprises  reductions  of  observa- 
tions from  about  sixty  stations,  selected  so 
as  to  represent  the  entire  area  of  the  coun- 
try. These  charts,  it  is  observed,  have  be- 
come a  necessary  aid  in  the  work  of  the 
Forest  Division,  and  have  been  published  in 
the  expectation  that  they  will  also  become 
valuable  adjuncts  in  the  duties  of  local  ob- 
servers, with  reference  to  forecasting  the 
weather  and  furnishing  information ;  as  well 
as  to  observers  charged  with  the  preparation 
of  weekly  or  monthly  crop  bulletins. 

Prof.  Adolphe  Dreyspring's  method  of 
teaching  the  French  and  German  languages 
is  conformed  to  the  maxim  Repetitio  mater 
stitdiorum,  or  the  rule  of  constant  repetition. 
He  uses  only  a  limited  vocabulary  and  en- 
larges it  slowly ;  and  exercises  the  pupil  in 
all  possible  changes  hi  the  use  and  order  of 
these  words,  and  hi  a  great  variety  of  adap- 
tations. Then  he  tries  to  make  his  lessons 
interesting  and  amusing  by  casting  them  in 
the  form  of  a  story,  and  illustrating  them 
with  pictures  which,  while  pleasing  to  the 
eye,  suggest  the  translation.  The  French 
Reader,  on  the  Cumulative  Method,  is  intend- 
ed to  follow  the  Easy  Lessons  in  French,  as  a 
first  attempt  at  more  extended  reading.  In 
it  the  pupil  will  find  a  vocabulary  familiar 
from  the  Easy  Lessons,  to  which  much  has 
been  added  that  is  new.  The  book  recites 
the  story  of  Rodolph  and  Coco  the  chimpan- 
zee, which  has  been  composed  with  consider- 
able knowledge  of  what  children  like,  and  is 
adapted  to  instruct  them  and  amuse  them  at 
,once.  (American  Book  Company.) 


A  Report  on  the  Higgimville  Sheet,  La- 
fayette County,  is  the  first  of  a  series  of 
similar  reports  which  are  to  be  issued  by  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Missouri,  Arthur  Wins- 
low,  State  Geologist,  containing  the  results  of 
detailed  examination  in  the  respective  areas. 
The  localities  selected  for  such  work  are 
those  which  are  of  prominent  economic  im- 
portance or  of  great  geological  and  scientific 
interest.  The  form  of  publication  is  novel, 
and  is  intended  to  bring  forward  the  map 
and  section  sheet  as  the  prominent  features, 
subordinating  the  report  to  them.  Hence, 
the  form  of  the  modern  small  map  sheet  is 
adopted,  with  a  scale  of  an  inch  to  the 
mile,  each  map  representing  a  quarter  of  a 
degree  on  each  side,  or  one  sixteenth  of  a 
square  degree.  The  map  is  geological  and 
topographical,  and  is  accompanied  with  a 
section  sheet  containing  cross-sections  of 
profiles  and  underground  structure  and  num- 
bered columnar  sections  showing  details  of 
geological  formations. 

Truth  in  Fiction,  by  Paul  Carus  (Open 
Court  Publishing  Company,  Chicago),  in- 
cludes Twelve  Tales  with  a  Moral,  or  rather 
allegories,  for  only  the  first  one,  The  Chiefs 
Daughter,  is  a  real  story,  and  in  that  the 
allegorical  significance  is  as  prominent  as  are 
the  incidents.  The  lesson  taught  by  it  is  that 
while  we  may  throw  away  ordinances  and 
ceremonies,  we  need  not  forget  the  princi- 
ples and  the  truths  which  they  cover,  and 
which  they  are  intended  to  symbolize  or 
suggest.  In  the  second  story,  After  the 
Distribution  of  the  Type,  the  doctrine  is  sug- 
gested that,  while  the  man  passes  away,  his 
work,  that  which  he  taught  and  gave  to 
mankind,  lives  on  eternally ;  and  in  that  is 
the  real  immortality.  In  like  manner  the 
particular  forms  of  doctrine  and  philosophy 
which  Mr.  Carus  upholds  are  presented, 
and  agnostic  principles  are  defended,  or 
those  features  which  he  regards  as  absurd 
are  satirized,  in  the  other  stories. 


PUBLICATIONS  RECEIVED. 

Agricultural  Experiment  Stations,  Bulletins. 
Iowa,  Massachusetts:  Analysis  of  Commercial 
Fertilizers.  Ohio:  Bulletin  and  Eleventh  Annual 
Report. 

Agriculture,  United  States  Department  of. 
North  American  Fauna  of  the  Death  Valley  Ex- 
pedition. Pp.  394.  With  Plates. 

Bishop,  Cortlandt  F.  History  of  Elections  in 
the  American  Colonies.  New  York:  Columbia 
College.  Pp.297. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


565 


Bonrdeau,  Louis.  Conquete  du  Monde  Ve'ge'tal 
(Conquest  of  the  Vegetable  World).  Paris:  FSlix 
Alcan.  Pp.371. 

Brooks,  W.  K.  Salpa  in  its  Relation  to  the 
Evolution  of  Life.  Johns  Hopkins  University. 
Pp.85. 

Brown,  A.  J.  Jukes.  Geology.  New  York: 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  248.  $1. 

Bryant,  William  M.  Possibilities  of  a  Peda- 
gogical Society.  St.  Louie  Society  of  Pedagogy. 
Pp.  31. 

Carter,  O.  C.  S.  Artesian  Wells  as  a  Water 
Supply  for  Philadelphia.  Pp.  4.— Other  Papers 
on  Artesian  Wells.  Pp.7. 

Chicago  Manual  Training  School.  Tenth  An- 
nual Catalogue,  1892-'93. 

Durable.  Edwin  T.  Report  on  the  Brown 
Coal  and  Lignite  of  Texas.  Texas  Geological  Sur- 
vey. Pp.243. 

Ebers,  Georg.  The  Story  of  My  Life.  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  382.  $1.25. 

Eureka  Newspaper  Guide,  1893.  Eureka  Ad- 
vertising Agency,  Binghamton,  N.  Y.  Pp.  578. 
$2. 

Geldard,  C.  Statics  and  Dynamics.  New 
York:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  Pp.  308.  $1.50. 

Gould,  F.  J.  History  of  Religion.  Vol.  I. 
London:  Watts  &  Co.  Pp.  154.  2*.  6rf. 

Greene.  F.  V.  General  Greene.  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.  Pp.  332.  $1.50. 

Hart,  Ernest.  Hypnotism,  Mesmerism,  and 
the  New  Witchcraft.  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp. 
182.  $1.25. 

Hill,  Robert  T.  Clay  Materials  of  the  United 
States.  Pp.  56.— Paleontology  of  the  Cretaceous 
Formations  of  Texas,  etc.  Pp.  40.  With  Plates. 

Juglar,  Clement.  History  of  Panics.  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons.  Pp.  150. 

Krohn,  W.  O.  Psychological  Laboratory  at 
GOttingen.  Pp.  2. — Simultaneous  Stimulations  of 
the  Sense  of  Touch.  Pp.  16. 

Lamb,  D.  S.,  Washington.  The  Meckel  Di- 
verticulum.  Pp.  8. 

Mclivaine,  Charles.  The  Poisons  of  Toad- 
stools. Reprint.  Pp.  14. 

McKendrick,  John  G.,  and  Snodgrass,  William. 
The  Physiology  of  the  Senses.  New  York:  Charles 
Scribner's  Sous.  Pp.  318.  $1.50. 

Marshall,  A.  Milnes.  Vertebrate  Embryology. 
New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp.  640. 

Merrill,  F.  J.  H.  Salt  and  Gypsum  in  Industries 
of  New  York.  Albany:  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  Pp.89. 

Miers,  H.  A.,  and  Crosskey,  R.  The  Soil  in 
Relation  to  Health.  New  York:  Macmillan  & 
Co.  Pp.  135.  $1.10. 

Newell,  Jane  H.  A  Reader  in  Botany.  Bos- 
ton: Ginn  &  Co.  Pp.  179. 

Newhall,  C.  S.  The  Shrubs  of  Northeastern 
America.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  Pp. 
249. 

Newman,  Dr.  Robert  Cremation  and  its  Im- 
portance in  Cholera.  Pp.  10. 

Orum,  Julia  A.  Voice  Education.  Philadel- 
phia. Pp.  184. 

Pope,  Albert  A.,  Boston.  Errors  in  School 
Books.  Pp.40. 

Public  Reservations  (Massachusetts).  Trus- 
tees' Second  Annual  Report.  Boston:  G.  H.  Ellis. 
Pp.  73. 

Putnam,  S.  P.  Religion  a  Curse,  a  Disease,  a 
Lie.  New  York:  Truthseeker  Library.  Pp.  96. 

Richard,  Ernest.  The  German  School  System. 
New  York  University.  Pp.  16. 

Riley  C.  V.  Reports  of  the  Practical  Work  of 
the  Division  of  Entomology,  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture. 


Ripley,  W.  S.  The  Financial  History  of  Vir- 
ginia. Columbia  College.  Pp.  170. 

Rosewater,  Victor.  Special  Assessments.  Co- 
lumbia College.  Pp.  152. 

Ryder,  John  A.  Energy  as  a  Factor  in  Or- 
ganic Evolution.  Pp.  10.— The  Mechanical  Gene- 
sis of  the  Fowl's  Egg.  Pp.  6.  Philadelphia: 
American  Philosophical  Society. 

Scudder,  S.  H.  The  Life  of  a  Butterfly.  Pp. 
186.— The  Commoner  Butterflies  of  the  North- 
ern United  States  and  Canada.  New  York:  Henry 
Holt  &  Co.  Pp.206. 

Smith,  Henry.  Religion  of  the  Brain  and 
other  Essays.  London:  Watts  &  Co.  Pp.  88. 
25.  6d. 

Stebbinsr,  Rev.  T.  R.  R.  A  History  of  Crusta- 
cea. New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  466. 
$2. 

Studies  from  the  Biological  Laboratory  of 
Johns  Hopkins  University.  Vol.  V,  No.  2.  Pp. 
50. 

Swift,  M.  I.  A  Lesgue  of  Justice.  Boston: 
Commonwealth  Society.  Pp.  90.  50  cents. 

Taussig,  F.  W.  The  Silver  Situation  in  the 
United  States.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
Pp.  173.  75  cents. 

Thomas,  Cyrus.  Are  the  Maya  Hieroglyphs 
Phonetic?  Reprint.  Pp.28. 

Truthseeker,  Editor  of.  Design  Argument 
Fallacies.  Pp.  59.  15  cents. 

Vogel,  E.  The  Atomic  Weights  and  Specific 
Gravities. 

Wast,  Max.  The  Inheritance  Tax.  Columbia 
College.  Pp.  140. 

Weichmann,  F.  G.  Theoretical  Chemistry. 
New  York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons.  Pp.  222. 

Williams,  S.  G.  History  of  Modern  Education. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y.:  C.  W.  Bardeen.  Pp.  391.  $1.50. 

Wright,  Carroll  D.  Seventh  Annual  Report  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Labor.  Vol.  I.  Pp.  841. 

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POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

The  Scientific  Meetings  at  Madison,  Wis. 

— The  coming  meeting  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
will  be  held  in  Madison,  Wis.,  August  16th 
to  23d  inclusive.  Previous  to  the  former 
date,  the  American  Microscopical  Society  will 
meet  August  14th,  15th,  and  16th,  under 
the  presidency  of  the  Hon.  Jacob  D.  Cox; 
the  Geological  Society  of  America,  August 
15th  and  16th,  Sir  J.  William  Dawson,  presi- 
dent ;  and  on  the  same  days  the  Association 
for  the  Promotion  of  Agricultural  Science, 
Prof.  J.  P.  Roberts,  president ;  the  Associa- 
tion of  Economic  Entomologists,  Dr.  S.  A. 
Forbes,  president;  and  the  Association  of 
State  Weather  Service,  Major  H.  H.  C.  Dun- 
woody,  president ;  and  after  the  adjournment, 
the  International  Botanical  Congress.  The 
meetings  of  the  Botanical  and  Entomological 
Clubs  will  be  sandwiched  between  those  of 
the  association.  Free  excursions  will  be 


566 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


given  on  the  Saturday  to  Devil's  Lake,  about 
forty  miles  from  Madison,  and  the  Dells  of 
the  Wisconsin  River,  about  eighty  miles  dis- 
tant; besides  three  excursions  of  sections. 
The  International  Botanical  Congress  will 
consider  questions  of  botanical  interest,  but 
papers  embodying  the  results  of  research 
will  be  excluded,  and  the  International 
Standing  Committee  upon  Nomenclature  is 
expected  to  make  its  report.  Mr.  William 
Harkness  will  be  president  of  this  meeting 
of  the  American  Association ;  and  the  sec- 
tional vice-presidents  will  be:  (A)  Mathe- 
matics and  Astronomy,  C.  L.  Doolittle ;  (B) 
Physics,  E.  L.  Nichols ;  (C)  Chemistry,  Ed- 
ward Hart ;  (D)  Mechanical  Science  and  En- 
gineering, S.  W.  Robinson;  (E)  Geology  and 
Geography,  Charles  D.  Walcott ;  (F)  Zoology, 
Henry  F.  Osbora;  (G)  Botany,  Charles  E. 
Bessey ;  (H)  Anthropology,  J.  Owen  Dorsey ; 
(I)  Economic  Science  and  Statistics,  William 
H.  Brewer. 

Large  Game. — Among  the  animals  de- 
scribed in  Mr.  Rowland  Ward's  Measure- 
ments and  Weights  of  the  Great  Game  of 
the  World,  precedence  is  given  to  the  hippo- 
potamus of  Africa.  Not  unlike  him  is  the 
manatee,  now  extinct  in  the  West  Indies,  but 
surviving  in  the  upper  Amazon.  Both  kinds 
of  marine  cattle,  observes  the  Saturday  Re- 
view, graze  upon  water  weeds  at  the  bottoms 
of  the  streams ;  but  the  manatee  is  harm- 
less under  all  circumstances,  while  the  hip- 
popotamus sometimes  plays  the  part  of  an 
assailant.  A  very  formidable  enemy  he  can 
be,  for  his  massive  tusks — all  tusks  are 
measured  at  the  root — are  sometimes  more 
than  nine  inches  in  circumference.  Still  more 
dangerous  are  the  razor-like  tushes  of  the 
boar,  and  they  are  none  the  less  dangerous 
that  they  are  short.  The  greatest  length  of 
the  outside  curve  is  given  at  ten  inches,  and 
yet  the  boar  has  been  known  to  come  off  vic- 
torious in  a  battle  with  the  Bengal  tiger.  In 
contrast  with  one  another  stand  the  muntjac, 
a  deer  of  India  and  the  warm  countries  of  the 
southern  Pacific,  with  a  "  sweep  "  of  horns  of 
only  six  inches  and  a  half,  and  the  sambur, 
which  weighs  six  hundred  pounds  and  has  a 
"  magnificent "  spread  of  antlers  of  two  feet 
and  a  half  from  tip  to  tip.  The  best  of  the 
American  wapiti  is  more  than  half  as  large 
again  as  the  Scottish  red  deer,  and  the 


grand  Carpathian  species  yields  in  size  to  the 
extinct  Irish  elk.  Generally  speaking,  we 
find  that  the  weight  of  deer  depends  partly 
on  the  climate,  but  chiefly  on  the  food.  The 
caribou,  or  reindeer,  is  an  exception.  The 
farther  north  you  find  him,  the  better  he 
seems  to  thrive,  and,  like  the  musk  ox,  he 
fattens  on  the  arctic  lichens;  and  the 
moose,  which  haunts  more  southerly  forests 
and  swamps,  is  decidedly  smaller.  There 
are  some  remarkably  graceful  dwarfs  of  the 
deer  tribe.  Kirk's  antelope  of  East  Africa 
wears  Lilliputian  horns  three  inches  long; 
and  Salt's  antelope  from  Somali  Land  is  still 
more  minute.  The  beautiful  little  gazelles 
of  Oriental  poetry  seem  to  do  well  anywhere ; 
apparently  they  can  dispense  with  water  and 
lay  on  flesh  in  a  wilderness  of  sand  and 
stones.  Naturally,  they  are  always  in  high 
condition,  and  it  is  no  easy  business  to  ride 
them  down.  A  very  remarkable  group  are 
the  wild  sheep  and  goats  which  have  been 
attracting  so  many  adventurous  rifles  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  Sierra  Nevada,  to  the 
Himalayas  and  the  plateaus  of  Kashmir  and 
Thibet.  The  horns  of  the  finest  Himalayan 
ibex  which  was  killed  by  Mr.  Kennard  had  a 
span  of  four  feet  and  a  quarter.  Those  of  a 
wild  goat  from  southeastern  Europe,  which 
fell  to  Colonel  Marston's  rifle,  were  a  trifle 
longer.  These,  again,  are  surpassed  by  the 
curve  of  the  best  markhor,  a  denizen  of  the 
higher  Himalayas,  resembling  the  goat. 
When  you  cross  the  Indus  into  Afghanistan, 
the  curved  horns  of  the  markhor  are  curi- 
ously straightened  and  fall  away  in  length  by 
a  fourth.  The  length  of  the  longest  tiger 
skin  after  drying  is  said  to  be  thirteen  feet 
six  inches  ;  but  it  must  be  noted  that  skins 
expand  considerably  in  the  curing.  The 
greatest  length  of  a  skin  undressed  is  given 
as  ten  feet  two  inches  and  a  half. 

The  Company  of  the    Dead. — In    Mr. 

Charles  Hose's  journeys  in  North  Borneo,  he 
found  one  morning  after  his  night's  rest  that 
the  remains  of  his  host's  last  wife  also  occu- 
pied the  room,  where  they  were  kept  in  a  large 
box  serving  as  a  coffin.  It  is  the  custom  of 
these  people  to  keep  a  corpse  in  the  house 
for  three  months  before  burying  it.  The 
body  is  then  removed  from  the  house  and 
conveyed  with  much  ceremony  to  the  tomb. 
Every  one  present  sends  one  or  more  cigar- 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


567 


ettes  made  of  tobacco,  wrapped  in  the  dry 
leaves  of  the  wild  banana,  to  his  dead  rela- 
tives in  "  Apo  Leggan "  (hades).  These 
cigarettes  are  placed  on  the  top  of  and 
around  the  coffin ;  and,  should  the  body  be 
that  of  a  man,  his  weapons,  tools,  and  a  small 
quantity  of  rice,  with  his  prioTc  (cooking  pot), 
are  deposited  in  the  tomb  with  him  that  he 
may  be  able  to  continue  his  daily  pursuits 
in  the  other  world.  But  if  of  a  woman,  her 
large  sun-hat,  her  little  hoe — used  for  weed- 
ing in  the  paddy  fields — her  beads,  earrings, 
and  other  finery  are  placed  with  her  body, 
that  she  may  not  be  found  wanting  on  her 
arrival  the  other  side  of  the  grave.  Mr.  Hose 
was  once  present  when  the  corpse  of  a  boy  was 
being  placed  in  the  coffin,  and  he  watched 
the  proceedings  from  a  short  distance.  As 
the  lid  of  the  coffin  was  being  closed  an 
old  man  came  out  on  the  veranda  of  the 
house  with  a  large  gong  and  solemnly  beat  it 
for  several  seconds.  The  chief,  who  was 
sitting  near,  informed  him  that  this  was  al- 
ways done  before  closing  the  lid,  that  the 
relations  of  the  deceased  who  had  already 
passed  out  of  this  world  might  know  that 
the  spirit  was  coming  to  join  them.  There 
was  another  strange  ceremony  at  which  he 
was  once  present,  called  "  Dayong  Janoi,"  in 
which  the  dead  are  supposed  to  send  mes- 
sages to  the  living,  and  which  proved  that 
"  spiritualism  "  was  of  very  ancient  practice 
among  the  Kayans. 

Heat  Phenomena  of  the  Diamond. — In 

his  experiments  with  the  diamond  Mr.  Mois- 
san  has  found  that,  in  his  thermo-electric  ap- 
paratus for  burning  in  oxygen,  when  the  tem- 
perature was  slowly  raised  the  combustion 
proceeded  gradually  without  the  production 
of  light ;  but  if  the  temperature  was  raised 
40°  or  50°  C.  above  the  point  at  which  this 
slow  combustion  begins,  a* sudden  incandes- 
cence occurs,  and  the  diamond  becomes  sur- 
rounded by  a  brilliant  flame.  Various  deep- 
ly colored  specimens  of  diamonds  burned 
with  production  of  incandescence  and  flame 
at  temperatures  of  from  690°  to  720°  C.,  but 
transparent  Brazilian  diamonds  did  not  attain 
the  stage  of  slow  combustion  without  incan- 
descence till  the  temperature  of  from  760°  to 
770°  C.  was  reached.  A  Cape  diamond  suf- 
fered gradual  combustion  at  from  780°  to 
790°  C.  Specimens  of  exceedingly  hard 


boort  began  to  combine  with  oxygen  at  790°, 
and  burned  brilliantly  at  from  840°  to  875° 
C.  When  Cape  diamonds  were  heated  with 
hydrogen  to  a  temperature  of  1,200°  C.,  they 
remained  unchanged ;  but  if  the  stones  had 
previously  been  cut,  they  frequently  lost  their 
brilliance  and  transparency.  Dry  chlorine 
gas  was  found  incapable  of  reacting  with  the 
diamond  until  a  temperature  of  from  1,100° 
to  1,200°  C.  was  attained.  Hydrofluoric-acid 
vapor  likewise  only  reacted  at  about  the 
same  high  temperature.  Vapor  of  sulphur 
also  requires  to  be  heated  to  1,000°  C.  before 
reacting,  but  in  the  case  of  black  diamonds 
bisulphide  of  carbon  is  produced  at  about 
900°  C.  Metallic  iron,  at  its  melting  point, 
combines  with  the  diamond  in  the  most  ener- 
getic manner ;  and  it  is  a  point  of  consider- 
able interest  that  crystals  of  graphite  are 
deposited  as  the  fused  mass  cools ;  hence  the 
experiment  forms  a  striking  method  of  con- 
verting the  allotropic  form  of  carbon  that 
crystallizes  in  the  cubic  system  into  that 
which  crystallizes  in  the  hexagonal  system. 
Melted  platinum  likewise  combines  with  the 
diamond  with  great  energy. 

Hurry,  and  the  Chance  of  Life. — In  a 

paper  on  The  Duration  of  Life  of  the  Xerv- 
ous  American,  Dr.  Julius  Pohlman  asks,  "  Is 
this  so  often  quoted  'fearful  nervousness' 
and  '  early  death '  a  fact  or  merely  an  asser- 
tion? What  proofs  have  we  for  it?  It 
seems  very  plausible,  indeed,  and  apparently 
correct  physiological  reasoning  to  say  that 
the  individual's  longevity  is  in  inverse  pro- 
portion to  his  daily  hurry,  all  other  things 
being  equal.  But  not  many  years  ago  the 
equally  misleading  but  equally  plausible  state- 
ment was  accepted  that  the  human  race  was 
growing  smaller  with  the  advance  of  civiliza- 
tion. "  First  of  all,"  the  author  continues, "  the 
assumption  that  increased  activity  and  greater 
hurry  mean  more  rapid  wearing  away  of  the 
body  ignores  the  fact  that  the  human  body 
is  a  wonderful  piece  of  machinery,  which  not 
only  renews  itself  constantly,  but  whose 
strength  and  power  of  endurance  and  capaci- 
ty for  more  work  increase  with  increased 
use  up  to  the  point  at  which  use  becomes 
abuse.  At  what  time  and  under  what  press- 
ure this  danger  line  is  reached  depends  upon 
the  individual."  The  testimony  of  the  ex- 
ecutive officers  of  four  of  our  largest  life- 


568 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


insurance  companies  is  quoted  to  show  that 
"  from  the  material  standpoint  of  dollars  and 
cents  the  life  of  the  American  is  at  least  as 
good  as,  if  not  better  than,  that  of  the  Euro- 
pean, all  other  conditions  being  the  same. 
And  if  we  remember  that  probably  the  ma- 
jority of  the  holders  of  policies  of  life  insur- 
ances in  this  country  is  made  up  from  those 
same  active,  pushing,  and  rushing  men,  a 
class  among  which  death  from  overwork 
would  naturally  occur  most  frequently,  then 
the  figures  mentioned  acquire  additional 
force.  A  compilation  drawn  from  every 
available  source  regarding  the  estimated  du- 
ration of  life  at  different  years  of  age  in 
America  and  in  Europe  gives  figures  that  show 
that  the  chances  of  the  American,  from  early 
manhood  to  a  good  old  age,  are,  all  through, 
a  little  better  than  those  of  his  English 
brother,  and  a  good  deal  better  than  those  of 
the  Germans. 

Funeral  Customs  of  tbe  Haida  Indians 
(Qneen  Charlotte  Islands). — According  to  the 
Kev.  C.  Harrison,  all  men,  and  particularly 
the  chiefs  among  these  Indians,  are  greatly 
honored  on  their  departure  from  this  world. 
When  the  man  dies,  the  next  to  succeed 
him  (generally  his  nephew)  is  presented  with 
blankets,  dishes,  beads,  guns,  canoes,  prints, 
pottery,  dogs,  axes,  and  furniture.  They  are 
not,  however,  for  his  own  benefit,  but  for 
the  benefit  of  the  deceased,  and  those  who 
take  part  in  the  burial  ceremony.  In  fact, 
nothing  seems  to  be  too  valuable  for  the 
funeral.  Christians  are  afraid  to  break  the 
news  of  a  friend's  death  to  his  wife,  father, 
and  mother.  Not  so,  however,  with  the  Hai- 
das.  The  author  has  seen  them  make  the 
coffin  and  decorate  it  in  the  presence  of  the 
sick  person  when  they  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  he  is  about  to  die.  They  also 
tell  the  sick  man  that  he  will  not  recover, 
and  urge  him  not  to  attempt  to  do  so.  The 
members  of  his  tribe  and  all  the  chiefs  of 
the  other  tribes  come  in  to  see  him,  and 
talk  of  nothing  else  but  of  others  who  have 
had  the  same  sickness  and  died.  When  he 
hears  what  they  have  determined  that  he 
should  do,  he  then  refuses  to  eat  and  drink, 
and  so  hastens  the  demise.  When  gasping 
for  breath,  he  is  washed,  and  his  shroud,  made 
of  white  cotton,  is  then  put  on ;  white  stock- 
ings are  put  on  his  feet ;  he  is  clad  in  a  pair 


of  white  woolen  drawers,  and  a  white  hand- 
kerchief is  tied  around  his  head.  His  neck 
is  encircled  with  beads,  a  spot  of  red  paint 
is  put  on  either  cheek,  and  a  black  spot  on 
his  forehead.  When  thus  arrayed,  all  his 
friends  enter  the  house  and  wait  until  he 
dies.  They  think  very  little  of  each  other 
when  in  health  and  strength,  but  as  soon  as 
they  are  dead  they  become  valuable  and  are 
called  good  Indians.  When  a  person  dies, 
they  arrange  a  bed  in  the  corner  of  the 
house  and  cover  it  with  white  cotton  and 
place  the  deceased  thereon,  and  then  they 
cover  him  with  a  sheet  of  the  same  material. 
In  twenty-four  hours'  time  the  body  is  placed 
in  the  coffin  and  arranged  in  the  position  in 
which  it  is  to  be  buried.  Then  the  time  of 
mourning  comes.  All  the  old  women  of  the 
tribe  and  the  friends  and  relatives  of  the 
deceased  begin  to  groan  and  sigh  and  cry. 
After  they  have  wept  for  one  or  two  hours, 
the  greatest  chief  present  calls  for  silence. 
Then  the  smoking  feast  begins.  During  the 
smoking  entertainment  the  chiefs  and  friends 
of  the  deceased,  according  to  rank,  will  be- 
gin to  extol  his  virtues,  and  try  to  console 
his  relatives  by  reference  to  his  disposition 
toward  the  poor,  his  love  for  his  friends,  and 
his  kindness  toward  his  wife  and  children ; 
and  they  also  are  very  careful  to  refer  to  his 
liberality  when  making  a  free  distribution  of 
his  goods — namely,  a  potlatch.  Everything 
done  in  his  past  life  passes  under  review, 
and  they  then  conclude  by  saying  that  his 
time  had  come,  and  that  the  gods  wanted 
him,  and  he,  being  a  good  and  wise  man,  had 
obeyed  their  summons.  When  any  one  of 
importance  dies,  the  news  is  carried  to  all  the 
villages,  and  they  at  once  come  to  see  the 
dead  man  and  also  consult  with  the  relatives 
regarding  the  funeral  arrangements.  If  the 
deceased  person  belonged  to  the  Bears,  the 
funeral  preparations  are  made  and  conducted 
by  the  Eagle  Crest,  and  vice  versa.  After 
the  funeral  is  over,  all  the  people  are  feasted 
by  the  deceased  man's  nephew,  who  then 
assumes  his  uncle's  title  and  property. 

Self-purification. — The  results  of  recent 
discussions  hi  Europe,  in  which  Prausnitz, 
Prof.  Pettenkofer,  Prof.  Buchner,  and  Prof. 
Frankland  have  taken  part,  indicate  that 
"  self -purification "  of  rivers  by  oxygena- 
tion  and  sunlight,  while  it  may  be  sufficient 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


569 


for  water  applied  to  ordinary  uses,  can  not 
be  relied  upon  for  the  perfect  sanitation 
of  water  intended  for  drinking.  This  con- 
clusion is  confirmed  by  the  recent  experi- 
ence of  some  towns  in  Massachusetts.  Con- 
tinued outbreaks  of  typhoid  fever  in  Lowell 
and  Lawrence  were  ascribed  by  the  State 
Board  of  Health  in  1890-'91  to  the  admis- 
sion of  typhoid-fever  excreta  into  the  river 
from  towns  higher  up  the  stream,  where  it 
was  known  to  have  existed.  Newburyport 
has  for  the  past  ten  years,  or  since  the  in- 
troduction of  a  public  water  supply,  been 
comparatively  exempt  from  typhoid  fever; 
but  recently,  in  consequence  of  a  scarcity  of 
water,  the  water  company  began  pumping  a 
part  of  its  supply  from  the  river  and  distrib- 
uting it  to  the  inhabitants  in  the  face  of  ex- 
pert warning  against  doing  so.  In  January, 
1893,  the  cases  of  typhoid  fever,  following 
closely  after  a  similar  prevalence  in  Lowell, 
suddenly  rose  from  an  average  of  less  than 
one  a  month  to  thirty-four  in  January,  with 
five  deaths. 

East  African  Snperstitions.— Mrs.  French- 
Sheldon,  who  traveled  in  Africa  from  Teita 
to  Kilimegalia  and  secured  a  propinquity  to 
the  natives  under  natural  conditions  rarely 
enjoyed  by  white  travelers,  became  ac- 
quainted with  some  very  curious  supersti- 
tions among  them.  The  people  of  Taveta 
have  an  idea  that  the  preservation  of  the 
skull  preserves  the  spirit  -of  the  dead,  and 
that  the  congregation  of  the  skulls  of  a  fam- 
ily or  tribe  guarantees  a  future  reunion.  They 
avoid  letting  any  stranger  know  of  the  death 
of  one  of  their  tribe.  If  a  familiar  face  is 
missed,  and  an  inquiry  is  made,  some  one 
promptly  says,  "  He  has  gone  on  a  journey. ' 
They  have  a  horror  of  having  their  pictures 
or  photographs  taken.  They  wear  certain 
beads  and  bits  of  wood  or  iron  as  charms  to 
ward  off  evil,  and  as  dama  for  various  com- 
plaints. They  are  loath  to  part  with  these 
beads,  beans,  or  bones.  They  will  lend  them 
to  one  another  when  suffering,  but  always  re- 
claim them  when  their  friend  has  been  cured. 
The  fires  in  the  village  were  never  allowed  to 
go  out ;  a  special  family  fire  might  go  out,  but 
this  could  be  resupplied  or  reignited  by  get- 
ting a  blazing  fagot  from  some  friend's  fire. 
But  in  the  history  of  the  tribe  they  had  al- 
ways preserved  the  fire,  as  doubtless  did  their 


prehistoric  ancestors.  When  the  Wasombo 
learned  that  Mrs.  French-Sheldon  intended 
to  descend  to  Devil's  Water,  as  Lake  Chala 
was  called  by  them,  they  speedily  retreated 
to  their  villages,  with  a  feeling  of  horror 
that  the  white  woman  would  dare  to  venture 
into  the  very  mouth  of  the  devil.  She  there- 
fore made  her  visit  free  from  annoyance.  It 
is  believed  that  the  Masai  had  a  village 
where  the  crater  lake  now  swells  and  gur- 
gles, and  that  during  a  volcanic  eruption  of 
Kilimanjaro  the  people  and  their  herds  and 
poultry  were  blown  into  mid-air,  and  that 
their  spirits  still  hang  in  space,  without 
home  above  or  below,  and  that  the  moaning 
and  soughing  of  the  wind  through  the  trees 
and  the  strange  rustling  and  mysterious 
noises  caused  by  the  reverberation  of  the 
rocky  cliffs  surrounding  the  lake  proceed 
from  the  spirits  of  these  poor  people,  their 
cattle  and  poultry.  Although  fish  are  abun- 
dant in  this  lake,  the  natives  could  not  be 
induced  to  taste  them.  The  same  people  be- 
lieve that  their  ancestors  inhabit  the  bodies 
of  the  Colobus  monkeys,  and  will  not  under 
any  circumstances  knowingly  kill  or  permit 
to  be  killed  one  of  those  animals  ;  and  on 
approaching  the  forest  where  the  monkeys 
abide  in  great  numbers,  they  preserve  an  odd 
silence,  with  furtive  glances,  and  pick  their 
steps  with  a  precaution  and  almost  hesita- 
tion that  indicate  an  honest  belief  in  their 
superstition. 

Prehistoric  Jeweled  Teeth. — Among  the 
interesting  objects  brought  from  Copan  last 
year  by  Messrs.  Saville  and  Owens,  of  the 
Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology 
and  Ethnology,  are  several  incisor  teeth, 
each  of  which  contains  a  small  piece  of 
green  stone,  presumably  jadeite,  set  hi  a 
cavity  drilled  on  the  front  surface  of  the 
teeth.  The  museum  had  before  received 
from  Yucatan  human  teeth  filled  in  a  pecul- 
iar manner,  and  now  it  has  teeth  from  Copan 
filled  in  the  same  way.  This  is  of  particular 
interest  in  adding  one  more  to  the  several 
facts  pointing  to  Asiatic  arts  and  customs  as 
the  origin  of  those  of  the  early  peoples  of 
Central  America.  A  most  striking  resem- 
blance to  Asiatic  art  is  noticed  in  several  of 
the  heads  carved  in  stone ;  one  in  particular, 
if  seen  in  any  collection  and  not  labeled  as 
to  its  origin,  would  probably  pass  almost  uu- 


570 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


challenged  as  from  southern  Asia.  These 
may  prove  to  be  simply  coincidences  of  ex- 
pression of  peoples  of  corresponding  mental 
development  brought  about  by  correspond- 
ing natural  surroundings  and  conditions. 

Photographing  Savages. — A  lively  use 
of  the  camera  is  recommended  by  Mr.  E.  F. 
Im  Thurn  as  a  means  of  getting  representa- 
tions of  savages  in  their  real  life.  The  usual 
illustrations  in  works  of  anthropology  and 
travel,  when  they  are  not  merely  physio- 
logical pictures,  are  pronounced  by  him  al- 
most universally  bad.  "Of  old,  the  book 
illustrator,  if,  as  was  usual,  he  was  not 
himself  the  traveler,  drew  as  pictures  of 
primitive  folk  merely  the  men  and  women 
that  surrounded  him,  figures  of  men  and 
women  of  his  own  stage  of  civilization, 
and  merely  added  to  these  such  salient  fea- 
tures as  he  was  able,  from  the  traveler's 
tales,  to  fancy  that  his  supposed  primitive 
subject  had.  .  .  .  The  modern  anthropologi- 
cal illustrator  does  indeed  generally  draw 
from  photographs,  but  almost  always  from 
photographs  taken  under  non-natural  condi- 
tions." They  are  either  taken  in  town, 
where  the  savage  is  away  from  his  usual 
haunts  and  in  unaccustomed  surroundings  ; 
or  the  mere  thought  that  he  is  being  photo- 
graphed puts  him  under  constraint.  "  That 
to  gain  the  confidence  of  uncivilized  folk 
whom  you  wish  to  photograph  is  one  of 
quite  the  most  essential  matters  you  will 
easily  understand.  The  first  time  I  tried  to 
photograph  a  red  man  was  among  the  man- 
grove trees  at  the  mouth  of  the  Barima 
River.  My  red-skinned  subject  was  poised 
high  up  on  a  mangrove  root.  He  sat  quite 
still  while  focused  and  drew  the  shutter. 
Then,  as  I  took  off  the  cap,  with  a  moan  he 
fell  backward  off  his  perch  on  to  the  soft 
sand  below  him.  Nor  could  he  by  any 
means  be  persuaded  to  prepare  himself  once 
more  to  face  the  unknown  terrors  of  the 
camera.  A  very  common  thing  to  happen, 
and  to  foil  the  efforts  of  the  photographer 
at  the  very  moment  when  he  has  but  to 
withdraw  and  to  replace  the  cap,  is  for  the 
timid  subject  suddenly  to  put  up  his  hand 
to  conceal  his  face,  a  proceeding  most  an- 
noying to  the  photographer,  but  interesting 
to  the  anthropologist,  as  illustrating  the  very 
widespread  dread  of  primitive  folk  of  hav- 


ing their  features  put  on  paper,  and  thus  be- 
ing submitted  spiritually  to  the  power  of  any 
possessing  the  picture.  ...  A  curious  in- 
stance may  be  mentioned  of  the  discovery, 
thanks  to  the  camera,  of  that  rather  rare 
thing — a  personal  idiosyncrasy  among  red 
men.  Some  time  last  year  in  photographing 
a  number  of  Carib  lads  I  noticed  that  one 
of  them  at  the  moment  of  the  taking  of  the 
picture  suddenly  put  up  his  hands  and  put 
them,  not  over  his  face,  but  one  on  each 
shoulder.  The  attitude  struck  me  at  once 
as  an  unusual  one,  but  yet  it  seemed  to  me 
in  some  way  familiar.  Some  time  after,  in 
looking  through  my  old  stock  of  negatives, 
I  found  one  which  showed  a  much  younger 
Carib  lad  in  the  same  unusual  attitude,  and 
it  was  only  after  some  inquiry  that  I  realized 
that  this  last-named  negative  was  one  which 
I  had  taken  some  years  before  of  the  same 
boy."  There  is  a  field  here  for  the  use  of 
some  of  the  "  snap  "  instruments. 

The  Reasons  of  Conventionalities. — Con- 
ventionalities are  treated  by  the  London 
Spectator  as  things  which  must  grow  up  with 
the  growth  of  civilization,  yet  which,  while 
they  are  not  to  be  despised,  are  no  more  to 
be  exalted  into  absolute  and  universal  obli- 
gations. Even  on  matters  affecting  merely 
the  external  order  and  harmony  of  life,  there 
are  conventions  which,  though  not  intended 
to  repress  and  exclude  all  overflow  of  in- 
dividual genius,  are  still  of  great  value  in 
controlling  the  arbitrary  eccentricities  of  in- 
dividual nature,  and  in  reducing  men's  man- 
ners and  modes  of  expression  to  terms  which 
one  might  speak  of  as  commensurable  with 
the  manners  and  modes  of  expression  of 
those  who  live  with  them  in  the  same  moral 
atmosphere.  The  mere  beauty  of  any  social 
life  depends  on  the  conformity  of  all — within 
variable  but  definite  limits — to  conventions, 
which,  though  by  no  means  of  supreme  obli- 
gation, yet  render  the  give-and-take  of  life 
much  more  natural  and  gentle  and  easy  than 
if  each  man  or  woman  were  to  blurt  out  the 
feeling  uppermost  in  the  individual  mind, 
without  any  of  that  toning-down  and  soften- 
ing which  exclude  abrup*  and  noisy  explo- 
sions of  individual  self-will.  Not  all  social 
conventions  are  beautiful.  Sometimes  the 
artificiality  of  them  exceeds  whatever  is 
either  necessary  or  advantageous  for  the  pur- 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


pose  of  mutual  understanding  and  mutual 
forbearance ;  yet  some  of  them  are  in  their 
essence  beautiful,  because  they  are  founded 
on  the  principle  of  charity  as  well  as  truth. 
They  control  jealousy  and  rivalry ;  they  re- 
press vulgar  competition ;  they  express  dis- 
interested sympathy.  In  fact,  they  trans- 
form a  selfish  mob  into  an  orderly  society. 
Still,  though  without  these  etiquettes  and 
courtesies  of  civilization  social  life  could 
hardly  exist,  yet  it  would  be  impossible  to 
speak  of  any  of  the  conventions  which  render 
it  possible  as  if  they  were  laws  of  intrinsic 
and  moral  obligation  to  which  there  are  no 
exceptions.  They  are  but  principles  which 
govern  the  average  or  ordinary  usages  of 
men,  but  none  the  less  principles  which  give 
way,  and  rightly  give  way,  before  any  urgent 
individual  need,  or  even  any  moderate  press- 
ure of  clear  utility. 

Chinese  Newspapers. — The  Chinese  Gov- 
ernment instituted  an  official  journal  at  a 
very  early  date,  the  Pekin  Gazette  having 
existed  since  B.  c.  740.  It  was  at  first  printed 
upon  engraved  wooden  blocks,  but  now  mov- 
able characters  cut  in  wood  are  used.  There 
are  three  editions  of  the  paper,  of  which 
only  the  official  edition  is  printed  in  this 
manner.  The  second  edition  is  printed  with 
waxen  plates  on.  which  the  characters  are 
cut,  and,  the  work  being  done  in  haste,  is 
not  very  legible.  The  third  edition  is  in 
manuscript.  The  official  edition  is  printed 
on  one  side  of  ten  or  twelve  very  thin  doubled 
leaves,  is  eighteen  centimetres  high  and  ten 
broad,  and  is  divided  by  lines  of  violet  ink 
into  seven  columns,  each  containing  fourteen 
ordinary  characters.  It  appears  every  morn- 
ing. The  manuscript  edition  is  a  little 
smaller  than  the  official  edition,  and  appears 
several  days  before  it.  Its  price  is  many 
times  higher,  and  it  is  largely  used  by  for- 
eigners. The  journal  furnishes  a  real  pano- 
rama of  the  official  and  social  life  of  the 
Chinese.  The  reading  of  it  is  very  enter- 
taining ;  for  we  may  find  in  it,  among  other 
documents,  the  day  which  the  emperor  has 
decided  upon  for  changing  from  the  winter 
hut  to  the  summer  hut ;  that  six  of  the  can- 
didates for  the  license  were  more  than  nine- 
ty, and  thirteen  more  than  eighty  years  old, 
illustrating  the  fact  that  one  is  never  too 
old  to  be  examined  in  China.  This  Pekin 


Gazette  was  the  only  journal  published  in 
China  till  about  twenty  years  ago.  Since 
then  some  five  journals  have  arisen  at  Shang- 
hai, Tien-Tsin,  at  Canton,  at  the  instance  of 
the  English,  with  the  co-operation  of  Chi- 
nese literati.  The  Chen  Pai,  of  Shanghai, 
which  was  started  in  1885,  is  an  illustrated 
weekly  journal,  with  eight  doubled  leaves 
and  a  red  cover,  the  engravings  in  which  are 
done  in  Chinese  style  in  outline.  In  one  of 
the  numbers  of  this  journal  the  last  conflict 
between  the  French  and  the  Chinese  is  rep- 
resented, with  the  French  commander  Four- 
nier  in  the  costume  of  an  English  admiral. 
All  the  journals  together  publish  not  more 
than  fifteen  thousand  copies.  The  attempts 
made  in  them  to  transcribe  European  words 
phonetically  are*  sometimes  amusing,  thus 
ultimatum  becomes  "  ou-ti-ma-toung  "  ;  statti 
quo,  "  sseu-ta-tou-ko " ;  telephone,  "  to-li- 
foung,"  etc. 

The  Fire  of  Incandescent  Lamps.— An 

active  incandescent  lamp  may  be  broken  in 
the  midst  of  cool  combustibles,  even  of  gun- 
cotton,  without  setting  them  on  fire,  so  rapid 
is  the  destruction  of  the  carbon  filaments  in 
the  open  air.  But  a  long  continuance  of  the 
lamp  in  immediate  contact  with  a  combus- 
tible envelope  may  determine  ignition,  the 
more  readily  the  more  slowly  heat  and  air 
pass  through  the  envelope.  Thus  gummed 
cotton  or  other  goods  will  take  fire  more 
rapidly  than  similar  goods  ungummed  or 
loose.  Some  interesting  experiments  in  this 
property  have  been  made  by  an  Austrian 
engineer,  Captain  Exler.  Having  determined 
the  temperature  produced  by  certain  meas- 
ured lamps  in  paraffin  in  which  they  were 
plunged,  he  washed  them  with  pulverin, 
ecrasite,  and  powdered  gun-cotton;  no 
change  took  place  in  their  condition.  In 
thicker  coatings  ecrasite  fused,  and  the 
powder  slowly  lost  its  sulphur,  but  neither 
took  fire.  The  effects  were  more  marked 
when  the  substance  was  spread  upon  a  sur- 
face capable  of  wholly  arresting  calorific 
radiation.  It  is  therefore  prudent  to  guard 
against  bringing  naked  lamps  too  close 
to  a  combustible  surface.  When  the  lamp 
was  surrounded  with  an  envelope,  the  tem- 
perature between  the  two  surfaces  rose.  In 
fifty  minutes  it  became  sufficient  to  decom- 
pose fulmicotton  and  carbonize  wood.  Black 


572 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


powder  lost  all  its  sulphur,  but  did  not  take 
fire.  With  a  lamp  inclosed  in  a  bell  glass 
the  three  explosive  substances  were  decom- 
posed in  twenty  minutes.  Water,  with 
which  the  interval  was  filled,  came  to  the 
boiling  point  in  fifteen  minutes.  It  was  ob- 
served even  when  the  beginning  of  an  igni- 
tion of  the  explosives  was  determined,  the 
flame  was  not  sure  to  be  propagated,  unless 
the  substance  had  been  previously  wanned. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  derivation  of  weak  re- 
sistance, produced  between  the  two  conduct- 
ors of  a  lamp,  determines  a  strong  flame,  ca- 
pable of  igniting  all  combustible  substances. 
A  lamp  may  be  broken  by  a  shock,  by 
overheating,  or  by  some  unknown  cause.  If 
only  a  crack  is  formed,  the  air  getting  with- 
in causes  the  filament  of  incandescent  carbon 
to  burn  up  in  a  very  short  time.  If  the  lamp 
bursts  or  has  a  hole  made  in  it,  the  danger  is 
greater,  and  may  cause  the  ignition  of  ex- 
plosive gases,  but  not  of  fulmicotton  or  dry 
powder.  It  is  not  safe,  therefore,  to  con- 
clude that  an  accident  is  absolutely  impos- 
sible. 

The  Whirlpools  of  Chary  »dis  and  Scylla. 

— Charybdis  and  Scylla,  the  whirlpools  of 
which  much  was  fabled  in  classical  antiquity, 
are  situated  in  the  strait  of  Messina,  between 
Sicily  and  Italian  Apulia.  Although  they 
were  a  great  terror  to  ancient  navigators, 
they  are  in  reality  rather  small  affairs,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  determine  their  exact  posi- 
tions. The  whirlpool  of  Scylla  is  situated  at 
the  foot  of  the  cliffs  on  which  is  the  little 
city  of  that  name,  which  are  hollowed  out 
into  caverns.  The  circulation  of  the  waves 
in  these  grottoes  produces,  in  times  of  heavy 
seas,  a  sound  like  the  barking  of  a  dog. 
Charybdis  is  near  the  port  of  Messina,  nine 
marine  miles  from  Scylla.  Although  it  was 
reported  unfathomable,  it  is,  according  to 
Spallanzani's  measurements,  not  more  than 
five  hundred  feet  deep,  and  is  therefore  far 
from  being  the  deepest  spot  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean. It  is  difficult  to  comprehend  why 
the  ancients  should  have  had  such  a  terror 
of  sailing  between  these  two  eddies  so  far 
apart,  but  the  task  of  explaining  the  riddle 
has  been  undertaken  by  the  engineer,  M. 
Keller.  Observations  made  by  him  at  Mes- 
sina show  that  the  currents  of  the  strait  de- 
pend, first,  on  the  tide,  and,  secondly,  on  the 


wind.  The  currents  are  very  strong,  because 
the  tide  is  low  in  the  Ionian  Sea  when  it  is 
high  in  the  Tyrrhenian  ~Sea,  and  vice  versa. 
Hence,  also,  the  formation  of  whirlpools  at 
different  points  in  the  strait.  These  whirl- 
pools are  energetic  in  proportion  to  the 
strength  of  the  current,  and  when  at  their 
strongest  may  offer  a  serious  danger  to  navi- 
gation. At  the  syzygies,  with  the  wind 
from  the  southeast,  the  waters  tumble  from 
the  Ionian  Sea  into  the  strait  and  form 
whirlpools  north  of  the  port  of  Messina; 
they  are  likewise  formed  near  Faro,  where 
ships  at  anchor  are  sometimes  carried  out  to 
sea  and  borne  by  the  current  upon  the  rocks 
of  Calabria,  toward  the  point  of  Pezzo,  a 
little  farther  away  than  Scylla.  We  may 
therefore  suppose  that  the  ancients  meant  by 
Charybdis  these  casual  whirlpools  near  the 
port  of  Messina,  and  by  Scylla  those  of 
Point  Pezzo.  Between  these  two  points  the 
currents  are  extremely  rapid  and  strong  and 
variable  besides.  Under  such  circumstances 
an  inexperienced  sailor  might  therefore  have 
difficulty  in  passing  the  strait  of  Messina 
without  falling  from  Charybdis  into  Scylla. 
The  danger  is  really  serious  for  sailing  ves- 
sels, which  were  the  best  the  ancients  knew  of. 

Consumption  at  Davos  Platz. — A  case  is 
recorded  by  Dr.  A.  T.  T.  Wise,  of  Davos 
Platz,  Switzerland,  of  a  consumptive  mani- 
festing serious  symptoms  ordered  to  that 
place  for  the  mountain  air,  who  began  to  re- 
gain lost  ground  in  two  weeks  after  his 
arrival,  near  the  end  of  October,  1891.  Pro- 
gression toward  recovery,  with  gradual  ex- 
pansion of  the  chest  and  gain  in  weight,  was 
uninterrupted  till  February,  1892,  when  the 
physician's  examination  showed  improvement 
near  to  recovery  in  every  affected  part.  In 
October,  1892,  the  patient,  having  gained 
twenty-eight  pounds  in  Davos,  had  resumed 
his  practice  of  medicine,  was  hi  robust  health, 
and  presented  no  sign  of  disease  except  a 
faint,  hardly  perceptible  expiratory  harsh- 
ness over  the  left  apex.  The  climatic  ad- 
vantages at  high  altitudes  in  pulmonary  dis- 
ease, as  summarized  by  Dr.  Wise,  are:  Dry- 
ness  of  the  air  and  its  comparative  freedom 
from  micro-organisms  and  atmospheric  dust, 
entailing  a  lessened  liability  to  catarrh  and 
irritation  of  the  bronchial  tract  and  drying 
the  lungs;  profusion  of  sunlight;  with  the 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


573 


low  temperature,  the  heat  of  the  sun  is 
easily  borne,  and  the  violet  rays  of  the  spec- 
trum act  chemically  on  the  blood,  increas- 
ing the  haemoglobin ;  diminished  barometric 
pressure,  which  facilitates  chemical  action  in 
the  blood  and  tissues,  favors  vaporization  of 
moist  secretions  in  the  lungs,  and  aids  pul- 
monary circulation  and  expansion ;  and  the 
general  stimulus  of  high  levels,  producing 
exhilaration  and  an  increase  of  nutrition. 

Facts  about  the  Growth  of  Boys  and 
girls. — A  summary  of  the  results  of  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  laws  governing  the  growth 
of  various  parts  of  the  body,  instituted  in  the 
schools  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  in  1891,  is  pub- 
lished in  Science.     Some  three  thousand  two 
hundred  and  fifty  individuals  were  examined, 
of  ages  ranging  from  five  to  twenty-one  years, 
and  comparisons  were  made  in  the  growth  of 
boys  and  girls.     The  length  of  the  head  in 
girls  is  shown  to  be  less  than  that  of  boys 
throughout  the  whole  period  of  growth,  and 
consequently  through  life ;  but  the  difference 
in  length,  instead  of  remaining  the  same  from 
year  to  year,  varies  considerably,  and  the  an- 
nual increment  is  irregular  in  both  sexes.    In 
girls  the  greatest  length  of  head  is  reached 
about  the  eighteenth  year ;  in  boys,  not  be- 
fore the  age  of  twenty-one.    The  girls'  heads 
are  narrower  than  those  of  the  boys,  while 
the  phenomena  of  breadth  of  head,  hi  pe- 
riods of  alternate  growth  and  cessation  of 
growth,  are  similar  to  those  of  length  of 
head.     The  faces  of  the  girls  are  broadest  at 
seventeen,  those  of  the  boys  after  the  eight- 
eenth year ;  while  the  faces  of  the  boys  are 
usually  broader  than  those  of  the  girls.     In 
stature,  the  boys,  starting  out  at  five  years  of 
age,  are  apparently  taller  than  the  girls,  but 
the  girls  appear  to  catch  them  in  the  seventh 
year,  and  continue  at  an  even  stature  up  to 
and  including  the  ninth  year,  after  which 
the  boys  again  rise  above  the  girls  for  two 
years.      About  the  twelfth  year  the  girls 
suddenly  become  taller  than  the  boys,  and 
continue  taller  until  the  fifteenth  year,  when 
the  boys  again  and  finally  regain  their  supe- 
riority in  stature.    After  the  age  of  seven 
teen  there  seems  to  be  very  little  if  any  in 
crease  in  the  stature  of  girls,  while  the  boys 
are  still  growing  vigorously  at  eighteen,  anc 
probably  continue  to  grow  for  several  years 
after  that  age.    The  curves  of  the  sitting 


eight  present  the  same  characteristics,  some- 
what more  accentuated,  as  the  curves  of 
tature.  The  curves  of  weight,  while  pre- 
enting  the  general  characteristics  of  the 
curves  of  stature  and  sitting  height,  show 
minor  differences.  The  superiority  of  the 
girls  in  respect  to  weight  is  for  a  much  shorter 
>eriod  than  in  respect  to  total  height  or  sit- 
ting height.  In  weight  also  the  girls  seem 
to  reach  their  maximum  average  at  seven- 
;een,  while  the  boys  continue  to  increase  in 
iverage  weight  until  a  much  later  period  in 
ife.  The  movements  of  the  curves  of  the 
ndex  of  sitting  height  indicate  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  growth  in  stature  up  to 
;he  twelfth  year  in  girls  and  to  the  fifteenth 
year  in  boys  is  made  in  the  lower  limbs,  while 
after  these  respective  ages  it  is  made  in  the 
trunk.  The  results  of  the  whole  series  of 
measurements  afford  evidence,  deemed  con- 

lusive,  that  women  reach  maturity  before 
men,  and  that,  for  all  the  measurements  ex- 
cept the  weight,  girls  have  completed  their 
growth  by  their  eighteenth  year. 

Paradoxes  of  the   Witch-hazel.  —  The 

witch-hazel,  according  to  a  correspondent  of 
Garden  and  Forest,  is  a  true  witch  among 
shrubs.  It  has  a  wild  way  of  growth,  sev- 
eral crooked,  branching  trunks  growing  from 
the  root ;  smooth  leaves ;  four  very  long,  lin- 
ear petals,  yellow  and  twisted  or  curled.  So 
far  it  is  not  unlike  other  shrubs.  The  name 
"  hamamelis  "  indicates  its  most  striking  pe- 
culiarity, "  flowers  and  fruit  together  on  the 
tree."  It  blossoms  in  October  and  Novem- 
ber, and  the  flowers  of  this  fall  will  be 
the  fruit  of  next  fall,  which  hangs  on  the 
bare  boughs  when  it  next  blossoms.  The 
flowers,  though  small,  are  made  noticeaJe 
by  blossoming  in  clusters  on  the  stem.  The 
fruit  is  a  woody  capsule,  nut-like,  two-celled, 
and  the  seeds,  almost  "black  and  shining,  are 
the  prettiest  seeds  in  the  world.  Another 
peculiarity  of  this  curious  shrub  is  its  explo- 
sive seed-scattering.  "  Many  years  ago,  wish- 
big  to  secure  a  quantity  of  these  seeds  to 
make  a  necklace  like  one  I  had  seen,  it  be- 
came a  question  how  to  get  them.  Before 
the  nut  was  ripe  enough  to  open,  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  get  at  the  seeds,  and 
when  the  capsule  opened  they  were  shot  out 
suddenly,  scattered  far  and  near,  and  lost. 
A  quantity  of  the  almost  ripe  seed-pods  were 


574 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


gathered,  put  in  paper  bags,  and  hung  up  to 
wait  and  see,  or  rather  to  wait  and  hear,  what 
would  happen.  For  days  these  pods,  as  they 
dried,  kept  popping  in  the  bags,  and  the 
seeds,  small  and  polished,  very  like  rice  in 
shape,  were  secured.  .  .  .  But  when  the  seeds 
were  gathered  there  was  another  problem  to 
be  solved — how  to  thread  them.  The  finest, 
sharpest  needle  would  split  them  every  time. 
The  friend  who  had  threaded  them  told  me 
how  it  could  be  done.  The  seed  was  to  be 
cut  off  at  each  end  with  a  very  fine  file.  This 
was  a  labor  of  love,  and  the  necklace  was 
pretty  enough  to  pay  for  the  trouble." 

Crystallization  of  Metallic  Oxides.— M. 

Moissan  has  succeeded,  with  the  high  temper- 
ature obtained  in  a  newly  devised  electrical 
furnace,  in  fusing  and  crystallizing  many  of 
the  metallic  oxides.  At  temperatures  rang- 
ing from  2,000°  to  3,000°  0.,  magnesia,  lime, 
and  strontia  crystallize  and  then  quickly 
melt ;  boric  acid,  protoxide  of  titanium,  and 
alumina  are  volatilized ;  and  the  oxides  of 
the  iron  family,  stable  at  high  temperatures, 
furnish  melted  masses  bristling  with  little 
crystals.  These  important  results  were  only 
the  prelude  to  still  more  remarkable  experi- 
ments intended  to  lead  up  to  the  preparation 
of  carbon  under  high  pressure,  and  the  arti- 
ficial production  of  the  diamond.  Having 
studied  the  solubility  of  carbon  in  a  certain 
number  of  metals  in  fusion — such  as  alumi- 
num, iron,  manganese,  chromium,  uranium, 
silver,  and  platinum — and  in  a  metalloid,  sili- 
con, he  succeeded  in  obtaining  by  fusion  in 
one  of  these  metals  new  varieties  of  graph- 
ite ;  but  he  was  able  to  produce  crystallized 
carbon,  or  diamond,  only  by  performing  his 
experiments  under  high  pressure.  When  iron 
in  fusion  is  saturated  with  carbon,  different 
results  are  obtained  according  to  the  temper- 
ature to  which  the  mass  is  raised.  Between 
1,100°  and  1,200°  C.,  a  mixture  of  amorphous 
carbon  and  graphite  is  obtained,  and  at  3,000° 
C.  graphite  exclusively  in  beautiful  crystals. 
If  a  high  pressure  is  introduced,  the  con- 
ditions of  crystallization  are  completely 
changed.  The  process  employed  by  the  au- 
thor resulted  in  the  production  of  three  kinds 
of  carbon — graphite  in  small  quantity  when 
the  cooling  was  quickly  done,  a  carbon  of  a 
chestnut  color  in  very  thin  flakes,  and  a  small 
quantity  of  a  dense  carbon  which  was  isolated 


by  treatment  with  the  strongest  acids.  The 
very  minute  fragments  scratched  rubies  and 
burned  in  oxygen  at  1,000°  C.  They  seem, 
therefore,  to  be  incontestably  diamond.  Some 
of  the  fragments  are  black  and  others  trans- 
parent. M.  Moissan's  reporter  speaks  of  his 
having,  in  the  production  of  these  diamonds, 
surprised  one  of  the  secrets  of  Nature — ig- 
noring the  diamonds  obtained  several  years 
ago,  under  a  similar  high  pressure,  from  hy- 
drocarbons by  Mr.  Hannay,  of  Edinburgh. 

East  African  Finery. — Among  the  pres- 
ents which  Mrs.  French-Sheldon  received 
from  the  Masai  when  passing  through  the 
East  African  country  called  Kilimegalia, 
were  the  characteristic  articles,  a  vulture- 
feather  pannier,  vulture-feather  shoulder 
capes,  dancing  masks  of  various  kinds, 
shields,  swords,  and  a  collarette  made  of 
cropped  ostrich  feathers  stuck  through 
leather,  so  that  the  quills  make  a  rough  sur- 
face on  the  inner  side.  "  This  is  worn  only 
by  the  warrior  who  has  killed  twelve  persons, 
and  resembles  in  theory  the  robe  of  Janus,  as 
the  roughness  on  the  inner  side  produced  by 
the  quills  excoriates  the  surface  of  the  neck  of 
the  wearer.  The  warrior  who  gave  me  this 
collar  had  the  blood  streaming  from  his 
throat  to  his  waist.  One  warrior  presented 
me  with  a  wooden  case  filled  with  ostrich 
feathers,  which  he  carried  with  him  to  re- 
place the  feathers  in  his  warrior  mask  and 
for  other  decorations.  I  bought  several  of 
the  cow  skins  worn  by  the  women  as  cloth- 
ing and  for  bedding  at  night,  for  the  cold  is 
extreme.  They  presented  me  also  with  a 
dancing  wand,  and  one  of  their  nebana,  or 
cloths  made  of  strips  of  white  cotton  and  em- 
bellished with  red,  of  various  designs,  which 
they  sling  from  their  shoulders ;  also  a  colo- 
bus  monkey  tail,  which  they  wear  under  their 
knees,  over  the  long  oval  bells,  and  a  hyena 
tail  decorated  with  a  lion  mane  and  colobus 
monkey  tails,  which  they  suspend  from  their 
shoulders  as  an  emblem  of  war." 

The  Masais  of  East  Africa. — The  Masais 
of  East  Africa,  according  to  Mrs.  French- 
Sheldon,  are  true  warriors  and  raiders.  They 
keep  a  subject  tribe,  the  Wa-sombutta,  who 
do  their  hunting  and  what  meager  agricul- 
ture they  indulge  in.  The  people  of  this 
tribe  are  insignificant  in  appearance,  and,  al- 


NOTES. 


575 


though  servile  and  subject  to  the  Masai,  are 
not  slaves.  They  present  almost  the  appear- 
ance of  dwarfs.  "I  saw  no  man  among 
them,"  she  says,  "  who  attained  a  height  of 
over  four  feet  and  a  few  inches;  most  of 
them  were  very  much  smaller.  The  Masai 
know  no  law  but  that  of  capture,  and  attack 
the  Taveta  with  much  animosity.  Their 
custom  of  forbidding  passage  through  their 
territory  is  enforced  by  placing  in  the  middle 
of  the  path,  over  which  an  individual  or  a 
caravan  must  pass,  a  bullet  over  which  they 
cross  two  twigs  stripped  of  foliage,  with  the 
exception  of  a  tufted  top ;  the  first  person 
crossing  this  barrier  is  usually  speared  or 
shot.  Not  knowing  of  this  custom,  I  inad- 
vertently came  to  such  a  barrier  and  kicked  it 
aside,  when  I  was  seized  by  one  of  my  head- 
men, who  held  me  back,  informing  me  that 
if  I  crossed  that  point  I  should  most  likely 
be  assassinated;  and  in  a  moment  about 
thirty  young  Masai  warriors  made  their  ap- 
pearance in  a  great  state  of  agitation,  with 
frantic  gesticulations,  announcing  that  I  must 
pay  a  certain  amount  of  hongo  for  the  depre- 
dation I  had  committed."  The  author  had 
great  difficulty  in  getting  even  instantaneous 
photographs  of  any  of  the  tribes.  They  re- 
garded the  camera  as  a  species  of  witch- 
craft, and  were  put  to  flight  the  moment 
they  saw  a  square  box  held  up  before  them. 
But  they  were  greatly  entertained  by  the 
music-box;  and  the  principal  men  of  the 
tribe  would  sit  by  the  hour  round  the  tent 
while  it  was  playing,  waving  themselves  back- 
ward and  forward,  and  repeating  "  God !  god  ! 
god  !  give  us  rain !  god,  give  us  clothes  !  " 
until  Mrs.  French-Sheldon  began  to  feel  that 
her  resources  in  the  way  of  exerting  influ- 
ence with  the  supreme  power  were  very  much 
overtaxed. 

Platinum  and  its  Sources,— Platinum  is 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  incandescent 
electric  lamps,  in  the  construction  of  stills 
for  the  concentration  of  sulphuric  acid,  as 
material  for  the  wires  by  which  artificial 
teeth  are  fastened  to  plates,  and  in  smaller 
quantities  for  chemists'  crucibles,  jewelry, 
etc.  For  all  these  purposes  about  215,000 
ounces  are  consumed  every  year.  The  Ural 
region  of  Russia  has  for  many  years  supplied 
all  the  platinum  used  in  the  world.  Other 
mines  of  far  less  productiveness  are  in  the 


United  States  of  Colombia,  British  Columbia, 
and  the  United  States.  Colombia  produces 
about  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  kilogrammes 
of  the  metal,  all  from  native  washings.  The 
platiniferous  area,  although  of  low  grade,  is 
very  extensive,  and  in  part  suitable  for  hy- 
draulic mining.  A  considerable  quantity  of 
American  capital,  it  is  said,  has  been  invested 
there,  and  Colombia  is  expected  to  become 
an  important  producer  of  the  metal.  The 
only  platinum  deposits  of  importance  in  Brit- 
ish Columbia  are  on  the  Talameen  River. 
The  total  production  of  this  province  is 
about  sixty-five  kilogrammes.  Much  prospect- 
ing for  platinum  has  been  done  in  the  United 
States,  but  so  far  without  success  in  finding 
paying  quantities,  and  to  the  present  tune 
all  the  platinum  produced  has  been  inci- 
dental to  the  production  of  gold  from  various 
auriferous  gravels  in  California  and  Oregon. 


NOTES. 

ACCORDING  to  a  paper  by  Miss  Millicent 
"W.  Shinn,  the  great  refractor  of  the  Lick 
Observatory  and  the  observatory  itself  may  be 
traced  to  Mr.  Lick's  desire  to  be  immortalized 
by  leaving  bequests  for  costly  statues  of  him- 
self and  family.  He  was  told  by  Mr.  Staples 
that  "more  likely  we  shall  get  into  a  war 
with  Russia  or  somebody,  and  they  will  come 
round  here  with  war  ships  and  smash  the 
statues  in  pieces  in  bombarding  the  city." 
Mr.  Lick  was  so  struck  by  this  that  he  asked, 
"  What  shall  I  do  witlTthe  money,  then  ?  " 
when  the  suggestion  of  the  telescope  was 
made. 

MANY  of  the  allusions  and  much  of  the 
science  found  in  sixteenth  century  literature, 
including  the  works  of  Jonson,  Spenser,  Mar- 
lowe, Massinger,  and  Shakespeare,  are  derived 
from  the  De  Proprietatihus  Rerum  of  Bar- 
tholomew Anglicanus,  a  Franciscan  monk, 
which  was  written  in  Latin  about  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  was  translated 
into  English  by  John  of  Trevisa  in  1397. 
The  work  affords  a  curious  insight  into  the 
ideas  of  our  ancestors  about  natural  phe- 
nomena, and  into  their  credulity  in  believing 
the  stories  of  wonders  from  far  countries. 
Much  of  it  is  derived  from  ancient  authori- 
ties. A  budget  of  selections  from  this  book 
has  recently  been  published  hi  London. 

THE  oscillation  of  projectiles  is  photo- 
graphically recorded  by  Prof.  Neesen,  of 
Berlin.  He  employed  hollow  projectiles,  in 
the  interior  of  which  was  placed  a  sensitive 
plate,  illuminated  by  sunlight  through  a  small 
opening.  During  the  rotatory  flight  of  the 
projectile  the  ray  of  light  described  curves 


576 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


on  the  plate,  from  the  position  of  which, 
taken  in  conjunction  with  that  of  the  sun, 
the  oscillations  of  the  axis  and  point  of  the 
projectile  could  be  calculated.  The  results 
obtained  showed  that  both  perform  oscilla- 
tory movements  during  flight  very  different 
from  those  usually  believed  to  take  place. 

Two  Akka  girls,  representing  the  dwarf 
race  of  Africa  on  exhibition  in  the  European 
cities  and  supposed  to  be  between  seventeen 
and  twenty  years  old,  are  described  as  being 
well  proportioned,  and  as  tall  as  a  boy  eight 
years  of  age.  Their  behavior  is  infantile, 
wild,  and  shy,  but  without  timidity.  They  are 
very  different  in  disposition  ;  the  more  pleas- 
ant one  laughs  joyously,  is  pleased  with 
bead  bracelets  and  other  trinkets  given  to 
her,  and  curiously  expressed  her  appreciation 
of  some  chocolate  bonbons.  They  show  no 
wonder  or  admiration  at  persons  and  things, 
and  are  not  affected  by  artistic  furnishings, 
and  their  eyes  are  without  expression. 

A  CORRESPONDENT  of  Nature  tells  of  some 
letters  and  papers  on  his  desk  which  were  set 
on  fire  by  a  paper  weight  composed  of  four 
glass  balls.  It  concentrated  the  rays  of  the 
sun  upon  them.  The  desk  was  scorched,  and 
the  burning  papers,  falling  upon  the  carpet, 
burned  that. 

Two  instances  of  what  may  be  called 
"  dust  photographs  "  are  described  in  Nature 
by  W.  B.  Croft,  of  Winchester  College.  The 
plate-glass  window  of  a  hotel  in  London  has 
on  the  inside  a  screen  of  ground  glass,  near 
but  not  touching,  on  which  are  the  words 
"  Coffee  Room  "  in  clear,  unf rested  letters. 
One  day,  as  Dr.  Earle,  the  writer's  informant, 
was  at  breakfast,  the  screen  was  taken  away, 
but  the  words  were  left  plainly  visible  on  the 
window,  and  no  washing  would  remove  them. 
In  another  case  the  house  had  been  a  hotel, 
and  the  windows  had  been  dressed  with  brown 
gauze  blinds,  bearing  the  words  "Coffee 
Room  "  in  gilt  letters.  A  succeeding  tenant 
on  misty  days  saw  these  words  on  one  of  the 
windows. 

THE  results  of  six  months'  observations 
of  Mars  have  led  Mr.  Schacherle,  of  the  Lick 
Observatory,  to  the  conclusion — contrary  to 
the  generally  received  view — that  the  d'ark 
portions  of  the  disk  represent  land,  and  the 
light  portions  water.  This  is  supported  by 
observations  of  San  Francisco  Bay  from  Mount 
Hamilton,  in  which  the  bay  appears  brighter 
than  the  neighboring  valley  and  mountains 
at  the  same  distance.  On  this  hypothesis  the 
"  canals  "  would  correspond  to  ridges  of  moun- 
tains almost  wholly  immersed  in  water,  while 
their  doubling  may  represent  parallel  ridges 
of  which  our  own  earth  furnishes  examples. 

THE  dangers  of  poisoning  in  the  manu- 
facture of  white  lead  are  avoided  in  a  process 
introduced  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Hannay,  by  which  a 
sulphate  of  lead  is  produced  instead  of  a  car- 
bonate. The  pigment  is  made  direct  from 


the  cheapest  lead  ore,  which  is  crushed  and 
fed  into  coke  furnaces.  The  heat  combined 
with  an  air-blast  causes  the  lead  to  volatilize  ; 
the  fumes  are  exposed  to  a  current  of  steam, 
and  the  resultant  creamy-white  liquid  mass 
is  run  off  into  settling  tanks,  whence  it  is 
passed  into  filter  presses,  deprived  of  its 
moisture,  and  dried  and  packed  for  market. 

SOME  oysters  experimented  upon  by  Prof. 
R.  C.  Schiedt,  under  exposure,  living,  to  light 
with  the  right  valve  of  the  shell  removed,  in 
the  course  of  a  fortnight  developed  pigment 
over  the  whole  of  the  epidermis  of  the  ex- 
posed right  mantle  and  on  the  upper  exposed 
sides  of  the  gills,  so  that  they  became  dark- 
brown  all  over  that  side.  They  also  made  a 
partly  successful  effort  to  restore  the  right 
valve.  The  inference  is  drawn  from  the 
facts  that  the  development  of  pigment  in  the 
mantle  and  gills  was  wholly  and  directly  due 
to  the  abnormal  and  general  stimulus  of  light 
over  their  exposed  surface,  and  that  the  man- 
tle border,  the  only  pigmented  portion  of  the 
animal,  is  pigmented  because  it  is  the  only 
portion  which  is  normally  and  constantly  sub- 
jected to  the  stimulus  of  light. 

ATTENTION  has  been  called  by  Sir  Henry 
Mance  to  the  damage  inflicted  on  electric 
telegraph  cables  by  the  teredo,  which  are  de- 
scribed as  being  really  serious,  and  the  sug- 
gestion made  by  Mr.  Preece  several  years  ago 
is  approved  by  the  author,  that,  besides  sur- 
veying the  bottom  of  the  sea  for  rocks  and 
shoals,  the  parts  near  the  shore  should  be 
examined  to  find  whether  they  are  infested 
by  this  pest. 

IN  a  paper  published  in  Science,  on  Varia- 
bility of  Specific  Characters  in  the  Extinct 
Genus  Coryphodon,  M.  Charles  Earle  shows 
that  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  in  this  group 
to  find  where  one  species  ends  and  another 
begins.  In  most  cases  the  characters  run 
into  each  other  insensibly.  The  author  be- 
lieves that  there  are  about  eight  good 
species,  the  characters  of  which  show  a 
progression  from  the  primitive  to  the  more 
specialized  types.  A  later  study  by  Mr. 
Earle  is  on  the  comparative  osteology  of  the 
Malayan  and  the  Brazilian  tapirs. 

DURING  a  residence  in  Tunisia,  M.  Ver- 
coutre  made  a  study  of  the  tattoo  marks  with 
which  the  natives  cover  their  limbs  and  face. 
He  discovered  that  the  most  complete  de- 
signs represent  a  human  figure — a  kind  of 
doll,  seen  in  front,  with  extended  arms.  In 
this  figure,  for  which  no  explanation  had 
been  offered  before,  he  perceives  nothing 
else  than  a  representation,  rigidly  exact  and 
preserved  by  tradition  without  perceptible 
alteration,  of  the  manikin  on  the  monuments 
of  Phoenicia  and  Carthage,  which  archaeolo- 
gists have  named  the  "  Symbol  of  the  Punic 
Trinity  " — which  is  found,  for  example,  on 
the  Phoenician  and  Punic  stelae,  and  on  the 
neo-Punic  lamps  of  Carthage. 


H.   CARRINGTON    BOLTON. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


SEPTEMBER,    1893. 


WHY  SILVER  CEASES  TO  BE  MONEY. 

BY  F.  W.  TAUSSIG,  PH.D., 

PROFESSOR  OF   POLITICAL   ECONOMY,  HARVARD   UNIVERSITY. 

THE  striking  fall  in  the  price  of  silver  and  the  unmistakable 
tendency  among  civilized  countries  to  cease  using  it  as  a 
basis  for  currency,  suggest  the  inquiry  whether  these  results  are 
accidental  or  flow  from  causes  so  regular  and  continuous  in  their 
application  as  to  be  analogous  to  physical  law.  Thirty  years  ago 
most  economists  would  have  hesitated  little  in  seeking  analogies 
of  this  sort.  The  general  conclusions  on  which  economists  were 
then  agreed  were  often  stated  to  be  natural  laws,  as  certain 
and  immutable  in  their  application  as  the  laws  of  the  physical 
universe.  The  general  rate  of  wages  was  governed  by  natural 
laws ;  prices  were  determined  by  natural  laws,  which  combina- 
tions and  speculators  could  not  violate  with  impunity ;  monetary 
phenomena  were  subject  to  similar  unalterable  conditions.  The 
value  of  the  precious  metals,  like  that  of  other  commodities,  was 
determined  only  by  their  cost  of  production,  and  legislative  action 
seeking  to  regulate  their  value  and  bring  about  their  concurrent 
circulation  must  of  necessity  be  futile. 

Of  late  the  language  even  of  conservative  economists  has  been 
more  guarded.  The  more  ardent  representatives  of  the  new 
movement  in  economic  thought  go  further,  and  reject  once  for 
all  the  notion  of  natural  law  in  economic  phenomena.  Even 
those  who  appeal  with  confidence  to  economic  laws  must  admit 
that  their  operation  is  in  many  ways  unlike  that  of  physical 
law.  They  are  stated  to  be  tendencies ;  they  are  conclusions 
hypothetically  true,  or  true  only  in  the  long  run.  Above  all, 
the  play  of  human  volition,  and  of  legislation  as  reflecting 

VOL.   XLIII. 41 


578  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

human  volition,  is  admitted  to  be  not  the  least  of  the  forces 
that  affect  economic  phenomena.  Wages  and  prices  may  be  af- 
fected by  combinations  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  legislation  on 
the  other  hand ;  doubtless  within  limits,  but  within  limits  not  so 
narrow  nor  so  easily  denned  as  was  formerly  thought.  So  the 
value  of  money  is  subject  to  legislation  in  no  small  degree. 
Paper  money,  though  of  the  purest  fiat  character,  with  no  hope 
or  promise  of  redemption  in  specie,  may  yet  perform  with  reason- 
able efficiency  the  functions  of  a  circulating  medium.  No  doubt 
the  degree  of  effect  is  limited,  and  the  expediency  of  particular 
forms  of  legislative  action  is  more  than  doubtful.  But  the  possi- 
bility of  effect  can  not  be  denied.  In  granting  so  much,  we  may 
give  aid  and  comfort  to  those  whose  proposals  on  the  currency 
are  mischievous ;  but  truth,  fairly  faced,  compels  the  admission 
that  the  value  of  money  is  not  fixed  by  natural  law  in  the  sense 
that  it  may  not  be  seriously  affected  by  legislation.  Looking  to 
specie  alone,  it  is  clear  that  convention  and  legislation  are  at  least 
the  immediate  cause  of  their  high  value.  If  gold  ceased  to  be 
used  as  money,  and  if  all  the  gold  in  the  world  were  to  be  used  in 
the  arts  only,  it  is  beyond  question  that  its  value  would  fall,  and 
would  remain  low  for  an  indefinite  time  to  come ;  while  a  great 
and  sudden  extension  in  the  use  of  gold  for  monetary  purposes, 
such  as  legislation  might  conceivably  bring  about,  would  quickly 
raise  its  value. 

Coming  now  more  closely  to  the  subject  in  hand,  and  the 
question  whether  silver  is  likely  to  continue  in  use  side  by  side 
with  gold,  we  encounter  the  suggestion  that  silver  is  doomed 
from  the  operation  of  great  and  permanent  causes  operating  with 
the  force  of  natural  law.  Silver  at  best  is  bulky  in  proportion  to 
its  value.  For  transactions  on  a  large  scale  it  is  inconvenient ; 
and  as  it  gets  cheaper,  a  given  value  becomes  bulkier,  and  the 
metal  less  available  for  the  great  transactions  of  modern  com- 
merce. Iron,  copper,  and  other  metals  have  been  used  in  their 
day  for  monetary  purposes,  and  with  the  progress  of  civilization 
have  given  way  to  the  "  precious  "  metals.  As  the  further  advance 
in  wealth  and  progress  brings  the  need  of  a  medium  of  exchange 
by  means  of  which  large  transactions  can  be  conveniently  carried 
on,  must  silver  meet  with  a  similar  fate,  and  gold  become  the  only 
standard  monetary  metal? 

No  doubt  it  is  true  that  as  coin,  and  for  circulation  in  the  form 
of  coin,  obstacles  of  this  sort  are  serious  for  silver.  As  copper  can 
be  used  only  for  very  small  payments,  so  silver  can  be  used  only 
for  moderate  payments.  A  striking  illustration  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  using  silver  directly  on  a  large  scale  is  furnished  by  the 
experience  of  the  United  States  under  the  silver  act  of  1878.  That 
act  provided  for  the  monthly  coinage  and  issue  of  a  very  large 


WHY  SILVER   CEASES   TO  BE  MONEY.  579 

number  of  silver  dollars — on  the  average,  two  and  a  half  millions 
a  month — and  the  expectation  of  the  legislature  was,  at  the  be- 
ginning, that  these  bulky  coins  would  find  their  way  into  circula- 
tion and  use.  In  fact,  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  them  ever 
came  into  actual  use.  Notwithstanding  every  effort  of  the  Treasury 
to  get  the  coins  into  circulation,  the  community  stubbornly  re- 
fused to  make  use  of  more  than  a  small  proportion  of  them.  Some 
sixty  millions  were  got  into  circulation ;  but  the  remainder  of  the 
four  hundred  millions  which  were  coined  lie  unused  in  the  vaults 
of  the  Treasury,  and  when  issued  by  it  flow  back  with  a  regularity 
and  persistence  not  unlike  the  operation  of  natural  law. 

But  the  experience  of  the  United  States  under  this  same  act  of 
1878  suggests  a  very  easy  mode  of  surmounting  this  difficulty  and 
of  securing  the  actual  and  effective  use  of  silver  in  indefinite 
quantity.  The  printing  press  and  the  engraver's  art  have  revolu- 
tionized the  situation.  The  silver  certificates,  which  now  form  the 
largest  single  constituent  in  our  every-day  money,  were  issued,  at 
first  sparingly,  later  more  generously,  to  "represent  the  coined 
dollars  and  to  circulate  in  their  place.  They  are  printed  in  any 
desired  denomination ;  they  are  easy  to  carry ;  they  circulate  more 
freely  even  than  gold  coin.  It  is  curious  that  this  simple  device 
should  not  have  been  thought  of  at  the  outset,  and  should  have 
been  evolved  only  after  an  experience,  running  through  several 
years,  of  the  impossibility  of  securing  the  circulation  of  the  actual 
coins.  But  the  lesson  has  been  learned,  and  in  the  schemes  for 
the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  dollars  it  is  now  always 
proposed  that  the  silver  shall  indeed  be  freely  coined,  but  that  its 
actual  circulation  shall  take  place  through  certificates  represent- 
ing the  deposit  of  the  coined  metal  in  the  Government's  hands. 
By  a  machinery  of  this  sort  any  durable  commodity  may  indeed 
become  the  basis  of  the  monetary  circulation,  and  the  crucial 
question  becomes  not  one  of  the  possibility  of  the  use  of  a  com- 
modity, but  one  of  its  expediency. 

This  leads  us  to  another  phase  of  the  question,  the  inquiry 
whether  silver  possesses  that  stability  in  value  which  is  admitted 
on  all  hands  to  be  essential  for  money.  If  the  price  of  silver,  like 
that  of  copper  and  iron,  is  subject  to  great  and  rapid  variations 
from  changes  in  the  conditions  of  production,  it  is  inexpedient, 
even  though  possible,  to  make  it  the  basis  of  the  circulating 
medium.  If  the  great  decline  in  the  price  of  silver  in  the  last 
twenty  years  is  due  to  causes  like  those  which  have  brought  down 
the  price  of  copper  and  the  price  of  iron,  we  have  strong  ground 
for  refusing  to  use  it  further,  except  for  subsidiary  purposes  like 
those  for  which  copper  continues  to  be  used.  But  here  it  may  be 
answered,  and  certainly  with  much  show  of  reason,  that  the  decline 
in  the  price  of  silver  has  been  due  largely  to  legislation.  The  civ- 


58o  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ilized  countries  one  after  another  have  given  up  the  use  of  silver, 
and  by  so  narrowing  the  field  for  its  use  have  caused  a  fall  in  price 
to  take  place  which  otherwise  would  have  been  averted.  Germany 
gave  up  the  use  of  silver,  except  for  subsidiary  purposes,  in  1873. 
The  United  States  dropped  silver  from  her  list  of  coins  in  the  same 
year.  France  and  the  Latin  Union  virtually  closed  their  mints 
to  the  free  coinage  of  silver  in  1874.  Italy  and  Austria,  in  resum- 
ing specie  payments — the  one  in  1883,  the  other  in  1893 — refused  to 
adopt  any  but  a  gold  standard.  If  in  all  these  countries  silver  had 
been  freely  coined ;  if  in  Germany,  France,  the  United  States,  and 
Austria,  silver  had  retained  the  footing  before  the  law  which  it 
had  twenty-five  years  ago,  the  price  undoubtedly  would  not  have 
fallen  so  much,  and  the  objection  to  its  use  from  the  fall  in  its 
price  would  certainly  be  much  less  strong  than  it  is.  Unquestion- 
ably, the  great  increase  in  the  production  of  silver  has  contributed 
to  bring  down  its  price ;  but  it  is  at  least  probable  that  the  fall 
would  have  been  less,  and  indeed  that  there  would  have  been 
little  fall,  if  any,  in  the  gold  price  of  silver  if  the  mints  of  all 
those  countries  had  remained  open  to  silver  as  they  were  in  1870. 
Whether  such  a  state  of  things  would  have  been  conducive  to  the 
general  prosperity  of  these  countries  is  another  question.  Looking 
merely  at  the  point  now  under  consideration — the  cause  and  mean- 
ing of  the  lower  price  of  silver — we  must  admit  that  legislation  has 
been  an  important  cause  among  those  that  brought  it  about. 

We  may  go  further  with  this  line  of  thought,  and  consider 
how  far  it  is  possible  that  legislation  might  affect  the  price  of 
silver  in  the  future.  If  at  the  present  time  an  effective  interna- 
tional agreement  were  adopted  for  the  wide  use  of  silver  as 
money  in  civilized  countries,  the  price  of  silver  undoubtedly 
would  be  raised  for  some  considerable  time.  An  agreement  of 
the  great  countries,  such  as  England,  France,  Germany,  and  the 
United  States,  for  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  a  fixed  ratio  with 
gold  would  undoubtedly  absorb  much  silver,  would  clear  the 
market  of  heavy  stocks,  and  would  raise  the  price  of  silver  in 
terms  of  gold  to  the  point  fixed  by  the  international  ratio.  Such 
an  agreement  could  hardly  fail  to  bring  about  the  concurrent  cir- 
culation of  silver  and  gold  in  the  contracting  countries,  and  to 
establish  a  real  and  effective  bimetallism.  How  long  this  con- 
current legislation  would  continue,  and  how  long,  even  if  the 
legislation  continued,  silver  and  gold  would  remain  equal  in  rela- 
tive value  at  the  agreed  ratio,  are  different  questions.  The  future 
production  of  silver,  the  possible  extended  use  of  gold  for  other 
than  monetary  purposes,  the  probable  increased  use  of  gold  in 
countries  outside  the  international  agreement,  would  very  likely 
cause  gold  to  disappear  in  the  end  from  the  contracting  coun- 
tries, and  so  would  make  silver  the  sole  basis  of  their  circulating 


WHY  SILVER    CEASES   TO  BE  MONEY.  581 

medium.  But  this  result  would  not  be  brought  about  for  a  long 
time,  measured  by  generations  rather  than  by  years.  Certainly 
for  a  series  of  years  international  bimetallism,  if  adopted,  would 
at  least  be  not  ineffective.  No  doubt  all  this  is  idle  speculation, 
so  far  as  any  political  probabilities  are  concerned.  International 
jealousy,  and  a  sufficient  satisfaction  in  most  countries  with  the 
existing  state  of  things,  make  such  an  agreement  impracticable. 
But  this  does  not  answer  the  question  of  principle,  or  show  that 
the  wider  use  of  silver  is  restricted  by  any  natural  law.  Doubts 
as  to  the  expediency  of  the  change  and  unwillingness  to  enter  on 
hazardous  legislation  are  the  serious  sources  of  difficulty  for  those 
who  demand  a  free  use  of  silver  for  currency. 

The  real  question  for  the  future  of  silver,  then,  is  one  of  the 
expediency  and  possibility  of  legislation.  It  may  be  freely  ad- 
mitted that  if  legislation  were  different,  the  silver  situation  would 
be  essentially  different.  And  ultimately  legislation  will  doubt- 
less respond  to  the  pressure  of  expediency.  If  it  should  appear 
that  the  exclusive  use  of  gold  works  ill,  that  the  failure  to  use 
silver  causes  mischief,  and  that  the  wider  use  of  silver  would 
make  things  better,  we  may  expect  that  eventually  the  civilized 
countries,  either  by  international  agreement  or  by  separate  legis- 
lation, will  retrace  their  steps  and  endeavor  to  secure  the  use  of 
both  metals.  The  fundamental  question  of  expediency,  again,  is 
one  as  to  the  stability  of  prices  and  incomes.  If  under  the  gold 
standard  there  is  a  steady  tendency  toward  lower  prices  and  lower 
money  incomes,  and  if  such  a  decline  works  evil,  there  is  ground 
for  demanding  a  change.  If,  on  the  whole,  the  disuse  of  silver  is 
accompanied  by  no  mischievous  changes,  things  may  remain,  and 
in  all  probability  will  remain,  as  they  are. 

So  far  as  the  experience  of  the  past  is  concerned,  it  is  not  to 
be  questioned  that  in  fact  there  has  been  a  general  decline  in 
prices  since  the  date,  roughly  speaking,  when  silver  began  to  be 
discarded  and  gold  became  the  sole  basis  of  the  medium  of  ex- 
change. The  year  1873  brings  at  once  the  high-water  mark  of 
general  prices  and  the  beginning  of  the  demonetization  of  silver. 
During  the  last  twenty  years  wholesale  prices  and  retail  prices 
have  steadily  pressed  downward.  So  far  there  is  a  prima-facie 
case  for  the  proposition  that  it  is  gold  that  has  appreciated  rather 
than  silver  that  has  depreciated.  But  another  equally  striking 
and  unquestionable  phenomenon  of  the  last  twenty  years  has 
been  that  the  money  incomes  of  all  classes  of  society  have  not 
gone  down,  but  have  rather  tended  upward.  Such  a  movement, 
combined  with  the  movement  for  lower  prices,  simply  means 
that  material  "prosperity  has  increased  on  all  hands,  that  our 
income  in  terms  of  commodities  is  growing,  and  that  men  are 
getting  more  in  return  for  their  labor.  Moreover,  it  is  not  to  be 


582  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

denied  that  on  the  whole  and  in  the  long  run  general  prosperity 
has  been  great  and  wide  during  the  last  generation.  The  usual 
cycles  of  speculative  activity  and  industrial  depression  have  ap- 
peared, and  at  the  successive  periods  of  surface  depression  the 
cry  has  been  raised  that  some  unusual  cause,  like  the  demoneti- 
zation of  silver,  was  leading  to  general  calamity.  But  the  up- 
ward turn  of  the  wave  soon  reappeared,  and  the  growth  of  ma- 
terial prosperity,  good  years  and  bad  years  taken  together,  has 
not  been  interrupted. 

Looking,  too,  at  the  relations  of  debtors  and  creditors,  we  find 
on  the  whole  little  to  complain  of.  No  doubt  a  period  of  simple 
rise  or  fall  in  general  prices  operates  unjustly.  When  prices  and 
money  incomes  rise,  creditors  do  not  get  their  dues ;  when  they 
fall,  debtors  are  subjected  to  a  painful  burden.  But  where  we 
have  the  phenomenon  of  money  wages  and  money  incomes  which 
are  steady  and  on  the  whole  probably  increasing — and  this  is 
what  the  world  has  seen  during  the  last  generation — the  situation 
approaches  as  near  justice  as  is  possible  in  things  human.  A 
debtor  who  borrowed  five,  ten,  or  twenty  years  ago  has  an  undi- 
minished  money  income,  and  can  not  be  said  to  feel  special  hard- 
ship when  he  repays  his  debt,  even  though  the  prices  of  commod- 
ities may  have  decreased.  That  individual  debtors  and  classes 
of  debtors  may  have  suffered  is  beyond  question ;  but  in  the  mass 
the  situation  has  not  given  rise  to  general  hardship. 

Hitherto,  therefore,  the  adoption  of  the  gold  standard,  the 
drift  toward  restricting  silver  to  use  as  a  gwcm-subsidiary  coin, 
have  not  worked  ill.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  to  have  prevented  ill, 
since  the  use  of  silver  side  by  side  with  gold,  in  view  of  the 
enormous  increase  of  the  production  of  silver,  in  all  probability 
would  have  disturbed  seriously  the  stability  of  the  monetary 
medium.  What,  now,  of  the  future  ?  Are  the  same  tendencies 
likely  to  appear  in  years  to  come,  and  is  the  gold  standard  likely 
to  work  well  in  the  future  as  it  has  in  the  past  ? 

In  answering  these  questions  we  must  not  refuse  to  face  cer- 
tain facts  in  the  situation  insisted  upon  by  the  bimetallists.  The 
supply  of  gold  available  for  monetary  use  is  not  likely  to  in- 
crease rapidly  in  the  future.  The  production  of  gold  has  been 
nearly  stationary  for  the  past  twenty  years.  In  the  last  two  or 
three  years  an  upward  movement  has  appeared;  it  remains  to 
be  seen,  however,  whether  any  permanent  advance  will  be  main- 
tained. The  use  of  gold  in  the  arts  is  apparently  increasing,  and 
is  likely  to  continue  to  increase ;  and  it  absorbs  a  growing  part 
of  the  annual  supply.  Meanwhile  the  wealth  and  population  of 
civilized  countries  are  advancing  rapidly.  If  stability  in  money 
affairs  is  to  be  secured,  some  steady  increase  in  their  circulating 
medium  must  be  provided  for.  If  we  regard  gold  coin  alone,  and 


WHY  SILVER    CEASES   TO  BE  MONEY.  583 

consider  the  development  of  the  currency  to  be  limited  to  the 
coin  or  to  be  in  exact  proportion  to  the  coin,  the  situation  may 
be  fairly  described  as  ominous.  There  would  be  ground  for  say- 
ing, as  men  of  science  have  recently  done,*  that  eventually  the 
gold  standard  will  become  untenable,  and  that  silver  will  force 
its  way  into  use  side  by  side  with  gold,  if  not  to  the  exclusion  of 
gold. 

But  the  situation  is  modified,  if  not  transformed,  by  another 
factor  in  present  and  in  future  industrial  history :  that  develop- 
ment of  credit  machinery  which  forms  the  most  striking  phenom- 
enon in  the  monetary  history  of  modern  times.  In  the  develop- 
ment of  credit  as  a  substitute  for  money  we  have  something  like 
a  natural  law,  which  will  put  to  naught  the  predictions  of  those 
who  predict  disaster  from  the  failure  to  make  wider  use  of  silver. 
If,  indeed,  coin  money  were  the  sole  or  the  most  important  constit- 
uent in  the  medium  of  exchange  in  civilized  communities,  silver 
or  some  other  metal  must  certainly  be  brought  in  to  supplement 
the  scanty  growth  of  the  supply  of  the  gold.  In  fact,  however,  the 
actual  currency  of  civilized  countries  tends  to  consist  less  and  less 
of  specie,  more  and  more  of  credit  substitutes  for  specie.  Bank 
notes,  government  notes,  and  above  all  bank  checks,  actually  per- 
form the  commercial  transactions  of  civilized  countries.  Specie 
is  the  basis  of  exchange  ;  it  is  the  measure  in  terms  of  which  the 
value  of  commodities  is  expressed ;  but  it  is  only  to  an  insignifi- 
cant extent  the  medium  by  which  exchanges  are  actually  con- 
ducted. The  use  of  credit  is  of  course  most  highly  developed  in 
countries  like  the  United  States  and  England,  which  lead  the 
world  in  general  industrial  development.  It  is  growing  steadily 
and  surely  in  continental  Europe,  and,  beyond  question,  will  con- 
tinue to  grow.  Each  individual,  each  financial  institution,  each 
government,  is  tempted  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  credit  operations 
and  to  diminish  the  use  of  actual  coin ;  and  the  steady  pressure 
of  these  motives  makes  the  tendency  as  sure  and  unalterable  as 
physical  law. 

That  this  tendency  brings  its  dangers  can  not  be  denied.  An 
ever-increasing  volume  of  credit  is  based  upon  a  relatively  smaller 
foundation  of  specie,  and  the  evils  of  a  sudden  impairment  of 
credit  become  more  and  more  serious.  It  has  been  attempted  to 
obviate  the  dangers  by  enlarging  the  basis  of  specie ;  and  the 
wider  use  of  silver  is  advocated  as  one  method  of  broadening  the 
substructure.  But  efforts  in  this  direction  are  likely  to  have  but 
temporary  results.  A  broader  basis  of  specie  is  likely,  under  the 
influence  of  the  same  forces  which  now  lead  to  an  extended  use  of 
credit,  to  bring  about  in  due  time  an  expansion  of  credit  machin- 

*  See  Die  Zukunft  des  Silbers,  by  Eduard  Suess,  Vienna,  1892. 


584  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ery  in  som6  way  proportionate  to  the  enlarged  foundation  on 
which  it  rests.  After  a  brief  respite  the  difficulties  which  it  was 
proposed  thus  to  obviate  will  reappear  with  undiminished  inten- 
sity. The  surer  method,  and  that  which  is  developing  under  the 
stress  of  need  and  the  growth  of  experience,  is  to  strengthen  the 
foundation  rather  than  to  enlarge  it.  The  specie  which  serves  as 
the  basis  of  the  swelling  volume  of  credit  transactions  is  massed 
in  fewer  hands,  and  so  is  made  more  effective  in  sustaining  the 
superstructure.  The  great  public  banks  of  European  countries 
are  guardians  of  the  treasure  which  gives  tone  to  their  currency 
and  serves  as  the  standard  for  transactions  in  which  it  is  used  to 
less  and  less  extent  in  bodily  shape.  The  central  stock  which 
serves  the  same  purpose  in  the  United  States  is  held,  not  by  a 
semi-public  institution  to  whom  the  duty  has  been  delegated,  but 
by  the  Federal  Treasury  directly.  Its  amount  has  been  seriously 
lessened  of  late,  and  may  be  subject  to  further  drain  in  the  imme- 
diate future.  But  there  are  no  indications  that  the  supply  of 
gold  obtainable  for  this  purpose  is  inadequate,  in  the  United 
States  or  in  the  world  at  large,  to  serve  the  uses  likely  to  be  made 
of  it  in  the  future.  Our  own  reserve  should  be  enlarged ;  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  community,  once  aroused  to  the 
situation,  will  not  permit  it  to  shrink  to  the  point  of  real  danger. 
So  far  as  the  visible  future  is  concerned,  we  may  therefore  look 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  gold  standard  by  all  the  great  civil- 
ized countries.  Silver  will  be  used  for  subsidiary  purposes  to 
some  extent  in  all  advanced  countries,  and  apparently  to  a  very 
large  extent  in  the  United  States.  But  silver  will  not  again  be- 
come standard  money,  freely  coined  for  all  holders.  It  will  have 
to  seek  its  market,  partly  for  use  in  the  arts,  partly  for  subsidiary 
purposes  as  money  in  the  countries  of  advanced  civilization,  part- 
ly for  more  or  less  complete  monetary  use  in  regions  like  India, 
China,  and  South  America.  Within  the  last  two  months  the  Brit- 
ish Government  in  India  has  taken  a  step  of  far-reaching  conse- 
quence, in  suspending  the  free  coinage  of  silver  in  that  country. 
The  step  is  not  definitive,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  what  policy 
will  finally  be  adopted.  Whatever  may  be  done,  a  considerable 
flow  of  silver  to  India  is  likely  to  continue  in  the  future;  the 
market  for  the  metal  there  has  by  no  means  been  wiped  out.  But 
the  conditions  under  which  silver  can  be  disposed  of  must  be 
seriously  affected  by  the  cessation  of  unlimited  coinage  in  the 
country  in  which  alone  very  large  quantities  found  their  way 
into  permanent  monetary  use  through  a  free  mint.  The  new 
move,  moreover,  whatever  its  effect  may  be  on  the  quantity  of 
silver  which  will  actually  find  its  way  to  India,  must  in  any  case 
have  an  important  effect  on  the  future  of  silver  in  its  political 
aspects.  It  wipes  out  the  possibility  of  free  coinage  of  silver  in 


WHY   SILVER    CEASES    TO   BE  MONEY.  585 

the  United  States ;  it  makes  highly  probable  the  diminution  or 
cessation  of  large  silver  purchases  by  the  United  States.  The 
grounds  of  expediency  against  making  silver  the  standard  of 
value,  or  so  legislating  that  it  may  possibly  become  the  standard 
of  value,  have  become  stronger  than  ever. 

What  the  price  of  silver  will  be  in  the  future  must  depend  on 
the  volume  of  the  annual  production  as  compared  with  the  occa- 
sion for  its  employment  in  the  several  ways  just  mentioned.  The 
crucial  question  is  that  of  production.  During  the  last  twenty 
years  the  world's  production  of  silver  has  more  than  doubled. 
Geologists  tell  us  that  this  great  increase  has  been  due  to  an  ex- 
traordinary succession  of  lucky  finds,  not  likely  to  be  repeated ; 
and  they  predicted,  even  before  the  collapse  in  the  price  due  to 
the  action  of  British  India,  that  silver  would  be  produced  in 
smaller  quantity  in  the  future.  Predictions  on  this  subject,  even 
from  the  most  competent  men  of  science,  are  to  be  accepted  with 
caution,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  what  the  future  will  bring. 
Those  old  mines  or  newly  discovered  bonanzas  which  can  produce 
silver  at  very  low  cost  will  continue  to  turn  it  out,  even  though  a 
mixed  feeling  of  panic  and  bluster  may  have  caused  them  for  the 
moment  to  stop  operations.  Mines  which  have  been  working  at 
a  moderate  profit  or  none  at  all  will  one  by  one  cease,  now  that 
the  prospect  of  a  rise  or  even  maintenance  of  the  price  of  silver 
has  become  so  desperate.  The  gambling  character  of  the  busi- 
ness makes  it  difficult  to  use  the  reasoning  which  would  apply  to 
most  industrial  operations ;  but  apparently  we  may  look  for  some 
diminution  of  production.  If  this  occurs,  silver  may  maintain 
something  like  its  present  value,  and  the  commercial  relations 
between  gold-using  and  silver-using  parts  of  the  world  will  gradu- 
ally adapt  themselves  to  the  new  basis.  If  production  continues 
at  anything  like  its  present  rate,  still  more  if  it  augments,  no  one 
can  tell  what  may  happen  to  silver.  Its  price  may  fall  indefi- 
nitely, and  in  the  end  it  may  disappear  from  monetary  use  as 
completely  as  copper  has  done.  But  a  diminution  of  production 
and  of  the  quantity  of  silver  finding  its  way  to  the  market  seems 
the  more  probable  outcome ;  and  with  this  a  price  at  a  perma- 
nently lower  level  than  ever  in  the  history  of  the  world  until 
within  the  last  twenty  years.  In  either  case  silver  ceases  to  be 
the  basis  on  which  the  countries  of  advanced  civilization  rest 
their  monetary  systems:  not  so  much  from  its  physical  mifitness, 
as  from  the  increasing  use  of  a  more  refined  and  highly  developed 
medium  of  exchange,  needing  for  its  foundation  a  moderate  sup- 
ply of  specie  having  a  stable  and  uniform  value. 

VOL.    XLIII. 42 


586  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

FOLK-LORE  STUDY   IN  AMERICA. 

BY  LEE  J.  VANCE. 

IN  the  summer  of  1887  a  circular  letter  containing  a  proposal 
for  the  formation  of  a  Folk-lore  Society  in  America  was 
quietly,  perhaps  timidly,  sent  to  a  faithful  few.  Again,  in  October 
of  the  same  year  was  issued  a  second  letter,  subscribed  with  a 
hundred  and  four  names,  representing  different  parts  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  Briefly  stated,  it  was  proposed  to  form  a  so- 
ciety for  the  study  of  folk  lore,  of  which  the  principal  object  shall 
be  to  establish  a  journal  of  a  scientific  character  designed — 

1.  For  the  collection  of  the  fast- vanishing  remains  of  folk  lore 
in  America — namely,  (a)  relics  of  old  English  folk  lore  (ballads, 
tales,   superstitions,  etc.) ;  (&)  lore   of  negroes  in   the  Southern 
States ;  (c)  lore  of  the  Indian  tribes  in  North  America  (myths, 
tales,  etc.) ;  (d)  lore  of  French  Canada,  Mexico,  etc. 

2.  For  the  study  of  the  general  subject  and  publication  of  the 
results  of  special  students  in  this  department. 

The  outcome  was  that,  on  the  4th  of  January,  1888,  a  goodly 
number  of  persons  interested  in  folk-lore  study  assembled  in 
University  Hall,  Harvard  University.  Then  and  there  The 
American  Folk-lore  Society  was  born  and  baptized.  Prof. 
Francis  J.  Child  was  chosen  president,  an  honor  merited  by  his 
long  and  splendid  service  in  the  field.  Fourteen  persons  were 
named  as  a  council  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  new  society.  Mr. 
William  Wells  Newell  was  elected  secretary.  At  the  same  time 
a  committee,  consisting  of  Prof.  T.  Frederick  Crane,  Dr.  Franz 
Boas,  Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey,  and  the  secretary,  was  appointed  to 
make  arrangements  for  the  publication  of  a  journal. 

The  first  number  of  the  Journal  of  American  Folk  Lore  made 
its  appearance  in  April,  1888.  The  five  volumes  already  issued  are 
ample  evidences  of  the  wealth  of  popular  traditions  in  this  coun- 
try. They  form  a  perfect  mine  of  information  for  the  study  of  folk 
lore.  The  contributions  which  have  been  printed  in  the  Journal 
touch  on  almost  every  side  of  the  subject.  They  include  myths  and 
tales  of  the  Indians,  negroes,  and  Creoles,  strange  and  curious  cus- 
toms, superstitions  of  all  kinds  and  all  shades,  beliefs  in  witches 
and  goblins,  queer  practices,  magic  and  divination,  songs,  dances, 
games,  nursery  rhymes,  riddles,  wise  saws,  and  dialect  words. 

Few  persons,  even  those  who  were  directly  interested  in  the 
study,  had  any  adequate  idea  of  the  body  and  bulk  of  folk-lore 
materials  extant  in  North  America.  First  in  quantity  and  quality 
come  the  collections  of  the  lore  of  the  Indian  tribes.  This,  of 
course,  was  to  be  expected.  The  contributions  by  Prof.  Hale,  Dr. 
Boas,  Mr.  Beauchamp,  Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Dr. 


FOLK-LORE   STUDY  IN  AMERICA. 


587 


Mathews,  Captain  Bourke,  Dr.  Fewkes,  Mr.  Mooney,  Dr.  Brinton, 
Miss  Fletcher,  and  others  have  been  noticed  by  Prof.  Frederick 
Starr  in  his  article  on  Anthropological  Study  in  America.* 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  results  have  been  obtained  in  fields 
heretofore  unvisited  and  unworked.  We  refer  particularly  to  the 
lore  found  within  the  past  four  or  five  years  among  foreign-born 
and  English-speaking  peo- 
ples, both  in  thickly  settled 
districts  and  in  out-of-the- 
way  places.  Dr.  Hoffman's 
collection  of  the  folk  lore  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans ; 
Prof.  Fortier's  account  of 
creole  customs  and  super- 
stitions, together  with  his 
versions  of  creole  nursery 
tales ;  Mr.  Mooneyes  and  Miss 
Hoke's  articles  on  the  folk 
lore  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina mountain  region;  Mr. 
Culin's  paper  on  Chinese 
customs  and  superstitions 
in  Philadelphia  and  New 
York ;  Mr.  Henry  Lang's  ac- 
count of  the  Portuguese  ele- 
ment in  New  England ;  Mrs. 
Bergen's  and  Mr.  Newell's  PKOF-  FRANCIS  J.  CHILD. 

studies  of  current  supersti- 
tions in  different  sections  of  the  United  States — these  contribu- 
tions, to  name  no  others,  show  that  emigrants  to  America,  if  they 
did  not  bring  much  material  wealth,  certainly  carried  with  them 
what  Carlyle  calls  "  old  clothes  philosophy."  Every  number  of 
the  Folk-lore  Journal  has  been  a  revelation  to  its  many  readers. 
We  predict  that  greater  surprises  than  those  already  given  are  in 
store  for  us. 

The  greatest  progress  in  folk-lore  study  in  this  country  has 
been  made  within  the  past  six  years,  and  it  is  significant  to  note 
that  the  Folk-lore  Society  has  grown  during  the  same  time.  Prior 
to  1887  the  study  of  popular  tradition  in  America  was  unorgan- 
ized. Since  then  the  investigations  of  special  students  in  different 
fields  have  been  collated  and  systematized,  and,  above  all,  those  in- 
terested in  the  subject  have  been  brought  together.  Thus  to-day 
there  is  a  certain  esprit  de  corps  among  American  folk-lorists  that 
was  unknown  some  six  or  eight  years  ago. 


*  In  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  July,  1892. 


588 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Naturally  the  new  society  has  had  to  do  quite  an  amount  of 
missionary  work.  What  our  folk-lore  scholars  are  "  driving  at," 
the  importance  of  the  study  of  unwritten  traditions,  the  value  of 
Indian  myths  and  rude  customs,  of  negro  fables,  or  of  old  super- 
stitions, the  great  necessity  of  gathering  the  lore  of  American 
folk  while  there  are  time  and  opportunity — these  are  matters  that 
the  general  public  do  not  yet  fully  understand  or  appreciate. 
Folk  lore  is  a  study  to  which  every  one  can  add  his  or  her  mite, 
from  the  farmer  to  the  stock  broker,  from  the  servant  girl  to  the 
mistress.  We  find  many  quaint  and  curious  items  of  superstition 
or  traditionary  lore  in  the  parlor,  in  the  kitchen,  and  in  Wall 
Street.  Indeed,  we  need  only  to  read  the  daily  newspaper  reports 
of  clairvoyants,  mediums,  fortune-telling,  haunted  houses,  etc.,  to 
be  reminded  of  those  low  forms  of  thought  that  characterize  rude 
and  uncivilized  communities. 

The  American  Folk-lore  Society  has  continued  to  increase  in 
numbers  from  the  very  beginning.  It  now  has  a  membership  of 

five  hundred,  which  exceeds 
that  of  any  similar  organi- 
zation in  Europe.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  society  has 
been  strengthened  and  ex- 
tended principally  by  the 
formation  of  branch  socie- 
ties in  different  sections  of 
the  country.  There  are  now 
folk-lore  societies  in  six  large 
cities — in  Boston,  Philadel- 
phia, New  Orleans,  Mont- 
real, Chicago,  and  New 
York.  The  Chicago  Folk- 
lore Society  is  an  independ- 
ent body;  the  others  are 
affiliated  with  the  national 
society. 

The  effect  of  these  local 
societies  on  the  future  study 
of  folk  lore  in  America  can 
not  be  estimated  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  Already  their  influence  has  been  felt  in  many  quarters. 
The  meetings  bring  people  together  for  an  interchange  of  views 
and  for  pleasant  entertainment.  Although  these  societies  have  a 
social  side  and  function,  they  are  in  fact  working  societies,  as  the 
following  will  show : 

The  first  local  branch  of  the  American  Folk-lore  Society  was 
established  in  November,  1889,  at  Philadelphia— a  city  noted  for 


MR.   W.  W.  NEWELL. 


FOLK-LORE   STUDY  IN  AMERICA. 


589 


the  number  of  persons  interested  in  the  study.*  The  stated  meet- 
ings of  the  chapter  are  held  on  the  second  Wednesday  of  the 
month  from  November  to  June.  Many  carefully  prepared  papers 

have  been  read  at  the  meet-      

ings,  and  some  of  them  have 
been  printed  in  the  Journal. 
Among  these  we  may  men- 
tion Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher's 
able  address  on  Child  Life 
among  the  American  Indi- 
ans ;  Mrs.  de  Guerrero's  pa- 
per on  Games  and  Popular 
Superstitions  of  Nicaragua ; 
and  Mr.  Stewart  Culin's  in- 
teresting remarks  on  Chil- 
dren's Street  Games. 

The  Folk-lore  Museum 
established  in  connection 
with  the  Philadelphia  chap- 
ter is  unique.  Many  rare 
and  valuable  objects  have 
been  collected  and  are  de- 
posited in  the  Museum  of 
the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. These  objects  serve 

to  illustrate  myth,  religion,  custom,  and  superstition  the  world 
over.  The  collection  includes  idols  and  ceremonial  objects  from 
China,  Japan,  India,  Thibet,  Egypt,  Polynesia,  Africa,  North  and 
South  America.  Prominent  in  this  exhibit  are  amulets  and 
charms  of  paper  and  wood  and  metal.  Very  interesting  are  those 
implements  used  for  divination  and  fortune-telling  and  those 
manipulated  in  games.  Thus,  the  evolution  of  the  playing  card  is 
shown ;  so  too  the  games  of  chess  and  backgammon  are  displayed 
in  their  various  forms  or  types.  Nor  have  the  games  and  toys 
and  dolls  of  children  been  overlooked.  They  are  all  there — even 
Noah's  ark,  with  its  beasts  and  birds,  two  and  two.  Such  a  mu- 
seum is  an  "object  lesson"  in  folk  lore.f 

Several  informal  meetings  of  persons  living  in  Boston  and  its 


PROF.  ALCEE  FORTIER. 


*  The  following  officers  were  chosen :  President,  Mr.  Victor  Guillou ;  secretary,  Mr. 
Stewart  Culin ;  treasurer,  Mr.  J.  Granville  Leach ;  librarian,  Mr.  John  W.  Jordan,  Jr. ; 
committee,  Messrs.  Richard  L.  Ashurst  and  Francis  C.  Macaulay,  and  Mrs.  Cornelius 
Stevenson. 

f  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  call  attention  to  the  exhibition  of  folk-lore  objects  at  the 
Columbian  Exposition  in  Chicago.  It  forms  part  of  a  section  of  the  Department  of  Eth- 
nology and  Archaeology  of  the  Exposition.  There  will  be  also  an  anthropological  library 
and  a  display  of  the  current  numbers  of  folk-lore  journals  throughout  the  world. 


59o 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


vicinity  were  held  during  1888-'89.  But  it  was  not  until  March, 
1890,  that  "The  Boston  Association"  of  the  American  Folk-lore 
Society  was  organized.*  The  meetings  are  held  once  a  month,  from 
November  to  June,  in  the  rooms  of  the  Boston  Natural  History 
Society  or  at  private  houses. 

The  activity  of  the  Boston  Association  has  been  considerable. 
Some  pleasant  features  have  been  introduced  into  the  proceedings 

in  order  to  give  variety  to 
the  study  in  which  the  mem- 
bers are  interested.  In  1891 
a  performance  was  held,  un- 
der the  auspices  of  the  asso- 
ciation, at  the  Chinese  thea- 
ter. Last  winter  an  enter- 
tainment was  given  under 
the  name  of  "  The  Japanese 
Dance."  The  dances  pre- 
sented histories  or  the  phe- 
nomena of  Nature,  displayed 
by  gesture  and  motion ; 
thus,  Harusame  (the  Dew 
of  Spring)  showed  the  fall- 
ing of  dew  on  flowers ;  Sedo- 
gahataki  (the  Vegetable 
Garden),  a  humorous  dance, 
illustrating  the  gathering 
of  pumpkins  and  the  trip- 
PROF.  D.  P.  PENHALLOW.  ping  over  the  vines ;  GrO- 

shorasuma  illustrated  how 
a  maiden  received  her  first  love-letter,  and  so  on. 

The  Louisiana  Association  of  the  American  Folk-lore  Society 
was  organized  in  December,  1891,  at  New  Orleans,  j  The  number 
of  members  is  fifty.  The  meetings  of  the  association  are  held  in 
the  library  of  Tulane  University  and  at  private  residences,  and 
they  have  been  exceedingly  profitable  and  agreeable. 

The  members  of  the  Louisiana  Association  have  a  grand  chance 
to  make  their  work  known  and  felt.  They  are  at  home  in  one  of 


*  The  following  officers  were  chosen  :  President,  Mr.  Frederick  W.  Putnam  ;  vice-presi- 
dents, Miss  Abby  L.  Alger,  department  of  Algonkin  folk  lore ;  Clarence  J.  Blake,  folk  music ; 
Prof.  Francis  J.  Child,  English  folk  lore ;  Dana  Estes,  literature  and  publication  ;  Miss  Mary 
Hemenway,  Zuni  folk  lore ;  Colonel  Thomas  W.  Higginson,  Southern  folk  lore ;  secretary, 
W.  W.  Newell ;  treasurer,  Arthur  G.  Everett. 

f  The  officers  of  the  association  are :  President,  Prof.  Alcee  Fortier  ;  vice-president,  Mrs. 
Mary  A.  Townsend ;  secretary  and  treasurer,  Mr.  William  Beer ;  assistant  secretary,  Edward 
Forster ;  executive  board,  Mrs.  Francis  Blake,  Mrs.  M.  E.  Davis,  Mrs.  George  Howe,  and 
Colonel  William  Preston  Johnston. 


FOLK-LORE  STUDY  IN  AMERICA. 


59l 


the  most  promising  fields  of  folk-lore  exploration  in  the  United 
States.  There  has  been  a  strange  mingling  of  races  in  Louisiana. 
The  result  is  that  relics  of  the  voodoo  or  obi  rites,  conjurings, 
magic,  medical  superstitions,  fables,  plantation  songs,  and  religious 
notions  of  the  negroes  linger  on  side  by  side  with  the  superstitions, 
ghost  stories,  omens,  charms,  nursery  tales,  and  rhymes  brought 
by  the  whites  from  Europe.  The  quaint  dialects  of  these  settlers 
offer  an  inviting  field  of  study  which  should  not  be  overlooked. 

The  Louisiana  Association  has  given  an  impulse  to  folk-lore 
study  in  the  State,  and  it  has  resulted  in  the  collection  of  many 
stories  and  superstitions  current  among  the  Creoles  and  negroes 
"before  the  war."  The  ladies  have  contributed  many  items  of 
traditionary  lore.  Mrs.  Pres- 
ton Johnston,  Mrs.  Mason 
Cooke,  Mrs.  C.  V.  Jamison, 
and  Mrs.  M.  E.  Davis  have 
written  out  stories  told  to 
them  in  childhood  by  their 
negro  nurses.  The  folk  lore 
of  French  Louisiana  has 
been  collected  by  Prof.  For- 
tier  during  the  past  twenty 
years.  Some  of  this  valu- 
able material  has  appeared 
in  the  Folk-lore  Journal,  and 
some  of  it,  entitled  Bits  of 
Louisiana  Folk  Lore,  was 
printed  in  the  Transactions 
of  the  Modern  Language  As- 
sociation for  1887.  Thanks 
to  American  scholar  ship,  not 
to  American  liberality,  the 

Complete  WOrk  Of  Prof.  For-  Miss  ALICE  C.  FLETCHER. 

tier  will  be  issued  shortly, 

as  the  second  of  a  series  of  monographs  of  the  American  Folk- 
lore Society.* 

It  is  with  pleasure  that  we  record  the  establishment  of  a  so- 
ciety for  the  study  of  folk  lore  in  Canada.  The  formation  of  the 
Montreal  branch  was  due  largely  to  the  diplomatic  efforts  of  Prof. 
D.  P.  Penhallow  and  Mr.  John  Reade,  who  soon  had  the  cordial 
sympathy  and  support  of  many  Canadian  students,  among  whom 


*  The  American  Folk-lore  Society  is  about  to  begin  a  series  of  Memoirs.  The  first  of 
these  will  consist  of  a  collection  of  Folk  Tales  of  Angola  (Africa)  by  Mr.  Heli  Chatelain. 
The  connection  of  West  African  folk  lore  with  that  of  American  negroes  brings  the  material 
within  the  field  covered  by  the  society,  and  should  excite  much  interest. 


592  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

we  may  name  Hon.  H.  Beaugrand  (ex-Mayor  of  Montreal),  Dr. 
Louis  Frechette  (laureat  of  the  French  Academy),  Mr.  W.  J. 
White,  Mr.  Henry  Carter,  Dr.  Robert  Bell,  F.  G.  S.,  Dr.  Beers, 
Dr.  Le  May,  Dr.  Kingsford,  F.  R  S.  Can.,  and  Dr.  S.  E.  Dawson, 
Queen's  printer.  Several  informal  meetings  were  held  during  the 
winter  of  1892,  and  in  April  of  that  year  a  permanent  organiza- 
tion was  effected.*  The  membership  roll  shows  a  list  of  about 
sixty  names.  Many  interesting  papers  have  been  read  at  the 
meetings,  and  the  social  element  has  been  combined  with  serious 
study  in  a  most  delightful  manner. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  opportunities  for 
the  study  of  folk  lore  in  Canada.  This  has  been  done  by  Mr. 
Reade  in  a  very  suggestive  paper  read  before  the  Montreal  so- 
ciety, f  We  need  only  refer  to  the  mingling  of  races  in  Canada. 
The  Indian  tribes  of  the  Northwest ;  the  descendants  of  the  pio- 
neers of  French  Canada,  of  the  loyalists,  and  of  the  Scotch,  Irish, 
English,  and  Germans;  the  scattered  settlements  of  Russians, 
Hungarians,  Norsemen,  Chinese,  etc.,  in  western  Canada — these 
folk  afford  as  rich  field  for  inquiries  of  the  f olk-lorist  as  he  or  she 
would  desire.  Some  curious  items  of  superstition,  or  traditionary 
lore,  found  in  the  provinces,  have  been  collected,  but  much  re- 
mains in  the  mouths  of  the  folk,  the  plain  people  in  country 
towns  and  districts.  Meanwhile  a  series  of  investigations  relat- 
ing to  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Northwest  are  going  on  under  the 
auspices  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence, aided  by  the  Canadian  Government. 

The  New  York  branch  of  the  American  Folk-lore  Society  was 
organized  in  February  of  this  year.  J  The  membership  at  the 
first  meeting  was  about  forty ;  it  is  now  double  that  number.  The 
metropolis  has  become  the  stamping-ground  for  representatives  of 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  There  are  old-fashioned  people  as 
well  as  Huns  and  Vandals  in  New  York.  The  right  person  will 
find  plenty  of  folk  lore  in  the  "  quarters  "  of  the  Italians,  Poles, 
Jews,  Czechs,  Hungarians,  Chinese,  etc.  Within  a  radius  of  one 
hundred  miles  around  the  city  there  are  settlements  that  would 
furnish  the  material  eagerly  wanted  by  the  Folk-lore  Society. 


*  The  officers  of  the  Montreal  branch  of  the  American  Folk-lore  Society  for  1893  are 
as  follows :  President,  Prof.  D.  P.  Penhallow,  McGill  University ;  vice-presidents,  M.  Louis 
Frechette  and  Mr.  John  Reade ;  secretary,  Mr.  F.  E.  Came ;  treasurer,  Mr.  W.  J.  White ; 
ladies'  committee,  Mrs.  Robert  Reid,  Mrs.  L.  Frechette,  Mrs.  H.  B.  Ames,  Mrs.  K.  Boisse- 
vain,  Miss  Macdonnell,  and  Miss  Van  Home. 

f  Published  in  the  Dominion  Illustrated  Monthly  for  June,  1892. 

$  The  officers  of  this  branch  are  as  follows :  President,  Dr.  H.  Carrington  Bolton ;  first 
vice-president,  Mr.  George  Bird  Grinnell ;  second  vice-president,  Mr.  Richard  Watson 
Gilder ;  secretary,  Mr.  William  B.  Tuthill ;  treasurer,  Mr.  Sydney  A.  Smith ;  ladies'  com- 
mittee, Mrs.  Henry  Draper,  Mrs.  Harriet  M.  Converse,  and  Mrs.  Mary  J.  Field. 


FOLK-LORE   STUDY  IN  AMERICA. 


593 


The  other  day  Dr.  Bolton  found  an  intelligent,  skilled  work- 
man in  the  metropolis,  who  used  the  magic  mirror  (the  Urim  and 
Thummim  of  the  ancient  Jews)  for  the  purposes  of  divination. 
The  seer  made  use  of  the 
Urim  to  guide  his  daily  life, 
and  to  consult  with  the  spir- 
its of  many  distinguished 
persons  from  whom  he  re- 
ceived communications.  Dr. 
Bolton  found  also  a  fruitful 
field  of  inquiry  in  the  count- 
ing-out rhymes  of  children.* 
Another  member  of  the  New 
York  branch  who  has  con- 
tributed to  our  slender  stock 
of  knowledge  concerning  the 
Pawnee  and  Blackfeet  Indi- 
ans is  Mr.  George  Bird  Grin- 
nell.  He  is  at  home  with 
these  "  prairie  people,"  as 
they  are  called.  He  has 
lived,  slept,  camped,  hunted, 
and  "  swapped  stories  "  with 
them.  His  collection  of  Paw- 
nee Hero  Stories  and  Folk 

Tales  showed  what  other  travelers  had  missed.  Mr.  Grinnell  is 
by  adoption  a  member  of  the  Blackfeet  tribe,  and  his  book  of 
Blackfoot  Lodge  Tales  tells  the  life  of  a  Blackfoot  brave  from 
infancy  to  his  departure  at  death  to  the  Sandhills — the  happy 
hunting  ground  of  the  tribe.  Among  other  members  of  the  New 
York  branch  we  may  mention  the  work  of  Mrs.  Harriett  Maxwell 
Converse,  who  is  by  adoption  a  member  of  the  Seneca  tribe,  and 
Mr.  De  Cost  Smith,  who  has  written  and  sketched  cleverly  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Onondagas. 

The  Chicago  Folk-lore  Society  is  an  independent  organiza- 
tion, not  a  branch  of  the  American  Folk-lore  Society.  This 
society  was  organized  in  December,  1891.  f  The  membership  of 
the  society  numbers  now  about  eighty  persons,  with  about  twenty 


MR.  GEORGE  B.  GRINNELL. 


*  The  Counting-out  Rhymes  of  Children :  their  Antiquity,  Origin,  and  Distribution.  A 
Study  in  Folk  Lore.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1888. 

f  The  officers  for  the  year  1 893-'94  are  as  follows  :  President,  Prof.  William  I.  Knapp ; 
vice-presidents,  Captain  E.  L.  Huggins,  United  States  Navy,  department  of  Sioux  and  cog- 
nate tribes ;  Rabbi  E.  G.  Hirsch,  Semitic  folk  lore ;  Prof.  Frederick  Starr,  Dr.  Washington 
Mathews,  Indian  tribes  of  the  Southwest ;  Mr.  George  W.  Cable,  Southern  folk  songs ;  secre- 
tary, Lieutenant  Fletcher  S.  Bassett,  United  States  Navy  ;  treasurer,  Miss  Elizabeth  Head ; 
directors,  Mrs.  Fletcher  S.  Bassett,  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer,  and  Mrs.  Edward  E.  Ayer. 


594 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


non-resident  members.  A  manual  for  the  use  of  members  has 
been  prepared  by  Lieutenant  F.  S.  Bassett,  and  it  contains  many 
practical  observations  and  suggestions  for  collectors.  The  Chi- 
cago society  publishes  a  quarterly  journal  called  The  Folk-lorist, 
edited  by  Lieutenant  Bassett  and  Mrs.  Bassett,  both  of  whom  de- 
serve credit  for  promoting  the  organized  study  of  folk  lore  in 
Chicago.  The  contribution  on  Illinois  Folk  Lore,  by  Miss  Helen 
M.  Wheeler,  shows  what  the  right  person  can  do  in  the  State  out- 
side of  the  cities.  Many  of  the  superstitions  of  the  pioneers  of 
the  Western  country  have  disappeared,  but  the  traditional  cus- 
toms and  beliefs  of  their  descendants,  if  closely  studied  as  they 

have  been  noted  by  some 
American  novelists,  should 
yield  unexpected  results. 

The  meetings  of  the  Chi- 
cago Folk-lore  Society  are 
held  once  a  month  at  the 
Woman's  Club  Rooms.  They 
have  been  very  interesting 
and  well  attended.  Some 
idea  of  the  useful  work  done 
may  be  gained  from  the  pro- 
gramme presented  at  the 
meeting  in  April  last.  The 
guests  of  the  evening  were 
Mrs.  French  -  Sheldon,  the 
African  explorer,  and  Cap- 
tain John  G.  Bourke.  There 
were  contributions  by  Mrs. 
Molly  Eliot  Seawell,  Miss 
Mary  A.  Owen  (the  author 
of  a  book  of  Voodoo  Tales), 
Mrs.  Eva  Wigstroem,  of 

Sweden,  Mr.  A.  M.  Stephen,  and  Prof.  H.  Hurlburt.  The  readers 
were  Major  Joseph  Kirkland,  Mr.  Franklin  H.  Head,  Captain  E. 
L.  Huggins,  and  Mrs.  Wilmarth.* 

This  completes  the  list  of  local  folk-lore  societies  in  America. 
It  is  expected  that  one  or  two  new  branches  will  be  established 
before  another  year.  There  should  be  folk-lore  societies  in  fields 


COLONEL  CHARLKS  C.  JONES,  JK. 


*  The  Chicago  Folk-lore  Society  has  adopted  a  seal  and  motto — an  idea  which  might 
be  used  by  the  other  societies.  The  figure  in  the  seal  represents  the  meal-sprinkler  of  the 
Navajos — the  courier  sent  out  by  the  priest  during  the  ceremonies  of  the  "Mountain 
Chant."  The  motto  on  the  seal  is  the  well-known  line  from  Hiawatha — "  Whence  these 
legends  and  traditions."  (Dr.  Mathews's  account  of  the  ceremonies  in  Report  of  the  Bureau 
of  Ethnology  for  1883-'84.) 


FOLK-LORE  STUDY  IN  AMERICA.  595 

in  which  opportunities  to  gather  valuable  material  are  found : 
for  example,  in  the  Pennsylvania  coal  fields,  where  Hungarians 
congregate;  in  the  Southwest,  where  the  negroes  and  "poor 
whites "  touch  elbows ;  in  the  Northwest,  where  the  Scandina- 
vians are  numerous;  and  on  the  Pacific  coast,  where  Indians, 
Chinese,  and  half-breeds  mingle. 

A  few  words  as  to  the  work  of  the  officers  and  leaders  of  the 
national  Folk-lore  Society.*  The  honor  of  holding  the  presi- 
dency rightfully  belongs  to  Prof.  Horatio  Hale,  whose  studies 
date  back  to  a  time  when  the  term  "  folk  lore  "  could  not  be  found 
in  Webster's  Dictionary.  His  first  important  contribution  was 
to  the  volume  of  Ethnography  and  Philology  of  the  United  States 
Exploring  Expedition  under  Wilkes  (Volume  VII).  Then  Prof. 
Hale  increased  his  reputation  by  editing  The  Iroquois  Book  of 
Rites,  f  This  Iroquois  book  is  almost  pure  folk  lore,  and  has  a 
special  interest,  as  showing  how  authentic  history  can  be  derived 
from  popular  tradition  where  this  has  been  handed  down  in  pub- 
lic and  solemn  recitations.  To  this  evidence  alone  we  owe  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  fact  that  Hiawatha  was  not  a  mythical  hero, 
but  an  actual  Onondaga  chief,  who  lived  between  four  and  five 
centuries  ago,  and  helped  to  form  the  great  Iroquois  Confedera- 
tion. For  further  information  on  the  story  of  Hiawatha,  see  Mr. 
Beauchamp's  scholarly  paper  entitled  Hi-a-wat-ha,  in  the  Journal 
of  American  Folk  Lore  (for  1891,  p.  295). 

The  man  who  is  responsible  for  the  very  existence  of  such  an 
organization  as  The  American  Folk-lore  Society  is  William  Wells 
Newell.  He  it  was  who  issued  the  call  to  arms,  who  drafted  the 
circular  letter  already  referred  to,  who  put  the  new  organization 
in  line  with  the  great  anthropological  movement  in  America,  who 
has  generously  given  his  time  and  services  to  the  cause  of  folk 
lore ;  who,  in  short,  has  been  the  general  executive  officer  of  the 
society  from  the  beginning.  All  this  has  been  a  labor  of  love 
with  our  honored  permanent  secretary.  Mr.  Newell  won  his  repu- 
tation as  a  folk-lorist  by  his  book  of  Games  and  Songs  of  Amer- 
ican Children  (1883).  Since  then  he  has  contributed  to  the  Jour- 
nal of  American  Folk  Lore  a  large  number  of  valuable  papers, 
which  we  all  hope  to  see  some  day  within  the  covers  of  a  book. 

*  The  officers  of  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society  for  the  year  1893  are  as  follows: 
President,  Horatio  Hale,  Clinton,  Ontario ;  first  vice-president,  Alcee  Fortier ;  second  vice- 
president,  D.  P.  Penhallow.  Council,  Franz  Boas,  H.  Carrington  Bolton,  D.  G.  Brinton, 
A.  F.  Chamberlain,  J.  Owen  Dorsey,  Alice  C.  Fletcher,  George  Bird  Grinnell,  Otis  T. 
Mason,  and  Frederick  W.  Putnam.  Permanent  secretary,  William  Wells  Newell,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass. ;  corresponding  secretary,  J.  Walter  Fewkes ;  treasurer,  John  H.  Hinton, 
M.  D. ;  curator,  Stewart  Culin. 

f  It  forms  No.  2  of  Brinton's  Library  of  Aboriginal  American  Literature,  Philadelphia, 
1883. 


596  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

A  clever  writer  in  The  Saturday  Review  (whom  we  siispect  to 
be  none  other  than  Andrew  Lang)  begins  his  book  review  with 
two  sentences  which  deserve  to  be  quoted  at  this  place.*  He  says : 
"  (1)  It  is  not  very  much  to  our  national  credit  that  an  American, 
Prof.  Child,  is  making  far  the  best  edition  of  our  ballads.  (2) 
Nor  is  it  very  much  to  the  credit  of  Ireland  that  an  American 
has  made  much  the  most  interesting  collections  of  her  old  popu- 
lar tales."  Prof.  Child's  monumental  edition  of  English  and 
Scottish  Popular  Ballads  represents  the  best  years  of  his  life.  It 
is  a  veritable  mine  of  comparative  folk  lore,  to  which  scholars 
will  go  again  and  again,  and  all  will  come  away  richer  and  wiser 
after  their  visit. 

The  American  referred  to  in  the  second  sentence  above  quoted 
is  Mr.  Jeremiah  Curtin,  a  member  of  the  Folk-lore  Society.  His 
collection  of  the  Myths  and  Folk  Lore  of  Ireland  should  make 
every  lover  of  old  Ireland  his  friend.  Mr.  Curtin  gained  his 
training  and  experience  in  collection  of  our  Indian  myths.  He 
has  published  recently  a  collection  of  Myths  and  Folk  Tales  of 
the  Russians,  Western  Slavs,  and  Magyars  (1890),  in  which  his 
singular  ability  as  a  collector  and  interpreter  of  popular  tradition 
is  again  displayed.  Another  member  of  the  Folk-lore  Society,  Mr. 
James  Mooney,  went  over  to  Ireland  with  the  purpose  of  study- 
ing the  traditions  of  his  ancestral  county.  His  account  of  The 
Holiday  Customs  of  Ireland  is  a  remarkably  fine  bit  of  work.f 
Mr.  Mooneyes  special  work  has  been  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ethnology.  His  examination  of  the  theory  and  prac- 
tice of  medicine  among  the  Cherokee  Indians  is  a  masterly  presen- 
tation of  an  obscure  and  complicated  folk  practice.! 

The  study  of  negro  lore  has  been  the  means  of  making  the 
reputation  of  at  least  one  American  writer.  We  refer  of  course 
to  Mr.  Joel  Chandler  Harris,  to  whom  will  always  be  given  the 
credit  of  making  the  lore  of  the  plantation  interesting  alike  to 
the  student  and  the  general  reader.  His  Uncle  Remus  Tales  have 
a  scientific  worth,  aside  from  a  literary  value.  In  his  Negro 
Myths,  Colonel  Charles  C.  Jones  has  done  for  the  dialect  and  folk 
lore  of  the  negroes  of  the  Georgia  coast  what  Mr.  Harris  did  so 
wonderfully  well  for  the  legends  of  the  old  plantation  of  middle 
Georgia.  The  stories  of  Daddy  Jack  and  Daddy  Sandy  are  on  a 
par  with  the  tales  of  Uncle  Remus.  But  there  is  a  difference  in 
the  lingo  of  the  negroes ;  the  darkies  of  the  Georgia  rice-fields 
and  swamp  region  have  almost  a  different  language  from  that  of 
the  colored  folk  of  Maryland  or  of  Tennessee. 


*  For  April  12,  1890. 

•f  Published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  1889. 

\  In  the  Journal  of  American  Folk  Lore,  1890 ;  also  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  1885-'86. 


FOLK-LORE   STUDY  IN  AMERICA. 


597 


It  did  not  take  Prof.  Crane  long  to  make  the  interesting  dis- 
covery that  the  fables  and  "  yarns  "  of  Uncle  Remus  were  parallel 
to  stories  Prof.  Hartt  heard  from  his  guide  on  the  Amazon  River, 
to  stories  collected  by  Dr.  Bleek  in  South  Africa,  and  to  popular 
tales  in  Europe.  He  was  able  to  trace  the  majority  of  the  Legends 
of  the  Old  Plantation  to  their  foreign  variants.*  Prof.  Crane  is 
our  acknowledged  authority  in  the  field  of  storiology.  He  first 
published  a  charming  collection  of  Italian  Popular  Tales,  with  a 
scholarly  introduction  and  elaborate  notes.  His  able  paper  on 
Mediaeval  Sermons,  Books,  and  Stories  was  followed  by  a  criti- 
cal edition  of  The  Exempla, 
or  Illustrative  Stories  from 
the  Sermones  Vulgares  of 
Jacques  de  Vitry,  published 
by  the  English  Folk-lore  So- 
ciety in  its  series  of  memoirs 
(1890).  Jacques  de  Vitry 
was  an  eloquent  and  popu- 
lar bishop  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  who  made  great  use 
of  apologues,  or  exempla,  in 
his  sermons,  with  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  instructing 
and  sometimes  of  amusing 
his  audiences.  These  illus- 
trative stories  were  diffused 
over  all  Europe,  and  some 
of  them  have  won  their  way 
into  literature — have  reap- 
peared now  in  the  fables  of 
La  Fontaine,  and  then  in 
the  plays  of  Moliere  and 

Shakespeare.  Prof.  Crane  has  published  recently  an  edition  of 
Chansons  Populaires  de  la  France,  a  selection  from  French  popu- 
lar ballads. 

Thus  far  the  work  of  American  folk-lorists  has  been  directed 
almost  entirely  to  the  collection  of  material  to  be  collated  and 
examined  afterward  according  to  scientific  methods.  American 
students  think  that  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  theoretical  dis- 
cussions, such  as  English  and  Continental  scholars  have  waged  so 
sharply  at  times  and  without  good  cause.  Nor  are  they  ready  yet 
to  favor  the  establishment  of  a  separate  science  of  folk  lore.  In 
the  Handbook,  issued  by  the  authority  of  the  English  Society,  it 
is  stated  that  "  the  definition  of  the  science  of  folk  lore,  as  the  so- 


FBOF.  T.  FREDERICK  CRANE. 


*  Prof.  Crane's  study  appeared  in  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  April,  1881. 


598  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ciety  will  in  future  study  it,  may  be  taken  to  be  as  follows :  the 
comparison  and  identification  of  the  survivals  of  archaic  beliefs, 
customs,  and  traditions  in  modern  ages."  So  far,  so  good. 

But  the  truth  is  that  the  exact  definition  of  the  term  "  folk 
lore  "  is  still  a  matter  in  dispute.  The  proper  place  of  the  "  sci- 
ence of  folk  lore  "  remains  to  be  settled.  Thus  there  will  be  two 
folk-lore  congresses  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition :  one 
congress  to  be  held  in  the  month  of  July,  in  connection  with  the 
Department  of  Literature ;  the  other  Folk-lore  Congress  to  be 
held  in  August,  with  the  Congress  of  Anthropology.  There  is  no 
department  of  comparative  folk-lore  in  any  college  or  university. 

Finally,  we  attribute  the  rapid  progress  and  popularity  of  folk- 
lore study  in  America  and  in  Europe  to  three  reasons :  (1)  Folk 
lore  is  a  study  to  which  almost  every  one  can  contribute  some- 
thing ;  (2)  folk  lore  is  a  study  which  throws  a  flood  of  light  on 
man's  past  mental  evolution  and  culture-history,  as  the  Germans 
call  the  study;  (3)  folk  lore  is  a  study  in  which  the  student  of  re- 
ligions, the  student  of  morals,  the  ethnologist,  the  antiquarian, 
the  psychologist,  the  historian,  the  poet,  and  the  litterateur,  each 
finds  a  different  interest  and  a  different  value. 


REFORMATORY  PRISONS  AND  LOMBROSO'S  THEORIES. 

BY  Miss  HELEN  ZIMMEEN. 

IN  no  branch  of  social  science  has  so  much  progress  been  made 
of  recent  years  as  in  the  treatment  of  the  criminal.  Mankind 
in  general  has  at  last  come  to  recognize  what  Sir  Thomas  Moore 
knew  long  ago,  that  the  end  of  punishment  is  "  nothing  else  but 
the  destruction  of  vices  and  the  saving  of  men."  The  prison  has 
become,  and  rightly,  a  moral  hospital.  Whether,  however,  we 
are  not  now  inclining  to  err  a  little  too  much  on  the  other  side  in 
our  latter  methods  of  prison  treatment  is  a  question  that  is  exer- 
cising the  general  public  as  well  as  criminal  anthropologists  and 
professors  of  legal  medicine.  Are  we  not  perhaps  encouraging 
rather  than  deterring  crime  by  our  present  tendency  to  prison 
philanthropy  ?  Do  we  not  tend  to  make  prison  too  pleasant  a 
place,  so  that  those  who  have  been  there  are  apt  to  sing  in  an 
irreverent  spirit  the  words  of  the  hymn  that  telleth — 

"  I  have  been  there,  and  fain  would  go ; 
It  is  a  little  heaven  below  "  ? 

Is  it  no  longer  good,  as  the  gospel  teaches,  that  the  transgressor's 
way  be  made  hard  lest  a  worse  evil  befall  ? 

On  all  these  points  there  is  unquestionably  no  greater  author- 
ity in  the  world  to  consult  than  Prof.  Cesare  Lombroso,  Professor 


REFORMATORY  PRISONS.  599 

of  Forensic  Medicine  at  the  University  of  Turin,  who  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  inaugurator  of  the  modern  science  of  criminal  an- 
thropology, the  thinker  whose  work  on  Criminal  Man  (L'Uomo 
Delinquente)  had,  on  its  appearance  in  1889,  an  influence  as  de- 
cisive as  had  in  its  day  the  publication  of  Darwin's  Origin  of 
Species.  In  the  vexed  question  that  is  now  waging  as  to  the 
treatment  of  criminals,  in  which  we  find  ranged  on  one  side  men 
like  W.  Z.  Brockway,  of  the  Elmira  Reformatory,  and  on  the  other 
an  authority  such  as  Mr.  William  Tallack,  of  the  Howard  Asso- 
ciation, a  society  that  bears  the  name  of  the  great  English  prison 
philanthropist  and  exists  for  the  purpose  of  alleviating  the  male- 
factor's pain,  it  is  well  to  go  to  the  fountain  head  and  hear  what 
Lombroso  has  to  say  on  the  point. 

Now,  Lombroso  starts  from  the  premise  that  a  reason  must 
exist  why  certain  men  are  impelled  by  their  very  nature  to  com- 
mit crimes,  and  that  hence  there  must  be  a  difference  in  their 
very  organism  sufficiently  marked  to  distinguish  normal  men  from 
those  morally  or  mentally  mad.  In  the  various  medical  clinics 
numerous  and  minute  psychiatric  observations,  calculations  of  the 
most  insignificant  abnormities  in  the  eurythmia  of  the  human 
body,  confrontation  and  establishment  of  mathematical  data,  have 
all  combined  to  advance  the  science  of  criminal  anthropology,  so 
that  it  has  become  possible  to  divide  mankind  into  three  great 
principal  classes — normal  men,  criminal  men,  and  madmen.  Now, 
Prof.  Lombroso,  from  his  own  experience  and  that  of  the  scholars 
who  work  under  his  direction — many  of  whom,  like  Prof.  Enrico 
Ferri,  have  become  almost  as  prominent  as  himself — had  come 
some  while  ago  to  the  conclusion  that  an  absolute  reform  is  re- 
quired in  the  old  methods  of  criminal  punishment,  and  the  first 
thing  to  do  was  to  distinguish  with  great  care  the  congenital 
criminal  from  the  madman.  The  professor  condemns  rigorously 
the  carelessness  with  which  the  legal  tribunals  pronounce  sen- 
tences, and  points  out  with  much  acumen  that  inconvenience,  not 
to  say  irreparable  harm,  is  thus  done,  mischief  that  always  ac- 
crues to  the  detriment  of  those  who  perform  their  duty,  and  who 
surely  have  a  right  to  be  protected  by  the  state.  Hence,  says 
Lombroso,  it  is  above  all  others  the  magistrate  who  should  pur- 
sue the  study  of  criminal  anthropology,  because  while  every  one 
of  those  who  have  had  contact  with  malefactors,  such  as  the 
members  of  their  own  family  and  prison  directors,  regard  them 
as  men  different  from  others — that  is,  persons  of  weak  mind  or  al- 
most insane,  and  never,  or  at  least  hardly  ever,  susceptible  of  im- 
provement ;  while  the  psychiatrist  finds  it  impossible  in  most  cases 
to  distinguish  clearly  between  madness  and  guilt,  the  legislator, 
on  his  part,  rarely  gives  heed  to  the  acute  criticisms  of  the  alien- 
ist, to  the  timid  objections  of  the  prison  officials.  As  a  rule, 


6oo  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

magistrates  hold  that  the  cases  are  rare,  nay,  indeed  exceptional, 
in  which  the  criminal  is  subject  to  distorted  volition,  and  but  too 
frequently  deem  a  jurist's  highest  earthly  mission  to  consist  in 
laying  down  his  legal  judgments,  which  start  from  hard  and  fast 
rules  and  admit  of  no  gradations  between  the  sane,  the  alienated, 
and  the  criminal  mind.  Hence  this  type  of  lawgiver  has  one  sole 
idea,  one  single  starting  point,  in  assigning  his  verdicts.  He  has 
but  one  regime  of  punishment  to  bestow  on  each  individual  crime, 
and  this  is  pronounced  without  preoccupying  himself  concerning 
the  divergences  of  climate,  region,  and  habit  whence  the  crime 
has  sprung.  He  judges  the  minds  of  others  by  his  own,  which 
has  probably  been  nourished  on  the  most  sublime  speculations  of 
human  wisdom.  Hence,  legal  philosophers  and  legislators  will 
not,  and  perchance  can  not,  descend  from  the  proud  heights  of 
metaphysics  to  the  humble  and  arid  territory  of  penal  establish- 
ments. Their  opinions  on  these  points  are,  therefore,  almost 
valueless. 

In  a  letter  recently  addressed  to  me,  in  reply  to  my  query  of 
how  he  would  treat  the  criminal,  and  what  he  thought  of  the 
Elmira  system,  Prof.  Lombroso  replied  : 

"  To  put  it  briefly,  my  idea  is  that  so  far  all  we  have  done  is 
mistaken,  not  excluding  from  this  condemnation  the  American 
reformatories.  I  hold  that  for  women,  for  instance,  except  in 
quite  a  few  cases  (perhaps  twenty  or  thirty,  speaking  of  Italy), 
there  is  no  need  for  prisons.  A  species  of  convent  would  suffice. 
For  young  men  it  is  necessary  first  of  all  to  distinguish  the  con- 
genital criminals  from  those  who  are  sons  of  parents  affected  by 
syphilis,  or  alcohol,  or  typhus.  Then,  accordingly,  they  should  be 
submitted  to  treatment,  but  not  a  commonplace  one  like  that  of 
Elmira,  but  be  dosed  with  homoeopathic  sulphur,  nux  vornica,  or 
submitted  to  electricity.  If,  after  such  a  cure,  they  show  no  signs 
of  improvement,  then  detain  them  for  life  in  wide  islands,  where, 
with  the  exception  of  bread  and  water,  if  they  would  not  die,  they 
must  gain  the  rest  of  their  fare  by  working.  If,  after  this,  they 
transgress  repeatedly,  sentence  them  to  death.  The  educational 
reformatories,  with  all  those  precautions  practiced  at  Elmira,  I 
would  reserve  exclusively  for  young  criminals  guilty  of  crimes  of 
occasion  or  of  passion,  and  to  these  I  would  accord  conditional 
liberty.  The  suspension  of  punishment,  the  study  of  the  individ- 
ual character,  will  help  us  to  know  them  as  much  as  the  history 
of  their  case.  Adults  under  judgment  I  would  keep  in  prison 
cells  whenever  life  in  common  does  not  facilitate  the  reciprocal 
tale-bearing  which  renders  detection  easy.  But  here,  too,  if  the 
crime  be  one  of  occasion  or  passion,  I  would  favor  short-term 
punishments,  fines,  floggings,  fasts,  douches,  etc.  If,  instead,  the 
delinquency  is  instinctive,  or  recidivist,  I  would  mostly  inflict 


REFORMATORY  PRISONS. 


601 


perpetual  punishment  or  even  death,  or,  if  the  criminal  be  mad 
or  a  mattoid,  put  him  into  the  criminal  lunatic  asylum.  If  his 
offense  be  political  or  religious,  his  punishment  must  last  as  long 
as  public  opinion  is  opposed  to  this  form  of  crime." 

Such,  in  a  nutshell,  are  the  theories  which  Prof.  Lombroso  has 
spent  his  life  in  expounding  in  writing  and  in  speech,  for  when- 
ever a  specially  complex  case  is  brought  before  the  law  courts  of 
Italy  he  is  called  in  to  give  his  scientific  opinion,  and  his  acute, 
shrewd,  original,  and  penetrating  judgments  would,  if  collected, 
form  a  volume  of  most  interesting  and  instructive  reading,  that 
should  cause  many  a  judge,  and  many  a  private  person  too,  to 
hesitate  ere  pronouncing  judgment.  Not  unfrequently  he  has 
found  those  to  be  innocent  who  to  all  appearances  seemed  guilty, 
and  those  to  be  guilty  who  seemed  the  flower  of  virtue.  His  theo- 
ries are  deduced  from  the  most  careful  and  minute  observations 
of  criminals  and  madmen,  and  it  is  only  by  studying  these  at- 
tentively and  analyzing  them  that  we  can  discover  how  and  why 
Prof.  Lombroso  is  convinced  of  the  defects  met  with  in  all  re- 
formatories and  penal  houses,  and  by  what  process  of  selection  he 
has  arrived  at  his  conclusions  with  regard  to  the  evil  and  its 
remedies.  Unfortunately,  the  professor,  while  a  lucid  and  bril- 
liant speaker,  is  a  somewhat  involved  and  arid  writer,  and  it  is  no 
easy  task  to  disentangle  his  ideas  from  among  his  voluminous 
and  multifarious  writings.  Still,  the  study  of  criminal  therapeu- 
tics is  too  interesting  and  too  important  to  be  neglected. 

Now,  Lombroso's  cardinal  point  is,  that  rather  than  study 
crime  when  it  is  already  mature,  we  should  try  to  forestall  it,  if 
not  by  removing  the  cause,  which  might  be  impossible,  at  least 
by  lessening  its  influence.  Of  course,  we  can  not  minimize  such 
influences  as  the  action  of  warm  climates,  the  result  of  race,  but 
we  must  adapt  our  laws  so  as  to  mitigate  their  effects  by  various 
methods,  such  as  the  more  careful  regulation  of  prostitution  ;  the 
more  speedy  execution  of  justice,  so  that  it  may  better  impose  on 
impressionable  minds  which  are  apt  to  forget  the  cause  of  the 
punishment  if  it  follows  the  deed  only  after  a  long  lapse  of  time  ; 
the  care  not  to  extend  northward  the  laws  which  are  proper  to 
the  south,  and  vice  versa,  and  this  latter  especially  in  regard  to  all 
offenses  committed  against  persons.  Where  conditions  are  still 
savage  these  can  be  much  diminished  by  thinning  the  forests,  the 
natural  houses  and  fortresses  of  malefactors,  by  the  opening  up 
of  roads,  by  the  founding  of  cities  and  villages  on  sites  of  ill 
fame,  as  has  been  done  in  Italy  to  extirpate  the  brigands  that  in- 
fested certain  districts ;  by  dissolving  all  such  societies  as  tend  to 
be  secret  and  are  usually  nurseries  of  crime  (witness  some  of  the 
Irish-American  so-called  patriotic  associations),  and  by  helping 
and  encouraging  the  denunciation  of  evil-doers.  Prof.  Lombroso 

VOL.    XLIII. 43 


602  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

also  condemns  very  strongly  and  very  properly  the  foolish  habit 
that  obtains  on  the  European  continent  of  extending  full  pardons 
to  prisoners  because  a  private  event  has  taken  place  in  a  royal 
family,  such  as  the  birth  of  an  heir,  or  the  marriage  of  a  prince. 
Punishment  must  be  steady,  equal,  and  not  liable  to  such  acci- 
dents on  which  the  criminal,  generally  a  fatalist,  is  apt  tq  count. 
Further,  it  is  always  well,  if  it  can  be  hindered,  that  a  released 
prisoner  should  not  return  to  his  native  place  or  habitual  abode. 
A  most  special  watch  ought  to  be  kept  over  the  houses  of  receiv- 
ers of  stolen  goods.  These  persons,  who  might  be  called  the  capi- 
talists of  crime,  almost  always  go  unpunished,  and  it  is  just  they 
who  should  be  smitten.  The  professor  has  great  praise  to  bestow 
on  the  American  vigilance  committee,  an  institution  he  regards 
as  wise  in  the  extreme.  He  also  lauds  the  English  detection  sys- 
tem and  the  Austrian  Vertraute,  who  render  splendid  services 
by  giving  such  persevering  chase  to  criminals.  He  also  proposes 
the  alliance  of  all  nations  for  the  arrest  of  delinquents,  as  well  as 
the  sequestration  of  a  person  who  boasts  that  he  has  committed  a 
crime. 

Alcoholism  is  a  fruitful  source  of  evil-doing.  It  is  therefore 
desirable  to  prevent  by  all  available  means  the  diffusion  of  the 
liquor  trade,  either  by  exorbitant  taxes  or  by  a  limitation  in  pro- 
duction. The  statistics  of  Switzerland,  Sweden,  Holland,  and 
certain  parts  of  the  United  States  and  England  show  a  very  sen- 
sible diminution  of  crime  since  severe  laws  were  enacted  against 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks.  Feasts,  fairs, 
and  markets  should  be  diminished,  when  they  are  not  called  for 
by  special  and  real  commercial  reasons.  The  mass  should  be 
educated  not  only  by  means  of  the  alphabet,  but  should  be  taught 
elevated  ideas  with  regard  to  work  and  personal  dignity.  Prizes 
should  be  instituted  for  the  virtuous,  and  every  aid  should  be 
given  to  extend  the  helpful  labor  of  postal  banks  and  co-operative 
stores.  Yet  another  powerful  incitement  to  crime  is  the  public 
spectacle  afforded  by  courts  of  jus-tice.  Entrance  to  these  should 
be  limited  to  well-known  persons,  and  the  mass  be  rigorously 
excluded.  The  modern  tendency,  fostered  by  the  press,  to  make 
of  a  malefactor  a  hero,  is  greatly  to  be  deprecated,  and  leads  to 
crimes  due  to  pure  imitation,  from  a  desire  for  notoriety,  no  mat- 
ter at  what  cost.  There  should  positively  be  forbidden  those 
extended  judicial  reports  in  the  newspapers,  fruitful  sources  of 
eventual  crime,  which  the  people  read  with  so  much  avidity.  The 
State  ought  to  promote  and  protect  work  in  every  way  it  can,  for 
only  by  work  can  idleness  be  conquered,  that  too  potent  counselor 
of  crime. 

Lombroso  holds  that  there  are  certain  establishments  where 
the  notion  of  evil  is  first  inculcated,  and  these,  according  to  him, 


REFORMATORY  PRISONS.  6c3 

are  above  all  to  be  found  in  reformatories,  to  be  commended  in 
initial  idea  but  to  be  condemned  in  the  manner  this  idea  is  usually 
executed.  Here,  he  holds,  the  young  get  to  know  vagabonds  and 
idlers,  whom  they  are  drawn  to  copy  by  that  instinct  for  imitation 
that  exists  in  the  youthful  mind.  The  children  associated  in 
such  places  are  often  foundlings  or  the  offspring  of  immoral  fami- 
lies, or  of  parents  incapable  or  unable  to  educate  them.  When 
these  are  brought  together  with  children  of  good,  honest  families 
the  latter  are  too  frequently  pushed  into  vice  by  bad  example,  by 
acquaintances  made  in  undesirable  places.  It  is  undoubtedly  our 
duty  to  care  for  the  orphan  and  the  foundling,  but  we  must  be 
careful  above  all  to  prevent  their  being  dragged  into  guilt  as  well 
as  to  lift  up  those  that  may  have  fallen  into  it.  It  is  from  this 
very  aim,  as  Lombroso  knows,  that  has  arisen  the  idea  of  reform- 
atories and  houses  of  custody  for  the  young,  which  in  France  re- 
ceive annually  7,685,  in  Italy  3,770,  in  Belgium  1,473,  in  Holland 
161,  and  in  America  2,400  individuals.  But  their  utility,  the  pro- 
fessor holds,  is  not  apparent.  They  have  been  founded  in  a  frame 
of  mind  more  benevolent  than  well  informed  as  to  the  criminal 
nature.  Too  many  and  too  complex  are  the  causes,  multiplied 
by  mutual  contact,  of  the  evil  they  would  cure,  and  this  too  at 
an  age  not  tender  enough  to  model,  yet  young  enough  to  be  ex- 
pansive and  inclined  to  imitation,  especially  of  evil. 

The  over-agglomeration  for  economical  reasons  of  individuals, 
and  the  admission  into  public  reformatories  of  the  worst  subjects 
expelled  from  private  establishments,  annul  every  attempt  at 
reform.  Statistics  show  but  too  plainly  the  falling  back  into  evil 
courses  of  the  inmates  of  such  institutions.  The  diminution  in 
England  of  twenty-six  per  cent,  which  is  attributed  to  the  one 
hundred  and  seventy-two  reformatories  which  she  owns,  Lom- 
broso would  assign  instead  rather  to  the  diffusion  of  the  twenty- 
three  thousand  so-called  "  ragged  schools  "  that  take  care  of  mil- 
lions of  young  people  during  the  most  dangerous  age.  In  Italy, 
says  Lombroso,  it  is  too  easy  for  fathers  and  guardians  to  place 
sons  and  wards  in  reformatories  under  pretext  that  they  are 
wicked ;  and  certainly  it  is  not  there  that  they  will  amend,  since 
in  such  places  there  can  not  be  carried  into  effect  the  nightly 
cellular  system  and  the  enforced  silence  which  are  an  absolute 
necessity  for  rigid  discipline,  and  to  counteract  the  worst  vices  of 
the  young  criminal.  From  his  own  observations  Prof.  Lom- 
broso is  convinced  that  even  in  the  so-called  best-managed  re- 
formatories there  prevail  the  worst  sexual  vices,  not  to  mention 
theft,  the  camorra,  such  as  is  carried  on  in  the  penal  hulks,  the 
learning  of  the  criminal  jargon,  the  tricks  of  the  trade,  tattooing, 
and  all  other  distinctive  vices  of  criminal  men.  What  remedy  lies 
to  hand  ?  Prof.  Lombroso  writes,  in  his  Uomo  Delinquente, 


6o4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

"  Charity,  or  rather  foresight,  must  assume  new  forms,  leave  the 
ways  of  alms  and  the  violence  of  prisons,  and  substitute  spontane- 
ous asylums  and  industrial  schools." 

Lombroso  explains  in  detail  what  admirable  work  the  New 
York  "  Society  for  the  Reform  of  Youth  "  has  done  since  1853,  by 
founding  industrial  schools  and  lodging  houses ;  implanting  the 
love  for  work  in  bad  boys,  giving  them  the  knowledge  of  personal 
liberty,  and  the  healthy  desire  to  better  their  state  by  employing 
them  in  factories  and  workshops.  He  holds  that  Italy  might 
advantageously  copy  and  imitate  such  a  reform,  particularly  in 
Piedmont,  Sardinia,  and  the  Valtellina,  where  sheep-tending  util- 
izes the  children. 

When  offenses  in  youths  pass  a  certain  limit  so  as  to  require 
heavier  punishments,  Lombroso  contends  that  above  all  things 
the  so  frequent  method  of  often-repeated  and  short-term  imprison- 
ments should  be  avoided  with  the  greatest  care.  Instead,  a  grad- 
uated punishment  should  be  substituted,  like  fasting,  douches, 
forced  labor,  and  isolation  in  their  domicile ;  or,  if  it  is  preferred, 
fines  might  be  imposed,  thereby  lightening  the  cost  of  mainte- 
nance. A  money  fine  has  also  the  great  advantage  of  touching 
the  modern  culprit  in  his  most  vulnerable  point. 

If  the  crime  be  serious,  then,  according  to  Lombroso,  prison 
cells  are  necessary  in  order  to  isolate  the  culprit  from  his  compan- 
ions. But  our  chief  and  primal  aim  should  ever  be  education. 
We  should  strive  to  inoculate  the  delinquent  with  more  than  mere 
alphabetical  instruction,  we  should  teach  him  the  practical  knowl- 
edge of  useful  trades,  and  instead  of  futile  preaching  and  moral 
teaching  we  should  give  him  good  or  bad  marks ;  passing  him 
into  privileged  categories  where  he  would  have  the  right,  for 
example,  to  wear  a  beard,  receive  visits,  work  for  his  own  bene- 
fit, and  so  on.  Thus,  through  those  very  passions  which  left 
alone  would  lead  him  on  to  greater  wickedness,  we  must  seek 
to  inspire  him  with  the  need  of  honesty.  Ferri  tells  of  a  thief 
who  became  an  honest  man  when  the  Sister  of  Charity,  with 
that  very  end  in  view,  intrusted  him  with  the  care  of  the  prison 
wardrobe. 

Overstrictness  is  always  harmful.  It  is  far  better  to  tickle 
the  vanity  of  the  prisoners — a  feature  highly  pronounced  in  the 
criminal  type — by  permitting  them  to  elect  among  themselves 
wardens  and  teachers,  as  well  as  arbitrators  who  shall  decide  con- 
cerning the  misdeeds  of  their  companions.  This  would  help  to 
awaken  a  spirit  of  comradeship,  which  is  always  beneficial.  Lom- 
broso inclines  somewhat  to  Bespine's  method  of  not  inflicting 
punishment  until  a  little  time  has  elapsed  after  the  committal  of 
the  offense,  to  allow  passion  to  cool  down,  if  the  offense  be  due  to 
this  cause. 


REFORMATORY  PRISONS.  605 

With  regard  to  employment  for  prisoners,  all  outdoor  work  is 
to  be  preferred;  next  come  the  works  in  straw,  cord-making, 
broom-binding,  typography,  tailoring,  terra-cotta  molding,  then 
last  of  all  shoemaking  and  carpentering.  To  be  absolutely 
avoided,  because  they  open  the  way  to  new  crimes,  are  such 
trades  as  blacksmiths,  photographers,  lithographers,  and  such 
like,  wherever  iron  implements  or  chemicals  must  be  utilized. 
Work  must  be  proportioned  to  the  strength  of  the  prisoner; 
prison  work  should  on  no  account  be  farmed  out  to  contractors 
et  pour  cause,  because  these  would  naturally  always  protect  the 
ablest  men  and  not  the  most  morally  deserving.  "Never  impose 
work,"  says  Lombroso ;  "  let  it  be  desired.  The  delinquent  should 
ask  for  it,  and  having  obtained  it,  it  should  never  become  for  him 
a  pretext  for  receiving  greater  privileges."  The  Elmira  Reform- 
atory, of  which  Lombroso  speaks  in  the  letter  I  have  quoted,  has, 
we  know,  served  as  a  pattern  to  all  penitentiaries  in  the  United 
States,  and  has  modified  their  methods.  Mr.  Brockway,  its  found- 
er, who  states  that  he  imbibed  all  his  ideas  from  Lombroso's 
Uomo  Delinquente,  started  from  this  premise  that  the  introduc- 
tion of  indefinite  and  unlimited  punishment  is  necessary  as  the 
basis  of  a  logical  and  efficacious  moral  system;  that  it  is  not 
enough  to  separate  the  congenital  criminal  and  the  occasional,  the 
passionate,  and  instinctive,  that  to  each  one  must  be  applied  the 
cure  that  best  suits  him,  as  in  a  hospital  each  patient  is  treated 
in  a  particular  manner.  The  physical  treatment  is  directed  to- 
ward the  development  of  muscle,  by  means  of  douches,  massage, 
gymnastics,  and  good  diet.  In  the  moral  it  aims  at  the  strength- 
ening of  the  will,  teaching  the  prisoner  self-control,  and  thus 
enabling  him  to  hasten  on  his  own  liberation,  which  is  granted  as 
soon  as  he  has  proved  himself  to  be  worthy.  Mr.  Brockway 
divides  the  prisoners  into  three  classes — good,  moderate,  and  per- 
verse ;  but  from  the  last  they  can  pass  into  the  first  through  good 
behavior,  love  of  work,  and  respect  for  the  guardians.  The  work 
taught  in  Elmira  is  practical ;  the  prisoner,  as  soon  as  he  is  liber- 
ated— and  this,  according  to  statistics,  is  very  soon — will  always 
find  lucrative  occupations.  Self-respect  once  born  within  him,  will 
go  on  increasing,  unless  he  is  a  delinquent  born,  and  here  it  is 
that  Lombroso  departs  from  Mr.  Brockway ;  in  that  case  he  insists 
that  every  remedy  will  be  vain.  The  criminal  will  eventually 
fall  back,  and  only  complete  exile  or  death  can  save  society  from 
his  disastrous  operations.  But  in  spite  of  this  objection  Lombroso 
holds  that  Mr.  Brockway's  system,  subject  to  a  few  modifications, 
which  would  take  us  too  long  to  examine  in  detail,  is  useful  as  far 
as  it  goes  in  the  present  incomplete  and  chaotic  state  of  equity  in 
which  scientific  laws  and  legal  justice  do  not  correspond  in  their 
actions.  He  holds  that  it  is  particularly  to  be  commended  for 


6o6  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

juvenile  delinquents,  whom  a  gentle,  loving  care  will  rehabilitate 
better  than  a  severe  prison  regime  conducted  on  the  old  lines. 
Lombroso  is  greatly  in  favor  of  the  Irish  graduated  cellular  sys- 
tem, by  which  the  culprit  regains  little  by  little  an  almost  com- 
plete liberty.  In  this  wise  there  results  to  the  state  a  sensible 
economy — a  fact  not  to  be  despised,  seeing  the  large  cost  to  soci- 
ety of  these  useless  members  of  the  body  politic.  He  also  lauds 
the  Danish  system,  another  graduated  method  founded  on  repaid 
labor,  and  provisional  and  conditional  liberty.  Nor  does  he  for- 
get Saxony,  where  the  system  which  he  calls  "  of  individualiza- 
tion  "  has  given  such  excellent  results. 

He  strongly  urges  that  on  quitting  prison  the  interest  only  of 
the  capital  he  has  acquired  by  his  labor  should  be  accorded  to  the 
prisoner.  This  will  help  to  keep  him  straight,  and  retain  him 
under  a  moral  control.  The  professor  is  absolutely  opposed  to 
deportation  to  colonies.  For  the  incorrigible  delinquent,  Lom- 
broso counsels,  as  the  only  way  of  supplanting  capital  punishment, 
to  which  in  extreme  cases  he  is  not  opposed,  a  perpetual  exile 
from  society,  into  which  the  criminal  will  not  be  able  to  return 
unless  he  gives  irrefutable  proofs  of  amendment. 

"  No  matter  that  their  criminality  springs  from  infirmity,"  he 
writes,  "  they  are  equally  dangerous  to  themselves,  to  us,  and  to 
their  offspring ;  and  their  rigid  isolation  is  more  useful  and  less 
unjust  than  that  of  lunatics." 

And  this  brings  him  by  a  natural  transition  to  the  very  im- 
portant question  of  criminal  lunatic  asylums,  institutions  coun- 
seled by  humanity  as  well  as  by  social  security.  Among  delin- 
quents, and  those  believed  to  be  so,  there  are  many  who  are  and 
always  were  demented,  and  whom  to  imprison  would  be  to  treat 
unjustly.  In  Italy  such  persons  are  as  yet  provided  for  only  by 
half  measures  which  violate  both  morality  and  security.  In 
England  they  have  attempted  for  a  century,  and  for  sixty  years 
have  almost  succeeded,  in  settling  this  question  by  instituting 
criminal  madhouses.  In  1786  this  species  of  lunatics  were  con- 
fined in  a  certain  part  of  Bedlam  ;  in  1844  the  state  undertook  to 
maintain  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  in  a  private  establishment 
in  Fisherton  House,  but  as  the  sad  bands  of  those  unhapy  ones 
grew  it  ended  by  erecting  special  madhouses.  In  1850  one  was 
opened  in  Dundrum  for  Ireland,  followed  by  one  in  Perth  for 
Scotland,  and  in  Broadmoor  for  England.  In  these  houses,  regu- 
lated by  suitable  decrees,  admission  is  given  not  only  to  those 
that  have  committed  crime  in  an  access  of  madness  or  who  have 
become  mad  during  their  trial,  but  there  are  also  shut  up  those 
that  on  account  of  lunacy  or  idiocy  are  incapable  of  under- 
going prison  discipline.  In  America  this  reform  has  already 
brought  about  the  criminal  asylums  of  Auburn,  in  Pennsylvania, 


REFORMATORY  PRISONS.  607 

and  in  Massachusetts.  In  Italy  most  of  these  unhappy  creatures 
are  held  to  be  lazy,  riotous,  perverse,  or  deceitful,  and  when  their 
lunacy  is  admitted  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  their  admission  into 
asylums,  and  this  because  this  special  class  of  lunatics  are  dan- 
gerous inmates  for  ordinary  madhouses.  They  steadfastly  resist 
all  discipline,  they  permit  themselves  obscene  and  violent  acts ; 
they  are  discontented  with  everybody  and  they  evince  themselves 
indifferent  to  punishment ;  in  a  word,  they  carry  into  the  mad- 
house the  habits  and  vices  of  the  immoral  class  from  which  they 
spring,  and  thus  become  apostles  of  sodomy,  rebellion,  robbery, 
and  desertion,  to  the  detriment  of  the  establishment  and  of  the 
other  lunatics.  Often,  too  often  Prof.  Lombroso  says,  such  men 
are  allowed  to  wander  free  in  the  midst  of  society,  and  are  the 
more  dangerous  because  under  an  apparent  calmness  and  lucid 
intelligence  they  retain  their  diseased  impulses,  giving  proof  of 
this  when  least  expected.  The  professor  cites  several  examples, 
and  holds  that  to  men  thus  mentally  afflicted  are  due  the  epidem- 
ical madnesses  that  show  themselves  in  the  form  of  Nihilism, 
Mormonism,  Anabaptists,  the  incendiaries  in  Normandy  of  1830, 
and  the  Parisian  Commune. 

He  insists  rigidly  on  the  point  that  this  institution  of  criminal 
lunatic  asylums  is  not  due  to  sentimental  pity,  but  is  a  pure  meas- 
ure rather  of  social  precaution  than  of  humanity.  And  against 
the  objection  that  might  be  raised  that  real  madmen  may  be  con- 
founded with  dissimulators,  Lombroso  sets  the  development  of 
modern  anthropologic  studies,  which  rarely,  when  the  diagnosis 
is  carefully  made,  falls  into  error  on  this  point.  By  the  institu- 
tion of  criminal  lunatic  asylums  we  obviate  the  transmission  of 
the  disease  to  offspring,  we  hinder  recidivism  and  its  consequences, 
which  at  best  lead  to  the  heavy  cost  of  a  new  trial  -for  the  crimi- 
nal. And  that  the  theory  is  proved  by  practice  to  be  correct  is 
evinced  by  the  fact  that  gradually  the  objections  of  adversaries 
are  being  overcome,  so  that  criminal  madhouses,  under  different 
forms,  are  being  established  in  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  France, 
where,  since  1876,  there  exists  one  at  Gaillon  annexed  to  the  cen- 
tral prison.  The  other  civilized  peoples  of  Europe,  if  they  have 
not  real  criminal  madhouses,  have  certain  laws  and  institutions 
that  in  part  answer  the  same  purpose,  as  in  Belgium,  at  Berlin, 
Hamburg,  Halle,  and  Bruchsal.  In  Italy  not  only  are  there  no 
such  special  establishments,  but  there  is  not  even  a  line  in  the 
codex  admitting  the  possible  necessity  for  any  such  institution. 
Prof.  Lombroso  invokes  these  salutary  provisions  in  ardent  terms. 
He  writes :  "  The  orbit  of  crime  is  too  deeply  engraved  in  the  book 
of  our  destiny  for  us  to  delude  ourselves  that  we  can  suppress  its 
course.  But  if  other  undisputed  laws  do  not  fail  us,  like  those 
concerning  the  selection  of  species,  we  may  hope  by  such  prevent- 


6o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ives  to  moderate  the  effects  of  crime  and  to  hinder  its  widespread 
diffusion." 

Deterrents,  preventions — these  two  words  may  be  said  to  be 
the  keynote  to  Lombroso's  system.  If  he  have  a  favorite  prov- 
erb, it  is  certainly  that  "prevention  is  better  than  cure."  On 
this  account  he  would  segregate  from  society  the  adult  criminal, 
in  order  to  deter  him  from  exercising  his  pernicious  instincts,  and 
he  would  direct  his  chief  and  best  energies  to  the  rising  genera- 
tion. 

Can  we  make  it  possible  for  a  child  that  has  criminal  tenden- 
cies not  to  become  a  criminal  ?  This  is  his  chief  problem,  and 
this  question  he  answers  with  a  decided  affirmative. 

So  long  as  the  criminal  acts  are  not  repeated  to  excess,  and 
when  they  are  not  accompanied  by  all  the  anthropometrical  char- 
acteristics of  criminality,  there  is  hope  to  be  found  even  in  this 
dismal  science.  The  evolution  of  good  takes  place  in  a  sound 
man  in  spite  of  a  bad  education.  Anticriminal  education  must, 
therefore,  begin  as  soon  as  the  first  pernicious  symptoms  show 
themselves ;  on  the  other  hand,  excessive  severity  must  be  avoided, 
and  more  must  not  be  asked  of  the  child  than  it  can  do.  The 
more  gentle  the  corrections,  the  more  efficacious  will  they  prove. 
For  example,  if  the  child  has  spoiled  a  favorite  object,  buy  it 
again  at  your  own  expense,  but  deprive  him  of  some  sweetmeat, 
some  amusement.  If  he  dirties  the  house  with  his  games,  let  him 
repair  this  evil ;  never  mind  if  it  draws  down  on  him  some  scalds 
and  scratches ;  only  let  him  have  been  advised  beforehand  to  avoid 
the  deed,  and  told  what  consequences  would  follow  disobedience. 
When  he  does  not  obey  orders,  show  him  less  sympathy,  but  never 
fall  into  a  rage,  for  anger  is  as  harmful  to  the  parent  or  guardian 
as  to  the  child.  A  useful  reaction  only  follows  when  the  punish- 
ment is  given  in  a  calm  spirit.  Above  all,  endeavor  to  get  the 
child  to  correct  itself  rather  than  to  depend  on  the  violence  of  a 
monitor.  One  should  prevent  rather  than  encourage  in  children, 
as  is  done  by  the  majority,  the  constant  association  of  the  idea  of 
punishment  with  a  bad  action.  In  consequence,  when  the  time 
has  come  to  liberate  him  from  the  leading  strings  of  master  or 
parents,  he  is  no  longer  afraid  of  committing  offenses,  thinking 
they  will  now  cease  to  carry  judgment  in  their  train.  This  con- 
stantly happens  to  children  of  overstrict  parents,  who  when 
grown  up  and  independent  are  apt  to  commit  great  misdeeds  and 
even  crimes. 

These  reasons  are  doubly  applicable  to  young  criminals,  who 
can  not  be  properly  watched  and  educated  in  reformatories  on  ac- 
count of  the  large  number  of  their  inmates.  The  divisions  and 
subdivisions  admitted  of  in  such  places  are  not  sufficient  to  cover 
all  the  varieties  of  bad  tendencies  a  child  with  criminal  instincts 


REFORMATORY  PRISONS.  609 

will  develop.  This  is  one  of  the  most  salient  points  of  the  prob- 
lem. Lombroso  cites  an  experiment  made  by  a  naturalist  who 
placed  together  in  an  aquarium,  divided  only  by  a  piece  of  glass, 
some  carps  and  some  of  the  little  fishes  they  eat.  At  first  the 
carps  knocked  violently  against  the  glass  to  catch  their  prey,  but 
after  a  while,  seeing  that  their  attempts  were  vain,  they  abandoned 
them,  and  when  after  a  while  the  glass  was  removed  they  lived  to- 
gether in  harmony.  By  habit  they  became  innocuous  if  not  in- 
nocent. So  also  the  dog  by  custom  and  education  ceases  to  steal. 
It  is  by  such  methods  that  Lombroso  holds  that  congenital  crimi- 
nals must  be  cured,  and  not  by  baths  and  gymnastics  or  "  colle- 
giate prisons/7  which  are  powerless  to  affect  moral  habits. 

These  new  theories  and  systems  have  ardent  followers,  but 
obviously  also  encounter  violent  opposition. 

To  Italy,  to  her  honor  be  it  said,  belongs  the  due  that  she  was 
the  first  in  Europe  to  instigate  and  propagate  the  study  of  crimi- 
nal anthropology.  It  may  indeed  be  claimed  for  her  that  in  that 
fair  land  the  positive  method  is  of  ancient  origin  and  that  it 
sprang  up  in  the  Renaissance  with  Galileo.  It  attracted  less 
attention  as  long  as  it  was  limited  to  the  physical  and  natural 
sciences  ;  but  when  it  was  carried  into  the  moral  and  social  field 
it  awakened  diffidence,  and  of  this  diffidence  the  effects  were  felt 
by  men  like  Claude  Bernard  and  Comte,  in  France ;  by  Spencer,  in 
England  ;  by  Lombroso  and  Garofalo,  in  Italy ;  and  by  Wundt,  in 
Germany.  But  all  the  men,  nevertheless,  pursued  their  course 
undaunted.  Indeed,  most  of  them  hold,  and  Lombroso  above  all 
others,  that  all  this  opposition  on  the  part  of  their  adversaries  is 
desirable,  as  it  spurs  on  to  new  exertions  and  helps  to  emphasize 
the  deductions  of  the  positive  school,  based  as  they  are  on  minute 
anthropological  researches. 

Lombroso's  firmness  of  purpose  in  the  pursuit  of  his  studies 
may  best  be  estimated  by  quoting  his  own  words  with  regard  to 
his  life's  work : 

"...  me  rallier  sans  convictions  au  jugements  du  public 
moyen,  en  venir  au  moindre  compromis  pour  Pamour  de  la  paix, 
m'arreter  un  seul  instant  dans  le  travail  incessant  de  renouvelle- 
ment  juridique  et  psychiatrique,  auquel  je  me  suis  voud;  ce  serait 
non  seulement  m'avouer  vaincu,  mais  ensevelir  avec  moi  tout  le 
travail  de  ma  vie.  Jusque-la  n'irait  pas  meme  Tabne'gation  .  .  . 
la  plus  chre'tienne." 

Surely  he  is  a  worthy  successor  and  compatriot  of  Galileo. 
Even  that  great  blind  scientist  spoke  no  prouder  words  when,  tor- 
tured by  rack  and  priests,  he  muttered,  "  Eppur  simuove" 

VOL.    XLIII. 44 


610  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ANTHROPOLOGY  AT  THE  WORLD'S   FAIR. 

BY  PROF.  FREDERICK  STARR. 

EVERY  great  international  exposition  is,  in  a  certain  sense, 
a  practical  study  in  anthropology.  Recent  world's  fairs 
have,  however,  shown  more  and  more  a  tendency  to  make  an 
especial  exhibit  in  anthropology  and  kindred  sciences.  This  was 
very  noticeable  in  1889  at  Paris,  and  in  our  own  World's  Colum- 
bian Exposition  there  is  an  especial  department — Department  M 
—  of  Anthropology,  under  the  directorship  of  Prof.  Frederick  W. 
Putnam.  A  building  has  been  erected  for  its  purposes,  and  the 
larger  part  of  it  is  occupied  in  illustrating  "  man  and  his  works." 
Naturally,  to  this  building  the  student  in  anthropology  will  first 
turn  in  looking  up  the  matter  of  anthropology  at  the  fair. 

In  this  building  he  will  find  collections  in  ethnography,  in 
archaeology,  and  in  physical  anthropology.  As  one  passes  through 
the  main  entrance  he  sees  reproductions  of  Assyrian  sculptures ; 
to  the  right  are  collections  in  North  American  ethnography ;  to 
the  left  series  illustrating  North  American  prehistoric  archaeology. 
Among  the  notable  private  collections  illustrating  the  ethnog- 
raphy of  our  American  Indians  are  those  of  D.  B.  Dyer  and  Ed- 
ward E.  Ayer.  Mr.  Dyer's  collection  is  mainly  representative  of 
plains  tribes,  and  is  rich  in  cradles  or  papoose-boards  and  in  im- 
plements for  gambling.  Mr.  Ayer's  collection  is  from  a  larger 
range  of  peoples  and  represents  quite  fully  the  dress,  imple- 
ments, and  arts  not  only  of  the  plains  tribes,  but  also  of  the  peo- 
ples of  the  Northwest  coast  and  of  the  Southwest.  His  collection 
of  modern  Pueblo  pottery,  the  straw  dresses  of  the  California  In- 
dians, the  carved  work  from  the  Northwest  coast,  are  of  special 
interest.  Near  these  collections  is  the  large  series  from  the  North- 
west coast  gathered  by  Dr.  Franz  Boas  and  his  helpers,  particu- 
larly rich  in  dancing  paraphernalia,  masks,  bark  necklets,  and 
the  like.  On  a  raised  platform,  extending  for  many  feet,  near 
this,  Dr.  Boas  has  set  up  a  reconstruction  of  the  village  of  Skid- 
gate,  one  of  the  most  important  villages  of  the  Haidah  Indians. 
The  models  of  houses  and  totem  posts  which  make  up  this  recon- 
struction are  of  native  workmanship. 

Among  the  archaeological  collections  are  some  of  unusual  inter- 
est. Pro f .  George  Frederick  Wright,  of  Oberlin,  illustrates  the  ma- 
terial  and  structure  of  the  terminal  moraine  of  the  United  States 
by  specimens  of  bowlders,  striated  surfaces,  photographs,  and  dia- 
grams. The  exhibit  is  made  with  reference  to  the  question  of 
palaeolithic  man  in  America,  and  in  the  collection  are  pictures  rep- 
resenting localities  where  claimed  "  palaeoliths  "  have  been  found. 
The  largest  collection  of  implements  from  glacial  gravels  in  this 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AT   THE   WORLD'S  FAIR.          611 

country  is  that  of  the  Peabody  Museum  at  Cambridge,  and  a  series 
is  here  shown  from  that  institution  illustrating  the  finds  from  the 
now  famous  localities  in  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  Delaware,  etc.  Of  con- 
siderable importance  is  the  small,  carefully  selected,  and  neatly 
displayed  collection  from  the  Canadian  Institute  of  Toronto,  which 
is  rich  in  rare  forms  of  bird  amulets,  gorgets  of  striped  slate, 
pipes  of  stone,  and  bone  implements.  The  State  Historical  So- 
ciety of  Missouri  exhibits  a  handsome  series  of  the  white  chert 
implements  so  characteristic  of  that  district,  as  also  hematite  ob- 
jects and  fine  mound  potteries.  In  cases  near  by  is  a  magnificent 
series  of  Wisconsin  copper  implements — spear-points,  knives,  ar- 
rowheads, etc. — partly  displayed  by  the  State  Historical  Society 
and  partly  private  property.  Colorado  sends  a  considerable  dis- 
play of  cliff-dwelling  relics.  Of  prime  importance  is  Mr.  Warren 
K.  Moorhead's  gathering  from  the  mounds  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Moor- 
head  was  sent  by  the  Exposition  management  to  the  district  ren- 
dered classical  for  American  archaeology  by  the  work  of  Squier 
and  Davis.  He  was  successful  beyond  all  expectation,  and  here 
are  gathered  the  results  of  his  excavations — hundreds  of  spool- 
shaped  ear  ornaments  of  copper,  mica  ornaments,  wonderful 
blades  of  obsidian  from  altar  mounds,  stone  pipes,  thousands  of 
chert  disks  from  one  mound,  a  find  of  copper  ornaments  surpass- 
ing any  ever  found  before  in  American  mounds,  an  antler-form 
headdress  unique  in  shape  and  character.  Besides  these,  Mr.  Moor- 
head  has  made  a  reconstruction  of  one  of  the  very  interesting  stone 
graves  of  Fort  Ancient,  with  the  skeleton  in  its  proper  position. 
In  connection  with  this  important  series  it  should  be  mentioned 
that  Prof.  Putnam  has  near  it  several  models  of  important  mounds, 
the  most  interesting  representing  the  famous  serpent  mound  of 
Adams  County,  the  preservation  of  which  is  due  to  an  interest 
aroused  by  Prof.  Putnam  in  the  ladies  of  Boston.  The  model 
aims  to  reproduce  not  only  the  mound  itself,  but  also  the  topog- 
raphy and  conditions  of  the  surrounding  country. 

Of  foreign  countries,  several  are  represented  in  this  building 
by  collections,  ethnographic  or  archaeological.  The  explorations 
of  Charnay,  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  and  others  in  Yucatan, 
Honduras,  etc.,  are  illustrated  by  a  magnificent  series  of  direct 
reproductions  in  plaster.  The  wonderful  wall  carvings  of  Loril- 
lard  City,  the  zapote  wood  carvings  of  Tikal,  the  strange  mono- 
liths of  Copan,  are  all  here  to  be  seen,  true  to  life ;  elegant  photo- 
graphs and  fine  enlargements,  the  result  of  Mr.  Saville's  recent 
work  in  those  districts,  represent  Uxmal,  Labnah,  and  Chichen- 
Itza  accurately.  With  this  wonderful  series  from  Yucatan  and 
its  neighborhood  is  Mrs.  Nuttall's  interesting  exhibit  of  Aztec 
shields.  It  will  be  remembered  that  this  lady  recently  discovered 
in  the  old  castle  of  Am  bras  an  ancient  Mexican  feather-covered 


612 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


shield.  These  objects  are  exceedingly  rare,  and  the  discovery  led 
Mrs.  Nuttall  to  make  a  careful  study  of  the  whole  subject  of  Mex- 
ican feather  shields.  The  exhibit  consists  of  a  copy  of  the  shield 
at  Ambras,  and  the  reproduction  of  a  considerable  number  of 
others  from  pictures  in  the  old  pictographic  books  of  the  Aztecs. 
Near  this  section  is  an  exhibition  of  the  archaeology  of  Peru. 
Mr.  Dorsey  was  sent  out  by  the  Exposition  management  to  make 


RESTOKATION  OF  MAYA  RUINS  (YALE).     World's  Columbian  Exposition. 


collections  in  the  land  of  the  Incas.  A  considerable  number  of 
graves  were  opened  and  much  material  was  secured.  Several  table 
cases  contain  the  results,  and  in  two  inclosed  spaces  Mr.  Dorsey 
aims  to  show  the  old  Peruvian  method  of  burial.  Mummies  in  their 
original  wrapping  are  set  in  their  proper  position,  together  with 
all  the  funereal  furniture — the  face-mask,  the  square  cloth- covered 
tablet,  the  articles  of  daily  use,  the  pottery  and  ornaments.  Mr. 
Dorsey  exhibits  in  one  table  case  a  very  interesting  little  col- 
lection of  broken  pottery  and  engraved  stones  from  a  new  local- 
ity, La  Plata  Island,  in  Ecuador,  which  bids  fair  to  be  a  spot  of 
importance  to  future  investigators.  Besides  these  interesting 
series  secured  by  the  efforts  of  the  management  of  the  Exposition, 
there  are  exhibits  by  Costa  Rica,  Mexico,  Paraguay,  and  New 
South  Wales.  Costa  Rica's  display  deserves  more  than  a  passing 
word.  A  neat  pavilion,  with  walls  adorned  with  oil  paintings 
illustrating  natives  of  the  country  and  points  of  archaeological 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AT   THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.          613 

interest,  contains  several  cases  in  which  a  series  of  specimens 
selected  from  the  National  Museum  illustrates  the  ancient  pottery, 
stone  implements,  and  carvings  of  the  country.  Mexico  gives  a 
display  neither  full  nor  satisfactory,  in  part  ethnographic,  in  part 
archseologic.  Here  are  trophies  composed  of  reproductions  of 
ancient  shields,  spears,  and  battle  clubs ;  here  are  models  of  old 
buildings  of  the  Mexico  of  Cortes ;  here  are  a  few  original  speci- 
mens in  arch  geology  and  many  plates  from  a  work  on  Mexican 
antiquities.  So  much  might  have  been  done ;  so  little  really  is 
done!  Paraguay  sends  a  considerable  ethnographic  display,  par- 
ticularly rich  in  feather  work,  in  nettings,  and  in  spears.  New 
South  Wales  sends  carved  work  from  the  south  seas,  especially 
the  characteristic  black,  shell-inlaid  work  from  the  Solomon 
Islands,  boomerangs  from  Australia,  spears,  bark  cloth,  etc.,  from 
various  localities.  Most  important  of  all,  however,  are  the  mag- 
nificent great  photographs  representing  natives,  wild  life,  and  arts 
of  the  south  sea  islands  and  Australia.  Mr.  Culin,  on  his  own  be- 
half and  for  the  American  Folk-lore  Society  and  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  displays  a  collection  of  games  and  some  objects 
connected  with  worship.  The  series  of  games  is  particularly  in- 
teresting, and  represents  the  indoor  pastimes  of  all  peoples  and 
all  times. 

In  the  north  gallery  of  the  Anthropological  Building  is  a  most 
important  laboratory  and  exhibit  in  physical  anthropology.  The 
laboratory  itself-  falls  into  three  subdivisions :  Physical  anthro- 
pology (somatology),  neurology,  and  psychology.  Dr.  Franz 
Boas  has  general  charge  of  the  whole,  while  Prof.  Donaldson 
(Chicago)  has  charge  of  the  subdivision  of  neurology  and  Prof. 
Jastrow  (Wisconsin)  directs  the  work  in  psychology.  There  are 
a  number  of  rooms  devoted  to  these  laboratories.  First  thore  is 
presented  a  series  of  instruments  used  in  anthropological  investi- 
gation— anthropometric  machines,  craniometric  instruments,  in- 
struments for  drawing  skulls,  outlines  of  the  body,  etc.  The 
types  of  mankind  as  found  in  Europe,  the  south  sea  islands, 
America,  etc.,  are  shown  by  portraits,  masks,  diagrams,  maps,  and 
other  material.  Composite  photography,  as  applied  to  finding 
types  and  in  the  study  of  crania,  is  illustrated.  Francis  Galton's 
method  of  taking  finger  prints  j.s  illustrated  and  a  considerable 
series  of  impressions  taken  from  the  finger  tips  of  Indians  of 
North  America  by  Frederick  Starr  and  Mr.  David  Barrows  is 
displayed.  Here  also  are  the  results  of  Dr.  Boas's  recent  investi- 
gation into  the  physical  structure  of  the  North  American  Indian. 
A  number  of  observers  were  sent  to  take  measurements  among 
our  native  tribes.  Many  thousand  sets  of  measures  were  taken. 
Each  set  comprised  a  dozen  measurements  and  descriptive  matter 
covering  about  thirty  points.  This  mass  of  material  has  been 


614  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

studied  carefully,  tabulated,  and  reduced,  at  least  in  part,  to 
graphic  form.  Diagrams  show  the  distinctive  characters  of  tribes 
and  the  effect  of  environment,  the  influence  of  crossing,  and  the 
like.  Maps  instructively  show  the  variation  of  stature  and  other 
characters  with  changes  in  physical  geography.  In  neurology 
Prof.  Donaldson,  by  a  series  of  models  and  casts,  represents  the 
brain  form  in  man  and  lower  animals,  the  structure  of  the  brain, 
localization  of  function,  and  modes  of  brain  preservation  for 


-za  ft& 


HOUSE  OF  KWAKIOOLS  (VANCOUVER  ISLAND).     World's  Columbian  Exposition. 

study.  Prof.  Jastrow's  two  rooms  are  of  great  interest :  in  one, 
arrangements  are  made  for  conducting  the  various  tests  of  so 
much  importance  in  modern  psychological  study ;  in  the  other,  in 
a  series  of  cases,  is  a  full  representation  of  the  instruments  and 
apparatus  used  in  experimental  psychology — instruments  for  in- 
vestigating the  senses  of  touch,  light  (color),  hearing,  etc.,  as  well 
as  for  recording,  timing,  and  the  like.  All  these  laboratories  are 
expected  to  be  in  operation,  and  observations  and  experiments 
will  be  conducted  by  a  corps  of  student  assistants. 


ANTHROPOLOGY  AT   THE  WORLD'S   FAIR.          615 

Near  the  Anthropological  Building  are  several  outdoor  dis- 
plays of  more  than  usual  interest.  The  party  sent  out  by  Prof. 
Putnam  to  the  ruins  of  Yucatan  and  Copan  secured  at  Uxmal, 
Chichen-Itza,  and  Labnah  "squeezes"  of  some  doorways,  corners, 
arches,  etc.,  showing  every  detail  of  ornament  and  symbolical 
carving.  From  these  molds  casts  have  been  made  exactly  repro- 
ducing the  structures.  A  group  of  five  of  these  lies  north  from 
the  Anthropological  Building.  North  from  this  is  an  interesting 
series  of  homes  of  various  American  Indians.  The  palm-thatched 
hut  of  the  Arawaks  of  Guiana ;  the  long  house  of  the  Iroquois, 
constructed  of  bark,  and  divided  into  six  spaces  within,  one  for 
each  of  the  Six  Nations ;  the  birch-bark  tent  of  the  Penobscot  In- 
dians of  Maine ;  the  skin-covered  tepee  of  the  plains  tribes ;  the 
dome-shaped  framework  of  poles,  covered  with  rush  matting,  of 
the  Algonkins;  the  plank-covered  houses  of  the  Kwakiool  of 
Vancouver  Island,  and  the  Haidah  of  Queen  Charlotte  Islands 
with  their  symbolical  paintings  and  totem  posts;  these  range 
along  the  edge  of  the  lagoon  on  whose  waters  float  various 
canoes  and  boats  of  the  natives.  These  houses  have  been  built 
from  proper  materials  by  the  Indians  themselves,  and  most  of 
them  are  inhabited  by  families  of  Indians,  some  of  whom  carry 
on  their  native  arts  and  industries.  Very  interesting  in  this  con- 
nection will  be  the  series  of  dances  of  the  Kwakiools,  for  which 
Dr.  Boas  has  arranged,  which  will  take  place  at  intervals  through 
the  season. 

Most  interesting  material  is  found  in  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment Building.  The  National  Museum,  through  Prof.  Mason, 
has  set  up  a  suggestive  series  illustrating  the  groups  of  In- 
dian tribes.  A  great  copy  of  Powell's  Linguistic  Map  of  North 
America  upon  the  walls  represents  the  groups  of  tribes  as  classi- 
fied by  language.  In  alcoves  below,  cases  full  of  objects  illustrate 
the  arts  and  industries  of  these  groups.  It  is  most  interesting  to 
notice  how  clearly  the  influence  of  environment  and  the  gifts  of 
Nature  is  shown  in  the  arts  and  industries.  Tribes  speaking  lan- 
guages of  one  stock  may  show  marked  diversity  in  arts  if  living 
in  unlike  surroundings,  while  tribes  widely  differing  in  language 
may  show  industrial  unity  if  subjected  to  similar  environments. 
Very  interesting  to  the  crowd  are  the  cases  wherein  are  displayed 
life-size  figures  dressed  in  costumes.  Some  of  these  are  particu- 
larly pleasing :  the  Xivaro,  with  his  feather  belt  and  crown ;  the 
Chippewa  blanket  painter ;  two  plains  Indian  women  dressing  a 
buffalo  hide — one  kneeling  before  a  hide  hung  upon  poles  scrapes 
it,  while  the  other  pounds  a  second  hide  with  a  stone  maul ;  a 
Moki  man  drilling  a  turquoise  bead  with  a  pump-drill ;  a  Sioux 
squaw  and  children  on  a  pony  dragging  the  travois ;  a  Mojave 
man  with  apron  of  bark  strips,  head  feathers,  and  a  shell  orna- 


6i6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ment ;  a  Hupa  woman  and  girl  in  straw  caps  and  dresses,  with  a 
papoose  in  its  pretty  basket  cradle — these  and  other  carefully 
chosen  and  usually  well-executed  groups  give  life,  reality,  and 
meaning  to  the  objects  in  the  cases  around. 

In  a  large  alcove  near  by,  occupied  in  great  part  by  models  of 
cliff-ruins,  pueblos,  and  other  monuments  of  the  Southwest,  are 
two  interesting  exhibits  from  Mr.  Thomas  Wilson,  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  and  Mr.  William  H.  Holmes,  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology.  Mr.  Wilson  aims  to  present  a  synopsis  of  prehistoric 
archaeology.  The  relics  of  palaeolithic  man  from  France,  Eng- 
land, Egypt,  and  India  are  fairly  represented.  Next  to  them  are 
placed  some  of  the  claimed  palseoliths  of  New  Jersey  and  Minne- 
sota. Rude  implements  of  forms  akin  to  palseoliths  but  of  uncer- 
tain or  negative  geological  relations  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States  follow.  A  good  neolithic  series  from  the  Swiss  lake  dwell- 
ings and  the  tumuli  of  Denmark  is  shown.  Fine  specimens  illus- 
trate work  in  polished  stone  in  America.  The  bronze  age  in 
Europe,  illustrated  by  objects  from  Switzerland,  France,  etc.,  is 
set  alongside  of  objects  of  copper  from  American  mounds  and 
bronzes  from  Mexico.  Some  of  the  finer  objects  in  jade,  quartz, 
crystal,  and  obsidian  from  Mexico,  and  stone  collars  and  mammi- 
form stones  from  Porto  Rico,  complete  the  exhibit.  Mr.  Holmes's 
series  is  intended  to  illustrate  Indian  quarrying  and  mining.  It 
is  altogether  a  model  display.  The  now  famous  quarry  at  Piney 
Branch,  near  Washington,  is  first  illustrated.  On  this  site  the 
Indians  formerly  quarried  pebbles,  from  the  gravel  deposits,  for 
making  into  implements.  These  pebbles  were  worked  up  into 
"  blanks  " — oval  or  leaf-shaped — from  which,  later  and  elsewhere, 
spear-points,  arrowheads,  and  the  like  were  made.  In  making  these 
blanks  many  pebbles  would  be  found  to  be  worthless  and  would 
be  rejected.  These  rejects  and  the  blanks  themselves  closely  re- 
semble our  American  "  palseoliths,"  and  Mr.  Holmes  believes  that 
some  at  least  of  our  American  palseolith  localities  are  old  quarry 
sites,  and  that  the  palseoliths  themselves  are  rejects.  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  the  showing  of  this  idea  has  much  to  do  with 
the  making  of  this  display.  The  exhibit,  however,  is  so  complete 
and  excellently  worked  out  that  it  has  profound  value  apart  from 
any  theoretical  interest.  In  regard  to  Piney  Branch  Mr.  Holmes 
displays  in  table  cases  a  series  of  pebbles,  rejects  of  every  stage, 
and  blanks ;  along  the  wall  above  are  specimens  showing  every 
stage  from  the  pebble,  through  the  blank,  to  the  arrowhead  or 
spear-point.  Above  this  series  are  framed  diagrams,  sections  of 
the  quarry,  and  maps,  also  a  fine  series  of  photographs.  Clear, 
explanatory  labels  accompany  all.  In  exactly  the  same  way  Mr. 
Holmes  illustrates  an  interesting  quarry  of  chert  in  Peoria  Reser- 
vation, Indian  Territory ;  the  novaculite  quarry  of  Arkansas ;  the 


618  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 

chert  diggings  of  Flint  Ridge,  Ohio  ;  the  rhyolite  quarry  of  Penn- 
sylvania ;  and  the  quarry  of  flint  nodules  in  Texas.  These  all  dif- 
fer from  Piney  Branch  in  that  the  material  is  quarried  from  solid 
rock  ledges,  not  from  soft  gravels.  The  quarrying  of  soapstone 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  making  of  it  into  bowls,  the 
mining  of  copper  in  the  Lake  Superior  district,  and  the  taking  out 
of  the  famous  red  pipestone  from  the  quarry  in  Minnesota  are  all 
illustrated  in  the  same  complete  fashion.  As  a  representation  of 
an  important  and  interesting  aboriginal  industry  nothing  could 
be  better. 

The  anthropologist  finds  two  collections  of  interest  in  the 
Woman's  Building.  In  a  dozen  cases  Prof.  Mason  shows  "wom- 
an's work  in  savagery."  The  development  of  personal  decoration, 
the  preparation  and  serving  of  food,  the  making  of  basketry  and 
matting,  embroidery  and  needlework,  beating  of  bark  cloths,  weav- 
ing by  hand  frames  and  looms,  dressing  of  leather,  and  pottery- 
making  are  the  chief  points  represented.  The  fact  that  woman 
has  been  the  chief  actor  in  originating  and  developing  every  peace- 
ful art  is  impressively  shown.  By  the  side  of  this  series  is  Mrs. 
French-Sheldon's  collection.  Every  one  knows  of  this  woman's 
exploration  of  East  Africa.  With  no  white  companions,  with  an 
escort  of  hired  porters  and  guides  under  no  command  but  her 
own,  she  penetrated  a  thousand  miles  into  Africa,  among  tribes 
some  of  which,  like  the  Masai,  were  on  a  war  footing.  She  has 
brought  out  from  the  dark  continent  thousands  of  objects  illus- 
trative of  the  daily  life,  the  arts,  and  culture  of  the  natives,  and 
here  one  may  see  them  displayed  as  a  monument  of  a  remarkable- 
undertaking.  Fine  shields,  carefully  leaf-shaped  spear-heads  of 
iron,  objects  of  personal  adornment,  native  dress,  wood  carving — 
these  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  objects.  Mrs.  French-Sheldon 
herself  is  frequently  in  attendance,  and  proves  as  much  of  an  at- 
traction as  the  collection. 

The  student  of  culture-history  must  find  objects  of  interest 
everywhere,  frequently  where  one  would  scarcely  expect  them. 
Thus  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  makes  a  wonderful  exhibit, 
under  the  title  of  The  World's  Railway.  A  magnificent  series 
of  pictures,  models,  and  original  specimens  illustrate  the  whole 
history  of  the  development  of  the  locomotive,  the  cars,  and  the 
tracking.  In  the  Shoe  and  Leather  Building  colored  pictures  and 
many  wall  cases  full  of  specimens  show  the  footwear  of  all  ages 
and  all  peoples. 

At  Paris  one  of  the  most  attractive  features  was  the  repre- 
sentation of  outlandish  peoples.  At  Chicago  the  Midway  Plai- 
sance  supplies  the  opportunity  to  see  many  strange  sights.  The 
German  village  and  Old  Vienna  are  true  architectural  reproduc- 
tions. The  Chinese  theater  and  its  temple  annex,  with  the  native* 


ANTHROPOLOGY   AT   THE  WORLD'S   FAIR.          619 

music  and  the  long  plays,  give  an  opportunity,  rare  east  of  Cali- 
fornia, to  see  the  dramatic  art  and  religious  rites  of  the  Celestials. 
The  Dahomey  village,  with  mud-daubed  huts,  on  which  are 
scraped  queer  animal  and  bird  figures,  and  its  war-dance  on  a 
central  platform,  gives  a  real  glimpse  of  negro  Africa.  The  street 
of  Cairo,  narrow,  crooked,  with  its  bazaars,  shops,  and  booths 
along  both  sides,  its  donkeys  and  camels,  its  school  with  children 
crying  the  Koran  aloud,  and  its  juggler  plying  his  mystic  trade, 
attracts  great  crowds.  The  Egyptian  temple  with  its  dancing 
dervishes,  a  Lapland  village,  Javanese  village,  Polynesian  settle- 
ment, Algerian  and  Turkish  theaters  are  among  the  other  attrac- 
tions on  the  Midway  Plaisance  where  one  may  study  ethnogra- 


ESKIMOS  FROM  LABRADOR.     World's  Columbian  Exposition. 

phy  practically.  Two  concessions  of  unusual  interest  are  not  on 
the  Plaisance,  but  in  the  main  Exposition  grounds.  These  are  the 
Eskimo  village  and  the  cliff  dwellings.  The  Eskimo  village  has 
been  located  for  a  long  time ;  and  last  winter,  when  snow  filled  the 
air  and  the  pond  was  ice-covered,  its  inhabitants  were  a  happy 
crowd.  They  amused  themselves  and  their  visitors  by  sledding 
with  dogs,  skating  on  old  wooden  runners,  and  whipping  pennies 
with  their  long-lashed  dog- whips.  Several  babies  were  born  in  the 
village,  and  some  died.  One  little  fellow,  Christopher  Columbus, 
was  an  especial  pet  with  visitors,  and  managed  to  live  despite  the 
many  attentions  he  received.  Dressed  in  their  furs  these  people 
looked  truly  polar,  but  we  are  assured  that  as  spring  came  on 


620  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

they  rebelled  against  wearing  these  heavy  garments,  which  were 
unlike  anything  they  ever  wore  before.  It  seems  they  came  from 
a  part  of  Labrador  often  visited  by  vessels,  and  are  used  to  cloth- 
ing made  of  white  men's  cloth.  The  cliff  dwellings  are  located 
near  the  Maya  ruins,  and  are  the  work  of  Mr.  H.  Jay  Smith.  They 
appear  externally  like  an  irregular  mass  of  reddish-brown  rock, 
with  mule  tracks  winding  up  its  sides.  Entering  it,  we  find  our- 
selves in  a  great  cavern,  lighted  from  above,  in  which  are  excel- 
lent reproductions  of  the  cliff  dwellings  of  the  Southwest.  Sev- 
eral of  the  more  famous  ruins  are  here  presented,  made  to  scale 
sufficiently  large  to  be  truly  impressive.  Further  in  are  single 
rooms,  or  small  clusters  of  them,  with  fireplaces,  T-windows,  and 
other  details  reproduced  in  full  size.  A  great  hall  cased  along 
the  walls  is  devoted  to  an  excellent  collection  of  objects  from  the 
ruins  —  stone  implements,  fire-sticks,  fabrics,  feather  clothing, 
sandals  of  yucca  fiber,  dried  bodies  (mummies),  some  still  in  their 
original  wrappings,  pottery  in  many  fine  and  rare  pieces,  food 
materials,  etc.  The  idea  is  a  good  one  and  the  execution  credit- 
able. 

Comparatively  few  governments  can  be  said  to  present  in  their 
exhibit  a  complete  picture  of  their  life  and  thought.  One  land, 
however,  makes  an  exhibit  most  full  and  interesting — Japan. 
Early  in  the  history  of  the  Exposition  the  Land  of  Sunrise  showed 
its  interest.  It  is  represented  in  nearly  every  department.  Its 
fine-arts  display  includes  choicest  treasures;  in  the  liberal  arts 
are  marvels  of  work  in  lacquer,  bronze,  porcelain,  and  silk  ;  in  the 
Horticultural  Building  is  one  of  the  marvelous  gardens  of  Japan, 
with  its  elements  grouped  to  form  a  miniature  landscape — a  fish- 
pond, rustic  bridge,  pretty  wreaths  of  fern  roots  clothed  with 
green,  stone  lanterns,  and  wonderful  dwarfed  aged  evergreen 
trees ;  the  agricultural  display,  showing  not  only  the  products 
themselves,  but  the  tasteful  packing  and  preparation  of  them  for 
use — tea  boxes  (beautiful  whether  plain  or  elaborately  decorated), 
tea  in  jars  with  silk  covers  and  finely  tasseled  cord ;  sake,  or  rice 
wine,  in  elaborately  lacquered  jars ;  fibers,  cloths,  vegetable  wax, 
barley  honey,  candies,  mattings,  silks ;  in  the  Forestry  Building 
are  the  various  woods  used  for  all  purposes,  and  a  set  of  curious 
native  pictures  representing  scenes  in  the  lumber  camps.  Besides 
all  these  beautifully  complete  and  daintily  arranged  displays,  the 
Japanese  have  erected  on  the  wooded  island  a  group  of  three 
buildings  called  collectively  the  Hooden.  They  are  copies  of  three 
famous  buildings — a  monastery  of  the  Zen  Sect,  at  Kioto,  erected 
in  1397 ;  a  structure  dating  from  1052,  representing  the  phoenix ; 
and  the  main  building,  a  palace  of  about  the  time  of  Columbus. 
These  are  of  Japanese  material,  built  by  Japanese  carpenters,  and 
are  of  exquisite  workmanship.  They  have  been  presented  by  the 


ANTHROPOLOGY   AT   THE  WORLD'S   FAIR.          621 

Government  of  Japan  to  the  city  of  Chicago,  and  are  to  be  kept 
filled  with  interesting  collections,  which  will  be  changed  from 
time  to  time.  To  visit  these  various  exhibits  of  Japan  is  to  gain 
an  insight  into  most  delightful  features  of  Japanese  art,  life,  and 
character. 

Although  results  of  great  importance  to  anthropology  in 
America  must  result  from  all  this  display  of  material,  it  is  be- 
lieved that  other  permanent  results  must  come  from  the  congress 
and  the  library.  In  August  an  International  Congress  of  An- 
thropology is  planned.  To  it  are  invited  the  world's  workers  in 
the  science,  and  before  it  are  to  be  read  important  papers.  The 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  the 
American  Folk-lore  Society,  and  the  American  Psychical  Society 
unite  in  seeking  the  interests  of  this  congress,  and  from  it  should 
come  decided  impulse  to  our  anthropological  work.  As  to  the 
library,  Prof.  Putnam  has  issued  an  appeal  to  anthropologists 
asking  contributions  of  all  they  have  written  in  the  science  as  a 
donation  to  a  permanent  library  of  that  subject,  to  be  located  in 
Chicago,  in  connection  with  the  Memorial  Museum.  The  collec- 
tion is  to  be  catalogued  and  the  catalogue  published.  Should  this 
plan  be  carried  out,  the  catalogue  would  be  the  best  reference  list 
to  anthropological  literature  ever  prepared. 

It  must  be  plain  that  in  the  Chicago  Exposition  we  have  a 
great  object  lesson  in  anthropology:  a  museum  of  somatology, 
archseology,  and  ethnology ;  a  picture  of  ethnography  ;  a  labora- 
tory of  unusual  completeness ;  a  great  meeting  of  workers ;  and 
the  publication  of  new  material. 


A  NOTE  presented  in  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  from  Dora  D.  D4mondin 
relates  to  the  manifestation  of  sudden  variations  of  temperature  at  fixed  times  in 
the  latter  half  of  January,  as  observed  during  more  than  six  hundred  years  past. 
The  author  lias  examined  with  regard  to  this  subject  meteorological  notes  re- 
corded between  1582  ?md  1879,  or  during  about  three  hundred  years;  and  for  the 
preceding  three  centuries  he  has  consulted  various  public  documents,  particularly 
the  Ann  ales  des  Dominicnins  dc  Colmar,  from  1211  to  1305.  He  has  thus  veri- 
fied, as  for  the  centuries  included,  alternations  of  temperature  marked  by  a  depres- 
sion about  the  18th  and  an  elevation  toward  the  23d  and  29th  of  January,  the 
temperature  continuing  low  during  the  intervening  days. 

IT  has  been  suggested  by  Colonel  R.  W.  Feilden  that  the  musk  ox  might  with 
gre  .t  advantage  be  introduced  into  Great  Britain  ;  and  the  author  sees  no  reason 
why  it  should  not  thrive  on  the  mountains  of  the  Highlands  in  Scotland.  It  is 
covered  in  the  winter  season,  beside?  its  cost  of  hair,  with  a  long-stapled  fine 
wool,  of  a  light  yellow  color,  and  as  fine  as  silk.  Sir  John  Richardson  savs  that 
stockings  made  from  this  wool  are  handsomer  than  those  from  silk.  Young 
musk  oxen  are  easily  reared  and  tamed,  and  could  probably  be  procured  from  the 
arctic  regions  without  great  difficulty. 


622  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

RECENT   SCIENCE. 

BY  PRINCE   KROPOTKIN. 
II. 

AT  one  of  the  recent  sittings  of  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences,  Henri  Moissan,  whose  name  has  lately  been  promi- 
nent in  chemistry  in  connection  with  several  important  discov- 
eries, read  a  communication  to  the  effect  that  he  had  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  in  his  laboratory  minute  crystals  of  dia- 
monds.* His  communication  was  followed  by  a  paper  by  Friedel, 
who  has  been  working  for  some  time  past  in  the  same  direction, 
and  has  attained  similar  though  not  yet  quite  definite  results; 
and,  finally,  Berthelot,  who  also  was  working  in  the  same  field, 
but  followed  a  different  track,  announced  that,  in  view  of  the 
excellent  results  obtained  by  Moissan,  he  abandons  his  own 
researches  and  congratulates  his  colleague  upon  his  remarkable 
discovery. 

The  discovery  is  not  absolutely  new,  and  the  French  chemist 
himself  mentions  two  of  his  English  predecessors.  Mr.  Hannay 
obtained  in  1880  some  diamondlike  crystals  by  heating  in  an  iron 
tube,  under  high  pressure,  a  mixture  of  paraffin  oil  with  lamp- 
black, bone  oil,  and  some  lithium ;  f  and  in  the  same  year  Mr.  Sid- 
ney Marsden,  by  heating  some  silver  with  sugar  charcoal,  obtained 
black  carbon  crystals  with  curved  edges.  \  Besides,  it  was  gen- 
erally known  that  a  black  powder,  composed  of  transparent  micro- 
scopical crystals  having  the  hardness  of  diamond,  is  deposited  on 
the  negative  electrode  when  a  weak  galvanic  current  is  passed 
through  liquid  chloride  of  carbon.  But  these  crystals,  like  those 
of  Mr.  Marsden,  belong  to  the  easily  obtained  variety  of  black 
diamonds  known  as  carbonados ;  while  some  of  the  crystals  ob- 
tained by  Moissan  are  real  colorless  and  crystallized  diamonds — 
the  gem  we  all  know  and  admire. 

For  industry  and  every-day  life  the  infinitesimal  quantities  of 
diamond  dust  obtained  by  the  French  chemist  may  have  no  im- 
mediate value,  and  some  time  will  probably  be  required  before  a 
modest-sized  jewel  is  made  in  a  laboratory.  But  the  discovery 
has  a  great  scientific  interest,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  outcome  of  a 
whole  series  of  researches  which  have  recently  been  made  with 
the  view  of  artificially  reproducing  all  sorts  of  minerals  and 
rocks,  and  which  are  admirably  chosen  for  iiltimately  throwing 
new  light  upon  the  intimate  structure  of  physical  bodies. 

*  Comptes  Rendus  de  1'Academie  des  Sciences,  February  6,  1893,  tome  cxvi,  p.  218. 

f  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society,  xxx,  188  ;  quoted  by  Moissan. 

\  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  1880,  ii,  20  (Moissan's  quotation). 


RECENT   SCIENCE.  623 

Moissan's  method  is  based  upon  the  capacity  of  iron  of  absorb- 
ing carbon  at  a  high  temperature  and  of  giving  it  back  in  the 
shape  of  grains  and  crystals  while  the  iron  mass  is  cooling. 
When  iron  has  been  saturated  with  carbon  at  a  temperature  of 
.about  2,000°  Fahr.,  a  mixture  of  amorphous  carbon  and  graphite 
is  discovered  in  the  iron  mass.  At  higher  temperatures  the  fused 
iron  dissolves  more  and  more  carbon,  and  the  cast  iron  of  our 
blasting  furnaces,  after  having  been  heated  to  about  3,000°  and 
slowly  cooled  down,  contains,  as  known,  an  abundance  of  graphite 
•crystals.  It  was  thus  natural  to  see  whether  a  still  higher  tem- 
perature, and  cooling  under  high  pressure,  might  not  give  the 
still  denser  form  of  carbon — that  is,  the  diamonds. 

In  order  to  thoroughly  saturate  iron  with  carbon  at  a  high 
temperature,  and  to  cool  it  under  a  high  pressure,  Moissan  re- 
sorted to  a  very  simple  and  effective  means.  He  took  a  hollow 
-cylinder  of  soft  iron,  filled  it  with  some  purified  sugar  charcoal, 
-and  corked  the  cylinder  with  an  iron  screw.  Then  about  half  a 
pound  of  soft  iron  was  molten  in  a  crucible  in  Moissan's  new  elec- 
tric furnace,  which  readily  gives  a  temperature  of  about  3,000° 
•C.  (5,400°  Fahr.),  and  the  cylinder  was  plunged  into  the  molten 
metal ;  iron  was  thus  thoroughly  saturated  with  carbon.  The 
•crucible  was  then  taken  out  of  the  furnace  and  plunged  into  a 
pail  of  cold  water  until  the  surface  of  the  iron  mass  was  cooled  to 
&  dull  red  temperature,  whereupon  it  was  taken  out  and  left  to 
•cool  in  the  air.  This  was  the  ingenious  means  of  obtaining  a 
high  pressure.  It  is  known  that  water  when  it  becomes  ice 
increases  in  volume,  and  that  if  it  freezes  in  a  strong  shell  the 
interior  pressure  of  the  crystallizing  water  often  bursts  the  shell ; 
but  if  it  can  not  burst  the  shell  it  necessarily  solidifies  under  an 
immense  pressure,  due  to  the  molecular  forces.  The  same  was 
•done  by  Moissan  with  the  liquid  iron,  which  also  has  the  property 
of  increasing  in  volume  while  it  solidifies.  An  outer  solid  crust 
having  been  formed  by  a  sudden  immersion  into  cold  water,  the 
•crust  prevents  the  further  expansion  of  the  irori  mass,  which  is 
thus  bound  to  solidify  under  an  immense  pressure,  like  the  water 
in  the  shell. 

The  next  step  was  to  separate  the  iron  from  the  carbon  crystals 
which  it  might  contain.  This  was  done  by  dissolving  the  iron  in 
hydrochloric  acid,  and  three  different  varieties  of  carbon  crystals 
*( which  are  not  attacked  by  the  acid)  were  received  as  a  residue. 
Some  graphite,  some  chestnut-colored,  curved  needles  of  carbon, 
°nd  diamond  dust  could  be  seen ;  and  they  were  separated  from 
.oh  other  by  several  complex  operations  indicated  by  Berthelot 
in  one  of  his  previous  works.  A  few  grains  of  diamond  dust  were 
finally  obtained — most  of  them  belonging  to  the  carbonado  va- 
riety, while  a  few  of  them  proved  to  be  real  diamonds ;  they  were 


624  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

translucent,  they  scratched  a  ruby,  and  they  distinctly  showed 
under  the  microscope  the  crystalline  structure  and  cleavage  of 
the  diamond ;  their  density  was  that  of  the  precious  gem,  and 
they  were  completely  consumed  in  oxygen  at  a  temperature  of 
1,890°.* 

Mr.  Marsden's  experiment  with  silver  was  also  repeated ;  but 
silver  being  a  bad  dissolvent  for  carbon,  even  at  a  high  tempera- 
ture, it  was  boiled  for  some  time  with  sugar  charcoal  in  the  fur- 
nace, the  cooling  being  operated  in  the  same  way  as  with  iron. 
The  result  was  extremely  interesting.  No  diamonds  were  ob- 
tained, but  a  series  of  carbonados  of  different  densities  (from  2*5 
to  3'5  times  heavier  than  water)  were  discovered,  some  of  them 
in  grains,  some  others  in  needles,  or  in  conchoidal  masses,  the 
densest  ones  also  scratching  ruby  and  burning  in  oxygen  at 
1,800°.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  interesting  part  of  Moissan's  re- 
searches, as  it  confirms  the  long-since  suspected  fact  that  there  is 
a  whole  series  of  carbon  molecules  each  of  which  is  composed  of 
a  different  number  of  atoms,  and  some  of  which  must  be  very 
complex. 

As  to  the  quantities  of  diamond  dust  obtained  in  this  way, 
they  were  extremely  small.  Several  cylinders  gave  no  diamonds 
at  all,  and  from  all  his  experiments  Moissan  could  not  collect 
even  a  few  milligrammes  (a  few  hundredth  parts  of  a  grain)  of 
the  precious  dust,  although  the  black  carbonados  were  quite  com- 
mon. But  a  sure  method  is  now  indicated,  and  its  further  devel- 
opment is  only  a  matter  of  time  and  perseverance. 

The  scientific  value  of  these  researches  is  undoubtedly  very 
great.  Diamond,  like  graphite  and  simple  charcoal,  is  pure  car- 
bon, but  all  attempts  at  fusing  carbon  or  dissolving  it  have  hith- 
erto failed ;  it  could  not  be  brought  into  a  liquid  condition  out  of 
which  it  afterward  might  crystallize.  However,  the  investiga- 
tions recently  made  into  the  carburization  of  iron,  especially  by 
Roberts  Austen,  tended  to  prove  that  in  steel  and  cast  iron  the 
carbon  is  not  simply  diffused  through  the  iron,  but  enters  with  it 
into  some  of  those  combinations  in  definite  proportions  which, 
like  all  solutions,  occupy  an  intermediate  position  between  real 
chemical  compounds  and  purely  physical  mixtures,  f  It  was 
reasonable,  therefore,  to  presume  that  carbon  is  brought  into  a 
liquid  condition  in  molten  iron,  and  that  under  certain  conditions 
it  may  crystallize  in  the  shape  of  diamonds  within  an  iron  mass. 
Moissan's  discovery  confirms  this  view.  On  the  other  side,  the 
researches  of  Moissan  and  Friedel  must  also  throw  some  light 

*  From  a  subsequent  communication  by  Moissan  we  learn  that  the  same  varieties  are 
found  in  the  diamond-bearing  earth  at  the  Cape. 

f  See  Recent  Science,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  October,  1892. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  625 

upon  the  great  questions  raised  by  Mendele'eff  as  regards  the  prob- 
able presence  and  prevalence  of  iron  and  carbon  compounds  in 
the  interior  of  the  globe,  the  formation  of  naphtha  out  of  these 
compounds,  and  other  extremely  interesting  geological  questions.* 

The  artificial  reproduction  of  the  diamond  must  also  be  viewed 
as  a  further  step  in  a  long  succession  of  researches  which  have 
been  lately  pursued  for  artificially  reproducing  all  sorts  of  min- 
erals, the  formation  of  which  had  long  remained  a  puzzle  for 
mineralogists.  The  silicates  which  were  formerly  considered  as 
impossible  to  reproduce  in  the  laboratory  have  yielded  within  the 
last  few  years  before  the  efforts  of  the  chemists.  Sarrasin,  Haute- 
feuille,  and  especially  Friedel,  have  reproduced  different  varieties 
of  the  chief  constituent  mineral  of  our  crystalline  rocks — feldspar 
— and  the  artificial  crystals  are  absolutely  identical  with  those 
found  in  Nature.  Hornblende,  which  had  long  defied  the  efforts 
of  the  explorers,  has  been  finally  obtained  in  1891  by  K.  Chrust- 
choff,  after  he  had  spent  seven  years  in  unsuccessful  attempts ;  f 
but  in  order  to  reproduce  it  he  had  to  heat  its  constituent  ele- 
ments for  three  months  at  a  temperature  of  nearly  1,000°.  The 
importance  of  a  high  temperature  for  further  achievements  was 
rendered  still  more  evident  in  Freiny's  successful  reproduction 
of  the  ruby.  The  ruby  is,  of  course,  quite  different  from  the 
diamond.  Like  the  sapphire  and  the  corundum,  it  is  nothing  but 
alumina — that  is,  a  compound  of  two  atoms  of  aluminium  with 
three  atoms  of  oxygen,  colored  by  some  impurities  in  red,  in  blue, 
or  in  brown.  But  for  a  long  time  alumina  would  not  crystallize 
in  our  laboratories.  Later  on,  Fre'my  obtained  a  very  fine  dust  of 
rubies ;  but  when  he  submitted  the  constituent  parts  of  the  ruby 
to  a  temperature  of  2,700°,  and  maintained  the  same  temperature 
for  one  hundred  consecutive  hours,  he  was  rewarded  by  full-sized 
crystals  of  the  precious  stone,  big  enough  and  in  sufficient  num- 
bers to  have  a  collar  made  of  them.  And,  finally,  the  investiga- 
tion of  Friedel,  Le  Chatelier,  and  especially  F.  Fouque'  and 
Michel  Levy,  who  reproduced  a  micaceous  trachyte  containing 
feldspar,  spinel,  and  mica,  demonstrated  the  necessity  of  resorting 
to  a  high  pressure  in  addition  to  a  high  temperature. 

To  extend  the  range  of  high  temperatures  hitherto  obtained, 
and  to  devise  a  means  of  measuring  them,  was  thus  the  first  con- 
dition for  further  progress  in  the  reproduction  of  minerals  and 
gems.  But  the  measurement  of  high  temperatures  is  a  very  diffi- 
cult problem  which  has  much  occupied  of  late  several  prominent 
physicists  and  chemists.  A  thermo-electric  thermometer,  made 
of  two,  very  resistant  metals  (platinum  and  an  alloy  of  platinum 

*  See,  in  Mendel6effs  Principles  of  Chemistry,  the  footnotes  to  the  chapters  on  carbon 
and  iron.  f  Comptes  Rendus,  1891,  tome  cxii. 

VOL.  XLIII. — 45 


626  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

with  rhodium),  and  graduated  with  the  aid  of  the  air  ther- 
mometer, finally  came  into  general  use,  and  it  proved  to  be  quite 
reliable — but  only  up  to  3,000°  Fahr.,*  which  temperature  was 
soon  surpassed.  Then,  Le  Chatelier  devised  a  pyrometer  based 
on  the  variations  of  intensity  of  light  of  fused  metals  at  different 
temperatures,  and  this  instrument  again  proved  to  be  sufficiently 
accurate  up  to  3,600° ;  but  this  last  temperature,  too,  is  now  sur- 
passed by  Moissan,  by  means  of  his  new  electric  furnace,  which 
is  a  real  model  of  efficiency  and  simplicity.!  It  consists  of  two 
superposed  bricks,  made  of  quicklime,  or  of  an  especially  pure 
calcinated  magnesia.  A  groove  with  a  small  cavity  in  its  middle 
(large  enough  to  receive  a  small  crucible)  is  made  on  the  upper 
face  of  the  lower  brick  in  the  sense  of  its  length,  and  two  carbon 
electrodes  are  introduced  from  both  sides  into  the  groove.  As 
soon  as  they  are  connected  with  a  dynamo  machine  the  electric 
arc  appears  between  their  extremities,  and  an  immensely  high 
temperature  is  produced  in  the  cavity.  Thus,  a  small  Edison 
machine,  worked  by  a  gas  engine  of  eight  horse  power,  gave  a 
temperature  estimated  at  about  4,500°  Fahr.,  and  with  a  fifty- 
horse-power  engine  the  enormous  temperature  of  about  5,400° 
(3,000°  C.)  was  reached. 

The  effects  of  this  little  furnace  are  simply  wonderful.  At 
about  4,500°  lime,  strontia,  and  magnesia  are  crystallized  in  a  few 
minutes.  At  5,400°  the  very  substance  of  the  bricks  is  fused  and 
flows  like  water.  Oxides  of  various  metals  which  were  considered 
as  quite  irreducible  are  deprived  of  their  oxygen  in  no  time; 
nickel,  cobalt,  manganese,  and  chrome  oxides  can  be  reduced  at  a 
lecture  experiment,  and  a  piece  of  120  grammes  of  pure  uranium 
is  obtained  at  once  from  the  uranium  oxide.  At  about  4,050°  pure 
alumina  is  fused  and  little  rubies  are  formed  ;  true,  they  are  less 
beautiful  than  those  of  Fre'my,  but  the  whole  experiment  lasts  less 
than  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  At  a  higher  temperature  alumina  is 
even  volatilized,  and  nothing  is  left  of  it  in  the  crucible.  In  short, 
the  results  are  as  interesting  and  as  promising  as  those  which 
Pictet  and  Dewar  have  witnessed  when  they  went  to  the  other 
end  of  the  thermometric  scale  and  produced  the  extremely  low 
temperatures  of  about  200°  C.  below  the  freezing  point. 

And,  finally,  Moissan's  discovery  establishes  a  new  link  be- 
tween the  processes  which  we  obtain  in  our  laboratories  and 
those  which  are  going  on  in  the  celestial  spaces,  in  the  formation 
of  meteorites.  It  was  known  long  since  that  these  masses  of 
silicates  and  nickeled  iron  which  travel  in'  the  interplanetary 


*  C.  Barus  in  Philosophical  Magazine,  fifth  series,  xxxiv,  376 ;  L.  Holborn  and  W.  Wien 
n  Wiedemann's  Annalen,  xlvii,  10Y. 

f  Comptes  Rendus,  December  12,  1892,  tome  cxv. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  627 

spaces  and,  entering  occasionally  into  the  sphere  of  attraction  of 
the  earth,  fall  upon  its  surface,  sometimes  contain  charcoal  or  -a 
special  variety  of  graphite ;  but  later  on,  in  1887,  the  St.  Peters- 
burg Professors  Latchinoff  and  Erofdeff  went  a  step  further 
and  proved  that  the  charcoal  is  occasionally  transformed  into 
diamonds;  thus  they  extracted  some  diamond  dust  from  the 
meteorite  fallen  during  the  previous  year  at  Novo  Urei,  in  the 
province  of  Penza.  Some  doubts  were,  however,  entertained  as 
regards  their  discovery,  but  the  fact  has  been  fully  confirmed 
since  by  Friedel  and  Le  Bel,  who  found  in  a  meteorite  from 
Canon  Diablo  minute  diamonds  and  carbonados  exactly  similar 
to  those  of  Moissan.* 

It  is  thus  evident  that  the  artificial  reproduction  of  the 
diamond  is  not  one  of  those  accidental  discoveries  which  may  be 
made  without  leaving  an  impression  upon  science  for  many  years 
to  come.  It  is  only  one  of  the  many  advances  made  in  a  certain 
direction,  and  is  the  outcome  of  the  whole  drift  of  modern  research 
which  endeavors  immensely  to  widen  the  means  at  our  disposal 
for  effecting  physical  and  chemical  transformations  of  matter. 
It  is  one  step  more  into  a  new  domain  where  chemistry,  metal- 
lurgy, and  mineralogy  join  hands  together  for  revealing  by  joint 
efforts  the  secrets  of  the  constructive  forces  of  matter. 

The  study  of  the  direct  action  of  environment  upon  organisms, 
and  of  the  mechanism  of  its  action,  becomes  a  favorite  study 
among  biologists — the  "  transf ormists  "  being  no  more  a  few  ex- 
ceptions in  science,  but  already  constituting  a  school  which  has 
several  brilliant  representatives  in  America,  France,  and  Germany, 
as  well  as  in  this  country.  It  is  evident  that  almost  none  of  the 
biologists  engaged  in  this  kind  of  research  maintains  any  doubts 
as  to  the  importance  of  natural  selection  as  a  factor  of  evolution. 
To  use  the  words  of  one  of  the  leading  American  transf  ormists,  f 
"the  law  of  natural  selection  is  well  established,  and  no  more 
under  discussion."  For  many  adaptations  it  offers  the  best  and 
the  only  possible  explanation.  But  biology  would  have  been 
brought  to  a  standstill  if  the  idea  had  prevailed  that,  after  a  more 
or  less  plausible  explanation  of  some  adaptation  has  been  given 
under  the  hypothesis  of  natural  selection,  nothing  more  is  left  to 
be  done  to  explain  this  same  adaptation.  For  many  animals  whose 
manners  of  life  we  hardly  know  at  all — the  study  of  animal  life 
having  been  deplorably  neglected  for  the  last  fifty  years — the  ex- 
planation would  often  be  little  better  than  a  mere  hypothesis ;  but 

*  Comptes  Rendus,  December  12,  1892,  tome  cxv,  p.  1039 ;  also  February  18,  1893. 
f  H.  F.  Osborn,  whose  admirable  essays,  mentioned  in  a  previous  review,  are  now  pub- 
lished in  book  form. 


628  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

even  in  the  best  cases  the  very  origin  of  each  variation  would  still 
remain  to  be  found.  Darwin  fully  understood  this  necessity ;  and 
the  physiological  and  mechanical  origin  of  variations  is  what  so 
many  biologists  are  now  working  at.  Several  such  investigations 
are  already  well  known  to  English  readers  through  the  works  of 
Cope,  Semper,  Lloyd  Morgan,  J.  T.  Cunningham,  and  P.  Geddes. 
Many  others  ought  to  be  analyzed  and  discussed  ;  but  for  the  time 
being  I  can  only  mention  a  few  recent  works  relative  to  the  origin 
of  animal  colors. 

Wherever  we  go  we  see  animals  colored  in  accordance  with 
their  surroundings.  White  and  light  gray  colors  predominate  in 
the  arctic  regions ;  tawny  and  yellow  colors  in  the  deserts ;  gor- 
geous colors  in  tropical  lands.  The  striped  tiger  in  the  jungle  is 
hardly  recognizable  among  the  shadows  of  the  tall  grasses.  Insects 
resemble  the  flowers  which  they  usually  visit ;  caterpillars  have 
the  colors  and  often  the  forms  of  the  twigs  and  the  leaves  they 
feed  upon.  Dusty-colored  nocturnal  insects;  moths  which  take 
autumnal  tints  if  they  begin  life  in  autumn ;  dark  squirrels  in  the 
dark  larch  forests,  and  red  squirrels  in  the  Scotch-fir  groves; 
animals  changing  their  color  with  the  season — all  these  are  famil- 
iar instances.  But  are  they  all  due  to  natural  selection  alone  ? 
Does,  not  environment  take  some  part  in  itself  producing  these 
colors  ? 

In  a  very  suggestive  work*,  Alfred  Tylor  has  shown  in  how 
far  the  different  markings  and  the  diversified  coloration  of  animals 
follow  the  chief  lines  of  structure ;  and  A.  R.  Wallace  has  readily 
admitted  that,  while  the  fundamental  or  ground  colors  of  animals 
are  due  to  natural  selection,  the  markings  are  probably  due  to 
internal  physiological  causes.  \  Coloration  responds  to  function ; 
and  there  is  a  law  in  the  distribution  of  colors  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  markings,  while  there  ought  to  be  none  under  the 
hypothesis  of  selected  accidental  variations.  Wallace  goes  even  a 
step  further,  and  shows  that  those  birds  possess  the  most  brilliant 
colors  which  have  developed  frills,  chests,  and  elongated  tails,  or 
immense  tail-coverts,  or  immensely  expanded  wing  feathers,  all 
appearing  near  to  where  the  activities  of  the  most  powerful 
muscle  of  the  body  would  be  at  a  maximum.  He  considers  "  a 
surplus  of  vital  energy,"  increased  at  certain  periods,  as  a  vera 
causa  for  the  origin  of  ornamental  appendages  of  birds  and  other 
animals.  And  it  is  difficult  to  examine  these  and  like  facts  with- 
out coming  to  the  same  conclusion. 

But  if  partial  vigorous  coloration  is  so  much  dependent  upon 
vital  energy,  is  it  not  possible  to  suppose  that  the  decoloration  of 
animals  with  the  approach  of  the  winter  is  in  some  way  connected 

*  Coloration  in  Animals  and  Plants.     London,  1886.  f  Darwinism,  p.  288  et  seq. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  629 

with  a  decrease  of  vital  energy,  especially  if  we  take  into  account 
the  permanent  white  colors  of  domesticated  animals  in  arctic 
regions  (such  as  the  Yakutsk  horse),  which  can  not  be  dependent 
upon  natural  selection  ?  Some  recent  observations  give  a  certain 
support  to  this  supposition.  Thus  we  now  learn  that  rabbits 
which  have  been  taken  to  the  Pic  du  Midi  Observatory  (9,500  feet 
above  the  sea  level)  have  given  in  seven  years  a  race  somewhat 
different  from  their  congeners  in  the  surrounding  plains.  They 
are  a  little  smaller,  have  less  developed  ears,  and  their  fur  coats 
are  of  a  lighter  color  and  very  thick.  Moreover,  the  very  consist- 
ence of  their  blood  has  undergone  a  notable  change.  It  contains 
more  iron,  and  possesses  a  greater  power  of  absorption  for  oxygen.* 
An  anatomical  change  is  thus  produced  by  the  environment ;  and 
no  naturalist  will  doubt  that,  if  the  race  continues  to  multiply  for 
a  great  number  of  years  in  the  same  conditions,  it  will  maintain 
its  present  characters  or  develop  new  ones  on  the  same  lines,  the 
more  rapidly  so  if  natural  selection  eliminates  the  less  adapted 
individuals. 

A  few  more  additions  in  the  same  direction  may  be  found  in  a 
valuable  work  recently  published  by  F.  E.  Beddard.  f  Thus,  he 
mentions  the  researches  of  Dr.  Eisig,  J  who  has  endeavored  to 
explain  the  ground  colors  of  some  animals  as  dependent  upon 
their  food,  and  has  shown,  for  instance,  that  the  yellow  color  of 
an  annelid  which  is  living  on  a  yellow  marine  sponge  (a  color 
which  might  be  explained  as  protective  for  the  parasite)  depends 
upon  the  yellow  pigment  of  the  sponge  absorbed  by  the  annelid. 
The  prevalence  of  crimson  colors  among  some  fishes  in  a  certain 
part  of  the  New  England  coast,  which  is  covered  with  scarlet  and 
crimson  seaweeds,  is  explained  by  J.  Browne  Goode  by  the  red 
pigment  derived  by  the  crustaceans  from  the  algse  with  which 
their  stomachs  are  full,  the  crustaceans  being  devoured  by  the 
fishes.  And  the  experiments  of  Mr.  Guyson  relative  to  the  effects 
of  different  food  plants  upon  a  number  of  species  of  moths, 
as  well  as  those  of  Mr.  J.  Tawell  upon  important  modifications 
produced  by  food  in  the  larvae  of  the  large  tortoise-shell  butterfly, 
both  mentioned  in  the  same  work,  are  attempts  in  a  most  im- 
portant but  very  young  branch  of  experimental  morphology. 

Another  series  of  researches  is  now  being  made  with  the  view 
of  more  deeply  penetrating  into  the  physiological  causes  of  animal 
coloration.  Thus,  it  is  a  fact  well  known  to  fishermen,  and  now 


*  Comptcs  Rendus,  January  2,  1891,  tome  cxii. 

\  F.  E.  Beddard,  Animal  Coloration ;  an  Account  of  the  Principal  Facts  and  Theories 
relating  to  the  Colors  and  Markings  of  Animals,  London,  1892. 

\  Fauna  und  Flora  des  Golfes  von  Xeapel :  die  Capitelliden,  quoted  by  Mr.  Beddard, 
loc.  cit.,  p.  101. 


630  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

confirmed  by  direct  experiment,  namely,  by  Westhoff,  that  several 
fresh- water  and  marine  fishes  change  their  color  from  white  to 
dark  as  soon  as  they  have  been  transferred  from  a  medium  with 
a  light-colored  bottom  to  another  medium  the  bottom  of  which  is 
dark.  Fishermen,  we  are  told  by  Mr.  Poulton,  even  keep  their 
bait  in  white-colored  vessels  in  order  to  make  it  assume  a  lighter 
color.  The  common  frog  also  can  change  its  color  to  some  extent 
in  harmony  with  its  surroundings,  while  the  green  tree-frog  of 
southern  Europe  was  long  since  known  for  this  capacity.  It  is 
bright  green  among  green  leaves,  and  dark  green  when  seated  on 
the  earth  or  among  brown  leaves.*  Like  changes  are  also  known 
in  the  chameleon  and  in  some  South  American  Jizards.  The 
causes  of  these  changes  have  already  been  investigated  by  Pouchet 
in  1848  and  Briicke  in  1852,  but  now  we  have  a  more  elaborate 
research  by  JSiedermann  f  upon  the  same  subject.  He  has  dis- 
covered three  different  layers  of  cells  which  contribute  to  give 
the  frog  its  varying  colors.  There  is  first,  deeply  seated  in  the 
skin,  a  layer  of  pigment-cells  which  contain  black  pigment  both 
in  their  interior  and  in  their  ramified  processes,  spreading  within 
the  skin.  These  cells  are  covered  by  a  second  layer  of  "  interfer- 
ence-cells "  containing  bright  yellow  granules  as  well  as  granules 
of  a  pigment  which  sometimes  appear  blue  or  purple,  and  some- 
times gray — the  whole  being  covered  with  a  transparent  outer 
skin.  The  normal  green  color  of  the  frog  is  produced  by  a  com- 
bination of  blue  and  yellow  interference-cells  appearing  on  a 
black  background ;  but  if  the  black  pigment  of  the  deepest  layer 
is  protruded  into  its  ramifications,  the  color  of  the  animal  becomes 
darker ;  and  if  it  retires  deeper,  the  yellow  granules  of  the  middle 
layer  become  more  apparent,  and  the  frog  assumes  its  lemon- 
yellow  color.  Finally,  when  the  yellow  pigment  gathers  into 
round  drops  between  the  bluish  interference-cells — not  above 
them — the  skin  acquires  a  whitish-gray  tint.  The  same  arrange- 
ments exist  in  other  reptiles  and  amphibia. 

Now,  how  is  it  that  the  cells  change  their  position  in  various 
lights  ?  Is  it  some  reflex  action  in  the  nervous  system,  as  it 
appears  in  fishes,  which  cease  to  change  their  color  when  they 
become  blind  ?  Or  have  we  to  .deal  with  some  direct  action  of 
light  ?  Facts  are  in  favor  of  the  second  explanation.  The  slight- 
est change  of  temperature  affects  the  mutual  disposition  of  the 
pigment- cells,  and  consequently  the  color  of  the  frog ;  it  is  enough 
to  keep  the  animal  in  the  hand  to  provoke  a  contraction  of  its 
black  cells.  The  amount  of  blood-supply  also  has  a  definite  effect ; 

*  E.  B.  Poulton,  Colors  of  Animals,  London,  1890,  p.  82  et  seq. 

f  W.  Biedermann,  Ueber  den  Farbenwechsel  der  Frosche,  in  Pfluger's  Archiv  fur  Physi- 
ologie,  1892,  Bd.  li,  p.  455. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  631 

as  soon  as  a  certain  part  of  the  skin  receives  no  more  blood,  the 
color-cells  receive  less  oxygen,  the  black  cells  contract,  and  the 
animal  assumes  a  lighter  color.  But  the  effects  of  light  are  even 
more  interesting.  Pouchet  had  shown  that  those  fishes  which 
usually  adapt  their  color  to  their  dark  or  light  surroundings  cease 
to  do  so  when  they  have  lost  sight ;  they  remain  dark  even  in 
light  surroundings.*  The  indirect  effects  of  light  through  the 
intermediary  of  the  visual  organs  are  thus  certain.  But  Steinachf 
has  proved  that  light  acts  in  a  direct  way  as  well — perhaps,  we 
may  add,  in  the  same  way  as  it  acts  upon  the  chlorophyll  grains 
of  the  leaves.  He  glued  strips  of  black  paper  to  the  skin  of  frogs 
which  were  kept  in  the  dark,  and  when  these  animals  were 
exposed  to  light,  only  the  open  parts  of  their  skin  returned  to  a 
lighter  color,  while  the  covered  parts  remained  dark.  To  avoid 
all  doubts,  the  experiments  were  repeated  on  skin  separated  from 
the  body,  and  photograms  of  letters  and  flowers,  cut  out  of  black 
paper  and  glued  to  the  skin,  were  reproduced  upon  it.  Besides, 
blind  tree-frogs  do  not  darken  as  the  fishes  do,  and  Biedermann 
has  proved  that  the  chief  agency  of  their  changes  of  color  is  not 
in  the  sensations  derived  from  the  eye,  but  in  those  derived  from 
the  skin.  Frogs,  whether  blind  or  not,  become  dark  green,  or 
black,  if  they  are  kept  in  a  dark  vessel  in  a  sparingly  lighted 
room.  But  when  a  larger  branch  with  green  leaves  is  introduced 
into  the  vessel,  they  all  recover  their  bright-green  color,  whether 
blind  or  not.  In  some  way  unknown,  the  reflected  green  light 
acts  either  upon  the  nerves  of  the  skin,  or,  what  seems  more  prob- 
able, if  Steinach/s  experiments  are  taken  into  account,  directly 
upon  the  pigment-cells.  Moreover,  the  sensations  derived  from 
the  toes  have  also  an  influence  upon  the  changes  of  color.  When 
the  bottom  of  the  vessel  is  covered  with  felt,  or  with  a  thin  wire 
net,  the  frogs  also  become  black,  recovering  their  green  color 
when  a  green  branch  is  introduced  in  the  vessel. 

We  have  here  temporary  changes  of  color  produced  by  the 
surroundings ;  but  various  gradations  may  be  traced  between  the 
temporary  and  the  permanent  changes.  Thus  Lode  provoked  local 
contractions  of  the  pigment-cells  in  fishes  by  electrical  irritations 
applied  locally.  And  Franz  Wef ner's  researches  upon  the  color- 
ing of  snakes,  recently  embodied  in  a  separate  work,  I  show  that 
the  temporary  and  irregular  spots  which  appear  in  fishes  and 
frogs  under  the  influence  of  artificial  irritations  are  of  the  same 


*  Direct  observations  have  been  made  also  by  Alois  Lode  (Sitzungsberichte  of  the  Vienna 
Academy,  1890,  vol.  xcix,  3te  Abtheilung). 

f  Ueber  Farbenwechsel  bei  niederen  Wirbelthieren,  bedingt  durch  directe  Wirkung  des 
Lichtes  auf  die  Pigmentzellen,  Centralblatt  fttr  Physiologic,  1891,  Bd.  v,  p.  326. 

\  Franz  Werner,  Ueber  die  Zeichnungen  der  Schlangen,  Wien,  1890. 


632  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

character,  and  have  the  same  origin,  as  the  also  temporary  and 
irregular  spots  which  appear  in  other  fishes,  as  well  as  in  several 
tritons  and  many  Gekonides,  without  the  interference  of  man. 
Some  of  the  provoked  changes  of  color  do  not  entirely  vanish 
after  the  irritation  is  over,  and  they  belong  to  the  same  category 
as  the  spots  which  appear  in  many  animals  in  youth,  and  disap- 
pear with  growing  age.  Moreover,  it  is  maintained  that  a  series 
of  slow  gradations  may  be  established  between  the  irregular  spots, 
the  spots  arranged  in  rays,  and  finally  the  stripes,  such  as  we  see 
them  in  higher  mammals  like  the  zebra  or  the  tiger ;  and  if  these 
generalizations  prove  to  be  correct,  we  shall  thus  have  an  un- 
broken series,  from  the  temporary  spots  provoked  by  light  or 
electricity  to  the  permanent  markings  of  animals.* 

And,  finally,  attempts  are  being  made  to  explain  some  of  the 
wonderful  so-called  adaptive  colors  of  insects  as  a  direct  product 
of  environment.  Some  time  ago  (in  1867)  TV  W.  Wood  published 
experiments  upon  the  larvae  and  pupae  of  both  the  small  and  the 
large  cabbage  butterfly.  He  kept  the  larvae  during  their  meta- 
morphoses in  boxes  lined  with  paper  of  different  colors,  and  he 
found  that  the  colors  assumed  by  the  pupae  more  or  less  corre- 
sponded to  their  surroundings.  Later  on  E.  B.  Poulton  made  a 
wider  series  of  analogous  experiments,  and  he  saw  that  the  change 
of  color  is  accomplished  during  the  first  hours  when  the  larva 
spins  its  web ;  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  depends  upon  a 
certain  physiological  action  which  is  transmitted  to  the  nervous 
system,  not  only  through  the  visual  organs,  but  through  the 
whole  surface  of  the  skin.  These  facts  have  now  been  fully  con- 
firmed again  by  W.  Petersen,  f  but  his  explanation  is  of  a  more 
mechanical  character.  He  maintains  that  the  color  of  the  pupa 
depends  upon  the  pigment  contained  in  both  its  cuticle  and 
hypodermis.  The  pigment  of  the  latter  is  green  in  the  larva,  and 
sometimes  it  remains  green  during  the  pupal  stage ;  but  it  may 
be  visible  or  not,  according  to  the  amount  of  dark  pigment  which 
is  formed  in  the  cuticle,  and  the  amount  of  this  dark  pigment 
entirely  depends  upon  the  color  of  the  light.  Yellow  and  orange 
light  prevents  the  formation  of  the  dark  pigment,  and  in  such 
cases  the  cuticle,  which  remains  transparent,  shows  the  green 
pigment  of  the  hypodermis.  But  the  less  bright  parts  of  the 
spectrum  have  not  the  same  power,  and  if  we  trace  a  curve  rep- 
resenting the  powers  of  the  various  parts  of  the  spectrum  for 
preventing  the  formation  of  a  dark  pigment,  the  curve  has  its 


*  See  the  polemics  engaged  upon  this  subject  in  Biologisches  Centralblatt,  December 
15,  1890,  and  July  15,  1891 ;  as  also  the  Zoologische  Jahrbiicher,  1891. 

f  Zur  Frage  der  Chromophotographie  bei  Schmetterlingen,  in  Sitzungsberichte  der  Dor- 
pater  Naturforscher-Gesellschaft,  1890,  vol.  x,  p.  232. 


RECENT  SCIENCE.  633 

culminating  point  in  the  yellow,  and  descends  toward  both  ends 
of  the  spectrum ;  it  exactly  corresponds  with  the  curve  of  assimi- 
lation of  carbon  by  plants  under  variously  colored  light.  It  is 
also  remarkable  that  the  green  color  of  the  pupa  is  only  obtained 
by  yellow  light,  or  by  such  green  as  contains  yellow  ;  such  is,  as 
known,  the  average  color  of  leaves.  We  thus  have  a  case  where  en- 
vironment itself  makes  the  color  which  approximately  matches  it. 
The  meaning  of  these  researches  is  self-evident.  No  naturalist 
will  probably  attempt  to  explain  the  animal  colors  and  markings 
without  the  aid  of  natural  selection.  But  it  becomes  less  and  less 
probable  to  admit  that  the  animal  colors  are  a  result  of  a  selection 
of  accidental  variations  only.  The  food  of  the  organism,  and 
especially  the  amount  of  salt  in  it,  the  dryness  or  moisture  of  the 
air,  the  amount  of  sunshine,  and  so  on,  undoubtedly  exercise  a 
direct  effect  on  the  color  of  the  skin,  on  the  fur,  and  on  the  very 
intimate  anatomical  structure  of  the  animal.  As  to  the  relative 
parts  which  must  be  attributed  in  the  origin  of  each  separate 
variation  to  natural  selection  on  the  one  side,  and  to  the  direct 
action  of  environment  on  the  other  side,  it  would  simply  be  un- 
scientific to  trench  upon  such  questions  in  a  broadcast  way,  so 
long  as  we  are  only  making  our  first  steps  in  discriminating  the 
action  of  the  latter  agency.  The  first  steps  already  indicate  how 
complicated  such  questions  are,  especially  in  those  cases  where 
natural  selection  must  act  in  an  indirect  way — not  as  a  mere 
selection  of  already  modeled  forms,  but  as  a  selection  of  forms 
best  capable  to  respond  to  the  requirements  of  new  conditions — 
in  which  case  the  intimate  organization  of  the  living  being  comes 
in  the  first  place.  All  we  may  say  at  the  present  moment  is  that 
the  direct  modifying  action  of  environment  is  very  great,  and 
that  no  theory  can  claim  to  be  scientific  unless  it  takes  it  into 
consideration  to  its  full  amount. — Nineteenth  Century. 


MR.  W.  ROE,  of  the  Cape  Colony,  has  pointed  out  a  disadvantage  connected 
with  irrigation.  Most  water  used  for  the  purpose  contains  variable  quantities  of 
soluble  salts,  some  of  which  are  not  taken  up  largely  by  plants.  Every  applica- 
tion of  water,  therefore,  adds  to  the  saline  ingredients  of  the  soil — a  very  differ- 
ent effect  from  that  of  excess  of  rain  water,  which,  so  far  as  there  is  open  subsoil 
for  it  to  drain  away,  would  be  likely  to  take  out  rather  than  add  to  the  soluble 
salines  in  the  soil.  The  mischief  of  the  accumulation  of  salts  in  the  soil  is  aggra- 
vated in  a  dry-air  land  where  evaporation  is  great.  The  air,  acting  like  a  sponge 
OQ  a  surface,  takes  up  the  water,  leaving  the  accumulated  salts  in  the  surface  soil. 
But  this  surface  soil  is  as  the  sponge  to  the  layer  beneath.  Constantly  after  each 
water-leading,  the  water  is  drawn  to  the  surface  and  evaporated,  leaving  the  ac- 
cumulated salts  in  the  surface  soil.  The  harm  done  by  this  accumulated  salt  will 
depend  on  the  nature  and  quantity  of  the  salines  in  the  water  used,  as  also  upon 
the  quantity  of  water  supplied. 
VOL.  XLIII. — 46 


634-  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


THE  PILGRIM   PATH  OF  CHOLERA. 

BY  ERNEST  HART,  F.  R.  C.  S., 

EDITOR   OF   THE   BRITISH   MEDICAL   JOURNAL;    CHAIRMAN   OF   THE   ENGLISH   HEALTH   SOCIETY. 

WITH  cholera  steadily  creeping  toward  our  shores,  and  all 
Europe  standing  armed  against  the  invader,  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  the  extremest  interest  to  inquire  how  the  disease  escapes 
from  its  home  in  India,  under  what  influences  it  becomes  able  to 
break  its  bounds,  invade  the  outer  world,  and  carry  death  and 
devastation  into  countries  where  not  only  has  it  no  natural  home, 
but  where  it  is  so  far  an  exotic  that  even  after  repeated  attempts 
it  fails  to  become  acclimatized. 

India  is  the  endemic  home  of  cholera,  and  from  some  parts  of 
that  great  country  it  is  seldom  entirely  absent.  In  1881  there 
were  in  India  161,000  deaths  from  cholera;  in  1887,  488,000;  in 
1888,  270,000.  The  heat,  the  moisture,  the  necessity  of  drinking 
stored  water,  and  the  habits  of  the  people  which  make  that  water 
foul,  all  combine  to  plant  firmly  in  the  district  a  contagium  like 
that  of  cholera.  For  the  living  infection,  the  contagium  vivum  of 
this  disease,  enters  man's  body  in  the  water  which  he  drinks, 
while  in  return  it  enters  the  water  by  means  of  the  sick  man's 
discharges.  A  vicious  circle  is  thus  set  up.  Given  a  temperature 
and  perhaps  a  condition  of  water  in  which  this  contagium  can 
retain  its  vitality  outside  man's  body,  and  a  state  of  society  in 
which  the  fouling  of  the  water  and  the  drinking  of  it  when  foul 
are  daily  habits,  and  we  have  before  us  the  essentials  necessary  to 
render  the  disease  endemic. 

Whether  this  living  contagious  matter  be  a  bacillus  or  a 
spirocheete  is  almost  beside  the  present  question,  and  under  what 
circumstances  of  water  and  soil  it  grows  and  propagates,  or  mere- 
ly rests,  is  again  for  our  present  purpose  not  of  much  impor- 
tance. What  is  certain  and  what  is  of  extreme  importance  is 
that  incontestably  within  the  human  body  it  grows  enormously ; 
that  every  individual  sufferer  from  cholera  is  constantly  discharg- 
ing an  untold  multitude  of  contagious  particles,  which  are  capa- 
ble of  again  setting  up  the  disease  afresh  in  any  one  by  whom 
they  are  swallowed ;  and  therefore  that  if  these  contagious  par- 
ticles are  swept  by  rain  showers  into  streams  or  wells,  or  if  the 
water  in  which  linen  soiled  by  them  is  washed  percolates  into 
tanks  or  ponds,  the  water  so  fouled  is  specifically  poisonous  and 
will  produce  cholera  in  those  who  drink  it,  just  as  arsenic  mixed 
in  water  will  produce  arsenical  poisoning. 

It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  to  many,  who  have  the  proofs  of  this 
vicious  circle  nakedly  before  them,  that  the  truth  so  long  lay 
hidden,  and  that  even  yet  men  who  have  lived  much  among  chol- 


THE  PILGRIM  PATH   OF   CHOLERA.  635 

era,  and  who  have  had  large  experience  of  it,  should  hesitate  to 
admit  the  fact  that  the  way  in  which  the  infection  parted  with 
by  the  one  sufferer  gets  round  to  another  is  by  the  water  which 
the  one  man  fouls  and  which  the  other  drinks.  But,  as  a  fact, 
those  who  dwell  in  the  midst  of  an  endemic  area,  although  they 
may  have  exceptional  opportunities  for  studying  the  disease 
itself,  its  symptoms,  its  treatment,  and  its  pathology,  are  not 
always  so  well  placed  for  the  investigation  of  its  mode  of  dis- 
semination as  those  whose  lot  is  cast  in  places  where  the  disease 
is  but  of  exceptional  occurrence.  In  an  endemic  area  the  chances 
of  infection  are  so  various  and  complicated,  the  difficulty  of  elimi- 
nating other  modes  of  access  so  enormous,  that  it  is  often  hard 
in  the  extreme  to  prove  the  particular  route  by  which  the  malady 
has  reached  its  billet.  In  non-endemic  areas,  however,  things 
are  very  different.  The  disease  may  not  have  appeared  in  the 
district  for  months  or  years ;  the  source  of  the  infection,  the  first 
in-carrier  of  the  disease,  may  usually  be  known  at  once,  and  all 
his  previous  doings  may  be  ascertained.  With  patience  every 
mode  of  contact  or  communication  between  the  first  and  subse- 
quent sufferers  may  be  traced  out,  free  from  the  interfering  influ- 
ence of  possible  infection  from  other  sources  covert  and  concealed 
all  around.  Thus  it  happens  that  much  of  our  most  useful  knowl- 
edge on  the  subject  comes  from  the  investigation  of  the  disease 
as  it  has  appeared  in  isolated  epidemics  rather  than  in  endemic 
areas. 

For  Dr.  Snow,  of  London,  I  must  once  more  claim  the  great 
honor  of  being  the  first  to  recognize  water  as  a  medium  of  dis- 
seminating cholera.  His  deductions  to  this  effect,  from  his  ob- 
servations of  cholera  in  England  between  1848  and  1854,  were,  as 
I  have  elsewhere  shown,  confirmed  by  the  elaborate  investigation 
of  Farr  and  Simon  ;  and  in  1866,  following  in  the  same  footsteps, 
I  placed  the  corner  stone  of  the  edifice  by  tracing  the  disastrous 
cholera  epidemic  of  that  year  in  East  London  to  the  distribution 
of  polluted  and  partially  filtered  water  from  the  river  Lee,  by 
the  East  London  Water  Company — the  poisonous  sewage  of  one 
family  distributed  unfiltered  for  forty-eight  miles.  Since  that 
startling  experience,  I  have  been  convinced  that  specifically  pol- 
luted water  is  not  merely  an  occasional  or  adjuvant  cause,  but  the 
causa  causans  of  almost  every  great  epidemic  of  Asiatic  cholera. 

The  earliest  important  instance  in  which  the  agency  of  water 
as  a  disseminator  of  cholera  was  clearly  demonstrated  was  that 
of  the  Broad  Street  pump  in  St.  James's,  Westminster.  The  first 
death  in  the  parish  was  recorded  early  in  August,  1854,  and 
throughout  that  month  a  few  deaths  occurred  each  week,  but 
during  the  week  ending  September  2d,  seventy-eight  deaths  were 
registered,  in  the  next  week  there  were  two  hundred  and  eighty- 


636  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

seven  deaths,  in  the  following  week  there  were  sixty-seven,  and 
then  the  mortality  as  quickly  subsided  as  it  had  arisen.  No  satis- 
factory solution  of  this  mysterious  outbreak  presented  itself  until 
Dr.  Snow  was  called  in  to  examine  the  water  supplies.  His  pub- 
lished report  shows  the  clearly  marked  incidence  of  the  disease  on 
those  who  drank  from  the  parish  pump.  The  workers  in  one  par- 
ticular factory  where  the  water  was  always  used  suffered  severely 
from  cholera,  while  those  in  an  adjoining  brewery,  where  the 
water  was  never  touched,  escaped,  and  numerous  instances  of 
fatal  attacks  of  cholera  following  the  use  of  the  treacherously 
sparkling  water  from  this  pump  are  detailed.  On  the  drains  of 
the  house  adjoining  the  well  being  opened,  it  was  found  that 
there  was  a  cesspool  under  a  common  privy,  within  three  feet  of 
the  well,  and  at  a  higher  level  than  that  of  the  water  in  it ;  that 
the  walls  of  the  cesspool  being  rotten,  the  contents  leaked  into 
the  surrounding  soil ;  that  the  walls  of  the  well  were  also  rotten, 
and  that  there  was  distinct  evidence  of  the  cesspool  contents  hav- 
ing for  a  long  time  leaked  into  the  well.  Then  came  the  startling 
fact  that  in  the  house  itself  a  child  aged  five  months  had  died  on 
September  3d,  of  so-called  "  diarrhoea,"  but  with  distinctly  chole- 
raic symptoms. 

In  1866  England  was  again  invaded  by  cholera,  and  that  epi- 
demic is  memorable  for  the  terrible  experiment  which  was  un- 
consciously carried  oiit  by  a  water  company  at  the  expense 
of  some  four  thousand  lives  in  East  London.  Early  in  the 
outbreak  I  was  struck  by  its  incidence  on  the  area  supplied  by 
the  East  London  Water  Company,  and  I  felt  confident  that  it 
could  only  be  due  to  a  sudden  specific  pollution  of  the  water  sup- 
ply. Acting  on  behalf  of  a  great  medical  journal,  I  dispatched 
the  late  Mr.  J.  Netten  Radcliffe — who  had  not  then  become 
attached  to  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Privy  Council — to 
investigate  the  matter.  After  much  trouble,  the  result  showed 
that  owing  to  changes  having  been  made  in  their  filtering  appa- 
ratus, the  company  had  sent  out  for  a  few  days  unfiltered  water, 
or  water  in  a  very  partially  filtered  state,  direct  from  the  river 
Lee,  which  had  just  at  that  moment  become  infected  with  chol- 
eraic discharges  from  a  cottage,  the  sewers  of  which  were  con- 
nected with  the  river,  and  in  which  a  family  had  come  to  reside 
who  had  reached  Southampton  infected  with  cholera  and  had 
been  allowed  to  pass  on  after  they  were  supposed  to  have  re- 
covered. 

These  things  are  now  ancient  history,  and  are  only  here  re- 
peated as  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  wherever  a  single  out- 
break can  be  isolated  and  examined  separately,  without  the  intru- 
sion of  cases  of  cholera  from  round  about,  the  disease  is  seen  to 
be  obviously  carried  to  the  patients'  mouths  by  the  water  which 


638  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

they  drink.  The  same  was  shown  in  Egypt  in  1883,  in  France 
in  1884,  and  again  in  the  department  of  Finistere  almost  at  the 
present  time. 

In  Italy,  Naples  has  afforded  one  of  the  most  striking  examples 
of  the  same  thing.  Commencing  in  August,  1884,  the  epidemic 
spread  by  rapid  strides  until  September  llth,  and  then  rapidly 
fell.  Between  August  23d  and  November  9th  some  12,345  cases 
and  7,086  deaths  occurred  among  a  population  of  492,908.  At  that 
period  the  water  supply  of  Naples  was  mainly  derived  from 
trenches  running  from  house  to  house  underground,  and  was  ex- 
posed to  direct  contamination  not  only  by  soakage  of  filth,  but 
by  the  reckless  practice  of  washing  in  the  trenches  linen  soiled 
by  choleraic  discharges. 

In  the  following  year  Naples  was  supplied  with  pure  water 
from  a  distant  mountain  stream  (the  Serino),  and  there  followed 
a  marked  immunity  of  the  city  from  cholera,  notwithstanding  the 
presence  of  the  disease  in  the  neighborhood.  In  1887,  however, 
an  injury  to  the  Serino  water  conduit  led  to  a  temporary  return 
to  the  old  system,  and  two  sharp  explosions  of  cholera  at  once  en- 
sued, but  ceased  on  the  resumption  of  the  purer  supply.  Even 
more  demonstrative  was  the  case  of  Genoa,  a  city  provided  by 
means  of  three  aqueducts  with  an  excellent  supply  of  a  naturally 
good  water.  After  a  few  scattered  cases  a  sudden  and  widespread 
explosion  of  cholera  occurred  between  September  21st  and  24th, 
the  rich  and  the  poor  being  indiscriminately  attacked.  It  was 
soon  found  that  of  the  first  three  hundred  cases  ninety-three  per 
cent  were  in  houses  supplied  by  one  of  those  aqueducts  (the  Nico- 
lay),  and  on  following  that  watercourse  to  its  commencement 
near  the  village  of  Busalla,  thirteen  miles  distant,  a  colony  of 
workmen  was  found  encamped.  Cholera  had  broken  out  in 
Busalla  on  September  14th,  and  inquiry  disclosed  the  fact  that 
the  clothing  of  the  workmen,  both  of  the  sick  and  the  healthy, 
was  washed  in  the  river  Scrivia,  which  feeds  the  Nicolay  aque- 
duct. The  supply  of  this  water  to  Genoa  was  promptly  stopped 
on  September  28th,  and  the  epidemic  at  once  rapidly  declined. 

Everywhere  the  same  tale  is  told,  but  my  present  immediate 
object  is  to  insist  that  also  in  India,  the  "  home  of  cholera,"  it  is 
now  clear — to  me  at  least — that  water  is  the  agent  by  which  the 
infection  is  carried  from  one  human  being  to  another. 

The  experiences  of  Calcutta,  as  observed  by  Dr.  W.  J.  Simpson, 
the  able  health  officer  of  that  city,  show  that  those  persons  who 
have  an  abundant  and  pure  water  supply — namely,  the  Europeans 
and  better-class  natives — escape  cholera  epidemics,  except  in  iso- 
lated instances  which  can  generally  be  accounted  for ;  while  the 
natives  who  depend  on  tank  water  suffer  severely  when  a  tank 
becomes  polluted  by  the  excreta  of  a  cholera  patient. 


THE  PILGRIM  PATH   OF   CHOLERA.  639 

I  think  it  capable  of  proof  that  it  is  on  the  scarcity  of  water, 
and  on  the  habits  and  customs  which  have  grown  up  during 
centuries  of  suffering  from  that  scarcity,  that  the  existence  even  of 
the  "  endemic  area,"  the  natural  "  home  of  cholera,"  depends.  If 
this  be  admitted — and  I  think  it  can  no  longer  be  denied — the  fact 
and  necessary  inferences  from  it  are  of  vast  and  world-wide  impor- 
tance. The  natives  bathe  and  wash  their  utensils  and  clothes  in 
the  tank,  because  it  is  the  only  available  place  in  which  to  do  so, 
and  they  use  the  water  of  the  tank,  contaminated  as  it  is  in  addi- 
tion by  soakage  and  sewage,  for  cooking  and  drinking,  because  it 
is  the  only  water  supply  available  for  domestic  purposes. 

With  these  facts  before  us,  and  reading  them  in  the  light  of 
our  European  experience,  it  can  no  longer  be  doubted  by  thought- 
ful and  reasonable  persons  that  the  reason  why,  in  India  as  in 
other  places,  some  classes  escape  and  others  suffer,  is  that  some 
drink  pure  water  and  others  drink  water  contaminated  with  chol- 
eraic discharges. 

Nor  can  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  probability,  growing  stronger 
every  year,  that  the  true  meaning  of  the  term  "  endemic  area,"  in 
regard  to  cholera,  is  a  district  in  which  the  customs  of  the  people 
sanction  the  drinking  of  fecally  polluted  water,  and  in  which 
from  temperature,  and  perhaps  from  other  causes  incompletely 
known,  the  cholera  germ  or  contagium  can  easily  keep  alive  and 
propagate  itself  in  soil  or  water  in  the  interval  between  its  exit 
from  one  host  and  its  entry  into  another. 

Nothing  seems  more  certain  than  that  people  can  touch  chol- 
era patients,  and  rub  them,  handle  them,  and  live  with  them,  even 
in  the  midst  of  an  endemic  area,  and  not  catch  the  disease  so  long 
as  they  take  precautions  not  to  swallow  it. 

This  is  the  key  to  the  position,  the  horrid  truth,  the  dirty  fact, 
that  the  bacillus,  the  contagium  of  cholera,  lives  two  lives :  one, 
in  the  human  body,  causing  the  disease,  multiplying  within  the 
patient,  and  poured  forth  by  him  in  abundance ;  the  other,  outside 
the  body,  waiting  in  damp  ground,  on  soiled  linen,  in  dirty  water 
— waiting  to  be  swallowed  by  some  one  else  and  to  start  again  on 
its  destructive  course.  How,  then,  does  it  get  round  ?  We  know 
well  enough  that  the  outside  of  a  cholera  patient  is  not  infectious ; 
the  infection  comes  from  within,  with  the  discharges ;  how,  then, 
does  it  get  into  the  alimentary  canal  ?  How  can  it  get  round 
except  in  what  we  drink  ? 

This  is  what  I  mean  by  speaking  emphatically  of  cholera  being 
a  water-borne  disease.  It  is  not  that  cholera  is  a  disease  of  rivers 
and  watercourses  alone,  but  that,  whether  it  is  a  matter  of  rivers 
or  tanks  or  water  supplies,  or  merely  of  wash-basins,  jugs,  and 
water-bottles,  the  water  which  the  patient  drinks  is  the  vehicle 
by  which  the  poison  enters,  and  is  the  final  step  in  the  course  of 


THE  PILGRIM  PATH   OF   CHOLERA.  641 

the  infection  from  its  previous  breeding  ground  within  the  body 
of  a  previous  patient.  We  now  can  understand  why,  when  cholera 
spreads  and  breaks  its  bounds,  it  follows  the  lines  of  human  traffic 
and  communication.  Man,  in  fact,  is  the  porter  by  whom  the 
cholera  is  carried  from  place  to  place,  and  so  the  rate  of  diffusion 
depends  upon  the  rate  of  travel.  But,  as  no  one  porter  can  carry 
the  malady  further  than  he  can  go  between  the  time  of  being 
infected  and  being  struck  down,  the  wide  spread  of  the  disease 
depends  not  only  on  the  speed  of  the  porter,  but  on  the  sanitary 
condition  and  social  habits  of  the  place  where  he  is  taken  ill ;  for, 
if  these  are  such  that  he  can  transfer  his  load  to  others,  that  the 
infection  he  deposits  can  take  root  and  grow  in  the  bodies  of  fresh 
patients,  some  of  whom  may  travel  to  fresh  places  and  set  up 
fresh  foci  of  disease,  the  epidemic  spreads;  but  if,  from  cleanly 
habits  or  clean  surroundings,  or  from  plentiful  supply  of  pure 
water,  the  infection  fails  to  pass  from  body  to  body,  the  mal- 
ady dies  out,  and  there  is  an  end  of  the  matter.  King  Chol- 
era is,  in  truth,  a  lazy  and  voluptuous  potentate;  unless  he  is 
carried  by  quick  steamers,  he  will  not  travel  far  without  a  rest, 
and  when  he  reaches  his  destination  he  declines  either  to  ad- 
vance or  show  his  power  unless  he  is  nourished  and  pampered 
with  his  beloved  luxuries  of  dirt  and  filth  and  fecally  contami- 
nated water. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Indian  "  endemic  area  "  are  a  conserva- 
tive race — the  son  lives  like  the  father ;  one  generation  passes  on 
like  another,  and  centuries  of  intermittent  pestilence  and  famine 
have  till  lately  kept  down  the  population  to  exactly  tally  with 
the  means  of  sustenance.  The  village  community  has  been  for 
ages  the  unit  which,  multiplied  by  thousands,  has  made  up  the 
population.  Each  village  has  mostly  kept  to  itself,  and,  except 
for  the  wars  of  their  rulers,  the  passage  of  their  traders,  and  their 
occasional  pilgrimages,  they  have  for  time  immemorial  lived  an 
isolated  life.  At  times  of  pilgrimage,  however,  all  this  isolation 
is  cast  aside,  and  pilgrims  from  widely  scattered  districts  rub 
shoulders  in  the  bathing  places,  wash  and  cleanse  their  bodies 
and  their  clothes  in  the  same  water,  which  in  turn  they  drink  in 
an  unsavory  fellowship. 

Disease  may  remain  for  long  tied  up  in  a  single  village ;  nay, 
a  whole  village  may  die  of  cholera,  and  do  but  little  damage  to 
their  neighbors ;  but  in  times  of  pilgrimage  cholera  travels  with 
the  pilgrims,  and,  after  the  festival  is  over,  is  scattered  broadcast 
through  the  land.  Such  fairs  as  that  at  Hurdwar,  at  the  junction 
of  the  hills  and  plains,  outside  the  endemic  area,  but  attended 
largely  by  those  who  dwell  within,  have  beyond  doubt  been  the 
great  gateways  by  which  cholera  has  periodically  escaped  from 
its  confines  to  ravage  the  world  at  large.  Of  this  the  historic 


642  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

records  give  abundant  evidence,  especially  in  the  epidemics  of 
1867  and  1879. 

But,  spread  all  over  the  country,  especially  in  its  northern 
parts,  there  is  a  large  Mohammedan  population,  from  among 
whom  there  pours  out  an  annual  pilgrimage  which  wends  its  way 
to  Mecca,  the  holy  place  which  every  faithful  Moslem  strives  to 
reach — a  pilgrimage  which  of  late  years  has  been  a  recurring 
danger  to  the  Western  world,  having  been  the  means  of  introduc- 
ing to  Egypt  in  1866  that  outbreak  of  cholera  which  carried  off 
sixty  thousand  of  its  inhabitants  in  the  course  of  three  months ; 
and  of  sending  on  to  England  the  infection,  which  destroyed  six 
thousand  people  in  London ;  besides  being  the  origin  of  the  vari- 
ous epidemics  which  have  fallen  so  heavily  on  the  south  of 
Europe,  although  they  have  not  done  great  harm  to  our  own  more 
favored  land. 

The  fairs  and  pilgrimages  of  the  East  constitute  the  danger  of 
the  West,  and  it  is  now  recognized  in  every  land  that  this  danger 
is  vastly  aggravated  by  the  greater  rapidity  of  communication  in 
these  latter  days.  When  by  weary  marches,  or  sailing  in  small 
boats,  tacking  day  after  day  against  opposing  winds,  months,  nay 
sometimes  years,  were  spent  in  the  journey,  those  who  were  taken 
ill  died  in  the  transit;  whole  caravans  melted  away,  and  ships 
with  cholera-stricken  crews  were  lost,  together  with  their  crowded 
cargo  of  holy  pilgrims,  and  thus  the  outer  world  was  saved.  But 
with  quicker  means  of  communication,  with  railways  and  steam- 
boats, and  the  general  hurry  of  modern  life,  pilgrims  also  have 
quickened  their  pace,  and,  what  is  most  important,  have  length- 
ened the  stages  and  lightened  the  labor  of  their  journey,  so  that 
the  infected  ones  have  lived  through  hundreds  instead  of  tens  of 
miles  before  they  dropped,  and  have  thus  surmounted  the  barrier 
of  desert  and  of  sea  by  which  Europe  was  formerly  protected. 
No  longer  does  cholera  necessarily  sneak  round  by  Russia  and 
the  Caucasus,  infecting  the  various  resting  places  on  its  way,  and 
setting  out  again  as  opportunity  arises  and  as  caravans  and  trav- 
elers may  serve.  At  one  bound  it  is  in  Jiddah.  Mecca  becomes 
a  center  of  infection,  and  Red  Sea  ports  distribute  the  disease  to 
Egypt  and  the  south  of  Europe. 

Ordinary  traffic  can  be  watched,  and  by  medical  inspection 
cases  of  disease  can  be  picked  out  and  isolated ;  but  with  a  sudden 
crowding  of  sixty  thousand  people  devoid  of  all  sanitary  knowl- 
edge into  a  country  ill  equipped  with  sanitary  appliances,  gov- 
erned by  rulers  whose  chief  principle  and  guide  is  a  fatalistic 
trust  in  the  will  of  Allah,  the  problem  is  complicated  in  a  high 
degree. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  spread  of  cholera  is  not  en- 
tirely due  to  the  infection  carried  by  those  who  are  attacked.  No 


THE  PILGRIM  PATH   OF   CHOLERA.  643 

man  can  carry  it  more  than  one  stage,  and  whether  or  not  it  starts 
again  from  the  place  where  he  deposits  the  infection  depends  on 
the  sanitary  conditions  of  the  locality  and  the  customs  of  the  peo- 
ple. There  is  but  little  doubt  that  the  danger  caused  by  the 
Mecca  pilgrimage  to  the  health  of  Europe  depends  largely  on  the 
fact  that  from  the  recklessness  of  the  people  and  the  absence  of 
adequate  sanitary  arrangements  in  the  district,  Mecca  has  become 
a  great  central  fair  for  the  exchange  and  distribution  of  the  chol- 
era infection. 

In  1886  thirty  thousand  pilgrims  died  of  cholera  at  Mecca. 
Nor  can  we  wonder.  Everything  seems  to  be  done  to  destroy 
their  tone  and  their  resisting  power;  everything  seems  to  be 
arranged  to  spread  the  disease  when  the  infection  is  once  planted 
amid  the  host  of  pilgrims. 

From  seventy  to  a  hundred  thousand  seems  to  be  the  ordinary 
average  number  of  those  who  visit  Mecca  during  the  festival,  and 
who  are  present  at  Mount  Arafat  on  the  9th  of  Zu'l  Hij jah.  They 
come  from  every  quarter  of  the  compass — inland  by  caravan 
from  Syria  and  Persia,  Turkey  and  Afghanistan;  by  sea  from 
Red  Sea  ports ;  from  Africa,  across  the  whole  width  of  which 
many  of  the  weary  pilgrims  have  walked ;  and  from  every  part  of 
the  world  where  the  standard  of  Islam  has  been  raised.  With  no 
provision  for  decency  or  comfort  they  camp  around  or  crowd  into 
lodgings  in  the  sacred  city.  They  make  excursions,  clamber  up 
the  mountains,  spend  hours  in  the  blazing  sun,  are  sickened  with 
rotting  smells  arising  from  the  thousands  of  animals  which  are 
sacrificed ;  crush  and  stifle  in  the  Ka'ba ;  and,  finally,  as  if  they 
had  not  already  run  sufficient  risk  of  catching  every  possible 
complaint,  they  drink  the  water  of  Zem  Zem.  This  is  the  well 
from  which  Hagar  is  said  to  have  drawn  water  for  her  son 
Ishmael,  and  the  drinking  of  the  water  is  a  most  holy  rite.  The 
supply,  however,  is  not  as  great  as  could  be  desired  for  so  large  a 
crowd  of  pilgrims,  and  the  manner  of  dealing  with  it  at  the  well 
goes  far  to  explain  the  intensity  of  the  poison  and  the  fearful 
mortality  which  attends  any  outbreak  of  cholera  among  the 
Meccan  pilgrims.  At  a  given  period  the  pilgrims  stand  naked  in 
turn  at  the  place  appointed;  a  bucket  of  water  is  poured  over 
each  man ;  he  drinks  what  he  can  of  it,  and  the  rest  falls  back  into 
the  holy  well.  The  water  from  this  well  has  been  analyzed  by 
Dr.  Frankland,  F.  R.  S.,  of  the  Royal  College  of  Science,  London, 
who  describes  it  as  fearfully  polluted  with  abominable  contamina- 
tions. Imagine,  then,  one  single  member  of  this  enormous  crowd 
to  be  suffering  from  the  early  stage  of  cholera ;  to  be  struggling,  as 
struggle  he  would  with  his  last  strength,  to  get  through  the  holy 
rite,  and  to  be  allowing  the  choleraic  discharges  with  which  his 
body  would  be  soiled  to  be  washed  back  into  this  foul  well. 


THE  PILGRIM  PATH    OF   CHOLERA.  645 

What  is  to  happen  to  the  crowd  of  pilgrims  who  close  in  on  the 
spot  that  he  has  left,  and  who,  each  in  turn,  swallow  in  rapt  fer- 
vor the  fetid  draught  in  which  these  thousands  have  been 
washed  ?  Can  we  wonder,^  then,  knowing  the  history  of  the  Broad 
Street  pump,  that  in  1866,  within  a  few  days  of  the  ceremony,  the 
road  leading  from  Mecca  was  for  twelve  miles  thickly  strewn 
with  dead  bodies — a  holocaust  to  be  added  to  the  account  of  per- 
verted religious  rites  which  has  already  so  deadly  a  record  ? 

Gradually  England  is  undertaking  the  gigantic  task  of  not 
only  ruling  India — a  thing  to  which  India  has  been  accustomed 
for  untold  centuries — but  of  reforming  and  remodeling  her  habits 
and  her  customs,  a  thing  hitherto  quite  unknown,  untried,  and 
thought  by  many  to  be  impossible.    A  stolid  mass  of  conservatism 
of  habit  and  even  of  thought  has  to  be  moved,  and  has  to  be  so 
moved  as  not  to  drift  into  anarchy  and  reaction.     This  is  a  long, 
slow,  tedious  process.    The  existence  of  the  "  endemic  area,"  the 
"  home  of  cholera,"  depends  largely  on  the  persistence  of  habits 
and  modes  of  life  which  can  hardly  be  rooted  out.     If  they  are  to 
cease,  they  must  probably  die  away  or  be  slowly  crushed   out 
rather  than  be  swiftly  overturned.     We  may  at  once  make  up 
our  minds  that  if  the  safety  of  Europe  can  only  be  attained  by 
abolishing  cholera  in  India,  Europe  will  for  long  remain  in  dan- 
ger.    It  is  hard  to  say  how  long :  the  object  of  this  essay  is  to 
abridge  the  period  to  the  utmost.     To  those,  again,  who  know 
best  the  condition  of  the  towns  in  the  south  of  Europe  it  seems  an 
almost  equally  far-off  hope  to  expect  them  within  any  reasonable 
time  to  reach  such  a  condition  of  cleanliness  and  sanitary  prepared- 
ness as  to  be  able  to  look  calmly  on  the  approach  of  the  dread 
disease.   But  this  is  a  much  less  formidable  and  more  hopeful  task, 
when  once  it  is  courageously  and  persistently  faced.     Are  we 
meantime  to  stand  helpless  ?    Can  nothing  be  done  to  stop  the  in- 
fection on  the  way  ?    Not  so.     In  the  matter  of  ordinary  travelers 
isolation  of  the  infected  need  not  be  insuperably  difficult.     The 
individual  attacked  may  be  sent  to  a  properly  equipped  hospital, 
be  surrounded  by  a  true  cordon  sanitaire  in  the  modern  sense — 
not  a  ring  of  gendarmes  or  a  circle  of  quarantine  as  of  old,  but  an 
area  of  sanitation,  within  which  cholera  can  not  spread.     Within 
this  area  the  disease  may  expend  its  force  with  injury  to  no  one 
and  the  crisis  pass  without  danger  to  the  country.     But  the  case 
of  the  pilgrims  is  different.     Fairs  and  pilgrimages  of  India  differ 
from  other  means  of  spreading  the  disease  in  this,  that  not  only 
do  they  draw  people  from  all  parts  and  thus  increase  the  chances 
of  receiving  the  infection,  but  the  people  attend  them  in  such 
numbers  that  they  support  each  other  in  carrying  on  their  own 
customs,  the  very  customs  which  have  for  centuries  conduced  to 
the  spread  of  the  disease  in  cholera's  home.     It  is  as  if  the  fair  or 


646  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  pilgrimage  were  not  only  supplied  with  a  proper  dose  of  the 
infection,  but  were  provided  with  a  plot  of  the  "  endemic  area  " 
on  which  it  could  be  grown.  In  bedding  out  a  plant  we  do  not 
put  its  naked  roots  into  the  new  inhospitable  soil,  but  we  place  in 
the  new  ground  a  portion  of  the  mold  in  which  it  hitherto  has 
grown,  so  that  its  tender  rootlets  may  gradually  get  accustomed 
to  their  new  surroundings.  And  the  fairs  and  pilgrimages  of 
India  do  much  the  same  to  plant  the  cholera  in  the  new  localities. 
The  infection  carried  from  the  endemic  area  can  not  die  out, 
even  although  it  be  but  an  exotic  in  a  strange  land,  because  the 
people  carry  with  them  also  the  habits  and  customs  which  are 
conducive  to  its  growth,  the  willingness  to  use  the  same  water  for 
every  purpose,  the  readiness  to  drink  it  when  in  its  foulest  state. 

In  a  report  in  June,  1891,  Dr.  W.  J.  Simpson,  of  Calcutta, 
gave  a  picturesque  and  startling  account  of  two  large  pilgrimages 
which  he  personally  witnessed  in  that  year — one  in  the  endemic 
area  of  Bengal,  and  another  in  the  non-endemic  area,  or  north 
part  of  India.  A  pictorial  presentation  of  one  of  their  chief  fea- 
tures, which  I  am  able  to  give  from  private  photographic  plates 
that  he  has  furnished  me,  will  show  the  condition  more  effectively 
than  merely  verbal  discussion. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  Ardhodoya  Jog,  which  comes  round 
at  rare  intervals,  happening  only  when  the  moon  is  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  sun  in  a  certain  latitude  of  the  Indian  zodiac.  This 
event,  it  appears,  only  occurs  once  in  twenty-seven  or  twenty- 
eight  years,  and  is  then  made  the  occasion  for  a  great  bathing 
festival.  The  purity  to  be  obtained  by  bathing  in  the  Ganges 
during  this  festival  is  exceptionally  great,  and  therefore  the  gath- 
ering of  pilgrims  at  the  several  bathing  grounds  was  a  very  large 
one. 

Kalighat,  where  the  gathering  in  question  took  place,  is  the 
suburban  area  of  Calcutta,  on  Tolly's  Nullah,  a  small  tidal  creek 
which  is  held  to  be  more  sacred  than  the  Hooghly,  because  it  is 
believed  to  be  one  of  the  original  beds  of  the  Ganges  which  has 
gradually  silted  up.  Sanctity,  however,  in  these  parts  is  no  assur- 
ance of  decency.  Along  its  banks  on  both  sides  houses  and  huts 
are  built,  the  drainage  from  the  latrines  of  which  finds  an  easy 
and  convenient  outlet  into  the  streamlet.  Soiled  clothes  of  the 
sick  and  healthy  are  washed  here ;  oxen,  buffaloes,  horses,  goats, 
and  other  animals  take  their  bath  in  the  water ;  and  as  the  nullah 
has  frequently  passing  through  it  many  country  boats,  the  boat- 
men add  to  the  general  pollution. 

Kalighat,  like  the  other  suburbs  of  Calcutta,  also  possesses  a 
large  number  of  tanks  or  ponds,  round  which  the  huts  or  houses  of 
the  inhabitants  are  built,  and  which  are  the  drainage  cesspools  of 
the  locality.  Much  has  been  said  concerning  the  filthiness  of 


THE  PILGRIM  PATH    OF   CHOLERA.  647 

these  tanks.  Their  contents  more  or  less  resemble  pea-soup  in 
color,  and  their  composition  has  been  officially  reported  as  similar 
to  concentrated  London  sewage.  Those  conversant  with  the  uses 
to  which  these  tanks  are  put  will  not  be  surprised  at  this  state- 
ment. And  yet  these  ponds  of  filth  are  constantly  resorted  to  for 
the  cleansing  of  utensils  and  the  soaking,  maceration,  and  wash- 
ing of  the  rice  and  dahl,  and  in  the  preparation  of  sweetmeats. 

The  nullah  can  be  waded  across  at  low  tide,  but  it  is  the  recepta- 
cle of  unspeakable  filth  of  all  kinds.  After  describing  the  insani- 
tary arrangements  of  the  neighborhood,  Dr.  Simpson  remarks  that 
"  without  a  good  water  supply,  or  drainage,  or  proper  means  of 
disposal  of  the  excreta  and  sulliage,  with  crowding  together  of 
huts  and  houses  irregularly  placed,  and  with  the  filthy  tidal  nullah, 
which  is  practically  the  sewer  of  the  district,  and  with  numerous 
polluted  tanks,  Kalighat,  it  may  be  surmised,  is  at  no  time  a 
healthy  spot,  and  at  all  times  a  danger  to  pilgrims."  On  the  oc- 
casion in  question  at  least  150,000  people  came  into  Calcutta  in  the 
first  and  second  weeks  in  February.  Great  throngs  came  on  foot 
whose  numbers  were  not  noted,  25,000  came  by  boat  up  the  nullah, 
90,000  came  by  the  Eastern  Bengal  State  Railway,  and  32,000  by 
the  East  Indian  Railway.  Obviously  the  influence  of  railways  in 
intensifying  the  danger  of  quick  and  wide  diffusion  of  cholera 
after  great  festivals  must  not  be  neglected. 

To  describe  the  crowding  which  occurred  in  the  nullah  on  the 
festival  day  is  difficult.  Perhaps  the  accompanying  photographs 
will  give  some  idea  of  the  scene,  and  of  the  recklessness  with  which 
the  filthy  water  was  being  bathed  in  and  splashed  over  the  head 
and  even  drunk.  A  large  proportion  of  the  pilgrims  would  not 
drink  filtered  water.  They  had  come,  they  said,  to  bathe  in  and 
drink  Ganges  water,  and  they  would  have  none  from  the  stand- 
posts  or  the  carts.  Happily,  the  tube-well  near  the  police  station 
was  not  considered  unholy,  and  was  in  lively  requisition.  The 
picture  shows  the  crush  to  be  very  great,  and  it  is  marvelous  that 
no  accidents  happened. 

Among  the  large  number  assembled  there  it  was  not  likely 
that  cholera  would  be  entirely  absent,  and  if  present  it  was  certain 
to  be  spread  by  the  customs  of  the  festival,  and  thus  it  happened 
that  in  the  second  week  in  February  nearly  two  hundred  of  the 
pilgrims  died  from  cholera.  The  pilgrims  soon  had  to  be  dis- 
persed, and  though  their  dispersal  checked  a  larger  outbreak  at 
Kalighat,  which  would  only  have  widened  its  circle  afterward,  it 
could  not  prevent  those  already  infected  from  suffering  on  their 
way  home.  Consequently,  at  some  of  the  railway  stations  sick 
people  had  to  be  taken  out  of  the  trains ;  passengers  by  boat  died 
on  their  voyage,  their  bodies,  being  thrown  overboard ;  while  trav- 
elers 011  foot  were  picked  up  dying  or  dead  on  the  roads. 


m 


m  y 


;-v 


i     ^ 


THE  PILGRIM  PATH  OF  CHOLERA.  649 

To  the  pilgrims  themselves  the  festival  turned  out  a  disastrous 
affair,  but  later  investigation  showed  that  in  many  villages  to 
which  they  returned  the  residents  also  were  affected,  and  that  in 
at  least  three  districts  widespread  epidemics  were  set  up. 

Such  is  a  pilgrimage  within  the  "  endemic  area,"  where  per- 
haps it  may  be  said  that  the  danger  in  regard  to  cholera  may  be 
measured  by  the  deaths,  the  dissemination  of  the  infection  through 
a  population  already  charged  with  it  not  being  of  great  impor- 
tance. 

But  any  Indian  pilgrimage,  even  in  a  non-endemic  area,  has 
much  the  same  characteristics.  Dr.  Simpson's  description  of  the 
great  Kumbh  festival,  which  occurs  once  in  twelve  years  at  Kurd- 
war,  outside  the  endemic  area,  is  also  very  graphic,  and  the  photo- 
graphs (Figs.  2,  3,  and  4)  show  the  sacred  pool  and  the  approaches 
to  it  to  be  hidden  by  a  mass  of  semi-naked  human  beings.  The 
pollutions  to  which  the  sacred  pool  is  exposed  on  these  occasions 
are  indescribable.  There  are  not  only  the  washing  of  the  sacred 
fakirs,  who  cover  themselves  with  wood  ashes  as  their  only  cloth- 
ing, and  the  general  bathing  of  the  pilgrims,  who  are  not  all  in 
the  cleanest  of  clothes — several,  moreover,  on  the  occasion  in 
question  being  seen  bathing  with  skin  diseases  upon  them — but 
the  ashes  of  deceased  relatives  brought  from  the  different  homes 
of  the  pilgrims,  and  the  hair  of  widows  who  have  been  shorn,  are 
also  thrown  into  the  water.  The  stream,  usually  so  bright  and 
pure,  soon  became  a  muddy  one,  offensive  to  the  senses,  and,  al- 
though outside  the  endemic  area,  bacteriological  examination  of 
this  denied  water  showed  it  to  contain  the  comma  bacillus,  which 
is  looked  upon  as  the  true  contagium  of  cholera. 

With  these  pictures  in  our  minds  of  what  an  Eastern  pilgrim- 
age means,  and  of  what  is  done  at  the  great  festivals,  whether  of 
Hinduism  or  Mohammedanism,  can  we  wonder  that  they  are  so 
constantly  the  means  of  lifting  cholera  out  of  its  ordinary  en- 
demic character  and  spreading  it  over  the  world  at  large  ?  In  old 
times  when  cholera  marched  overland  its  route  could  almost  be 
dotted  out  by  the  fairs  which  it  infected.  Now,  with  more  rapid 
means  of  communication,  Mecca,  with  of  course  Jiddah  its  port, 
is  the  half-way  house,  the  halting  place,  the  one  spot  at  which  it 
must  be  caught  and  stopped  if  Europe  is  to  be  protected.  Hither 
tend  pilgrims  from  all  parts,  including  those  from  the  infected 
area ;  here  are  performed  rites  which  involve  of  necessity  the  wide 
spread  of  the  infection  among  the  visitors,  if  even  perchance  but 
one  of  them  bring  with  him  the  disease ;  hence  in  a  fortnight's 
time  is  scattered  this  great  host,  carrying  with  them  the  germs 
of  pestilence  to  their  homes  in  distant  lands.  Mecca  is  a  peril  to 
Europe,  and  at  all  cost  Mecca  must  be  made  a  sanitary  area,  in 
which  cholera  if  it  should  arrive  can  play  itself  out,  and  from 

VOL.    XLIII. 47 


650  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

which  no  infection  shall  be  allowed  to  be  exported.  It  is,  how- 
ever, idle  to  expect  a  Government  such  as  that  of  Turkey  sponta- 
neously to  undertake  the  task.  The  affair  is  too  expensive  to  be 
undertaken  by  a  ruler  to  whom  ready  cash  is  worth  more 'than 
prospective  suffering.  Nor  would  his  people  support  him  in  such 
a  crusade.  To  them  Allah  is  great,  and  cholera  is  his  will ;  nor 
perhaps  does  the  evil  seem  to  them  so  grievous  as  it  does  to  us. 
To  those  who  have  to  suffer  Turkish  rule  a  little  cholera  now  and 
then  may  seem  but  a  flea-bite. 

It  seems  probable  that  no  single  nation  can  effectually  inter- 
fere, although  if  any  one  nation  could  do  so,  it  would  be  England 
or  Russia.  The  danger  belongs,  however,  to  Europe ;  and  if  any- 
thing is  to  be  done,  Europe  collectively  should  take  action  with- 
out delay,  with  the  aim  to  cleanse  the  ports  of  the  Red  Sea,  reor- 
ganize Mecca  and  its  greedy  crew,  and  supervise  the  pilgrims  in 
all  their  course.*  With  the  increasing  care,  and  the  increasing 
intelligence  with  which  that  care  is  being  exercised,  in  regard  to 
cholera  in  Europe,  and  with  the  facilities  given  by  the  telegraph 
for  watching  the  progress  of  cholera  when  it  approaches  ma 
Russia,  and  the  growing  willingness  shown  by  that  great  state  to 
block  the  way  when  it  invades  her  vast  dominions,  the  Red  Sea 
remains  the  route  from  which  Europe  and  America  have  most  to 
fear,  and  Mecca  with  its  insanitary  surroundings,  its  filthy  rites, 
its  crowds  of  devotees,  stands  as  the  half-way  house  between  Eu- 
rope and  the  home  of  cholera.  Can  we  not  for  once  think  of  the 
good  of  man  rather  than  of  nations  ?  With  railways  and  steamers 
linking  us  so  closely  in  one  family,  we  can  no  longer  afford  to 
fold  our  arms  and  look  with  indifference  even  at  the  strange 


*  There  are  many  indications  that  such  representations,  made  in  a  suitable  manner  and 
by  authoritative  personages  to  the  Sultan,  would  be  warmly  backed  up,  not  only  by  his  own 
personal  feelings  and  sentiments,  but  also  by  those  of  an  enlightened  and  considerable  por- 
tion of  his  subjects.  The  Scotsman  of  January  6th  says :  "  Queen  Victoria  having  the  largest 
number  of  Mussulman  subjects,  the  Government  of  Bombay  was  some  years  ago  moved  by 
the  hardships  and  mortality  to  which  so  many  of  them  were  exposed  on  the  pilgrim  voyage 
to  Mecca  every  year.  A  contract  was  accordingly  made  with  Messrs.  T.  Cook  and  Sons, 
under  which  the  Hajjees  are  conveyed  to  and  from  the  Red  Sea  ports  in  safety  and  comfort. 
But  that  avails  little  if  they  are  to  perish  from  the  filth  of  Mecca  itself,  and  take  from  it 
those  cholera  germs  which  they  spread  all  over  eastern  Europe  and  Asia."  Encouraged  by 
an  article  on  the  subject  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  written  by  Mr.  Ernest  Hart,  the  Moham- 
medans of  Madura,  near  Cape  Comorm,  have  held  a  public  meeting  and  memorialized  his 
Imperial  Majesty  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  "  to  adopt  suitable  measures  for  improving  the  sani- 
tation of  Mecca  and  other  places  of  pilgrimage."  They  make  the  sensible  suggestion  that 
every  year  during  the  Hajj  the  leading  Hajjees  from  every  country  should  meet  and  draw 
up  a  report  on  the  state  of  the  city  and  shrine  to  the  Sultan  and  ask  for  the  needed  reforms. 
If  the  Sultan  were  not  afraid  of  another  war  with  the  Shereef,  who  is  the  real  master  of 
Mecca,  he  would  insist  on  such  a  share  of  the  pilgrim  fees  and  offerings  as  would  make 
Mecca  the  healthiest  place  in  his  dominions. 


GRANDFATHER   THUNDER.  651 

doings  of  poor  fanatics  of  Mecca.  Such  is  the  solidarity  of  the 
modern  world  that  at  the  present  moment  it  is  the  doings  of  these 
people,  who  seem  so  far  away  (geographically  thousands  of  miles, 
socially  and  as  regards  their  sympathies  and  interests  quite  in 
another  sphere),  which  threaten  us  now  with  a  repetition  of  such 
epidemics  as  that  which  not  so  many  years  ago  carried  off  one  in 
every  forty-seven  residents  in  Whitechapel,  one  in  fifty-seven  in 
Ratcliffe,  one  in  sixty-seven  in  Rotherhithe,  and  which  only  last 
year  killed  off  people  in  Hamburg  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  to 
three  hundred  per  day  for  weeks  together. 

This  is  no  fanciful  speculation,  applicable  only  to  days  gone 
by.  Last  month  five  thousand  pilgrims  died  in  Mecca;  their 
infected  and  scattered  companions  are  reaching  Jiddah  and  El 
Tor,  and  are  spreading  over  the  world  to  their  various  homes. 
To  them  we  may  look  with  fear  and  doubt  for  the  probable  initia- 
tion of  an  epidemic  in  Europe,  to  follow  close  upon  the  footsteps 
of  that  which  is  now  at  our  doors. 


GRANDFATHER  THUNDER. 

BY  ABBY  L.  ALGEK. 

DURING  the  summer  of  1892,  at  York  Harbor,  Me.,  I  was  in 
daily  communication  with  a  party  of  Penobscot  Indians 
from  Oldtown,  among  whom  were  an  old  man  and  woman,  from 
whom  I  got  many  curious  legends.  The  day  after  a  terrible  thun- 
derstorm I  asked  the  old  woman  how  they  had  weathered  the 
storm.  She  looked  searchingly  at  me  and  said,  "  It  was  good." 
After  a  moment  she  added,  "  You  know  the  thunder  is  our  grand- 
father ? "  I  answered  that  I  did  not  know  it,  and  was  startled 
when  she  continued :  "  Yes,  when  we  hear  the  first  roll  of  the 
thunder,  especially  the  first  thunder  in  the  spring,  we  always  go 
out  into  the  open  air,  build  a  fire,  put  a  little  tobacco  on  it,  and 
give  grandfather  a  smoke.  Ever  since  I  can  remember,  my  father 
and  my  grandfather  did  this,  and  I  shall  always  do  it  as  long  as 
I  live.  I'll  tell  you  the  story  of  it  and  why  we  do  so. 

"Long  time  ago  there  were  two  Indian  families  living  in  a 
very  lonely  place.  This  was  before  there  were  any  white  people 
in  the  land.  They  lived  far  apart.  Each  family  had  a  daughter, 
and  these  girls  were  great  friends.  One  sultry  afternoon  in  the 
late  spring,  one  of  them  told  her  mother  she  wanted  to  go  to  see 
her  friend.  The  mother  said  :  '  No,  it  is  not  right  for  you  to  go 
alone,  such  a  handsome  girl  as  you ;  you  must  wait  till  your 
father  or  your  brother  are  here  to  go  with  you/  But  the  girl  in- 
sisted, and  at  last  her  mother  yielded  and  let  her  go.  She  had 


652  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

not  gone  far  when  she  met  a  tall,  handsome  young  man,  who 
spoke  to  her.  He  joined  her,  and  his  words  were  so  sweet  that 
she  noticed  nothing  and  knew  not  which  way  she  went  until  at 
last  she  looked  up  and  found  herself  in  a  strange  place  where  she 
had  never  been  befora  In  front  of  her  was  a  great  hole  in  the 
face  of  a  rock.  The  young  man  told  her  that  this  was  his  home, 
and  invited  her  to  enter.  She  refused,  but  he  urged  until  she  said 
that  if  he  would  go  first  she  would  follow  after.  He  entered,  but 
when  she  looked  after  him  she  saw  that  he  was  changed  to  a  fear- 
ful wee-will-mecq — a  loathly  worm.  She  shrieked  and  turned  to 
run  away,  but  at  that  instant  a  loud  clap  of  thunder  was  heard,  and 
she  knew  no  more  until  she  opened  her  eyes  in  a  vast  room,  where 
sat  an  old  man  watching  her.  When  he  saw  that  she  had  awaked, 
he  said,  '  I  am  your  grandfather  Thunder,  and  I  have  saved  you/ 
Leading  her  to  the  door,  he  showed  her  the  wee-will-mecq  dead  as 
a  log,  and  chopped  into  small  bits  like  kindling  wood.  The  old 
man  had  three  sons,  one  named  '  M'dessun/  He  is  the  baby,  and 
is  very  fierce  and  cruel.  It  is  he  who  slays  men  and  beasts  and 
destroys  property.  The  other  two  are  kind  and  gentle ;  they  cool 
the  hot  air,  revive  the  parched  fields  and  the  crops,  and  destroy 
only  that  which  is  harmful  to  the  earth.  When  you  hear  low, 
distant  mutterings,  that  is  the  old  man.  He  told  the  girl  that  as 
often  as  spring  returned  she  must  think  of  him,  and  show  that 
she  was  grateful  by  giving  him  a  little  smoke.  He  then  took 
leave  of  her  and  sent  her  home,  where  her  family  had  mourned 
her  as  one  dead.  Since  then  no  Indian  has  ever  feared  thunder." 
I  said,  "But  how  about  the  lightning?"  "Oh,"  said  the  old 
woman,  "  lightning  is  grandfather's  wife." 

Later  in  the  summer,  at  Jackson  in  the  White  Mountains,  I 
met  Louis  Mitchell,  for  many  years  the  Indian  member  of  the 
Maine  Legislature,  a  Passamaquoddy,  and  asked  him  about  this 
story.  He  said  it  was  perfectly  true,  although  the  custom  was 
now  falling  into  disuse ;  only  the  old  people  kept  it  up.  The  to- 
bacco is  cast  upon  the  fire  in  a  ring,  and  draws  the  electricity, 
which  plays  above  it  in  a  beautiful  blue  circle  of  flickering  flames. 
He  added  that  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  no  Indian  and  no  In- 
dian property  were  ever  injured  by  lightning. 


THE  Council  of  the  Eoyal  Agricultural  Society  of  England  has  instituted  a 
fund  to  be  contributed  by  all  interested  in  agriculture,  for  preparing  a  testimonial 
to  the  invaluable  services  rendered  to  that  art  by  Sir  John  Lawes  and  Dr.  Gilbert. 
Subscriptions  are  to  be  limited  to  two  guineas.  The  testimonial  will  take  the 
form  of  a  granite  memorial,  with  a  suitable  inscription,  to  be  erected  at  the  head 
of  the  field  where  the  experiments  were  made ;  and  an  address  to  Sir  John  Lawes 
and  Dr.  Gilbert,  accompanied  (if  the  funds  permit)  by  a  commemorative  piece 
of  plate. 


SCIENTIFIC  COOKING.  653 

SCIENTIFIC  COOKING. 

A  PLEA  FOR  EDUCATION  IN  HOUSEHOLD  AFFAIRS. 
BY  Miss  M.  A.  BOLAND, 

INSTRUCTOR   IN   COOKING   IN   THE   JOHNS    HOPKINS  TBAINING   SCHOOL  FOB  NURSES. 

E  general  interpretation  of  the  colloquial  use  of  the  word 
scientific  as  applied  to  cooking  is  that  manner  of  making 
dishes  which  is  carried  out  according  to  some  exact  method, 
which  has  been  proved  by  experiment  to  be  correct  or  satisfactory. 
This  is  well  as  far  as  it  goes ;  but  scientific  cooking,  in  order  to 
justly  merit  the  name,  should  also  include :  1.  A  knowledge  of  the 
chemical  composition  of  food  materials  and  food,  that  a  woman 
may  know  when  she  is  supplying  her  family  with  a  diet  composed 
of  all  those  principles,  in  correct  proportion,  which  are  necessary 
to  perfectly  nourish  the  body,  and  also  that  she  may  appreciate 
that  she  is  not  always  obliged  to  buy  expensive  materials  in  order 
to  obtain  that  which  is  needful  and  wholesome.  2.  A  knowledge 
of  the  methods  of  preparing  and  preserving  food,  both  cooked 
and  uncooked,  under  such  conditions  of  cleanliness  that  it  shall 
be  free  from  poisonous  or  noxious  principles.  3.  A  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  health,  that  it  may  be  possible  in  some  measure  to 
determine  what  constituents  and  what  eatables  afford  proper  ma- 
terial for  the  maintenance  of  the  body,  and  under  what  circum- 
stances of  occupation,  exercise,  and  living  in  general  they  are  most 
completely  utilized. 

Upon  the  subject  of  the  composition  of  foods  there  is  abun- 
dance of  valuable  literature  in  English  from  which  much  can  be 
learned.  Since  the  days  of  Baron  von  Liebig  and  Count  Rum- 
ford,  who  may  be  said  to  be  the  promoters  of  the  "cooking 
movement,"  a  great  deal  of  scientific  investigation  as  to  the 
chemical  composition,  nutritive  value,  and  methods  of  cooking 
food  has  been  done,  and  out  of  this  study,  in  connection  with 
medical  research,  has  sprung  the  modern  school  of  hygiene,  as  yet, 
however,  in  its  infancy.  In  the  works  of  Parkes,  Pavy,  Atwater, 
Foster,  Smith,  Blythe,  and  Hassal  most  valuable  information  on 
this  subject  may  be  found. 

A  well-grounded  knowledge  of  the  chemistry  and  physiology 
of  foods  is  the  foundation  upon  which  all  good  work  in  cooking 
must  be  laid.  Through  it  only  can  be  known  and  appreciated 
the  reasons  which  underlie  the  various  processes  of  preparing 
food,  which,  once  well  understood,  form  the  sure  foundation  upon 
which  all  conscientious  and  worthy  effort  should  rest.  Such 
knowledge  embodies  the  principles  of  the  subject,  and  without 
principles  no  work  can  possess  lasting  educational  value. 


654  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  second  suggestion,  methods  of  preparing  and  preserving 
food  so  that  it  shall  be  free  from  poisonous  and  harmful  sub- 
stances, indicates  the  necessity  for  some  knowledge  of  bacteri- 
ology. The  various  fermentative  and  putrefactive  changes  which 
take  place  in  food  substances  are  caused  principally  by  the  growth 
in  them  of  microscopic  forms  of  plant  life  known  by  the  general 
name  of  micro-organisms. 

When  micro-organisms  grow  in  masses,  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
green  and  yellow  molds  of  bread  and  cake,  they  are  plainly 
visible  to  the  naked  eye,  but  to  distinguish  individuals  a  micro- 
scope of  high  magnifying  power  is  necessary.  The  common  mil- 
dew, the  decay  of  apples,  melons,  and  other  fruits,  the  rot  of  vege- 
tables, and  the  decomposition  of  eggs  and  meat  are  due  to  the 
transforming  power  of  these  invisible  agents.  One  of  the  most 
common  and  best  known  is  yeast,  which  has  been  more  studied 
and  is  probably  better  understood  than  any  of  the  ferments.  It 
is  frequently  mentioned  to  illustrate  the  transforming  power  of 
these  infinitely  tiny  forms  of  life.  A  bit  of  yeast  is  like  a  little 
mass  of  seeds,  each  a  single  cell ;  these,  when  they  are  placed  in  a 
proper  medium — in  other  words,  find  the  surroundings  of  food, 
moisture,  and  warmth  necessary  for  their  life — multiply  with 
extraordinary  rapidity,  using  what  they  require  of  the  food  in 
which  they  find  themselves,  decomposing  sugar  and  starch  and 
establishing  changes  which  result  in  carbonic  acid  and  alcohol  as 
the  chief  products.  We  take  advantage  of  the  production  of  car- 
bonic acid  by  yeast  to  make  our  loaves  of  light  and  wholesome 
bread. 

Micro-organisms  are  everywhere :  they  exist  in  the  earth  and 
the  sea ;  in  plants  and  animals ;  on  the  surface  of  our  bodies  and 
in  the  digestive  canal ;  in  cooked  and  uncooked  food ;  in  refuse, 
particularly  animal  waste ;  on  our  clothing,  books,  furniture,  and 
in  the  dust  of  the  atmosphere.  Wherever  they  find  suitable  food, 
warmth,  and  moisture  they  increase  with  wonderful  rapidity,  and, 
if  undisturbed  would  in  time  completely  transform  the  object 
upon  which  they  fall.  However,  by  removing  any  one  of  the  fac- 
tors necessary  to  their  growth,  they  cease  to  multiply,  and  under 
such  conditions  some  species  remain  inert,  some  die. 

Like  other  forms  of  life,  micro-organisms  by  their  growth 
give  rise  to  various  products  which  may  be  either  harmless  or 
harmful.  Of  the  latter  may  be  mentioned  noxious  gases  which 
pollute  the  air  and  poisonous  substances  which  render  our  food 
unwholesome.  The  souring  of  milk,  and  the  putrefactive  changes 
which,  in  the  presence  of  heat,  so  rapidly  set  in  in  eggs,  meat, 
oysters,  lobsters,  crabs,  and  other  albumen-containing  foods,  are 
among  the  results  of  their  transforming  power.  Perhaps  the 
most  important  point  for  us  to  consider  here  is,  that  it  is  highly 


SCIENTIFIC   COOKING.  655 

probable  that  these  substances  just  mentioned  and  others  of  simi- 
lar nature  often,  when  apparently  good,  contain  poisonous  matter 
in  small  quantities,  which  produces  in  human  beings,  when  those 
foods  are  eaten,  grave  digestive  disturbances.  Should  the  eating 
of  such  food  be  continued  for  a  length  of  time,  or  the  amount  of 
poisonous  matter  be  large,  serious  results  of  illness,  or  even  death, 
may  follow.  Instances  are  on  record  of  fatal  cases  of  poisoning 
caused  by  eating  oysters  too  long  out  of  the  shell,  lobsters  not 
fresh,  and  other  easily  putrescible  substances. 

The  object  of  the  bacteriological  study  of  food  is  not  alone  to 
prevent  the  use  of  actually  poisonous  materials,  but  also  to  pre- 
vent the  use  of  those  which  are  not  absolutely  good. 

Perfect  digestion,  perfect  assimilation,  and  as  a  consequence 
healthful  blood  can  not  result  from  the  use  of  questionable  food. 
If  we  attempt  to  consider  what  constitutes  a  healthy  condition 
of  body  we  find  a  very  complex  subject  before  us :  constitutional 
peculiarities,  manner  of  dress,  surroundings,  air,  occupation,  cli- 
mate, etc.,  as  well  as  food,  all  influence  physical  development. 
We  find  the  answer  involves  too  many  points  to  be  given  simply 
and  directly,  but  one  very  essential  thing  to  do  certainly  lies  in 
the  direction  of  food.  The  nutritive  material  for  replenishing  the 
blood  is  made  from  the  food  we  eat  and  the  air  we  breathe;  it, 
therefore,  is  entirely  reasonable  to  claim  that  the  condition  of  the 
air  breathed  and  the  preparation  of  the  food  eaten  are  of  great 
importance. 

Food  should  be  wholesome  in  itself,  prepared  in  exquisitely 
clean  surroundings  by  neat  hands,  and  cooked  with  intelligence. 
Food  prepared  by  slovenly  cooks  in  slovenly  places  not  only  is 
not  eesthetically  acceptable,  but  is  neither  palatable  nor  whole- 
some, and  often  contains  ptomaines,  toxines,*  or  other  poisonous 
matter  the  results  of  changes  of  a  dangerous  character,  or  it  may 
be  contaminated  with  the  bacteria  of  disease.  When  we  know 
that  micro-organisms  are  the  primary  cause  of  many  kinds  of  fer- 
mentation, that  all  forms  of  food  are  excellent  material  for  them 
upon  which  to  thrive,  that  instances  are  on  record  in  which  poisons 
have  been  isolated  from  food  which  has  caused  sickness,  it  may  be 
repeated  that  it  is  entirely  possible  that  food  kept  in  questionable 
places  and  prepared  in  an  uncleanly  manner  does  often  contain 
that  which  is  positively  injurious  to  health. 

It  is  evident  that  one  of  the  first  considerations  of  a  thoughtful 
and  intelligent  housekeeper  toward  securing  one  condition  at 
least  of  good  health  should  be  absolute  cleanliness  in  all  things — 


*  Ptomaines  are  certain  crystallizable  substances  formed  by  the  growth  of  bacteria. 
They  are  often  but  not  always  poisonous.  Toxines  are  substances  also  produced  by  the 
growth  of  bacteria,  but  of  a  different  nature  from  ptomaines ;  they  are  always  poisonous. 


656  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

that  cleanliness  which  excludes  as  much  as  possible  all  kinds  of 
extraneous  ferments  from  food  and  its  surroundings.  We  know 
that  micro-organisms  are  the  agents  of  fermentation ;  we  know  the 
factors  necessary  to  their  life,  namely,  food,  warmth,  and  moisture ; 
deprived  of  any  one  of  these,  their  growth  is  stopped  and  they 
become  inert,  or  die.  To  illustrate,  a  piece  of  meat  deprived  of 
moisture — that  is,  dried — is  proof  against  the  growth  of  organisms 
upon  it  so  long  as  it  remains  dry,  and  it  "  keeps,"  as  we  say — that 
is,  it  does  not  decay ;  or,  it  may  be  hung  in  an  ice-box  or  frozen  as 
in  winter — that  is,  deprived  of  warmth — with  the  same  result.  It, 
then,  is  a  possibility  to  control  the  multiplication  of  these  forms 
of  life  when  we  understand  their  modes  of  existence. 

Scientific  cooking  should  include  not  only  the  proper  construc- 
tion, so  to  speak,  of  eatables,  but  a  knowledge  of  their  constituents 
both  inherent  and  extraneous,  and  some  understanding  of  the 
physical  life  of  human  beings.  Heretofore,  cooking  has  been  done 
for  the  most  part  upon  what  might  be  called  "  haphazard  "  lines, 
without  any  special  degree  of  exactness  and  with  but  little  actual 
information  as  to  the  nutritive  value  of  the  substances  dealt  with, 
or  of  the  processes  which  would  render  them  most  palatable  and 
digestible.  This  manner  of  conducting  the  cooking  of  a  home 
gives  mainly  two  results :  (1)  a  great  deal  of  wretched  food,  which 
directly  or  indirectly  affects  the  health  of  the  family,  and  (2)  an 
enormous  amount  of  unnecessary  waste.  The  primary  considera- 
tion is,  of  course,  the  one  of  health.  When  we  recollect  that  hy- 
gienists  and  medical  men  hold  the  opinion  that  disease  does  not 
find  lodgment  in  a  sound  body,  that  to  be  perfectly  healthy  means 
no  sickness,  except  from  accidents  and  natural  causes,  is  it  not 
enough  to  inspire  all  women  to  study  and  master  the  means  which 
conduce  to  health  and  the  laws  which  govern  healthy  conditions  ? 
This  point  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  pneumonia  does  not 
attack  healthy  persons.  Children,  the  old  or  enfeebled,  and  those 
who  are  debilitated,  are  its  victims.  Pneumonia  is  a  bacterial 
disease,  the  germ  of  which  is  present  in  the  mouths  of  about  one 
fifth  of  all  well  persons.  Exposure  to  cold,  the  prolonged  use  of 
poor  food,  or  excessive  fatigue,  any  of  these  may  lower  the  tone 
of  the  system  to  such  an  extent  that  its  cells  and  fluids,  being  out 
of  their  normal  condition,  can  no  longer  resist  or  overpower  the 
germ  of  the  disease,  which,  finding  lodgment  in  the  tissues  of  the 
lungs,  produces  the  malady  known  as  pneumonia.  It  is  on  this 
point,  that  the  cells  and  fluids  of  a  perfectly  healthy  body  have  the 
power  to  protect  the  inner  organs  from  the  invasion  of  bacteria 
and  bacterial  products,  that  we  base  our  strongest  argument  for 
more  healthful  ways  of  living. 

The  greatest  necessity  of  life  is  air,  which  is  supplied  to  us 
pure  (outside  of  large  cities),  without  the  necessity  of  effort  on 


SCIENTIFIC   COOKING.  657 

our  part  to  procure  it.  We  have  only  not  to  interfere  with  what 
Nature  has  given  by  inclosing  it  in  rooms,  or  by  allowing  it  to  be 
contaminated  with  noxious  gases  or  other  impurities.  The  second 
greatest  necessity  of  life  is  food,  which  includes  water.  Food  is 
the  raw  material  of  the  body  from  which  it  constructs  its  tissues 
and  repairs  them  as  they  wear.  It  furnishes  the  elements  from 
which  are  evolved  the  forces  of  the  body,  such  as  heat,  muscular 
and  nervous  energy  and  other  powers  ;  of  these,  heat  is  the  most 
important,  it  being  ever  required  that  the  constant  temperature 
which  the  body  must  always  possess  to  be  in  a  state  of  health 
may  be  maintained.  Food  also  furnishes  material  for  a  supply 
which  is  stored  away  in  the  body  for  use  in  emergencies  when 
from  accident  or  other  cause  nutriment  is  cut  off. 

Food  is  to  the  body  what  fuel  is  to  the  fire.  It  and  the  oxygen 
of  the  air  are  the  agents  which  maintain  the  life  of  the  system. 
What  can  be  more  worthy  our  attention  than  so  important  a 
subject  ? 

We  all  know  that  some  kinds  of  food  are  more  easily  digested 
than  others,  and  we  also  know  that  the  same  kind  of  food  treated 
in  cooking  by  different  methods  varies  in  digestibility,  according 
to  those  methods.  To  illustrate,  an  egg  cooked  in  such  a  way 
that  its  albumen  is  coagulated,  but  tender  and  jelly-like,  not 
hardened,  is  a  very  easily  digested  food  substance ;  while  an  egg 
cooked  at  a  temperature  so  high  that  its  albumen  is  rendered 
tough  and  tenacious  is  very  difficult  of  digestion,  and  it  is  known 
that  well  persons  have  been  made  temporarily  ill  by  eating  eggs 
so  cooked. 

What  is  true  of  the  egg  simply  illustrates  what  is  true  of 
nearly  all  food  substances — that  is,  that  the  temperature  at  which 
they  are  cooked  and  the  manner  in  which  they  treated,  as  to  the 
time  of  exposure  to  heat  and  their  combination  with  other  things, 
makes  all  the  difference  in  their  digestibility  and  flavor.  This 
constitutes  our  second  argument  for  the  study  of  cooking. 

If  only  because  we  have  at  best  but  glimmerings  of  the  com- 
plex, intricate,  and  mysterious  processes  of  the  life  of  the  phys- 
ical human  body,  should  we  strive  to  maintain  it  in  most  perfect 
condition,  and  endeavor  in  the  clearest  lights  of  modern  science  to 
make  it  indeed  a  temple  for  the  indwelling  of  the  mind. 

It  is  thought  by  some  students  of  the  subject  that  crime  is  a 
disease ;  that  had  the  men,  who  are  to-day  criminals,  been  reared 
under  better  conditions,  of  both  nourishment  for  the  body  and 
influence  for  the  mind,  they  might  have  been  worthy,  even  noble 
citizens. 

Missionaries,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  are  beginning  to  realize 
that  it  is  of  little  use  to  pray  with  a  man  until  they  have  fed  him. 
In  fact,  the^first  work  of  the  missionary  of  to-day  is  to  provide 


VOL.    XLIII.- 


658  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  object  of  his  thought  with  necessary  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter,  and  care  and  relief  in  sickness.  When  these  are  adequate, 
and  not  before,  is  the  exercise  of  the  "  so-called  "  religious  influ- 
ences of  any  avail.  This,  of  course,  is  nothing  more  than  practical 
common  sense.  A  man  reduced  by  lack  of  proper  and  sufficient 
nourishment,  and  surrounded  by  all  the  depressing  influences 
of  poverty,  can  not  do  wise  thinking.  There  is  not  in  his  body 
the  blood  to  send  to  the  brain  for  use.  Where  there  is  no  fuel 
there  can  be  no  fire. 

It  is  safe  to  say,  as  a  general  rule,  that  when  a  man  is  well 
nourished  his  natural  leaning  is  toward  industry.  He  must  have 
something  to  do.  When  a  man  is  healthy  and  industrious  he  is 
a  safe  citizen.  Health  and  industry  united  often  point  the  way 
to  ambition,  and  ambition  directed  in  the  right  path  may  lead 
into  vast  regions  of  power  and  influence.* 

No  richer  endowment  can  be  bestowed  upon  one  than  a  healthy 
and  vigorous  physical  constitution.  The  possibility  of  starting 
man  on  the  journey  of  life  so  equipped  rests  largely  with  women. 
The  care  of  little  children  falls  entirely  to  them  during  the  time 
when  they  most  need  the  greatest  amount  of  wise  and  intelligent 
attention  in  order  that  they  may  be  started  in  life  with  a  sound 
body,  which  shall  be  the  temple  for  the  sound  mind  which  is  to 
be  developed  and  cultivated  later.  Specialists  of  children's 
diseases  claim  that  the  manner  in  which  a  child  is  fed  and  cared 
for  during  the  first  five  years  of  life  determines  what  he  shall  be 
ever  after. 

I  listened  last  winter  to  a  series  of  lectures  on  insanity  by  a 
specialist  of  the  subject.  In  speaking  of  the  different  forms  of 
the  disease,  hallucination,  melancholia,  acute  mania,  etc.,  he  said 
that  those  forms  of  disease  almost  always  begin  with  the  inability 
of  the  individual  to  digest  food  well.  He  does  not  eat  well,  does 
not  sleep  well,  and  after  a  time  becomes  what  is  called  "  nervous," 
which  is  usually  nothing  more  than  a  malnourished  condition  of 
the  nervous  system ;  then  he  drifts  into  melancholia  and  finally 
insanity. 

The  treatment  by  Weir  Mitchell  the  noted  specialist  of  such 
diseases,  is  what  might  vulgarly  but  graphically  be  called 
stuffing.  His  patients  are  put  to  bed  under  the  pleasantest  and 
most  comfortable  conditions  of  absolute  rest  and  freedom  from 
responsibility,  and  then  they  are  fed  with  as  much  nutritious  and 
wholesome  food  as  they  can  be  made  to  eat.  The  results  of  this 
treatment  have  been  most  gratifying. 

What  woman  with  the  belief  that  it  was  within  the  bounds  of 


*  By  ambition  here  is  not  meant  the  worldly  ambition  of  amassing  a  fortune,  but  the 
noble  ambition  of  doing  some  worthy  and  useful  work  in  the  world. 


SCIENTIFIC   COOKING.  659 

the  probable  for  her  to  save  a  member  of  her  family  from  even 
the  possibility  of  any  form  of  insanity,  would  not  devote  months, 
even  years,  to  the  study  of  those  principles  and  conditions  of  life 
by  which  robust  health  may  be  maintained  ?  It  should  not  be 
understood  that  I  would  imply  that  bad  food  is  the  cause  of  in- 
sanity, but  it  can  be  said  that  we  have  sufficient  proof  to  lead 
us  to  believe  that  many  cases  of  insanity  might  have  been  pre- 
vented had  the  individuals  been  properly  nourished ;  of  course, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  means  not  only  the  eating 
of  proper  food,  but  its  proper  and  normal  assimilation  in  the 
body. 

It  is  woman's  province  to  control  and  manage  the  household. 
Whether  she  does  it  wisely  or  unwisely  rests  with  herself.  No 
one  else  can  absolutely  fill  her  place.  She  should,  therefore, 
study  the  phases  of  home  affairs  with  the  same  application  and 
assiduity  that  she  would  give  to  a  difficult  problem,  which  may 
require  weeks,  months,  even  years,  to  work  out,  but  which  in  the 
end  must  be  solved. 

A  man  enters  the  arena  of  business  with  the  full  purpose  of 
being  master  of  whatever  he  undertakes.  He  knows  that  he  must 
succeed.  Reputation,  social  position,  comfort,  progress,  the  hap- 
piness of  his  family,  even  life  itself,  may  depend  upon  his  efforts. 
If  woman  would  feel  the  same  responsibility  in  regard  to  her 
home — that  she  must  succeed  in  making  it  a  peaceable,  health- 
giving,  moral-giving  abode,  and  would  never  waver  until  she  had 
accomplished  it — we  should  reach  a  state  of  advancement  in  the 
understanding  of  life  which,  except  among  some  in  the  cultured 
classes,  is  not  general  to-day.  I  do  not  maintain  that  the  study  of 
household  science  will  enable  woman  to  do  all  this,  but  such  study 
will  help  greatly,  perhaps  more  than  anything  else,  toward  that 
end.  It  is  one  of  the  important  factors  in  that  result,  and  if  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  it  will  make  life  for  women  in  the  per- 
formance of  their  household  duties  pleasanter,  more  satisfactory, 
sweeter,  easier,  it  is  more  than  worth  trying.  To  work  in  the 
dark  is  ever  perplexing ;  to  work  in  the  light  of  intelligent  under- 
standing is  one  form  of  happiness. 

The  study  of  household  science,  taken  in  its  full  and  broad 
sense,  leads  into  boundless  fields  of  research.  The  phenomenon 
of  heat,  the  currents  of  the  air,  the  life  and  chemical  nature  of  the 
products  of  the  earth,  the  mysterious  and  complex  processes  of 
nutrition,  fall  almost  without  mention  into  such  work ;  the  sci- 
ences of  chemistry,  physiology,  and  bacteriology  are  its  founda- 
tion stones ;  in  fact,  whatever  bears  upon  the  physical  life  of  man 
is  included  in  it. 

Now  let  us  consider  by  what  means  the  women  of  to-day  and 
of  the  future  may  obtain  a  scientific  education  in  household  af- 


66o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

fairs.  I  would  suggest,  first,  schools  of  domestic  science  and 
hygiene  in  which  girls  shall  be  taught  the  subject  on  the  same 
educational  basis  and  along  the  same  liberal  lines  that  they  are 
taught  other  things. 

A  beginning  in  this  line  of  work  (though  not  in  kind)  has  been 
in  progress  for  several  years  in  some  cities,  notable  among  them 
the  city  of  Boston.  The  subject,  however,  has  been  taken  up  in 
an  elementary  way  and  in  one  of  its  branches  only — that  is,  cook- 
ing. Cooking  was  introduced  to  that  city  by  a  woman  of  wealth 
and  benevolence,  through  whose  influence  several  school-kitchens 
were  opened  and  maintained  at  private  expense  (borne  chiefly  by 
her)  for  a  year,  to  demonstrate  to  the  school  authorities  and  the 
public  what  could  be  done  in  that  line  of  education.  At  the  end 
of  the  time,  in  the  autumn  of  1885,  the  school  board  decided  to 
adopt  the  cooking  schools  as  a  part  of  the  public  educational  sys- 
tem, and  now  there  are  eleven  such  schools  in  that  city.  Cooking 
is  also  taught  at  public  expense  in  New  York,  Milwaukee,  Des 
Moines,  Washington,  Philadelphia,  Los  Angeles,  and  in  many 
smaller  cities  throughout  the  land.  These  are  for  the  most  part 
schools  in  which  the  making  only  of  dishes  is  taught.  They 
should  be  extended  to  include  the  study  of  the  sources,  compo- 
sition, and  nutritive  value  of  food  materials,  heat,  ventilation, 
cleaning,  serving,  and  the  laws  which  govern  health  and  disease. 

The  second  method  which  I  would  suggest  for  the  extension  of 
our  subject  is  by  means  of  private  schools,  lectures,  and  demon- 
stration lessons,  by  which  any  person  may  gain  the  information 
which  has  been  suggested  should  be  taught  in  the  public  schools. 
Third,  by  study  and  experiment  at  home,  where  there  is  always 
opportunity  for  such  work.  There,  by  the  aid  of  books  and  inves- 
tigation, an  educated  woman  may  work  out  and  perfect  plans  and 
methods  for  the  management  of  her  home. 

Educational  and  industrial  unions,  where  the  products  of  the 
culinary  skill  of  women  are  offered  for  sale ;  diet-kitchens,  in 
which  wholesome  dishes  are  sold  at  small  price ;  cooking  schools 
like  those  in  the  city  of  Boston,  in  which  the  girls  in  the  public 
schools  are  taught  methods  of  cooking ;  private  schools,  such  as 
the  Boston  Cooking  School  and  the  New  York  Cooking  School, 
to  which  one  may  go  and  take  one  or  many  lessons  in  invalid, 
family,  or  fancy  cooking,  and  where  demonstration  lessons  are 
given  throughout  the  year ;  experimental  stations,  such  as  the 
New  England  Kitchen  in  Boston,  in  which  chemical  and  bacterio- 
logical investigations  are  made  upon  both  cooked  and  uncooked 
food,  under  the  supervision  of  an  expert  chemist ;  the  Storrs 
experimental  station,  in  Middletown,  Conn.,  which  is  a  purely 
scientific  school  for  the  investigation  of  food  products  and  the 
study  of  dietaries  ;  Pratt  Institute,  in  Brooklyn,  in  which  an  ad- 


SCIENTIFIC   COOKING.  661 

mirable  course  in  domestic  science  is  offered  to  those  intending  to 
teach — all  these  in  their  different  lines  are  excellent,  and  all  tend 
toward  the  same  thing,  namely,  better  ways  of  living. 

Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, is  the  inspirer  of  the  New  England  Kitchen,  and  W.  O. 
Atwater,  of  the  National  Agricultural  Department  at  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.,  is  the  director  of  the  Storrs  experimental  station.  A 
series  of  articles  written  by  him  and  published  in  the  Century 
Magazine,  1887-'88,  are  among  some  of  the  most  valuable  contri- 
butions (in  English)  on  the  subject  of  food  and  dietaries  that  we 
possess. 

Society  may  be  roughly  separated  into  three  divisions.  In  the 
first  are  the  wealthy  and  the  well-to-do ;  the  second  comprises  the 
great  and  powerful  middle  classes ;  and  the  third  is  made  up  of 
the  poor.  In  the  first,  the  household  affairs,  for  the  most  part  are 
managed  by  servants ;  in  the  second,  by  the  wives  and  daughters 
of  the  family ;  and  in  the  third  we  may  say  they  are  not  man- 
aged at  all.  If  no  other  than  the  latter  class — the  poor — were  to 
be  benefited,  my  plea  for  the  cooking  school  would  have  more 
than  ample  excuse  for  being  written.  Among  them,  alas !  who  can 
least  afford  it,  do  we  find  the  greatest  amount  of  waste  in  cooking, 
much  ignorance  in  the  oaring  for  and  buying  of  food,  the  most 
unsanitary  surroundings  as  to  pure  air  and  cleanliness,  and  the 
greatest  amount  of  sickness  resulting  from  bad  living. 

The  following  item  alone  gives  one  a  glimpse  of  the  misery 
among  the  poor:  In  the  city  of  Baltimore,  during  the  year  1891, 
in  a  single  hospital  thirty-three  thousand  patients  were  treated 
in  its  free  dispensary,  and  in  the  same  city  for  the  same  year 
$1,250,000  spent  in  public  charity  through  the  various  charitable 
organizations  and  societies  for  the  relief  of  the  poor. 

When  we  bear  in  mind  that  statistics  of  hygiene  show  that  at 
least  seven  tenths  of  all  forms  of  illness  and  disease  originate 
directly  or  indirectly  from  bad  food,  bad  air,  and  unsanitary  sur- 
roundings, and  unhygienic  ways  of  living  in  general,  can  any 
one  fail  to  see  the  infinite  amount  of  good  that  it  is  possible  to  do 
by  establishing  schools  in  which  the  people  may  be  taught  the 
principles  and  practice  hand  in  hand  of  household  science  ? 

It  is  to  the  public  school,  not  simply  a  school  of  methods,  but 
of  principles  as  well,  that  we  must  look  for  the  greatest  and  most 
lasting  good  in  this  direction.  There  the  children  of  all  classes 
may  gain  correct  instruction  in  hygienic  living ;  there  the  subject 
can  be  brought  to  their  notice  and  presented  in  its  true  educa- 
tional light ;  and  there,  and  there  only,  can  the  great  middle  and 
lower  classes  be  reached.  Private  schools  may  do  locally  much 
good,  but  their  influence  is  not  widespread  unless  they  are  great. 
It  is  only  through  the  public  school  that  this  necessary  and  most 


662  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

valuable  information  can  be  diffused  throughout  the  land ;  and 
not  the  least  of  the  benefit  which  will  come  from  such  work 
will  be  the  moral  effect  of  intelligent  study  and  the  pleasure  and 
satisfaction  of  working  out  understandingly  some  of  the  many 
perplexing  problems  of  e very-day  living. 


PREHISTORIC  JASPER  MINES  IN  THE  LEHIGH  HILLS. 

BY  H.  C.  MERCER. 

BEGINNING  at  Durham,  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania,  and 
following  the  trend  of  the  Lehigh  hills  toward  the  Schuylkill 
near  Reading,  and  generally  in  close  connection  with  veins  of  he- 
matite, occurs  a  series  of  outcrops  of  the  hard  homogeneous  rock 
known  as  jasper.  This  many-colored  stone  with  its  smooth,  con- 
choidal  fracture  stood  somewhat  in  the  same  relation  to  the  North 
American  Indian  that  iron  stands  to  us.  With  it  he  fashioned  his 
best  spears,  perforators,  knives,  arrowheads,  and  scrapers.  No  less 
diligently  did  he  seek  for  it  than  does  the  man  of  the  nineteenth 
century  search  for  that  great  lever  of  his  power  and  progress, 
iron ;  and  no  less  persistently  did  he  quarry  it,  shape  it  to  his 
needs,  and  transport  it  to  great  distances. 

So  Indians  in  the  West  had  been  known  to  quarry  jasper  at 
the  now  famous  "  Flint  Ridge,"  in  Ohio ;  novaculite  at  their  great 
quarries  in  Garland  County,  Arkansas ;  jasper,  or  hornstone,  again 
in  the  Indian  Territory ;  quartzite  at  Piney  Branch,  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  ;  obsidian,  or  volcanic  glass,  in  the  Yellowstone 
Park  and  Mexico,  and  other  workable  stones  at  other  places.  But 
whence  the  jasper  supply  came  from  east  of  the  Alleghanies  has 
long  remained  a  mystery.  Even  the  State  geological  surveys  did 
not  seem  to  recognize  the  existence  of  jasper  in  the  eastern  Le- 
high hills ;  so  that  the  recent  series  of  discoveries,  by  expeditions 
in  the  interest  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  have  thrown 
an  unexpected  light  upon  the  story  of  ancient  man  in  the  Dela- 
ware Valley. 

The  thanks  of  the  university  are  due  to  Mr.  Charles  Laubach, 
of  Durham,  who  first  introduced  the  explorers,  in  1891,  to  the 
aboriginal  jasper  quarry  on  Rattlesnake  Hill,  at  Durham,  Bucks 
County,  Pennsylvania,  and  to  Mr.  A.  F.  Berlin,  of  Allentown,  who, 
by  a  series  of  valuable  clews,  greatly  furthered  the  work  of  subse- 
quent research. 

How  did  the  Indian,  armed  only  with  tools  of  wood,  bone, 
stone,  or  beaten  native  copper,  make  the  excavations,  sometimes 
quite  twenty  feet  in  depth  and  one  hundred  in  diameter  ?  Did  he 
use  pickaxes  made  of  deer  antlers,  as  did  the  ancient  flint-workers 


PREHISTORIC  JASPER  MINES. 


663 


of  "  Grimes'  Graves  "  near  Brandon,  in  England  ?  Did  he  encoun- 
ter the  rock  in  solid  ledges  as  in  Arkansas,  or  in  loose  nodules  ? 
Did  he  reduce  it  by  fire,  splinter  it  with  hafted  stone  hammers, 
such  as  are  found  at  the  prehistoric  copper  mines  on  Isle  Royale, 
in  Lake  Superior,  or  by  battering  bowlder  against  bowlder  ?  Did 
he  finally  chip  the  material  into  arrowheads  at  the  quarry,  or 
carry  away  lumps  of  the  stone  to  be  worked  up  elsewhere  ? 

These  and  many  other  questions  we  asked  ourselves  on  a  first 
glance  at  the  bramble-grown  pits  and  refuse  heaps  on  the  lonely 
hilltop  at  Durham.  And  after  a  careful  study  of  the  place,  several 


Fio.  1  (|). — a,  CAST  OF  POINTED  WOODEN  DIGGING  IMPLEMENT;   b,  CAST  OF  LOG  SHARP- 
ENED BY  STONE  TOOLS.     Jasper  Mines,  Macungie,  Pa. 

expeditions  sent  out  on  this  and  the  preceding  summer,  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  eight  new  quarries  lying  in  a  continuous  line 
from  the  Delaware  almost  to  the  Schuylkill.* 

All,  though  varying  greatly  in  size  and  quality  of  material,  tell 
the  same  story. 

In  some,  the  excavations,  filled  with  forest  mold  and  over- 
grown with  trees,  would  escape  the  attention  of  the  casual  rambler 
until  the  piles  of  flakes,  yellow  and  rose-tinted,  easily  displayed 
by  scraping  away  the  leaves  that  concealed  them,  revealed  the 
handiwork  of  the  ancient  quarryman. 

But  at  others,  as  at  Macungie  and  Vera  Cruz,  the  passer-by 
would  halt  in  amazement.  The  appearance  is  too  unusual,  the 
work  too  vast — one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  pits,  some 
of  them  fifteen  and  twenty  feet  deep  and  one  hundred  to  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  is  no  every-day  sight.  Again,  the 
tinted  flakes  and  refuse  heaps  tell  the  tale,  and  the  neighboring 


*  At  Coopersburg,  Limeport,  Saucon  Creek,  Vera  Crux,  nml  M:u-migie,  in  Lehigh  County 
and  at  Long  Swamp,  Bowers,  and  Leimbai-h's  Mills,  in  Berks. 


664  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

wheat  field  glistens  with  fragments,  yellow,  blue,  purple,  red,  lav- 
ender, and  veined  in  many  hues.  The  forest,  too,  has  set  its  stamp 
of  age  upon  the  scene,  and  an  old  chestnut  stump  growing  on  the 
side  of  one  of  the  excavations,  upon  which  we  counted  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety-five  rings,  proves  that  the  workman  must  have 
abandoned  his  shaft  to  the  growth  of  underbrush  about  the  time 
(1682)  that  William  Penn  bought  his  first  tract  of  land  from  In- 
dians on  the  Delaware. 

And  then,  as,  standing  before  the  ancient  works  of  the  mound- 
builders  at  Grave  Creek,  Marietta,  and  Newark,  a  strange  feeling 


FIG.  2. — PART  OF  or,  FIG.  1,  ENLARGED,  SHOWING  STONE  TOOL  MARKS. 

born  of  awe  steals  over  us,  so  here  by  degrees  the  scene  assumes 
its  true  hue  of  wonder.  We  have  had  a  glance  beyond  the  bound- 
ary lines  of  history  into  the  unillumined  darkness  of  this  conti- 
nent's past,  and  for  a  moment  heard  the  echoes  of  that  vast  forest 
mysterious  with  the  fate  of  lost  races  that  for  ages  darkened  the 
New  World  before  the  coming  of  Columbus  and  De  Soto. 

It  was  important  to  learn  that  at  Vera  Cruz  and  Macungie, 
farmers,  believing  the  excavations  to  have  been  the  work  of  early 
Spanish  gold-seekers,  had  dug  deep  trenches  across  several  of 
them  to  find  that  some,  judging  from  traces  of  disturbance  in  the 
soil,  had  reached  a  depth  of  forty  feet ;  that  one  was  square  rather 
than  round  ;  that  in  those  examined  there  had  been  no  tunneling 
done,  the  lateral  enlargements  having  been  made  from  the  surface 
downward. 

In  the  bottom  of  two  pits  it  was  alleged  that  charcoal  was 
found,  and  in  one  case,  deep  buried  in  clay  at  the  very  bottom,  the 
remains  of  a  textile  fabric,  and  several  decayed  billets  of  wood 
about  two  feet  and  a  half  in  length,  with  points  at  one  end,  black- 
ened by  charring.  In  all  instances  pure  nodules  of  jasper  were  to 
a  great  extent  wanting  in  the  pits,  but  were  found  imbedded  in  the 
soil  as  soon  as  the  un worked  edges  of  the  excavations  were  reached. 

Our  own  preliminary  work  proved  that  in  one  of  the  diggings 
at  least  the  miners  had  not  attacked  a  solid  vein  of  jasper,  but, 
finding  it  in  bowlders  on  the  surface,  had  removed  these,  to  work 
out  others  imbedded  beneath  them  ;  and  when  in  the  undisturbed 
bottom  of  our  shaft,  at  a  depth  of  nineteen  feet,  we  dug  out  a 
small,  yellow-coated  nodule,  we  were  but  continuing  the  long-sus- 
pended process  of  the  quarryman,  who,  prying  out  the  masses  one 


PREHISTORIC  JASPER   MINES.  665 

by  one,  must  have  scraped  away  the  surrounding  clay  till  the  pits 
were  made. 

That  fire  had  been  extensively  used  on  the  surface  there  was 
no  question,  whether  in  the  clearing  away  of  underbrush  for  min- 
ing at  successive  times,  or,  as  seemed  probable  in  one  case,  in  re- 
ducing the  large  fragments,  and  coloring  yellow  jasper  red. 

But  far  more  interesting  was  it  to  find  fifteen  feet  down  in  our 
shaft  an  oven  designedly  made  of  large  blocks  of  coarse  jasper,  in 
the  hollow  of  which  rested  a  mass  of  charcoal  and  ashes.  To  be 
satisfied  that  the  bowlders  had  been  thus  cracked  and  splintered 
by  heat,  it  was  but  necessary  to  notice  their  reddened  sides  and 
gather  up  the  fire-fractured  fragments  of  all  sizes  in  their  cavities. 

Several  holes  in  the  clay  near  the  bottom  were  no  more  nor 
less  than  the  perfect  molds  left  by  objects  of  wood  long  since 
rotted  to  nothingness,  and  these  enabled  us  by  pouring  in  plaster 
of  Paris  to  recover  the  forms  of  a  piece  of  sapling  about  two  feet 
in  length,  and  the  fragment  of  a  larger  tree,  both  pointed  at  one 
end,  and  plainly  showing  the  marks  of  the  stone  tools  that  had 
sharpened  them.  (See  Figs.  1,  2,  and  3.) 

That  one  at  least  of  these  billets  (Fig.  1,  a)  was  intended  for  use 
in  quarrying  there  could  be  no  doubt ;  still  less  that  a  large  disk 


FIG.  3. — PART  OF  6,  FIG.  1,  ENLARGED,  SHOWING  STONE  TOOL  MARKS. 

of  bluish  limestone,  chipped  into  the  form  of  a  heavy  hoe,  and  well 
worn  on  its  edges,  if  not  a  smaller  fragment  of  quartzite,  had  been 
used  as  rough  digging  tools.  (See  Fig.  4,  a,  b.) 

But  as  the  pickaxe  struck  fire  on  the  stones  and  glanced  often 
impotently  from  the  compact  clay,  our  wonder  at  the  ancient  toil- 
er's perseverance,  challenged  by  this  glimpse  of  his  tools,  increased. 
Still,  even  granting  all  the  pits  a  depth  far  beyond  their  appear- 
ance, we  little  suspected  the  immense  amount  of  work  done,  until 
the  arrangement  of  layers  in  our  shaft,  the  scattered  bits  of  char- 
coal, the  belts  of  stone-chippers'  refuse,  and  the  five  distinct  fire 


666  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

sites  there  encountered,  proved  beyond  a  doubt  that  our  excava- 
tion had  not  caved  in,  but  had  been  deliberately  filled  up  by  the 
prehistoric  quarryman,  who,  realizing  .the  economy  of  keeping  the 
unworked  ground  free  from  excessive  earth  heaps,  had  evidently 

carried  (in  baskets  or 
skins)  the  newly  dug 
soil  from  the  fresh 
diggings  to  the  ex- 
hausted pits. 

Turning  to  the 
surface  refuse  heaps, 
and  from  the  artifi- 
cially flaked  frag- 
ments exhibiting  no 
succinct  design  that 
strew  the  ground 
FIG.  4  (A).— STONE  DIGGING  TOOLS.  everywhere,  we  find 

(a)  a  series  of  well- 
battered  quartzite  hammer  stones,  not  pitted  on  their  sides,  and 
varying  from  an  inch  and  a  quarter  to  five  and  six  inches  in  di- 
ameter ;  (b)  a  mass  of  very  interesting,  artificially  shaped  blocks, 
that  all  tend  in  the  direction  of  an  ideal  leaf -shaped  form,  and 
which  in  their  various  stages  resemble  the  famous  implements 
or  objects  from  Trenton  and  Ohio  known  as  "  turtlebacks "  and 
"palseoliths." 

Our  attention  is  further  called  to  the  facts  that  there  are  few, 
very  few,  arrowheads  at  these  spots,  and  as  yet  no  traces  of  pot- 
tery, no  banner  stones,  net  sinkers,  gorgets,  or  grooved  axes  ;  that, 
in  a  word,  these  remote  places,  buried  in  the  forest  inconveniently 
far  from  water  and  arable  land,  were  not  fit  for  village  sites.  They 
were  quarries — nothing  more,  nothing  less — whither  the  jasper- 
using  modern  Indian,  as  known  to  Captain  John  Smith,  Cam- 
panius,  and  Kalm,  resorted,  must  have  resorted,  to  quarry  his 
material,  knock  it  into  portable  shape,  and  carry  it  away  to  the 
distant  village. 

By  a  few  blows  of  the  pebble  hammer  the  weathered  surface  of 
the  nodule  (Fig.  7)  is  chipped  away  and  the  thick  block  takes  a 
pointed  shape.  A  series  of  further  blows,  more  careful  and  proba- 
bly struck  with  the  small  hammers,  produce  a  serrated  cutting 
edge  around  the  whole  fragment,  which  now,  well  marked  with 
the  chipping  that  unmistakably  proclaims  the  handiwork  of  man 
(Fig.  5),  though  still  rude,  clumsy,  and  an  inch  or  two  thick  in  the 
middle,  has  become  the  typical  "  turtleback  "  of  Trenton.  It  may 
be  that  a  final  series  of  flakings,  whether  due  still  to  the 'hammer 
or  to  pressure,  results  in  a  quite  symmetrical  blade,  lightened  to 
the  desired  weight  and  ready  for  transport  (Fig.  6). 


PREHISTORIC  JASPER   MINES. 


667 


There  the  quarry  man's  work  seems  to  have  stopped,  if  it  al- 
ways went  so  far,  and  the  hoard  of  blank  blades  ready  to  be  fin- 
ished or  specialized  by  some  local  arrowhead  maker  into  perfora- 
tors, arrowheads,  spears,  or  knives,  as  the  case  may  be,  is  carried 
away.  When  for  a  time  its  owner  is  compelled  to  part  company 
with  it,  he  buries  it  in  the  ground  for  safe  keeping  or  to  render 
the  material  softer  for  future  work,*  and  there  for  a  dozen  rea- 


Fio.  5  (ABOUT  i  i. — II AMMEK  STONES  AND  BLOCKED-OUT  BLADES.    Jasper  Mines,  Macungie,  Pa 

sons  it  may  remain  for  long  years,  to  be  discovered  at  last  by  a 
surprised  plowman. 

Such  a  cache  of  hitherto  "  inexplicable  "  leaf -shape  implements, 
consisting  of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  yellowish  argillite  blades, 


*  But  the  flint  "knappers"  at  Mr.  Robert  Snaros's  gun-Hint  works  at  Brandon,  Suffolk, 
England,  told  me  that  they  always  dried  the  nodules  by  the  fire  or  in  the  wind,  as  the  ham- 
mers would  not  "  take  hold  "  of  flint  wet  from  the  mines.  Argillite,  on  the  other  hand,  so 
say  the  quarry  men  at  Point  Pleasant  on  the  Delaware,  flakes  better  when  wet,  as,  in  my 

i-xpnienre  at  Mai-imgu',  jasper  does  also. 


668 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


we  found,  in  1891,  on  Ridges  Island,  on  the  Delaware ;  another  of 
one  hundred  and  seven  of  blue  argillite  was  obtained  for  us  by 
Mr.  Doan,  at  Bridge  Valley,  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania,  last 
May,  and  another  of  nine  blanks  of  chert  was  found  by  us  in  June 
of  last  year,  on  an  island  in  the  Susquehanna ;  while  on  the  other 
hand  that  the  material  was  sometimes  carried  away  from  the  mines 
in  the  rough,  was  proved  to  us  by  the  discovery  of  a  large  nodule 
partly  chipped  at  the  village  site  of  Upper  Blacks'  Eddy,  on  the 
Delaware,  ten  miles  from  Durham,  and  another  smaller  mass  on 
the  river  shore  at  Fry's  Run. 

The  story  of  the  Lehigh  jasper  quarries  thus  glanced  at,  but 
soon  to  be  fully  and  carefully  studied,  is  thus  far  a  corroboration 
in  main  of  the  recent  researches  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes  at  Piney 


FIG.  6  (I).— CACHE  BLADES.     Bridge  Valley,  Pa. 

Branch,  in  the  Indian  Territory,  and  in  Garland  County,  Arkan- 
sas. Is  it  the  story  of  all  jasper  quarries  in  the  United  States  ? 
Is  it  the  story  as  well  of  the  argillite  sandstone  and  quartzite 
quarry  sites  and  the  obsidian  workings  not  yet  discovered  and 
studied  ?  In  a  word,  are  we  right  in  supposing  that  this  process 
of  passing  from  the  shapeless  block  (Fig.  7)  to  the  "  turtleback/' 
and  from  the  "  turtleback  "  to  the  thin,  leaf -shaped  blank,  and 
thence  to  the  spear  or  finished  implement,  represents  the  necessary 
steps  through  which  all  peoples  in  an  age  of  stone  have  passed  in 
the  fashioning  of  their  rock-hewn  tools  ? 

Thirty  years  ago  Indians  were  chipping  arrowheads  of  obsidian 
and  hornstone  on  the  shores  of  the  Sacramento.  Many  of  them 
still  live  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  who  can  doubtless  ex- 
plain the  whole  matter.  Sometimes  their  opinion  has  been  asked 


PREHISTORIC  JASPER  MINES. 


669 


and  their  work  described,  but  the  accounts  of  their  white  ques- 
tioners have  been  vague,  contradictory,  and  unsystematic.  None 
of  them  explain  the  quarry,  the  turtleback,  or  the  cache  implement. 

Caleb  Lyon,  who  saw  about  1860  a  Shasta  Indian  arrowhead 
maker  at  work,  refers  only  to  a  slab  of  obsidian  one  fourth  of  an 
inch  thick,  split  from  a  pebble  and  flaked  by  blows.  T.  R.  Peale 
speaks  only  of  hammering  a  mass  of  jasper,  agate,  or  chert  with  a 
round-faced  stone  and  finish- 
ing up  the  edges  with  a 
notched  bone,  as  a  glazier 
chips  glass.  School  craft  saw 
an  anvil  of  wood  or  some 
hard  substance  placed  on 
the  thigh,  upon  which  a  piece 
of  jasper  was  held  at  rest  to 
be  hammered  by  something 
undescribed.  Captain  John 
Smith  tells  how  the  Indian 
"  quickly  maketh  an  arrow- 
head of  splints  of  stone  in 
the  form  of  a  heart,  with  a 
little  bone,  which  he  ever 
weareth  at  his  bracept." 
Torquemada  and  Hernandez 
briefly  describe  seeing  Mexi- 
cans sending  off  long  flakes 
of  obsidian,  with  which  certain  Spaniards  had  their  beards  shaved, 
by  pressing  a  wooden  punch  on  a  nucleus  of  obsidian  held  between 
the  feet. 

Admiral  Sir  E.  Belcher  (about  1858-'60)  saw  Eskimos,  Califor- 
nia Indians,  and  Sandwich  Islanders  fracturing  chert  blocks  with 
slight  taps  of  nephrite  hammers,  and  then  flaking  the  splinters 
wedged  in  a  spoon-shaped  cavity  in  a  log,  with  a  point  of  deer 
horn.*  And  so  on.  Lieutenant  E.  J.  Beckwith  and  Catlin  tell  of 
flaking  small  pieces  and  thin  slabs  of  quartz  and  obsidian,  by 
direct  pressure  and  indirect  pounding  upon  a  bone  punch ;  and 
certain  white  men  have  recently  made  arrowheads  out  of  curiosity 
or  to  palm  them  off  upon  collectors ;  but  neither  the  conflicting  ac- 
counts nor  the  amateur  experiments  explain  the  leaf-shaped  hoards 
(Fig.  6),  or  the  inchoate  forms  (Fig.  5)  that  litter  the  quarry  refuse. 
Evidently  some  of  the  chief  underlying  features  of  the  first  and 
greatest  of  man's  primeval  arts  have  not  been  grasped.  The  liv- 
ing Indians  who  remember  the  process  must  be  questioned  again. 


FIG.  7  (ABOUT  i). — NATURAL  NODULK  OF  JASPER 
FLAKED  ON  ONE  SIDE.  Long  Swamp,  Le- 
high,  Pa. 


*  See  for  these  narratives,  except  Beckwith  (Pacific  Railroad  Survey,  vol.  ii,  p.  43),  E. 
T.  Stevens's  Flint  Chips,  p.  67. 


67o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Turning  back  to  the  quarries  and  refuse  heaps,  and  passing  by 
the  many  problems  of  deep  archseological  interest  that  they  sug- 
gest, suffice  it  here  to  say  that  for  one  fact  already  mentioned 
they  claim  attention  among  the  foremost  fields  of  American  re- 
search. 

Here,  at  a  distance  of  from  forty  to  fifty  miles  from  Trenton, 
are  scores  of  jasper  specimens  closely  resembling  the  forms  of 
argillite  found  there  buried  fifteen  and  twenty  feet  in  the  glacial 
gravels ;  imitations,  so  to  speak,  of  the  so-called  "  palgeolith,"  or 


FIG.  8  (T). — 1,  FLINT  PAL^OLITH  FROM  ST.  ACHEUL,  FRANCE  ;  2,  3,  4,  5,  TI-RTLEBACKS  OF 
ARGILLITE,  DELAWARE  VALLEY.     (Found  on  the  surface.) 

implement  of  the  savage  ice  man,  who,  seven  thousand  years  ago, 
chipped  river  pebbles  on  the  freshet-swept  banks  of  the  Delaware. 
We  have  been  told  that  this  object  from  Trenton,  this  "  palseo- 
lith,"  is  a  finished  implement,  a  type  of  an  epoch ;  that  the  savage 
who  fashioned  it  was  little  better  than  an  ape  in  culture,  ignorant 
even  of  the  use  of  the  bow,  and  a  slayer  of  his  prey  with  clubs 
and  stones.  And  science  has  willingly  stolen  into  the  by-paths  of 
wonder  and  speculation  to  suggest  his  origin  and  fate.  Akin  it 
was  said  to  the  river-drift  man  of  Europe,  he  crossed  tne  North 
Atlantic  on  an  isthmus  that  in  preglacial  times  stretched  from 
Britain  to  Greenland  to  dwell  on  the  cold  shores  of  the  Delaware 
when  the  great  glacier  stretched  its  coping  of  ice  from  the  Hud- 


PREHISTORIC  JASPER   MINES.  671 

son's  mouth  to  Oregon,  and  while  the  Niagara  River  yet  tumbled 
its  cataract  into  Lake  Ontario  at  the  site  of  Lewiston. 

At  first,  as  we  take  up  these  shapes  from  the  quarry  (Fig.  5), 
rude  as  the  rudest  from  Trenton,  yet  geologically  an  affair  of  yes- 
terday, doubts  assail  us  on  all  sides.  What  if  the  Trenton  speci- 
mens, after  all,  are  modern  too  ?  Did  they  slip  downward  into  the 
drift  through  the  fissures  of  earthquakes,  root-holes,  the  cavities 
left  by  upheaved  trees,  or  by  the  deceptive  readjustments  of  strata 
that  sometimes  puzzle  geologists  on  the  face  of  bluffs  and  banks  ? 
The  supposed  lapse  of  ages  between  them  and  the  Trenton  imple- 
ments seems  to  fade  awa^.  We  are  almost  startled.  The  doors  of 
archaeology's  wonder  chamber  have  been  thrown  open,  its  treasures 
displaced,  and  the  strange  form  of  palaeolithic  man,  slipping  out  of 
our  grasp,  seems  ready  to  vanish  into  the  limbo  of  chimeras. 

But  pondering  long  over  the  work  of  the  quarries,  and  compar- 
ing it  diligently  with  the  workshop  refuse  on  the  pebbly  shores  of 
the  Delaware  and  Susquehanna  (see  Fig.  8),  where  argillite  "tur- 
tlebacks "  (Nos.  2,  3,  4,  and  5)  are  often  found  at  Indian  village 
sites,  ideas  suggest  themselves  that  may  well  efface  all  bias  from 
our  minds,  and  effectually  disincline  us  for  a  premature  conclusion. 

What  if  these  modern  stones  (Fig.  5)  do  resemble  "palseoliths  ?" 
What  if  the  Trenton  forms  like  these  were  only  steps  in  the  pro- 
cess of  fashioning  blades  not  yet  found  ?  What  if  the  Trenton 
"  palaeolith  "  were  not  a  finished  implement,  as  has  been  declared  ? 

What  if  glacial  man,  in  a  word,  was  not  a  "  palaeolithic  "  man 
at  all,  ignorant  of  the  art  of  stone-polishing,  but  the  equal  in  cul- 
tivation of  even  the  modern  Indian  ? 

Is  he  any  the  less  old  ?  Is  he  any  the  less  interesting  because 
we  can  no  longer  pick  up  a  stone,  like  the  American  specimens  in 
Fig.  8,  on  the  surface  and  say,  "  This  is  a  palseolith  "  ?  Is  he  any 
the  less  a  glacial  inhabitant  because  modern  Indians  have  dupli- 
cated one  of  his  stone  relics,  and  we  are  obliged  to  reform  our 
American  definition  of  the  word  "  palaeolithic  "  ?  * 

As  we  tread  the  rough,  hilly  roads  and  clamber  the  rocky 
slopes  that  often  lead  to  the  jasper  mines,  nothing  strikes  us  more 
forcibly  than  that  man  must  have  been  a  long  time  a  dweller  in 
the  Delaware  Valley  before  he  discovered  them,  and  that  his  first 

*  We  speak  in  America  of  "  palaeoliths  "  and  "  true  palaeolithic  implements,"  as  if  the 
terms  could  mean  nothing  but  the  rude  forms  here  discussed.  But  the  cave  men  of  France, 
who,  it  is  said,  did  not  polish  stone,  though  they  polished  bone  and  produced  realistic  ani- 
mal carvings  superior  to  anything  done  in  the  bronze  age,  were  no  less  palaeolithic  than  the 
drift  savage  who  made  Fig.  8,  No.  1 .  And  if  Sir  John  Lubbock's  definition  means  anything, 
the  delicate  blades  of  chipped  flint  from  Solutr6  and  the  caves  of  Laugerie  Haute,  Gorge 
d'Enfer,  Grotte  de  TEglise,  etc.,  skillfully  worked  as  the  beautiful  obsidian  knives  of  Cali- 
fornia, Tennessee,  and  Mexico,  are  true  "  palaeoliths."  (See  De  Mortillet,  Musee  Prehis- 
torique,  classification.) 


672 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


stone  implements  would  have  been  fashioned,  not  from  jasper,  but 
from  the  material  first  at  hand. 

The  shores  of  the  large  rivers,  where  no  one  denies  that  he 
made  his  earliest  habitation,  are  strewn  with  pebbles  of  conven- 
ient size  and  conchoidal  fracture,  and  from  these  (who  can  doubt 
it  ?)  he  made  his  first  tools,  whether  already  elsewhere  taught  the 
value  of  jasper  or  not. 

From  Belvidere  to  Chester,  from  Beach  Haven  to  Havre  de 
Grace,  the  river  beaches  may  be  looked  upon  as  one  great  pre- 


Fio.  9  (1). — Two  VIEWS  OF  A  SPECIMEN  FROM  THE  TRENTON  GRAVELS. 
(See  Abbott's  Primitive  Industry,  page  500.) 

historic  quarry  littered  with  the  chips,  the  hammer  stones,  and 
the  refuse  implements  of  vanished  peoples ;  and  while  the  remote 
jasper  quarries  were  disassociated  of  necessity  with  abundant 
traces  of  village  life,  here  were  quarry  and  village  sites  combined, 
where  the  relics  of  the  stone-chipper  must  needs  lie  within  a  few 
feet  or  yards  of  those  of  the  potter,  the  fisherman,  and  the  hunter. 
It  is  here  rather  than  upon  the  hilltops  of  Durham  and  Macungie 
that  archaeology  may  look  for  man's  earlier  and  intermediate 
handiwork  in  stone,  the  telltale  sites  whose  relics  more  or  less 
deeply  buried  shall  carry  us  back  to  the  morning  of  his  first 
coming. 

Meanwhile,  with  eyes  wider  open,  we  are  ready  for  another 
ransacking  of  the  gravel  pits  of  Trenton  and  Madison ville.    More 


ORIGIN  OF  LITERARY  FORMS.  673 

sharply  than  ever  shall  we  look  for  a  bit  of  pottery  seven  thousand 
years  old,  an  arrowhead  or  grooved  stone  axe,  and  without  unjust 
doubt  ask  the  questions :  Have  we  been  deceived  ?  Have  the 
classic  stones  slipped  down  into  the  gravel  through  Nature's  chan- 
nels ?  Has  a  landslide  tricked  us  with  its  mastodon's  tooth  and 
human  skull  ?  And  then,  where  are  the  hammer  stones,  and  the 
chips,  and  the  signs  of  use  on  the  "  turtlebacks,"  and  the  thinned- 
down  blades,  which  shall  prove  for  what  purpose  glacial  man 
might  have  made  these  leaf-shaped  forms — whether  like  the 
modern  Indian  he  treated  them  only  as  blocked-out  types  of  more 
specialized  tools,  or  whether,  still  a  child  in  the  stone-chipper's 
art,  he  halted  at  the  second  step  in  the  process,  and,  unskilled  to 
go  further,  used  the  now  famous  "  turtleback  "  as  a  finished  im- 
plement sufficient  for  his  primitive  needs  ? 

It  is  well  that  we  have  this  new  light  from  the  jasper  quarries 
on  the  great  art  of  arts  that  most  concerned  man's  life  and  happi- 
ness in  the  untold  ages  of  his  childhood.  One  source  of  error  and 
confusion  has  been  cleared  away  from  the  subject,  and  we  fully 
realize  that  what  shall  in  future  determine  the  age  and  nature  of 
these  stones  is  not  their  "  type "  or  their  form,  or  their  resem- 
blance to  European  specimens,  but  their  geological  position. 


ORIGIN  OF  LITERARY  FORMS. 

BY  M.  CHAELES  LETOURNEAU. 

WHAT  in  current  language  we  call  literature,  the  literary 
aesthetics  of  civilized  peoples,  poetry  intelligently  composed 
and  revised  according  to  complicated  metrical  laws — written 
works,  made  to  be  read,  not  sung,  and  addressed  to  a  cultivated 
public — only  represent  the  last  term  of  literary  evolution.  Prim- 
itive literature  is  very  different,  and  is  everywhere  the  same.  Its 
origin  is  extremely  distant,  and  it  is  probable  that  it  even  pre- 
ceded, in  our  most  ancient  ancestors,  the  invention  of  articulate 
language — that  great  step  which  sealed  the  transformation  of  the 
anthropopithecus  into  man.  That  precious  acquisition,  however, 
was  not  miraculous  nor  instantaneous.  The  first  speech  was  cer- 
tainly very  rudimentary ;  and  before  conquering  it,  the  anthro- 
poids from  which  man  slowly  issued  possessed,  like  all  other  ani- 
mals, a  vocal  language  constituted  solely  of  modulated  cries  re- 
sulting from  simple  reflex  actions,  automatic,  and  corresponding 
to  the  necessities,  the  desires,  and  the  feelings  of  beings  of  little  in- 
telligence. In  the  brain  of  the  anthropopithecus  the  passage  from 
the  cry  to  speech  marked  the  beginning  of  a  complete  psychical 
revolution.  It  must  have  been  effected  with  great  slowness,  and 

TOL.   XLIII. 49 


6/4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

supposes  a  life  in  society  of  a  cyclic  duration,  for  the  isolated  in- 
fant still  does  not  speak.  The  first  words  were  probably  cried  or 
sung.  Our  very  young  children  still  sing  before  speaking,  and 
even  begin  with  singing  their  first  articulated  sounds ;  and  not 
till  they  are  three  or  four  years  old  is  their  speaking  voice  clearly 
distinguished  from  their  singing  voice. 

As  in  the  human  species  the  singing  voice  is  much  the  most 
ancient,  it  has  also  left  very  deep  impressions  on  our  mentality. 
Certain  cries,  certain  timbres  or  modulations  of  the  voice,  will  to- 
day awaken  in  the  most  civilized  man  latent  and  profound  im- 
pressions, and  excite  emotions  that  seize  the  hearer's  very  heart. 
From  this  psychic  basis  bequeathed  to  us  by  our  ancestors,  from 
this  mental  paleontology,  are  derived  our  taste  for  music  and  its 
emotional  power.  Those  cries,  those  passionate  accents,  have 
more  power  over  us  than  the  most  moving  discourse,  because 
they  have  been,  through  the  long  chain  of  ancestral  generations, 
the  expression  of  intense  feeling  of  which  we  have  not  ceased  to 
be  susceptible.  At  the  bottom,  traced  back  to  its  origin,  music  is 
nothing  more  than  the  aesthetic  imitation  of  particularly  express- 
ive vocal  emissions;  consequently  its  psychical  roots  go  down 
very  deep  into  the  past,  to  the  time  when  man  began  to  be  differ- 
entiated from  the  animal.  It  is,  therefore,  very  much  of  course 
that  in  all  races  song  should  constitute  one  of  the  principal  ele- 
ments of  primitive  aesthetics.  This  is  a  fact  that  we  have  been 
able  to  verify  everywhere,  even  among  the  most  inferior  types  of 
men,  as  among  the  Pe'cherais  of  Terra  del  Fuego,  whose  song  con- 
stitutes in  itself  alone  all  their  aesthetic  expression.  Yet  this  is  a 
rare,  an  exceptional  fact ;  for  usually,  in  primitive  aesthetics,  song 
is  closely  associated  with  gestures  and  mimicry,  which,  from  the 
origin  of  our  species,  were  probably  secondary  to  the  voice  not  yet 
spoken,  illustrating  the  significance  of  the  cry ;  for  vocal  sounds 
and  gestures  are  equally  reflexive  acts,  and  the  voice  is  only  the 
result  of  muscular  contractions,  of  laryngeal  gestures. 

The  more  rudimentary  articulated  language  is,  the  more  ne- 
cessary to  it  is  the  aid  of  mimicry.  Our  children  gesticulate  long 
before  they  have  learned  how  to  talk,  and  they  continue  to  do  so 
long  afterward ;  and  we  first  succeed  in  communicating  with 
them  by  means  of  gestures.  Even  the  adult  man,  of  the  highest 
civilization,  rarely  confines  himself  to  articulate  language  alone. 
Nearly  always  gestures  are  added  automatically  to  the  words,  to 
sustain  them,  as  comment,  or  to  moderate  or  intensify  the  expres- 
sion. The  refined  rhetoric  of  artists  in  speech  makes  great  use  of 
mimicry,  and  the  ancient  rhetors  of  Rome  esteemed  action  very 
highly.  The  literary  aesthetics  of  all  primitive  peoples,  therefore, 
comprised  at  once  song,  speech,  and  gestures.  Thus  we  have 
seen  the  men  of  all  countries  and  all  races  beginning  in  literary 


ORIGIN   OF  LITERARY  FORMS.  675 

aesthetics  by  blending  into  an  indissoluble  trinity  mimicry,  music, 
and  poetry,  or,  in  short,  song  and  the  scenic  dance.  In  fact,  as  we 
have  often  shown,  articulate  speech  begins  by  being  the  least  im- 
portant member  of  that  aesthetic  trinity;  a  simple  accessory  of 
the  song — that  is,  of  rhythmical,  cadenced  modulations — it  defines 
their  sense,  but  can  not  separate  itself  from  them,  and  often  gives 
place  to  simple  modulated  cries,  to  interjections,  and  to  onomato- 
poeias. In  fact,  with  different  primitive  peoples,  we  have  found 
species  of  romances  without  words,  traces  of  an  ancient  interjec- 
tional  poetry  which  probably  preceded  spoken  poetry.  The  inter- 
jectional  refrains,  frequent  among  primitive  men  and  in  our  popu- 
lar songs,  are  evidently  survivals  of  this  same  aesthetics. 

We  have  seen  that  in  all  the  earth  the  object  sought  by  the 
primitive  peoples  in  their  dances  and  ballets  is  less  the  pleasure 
of  rhythmical  motion,  to  which  they  are,  however,  very  sensitive, 
than  significant,  scenic  mimicry,  reproducing  acts  and  adventures 
fitted  to  excite  a  lively  interest  in  the  little  social  community  of 
which  they  form  a  part.  What  they  want  most  of  all  is  an  ex- 
pressive spectacle,  giving  the  idea  of  a  hunt,  a  battle,  a  cannibal 
feast,  and  their  incidents  ;  but  such  a  dramatic  ballet  supposes  the 
existence  of  a  close  association,  of  that  communal  clan  which  we 
meet  in  the  origin  of  all  societies,  and  which  has  everywhere  mod- 
eled primitive  aesthetics.  These  choral  dances,  these  opera-ballets 
of  savages,  constitute  in  all  races  the  collective  rejoicings  or  cere- 
monials of  the  clans.  We  have  found  them  among  the  Tasma- 
nians,  the  Papuans,  the  Kafirs,  the  Polynesians,  the  American  In- 
dians, the  Hebrews,  the  Greeks,  and  other  nations.  These  scenic 
diversions  always  represent  events  of  capital  interest  for  the  little 
social  unity;  and  the  nature  of  the  events  differs  according  to 
the  degree  of  civilization.  With  the  American  Indians,  they  re- 
fer to  the  hunt  or  to  war ;  with  the  Chinese,  to  different  incidents 
in  rural  life,  labor,  the  harvest,  etc. 

These  beginnings  of  literary  aesthetics  explain  to  us  why,  among 
civilized  peoples,  music  excites  many  persons  to  movement,  to 
action ;  it  is  because  the  two  were  long  associated  in  the  ancient 
clans.  But  it  addresses  itself  to  very  intelligent  persons,  with 
whom  the  necessity  for  muscular  activity  yields  to  that  for  mental 
activity,  to  the  feelings,  to  the  thought,  when  music,  instead  of 
exciting  the  muscular  system,  awakens  the  heart  or  stimulates  the 
mind.  It,  for  example,  inspires  in  a^  Stendhal  the  desire  to  co- 
operate in  the  enfranchisement  of  Greece ;  in  an  Alfieri,  plans  for 
tragedy ;  and  in  a  John  Stuart  Mill,  philosophical  speculations.  In 
all  these  cases,  in  short,  music  plays  the  part  of  an  excitant  that 
determines  different  reactions  according  to  the  various  modes  of 
the  mental  organization. 

The  taste  for  measured,  rhythmical  musical  sounds  is,  as  we 


676  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

have  seen,  both  primitive  and  universal.  From  this  very  taste  has 
sprung  the  invention  of  meter,  or  the  art  of  closely  marrying  the 
words  to  the  melody,  and  consequently  of  counting  the  words  and 
even  the  syllables  of  the  words  when  they  have  more  than  one,  of 
regarding  their  accentuation  in  chanted  poetry,  the  only  form  that 
originally  existed.  In  the  primitive  choirs  the  air  was  the  most 
important  element ;  the  words  were  probably  regulated  by  it.  They 
were  fitted  at  first  with  much  difficulty  and  very  imperfectly,  by  re- 
course to  exclamations,  to  interjections  void  of  sense,  in  order  to 
fill  blanks  and  create  rhymes.  Sometimes  among  very  inferior 
races  the  rhyme  and  the  pleasure  of  pronouncing  it  were  obtained 
by  simply  repeating  a  word  or  a  short  phrase,  as  the  Fuegian  and 
the  Australian  do.  Very  commonly  the  essential  element  of  the 
meter  is  the  more  or  less  imperfect  rhyme,  the  rhyme  by  asso- 
nance. The  verse  without  rhyme  of  some  civilized  peoples,  like 
the  Greeks  and  Latins,  which  depends  chiefly  on  the  tonic  accent 
of  the  words,  supposes  a  language  developed  and  highly  refined ; 
but  at  bottom  it  also  rests  on  combinations  of  assonances.  The 
primitive  songs  never  being  written,  very  imperfect  rhymes  suf- 
ficed for  them.  It  is  only  among  civilized  peoples  that  meter 
becomes  learned  and  complex,  when  poetry  is  almost  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  professionals. 

Usually  when  meter  becomes  more  rigorous  the  length  of  the 
verse  increases.  Taken  by  themselves  long  verses  indicate  a  re- 
fined civilization  and  a  perfected  literary  aesthetics.  The  primitive 
verses  are  nearly  always  short,  partly  because  they  express  short 
ideas,  and  partly  because  the  desire  for  the  repetition  of  agreeable 
sounds  and  the  taste  for  rhymes  or  what  represents  them  are  more 
lively  as  man  is  less  developed. 

In  China,  where  metrical  evolution  can  be  followed  step  by 
step,  the  verse  in  use  has  passed  very  slowly  from  four  feet  to 
seven  feet.  Arabian  verse  has  been  expanded  in  another  way— 
by  combining  two  short  verses  in  one ;  and  in  a  like  way  in  the 
French  Alexandrines  the  hemistich  is  a  survival  of  a  former 
epoch  when  the  verse  was  very  short.  In  India,  Sanskrit  verse, 
uneven  but  generally  short  in  the  Rig  Veda,  has  been  lengthened 
in  the  epics  to  fifteen  syllables,  with  a  hemistich. 

Poetic  diction,  with  its  music  and  its  meter,  enjoys  everywhere 
a  peculiar  prestige.  It  gives  play  to  sesthetic  impressionability, 
and  has  a  dignity  unknown  to  common  language.  On  the  other 
hand,  verse  easily  engraves  itself  in  the  memory,  and  the  ideas 
which  it  expresses  form  a  sort  of  mental  fund  to  which  a  great 
importance  is  attached,  for  the  choral  poetry  of  the  primitive 
peoples  sang  only  of  subjects  especially  interesting  to  the  com- 
munity. Hence  it  comes  to  pass  in  many  countries  that  even  in 
the  heart  of  old  civilizations,  far  detached  from  their  origin,  the 


ORIGIN  OF  LITERARY  FORMS.  677 

poetic  form  suffices  to  give  any  idea  a  great  authority.  "  Among 
the  Indians/7  says  an  old  missionary,  "  a  verse,  even  when  quoted 
inappropriately,  gives  a  great  weight  to  reasoning,  and  if  it  con- 
tains a  comparison  that  seems  to  illustrate  some  circumstances  of 
the  subject  under  discussion  the  very  best  reasoning  can  not  have 
equal  force  with  the  comparison."  *  In  the  same  way  Arabian 
orators  fancy  they  obtain  great  force  for  their  speeches  by  lard- 
ing them  with  citations  in  verse ;  and  the  Greek  writers  believed 
it  necessary  to  give  the  poetic  form  to  every  elevated  subject,  even 
to  their  philosophical  systems. 

During  the  primitive  period  of  literary  evolution  abstract 
literature  does  not  come  in  question ;  moreover,  poetry  in  words 
is  never  separated  from  song,  and  rarely  from  mimicry ;  and  this 
becomes  dancing  when  the  motions  are  controlled  by  a  musical 
rhythm.  Frequently,  also,  in  these  archaic  festivals  the  words 
sung  are  only  an  accessory. 

The  characteristic  traits  of  the  clan,  the  first  social  unity,  are 
now  well  known  to  us.  The  primitive  clan  is  a  small  group,  in 
which  the  individual  exists  only  as  an  integrant  part  of  the  whole, 
where  consequently  all  individual  acts  are  subordinated  to  the 
interests  and  needs  of  the  social  body,  where  no  one  is  abandoned 
but  no  one  is  free,  where  property  is  more  or  less  common,  and 
where  sexual  unions  are  subject  to  regulations  that  seem  to  us 
strange  and  even  immoral,  for  they  have  usually  a  character  of 
restricted,  regulated  promiscuity.  These  narrow  associations  have 
been  real  psychical  laboratories  to  the  human  race,  in  which 
languages,  indispensable  for  mutual  understanding  and  the  con- 
centration of  efforts,  and  myths  have  been  created,  besides  com- 
mon feelings,  and  particularly  altruistic  feelings,  without  which 
no  society  could  endure. 

In  the  communal  clan  there  is  little  place  for  person  and  for 
literature,  and  literary  aesthetics  necessarily  takes  the  shape  of  a 
collective  spectacle — of  those  choral  dances,  those  opera-ballets, 
in  which  all  the  members  of  the  clan  are  in  turn  actors  and  specta- 
tors, and  in  which  mimicry  and  song  are  associated  to  represent 
scenes  of  common  interest. 

In  these  very  rudimentary  dances  instrumental  music  figures 
at  first  only  as  an  accessory,  but  its  function  goes  on  increasing 
in  proportion  as  it  is  perfected.  At  first  it  is  contented  with  a 
stick,  such  as  the  Australians  strike  on  the  ground  to  mark  the 
measure ;  then  the  stick  is  replaced  by  the  tom-tom,  which  fills 
the  same  office  more  perfectly.  To  the  tom-tom  are  added  in  suc- 
cession, first,  wind  instruments,  then  stringed  instruments,  both 
becoming  gradually  less  primitive  and  better  constructed,  and  at 

*  Lettres  6difiantes,  vol.  xiii,  p.  113. 


678  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

least  capable  of  accompanying  the  song,  and,  as  a  final  achieve- 
ment, of  taking  the  place  of  the  voice  in  the  execution  of  any 
given  air.  History  witnessed  the  latter  part  of  this  musical  evo- 
lution in  Greece,  where  music  finally  separated  itself  from  vocal 
song,  of  which  it  had  for  a  long  time  been  only  an  accessory. 

As  of  necessity,  poetry  proper  has  strictly  followed  the  trans- 
formations of  this  aesthetics.  For  a  long  time  the  subjects 
represented  in  the  choral  dances  of  the  clan  had  an  entirely  im- 
personal character.  These  subjects  were  mythological,  warlike, 
funereal,  and  nuptial  scenes,  in  which  the  rhythmical  words  had 
necessarily  to  express  ideas  and  feeling  in  harmony  with  the  scene 
played.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  these  feelings  and  ideas 
were  extremely  simple ;  but  in  substance  and  form  they  were  of  a 
nature  to  interest  the  whole  of  the  little  social  groups. 

The  duration  of  the  primitive  age  of  the  communal  clan  must 
have  been  enormous,  and  it  has  marked  its  impression  on  the 
larger  and  more  and  more  individualist  societies  that  came  out 
from  it,  but  which  did  not  free  themselves  in  a  day  from  the 
hereditarily  transmissible  tastes  and  tendencies — the  legacy  of  a 
long  ancestral  education. 

Nevertheless,  literary  aesthetics  has  suffered  modifications  with 
the  progress  of  social  evolution ;  for  it  has  had  to  express  feelings 
and  ideas  more  and  more  complex  and  varied.  With  the  progress 
of  differentiation,  or  of  social  inequality,  arose  numerous  conflicts 
between  the  strong  and  the  weak,  the  patrician  and  the  plebeian, 
the  rich  and  the  poor. 

These  vexations,  these  violences,  suffered  by  some  and  exer- 
cised by  others,  excited  numerous  new  feelings,  and  often  more 
personal,  than  the  ancient  choirs  could  express  and  re-echo  to 
their  hearers.  The  property  thus  became  more  and  more  individ- 
ual, and  there  resulted  from  it  a  gradually  increasing  restriction 
of  the  social  relations  which  the  communal  clan  had  only  loosely 
regulated.  The  restricted  promiscuousness  of  the  early  ages  was 
replaced  almost  everywhere  by  a  marriage,  sometimes  polygamic, 
sometimes  monogamic,  but  legal,  and  making  of  women  things 
possessed.  The  ancient  liberty  of  love  was  abolished,  but  the 
genetic  instinct  is  in  its  nature  exacting  and  rebellious.  When 
we  attempt  to  chain  it  we  excite  passionate  desires,  intense  feel- 
ings, that  subjugate  the  whole  mental  life.  The  genetic  fetters 
resulting  from  the  new  social  organization  will  therefore  arouse 
in  the  human  brain  new  impressions  and  ideas  of  shades  different 
according  to  the  individuals.  But  all  these  psychical  elements,  at 
once  new  and  intense,  sought  expression  and  reflection  in  a  litera- 
ture made  in  their  image.  Hence  resulted  the  gradual  blooming 
out  of  a  new  lyric  poetry,  which  gradually  tended  to  substitute 
itself  for  the  choral  lyric  of  the  earlier  ages. 


ORIGIN  OF  LITERARY  FORMS.  679 

From  this  phase  dates  amorous  poetry,  which  was  destined  to 
take  so  large  a  development.  There  are  good  grounds  for  sup- 
posing that  women  may  have  especially  participated  in  the  crea- 
tion of  this  lyric  of  the  erotic  kind.  This  is  still  the  case  in  some 
Slavic  countries  and  in  Kabylia ;  and  it  is  possible  that  in  Greece 
Sappho  only  gave  a  brilliant  personification  to  a  more  especially 
feminine  literature,  of  which  few  specimens  have  come  down  to, 
us.  The  lyric  poetry  of  men  is  less  confined  to  the  domain  of  the 
amorous  feelings.  It  touches  more  varied  subjects  and  those  of  a 
more  general  interest,  notably  mythical  and  historical  legends, 
capable  of  interesting  a  whole  virile  population,  but  possible  to 
be  versified  and  sung  by  isolated  artists. 

To  accompany  these  individual  songs  of  every  kind,  suitable 
instruments  were  needed,  not  noisy  enough  to  drown  the  voice  of 
the  singer,  but  of  sufficiently  extensive  register  to  follow  all  the 
shadings  and  modulations.  Stringed  instruments  happily  ful- 
filled this  purpose;  and  thus  all  the  superior  races  have  in- 
Tented  or  adopted  them,  while  in  Greece,  one  of  them,  the  lyre, 
served  to  give  a  name  to  passionate  and  personal  poetry. 

By  virtue  of  their  improvement,  literary  arts,  song,  poetry 
and  instrumental  music  became  difficult  of  practice.  To  perform 
them  required  a  special  education,  while  in  principle  everybody 
could  participate  in  the  execution  of  the  primitive  choruses. 
Then  appeared  those  popular  artists,  of  whom  the  Hellenic  rhap- 
sodists,  the  Scandinavian  skalds,  and  the  Celtic  bards  are  the  best- 
known  types,  but  of  whom  we  find  a  few  everywhere,  even  in 
tropical  Africa,  in  Polynesia,  and  among  the  Tartar,  Kabyle,  Fin- 
nish, and  Slavic  populations. 

At  first  these  barbaric  songsters  limited  themselves  to  follow- 
ing their  own  inspiration ;  but  they  were  not  slowly  subjected  to 
powerful  influences.  The  priests  on  one  side  and  the  kings  011  the 
other  attached  them  to  themselves,  and  required  them  to  sing  the 
mythical  legends  or  the  achievements  of  their  heroes  and  princes. 
Outside  of  these  official  subjects  the  professional  bards  took  for 
the  themes  of  their  compositions  everything  of  interest  to  their 
fellow-citizens  that  presented  itself,  and  became  thus  the  poetic 
annalists  of  all  notable  events.  These  poets,  most  frequently 
wanderers,  were  the  first  to  give  precise  form  to  the  popular  tra- 
ditions current  among  the  people,  and  their  songs,  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation,  constituted  the  material  for  the 
epics  composed  much  later  by  less  inspired  but  more  skillful 
artists,  at  a  period  when  epic  customs  were  only  a  recollection. 

We  find  many  occasions  showing  how  closely  literature  de- 
pends on  the  social  and  political  state.  At  the  origin  of  societies, 
during  the  age  of  the  communistic  clan,  literature,  always  very 
poor,  is  the  exact  expression  of  what  might  be  called  the  collective 


680  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

soul.  When  the  sacerdotal  castes,  aristocracies,  and  despotic  mon- 
archies have  been  instituted,  when  power  and  wealth  are  concen- 
trated in  the  hands  of  a  minority  of  privileged  persons,  the  great 
revolution  has  an  influence  at  once  useful  and  injurious  upon  lit- 
erature. Encouraged,  corrupted,  and  exploited  by  the  directing 
classes,  by  the  worldly  fortunate,  poetry  gains  much  in  form  and 
technics ;  meter  ceases  to  be  simple ;  the  gross  assonances  of  the 
past  no  longer  suffice  to  charm  more  refined  audiences ;  exact 
rhymes  are  required,  and  a  skillful  adaptation  of  syllables  to  a 
rigorously  determined  quantity.  At  the  same  time,  poetical  com- 
positions cease  to  be  only  oral.  They  are  written,  and  prosody 
must  at  once  satisfy  the  eye  and  the  ear. 

The  substance  is  modified  along  with  the  form,  and  becomes 
aristocratic  like  it.  Certain  gross  features,  which  formerly  shocked 
no  one,  are  expunged ;  but  with  this  the  poem  suffers  a  loss  of  its 
naive  grandeur,  its  sincerity  of  standard,  its  epic  charm.  When 
they  undertook  to  protect  and  reward  poets,  the  powerful  classes 
ruled  them  always,  even  without  desiring  it ;  whether  they  knew 
it  or  not,  they  took  them  away  from  some  subjects  and  imposed 
others  upon  them.  On  the  whole,  the  final  result  of  this  high 
patronage  is  usually  lamentable ;  and  by  the  single  fact  of  its  ex- 
istence, sincere,  elevated,  independent  literature,  the  only  kind 
that  is  of  value,  languished  and  expired  under  the  rule  of  the 
"  grand  monarch,"  Louis  XIV.  What  was  left  was  only  a  shadow, 
an  attenuated  poetry,  which  chiseled  out  the  form  without  caring 
for  the  material ;  which,  having  no  ideas  to  express,  juggled  with 
the  words,  and  saw  nothing  but  the  melodic  side  in  the  verse ;  in 
short,  an  inferior  poetry,  which  tended  to  confound  itself  anew 
with  its  twin  sister,  music,  which  it  had  previously  had  to  quit  in 
order  to  think  better. 

The  evolution  of  the  dramatic  art  was  effected  in  a  nearly 
parallel  line  with  that  of  lyric'  poetry.  Even  more  rigorously 
than  that,  dramatic  literature  is  the  slave  of  the  social  state,  be- 
cause it  has  necessarily  a  collective  character.  In  the  course  of 
our  studies  we  have  found  the  general  opinion,  according  to  which 
the  theater  is  the  literary  expression  of  an  advanced  civilization, 
to  be  false.  On  the  contrary,  the  dramatic  species  goes  back  to 
the  very  origin  of  literary  aesthetics,  for  choral  and  mimic  dances 
constitute  nearly  all  the  literature  of  primitive  peoples,  and  a 
rudiment  of  scenic  art  has  been  found,  even  in  Tasmania,  among 
an  extremely  inferior  race.  In  reality  scenic  poetry  preceded  all 
other  kinds,  and  most  frequently  constituted  their  mold.  By  the 
simultaneous  employment  of  mimicry,  song,  speech,  and  instru- 
mental music,  the  opera-ballet  of  the  early  ages  was  the  form  of 
aesthetics  most  fitted  strongly  to  impress  spectators  and  actors, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  satisfy  a  very  lively  psychical  want,  that 


ORIGIN   OF  LITERARY  FORMS.  681 

of  projecting  mental  images  outward,  of  reproducing  with  all  the 
relief  of  reality  what  exists  in  the  brain  only  in  the  state  of  recol- 
lection or  desire.  The  civilized  theater  is  only  the  natural  devel- 
opment of  this  opera-ballet,  and  it  preserves  an  equal  attraction 
and  an  equal  power,  even  after  losing  the  lyrical  form,  which 
dated  from  its  origin. 

Dramatic  art  was  even  more  than  lyric  poetry  subjected  by  the 
dominant  classes ;  and  in  Greece,  in  India,  and  in  Europe  of  the 
middle  ages  the  clergy  of  the  great  religions  seized  such  a  pow- 
erful means  of  expression,  confiscated  it  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time,  and  even  permitted  it  only  with  reluctance  to  become 
laic.  Dramatic  art  being  an  essentially  collective  sort  of  litera- 
ture, addressing  itself  to  the  multitude,  could  not  express  more 
than  the  average  of  the  prevailing  opinions,  of  the  ideas  current 
in  the  surrounding  social  medium ;  too  original  views,  too  special 
feelings,  were  not  in  its  domain ;  in  return  it  is,  more  than  any 
other  kind  of  literature,  the  reflection  of  the  mental  and  moral 
condition  of  a  class,  accordingly  as  it  is  popular  or  aristocratic ; 
and  instead  of  correcting  manners  it  continually  confines  itself  to 
depicting  them.  In  the  golden  age  of  Greece  the  theater  was 
lyric  and  heroic ;  with  social  and  political  decay,  Hellenic  tragedy 
could  not  stand  the  competition  of  satirical  comedy,  which  is  a 
social  protestation.  At  Rome,  where  social  iniquity  was  at  a  very 
early  period  more  crying  than  in  Greece,  the  theater  never  had  a 
heroic  age. 

In  all  times  and  in  all  countries  literature  has  declined  mor- 
ally, and  has  lost  its  nobility,  its  force,  and  its  aesthetic  beauty,  in 
periods  of  moral  decomposition ;  but  the  first  of  all  kinds  of  liter- 
ature to  be  debased  and  corrupted  was  dramatic,  for  societies 
could  not  support  any  theater  above  their  own  standard.  On  the 
contrary,  lyric  poetry,  compositions  entirely  personal,  might  pro- 
test as  survivals  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  against  the  general 
decadence  by  expressing  the  sentiments  of  the  minority,  which 
will  never  bend  to  the  new  manners.  In  dramatic  literature,  or 
in  literature  in  general,  for  the  observation  is  true  for  all  kinds, 
there  is  a  sign  of  decadence  no  longer  moral  but  intellectual, 
which  is  constant  and  which  I  will  now  point  out.  When  we  fol- 
low the  evolution  of  literatures  from  their  infancy  to  their  old 
age,  we  are  struck  at  seeing  how,  during  their  period  of  growth 
and  vigor,  they  make  little  account  of  an  sesthetic  element,  which 
is  highly  esteemed,  on  the  contrary,  in  periods  of  decline ;  I  mean 
what  is  called  "  the  feeling  of  the  beautiful  in  Nature."  In  the 
choral  poetries  this  element  is  wholly  wanting ;  they  are  preoccu- 
pied solely  with  mythical  conceptions  of  subjects  of  social  inter- 
est. In  general,  during  the  virile  age  of  literatures,  descriptions  of 
landscapes  hold  only  a  very  accessory  place ;  on  the  other  hand, 


682  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

descriptive  literature  develops  beyond  measure  during  the  period 
of  decadence,  as  has  been  observed  in  China  and  India,  where  the 
excess  and  often  the  insipidity  of  the  word-paintings  overwhelm 
the  chief  subject  of  the  poems.  This  belated  taste  for  description 
seems,  therefore,  to  be  a  characteristic  symptom.  It  indicates  that 
literary  vigor  is  exhausted ;  that  the  writer  has  few  ideas,  or  is 
restrained  from  expressing  them ;  or  that  political  liberty  is  dead, 
social  sympathy  is  extinct,  and  intelligence  is  reduced.— Trans- 
lated for  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  from  the  Revue  Mensuelle 
de  I'Ecole  d}  Anthropologie. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LIZARDS. 

BY  M.  J.   DELBOEUF. 

I  PUBLISHED  two  articles  in  February  and  October,  1891, 
telling  of  two  ocellated  lizards  which  I  had  captured  in 
May,  1890 — one  at  Port  Bon,  on  the  borders  of  Spain,  the  other 
on  the  banks  of  the  Tarn,  near  Peyrdean,  France.  I  described 
their  characteristic  differences  at  length,  telling  how  the  former 
lizard  was  bold,  snappish,  suspicious,  and  stupid ;  and  the  latter 
was  timid,  gentle,  confiding,  and  straightforward.  I  told  how 
the  French  lizard  having  been  lost  for  twenty-six*  days  in  May 
of  the  following  year,  the  Spaniard  refused  all  food;  and  how, 
his  companion  having  been  found  again,  he  went  at  once  to 
catching  flies.  I  praised  their  good  understanding  with  one  an- 
other, and  their  fellowship,  which,  however,  did  not  extend  to 
self-denial ;  and  I  related  with  great  pleasure  how,  by  forbear- 
ance and  kind  attention,  I  finally  established  excellent  relations 
between  myself  and  the  Spaniard,  while  only  a  few  delicate  atten- 
tions were  needed  to  gain  the  heart  of  the  French  lizard  from  the 
very  first. 

I  concluded  that  the  animals  which  we  are  accustomed  to  re- 
gard as  in  the  lowest  degree  of  intelligence  among  vertebrates,  and 
which  we  are  apt  to  suppose  are  all  cast  in  a  common  mold,  offer 
notable  differences  in  character  and  docility.  Yet,  since  those 
which  are  under  consideration  here  are  adults,  they  have  neces- 
sarily each  received  the  share  of  force  and  cunning  which  was 
indispensable  to  enable  them  to  come  safely  out  of  the  struggle 
for  existence.  Whence  do  their  peculiar  qualities  come,  and  what 
use  do  they  make  of  them  ?  In  wild  animals,  whose  mode  of  life 
presupposes  a  well- determined  combination  of  native  qualities 
which  age  can  only  develop  and  strengthen,  should  not  differences 
tend  to  disappear  ? 

What  I  have  to  relate  now  is  not  less  curious  than  my  former 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LIZARDS.  683 

story.  I  do  not  even  know — although  like  observations  ought  to 
be  made  on  domestic  animals  like  the  dog — that  the  bearing  of 
them  as  traits  of  animal  psychology  has  been  brought  out.  My 
Spaniard  is  certainly  a  lizard  apart.  He  is  somebody. 

But  before  going  into  individual  details,  I  will  add  the  final  to 
the  incidents  which  I  have  already  given  concerning  my  lizards. 
I  have  had  them  three  years,  and  they  have  kept  in  admirable 
health.  They  have  not  hibernated,  for  the  house  has  been  kept 
warmed  all  the  time,  and  their  cage  has  been  near  a  register. 
They  have  therefore  been  all  the  time  wide-awake  and  very 
active.  From  this  we  conclude  that  hibernation  is  not  organic 
with  them  like  the  rest  of  plants,  and  that  it  is  a  consecutive  of 
cold  weather,  which  causes  besides  the  disappearance  of  the  in- 
sects on  which  they  feed. 

Their  food,  therefore,  does  not  necessarily  consist  of  living  prey. 
They  eat  with  the  same  appetite  the  remains  of  beetles,  such  as 
the  skeletons  of  night  borers,  and  all  decayed  or  dried  chrysalides. 
Last  year,  the  cabbage  butterfly  being  extremely  abundant,  I  col- 
lected a  stock  of  chrysalides  which  they  devoured  to  the  last  one. 
They  always  refused  raw  and  bloody  meat.  Nevertheless,  when 
they  were  forced  to  swallow  it,  which  was  not  easy,  they  di- 
gested it. 

They  are  said  to  be  fond  of  grapes,  and  in  vine-growing  coun- 
tries, I  was  told,  hunt  for  the  fruit.  But  with  me  they  never 
wanted  grapes,  not  even  the  southern  variety  or  the  dried  raisin. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  are  fond  of  dates,  and  attacked  them 
with  avidity  the  first  time  they  saw  them.  I  made  them  up  some 
balls  of  dates  as  large  as  a  good-sized  grape,  of  which  they  were 
able  to  swallow  three  or  four  one  after  another  I  received  other 
ocellated  lizards  last  year,  and  they  all  liked  dates,  one  of  them  to 
my  surprise  gulping  down  a  whole  one  in  a  wink.  It  agreed  with 
him  perfectly,  his  digestive  powers,  as  I  took  pains  to  observe, 
proving  adequate  to  dispose  of  the  stone  in  a  proper  manner,  al- 
though my  friends  feared  that  it  would  be  caught  in  the  sinuosi- 
ties of  the  intestine,  with  perhaps  fatal  effects.  It  seems  that  this 
animal  estimated  rightly  the  capacity  of  his  digestive  apparatus. 
The  preceding  curious  feature  in  the  present  case  is  that  all  the 
lizards  at  once  recognized  an  eatable  fruit  in  the  date,  although 
they  had  never  seen  or  tasted  dates  or  anything  like  them.  They 
may  have  eaten  figs  at  home,  but  they  refused  dried  figs. 

All  my  lizards  lived,  I  might  say,  in  freedom.  During  our 
summers  in  the  country,  they  had  a  large  room  with  latticed 
windows,  with  sunshine  on  three  sides.  They  had  stones  and 
boxes  of  every  sort,  and  for  a  gymnasium  convenient  scaffoldings 
furnished  with  rags  in  which  they  climbed,  hid,  and  chased  one 
another  with  evident  amusement. 


684  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

At  Lidge  they  live  in  my  office.  They  usually  keep  in  their 
cage,  where  there  are  also  rags.  When  the  sun  is  shining,  they 
come  out  and  scramble  among  the  books  or  over  me.  The  Span- 
iard looks  at  me  when  I  am  writing.  They  run  over  my  person, 
hide  in  my  clothes ;  and  one  day  last  year  I  had  so  completely 
forgotten  them  that  I  went  out  to  deliver  my  lecture  with  my  two 
animals  on  my  back.  I  perceived  them  after  I  had  been  some 
time  on  the  lecture  stand,  and  was  in  mortal  terror  during  the 
rest  of  the  lesson,  lest  they  might  take  a  notion  to  perform  their 
untimely  and  undignified  gambols. 

As  my  children,  too,  are  fond  of  playing  with  them,  they  are 
always  under  observation.  My  articles  have  given  them  a  Euro- 
pean reputation.  M.  Tarde,  the  eminent  sociologist  and  crimi- 
nalogist,  passed  eight  days  with  them.  M.  Forel,  the  celebrated 
student  of  ants,  found  them  after  a  few  days  as  interesting  as  his 
ants.  They  were  intimate  with  a  learned  English  psychologist, 
M.  Waller,  and  his  wife,  and  had  the  honor  of  being  presented  to 
eminent  physiologists  like  M.  Morat  and  great  poets  like  M.  Jean 
Aicond.  They  have  even  been  invited  into  society  and  caressed 
by  beautiful  and  noble  ladies,  whom  they  conquered  by  the  grace 
of  their  motions  and  the  beauty  of  their  dress.  Thus  they  have 
acquired  gentle  manners  and  are  in  safe  and  agreeable  relations. 
Man  inspires  no  fear  in  them,  and  they  play  indiscriminately  with 
all  visitors  who  encourage  their  familiarities. 

When  they  play  in  the  light  and  make  turns  in  their  gymna- 
sium, going  out,  re-entering,  putting  their  noses  against  the  win- 
dow, turning  their  pretty  heads,  or  flattening  their  backs  in  the 
sun  so  as  to  receive  more  of  its  rays,  they  really  present  a  charm- 
ing spectacle ;  and  I  think,  not  without  a  shade  of  sadness,  how 
nearly  some  countries  would  resemble  a  terrestrial  paradise  if 
man,  instead  of  making  himself  the  terror  of  everything  living, 
would  become  its  protector  and  friend. 

All  my  lizards  but  one  come  at  my  call,  whistle,  snapping  of 
the  thumb,  or  psitt,  to  take  flour  worms  or  dates.  They  know 
where  their  larder  is.  When  we  go  to  the  worm  keg,  they  divine 
what  it  means,  and  are  all  on  the  alert,  manifesting  their  expec- 
tation with  unequivocal  signs.  The  Spaniard,  at  first  the  most 
savage  and  stupid,  became  the  most  familiar  and  apparently  on 
the  best  understanding.  Not  only  was  he  not  afraid  of  being 
taken,  but  he  seemed  to  find  pleasure  in  it,  and  suffered  himself  to 
be  caressed  for  hours  without  giving  a  sign  of  weariness.  He 
liked  to  be  scratched  under  the  jaw,  however  roughly. 

The  story  of  the  way  this  transformation  from  wild  to  gentle 
was  brought  about  is  long  but  suggestive.  MM.  Sabbatier  and 
Robert,  of  Montpellier,  and  M.  Tarde  had  promised  to  send  me 
ocellated  lizards,  but  had  not  been  able  to  fulfill  their  promise. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LIZARDS.  685 

I  was  regretting  it,  when  M.  Winssinger,  an  engineer  of  Brussels, 
put  me  in  communication  with  one  of  his  friends,  M.  H.  Dineur, 
Director  of  the  Mines  of  Fillols,  near  Prades.  He  sent  me  an 
ocellated  lizard  on  the  1st  of  October,  1891.  This  lizard  died  by 
being  inadvertently  smothered,  at  the  end  of  March  in  the  next 
year.  The  autopsy  disclosed  that  it  was  a  female ;  it  weighed 
only  fifty-six  grammes,  while  the  Spanish  lizard  weighed  more 
than  one  hundred  and  thirty  grammes,  and  the  one  from  the 
Tarn  more  than  ninety  grammes.  The  Spanish  lizard  was  a  male. 

It  possibly  came  to  pass  that  the  young  female  disturbed  the 
harmony  between  the  Spanish  and  the  French  lizards,  for  I  ob- 
served that  they  no  longer  lived  on  a  footing  of  complete  in- 
timacy. I  observed  at  first  only  scoldings  between  them,  but 
these  were  succeeded  by  bitings.  In  the  beginning  the  quarrels 
were  transient,  but  they  became  more  and  more  frequent,  and  the 
acts  of  hostility  were  graver — the  Spanish  lizard,  presuming  on 
his  strength,  pursuing  his  rival,  driving  him  out  of  corners,  biting 
him,  and  at  last  rendering  his  existence  so  miserable  that  I  was 
obliged  to  separate  them.  After  the  tragic  death  of  the  lizard  of 
Prades,  I  hoped  there  would  be  a  reconciliation,  but  there  was 
none.  The  French  lizard,  indeed,  made  several  attempts  to  estab- 
lish peace,  but  the  Spaniard  sprang  upon  him  furiously  as  soon 
as  he  perceived  him  and  made  him  scamper  his  fastest. 

M.  Dineur  sent  me  other  consignments  of  lizards,  six  in  all. 
One  very  small  one  escaped  into  the  field ;  another  died  a  little 
while  after  its  arrival.  It  was  a  very  fine  animal,  but  it  had 
sharply  bitten  a  workman  who  picked  it  up,  and  the  stupid  and 
cruel  brute  took  his  revenge  upon  it  by  making  it  bite  a  bar  of 
red-hot  iron.  Its  mouth  was  all  a  sore  when  I  received  it,  and  it 
survived  its  horrible  burning  only  a  few  days. 

Among  the  four  new  lizards  that  were  left  me  was  one  for- 
midable one,  which,  although  it  lost  most  of  its  tail  when  it  was 
captured,  still  weighed  nearly  two  hundred  grammes.  They  very 
soon  became  familiar,  except  one,  which,  while  it  would  eat  from 
the  hand,  persisted  in  running  away  if  one  tried  to  pick  it  up, 
and  bite  when  it  was  captured.  The  Spanish  lizard  received 
them  hospitably,  but  if  I  put  the  French  animal  among  them  he 
would  immediately  recognize  him  and  chase  him. 

But  after  some  weeks  of  peaceful  living  together,  the  Span- 
ish lizard  began  to  tyrannize  over  his  new  companions  too,  the 
largest  at  first  and  then  the  smaller  ones.  He  is  a  decided  teaser 
and  a  bad  bedfellow.  Nothing  can  be  more  curious  then  the  tac- 
tics he  employs  to  cut  off  their  retreat.  He  turns  himself  cross- 
wise, in  such  a  way  as  to  bar  their  passage.  Then,  when  he  has 
driven  them  into  a  corner,  he  lifts  up  his  paws,  swells  out  his 
neck,  puts  down  his  head,  darts  his  great  open  mouth  at  them, 


686  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

and  bites  them  on  the  head,  the  flanks,  seldom  on  the  paws  or 
tail.  The  large  lizard  in  particular  was  the  favorite  object  of  his 
attacks.  The  good-humored  animal  paid  no  attention  to  this,  till 
we  were  on  the  point  of  asking  ourselves  whether  he  did  not  re- 
gard these  bitings  as  marks  of  friendship.  This  lasted  some  two 
or  three  months.  But  one  fine  day — we  were  present  at  the  scene 
—the  large  lizard  became  impatient.  He  seized  the  Spaniard  with 
his  formidable  mouth,  shook  it,  let  it  go,  and  then  set  in  chase  of 
it.  The  other  ran  off  as  fast  as  he  could,  giving  all  the  signs  of 
terror.  After  this  the  large  lizard  became  quiet,  and  even  seemed 
to  have  forgotten  the  matter. 

The  Spaniard  took  no  notice  of  the  generosity  of  its  antagonist. 
Only  becoming  more  prudent,  it  devised  other  tactics.  Pretend- 
ing indifference,  it  approached  the  Hercules  slyly  and  a  step  at 
a  time,  and  when  it  was  near  enough  to  him  struck  him  with  its 
jaw  and  ran  away.  Finally,  the  large  lizard  concluded  that  the 
Spaniard  was  too  provoking;  he  sprang  upon  it  anew,  caught 
it,  and  gave  it  a  forcible  blow.  After  that  the  Spaniard  re- 
garded itself  as  beaten,  always  fled  at  the  approach  of  the  large 
one,  and  let  him  alone.  After  that,  too,  it  prepared  to  make  its 
attacks  and  bitings  on  the  smaller  ones.  Its  bad  character  be- 
came the  cause  of  its  being  given  a  privileged  position.  It  was 
put  in  the  cage  only  while  the  others  were  allowed  to  be  at  large. 
If  it  sees  us  playing  with  them,  it  comes  and  goes  into  its  cage 
like  a  troubled  soul,  and  vents  its  anger  upon  the  trellis.  It  is 
exceedingly  jealous,  and  its  jealousy  blinds  it  so  much  that  it 
could  not  refrain  from  still  taking  its  satisfaction  out  of  the 
large  one  if  it  saw  him  running  over  me.  The  rest  of  the  time 
it  played  freely,  and  did  not  abuse  its  liberty  in  any  other  way. 
It  usually  perches  on  its  cage  by  the  side  of  the  chest  furnished 
with  rags,  which  serves  as  its  sleeping-room.  Toward  three  or 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  it  regularly  goes  to  bed,  and  comes 
from  it  habitually  toward  sunrise.  Is  not  this  a  singular  history ; 
and  does  it  not  show  that  animals  have  passions,  preferences, 
and  antipathies,  differences  of  character  and  changing  moods 
which  we  have  thought  exclusively  applied  to  men  ? 

We  now  come  to  traits  of  intelligence.  The  cover  of  the 
Spanish  lizard's  chest  slides.  If  it  is  pushed  so  as  to  leave  a  crack 
not  large  enough  for  him  to  go  through,  he  works  perseveringly, 
pushing  his  head  into  it  till  he  has  made  it  large  enough.  If  the 
opening  is  too  small  for  that,  he  scratches  at  it  and  makes  a  great 
noise  with  his  paws,  for  the  purpose,  apparently,  of  making  him- 
self heard.  In  the  same  way  sparrows  knock  on  the  windows  of 
houses  where  they  are  accustomed  to  being  fed.  This  reminds 
me  of  a  story  of  a  sparrow. 

Several  years  ago  I  tamed  one  in  the  country.   It  was  free  in  the 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY   OF  LIZARDS.  687 

garden  and  came  at  my  call.  If  I  did  not  call,  it  came  all  the  same. 
As  I  was  accustomed  to  have  hemp  seed  in  my  mouth,  it  would 
peck  at  me,  picking  my  beard  and  mustache  furiously  till  I  had 
satisfied  its  appetite.  It  was  satisfied  that  it  had  tamed  me  and 
made  me  its  slave.  My  lizard  is  nearly  in  the  same  condition. 
It  does  not  molest  me,  but  when  I  take  the  box  of  worms  it  rises 
and  snaps  them  from  my  hand  and  even  from  the  box.  It  is 
well  persuaded  that  man  is  the  friend  of  the  lizard.  It  has  a 
delicate  ear.  When  it  is  called  from  the  end  of  the  room,  it  turns 
its  head  to  the  right  and  the  left,  as  if  to  get  its  bearings  and  find 
the  direction  whence  the  sound  comes.  It  can  hear  the  walk 
of  an  insect  and  a  worm  crawling  on  the  ground.  Its  vision  is 
likewise  good,  and  it  recognizes  a  meal-worm  from  a  considerable 
distance. 

.  The  other  lizards  like  their  cage ;  and  toward  three  or  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  they  will  all,  if  they  are,  for  example,  on 
the  table,  start  to  come  down,  using  the  chains  to  help  their 
descent  to  the  ground,  and  then  climbing  back  into  their  abode 
and  hiding  by  choice  in  their  rag  houses. 

The  Spaniard,  notwithstanding  his  jealous,  vindictive,  and 
vengeful  character,  is  more  petted  than  the  others,  because  we 
have  him  constantly  in  hand,  and  he  is  the  easiest  to  take  up  and 
exhibit.  For  this  reason  too  he  is  best  at  the  little  tricks  we  teach 
them.  But,  in  view  of  the  stupidity  he  manifested  for  several 
months,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  others,  which,  as  I  have  said, 
with  one  exception  became  gentle  and  trustful  in  two  or  three 
days,  if  they  had  been  the  objects  of  the  same  careful  attention, 
would  have  given  still  more  marked  proofs  of  capacity  for  edu- 
cation. If  I  turn  the  Spaniard  on  his  back  and  make  a  sign 
to  him  with  my  finger,  he  will  remain  there  for  some  time,  but 
not  without  showing  some  impatience  and  raising  his  head.  The 
animal  is  obedient  to  force,  however  mildly  it  may  be  exercised, 
but  such  obedience  is  a  sign  of  reasoning. 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  all  its  ways  have  a  perceptible  re- 
semblance to  those  of  the  dog,  particularly  if  we  take  into  the  ac- 
count its  poverty  of  means  of  expression.  I  saw  in  the  London 
Zoological  Gardens  an  Australian  lizard,  high  on  its  legs,  with 
the  bearing  and  head  of  a  greyhound,  and  very  pleasant  large  eyes. 
I  have  forgotten  its  name.  It  impressed  me  as  being  easy  to  edu- 
cate, so  far  as  I  could  judge  of  lizards  by  the  face.  And  what 
might  we  not  get  from  large  lizards  if  we  should  succeed  in  form- 
ing a  domesticated  race  ?  We  should  not  forget  that  my  animals 
were  captured  adult.  The  conclusion  of  my  long  story  is  that  the 
enormous  intellectual  differences  which  we  usually  assume  as  be- 
tween reptiles  and  the  highest  mammals  probably  do  not  exist,  and 
consequently  that  there  is  in  the  brain  of  reptiles  sufficient  avail- 


688  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

able  matter  to  permit  them  to  adjust  themselves  to  a  certain  de- 
gree of  domesticity  or  to  sociability ;  and  it  is  the  social  state 
which,  other  things  being  equal,  is  the  highest  product  of  animal 
as  well  as  of  human  intelligence. — Translated  for  The  Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly  from  the  Revue  Scientifique. 


SKETCH  OF  HENRY  CARRINGTON  BOLTON. 

THE  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  founded  in  1817  as  the 
Lyceum  of  Natural  History,  is  the  oldest  and  most  influen- 
tial scientific  society  in  the  city.  During  a  period  of  seventy-six 
years  it  has  had  but  six  presidents,  viz. :  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill, 
who  served  seven  years ;  Prof.  John  Torrey,  four  years ;  Major 
Joseph  Delafield,  thirty-eight  years;  Prof.  Charles  A.  Joy,  two 
years ;  Prof.  John  S.  Newberry,  twenty-four  years ;  Prof.  Oliver 
P.  Hubbard,  one  year.  At  the  annual  election  held  February, 
1893,  Prof.  Henry  Carrington  Bolton,  Ph.D.,  was  elected  the 
seventh  president. 

HENRY  CARRINGTON  BOLTON  was  born  in  New  York  city, 
January  28,  1843,  being  the  son  of  Jackson  Bolton,  M.  D.,  and 
Anna  Hinman,  daughter  of  Elisha  North,  M.  D.,  of  New  London, 
Conn.  From  both  his  paternal  and  maternal  ancestors  Dr.  Bolton 
inherits  traits  that  co-operate  to  give  him  scholarly  tastes  and 
stability  of  character. 

The  family  of  Bolton  is  among  the  few  English  ones  able  to 
show  their  descent  from  a  period  not  far  removed  from  the  Con- 
quest (1066).  The  extensive  Yorkshire  domain,  from  which  the 
family  derived  its  name,  is  mentioned  in  Domesday,  and  in  1135 
Oughtrede  de  Bolton  appears  as  Lord  of  Bolton  and  Bowbearer  of 
Bowland  Forest.  From  their  estates  in  the  charming  Ribble  Val- 
ley, near  the  southern  border  of  Lancashire,  the  family  spread 
through  Yorkshire  and  adjoining  counties,  bestowing  their  name 
on  many  a  dale  and  infant  vill,  so  that  to-day  there  are  seventeen 
places  in  England  known  as  Bolton,  with  or  without  distinguish- 
ing suffixes.  From  earliest  times  the  Boltons  were  yeomen  and 
tradesmen,  but  many  of  their  sons  entered  the  service  of  the 
Church,  and  not  a  few  of  them  became  eminent  for  scholarship. 

In  1530  the  direct  ancestors  of  Dr.  Bolton  were  living  on  an 
estate  called  Brookhouse,  near  the  town  of  Blackburn,  Lancashire, 
and  from  them  he  traces  his  descent  without  a  missing  link  in  the 
chain.  In  1718  one  of  the  family  left  England  and  settled  in 
Philadelphia ;  his  son  and  his  grandson  became  prominent  ship- 
ping merchants  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  the  latter  taking  into  partner- 
ship his  nephew  Curtis,  grandfather  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 


SKETCH  OF  HENRY  CARRINGTON  BOLTON.       689 

Curtis  Bolton  subsequently  removed  to  New  York  and  became 
the  head  of  the  firm  of  Bolton,  Fox  and  Livingston,  owners  of  the 
Havre  line  of  packets.  Curtis  married  his  cousin,  Ann  Bolton, 
daughter  of  Robert,  of  Savannah ;  their  third  son,  Jackson,  was 
graduated  at  Columbia  College  in  1833,  and  later  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  D.  M.  P.  Dr.  Jackson 
Bolton  practiced  his  profession  with  success  for  over  twenty  years 
in  New  York  city,  and  was  also  Vice- President  of  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Medicine  and  President  of  the  Pathological  Society. 

That  branch  of  the  North  family  into  which  Dr.  Jackson 
Bolton  married  had  been  residents  of  New  England  for  two  hun- 
dred years ;  the  male  ancestors  of  Dr.  H.  C.  Bolton's  mother  for 
three  generations  had  been  physicians,  the  last  in  the  line  being 
Elish  North,  M.  D.,  of  Goshen,  later  of  New  London,  Conn.  Dr. 
North  is  remembered  as  among  the  first  in  America  to  practice 
vaccination,  at  Goshen,  in  1800 ;  as  the  first  physician  to  open  an 
eye  infirmary  in  the  United  States ;  and  as  the  author  of  works 
on  Spotted  Fever  (New  York,  1811)  and  on  physiology,  1829. 

Henry  Carrington,  the  only  child  of  Jackson  and  Anna  H. 
Bolton,  was  born  in  his  paternal  grandfather's  house,  No.  58 
Greenwich  Street,  New  York  city,  at  the  date  above  given.  The 
vicinity  was  the  court  end  of  the  town,  and  the  boy's  earliest  play- 
ground was  the  Battery.  Later,  his  father  moved  up  town,  and 
the  Battery  was  replaced  by  Union  Square.  Dr.  Bolton's  primary 
education  was  in  private  schools,  and  he  has  been  heard  to  men- 
tion with  deep  gratitude  the  excellent  training  and  kind  consid- 
eration of  Mr.  George  Stowe,  who  laid  secure  foundations  in  Eng- 
lish studies.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  Dr.  Bolton,  in  1862,  was 
graduated  at  Columbia  College;  he  took  no  distinguished  place 
in  his  class,  but  showed  marked  aptitude  for  mathematics,  and  for 
chemistry  when  the  latter  study  was  reached  in  the  curriculum. 
Prof.  Charles  A.  Joy,  who  held  the  chair  of  Chemistry  at  that 
time,  had  been  prohibited  by  the  trustees  of  Columbia  from  ad- 
mitting students  to  practical  work  in  the  small  laboratory  adjoin- 
ing the  lecture-room,  and  Dr.  Bolton  was  debarred  from  studying 
chemistry  in  a  rational  way ;  to  supply  this  deficiency,  however, 
his  father  provided  him  with  simple  apparatus  and  a  few  chem- 
icals at  home,  where  he  attempted  to  apply  the  principles  learned 
from  the  lectures  of  Prof.  Joy.  Very  different  from  this  the 
present  methods  at  Columbia  College. 

Going  to  Europe  immediately  after  graduation  to  continue  his 
study  of  chemistry  in  foreign  universities,  young  Bolton  spent 
one  year  in  Paris,  first  in  the  laboratory  of  the  Sorbonne,  then  in 
charge  of  J.  B.  Dumas,  and  afterward  in  the  laboratory  of  the 
Ecole  de  Me'decine  under  Adolphe  Wurtz. 

In  1863  to  1865  he  continued  his  studies  in  Germany :  at  Heidel- 

VOL.    XLIII. — 50 


690  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

berg  lie  worked  in  the  university  laboratory  under  the  guidance 
of  Bunsen,  and  attended  lectures  by  Kirchhoff,  Kopp,  and  Von 
Leonhard;  during  his  sojourn  in  Heidelberg  he  took  no  part  in 
the  objectionable  practices  of  the  "  Studenten-Corps,"  yet  became 
so  popular  in  the  laboratory  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  third 
semester  he  was  elected  by  the  students  their  "  Polizei." 

After  a  summer  semester  in  Gottingen  under  Friedrich 
Wohler,  where  he  began  research  for  a  thesis,  he  went  to  Berlin, 
where  he  was  admitted  to  the  private  laboratory  of  Prof.  A.  W. 
von  Hofmann,  the  university  laboratory  not  being  as  yet  con- 
structed. His  position  under  Hofmann  was  a  most  agreeable  one, 
and  may  be  called  that  of  pupil-assistant,  as  he  worked  at  re- 
searches for  Hofmann  without  any  pecuniary  compensation  either 
to  or  from  the  university.  For  eix  months  he  was  the  sole  pupil 
with  Hofmann,  but  later  he  shared  his  table  with  the  late  Dr.  Paul 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.  In  1866  he  took  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy  at  Georgia  Augusta  University,  Gottingen.  Dr.  Bol- 
ton's  residence  in  Berlin  was  saddened  by  the  death  of  his  father, 
after  a  lingering  illness,  February,  1866. 

During  his  five  years'  sojourn  in  Europe  Dr.  Bolton  spent  the 
long  summer  vacations  in  travel,  chiefly  in  Switzerland  and  the 
Austrian  Tyrol ;  he  visited  every  canton  in  Switzerland  on  foot, 
and  became  an  expert  Alpine  climber,  ascending  among  other  peaks 
the  Titlis,  the  Col  du  Ge'ant,  the  Cima  di  Jazzi,  and  Monte  Rosa. 

In  the  years  1866  and  1867  he  made  more  extended  journeys, 
traveling  leisurely  in  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Holland,  Russia,  and 
Scotland.  In  August,  1867,  he  returned  to  the  United  States,  and,  • 
continuing  his  travels,  went  from  Canada  to  Mexico.  Settling  in 
New  York  the  following  year,  he  opened  a  laboratory  for  private 
research,  and  eventually  took  a  few  pupils.  In  1871  he  spent  five 
months  in  travel,  visiting  California  and  Washington  Territory. 
In  1872  he  was  invited  to  the  position  of  assistant  in  analytical 
chemistry  at  the  School  of  Mines,  Columbia  College,  under  Prof. 
Charles  F.  Chandler.  This  position  he  accepted,  and  he  had 
charge  of  the  laboratory  of  quantitative  analysis  for  five  years, 
also  giving  lectures  on  the  subject  during  the  last  year.  Mean- 
while, in  1875,  he  was  elected  to  the  chair  of  Chemistry  in  the 
Woman's  Medical  College  of  the  New  York  Infirmary,  of  which 
Dr.  Elizabeth  Blackwell  is  dean ;  here  he  discharged  his  duties 
for  three  years,  until  he  removed  from  New  York  city. 

In  1877  he  accepted  the  chair  of  Chemistry  in  Trinity  College, 
Hartford,  Conn.,  a  position  which  he  held  for  ten  years.  At  Trin- 
ity he  planned  the  interior  of  the  chemical  department  and  moved 
the  apparatus  and  museum  to  the  new  buildings.  He  had  marked 
influence  in  the  organization  of  scientific  courses,  in  which  he  had 
the  co-operation  of  the  late  Prof.  Louis  M.  Cheesman,  who  held 


SKETCH  OF  HENRY  CARRINGTON  BOLTON.       691 

the  chair  of  Physics  at  that  time.  As  his  duties  in  Trinity  re- 
quired him  to  teach  mineralogy,  he  formed  a  collection  of  min- 
erals, numbering  about  three  thousand  specimens,  gathered  large- 
ly by  his  individual  exertions  in  the  field. 

As  a  teacher  he  strove  to  impart  knowledge  in  an  attractive 
way,  believing  that,  by  combining  entertaining  diversions  with 
serious  instruction,  students  would  both  comprehend  and  retain 
facts  better  than  if  presented  in  a  dry,  formal  manner.  Whenever 
it  was  possible  he  availed  himself  of  object  teaching ;  although 
he  allowed  in  the  class-room  temporary  displays  of  humor,  his 
pupils  understood  that  this  was  to  be  enjoyed  and  not  abused,  and 
always  showed  their  teacher  sincere  respect.  The  experience 
gained  in  teaching  analytical  chemistry  at  the  School  of  Mines  he 
combined  with  the  methods  in  vogue  when  he  was  called  to  the 
position  of  assistant,  and  the  results  he  published  in  a  volume 
entitled  Student's  Guide  in  Quantitative  Analysis  (New  York, 
1882 ;  third  edition,  1889). 

In  1885  the  President  of  the  United  States  appointed  him  an 
assay  commissioner. 

While  engaged  in  instruction  Dr.  Bolton  carried  on  a  number 
of  original  researches  in  chemistry,  of  which  the  more  important 
are  his  investigations  on  the  salts  of  the  rare  metal  uranium,  the 
results  of  which  he  published  in  several  papers,  1866-70.  In 
1872-J73  he  assisted  President  Henry  Morton,  of  the  Stevens  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  in  researches  on  the  fluorescent  and  absorp- 
tion spectra  of  uranium  salts,  preparing  a  large  number  of  com- 
pounds, including  several  new  to  science ;  the  published  results 
are  in  their  joint  names  (American  Chemist,  1873). 

Between  1877  and  1882  he  published  three  memoirs  on  the 
Application  of  Organic  Acids  to  the  Examination  of  Minerals 
(Annals  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences),  in  which  he 
showed  the  power  of  the  organic  acids  in  decomposing  minerals, 
as  well  as  their  utility  in  determining  varieties  based  upon  definite 
reactions.  He  directed  attention  to  the  advantage  of  dry  citric 
acid  over  the  liquid  mineral  acids  in  geological  field-work,  owing 
to  the  perfect  safety  of  transportation  of  the  former.  These 
methods  have  been  incorporated  in  the  last  edition  of  Elder- 
horst's  Manual  of  Blowpipe  Analysis.  The  space  at  our  disposal 
precludes  mention  of  several  minor  original  observations. 

Dr.  Bolton  early  in  his  studies  felt  the  need  of  those  important 
keys  to  knowledge,  bibliographies,  and  has  devoted  much  labor 
to  the  preparation  of  special  and  general  works  of  this  nature. 
His  first  effort  in  this  direction  was  an  Index  to  the  Literature  of 
Uranium,  published  in  the  Annals  of  the  New  York  Lyceum  of 
Natural  History  in  1870;  this  reached  a  second  edition  in  1885 
(Smithsonian  Annual  Report),  and  has  formed  the  model  on  which 


692  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

a  score  of  similar  indexes  to  special  topics  have  been  produced. 
In  1876  he  published  an  Index  to  the  Literature  of  Manganese. 

At  the  Montreal  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  (1882)  he  chose  for  his  vice-presidential 
address  the  subject  Chemical  Literature,  and  suggested  the  for- 
mation of  a  committee  on  indexing  chemical  literature;  as  the 
chairman  of  this  committee  he  has  prepared  ten  annual  reports  to 
the  association,  and  has  done  much  to  encourage  the  production 
of  special  chemical  bibliographies  by  American  chemists. 

One  of  the  most  important  bibliographical  works  by  Dr.  Bol- 
ton  is  his  Catalogue  of  Scientific  and  Technical  Periodicals,  1665- 
1882,  published  as  vol.  xxix  of  the  Smithsonian  Miscellaneous 
Collections  in  1885.  This  comprises  full  titles  of  over  five  thou- 
sand, scientific  technical  journals  in  about  twenty  languages,  to- 
gether with  chronological  tables  showing  the  year  of  issue  of 
each  volume  of  five  hundred  periodicals,  and  a  library  check-list 
indicating  in  what  American  libraries  sets  of  these  journals  are  to 
be  found.  This  undertaking  was  a  labor  of  love  on  the  part  of  Dr. 
Bolton,  who,  in  the  words  of  an  eminent  writer,  acquired  thereby 
"  a  place  in  the  foremost  rank  of  those  little-appreciated  and  hard- 
worked  men,  bibliographers."  Dr.  Bolton  has  just  completed  a 
still  more  extensive  work  of  a  kindred  nature,  A  Select  Bibliog- 
raphy of  Chemistry,  1492-1892.  This  general  bibliography  of 
chemical  science  comprises  over  twelve  thousand  titles  in  twenty- 
four  languages,  yet  is  a  "  select "  catalogue,  and  makes  no  claim 
to  completeness.  The  titles  are  arranged  under  seven  groups,  as 
follows :  I,  Bibliography ;  II,  Dictionaries ;  III,  History ;  IV,  Biog- 
raphy ;  V,  Chemistry,  pure  and  applied ;  VI,  Alchemy ;  VII,  Peri- 
odicals. The  volume  contains  1212  pages,  and  forms  No.  xxxvi  in 
the  series  of  Smithsonian  Miscellaneous  Collections. 

Parallel  with  his  original  researches  and  bibliographical  com- 
pilations Dr.  Bolton  has  given  much  attention  to  the  history  of 
chemistry,  contributing  many  notes  to  current  scientific  journals, 
of  which  the  following  is  a  partial  list : 

Contributions  to  the  History  of  Chemistry. — Historical  Notes 
on  the  Defunct  Elements,  American  Chemist,  1873.  Views  of 
the  Founders  of  the  Atomic  Philosophy,  American  Chemist,  1873. 
Notes  on  the  Early  Literature  of  Chemistry,  several  papers  in 
American  Chemist,  1873-79.  Papyrus  Ebers,  the  earliest  medical 
work  extant,  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science,  London,  1876.  Ancient 
Methods  of  Filtration,  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  1879.  Early 
Practice  of  Medicine  by  Women,  The  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
1880.  History  of  Chemical  Notation  (two  papers),  Transactions 
of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  1883.  Recent  Progress  in 
Chemistry,  Transactions  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences, 
1886.  The  Lunar  Society  of  Birmingham,  Transactions  of  the 


SKETCH  OF  HENRY   CARRINGTON  BOLTON.       693 

New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  1888.  The  Likenesses  of  Joseph 
Priestley  in  Oil,  Ink,  Marble,  and  Metal,  Transactions  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Sciences,  1888.  The  Contributions  of  Alchemy 
to  Numismatics,  American  Journal  of  Numismatics,  1890.  Prog- 
ress of  Chemistry  as  depicted  in  Apparatus  and  Laboratories, 
Transactions  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  1893.  An 
Account  of  the  Progress  of  Chemistry  for  the  Years  1882  to  1886, 
prepared  annually  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  1882-'87.  The 
last  four  contain  bibliographies  for  their  respective  years. 

Dr.  Bolton's  interest  in  the  history  of  chemistry  took  practical 
shape  in  1874,  when  he  originated  and  organized  the  Centennial 
Celebration  of  the  Discovery  of  Oxygen  by  Dr.  Joseph  Priestley, 
held  August  1st  at  Northumberland,  Pa. ;  on  this  occasion  seventy 
chemists  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  assem- 
bled around  Priestley's  grave  to  do  him  honor.  The  proceedings 
at  this  memorable  gathering  were  printed  in  full  in  the  American 
Chemist  (1875).  The  acquaintances  formed  at  this  meeting  with 
the  descendants  of  Dr.  Priestley  were  continued  by  Dr.  Bolton, 
and  through  them  he  eventually  secured  a  number  of  unpublished 
letters  of  the  distinguished  chemist;  these  letters  he  edited  and 
published  in  a  volume  bearing  the  title :  Scientific  Correspondence 
of  Joseph  Priestley ;  New  York,  privately  printed,  1892. 

In  1882  a  casual  visit  to  the  so-called  "singing  beach/'  at 
Manchester-by-the-Sea,  Mass.,  made  him  acquainted  with  the  pe- 
culiar natural  phenomenon  of  musical  sand,  and,  finding  its  study 
had  been  almost  wholly  neglected,  he  began  an  investigation 
which  eventually  led  him  to  make  journeys  aggregating  thirty- 
three  thousand  miles  in  search  of  sand  having  musical  properties. 
Early  in  the  research  he  secured  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Alexis  A. 
Julien,  of  Columbia  College,  to  whose  skill  with  the  microscope 
he  is  greatly  indebted.  Jointly  with  Dr.  Julien  he  has  published 
several  abstracts  of  papers  on  Musical  Sand  (Proceedings  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  and  Trans- 
actions of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences),  which  have  been 
widely  noticed  in  current  literature. 

The  following  papers,  on  topics  of  very  wide  range,  can  not  be 
classified  more  narrowly. 

Sundry  Scientific  and  Literary. — Magic  Squares,  their  History, 
Preparation  and  Properties  (six  papers),  Acta  Columbiana,  1874. 
The  Log-book  of  the  Savannah,  Harper's  Magazine,  1877.  Le- 
gends of  Sepulchral  and  Perpetual  Lamps,  Monthly  Journal  of 
Science,  London,  1879.  Microscopic  Crystals  in  Vertebrae  of 
Toads,  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  1880.  A  Handy  Multiplication  Table,  American 
Teacher,  1885.  The  Life  and  Writings  of  Elisha  North,  M.  D., 
Transactions  of  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society,  1887.  Scientific 


694  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Jottings  on  the  Nile  and  in  the  Desert,  Bulletin  of  the  American 
Geographical  Society,  1890.  Historical  Notes  on  the  Gold-Cure, 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  1892.  A  Plea  for  a  Library  of  Science 
in  New  York  City,  1893.  Russian  Transliteration,  American  Li- 
brary Journal,  1893. 

In  1886  Dr.  Bolton  became  interested  in  folk-lore,  and  pub- 
lished two  years  later  a  work  bearing  the  title,  Counting-out 
Rhymes  of  Children  (London,  1888),  which  brought  him  at  once 
into  prominence  as  a  folk-lorist.  Since  then  he  has  contributed 
occasional  papers  to  the  Journal  of  American  Folk  Lore,  of  which 
the  most  notable  are  the  two  following :  Some  Hawaiian  Pastimes 
(1891)  and  A  Modern  Oracle  and  its  Prototypes  (1893).  His  work 
on  Counting-out  Rhymes  was  awarded  a  bronze  medal  by  the 
Columbian  Historical  Exposition  held  at  Madrid  in  1892. 

After  the  death  of  his  mother  in  1887,  Dr.  Bolton  resigned 
from  Trinity  College,  retired  from  teaching,  and  resumed  his  resi- 
dence in  New  York  city.  He  has  been  able  to  indulge  his  love 
of  travel  by  frequent  journeys  abroad;  besides  the  five  years' 
sojourn  in  Europe  already  named,  he  visited  in  1873  the  principal 
libraries  of  England,  France,  and  Germany,  to  collect  material  for 
his  Bibliography  of  Scientific  Periodicals,  the  publication  of  which 
was,  however,  from  various  causes  delayed  until  1885.  In  1880 
he  visited  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark ;  in  1887  and  1888  he 
made  a  second  and  a  third  bibliographical  tour  in  Europe;  in 
1889  he  visited  Egypt,  going  as  far  as  Mount  Sinai ;  in  1890  he 
visited  the  Bermudas  and  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  These  distant 
points  were  visited  in  search  of  "  musical  sand."  In  1891  he  again 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  chiefly  for  research  in  libraries.  Dr.  Bolton 
has  been  heard  to  say  he  never  travels  to  kill  time  or  to  satisfy 
mere  curiosity ;  he  always  has  some  definite  object  in  view  and 
works  harder  on  his  journeys  than  otherwise. 

Dr.  Bolton  is  often  called  upon  to  give  illustrated  lectures  on 
his  travels  and  on  popular  science.  Being  an  amateur  photogra- 
pher he  brought  back  with  him  from  Arabia  Petraea  and  from 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  many  excellent  negatives  with  which  he 
illustrates  his  lectures.  These  include  the  following  subjects: 
Four  Weeks  in  the  Desert  of  Sinai,  Life  and  Scenes  in  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands,  Picturesque  Scenes  in  Norway,  Alchemy  the 
Cradle  of  Chemistry,  The  Counting-out  Rhymes  of  Children,  The 
Glaciers  of  Switzerland,  Musical  Sand,  etc. 

In  1892  he  was  elected  by  the  Trustees  of  Columbian  Univer- 
sity Non-resident  Professor  of  the  History  of  Chemistry,  and  in 
the  discharge  of  his  duties  gave  in  March,  1893,  a  course  of  nine 
lectures  on  the  history  of  chemistry.  He  treats  this  subject  in  a 
graphic  way,  making  it  attractive  to  the  general  audience  by 
illustrating  every  step  with  the  lantern. 


SKETCH  OF  HENRY  CARRINGTON  BOLTON.       695 

Dr.  Bolton  joined  the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History  of  New  York 
City  in  1867  and  has  been  an  active  member  for  twenty-six  years. 
He  was  one  of  the  committee  (with  the  late  Dr.  John  S.  Newberry 
and  Prof.  B.  N.  Martin)  who  accomplished  in  1876  the  change  of 
name  to  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  by  which  it  is  now 
known ;  from  1876  to  1877  he  held  the  office  of  corresponding  sec- 
retary; from  1887  to  1892,  of  recording  secretary;  from  1892  to 
1893,  vice-president;  and  in  1893  president.  He  has  also  been 
prominent  in  the  national  society,  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  frequently  serving  on  its  council 
and  on  committees,  besides  holding  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the 
Chemical  Section  (1876),  Secretary  of  the  Council  (1889),  general 
secretary  (in  1878, 1879,  and  1890),  and  vice-president  (1882).  Dr. 
Bolton  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  American  Folk-lore  Society 
in  1887,  and  has  been  on  the  council  of  the  society  to  date.  He  is 
also  president  of  the  New  York  branch  of  the  American  Folk-lore 
Society  established  in  the  spring  of  1893.  He  has  been  a  member 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  New  York  Section  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society  since  its  foundation. 

To  all  these  societies  Dr.  Bolton  has  frequently  contributed 
papers ;  including  communications  of  literary  and  general  char- 
acter printed  in  journals,  they  number  more  than  a  hundred  and 
fifty.  He  has  been  influential^in  shaping  the  policy  of  the  Council 
of  the  Scientific  Alliance  of  New  York  City,  and  was  made  its 
treasurer  in  1893. 

Dr.  Bolton  is  a  member  of  many  learned  societies  besides  those 
above  named,  the  chief  being  as  follows :  German  Chemical  Soci- 
ety of  Berlin,  Chemical  Society  of  Paris,  National  Society  of  Nat- 
ural and  Mathematical  Sciences  of  Cherbourg,  American  Society 
of  Naturalists,  Numismatic  and  Antiquarian  Society  of  Philadel- 
phia, American  Metrological  Society,  Brooklyn  Institute,  corre- 
sponding member  of  the  Rochester  Academy  of  Sciences,  and 
honorary  member  of  the  Elisha  Mitchell  Scientific  Society  of 
Chapel  Hill,  N.  C. 

He  founded  the  'Ology  Club  in  Hartford  and  the  Lunar  Soci- 
ety in  New  York,  social  clubs  for  scientific  discussions  and  mutual 
admiration.  He  is  a  member  of  the  University  Club  of  New 
York  and  of  the  Cosmos  Club  of  Washington. 

Dr.  Bolton's  private  library,  though  numbering  less  than  one 
thousand  volumes,  is  probably  unique  in  the  United  States,  being 
devoted  to  the  history  of  chemistry.  It  is  rich  in  original  works 
on  alchemy  and  early  chemistry,  besides  containing  a  collection 
of  several  hundred  portraits  of  scientists  of  all  countries  and  all 
time.  At  the  request  of  the  Grolier  Club  of  New  York  city,  he 
made  an  exhibit  of  a  selection  from  his  library  in  their  club  house 
in  January,  1891. 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


MAJOR  POWELL  ON  "ARE  THERE  EVI- 
DENCES OF  MAN  IN  THE  GLACIAL 
GRAVELS  ?  " 

Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly. 

SIR  :  The  article  by  Major  Powell,  which 
appeared  in  your  July  number,  calls 
for  a  few  words  of  comment.  It  was  written 
apparently  as  an  indirect  reply  to  our  own 
paper  in  the  April  issue.  But  it  contains 
little  more  than  a  restatement  of  some  ele- 
mentary truths  in  geology,  which,  however 
new  they  may  be  made  to  appear  by  the  art 
of  the  writer,  are  really  somewhat  ancient, 
and  form  a  part  of  the  stock  of  every  tyro 
in  the  science. 

To  this,  however,  no  one  can  properly 
object.  Major  Powell  is  entitled  to  write 
whatever  he  chooses.  But  bad  logic  and 
misrepresentation  of  authorities  are  not 
legitimate  argument,  and  in  a  few  points 
where  the  distinguished  head  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey  touches  upon  topics 
which  we  referred  to  in  the  former  article  we 
may  be  allowed  to  criticise  his  statements. 

In  the  first  place,  the  major  is  in  error  in 
misconstruing  our  words  into  an  attack  on 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  No 
fair  construction  of  the  language  will  sup- 
port this  charge.  Our  chief  purpose  was  to 
expose  and  condemn  the  tone  and  spirit  of 
the  reviewers  whose  assaults  we  criticised, 
and  especially  the  language  in  which  one  of 
them  had  seen  fit  to  express  his  opinions. 
For  this  latter  words  too  strong  could  hardly 
be  found.  What  sentiments  have  been  awak- 
ened by  it  in  the  minds  of  geologists,  both  in 
America  and  abroad,  we  can  imagine.  They 
must  be  both  amused  and  amazed  to  see  a 
member  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  a  great 
and  enlightened  country  so  far  forgetting 
the  dignity  and  responsibility  of  his  office  as  to 
indulge  in  invective  and  vituperation  against 
a  fellow-worker  in  the  scientific  field.* 

Major  Powell's  paper  is  in  striking  con- 
trast to  that  of  his  subordinate  in  being  per- 
fectly courteous.  We  could  expect  nothing 
else  from  him.  Had  all  the  critics  of  Prof. 
Wright  been  equally  dignified  and  gentle- 
manly there  would  have  been  no  ground  for 
objection. 

We  confess,  however,  to  a  feeling  of  re- 
gret that  the  director  stopped  short  of  any 


*  It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  this  same 
official  has  seen  fit  to  repeat  and  thus  to  exagger- 
ate his  offense  by  putting  out,  since  our  article  was 
written,  a  second  paper  of  similar  tenor.  Though 
a  copy  of  this  was  in  our  possession  at  the  time  of 
writing,  we  could  not  justly  refer  to  it,  as  it  had 
not  then  appeared.  We  also  hoped  that  the 
author's  good  sense  would  lead  him  to  acquiesce 
in  its  suppression  for  the  sake  of  American  sci- 
ence and  his  own  reputation.  This  hope  was, 
however,  disappointed. 


remark  indicating  disapproval  of  the  lan- 
guage that  had  been  used  by  a  member  of 
riis  staff.  We  can  not  bring  ourselves  to  be- 
iieve  that  he  sanctions  it,  but  his  silence 
lends  it  at  least  an  indirect  support.  We 
think  that  a  word  of  this  kind  would  have 
done  the  Survey  a  greater  service  than  any 
attempt  to  defend  it  where  it  was  not  at- 
tacked, or  any  discourse  on  the  harmony  and 
courtesy  which  have,  he  tells  us,  character- 
ized its  discussions  up  to  date. 

Major  Powell  makes  but  little  direct  allu- 
sion to  us,  though  his  paper  was  evidently 
called  out  by  our  article.  He  contents  him- 
self with  the  general  assertion,  or  rather  im- 
plication, that  "  every  paragraph  is  based  on 
error."  Such  sweeping  charges  are  easily 
made,  and  are  often  as  erroneous  as  easy. 
Not  a  single  error  is  adduced,  and  the  infer- 
ence from  this  omission  is  not  difficult.  At 
all  events,  it  will  be  soon  enough  to  defend 
the  paragraphs  when  they  are  definitely  at- 
tacked. 

Meanwhile,  we  propose  to  investigate  a 
few  passages  of  Major  Powell's  article,  in 
order  to  see  if  the  critic  is  himself  above  re- 
proach, and  to  discover  if  any  erroneousness 
lurks  concealed  within  his  own  paragraphs. 
Space  will  not  allow  more  than  this.  But 
unless  his  arguments  are  better  than  those 
of  his  comrades  and  subordinates,  he  will  be 
but  a  poor  ally  to  aid  them  in  their  cause. 

Major  Powell  refers  to  the  Nampa  image. 
Now,  it  was  and  is  no  part  of  our  plan  to  de- 
fend this  "  find."  It  is  no  bantling  of  ours. 
We  leave  it  to  the  tender  mercies  of  others 
more  competent.  We  merely  pointed  out  in 
the  former  paper  the  fallacy  of  the  argu- 
ments used  by  the  writer  to  whom  we  re- 
ferred in  his  attack  upon  it  and  on  Prof. 
Wright.  Though  Major  Powell  has  failed, 
probably  for  the  very  best  of  reasons,  to 
give  the  exact  details  for  which  we  called, 
yet  his  words  sufficiently  prove  the  inacuracy 
of  the  story,  as  given  in  the  American  Archae- 
ologist and  in  the  Literary  Northwest.  It  is 
a  pity  also  that  Major  Powell  has  allowed 
himself  to  misrepresent  the  evidence  for 
want  of  reference  to  the  original  documents 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of 
Natural  History.  His  language  leads  the 
reader  to  infer  that  he  was  not  even  aware 
of  their  existence,  inasmuch  as  he  says  that 
his  greatest  surprise  on  reading  Prof.  Wright's 
second  book  was  to  find  that  the  image  had 
fallen  into  his  hands  and  was  used  as  an  ar- 
gument in  favor  of  the  antiquity  of  man. 
This  was  two  years  after  the  original  publi- 
cation by  Prof.  Wright,  and  his  arguments 
were  by  this  time  familiar  to  all  students  of 
American  archaeology. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


697 


But  let  this  pass.  Major  Powell  writes 
on  another  page  of  a  human  skeleton  alleged 
to  have  been  found  in  a  bluff  excavated  by 
the  Mississippi  River  in  the  loess  that  bor- 
ders its  channel.  He  says : 

"  The  loess  is  a  formation  contemporane- 
ous with  the  glacial  formation  of  the  north. 
The  discovery  of  a  human  skeleton  in  this 
situation  was  believed  to  prove  that  man 
dwelt  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  during 
the  loess-forming  period.  The  discovery 
seemed  of  so  much  importance  that  the  site 
was  visited  by  Sir  C.  Lyell,  who,  on  examina- 
tion, at  once  affirmed  that  the  skeleton  was 
not  found  in  the  loess  itself,  but  in  the 
'  overplacement,'  or  modified  loess — that  is, 
in  the  talus  of  the  bluff — and  all  geologists 
and  archaeologists  have  accepted  the  deci- 
sion." 

We  fear  that  this  circumstantial  story  on 
examination  will  prove  to  be  similar  to  some 
other  evidence  that  has  been  brought  for- 
ward in  the  current  discussion,  and  it  is 
with  no  little  surprise  that  we  see  so  promi- 
nent a  geologist  advancing  arguments  so 
weak  and  testimony  so  garbled.  But  we 
will  for  a  moment  waive  this  objection. 
Assuming  that  Sir  C.  Lyell  did  express  the 
opinion  here  maintained  by  Major  Powell, 
we  may  be  allowed  respectfully  to  remark  in 
passing  that  if  that  geologist  was  able  so 
easily  and  so  long  ago  as  1846  to  distinguish 
between  the  bluff  and  the  "  overplacement," 
it  is  a  little  late  to  claim  the  criteria  of  this 
distinction  as  a  discovery  of  any  geologist 
or  any  body  of  geologists  in  the  present  day. 
This  is  a  discovery  of  the  already  discovered, 
an  appropriation  of  the  "  finds "  of  other 
men,  equal  to  any  of  the  wonderful  deeds 
related  in  the  travels  of  the  renowned  Cap- 
tain Brazier.  Sir  Charles  must  have  been 
born  too  soon — at  least  forty  years  ahead  of 
his  time.  The  geological  world  of  America 
has  only  just  come  up  to  him. 

But  returning  to  our  main  line,  we  can 
not  even  at  this  point  allow  Major  Powell's 
argument  to  rest.  A  regard  for  logic  com- 
pels us  to  tax  him  with  carelessness  and  in- 
accuracy, if  not  with  misrepresentation,  in 
his  references  to  Sir  Charles  Lyell.  He  re- 
fers as  above  to  that  author's  Second  Visit 
to  the  United  States.  How  correctly  this 
is  done  a  comparison  of  his  words  with  the 
following  extracts  will  show. 

Lyell  writes,  hi  the  Antiquity  of  Man  (p. 
203): 

"Mingled  with  the  bones  of  mastodon, 
megalonyx,  equus,  and  others,  the  pelvic 
bone  of  a  man  was  obtained.  It  appeared 
to  be  in  the  same  state  of  preservation  and 
was  of  the  same  black  color  as  the  others, 
and  was  believed  to  have  come  like  them 
from  a  depth  of  about  thirty  feet  from  the 
surface." 

"In  my  Second  Visit  to  America  in 
1846  I  suggested,  as  a  possible  explanation 
of  this  association  of  a  human  bone  with  re- 
mains of  a  mastodon  and  megalonyx,  that 


the  former  may  possibly  have  been  derived 
from  the  vegetable  soil  at  the  top  of  the 
cliff,  whereas  the  remains  of  the  extinct 
mammalia  were  dislodged  from  a  lower  posi- 
tion, and  both  may  have  fallen  into  the  same 
heap  or  talus  at  the  bottom  of  the  ravine. 
Had  the  bone  belonged  to  any  recent  mam- 
mifer  other  than  man,  such  a  theory  would 
never  have  been  resorted  to." 

Lyell's  very  words  in  the  original  work 
read  thus :  "  I  could  not  ascertain  that  the 
human  pelvis  had  been  actually  dug  out  in 
the  presence  of  a  geologist  or  any  practiced 
observer,  and  its  position  unequivocally  as- 
certained. Like  most  of  the  other  fossils,  it 
was,  I  believe,  picked  up  in  the  bed  of  the 
stream,  which  would  simply  imply  that  it  had 
been  washed  out  of  the  cliffs.  But  the  evi- 
dence of  the  antiquity  of  the  bone  depends 
entirely  on  the  part  of  the  precipice  from 
which  it  was  derived.  It  was  stained  black, 
as  if  buried  hi  a  peaty  or  vegetable  soil,  and 
may  have  been  dislodged  from  some  old  In- 
dian grave  near  its  top,  in  which  case  it  may 
have  been  only  five,  ten,  or  twenty  centuries 
old ;  whereas  if  it  was  really  found  in  situ  at 
the  base  of  the  precipice,  its  age  would  more 
probably  exceed  a  hundred  thousand  years." 
— (Second  Visit,  chap,  xxxi.) 

The  wide  discrepancy  between  the  lan- 
guage of  Lyell  and  its  interpretation  by  Major 
Powell  is  obvious.  There  is  absolutely  no 
justification  for  the  assertion  that  Lyell  "  at 
once  assigned  the  bone. to  the  talus."  He 
evidently  resorted  to  this  possible  explana- 
tion to  avoid  what  was  in  1846  a  yet  more 
formidable  difficulty — the  admission  of  the 
great  antiquity  of  man.  Lyell's  so-called 
evidence  must  therefore  be  thrown  out  of 
court.  His  decision  on  the  point  is  purely 
fictitious,  and  the  statement  that  "  all  geolo- 
gists and  archaeologists  have  accepted  it "  is 
merely  a  fiction  based  on  a  fiction. 

But  the  criticism  must  not  in  justice  end 
even  here.  It  is  not  fair  in  so  rapidly  ad- 
vancing a  science  as  geology  to  quote  the 
words  even  of  a  leader  published  nearly  fifty 
years  ago,  without  any  intimation  that  he 
afterward  changed  his  opinion.  Lyell  was  a 
man  who  grew  with  the  times  in  which  he 
h'ved.  The  palaeoliths  from  the  gravels  at 
Amiens  were  cardinal  evidence  to  him,  and 
supported  as  they  then  were  by  similar 
though  less  conclusive  testimony  from  other 
places^  they  worked  his  conversion  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  great  antiquity  of  the  human 
race,  a  belief  in  which  he  never  afterward 
wavered.  His  belief  found  a  place  hi  his 
writings.  He  revised  or  even  recanted  his 
former  opinions  wherever  he  thought  them 
erroneous,  and  his  great  work,  The  Antiquity 
of  Man,  is  at  once  a  monument  of  his  can- 
dor and  of  his  progress.  Had  Major  Powell 
taken  the  trouble  to  consult  this  volume, 
with  which  we  must  suppose  that  he  is  fa- 
miliar, he  would  scarcely  have  dared  so  com- 
pletely to  misrepresent  its  author  as  he  has 
done."  He  has  laid  himself  open  to  at  least 


698 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  charge  of  gross  carelessness  in  citation 
of  testimony,  and  his  paragraph  is  "mani- 
festly founded  on  errors"  for  which  it  is 
hard  to  find  any  plausible  excuse. 

Lyell  writes  in  the  chapter  already  quoted, 
when  referring  to  this  fossil  (which,  by  the 
way,  was  not,  as  Major  Powell  says,  a  human 
skeleton,  but  merely  a  broken  pelvic  bone) : 

"  After  visiting  the  spot  in  1846,  I  de- 
scribed the  geological  position  of  the  bones 
and  discussed  their  probable  age  with  a 
stronger  bias,  I  must  confess,  to  the  ante- 
cedent improbability  of  the  contemporaneous 
entombment  of  man  and  the  mastodon  than 
any  geologist  would  now  be  justified  in  en- 
tertaining" (p.  200).  "My  reluctance  in 
1846  to  regard  the  fossil  human  bone  as  of 
post-pliocene  date  arose  in  part  from  the  re- 
flection that  the  ancient  loess  of  Natchez  is 
anterior  in  time  to  the  whole  modern  delta 
of  the  Mississippi  ....  If  I  was  right  in  cal- 
culating that  this  delta  has  required  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  years  for  its 
growth,  it  would  follow,  if  the  claims  of  the 
Natchez  man  to  have  coexisted  with  the 
mastodon  are  admitted,  that  North  America 
was  peopled  more  than  a  thousand  centuries 
ago  by  the  human  race.  But  even  were  that 
true  we  could  not  presume,  reasoning  from 
ascertained  geological  data,  that  the  Natchez 
bone  was  anterior  in  date  to  the  antique  flint 
hatchets  of  St.  Acheul  ....  Changes  of  level 
as  great  as  that  here  implied  have  actually 
occurred  in  Europe  during  the  human  epoch, 
and  may  therefore  have  happened  in  Amer- 
ica ....  Should  future  researches,  therefore, 
confirm  the  opinion  that  the  Natchez  man 
coexisted  with  the  mastodon,  it  would  not 
enhance  the  value  of  the  geological  evidence 
in  favor  of  man's  antiquity,  but  merely  ren- 
der the  delta  of  the  Mississippi  available  as 
a  chronometer." 

The  principles  of  exegesis  which  allow 
the  extraction  from  these  words  of  an  affir- 
mation that  the  bone  was  not  found  in  the 
loess  but  in  the  "  overplacement  "  are  decid- 
edly original  and  may  be  valuable  in  a  case 
of  urgent  need.  They  recall  to  one's  mind 
Prof.  Huxley's  satire  on  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage. A  case  that  stands  in  need  of  logic 
so  bad  and  of  quotation  so  erroneous  must 
indeed  be  in  a  sorry  plight.  Sir  C.  Lyell 
evidently  had  no  intention  of  denying  the 
antiquity  of  the  human  pelvis.  With  char- 
acteristic caution  he  suspended  judgment, 
and  no  one  has  any  right  to  wrest  his  lan- 
guage in  either  direction.  Whether  ancient 
or  not  ancient,  whether  fraud  or  forgery  or 
fact,  matters  not  here.  Testimony  has  been 
misquoted  and  authority  misapplied.  We 
plead  not  here  for  the  genuineness  or  an- 
tiquity of  the  Mississippi  man,  but  for  fair- 
ness in  logic  and  accuracy  in  statement. 

We  can  not  avoid  the  impression  that  in 
another  place  Major  Powell  somewhat  trans- 
gresses the  limits  of  accuracy  where  he  says  : 

"  Prof.  Wright  stands  almost  alone  in  his 
advocacy  of  a  scientific  doctrine.  He  has 


a  few  sympathizers  and  some  defenders  of 
some  portions  of  his  theory,  but  the  great 
body  of  his  work  is  repudiated  by  nearly 
every  geologist  in  America  and  especially  by 
the  professorial  corps." 

The  latter  part  of  this  extract  may  be 
true,  but  so  far  as  they  have  declared  them- 
selves the  following  may  rightly  be  claimed 
on  his  side:  Dana,  Hitchcock,  Emerson, 
Crosby,  Upham,  and  Bell.  Others,  in  view 
of  the  pending  discussion,  await  further  evi- 
dence. Abroad  a  longer  list  of  names  may 
be  drawn  up,  including  that  of  the  venerable 
Prestwich,  ex-Professor  of  Geology  at  Oxford, 
Hughes,  of  Cambridge,  Lamplugh,  Crosskey, 
Kendall,  and  Dugald  Bell  in  Great  Britain, 
Falsan  in  France,  Credner  and  Diener  in 
Germany,  Hoist  of  Sweden,  and  Nitikin, 
state  geologist  of  Russia.  Sir  H.  H.  Howorth 
says  in  a  recent  work,*  "  While  the  theory 
of  a  plurality  of  glacial  periods  has  found 
several  advocates  in  Germany,  the  French 
geologists  are  virtually  unanimous  on  the 
other  side."  With  such  a  list  Prof.  Wright 
stands  u  alone  "  in  good  company. 

The  scientific  imagination  is  a  faculty  of 
the  highest  order  and  of  great  value  so  long 
as  it  is  held  in  check  by  reason  and  knowl- 
edge. But  when  Pegasus  runs  or  flies  away 
with  his  rider,  the  result  is  often  disastrous 
to  the  latter.  We  have  already  given  proof 
of  Major  Powell's  great  command  over  the 
realm  of  fiction.  He  will  excuse  us  if  we 
further  illustrate  his  supremacy  in  this  re- 
gion by  another  equally  striking  quotation. 
Writing  of  the  so-called  palaeolithic  imple- 
ments recently  found  in  New  Jersey  and  some 
other  places  in  the  Eastern  States,  he  says : 

"  These  implements  were  gathered  in 
very  great  numbers  and  collected  in  various 
museums  in  the  United  States  and  many  col- 
lections were  sent  abroad  to  the  great  mu- 
seums of  the  world.  Several  different  collect- 
ors were  engaged  in  this  enterprise  for  some 
years  and  acquired  great  reputation  for  their 
proof  of  the  antiquity  of  man  on  this  conti- 
nent and  for  their  zeal  in  discovering  the  evi- 
dence, and  to  recompense  them  for  this  work 
they  were  made  members  of  many  scientific 
societies  throughout  the  world  and  decorated 
with  ribbons,  and  some  were  knighted." 

We  took  the  liberty  in  our  last  paper  of 
calling  indirectly  on  Major  Powell  for  exact 
details  regarding  the  Nampa  image,  but 
without  very  great  success.  Will  he  allow 
us  respectfully  to  ask  for  some  further  par- 
ticulars concerning  this  very  startling  para- 
graph of  his,  in  order  to  remove  the  suspicion 
that  spontaneously  but  irresistibly  lurks  in 
our  mind  that  it  too  is  "  based  on  error"  ?  It 
would  be  deeply  interesting  to  the  archaeolo- 
gists of  this  country  and  of  others  to  learn 
where  are  the  "  very  great  numbers "  of 
these  palaeoliths  from  New  Jersey,  in  what 
"  museums  of  the  United  States  "  they  are 
stored,  and  to  what  "  foreign  institutions 


The  Glacial  Nightmare  and  the  Flood,  p.  469. 


EDITORS   TABLE. 


699 


many  collections  have  been  sent."  We 
should  also  like  to  know  how  many  of  these 
collectors  "  have  been  made  members  of  many 
scientific  societies,"  how  many  have  "  been 
decorated  with  ribbons,"  and  the  color, 
style,  and  significance  of  these  same  rib- 
bons. But  especially  would  it  delight  the 
archaeological  world  to  be  favored  with  a 
list  of  the  Sir  Knights  who  have  received 
the  accolade  as  a  reward  of  their  great  pow- 
ers and  magnificent  achievements  on  the 
hard-fought  field  of  American  archaeology, 
and  who  are  now  Sir  Somebody  Something 
and  Sir  Something  Somebody  among  their 
untitled  scientific  brethren  of  this  demo- 
cratic land.  We  are  free  to  confess  that  in 
our  seclusion  in  "  Ohio "  we  had  not  heard 
of  these  decorations,  and  did  not  know  that 
the  palaeolithic  heretics  had  amassed  so  much 
evidence  in  favor  of  their  great  archetype  in 
America,  or  that  they  had  been  so  highly  and 
so  widely  honored  for  their  discoveries.  We 
must  infer,  though  we  had  not  heard  of  the 
fact,  that  our  palaeolithic  acquaintance,  Dr. 
Abbott,  is  now  Sir  C.  C.  Abbott,  of  Trenton, 
X.  J.,  and  Bristol,  Pa.  We  congratulate 
him.  Others  will  no  doubt  be  heard  from 
in  due  time. 

We  sincerely  trust  that  the  Director  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey  has  not 
been  in  this  instance  also  drawing  on  his 
imagination  and  clothing  the  creations  of  his 
fancy  with  "local  habitations  and  names." 
But  if  not,  we  must  express  the  fear  that  he 
has  been  looking  at  the  palaeoliths  and  their 
finders  through  his  most  powerful  multiply- 
ing glass. 


We  write  the  above  criticisms  not  with- 
out regret.  Major  Powell's  services  to  geol- 
ogy as  the  head  of  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey  have  been  great.  Not  even 
himself  will  claim  that  they  have  been  fault- 
less. But  in  entering  the  controversial  field 
it  is  needful  first  to  make  quite  sure  of  the 
facts  and  then  to  reason  logically  from  them. 
In  the  former  respect  some  of  Major  Powell's 
paragraphs  are  "  based  on  error,"  as  we  have 
shown,  and  his  deductions  from  them  are 
consequently  mere  fallacies.  If  no  stronger 
argument  can  be  found,  the  case  for  which  he 
has  pleaded  may  almost  as  well  be  abandoned. 

In  the  midst  of  so  much  that  is  open  to 
criticism  it  is  refreshing  and  pleasing  to  find 
Major  Powell  expressing  a  sentiment  with 
which  all  geologists  and  other  scientists 
should  agree  and  with  which  we  ourselves 
are  in  full  accord.  We  thank  him  for  so 
well  wording  what  must  be  the  rule  of  all 
concerned  who  appreciate  the  present  posi- 
tion of  the  palaeolithic  discussion  in  this 
country.  He  writes : 

"  We  will  all  withhold  final  judgment  un- 
til the  evidence  is  in,  being  perfectly  will- 
ing to  believe  in  Glacial  man  or  Tertiary  man 
or  Cretaceous  man  if  the  evidence  demands 
it,  and  being  just  as  willing  too  to  believe 
that  man  was  introduced  on  this  continent 
within  the  last  two  thousand  years  if  the 
evidence  demands  it.  What  care  we  what 
the  truth  is  if  it  is  the  truth  ?  " 

Grant  this,  and  courtesy  in  debate,  and 
the  present  controversy  will  not  have  been 
useless.  E.  W.  CLATPOLE. 

AKRON,  OHIO,  June  29,  1893. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


CIVIC  DUTY. 

AMONG  the  hopeful  signs  of  the 
times  we  may  reckon  the  in- 
creased attention  that  is  being  given  in 
our  higher  schools  to  the  study  of 
"civics,"  a  term  which  includes  the 
general  principles  of  government,  the 
Constitution  of  our  own  country  in  par- 
ticular, and  the  duties  of  citizenship. 
It  is  somewhat  extraordinary  that  the 
importance  of  instructing  our  youth  in 
these  subjects  was  not  earlier  recog- 
nized; but  we  may  hope  that,  now  that 
they  have  been  introduced  pretty  gen- 
erally into  our  educational  courses,  they 
will  assume  the  prominence  to  which 
they  are  entitled.  If  the  State  under- 


takes to  educate,  it  should  be  mainly 
and  primarily  with  a  view  to  producing 
good  citizens :  and  the  instruction  which 
specially  pertains  to  this  object  should 
in  all  public  schools  have  an  honored,  if 
not  indeed  the  foremost,  place. 

What  is  government  ?  is  a  question 
which  must  spontaneously  occur  to  the 
mind  of  every  young  person,  and  the 
teacher  is  fortunate  who  has  a  subject 
to  deal  with  in  regard  to  which  his  or 
her  pupils  are  already  prepared  to  ask 
questions.  Government,  it  can  be  ex- 
plained, in  the  first  place  is  control. 
Control  may  be  exercised  either  for 
good  or  for  evil — either  in  excess  of 
requirements,  or  in  due  proportion  to 


700 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


requirements,  or  in  measure  inadequate 
to  requirements.  Control  exercised  for 
evil  is  tyranny,  and  should,  wherever 
possible,  be  ressted;  control  exercised 
for  good  is  government  in  the  best  sense 
and  deserves  loyal  acquiescence  and 
support.  Control  in  excess  of  require- 
ments again  is  tyranny,  even  though  ex- 
ercised not  by  a  monarch  but  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  citizens ;  control  in  due 
proportion  to  requirements  is  govern- 
ment in  a  good  sense ;  control  inade- 
quate to  requirements  means  a  greater 
or  less  degree  of  anarchy.  It  should 
not  be  difficult  to  interest  the  minds  of 
the  young  in  deciding  or  trying  to  de- 
cide for  themselves  certain  practical 
questions  to  which  these  definitions 
would  naturally  give  rise.  Take  the 
government  of  a  given  country  at  a 
given  time :  was  it  tyrannical  or  was 
it  reasonable  government  ?  Did  it  de- 
serve resistance  or  support  ?  Such  and 
such  laws,  are  they  in  excess  of  require- 
ments, or  are  they  such  as  circumstances 
demand?  What  are  we  to  understand 
by  "  requirements  "  ?  Requirements  for 
what?  Here  is  the  opportunity  for 
pointing  out  how  purely  meddlesome 
and  intrusive  a  great  deal  of  legislation 
is — the  mere  mandates  of  majorities 
who  want  to  have  their  way  in  every- 
thing, and  are  not  content  to  win  others 
over  by  persuasion,  but  insist  on  forcing 
them  into  conformity  by  legal  measures. 
The  "  requirements  "  it  can  be  shown, 
beyond  which  political  control  should 
not  go,  are  the  requirements  of  national 
cohesion.  Whatever  tends  to  enforce 
uniformity  of  practice  or  habit  or  opin- 
ion beyond  the  demands  of  national 
unity  partakes  of  the  nature  of  tyranny, 
whether  the  authority  that  imposes  it 
has  one  head  or  a  million  heads.  The 
necessity  for  government  in  the  true 
sense  can  be  made  evident  to  the  weak- 
est understanding,  and  from  this  will 
obviously  flow  the  duty  of  every  citizen 
to  aid  in  the  maintenance  of  law  and 
order.  What  kind  of  a  society,  it  may 
be  asked,  would  that  be  the  sole  foun- 


dations of  which  were  force  and  fraud? 
What  would  become  of  human  industry 
if  the  laborer  could  not  depend  on  re- 
ceiving his  honest  wages,  or  any  worker 
on  protection  in  carrying  on  his  employ- 
ment? Law,  it  will  be  seen,  is  no  re- 
straint upon  the  good,  but  is  their  shield 
against  the  aggressions  of  the  evil ;  to 
the  latter  alone  is  it  a  terror,  and  they 
alone  can  have  any  interest  in  weaken- 
ing its  authority.  Yet  even  they  would 
suffer  were  there  no  law,  and  conse- 
quently the  ideal  condition  of  things 
for  a  bad  man  would  be  one  in  which 
others  obeyed  the  law  while  he  suc- 
ceeded in  evading  it.  The  habitual 
criminal  is  thus  no  better  than  a  beast 
of  prey  or  a  parasite. 

Teaching  of  this  nature  addressed  to 
a  class  in  which  some  kind  of  public 
opinion  was  capable  of  being  evoked 
would,  we  are  persuaded,  do  much  to 
create  in  the  minds  of  the  young  a  sense 
of  the  interest  they  have  in  upholding 
the  institutions  of  the  country,  both  na- 
tional and  municipal.  We  incline  to  the 
opinion  that  this  interest  should  first  be 
awakened  by  means  of  general  consid- 
erations upon  government  before  de- 
tailed instruction  is  given  in  the  national 
Constitution.  When  the  time  has  come 
for  the  latter,  the  different  purposes 
which  each  power  in  the  State  is  intend- 
ed to  serve  should  be  carefully  explained, 
and  the  pupils  should  be  invited  to  ex- 
ercise their  own  independent  judgment 
upon  the  Constitution  as  a  whole  and 
upon  its  several  parts.  They  might  be 
freely  asked  whether  they  could  suggest 
anything  better,  and  the  whole  subject 
should  be  commended  to  them  as  one 
in  which  they  have  an  interest  that  can 
not  safely  be  neglected.  It  should  be 
impressed  upon  them  that,  if  honest  peo- 
ple do  not  take  an  interest  in  politics^ 
dishonest  people  are  sure  to  do  so,  and 
that  the  only  way  to  nullify  the  influ- 
ence of  the  bad  is  for  the  good — those 
who  have  the  welfare  of  their  country 
at  heart — to  occupy  the  field  in  over- 
whelming numbers  themselves. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


701 


Modern  writers  note  a  decline  in  the 
sentiment  of  patriotism;  but  we  can 
afford  to  let  the  old  patriotism  go,  if  we 
can  get  a  better  patriotism  in  its  place. 
The  old  patriotism  involved  hardly  less 
of  hostility  and  ill-will  to  other  coun- 
tries than  of  attachment  to  one's  own. 
The  new  patriotism  calls  upon  us  to 
serve  our  own  country  first,  and  no  less 
in  peace  than  in  war,  but  to  be  desirous 
that  other  countries  should  be  equally 
well  served  by  their  sons.  The  old  pa- 
triotism formed  easy  alliances  with  self- 
ish and  unworthy  interests,  so  that  the 
trade  of  patriot  became  one  of  the  most 
suspected  of  vocations— so  much  so  that 
the  sturdy  old  Tory,  Dr.  Johnson,  de- 
nounced it  as  "the  last  refuge  of  a 
scoundrel " ;  but  the  new  patriotism 
which  can  not  commend  itself  by  loud- 
mouthed denunciation  of  other  countries 
can  only  make  itself  known  and  felt  by 
useful  activity  in  the  public  interest  at 
home. 

The  complete  instruction  of  our  youth 
in  civics  will  have  to  embrace,  we  regret 
to  say,  a  description  of  the  principal 
evils  which  dog  the  steps  of  representa- 
tive government.  We  have  just  glanced 
at  the  evil  of  indifference  in  political 
affairs,  but  in  a  course  of  instruction 
it  would  merit  much  fuller  treatment. 
Then  there  is  the  opposite  evil  of  ex- 
cessive partisanship  leading  to  the  grav- 
est abuses  of  administration,  and  through 
the  frauds  which  it  introduces  into  the 
working  of  the  political  machine  threat- 
ening even  the  stability  of  the  State. 
There  is  the  evil  of  excessive  taxation, 
resorted  to  in  order  that  the  party  in 
power  may  have  more  money  to  dis- 
tribute for  political  purposes.  There  is 
the  evil  of  corrupt  understanding  be- 
tween the  party  in  power  and  business 
men  whose  pecuniary  interests  that 
party  can  promote  by  legislation — so 
much  tariff  (for  example)  meaning  so 
much  money  to  be  contributed  at  elec- 


tion times.  The  celebrated  letter  in 
which  the  chairman  of  a  certain  com- 
mittee threatened  to  "fry  the  fat"  out 
of  certain  manufacturers  who,  after  hav- 
ing been  put  in  the  way  of  enriching 
themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  public, 
had  failed  to  respond  with  due  liberality 
and  gratitude  when  the  hat  was  being 
passed  round  for  a  great  political  cam- 
paign, should  be  printed  for  an  everlast- 
ing remembrance  and  illustration  of 
"  ho w  it  w  orks."  As  regards  the  thieves 
and  pirates  who  obtain  government  con- 
tracts and  enrich  themselves  by  furnish- 
ing inferior  articles,  it  would  be  easy  to 
rouse  against  them  the  fierce  indignation 
and  reprobation  of  any  class  of  ingenuous 
youths;  and  it  would  not  be  hard  to 
show  that  many  other  frauds  upon  the 
Government,  such  as  charging  undue 
prices  for  things,  obtaining  by  collusion 
contracts  at  figures  beyond  what  would 
afford  a  fair  profit,  and  so  on,  are  all  of 
an  infamous  nature  and  utterly  unworthy 
of  any  man  pretending  to  be  a  good  cit- 
izen. Great  care  should  be  taken  not 
to  deal  with  any  of  these  subjects  in 
a  cynical  spirit  or  to  create  the  impres- 
sion that  the  evils  indicated  are  more 
widespread  than  they  really  are.  It 
ought  to  be  a  paramount  object  to  pro- 
mote respect  for  the  country  in  which 
we  live,  and  while  the  evils  and  dan- 
gers which  beset  our  system  of  govern- 
ment should  be  plainly  pointed  out, 
stress  should  also  be  laid  upon  the  vast 
amount  of  faithful  service  and  un- 
selfish devotion  which  the  country  re- 
ceives from  its  worthier  sons.  The 
spirit  to  cultivate  is  not  one  of  despond- 
ency, but  one  of  hope,  of  confidence, 
and  of  resolute  endeavor.  Let  our 
young  people  but  have  the  right  kind 
of  teaching,  and  they  will  respond  to 
it,  and  in  less  than  ten  years  the  effect 
for  good  upon  the  public  opinion  and 
public  life  of  the  country  will  be  very 
apparent. 


702 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


LITEEARY  NOTICES. 

VERTEBRATE  EMBRYOLOGY.  A  TEXT-BOOK  FOR 
STUDENTS  AND  PRACTITIONERS.  By  A. 
MILNES  MARSHALL,  M.  D.,  D.  So.,  Profess- 
or in  the  Victoria  University,  etc.  New 
York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  London: 
Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  1893.  Price,  $6. 

As  the  author  truly  states  in  his  preface, 
most  of  the  text-books  of  embryology  aim 
rather  at  explaining  the  general  progress  of 
development  within  the  several  animal  groups 
than  at  supplying  complete  descriptions  of 
individual  examples.  Thus  there  have  been 
no  reasonably  complete  accounts  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  common  frog  or  of  the  rab- 
bit, while  in  human  embryology  so  much 
is  yet  unknown  that  the  descriptions  and 
figures  given  in  illustration  of  them  are 
those  of  embryonic  rabbits,  pigs,  chickens, 
or  dogfish.  As  the  results  of  recent  investi- 
gations have  shown  that  marked  differences, 
both  in  the  earlier  and  the  later  stages  of  de- 
velopment, may  occur  between  allied  genera 
and  species,  it  may  be  perceived  that  this 
practice  of  illustrating  human  embryology 
by  embryological  types  selected  from  the 
lower  animals  may  be  the  cause  of  much 
confusion. 

In  preparing  this  volume  the  author  has 
selected  a  few  types  to  each  of  which  a  sepa- 
rate chapter  is  devoted.  The  first  chapter 
gives  a  general  account  of  the  development 
of  animals,  including  the  structure,  matura- 
tion, and  fertilization  of  the  egg,  and  a  de- 
scription of  the  early  stages  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  embryo.  We  think  the  author 
has  made  a  slight  lapsus  calami  in  the  state- 
ment on  page  13  that  "  after  one  spermato- 
zoon has  entered  an  egg  others  seem  inca- 
pable of  making  their  way  in " ;  we  judge 
that  he  intended  to  write  "  yolk  "  instead  of 
egg,  for  spermatozoa  have  been  found  not  only 
in  the  zona  but  in  the  perivitelline  space. 
We  believe  that  it  is  after  the  spermatozoon 
gains  entrance  into  the  yolk  instead  of  the 
egg,  as  is  stated,  that  the  tail  is  lost.  The 
theory  of  sex  is  too  meagerly  presented  to 
afford  the  student  any  enlightenment,  none 
of  the  more  important  theories  being  men- 
tioned. 

The  second  chapter  is  devoted  to  the 
amphioxus,  giving  a  general  account  of  the 
early  and  late  embryonic  development  of 


this  fish-like  animal.  In  this  chapter  the 
author  has  followed  the  descriptions  of 
Kowalevsky,  Hatschek,  Lankester,  and  Wil- 
ley ;  and  this  animal  has  been  selected  as  an 
introduction  to  vertebrate  embryology  be- 
cause of  the  simplicity  of  its  earlier  develop- 
mental history  as  well  as  on  account  of  the 
clew  that  this  affords  to  the  more  compli- 
cated conditions  occurring  in  the  higher  ver- 
tebrates. 

The  third  chapter  gives  a  general  account 
of  the  development  of  the  frog,  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  processes  of  maturation  and 
fertilization  of  the  egg  being  based  on  0. 
Schultze's  investigations,  while  the  account 
of  the  early  stages  of  development  of  the 
nervous,  circulatory,  digestive,  and  repro- 
ductive organs  is  based  on  the  observations 
of  the  author  and  his  pupils. 

The  fourth  chapter  gives  a  description  of 
the  development  of  the  chick  that  is  so  fa- 
miliar from  the  accounts  given  in  most  of  the 
physiologies. 

The  fifth  chapter  gives  an  account  of  the 
development  of  the  rabbit,  the  author  follow- 
ing the  accounts  of  Van  Beneden,  Kolliker, 
and  Duval  in  his  description  of  the  processes 
of  segmentation  of  the  egg,  of  the  formation 
of  the  blastodermic  vesicle,  and  of  the  pla- 
centa. The  descriptions  of  the  later  stages 
of  development  are  based  on  his  own  obser- 
vations. 

The  sixth  and  final  chapter  describes  the 
development  of  the  human  embryo,  and  is, 
of  course,  to  a  large  extent,  based  on  the  re- 
searches of  His. 

The  author  requests  that  human  embryos 
of  any  age,  but  more  particularly  those  of 
the  first  month  or  six  weeks,  be  wrapped  in 
cotton,  placed  in  a  bottle  of  strong  alcohol, 
and  sent  to  him  at  Owens  College. 

We  note,  especially  in  the  earlier  part 
of  the  book,  a  duplication  of  illustrations: 
thus  Figures  1  and  45 ;  2  and  14 ;  3  and  46, 
47,  48,  49,  and  50 ;  4  and  97  ;  5  and  102 ; 
6  and  103  ;  7  and  105 ;  8  and  25 ;  and  9  and 
26,  are  identical. 

The  book  is  clearly  written  in  English 
rather  than  Anglicized  German,  and  there  is 
a  most  agreeable  omission  of  German  terms 
that  mar  the  harmony  of  some  of  the  recent 
works  on  embryology.  Long  quotations  and 
discussions  of  mooted  points  are  avoided,  the 
author  apparently  seeking  to  present  that 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


703 


that  will  facilitate  the  work  of  the  student. 
We  believe  that  the  volume  will  become  a 
popular  text-book  on  the  subject. 

A  HISTORY  OF  CRUSTACEA.  RECENT  MALACOS- 
TRACA.  By  Rev.  THOMAS  R.  R.  STEBBING, 
M.  A.  With  Numerous  Illustrations. 
New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1893. 
Pp.  466.  Price,  $2.  Being  No.  71  of 
the  International  Scientific  Series. 

IN  the  preface  to  this  work  the  author 
says  that  his  ambition  was  to  prepare  a  vol- 
ume "  to  which  beginners  in  the  subject  will 
have  recourse,  and  one  which  experienced 
observers  may  willingly  keep  at  hand  for  re- 
freshment of  the  memory  and  ready  refer- 
ence." He  has  succeeded  eminently  well  in 
carrying  out  that  project;  for,  besides  giving 
the  classification,  physiology,  habits,  and  de- 
scription of  some  thousands  of  Crustacea, 
Mr.  Stebbing  has  added  several  new  species 
to  the  already  voluminous  list  of  crustaceans, 
and  made  interesting  reading  of  what  stu- 
dents and  beginners  so  often  find  dreary  and 
unentertaining. 

The  chapter  entitled  "  Specimens  "  con- 
tains some  very  useful  information  on  the 
collection  of  Crustacea  for  examination,  and 
the  author  rather  humorously  points  out  that 
even  at  the  breakfast  table  examples  of  three 
very  distinct  orders  can  be  obtained  "  in  -a 
dishful  of  prawns."  In  the  same  chapter  he 
explains  the  best  methods  of  capturing  crus- 
tacea,  and  tells  of  some  new  genera  which 
are  found  at  the  enormous  depth  of  three 
thousand  and  fifty  feet. 

The  chapters  on  the  various  tribes, 
legions,  and  families  of  the  suborders  Ma- 
crura  and  jBrachyura, .  which  contain  among 
them  the  edible  crab,  lobster,  shrimp,  etc., 
are  full  of  interesting  and  valuable  in- 
formation, and  the  author  has  in  many  in- 
stances corrected  the  errors  of  former  natu- 
ral historians  who  named  certain  mem- 
bers of  the  smaller  crustaceans  before  they 
had  properly  developed  from  the  larval 
stage.  Mr.  Stebbing  also  bemoans  "the 
hard  fate  of  natural  historians,"  particu- 
larly beginners,  for  he  says  that  the  con- 
fusion of  names  would  sometimes  deter  a 
timid  person  from  pursuing  the  study.  He 
believes  in  the  simplest  possible  nomencla- 
ture, and  he  has  himself  endeavored  to  sim- 
plify his  work  by  making  it  easily  under- 
stood by  those  who  are  inexperienced.  The 


chapters  on  the  habits  of  the  cocoanut  crab 
(Birgos)  and  of  the  various  kinds  of  land 
crabs  will  be  read  with  very  great  interest 
by  all  classes  of  people,  apart  from  those 
who  are  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  crus- 
tacea.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  entertaining 
manner  in  which  the  author  tells  of  the 
curious  habits  of  these  most  curious  animals, 
of  their  strangely  developed  instincts,  and  of 
their  general  modes  of  living,  makes  more 
interesting  reading  than  is  generally  found 
in  such  exhaustive  scientific  works. 

The  vexed  question  of  the  position  and  ex- 
istence of  eyes  in  some  of  the  crustaceans  ia 
finally  set  at  rest  in  this  work.  Mr.  Stebbing 
also  proves  beyond  question  that  the  crab  uses 
the  bases  of  his  walking  legs  as  mandibles — a 
fact  which  has  heretofore  been  accepted  only 
in  theory  by  a  few  scientists.  In  describing 
the  latter  peculiarity  of  the  edible  and  other 
species  of  crab,  the  author  humorously  re- 
marks that,  although  it  may  seem  as  strange 
for  a  crab  to  use  his  feet  for  the  purpose  of 
mastication  as  it  would  be  for  a  human  being 
to  have  his  teeth  upon  his  elbow  for  a  simi- 
lar purpose,  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact  indispu- 
tably proved.  Over  three  thousand  species  of 
crustaceans  are  defined  in  this  volume,  which 
can  not  fail  to  interest  the  general  reader,  as 
well  as  being  of  much  importance  to  the 
student  and  as  a  book  of  reference. 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM.  By  EDWIN  J. 
HOUSTON.  Pp.  306. — ELECTRICAL  MEAS- 
UREMENTS. By  EDWIN  J.  HOUSTON.  Pp. 
429.  Price,  $1.  New  York :  The  W.  J. 
Johnston  Co.,  1893. 

THERE  are  already  so  many  elementary 
books  on  electrical  subjects,  addressed  either 
to  the  student  or  the  general  public,  that  a 
new  book  must  needs  have  distinctive  merit 
to  justify  its  publication.  This  is  possessed 
in  an  eminent  degree  by  the  above  collection 
of  primers  from  the  pen  of  Prof.  Houston. 
He  has  the  gift  of  lucid  exposition,  and  is, 
moreover,  thoroughly  familiar  with  his  sub- 
ject. Not  the  least  of  the  merit  of  his  expo- 
sition is  his  interpretation  of  the  phenomena 
in  the  light  of  more  recent  electric  theory, 
which  has  undergone  marked  changes  hi  the 
past  few  years.  Each  book  consists  of  a 
collection  of  chapters  complete  in  itself, 
which  the  author  terms  a  primer,  the  closing 
chapter  being  a  brief  review  of  all  the  oth- 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ers,  and  termed  a  primer  of  primers.  A  fea- 
ture of  the  work  is  the  appending  to  each 
primer  of  one  or  more  extracts  from  current 
electrical  works  on  the  subject  matter  of  the 
primer. 

In  electricity  and  magnetism  the  author 
deals  with  the  sources  and  phenomena  of 
static  and  current  electricity  and  magnetism. 
His  statement  of  the  theories  of  magnetism 
is  a  particularly  clear  and  concise  summing 
up  of  the  present  views  of  the  subject,  and 
it  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  did  not  under- 
take to  do  the  same  with  the  theories  of  the 
electric  current.  In  the  primer  on  atmos- 
pheric electricity  our  quite  limited  knowledge 
of  the  subject  is  presented  concisely,  though 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  author  follows  the 
accepted  views  of  lightning  protection,  and 
gives  no  hint  of  the  recent  important  experi- 
ments and  theories  of  Prof.  Lodge  on  this 
subject. 

The  second  of  the  books  takes  its  name 
from  the  first  three  primers,  which  are  de- 
voted to  the  measurement  of  electric  cur- 
rents, electro-motive  force  and  resistance,  and 
are  concerned  with  an  account  of  how  these 
measurements  are  made. 

The  voltaic  cell  forms  the  subject  of  one 
primer,  and  thermo-electric  batteries  of  an- 
other. The  distribution  of  electricity  by  con- 
tinuous currents  and  the  arc  and  the  incan- 
descent light  are  considered  in  three  primers. 
In  the  primer  devoted  to  the  alternating  cur- 
rent a  brief  account  is  given  of  the  modern 
theory  of  such  a  current ;  and  in  a  primer  on 
alternating  currents  of  high  frequency  there 
is  an  excellent  summary  of  the  remarkable 
experiments  of  Tesla  with  such  currents.  A 
primer  is  devoted  to  induction  coils  and 
transformers,  one  to  dynamos,  another  to  the 
electric  motor,  and  another  to  the  electric 
transmission  of  power.  Other  primers  are 
on  electro-dynamics,  electro-dynamic  induc- 
tion, and  alternating  current  distribution. 
The  books  are  printed  on  good  paper,  in 
clear  type,  and  are  of  convenient  size. 

ORIGINAL  PAPERS  ON  DYNAMO  MACHINERY 
AND  ALLIED  SUBJECTS.  By  JOHN  HOP- 
KINSON,  F.  R.  S.  New  York :  The  W.  J. 
Johnston  Co.,  1893.  Pp.249.  Price,  $4. 

THE  researches  of  Dr.  Hopkinson  on 
electro-technical  subjects,  more  especially 
those  upon  the  dynamo,  have  long  been 


recognized  as  of  the  highest  importance, 
both  for  their  theoretical  interest  and  for 
their  value  in  the  bearing  they  have  upon 
the  work  of  the  practical  constructor.  The 
papers  in  which  these  researches  have  been 
described  have  heretofore  been  accessible 
only  in  the  proceedings  of  scientific  societies 
and  in  the  technical  journals,  and  are  now 
for  the  first  time  collected  in  the  present 
volume.  The  collection  consists  of  eleven 
papers,  five  of  which  are  devoted  to  the 
dynamo,  in  which  are  developed  the  theory 
and  use  of  what  has  come  to  be  known  as 
the  "  characteristic  curve  of  the  dynamo." 
This  curve  expresses  the  relation  between 
the  current  and  electro-motive  force  of  a 
dynamo  at  a  given  speed — the  horizontal  dis- 
tances or  abscissas  representing  the  amount 
of  current,  and  the  ordinates  th6  electro- 
motive forces — and  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Hop- 
kinson has  been  found  capable  of  giving  a 
solution  to  all  the  complicated  questions  of 
practical  dynamo  construction.  Other  papers 
are :  Some  Points  in  Electric  Lighting,  the 
Theory  of  Alternating  Currents,  the  Theory 
of  the  Alternate-Current  Dynamos,  and  a  re- 
port upon  the  Westinghouse  transformers. 
In  the  first  of  these  a  very  interesting  me- 
chanical illustration  is  given  of  the  facts  of 
electrical  induction  by  means  of  a  model, 
first  suggested  by  the  late  Prof.  Clerk  Max- 
well, and  in  the  second  the  proper  method  of 
coupling  up  alternating  dynamos  in  a  supply 
circuit  is  pointed  out,  and  the  conditions  for 
the  most  efficient  action  determined.  Alike 
to  the  student  and  the  practical  dynamo  de- 
signer these  papers  will  prove  of  the  greatest 
value,  and  will  form  a  desirable  if  not  essen- 
tial addition  to  his  technical  library. 

IDLE  DAYS  IN  PATAGONIA.  By  W.  H.  HUD- 
SON. New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
Pp.  256.  Price,  $4. 

THE  author  of  The  Naturalist  in  La  Plata 
gives  us  in  this  volume  some  further  ac- 
count of  his  wanderings  hi  South  America. 
He  calls  himself  an  "idler"  here,  being 
made  such  by  an  accidental  pistol-shot  which 
kept  him  for  some  time  from  active  explora- 
tion. Yet,  though  unable  to  go  far  afield, 
Mr.  Hudson  gathered  many  curious  observa- 
tions and  much  store  of  entertaining  anecdote 
during  his  idle  days.  The  reader  will  learn 
from  these  chapters  that  Patagonia  is  not 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


7°5 


wholly  a  wild,  inhospitable  tract,  inhabited 
by  wandering  savages,  but  that  the  northern 
part,  at  least,  is  a  grazing  country,  with  set- 
tlements and  white  inhabitants,  much  like 
the  adjoining  districts  of  the  Argentine  Re- 
public. He  will  learn  also  something  about 
the  natural  products  of  the  land,  its  climate 
life  among  the  settlers,  the  Indians,  the  wild 
animals,  and  most  of  all,  for  the  author  is  an 
ornithologist,  about  the  birds.  In  the  culti- 
vated valley  of  the  Rio  Negro  there  are  birds 
in  plenty — mocking-birds,  several  varieties  of 
finches,  wood-hewers,  swallows,  and  among 
larger  fowls  the  upland  geese,  owls,  vultures, 
condors,  ostriches,  swans,  and  flamingoes 
Mr.  Hudson  does  not  write  like  a  teacher  nor 
like  a  restless  searcher  after  discoveries,  but 
rather  like  one  telling  of  a  pleasant  vacation ; 
hence  it  is  safe  to  predict  for  him  many  de- 
lighted readers.  The  book  has  been  fully 
and  pleasingly  illustrated  by  Alfred  Hartley 
and  J.  Smit. 

EVOLUTION  AND  MAN'S  PLACE  IN  NATURE.  By 
HENRY  CALDERWOOD,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S.  E., 
Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy,  Univer- 
sity of  Edinburgh.  New  York  and  Lon- 
don: Macmillan  &  Co.,  1893.  Pp.  349. 
Price,  $2. 

IN  the  opening  chapter  of  this  work  Prof. 
Calderwood  says  that  "  the  general  accept- 
ance of  Darwin's  theory  of  evolution  gives 
force  to  the  demand  for  discussion  of  this 
problem."  The  author  uses  the  sentence 
just  quoted  as  a  reason  for  writing  the  book. 
He  accentuates  that  sentence  by  stating,  on 
page  2,  that  "  whatever  limitations  are  to  be 
assigned  to  the  theory,  we  must  at  least 
grant  that  a  law  of  evolution  has  had  con- 
tinual application  in  the  world's  history"; 
and  he  adds  that  in  the  matter  of  elucidating 
the  phenomena  "the  researches  of  Charles 
Darwin  and  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  have  led 
the  way." 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  how  such  a 
man  as  Prof.  Calderwood  could  have  fallen 
into  the  too  common  error  of  attributing 
priority  to  Darwin  in  connection  with  the 
doctrine  of  evolution.  Herbert  Spencer  pub- 
lished his  essay  on  the  Development  Hy- 
pothesis in  1852;  in  1855  the  Principles  of 
Psychology,  an  application  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  to  mental  phenomena,  followed 
from  the  same  pen;  and,  finally,  in  1857,  or 
two  years  before  the  appearance  of  Darwin's 
VOL.  XLIII. — 51 


Origin  of  Species,  Mr.  Spencer  published 
Progress :  its  Law  and  Causes,  which  was 
devoted  to  the  discussion  of  imiversal  evolu- 
tion. 

Nevertheless,  Prof.  Calderwood's  work  is 
an  ably  argued  treatise  on  the  subject,  and 
oddly  enough,  in  the  chapters  on  Sensory  and 
Rational  Discrimination  and  Rational  Life, 
he  quotes  from  the  earlier  works  of  Mr. 
Spencer  to  substantiate  his  own  attempted 
refutation  of  the  Darwinian  theory.  At  the 
outset  he  asks,  "  How  has  he  (man)  found 
his  place  on  the  summit  of  existence,  and 
what  has  he  done  since  coming  to  his  herit- 
age ?  "  Then  follows  a  chapter  on  the  char- 
acteristics of  human  life,  in  which  the  con- 
trasts between  organic  and  rational  life  are 
treated;  the  author  asserting  that  intelli- 
gence alone  makes  man  the  master  in  Na- 
ture ;  that  in  human  activity  "  dualism  of 
function  is  complete''—!,  e.,  both  rational 
and  organic  life — whereas  "evidence  fails 
when  we  look  for  independent  action  of  in- 
telligence in  animals."  And  he  continues: 
"  We  do  not  find  that  any  of  them  "  (animals) 
"  in  their  natural  state  rise  above  interpre- 
tation of  signs." 

The  chapter  on  Sensory  and  Rational 
Discrimination  presents  forcible  argument 
demonstrative  of  this  duality  of  function 
culminating  in  man's  possession  of  rational 
power,  by  virtue  of  which  "every  member 
of  the  race  goes  forth  on  his  way  as  a  free 
man,  taking  possession  of  his  inheritance  in 
the  earth.  For  every  man  who  does  not  lose 
his  way  in  darkness  or  through  blinding 
passion  ...  a  rich  possession  is  waiting, 
quite  above  supply  of  the  common  require- 
ments of  organic  life.  Science  is  his  serv- 
ant, literature  is  his  property,  philosophy  is 
his  guide  in  higher  thought,  revelation  be- 
comes his  inspiration.  Under  warrant  of 
abundant  evidence,  we  distinguish  two  worlds 
in  Nature — the  world  of  matter  and  the 
world  of  mind ;  a  world  visible  to  the  eye, 
a  world  invisible  to  organism — visible  only 
to  rational  insight.  .  .  .  Thinkers  of  quite 
opposite  schools  are  agreed  that  there  is  no 
possible  science  of  Nature  which  does  not 
distinguish  between  the  material  and  the 
spiritual,  between  that  which  is  known  by 
sense  and  that  which  is  known  in  conscious- 
ness. Nature's  testimony  admits  of  no  doubt 
as  to  the  reality  of  these  separate  spheres." 


706 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


The  chapter  on  Animal  and  Rational  Intelli- 
gence is  a  searching  examination  of  the  dif- 
ference between  the  two  kinds,  or  rather 
three  kinds,  for  a  distinction  is  made  be- 
tween the  intelligence  of  the  higher  and  that 
of  lower  animals.  A  weakness  is  found 
in  the  argument  for  evolution  of  mind ;  for 
to  prove  it  "we  must  open  a  road  from 
sensory  impressions  to  ideas  of  objects,  and 
from  these  to  general  abstract  ideas,  and 
this  must  be  such  a  road  as  the  higher  mam- 
mals could  find  for  themselves  before  man's 
appearance  on  the  earth.  Here  is  the  es- 
sential test  of  an  all-embracing  scheme  of 
evolution;  to  account  for  interpretation  of 
sensory  experience  .  .  .  this  problem  sepa- 
rates us  from  much  that  has  been  already 
assured  in  natural  history,  strongly  favoring 
evolution."  The  argument,  as  to  man,  is  con- 
tinued in  the  chapter  on  Rational  Life,  where 
the  science  of  mind  is  found  to  outstretch 
the  science  of  biology,  and  man's  life  to  be 
superior  to  all  animal  life,  possessing  powers 
which  are  not  shared  by  the  animals ;  having 
possibilities  and  a  destiny  peculiar  to  him- 
self, impossible  to  organic  life,  even  to  the 
organism  which  is  part  of  his  own  being. 
This  conclusion  as  to  the  inability  of  biol- 
ogy to  present  a  science  of  human  life  "  is 
reached  by  all  that  biology  has  to  offer  by 
way  of  explanation."  All  that  has  been 
demonstrated  as  to  the  action  of  the  nerve 
system  and  of  the  brain  is  accepted  and 
turned  to  full  use,  but  it  "  carries  no  ex- 
planation of  the  activities  of  the  rational 
life." 

The  lines  of  investigation  pursued  do  not 
include  any  examination  of  Christianity  as  a 
supernatural  religion,  but  only  as  a  spiritual 
force  contributing  to  the  advance  of  the 
race,  certain  of  the  characteristics  of  which 
"  have  wielded  a  mighty  influence  in  the 
course  of  the  ages." 

Summing  up  his  investigations  of  the  the- 
ories of  Darwin,  Wallace,  and  their  followers, 
the  author  claims  that  the  origin  of  man  is 
completely  severed  from  the  scheme  of  or- 
ganic evolution.  "  Man  has  his  place  in  a 
physical  system  within  which  all  is  subject  to 
decay  and  death ;  he  has  his  place  in  a  spirit- 
ual system,  within  which  is  no  trace  of  death, 
but  promise  of  continuity  beyond  the  present 
state.  Evolution  has  turned  attention  on 
different  phases  of  the  origin  of  existence 


on  the  earth.  It  helps  us  better  to  see  how 
varied  these  origins  have  been."  But  it  is 
insufficient  to  account  for  life  itself.  It 
stands  "  before  us  an  impressive  reality  in 
the  history  of  Nature.  But  this  evolution  is 
only  a  limited  cycle,  within  the  greater  cycle 
of  Being  and  its  history,"  and  all  leads  to 
the  conclusion  that  "  there  is  a  power  oper- 
ating continually  in  Nature,  which  does  not 
come  within  range  of  the  observation  possi- 
ble to  scientific  modes  and  appliances,  yet  to 
which  science  is  ever  indirectly  bearing  wit- 


THE  POLITICAL  VALUE  OF  HISTORY.  By  W. 
E.  H.  LECKY,  LL.  D.,  D.  C.  L.  New 
York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  57.  Price, 
75  cents. 

THIS  is  a  reprint  of  a  lecture  delivered 
before  the  Birmingham  and  Midland  Insti- 
tute, of  which  the  author  is  president.  The 
words  of  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Lecky,  on  the 
value  of  history  as  a  precedent  for  guid- 
ing political  policy  to-day,  can  not  fail  to  be 
of  value.  The  question  is  one  which  has 
by  no  means  always  been  answered  affirma- 
tively, and  one  which  in  recent  times  has 
been  much  argued. 

Mr.  Lecky  first  shows  how  history  arose 
and  what  was  its  original  function,  and  then 
briefly  traces  its  development  as  a  science 
down  to  the  present  century.  That  he  has 
taken  a  judicial  attitude  is  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing passage :  "  Nor  will  any  wise  man 
judge  the  merits  of  existing  institutions 
solely  on  historic  grounds.  Do  not  persuade 
yourself  that  any  institution,  however  great 
may  be  its  antiquity,  however  transcendent 
may  have  been  its  uses  in  a  remote  past,  can 
permanently  justify  its  existence,  unless  it 
can  be  shown  to  exercise  a  really  beneficial 
influence  over  our  own  society  and  our  age. 
It  is  equally  true  that  no  institution  which  is 
exercising  such  a  beneficial  influence  should 
be  condemned  because  it  can  be  shown 
from  history  that  under  other  conditions  and 
hi  other  times  its  influence  was  rather  for 
evil  than  for  good."  He  dwells  on  the  ne- 
cessity for  understanding  the  "  dominant 
idea  or  characteristic  of  the  period  "  which 
the  student  is  investigating;  "what  forces 
chiefly  ruled  it,  what  forces  were  then  rising 
into  a  dangerous  ascendency,  and  what  forces 
were  on  the  decline."  He  speaks  of  the  im- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


707 


portance  of  the  history  of  institutions,  their 
changes  to  meet  new  wants,  and  their  inevi- 
table fall,  although,  perhaps,  by  a  process  of 
slow  decay,  upon  failure  to  adapt  themselves 
to  new  requirements.  He  says  :  "  There  is 
probably  no  better  test  of  the  political 
genius  of  a  nation  than  the  power  which  it 
possesses  of  adapting  old  institutions  to  new 
wants."  Next  he  considers  the  value  of  a 
study  of  the  great  revolutions,  discussing  the 
two  theories  extant  as  to  their  causes-  and 
possible  avoidance.  "My  own  view  of  this 
question,"  he  says,  "is  that  although  there 
are  certain  streams  of  tendency,  though  there 
is  a  certain  steady  and  orderly  evolution 
that  it  is  impossible  in  the  long  run  to  resist, 
yet  individual  action  and  even  mere  accident 
have  borne  a  very  great  part  in  modifying 
the  direction  of  history."  Having  charac- 
terized history  as  one  of  the  best  schools  for 
that  kind  of  reasoning  which  is  most  useful 
in  practical  life,  teaching  men  to  weigh  con- 
flicting probabilities,  to  estimate  degrees  of 
evidence,  to  form  a  sound  judgment  of  the 
value  of  authorities,  Mr.  Lecky  concludes 
by  observing  that  its  most  precious  lessons 
are  moral  ones.  It  expands  the  range  of 
our  vision  and  teaches  us,  hi  judging  the 
true  interests  of  nations,  to  look  beyond  the 
immediate  future.  A  perusal  of  this  little 
book  will  well  repay  the  general  reader  and 
be  especially  valuable  to  those  engaged  in 
the  study  or  teaching  of  history. 

THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  NATURE.  By  NA- 
THANIEL S.  SHALER,  Professor  of  Geology 
in  Harvard  University.  Boston  and  New 
York :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  Pp.  305. 
Price,  $1.25. 

HOWEVER  widely  apart  the  theologian  and 
naturalist  may  be  at  the  present  moment,  the 
time  is  not  far  distant,  according  to  Prof. 
Shaler,  when  they  may  stand  upon  common 
ground.  In  the  next  century  science  may 
even  people  the  unknown  with  powers  justly 
inferred  from  their  manifestations.  There 
will  be  no  longer  a  natural  and  a  supernatural 
realm,  but  one  universe  "  through  which  the 
spirit  of  man  ranges  with  ever-increasing 
freedom." 

We  may  trace  the  evolution  of  scientific 
inquiry  to  the  germ  of  curiosity  evinced  by 
the  lower  animals.  The  early  races  of  men 
attributed  the  control  of  Nature  to  spirits  like 


themselves.  These  were  gradually  endowed 
with  greater  powers  until  the  idea  of  a  hier- 
archy of  gods  was  reached,  and  among  the 
more  intellectual  nations  this  culminated  in 
monotheism.  Theologic  explanations,  how- 
ever, could  not  satisfy  the  interrogative  im- 
pulse possessed  by  the  Aryan  race,  and  espe- 
cially by  the  Greeks.  The  want  of  scientific 
interest  shown  by  the  Romans  is  ascribed  by 
the  author  to  a  different  racial  inheritance, 
and  the  long  period  of  unquestioning  quiet 
is  not  charged  to  the  soporific  influence  of 
Church  authority  so  much  as  to  a  religious 
bent  derived  from  Semitic  ancestors.  With 
the  revival  of  learning  came  the  resurrection 
of  inquiry,  and  to  the  system  of  Aristotle  the 
moderns  added  the  method  of  verification  by 
experiment. 

The  naturalist  is  generally  too  apt  to  look 
upon  the  course  of  Nature  as  invariable,  since 
he  knows  that  any  physical  state  is  the  re- 
sultant of  previous  conditions,  and  that  the 
quantities  of  force  and  matter  are  unalter- 
able. There  are,  however,  phenomena  which 
can  not  be  predicted,  the  outcome  of  revolu- 
tionary changes  that  transcend  experience. 
The  crises  at  which  these  .occur  are  termed 
critical  points,  and  are  typified  by  the  point 
at  which  an  orbit  passes  from  the  parabolic 
to  the  hyperbolic  form.  Similar  results  fol- 
low alterations  in  temperature  and  the  mani- 
festation of  latent  inheritances. 

In  considering  the  march  of  the  genera- 
tions it  is  seen  that  the  psychic  progress  of 
man  is  unparalleled  by  anything  in  the  evo- 
lution of  species.  The  generations  are  also 
bound  together  by  vast  stores  of  experience 
and  knowledge,  which  the  human  race  accu- 
mulates and  transmits  in  various  ways  to  the 
young,  so  that  great  advance  is  made  pos- 
sible. 

Man  owes  his  moral  development  to  the 
exercise  of  altruistic  motives — sympathy  with 
his  kind,  with  animals,  with  God  and  Nature. 
We  can  follow  these  to  lowly  beginnings,  but 
can  not  account  for  their  growth  by  any  the- 
ory of  selection.  The  determinative  influ- 
ences are  hidden,  "  unless  we  assume  a  law 
of  moral  advance." 

As  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  "  it  is 
easier  to  suppose  that  an  individual  mind  can 
be  perpetuated  after  death  in  a  natural  man- 
ner than  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  inher- 
itance." The  naturalist  thus  finds  that,  in 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


order  to  interpret  the  latent  powers  of  a 
molecule,  or  the  transmission  of  organic 
tendencies,  he  must  assume  the  intangible, 
and  endow  matter  with  a  sort  of  soul.  He 
also  derives  from  his  study  of  Nature  motives 
that  are  moral  and  a  confidence  akin  to  faith. 
This  is  close  upon  religious  territory,  and  the 
preacher  may  utilize  it. 

The  substance  of  this  volume  was  first 
presented  in  lecture  form  at  Andover.  It  is 
suggestive,  and  teaches  a  form  of  monism, 
though  scarcely  such  as  Prof.  Haeckel  would 
indorse. 

HORTICULTURE.  Ten  Lectures  delivered  for 
the  Surrey  County  Council.  By  J. 
WRIGHT,  F.  R.  H.  S.  With  Thirty-seven 
Illustrations.  Pp.  154.  New  York : 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Price,  35  cents. 

THIS  "Primer  of  Horticulture"  is  de- 
signed as  an  introduction  to  a  scientific  and 
practical  study  of  gardening  and  fruit-grow- 
ing, either  for  the  small  householder,  who 
enjoys  the  care  of  his  seven-by-nine  piece  of 
ground,  or  for  the  farmer  to  whom  the  best 
and  most  economical  methods  are  matters  of 
"  dollars  and  cents." 

The  first  lecture  is  devoted  to  the  ques- 
tion of  land  allotments,  with  which  we  in  the 
United  States  are  not  concerned.  The  sec- 
ond lecture  is  headed  The  Soil,  its  Nature, 
Preparation,  and  Improvement.  This  chap- 
ter contains  in  clear  and  concise  language 
matter  of  the  first  importance  to  every 
farmer — matter,  in  fact,  without  which  the 
tiller  of  the  soil  is  as  much  handicapped  as 
was  the  compassless  mariner — matter  usually, 
however,  locked  up  in  large,  expensive,  and 
technical  works,  and  therefore  not  at  the 
command  of  the  working  farmer.  Lecture  III 
is  devoted  to  the  raising  of  "  crops,  plants, 
and  trees,"  and  includes,  among  many  other 
important  matters,  a  history  of  the  seed  from 
its  formation  to  the  development  into  a  new 
plant ;  a  description  of  the  various  methods 
of  grafting,  and  the  why  and  wherefore  of 
fertilization.  Lecture  IV  treats  of  the 
Food  of  Crops — Manuring  the  Soil,  and, 
like  Lecture  II,  is  full  of  practical  instruc- 
tion. The  Enemies  of  Crops  and  Trees,  in 
the  shape  of  weeds,  birds,  insects,  fungi, 
etc.,  are  next  considered.  Lecture  VI  deals 
with  the  very  important  part  of  the  farmer's 
work — planting.  In  Lectures  VII  and  VIII 


what  are  the  most  profitable  crops  is  the 
question  answered.  Lecture  IX  considers 
the  Preservation  and  Disposal  of  Garden 
Produce,  including  Flowers  and  Fruit;  and 
Lecture  X  closes  the  book  with  a  talk  on 
the  desirability  of  exhibitions  and  fairs  and 
the  necessity  for  high  ideals  in  garden- 
ing. The  construction  of  the  work  is  admi- 
rable, and  it  might  be  read  with  profit  by 
many  scientific  men  as  a  model  for  popular 
scientific  exposition.  Great  care  has  been 
taken  to  select  the  most  important  aspects 
of  the  topic  discussed,  the  essential  facts 
being  presented  in  clear  and  untechnical 
language,  while  the  subject  is  not  overbur- 
dened with  detail. 

HOW     TO     KNOW    THE    WlLD     FLOWERS.      By 

Mrs.  WILLIAM  STARR  DANA.  New  York : 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  Pp.  298.  Price, 
$1.50. 

THIS  title  will  attract  the  attention  of 
lovers  of  Nature,  especially  if  they  are  able 
to  spend  the  summer  months  in  the  country. 
An  acquaintance  with  natural  history,  even 
if  it  be  slight,  unquestionably  adds  very  much 
to  the  pleasure  of  out-of-door  life,  rendering 
interesting,  localities  which  but  for  their  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  forms  would  be  quite  the 
reverse,  and  making  doubly  pleasurable  a 
sojourn  in  a  region  where  scenic  beauties  are 
also  present.  The  author's  purpose  has  been 
to  give  the  reader  a  "  bowing  acquaintance 
with  the  common  wild  flowers  of  our  woods 
and  fields " ;  but,  while  the  attempt  is  well 
meant,  we  can  not  say  that  it  is  a  success. 
There  are  descriptions  of  most  of  the  com- 
mon wild  flowers  of  the  Middle  States,  with 
the  exception  of  "  flowers  so  common  as  to 
be  generally  recognized,"  "  flowers  so  incon- 
spicuous as  generally  to  escape  notice,"  and 
"  rare  flowers  and  escapes  from  gardens." 
But  the  descriptions,  particularly  of  essential 
parts,  resemble  those  in  Gray's  Manual,  and 
are  too  short  and  technical  for  the  unin- 
structed  observer.  What  remains  is  more  of 
a  literary  than  a  scientific  character,  there 
being  considerable  poetry  and  more  or  less 
sentimental  comment.  The  illustrations,  of 
which  there  are  one  hundred  and  four,  are 
not  at  all  satisfactory  as  an  aid  in  identifica- 
tion, the  purpose  for  which  they  are  intended. 
A  classification  based  on  colors  is  introduced 
which  is  necessarily  of  little  value,  as  the 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


709 


colors  of  flowers  shade  off  so  imperceptibly 
into  one  another,  and  are  at  the  same  time 
so  variegated  and  inconstant,  that  they  are 
likely  to  mislead  even  the  trained  observer. 

The  book  will  do  good,  however,  if  it  in- 
cites to  the  study  of  a  department  of  Nature 
which  more  than  any  other  is  calculated  to 
stimulate  the  powers  of  observation. 

THE  SILVER  SITUATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
By  F.  W.  TAUSSIG,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of 
Political  Economy  in  Harvard  University. 
New  York  and  London :  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons,  1893.  Pp.  133.  Price,  75  cents. 

THIS  work  is  divided  into  two  parts.  The 
first  discusses  the  history  of  the  "  silver  legis- 
lation "  and  the  economic  conditions  which 
have  been  brought  about  by  the  adoption  of 
a  silver  currency  in  1878.  The  second  por- 
tion of  the  book  considers  the  arguments  in 
favor  of  a  silver  standard.  In  the  chapters 
under  the  general  title,  The  Economic  Sit- 
uation, Prof.  Taussig  closely  analyzes  the 
movements  of  gold  and  silver  during  the 
last  fourteen  years.  He  does  not  believe 
that  the  gold  reserve  of  $100,000,000,  fixed 
as  the  minimum  by  Congress,  can  very  meas- 
urably be  increased,  and  he  attributes  the 
decrease  in  the  amount  of  gold  held  by  the 
Treasury— from  $190,000,000  in  1890  to 
$108,000,000  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
year — to  the  fact  that  "  the  great  sums  due 
the  United  States  by  foreign  countries  "  are 
not  paid  for  by  the  return  of  gold,  but  by 
"the  transmission  of  American  securities 
held  by  foreign  investors  and  sent  by  them 
for  sale  in  the  United  States."  He  claims 
that  the  Treasury  estimate  of  the  stock  of 
gold  in  the  United  States  is  many  millions 
of  dollars  "  in  excess  of  the  actual  stock." 
Having  summarized  the  arguments  in  favor 
of  silver,  quoting  the  very  words  of  those 
who  present  them,  "  as  compared  with  com- 
modities silver  has  been  more  steady  in 
value  than  gold,"  and  that,  "so  far  as  the 
attainment  of  the  closest  possible  approach 
to  the  ideal  justice  is  concerned,  a  silver 
standard  would  have  served  the  purpose  bet- 
ter than  a  gold  one  " — the  author  offers  as 
a  simple  answer  to  them  the  facts  he  has 
recited  in  his  preceding  pages,  and  says  that 
the  silver  men  "have  not  made  out  their 
case  against  the  existing  order  of  things. 
There  are  no  serious  evils  due  to  an  insuffi- 


cient supply  of  money."  These  and  other 
negative  reasons  apply  to  the  arguments  of 
those  who  favor  international  bimetallism 
and  of  those  who  favor  the  independent  use 
of  silver  by  the  United  States.  When  we 
consider  the  importance  not  only  of  stability 
in  the  medium  of  exchange,  but  of  general 
confidence  in  that  stability,  these  and  other 
negative  names  which  are  mentioned  ought 
to  suffice  for  rejecting  the  proposals  of  the 
silver  advocates.  But  there  are  positive 
reasons  in  addition.  The  eventual  effect  of 
a  silver  standard  must  be  to  cause  a  rise  in 
prices — not  immediate,  but  certain.  This, 
while  the  present  tendency  to  falling  in 
prices,  with  stationary  or  rising  incomes, 
work  no  hardships  to  debtors,  would  be 
fraught  with  real  and  serious  inconveniences 
to  creditors.  Other  positive  reasons  lie  in 
the  conditions  of  the  production  and  use  of 
silver  at  the  present  time,  which  are  in- 
creasing with  extraordinary  rapidity.  An- 
other objection  to  a  change  to  a  silver  stand- 
ard is  the  immorality  of  the  disposition  to 
tamper  with  the  currency  as  a  remedy  for 
real  or  fancied  evils.  Gold,  on  the  other 
hand,  performs  the  functions  of  a  measure 
of  value  and  a  standard  of  value  with  as 
close  an  approach  to  perfection  as  there  is 
any  reasonable  ground  for  expecting  from 
any  monetary  system.  For  these  reasons 
the  schemes  proposed  for  a  tabular  or  mul- 
tiple standard  of  value  do  not  seem  called 
for  by  any  serious  exigency  not  met  by  the 
gold  standard.  The  book  contains  some 
useful  comparative  statistics  and  a  compre- 
hensive chart  of  fluctuations  in  gold  and 
silver. 


TELEPHONE  LINES  AND  THEIR  PROPERTIES.  By 
Prof.  W.  J.  HOPKINS.  New  York  :  Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.,  1893.  Pp.  258. 
Price,  $1.50. 

THIS  is  a  work  which  has  for  its  object  a 
more  complete  account  than  has  yet  been 
given  of  the  telephone  line,  not  only  its  me- 
chanical construction,  but  its  electrical  prop- 
erties, and  the  way  telephonic  transmission 
is  affected  by  telegraphic  and  other  electric 
currents.  The  range  of  subjects  comprise  a 
brief  account  of  overhead  construction  in 
city  lines,  and  a  somewhat  full  one  of  under- 
ground work,  in  which  the  relative  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages  of  various  kinds  of 


7io 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


conduits  are  considered.  Long-distance  lines, 
the  various  kinds  of  wire  suitable  for  tele- 
phone use,  insulators,  and  the  exchange  sys- 
tem are  among  the  subjects  treated  of  in  the 
part  of  the  book  devoted  to  the  mechanical 
construction  of  telephone  lines.  A  chapter 
upon  the  propagation  of  energy,  in  which  a 
brief  account  is  given  of  the  modern  view  of 
electric  currents,  precedes  the  consideration 
of  the  electrical  properties  of  the  telephone 
line.  Among  the  subjects  discussed  in  this 
portion  of  the  work  are  self-induction,  inter- 
ference from  outside  sources — such  as  air 
and  earth  currents — telegraphic  induction 
and  induction  from  electric  lighting  and  rail- 
way circuits,  properties  of  metallic  circuits 
and  of  cables.  The  work  is  written  for  the 
practical  telephone  constructor  and  for  stu- 
dents, and  will  doubtless  prove  a  valuable 
work  of  reference. 

HOW  TO  MANAGE  THE  DYNAMO.   By  S.  R. 

BOTTONE.  New  York  and  London :  Hac- 
millan  &  Co.,  1893.  Pp.  63.  Price,  60 
cents. 

THIS  little  manual  is  addressed  to  those 
who  have  the  care  of  dynamos,  and  is  clearly 
and  directly  written  and  free  from  all  techni- 
calities. Instructions  are  given  as  to  proper- 
ly setting  the  machine  so  as  to  avoid  vibra- 
tion, and  the  different  parts — the  field  mag- 
nets, armature,  and  commutator — are  briefly 
described,  and  instruction  given  for  their 
proper  care.  Simple  methods  of  determin- 
ing and  locating  leaks  are  also  given.  The 
book  closes  with  a  list  of  the  chief  electrical 
terms,  and  is  provided  with  an  index. 

THE  TRANSMITTED  WORD.  By  W.  J.  KEENAN 
and  JAMES  RILEY.  Boston:  Dorchester 
Printing  Co.,  1893i  Pp.  113.  Price,  75 
cents. 

THE  authors  of  this  essay  state  its  pur- 
pose in  the  preface  as  follows : 

"  To  know  somewhat  of  the  application  of 
this  great  force,  which  man  has  discovered 
and  called  electricity,  these  pages  are  writ- 
ten. They  are  free  of  all  technical  terms. 
Simplicity  has  been  the  constant  aim.  The 
student's  text-book  on  electricity  has  been 
written.  The  public's  book  has  not  been 
written.  And,  as  we  are  taught  to  know 
ourselves,  so  should  we  know  the  forces  that 
surround  us.  Especially  so  if  we  use  these 
forces.  Every  subscriber  of  the  telephone 


should  know  the  rudiments  of  its  action- 
This  is  why  this  book  is  put  forward.  It  is 
intended  as  a  primer  in  telephonic  and  other 
kindred  instruction.  .  .  ." 

This  purpose  of  the  authors  is  laudable 
enough,  and,  if  it  had  been  adhered  to,  they 
might  possibly  have  produced  a  useful  book. 
Their  real  aim  seems,  however,  to  have  been 
to  give  an  exhibition  of  what  they  probably 
regard  as  fine  writing,  using  the  telephone  as 
an  excuse  for  their  literary  effort.  The  book 
is  written  throughout  in  the  most  approved 
style  of  sophomoric  composition,  and  con- 
tains very  little  real  information  about  the 
telephone.  The  reader  who  had  no  previous 
knowledge  of  the  subject  would  have  a  hard 
time  indeed  in  trying  to  get  any  clear  ideas 
of  the  Blake  transmitter  or  induction  from 
the  description  of  the  authors.  The  book 
has,  however,  one  great  merit.  It  is  short. 

MAN  AND  THE  STATE.  Lectures  and  Discus- 
sions before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Associa- 
tion. New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
1892.  Pp.  558.  Price,  $2. 

THIS  volume  of  lectures  and  addresses 
before  the  Brooklyn  Ethical  Society  is  de- 
voted especially  to  subjects  of  current  polit- 
ical discussion,  such  as  the  tariff,  the  mone- 
tary question,  the  negro  problem,  the  gov- 
ernment of  cities,  and  kindred  subjects.  To 
those  who  are  familiar  with  the  discussions 
before  the  society,  or  who  have  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  character  of  the  work 
from  its  previous  publications,  no  word  of 
commendation  of  the  quality  of  these  papers 
is  necessary.  The  addresses  are  thoughtful 
and  serious  discussions  of  current  political 
and  economic  questions,  and  can  not  fail  to 
be  welcomed  by  all  who  take  an  intelligent 
interest  in  public  affairs.  It  would  be  im- 
practicable to  attempt  to  give  here  either  a 
resumb  or  criticism  of  the  dozen  and  a  half 
addresses  which  compose  the  volume,  though 
some  features  of  interest  may  be  briefly  in- 
dicated. The  volume  was  published  last 
year,  previous  to  the  presidential  election, 
and  the  addresses  were  selected  chiefly  with 
reference  to  the  questions  before  the  coun- 
try during  the  campaign.  We  have  there- 
fore a  discussion  of  the  tariff  from  the  side 
of  both  protection  and  free  trade,  a  plea 
for  sound  money,  and  a  defense  of  each 
of  the  great  political  parties.  The  free- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


711 


trade  side  of  the  tariff  question  is  presented 
by  Mr.  Thomas  G.  Shearman,  and  calls  for 
no  special  comment,  as  he  presents  only  the 
well-known  considerations  in  favor  of  indus- 
trial freedom.  His  opponent,  Prof.  Gunton, 
however,  attempts  to  defend  protection  on 
philosophic  grounds  and  erect  it  into  a  per- 
manent system  instead  of  leaving  it  in  the 
position  of  a  temporary  expedient,  applicable 
only  to  the  infancy  of  industries.  He  re- 
gards protection  a  means  of  maintaining  the 
wage  level  of  a  country,  by  forcing  a  com- 
peting country  to  pay  in  duties  an  amount 
which  will  put  it  on  the  same  basis  as  the 
country  of  higher  wages.  The  tariff  can  in 
justice  therefore  be  only  sufficient  to  cover  the 
difference  in  wages  of  the  competing  coun- 
tries— a  condition,  it  need  hardly  be  said, 
that  would  not  suit  our  tariff  beneficiaries 
at  all.  Dr.  Lewis  G.  Janes  contributes  a 
thoughtful  paper  upon  the  problem  of  city 
government,  which  is  concerned  mainly  with 
pointing  out  the  difficulties  of  the  problem 
rather  than  with  suggestions  as  to  the  solu- 
tion. He  insists,  however,  that  the  proper 
form  of  city  government  must  be  a  matter  of 
growth,  shaped  and  determined  by  our  po- 
litical life,  and  that  the  example  of  foreign 
cities  can  be  of  but  little  use  in  helping  us 
to  solve  the  problem  of  American  city  gov- 
ernment. Other  essays  of  interest  are  Mr. 
John  A.  Taylor's  defense  of  the  independent 
in  politics,  Prof.  Le  Conte's  discussion  of  the 
race  problem  hi  the  South,  the  monetary 
problem  by  William  Potts,  and  representa- 
tive government  by  Edwin  D.  Mead. 

PUBLICATIONS  RECEIVED. 

Aber,  Mary  Ailing.  Souls.  Chicago  :  The  au- 
thor, 144  Monroe  Street.  Pp.  176.  For  distribu- 
tion. 

Alamo  City  Philatelic  Society,  San  Antonio, 
Texas.  Annual  Report.  Pp.  54. 

Allen,  Harrison,  M.  D.  North  American  Bats. 
United  States  National  Museum.  Pp.  31 . 

Allen,  John  A.  Check  List  of  the  Plants  in 
Gray's  Manual.  Cambridge,  Mass.  :  Herbarium 
of  Harvard  University.  Pp.  130. 

American  Chemical  Society  Journal,  Vol.  XV, 
No.  2.  Pp.  60. 

American  Philosophical  Society.  Proceedings, 
April,  May,  June,  1893.  Pp.  96. 

Avalon  Summer  Assembly,  Avalon,  N.  J.  AT- 
rtngement  of  Courses,  Session  of  1893. 

Baker,  Mr.  Edward.  Handbook  of  Publica- 
tions, etc.,  connected  with  the  Development  of  the 
Railway  System.  Birmingham,  England.  Pp.  128. 

Baker,  M.  N.  Sewage  Purification  in  Amer- 
ica. New  York :  Engineering  News  Publishing 
Co.  Pp.  196,  with  Platee. 


Blatchley,  W.  S.  On  a  Collection  of  Batra- 
chians  and  Reptiles  from  Mount  Orizaba,  Mexico. 
United  States  National  Museum.  Pp.  6. 

Blyth.  J.  Walter.  Lectures  on  Sanitary  Law. 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  287.  $2.50. 

Boehmer,  George  H.  Prehistoric  Naval  Archi- 
tecture of  the  North  of  Europe.  United  States 
Naval  Museum.  Pp.  120. 

Brigham,  Albert  P.,  Hamilton,  N.  Y.  The  Fin- 
ger Lakes  of  New  York.  Pp.  21. 

Conklin,  Henry.  Practical  Lessons  in  Lan- 
guage. American  Book  Co.  Pp.  139.  85  cents. 

Colgate  University.  Department  of  Geology 
and  Natural  History.  Circular  of  Information. 
Pp.  12. 

Cook,  A.  J.  Birds  of  Michigan.  Michigan 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  Pp.  148. 

Cragin,  F.  W.  A  Contribution  to  the  Inverte- 
brate Paleontology  of  the  Texas  Cretaceous.  Aus- 
tin. Pp.  112,  with  Twenty -two  Plates. 

Cyclopaedic  Review  of  Current  History.  Quar- 
terly. Buffalo,  N.  Y.  :  Garretson,  Cox  &  Co.  Pp. 
214.  40  cents;  $1.50  a  year. 

The  Drexel  Institute,  Philadelphia.  Descrip- 
tions, with  Photographs. 

La  Educaci6n  Moderna  (Modern  Education). 
Semimonthly.  Colima,  Mexico.  Pp.  16. 

Edwords,  Clarence  E.  Camp-fires  of  a  Natu- 
ralist. D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Pp.  304.  $1.50. 

Eigenmann,  Carl  H.  .  Catalogue  of  the  Fresh- 
water Fishes  of  Central  America  and  Southwest- 
ern Mexico.  United  States  National  Museum. 
Pp.8. 

Eiloart,  Arnold.  A  Guide  to  Stereochemistry. 
Announcement.  New  York  :  Alexander  Wilson, 
26  Delancey  Street. 

Electrical  Engineering.  Monthly.  Chicago. 
Pp.  90.  25  cents.  $5  a  year. 

Excise  Reform  Association.  Annual  Report. 
1893.  Thomas  A.  Fulton,  Secretary,  90  Walker 
Street,  New  York.  Pp.  18. 

Fewkes,  J.  Walter.  A  Central  American  Cere- 
mony. Washington,  D.  C.  Pp.  20,  with  Plates. 

Forest  Influences.  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture,  Forestry  Division.  Pp.  197. 

Foster,  Michael,  and  others.  The  Journal  of 
Physiology.  Vol.  XIV.  Nos.  4,  5,  and  6.  Pp. 
110  and  150.  with  Plates. 

General  Electric  Company,  New  York.  Pic- 
torial Folder. 

Gibson,  A.  M.,  Assistant  Geologist.  Report 
on  the  Geological  Structure  of  Murphree's  Valley, 
Alabama,  etc.  Geological  Survey  of  Alabama. 
Pp.  132. 

Greene,  Nanci  Lewis.  Nance.  New  York  and 
Chicago  :  F.  Tennyson  Neely.  Pp.  257. 

Howard,  W.  L.,  M.  D.,  Baltimore.  Hypnotism 
as  a  Therapeutic  Agent.  Pp.  36. 

How  should  the  English  Language  be  Taught  ? 
Boston  :  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.  Pp.  102. 

The  Humanitarian.  Monthly.  London:  Swan. 
Sonnenschein  &  Co.  Pp.  80.  10  cents. 

Hutchinson,  G.  W.  C.  Some  Hints  on  Learn- 
ing to  Draw.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  199.  $2.25. 

Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  F.  R.  S.  The  Romanes 
Lecture  on  Evolution  and  Ethics.  Macmillan  & 
Co.  Pp.  57.  60  cents. 

Illinois  Wesleyan  University.  First  Annual 
Report  of  the  Museum.  Pp.  19. 

Jackson,  S.  Commercial  Arithmetic.  Mac- 
millan &  Co.  Pp.371.  $1.10. 

Keen,  W.  W.  The  Real  Rewards  of  Medicine. 
Pp.  4. — Laparotomy  for  Intestinal  Paralysis,  etc. 
Pp.  4.— A  Remarkable  Ovarian  Tumor.  Pp.  3. 

Kennedy,  W.  Geological  Survey  of  Texas. 
Report  on  Grimes,  Brazos,  and  Robertson  Coun- 
ties. Pp.  84,  with  Charts. 

Logan,  Walter  S.,  New  York.  The  Siege  of 
Cuatla,  the  Bunker  Hill  of  Mexico.  Pp.  27. 


712 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Lowell,  James  Russell.  Conversations  on  some 
of  the  Old  Poets.  Philadelphia:  David  McKay. 
Pp.  294. 

Mcllvaine,  Charles.  The  Deadly  and  Minor 
Poisons  of  Toadstools.  Detroit,  Mich.:  George 
S.  Davis.  Pp.  14. 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Bos- 
ton. Department  of  Naval  Architecture.  Pp.  15. 

Merton,  H.  W.  Descriptive  Mentality.  Pp. 
100. 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  Schools.  Pro- 
spectus, 1893-'94.  Pp.  17. 

Migula,  Dr.  W.  Introduction  to  Practical 
Bacteriology.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  247.  $1.60. 

Montadon,  A.  L.  Notes  on  American  Hemip- 
tera  Heteroptera.  United  States  National  Mu- 
seum. Pp.  8. 

Murphy,  J.  J.  Natural  Selection  and  Spiritual 
Freedom.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  241.  $1.75. 

The  Niagara  Book.  Illustrated.  Announce- 
ment. Buffalo  :  Underbill  &  Nichols. 

Nisbet,  John.  British  Forest  Trees.  Mac- 
inillan&Co.  Pp.352.  $2.50. 

Osann,  A.,  and  Streeruwitz,  W.  Reports  on 
Transpecos,  Texas.  Geological  Survey  of  Texas. 
Austin.  Pp.  56,  with  Plates. 

Owen,  "Francis  Browning."  Columbian  and 
other  Poems.  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.  :  The  Register 
Publishing  Co.  Pp.  141. 

Parker,  T.  Jeffery.  William  Kitchen  Parker. 
A  Biographical  Sketch.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp. 
145.  $1.50. 

Picturesque  Chicago  and  Guide  to  the  World's 
Fair.  Hartford,  Conn. :  The  Religious  Herald. 
Pp.  318,  with  Map. 

Purdue  University,  Lafayette,  Ind.  Annual 
Register,  etc.,  1892-'93.  Pp.  120. 

Rathbun,  Mary  J.  Two  Monographs  on  Crabs. 
United  States  National  Museum,  Washington. 
Pp.  40  and  36,  with  Plates. 

Ridgway,  Robert.  United  States  National  Mu- 
seum. Two  Supposed  New  Species  of  Swifts. 
Pp.  2.— Supposed  New  Species  of  Odontophorus 
from  Southern  Mexico.  Pp.  2. 

Rockwell,  J.  E.  Shorthand  Instruction  and 
Practice.  United  States  Bureau  of  Education. 
Pp.  205,  with  Plates. 


Pp.  16. 

Scientific  Alliance  of  New  York.  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Second  Joint  Meeting,  March  27,  1893. 
Pp.  37. 

Scollick,  J.  W.  United  States  National  Mu- 
seum. On  the  Making  of  Gelatin  Casts.  P.  1. 

Shipley,  Arthur  E.  ZoClogy  of  the  Inverte- 
brata.  London:  Adam  and  Charles  Black.  Pp. 
458.  $6.25. 

Shufeldt,  Dr.  R.  W.  Nesting  Habits  of  Galeo- 
scoptes  Caroliniensis  (the  Catbird).  Pp.  2.— Notes 
on  the  Trunk  Skeleton  of  a  Hybrid  Grouse.  Pp.  5. 

Singeley,  J.  A.,  and  Harris,  G.  D.  Preliminary 
Notes  on  the  Artesian  Wells  of  the  Gulf  Coastal 
Slope,  etc.  Geological  Survey  of  Texas,  Austin. 
Pp.32. 

Slater  Fund,  John  F.  Proceedings  of  the 
Trustees,  1893.  Pp.  44. 

Smith,  Eugene  A.  The  Clays  of  Alabama. 
Pp.  10. 

State  Reservation  at  Niagara.  Ninth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Commissioners,  1891-'92.  Pp.  87, 
with  Map  and  Plates. 

Stejneger,  Leonhard.  United  States  National 
Museum.  Diagnosis  of  a  New  Californian  Lizard. 
Pp.1. 

Suppression  of  Vice,  New  York  Society  for 
the.  Nineteenth  Annual  Report,  1893.  Pp.  24. 


Technical  Society  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  San 
Francisco.  Transactions,  May  5,  1893.  Pp.  82. 

United  States  National  Museum.  Report  for 
1891.  Pp.  869. 

Whitman,  C.  O.,  and  Allis,  E.  P.,  Editors- 
Journal  of  Morphology,  May,  1893.  Pp.  148. 

Winslow,  Arthur,  State  Geologist.  The  Geol- 
ogy and  Mineral  Products  of  Missouri.  Pp.  20. 

Yale  University  Observatory.  Report  for 
1892-'93. 

Youth's  Companion.  World's  Fair  Number. 
Pp.  36.  Illustrated.  Price,  10  cents. 

Zoological  Society  of  Philadelphia.  Twenty- 
first  Annual  Report,  March  21,  1893.  Pp.  18. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

Explosion  of  Kitchen  Boilers.— The  most 
common  cause  of  the  explosion  of  kitchen- 
range  boilers  is  frost.  If  the  pipes  are  frozen 
so  that  the  steam  raised  by  the  fire  can  not  es- 
cape, the  danger  of  an  explosion  is  very  great. 
This  should  be  prevented,  where  there  is  a  lia- 
bility of  the  pipes  being  frozen,  by  protecting 
the  pipes  and  apparatus  generally  from  the 
effects  of  frost.  Protection  may  be  given 
by  covering  the  pipes  with  hair  felt.  Some 
boilers  are  in  danger  of  explosion  from  the 
failure  of  water  supply ;  but  in  the  modern 
system  of  cylinder  the  hot-water  tank  is  not 
entirely  emptied,  and  a  sufficient  supply  of 
water  is  usually  left  to  carry  the  fire  several 
hours.  Boilers  in  districts  where  the  water 
is  "  hard  "  may  fail  in  consequence  of  the 
accumulation  of  an  incrusted  deposit  within 
them  and  the  pipes,  whereby  the  pipes  may 
be  in  time  stopped  up.  The  pipes,  however, 
usually  give  warning  of  this  danger  long  de- 
fore  it  becomes  imminent,  in  the  shape  of  vio- 
lent noises  and  vibrations  proceeding  from 
the  apparatus,  which  become  unendurable 
and  have  to  be  removed  before  the  explosion 
takes  place.  Finally,  a  safety-valve  is  a  sov- 
ereign preventive  of  explosions  from  what- 
ever cause. 

The  Australasian  Association. — The  next 
meeting  of  the  Australasian  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science  will  be  held  in 
Adelaide,  South  Australia,  beginning  Sep- 
tember 25th.  The  meeting  will  be  presided 
over  by  Prof.  Ralph  Tate,  of  the  University 
of  Adelaide.  The  presidents  of  sections  will 
be :  Astronomy,  Mathematics,  and  Physics — 
H.  C.  Russell,  Government  Astronomer  of 
New  South  Wales ;  Chemistry — C.  N.  Hake, 
of  Victoria;  Geology  and  Mineralogy — Sir 
James  Hector,  Director  of  the  Geological 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


713 


Survey  of  New  Zealand  ;  Biology — C.  W.  De 
Vis,  of  Brisbane;  Geography — A.  C.  Mac- 
Donald,  of  Victoria ;  Ethnology  and  Anthro- 
pology— Rev.  S.  Ella,  of  New  South  Wales ; 
Economic  Science  and  Agriculture — H.  C.  L. 
Anderson,  of  New  South  Wales;  Engineer- 
ing and  Architecture — J.  R.  Scott,  of  Canter- 
bury, New  Zealand ;  Sanitary  Science  and 
Hygiene — A.  Mault,  of  Tasmania ;  Mental 
Science  and  Education — Henry  Laurie,  of 
the  University  of  Melbourne.  The  associa- 
tion has  been  in  existence  since  1888.  The 
four  previous  meetings  have  been  held  at 
Sydney,  Melbourne,  Christchurch,  and  Ho- 
bart.  The  association  has  grown  steadily 
since  its  beginning  and  now  numbers  about 
nine  hundred  members.  The  season  of  the 
meeting — when  spring  is  passing  into  sum- 
mer— is  recommended  as  being  one  of  the 
most  favorable  to  visit  South  Australia,  and 
particularly  attractive  to  naturalists. 

Derelicts  on  the  Ocean. — We  gave  sev- 
eral months  ago  an  account  Of  the  wander- 
ings of  the  derelict  schooner  W.  L.  White, 
which,  after  having  been  abandoned  not  far 
from  New  York  in  the  great  blizzard  of 
March,  1888,  went  ashore  ten  months  after- 
ward near  the  Hebrides,  after  having  drifted 
five  thousand  miles  back  and  forth  on  the 
Atlantic  Ocean.  The  history  of  several  other 
vessels  pursuing  a  similar  career  may  be 
found  in  the  bulletins  of  our  Hydrographic 
Office.  The  schooner  Twenty-one  Friends, 
abandoned  in  March,  1885,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  from  Chesapeake  Bay,  drifted 
two  thousand  miles  in  four  months,  and  was 
seen  near  Cape  Finisterre  at  the  end  of  eight 
months.  The  Ethel  M.  Davis  drifted  four 
thousand  four  hundred  miles  in  three  hun- 
dred and  seventy  days,  and  the  David  W. 
Hunt  four  thousand  eight  hundred  miles  in 
three  hundred  and  forty-seven  days,  during 
which  she  was  seen  by  forty-one  passing 
ships.  According  to  the  United  States 
Wreck  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic,  there 
were  forty-five  derelict  vessels  in  that  ocean, 
and  more  than  half  of  them  were  in  the  route 
of  the  transatlantic  line  steamers.  These 
waifs  are  very  dangerous,  for  their  positions 
and  courses  are  unknown,  they  are  under  no 
control,  and  may  appear  at  any  unexpected 
moment,  at  night  or  in  a  fog,  or  in  storms, 
to  crash  into  and  sink  whatever  vessels  they 


may  meet.  Possibly  some  of  the  steamers 
that  have  been  lost  and  left  no  record  have 
gone  down  after  meeting  with  them. 

Indo-f  liina. — The  whole  region  of  Indo- 
China,  as  the  Hon.  G.  N.  Curzon,  M.  P., 
pointed  out  in  a  lecture  before  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  is  dominated  by  its 
great  rivers,  and  may  be  divided  into  the 
mountain  districts  of  the  north,  cleft  by  vast 
gorges;  and  the  low  plains  of  the  south, 
mainly  composed  of  alluvial  deposits,  where 
the  coast  lands  are  steadily  encroaching  on 
the  sea.  In  the  seventh  century,  Tongking, 
now  sixty  miles  inland,  was  on  the  coast.  A 
very  remarkable  feature,  which  gives  parts 
of  the  coast  a  beauty  comparable  with  that 
of  the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan,  is  a  broken  belt 
of  limestone  cut  into  curious,  flat-topped  sec- 
tions of  all  sizes,  and  perforated  by  the  sea 
or  rivers  with  many  fantastic  caves  and  tun- 
nels. The  masses  of  caverned  rock  rise  to  a 
height  of  from  fifty  to  five  hundred  feet,  and 
are  best  seen  in  the  Bay  of  Along  in  Tong- 
king. In  Annam  Mr.  Curzon  traveled  to  Hue 
by  the  "  Mandarin's  Road,"  a  track  which  is 
carried  over  several  cols  by  some  skillful 
engineering  in  the  form  of  rock  staircases. 
Hue  is  a  city  of  great  interest,  is  beautifully 
situated,  and  is  near  a  number  of  magnifi- 
cent ancient  tombs. 

Mongol  Waterworks. — The  city  of  Au- 
rungabad,  India,  is  supplied  with  water  by  a 
system  constructed  three  hundred  years  ago 
by  Malik  Umber,  the  Viceroy  of  Shah  Jehan. 
Though  the  water  came  regularly,  no  one  in 
recent  times  had  determined  the  source  of 
the  supply.  All  that  was  known  was  that 
the  water  came  from  the  stone  image  of  a 
bull  situated  seventy  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  town,  while  further  search  was  defeated 
by  the  superstition  of  the  natives.  The  mat- 
ter has  been  recently  investigated  by  Mr. 
Beveridge,  an  engineer  in  the  service  of  the 
Nizam,  who  found  that  the  Gya  Mookh,  as  it 
was  called,  was  supplied  by  a  pipe  and  a  cov- 
ered channel.  This  channel  was  traced  up 
for  a  considerable  distance,  but  the  work 
was  suspended  on  account  of  unhealthy  ema- 
nations and  the  difficulties  interposed  by 
superstition.  It  was  resumed  by  another 
engineer,  Mr.  Massett,  who  found  that  the 
channel  crossed  the  Ursool  River  by  a  si- 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


phon  made  of  cut  stone  pipes,  and  ended  a 
short  distance  thence  in  a  large  infiltration 
gallery,  the  roof  of  which  is  arched  over  with 
brick,  supported  by  the  natural  sides  of  the 
excavation  formed  of  trap  rock.  This  gal- 
lery, which  is  9,460  feet  long,  is  twelve  feet 
below  the  bed  of  the  river,  and  evidently  ob- 
tains its  supply  from  subterranean  stores  from 
the  subsoil  rock  on  its  way  to  its  natural 
outlet,  the  river.  The  position  of  the  gal- 
lery has  been  chosen  with  great  astuteness, 
which  shows  that  the  engineer  of  Malik  Um- 
ber knew  exactly  what  he  was  about.  Be- 
hind it  stretch  hills  surrounded  by  table 
land,  having  an  area  of  twenty  miles,  with  a 
configuration  that  would  argue  that  the  col- 
lecting area  of  the  gallery  must  be  at  least 
twelve  square  miles.  The  hills  contract  in 
the  direction  of  the  river,  till  a  semicircular 
valley  is  formed  bounded  by  the  river  TJr- 
sool.  The  gallery  has  been  so  placed  be- 
tween the  river  and  the  hills  as  to  form  the 
chord  to  the  arc.  The  works  are  now  dilapi- 
dated, and  do  not  furnish  one  third  of  the 
supply  of  water  for  which  they  are  calcu- 
lated. 

Hygienic  Value  of  the  Bicycle.— The  bi- 
cycle is  highly  commended  as  a  hygienic  in- 
strument in  a  paper  by  Dr.  Seneca  Egbert  on 
that  vehicle  "  in  its  relation  to  the  physician  " 
— the  relation,  according  to  the  author,  being 
apparently  one  of  keeping  the  doctor  away. 
"  In  the  first  place,"  he  says,  "  as  an  exercise 
cycling  is  superior  to  most  if  not  all  others 
at  our  command.  It  takes  one  into  the  out- 
door air ;  is  entirely  under  control ;  can  be 
made  as  gentle  or  as  vigorous  as  one  desires  ; 
is  active  and  not  passive ;  takes  the  rider  out 
of  himself  and  the  thoughts  and  cares  of  his 
daily  work ;  develops  his  will,  his  attention, 
courage,  and  independence ;  and  makes  pleas- 
ant what  is  otherwise  most  irksome.  More- 
over, the  exercise  is  well  and  equally  distrib- 
uted over  almost  the  whole  body,  and,  as 
Parkes  says,  when  all  the  muscles  are  exer- 
cised no  muscle  is  likely  to  be  overexercised. 
This  general  muscular  exercise  also  has  its 
direct  effect  upon  the  other  and  vital  organs 
of  the  body,  the  heart,  lungs,  and  digestive 
organs  especially ;  and  the  improvement  in 
general  health  and  digestion,  after  a  few 
weeks'  riding,  is  by  no  means  illusory  or  fleet- 
ing. We  all  know  that  the  trouble  with 


many  of  our  patients  is  purely  functional, 
and  that  their  maladies  have  been  brought 
on  by  lack  of  pure  air,  too  little  exercise, 
and  too  much  mental  worry  over  their  work 
or  business.  For  these  the  bicycle  furnishes 
an  agreeable  remedy."  It  is  thus  recom- 
mended specifically  for  venous  or  anaemic 
dyspepsia,  torpor  of  the  liver  and  intestines ; 
for  tuberculous  diathesis,  incipient  consump- 
tion, nervous  troubles,  rheumatic  disorders ; 
and  "  is  destined  to  be  of  great  benefit  to 
women.  It  gets  them  out  of  doors,  gives 
them  a  form  of  exercise  adapted  to  their 
needs,  neither  too  violent  not  too  passive,  one 
very  pleasant  withal  that  they  may  enjoy  in 
company  with  others  or  alone,  and  one  that 
goes  to  the  root  of  their  nervous  troubles." 
A  correct  position  in  bicycling  is  important ; 
it  is  the  upright  one,  and  not  "  a  posture  re- 
sembling a  half-opened  jackknife,"  which 
cramps  the  chest  and  interferes  with  the  flow 
of  blood.  Excess  either  in  quantity  or  in- 
tensity of  bicycle  work  must  be  avoided. 

"  Crocodile  Tears."— The  figure  "  croco- 
dile tears  "  rests,  it  appears  upon  a  real  fact, 
although  the  tears  appertain  more  particu- 
larly to  the  snake.  According  to  the  expla- 
nation of  the  matter  offered  by  Mr.  R.  H. 
Burne,  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  the 
eye  of  the  snake  is  protected  from  dust,  etc., 
by  the  eyelids,  which  are  transparent  and 
joined  to  each  other  so  as  to  form  a  layer  of 
skin  between  the  eye  and  the  outer  lid ;  in 
other  words,  the  snake  always  goes  about 
with  its  eyelids  shut.  Thus  the  real  occupa- 
tion of  the  tears  is  gone,  there  being  no  dust 
on  the  surface  of  the  eye  to  be  washed  off. 
Instead,  however,  of  the  tear-gland  being  re- 
duced in  size,  it  is  exceptionally  large;  in 
some  snakes,  indeed,  in  which  the  eyes  are 
reduced  and  practically  functionless,  the 
gland  is  some  two  or  three  times  larger  than 
the  whole  eye.  This  peculiar  state  of  affairs 
was  explained  by  the  discovery  that  the  gland 
had  lost  its  connection  with  the  eye,  and 
opened  through  the  mediation  of  the  tear- 
canal  directly  into  the  mouth,  thus  doubt- 
less, by  means  of  its  secretion,  making  the 
descent  of  Averuus  smooth  and  easy  to  any 
unfortunate  creature  that  this  snake  may 
have  taken  a  fancy  to.  This  is  possibly  not 
quite  what  was  meant  by  the  fable  of  the 
crocodile's  tears,  but  it  affords  a  curious 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


715 


example  of  how  very  near  a  false  popular 
superstition  may  unwittingly  come  to  the 
truth. 

The  Limits  of  Parental  Discipline.— The 

point  to  which  parental  discipline  may  go 
might  be  made  a  subject  of  fruitful  study. 
It  is  agreed,  of  course,  that  the  child  must 
be  trained  and  kept  in  a  certain  degree  of 
subjection  for  its  own  good  and  to  prevent 
its  becoming  a  nuisance  to  society,  and  a 
certain  pliancy  to  the  control  of  superiors 
is,  as  a  writer  in  an  English  journal  well  re- 
marks, absolutely  essential  to  the  organization 
of  a  household,  a  school,  or  a  state.  "  Disci- 
pline," this  writer  continues,  "  implies  ready 
obedience  to  orders  of  which  the  reason  is 
not  understood  ;  but  it  should  always  rest 
on  the  belief  that  these  orders  are  given  for 
sufficient  reasons,  and  not  for  the  mere  satis- 
faction of  those  who  give  them  in  seeing 
them  obeyed."  The  theory  of  "  breaking  " 
the  will  of  the  child,  in  which  parents  and 
teachers  indulge,  is  all  wrong.  The  first 
thing  a  superior  has  to  learn  "  is  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  property  in  the  character 
of  a  human  being ;  that  when  the  individu- 
ality of  a  character  has  to  be  suppressed — and 
of  course  the  organization  of  society  requires 
that  it  must  often  be  suppressed — it  is  sup- 
pressed either  for  its  own  good  or  for  the 
good  of  others  to  whom  consideration  is  due, 
and  that,  beyond  the  limits  of  these  obliga- 
tions, individuality,  far  from  being  a  hin- 
drance and  annoyance  to  be  got  rid  of  as 
completely  as  possible,  is  a  distinct  gain  to 
the  universe.  The  wish  of  some  parents  to 
wield  as  much  power  over  the  wills  and 
characters  of  their  children  as  they  do  over 
the  motions  of  the  horses  they  ride  or  drive 
is  not  only  a  foolish  but  an  evil  wish.  To 
get  excellent  instruments  on  which  they  can 
perform  as  they  would  perform  on  a  piano, 
always  eliciting  exactly  the  particular  vibra- 
tion they  desire  and  expect,  is  clearly  not  the 
true  object  of  family  life.  On  the  contrary, 
character,  far  from  being  an  instrument  to 
be  performed  on  by  others,  should  always  be 
a  new  source  of  life  and  originality,  which  no 
one  should  be  able  to  govern  despotically 
from  the  outside,  and  which,  even  from  inside, 
is  in  a  great  degree  a  mystery  and  a  marvel  to 
him  who  has  most  power  over  it.  The  mere 
notion  of  making  character  a  kind  of  re- 


peater,  which  responds  by  a  given  number 
of  strokes  to  the  parent's  touch,  is  a  radi- 
cally absurd  one.  What  a  parent  ought  to 
wish  for  is,  indeed,  instant  obedience  to 
orders  given  for  the  child's  good,  and  an 
eager  intelligence  in  the  child  to  trust  its 
parent;  but  beyond  this,  as  much  that  is 
distinct  and  individual,  and  that  has  a  sep- 
arate significance  of  its  own,  as  the  child's 
nature  can  provide." 

Vitality  in  Intellectual  Work.— So  far 

from  intellectual  work  diminishing  vitality, 
says  a  writer  in  the  London  Spectator,  the 
chiefs  of  all  the  intellectual  professions  are, 
and  in  recent  times  have  been,  men  who 
have  passed  the  ordinary  term  of  years  with 
uudiminished  powers.  In  politics  the  prin- 
cipal leaders  whom  this  generation  has 
known  have  been  Earl  Russell,  Lord  Palm- 
erston,  Lord  Beaconsfield,  and  Mr.  Gladstone, 
and  every  one  of  them  was  at  seventy  in  full 
vigor,  while  the  last,  at  eighty-three,  is  still 
a  mighty  power  in  British  politics.  Prince 
Bismarck  remains  at  seventy-eight  a  force 
with  which  his  Government  has  to  reckon ; 
while  the  will  of  Leo  XIII,  an  exceptionally 
intellectual  Pope,  at  eighty-three,  is  felt  in 
every  corner  of  the  world.  "  The  most  in- 
tellectual and  successful  soldier  of  our  time, 
the  man  who  had  really  thought  out  victo- 
ries, Marshal  von  Moltke,  was  an  unbroken 
man  at  ninety  and  more  years.  No  men 
dare  compare  themselves  in  literary  power 
with  Tennyson  or  Carlyle,  Victor  Hugo  or 
Von  Ranke,  and  they  all  reached  the  age 
which  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes  declared  to 
be  marked  only  by  labor  and  sorrow  ;  as  also 
did  Prof.  Owen,  whose  life  was  one  long 
labor  in  scientific  inquiry ;  and  so  also  has 
Sir  William  Grove,  one  of  the  most  strenuous 
thinkers  whom  even  this  age  of  thinkers  has 
produced.  We  might  lengthen  the  list  in- 
definitely ;  but  to  what  use,  when  we  all  know 
that  the  most  intellectual  among  lawyers,  his- 
torians, novelists,  physicians,  politicians,  and 
naturalists  survive  their  contemporaries,  usu- 
ally with  undiminished  powers  ?  In  all  sta- 
tistical accounts,  the  clergy,  whose  occupation 
is  wholly  intellectual,  rank  first  among  the 
long-lived.  A  little  lower  down  hi  the  scale 
the  most  hale  men  among  us  are  those  who 
have  been  doing  intellectual  work,  often  ex- 
tremely hard  work,  through  all  their  lives, 


7i6 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


and  who  are  still  so  strong  that  all  the  pro- 
fessions are  affected  by  their  resolution  not 
to  retire,  and  the  inability  of  younger  men  to 
invent  a  reason  for  making  their  retirement 
compulsory.  To  say  that  they  are  picked 
lives  is  false,  for  they  are  so  numerous  that 
the  intense  vitality  of  the  old  and  intellectual 
actually  affects  the  organization  of  society ; 
and  to  say  that  the  unintellectual  flourish 
equally  well  ...  is  not  probably  true."  The 
stupid  among  the  cultivated  do  not  survive 
in  anything  like  the  same  proportion.  Among 
the  ladies  of  the  century,  likewise,  the  old- 
est have  been  the  highest. 

Science  in  Elementary  Schools.  — Re- 
marking, in  a  paper,  on  the  Place  of  Science 
in  Elementary  Schools,  Prof.  Samuel  G.  Wil- 
liams observes  that  all  sciences  of  Nature 
have  their  very  foundation  in  correct  and 
definite  observation  of  the  facts  which  Na- 
ture presents.  It  is  therefore  of  the  very 
essence  of  science  that  the  pupil  should  be 
first  of  all  taught  to  observe,  to  use  his  own 
senses  directly  upon  appropriate  objects,  and 
thus  to  increase  their  delicacy  and  power  by 
repeated  employment ;  and,  moreover,  to  give 
an  account  of  what  he  has  in  any  way  experi- 
enced, that  the  fact  observed  may  be  assured 
and  that  its  results  may  be  embodied  in  lan- 
guage. When  even  the  youngest  child  is 
thus  brought  into  direct  contact  with  Nature, 
he  is  quick  to  note  the  infinite  variety  which 
it  presents,  to  see  that  this  object  is  similar 
to  that  and  quite  unlike  the  other.  Incipient 
powers  of  comparing  and  judging  emerge, 
and  should  be  appealed  to  in  all  possible 
ways  ;  for  ripeness  of  judgment  results  only 
from  repeated  acts  of  judging.  Rude  and 
then  more  perfect  classifications  result  from 
the  grouping  of  the  like  and  the  separation 
of  the  unlike;  and  the  beginning  of  class 
notions  is  made  which  future  experience 
shall  fill  with  even  clearer  and  more  definite 
meaning,  until  gradually  and  almost  uncon- 
sciously the  pupil  grows  to  a  considerable 
mastery  of  the  general  and  abstract  terms 
which  make  so  large  a  part  of  the  language 
of  the  more  enlightened  members  of  his  race 
Even  those  large  operations  called  generali- 
zation and  induction  from  observed  facts 
and  phenomena,  should  have  their  definite 
beginnings  in  some  part  of  the  elementary 
course,  and  especially  in  certain  easy  anc 


natural  observations  of  physical  phenomena. 
The  youngster  whose  attention  has  a  few 
times  been  directed  to  the  flash  of  a  distant 
gun  and  the  report  which  more  tardily 
reaches  his  ear,  can  readily  be  brought  to 
nfer  that  sound  travels  more  slowly  than 
ight,  and  to  apply  his  generalization  to 
ightning  and  the  resultant  roll  of  thunder. 
Thus,  it  is  obvious  that  the  aim  which  the 
science  teacher  should  keep  ever  clearly  in 
view  is  first  of  all  to  train  the  senses  to  ever- 
growing accuracy  and  completeness  in  ob- 
servation ;  as  accessory  to  this,  to  secure  the 
expression  and  interpretation  of  what  is  ob- 
served ;  to  neglect  no  opportunities,  how- 
ever slight,  for  the  exercise  of  judgment ; 
and  to  advance,  gradually  indeed,  but  always 
with  definite  purpose,  toward  the  classifica- 
tion and  generalization  of  results  secured  by 
direct  personal  observation.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that  the  keynote  of  the  whole  matter 
is  direct  contact  with  Nature,  and  diligent 
study  of  what  she  has  to  teach  through  the 
proper  use  of  trained  senses. 

Fighting  the  Gypsy  Moths.— The  State 
Board  of  Agriculture  of  Massachusetts, 
through  its  agents,  Prof.  C.  H.  Fernald  and 
E.  H.  Forbush,  appears  to  be  carrying  on  an 
effective  campaign  against  the  gypsy  moth. 
The  work  was  begun  systematically  in  1890, 
so  that  only  the  results  of  the  first  two 
season's  operations  have  yet  been  embraced 
in  the  official  report;  yet,  though  the  at- 
tempt was  the  first  on  a  large  scale  ever 
made  in  the  Commonwealth  to  destroy  a  spe- 
cies of  insect,  and  the  operators  were  with- 
out experience,  a  very  perceptible  reduction 
in  the  number  of  the  insects  and  in  the  dam- 
age by  them  was  realized  ;  and  trees  and  or- 
chards that  were  stripped  in  1891  enjoyed 
the  full  luxuriance  of  their  foliage  hi  1892 ; 
and  the  members  of  the  board  are  now  con- 
fident that  it  can  be  eradicated.  Destruction 
of  the  insect  is  found  to  be  a  most  effectual 
method  of  eradication.  Another  method  is 
to  entrap  the  caterpillars  within  bands  of 
burlap  fastened  around  the  trees.  They  are 
in  the  habit  of  seeking  shelter  during  the 
daytime,  and  if  the  holes  in  the  trees  are 
stopped  up  they  resort  to  the  burlaps  and 
can  then  be  easily  destroyed.  When  the  in- 
sects get  into  the  woodlands,  dealing  with 
them  is  more  difficult,  on  account  of  the  un- 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


717 


(lerbrush  and  the  dead  leaves  on  the  ground. 
In  these  cases  the  board  suggests  clearing 
away  the  brush  and  the  worthless  trees  and 
careful  burning  over  the  ground.  When  the 
work  was  first  begun  it  was  thought  that  the 
moth  occupied  only  a  small  part  of  one 
town.  It  was,  however,  shown  that  it  infested 
thirty  towns  and  cities.  As  the  moth  mul- 
tiplies rapidly  and  eats  everything  that  is 
foliage,  leaving  nothing  behind,  the  danger 
arising  from  its  presence  is  really  a  matter 
of  national  importance. 

Superstitions  about  Snakes.— In  his  refu- 
tation of  Some  Superstitions  about  Snakes, 
Dr.  Arthur  Stradling  tells  of  a  "  weirdly  hor- 
rible "  fancy  of  the  Singhalese  Tamils,  that 
every  time  the  cobra  di  capello  bites  and 
expends  its  venom  after  it  has  attained  its 
full  length,  it  loses  one  joint  of  its  spine. 
The  process  of  curtailment  goes  on  until  the 
whole  body  has  disappeared,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  head  and  hood,  both  of  which 
have  undergone  a  sort  of  compensating  en- 
largement, while  the  mouth  has  widened 
until  the  face  of  the  reptile  presents  the  as- 
pect of  a  malignant  toad.  With  increased 
death-dealing  powers,  the  exercise  of  which 
subjects  it  to  no  further  penalty,  it  now  be- 
takes itself  to  an  aerial  mode  of  life,  flying 
by  the  flapping  of  its  extended  sides  after 
the  manner  of  a  bat.  A  somewhat  similar 
fable  is  heard  among  the  natives  of  Bengal, 
who  furthermore  declare  that  this  square- 
winged  fiend  is  the  only  snake  that  refuses 
to  be  frightened  away  when  the  name  of  the 
king  of  the  birds  (Garuda)  is  called  aloud  in 
its  hearing,  and  that  the  docking  of  the  ver- 
tebrae corresponds  to  the  number  of  human 
lives  which  the  cobra  has  sacrificed  in  former 
days.  This  superstition  is  curiously  akin  to 
that  held  by  the  settlers  in  many  parts  of 
America,  to  the  effect  that  the  rattlesnake 
acquires  a  new  thimble  to  its  rattle  for  every 
man  it  kills. 

Cruelty  to  Children.— From  the  report  of 
the  English  National  Society  for  the  Preven. 
tion  of  Cruelty  to  Children  it  appears  that 
poverty  and  large  families  are  not  a  com. 
mon  cause  of  cruelty.  On  the  contrary,  the 
worse  the  cruelty  the  better,  on  an  average, 
were  the  wages  of  the  cruel  parent  and  the 
fewer  the  children  to  whom  the  cruelty  was 


displayed.  The  report  further  shows  that 
the  effect  of  warnings  and  even  of  prosecu- 
;ion  and  conviction  on  cruel  parents  is  not  to 
nflame  their  passions  against  the  children 
who  have  been  the  occasions  of  their  alarm 
and  punishment,  but  to  increase  the  regard 
of  the  cruel  parent  for  the  children,  and  for 
those  who  interfered  to  protect  them.  The 
cruel  parent  becomes  less  cruel  when  he 
finds  that  the  law  concerns  itself  with  his 
hildren,  and  often  seems  to  discover  that 
there  is  a  good  deal  more  to  like  and  respect 
in  the  children  who  had  been  cruelly  treated, 
and  in  those  who  took  the  children's  part, 
than  he  had  perceived  before.  Summing  up 
the  domestic  effects  of  a  visit  of  the  society's 
inspector,  a  mother  said  to  one  of  the  secre- 
taries of  the  society, "  It  is  like  courting  over 
again."  In  other  words,  as  an  English  jour- 
nal views  the  case,  the  woman  had  risen  in 
the  estimation  of  her  husband  as  soon  as  he 
found  that  the  law  and  public  opinion  of 
the  neighborhood  were  on  her  side.  Instead 
of  increased  irritation  against  his  wife  for  not 
siding  with  him,  he  felt  her  to  some  extent 
raised  above  him,  and  began  to  see  her  with 
new  eyes  as  a  person  whose  approbation  it 
was  worth  while  to  gain.  The  prevalence  of 
cruelty  among  well-to-do  parents  rather  than 
among  the  lowly  is,  perhaps,  to  be  explained 
on  the  same  principle.  Cruelty  is  favored 
by  the  sense  of  arbitrary  power,  and  by  the 
absence  of  any  feeling  of  responsibility  to 
others.  Anything  that  stimulates  the  sense 
of  irresponsibility  and  independence  in- 
creases cruelty ;  anything  that  diminishes  that 
sense,  anything  that  brings  home  to  the 
heart  the  feeling  of  a  social  or  physical 
yoke,  diminishes  it. 

Steamboats  on  Long  Island  Sound. — 

From  a  Review  of  the  Past  and  Present  of 
Steam  Navigation  on  Long  Island  Sound, 
published  by  the  Providence  and  Stonington 
Steamship  Company,  it  appears  that  experi- 
ments to  move  steamboats  were  made  by  sev- 
eral persons  toward  the  end  of  the  last  cen- 
tury on  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware.  John 
Fitch's  was  the  first,  and  his  skiff,  rowed  by 
oars  or  paddles  on  the  sides,  moved  by  cranka 
worked  by  steam  machinery,  was  publicly 
tried  on  the  Delaware,  July  27,  1786.  An 
amazing  contrast  is  presented  between  its 
portrait  and  those  of  the  Stonington  line's 


7i8 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


latest  masterpieces  in  steamboat  architec- 
ture, the  Maine  and  New  Hampshire.  Fitch's 
first  boat  for  carrying  passengers  was  com- 
pleted in  1788.  It  was  worked  with  oars 
or  paddles  placed  at  the  stern  and  pushed 
against  the  water,  and  took  thirty  passengers 
from  Philadelphia  to  Burlington  in  three 
hours  and  ten  minutes,  or  over  six  miles  an 
hour.  Fitch's  third  boat  was  advertised  in 
1790  as  "the  Steamboat"  to  run  to  Burling-, 
ton,  Bristol,  Bordentown,  and  Trenton,  and 
return  the  next  day.  Congress  adjourned 
to  see  it  start,  and  the  Governor  and  Council 
presented  it  with  a  flag.  The  Eructor  Am- 
phibolis  of  Oliver  Evans  was  a  combined 
locomotive  and  steamboat — a  scow  on  wheels 
with  modern  axletrees  and  a  paddle  wheel 
behind,  to  travel  as  a  wagon  on  land  and  as 
a  boat  in  water.  It  was  propelled  by  the 
engine  up  Market  Street  in  Philadelphia  and 
round  the  circle  to  the  waterworks,  where  it 
was  launched  into  the  Schuylkill.  The  pad- 
dle wheel  was  then  applied  at  its  stern,  and  it 
thus  sailed  down  that  river  to  the  Delaware. 
Then  came  Fulton's  Clermont,  steaming  from 
New  York  to  Albany  in  thirty-six  hours,  the 
pioneer  in  a  fleet  which  numbered  eight  boats 
in  1816.  The  first  steamer  on  Long  Island 
Sound  was  the  Fulton,  a  vessel  with  one 
mast  and  sloop  rigging,  which  depended  on 
its  sails  to  accelerate  its  speed,  and  began 
its  trips  to  New  Haven  in  1815;  and  the 
Fire  Fly,  one  of  Fulton's  boats,  first  rounded 
Point  Judith  and  reached  Newport  in  1817. 
The  establishment  of  the  packet  line  be- 
tween Providence  and  New  York  was  an  im- 
portant event  in  American  travel,  and  the 
departure  and  arrival  of  the  boats  presented 
an  imposing  spectacle.  The  fare  was  ten 
dollars,  and  the  first  advertisement  of  the 
company  appeared  under  the  cut  of  a  man- 
of-war,  with  portholes  open  and  every  sail 
set.  In  their  painting,  these  boats,  accord- 
ing to  the  account,  somewhat  resembled  a 
barber's  pole,  being  striped  in  curious  de- 
signs. 

Unsolved  Problems  in  Geology.— Rather 
technical  is  Mr.  G.  K.  Gilbert's  review  of  the 
continental  problems  that  are  before  geolo- 
gists for  solution,  made  in  his  presidential 
address  before  the  Geological  Society  of 
America;  but  he  enumerates  several  such 
problems  and  questions  on  whidh  no  clear 


light  has  yet  been  thrown.  As  he  summa- 
rizes them,  it  appears  that  "  the  doctrine  of 
isostasy,  though  holding  a  leading  position, 
has  not  fully  supplanted  the  doctrine  of 
rigidity.  If  it  be  accepted,  there  remains 
the  question  whether  heat  or  composition 
determines  the  gravity  of  the  ocean  beds  and 
the  levity  of  continents.  For  the  origin  of 
continents  we  have  a  single  hypothesis  (that 
laid  down  by  Prof.  Dana  in  his  Manual  of 
Geology),  which  deserves  to  be  more  fully 
compared  with  the  body  of  modern  data. 
The  newly  determined  configuration  of  the 
continental  mass  has  yielded  no  suggestion 
as  to  its  origin.  The  cause  of  differential  ele- 
vation and  subsidence  within  the  continental 
plateau  is  unknown  and  has  probably  not 
been  suggested.  The  permanence  of  the 
continental  plateau,  though  highly  probable, 
is  not  yet  fully  established ;  and  the  doctrine 
of  continental  growth,  though  generally  ac- 
cepted, has  not  been  placed  beyond  the  field 
of  profitable  discussion.  Thus  the  subject 
of  continents  affords  no  less  than  half  a 
dozen  great  problems,  whose  complete  so- 
lution belongs  to  the  future.  It  is  not  alto- 
gether pleasant  to  deal  with  a  subject  with 
regard  to  which  the  domain  of  our  ignorance 
is  so  broad ;  but,  if  we  are  optimists,  we  may 
be  comforted  by  the  reflection  that  the  geolo- 
gists of  this  generation,  at  least,  will  have  no 
occasion,  like  Alexander,  to  lament  a  dearth 
of  worlds  to  conquer." 


NOTES. 

WOOD  ashes  are  recommended  in  the 
American  Agriculturist,  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Stahl, 
as  a  valuable  medicine  for  farm  animals. 
The  author  keeps  them,  with  charcoal  and 
mixed  with  salt,  accessible  to  his  hogs,  with 
the  best  effects ;  and  he  furnishes  them  to 
his  horses  by  putting  an  even  teaspoonful 
with  the  oats  twice  a  week  or  by  keeping 
the  ashes,  with  the  salt  mixture,  constantly 
before  the  animals. 

THE  most  striking  feature  of  Mr.  A.  T. 
Drummond's  examination  of  the  colors  and 
times  of  flowering  of  five  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine  of  the  plants  of  Ontario  and  Quebec  is 
the  preponderance  of  white  flowers,  which 
form  rather  more  than  one  third  of  the 
whole.  Following  them  are  the  yellow  flow- 
ers, largely  composites,  which  include  about 
one  quarter;  while  the  purples  and  blues 
are  much  less  numerous,  and  comprise  about 
one  ninth  and  one  tenth  respectively  of  the 
whole.  In  time  of  flowering  April,  May,  and 


NOTES. 


719 


June  are  remarkable  for  the  prevalence  of 
white ;  July,  August,  and  September  of  yel- 
low; and  September  and  October  of  purple 
and  blue. 

THE  caves  of  Mount  Elgonin,  East  Africa, 
extend  right  round  the  mountain  and  occur 
in  the  lava  as  well  as  in  the  agglomerate  beds. 
Mr.  J.  Thomson  believes  that  they  are  old 
excavations  ;  but  a  correspondent  of  the  Lon- 
don Times,  who  visited  them  in  February, 
1893,  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
are  merely  vast  blow-holes  in  the  mountain, 
"  which  is  a  grand  specimen  of  an  extinct 
volcano,  the  crater  being  some  eight  miles 
in  diameter  and  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two 
thousand  feet  in  depth."  The  mountain  is 
fourteen  thousand  feet  high,  with  a  base  of 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  circum- 
ference. 

THE  report  of  the  Massachusetts  State 
Board  of  Health  on  the  Geographical  Distri- 
bution of  Certain  Causes  of  Death  in  that 
State  presents  the  results  of  an  inquiry  re- 
specting the  relation  of  paper  mills  to  small- 
pox mortality.  In  eleven  cities  and  towns 
having  extremely  high  ratios  of  smallpox 
mortality,  six  contained  one  or  more  paper 
mills  in  which  rags  were  used ;  and  a  list  of 
twenty-eight  cities  and  towns  in  which  there 
are  paper  mills  contains  only  four  places  in 
which  there  were  no  smallpox  deaths  during 
twenty  years,  and  non-fatal  cases  are  known 
to  have  occurred  in  two  of  these  towns.  Fre- 
quent investigations  of  the  board  have 
shown  that  smallpox  in  Massachusetts  is 
very  often  due  to  infected  rags.  In  many  of 
these  cases  it  appeared  probable  that  domes- 
tic rags  collected  in  the  large  cities  of  the 
United  States  were  the  source  of  infection. 

A  SETTLEMENT  of  the  silver  question  is 
propounded  by  Mr.  Roderick  H.  Smith,  au- 
thor of  several  works  on  business,  which  he 
believes  will  be  sovereign  and  permanent.  It 
is  the  enactment  of  a  law,  of  which  he  sub- 
mits a  draft,  the  essential  feature  of  which 
is  a  provision  for  the  issue  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  certificates  against  deposits  of  silver, 
which  shall  be  redeemable,  on  demand,  in  an 
equal  value  of  silver  to  the  amount  of  the 
deposit.  Thus,  whatever  may  be  the  fluctua 
tions  in  the  value  of  silver,  the  certificates 
can  never  command  more  than  they  are 
actually  worth. 

THE  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health, 
inquiring  into  the  distribution  of  cholera  in- 
f  antum,  finds  the  disease  apparently  promoted 
by  the  employment  of  mothers  away  from 
home.  It  also  finds  that  a  high  mortality 
rate  from  cholera  infantum  occasionally  ex- 
ists in  a  comparatively  small  town  where 
there  are  one  or  more  densely  populated 
manufacturing  villages  in  which  the  condi- 
tions of  living  may  resemble  those  of  a  large 
city.  Upon  this  point  Dr.  Haven  says 
"  We  may  have  all,  or  nearly  all,  of  the  most 


icious  conditions  of  city  life  in  a  single 
tenement  house  in  some  small  town  of  per- 
laps  only  a  thousand  inhabitants ;  we  may 
aave,  that  is,  the  heat,  the  dirt,  the  over- 
crowding, the  bad  drainage,  and  the  artificial 
feeding  which  are  the  concomitants  of  city 
life." 

EXPERIMENTS  by  Grassi,  Cattani,  Tizzoni, 
Simmonds,  and  Sawchenk,  made  under  vari- 
ous conditions  and  in  great  diversity  of 
forms,  are  confirmatory  of  one  another,  and 
afford  cumulative  evidence  of  the  compe- 
tency of  flies  to  convey  cholera  germs. 
Sawchenk  even  suggests  that  the  bacilli  may 
be  able,  under  suitable  conditions,  to  multi- 
ply within  the  bodies  of  flies ;  in  which  case, 
besides  being  dangerous  carriers  of  infection, 
the  flies  would  be  a  veritable  hotbed  for  the 
preservation  and  further  multiplication  of 
cholera  bacilli. 

A  REMARKABLE  illustration  of  the  perse- 
verance shown  by  roots  in  seeking  food  is 
related  in  Nature  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Oxley, 
vicar  of  Peterham.  The  roots  of  a  wistaria 
entered  the  dining-room  of  Eden  House, 
Ham,  by  a  very  small  chink  in  the  side  of 
the  window  near  the  ceiling.  On  removing 
from  the  walls  the  paper,  which  had  not  been 
disturbed  for  many  years,  the  whole  of  the 
plaster  beneath  was  found  covered  with  a 
fine  network  of  roots  spreading  all  round  the 
room.  There  was  no  appearance  on  the  pa- 
per to  give  rise  to  any  suggestion  of  the  pres- 
ence of  roots  being  there.  Prof.  Dyer  re- 
marks that  the  roots  seemed  to  have  behaved 
more  like  the  mycelium  of  a  fungus  than  an 
ordinary  axial  structure.  The  room  was  con- 
stantly inhabited,  with  fires. 

THE  Italian  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
Signor  Martini,  has  called  the  attention  of 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  to  the  evils  of  over- 
pressure in  the  public  schools,  under  which 
the  programmes  have  been  enlarged  without 
corresponding  enlargement  of  the  cerebral 
convolutions,  and  the  pupils  are  "  swallowing 
much  and  digesting  little."  "While  the 
able-bodied  artisan,"  he  says,  "  demands  the 
restriction  of  his  labor  to  eight  hours,  we 
exact  from  our  boys  of  ten  a  labor  at  once 
more  prolonged  and  more  severe."  The 
minister  has  been  quick  to  learn  from  the 
lessons  given  him,  and  has  already  instituted 
reformatory  measures.  The  tasks  to  be  un- 
dertaken after  school  hours  have  been  mini- 
mized, inducements  to  prolong  mental  labor 
beyond  the  just  limits  have  been  diminished, 
and  the  overstrain  due  to  excessive  competi- 
tion is  discouraged ;  the  number  of  subjects 
to  be  taken  up  at  once  is  curtailed,  the 
schools  have  developed  a  "modern  side," 
and  happy  results  and  improvement  are  al- 
ready visible. 

IN  a  recent "  long-distance  walk  "  between 
Berlin  and  Vienna — some  three  hundred  and 
sixty  miles — the  winner  among  fifteen  com- 


720 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


petitors  accomplished  the  distance  in  on 
hundred  and  fifty-four  hours  and  forty-fiv 
minutes,  and  the  one  next  behind  him  in 
little  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty-si 
hours.  The  winner,  however,  came  in  ex 
hausted,  while  his  competitor  seemed  not  t 
have  suffered  at  all.  Both  lost  five  pound 
in  weight.  The  remarkable  fact  about  th 
feat  is  that  these  two  foremost  men  ar 
called  vegetarians,  and  were  able  to  walk  a: 
average  of  eighteen  hours  a  day  for  sevei 
consecutive  days  on  the  kind  of  diet  classe 
under  that  designation. 

FOUR  sulphurets  are  named  by  M.  Jacksh 
of  Triesch,  Moravia,  as  becoming  phospho 
rescent  after  a  brief  exposure  to  daylight — 
viz.,  the  sulphurets  of  calcium,  strontium,  ba 
rium,  and  zinc.  The  last  compound  has  been 
obtained  in  a  luminous  condition  only  recent- 
ly by  distillation  in  a  vacuum.  Prepared  in 
the  usual  way,  by  precipitating  soluble  salts 
of  zinc  with  sulphurets,  it  shows  no  signs  oi 
phosphorescence.  Sulphuret  of  barium  gives 
a  yellowish-orange  glow,  but  only  for  a  few 
minutes  after  each  exposure  to  the  light,  anc 
is  of  as  little  use  as  the  sulphurets  of  stron- 
tium and  of  zinc,  the  greenish  glow  of  which 
disappears  after  about  two  hours.  For  prac- 
tical uses  the  sulphuret  of  calcium  of  com- 
merce is  the  only  phosphorescent  of  value. 
Pure,  it  gives  a  faint  yellowish  light;  but 
treated  at  a  red  heat,  with  the  addition  of  a 
small  quantity  of  a  salt  of  bismuth,  it  is 
transformed  into  a  substance  giving  a  violet 
light  and  retaining  its  luminous  quality  for 
nearly  forty  hours  after  an  exposure  of  only 
a  few  seconds. 

,  RECORDS  kept  by  Dr.  Spengler  at  Davos 
Platz  for  two  years  and  a  half,  resting  large- 
ly on  communications  kept  up  with  the  pa- 
tients after  leaving,  show  that  a  permanent 
cure  (of  consumptive  diseases)  is  apparently 
effected  in  42'8  per  cent  of  the  cases.  It  is 
noted  that  most  of  the  patients  were  subject 
to  influenza  in  the  epidemic  of  1889-'90.  In 
the  treatment,  till  acclimatization  is  com- 
pleted and  the  patient  has  slept  well  one  or 
two  weeks,  he  lies  much  in  the  open  air,  and 
takes  little  exercise.  Patients  who  come  with 
fever  soon  lose  it. 

ALCOHOL,  although  the  most  convenient 
heretofore  found,  has  proved  an  unreliable 
fluid  for  low-temperature  thermometers.  It 
is  subject  to  the  three  vices  of  sticking  in 
the  tube,  irregular  expansion,  and  defect 
from  impurities  and  variations  in  water  con- 
tent, which  affect  its  expansion  materially, 
M.  Chappuis  has  found  toluol,  the  boiling 
point  of  which  is  110°  C.,  a  liquid  well  adapt- 
ed to  the  purpose  and  free  from  these  disad- 
vantages. 

THE  Psychological  Section  of  the  Medico- 
legal  Society  is  interested  in  all  that  pertains 
to  psychology,  and  purposes,  through  com- 
mittees appointed  from  among  its  members, 


to  make  special  studies  in  the  departments 
of  animal  magnetism,  hypnotism,  telepathy, 
clairvoyance,  supposed  apparitions,  and  other 
claims  of  "respectable"  modern  spiritual- 
ism. It  is  intended  to  conduct  these  inqui- 
ries and  investigations  with  candor  and  fair- 
ness, upon  strictly  scientific  lines,  and  to 
reach,  in  so  far  as  possible,  a  valuable  and 
enlightening  collection  of  facts  incident  to 
these  phenomena,  from  which  important  de- 
ductions may  be  made. 

EXPERIMENTS,  pursued  during  two  years 
by  himself  and  his  associates,  are  recorded 
by  Prof.  Chodat,  of  Geneva,  concerning  the 
influence  of  static  electricity  on  vegetation. 
Beans,  sorted  into  two  equal  lots,  were  simi- 
larly planted  in  a  vessel  filled  with  sawdust 
moistened  with  the  same  quantity  of  water, 
and  exposed  to  identical  conditions  of  warmth 
and  light.  One  of  the  vessels  was  put  under 
electrical  influence  during  a  part  of  the  day, 
rising  from  forty  minutes  at  the  beginning  to 
three  and  four  hours.  Leaves  began  to  ap- 
pear in  the  electrified  lot  on  the  fourth  day, 
while  the  other  lot  as  yet  showed  no  signs  of 
them.  The  difference  was  plainer  on  the 
fifth  day,  and  still  more  so  on  the  seventh, 
when  the  electrified  plants  had  grown  to  a 
considerable  size,  while  the  non- electrified 
ones  were  only  just  starting.  The  difference 
was  also  apparent  in  the  superior  vigor  of 
;he  stems  and  roots  of  the  electrified  plants. 
The  experiment  confirmed  the  opinion  that 
electricity  acts  to  promote  germination  and 
growth  in  length  ;  but  the  leaves  of  the  non- 
electrified  plants  obtained  a  better  develop- 
ment than  the  others. 


OBITUARY  NOTES. 

THE  Rev.  T.  Wolle,  pastor  of  the  Mora- 
vian church,  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  whose  death 
vas  recently  announced,  was  an  ardent  stu- 
dent  of   fresh-water   algae,   and   author  of 
hree  important  publications  on  the  Fresh- 
water Algae,  the   Desmids,  and  the  Diatoms 
f  the  United  States. 

CAVALIERE  GIUSEPPE  ANTONIO  PASQUALE, 
'rofessor  of  Botany  at  the  University  of 
Naples,  and  Director  of  the  Botanic  Garden, 
ho  has  recently  died,  was  the  author  of 
everal  books,  chiefly  those  on  the  flora  of 
/"esuvius  and  the  flora  of  Capri. 

THE  death  is  announced  of  Dr.  Karl 
emper,  author  of  the  book  in  the  Interna- 
.onal  Scientific  Series  on  the  Natural  Con- 
itions  of  Existence  as  they  affect  Animal 
ife.  He  was  born  at  Altona,  in  1832; 
tudied  at  Wiirzburg,  chiefly  in  zoology; 
ade  a  scientific  journey  in  1859-'62  through 
le  Philippine  and  Pelew  Islands,  the  results 
I  which  were  published  in  several  valuable 
orks ;  became  Professor  of  Zoology  at 
Viirzburg  in  1868,  and  a  few  years  later  Di- 
ector  of  the  Zoological  Institute  there. 


WERNER    SIEMENS. 


THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 
MONTHLY. 


OCTOBER,    1893. 
ELECTRICITY   AT   THE   WORLD'S   FAIR. 

BY  CHARLES  M.  LUNGEEN. 
I. 

A  PERIOD  of  but  seventeen  years  separates  the  first  great 
•^JL.  American  exhibition  from  the  second,  yet  what  a  vast  differ- 
ence between  the  two  in  the  display  of  electrical  appliances !  The 
Centennial  was  not  indeed  without  its  electrical  wonders,  but 
these  were  unobtrusive  and  formed  but  isolated  examples  in  an 
industrial  domain  which  yet  remained  to  be  cultivated.  Elec- 
tricity had  not  then  been  brought  home  to  the  attention  and 
interest  of  the  thousands  by  multiplied  daily  use.  It  made  no 
appeal  to  the  imagination,  and  the  immediate  future  that  was  to 
open  for  it  was  hardly  dreamed  of  even  by  those  in  the  vanguard 
of  electrical  discovery.  The  telephone  here  made  its  debut ;  the 
quadruplex  telegraph,  but  recently  put  into  commercial  service, 
was  here  shown  for  the  first  time  ;  and  the  dynamos  and  arc  lamps 
of  Wallace  were  on  exhibition.  The  Gramme  machine,  which 
was  shortly  to  play  such  an  important  part  in  the  commercial 
development  of  the  electric  light,  and  to  prove  such  a  stimulus  to 
the  inventors  of  electric  apparatus,  was  also  to  be  seen  here,  but 
beyond  these  electricity  was  very  little  in  evidence  at  the  earlier 
exposition.  At  the  Columbian  it  is  omnipresent.  It  is  called  upon 
to  do  the  lighting  of  the  great  buildings  and  grounds,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  all  other  means  of  illumination;  to  drive  the  trains  of  the 
intramural  railway  which  winds  through  the  exposition  inclosure ; 
to  propel  the  graceful  launches  which  glide  through  its  water- 
ways ;  to  furnish  the  power  distributed  throughout  the  various 
buildings,  and  to  make  itself  known  in  innumerable  decorative 
effects.  Grown  too  large  to  have  a  place  merely,  along  with  other 

VOL.    XL1II. — 52 


722  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

industries,  in  a  general  building,  it  has  a  temple  of  its  own,  which 
is  filled  with  the  manifold  applications  of  this  strange  and  sub- 
tile agent  to  the  arts  and  conveniences  of  life.  And  even  this  is 
inadequate  to  the  demands  it  has  made  upon  the  space  of  the  ex- 
position, for  what  may  rightly  be  considered  two  of  the  main  ex- 
hibits— the  great  alternating  lighting  plant  and  the  direct-current 
plant  of  the  intramural  railway — are  without  the  inclosure  of  the 
Electricity  Building,  the  one  in  Machinery  Hall  and  the  other  in  a 
structure  by  itself. 

Complete  and  varied  as  the  Columbian  electricity  exhibit  is,  it 
is  not  primarily  an  exhibition  of  novelties.  It  is  rather  a  sum- 
ming up  of  our  progress  to  date — a  slice  taken  from  the  far  larger 
exhibit  which  everywhere  surrounds  us  and  is  helping  to  do  the 
daily  work  of  the  world  in  shop  and  factory  and  mine,  on  our 
streets  and  in  our  homes.  Much  of  that  to  be  seen  is  already 
familiar,  but  it  is  not  on  that  account  devoid  of  either  interest  or 
instruction.  In  the  actual  industrial  world  the  processes  and 
appliances  of  an  art  are  scattered  and  not  easily  accessible,  and  it 
can  only  be  studied  piecemeal  and  with  difficulty.  A  great  expo- 
sition, on  the  other  hand,  gives  an  opportunity  for  studying  an 
art  in  its  entirety,  and  thus  enables  an  observer  to  gain  a  clear 
conception  both  of  the  attained  progress  and  the  direction  of 
future  development.  This  opportunity  is  afforded  by  the  Colum- 
bian in  a  marked  degree.  Illustrative  examples  are  to  be  found 
in  it  of  all  the  more  notable  steps  of  progress,  and  many  of  the 
exhibits  are  remarkably  full  and  complete. 

The  visitor  will  find,  for  instance,  an  opportunity  to  study  the 
telephone  from  its  earlier  form  up  to  the  present  standard  instru- 
ments, and  to  inspect  and  perhaps  understand  for  the  first  time 
the  central  station  system,  by  means  of  which  he  is  daily  put  into 
communication  with  other  subscribers.  He  will  see  in  actual 
working  what  he  will  have  but  little  opportunity  to  see  else- 
where, and  which,  to  judge  by  the  crowds  which  throng  about  it, 
appeals  strongly  to  the  curiosity  and  interest  of  the  average 
visitor — the  delicate  siphon  recorder  of  Sir  William  Thomson,  by 
which  all  the  cable  messages  of  the  world  are  received.  And  he 
may  perhaps  wonder  that  any  one  should  be  able  to  interpret  into 
intelligible  signals  the  curious  zigzag  scrawl  which  the  siphon 
leaves  upon  the  moving  band  of  paper.  He  will  also  see  a  set  of 
quadruplex  instruments  and  be  able  to  understand  by  actual  in- 
spection much  better  than  by  mere  description  this  most  impor- 
tant of  telegraphic  appliances.  He  will  also  be  able  to  see  in  the 
Western  Union  exhibit  the  original  receiving  instrument  of  Morse, 
made  of  a  triangle  of  wood  hinged  at  its  apex  to  an  artist's  canvas 
frame,  and  carrying  at  the  center  of  its  lower  side  a  pencil,  with 
which  a  zigzag  tracing  can  be  made  upon  a  moving  band  of  paper 


ELECTRICITY  AT   THE  WORLDS   FAIR.  723 

beneath,  as  the  triangle  is  swung  to  and  fro  under  the  impulses  of 
an  electro-magnet.  The  visitor  will  also  have  an  opportunity  to 
examine  the  new  telautograph  of  Prof.  Elisha  Gray,  by  means  of 
which  the  written  word,  it  is  promised  us,  may  be  transmitted  to 
a  distance  with  the  same  facility  that  the  spoken  word  now  is  by 
telephone.  Turning  from  this  lighter  and  more  delicate  form  of 
apparatus,  the  visitor  will  find  a  very  complete  display  of  the 
class  of  applications  that  has  brought  electricity  into  such  close 
contact  with  the  daily  life  of  the  masses  in  recent  years.  From 
the  great  Westinghouse  lighting  installation  and  from  the  power 
plant  of  the  intramural  he  will  get  some  adequate  idea  of  a  mod- 
ern central-station  equipment,  while  from  the  illustration  of  long- 
distance power  transmission  he  will  be  able  to  comprehend  one  of 
the  directions  in  which  electricity  holds  oat  the  greatest  promise 
for  the  future.  In  the  exhibits  of  electric  welding  and  forging  he 
will  learn  of  the  help  the  electric  current  is  giving  to  the  metal 
worker,  and  in  that  of  cooking  and  heating  the  attempts  that  are 
being  made  to  displace  with  electrical  appliances  the  kitchen 
range  and  the  hot-air  furnace. 

The  most  prominent  exhibit  of  electricity  at  the  fair  is  un- 
doubtedly the  lighting  of  the  Exposition  itself.  This  is  carried  out 
along  lines  already  well  established,  and  is  remarkable  chiefly  for 
the  great  scale  upon  which  it  is  planned  and  executed.  Nearly  five 
thousand  arc  lamps  and  a  hundred  thousand  incandescents  have 
been  called  into  requisition  for  the  illumination  of  the  grounds 
and  buildings.  The  placing  of  these  required,  no  doubt,  a  great 
deal  of  detail  work  and  called  for  nice  discrimination  in  adapting 
means  to  ends,  but  involved  no  electrical  problems  of  especial 
novelty.  The  lighting  of  the  big  Manufactures  Building,  with  its 
thirty  acres  of  main  floor  space  and  ten  acres  of  galleries,  pre- 
sented the  most  difficult  problem  to  the  Exposition  authorities, 
but  this  has  been  successfully  solved  by  the  use  of  the  arc  lamp 
hung  from  immense  coronas  along  the  central  line  of  the  build- 
ing, supplemented  by  individual  lamps  in  the  corridors,  galleries, 
and  separate  rooms.  The  coronas  are  hung  a  hundred  and  forty 
feet  from  the  floor  and  sixty  feet  from  the  crown  of  the  great 
arched  roof  which  spans  the  structure,  and  are  of  colossal  size,  the 
central  one  being  seventy-five  feet  in  diameter  and  the  two  which 
flank  it  on  either  side  sixty  feet.  Something  over  four  hundred 
lamps  are  disposed  of  in  this  way,  while  to  these  are  added  some 
twelve  hundred  more  to  complete  the  lighting  of  this  great  in- 
closure.  The  incandescent,  so  flexible  in  the  hands  of  the  deco- 
rator, has  been  used  very  effectively  to  outline  the  buildings  and 
the  waterways  of  the  Exposition,  in  addition  to  their  use  in  in- 
terior illumination. 


l_ 


ELECTRICITY  AT   THE   WORLD'S  FAIR.  725 

The  power  and  machinery  which  give  vitality  to  this  vast 
array  of  lights  are  to  be  found  in  Machinery  Hall,  and  constitute 
one  of  the  chief  electrical  exhibits.  The  most  striking  feature  of 
this  exhibit  is  the  great  Westinghouse  alternating  plant,  which 
supplies  the  current  for  the  incandescent  lamps.  It  consists  of 
twelve  enormous  alternating-current  generators,  each  having  a 
capacity  of  ten  thousand  sixteen  candle-power  lamps  and  requir- 
ing a  thousand  horse  power  apiece  to  drive  them.  They  are 
arranged  in  two  groups,  the  first  six  of  which  are  coupled  direct 
to  Westinghouse  upright  engines.  Of  the  remaining  six,  four  are 
driven  separately  by  different  makes  of  engines,  and  two  are  belt- 
driven  in  tandem  fashion  by  an  Allis-Corliss  cross-compound  en- 
gine nominally  rated  at  two  thousand  horse  power,  but  which  may 
be  worked  up  to  three  thousand  horse  power  upon  occasion.  This 
engine  is  one  of  two  of  the  same  type  and  by  the  same  maker, 
the  other  one  being  stationed  in  the  power  house  of  the  intra- 
mural railway,  and  is  regarded  as  a  very  fine  example  of  modern 
steam  engineering.  The  alternating  generators  themselves  are  of 
a  type  only  recently  devised,  in  which  there  is  a  double  row  of 
field  poles,  and  a  double  set  of  armature  coils,  by  means  of  which 
the  machines  can  supply  two  separate  circuits  for  the  require- 
ments of  incandescent  lighting,  or  furnish  what  is  known  as  a 
two-phase  current  for  use  with  alternating- current  motors.  The 
current  as  generated  has  a  pressure  of  two  thousand  volts,  which 
is  reduced  down,  at  the  point  of  consumption  by  means  of  con- 
verters, to  fifty  or  a  hundred  volts. 

Besides  the  "  alternators,"  as  these  machines  are  technically 
termed,  there  are  a  large  number  of  direct-current  machines  in 
this  building  supplying  the  currents  to  the  arc  lamps,  and  the 
motors  scattered  through  the  various  buildings.  The  plan 
adopted  by  the  Exposition  authorities  has  been  to  confine  the 
engines  and  boilers  to  Machinery  Hall,  so  that  all  the  power  re- 
quired in  the  Exposition  except  that  for  the  intramural  railway, 
is  generated  here  and  transmitted  by  electricity  through  under- 
ground conduits  to  the  place  where  it  is  to  be  used.  The  exhibi- 
tion is  therefore  an  illustration  of  the  electric  transmission  of 
power  upon  a  large  scale,  and  should  furnish  a  basis  for  the  col- 
lection of  instructive  data. 

The  feature  of  the  Exposition  which  will  command  the  most 
interest  of  any  of  those  in  which  light  plays  a  prominent  part  will 
probably  be  the  electric  fountains.  Fountains  of  this  charac- 
ter have  been  features  of  a  number  of  exhibitions  since  1884,  when 
the  first  one,  designed  by  Sir  Francis  Bolton,  was  shown  at  the 
Healtheries  in  London,  but  those  at  Chicago  are  upon  a  much 
greater  scale  than  any  heretofore  attempted.  The  principle  of 
operation  is  that  of  throwing  a  powerful  beam  of  light  from  be- 


726 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


low  upward  along  the  axis  of  the  water  jet,  the  lamps  being 
placed  in  a  chamber  under  the  fountain  provided  with  a  trans- 
parent roof.  Color  effects  are  produced  by  the  interposition  of 
glass  screens  in  the  path  of  the  beam.  In  the  present 
fountains,  which  rise  from  basins  sixty  feet  in  diame- 
ter, the  underground  chamber  is  built  upon  piling,  a 
construction  rendered  necessary  by  the  shifting  sand 
foundation.  The  piling  is  of  unequal  length,  the 
shorter  piles  supporting  the  floor  structure,  and  the 
longer,  which  project  through  and  are  seen  as  pillars 
in  the  room,  the  roof.  The  water  nozzles  are  grouped 
to  form  nineteen  composite  jets,  and  as  many  power- 


FIG.  2. — ELECTRIC  FOUNTAINS. 


ful  reflectors  are  arranged  to  throw  a  beam  of  light  along  the 
axis  of  each  group.  It  is  estimated  that  the  beam  of  these  power- 
ful lights  has  a  luminous  intensity  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand candles.  The  size  of  the  fountains  may  be  appreciated  by 
the  fact  that  they  require  a  twenty-four-inch  supply  main  con- 


ELECTRICITY  AT   THE  WORLD'S   FAIR.  727 

veying  water  at  a  hundred  pounds  pressure,  and  have  a  consump- 
tion of  nearly  twenty-one  million  gallons  per  twenty-four  hours. 
The  central  jet  or  grand  geyser  formed  by  a  two-inch  stream  rises 
to  a  height  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  The  color  screens  are  in 
the  shape  of  fan  blades  arranged  to  rotate  horizontally,  and  are 
grouped  so  as  to  be  capable  of  producing  an  almost  unlimited 
combination  of  color  effects. 

If  any  demonstration  were  needed  of  the  capacity  of  the  elec- 
tric motor  to  take  the  place  of  steam  on  such  roads  as  the  ele- 
vated in  New  York  and  Chicago,  or  of  the  enormous  superiority 
of  electric  traction  in  the  matter  of  cleanliness,  comfort,  and 
freedom  from  noise,  the  intramural  would  furnish  it  to  the  satis- 
faction of  any  impartial  observer.  This  road  is  a  double-track 
elevated  structure  something  over  three  miles  in  length,  which 
forms  the  highway  of  communication  between  the  different  build- 
ings. It  is  purposely  laid  out  with  many  an  unnecessary  curve, 
to  accentuate  the  conditions  of  actual  travel,  and  demonstrate  the 
ability  of  electric  traction  to  do  its  work  satisfactorily  under 
extreme  conditions.  The  trains  are  made  up  of  a  motor  car  and 
three  trailers,  all  four  cars  being  arranged  to  seat  passengers,  the 
space  occupied  by  the  motorman  at  the  extreme  front  end  of  the 
motor  car  being  no  greater  than  that  of  the  ordinary  trolley  car. 
The  cars  are  open,  with  the  seats  extending  clear  across  the  car 
body,  each  pair  facing  upon  the  entrance  aisles.  These  aisles  are 
closed  by  sliding  gates,  which  are  connected  so  that  all  those  011 
one  side  of  the  car  may  be  opened  or  closed  at  the  same  time  by 
the  movement  of  a  lever  at  the  end  of  the  car.  This  construction 
might  be  very  readily  adapted  to  a  closed  car,  and  would  seem 
to  be  admirably  suited  to  cars  having  the  phenomenally  heavy 
traffic  of  those  on  the  elevated  roads  of  New  York.  A  very 
noticeable  feature  of  the  cars  is  the  perfection  of  the  lighting. 
Too  often,  when  electricity  has  been  called  upon  for  the  light- 
ing of  public  conveyances,  there  has  been  but  little  improvement 
over  former  results,  due  both  to  the  bad  habit  of  placing  the 
lights  in  the  aisle  spaces  and  stinting  in  the  candle  power.  In 
the  intramural  cars  particular  attention  has  been  paid  to  secur- 
ing abundant  light,  the  lamps  being  up  to  candle  power  and 
placed  in  the  most  effective  position  along  the  sides  near  the  car 
roof. 

The  electrical  equipment  of  the  motor  car  consists  of  four 
motors  having  a  combined  capacity  of  over  five  hundred  horse 
power.  These  are  geared  to  the  axles  by  a  single  reduction  gear, 
and  take  their  current  from  side  rails  through  the  medium  of  slid- 
ing shoes.  The  side  rail  was  adopted  in  preference  to  a  central 
one  on  account  of  the  greater  simplicity  of  the  switching  arrange- 
ments, the  facility  in  getting  at  the  contact  shoes,  and  the  very 


7z8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

limited  space  between  the  motor  and  road  bed  in  which  to  make 
a  satisfactory  rail  contact.  The  return  path  for  the  current  is 
through  the  traffic  rails  and  iron  girders  of  the  elevated  structure, 
the  rails  being  copper-banded  at  the  joints  and  joined  by  bands 
of  the  same  material  to  the  girders.  Feeder  rails  extend  from 
the  power  house  for  three  fifths  of  the  length  of  the  line  and  are 
cross  connected  to  the  supply  rails  at  every  rail  joint.  The  train 
equipment  of  the  road  consists  of  eighteen  trains,  weighing  when 
loaded  about  ninety-six  tons  each,  the  motor  car  accounting  for 
thirty  tons  of  this  weight  and  the  other  cars  for  twenty-two 
tons  each. 

The  central  figure  of  the  power-house  equipment  is  the  great 
two-thousand-horse-power  generator  from  the  shops  of  the  Gen- 
eral Electric  Company,  said  to  be  the  largest  machine  yet  built. 
It  occupies  the  middle  space  of  the  power  house  and  is  driven  by 
an  Allis-Corliss  cross-compound  engine,  which  is  a  duplicate  of 
the  one  in  the  Westinghouse  plant  in  Machinery  Hall.  It  is  a 
direct-current  machine  of  what  is  known  as  the  multipolar  type. 
This  is  a  type  of  machine  which  has  been  developed  in  recent 
years  in  response  to  the  increasing  demands  of  railway  power  and 
central  lighting  stations  for  larger  units  of  power.  In  machines 
of  the  power  desired  slow  speed  becomes  essential,  and  this  re- 
quirement has  resulted  in  radically  transforming  the  design  of 
the  dynamos.  The  two-pole  field  magnet,  common  in  all  machines 
a  few  years  back,  has  given  place  to  a  multipolar  one,  generally 
made  in  the  form  of  a  ring-shaped  yoke  with  inwardly  protrud- 
ing pole  pieces,  though  this  construction  has  been  reversed  in 
some  large  generators  constructed  by  Siemens,  in  which  the  field 
poles  radiate  from  a  central  hub,  and  the  armature,  made  in 
the  form  of  a  flattened  ring  or  band,  is  placed  on  the  outside, 
its  outer  surface  constituting  the  commutator  upon  which  the 
brushes  bear.  A  fine  example  of  this  machine  coupled  direct  to 
a  thousand-horse-power  triple-expansion  upright  engine  is  to  be 
seen  in  Machinery  Hall.  In  the  intramural  generator  the  field 
consists  of  two  massive  semicircles  of  cast  steel,  bolted  together, 
the  lower  of  which  is  provided  with  supporting  feet.  This  yoke  is 
fifteen  feet  in  diameter  and  three  broad  and  with  its  twelve  poles 
weighs  over  forty  tons.  The  armature  is  what  is  known  as  the 
ironclad  type,  and  is  ten  feet  and  a  half  in  diameter,  and  weighs 
complete  about  thirty-five  tons.  The  ironclad  type  of  armature 
now  used  upon  all  railway  motors  and  large  generators  is  a  com- 
paratively recent  development,  and  possesses  marked  advantages 
both  mechanically  and  electrically.  Its  characteristic  feature  is 
the  imbedding  of  the  coils  in  the  laminated  iron  core,  either  by 
forming  tubular  passages  through  this  core  near  the  edge  or  mak- 
ing it  with  open  slots  narrowed  at  the  mouth  to  securely  hold  the 


— ~ 


73o  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

coils  in  place.  It  has  the  mechanical  advantage  of  presenting  a 
smooth  exterior  surface  which  can  be  turned  true,  and  of  holding 
the  winding  in  such  a  way  that  it  can  not  become  displaced,  as  is 
possible  with  coils  wound  over  the  core  and  bound  in  place  by  a 
wrapping  of  wire.  Electrically  it  has  the  advantage  of  materially 
diminishing  the  air  gap — the  space  between  the  face  of  the  arma- 
ture and  the  field  poles — and  hence  allowing  the  coils  to  move  in 
an  intenser  magnetic  field.  The  armature  core  is  carried  by  a 
cast-iron  spider  weighing  over  fifteen  tons  which  is  keyed  directly 
to  the  shaft  of  the  driving  engine.  The  brush  holders,  of  which 
there  are  twelve  sets,  corresponding  to  the  number  of  field  poles, 
are  mounted  upon  a  yoke  supported  at  one  side  of  the  field  mag- 
net frame.  They  are  moved  into  position  by  means  of  a  shifting 
gear  operated  by  a  hand  wheel  and  are  readily  accessible  from  a 
stairway  passing  over  the  shaft.  The  machine  is  designed  to  run 
at  seventy-five  revolutions  a  minute  and  furnish  a  current  under 
a  pressure  of  six  hundred  volts.  It  has  an  electrical  capacity  of 
fifteen  hundred  kilowatts,  and  is  claimed  to  have  an  efficiency  of 
ninety-six  per  cent.  This  ponderous  machine  was  found  to  be 
much  too  large  and  heavy  to  be  shipped  in  its  complete  form,  and 
was  accordingly  forwarded  from  the  factory  in  parts  and  assem- 
bled upon  its  present  foundation. 

An  appreciation  of  its  size  and  capacity  may  be  gained  by  re- 
membering what  the  standards  of  size  were  only  ten  years  ago 
when  the  Edison  "Jumbo"  was  put  to  work  in  the  first  New 
York  Central  station.  This  machine,  which  created  a  veritable 
sensation  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1881  on  account  of  its  im- 
mense size,  required  only  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  horse  power 
to  drive  it  when  working  at  its  normal  load.  It  had  a  capacity 
of  less  than  one  hundred  kilowatts,  which  is  but  a  fifteenth  of 
that  of  the  present  "  Jumbo,"  and  weighed  very  much  more  in 
proportion  to  its  output.  It  is  to  be  seen  in  the  exhibit  of  the 
General  Electric  Company,  where  it  is  rightly  given  a  place  of 
honor  as  the  precursor  of  the  race  of  modern  direct-connected 
dynamos. 

While  a  motor  car  will  answer  admirably  for  the  lighter  forms 
of  electric  traction,  the  invasion  of  the  domain  of  the  steam  rail- 
road, which  electricians  are  already  contemplating,  will  necessi- 
tate the  design  and  construction  of  special  electric  locomotives. 
These  have  already  been  used  quite  largely  in  mine  work,  and  a 
number  of  electrical  constructors  have  designed  and  built  such 
machines  of  moderate  power,  but  the  first  one  of  any  considerable 
size  and  designed  for  high  speed  is  one  built  at  the  Lynn  shops 
of  the  General  Electric  Company  and  shown  in  the  Transporta- 
tion Building  at  the  Fair.  It  is  a  thirty-ton  locomotive  intended 
for  a  normal  speed  of  thirty  miles  per  hour,  and  is  of  sufficient 


ELECTRICITY   AT   THE  WORLD'S   FAIR. 


731 


power  for  light  passenger  and  freight  traffic.  It  is  mounted  on 
four  forty-four-inch  wheels  and  is  propelled  by  two  gearless 
motors  suspended  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the  wheels  free  to 
adjust  themselves  to  the  irregularities  of  the  roadbed.  This 
method  of  suspension  consists  in  mounting  the  motors  upon  spiral 
springs  resting  on  the  side  frames  of  the  locomotive  truck,  and 
the  armatures  upon  hollow  shafts  through  which  the  axles  of  the 
wheels  pass,  the  connection  between  the  two  being  made  by  uni- 


Fio.  4. — GENERAL  ELECTRIC  THIRTY-TON  ELECTRIC  LOCOMOTIVE. 

versal  couplings.  The  commodious  cab  is  constructed  of  sheet 
iron,  finished  in  the  interior  in  hard  woods,  and  is  given  a  curved 
shape  to  diminish  as  far  as  possible  the  air  resistance.  The  brak- 
ing power  is  furnished  by  compressed  air  supplied  by  a  special 
electrical  air  compressor,  and  the  whistle  is  operated  by  the  same 
means.  The  use  of  the  electric  locomotive  is  not  yet  practicable 
on  long  lines  on  account  of  the  great  cost  of  long  feeders,  but  this 
bar  to  its  employment  is  certain  to  be  overcome  in  time.  Wher- 


732  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ever  traffic  is  dense  and  the  distance  to  be  traversed  not  too  great, 
the  conditions  are  already  present  for  the  advent  of  this  form  of 
locomotive ;  and  when  we  recall  the  rapidity  with  which  city  and 
suburban  railways  have  spread,  we  can  not  doubt  that  once  the 
problems  of  electric  railway  engineering  are  worked  out,  and  the 
necessary  preliminary  work  of  demonstration  gone  through  with, 
we  will  witness  an  equally  rapid  extension  of  electric  traction  to 
the  steam  highways  of  the  world. 

Ever  since  Faure  started  electricians  on  the  quest  of  an  eco- 
nomical storage  battery,  the  peculiar  fitness  of  such  batteries  as  a 
source  of  power  for  pleasure  boats  has  been  recognized,  and  they 
have  frequently  been  used  for  such  purpose.  The  slow  develop- 


^*>^, 


! 


FIG.  5.—  ELECTKIC  LAUNCH. 

ment  of  this  type  of  battery  into  an  efficient  instrument,  the 
absence  of  any  means  of  getting  the  batteries  recharged,  and  the 
much  greater  cost  of  this  method  of  propulsion,  have  heretofore 
acted  to  effectually  prevent  its  adoption  by  the  owners  of  such 
craft.  But  after  riding  in  the  launches  of  the  exhibition  one  can 
not  help  but  wish  for  the  early  dawn  of  the  day  in  which  this 
ideal  method  of  water  propulsion  becomes  generally  available. 
The  exhibition  launches  are  of  a  very  graceful  model,  about 
thirty-six  feet  long  and  six  feet  breadth  of  beam.  They  are  de- 
signed to  carry  thirty  passengers,  and  have  motors  capable  of  ex- 
erting four  horse  power.  The  batteries  are  placed  beneath  the 
seats  and  flooring,  and  as  the  motor  is  also  beneath  the  flooring 
the  cockpit  is  clear  of  any  obstruction.  Each  launch  carries  sev- 
enty-eight battery  cells,  which,  by  appropriate  connections,  may 


ELECTRICITY  AT   THE  WORLD'S   FAIR.  733 

be  grouped  in  various  combinations.  For  the  regular  operation 
of  the  boats  the  cells  are  grouped  in  three  divisions  containing 
twenty-six  cells  each,  arranged  in  series. 

The  batteries  are  charged  for  a  run  of  ten  to  twelve  hours,  and 
are  then  recharged  at  the  power  station  of  the  fleet  in  from  five 
to  seven  hours.  The  launches  run  over  a  course  of  about  three 
miles,  at  a  speed  of  six  miles  an  hour,  and  make  landings  at  the 
principal  buildings,  all  of  which  front  upon  the  waterways. 

To  the  engineer  and  to  those  who  desire  to  know  the  trend  of 
electrical  development,  the  most  interesting  exhibit  at  the  Fair 
will  doubtless  be  the  apparatus  designed  to  show  the  long-dis- 
tance transmission  of  power.  Almost  at  the  beginning  of  the 
modern  electrical  era,  dreams  were  indulged  in  of  the  command 
which  electricity  was  to  give  us  of  the  natural  sources  of  power. 
Marcel  Deprez,  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1881,  had  in  operation 
a  system  of  power  transmission,  and  similar  attempts  have  been 
made  at  every  important  exposition  since,  the  most  elaborate  hav- 
ing been  that  at  the  Frankfort  Exposition  of  two  years  ago.  Of  the 
importance  of  the  economic  transmission  of  power  over  long  dis- 
tances there  can  not  be  two  opinions.  The  modern  world  has 
come  to  rest  down  upon  an  abundant  and  cheap  supply  of  power 
in  such  a  measure  that  without  it  civilization  itself  would  go  by 
the  board.  Statisticians  have  frequently  shown  that  the  coal  sup- 
ply, while  large  and  ample  for  present  needs,  is  not  only  exhaust- 
ible, but  is  being  encroached  upon  at  such  a  rate  as  to  make  its 
conservation  a  matter  of  grave  concern.  Electric  transmission  of 
power,  by  opening  up  to  civilization  the  enormous  supply  of 
power  of  the  waterfalls  and  running  streams  of  the  earth,  will  be 
able  to  postpone  indefinitely  the  evil  day  that  would  be  ushered 
in  by  the  failure  or  material  decrease  of  our  fuel  supply.  To  be 
of  avail,  however,  such  transmission  must  be  economical,  not  only 
in  the  percentage  of  utilizable  power  sent  through  the  line,  but  in 
the  investment  which  must  be  made  to  realize  it.  So  long  as  we 
were  dependent  upon  the  direct  current,  but  little  progress  could 
be  expected  in  this  important  problem.  It  has  only  been,  there- 
fore, in  the  last  few  years  that  the  art  was  ripe  for  the  taking  up 
of  this  subject  in  a  serious  spirit,  and  with  any  hope  of  a  real 
solution.  The  direct-current  dynamo,  handicapped  with  the  com- 
mutator, is  necessarily  limited  to  supplying  currents  of  relatively 
low  voltage;  the  economic  transmission  of  power  demands  the 
use  of  currents  of  small  volume  and  very  high  pressure.  This 
means  small  line  conductors,  and  hence  a  relatively  small  invest- 
ment. It  means  also  a  small  loss  in  heating  the  line,  since  the 
heating  power  of  the  current  varies  as  the  square  of  the  volume 
transmitted. 


734  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

It  is  only  by  the  alternating  system  of  distribution  that  we 
can  realize  this  essential  condition  of  economy.  We  have  here 
no  such  limit  to  the  electrical  pressure  in  the  generating  appa- 
ratus as  in  the  direct-current  system,  and  through  the  medium  of 
the  converter  it  becomes  possible  to  vary  the  two  elements  of  elec- 
trical energy — current  volume  and  pressure — to  suit  the  most  wide- 
ly differing  applications.  It  is  this  latter  feature  of  the  system 
which  gives  it  its  great  range  and  flexibility,  and  its  consequent 
economic  value.  It  enables  us,  for  instance,  to  generate  a  current 
of  a  certain  voltage  at  the  machine,  then  to  raise  this  to  ten,  twenty, 
or  fifty  times  the  original  pressure  for  transmission  through  the 
line,  and  then  at  the  far  end  to  step  down  to  as  low  a  pressure  as 
we  may  want — a  pressure  suitable  for  entering  dwellings,  offices, 
and  shops,  and  safe  in  the  hands  of  the  consumer.  These  suc- 
cessive transformations  and  retransformations,  it  should  be  noted, 
are  effected  in  the  simplest  kind  of  a  way.  They  involve  no  ma- 
chinery with  moving  parts,  but  simply  coils  of  wire  placed  in 
such  relation  to  each  other  that  the  currents  passing  in  one  in- 
duce similar  currents  in  the  other.  The  practical  value  of  this 
system  arose  with  the  discovery  that  the  induction  coil,  like  the 
dynamo,  is  reversible.  This  coil  had  long  been  used  to  transform 
a  current  of  considerable  volume  and  low  pressure  into  one  of 
very  great  pressure  and  small  volume.  The  construction  which 
enabled  this  to  be  done  consisted  in  making  the  primary  coil  with 
a  few  turns  of  stout  wire ;  and  the  secondary — that  on  which  the 
induced  current  was  produced — of  a  great  many  turns  of  fine 
wire.  It  was  presently  discovered,  however,  that  this  mode  of 
operation  might  be  reversed,  and  that,  by  passing  a  high-tension 
current  of  small  volume  through  many  turns  of  wire,  a  current 
of  large  volume  and  low  pressure  could  be  induced  in  a  secondary 
circuit  of  few  turns,  and  that  the  pressure  and  volume  of  the  in- 
duced current  in  relation  to  that  of  the  primary  one  depended 
only  on  the  relative  number  of  wire  turns  in  the  two  circuits. 
If,  for  instance,  the  primary  and  secondary  coils  contained  the 
same  number  of  turns,  the  pressure  and  volume  of  the  induced 
current  would  be  precisely  the  same  as  the  primary  one.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  induced  circuit  contained  ten  times  the  num- 
ber of  coils  of  the  primary,  the  current  in  it  would  have  a  tenth 
of  the  volume  and  ten  times  the  pressure  of  the  primary  one, 
while  if  the  relation  of  the  two  circuits  were  reversed  the  induced 
current  would  have  its  volume  increased  to  ten  times  and  its 
pressure  reduced  to  one  tenth  of  that  flowing  in  the  primary. 

In  the  field  of  lighting  this  method  of  electric  distribution  has 
taken  a  leading  place,  and  it  is  no  longer  questioned  that  it  is  des- 
tined to  displace  entirely  all  methods  of  direct-current  supply. 
It  has  heretofore  found  but  little  application  to  power  transmis- 


ELECTRICITY  AT   THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.  735 

sion,  because  it  has  lacked  the  prime  requisite  for  such  a  use — a 
satisfactory  motor.  This  missing  link  in  the  chain  of  appliances 
necessary  to  render  the  system  complete  has  in  recent  years  been 
supplied  by  the  discoveries  and  inventions  of  Mr.  Nikola  Tesla, 
whose  remarkable  experiments  with  alternating  currents  of  great 
tension  and  enormous  frequencies  have  excited  such  widespread 
interest  among  scientific  men.  To  understand  the  solution  given 
to  the  alternating-current  motor  problem  by  Mr.  Tesla  it  will  be 
necessary  to  consider  briefly  the  principle  of  the  electric  motor 
and  the  cause  of  the  rotation  of  an  armature  in  a  magnetic  field. 
If  we  take  a  loop  of  wire  forming  a  closed  circuit  and  place  it  be- 
tween the  poles  of  a  magnet  it  will  tend,  when  a  current  is  flow- 
ing through  it,  to  set  itself  so  as  to  inclose  the  greatest  number  of 
lines  of  force — that  is,  in  a  plane  at  right  angles  to  the  line  joining 
the  magnetic  poles.  If  the  mechanical  inertia  of  the  moving  loop 
carry  it  slightly  past  its  position  of  equilibrium,  and  at  the  same 
moment  the  current  through  the  loop  be  re  versed,  it  will  be  pulled 
around  by  the  attraction  of  the  magnetic  poles  to  a  new  position 
of  equilibrium ;  and  if  at  each  of  these  positions  there  takes  place 
a  reversal  of  the  current,  continuous  rotation  of  the  loop  will  be 
produced.  Where  there  are  many  loops,  as  in  actual  machines, 
the  pull  upon  the  moving  system  of  coils  tending  to  rotate  it  will 
be  continuous  and  equal  at  all  points  of  the  rotation,  as,  while 
some  coils  are  approaching  and  passing  through  the  position  of 
equilibrium,  others  are  in  position  to  have  exerted  upon  them  the 
maximum  strain.  The  pull  of  the  field  magnets  upon  the  moving 
conductors  is  greatly  increased  if  these  be  wound  over  an  iron 
center,  as  in  this  case  each  loop  tends  to  set  up  magnetic  poles  in 
this  core  in  a  position  at  right  angles  to  its  plane.  Two  magnetic 
poles  attract  each  other  when  of  different  polarity  and  repel  each 
other  when  of  the  same  polarity.  The  poles  of  the  iron  core  are 
consequently  repelled  and  attracted  by  the  field  poles  with  each 
change  of  the  direction  of  the  current,  and  this  occurs  in  exact 
synchronism  with  the  changing  forces  acting  upon  the  wire  cir- 
cuits. It  must,  of  course,  be  understood  that  with  a  continuous 
current  the  direction  of  the  current  in  space  is  always  the  same. 
The  alternating  current  impulses  set  up  in  the  armature  coils  of 
the  direct-current  dynamo  are  through  the  device  of  the  commu- 
tator made  to  follow  each  other  in  the  same  direction  through  the 
line.  Arriving  at  the  motor,  these  impulses  pursue  a  continuous 
course  through  the  armature  always  in  the  same  direction,  the 
positive  current  always  flowing  in  by  one  brush  and  the  negative 
out  by  the  other.  The  armature  coils,  however,  by  reason  of  their 
rotation,  present  their  two  ends  in  succession  to  the  positive  and 
negative  brushes,  and  hence  are  alternately  traversed  by  the  cur- 
rent in  reverse  directions.  If  now  the  commutator  be  suppressed 


736 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


on  both  generator  and  motor,  it  is  evident  that  the  armature  coils 
of  the  motor  will  be  traversed  by  successive  positive  and  negative 
electrical  impulses  at  just  the  right  time,  if  the  armature  rotates 
in  unison  with  that  of  the  generator,  as  both  armatures  then  pass 
through  like  portions  of  their  magnetic  fields  during  the  same 
current  phase.  If  these  alternating  current  impulses  are  not,  how- 
ever, properly  timed,  they  will  interfere  with  each  other  and  the 
motor  armature  will  not  rotate.  It  is  possible,  then,  to  utilize  the 
alternating-current  dynamo  as  a  motor,  but  only  on  the  con- 
dition that  it  runs  synchronously  with  the  generator.  Evi- 
dently it  must  first  be  brought  up  to  the  speed  of  the  generator 
before  the  conditions  are  realized  that  will  keep  it  in  motion. 
As  a  practical  motor  it  has  therefore  the  fatal  defect  that  it  will 
not  start  of  itself,  and  it  has  the  further  one  that  it  is  readily 
thrown  out  of  synchronism  by  a  slight  excess  of  load,  and  is  then 
speedily  brought  to  a  standstill. 

Clearly  an  apparatus  so  sensitive  as  this  could  not  be  relied 
upon  for  commercial  work  nor  expected  to  stand  as  a  solution  of 


FIG.  6. — DIAGRAM  ILLUSTRATING  PRINCIPLE  OF  TESLA  MOTOR. 

the  alternating-current  motor  problem.  When  Mr.  Tesla  took  up 
the  question  he  sought  for  a  new  principle  of  action  and  found 
it  in  what  has  since  come  to  be  known  as  the  multiphase  current. 
He  conceived  that  by  providing  the  armature  of  his  generator 
and  the  field  of  his  motor  with  two  more  sets  of  coils,  connected 
so  as  to  form  distinct  circuits,  he  would  be  able  to  produce  a  pro- 
gressive shifting  of  the  magnetic  poles  of  the  motor  field,  and 
thus  drag  around  an  armature  capable  of  magnetic  induction  and 
placed  within  the  sphere  of  influence  of  his  rotating  field.  This 


ELECTRICITY  AT  THE  WORLD'S  FAIR. 


737 


method  of  operation  will  be  clearly  understood  from  the  diagram- 
matic sketch  A  (Fig.  6)  and  the  illustration  (Fig.  7)  showing  a 
diagram  of  the  connections  of  the  motor  and  generator  circuits. 
Considering  the  latter  first,  M  is  the  motor  and  G  the  generator. 
The  armature  A  of  the  generator  is  wound  with  two  sets  of  coils, 
B  and  B',  brought  out  through  the  shaft  and  connected  with  the 
contact  rings  6  b  and  b'  &'.  The  field  magnet  of  the  motor  con- 
sists of  the  iron  ring  R,  also  wound  with  two  sets  of  coils,  C  C 


FIG.  7. — DIAGRAM  OF  TESLA  MOTOR  CONNECTIONS. 

and  C'  C',  the  diametrically  opposite  coils  being  connected  to- 
gether in  series.  The  generator  coils  B  and  the  motor  coils  C'  C' 
it  will  be  seen  are  included  in  one  circuit  L,  and  the  remaining 
generator  coils  B'  and  the  motor  coils  C  C  in  another  circuit  L'. 
The  armature  of  the  motor  consists  simply  of  a  disk  of  iron  cut 
away  at  the  sides,  which  becomes  a  magnet  by  induction  when 
the  motor  field  is  energized.  Turning  to  Fig.  6,  B  and  B'  repre- 
sent the  coils  of  the  generator  armature  and  C  and  C'  those  of 
the  motor  field  as  in  Fig.  7.  When  the  generator  coils  are  in  the 
position  shown  in  the  first  diagram  the  coil  B  is  generating  no 
current  and  B'  is  generating  its  maximum  amount.  The  coils  C 
of  the  motor  field,  which  are  included  in  the  circuit  of  B',  are 
therefore  traversed  by  their  greatest  current  and  produce  mag- 
netic poles  in  the  iron  ring  R  at  N  and  S.  As  the  generator  arma- 
ture revolves,  B  is  brought  to  a  position  in  which  it  is  generating 
current,  and  when  this  movement  amounts  to  one  eighth  of  a  revo- 
lution the  circle  will  be  in  the  position  shown  in  the  second  dia- 
gram of  the  figure.  Each  of  the  pair  of  coils  C  and  C'  will  now  tend 
to  set  up  poles  in  the  ring  R  of  the  motor  ninety  degrees  from  each 
other,  and  as  their  action  is  equal  and  opposite,  the  position  of  the 
poles  will  be  determined  by  the  resultant  of  the  magnetic  forces 
acting  on  the  ring,  and  the  poles  will  therefore  be  shifted  around 

VOL.    XLIII. — 53 


738  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  ring  an  eighth  of  a  revolution.  They  will  be  shifted  another 
eighth  when  the  generator  armature  reaches  the  position  shown 
in  the  last  diagram,  and  will  be  successively  displaced  around  the 
ring  R  as  this  armature  revolves  until  a  complete  revolution  has 
been  made,  when  the  parts  are  in  their  original  position  and  ready 
to  repeat  the  same  cycle  of  operations. 

The  principle  of  the  rotation  of  the  magnetic  poles  has  been 
applied  by  Mr.  Tesla  to  a  great  variety  of  constructions.  He  has 
designed  machines  in  which  the  field  magnetism  remains  fixed 
and  that  of  the  armature  is  shifted,  and  others  again  in  which 
there  is  a  progressive  shifting  of  the  magnetic  poles  of  both 
the  field  and  armature  in  opposite  directions.  He  has  also  found 
that  the  motor  armature  may  consist  of  sets  of  closed  coils,  cur- 
rents being  developed  in  them  by  induction,  and  by  making  the 
induced  portion  of  the  generator  stationary  and  the  field  revolv- 
ing he  has  been  able  to  produce  apparatus  free  from  all  movable 
electrical  contacts.  In  operating  motors  of  this  character  Mr. 
Tesla  usually  employed  a  generator  with  multiple  armature  cir- 
cuits as  described  above;  but  in  the  course  of  his  experiments 
he  discovered  that  the  ordinary  continuous  or  direct  current 
machine  could  by  slight  alterations  be  made  to  furnish  an  alter- 
nating multiphase  current  as  well  as  and  in  addition  to  the 
direct  current.  To  accomplish  this  he  found  it  was  only  neces- 
sary to  add  to  the  machine  a  pair  of  collector  rings  for  each 
circuit  of  the  multiphase  current,  and  connect  them  with  the 
proper  armature  coils.  If,  for  instance,  he  desired  to  produce 
a  two-phase  current  requiring  two  circuits  from  his  generator 
to  his  motor,  one  circuit  would  include  a  set  of  coils  in  the  arma- 
ture of  the  generator  that  were  passing  through  the  position  in 
which  the  maximum  current  was  being  produced,  and  the  other  a 
set  of  coils  in  which  at  the  same  time  the  minimum  current  was 
being  generated.  The  phases  of  the  current  would  then  follow  each 
other  in  the  same  order  as  in  the  previous  machines  with  distinct 
circuits  on  the  armature.  With  this  form  of  machine  a  multiple- 
phase  alternating  current,  it  will  be  seen,  can  be  taken  off  from 
the  collector  rings,  while  a  direct  current  can  be  taken  from  the 
commutator,  and  a  part  or  the  whole  of  this  direct  current  be 
sent  through  the  field  coils  to  energize  them  and  then  put  to  any 
use  for  which  such  currents  are  suitable. 

This  machine  was  later  developed  into  what  has  come  to  be 
known  as  a  rotary  transformer.  Instead  of  being  driven  by 
power  it  is  driven  by  one  of  the  forms  of  current  which  it  is 
capable  of  furnishing,  the  other  current  being  taken  off  and 
utilized.  For  example,  if  a  multiple-phase  current  is  passed 
into  the  machine  by  the  collector  rings  it  will  be  driven  as  a 
motor  and  generate  direct  or  continuous  currents.  If,  on  the 


ELECTRICITY  AT   THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.  739 

other  hand,  it  be  supplied  with  direct  currents,  it  will  also  run 
as  a  motor,  and  deliver  multiphase  alternating  currents.  This 
apparatus  promises  to  hold  an  important  place,  if  not  an  in- 
dispensable one,  in  any  complete  system  of  electric  distribu- 
tion. For  many  purposes,  such  as  electroplating  and  electro- 
typing  and  all  forms  of  electro-decomposition,  the  continuous 
current  is  essential,  and  for  other  uses,  in  the  present  state  of  the 
art,  it  can  not  well  be  dispensed  with.  One  of  these  uses  is  the 
operation  of  electric  railways.  The  alternating-current  motor, 
though  answering  many  of  the  requirements  of  a  commercial 
motor,  has  one  disadvantage  in  comparison  with  the  motor  driven 
by  direct  or  continuous  currents.  It  has  a  less  powerful  starting 
torque — that  is,  the  pull  upon  the  armature  tending  to  rotate  it  is 
much  less  at  the  start  than  in  the  direct-current  machine.  In 
railway  work  a  powerful  starting  torque  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance, as  a  motor  is  frequently  called  upon  to  exert  four  or  five 
times  the  power  in  starting  that  is  needed  to  keep  the  cars  in  mo- 
tion. Whether  the  direct-current  motor  will  continue  to  be  essen- 
tial for  railway  work  or  not,  it  is  evident  that  a  device  which 
enables  either  direct  or  alternating  currents  to  be  supplied  to  the 
consumer  at  will  must  add  much  to  the  flexibility  and  complete- 
ness of  any  system  of  distribution.  With  the  apparatus  as  at 
present  worked  out  it  is  possible  to  place  a  generating  dynamo  at 
the  source  of  power,  say  a  waterfall  twenty  miles  away,  produce 
with  this  multiphase  alternating  currents,  raise  the  potential  of 
these  to  any  desired  amount  by  means  of  a  step-up  converter, 
pass  them  through  the  line,  and  then  at  the  distribution  end  re- 
duce them  through  the  medium  of  a  step-down  converter  to  any 
suitable  pressure.  These  reduced  currents  may  then  be  used 
direct  for  operating  alternating-current  motors,  for  running  in- 
candescent or  arc  lamps,  and,  through  the  medium  of  the  rotary 
transformer,  direct  currents  may  be  obtained  for  operating  street 
railways  and  other  continuous-current  motors,  both  classes  of 
lights,  and  all  kinds  of  chemical  decomposition  apparatus.  It 
might  be  supposed  that  the  multiphase  system  of  alternating  cur- 
rents was  a  departure  away  from  the  direction  of  line  economy, 
so  necessary  a  consideration  in  long-distance  transmission,  since 
this  system  requires  two  or  more  circuits.  This,  however,  is  not 
the  case.  It  was  early  discovered  by  Mr.  Tesla  that  the  multiple 
circuits  could  have  a  common  return  wire,  and  it  appears  that 
the  amount  of  copper  in  the  combined  circuits  is  actually  less 
than  in  the  single  circuit  required  for  the  ordinary  single-phase 
current. 

The  value  of  the  departure  in  alternating  apparatus  made  by 
Mr.  Tesla  has  been  very  generally  appreciated  in  the  electrical 
world,  and  electric  companies,  both  in  this  country  and  abroad, 


74o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

have  set  themselves  the  task  of  working  out  complete  systems  of 
apparatus  along  the  lines  laid  down  by  him.  The  Westinghouse 
Company,  which  early  secured  control  in  this  country  of  Mr.  Tes- 
la's  inventions,  has  developed  a  system  using  a  two-phase  current^ 
while  the  other  considerable  American  company,  the  "General 
Electric,"  has  worked  out  a  system  employing  a  three-phase  cur- 
rent, which  form  of  current  has  also  been  adopted  by  the  Allge- 
meine  Elektricitats  Gesellschaft  of  Berlin.  All  these  companies 
make  an  exhibit  of  this  class  of  apparatus  at  the  exposition,  ar- 
ranged to  show  the  system  in  operation.  The  exhibits  of  the  two 
chief  American  companies  are  substantially  the  same,  differing 
mainly  in  the  character  of  current  used.  Each  shows  the  genera- 
tion of  multiphase  currents,  their  transmission  to  the  point  of 
distribution,  and  their  utilization  in  alternating  and  direct  current 
apparatus. 

How  completely  the  problem  of  the  distribution  of  electrical 
power  over  long  distances  has  been  solved  by  this  system,  and  to 
what  extent  we  may  expect  to  see  it  pass  into  commercial  use,  ex- 
perience alone  can  determine.  Disregarding  its  future  utility, 
when  we  will  perforce  be  driven  to  the  utilization  of  natural 
powers,  and  looking  only  to  the  immediate  present,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  that  its  adoption  will  be  primarily  determined  by  the 
cost  of  operating  local  steam  plants.  Where  fuel  is  abundant, 
and  hence  cheap,  there  will  be  little  inducement  to  resort  to 
sources  of  power  at  a  distance,  but  in  all  situations  in  which  this 
condition  does  not  obtain,  and  water  power  is  to  be  had  within  a 
reasonable  distance,  electric  power  transmission  will  find  a  field, 
and  one  which  will  constantly  widen  with  experience.  While 
the  utilization  of  water  powers  is  the  most  obvious  use  for  electric 
power  transmissions,  and  certainly  its  most  immediate  one,  it  is 
quite  possible  that  it  will  not  prove  to  be  the  only  one.  As  is 
well  known,  a  large  part  of  the  cost  of  coal  to  the  consumer  is  the 
expense  of  hauling  it  from  the  mines.  It  has  been  often  pointed 
out  that  if  the  coal  could  be  burned  at  the  pit's  mouth  and  its 
energy  transmitted  to  the  place  of  use  there  might  result  a  great 
saving,  but  any  economical  method  of  doing  this  has  heretofore 
been  wanting.  The  suggestion  has  many  times  been  made  to 
convert  the  coal  into  gas  and  distribute  this,  but  the  cost  of  pip- 
ing has  heretofore  rendered  this  method  of  eliminating  the  cost  of 
railroad  carriage  impracticable.  It  would  seem,  however,  to  be 
quite  within  the  range  of  practical  possibilities  to  find  in  electric 
transmission  an  efficient  and  economic  method. 

[To   be  concluded,] 


THE  DUTY   OF   THE  STATE   TO    THE  INSANE.     741 
THE  DUTY  OF  THE  STATE  TO  THE  INSANE. 

Br  DR.  ANDREW  MACFARLANE. 

~T  UNACY  legislation  in  the  State  of  New  York  has  been 
J-^  marked  by  two  recent  acts  which  are  among  the  noblest 
monuments  of  the  State's  generosity,  as  well  as  witnesses  of  a 
scientific  appreciation  of  the  needs  of  the  unfortunate  class  who 
are  affected  by  them. 
These  acts  are : 

1.  The  change  in  the  titles  of  these  State  institutions  from 
lunatic  asylums  to  that  of  State  hospitals. 

2.  The  State  care  of  the  chronic  insane. 

The  first  is  the  natural  outcome  of  modern  ideas  on  the  sub- 
ject of  insanity,  which  is  now  regarded  not  as  a  manifestation  of 
the  evil  one,  but  as  a  disease  of  the  brain,  affecting  it  in  the  same 
way  as  pleurisy  affects  the  pleura  or  peritonitis  the  peritoneum, 
and  that  those  suffering  from  mental  disease  should  be  treated 
not  as  criminals  or  dangerous  madmen  but  as  very  sick  people. 

The  second  is  a  grand  philanthropic  work,  proving  that  the 
State  cares  for  even  the  most  unfortunate  of  her  children,  and 
seeks  to  soften  as  much  as  possible  their  sad  lot. 

The  time  is  fortunately  past  when  these  measures  required 
advocates,  and  to-day  it  is  necessary  to  keep  in  view  only  what 
are  the  best  means  for  carrying  to  a  successful  issue  both  of  these 
measures,  and  to  consider  if  in  any  way  the  one  tends  to  render 
the  other  less  successful. 

The  fact  that  it  is  thought  the  saddest  affliction  which  can 
befall  mankind,  that  it  affects  all  grades  of  society,  that  three  out 
of  every  thousand  are  its  victims,  makes  the  consideration  of  the 
care  of  the  insane,  from  the  purely  scientific,  the  philanthropic, 
or  the  economic  standpoint,  a  subject  worthy  of  the  most  serious 
thought  and  of  the  deepest  interest  to  all.  To-day  (May,  1893) 
there  are  in  the  State  of  New  York  17,814  insane  patients  under 
legal  certificates  of  commitment  in  thirty -two  public  or  private 
asylums,  whose  buildings  and  equipments  have  cost  $17,500,000, 
where  2,900  people  are  employed,  and  which  are  maintained  at 
an  annual  cost  of  $3,500,000. 

This  huge  creation  is  the  work  of  less  than  fifty  years,  for  in 
1843  the  Utica  Asylum,  the  first  State  institution  for  the  insane, 
was  opened  for  the  reception  of  patients.  Bloomingdale  Asylum, 
a  private  institution,  had,  however,  been  in  successful  operation 
for  many  years,  and  was  then  in  receipt  of  an  annual  grant  from 
the  State,  and  the  asylum  on  Blackwell's  Island  began  in  1842  to 
care  for  the  insane  in  New  York  city. 

The  erection  of  the  Utica  Asylum  marked  the  first  decided  step 


742  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

in  the  humanitarian  care  of  the  insane  by  the  State  and  the  recog- 
nition of  the  obligation  of  the  State  to  these  unfortunates.  It 
was  designed  that  the  Utica  Asylum  should  receive  all  the  recent 
cases  of  insanity.  Those  who,  after  a  period  of  treatment,  were 
deemed  incurable  were  to  be  returned  to  the  county  houses,  thus 
making  room  for  all  the  recent  cases.  This  condition  lasted  until 
1865,  when  public  opinion,  shocked  and  horrified  by  the  treatment 
in  almshouses  of  the  chronic  insane,  who  then  numbered  1,300, 
demanded  that  these,  the  most  wretched  of  all  God's  creatures, 
should  receive  at  least  kindly  care.  The  Willard  Asylum  was 
therefore  established  in  1865  for  the  care  of  the  chronic  insane, 
who  were  to  be  there  maintained  at  the  lowest  rate  conformable 
with  a  plain,  simple  diet  and  humane  care.  All  the  counties  were 
required  to  send  their  chronic  insane  to  the  Willard  Asylum 
except  those  which  furnished  suitable  maintenance  for  them. 
Twenty  counties,  largely  because  of  inadequacy  of  accommoda- 
tions in  State  institutions,  were  accordingly  temporarily  exempted 
from  the  operation  of  this  act.  The  State,  however,  continued  to 
build  State  asylums :  at  Poughkeepsie  in  1870 ;  at  Middletown  in 
1874 ;  at  Buffalo  in  1880 ;  at  Binghamton,  the  State  Inebriate  Asy- 
lum, first  used  as  a  State  asylum,  in  1879 ;  and  the  St.  Lawrence 
Asylum  in  1890. 

The  State  asylum  for  insane  criminals,  formerly  at  Auburn, 
now  at  Matteawan,  has  not  been  considered  in  the  following  sta- 
tistics, as  the  conditions  there,  on  account  of  the  character  of  the 
patients,  are  peculiar  to  itself  and  different  from  the  other  State 
hospitals. 

The  same  general  principle  was  carried  into  effect  in  their 
design — that  is,  the  Utica,  Poughkeepsie,  Buffalo,  and  Middle- 
town  asylums  were  for  the  recent  cases,  while  the  chronic  incura- 
ble cases  were  sent  to  the  Willard  and  Binghamton  asylums.  The 
reason  for  this  was  the  recognition  of  the  difference  in  the  require- 
ments of  these  two  classes  of  patients — the  acute  and  the  chronic 
insane.  The  acute  insane  are  often  dangerously  sick,  and  should 
receive  all  the  strictly  medical  care  and  attention  which  the  char- 
acter of  their  mental  disease  demands,  the  custodial  supervision 
being  here  entirely  secondary  and  kept  as  much  as  possible  in  the 
background.  The  chronic  insane  are  incapable  of  living  at  home, 
and  almost  no  hope  of  their  recovery  is  entertained.  These  re- 
quire custodial  care,  with  incidental  medical  supervision.  Their 
care  is  purely  a  question  of  sociology,  of  interest  to  the  philan- 
thropist rather  than  the  physician.  The  supervising  spirit,  how- 
ever, must  always  be  medical,  as  only  a  scientifically  trained  mind 
can  properly  appreciate  the  influence  of  surroundings  on  their 
welfare,  and  can  wisely  and  humanely  classify  them  as  their 
mental  condition  gradually  changes. 


THE  DUTY   OF  THE  STATE   TO    THE  INSANE.     743 

This  difference,  too,  is  most  strikingly  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  average  weekly  cost  per  patient  in  the  acute  asylums  was 
$5.29,  while  in  the  Willard  and  Binghamton  asylums  for  the 
chronic  insane  it  was  less  than  half  that  amount,  or  about  $2.60. 
The  ratio  of  physicians  to  patients  in  the  acute  asylums  was  1  to 
110,  while  in  the  chronic  asylums  it  was  1  to  272.  The  recovery 
rate  on  average  daily  population  was  twenty  per  cent  in  the  acute 
asylums,  while  in  the  chronic  it  was  two  per  cent.  The  average 
recovery  rate  on  admissions  was  about  thirty-three  per  cent  in 
acute  asylums  and  about  five  per  cent  in  chronic  asylums.* 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  State  had  built  many  new  asylums, 
the  number  of  insane  patients  in  the  State  increased  more  rapidly 
than  the  accommodations  provided  for  them.  The  counties  also 
found  it  more  economical  to  abuse,  under  the  guise  of  care,  many 
of  their  own  chronic  insane.  The  result,  therefore,  was  that  the 
number  of  these  unfortunates  in  county  houses  had  in  1889  in- 
creased to  2,200.  Their  condition  was  most  pitiable,  and  the 
recital  of  what  they  were  subjected  to  carries  one  back  to  the 
barbarities  practiced  in  the  middle  ages  and  by  savage  tribes. 
The  Charities  Aid  Association,  President  Craig  of  the  State 
Board  of  Charities,  and  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  then  State  Commis- 
sioner in  Lunacy,  kept  for  three  years  nobly  at  the  work  of  mak- 
ing public  this  disgrace  and  blot  on  our  civilization.  Finally,  in 
1890,  the  present  State  care  act,  the  consummation  of  their  en- 
deavors and  those  of  the  present  commission  in  lunacy  created 
in  1889,  became  a  law.  This  State  care  act  calls  for  the  removal 
of  all  the  insane  patients  from  county  houses  to  State  hospitals 
and  their  care  therein.  New  York  and  Kings  (Brooklyn)  Coun- 
ties are  exempted  from  this  act,  as  they  are  considered  to  furnish 
suitable  accommodations  distinct  from  their  poorhouses  for  their 
insane.  The  State  has  been  divided  into  districts,  and  each  hos- 
pital has  its  own  district,  from  which  it  draws  all  the  patients, 
both  acute  and  chronic,  thus  making  all  the  State  hospitals  of 
the  same  character — that  is,  mixed  hospitals  for  the  care  of  both 
the  acute  and  chronic  insane,  instead  of  hospitals  for  the  acute 
cases  and  asylums  for  the  chronic  incurable  cases. 

In  order  to  furnish  accommodations  for  this  large  increase  to 
the  State  hospital  population,  it  has  been  designed  and  is  now  be- 
ing carried  out  to  erect  cheap  buildings  as  annexes  to  the  pres- 
ent State  hospitals  on  the  hospital  grounds  at  a  cost  of  $550  per 
patient.  These  buildings  are  intended  for  the  more  easily  man- 
aged chronic  cases,  and  will  enable  the  State  to  care  for  the  2,200 
insane  patients  who  were  inmates  of  county  houses  before  this 

*  Many  of  the  recoveries  in  chronic  asylums  were  of  acute  cases  of  insanity  in  persons 
living  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  asylum. 


744  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

act  went  into  effect.  Each  hospital  is  allowed  $4.25  per  week  for 
the  first  three  years  of  residence  of  each  patient,  and  $2.50  per 
week  for  any  period  beyond  three  years.  It  is  also  intended  that 
one  assistant  physician  should  be  assigned  'to  every  two  hundred 
patients. 

The  thought  now  arises,  What  kind  of  medical  care  do  insane 
patients  require,  and  what  has  and  will  be  the  effect  of  this  huge 
influx  of  chronic  incurable  insane  upon  the  true  object  of  a  State 
hospital,  the  cure  of  the  insane  ? 

The  demand  for  and  the  recognition  of  the  need  of  a  more  dis- 
tinctively medical  care  for  the  insane  is  shown  by  the  change  in 
the  titles  of  institutions  for  the  insane  from  asylums,  a  place  of 
refuge,  to  hospital,  a  place  of  cure;  a  movement  which  is  so  gen- 
eral as  not  to  be  due  to  any  local  cause  or  influence,  and  also  in 
the  recent  pleas  of  some  prominent  alienists  that  the  acute  insane 
should  receive  the  same  kind  of  medical  care  as  patients  suffering 
from  any  other  acute  ailment.  The  latter  go  so  far  as  to  advise 
the  establishment  of  a  hospital  for  the  acute  insane  on  the  same 
lines  as  those  of  any  general  hospital,*  with  its  visiting  staff  and 
thorough  attention  to  all  physical  disorders  in  addition  to  the 
mental  disease. 

To-day  the  solution  of  this  question  lies  either  in  a  general 
hospital  for  the  acute  insane  or  in  the  hospitalizing  of  the  old 
asylum  or  part  of  it.  A  general  hospital  for  the  acute  insane 
would  not,  I  believe,  be  advisable,  and  could  not  be  properly  con- 
ducted except  in  the  large  centers  of  population  where  there  are 
many  specialists  in  insanity.  The  duration  of  the  illness,  the 
need  at  certain  stages  of  the  disease  of  diversion  or  occupation, 
because  there  comes  a  time  when  such  influences  are  most  power- 
ful for  good,  the  difficulty  of  determining  at  once  whether  the 
disease  is  curable  or  not,  thus  tending  to  overcrowd  such  an  insti- 
tution or  necessitating  frequent  changes ;  all  these  would  make 
impracticable  such  an  institution.  Then,  too,  the  fact  that  in  our 
present  State  hospitals  most  of  the  patients  come  from  small  cities 
or  the  country,  where  there  are  poor  or  no  hospital  facilities  and 
certainly  no  specialists,  would  necessitate  the  erection  of  many 
special  small  hospitals  in  these  places  or  the  transference  of  these 
patients  to  large  cities  with  all  the  attendant  ill  effects — noise,  ex- 
citement, and  close  quarters. 

But  that  acute  cases  of  insanity,  however,  need  some  kind  of 
hospital  treatment  is  evident.  No  less  an  authority  than  Dr.  J. 
Batty  Tuke  has  thus  written :  "  The  subjects  of  most  of  the  insani- 


*  By  general  hospital  in  this  connection  is  meant  a  hospital  constructed  on  the  same 
lines  as  other  hospitals  for  special  diseases  or  the  establishment  of  special  wards  in  a  large 
general  hospital. 


THE  DUTY   OF  THE  STATE   TO    THE  INSANE.     745 

ties  are  very  sick  people  indeed,  for,  in  the  first  place,  they  are  in 
danger  of  their  lives ;  and,  in  a  second,  they  are  in  imminent  dan- 
ger of  lapsing  into  that  living  death,  terminal  dementia.  Each 
case,  under  circumstances  of  curative  rest  and  calm,  requires 
special  hospital  treatment,  conducted  on  identically  the  same 
principles  as  those  that  regulate  practice  in  our  general  infirm- 
aries, and  conducted  under  similar  conditions  as  regards  rest, 
nursing,  and  therapeutic  agents.  The  existing  system  of  asylum 
structure,  management,  and  treatment  makes  this  almost  unat- 
tainable. No  class  of  cases  requires  the  attention  of  trained 
nurses  more  than  subjects  of  recent  insanity/' 

Can  the  present  State  hospitals  provide  such  accommodations 
and  give  such  care  as  Dr.  Tuke  claims  the  acute  insane  for  their 
proper  treatment  need  ?  I  believe  they  can,  and  also  that  the  ac- 
commodation and  care  there  provided  could  be  made  far  better 
than  any  that  might  be  furnished  in  an  institution  established 
exclusively  on  the  lines  of  a  general  hospital. 

Unfortunately,  Dr.  Tuke's  charge  that  "  the  existing  system  of 
asylum  structure,  management,  and  treatment  makes  the  medical 
care  of  the  insane  almost  unattainable,"  is  alas  too  true.  The 
erection  of  palatial  buildings,  which  would  be  grand  and  magnifi- 
cent monuments  to  an  architect's  skill,  a  State's  pride,  or  a  physi- 
cian's ambition,  has  too  often  predominated  over  modest,  simple 
structures,  which  could  be  rendered  homelike  and  natural  to  the 
inmates.  The  fact  is  that  though  millions  of  dollars  have  been 
appropriated  for  the  care  of  the  insane,  and  thousands  of  capable 
men  have  spent  their  lives  in  this  line  of  work,  very  little  has 
been  discovered  in  America  about  the  real  nature  of  insanity,  and 
to-day  the  whole  subject  is  a  terra  incognita  whose  shores  have 
scarcely  been  touched,  and  which  furnishes  a  number  of  the  most 
difficult  but  yet  the  most  intensely  interesting  problems  to  be 
solved.  This  condition  is  the  result  not  of  a  want  of  ability  or 
investigating  spirit  among  asylum  physicians,  but  is  the  natural 
outcome  of  a  system  which  so  handicaps  them  with  extraneous 
duties  as  to  render  long-continued  original  medical  work  almost 
impossible. 

A  physician  has  under  his  care  on  the  average  more  than  two 
hundred  patients,  both  acute  and  chronic.  The  desire  to  get  as 
many  of  these  as  possible  engaged  in  suitable  occupation,  the 
wish  to  make  the  unhappy  lot  of  the  chronic  insane  a  little 
brighter  by  entertainments  of  various  kinds,  the  routine  history- 
writing,  the  correspondence,  the  attention  to  the  visits  of  the 
friends  of  this  large  number  of  patients — all  of  which,  needful  and 
necessary  in  their  way,  make  so  many  demands  on  the  physician's 
time  that  medical  work  becomes  necessarily  secondary  and  the 
administrative  duties  the  more  important  work. 


746  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Though  legislative  enactment  has  made  all  asylums  hospitals 
in  name,  it  has  not  accomplished  this  in  fact.  To-day  the  tend- 
ency of  the  State  care  act,  though  noble  and  generous  in  its  in- 
ception, has  been  to  make  the  hospital  treatment  of  the  curable 
insane  almost  impossible,  or  at  least  most  difficult.  It  has  crowded 
all  the  State  hospitals  with  a  mass  of  patients  for  whom  nothing 
medically  can  be  done,  thus  essentially  interfering  with  proper 
classification.  It  compels  the  placing  of  recent,  curable,  mania- 
cal, and  suicidal  cases  with  old  chronic  patients  who  are  violent, 
destructive,  and  filled  with  all  kinds  of  delusions  of  persecution 
and  various  hallucinations.  These  tend  not  only  to  strengthen 
the  newcomers  in  their  own  morbid  ideas,  but  to  implant  many 
new  ones.  Their  influence  on  the  terrified,  depressed,  and  deluded 
is  especially  pernicious.  It  is  not  necessary  to  paint  a  word-pic- 
ture of  the  sad  effect  of  such  surroundings  on  these  sufferers. 
Every  asylum  physician  has  been  deeply  touched  by  the  descrip- 
tions by  recovered  patients  of  the  shock  upon  them  on  admission 
of  their  surroundings;  the  shouts  of  their  neighbors,  the  inde- 
scribable fear  of  other  patients,  the  frightful  thought,  "  This  will 
be  my  fate,"  the  baneful  remarks  of  mischievous  patients  present 
in  every  institution  who,  with  show  of  sympathy,  say  to  the  hy- 
persensitive newcomer,  "  Such  a  one  has  been  detained  here  these 
many  years,  and  doubtless  you  will  be." 

These  are  not  argument-made  examples,  but  exist  in  every 
State  hospital.  They  not  only  influence  temporarily  the  imagina- 
tion, but  often  do  irremediable  damage  to  the  mind.  The  Penn- 
sylvania State  Lunacy  Report,  in  considering  this  subject,  says : 
"  The  acute  are  often  heard  to  allude  with  horror  to  the  condition 
of  the  chronic  patients,  dwelling  most  painfully  upon  the  immi- 
nent probability  of  soon  becoming  hopelessly  lost  to  home,  friends, 
and  society,  and  of  passing  the  remainder  of  their  lives  in  similar 
seclusion.  Like  begets  like,  and  as  the  population  of  any  hospital 
for  the  insane  is  chiefly  chronic,  there  being  relatively  only  a 
limited  number  of  acute  cases  scattered  through  the  various 
wards,  this  evil  association  must  rob  society  of  many  a  useful  and 
productive  citizen  by  placing  him  in  daily  contact  with  those 
who  mar  his  chances  for  recovery."  These  are  the  mental  and 
moral  effects  of  such  intercourse. 

The  chronic  insane  by  the  mere  force  of  numbers  also  influence 
too  much  the  character  of  the  management  of  a  State  hospital  and 
turn  it  from  its  true  work,  the  cure  of  the  insane.  They  consti- 
tute more  than  nine  tenths  of  the  entire  number  of  patients  in 
every  mixed  asylum,  and  receive  more  attention  and  care  than  the 
character  of  their  condition  demands,  thus  depriving  the  curable 
insane,  who  are  less  than  one  tenth  the  number,  of  much  of  what 
the  hopefulness  and  acuteness  of  their  sickness  needs  and  requires. 


THE  DUTY   OF  THE  STATE   TO    THE  INSANE.     747 

In  justice,  it  must  be  said  that  every  asylum  physician  seeks 
to  give  the  acute  cases  the  larger  part  of  his  time,  but  the  press  of 
other  matters,  non-medical,  so  encroach  upon  his  time  that  he 
usually  finds  that  he  has  neglected,  or  at  least  has  not  done  as 
much  for  them  as  he  might  have  accomplished  under  other  cir- 
cumstances. What,  then,  are  these  other  circumstances,  and  how 
can  a  State  hospital  take  better  care  of  acute  cases  than  a  general 
hospital  ? 

Let  us  take,  for  example,  a  State  hospital  of  one  thousand  pa- 
tients. The  staff  would  consist  of  a  medical  superintendent,  five 
assistant  physicians,  and  a  woman  physician.  In  a  hospital  of 
that  capacity  there  would  never  be  more  than  one  hundred  patients 
who  would  be  considered  curable,  and  the  number  would  probably 
not  exceed  sixty.  More  than  nine  hundred  patients  would  be 
hopelessly  incurable,  for  the  most  part  the  wrecks  of  past  disease, 
who  practically  need  nothing  but  kindly  custodial  care  with  inci- 
dental medical  treatment.  Two,  or  at  most  three,  physicians 
could  easily  do  all  that  a  humanitarian  spirit  might  deem  neces- 
sary for  such  a  number  of  this  class  of  patients.  Three  or  four 
physicians  would  thus  be  left  to  devote  themselves  to  the  curable 
patients.  Instead  of  constructing  annexes  for  the  harmless 
patients,  let  these  be  lodged  and  cared  for  in  the  huge  barracks- 
like  main  buildings,  the  creation  and  legacy  of  a  former  genera- 
tion. Then  erect  at  suitable  distances  from  the  main  building 
three  or  four  houses  for  the  treatment  of  the  curable  patients. 
These  should  be  built  simply  and  comfortably,  so  constructed  as 
to  do  away  with  the  huge  institutional  feeling  and  to  give  them 
a  homelike  appearance,  and  so  furnished  as  to  take  away  as  much 
as  possible  all  indications  of  confinement  and  restraint.  They 
should  contain  no  wards,  but  plainly  furnished  single  rooms  with 
sitting-rooms,  thus  permitting  the  utmost  privacy,  with  the  op- 
portunity of  intercourse  when  deemed  beneficial. 

Here  the  real  medical  work  of  the  hospital  should  be  done,  and 
no  labor  should  be  spared  which  would  in  any  way  tend  to  the 
recovery  of  a  patient  or  help  to  solve  any  of  the  unknown  prob- 
lems of  insanity. 

Electricity,  massage,  baths  of  all  kinds,  thorough  examination 
of  the  blood  and  the  various  excretions,  the  use  of  the  sphygmo- 
graph  and  ophthalmoscope,  together  with  a  very  thorough  phys- 
ical examination  would  easily  and  most  profitably  keep  employed 
the  number  of  physicians  assigned  to  the  acute  cases.  For  it  is  in 
this  acute  and  presumably  curable  period  that  the  case  should 
have  everything  that  medical  skill  and  unremitting  attention 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  can  confer.  The  disease 
must  be  arrested  in  this  beginning  stage  if  it  be  in  our  power  to 
arrest  it. 


748  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  nurses,  too,  should  be  especially  selected  for  this  service 
among  the  curable  insane.  Those  who  have,  by  work  among  the 
chronic  insane,  shown  that  they  possess  the  aptitude  and  tact  neces- 
sary to  care  intelligently  for  such  patients  could  easily  be  select- 
ed for  this  special  work.  Then  with  these  nurses  could  be  placed 
several  nurses  who  have  had  general  hospital  training  and  who 
would  therefore  be  more  apt  to  regard  insane  patients  from  the 
purely  medical  side.  The  number  of  nurses,  too,  should  depend 
upon  the  need  of  each  case ;  if  necessary,  a  single  nurse  should  be 
assigned  to  a  patient,  though  this,  probably,  would  rarely  be 
required.  The  criterion,  however,  should  be,  What  will  be  most 
helpful  in  a  curative  way  to  the  patient  ?  The  nurses  would  thus 
feel  the  great  importance  of  the  work  they  were  doing,  because 
every  case  would  be  considered  as  a  curable  case,  and  there  is  no 
greater  incentive  to  good  work  than  the  feeling  that  the  work  is 
of  great  value.  By  a  slight  increase  in  the  wages  in  addition  to 
the  importance  attached  to  the  work,  the  very  best  nurses  em- 
ployed in  the  hospital  could  be  secured  for  this  work,  and  easily 
made  most  enthusiastic  about  it.  The  effect  also  upon  the  medi- 
cal staff  would  be  most  beneficial.  Any  one  who  has  seen  the 
tendency  to  the  undermining  of  the  medical  spirit  in  talented, 
brilliant,  and  ambitious  physicians  who  have  accepted  State  hos- 
pital positions,  will  appreciate  the  importance  of  anything  that 
would  increase  the  medical  spirit  in  State  hospitals. 

In  a  discussion  before  the  British  Medico-Psychological  Society 
on  the  subject  How  can  the  medical  spirit  best  be  kept  up  in 
asylums  for  the  insane  ?  the  following  means  were  most  strongly 
dwelt  upon : 

1.  Classification — that  is,  separation  of  the  curable  from  the 
incurable  asylum  population. 

2.  Necessity  for  hospital  treatment  for  the  curable. 

3.  Necessity  for  training  the  attendants. 

4.  Necessity  for  more  physicians  to  asylums,  and  a  rearrange- 
ment of  their  duties. 

Such  purely  medical  treatment  of  the  curable  insane  can  be 
best  carried  out  in  annexes  to  the  present  State  hospitals  and 
under  the  same  management.  The  State  in  each  State  hospital 
has  a  most  valuable  plant,  with  large,  handsome  grounds,  conven- 
iently situated  to  the  section  of  country  from  which  it  receives  its 
patients.  They  are  in  charge  of  well-equipped  and  competent 
medical  officers  who  have  given  their  lives  to  this  work,  and  es- 
pecially appreciate  the  needs  of  this  class  of  patients.  Then,  too, 
there  is  the  body  of  trained  nurses  from  whom  the  special  nurses 
could  be  selected.  There  are  also  in  existence  various  industries 
and  means  of  amusement,  which,  though  hurtful  in  certain  stages 
for  some,  might  be  and  are  used  with  great  advantage  in  the  con- 


THE  DUTY   OF   THE  STATE   TO    THE  INSANE.     749 

valescing  period  when  the  acute  insane  are  not  so  susceptible  to 
morbid  influences.  But  most  important,  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  determining  at  once  in  some  cases  the  curability  of  the  disease, 
is  the  possibility  of  keeping  under  observation  doubtful  cases 
until  the  character  of  their  disease  can  be  determined  and  they 
can  be  correctly  classified.  Transferences  from  the  chronic  to  the 
acute  buildings  could  also  easily  be  made  if  any  supposed  chronic 
case  should  manifest  signs  of  mental  improvement. 

The  State  has  always  recognized  the  principle  that  curable 
patients  required  more  and  better  care  and  attention  than  the 
chronic  cases.  This  was  formerly  shown  by  the  greater  sums  per 
patient  given  to  the  hospitals  for  the  acute  insane.  The  same 
fact  underlies  the  present  allowance  of  $4.25  per  week  for  the  first 
three  years  of  hospital  residence,  the  presumably  curable  period, 
and  $2.50  per  week  for  the  remaining  time,  when  the  patient 
would  be  regarded  as  chronic.  This  is  an  exceedingly  poor, 
though  probably  under  the  circumstances  the  best,  way  to  meet 
this  problem,  the  difference  in  the  character  of  the  care  required 
by  the  curable  and  the  chronic  patients.  Only  sixty  per  cent  of 
the  admissions  are  curable  cases ;  the  others  can  be  diagnosed  as 
incurable  at  the  first  meeting,  and  require  only  the  simple  care 
which  chronic  patients  should  receive.  As  the  hospitals  are  now 
constituted,  the  acute  cases  are  placed  among  the  chronic,  and  of 
necessity  can  receive  little  more  than  the  average  care  of  tlje  hos- 
pital. We  have  here  a  double  injustice :  first,  greater  sums  are 
given  for  some  patients  (those  whose  recovery  is  hopeless  from 
admission)  than  the  character  of  care  for  their  disease  demands ; 
second,  many  (those  who  are  curable  at  admission)  do  not  receive 
the  extra  care  which  their  illness  demands,  and  to  which  the  in- 
creased sum  ($4.25)  entitles  them.  It  practically  means,  therefore, 
that  the  increased  sums  received  from  the  recent  cases  go  to  ele- 
vate the  general  standard  of  care  of  all  the  patients  rather  than 
to  be  expended  exclusively  on  the  acute  cases  for  whom  this  in- 
creased amount  is  given.  Thus  the  chronic  cases  get  more  care 
than  it  was  designed  that  they  should  have,  or  than  they  really 
need,  and  the  acute  patients  are  deprived  of  the  better  care  and 
attention  which  it  was  intended  they  should  receive. 

"  The  duty  of  the  State  is  such  provision  as  to  accomplish  the 
largest  result  in  the  restoration  to  health  of  curable  cases,  the 
element  of  expense  being  here  a  subordinate  one,  and  for  the  re- 
mainder such  comfortable  provision  as  shall  insure  safety  to  the 
community  and  humane  care  to  the  sufferer."  * 


*  Address  of  Dr.  W.  W.  Godding,  Superintendent  of  the  Government  Hospital  for  the 
Insane,  Washington,  D.  C.,  read  before  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections, 
September  16,  1889. 


75o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  medical  superintendent  could  determine  on  the  admission 
of  patients  which  were  incurable  and  which  gave  hope  of  cure. 
The  State  should  then  appropriate  such  moderate  sum  per  person 
for  all  incurable  patients,  whether  of  recent  admission  or  of  long- 
standing disease,  as  to  enable  these  sufferers  to  receive  kindly 
care  and  a  few  of  the  pleasures  of  life.  For  the  curable  cases  in 
the  hospital  annexes  no  reasonable  expense  should  be  spared. 
This  is  true  economy  regarded  either  from  the  philanthropic, 
economic,  or  scientific  point  of  view.  The  curable  patients  come 
entirely  from  the  strong  people  who  have  earned  their  own  liveli- 
hood, and  have  done  their  part  in  the  world  until,  loaded  down  by 
ill-health,  trouble,  or  care,  they  break  down  and  go  to  a  State  hos- 
pital for  treatment.  The  mental  weaklings,  the  victims  of  the  de- 
generacy of  their  ancestors,  the  last  step  before  the  extinction  in 
them  of  the  species — these,  who  have  always  been  a  burden  on  the 
community,  are  all  to  be  found  in  the  incurable  class. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  the  average  duration  of  life  of  a 
chronic  insane  person  is  twelve  years.  This  represents  in  money 
expended  for  care  and  in  lost  productiveness  about  five  thousand 
dollars.  The  economic  importance,  therefore,  of  saving  every 
patient  possible  from  lapsing  into  chronic  insanity  becomes  ap- 
parent. It  is  reasonable  also  to  suppose  that  with  such  hospital 
care  the  duration  of  sickness  in  curable  cases  would  be  lessened, 
and  that  many  would  more  quickly  resume  their  former  occupa- 
tions. 

The  moral  effect,  too,  upon  the  general  public  would  be  marvel- 
ous, and  the  strictly  medical  aspect  of  insanity  would  be  appre- 
ciated by  the  lay  mind.  It  is  an  accepted  scientific  fact  that  in- 
sanity, in  curable  cases,  is  curable  directly  in  proportion  to  its 
early  medical  treatment  away  from  home  associations.  The  public, 
when  the  character  of  the  hospital  annex  for  recent  cases  and  the 
importance  of  early  treatment  were  understood,  would  not  regard 
a  State  hospital  as  a  place  of  living  death,  only  to  be  resorted  to 
when  all  other  means  fail,  and  often  after  all  hope  of  recovery  or 
possibility  of  accomplishing  any  curative  measure  is  past. 

The  cost  per  patient  in  the  hospital  annex  would  not  be  more 
than  is  now  expended  in  any  good  general  hospital,  and  would  not 
exceed  nine  or  ten  dollars  per  week  for  such  patient.  Such  a 
method  would  not  be  any  more  expensive  than  the  present  system, 
and  when  the  permanent  effects  are  considered  would  give  the  best 
results  and  would  also  be  a  positive  saving.  The  average  weekly 
cost  under  the  present  conditions  per  patient  is  three  dollars  and  a 
half,  or  $3,500  for  a  State  hospital  of  one  thousand  patients. 
Under  the  separate  plan  of  treatment,  the  curable  patients,  num- 
bering not  more  that  eighty,  could  be  maintained  at  a  weekly 
cost  of  ten  dollars  per  patient,  or  $800;  the  nine  hundred  and 


THE  DUTY   OF  THE  STATE   TO    THE  INSANE.     751 

twenty  chronic  incurable  patients  could  be  humanely  and  kindly 
cared  for  at  three  dollars  per  week  for  each  person,  or  $2,760, 
thus  making  the  total  cost  of  treatment,  under  probably  the  best 
conditions,  $3,560. 

This  mode  of  treatment  of  the  insane,  far  from  being  Utopian, 
is  at  present  in  successful  operation  in  Strasburg  and  Heidelberg, 
and  is  about  to  be  carried  into  effect  in  some  of  the  Scotch  asy- 
lums. The  most  eminent  alienists  in  Great  Britain  and  America 
have  strongly  advocated  it. 

Lord  Shaftesbury,  before  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1887,  thus  explained  the  intention  of  the  promoters  of 
the  early  lunacy  laws :  "  The  asylum  was  to  be  divided  into  two ; 
there  was  to  be  the  principal  asylum,  which  was  for  the  acute 
cases;  and  there  was  to  be  a  chronic  asylum  alongside  of  it, 
which  was  for  old,  chronic,  incurable  cases.  All  the  recent  cases 
were  to  be  sent  to  the  principal  asylum,  which  was  to  have  a  full 
medical  staff,  and  everything  which  could  be  necessary  for  treat- 
ment and  cure/' 

Dr.  J.  Wigglesworth,  superintendent  of  an  English  asylum,  in 
the  discussion  on  The  Future  Provision  for  the  Chronic  Insane 
before  the  British  Medico-Psychological  Society,  said :  "  A  more 
important  question  than  the  care  of  the  chronic  insane  was 
whether  they  could  not  make  a  more  determined  effort  to  do  more 
for  the  cure  of  the  recent  cases.  To  do  this  they  must  hospital- 
ize asylums  more.  They  must  have  small  buildings  properly 
officered  and  equipped,  to  which  all  recent  cases  should  first  be 
sent.  The  increased  knowledge  thus  obtained  would  without 
doubt  in  time  bring  about  an  increase  of  the  recovery  rate." 

Dr.  H.  Hayes  Newington,  in  his  presidential  address  delivered 
at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Medico-Psychological  Society  of 
Great  Britain  in  1890,  advocated  the  hospital  annex  for  curable 
cases  within  easy  distance  of  the  main  building.  He  stated  that, 
in  a  hospital  of  one  thousand  patients,  not  more  than  sixty  on  an 
average  would  need  such  treatment. 

Dr.  D.  Hack  Tuke,  in  discussing  the  above  address,  said: 
"  There  should  be  means  of  treating  acute  cases  in  a  separate  hos- 
pital block,  one  in  the  construction  of  which  no  reasonable  expense 
should  be  spared  ;  or  there  should  be  a  hospital  at  some  distance 
from  the  asylum,  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  Dr.  Newington." 

Dr.  E.  B.  Whitcomb,  in  his  presidential  address  before  the 
British  Medico-Psychological  Society  in  1891,  stated :  "  The  hos- 
pital treatment  of  the  acute  insane  would  insure  the  separation 
of  acute  from  chronic  insanity,  sustain  and  encourage  the  more 
rational  treatment  of  insanity  as  a  symptom  of  physical  de- 
rangement; but  above  these  a  well-constituted  hospital  would 
be  the  means  of  promoting  to  a  greater  extent  and  in  a  more  elab- 


7 5 2  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

orate  manner  than  at  present  exists  a  scientific  and  wider  knowl- 
edge of  the  disease.  Such  a  hospital  should  be  administered  on 
the  most  liberal  principles,  not  as  you  see  at  the  present  time  in  a 
competing  spirit  as  to  the  smallest  cost,  but  having  a  due  regard 
to  frugality  in  its  truest  and  most  economical  aspect — the  cure  of 
the  insane." 

Mr.  William  P.  Letchworth,  formerly  President  of  the  New 
York  State  Board  of  Charities,  in  a  scholarly  and  careful  resume 
in  his  admirable  work,  The  Insane  in  Foreign  Countries,  advo- 
cates thorough  remedial  measures  in  small  hospitals,  no  matter 
how  expensive,  for  the  acute  insane,  as  not  only  more  humane,  but 
in  the  end  more  economical. 

Dr.  Chapin,  Superintendent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  for 
the  Insane,  in  his  presidential  address  before  the  superintendents 
of  institutions  for  the  insane,  said :  "  Every  hospital  should  have  a 
special  organization  for  the  medical  treatment  of  its  recent  cur- 
able cases.  Is  it  the  better  way  to  continue  our  recent  cases  in 
the  wards  of  large  hospitals  in  constant  contact  with  hundreds  of 
chronics  ?  To  this  serious  and  important  interrogatory  I  must 
enter  an  emphatic  negative  answer,  and  believe  it  is  not  too  soon 
to  sound  a  note  of  warning.  The  needs  of  the  recent  and  acute 
cases  may  be  best  met  by  the  erection  in  connection  with  our 
State  asylums  of  small  and  well-appointed  hospital  wards  for  the 
strictly  medical  treatment  of  such  cases." 

The  late  Dr.  Bancroft,  Superintendent  of  the  New  Hampshire 
State  Asylum,  thus  wrote  on  this  subject :  "  I  have  little  doubt 
that  moderate-sized  hospitals  constituted  and  operated  either  in- 
dependently or  as  annexes  would  return  increased  ratios  of  recov- 
ery while  adding  vastly  to  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  patients 
during  hospital  residence.  Such  adjustment  would  diminish  rou- 
tine, secure  the  largest  degree  of  personal  freedom  and  indulgence, 
and  guarantee  to  each  individual  the  best  remedial  influences  as 
well  as  protection  from  such  as  are  both  distasteful  and  detri- 
mental." 

Dr.  Godding,  in  an  address  before  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Corrections,  thus  spoke  on  this  question  :  "The  pro- 
vision, then,  should  include  one  building,  or  preferably  one  group 
of  buildings,  designed  especially  for  the  acute  and  curable  cases. 
No  detail  in  construction  should  be  omitted,  no  liberality  of  ar- 
rangement curtailed,  that  may  be  held  to  in  any  way  assist  in 
the  treatment  and  cure  of  these  cases." 

The  last  fifty  years  have  witnessed  a  work  of  which  we  have 
reason  to  be  proud :  the  evolution  of  the  care  and  treatment  of  the 
insane  out  of  the  mist  and  darkness  of  superstition  and  ignorance, 
when  the  insane  were  chained,  beaten,  and  burned,  to  the  present 
kindly  care  which  seeks  to  treat  them  as  very  sick  people.  The 


LIP  AND  EAR    ORNAMENTS    OF   THE  EOTOCUDUS.  753 

future,  however,  presents  also  a  grand  work  to  be  accomplished : 
the  elevation  of  this  specialty  to  the  highest  scientific  and  philan- 
thropic plane. 

The  duty  of  the  State  to  the  insane  may,  therefore,  be  summed 
up  in — 

1.  The  separate  treatment  of  the  curable  and  incurable  insane 
under  the  same  medical  executive. 

2.  True  hospital  treatment  for  the  curable  insane  with  all  the 
medical  skill,  nursing,  and  care,  regardless  of  expense,  which  the 
character  of  the  disease  demands. 

3.  Simple,  humane,  custodial  care  of  the  incurable  insane,  at  a 
moderate  expense. 


THE  LIP  AND  EAR  ORNAMENTS  OF  THE  BOTOCUDUS. 

BY  JOHN  C.  BEANNER,  PH.  D., 

FORMERLY   ASSISTANT   ON  THE   GEOLOGICAL   SURVEY   OF   BRAZIL. 

M  ^HE  Botocudus  are  a  rapidly  disappearing  tribe  of  Brazilian 
-L  Indians.  They  inhabit  the  country  along  the  upper  portion 
of  the  Rio  Doce,  about  three  hundred  miles  northeast  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  and  the  region  lying  along  the  borders  of  the  States  of 
Bahia,  Espirito  Santo,  and  Minas  Geraes,  especially  between  the 
Rio  Doce  and  Rio  Pardo,  and  along  the  Sierra  dos  Aymore's.  Al- 
though they  are  now  in  contact  with  civilization  and  fast  yield- 
ing to  and  dying  out  before  its  gentle  influences,  it  is  not  many 
years  since  they  and  the  various  branches  of  their  great  family 
occupied  a  large  portion  of  southern  Brazil,  and  were  justly  looked 
upon  as  the  most  ferocious  of  all  the  wild  tribes  of  that  country. 
But  few  travelers  have  seen  anything  of  them,  and  these  have  ob- 
served only  the  straggling  outskirts  as  it  were  of  their  tribe.  Even 
to  this  day  the  latest  and  best  maps  of  Brazil  have  written  broadly 
across  the  vast  region  referred  to,  "  But  little  known,  and  inhab- 
ited by  Indians."  In  these  dense  and  almost  impenetrable  forests 
they  spend  their  lives,  seldom  or  never  visiting  either  the  campos 
of  the  interior  or  the  coast. 

To  judge  of  the  stage  of  civilization  of  these  Indians  it  is 
worth  while  knowing  that  they  can  not  count,  and  that  their 
reckoning  is  done  by  using  the  fingers  and  toes,  and  that  even 
this  does  not  go  beyond  twenty.  The  children  are  dirt-eaters,  and 
are  sold  for  slaves,  often  for  the  merest  trifles.  Formerly  these 
people  wore  no  clothing  at  all ;  nowadays  they  are  coming  more 
and  more  to  use  it.  Their  straight,  deep  black  hair,  high  cheek- 
bones, flat  noses,  complexion,  and  stature  are  all  suggestive  of  the 
Mongolian  race  types. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  say  much  of  the  Botocudus 

VOL.    XLIII. — 64 


754 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


except  with  reference  to  their  custom  of  wearing  the  large  and 
broad  lip  and  ear  ornaments  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustra- 
tions. Several  travelers  in  Bra- 
zil have  given  figures  of  Indi- 
ans using  such  ornaments,  not- 
ably Spix  and  Von  Martius, 
MaximiHen  Wied  -  Neuwied, 
Hartt,  Jean  de  Lery,  Bigg- 
Wither,  and  Von  Tschudi.  It 
may  be  said  of  the  illustrations 
given  by  those  writers,  how- 
ever, that  they,  without  excep- 
tion, fail  to  give  the  character- 
istic features  and  expressions 
of  the  Botocudus,  or,  for  that 
matter,  of  any  Indians.  Those 
used  in  the  present  article,  on 

FIG.  1. — BOTOCUDU  WOMAN.    The  flesh  band  ot  ,  -i          , -i        T_        j   i_  i_ 

the  lip  has  been  broken  and  the  ends  tied  the  °ther  hand> have  been  Care- 

together  with  a  piece  of  bark,  that  the  lip  fully  drawn  from  photographs 

ornament  may  be  used.    An  opening  has  ^^p   „    fpw   VpaT,c,   ao-o    V>v   M 
been  made  in  the  ear  lobe,  but  it  is  not  of  a  I6W   yearS  a&°    ™   1V1« 

the  customary  wze.  Marc  Ferrez,  photographer  to 

the  Imperial  Geological  Sur- 
vey of  Brazil,  and  may  be  relied  upon  for  their  accuracy.  The 
subjects  chosen  for  the  photo- 
graphs were  selected  with  a  view 
to  securing  the  best  types  that 
could  be  had,  but  it  should  be 
remembered  that  the  Botocudus 
of  to-day  are  rapidly  approach- 
ing extinction,  and  that  their 
customs  are  probably  modified 
to  a  considerable  extent  since 
the  visit  of  Spix  and  Von  Mar- 
tius, which  was  made  in  1817  to 
1820.* 

The  custom  of  wearing  the 
lip  and  ear  ornaments  is  a  very 
ancient  one  among  the  Botocu- 
dus, for  the  earliest  travelers 
found  it  in  vogue  when  the  con- 
tinent was  ^  discovered.  Hans  FlG.  2._BoTOCUDU  WoMAN,  with  both 

Stade,  who  lived  among  the  Ay-  and  ear  ornaments  of  average  size. 


lip 


*  Rum  has  much  to  do  with  the  wiping  out  of  the  native  Indians  of  Brazil.  The 
whites,  especially  the  original  settlers  of  the  country,  treated  them  without  pity,  enslaving 
them  and  killing  them  upon  the  slightest  provocation  or  with  no  provocation  whatever. 


LIP  AND   EAR   ORNAMENTS    OF  THE  BOTOCUDUS.  755 


mor^s  of  southern  Brazil  in  1549,  says  of  one  of  the  chiefs,  "  Then 
he  arose,  and  strutted  before  me  with  proud  conceit,  and  he  had  a 
large  round  green  stone  sticking  through  the  lips  of  his  mouth  as 
their  custom  is."  * 

The  opening  in  the  lower  lip  is  made  when  the  person  is  quite 
young  by  piercing  it  with  a  long,  slender  thorn  that  grows  on  a 
kind  of  palm  tree ;  this  is  enlarged  with  the  point  of  a  deer's  horn, 
and  a  stick  or  small  stone  is  inserted  and  the  wound  is  greased 
with  some  kind  of  salve.  These  openings  are  gradually  enlarged 
by  forcing  bigger  and  bigger  plugs  into  them  until  the  desired 
size  is  reached.  It  was  formerly  the  custom  when  the  young  men 
were  old  enough  to  bear  arms 
that  the  openings  were  en- 
larged and  the  green  stone 
labrets  inserted,  f 

Jean  de  Lery  says  that 
sometimes  when  these  stones 
are  out,  just  for  the  fun  of 
it,  they  stick  their  tongues 
through  the  holes  in  their 
lips,  to  make  people  believe 
they  have  two  mouths.  He 
adds,  "I  leave  you  to  judge 
whether  they  look  handsome 
when  they  are  doing  this."  \ 

The  lip  ornament  is  of  two 
very  different  forms,  only  one 
of  which — the  broad  and  stop- 
per-shaped one — is  illustrated 
in  the  accompanying  cuts; 

the  other  is  long  and  rudely  T-shaped.  The  shank  or  long  cylin- 
der is  pushed  through  the  opening  from  inside  the  lip  and  the 
cross-piece  at  the  top  prevents  its  falling  out.  The  openings  for 
ornaments  of  this  kind  are  not  nearly  so  large  as  those  required 
by  the  stopper-shaped  ones.  Several  writers  tell  of  the  use  of 
stones  for  labrets.  Jean  de  Lery*  speaks  of  polished  bone  as 
white  as  ivory  used  by  the  big  boys,  and  replaced  when  they  are 
grown  by  green  stones.  I  have  seen  many  of  them  made  of  clay 
and  burned  like  pottery,  while  the  ornaments  in  most  common  use 
nowadays  are  made  of  wood. 

There  is  a  fair  collection  of  Brazilian  Indian  lip  and  ear  orna- 


FIG.  3. — BOTOCUDU  MAN.  The  ear  ornament  has 
been  removed  and  the  distended  lobe  is  al- 
lowed to  hang  free. 


*  The  Captivity  of  Hans  Slide,  of  Hesse.  The  Hakluyt  Society,  No.  li,  p.  72. 
f  Hans  Stade,  p.  139. 

\  Histoire  d'vn  Voyage  faict  en  la  Terre  dv  Bresil,  par  lean  de  Lery.     Geneva,  1583, 
p.  104.  *  Op.  cit.,  p.  104. 


756 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


ments  in  the  Museu  Nacional  at  Rio  de  Janeiro.  Many  of  the 
examples  in  the  collection  are  beautifully  finished  specimens  of 
jade,  beryl,  serpentine,  and  quartz,  while  others  are  but  rudely 
shaped  ones  of  burned  clay  and  wood. 

However  strange  and  in  a  certain  sense  fascinating  such  cus- 
toms may  be,  these  ornaments,  when  seen  in  the  ghastly  wounds 
of  the  dusky,  stolid  faces  of  savages,  are  inexpressibly  hideous. 
They  are  rendered  still  more  so  by  the  fact  that  the  South  Amer- 
ican Indians,  so  far  at  least  as  my  observations  go,  lose  their  front 
teeth  early,  and  especially  the  lower  ones,  and  the  pulling  down  of 
the  lower  lip  almost  invariably  exposes  the  toothless  gums  or  the 
broken,  decaying,  discolored,  and  filthy  teeth.  Hunger  is  the 
curse  of  savage  life,  and  the  savage  is  therefore  always  on  the 
alert  for  something  to  eat.  For  this  reason  the  discharge  of  saliva 
is  much  more  marked  with  a  savage  than  with  a  civilized  man. 
The  effect  of  this  free  discharge  of  saliva  on  the  personal  appear- 
ance of  a  man  or  woman, 
whose  lower  lip  is  all  the 
time  drawn  so  low  that  it 
can  not  be  retained,  may  be 
imagined  more  readily  than 
described. 

The  stopper-shaped  lip 
ornaments  are  now  made 
of  some  light  kind  of 
wood.  They  are  usually 
about  three  quarters  of  an 
inch  thick  and  two  inches 
in  diameter,  though  some- 
times they  are  much  larger. 
Prince  Maximilian  meas- 
ured one  four  inches  across. 
Around  the  outside  of  the 
plug  a  little  groove  is  cut, 
and  when  it  is  inserted  the 
flesh  band  of  the  lip  fits  in 
this  groove  and  thus  holds 
the  plug  in  place.  With 

age  the  flesh  bands  relax  considerably,  and  the  plugs  of  old  per- 
sons are  for  this  reason  generally  larger  than  those  of  younger 
ones.  When  the  ornament  is  removed  the  lip  dangles  in  a  most 
ungraceful  manner.  In  the  accidents  of  savage  life  these  open- 
ings in  the  lips  are  often  broken,  but  this  does  not  prevent 
the  wearing  of  the  customary  ornament,  for  the  broken  ends 
of  the  band  are  united  by  a  string  made  of  a. bit  of  bark,  and 
the  plug  thus  held  in  place.  One  of  the  accompanying  illus- 


Fio.  4. — BOTOCUDU  WOMAN.  The  ear  ornament  has 
been  lost  and  the  distended  lobe  is  looped  above 
the  ear. 


LIP  AND   EAR   ORNAMENTS    OF  THE  BOTOCUDUS.  757 


trations  (Fig.   1)  was  made  to  show  this  method  of  sticking  to 
the  fashion. 

The  ear  ornaments  of  the  Botocudus  are  not  essentially  differ- 
ent from  those  used  in  the  lips  (see  Fig.  2).  The  plugs  are  of  the 
same  materials,  size,  and  appear- 
ance ;  they  differ  only  in  that  they 
are  worn  in  the  openings  made  in 
the  lobes  of  the  ears  instead  of  in 
the  lower  lip.  The  bands  of  the 
ears,  when  the  plugs  are  not  in 
place,  dangle  upon  the  shoulders 
when  left  to  themselves  (Fig.  3), 
but  they  are  generally  thrown  over 
the  top  of  the  ear.  This  custom  of 
looping  up  the  ear  lobes  is  shown 
in  Fig.  4. 

Many  persons  who  have  seen 
these  pictures  have  thought  such 
a  fashion  too  inconvenient  to  last 
long.  But  the  inconvenience  of  a 
fashion  seems  to  have  but  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  either  its  origin 
or  its  perpetuity.  Our  own  fashions 
are  often  complained  of  as  tyran- 
nical, unreasonable,  unbecoming, 
inartistic,  useless,  whimsical,  and  everything  else  that  is  not  down- 
right wicked.  But  all  people  have  fashions  of  one  sort  or  an- 
other, and  we  can  only  congratulate  ourselves  that,  however  bad 
some  of  our  fashions  may  be,  they  might  have  been  worse  than 
they  are. 


FIG.  5. — YOUNG  BOTOCUDU  WOMAN,  AGE 
ABOUT  SEVENTEEN.  The  ornaments 
worn  in  the  ears  are  the  modern 
pendants. 


AMONG  the  reasons  published  by  Count  Paul  von  Honsbroch,  of  Germany,  for 
renouncing  his  allegiance  to  the  order  of  the  Jesuits,  are  the  rigor  and  monotony 
of  the  discipline  enforced  by  its  rules.  From  the  first  day  of  his  novitiate  the 
young  Jesuit,  it  might  be  said,  is  run  into  a  mold  from  which  he  is  ultimately  to 
emerge  a  mere  passive  instrument  of  the  mission  work  of  the  order.  The  mes- 
merized or  hypnotized  patient,  according  to  the  count,  is  not  a  more  perfect  tool 
in  the  hands  of  the  manipulator  than  is  the  well  trained  Jesuit  in  those  of  the 
general  of  the  order.  He  lives,  moves,  and  has  his  being  simply  at  the  behest  of 
his  superior,  and  responds  to  the  demands  from  those  above  him  with  a  fidelity 
and  an  efficiency  attainable  under  no  other  system.  A  similar  confession  is  made 
by  Count  Campello,  of  Rome,  in  his  statement  of  reasons  for  having  ceased  to 
serve  as  canon  of  St.  Peter's.  The  daily  monotonous  exercises  of  the  Basilica, 
repeated  morning  and  evening  without  break  from  year  to  year,  were  paralyzing 
his  mental  and  bodily  powers  and  destroying  all  initiative.  These  facts  point  to  a 
fatal  influence  of  monotony  which  deserves  to  be  studied;  for  under  the  increas- 
ing specialization  of  learning  and  occupation,  life  is  tending  daily  to  become  more 
monotonous  and  more  destitute  of  true  inspiration. 


758  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

CRIMINAL    FESTIVALS. 

By  M.  GUILLAUME  FEKRERO. 

WHAT  we  now  call  crime  is  a  normal  fact  of  social  life  among 
ruder  peoples,  who  have  not  yet  risen  above  the  lowest 
grades  of  manhood.  Murder,  theft,  pillage,  are  glorious  exploits 
or  rarely  sought-out  amusements  among  such ;  and  cannibalism 
is  a  system  of  alimentation  more  prized  than  all  others.  Primi- 
tive man  in  most  regions  has  no  repugnance  against  killing  and 
eating  other  men,  but  rather  finds  enjoyment  in  it.  This  being 
the  moral  condition  of  most  primitive  peoples,  we  can  compre- 
hend without  difficulty  that  their  festivals  had  a  cruel  and  crim- 
inal character.  As  human  flesh  is  the  most  exquisite  viand  for 
cannibal  savages,  it  was  natural  that  when  they  met  to  celebrate 
any  welcome  event  in  a  festal  way  they  should  regale  themselves 
liberally  with  this  precious  food.  The  Fijians  never  failed  in 
their  cannibal  days  to  mark  every  public  solemnity,  like  the  dedi- 
cation of  a  temple,  with  a  grand  feast  of  human  flesh :  and  they 
celebrated  their  victories  in  war  by  carving  and  roasting  their 
slain  enemies  on  the  field  of  battle.  The  Monbuttos  celebrate 
grand  man-eating  festivals  on  the  field  of  battle  after  a  victory. 
The  New-Zealanders  carved  up  immediately  after  the  battle  their 
vanquished  and  wounded  enemies,  while  prisoners  were  reserved, 
partly  to  be  eaten  by  the  braves,  and  partly  for  grand  public  fes- 
tivals in  which  human  flesh  was  the  principal  dish. 

Murder  is  a  pleasure  to  the  primitive  man,  as  with  the  Java- 
nese, who  tests  the  quality  of  his  new  dirk  by  plunging  it  into  the 
heart  of  the  first  man  he  meets.  It  is  quite  natural,  therefore, 
that  there  should  be  meetings  among  these  people  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  this  pleasure,  at  which  they  engage  in  murderous  festivi- 
ties at  the  expense  of  some  unfortunate  victim.  The  red  Indians, 
returning  from  an  expedition,  used  to  give  themselves  up  to  san- 
guinary orgies  upon  their  prisoners,  binding  them  to  a  stake  in 
the  midst  of  the  village,  when  men,  women,  and  children  would 
inflict  petty  tortures  upon  them  till  they  died,  killed  by  pin- 
prickings. 

We  see,  then,  that  in  the  beginning  of  civilization  crime  is  in- 
dividual and  collective ;  there  are  crimes  which  each  man  com- 
mits on  his  own  account,  and  criminal  festivals,  collective  crimes, 
perpetrated  by  a  whole  tribe,  a  people,  etc. 

The  same  rule  prevails  with  those  very  numerous  crimes  which 
are  connected  with  religious  ideas,  such  as  human  sacrifices  in 
honor  of  defunct  ancestors  and  then  of  the  gods,  who  are  only 
deified  ancestors.  Among  so  savage  peoples,  these  ancestors  would 
have  been  fierce  and  cruel  men,  to  whom  human  sacrifices,  kill- 


CRIMINAL  FESTIVALS.  759 

ings,  and  massacres  would  be  supposed  by  their  adorers  to  be 
pleasing ;  in  fact,  the  Tahitians  believed  that  their  god  Oro  was 
very  well  satisfied  when  wars  were  bloody;  and  the  Chibchas 
said  that  no  sacrifice  was  so  dear  to  the  gods  as  sacrifices  of  human 
blood.  For  this  reason  many  were  killed  among  the  most  savage 
peoples  in  honor  of  ancestors  and  the  gods.  These  religious 
crimes,  too,  were  individual  and  collective — that  is,  the  sacrifice 
was  sometimes  performed  by  one  man,  sometimes  by  a  family,  and 
sometimes  by  a  whole  tribe,  according  as  a  personal,  a  family,  or 
a  tribal  concern  was  to  be  commended  to  the  gods. 

According  to  this  view,  we  should  be  tempted  to  believe  that 
when  crime  began  to  be  the  object  of  legal  repression  and  moral 
repulsion,  all  these  individual  and  collective  crimes,  festivals, 
and  human  sacrifices  would  disappear.  It  is  not  so.  By  a  curi- 
ous contradiction,  individual  crime  has  disappeared  sooner  than 
collective  crime.  The  branding  by  the  public  opinion  of  peoples 
who  have  become  sufficiently  civilized,  of  murder,  theft,  and  can- 
nibalism as  offenses,  may  have  prevented  individuals  from  com- 
mitting them,  but  did  not  prevent  the  whole  people  celebrating 
the  criminal  festivals  which  their  savage  customs  had  engendered, 
although  they  were  contradictory  of  the  changed  condition  of 
public  morality.  In  fact,  we  find  among  very  civilized  peoples 
official  festivals  and  ceremonies  which  are  wholly  worthy  of  the 
most  savage  races. 

It  is  a  general  belief  among  primitive  peoples  that  human 
blood,  possessing  marvelous  qualities,  assures  fertility  to  the 
fields  and  stability  to  houses,  and  on  that  account  a  large  number 
of  homicides  are  committed  among  such  peoples :  for  each  man 
tries  to  assure  the  benefits  of  bloodshed  to  his  own  fields  or  to  his 
house.  Among  the  civilized  Aryans  of  India  this  barbarous  cus- 
tom existed  no  longer ;  whoever  killed  a  man  to  use  his  blood  for 
such  a  purpose  would  have  been  condemned  as  a  murderer ;  but 
the  ancient  usage  still  survived  in  public  ceremonies. 

War  is  often  made  by  primitive  peoples  for  the  purpose  of 
eating  the  enemy  who  is  slain,  for  the  enemy  is  then  only  a 
special  kind  of  game.  With  some  peoples  who  have  advanced  a 
little,  and  who  have  abolished  their  cannibalistic  customs,  we  find 
that  human  flesh  is  the  essential  dish  in  certain  banquets  cele- 
brated in  honor  of  victories.  In  Dahomey,  after  fortunate  wars, 
there  were  public  festivals  in  which  banquets  of  human  flesh 
were  a  sacred  custom,  although  the  Dahomeyans  were  not  can- 
nibals; and  it  was  the  king's  function  to  eat  the  heart  of  an 
enemy's  chief  slain  in  war. 

What  is  called  juridical  anthropophagy  occasionally  gives  rise 
to  a  peculiar  species  of  criminal  festivals.  Among  the  Battas  of 
Sumatra,  a  numerous  people,  agricultural,  peaceful,  and  law- 


760  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

abiding,  who  have  a  regular  system  of  laws,  an  alphabet  and 
a  literature,  and  are  not  cannibals,  the  adulterer,  the  night-rob- 
ber, and  those  who  traitorously  attacked  a  city  or  a  village,  were 
condemned  to  be  eaten  by  the  people.  They  were  tied  to  three 
stakes,  their  arms  and  legs  stretched  out  to  form  a  cross,  and 
then,  at  a  given  signal,  all  those  present  would  rush  up  to  them 
and  hack  them  up  with  hatchets  and  knives,  or  simply  with  their 
nails  and  teeth.  The  torn-off  pieces  of  flesh  were  eaten  at  once, 
raw  and  bleeding,  being  first  only  dipped  in  a  mixture  composed 
of  citron-juice,  salt,  etc.,  prepared  in  advance  in  a  cocoanut  shell. 
In  adultery  cases  the  husband  had  the  right  to  choose  the  first 
piece.* 

The  Dyaks  have  a  criminal  festival  associated  with  the  pecul- 
iar custom  of  head-hunting.  Since  in  many  tribes  a  young  man 
can  not  marry  till  he  has  presented  a  human  head  to  his  sweet- 
heart, he  hides  himself  in  the  shrubbery  of  the  jungles  and  watches 
for  his  victim  for  days  at  a  time,  till  he  kills  him  and  cuts  off  his 
head.  Then  he  returns  to  his  village  and  announces  his  triumph 
by  blowing  upon  the  sea-shell  that  serves  him  as  a  hunting  horn ; 
the  children  and  the  women  come  out  to  meet  him,  give  him  an 
ovation,  and  lavish  upon  him  the  most  exaggerated  and  hyper- 
bolical praises ;  and  the  bleeding  head  is  borne  in  great  pomp  to 
the  house  of  the  chief.  Before  hanging  it  up  in  front  of  the 
dwelling,  children  are  caused  to  suck  its  blood,  in  order  that  they 
may  draw  courage  from  it.  Yet  the  Dyaks  are  a  peaceful  people, 
for  homicide  is  very  rare  within  their  tribes.  "  Not  the  thirst 
for  carnage,  or  the  love  of  murder/'  writes  Temmink,  "  or  any 
spirit  of  vengeance,  induces  them  to  cut  off  heads.  They  are  not 
anthropophagic.  A  hereditary  superstition,  passed  into  a  custom, 
causes  them  to  commit  acts  which  they  believe  to  be  meritori- 
ous." In  fact,  the  Dyaks,  like  the  Battas,  have  an  undisputed 
reputation  for  sincerity,  frankness,  and  honesty. f 

It  is  especially  religion  that  gives  its  sanction  and  consecrates 
these  collective  crimes,  by  preserving  them  in  customs  associated 
with  its  dogmas  and  rites.  The  Phoenician  race,  even  when  it 
had  reached  the  highest  degree  of  its  civilization,  still  retained 
human  sacrifices  at  Tyre,  Sidon,  and  Carthage.  The  festivals  of 
Moloch  were  real  orgies  of  blood ;  the  priests  burned  children  in 
honor  of  the  god,  and  the  people,  excited  by  the  spectacle,  were 
seized  with  such  an  agitation  that  many  men  were  injured  by  the 
frenzied  crowd.  These  horrors  were  repeated  at  Upsala  by  the 
Scandinavians,  and  at  Riigen  and  Roncova  by  the  ancient  Slavs ; 
yet  the  Scandinavians  and  the  Slavs,  although  they  were  not  so 

*  Letourneau,  La  Sociologie  d'apres  1'Ethnographie,  Paris, 
f  Bertillon,  Les  Races  sauvages,  Paris. 


CRIMINAL   FESTIVALS.  761 

civilized  as  the  Phoenicians,  were  people  who  had  made  consider- 
able advance.  Still,  this  is  not  so  astonishing  as  to  find  human 
sacrifices  in  use  even  among  the  Greeks,  with  whom  in  the 
period  of  their  grandeur  the  throng,  at  the  mysteries  of  Bacchus 
Zagreus,  cut  up  a  goat,  a  sacrifice  which  was  only  a  substitution ; 
for  anciently,  according  to  Plutarch,  it  was  a  man  that  the  throng 
cut  to  pieces  on  the  altar  of  Dionysos  Omostes — Dionysos,  the 
flesh-eater.  At  the  Thargelia,  the  Athenians  gayly  decorated  a 
man  and  a  woman  who  had  been  entertained  at  the  expense  of 
the  state,  escorted  them  in  procession,  and  burned  them  at  the 
entrance  to  the  plain.  The  Celts  bought  slaves,  whom  they 
entertained  liberally,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  conducted  in 
great  pomp  to  the  sacrifice.  Every  twelve  months  the  Scythian 
tribe  of  the  Albanians,  according  to  Strabo,  fattened  a  slave 
whom  the  people  then  massacred  with  lance  cuts  before  the 
shrine  of  Artemis. 

The  great  solemn  popular  festival  of  the  Khonds  included 
the  annual  immolation  of  a  victim.  After  three  days  of  inde- 
scribable orgies,  in  which  women  often  participated  dressed  like 
men  and  armed  like  warriors,  the  victim  was  bound  to  a  stake 
in  the  midst  of  the  forest,  and  left  there  all  night  alone ;  in  the 
morning  the  people  returned,  with  a  great  noise  of  bells  and 
gongs,  singing  and  shouting;  when  the  multitude  had  become 
well  intoxicated  with  the  uproar,  and  greatly  excited  by  dis- 
orderly dances,  the  grand  priest  would  command  silence  and 
recite  a  long  prayer,  and  would  then  slay  the  victim,  usually 
with  a  single  stroke  of  the  knife.  The  multitude,  which  had 
been  waiting  for  that  moment,  rushed  upon  the  quarry  with 
piercing  cries,  each  one  trying  to  tear  off  a  piece  of  the  palpitat- 
ing flesh,  to  hack  the  body  to  pieces. 

A  criminal  ceremony  exists  among  the  tribes  of  the  interior 
of  Sumatra,  which  is  without  doubt  the  survival  of  an  ancient 
and  very  cruel  custom,  that  has  passed  in  the  course  of  time  into 
a  civil  and  religious  duty.  These  people,  although  of  rather  gen- 
tle disposition,  piously  and  ceremoniously  kill  and  eat  their  aged 
parents,  in  the  belief  that  they  are  performing  a  sacred  duty.  At 
the  appointed  day  the  old  man  who  is  destined  to  be  eaten  goes 
up  into  a  tree,  at  the  foot  of  which  are  gathered  the  relatives 
and  friends  of  the  family.  They  strike  the  trunk  of  the  tree  in 
cadence  and  sing  a  funeral  hymn.  Then  the  old  man  descends,  his 
nearest  relatives  deliberately  kill  him,  and  the  attendants  eat  him. 

With  some  peoples  animals  take  the  place  of  human  victims ; 
but  what  we  have  said  is  sufficient  to  show  that  even  with  these 
peoples  collective  crime  was  formerly  a  solemn  ceremony,  al- 
though individual  crime  was  already  regarded  as  something  to  be 
condemned. 

VOL.    XLIII. — 55 


76z  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Till  very  recent  times  the  people  of  Ispahan  celebrated  what 
they  called  the  festival  of  the  camel,  or  of  the  sacrifice  of  Abra- 
ham. The  high  priest  of  Mecca  sent  his  adopted  son,  mounted  on 
a  blessed  camel,  which  was  led  through  the  city  with  great  pomp. 
At  a  given  moment  the  king  shot  an  arrow  into  its  flanks ;  in  a 
wink  the  poor  animal  was  thrown  down,  hacked  to  pieces,  carried 
off,  and  distributed  widely.  Every  one  wished  for  some  of  it,  if 
it  were  only  the  smallest  fragment,  to  be  put  into  a  kettle  of  rice. 
The  Ghilicks  and  the  Ainos  adopted  a  bear,  and  fed  it  freely  till  the 
day  of  the  public  festival,  when  the  people  struggled  for  pieces  of  it. 

Sometimes,  in  these  criminal  festivals,  the  public  only  plays 
the  part  of  a  spectator.  It  does  not  itself  kill  the  victims,  but 
only  witnesses  the  slaughter,  the  bloodshed,  which  executioners 
are  commissioned  to  perform.  In  Etruscan  funerals  the  relatives 
of  the  deceased  caused  a  convict  to  be  publicly  tormented  :  some- 
times they  blindfolded  him  and  gave  him  a  stick ;  then  the  execu- 
tioners excited  dogs  against  him,  and  the  unfortunate  victim  had 
to  defend  himself  with  his  stick.  Such  spectacles,  which  seem  to 
have  been  amusing  to  the  populace,  are  represented  in  many 
Etruscan  paintings.  The  shows  of  gladiators  at  Rome,  fights  of 
gladiators  with  one  another,  and  of  gladiators  with  wild  beasts, 
were  simply  transformations  of  the  funeral  sacrifices  of  the  Etrus- 
cans, but  more  ferocious,  for  they  generally  ended  in  the  death  of 
a  large  number  of  men.  The  passive  Roman  people  had  such  a 
passion  for  these  games  that  they  became  a  means  of  political 
domination ;  parties  sought  to  secure  the  votes  of  the  populace  by 
giving  them  spectacles  in  which  large  numbers  of  men  and  beasts 
were  killed. 

In  ancient  Mexico,  where  crime  was  punished  very  severely, 
and  was  pursued  with  much  energy,  an  immense  throng  came  to- 
gether every  year  to  witness  the  numerous  and  terrible  human 
sacrifices  in  honor  of  the  god  Huitzilopochtli.  The  spectacle,  with 
its  atrocious  cruelties,  was  a  source  of  delight  to  a  people  among 
whom  intoxication,  theft,  and  murder  were  punished  with  death, 
and  who  possessed  a  remarkable  political  organization  and  civili- 
zation. This  transformation  of  the  populace  into  spectators  was, 
without  doubt,  an  advance  ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  surprising  that 
such  ceremonies  should  have  been  tolerated  among  peoples  so 
civilized. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  collective  crime  has  opposed  a  greater 
resistance  than  individual  crime  to  the  progress  of  civilization. 
But  why  have  these  criminal  festivals  endured  so  long,  while  in- 
dividual customs  have  been  undergoing  transformation  ?  "  The 
axiom,  the  whole  is  the  sum  of  its  parts,  does  not  apply  to  multi- 
tudes," writes  M.  Reclus.  M.  Sighele  has  brought  a  large  number 
of  proofs  to  the  demonstration  of  this  precept — that  is,  that  the 


CRIMINAL   FESTIVALS.  763 

aggregate  of  many  men  presents  some  characteristics  that  are  not 
found  in  the  unities  that  compose  it.*  The  psychology  of  a  multi- 
tude of  men  is  a  special  psychology  ;  for  the  passions,  the  inclina- 
tions, and  the  thoughts  of  the  individuals  who  compose  it  are  com- 
bined in  such  a  way  that  the  conduct  of  a  man  mixed  with  a  crowd 
will  be  quite  different  from  that  which  he  would  observe  if  he 
were  alone.  The  phenomenon  we  are  studying  is  the  effect  of  a 
similar  difference  between  the  characters  of  an  aggregate  of  men 
and  the  characters  of  its  units.  A  crowd  of  men  is  always  more 
afraid  of  the  new,  more  conservative,  than  are  the  men  who  com- 
pose it.  For  that  reason  a  usage  is  more  stable  and  less  subject 
to  variation  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  men  who  observe  it. 
The  larger  the  multitude  grows  the  more  intense  does  its  misone- 
ism  (hatred  of  novelty)  become. 

Every  one  can  observe  that  it  is  easy  for  a  man  to  change  his 
individual  habits,  but  that  the  habits  of  a  family,  being  more 
fixed,  are  changed  with  greater  difficulty.  In  fact,  in  some  fam- 
ilies there  are  ways  that  are  preserved  for  two  or  three  gen- 
erations. But  fixed  as  family  customs  are,  they  are  unstable 
enough  if  we  compare  them  to  the  usages  of  large  aggregates, 
to  the  whole  population  of  a  city,  for  example.  In  all  Europe, 
in  Italy,  France,  and  Germany  some  of  the  cities  still  cele- 
brate the  festivals  of  the  middle  ages,  occasionally  even  Ro- 
man festivals,  which  plunge  a  whole  population  every  year  into 
the  past  again.  The  costumes,  the  banners,  and  the  signals,  every- 
thing in  these  festivals  is  old,  and  no  one  would  be  satisfied  to 
use  anything  modern  in  them,  for  all  their  beauty  would  then 
seem  to  vanish.  We  find  yet  more  superannuated  usages  when 
we  consider  still  larger  human  aggregates ;  for  while  in  the  usages 
of  a  city  we  find  survivals  of  its  history,  in  the  usages  com- 
mon to  all  civilized  men  we  find  survivals  of  the  ancient  primitive 
life,  customs  which  appertain  to  the  savage  period.  Of  such,  for 
example,  is  the  worship  of  ancestors ;  for  that  exists  no  longer 
among  peoples  of  high  civilization,  and  rites  relating  to  it  have 
been  nearly  entirely  abandoned.  Yet  these  rites,  which  exist  no 
longer  in  individual  practice,  still  survive  as  a  general  usage 
among  all  Roman  Catholic  peoples,  for  the  ceremony  of  the  day 
of  the  dead  is  nothing  else  than  a  survival  from  the  ancient 
ancestral  religion.  On  that  day  all  turn  back  in  a  mass  to 
perform  acts  relating  to  that  religion — visiting  of  the  graves,  re- 
newing of  the  floral  crowns,  etc. — like  those  we  find  in  use  among 
savage  tribes,  although  no  thought  or  notion  of  the  worship  of 
ancestors  is  left  among  us.  What  does  not  exist  as  an  individual 
practice  still  survives  as  a  general  usage. 

*  La  Foule  criminelle,  Paris,  1892. 


764  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

A  mass  of  men  is  thus  always  more  afraid  of  novelty  than  the 
men  that  compose  it :  these  may  change  their  feelings  and  their 
ideas,  but  they  come  together ;  the  feelings  and  ideas  acquired  by 
the  individuals  will  have  no  influence,  or  but  little,  upon  their 
conduct.  What  is  the  cause  of  this  contradiction  ?  Why  is  a 
mass  of  men  always  more  conservative  than  its  components  ? 
Man,  according  to  the  law  demonstrated  by  M.  Lombroso,  hates 
all  novelty  and  tries  to  preserve  everything  that  exists — his  ideas 
and  feelings — so  long  as  he  can,  without  changing  them.  Yet, 
when  very  strong  necessities  urge  him,  man  succeeds  in  disturb- 
ing his  inertia :  he  changes  his  habits  and  his  ideas,  and  rebels 
against  institutions  and  laws  which  he  had  once  venerated ;  but 
it  is  always  a  painful  task,  a  disagreeable  effort  for  every  man, 
even  the  best  endowed,  to  carry  this  revolution  into  the  system  of 
his  ideas  and  habits.  Difficult  as  this  change  may  be  for  each 
man,  it  is  still  more  so  when  a  collective  usage  is  concerned  ;  for 
then  the  opinion  of  all  the  other  men  to  the  same  effect  and  imi- 
tation re-enforce  the  neophoby  (or  fear  of  novelty)  natural  to 
the  man.  The  struggle  is  not  only  against  one's  own  conserva- 
tive instincts,  but  also  against  the  fear  of  being  alone  in  neglect- 
ing a  usage  which  all  others  observe.  "  Everybody  does  it,"  is 
the  answer  most  persons  will  give  you  when  you  ask  them  why 
they  practice  some  quite  absurd  and  ridiculous  ceremonies.  Fur- 
ther, no  one  has  any  particular  interest  in  these  collective  usages, 
and  therefore  no  one  has  special  reasons  for  abandoning  them ; 
for  these  usages  to  pass  away  there  must,  therefore,  be  causes  act- 
ing upon  the  whole  mass  of  those  who  observe  them,  producing 
gradual  decadence.  Now  these  causes  would  naturally  act  more 
slowly  than  those  which  produce  individual  changes  of  manners, 
ideas,  etc. ;  they  will  act  more  slowly,  too,  as  the  aggregate  of 
men  subject  to  their  influence  is  greater. 

So  the  genesis  of  criminal  festivals  is  explained.  When  crimes 
become  the  object  of  legal  repression  and  then  of  moral  repulsion, 
men  begin,  each  on  his  own  account,  to  abstain  from  commit- 
ting them ;  their  views  in  relation  to  criminal  actions  gradually 
change,  and  those  acts  which  formerly  appeared  honorable  and 
glorious  become  gradually  blamable.  But  these  criminal  festi- 
vals, to  which  the  ancient  liberty  and  the  ancient  glory  of  crime 
have  given  rise,  being  usages  common  to  a  whole  tribe  or  people, 
enjoy  the  advantage  of  the  greater  stability  we  have  remarked  in 
collective  usages.  Each  man  removes  himself  slowly  from  crime 
but  to  return  to  it,  as  a  member  of  the  tribe,  when  the  time  for 
these  civil  or  religious  festivals  of  a  criminal  character  returns. 
Thus,  the  Dahomeyari,  who  is  no  longer  a  cannibal,  becomes  an 
anthropophagist  again  in  the  great  public  festivals  that  are  cele- 
brated after  a  victory ;  the  East  Indians  slay  men  upon  the 


CRIMINAL   FESTIVALS.  765 

foundations  of  a  palace,  but  only  when  great  public  edifices  are 
a-building;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Sumatra,  gentle  enough  in 
their  ordinary  customs,  solemnly  eat  their  old  men,  in  the  belief 
that  they  are  thereby  observing  the  most  sacred  of  their  duties  as 
sons. 

There  is  a  still  more  curious  side  in  this  strange  phenomenon. 
Everything  old  and  superannuated — usages,  customs,  laws,  etc. — 
is  the  object  of  an  extreme  veneration,  especially  among  primitive 
peoples.  The  Tupis  believed  that  if  they  should  depart  from  the 
customs  of  their  ancestors  they  would  be  destroyed  ;  in  some 
clans  of  the  Malagasy  innovation  and  Qvil  are  inseparable  ideas ; 
the  Araucanians  have  many  very  ancient  usages  which  they  hold 
sacred  and  observe  without  any  constraint ;  the  Hottentot-Kora- 
mas  are  entirely  free  in  their  actions,  except  when  ancient  usages 
are  involved.  Since  these  criminal  festivals  survive  long  after 
crime  has  begun  to  be  a  morbid  exception,  they  end  by  becoming 
sacred,  profiting  by  the  veneration  attached  to  all  ancient  things ; 
to  abolish  them  or  neglect  them  would  be  for  these  peoples  a 
failure  in  the  holiest  duties.  Consequently,  the  deed,  which  ap- 
pears horrible  and  worthy  of  punishment  when  it  is  done  by  a 
single  man,  is  regarded  as  honorable  when  it  is  performed  by  the 
whole  tribe  or  the  whole  people  in  these  festivals ;  the  crime  of 
the  individual  becomes  the  duty  of  the  mass. 

These  sanguinary  festivals  have  been  able,  by  the  effect  of  an- 
other cause,  to  endure  long,  even  among  superior  peoples,  like 
the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Unfortunately,  crime,  especially  mur- 
der and  crimes  of  blood,  is  not  an  action  of  which  man  has  an  in- 
nate horror ;  horror  of  crime,  when  it  exists,  is  only  the  effect  of 
a  long  training,  of  a  painful  education  of  civilization.  Murder, 
M.  Taine  writes,  introduces  two  extraordinary  emotions  into  the 
moral  and  animal  machine  of  man,  which  overturn  it :  on  the  one 
hand,  the  sense  of  all-power  exercised  without  control,  obstacle, 
or  danger,  on  human  life  and  on  sensible  flesh  ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  sense  of  bleeding  death  with  its  always  novel  accom- 
paniment of  contortions  and  shrieks.  That  is  why  all  those  who 
can  dispose  at  their  caprice,  without  any  danger,  of  the  existence 
of  other  men — kings,  princes,  and  mobs — are  usually  inclined  to 
cruelty.  This  tendency  to  the  sanguinary  pleasures  of  murder 
would  be  more  lively  among  half -civilized  peoples,  who  have  been 
only  a  little  while  accustomed  to  respect  for  human  life;  and 
therefore  criminal  festivals,  although  contradictory  to  the  state 
of  individual  manners,  would  be  a  choice  amusement  for  them ; 
for  all  the  ferocious  instincts  which  usually  slumber  in  the  man 
could  give  themselves  free  course  in  them.  It  explains  to  us,  too, 
why  men  have  tried  to  preserve  these  festivals  by  ameliorating 
them,  when  civilization  would  not  tolerate  their  primitive  feroci- 


766  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ty ;  when  human  sacrifices  became  impossible,  animals  were  sub- 
stituted ;  when  combats  between  men  seemed  too  horrible,  fights 
of  animals — of  cocks,  bulls,  and  fishes — were  instituted.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  minister  who  should  try  to  abolish  bull  fights 
in  Spain  would  provoke  a  general  revolt.  In  these  cases  the  mul- 
titude are  only  spectators  of  the  carnage ;  but  when  a  people  like 
the  Spanish  loves  these  sanguine  representations  with  so  furious 
a  passion,  can  we  be  surprised  that  people  less  civilized  ardently 
lust  after  the  pleasures  of  collective  criminality,  although  their 
manners  may  be  in  course  of  amelioration  ? 

Besides  having  a  historical  interest,  the  study  of  these  crim- 
inal festivals  is  very  important  for  criminology,  because  it  brings 
numerous  evidences  in  support  of  the  atavistic  theory  of  crime. 
In  discussing  the  questions  whether  crime  is  a  phenomenon  of 
atavism,  or  whether  at  least  atavism  does  not  play  a  considerable 
part  in  criminality,  many  criminologists  have  maintained  that 
while  most  savage  peoples  are  thieves,  cruel  and  dissolute,  noth- 
ing authorizes  the  affirmation  that  the  ancestors  of  civilized  peo- 
ples resembled  them.  We  have,  indeed,  no  direct  proof  of  this 
fact ;  but  if,  in  default  of  proof,  we  examine  the  usages  and  insti- 
tutions of  these  peoples,  which  are  a  kind  of  fossil  remains  of 
their  evolution,  we  may  conclude  that  the  primitive  ancestor  of 
the  Greek  was  no  more  moral  than  the  Australian  or  the  Java- 
nese. These  criminal  festivals  can  be  explained  only  by  assuming 
an  ancient  condition  of  moral  disorder ;  which  admitted,  every- 
thing becomes  clear,  and  is  susceptible  of  a  simple  and  logical 
explanation. — Translated  for  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  from 
the  Revue  Scientifique. 


THE  prevalence  of  lake  basins  in  glaciated  countries  is  accounted  for  by  Mr.  J. 
C.  Hawkshaw  by  assuming  that  whenever  earth  movements  take  place  in  limited 
areas  they  will  tend  to  form  basins.  Since  such  movements  are  as  a  rule  gradual, 
the  basins  will  tend  to  fill  up  with  -water-borne  detritus,  the  growth  of  vegetation, 
etc.,  as  fast  as  they  are  formed.  In  glaciated  countries,  however,  they  are  occupied 
with  ice,  and  that  protects  them  from  being  filled  up  by  such  processes,  and  they 
will  be  preserved  to  appear  as  lake  basins  when  the  ice  melts.  Such  basins  are 
probably  more  numerous  in  rainless  countries  than  we  are  aware  of,  for,  not  con- 
taining water  and  not  presenting  a  different  appearance  from  the  rest  of  the 
country,  they  do  not  attract  attention.  An  instance  of  them  is  presented  in  the 
Raian  basin  of  Egypt,  which  has  been  surveyed  by  Mr.  Cope  Whitehouse,  with  ;i 
view  to  making  use  of  it  in  works  of  irrigation. 

A  SERIES  of  Roman  tools,  more  than  sixty  in  number,  discovered  in  a  rubbish 
pit  during  excavations  at  Silchester,  England,  in  1890,  are  described  by  Sir  J. 
Evans.  Among  them  are  anvils,  hammers,  chisels,  gouges,  adzes,  axe?,  and  a  car- 
penter's plane.  The  find  also  included  two  plow-coulters,  a  sword-blade,  a  large 
gridiron,  a  lamp,  and  a  bronze  steelyard. 


THE    URAL    COSSACKS  AND    THEIR   FISHERIES.    767 


THE   URAL   COSSACKS   AND   THEIR  FISHERIES. 

BY  DR.  N.  BOKODINE, 

FISH    COMMISSIONER   OF    URAL    DISTRICT,    RUSSIA. 

THE  Ural  Cossacks,  who  live  on  the  boundary  between  Euro- 
pean Russia  and  Asia,  along  the  middle  and  lower  part  of 
the  Ural  River,  have  been  known  in  Russia  for  a  long  time,  not 
only  as  brave  soldiers  in  war  time,  but  also  as  peaceful  fishermen, 
carrying  on  the  fishing  industry  on  a  very  large  scale  and  in  quite 
a  peculiar  manner. 

More  than  three  hundred  years  ago  the  first  band  of  the  so- 
called  "  free  people  " — Cossacks — appeared  on  the  Yaik  River,  the 
original  name  of  the  Ural  River.* 

Who  were  this  people  ?  They  were  pioneers  of  liberty,  peo- 
ple tired  of  cruel  serfdom  and  discontented  with  subordinate  life 
in  Russian  czardom,  who  tried  to  organize  their  life  on  a  basis  of 
absolute  freedom  and  after  their  own  ideas  in  the  vast  steppes 
of  southeastern  Russia. 

The  free  colony  grew  rapidly,  thanks  to  large  additions  of 
discontented  people  from  all  neighboring  provinces  of  Russia  and 
from  foreign  countries.  A  careful  examination  of  an  early  census 
of  the  Ural  Cossacks  made  by  order  of  Peter  the  Great  (1723) 
shows  us  that  among  the  immigrants  were  Poles,  Hungarians, 
numbers  of  peasants  from  different  parts  of  Russia,  many  dissent- 
ers from  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church,  prosecuted  by  govern- 
ment, a  great  number  of  Don  Cossacks,  etc.  Differing  in  nation- 
ality as  well  as  in  language,  one  thing  was  common  to  all,  the 
ardent  longing  for  freedom  and  independent  life.  Is  it  not  a 
counterpart  of  the  earliest  .period  of  immigration  to  this  country, 
when  those  who  were  persecuted  in  Europe  sought  freedom  else- 
where ?  An  old  Cossack,  when  asked  once  about  the  origin  of  the 
Ural  Cossacks  by  a  well-known  folklorist,  answered,  "The  bee 
gathers  from  every  flower  its  best,  and  what  is  the  result  ?  " 

"  Honey,"  replied  the  astonished  man. 

"  Well,"  said  the  Cossack,  "  in  such  a  manner  grew  our  com- 
munity :  from  everywhere  came  the  best  and  brightest  men  and 
organized  our  society." 

Do  not  you  think  that  this  simple  and  witty  simile  well  illus- 
trates the  history  of  early  colonization  in  this  country  as  well  as 
the  origin  of  the  small  community  of  which  I  speak  ? 


*  The  names  of  Yaik  River  and  Yaik  Cossacks  were  changed  to  Ural  River  and  Ural 
Cossacks  by  imperial  order  in  1775  after  PugachefFs  rebellion,  in  which  the  Yaik  Cossacks 
took  a  very  active  part,  the  order  stating  that  the  old  name  should  be  abolished  and  en- 
tirely forgotten. 


THE  URAL    COSSACKS  AND    THEIR   FISHERIES.    769 

In  1580,  we  read  in  a  historical  document,  came  to  the  lower 
part  of  Yaik  River  a  band  of  Cossacks  and  expelled  from  the 
country  the  remainder  of  a  once  famous  and  strong  Gold-Horda 
of  Tartars.  They  ruined  Saraitchik,  the  chief  residence  of  the 
Tartars,  and  sailing  up  the  river,  founded  a  fortress  near  the  place 
where  is  now  situated  Uralsk,  the  chief  city  of  the  Ural  Cossacks. 

At  first  these  warlike  bands  lived  by  a  rather  peculiar  industry 
—marauding  of  hostile  neighbors  (Tartars)  and  sometimes  com- 
mercial ships  on  the  Caspian  Sea  en  route  from  Khiva  and 

Persia. 

"  Ah,  formerly  we  Cossack  fellows 

Sailed  pretty  well  on  thy  waves, 
In  light  hoats  looking  for  prey, 

For  the  prey  from  Khiva  and  Persia," 

says  one  Cossack  song  about  this  old  time. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  when  the  Ural  Cossacks  changed  this  in- 
dustry for  the  more  peaceful  one  of  fishing.  Probably  this  was 


Married  woman.  Old  woman.  Girl. 

FIG.  2.— TYPES  OF  URAL  COSSACK  WOMEN. 

very  soon  after  the  conclusion  with  the  Muscovite  Czar  of  a  kind 
of  protectorate  (1613),  which  is  commemorated  by  a  peculiar  old 
custom  of  presenting  fish  and  caviar  from  the  community  to  the 
imperial  court.  This  custom,  sanctified  by  more  than  three  centu- 
ries, exists  yet,  and  was  doubtless  a  token  of  loyalty  and  hospital- 
ity similar  to  the  custom  of  the  Russian  agricultural  population 
of  presenting  bread  and  salt  on  like  occasions.  As  the  Russian 
peasant  poetizes  his  hard  agricultural  labor  and  surrounds  it  with 

VOL.    XLIII. 56 


77o  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

an  aureole,  so  the  Ural  Cossacks  poetize  their  fisheries  and  every- 
thing in  connection  with  them.  In  almost  every  popular  song 
of  this  country  is  mentioned,  under  all  kinds  of  poetical  names, 
the  Ural  River  with  "  its  golden  bottom  "  and  its  "  silver  banks," 
and  one  of  the  most  favorite  local  songs  is  an  ode  or  hymn  in 
honor  of  the  Yaik  River  (the  historical  name  remains  in  poetry), 
the  foster  father  of  the  population.  The  economical  importance 


FIG.  3. — KAILING  ACROSS  THE  URAL  RIVER. 

of  the  fisheries  for  this  people  is  so  immense  that  it  influences 
their  whole  life,  not  excepting  the  military  service.  The  right 
of  fishing  in  communal  waters  does  not  belong  to  any  but  mem- 
bers of  the  community,  who,  on  the  other  hand,  are  compelled  to 
undertake  military  service.  The  Ural  Cossacks  have  ready  for 
the  service  every  year  about  three  thousand  cavalry,  and  in  case 
of  war  every  adult  may  be  called  on  to  serve  as  a  soldier.  The 
entire  population  is  about  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  souls. 

Thus,  when  one  part  of  the  men  is  engaged  in  military  serv- 
ice, the  other  part,  which  remains  at  home,  is  forced  to  procure 
money  to  pay  the  expenses  of  equipment  for  the  outgoing  sol- 
diers, and  also  to  make  their  own  living. 

Only  by  bearing  this  heavy  double  burden  have  the  Ural  Cos- 
sacks succeeded  in  acquiring  exclusive  rights  to  the  land  and 
river  colonized  by  them,  and  to  preserve  4ntil  the  present  time 
some  independence  in  their  home  affairs  with  a  peculiar  eco- 
nomic organization  of  the  community  as  an  entire  body.  Much 
struggling  and  fighting  was  done  in  the  early  existence  of  this 
small  community  in  order  to  gain  this  measure  of  independence 
from  the  Muscovite  Government,  which  has  always  had  a  strong 
tendency  to  centralize  different  parts  of  Russian  territory  under 


THE  URAL    COSSACKS   AND    THEIR   FISHERIES.     771 

one  absolute  power.  From  its  early  existence  until  1723  the  com- 
munity was  entirely  independent  in  its  interior  home  affairs.  It 
was  a  purely  democratic  republic,  with  an  elected  chief,  or  ataman, 
representing  the  executive  power.  All  governmental  affairs  were 
transacted  in  a  communal  "circle"  or  general  meeting  of  the 
members  of  the  entire  community.  In  1723  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment first  laid  its  hand  on  the  independence  of  the  community, 
and  since  that  time  the  election  of  the  chief  must  be  approved  by 
the  Government  in  order  that  the  appointment  may  be  legal.  In 
1775  the  communal  "circle "was  abolished  and  the  community 
entirely  lost  the  right  of  electing  its  ataman,  who  since  that  time 
has  been  appointed  by  imperial  order.  The  only  thing  still  re- 
maining is  the  economic  organization,  where  the  independence  is 
very  characteristic. 

To  return  to  the  fisheries  and  their  importance  in  the  life  of 
the  Ural  Cossacks.     I  should  mention  that  the  Ural  River  is  the 


FIG.  4.— FALL  FISHING  ON  THE  UKAL  RIVER.     CARTING  BOCDARAS. 

only  large  river  that  is  entirely  given  over  to  the  fishing  indus- 
try, all  sorts  of  commercial  navigation  being  absolutely  forbid- 
den from  Uralsk  to  the  Caspian  Sea  (three  hundred  and  thirty 
miles) ;  and  more  than  that,  in  some  places  of  the  river,  where 
sturgeons  collect  for  their  winter  sojourn,  no  one  is  permitted  to 
run  a  boat,  to  make  any  noise,  build  a  fire  on  the  shore,  etc.  By 
the  laws  of  the  community  summer  fishing  is  almost  entirely  pro- 
hibited, for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  spawning,  also  for  the 
reason  that  fish  caught  in  summer  will  not  bring  a  good  price. 


772 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


They  let  fish  enter  the  river  from  the  sea  and  settle  there  quietly 
for  the  winter  sojourn.  All  possible  means  are  used  to  secure  for 
the  fish  an  unrestricted  passage  to  the  upper  parts  of  the  river, 
but  not  beyond  Uralsk,  where  a  railing  is  constructed  across 
the  river  to  prevent  the  larger  fish  going  farther  up.  Owing 
to  this  arrangement  the  lower  part  of  the  river  from  this  rail- 
ing to  the  mouth  forms  a  large  natural  fish  pond  (three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  miles  in  length)  where  the  fish  are  carefully 
watched  by  a  great  many  fishwardens  until  the  regular  time  for 


FIG.  5. — FALL  FISHING  ON  THE  URAL  KIVER.     WAITING  FOR  A  CANNON-SHOT  SIGNAL. 


fishing,  which  is  fixed  by  general  consent  of  the  community.  It 
is  easy  to  understand  what  a  thorough  organization  is  necessary 
to  conduct  successfully  this  complicated  plan  for  the  distance  of 
three  hundred  and  thirty  miles,  and  which  has  to  deal  with  more 
than  ten  thousand  fishermen.  It  is  indeed  a  complete  organiza- 
tion. The  central  administration,  residing  in  Uralsk,  controls 
all  this  business,  assisted  by  numbers  of  local  agents  through  the 
whole  country.  A  steam  cruiser,  steam  launch,  and  a  number  of 
sailboats  constantly  watch  the  mouth  of  the  river  and  the  neigh- 
boring banks  and  protect  them  from  poachers.  It  should  be 
mentioned  that  the  river,  with  its  fishing  grounds  and  part  of 
the  Caspian  Sea,  belong  to  this  entire  community,  consisting  of 
a  hundred  and  ten  thousand  people.  There  is  no  private  property 
belonging  to  individuals  or  villages  adjacent  to  the  river,  and  an 
elaborate  and  detailed  general  plan  must  exist  to  regulate  all  this 
immense  business  in  such  a  manner  that  the  interest  and  rights 
of  every  member  of  the  community  shall  be  properly  protected. 


774 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


The  community  does  not  believe  that  these  interests  may  be  pro- 
tected by  free  competition,  as  is  the  case  elsewhere. 

As  a  rule,  one  part  of  the  river  (the  lower)  is  intended  to  be 
fished  out  in  the  fall,  the  other  (upper)  portion  in  winter.  The 
fall  fishing  begins  about  the  17th  of  September.  On  a  certain  day 
the  "  fishing  army/7  as  it  is  called,  moves  to  the  fishing  places, 
which  are  sometimes  very  far  from  home.  The  Cossack  carts  con- 
tain not  only  nets  and  provisions,  but  also  the  boat  used  in  this 
fishing.  These  boats,  known  by  the  name  of  boudara,  are  so  light 
that  two  of  them  may  be  carried  on  one  cart. 

When  the  "  fishing  army  "  comes  to  the  proper  place,  the  bou- 
daras  are  taken  from  the  carts,  and  early  in  the  morning  appoint- 
ed for  commencing  fishing  they  are  placed  at  the  edge  of  the 
water,  right  along  the  river  for  a  distance  hardly  compassed  by 
the  eye.  No  less  than  three  thousand  boats,  each  containing  two 
men,  meet  here.  To  maintain  discipline,  a  chief,  or  "  fishing 
ataman/'  is  appointed,  and  several  representatives  of  the  fisher- 
men are  elected  to  assist  the  chief.  The  ataman  gives  a  signal  to 
commence  fishing  by  a  cannon  shot,  and  then  the  crowd  rush  to 
the  boats,  and  in  less  time  than  you  can  realize  what  has  hap- 
pened all  the  fishermen  are  in  their  boats  and  a  peculiar  kind  of 
boat  racing  commences.  They  put  forth  their  utmost  strength 
and  ability  to  outrun  each  other,  and  to  be  first  at  the  place  where 
the  fish  have  gathered  in  shoals,  these  places  being  known  by  the 
reports  from  the  fish  wardens.  Once  here,  they  throw  out  their 
small  seines  and  haul  them  from  two  boats.  Various  kinds  of 
sturgeon  (from  thirty  to  six  hundred  pounds  weight),  sander,  carp, 
bream,  and  silurus  are  the  principal  fish  caught  at  this  fishing. 
The  seines  differ,  of  course,  in  the  size  of  their  meshes,  according 
to  the  fish  for  which  they  are  intended ;  but  no  one  has  the  right 
to  use  any  but  the  regular  size,  large  seines  being  admitted  only 
behind  the  "  fishing  army."  Hence,  as  in  a  noble  fight,  the  chances 
of  all  combatants  are  as  nearly  equalized  as  possible  by  the  regu- 
lations above  mentioned,  fixed  place  and  time,  regulated  tools,  etc. 
Success  depends  only  on  the  ability  and  strength  of  the  fishermen. 

The  total  catch  during  the  fall  seining  is  from  fifty-four  mil- 
lion to  seventy-two  million  pounds,  which  includes  two  hundred 
and  sixteen  thousand  pounds  sturgeon  and  about  twenty-one 
thousand  six  hundred  pounds  caviar. 

When  fishing,  the  fishing  army  always  goes  down  the  river, 
covering  from  twelve  to  twenty-four  miles  a  day,  and  in  this 
way  moves  after  a  time  to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  which  is 
reached,  as  a  rule,  at  the  end  of  October.  At  this  time  the  ice 
begins  to  accumulate  in  the  river  and  closes  the  fishing  season. 

Another  army  of  equal  magnitude,  consisting  of  fish  dealers 
with  a  large  number  of  carts,  accompanies  the  fishing  army. 


THE  URAL    COSSACKS   AND    THEIR   FISHERIES.     775 

These  carts  are  contracted  to  carry  the  catch  to  the  city  markets 
(there  is  no  railroad  in  this  steppe).  No  less  than  ten  thousand 
carts  are  used  here,  and  if  you  add  ten  thousand  more  carts  be- 
longing to  fishermen,  you  may  imagine  how  imposing  must  be  the 
sight  of  the  peaceful  armies. 

The  fishing  in  the  upper  part  of  the  Ural  River,  as  I  men- 
tioned before,  is  carried  on  in  winter,  under  the  ice,  and  that  is 
the  most  peculiar  of  all 
fisheries.  It  is  called 
bagrenie,  which  means 
"hooking/'  because  the 
fishing  is  accomplished 
by  a  peculiar  kind  of 
hook.  When  the  ice  in 
the  river  becomes  firm 
enough  to  support  the 
weight  of  the  fishing 
army,  which  generally 
takes  place  in  Decem- 
ber, an  order  is  given  by 
the  communal  adminis- 
tration for  the  army  to 
meet  at  Uralsk,  from 
which  point  the  fishing 
is  begun.  On  a  fixed 
day,  thousands  of  people, 
old  and  young,  hasten 
to  the  appointed  place. 

Let  us  now  see  how 

IIG.  7. — URAL  FISHERMAN  READY  FOR  THROUGH- 

the  fishermen  dress  for  IcE  FlBHIHGi  CALLED  BAGRE™. 

this  winter  fishing.    One 

of  them  ready  for  work  is  represented  in  the  picture.  Light  and 
comfortable  garments,  waterproof  mittens  and  boots ;  in  one  hand 
a  chisel,  in  the  other  two  haft-hooks — the  long  one  (with  a  haft 
of  seven  or  more  fathoms)  is  used  for  catching  fish,  lying  (as  a 
rule)  in  deep  places  on  the  bottom ;  the  short  one  is  destined  to 
hold  the  fish  when  it  is  brought  to  the  surface  of  the  ice. 

At  about  9  A.  M.  the  banks  of  the  river,  near  the  place  where 
the  shoals  of  fish  have  gathered,  are  crowded  with  thousands  of 
horses  and  sledges,  so  that  it  becomes  difficult  to  reach  the  river. 
Fishermen  go  down  to  the  ice  and  stand  on  it  in  endless  lines  on 
both  banks  of  the  river,  anxiously  waiting  for  the  signal — a  can- 
non shot. 

The  ataman  has  gone  out  in  midstream  ;  every  one  is  looking 
for  him  impatiently.  The  signal  having  been  given,  two  living 
waves  of  people  rush  forward  to  the  middle  of  the  river,  and  the 


THE  URAL    COSSACKS   AND    THEIR   FISHERIES.     777 

arduous  work  begins,  every  one  trying  to  be  the  first  to  make  a 
hole  in  the  ice  with  a  chisel.  In  a  few  minutes  an  entire  forest  of 
long  hafts  grows  up  over  the  river,  as  though  some  magic  power 
had  been  at  work.  The  fisherman  moves  the  haft  up  and  down, 
and  listens  intently  that  he  may  know  when  the  fish  touch  the 
hook.  Once  this  has  happened,  he  hooks  the  fish  by  an  alert 
movement,  then  hauls  it  immediately  up  to  the  surface  of  the  ice, 
calling  in  the  mean  time  for  help  from  his  fellow  fishermen. 
They  fish  here,  usually,  in  groups  of  from  six  to  twenty  men,  for 
it  is  not  easy  work  to  pull  up  a  huge  sturgeon  of  several  hun- 


FIG.  9.— FALL  FISHING  ON  THE  URAL  RIVER.     DRESSING  FISH  BY  NATIVES. 

dred  pounds  weight.  In  a  very  short  time  the  surface  becomes 
marked  with  blood  and  covered  with  big  fish. 

The  most  important  fish  caught  in  winter  are  different  kinds 
of  sturgeon,  viz.,  the  large  sturgeon  (Acipenser  huso),  Russian 
sturgeon  (A.  Guldenstadtii) ,  star  sturgeon  (A.  stellatus)  and  A. 
Shypa.  Each  decidedly  differs  from  the  other  and  from  species 
caught  in  America.  For  the  flesh  and  particularly  the  roe 
(caviare)  very  high  prices  are  obtained  in  the  winter  season ;  one 
single  big  female  of  the  "  large  sturgeon  "  is  sold  for  100  to  200 
rubles  ($64.50  to  $129). 

Of  course,  not  every  one  succeeds  in  catching  such,  a  valuable 
fish ;  on  the  contrary,  many,  in  spite  of  great  efforts,  do  not  catch 
any,  not  even  the  smallest  sturgeon.  Nevertheless,  this  fishing 
being  an  alluring  lottery  with  winnings,  everybody  hopes  to  be 
a  lucky  one,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  so  many  of  the  Ural 


778 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Cossacks  attend  this  favorite  winter  fishing.  Not  less  than  ten 
thousand  people  participate  in  it ;  about  a  million  and  eighty 
thousand  pounds  of  sturgeon  and  the  same  amount  of  other  fish 
(sander  and  silurus)  are  caught  and  fifty-four  thousand  pounds  of 
caviare  prepared.  The  average  price  for  sturgeon  is  13'8  cents  a 
pound,  and  for  caviare  about  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  pound. 

In  addition  to  the  fisheries  described  above,  the  Ural  Cossacks 
carry  on  important  fishing  in  the  Caspian  Sea  in  spring  and  also 
in  winter  ;  the  methods  not  being  of  an  unusual  character,  I  omit 
a  description. 

The  total  amount  of  the  local  fishery  business  can  be  ex- 
pressed in  the  following  figures  for  1891 :  5,817,464  pounds  of 


FIG.  10. — FALL  FISHING  ON  THE  URAL  KIVER.     MAKING  CAVIARE. 


sturgeon,  73,960,824  pounds  of  other  fish,  1,076,076  pounds  fish  roe, 
173,348  pounds  dried  sturgeon  steak  (batik),  and  6,084  pounds 
isinglass  were  exported  from  the  territory  of  the  Ural  Cossacks. 
The  total  amount  of  fish  landed  must  have  been  larger  than  these 
figures,  owing  to  the  local  consumption,  though  in  comparison 
with  that  exported  it  is  quite  insignificant.  Thanks  to  the  duty 
for  every  pound  of  fish  exported  from  the  Ural  Cossacks'  land,  local 
fish  trade  statistics  are  excellent,  and  we  are  in  possession  of  very 
valuable  figures,  similar  to  the  above,  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, which  gives  an  exact  idea  of  the  direction,  increase,  and 
decrease  of  this  important  industry  in  a  very  large  and  definite 
region.* 

*  The  diagram  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Russian  Department  of  the  Fishery  Building  at  the 
World's  Fair. 


THE  PROGRESS    OF  PSYCHOLOGY.  779 

The  revenue  from  the  exported  fish  is  used  for  different  public 
expenses,  and  among  others  for  the  improvement  of  local  indus- 
tries in  general  and  the  fisheries  in  particular.  Thus,  during  the 
last  three  or  four  years,  a  very  fine  agricultural  school,  with  a 
model  farm,  has  been  erected  at  a  cost  of  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  They  have  several  scholarships  in  the  lead- 
ing universities  of  the  empire,  and  maintain  a  very  large  high 
school.  For  the  purpose  of  making  improvements  in  local  fish- 
eries a  person  of  suitable  education  and  familiar  with  home  fishery 
affairs  is  sent  to  foreign  countries  to  study  the  different  branches 
of  fishing  industry,  including  pisciculture.  I  have  the  honor  of 
being  charged  with  this  task.  Two  years  are  spent  in  these 
studies  in  all  places  of  fishing  importance  in  the  different  coun- 
tries of  Europe  and  North  America,  and  now  I  have  completed 
them  by  getting  information  at  the  World's  Fair. 

The  Ural  Cossacks'  community  is  represented,  although  not 
largely,  at  the  World's  Fair,  in  the  Russian  department  in  the 
Fishery  Building,  and  I  should  be  much  pleased  if  the  foregoing 
could  call  the  attention  of  visitors  to  the  peculiar  fisheries  of  my 
fellow  Cossacks. 

At  the  same  time  I  would  like  to  give  some  idea  of  the  home 
life  of  this  strange  race,  who  are  known  in  foreign  countries  only 
as  a  semi-barbarous,  warlike  people  on  horseback  with  formidable 
lances,  etc.  The  foregoing,  I  hope,  will  add  something  new  to 
their  characteristics. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  PSYCHOLOGY. 

BY  PROF.  JAMES   McKEEN  CATTELL, 

COLUMBIA   COLLEGE. 

FOUR  hundred  years  ago  it  was  possible  for  Columbus  to  dis- 
cover a  new  world.  The  circle  of  the  earth  is  long  since 
complete,  but  in  the  presence  of  each  man  is  an  unexplored  world 
—his  own  mind.  There  is  no  mental  geography  describing  the 
contents  of  the  mind,  still  less  is  there  a  mental  mechanics 
demonstrating  necessary  relations  of  thought.  Yet  the  mind  is 
the  beginning  and  the  end  of  science.  Physical  science  is  possi- 
ble because  the  mind  observes  and  arranges,  and  physical  science 
has  worth  because  it  satisfies  mental  needs.  The  mind  being 
thus  the  center  from  which  we  start  and  to  which  we  return, 
there  is  reason  for  wonder  that  we  know  so  little  concerning  it. 
Each  of  the  physical  and  biological  sciences  includes  a  large 
mass  of  facts  admitted  by  all  students,  and  many  theories  which 
by  general  consent  are  accepted  as  working  hypotheses.  In 
psychology,  on  the  other  hand,  there  seems  to  be  no  common 


780  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ground  continually  increasing.  The  text-books  contain  specu- 
lations which  are  unverifiable,  and  often  have  little  to  do  with 
psychology.  They  include  descriptions  of  things  which  no  one 
could  understand  from  the  description,  but  which  every  one 
understands  without  it.  There  are  often  anecdotes,  which  belong 
to  the  nursery.  Then,  in  more  recent  times,  we  find  accounts  of 
the  eye  and  brain,  which  are  sometimes  good  physiology,  but 
which  seldom  increase  our  knowledge  of  sensation  and  thought. 
It  may  be  added  that  in  the  popular  mind  psychology  consists 
largely  of  ghosts  and  mesmeric  exhibitions. 

But  in  the  midst  of  confusion  there  are  signs  of  order. 
Psychologies  are  now  written  which  do  not  range  at  large 
through  metaphysics,  logic,  ethics,  and  aesthetics,  or,  if  they  do, 
the  writers  at  least  know  where  they  are  wandering.  Description 
and  analysis  become  of  greater  value  as  introspection  is  more 
careful  and  words  are  more  exactly  defined.  When  works  on 
physics,  physiology,  and  pathology  are  sifted,  there  is  found  to 
be  a  considerable  remnant  which  belongs  to  psychology.  Even 
"telepathy"  and  hypnotism  contribute  their  modest  quota  of 
facts.  Comparative  zoology,  anthropology,  philology,  history, 
and  art  discover  interrelations  with  psychology.  Lastly,  the 
attempt  has  recently  been  made  to  apply  the  methods  of  natural 
science,  and  even  the  measurements  of  exact  science,  in  the  study 
of  the  mind. 

The  backwardness  of  psychology  is  not  indeed  surprising. 
Certain  material  needs  must  be  satisfied  before  there  is  time  for 
self-observation.  Even  the  lower  animals  are  concerned  with 
the  changes  of  day  and  night  and  the  return  of  summer  and 
winter,  with  the  growth  of  plants  on  which  they  feed  and  the 
habits  of  beasts  which  prey  upon  them.  Astronomy,  physical 
geography,  botany,  and  zoology  have  their  first  foundation  in 
remote,  prehuman  times.  When  the  savage  appears,  he  needs 
must  attend  to  the  external  world,  whereas  self-observation 
would  profit  him  but  little.  If  his  life  depend  on  killing  a  bird 
with  a  stone,  he  must  know  the  habits  of  the  bird,  and  even 
something  of  the  course  of  projectiles.  Should  he  stop  to  consider 
the  relation  between  sensation  and  movement,  he  would  not  sur- 
vive to  tell  his  thought.  Even  nowadays,  when  every  one  must 
have  exact  knowledge  of  some  part,  however  small,  of  the  mate- 
rial world,  there  are  but  few  who  have  time  to  study  their  mental 
life,  which  indeed  goes  on  none  the  better  for  being  watched. 

The  elements  of  physical  science  are  not  only  more  necessary 
to  life  than  knowledge  of  the  mind — they  are  also  more  easily 
obtained.  The  facts  of  the  material  world  are  comparatively 
constant  and  accessible  to  observation.  The  stars  return  daily 
in  their  courses,  and  the  plants  repeat  yearly  their  monotonous 


THE  PROGRESS    OF  PSYCHOLOGY.  781 

lives.  Inert  matter  may  be  observed  and  measured  more  readily 
than  the  living  body ;  physics  consequently  preceded  biology  in 
its  development.  The  changes  of  mental  life  are  more  fleeting 
and  obscure  than  those  of  the  body.  It  is  natural,  therefore, 
that,  as  biology  is  more  backward  than  physics,  so  psychology 
should  be  more  backward  than  biology.  There  was  a  time  when 
all  the  sciences  were  nourished  by  philosophy.  In  Greece  the 
philosopher  and  the  man  of  science  were  identical,  and  those  who 
most  advanced  mathematics  and  science  in  the  revival  of  learn- 
ing are  called  philosophers.  With  the  increase  of  knowledge 
division  of  labor  became  necessary,  and  the  separate  sciences 
were  defined.  Those  sciences  were  first  developed  which  found 
data  ready  in  the  common  knowledge  of  daily  life,  and  which 
embraced  subjects  where  experiment  and  measurement  could  be 
most  readily  used.  The  close  relation  in  which  psychology  still 
stands  to  philosophy  is  thus  explained  by  its  comparative  back- 
wardness. This  relation  is  not  essentially  different  from  that  of 
the  other  sciences.  Philosophy  is  not  the  arithmetical  sum  of  the 
special  sciences,  but  has  a  peculiar  task.  It  seeks  to  investigate 
the  conditions  of  knowledge,  and  to  form  a  theory  of  the  ultimate 
nature  and  meaning  of  things.  Psychology  is  no  more  concerned 
with  these  matters  than  is  physics.  Experimental  and  mathe- 
matical physics  need  not  and  should  not  investigate  the  origin  and 
ultimate  nature  of  matter,  nor  should  psychology  as  a  natural  sci- 
ence concern  itself  with  the  origin,  destiny,  and  meaning  of  mind. 
The  subject-matter  of  psychology  corresponds  exactly  to  that 
of  any  other  natural  science.  As  physiology  studies  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  living  body,  so  psychology  studies  the  phenomena 
of  mind.  It  is  often  urged  as  an  objection  to  psychology  that 
the  student  can  observe  one  mind  only,  but  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  student  of  physics  can  observe  with  one  mind  only.  Were 
mental  processes  so  irregular  and  idiosyncratic  as  is  sometimes 
assumed,  there  would  be  no  science  of  psychology,  but  physics 
would  be  equally  out  of  the  question.  Psychology  is  not  con- 
cerned with  individual  peculiarities,  but  with  the  laws  to  which 
all  mental  processes  are  subject.  Its  position  is  similar  to  that 
of  physiology,  which  studies  individual  organisms  in  order  to 
learn  general  truths  concerning  nutrition,  movement,  etc.  The 
problems  of  psychology  are  evidently  complicated  by  the  fact 
that  individual  minds  differ.  But  this  difference  is  largely  a 
matter  of  comparatively  unimportant  detail.  The  position  of 
psychology  is  not  very  different  from  that  of  other  sciences. 
Should  astronomy  seek  to  determine  the  orbits  of  all  the  satellites, 
of  all  the  planets,  of  all  the  suns  in  the  universe,  it  would  have  a 
hopeless  task ;  but,  if  we  understand  one  solar  system,  we  have 
an  astronomy  to  a  large  extent  universal. 


7Sz  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  methods  of  psychology  are  the  same  as  those  of  other 
sciences.  Science  has  its  beginnings  in  common  knowledge  of 
daily  life  collected  for  practical  ends.  This  knowledge  is  sys- 
tematized, often  in  an  artificial  manner,  and  facts,  often  fancies, 
more  remote  from  daily  experience  and  usefulness  are  added. 
Attempts  are  made  to  simplify  and  explain,  usually  by  arbitrary 
hypotheses.  Thus  it  was  thought  by  the  early  Greek  physicists 
that  the  earth  is  explained  by  saying  that  it  all  consists  of  water 
or  air  or  fire.  Even  in  recent  times  it  was  thought  an  explana- 
tion to  say  that  water  rises  in  the  pump  because  Nature  abhors  a 
vacuum,  or  that  life  is  explained  by  the  presence  of  a  vital  fluid. 
But  as  science  advances  it  depends  more  and  more  on  experiment 
and  measurement.  Data  are  seldom  admitted  which  can  not  be 
verified  by  any  competent  observer,  and  mere  matters  of  fact  take 
av  subordinate  place.  Exact  science  consists  almost  exclusively  of 
measurements  and  the  relations  of  quantities. 

Psychology  until  very  recently  was  in  the  position  of  science 
before  experiment  and  measurement  had  been  used.  It  consisted 
largely  of  useless  descriptions,  artificial  classifications,  and  verbal 
explanations.  A  preference  was  given  to  matters  which  are  ex- 
traordinary and  unverifiable.  But  in  the  progress  of  science  it 
has  at  last  become  possible  to  apply  experiment  and  measurement 
to  the  mind.  We  have  to-day  laboratories  of  psychology  where 
facts  may  be  discovered,  measurements  made,  and  the  results  veri- 
fied by  every  trained  student. 

To  prevent  misunderstanding,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  notice 
what  is  not  done  in  laboratories  of  psychology.  They  are  not  in- 
tended for  the  study  of  physiology.  The  functions  of  the  nervous 
system  may  throw  light  on  the  workings  of  the  mind,  but  the 
debt  is  reciprocal.  We  know,  indeed,  more  concerning  attention, 
memory,  and  thought  than  concerning  the  cerebral  processes 
which  may  precede  or  accompany  them.  The  commonly  used 
term  physiological  psychology  is  awkward.  There  is  a  science  of 
physiology  and  a  science  of  psychology,  and  there  are  relations 
between  body  and  mind.  But  these  relations  are  wider  than  this 
— they  are  between  matter  and  mind.  Thus  we  know  that  vibra- 
tions of  a  special  sort  may  be  accompanied  by  a  sensation  which 
we  call  blue,  but  we  know  almost  nothing  concerning  the  corre- 
sponding processes  in  the  eye  and  brain.  The  world  is  one  world, 
and  all  science  is  interdependent,  but  the  development  of  psychol- 
ogy has  drawn  a  sharper  line  between  mental  and  physical 
processes  than  was  ever  recognized  before.  The  distinctions  of 
material  science  are  comparatively  artificial,  resting  on  our  igno- 
rance rather  than  on  our  knowledge.  Whether  bodies  be  as  large 
as  planets  or  as  small  as  atoms  is  not  a  matter  of  great  conse- 
quence. If  we  but  knew  the  laws  of  matter  in  motion,  they  would 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  PSYCHOLOGY.        783 

obtain  equally  in  astronomy  and  chemistry.  The  phenomena  of 
the  living  body  must  in  the  end  be  subject  to  the  principles  of 
physics,  and  physics  must  in  the  end  become  mechanics.  But 
sensation,  attention,  and  feeling  can  never  be  reduced  to  matter 
in  motion.  A  complete  correlation  between  mental  and  physical 
changes  may  be  established,  but  the  most  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  processes  of  the  brain  would  of  itself  throw  no  light  on  the 
nature  of  thought.  The  blind  man  will  not  learn  to  see  by  study- 
ing the  changes  taking  place  in  the  combustion  of  a  candle.  Psy- 
chology can  never  be  made  a  branch  of  physiology. 

Laboratories  of  psychology  are  for  the  study  of  mental  pro- 
cesses. It  would  not  be  possible  in  a  single  article  to  give  an 
account  of  what  has  been  accomplished  by  experimental  psychol- 
ogy,  nor  would  tables,  curves,  and  mathematical  formulae  prove 
interesting  reading.  "The  plain  man,"  in  Bishop  Berkeley's 
phrase,  "  undebauched  by  learning,"  is  apt  to  ask,  What  is  the  good 
of  all  this  ?  It  may,  therefore,  be  better  to  give  several  examples 
of  the  practical  application  of  the  results  of  experimental  psychol- 
ogy. Pure  science  is  not,  indeed,  an  art  whose  end  is  to  produce 
changes  in  the  course  of  Nature.  Astronomy  is  commonly  re- 
garded as  the  noblest  of  the  sciences,  but  we  can  not  alter  the 
orbits  of  the  planets,  and  the  higher  astronomy  is  not  useful  in 
the  affairs  of  daily  life.  Science  is  an  end  in  itself,  as  are  the  fine 
arts.  It  is  good  because  it  satisfies  mental  needs,  and  makes  life 
better  worth  the  while.  But  material  science,  while  searching  for 
truth,  has  not  failed  to  contribute  to  the  practical  needs  of  society. 
Its  applications  in  the  arts  and  manufactures  have  guided  the 
course  of  civilization.  One  man  to-day  can  do  the  work  which 
required  ten  men  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  the  poor  have  now 
comforts  and  opportunities  which  were  formerly  not  within  the 
reach  of  the  rich.  In  like  manner  we  shall  probably  find  that 
more  exact  knowledge  of  the  mind  will  have  many  applications 
in  pedagogy,  in  political  science,  in  medicine,  in  the  fine  arts,  and, 
indeed,  in  the  whole  conduct  of  life. 

Let  us  consider  pedagogy.  Our  methods  of  education  have 
been  greatly  altered  in  the  past  few  years,  and  more  changes  will 
follow.  But  we  go  forward  blindly,  not  seeing  the  way,  often 
retracing  our  steps.  The  poor  children  contribute  to  the  progress 
of  educational  methods  somewhat  as  the  frog  contributes  to  the 
progress  of  physiology.  But  we  may  hope  to  replace  vague  sur- 
mises with  exact  knowledge.  In  our  laboratories  of  psychology 
we  can  test  the  senses  and  faculties  of  children.  We  can  deter- 
mine whether  the  course  of  study  is  developing  or  stunting  funda- 
mental characteristics,  such  as  accuracy  of  perception,  quickness 
of  thought,  memory,  reasoning,  etc.  We  can  learn  what  methods 
best  strengthen  each  of  these  faculties  without  injuring  the  others. 


784  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  overtasked  teacher  finds  a  child  slow,  and  places  it  with  more 
backward  children,  which  increases  its  slowness.  A  more  exact 
test  of  the  child's  mind  may  show  that  it  is  indeed  slow,  but  that 
the  slowness  is  more  than  counterbalanced  by  intensity  and  range. 
Methods  must  be  applied  which  will  shorten  the  time  of  thought, 
and  will  not  interfere  with  its  force  and  extent.  We  can  deter- 
mine what  size  and  composition  of  class,  what  length  of  lesson, 
session,  and  term  are  most  favorable.  We  can  learn  whether  it  is 
better  for  the  student  to  do  a  thing,  to  see  it,  to  hear  it,  or  to  read 
about  it.  We  can  never  build  a  road  to  learning  which  need  not 
be  traveled  by  the  student,  but  we  can  build  a  royal  road  in  the 
sense  that  it  is  the  shortest  and  best  of  roads.  Above  all,  our 
tests  and  measurements  will  demonstrate  the  value  of  learning 
itself,  and  tell  us  whether  under  given  circumstances  it  is  secured 
by  the  development  or  sacrifice  of  more  essential  qualities,  such 
as  health  of  body,  serenity  of  mind,  common  sense,  honesty,  and 
kindliness. 

In  laboratories  of  psychology  not  only  children  but  every  one 
can  be  tested,  and  small  defects  or  changes  in  the  senses  and  fac- 
ulties can  be  discovered.  Psychology  may  thus  become  an  ally 
of  medicine.  Degenerations  which  escape  common  observation, 
and  even  the  practiced  eye  of  the  physician,  can  be  detected  and 
measured  by  scientific  methods.  The  overstrained  clergyman  or 
man  of  business  can  be  told  when  a  holiday  is  necessary,  how 
long  it  must  last,  whether  rest  or  amusement  be  required.  As 
an  example  of  the  co-operation  of  psychology  and  medicine,  sur- 
gery of  the  brain  can  be  given.  The  part  of  the  brain  which  is 
diseased  is  determined  by  psychophysical  methods,  the  skull  is 
opened,  the  diseased  part  of  the  brain  is  removed,  and  the  patient 
may  be  cured.  Psychological  methods  are  useful  not  only  in  the 
diagnosis  but  also  in  the  cure  of  many  diseases.  We  know  much 
better  than  formerly  how  the  insane,  the  vicious,  and  the  crim- 
inal should  be  treated.  We  know,  for  example,  that  social  work 
is  far  better  than  solitary  confinement.  Even  diseases  not  directly 
dependent  on  the  nervous  system  may  be  cured  by  psychophys- 
ical methods — for  example,  suggesting  to  the  patient  in  the  hyp- 
notic state  that  he  will  be  cured. 

Those  in  good  health  may  also  profit  from  an  examination  in 
a  laboratory  of  psychology.  Valuable  traits  can  be  determined 
as  well  as  defects,  and  the  profession  and  mode  of  life  most  suit- 
able to  the  person  can  be  indicated.  As  has  been  suggested  by 
Mr.  Galton,  such  tests  would  be  peculiarly  useful  in  civil-service 
examinations.  They  would  determine  the  real  qualities  and  fit- 
ness of  the  candidate  in  addition  to  (or  in  place  of)  the  super- 
ficial knowledge  temporarily  acquired  by  "  cram."  While  we  have 
but  little  power  to  alter  the  individual  character,  we  could  exert 


THE  PROGRESS    OF  PSYCHOLOGY.  785 

great  influence  on  the  future  of  the  race.  If  we  determine  what 
traits  are  valuable,  and  how  these  can  be  developed  by  suitable 
marriage,  and  made  universal  by  early  marriage,  we  may  hope 
for  practical  results  of  immense  importance.  By  the  development 
of  a  code  of  honor,  or  by  direct  encouragement  of  the  parents  or 
the  State,  degenerative  tendencies  could  be  eliminated,  and  valu- 
able traits  could  be  developed  much  more  rapidly  than  occurs  in 
the  slow  course  of  natural  selection.  Mr.  Galton  has  shown  that 
the  offspring  of  early  marriages  will  soon  supplant  the  offspring 
of  later  marriages.  But  as  things  go  at  present  the  thoughtless 
and  criminal  are  apt  to  have  offspring  early,  while  the  reliant 
and  mentally  endowed  postpone  marriage  until  a  long  course  of 
education  is  accomplished  and  a  social  position  is  secured. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  other  applications  of  psychol- 
ogy. Its  relation  to  the  fine  arts  is  evident.  The  external  form 
of  art  is  directly  fitted  to  the  senses  and  its  inner  essence  to  the 
mind.  In  political  economy  we  need  to  know  more  concerning 
the  interest,  passions,  and  needs  of  the  people.  Ultimately,  we 
shall  be  able  to  determine  what  distribution  of  labor,  wealth,  and 
power  is  the  best.  Indeed,  the  measurements  and  statistics  of 
psychology,  which  at  first  sight  may  seem  remote  from  common 
interests,  may  in  the  end  become  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
progress  of  society.  The  whole  course  of  life  will  move  forward 
in  straighter  and  broader  channels  when  we  no  longer  depend 
on  instincts  developed  by  the  beast  and  savage,  but  on  knowledge 
and  reason  guiding  to  an  end. 


I)E.  BATJMANN,  in  his  recent  journey  in  countries  north  of  Lake  Tanganyika, 
discovered  the  source  of  the  Kagera  or  Ruvuvu  River  in  about  latitude  3°  south, 
in  a  lofty  range  of  mountains  known  as  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon.  The  Warun- 
di — whose  ancient  kings  bore  the  title  of  Mwezi  (Moon),  and  who  looked  upon 
Dr.  Baumann  as  one  of  their  descendants  just  returned  from  the  moon,  and  con- 
sequently received  him  with  noisy  demonstrations  expressive  of  their  joy— look 
upon  this  spot  as  sacred.  Within  a  wood  close  by  they  used  to  celebrate  the 
funeral  rites  of  their  kings,  whom  they  buried  on  the  top  of  a  mountain  rising 
above  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon. 

DR.  D.  G.  BBINTON  has  made  a  study  of  the  Song  of  the  Arval  Brethren,  a 
priestly  sodality  of  ancient  Rome,  of  presumed  Etruscan  origin,  which  was  sung 
at  their  annual  festival,  and  has  found  in  it  the  name  of  a  divinity  which  is  also  a 
divine  name  among  the  Libyan  tribes  of  northern  Africa,  and  is  perhaps  the  root 
of  the  name  of  those  (the  Berber)  tribes.  This  hint  of  connection  between  the 
Etruscans  and  these  peoples  is  supported  by  the  discovery  of  the  name  of  ua  man 
of  the  Tursha  "  at  Gurob,  near  the  Libyan  boundary  of  Egypt,  rnd  of  an  Etruscan 
ritual  book  in  the  same  region.  The  stem  Adur,  equivalent  with  that  of  Tur  in 
Tursha,  and  with  Etrur  in  Etruria,  occurs  also  in  the  name  Adurraachides— the 
fighting  Adurs— given  by  Herodotus  to  a  tribe  living  in  the  same  region." 
VOL.  XLIII. — 57 


786 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


A  CHARACTERISTIC  SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT  GROUP. 

BY  HENRY  L.   CLARKE. 

A  CURIOUS  fascination  gathers  round  any  type  of  plant  life 
that  stands  alone,  as  peculiarly  characteristic  of  some  one 
region  of  the  world ;  and  still  greater  does  the  interest  become 
when  we  find,  instead  of  a  single  type,  an  extensive  group  of 
closely  related  types  holding  a  thus  isolated  position,  and  consti- 
tuting a  flora  of  themselves  apart  from  surrounding  plant  realms. 
But  such  instances  are  rare — their  very  fewness  primarily  accounts 
for  the  impression  they  make  upon  both  scientist  and  general 


FIG.  1. — OPUNTIA,  CEKEUS,  AND  YUCCAS. 

observer.  In  one  corner  or  another  of  every  continent  botanists 
have  found  oddly  specialized  floras,  distinct  in  aspect  and  purpose 
from  the  general  run  of  vegetable  forms.  Many  of  these  cases 
are  of  insignificant  importance,  save  in  their  immediate  interest 
to  the  specialist ;  some  attract  greater  attention,  as  filling  an  espe- 
cially noticeable  gap  in  the  series  of  plant  relationships ;  a  few 
become  of  widespread  interest  not  only  through  unique  special- 
ization of  structure,  but  also  by  virtue  of  their  holding  a  really 


A    SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT   GROUP.  787 

extensive  and  vitally  important  place  in  the  economy  of  Nature. 
Of  these  last  few  one  instance  rises  up  most  prominently  of  all, 
certainly  without  a  full  parallel  elsewhere  in  the  field  of  botanical 
science — and  do  we  realize  that  it  stands  almost  at  our  doors  ?  It 
is  the  great  three-typed  plant  group  that  forms  the  major  part  of 


FIG.  2. — CEREUS  TRIANGTJLARIS. 

the  flora  of  the  far  Southwest,  on  the  arid  plateaus  and  plains  and 
rocky  mountain  heights  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  western 
Texas  and  southernmost  California,  and  over  the  boundary  line 
far  into  northern  Mexico.  Here  is  the  fatherland  and  here  the 
supreme  province  of  those  three  marvels  of  plant  life — the  cacti, 
with  their  strangely  specialized  vegetative  body ;  the  agaves,  to 
which  popular  tradition  has  attached  an  epithet  of  fitting  dignity 
in  the  name  of  "  century  plants  " ;  and,  thirdly,  the  yuccas,  which 
claim,  in  addition  to  their  floral  splendor,  the  distinction  of  mani- 
festing the  interdependence  of  the  flower  and  insect  worlds  with 


788  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

probably  more  striking  force  than  obtains  in  any  other  single 
instance  throughout  the  range  of  flowering  plants. 

Only  within  the  memory  of  men  still  in  the  prime  of  life  has 
the  full  significance  of  this  Southwestern  flora  dawned  upon  the 
world  of  science.  Far  back  in  the  history  of  early  explorations 
travelers  and  naturalists  had  recognized  the  odd  character  of  these 
north-Mexican  plant  forms,  but  to  realize  their  inward  meaning 
required  the  elaborate  monographing  of  Engelmann  and  the  broad 
generalizing  of  Asa  Gray.  For,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  one  in- 
vestigator after  another,  enthusiastic  over  the  rich  flora  spread  in 
such  profusion  from  our  Atlantic  seaboard  westward  beyond  the 
Rockies,  nevertheless  shunned,  because  of  the  many  difficulties 
presented,  this  threefold  group  of  Southwestern  vegetation.  Yet 
this,  above  all  else,  was  a  flora  peculiarly  American — originating, 
so  far  as  we  have  yet  been  able  to  discover,  on  American  soil,  and 
belonging  to  America  alone.  So  here  there  was  a  prospect  of 
opening  up  to  science  a  new  aspect  of  plant  life,  and  in  due  season 
the  men  came  with  the  opportunities  and  inclination  to  accomplish 
the  task.  Foremost  of  all,  and  more  than  all  the  rest,  stood  forth 
the  St.  Louis  physician,  Dr.  George  Engelmann,  a  skilled  man  of 
medicine,  with  botanical  inspiration.  In  him  there  seemed  to  be 
an  especially  keen  appreciation  of  the  opportunity  offered  for 
vastly  aiding  the  cause  of  botanical  science  by  the  systematic 
study  of  little-known  groups  of  plants ;  and  through  labors  of  this 
nature,  in  addition  to  his  note  as  a  physician,  he  placed  his  name 
among  the  greatest  of  monographers  in  the  annals  of  botany. 
And  to  him  belongs  the  credit  of  turning  the  full  light  of  science 
upon  the  cacti,  the  agaves,  and  the  yuccas,  while  through  his  in- 
vestigations of  these  types  the  attention  of  our  great  American 
systematist,  Asa  Gray,  was  first  directly  turned  to  the  vegetation 
of  the  Southwestern  highlands.  One  of  the  absorbing  problems 
of  Gray's  life-work  was  what  he  once  fitly  termed  "botanical 
archaeology  " — the  study  of  the  geographical  sources  of  our  wealth 
of  flora,  and  of  the  paths  by  which  it  had  passed  from  one  region 
to  another.  Years  of  experience  had  enabled  him  to  propound 
the  masterly  theory  of  the  great  wave  of  ancient  plant  life  sweep- 
ing down  from  the  north  and  giving  to  the  Old  World  and  the  New 
floras  that  have  so  many  types  in  common.  But  later,  largely  in 
the  light  of  Engelmann's  revelations,  Gray  was  brought  to  fully 
realize  that  a  second  great  source  of  the  peculiar  elements  in  our 
flora  lay  in  the  Southwest,  down  on  to  the  Mexican  plateau,  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  influence  of  the  Glacial  age.  Here  was 
the  possible  source  of  a  vegetation  strictly  American,  and  to  it 
might  be  traced  many  now  widely  scattered  tribes,  but  particu- 
larly and  most  obviously  the  three  unique  types  we  are  especially 
considering.  These  have  come  down  to  us,  in  the  land  of  the 


A    SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT   GROUP. 


789 


Aztec,  as  the  descendants  of  an  American  flora  whose  traces  are 
lost  in  far-off  geologic  ages,  even  as  the  forefathers  of  the  Aztec 
are  shrouded  in  the  mist  of  prehistoric  centuries.  In  truth,  there 
seems  a  striking  fitness  in  associating  these  odd  monarchs  of  the 
soil  with  the  barbaric  majesty  of  the  empire  of  Montezuma;  a 
John  Ruskin  might  say,  the  cactus  typified  the  Aztec's  sturdy, 
unwithering  energy  and  stoic  cruelty ;  the  agave,  his  lofty  noble- 
ness of  mind ;  and  the  yucca,  the  passionate  beauty  of  his  nature. 
But  let  the  sentiment  stand — the  Aztec  has  passed  away,  and  yet 


FIG.  3. — AGAVE  BED.     Tree  Agave  on  the  Right. 


this  plant  group  still  holds  its  own  over  the  rocky  hills  and  moun- 
tain sides  and  barren  plateaus,  withstanding  drought  and  burning 
sun,  and  thriving  in  the  arid  sand  wastes.  And  out  from  their 
native  region  many  representatives  have  found  their  way  south- 
ward, over  into  the  West  Indies,  down  through  Central  America, 
still  further  to  the  northern  Andes,  and  almost  to  the  Amazon ; 
and  others,  though  fewer,  have  come  up  into  our  Western  plains 
and  mountains,  scattered  over  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  passed 
through  the  Gulf  States  and  far  up  the  Atlantic  coast.  Thus 
eastward  and  northward  from  Texas  we  can  count  perhaps  a 
dozen  cacti,  several  yuccas,  and  one  or  two  agaves,  all  luxuriating 


790 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


in  their  adopted  habitats.  Such,  then,  is  a  general  suggestion  of 
the  position  this  plant  group  holds  in  our  American  flora.  Let  us 
now  outline  the  relations  of  its  three  members  to  each  other  and 
to  other  flowering  plants  in  general. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  three  types  referred  to  bear  no 
close  relationship  to  one  another ;  on  the  contrary,  they  stand  in 
distinct  and  rather  parallel  classes,  and  each  respectively  among 
the  most  perfect  developments  of  its  class.  The  cacti,  on  the  one 


J, 

> 

Hf» 


FIG.  4. — AGAVE  SALMIANA  IN  BLOSSOM,  AND  AGAVE  AMERICAN  A  IN  FOUEGKOUND. 

hand,  nold  a  place  among  the  most  highly  organized  of  dicotyle- 
dons ;  while  the  agaves  and  yuccas  belong  in  the  other  great  class 
of  angiospermous  flowering  plants,  nearly  parallel,  but  lower 
ranked — the  monocotyledons.  Further,  the  agaves  and  yuccas 
stand  in  nearly  parallel  divisions  among  monocotyledons — the 
agaves  among  the  epigynous-flowered  monocotyls,  typified  by  the 
amaryllis  family ;  the  yuccas  among  the  hypogynous-flowered 


A    SOUTHWESTERN   PLANT   GROUP.  791 

congeners  of  the  lily  family.  Both,  moreover,  are  highly  special- 
ized representatives  of  their  respective  alliances,  and  of  the  two 
the  agaves  represent  the  higher  character  of  development.  Thus 
augmented  interest  is  joined  to  all  three  when  an  outline  of  their 
position  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  shows  us  that  they  are  to  be 
regarded  as  almost,  if  not  quite,  the  highest  products  of  the  evo- 
lution of  that  ancient  Aztec-American  flora  whose  descendants 
they  are. 

And  so  we  are  brought  to  realize  that  they  were  worthy  re- 
cipients of  all  the  attention  Engelmann  and  his  co-workers  be- 
stowed; and  the  history  of  their  investigations  becomes  almost 
as  interesting  as  the  plants  themselves.  Foremost  of  all,  as  has 
been  said,  stand  the  labors  of  Engelmann  ;  but  with  him  are  asso- 
ciated the  names  of  many  untiring  explorers  and  enthusiastic 
botanists,  each  of  whom  contributed  some  vital  element  to  the 
general  outcome:  Wislizenus,  Emory,  Torrey,  Parry,  Schott, 
Palmer,  Newberry — all  were  workers  in  the  field,  and  their  names 
have  gone  down  in  the  annals  of  botany  appended  to  one  species 
or  another  of  the  genera  they  studied,  fittingly  commemorating 
the  aid  they  gave  toward  awakening  scientific  interest  in  this 
Southwestern  plant  group.  Engelmann  gathered  together  the 
work  of  all  and  compiled  it  in  his  masterly  monographs,  taking 
up  first  the  cacti,  then  the  yuccas,  and  finally  the  agaves.  From 
time  to  time  he  published  additional  notes,  as  new  store  of  infor- 
mation came  to  him,  presenting  most  of  the  matter  to  the  St. 
Louis  Academy  of  Sciences,  of  which  he  was  for  years  the  lead- 
ing support.  Up  to  the  month  he  died  he  was  working  over  the 
great  mass  of  notes  he  had  accumulated  on  the  cacti,  preparatory 
to  publishing  a  grand  revision  of  his  first  monograph.  That  the 
work  could  not  be  completed  is  a  source  of  deepest  regret  to 
living  botanists ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  original  monograph  still 
stands,  and  will  continue  to  stand,  as  the  backbone  of  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  family  it  treats.  And  as  to  the  other  two  mono- 
graphs, the  past  decade  has  been  able  to  add  little  to  them  of  vital 
importance  save  in  so  far  as  more  extended  observations  have 
served  to  more  fully  develop  Engelmann's  views.  With  justice, 
therefore,  is  Engelmann  accorded  a  prominent  place  among  sci- 
entists ;  but  inseparably  linked  with  his  is  the  name  of  another 
man,  honored  as  a  broad-spirited  patron  of  science,  Henry  Shaw, 
the  founder  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Garden,  on  the  outskirts  of 
St.  Louis.  This  was  the  pride  of  Engelmann's  heart,  and  it  was 
here  that  he  constantly  labored  under  the  liberal  patronage  and 
never-failing  encouragement  of  Shaw.  The  two  men  worked  and 
planned  together  in  their  common  interest,  and  as  a  result  we  find 
in  the  Missouri  Garden  to-day  species  of  cacti  numbering  in  the 
hundreds,  of  agaves  more  than  half  a  hundred,  and  the  better 


FIG.  5. — AGAVE  ENGELMANNI.* 


*  Figs.  5,  6,  10,  11,  and  12  are  from  the  Report  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Garden  for 
1892,  and  Fig.  8  is  from  the  same  report  for  1893. 


A    SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT  GROUP.  793 

part  of  all  the  known  yuccas,  altogether  forming  one  of  the  most 
complete  collections  in  the  world  of  these  Southwestern  types; 
and  he  who  carefully  examines  it  will  be  ready  to  acknowledge  it 
one  of  the  most  fascinating  of  all  plant  collections.  Surely  it 
could  have  no  more  fitting  home  than  there  in  the  city  of  Engel- 
mann ;  and  we  can  not  but  cherish  the  hope  that  no  pains  will  be 
spared  to  make  the  collection  even  far  more  complete  than  it  is, 
and  thus  give  the  American  botanist  a  still  greater  laboratory  in 
which  to  investigate  so  great  a  factor  in  American  plant  life.  A 
suggestion  of  this  aspect  of  the  Missouri  Garden  may  be  found  in 
the  illustrations  accompanying  the  present  paper,  most  of  which 
are  from  photographs  taken  there  in  July,  1892.  The  magnificent 
collection  of  cacti  and  the  several  flowering  plants  of  agave  in  the 
World's  Fair  are  of  the  highest  interest  in  this  connection.  Can 
not  these  form  a  nucleus  for  a  great  permanent  cactus  garden  ? 

From  the  general  discussion  we  may  appropriately  pass  to  a 
more  detailed  sketch  of  each  of  the  three  groups  before  us,  and  in 
taking  them  up  it  will  be  found  most  convenient  to  place  them  in 
the  order  of  their  evolutionary  rank :  the  cacti  first,  as  represent- 
ing the  higher  class  of  flowering  plants;  then  the  agaves;  and 
lastly  the  yuccas,  as  somewhat  lower  in  station  than  the  second. 
This  will  have  the  merit,  in  addition  to  its  logical  virtue,  of  dis- 
posing of  the  weightiest  group  first,  and  of  leaving  till  the  last  an 
amazing  little  entomological-botanical  romance  which  gathers 
round  the  yucca.  And  the  stately  agaves  will  be  not  inharmoni- 
ously  sandwiched  between  their  two  odd  brethren.  But  let  this 
suffice  for  a  prospectus ;  the  story  will  tell  itself  more  satisfac- 
torily. 

Viewing  the  three  members  of  our  group  together,  the  query 
presents  itself :  Is  there  not  some  vital  significance  in  the  relative 
extent  and  diversity  of  development  in  these  three  joint  mon- 
archs  of  the  desert  ?  Two  of  them,  those  we  shall  consider  later, 
reach  only  the  magnitude  of  genera,  each  constituting  a  moder- 
ate-sized and  not  remarkably  diversified  genus ;  while  on  the 
other  hand  the  cacti  together  form  an  immense  family,  the  natu- 
ral order  Cactacece,  aggregating  over  a  thousand  species,  gath- 
ered into  a  number  of  genera.  It  is  but  a  grand  example  of 
evolutionary  principles,  "natural  selection  and  the  survival  of 
the  fittest,"  for  the  facts  must  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  Dar- 
win's immortal  phrase.  The  yucca  pushes  its  sturdy  rootstock 
through  the  sand  and  drinks  up  each  available  drop  of  water ; 
the  agave's  succulent  leaves  store  up  a  wealth  of  nutritious  sap ; 
but  the  cactus  seems  to  be  pre-eminently  an  invulnerable  store- 
house of  life-giving  moisture,  and  the  veritable  offspring  of  the 
arid,  rocky  sand-wastes,  while  the  others  seem  only  adopted  chil- 
dren. Mark  the  peculiar  characters  of  the  typical  cactus :  The 


79;4  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

compact  mass  of  the  vegetative  body,  devoid  of  leaves  or  leaf- 
like  appendages,  exposes  the  least  possible  evaporating  surface  to 
the  sun ;  the  thick  skin,  bearing  only  a  few  scattered  stomata, 
breathing  pores,  wraps  an  almost  impermeable  covering  round 
the  internal  moisture ;  the  long,  wiry,  fibrous  roots  run  hither 
and  thither  through  the  sand  and  into  the  finest  crevices  of  rocks ; 
and  further,  the  bristling,  spiny  armor  shields  the  plant  from  men 
and  beasts.  All  this  and  much  more  goes  to  make  up  the  plant 
of  plants  that  is  best  fitted  to  fulfill  the  mission  of  vegetation  in 
the  Southwestern  borderlands.  And  so  the  problem  solves  itself, 
and  we  come  to  realize  why  the  progenitors  of  the  Cactacece, 
spread  out  and  multiplied  far  and  wide,  and  broke  into  a  myriad 
varied  forms,  all  retaining  amid  their  diversity  the  distinctive 
characteristics  of  the  primal  type. 

A  standard  British  encyclopaedia  of  scarcely  three  quarters  of 
a  century  ago  vouchsafes  the  statement  that  the  order  Cactacece 
embraces  "twenty-seven"  species.  Grasp  the  contrast  between 
this  day  of  science  and  that !  The  botanists  of  the  Century  Dic- 
tionary estimate  the  species  at  far  above  the  thousand  mark. 
For  this  vast  stride  we  thank  a  host  of  indefatigable  explorers, 
and  of  these,  a  large  share  of  credit  goes  to  the  scientists  of  the 
Mexican  Boundary  and  the  Pacific  Railway  Surveys,  whose  dis- 
coveries were  the  main  foundations  of  the  labors  of  Engelmann. 
Thus  duly  recognizing  the  scope  of  the  field  before  us,  we  may 
with  interest  follow  an  outline  sketch  of  the  order.  The  general 
character  of  the  vegetative  body  may  be  passed  over  for  the 
present  without  further  detail,  that  we  may  the  more  particu- 
larly notice  the  floral  structure  on  which  the  systematic  study  of 
the  order  so  largely  depends.  The  inferior  ovary,  surmounted  by 
the  sepals,  petals,  and  stamens,  places  the  order  immediately 
among  the  highest  of  the  dicotyledonous  CJioripetalce*.  There  is 
a  natural  division  into  two  suborders.  In  the  first,  the  Rotatce,, 
the  rotate  many-leaved  calyx  and  corolla,  with  the  stamens, 
directly  surmount  the  ovary.  In  the  second  there  is  a  unique 
and  obviously  progressive  development:  calyx  and  corolla  are 
united  toward  their  bases  and  prolonged  into  a  tube,  with  the 
stamens  inserted  on  its  throat — whence  the  name  of  the  sub- 
order, the  Tubuloscz.  The  typical  Eotatcz  are  the  widespread  ge- 
nus Opuntia,  numbering  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  species. 
The  greater  part  of  the  genus  are  characterized  by  broad,  thick- 
ened, fleshy,  jointed  stems ;  but  a  small  subgenus,  and  this  prob- 
ably the  less  highly  specialized,  have  cylindrical  joints.  Most  of 
the  species  are  more  or  less  spreading  and  prostrate,  but  a  large 
number  are  truly  arborescent  in  growth.  Several  species  are 
thoroughly  naturalized  in  the  northeastern  quarter  of  the  United 
States,  and  these  are  among  the  most  brilliant  acquisitions  of  our 


A    SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT   GROUP. 


795 


Northern  flora.  The  gorgeous  yellow  of  Opuntia  Rafinesquii 
and  O.  Missouriensis,  flourishing  on  a  sandy  hillside  beneath 
the  July  sun,  can  well  inspire  the  soul  of  botanist  and  flower- 


Fio.  6. — YUCCA  GLORIOSA. 


lover.     It  is  an  interesting  and  significant  fact  that  among  the 
Rotatm,  as  allies  of  the  Opuntia,  we  find  the  two  little  genera  that 


796  THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

nearest  approach  being  missing  links  between  other  neighboring 
orders  and  the  Cactacecz,  otherwise  almost  utterly  isolated.  One 
is  the  genus  Pereskia,  in  which,  especially  in  Pereskia  grandi- 
folia,  there  are  developed  true  leaves,  succulent  and  veiny  and  with 
spines  in  their  axils.  Most  species  of  the  genus  are  shrubs  or 
trees,  and,  still  further  remarkable,  the  flowers  are  borne  in 
nearly  panicled  clusters.  The  thirteen  species  belong  mostly  to 
the  West  India  region,  and  one  produces  the  so-called  "Barbados 
gooseberry."  A  decided  analogy  may  be  recognized  by  close 
comparison  between  these  Pereskias  and  the  Ribeseaeeoz,  the 
group  of  the  saxifrage  family  which  includes  the  currants  and 
spiny-stemmed  gooseberries ;  and  this  probably  points  to  a  dis- 
tant connection  between  the  progenitors  of  the  Cactaceoz  and 
those  of  the  modern  genus  Ribes.  The  other  possible  "  missing 
link  "  is  the  genus  Rhipsalis,  a  curious  group,  mostly  epiphytic, 
and  growing  in  long,  pendent  masses  from  the  branches  of  trees, 
in  some  instances  resembling  mistletoe.  In  these  plants  we  see  a 
possible  approach  to  the  group  of  so-called  "  ice-plants,"  the  or- 
der MesembryanthemacecB.  But  most  peculiar  is  the  fact  that 
one  species  of  Rhipsalis  is  indigenous  to  Sou.th  Africa,  Mada- 
gascar, and  Ceylon — the  only  instance  of  an  Old  World  cactus. 
This  probably  has  its  significance. 

The  other  suborder,  the  Tubuloscz,  are  undoubtedly  the  more 
highly  specialized  cacti,  and  further,  significant  fact,  they  are  for 
the  most  part  Mexican,  while  the  Opuntice  are  widely  scattered 
northward.  Besides  several  minor  genera  of  Tubulosce  there  are 
three  great  and  distinctive  ones,  which,  as  it  is  interesting  to  note, 
mark  successive  steps  in  structural  specialization — they  are  Ma- 
millaria, Echinocactus,  and  Cereus.  In  mamillaria  there  is  a 
great  departure,  in  the  character  of  the  vegetative  body,  from  the 
Opunticz.  The  plants  are  more  or  less  globular  or  subcylindrical, 
and  the  original  joints  of  the  stem  are  indicated  only  by  the 
conical  spine-tipped  tubercles  which  make  up  the  surface  of  the 
fleshy  mass.  Echinocactus,  the  "hedgehog  cacti,"  has  the  gen- 
eral appearance  of  mamillaria,  but  the  tubercled  surface  is  modi- 
fied into  a  mere  series  of  parallel  vertical  ribs,  bearing  clusters  of 
spines  along  their  ridges  at  points  corresponding  to  the  tubercles 
of  mamillaria.  Of  the  two  genera,  echinocactus  is  much  the 
more  strictly  Mexican,  while  mamillaria  has  a  few  representa- 
tives spreading  northeastward  into  Kansas  and  South  Dakota. 
The  large  genus  Cereus  is  the  crowning  glory  of  the  cacti.  It 
retains  the  ribbed  structure  of  echinocactus,  but  its  stems  are 
nearly  always  columnar  and  in  many  instances  arborescent.  With 
echinocactus,  this  genus  reaches  its  greatest  development  in 
Mexico,  or  near  the  boundary  line,  where  flourishes  the  monarch 
of  the  Cactacece,  the  "  giant  cactus,"  Cereus  giganteus.  In  cereus, 


A    SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT   GROUP. 


797 


furthermore,  is  the  fullest  development  of  the  tubular  floral 
structure,  much  less  evident  in  echinocactus  and  mamillaria. 
Thus  we  find  the  cacti  forming  a  little  kingdom  of  their  own,  and 
could  we  here  go  beyond  the  limits  of  an  outline,  a  broadly  inter- 
esting study  might  be  found  in  each  division  of  the  order.  But 
without  further  detail  the  vitally  important  observation  may  be 
made,  that  there  seems  just  reason  to  believe  that  what  the  Com- 
posite?, are  to  modern  plant  life  in  general, the  Cactacew  were,  and 


FIG.  7. — YUCCA  GROUP:  1,  Yucca  macrocarpa;  2,  Yucca  trsculeara  ;  4,  Yucca  elata ;  3  and  5, 

Yucca  dasylirion. 

probably  are,  to  that  ancient  Southwestern  flora — the  climax  of 
its  evolution. 

Linnaeus  vividly  expressed  the  spirit  of  the  "  century  plant " 
in  one  Greek  word,  the  very  name  he  gave  it — "Agave"  so  called, 
he  said,  "  because  that  word  indicates  something  grand  and  de- 
serving admiration";  and  although  he  only  knew  a  half-dozen 
species,  the  many  that  subsequent  research  has  brought  to  light 
justify  most  fully  the  title  he  bestowed.  The  genus  holds  a  sta- 
tion of  its  own  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  monocotyledons,  but,  like 
the  cacti  among  dicotyledons,  rather  isolated.  It  certainly  ap- 
proaches the  amaryllis  family  in  many  characteristics,  and,  if 
really  coming  within  the  limits  of  this  order  at  all,  may  perhaps 


798  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 

be  considered  a  highly  specialized  offshoot.     There  is  immense 
variation  in  the  foliage  characters  of  agave,  from  the  slender 


FIG.  8. — YUCCA  GUATKMALENSIS. 


reed-like  leaves  of  Agave  geminifolia  to  the  massive  blades  of 
Agave  Americana.    The  character  of  the  inflorescence  has  been 


A    SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT   GROUP.  799 

made  the  basis  for  the  primary  division  of  the  genus  into  three 
groups:  the  Singuliflorm,  the  Geminiflorce,,  and  the  Paniculate?. 
In  all  cases  the  flower-scape  rises  from  the  apex  of  the  main  axis 
of  the  plant ;  all  the  vital  energy  of  often  many  years'  growth  is 
centered  there,  and  the  plant  throws  up  its  blossom-stalk  as  the  su- 
preme effort  of  its  existence,  and,  when  the  fruit  has  ripened,  dies 
— a  strange  phenomenon,  and  almost  without  parallel  in  any  other 
so  extensive  group.  In  the  Singuliflorce,  is  the  simplest  type  of  in- 
florescence. The  flowers  are  loosely  spiked,  each  one  in  the  axil  of 
a  bract.  To  this  group  belongs  our  one  Northern  agave,  the  little 
Agave  Virginica,  which  grows  from  Maryland  and  southern  Indi- 
ana southwest  ward  into  Texas.  The  Geminiflorce,  have  the  flowers 
borne  in  pairs,  and  densely  spiked  along  the  scape.  Variations 
which  show  transition  between  both  these  simpler  groups  and  the 
third  occur.  The  Paniculate  have  the  scape  more  or  less  branch- 
ing, often  in  the  fashion  of  a  candelabrum,  each  branch  terminat- 
ing in  a  dense  cluster  of  flowers.  These  are  the  typical  agaves, 
the  crowning  glory  of  the  genus.  The  familiar  Agave  Americana 
is  a  representative  of  the  Paniculate^,  and  so  also  the  plant  shown 
in  the  accompanying  photograph  (Fig.  7),  Agave  Salmiana,  a 
magnificent  species  that  blossomed  in  the  Missouri  Botanical 
Garden  in  the  summer  of  1892.  A  splendid  agave  that  commemo- 
rates the  founder  of  the  Missouri  Garden  is  the  Agave  Shawii, 
dedicated  by  Engelmann  to  Henry  Shaw  ;  and  in  turn  the  labors 
of  Engelmann  have  been  fitly  honored  in  the  dedication  to  him  of 
a  most  striking  type  that  he  once  presented  to  the  Missouri  Gar- 
den. It  blossomed  there  in  the  summer  of  1891,  and  when  it  had 
been  clearly  proved  a  new  species  it  was  duly  christened  by  Di- 
rector Trelease  Agave  Engelmanni  (Fig.  5).  The  structure  of 
the  agave  flower  is  extremely  unique  in  several  particulars,  but 
further  detail  can  not  be  entered  into.  Almost  every  step  taken 
in  the  investigation  of  the  genus  gives  additional  emphasis  to  the 
first  impression,  that  it  is  one  of  the  master  marvels  of  plant  life. 

It  remains  to  add  some  passing  notes  on  the  wonderfully  beau- 
tiful genus  which  the  lily  family  contributes  to  our  group,  the 
yuccas.  A  glorious  floral  offering  to  the  arid  Southwest  high- 
lands they  certainly  are,  and  scientifically  their  structure  is  in 
many  ways  scarcely  less  remarkable  than  that  of  the  cacti  and 
agaves.  But  the  consideration  of  these  points  will  be  passed  over 
here  in  order  to  call  up  more  particularly  the  phenomenon  that 
makes  the  yucca  an  astounding  mystery  to  naturalist  and  philoso- 
pher, the  manner  of  its  cross-fertilization.  For  the  fact  is,  we  have 
here  an  extensive  genus  entirely  incapable,  save  under  most  rarely 
extraordinary  circumstances,  of  self-fertilization,  and  entirely  de- 
pendent on  one  moth  that  fertilizes  the  flowers  in  order  to  insure 
food  supply  for  its  larvae  in  the  ripening  seeds.  The  problem  of 


8oo 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


yucca  fertilization  was  for  many  years  a  vexed  question ;  Engel- 
mann  spent  much,  thought  and  observation  in  trying  to  learn  its 
secret,  and  finally,  over  twenty  years  ago,  called  the  attention  of 
Prof.  C.  V.  Eiley,  the  noted  entomologist,  to  certain  moths  which 
frequented  the  yucca  flowers.  After  long  and  patient  study  and 
various  erroneous  speculations  the  two  scientists  ultimately 
brought  the  whole  mystery  to  light ;  and  in  a  recent  paper,  pub- 
lished in  the  Report  of  the  Missouri  Garden  for  1892,  Riley  has 
fully  elaborated  his  work  of  the  earlier  years  and  the  observations 
made  in  the  intervening  time.  The  structure  of  the  yucca  flower 


FIG.  9. — YUCCA  ALOIFOLIA. 


is  plainly  outlined  in  Fig.  10.  Long  experimentation  has  positively 
shown  that  it  is  practically  impossible  for  the  sticky  pollen  to  be 
transferred  from  the  little  anthers  on  the  tips  of  the  short  stamens 
to  the  fine  stigmatic  tube  opening  only  at  the  tip  of  the  pistil,  except 
by  external  voluntary  agency.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  agency  is 


A    SOUTHWESTERN  PLANT   GROUP.  801 

always  the  little  moths  of  the  genus  Pronuba — never  any  other  in- 
sect whatsoever.  Several  different  species  of  Pronuba  frequent  re- 
spectively several  different  species  or  groups  of  species  of  yuccas,* 
but  the  most  familiar  one  is  the  Pronuba  yuccasella,  always  found 
on  our  Yucca  filamentosa,  the  most  Northeastern  type.  Just  about 


FIG.  10. — FLOWER  OF  YCCCA  GLORIOSA. 

nightfall,  as  the  flowers  open,  the  moths  are  seen  flitting  about 
the  yucca  panicles.  Usually  the  male  is  most  constantly  on  the 
wing,  while  the  female  is  found  running  about  within  the  flowers. 
She  begins  operations  by  mounting  the  top  of  a  stamen,  exactly 
as  shown  in  Fig.  11.  There  she  scrapes  with  her  two  odd  hook- 
like  maxillary  palpi  the  pollen  out  of  the  anther,  and  rolls 
it  into  a  globular  mass  under  her  head.  With  this  load,  often 
thrice  the  size  of  her  head,  she  goes  to  another  flower,  runs  about, 
apparently  examines  every  nook  and  corner  of  it,  and  then,  if  per- 
chance satisfied,  finally  settles  astride  two  of  the  stamens  with  her 

*  In  the  Report  for  1893  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Garden,  Prof.  William  Trelease,  Di- 
rector of  the  Garden,  publishes  a  paper  on  yuccas,  from  which  the  following  notes  are 
made  with  reference  to  the  Pronubas  frequenting  different  species  of  the  plant :  Pronuba 
yuccasella  pollinates  Y.  jilamcntosci,  Y.  aloifolia,  Y.  glauca,  Y.  baccata,  Y.  gloriosa,  Y.  elata, 
Y.  glauca,  var.  stricta  ;  Pronuba  synthetica  pollinates  Y.  brcvifolia  ;  Pronuba  macufata,  Y. 
Whipplei  ;  and  Pronuba  macnlata,  var.  aterrima  (a  new  variety  of  Pronuba  discovered  by 
Prof.  Trelease  in  1892),  pollinates  Y.  Whipplei,  var.  graminifolta  ;  and,  finally,  Prof.  Riley 
predicts  the  discovery  of  distinct  species  of  Pronuba  on  each  of  these  yuccas,  viz. :  Y 
tilif,  >•«,  Y.  trcculeara,  Y.  Guatemalcnsis,  and  others. — H.  L.  C. 

VOL.    XLIII. — 58 


802 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


abdomen  pressed  down  between  them.  From  the  tip  of  the  abdomen 
the  long,  sharp-edged  ovipositor,  an  organ  of  wonderful  delicacy 
and  most  remarkable  structure,  is  thrust  into  the  tissue  of  the 
pistil,  and  the  eggs  are  deposited  among  the  ovules.  This  act 
may  occur  several  times  on  the  same  pistil.  Then,  still  more  re- 
markable, the  moth  deliberately  runs  to  the  apex  of  the  pistil  and 
with  tongue  and  palpi  crams  a  portion  of  the  collected  pollen 
mass  into  the  stigmatic  tube,  thereby  fertilizing  the  flower.  The 
tongue  is  worked  up  and  down  for  some  time  in  the  tube  like  a 
piston  rod,  with  evident  intentness  on  the  part  of  the  moth.  This 


FIG.  11. — PRONUBA 

YtJCCASELLA. 


FIG.  12. — FKUIT  or  YUCCA  GLORIOSA. 


series  of  operations,  always  in  the  same  order,  may  be  repeated 
again  and  again  till  late  into  the  evening.  The  moth  chooses  only 
the  freshly  opened  flowers  and  those  that  have  not  been  punctured 
by  another  moth  coming  before.  Only  the  flowers  thus  fertilized 
can  ever  by  any  possibility  produce  fruit;  and  thus  the  yucca 
fruit,  as  seen  in  Fig.  12,  always  bears  several  constrictions 
where  the  scar  was  made  by  the  puncture  of  the  moth's  oviposi- 
tor. Inside  the  fruit  the  moth-larva  develops  with  the  seeds,  de- 
vouring sometimes  a  dozen  of  them ;  and  when  the  pod  ripens 
the  larva  eats  its  way  out,  and,  in  the  night-time,  drops  to  the 
ground  by  a  silken  thread,  burrows  into  the  soil,  and  there  wraps 
itself  in  a  strong  cocoon.  Sometimes  the  moth  does  not  issue 


HOUSEHOLD   ARTS  AT  THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.        803 

from  the  cocoon  for  several  years,  though,  not  so  generally.  It  is 
strangely  true,  however,  that  moth  and  yucca  flower  mature  at 
the  selfsame  season ;  and  strangest  of  all,  it  can  not  be  shown 
that  the  moth  during  its  short  existence  in  the  perfect  state  takes 
a  particle  of  nutriment  from  the  yucca  flower — no  pollen,  no  nec- 
tar, no  stigmatic  fluid.  This  is  practically  certain.  Here,  then, 
is  a  case  of  "  instinct "  that  is  utterly  dazzling ;  it  bids  defiance  to 
comparative  psychology,  philosophy,  metaphysics — everything. 
Here  is  a  plant  that  can  not  perpetuate  itself  without  one  certain 
strangely  specialized  moth ;  and  here  is  a  moth  that  can  not  live 
without  that  plant;  and  that  moth  deliberately  cross-fertilizes 
the  flowers  without  receiving  any  nutriment  from  them  !  Verily, 
the  botanist  must  rise  up  and  say  of  the  yucca  moth  what  Cicero 
said  of  the  aged  planter  of  orchards,  "Serit  arbores  quse  alteri 
sseclo  prosint!"  and  even  with  greater  truth.  This  is  interde- 
pendence between  the  worlds  of  insect  and  plant  life  that  baffles 
understanding. 

Cacti,  agaves,  yuccas,  such  is  the  three-typed  group  that  stands 
out  as  a  great  division  of  a  flora  distinctively  American ;  unique 
in  the  phase  of  plant  development  it  presents;  peculiar  to  a 
region  of  strange  physical  aspect ;  sprung  directly,  for  aught  that 
is  known  otherwise,  from  the  mystery-shrouded  soil  of  the  Aztec 
and  the  cliff-dweller.  And  this  is  the  splendid  tribute  the  land  of 
the  far  Southwest  gives  to  the  world  of  science. 


HOUSEHOLD  ARTS  AT  THE  WORLD'S  FAIR. 

BY  FREDERIK  A.   FERNALD. 

THE  visitor  who  wishes  to  learn  what  the  World's  Columbian 
Exposition  has  to  teach  in  regard  to  the  domestic  arts  will 
not  find  the  exhibits  in  this  field  gathered  in  a  separate  building, 
as  are  those  relating  to  Transportation  or  Agriculture.  He  will 
not  find  them  entered  as  one  class  in  the  Official  Catalogue,  but 
must  search  them  out  in  nooks  and  corners,  and  will  often  stumble 
upon  them  in  the  most  unlikely  places. 

To  begin  with  the  house  itself :  two  specimen  dwellings  of  low 
cost  are  exhibited.  Away  down  near  the  southeastern  corner  of 
the  grounds  is  a  neat  wooden  cottage,  forming  part  of  the  New 
York  exhibit,  and  known  as  the  Workingman's  Model  Home. 
The  house,  with  cellar,  would  cost  ordinarily  $1,000 ;  it  measures 
20X28  feet,  and  is  designed  to  stand  on  a  lot  of  25X40  feet.  On 
the  first  floor  are  a  hallway,  living  room,  kitchen,  bath  room,  and 
storeroom ;  on  the  second  floor  are  three  bedrooms,  each  with  a 
closet,  and  a  large  closet  at  the  front  end  of  the  upper  hall.  The 


8o4  THE   POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

house  is  furnished,  and  clothing  for  a  family  consisting  of  a  man, 
wife,  and  three  children  is  hung  in  the  closets.  Posted  in  the  sev- 
eral rooms  are  lists  giving  the  cost  of  the  furniture,  the  clothing, 
and  the  living  expenses.  The  outfit  of  furniture  amounts  to  $300. 
The  yearly  expenses  are  estimated  at  $500,  apportioned  as  follows: 
Rent,  $120 ;  food,  $200 ;  clothing,  $100 ;  fuel,  $30 ;  miscellaneous, 
$50.  Experiments  in  feeding  a  family  of  five  are  carried  on  in  the 
house  by  Miss  Katherine  B.  Davis,  of  Rochester,  and  the  bill  of 
fare  for  each  day  since  the  beginning  is  posted  in  the  living  room. 
The  cost  of  food  for  the  whole  family  has  ranged  between  fifty 
and  sixty  cents  a  day. 

Just  inside  the  Midway  Plaisance  stands  the  Philadelphia 
Workingman's  House.  It  is  a  two-story  structure  of  brick,  the 
dimensions  being  15X43  feet,  and  it  was  erected  by  the  Social  and 
Economic  Science  Committee  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  of  Phila- 
delphia. It  contains  six  rooms  and  a  bath  room,  has  a  furnace, 
and  the  cellar  is  concreted.  Such  a  house  could  be  built  in  most 
places  for  $2,300.  Floor  plans  of  both  this  and  the  New  York 
house  can  be  had  for  a  small  charge. 

The  several  exhibits  of  cooking  processes  and  appliances  would 
make  a  very  creditable  display  if  brought  together  in  one  build- 
ing. Opening  from  the  gallery  of  the  Woman's  Building  is  a 
large  room,  where  a  lecture  on  cooking  is  given  daily,  after  which 
the  lecturer  spends  several  hours  in  answering  the  questions  of 
interested  listeners.  This  room  is  called  a  Model  Kitchen  in  the 
Official  Catalogue,  but  it  is  fitted  up  as  a  lecture  room,  and  not  as 
a  kitchen.  The  National  Columbian  Household  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, organized  by  the  Committee  on  Household  Economics  of 
the  Board  of  Lady  Managers,  provides  a  lecturer,  Mrs.  Emma  P. 
Ewing,  for  two  months  of  the  season  that  the  fair  is  open.  She 
lectured  on  bread-making  during  June,  and  is  to  return  for  the 
month  of  October.  During  the  whole  six  months  Mrs.  Sarah  T. 
Rorer  lectures  under  the  auspices  of  the  Illinois  Woman's  Exposi- 
tion Board.  The  board  has  assigned  to  her  the  special  task  of 
making  known  the  proper  way  of  cooking  corn  products  to  Ameri- 
can and  foreign  visitors,  with  the  object  of  widening  the  too  re- 
stricted market  for  this  product  of  our  soil.  Accordingly,  Mrs. 
Rorer  describes  only  dishes  into  which  corn  enters  in  some  form. 
Her  list  is  far  from  being  so  narrowly  restricted  as  many  might 
suppose ;  she  has  over  two  hundred  recipes  available,  including 
breads,  puddings  of  cornmeal  and  cornstarch,  griddle  cakes, 
mushes,  hominy,  blanc  mange,  and  (not  to  be  omitted)  Philadel- 
phia scrapple.  A  selection  of  these  is  included  in  the  little  recipe 
book  given  away  at  the  lectures.  Mrs.  Rorer  also  gives  lessons  to 
a  class  of  girls,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  show  how  cheaply  in- 
struction in  cooking  may  be  introduced  into  public  schools. 


HOUSEHOLD   ARTS   AT   THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.        805 

Returning  now  to  the  southeastern  corner  of  the  grounds,  we 
find  close  to  the  Anthropological  Building  a  small  structure  de- 
voted to  demonstrations  in  cookery.  Owing  to  various  obstacles 
it  was  not  opened  until  about  August  1st.  These  demonstrations 
form  part  of  the  Massachusetts  exhibit.  They  are  conducted  by 
Miss  Maria  Daniell,  under  the  general  direction  of  Mrs.  Ellen  H. 
Richards,  Instructor  in  Sanitary  Chemistry  at  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology.  The  building  is  called  the  Rumford 
Kitchen,  after  the  scientist  of  Massachusetts  birth  who  did  so 
much  to  advance  the  art  of  cooking  just  a  century  ago.  Selec- 
tions from  three  classes  of  dishes  are  prepared  and  served ;  name- 
ly, soups,  luncheons  for  school  children  and  students,  and  foods 
for  the  sick.  Leaflets  containing  instructive  matter  are  distrib- 
uted, but  no  set  lectures  are  given. 

Beside  the  Rumford  Kitchen  stands  another  small  building, 
also  devoted  to  the  teaching  of  cookery,  and  opened  about  the 
same  time  as  its  neighbor.  This  is  a  part  of  the  New  York  exhibit, 
and  is  in  charge  of  Miss  Juliet  Corson,  the  head  of  the  New  York 
Cooking  School. 

Considerable  evidence  may  be  found  that  cooking  is  being  made 
a  subject  of  school  instruction  in  this  and  other  countries.  In  the 
educational  exhibits  of  the  several  States,  which  are  placed  in  the 
gallery  of  the  building  of  Manufactures  and  Liberal  Arts,  this 
subject  is  included  in  the  school  programmes  of  many  cities  and 
towns,  and  some  pictures  of  classes  at  work  are  shown.  From  the 
gentleman  in  attendance  at  the  educational  exhibit  of  Japan  the 
writer  learned  that  domestic  economy  is  taught  in  the  schools  of 
that  country.  In  the  German  section  of  the  Woman's  Building  is 
an  alcove  containing  utensils,  charts,  and  models  of  buildings  used 
by  the  people's  kitchen  schools,  household  schools,  and  homes  and 
schools  for  servants  in  Germany,  with  statistics  concerning  these 
and  related  institutions.  This  exhibit  was  prepared  by  Frau  Lina 
Morgenstern,  of  Berlin.  Near  by  may  be  found  information  con- 
cerning the  housekeeping  and  other  schools  maintained  by  the 
Ladies'  Societies  of  Baden,  with  pictures  of  the  schoolrooms. 

When  we  look  to  see  what  articles  of  home  cookery  have  been 
sent  for  exhibition  we  find  that  the  catalogue  of  the  Woman's 
Building  mentions  fig  preserves,  other  preserves,  jams,  jellies, 
home-made  wines,  and  catsups,  sent  by  four  exhibitors,  as  being 
in  the  lecture  room,  but  a  diligent  search  in  that  room  fails  to  re- 
veal them.  In  the  exhibit  of  woman's  work  in  the  Illinois  Build- 
ing, made  under  the  management  of  the  Illinois  Woman's  Expo- 
sition Board,  is  a  neat  case  in  which  the  Chicago  Exchange  for 
Woman's  Work  exhibits  preserves,  jams,  jellies,  and  several  kinds 
of  pickles,  very  attractively  put  up.  Preserves  and  jellies  put  up 
by  women  may  also  be  found  in  the  North  Carolina  section  of 


806  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

the  Agricultural  Building  and  in  the  Florida  and  Colorado  sec- 
tions of  the  Horticultural  Building.  In  the  latter  building  also 
is  a  large  and  varied  assortment  of  apple  jellies,  each  kind  bear- 
ing the  name  of  the  variety  of  apple  from  which  it  was  made, 
exhibited  by  a  Maine  woman.  Across  the  avenue,  outside  the 
fair  grounds,  is  the  interesting  exhibit  of  Manitoba.  Here  may 
be  seen  a  large  collection  of  preserved  fruits  and  preserved  and 
pickled  vegetables,  all  put  up  by  women  in  their  homes. 

The  food  stuffs,  and  especially  the  partly  prepared  foods  ex- 
hibited by  manufacturers,  are  numerous  and  varied.  Most  of 
these  are  placed  in  the  gallery  of  the  Agricultural  Building,  but 
there  are  a  few  important  exceptions.  Butter  and  cheese  are  to 
be  found  in  the  Dairy  Building,  coffee  and  tea  in  the  foreign 
buildings  or  foreign  sections  of  the  large  buildings.  A  great  part 
of  the  exhibit  in  the  Brazil  Building  consists  of  coffee,  and  this 
product  is  shown  also  by  other  countries  of  South  and  Central 
America  and  the  West  Indies.  In  some  of  the  buildings  a  cup  of 
the  beverage  may  be  had.  Ceylon  tea  is  served  by  Cingalese  at- 
tendants in  the  Ceylon  Court  and  in  three  or  four  of  the  general 
buildings.  Four  of  the  prominent  chocolate  manufacturers  have 
separate  small  buildings  in  various  parts  of  the  grounds,  and  an- 
other has  an  attractive  exhibit  in  the  Agricultural  Building.  At 
all  of  these  chocolate  and  cocoa  are  served.  In  the  main  food 
display  the  great  packing  houses  exhibit  canned,  smoked,  dried, 
and  salt  meats,  canned  fish  and  shell  fish,  mince-meat,  lard,  extract 
of  beef,  and  canned  soups.  An  English  firm  has  gone  one  step 
beyond  the  canned  soups  and  sends  desiccated  soups.  Butterine 
or  oleomargarine  is  shown  by  several  manufacturers,  and  accom- 
panied by  clear  and  frank  statements  of  how  it  is  made  and  what 
it  may  be  used  for.  Mixtures  of  beef  suet  and  cotton-seed  oil, 
under  the  names  of  vegetole,  cotosuet,  and  cottolene,  are  offered 
to  take  the  place  of  lard.  The  value  of  rice  and  rice  flour  as  food 
is  well  shown  in  the  Louisiana  section  of  the  Agricultural  Build- 
ing. Brands  of  salt  which  are  declared  to  withstand  the  attacks 
of  "  General  Humidity  "  are  exhibited  in  this  building  and  in  the 
Mining  Building.  In  the  inventions  room  of  the  Woman's  Build- 
ing are  evaporated  vegetables  and  sweet-potato  flour  prepared  by 
a  process  which  was  invented  by  a  St.  Louis  woman.  Condensed 
milk  and  evaporated  cream,  baking  powders,  gelatin,  fruit  but- 
ters, pickles,  and  catsups  are  among  the  many  other  foods  shown 
by  enterprising  manufacturers.  At  many  of  the  food  booths 
visitors  are  invited  to  taste  the  foods,  and  are  requested  to  regis- 
ter their  own  names  or  those  of  their  grocers. 

There  is  no  lack  of  appliances  and  utensils  for  cooking.  The 
ranges  are  too  numerous  to  mention,  but  a  few  unusual  features 
may  be  noticed.  One  make  has  a  round  iron  plate  on  the  floor  of 


HOUSEHOLD  ARTS   AT  THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.        807 

the  oven  which,  revolves  easily  when  it  is  desired  to  turn  a  pan 
that  is  set  upon  it.  Another  has  a  round  piece  cut  out  of  the 
upper  side  of  each  cover  and  held  in  place  by  screws,  its  object 
being  to  prevent  cracking.  Still  another  has  one  cover  made  up 
of  concentric  rings  so  as  to  furnish  five  different-sized  holes. 
Mrs,  Rorer  exhibits  at  her  lectures  a  range  having  a  perforated 
oven  door  lined  with  wire  gauze.  This,  she  says,  enables  meats 
to  be  really  roasted  in  an  oven  instead  of  being  baked.  A  range 
with  which  is  combined  a  hot- water  house-heating  apparatus,  the 
invention  of  a  Chicago  woman,  is  also  shown  in  the  lecture  room 
and  in  the  Manufactures  Building.  A  long  line  of  cooking 
apparatus  for  gas  is  shown,  at  one  end  of  which  is  a  simple  hot 
plate  and  at  the  other  a  range  with  baking  oven,  broiling  oven, 
dish  warmer,  and  water  back.  The  larger  ranges  have  a  flue  to 
carry  off  the  products  of  combustion.  There  is  also  a  variety  of 
gasolene  and  kerosene  stoves.  One  novelty  in  this  line  is  the 
parlor-lamp  stove.  It  consists  of  an  ornamental  tripod  supporting 
a  top  on  which  the  cooking  is  done,  an  ordinary  large  parlor 
lamp  being  placed  inside  the  base.  When  used  for  lighting,  the 
lamp  is  set  on  top  of  the  tripod.  Among  the  kitchen  appliances 
used  in  the  New  York  Workingman's  Home  is  the  Aladdin  oven, 
invented  by  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson,  and  fully  described  in  this 
magazine  about  four  years  ago. 

The  greatest  novelty  in  cooking  appliances  at  the  fair  is  un- 
questionably the  apparatus  for  cooking  by  electricity,  shown  in 
operation  in  the  gallery  of  the  Electricity  Building.  The  electric 
current  is  conducted  into  plates  of  enamel,  where  it  meets  with 
resistance  and  is  converted  into  heat.  These  plates  are  attached 
to  specially  constructed  ovens,  broilers,  griddles,  flatirons,  etc. 
An  ordinary  stewpan,  coffee  or  tea  pot,  or  steam  cooker  may  be 
heated  on  the  "  disk  heater."  An  outfit  of  articles  necessary  for 
a  private  house  costs  $60,  or  $77.50  if  a  heater  for  a  kitchen  boiler 
is  included.  Electricity  has  the  same  advantages  over  coal  that 
gas  has ;  its  advantages  over  gas  depend  upon  the  fact  that  com- 
bustion, with  its  needs  and  limitations,  is  wholly  done  away  with. 
There  are  no  products  of  complete  or  accidentally  imperfect  com- 
bustion, there  is  not  even  a  slight  loss  of  heat  into  the  room  or 
up  the  flue.  The  strongest  points  of  electrical  cooking  are  com- 
fort and  convenience,  but  claims  are  made  for  it  also  on  the  score 
of  economy.  It  is  said  that  the  cost  of  cooking  by  electricity  is 
less  than  the  cost  with  coal  and  about  the  same  as  where  fuel-gas 
is  used.  This  is  on  the  supposition  that  the  electricity  is  fur- 
nished at  half  the  price  charged  for  lighting. 

Kitchen  utensils  are  no  less  well  represented  than  are  stoves 
and  ranges.  The  main  exhibit  of  these  is  in  the  Manufactures 
Building.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned  stamped  ware  enam- 


8o8  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

eled  in  granite  and  other  colors;  spiders  that  will  suit  both 
right-handed  and  left-handed  cooks,  having  a  lip  on  each  side; 
two  forms  of  "self -basting"  roasting  pans,  designed  to  prevent 
meats  from  drying  in  the  oven ;  knife-edge,  torsion,  and  spring 
balances;  and  cast-iron  ware  polished  and  even  nickel-plated. 
Portable  ovens  for  gas  and  kerosene  stoves  also  steam  cookers 
jacketed  with  asbestos  are  shown.  The  jacket  prevents  the  con- 
duction of  heat  from  the  cooking  food,  thus  utilizing  a  scientific 
principle  which  is  too  commonly  disregarded  in  cooking.  Cylin- 
drical tin  receptacles  for  flour  and  meal  are  shown  which  may  be 
fastened  against  the  wall  at  a  convenient  height.  The  flour  is 
made  to  pass  through  a  sieve  by  turning  a  crank  and  comes  out 
by  an  outlet  at  the  bottom.  A  measuring  cup,  which  fits  on  to 
the  outlet  when  not  in  use,  forms  part  of  the  apparatus.  There 
are  quite  a  number  of  machines  worked  by  a  crank  which,  save  a 
great  deal  of  tiresome  and  time-consuming  hand  work.  One 
company  exhibits  a  meat  chopper,  a  fruit  press,  a  sausage  stuffer, 
and  a  cherry  stoner.  The  same  company  makes  a  simple  utensil, 
like  a  saucepan  in  form,  for  shaving  ice.  Another  exhibitor  has 
a  little  nutmeg-grater  that  is  worked  by  a  crank.  A  small  room 
in  the  Woman's  Building  is  devoted  to  inventions  by  women. 
Most  of  these  are  household  articles,  while  some  are  of  a  wholly 
different  character.  These  inventions  are  generally  modifications 
of  articles  already  in  use,  novel  departures  being  rare.  Among 
the  cooking  utensils  in  this  room  are  a  metal  kneading-board,  a 
kitchen  knife  especially  adapted  for  slicing,  a  frying  pan  with  a 
hood  and  a  flue  to  carry  the  smoke  from  the  food  down  into  the 
fire,  and  an  egg  and  cake  beater  with  a  new  form  of  stirrer.  An- 
other cake  beater  invented  by  a  woman,  and  resembling  the  tin 
flour  bin  described  above,  is  shown  in  the  Agricultural  Build- 
ing. Inventions  by  women  appear  also  in  the  Illinois  Building, 
among  them  being  a  funnel,  a  baking  pan,  and  a  kettle  holder  for 
a  stove.  A  fruit  evaporator  small  enough  for  household  use  is 
shown  in  the  Horticultural  Building.  The  capacity  of  the  smallest 
size  is  about  half  a  bushel  of  apples.  In  the  same  building  a  Ger- 
man exhibitor  shows  knives  of  peculiar  shapes,  for  paring  and 
slicing  vegetables  and  cutting  them  into  ornamental  shapes ;  also 
a  cherry  stoner.  Household  woodenware  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Forestry  Building ;  one  make  has  electrically  welded  flat  hoops 
set  in  grooves  in  the  staves,  instead  of  the  common  riveted  hoops  ; 
another  has  welded  wire  hoops  which  are  imbedded  in  the  wood 
at  several  points  in  the  circumference.  Near  by  are  shown  tubs, 
pails,  keelers,  bowls,  milkpans,  measures,  etc.,  of  indurated  fiber 
(paper  pulp),  which  are  molded  in  one  piece. 

But  few  appliances  are  required  for  laundry  work,  hence  the 
exhibits  in  this  line  are  not  conspicuous.     Of  course,  wringing 


HOUSEHOLD   ARTS  AT   THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.        809 

machines  are  no  novelty,  but  one  whose  good  points  are  actively 
exhibited  by  an  attendant  attracts  considerable  attention.  It  can 
be  put  on  or  taken  off  the  tub  with  wonderful  ease,  and  adjusts 
itself  to  any  article  from  the  thickness  of  a  handkerchief  up  to 
that  of  a  door-mat.  A  washing  machine  for  domestic  use,  shown 
in  the  Forestry  Building,  consists  of  a  round,  covered  tub  with  a 
corrugated  bottom  and  having  an  axle  passing  through  the  cover. 
The  axle  carries  a  corrugated  disk  on  the  lower  end  and  is  turned 
by  a  crank  at  the  top.  In  the  Machinery  Building  a  German  in- 
vention may  be  seen.  Its  tub  is  three  or  four  feet  high  and  stands 
on  a  low  frame.  It  is  worked  by  pushing  a  lever  back  and  forth. 
This  action  turns  the  drum  containing  the  clothes,  and  rotates  in 
the  opposite  direction  a  stirrer  shaped  like  a  four-legged  stool. 
The  "  self-heating  "  washer  has  a  box-shaped  tub  set  on  legs.  In- 
side is  a  washboard  hung  horizontally  from  a  frame,  which  is 
pushed  back  and  forth  upon  another  similar  board  by  a  long 
handle.  The  tub  has  a  metal  bottom  to  which  a  flame  can  be  ap- 
plied by  means  of  a  gasolene  attachment.  This  attachment  can 
also  be  swung  out  and  used  for  making  starch  or  heating  a  flat- 
iron.  One  of  the  most  creditable  of  women's  inventions  to  be 
seen  is  the  well-known  "  cold-handled  sadiron,"  with  a  detachable 
handle.  Another  woman's  invention  for  the  laundry,  shown  in 
the  Woman's  Building,  is  called  a  "  convertible  chair/'  and  is 
described  as  a  combination  of  clothes  rack,  ironing  board,  clothes 
receptacle,  and  bosom  board.  Still  another  is  a  waist  and  sleeve 
pressing  board.  Plain  laundered  articles  are  shown  in  the  exhibit 
of  the  London  Board  Schools,  each  piece  being  marked  with  the 
name  and  age  of  the  girl  by  whom  it  was  done  up.  The  Lette- 
Verein,  of  Berlin,  also  exhibits  laundered  articles  in  the  Woman's 
Building. 

One  branch  of  domestic  economy  which  is  finely  illustrated  is 
the  care  of  children.  In  the  western  end  of  the  Children's  Build- 
ing is  a  large  room  occupied  by  the  Fitch  Creche  and  Training 
School  for  Nursery  Maids.  It  is  fitted  up  with  bassinets  and  cribs 
of  various  styles,  one  crib  being  suspended  from  the  ceiling,  while 
on  the  floor  is  a  square  inclosure  in  which  a  baby  may  be  safely 
left  to  creep  about  without  watching.  Here  a  class  of  girls  is 
learning  the  proper  care  of  infants  under  competent  instruction, 
and  here  mothers  may  leave  their  babies  to  be  cared  for  through 
the  day  while  they  are  seeing  the  fair.  The  creche  is  an  exhibit 
of  the  Kindergarten  Society  of  Buffalo.  Let  no  one  imagine  that 
sightseers  are  allowed  to  wander  at  will  through  the  room ;  they 
can  only  look  in  through  a  glass  partition.  The  middle  of  the 
Children's  Building  is  occupied  by  a  gymnasium  and  there  is  a 
playground  on  the  roof,  each  being  suitably  fitted  up.  On  the 
second  floor  are  several  rooms  in  which  kindergarten,  sloyd,  and 


8 10  THE  POP-ULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

other  classes  are  taught.  Children's  books  and  papers  are  shown 
in  the  library.  In  connection  with  the  rearing  of  children  it  is 
perhaps  appropriate  to  mention  a  collection  of  photographs  of 
children  whose  mothers  have  gone  through  college,  shown  in  the 
British  educational  exhibit.  This  in  refutation  of  the  assertion 
that  college  education  unfits  young  women  for  motherhood. 

Ornamental  needlework  occupies  much  space  at  the  fair,  but 
useful  articles  made  with  the  needle  are  few.  In  the  woman's 
room  of  the  Illinois  Building  is  a  large  and  attractively  arranged 
case  of  children's  clothing,  called  the  Lilliputian  bazaar.  Here  and 
in  the  Woman's  Building  are  a  number  of  women's  inventions  to 
facilitate  needlework.  The  women  of  Manitoba,  together  with 
their  embroidery  and  fancy  work,  send  a  creditable  display  of 
plain  sewing  and  knitted  articles.  A  similar  exhibit  comes  from 
Uruguay,  and,  strange  to  say,  is  placed  in  the  Agricultural  Build- 
ing, in  the  space  assigned  to  that  country.  It  is  evident  that  sew- 
ing is  being  made  a  subject  of  school  instruction  in  many  parts  of 
the  United  States  and  also  in  other  countries.  The  various  edu- 
cational exhibits  contain  many  samples  of  sewing  and  mending 
done  by  schoolgirls,  and  the  subject  is  mentioned  in  a  large  num- 
ber of  school  programmes.  Samples  of  simple  millinery,  as  well 
as  of  sewing,  appear  in  the  exhibit  of  the  Workingmen's  School, 
of  New  York.  Plain  needlework  may  be  seen  in  the  educational 
exhibit  of  Japan ;  also  in  that  of  the  Board  Schools  of  London. 
The  exhibit  of  the  Lette-Verein,  already  mentioned,  includes  plain 
and  ornamental  needlework,  dressmaking,  and  millinery. 

A  few  exhibits  of  a  miscellaneous  character  remain  to  be  men- 
tioned. Three  concerns  show  reversible  window  sashes,  which 
may  be  turned  into  the  room,  permitting  the  outside  of  the  glass 
to  be  cleaned  without  discomfort  or  danger.  Among  the  women's 
inventions  is  a  wooden  roller,  covered  with  some  rough  material 
like  Turkish  toweling,  and  designed  to  take  up  dust  from  carpets 
or  hard-wood  floors.  It  may  be  attached  to  a  carpet-sweeper  or 
trundled  by  a  handle  independently.  With  one  of  the  exhibits  of 
domestic  hardware  in  the  Manufactures  Building  is  a  water 
motor  for  driving  sewing  machines,  fans,  ice-cream  freezers,  etc., 
in  any  house  that  has  a  water  supply.  Small  electric  motors 
adapted  to  the  same  purposes  are  shown  in  the  Electricity  Build- 
ing. These  can  be  used  wherever  electricity  is  supplied  for  light- 
ing, and  some  are  made  to  be  run  by  a  galvanic  battery.  The 
water  motor  can  be  set  in  motion  and  stopped  by  turning  a  faucet, 
and  the  electro-motors  by  turning  a  switch.  An  interesting  appli- 
cation of  a  scientific  principle  is  seen  in  a  cooler  for  food,  beverages, 
and  provisions,  which  the  agent  of  a  Belgian  inventor  has  placed 
in  the  Machinery  Building.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  high  dish  cover, 
is  made  of  tin,  and  covered  with  a  cloth  jacket.  The  jacket  is  kept 


HOUSEHOLD   ARTS  AT   THE  WORLD'S  FAIR.       811 

wet  by  dipping  into  a  moat  containing  water,  and  the  constant 
evaporation  from  the  cloth  produces  the  cooling  action  of  the  ap- 
paratus. One  of  the  schoolrooms  in  the  Children's  Building  is  a 
"  Kitchen  Garden,"  in  which  housework  lessons  with  toys  are  given 
to  very  young  girls.  Its  aim,  as  stated  on  its  placards,  is  "  to  take 
the  drudgery  out  of  so-called  menial  work  and  elevate  the  home 
duties  of  women  by  inspiring  the  pupils  with  the  right  way  of 
doing  things  at  an  age  when  life-long  impressions  and  habits  are 
formed."  The  lessons  include  waiting  on  the  door,  passing  a  tray, 
bedmaking,  and  a  broom  drill.  There  is  an  advanced  course 
for  older  girls  which  includes  cooking  and  laundry  work.  The 
originator  of  the  Kitchen  Garden  is  Miss  Emily  Huntington,  of 
New  York,  who  may  be  consulted  daily  upon  the  organization  of 
industrial  classes  for  girls. 

Domestic  economy  has  not  been  omitted  from  the  list  of  con- 
gresses held  in  connection  with  the  fair.  Its  congress  will  be 
held  in  the  second  week  of  October,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Woman's  Committee  on  Household  Economics,  in  the  Woman's 
Branch  of  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary.  This  committee  has 
also  been  charged  with  the  duty  of  presenting  its  subject  in  the 
agricultural,  labor,  sanitary,  and  other  congresses.  Unfortunately, 
more  than  half  the  usefulness  of  all  the  congresses  has  been  thrown 
away  by  holding  them  seven  miles  from  the  center  of  attraction 
and  in  noisy  surroundings. 

After  everything  relating  to  household  management  has  been 
sought  out,  the  visitor  can  not  resist  the  conviction  that  the 
exhibits  at  the  Columbian  Exposition  fall  very  far  short  of  what 
they  might  have  been  and  should  have  been  in  justice  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  subject.  Two  of  the  excellent  exhibits  of  cooking 
processes  are  placed  in  an  out-of-the-way  spot.  Few  products  of 
home  cookery  are  shown,  and  nothing  except  preserves.  Domestic 
laundry  operations  are  not  illustrated  at  all ;  laundered  articles 
are  sent  from  schools  in  England  and  Germany,  but  nothing  from 
any  American  school,  and  no  American  woman  has  shown  her 
skill  in  washing  flannels  without  their  shrinking,  colored  goods 
and  embroideries  without  the  colors  running,  or  in  putting  a  gloss 
upon  starched  linens.  In  needlework  the  ornamental  has  buried 
the  practical  out  of  sight.  The  difference  between  the  right  and 
the  wrong  way  of  making  a  bed,  of  sweeping  and  dusting  a  room, 
of  cleaning  windows  and  woodwork,  and  of  setting  and  decorating 
a  table,  might  all  have  been  illustrated  to  the  great  profit  of  many 
thousands  of  visitors.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  ex- 
hibits are  no  greater  than  those  that  have  been  overcome  in  other 
cases.  According  to  the  census,  more  than  half  the  men  of  the 
United  States  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  are  occupied  with 
agriculture;  and  this  industry  is  adequately  represented  in  its 


812  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

special  building  and  in  many  of  the  Western  State  buildings.  An 
even  larger  portion  of  the  women  of  this  country  are  occupied  in 
home  management,  and  it  might  have  been  expected  that,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Board  of  Lady  Managers  and  in  the  Woman's 
Building,  some  systematic  representation  of  this  important  occu- 
pation would  be  found.  But  no;  the  women  of  America  have 
preferred  to  be  represented  by  their  painting,  their  books,  their 
embroidery,  their  societies  for  inducing  other  people  to  become 
wiser  and  better,  their  work  as  hospital  nurses,  by  paper  lamp- 
shades and  indescribable  things  in  cardboard  and  colored  wools — 
by  anything,  in  fact,  that  is  either  pretty  on  the  one  hand  or  man- 
nish on  the  other,  or  is  remote  from  every-day  affairs.  This  criti- 
cism must  not  be  taken  as  evidence  of  a  wish  to  restrict  women 
to  housework  alone.  The  real  feeling  of  the  writer  can  not  be 
better  expressed  than  by  the  following  words  from  the  preliminary 
address  of  the  Woman's  Committee  on  Household  Economics: 
"  It  is  not  necessary  to  consider  whether  woman's  sphere  is  limited 
to  her  home — it  concerns  us  to  so  improve  the  work  done  in  the 
home  that  out  of  it  shall  come  a  power  so  well  trained,  by  careful 
study  of  scientific  and  economic  principles,  that  it  will  facilitate 
and  lighten,  as  well  as  dignify,  household  labor." 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  COLORED  AUDITION. 

BY  M.  ALFRED  BINET. 

MUCH  attention  has  been  given  lately  to  the  subject  of  colored 
audition.  It  has  been  discussed  in  daily  journals  and  in 
literary  and  scientific  reviews ;  in  medical  theses,  memoirs,  and 
didactic  treatises ;  it  has  figured  in  poetry  and  romance,  and  on 
the  stage ;  it  has  been  the  occasion  of  many  inquiries ;  and  physi- 
ologists have  occupied  themselves  with  it  and  made  laboratory  ex- 
periments on  it. 

Notwithstanding  all  investigation,  the  subject  is  still  imper- 
fectly known  and  understood.  It  has  been  studied  mostly  from 
without.  The  details  concerning  the  sounds  and  the  associated 
colors  have  been  carefully  noted,  but  no  one  has  told  what  colored 
audition  is,  or  has  made  it  intelligible  to  those  who  know  of  it  only 
from  others.  We  can  not  hope  to  be  much  more  fortunate  than 
our  predecessors ;  but  we  shall  direct  our  attention  to  the  points 
they  have  overlooked,  and  shall  try  to  describe  a  mental  state  in 
colored  audition.  Let  us  point  out  first,  in  order  to  gain  a  com- 
prehensive view  upon  these  questions,  the  circumstances  under 
which  a  person  first  perceives  that  he  has  the  faculty,  as  it  has 
been  called,  of  coloring  sounds. 


TEE  PROBLEM    OF   COLORED   AUDITION.  813 

Those  who  for  the  first  time  hear  these  perceptions  spoken  of 
experience  great  astonishment.  They  can  not  gain  a  clear  idea  of 
them;  the  comparison  of  a  sound  with  a  color  seems  to  them 
wholly  destitute  of  intelligible  character.  Meyerbeer  has  said 
somewhere  that  certain  chords  of  von  Weber's  music  are  purple. 
What  does  the  phrase  mean  ?  Each  of  the  words,  taken  by  itself, 
has  a  meaning.  We  know  what  a  chord  is,  and  we  know  purple ; 
but  joining  the  terms  with  a  verb  and  saying  the  chord  is  purple, 
is  something  we  do  not  understand.  As  well  say  virtue  is  blue 
and  vice  is  yellow  ;  one  is  ready  to  ask  if  the  construction  of  such 
phrases  is  not  a  trickery  of  words,  which  are  brought  into  purely 
technical  associations  corresponding  to  no  real  association  of 
thought. 

Thus,  to  the  immense  majority  of  persons,  colored  audition  is 
a  riddle.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  world  for  a  long  time 
refused  to  believe  in  it,  and  treated  as  eccentrics  those  who  con- 
cerned themselves  with  it — a  skepticism  which  was  all  the  more 
justified  because  the  matter  related  to  a  subjective  condition,  the 
existence  of  which  has  to  be  accepted  on  the  simple  word  of  the 
person  who  experiences  it. 

We  do  not  know  whether  we  can  make  the  true  nature  of  this 
phenomenon  understood,  or  whether  we  can  help  those  who  have 
not  experienced  it  to  conceive  of  it ;  but  we  hope  to  be  able  to 
demonstrate  that  it  is  real.  Deception  has  generally  an  individual 
character ;  it  is  the  work  of  one  person  and  not  of  many ;  it  gives 
no  occasion  for  massed  effects  which  are  repeated  from  one  gener- 
ation to  another,  and  in  different  countries.  The  number  of  per- 
sons who  say  they  have  colored  audition  must  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration. According  to  Bleuler  and  Lehmann,  it  is  twelve  per 
cent.  M.  Claparede,  of  the  University  of  Geneva,  who  is  now  in- 
vestigating the  subject,  writes  us  that  of  four  hundred  and  seventy 
persons  who  answered  his  questions,  two  hundred  and  five,  or 
forty-three  per  cent,  had  colored  audition.  Of  course,  this  propor- 
tion can  not  be  taken  literally,  for  the  immense  majority  of  the 
persons  who  do  not  experience  the  phenomenon  will  not  answer 
the  queries  for  many  motives,  the  chief  of  which  is  a  kind  of 
contempt  for  studies  they  do  not  comprehend.  It  is  nevertheless 
true  that  M.  Claparede  has  collected,  without  great  effort,  two 
hundred  and  five  observations,  and  that  that  number,  added  to  the 
old  observations,  gives  a  total  of  nearly  five  hundred  cases.  Such 
a  mass  of  observations  may  well  inspire  some  confidence.  It  may 
be  added  that  each  of  the  authors  who  have  written  on  the  ques- 
tion often  has  by  him  the  observation  of  some  friend  in  whom  he 
has  entire  confidence ;  so  that  resistance  to  so  many  accumulated 
proofs  becomes  no  longer  wisdom,  or  even  skepticism,  but  sim- 
plicity. 


814  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  first  author  who  noticed  the  production  of  impressions  of 
color  by  sounds  was  an  albino  doctor  of  Erlangen,  named  Sach, 
who  in  1812  described  in  an  inaugural  thesis  his  own  impressions 
and  those  of  his  sister.  His  observation  is  very  complete,  and  con- 
tains a  considerable  proportion  of  the  details  which  are  found  in 
later  works.  He  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight  years,  and  his  re- 
searches fell  into  oblivion.  During  the  following  years  doctors 
and  oculists,  like  Comas,  of  Geneva,  published  isolated  observa- 
tions. 

In  1873  appeared  the  important  observations  of  the  brothers 
Nussbaumer,  one  of  whom  was  a  student  at  Vienna,  and  the  other 
a  watchmaker;  both  of  whom  had  from  childhood  experienced 
sensations  of  color  when  they  heard  certain  sounds.  When  chil- 
dren they  observed  the  ringing  of  spoons  and  knives  tied  to  the 
ends  of  strings,  designated  the  colors  produced  by  the  sounds,  and 
communicated  their  impressions  to  each  other ;  biit  they  did  not 
always  agree  concerning  the  colors  of  the  different  sounds,  and 
long  disputes  ensued,  of  which  their  brothers,  sisters,  and  friends 
could  understand  nothing.  The  student  afterward  published, 
under  the  direction  of  Prof.  Briihl,  a  detailed  memoir  on  the  .cases. 

Six  years  afterward,  in  1879,  Bleuler  and  Lehmann  wrote  their 
memoir,  the  most  complete  one  we  possess.  Both  authors  studied 
medicine  at  the  University  of  Zurich ;  Bleuler  writes  concerning 
the  origin  of  this  work  that  they  were  talking  of  chemistry,  when 
the  subject  of  ketones  coming  up,  Bleuler  remarked  that  they 
were  yellow,  because  there  was  an  o  in  the  word.  Thus  by  a  curi- 
ous illusion  he  attributed  the  colors  suggested  by  the  name  of  an 
object  to  the  object  itself.  His  friend  Lehmann,  greatly  astonished 
and  not  understanding  the  answer,  asked  for  an  explanation  of  it. 
This  stimulated  his  curiosity,  and  they  both  proceeded  to  make 
inquiries  among  their  relatives  and  friends.  They  published 
accounts  of  more  than  sixty  cases. 

From  that  time  publications  multiplied,  and  the  present  period 
is  marked  by  investigations  pursued  in  every  direction.  It  now 
appears  that  colored  audition  belongs  to  a  family  of  similar  phe- 
nomena, which  are  sometimes  grouped  in  one  person  and  some- 
times scattered.  Colored  audition  is  still  the  most  frequent  and 
best  studied  phenomenon,  and  is  the  single  one  which  we  intend 
to  discuss.  But  a  word  should  be  said  of  the  other  forms.  They 
differ  chiefly  in  the  nature  of  the  impressions  that  are  associated, 
and  which  serve  reciprocally  as  excitants.  Thus,  in  some  persons, 
not  sounds  but  sensations  of  taste  and  odor  provoke  the  luminous 
impressions.  These  may  be  called  colored  gustation  and  olfaction. 
In  others,  psychical  phenomena,  like  recollections  or  abstract 
notions,  produce  the  same  effect.  One  person  sees  colors  in  the 
months,  in  the  days  of  the  week,  or  in  the  hours  of  the  day.  In 


THE  PROBLEM   OF   COLORED   AUDITION.  815 

other  persons  the  impression  is  not  visual,  but  may  belong  to  a 
different  sense.  It  may  be  sonorous ;  in  some  persons  the  sight  of 
colors  gives  a  musical  impression ;  or  it  may  be  tactile,  and  sight 
and  hearing  may  be  accompanied  by  mechanical  sensations.  In 
short,  all  imaginable  combinations  of  different  sensations  may  be 
realized. 

In  colored  audition  the  impressions  of  color  are  almost  exclu- 
sively provoked  by  speech ;  the  sounds  and  noises  of  Nature  pro- 
ducing the  same  effect  only  by  a  kind  of  analogy  with  the  human 
voice.  Speech  gives  him  who  hears  it  an  impression  of  color  only 
when  the  emission  is  full;  a  murmur  has  not  the  effect  of  the 
singing  voice  or  of  a  reading  in  public ;  the  height  of  the  tone  in- 
fluences the  shadings ;  barytone  and  bass  voices  excite  dark  sensa- 
tions and  high  voices  light  ones.  On  a  closer  examination  of  the 
source  of  the  phenomenon  it  is  found  that  the  color,  while  it  may 
borrow  a  general  tint  from  the  timbre  of  the  voice,  and  con- 
sequently from  the  individuality  of  the  speaker,  depends  more 
especially  upon  the  words  that  are  pronounced ;  each  word  has  its 
peculiar  color,  or  we  might  rather  say  colors,  for  some  words  have 
five  or  six;  pushing  the  analysis  further,  we  perceive  that  the 
color  of  words  depends  on  that  of  the  component  letters,  and  that 
it  is  therefore  the  alphabet  which  is  colored ;  and,  finally,  that  the 
consonants  have  only  pale  and  washed-out  tints,  and  the  colora- 
tion of  language  is  derived  directly  from,  the  vowels.  With  a  few 
exceptions  this  is  true  for  all  the  subjects. 

By  a  curious  complication  produced  by  education,  the  appear- 
ance of  colors  takes  place  in  some  persons  not  only  when  they 
hear  the  word  pronounced  or  when  they  think  of  it,  but  even  when 
they  see  it  written.  There  are  also  persons  who  do  not  perceive 
the  color  except  while  they  are  reading.  Many  facts,  however, 
seem  to  prove  that  reading  is  generally  of  no  effect  except  as  a 
suggestion  of  the  spoken  word,  and  therefore  constitutes  a  kind  of 
audition. 

The  observations  on  the  colors  of  the  vowels  in  detail  are  irreg- 
ular and  contradictory.  Thus,  a,  red  to  one,  is  black  to  another, 
white  to  a  third,  yellow  to  a  fourth,  and  so  on ;  the  whole  spec- 
trum passes  through  it ;  but  as  the  number  of  colors  and  of  letters 
is  limited,  we  can,  by  analyzing  a  hundred  observations,  meet  two 
or  three  among  them  that  will  agree.  Sometimes  agreement  is 
manifested  between  members  of  the  same  family,  or  between  per- 
sons who  live  together ;  but  waiving  the  instances  afforded  by 
chance,  by  heredity,  and  by  suggestion,  it  remains  evident  that 
disagreement  is  the  general  rule ;  and  from  this  curious  practical 
effects  follow.  Two  persons  having  colored  audition,  when 
brought  together,  are  not  able  to  understand  one  another ;  each  is 
greatly  surprised  at  the  colors  which  the  other  perceives,  and  we 


8i6  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

may  witness,  according  to  certain  authors,  some  most  amusing 
disputes.  Efforts  have  been  made  to  trace  a  mean  of  designations 
for  the  vowels,  and  to  indicate  the  associations  most  frequently 
perceived.  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  such  statistics  can  give 
important  results,  and  whether  the  correct  association  can  be  got 
from  the  majority ;  for  the  probability  must  be  recognized  of  the 
existence  of  several  types  of  colored  audition,  which  have  not  yet 
been  clearly  distinguished.  Furthermore,  persons  are  most  fre- 
quently incapable  of  exactly  determining  and  denning  the  color 
that  appears  to  them.  Their  incapacity  is  associated  with  the  facts 
that  the  shading  varies  not  only  with  the  words,  but  with  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  voice  that  pronounces  them,  its  timbre,  and  its  accent. 
A  word  never  has  the  same  color  from  two  different  mouths.  Con- 
sequently there  is  no  definite  red  for  a  or  for  any  other  vowel. 
Some  authors  have  nevertheless  published  colored  diagrams  in 
which  the  subjects  have  tried  to  represent  their  colored  alphabet. 
These  representations  may  hold  good  for  colors,  but  not  for  shades ; 
it  is  not  that  the  subjects  are  lacking  in  good  faith,  but  they  can 
not  fix  with  precision  a  color  that  oscillates  and  is  transformed 
under  the  influence  of  a  multitude  of  intangible  causes.  We  can 
not  stop  with  describing  the  phenomena,  but  must  explain  as  far 
as  we  can  what  passes  in  the  minds  of  the  persons  who  experience 
impressions  of  color  in  connection  with  sound.  What  do  they 
mean  when  they  say,  for  instance,  that  a  appears  red  to  them  ? 

Persons  affected  with  colored  audition  form  a  curious  illusion 
respecting  their  psychological  condition.  Till  the  moment,  when 
they  are  questioned  respecting  their  impressions,  they  are  satis- 
fied that  the  faculty  of  coloring  sounds  is  natural,  normal,  and 
common  to  all ;  and  they  learn  the  contrary  not  without  uneasi- 
ness. One  is  never  satisfied  if  he  knows  that  he  possesses,  deep 
in  his  mind,  an  exceptional  trait.  All  of  this  kind  that  is  ex- 
ceptional seems  abnormal,  and  assumes  the  character  of  a  disease. 
This  opinion  is  that  of  many  doctors,  who  would  often  have  much 
difficulty  in  defining  the  condition  of  psychological  health,  but 
imagine  that  whatever  departs  from  that  ideal  and  imperfectly 
understood  condition  is  in  the  domain  of  pathology.  Numerous 
authors  who  have  written  on  colored  audition  have  been  laudably 
zealous  in  comforting  those  who  perceive  these  impressions. 
Most — not  all  of  them — have  affirmed  many  times  that  it  is  a 
purely  physiological  act.  We  believe  they  are  fundamentally 
right — but  how  far? 

The  phenomenon  is  often  presented  in  an  inexact  light.  It  is 
easily  understood  now  that  it  is  not  a  disease  of  the  eyes  or  the 
ears,  but  many  authors  continue  to  see  in  it  a  disorder  of  percep- 
tion, or  a  double  perception,  or  a  confusion  of  the  physiological 
acts  of  seeing  and  hearing. 


THE  PROBLEM   OF   COLORED   AUDITION.  817 

In  colored  audition  there  is  no  double  perception,  nor  what  is 
called  a  synsesthesia.  All  takes  place  in  the  imagination  of  the 
subject ;  the  impressions  of  color  of  which  he  is  conscious  on  the 
hearing  of  certain  vowels  are  not  real  sensations ;  they  are  not 
colors  which  one  sees  with  the  eyes,  but  mental  images,  notions,  or 
we  might  better  compare  them  with  the  images  which  the  natural 
significance  of  the  words  excites  in  the  mind.  We  must  insist 
upon  this  important  and  too  often  misinterpreted  point.  In  order 
to  give  a  basis  to  our  interpretation,  we  shall  relate  some  of  the 
facts  we  have  collected  with  Prof.  Beaunis  in  the  Laboratory  of 
Psychology  of  the  Sorbonne ;  we  shall  not  introduce  the  detail  of 
the  observations,  but  shall  only  take  the  general  sense. 

To  a  certain  distinguished  doctor  a  is  red,  and  is  the  only 
vowel  which  appears  to  him  in  color.  He  has  colored  it  spon- 
taneously from  infancy,  before  having  read  what  was  written  on 
the  question.  The  other  vowels  were  not  colored  till  a  later  age. 
He  is  suspicious  of  the  later  colorations,  and  believes  that  they  are 
fictitious,  suggested  by  reading.  Now,  what  meaning  shall  we  at- 
tribute to  his  expression,  so  clear  in  itself,  "A  is  red  "  ?  Does  he 
mean  that  when  he  sees  the  letter  a  written  with  a  pen  on  a  white 
sheet  of  paper,  or  with  chalk  on  a  black  tablet,  or  when  that  vowel 
is  pronounced  in  his  presence,  he  has  the  subjective  impression  of 
a  red  spot  which  hovers  before  his  eyes,  on  surrounding  objects? 
In  other  words,  is  there  a  hallucination  of  sight?  In  no  wise. 
Still  less  is  there  the  pretended  and  incomprehensive  seeing  of  the 
sound  in  red.  He  has  the  idea  of  red,  and  nothing  more.  It  is  an 
idea  and  not  a  sensation.  According  to  his  own  expressions,  he 
receives  the  same  suggestion  when  he  meets  in  any  phrase  the 
word  red.  Hear,  for  example,  a  person  who  is  telling  us  of 
some  judicial  ceremony.  In  the  midst  of  his  story  appears  the 
phrase,  "Then  I  saw  the  procurator  rise  in  a  red  robe."  We 
have  immediately  an  internal  vision  of  something  red — a  vision 
clear,  detailed,  vivid  for  some,  confused  for  others.  It  is  a  like 
impression  that  the  letter  a  gives  our  subject ;  in  short,  a  simple 
idea.  Let  us  add  that  the  idea  is  not  very  clear ;  the  subject  can 
not  define  the  shade  of  red  that  appears  to  him,  still  less  repre- 
sent it  in  real  colors,  even  if  he  knows  how  to  mix  colors  and  is 
an  amateur  painter ;  it  is  some  kind  of  a  red — unprecise. 

If  we  suppose,  now,  that  all  the  vowels  give  rise  to  suggestions 
of  a  similar  character,  our  description  will  be  adapted  to  a  major- 
ity of  subjects ;  it  will  exactly  represent  their  mental  state.  This 
mental  state  is  characterized  by  the  direction  of  the  thought 
toward  colors  and  shades.  Each  word  that  presents  itself,  whether 
to  the  eyes  in  reading,  or  to  the  ear  in  listening,  or  in  a  mental 
conception,  gives  complex  ideas  of  color.  These  ideas  serve  as  an 
escort  to  the  word,  accompanying  it  constantly,  and  are  a  second- 

VOL.    XLI1I. 39 


818  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

ary  signification  with  which  the  word  is  enriched.  Instead  of 
provoking  a  single  idea,  each  word  provokes  two — the  idea  of  the 
object  named,  and  one  or  several  colors ;  likewise  a  phrase  awak- 
ens, besides  a  collection  of  images,  a  series  of  colors.  On  hearing 
the  simple  words,  "  I  am  going  into  the  country,"  a  person  with 
colored  audition  has  a  complex  image  of  a  trip  to  the  country, 
and  sees  besides  passing  before  the  eyes  of  his  imagination  a  suc- 
cession of  colors  which  in  a  subject  taken  at  random  might  re- 
solve itself  into  white,  red,  black,  red,  white,  red,  red,  red,  red, 
white. 

This  description  may  lead  us  to  suppose  that  useless  suggestions 
of  color  are  an  obstacle  to  the  march  of  thought  and  might  some- 
times prevent  persons  from  clearly  comprehending  the  meaning 
of  words  and  of  reading.  This  case,  fortunately,  has  not  as  yet 
presented  itself ;  for  the  bands  of  colors  do  not  constantly  hold  the 
first  place  in  consciousness.  When  it  is  necessary  to  attend  to  the 
meaning  of  the  words  we  neglect  the  colorations,  do  not  remark 
them,  and  no  longer  perceive  them.  To  perceive  them  clearly,  and 
particularly  to  describe  them,  special  attention  is  usually  requisite, 
contemplation,  a  state  of  reverie,  or  a  desire  to  enjoy  the  beautiful 
subjective  colors,  the  appearance  of  which  is  usually  accompanied 
by  a  vivid  feeling  of  pleasure. 

Besides  the  vague,  undefined,  and  formless  color-images  which 
are  most  frequently  provoked,  the  color  is  perceived  by  many  per- 
sons in  a  form  suggested  by  the  vowel  and  corresponding  with  its 
outline.  The  language  commonly  used  by  such  persons  to  describe 
their  impressions  does  not  always  take  note  of  this  peculiarity. 
They  simply  say,  "A  is  red."  This  means,  in  the  present  case, 
that  when  one  thinks  of  the  letter  a  he  can  not  represent  it  other- 
wise than  under  the  form  of  a  letter  painted  in  red.  This  variety 
of  colored  audition  is  more  refined  than  the  preceding,  and  also 
more  complex ;  for  it  can  not  be  found  in  an  illiterate  person,  and 
supposes  that  one  knows  how  to  read.  Mr.  Galton  has  published 
five  or  six  observations  of  this  kind  with  figures. 

Persons  who  have  colored  audition  and  who  are  cognizant  of  it 
easily  recognize  the  nature  of  their  subjective  impressions.  They 
regard  them  as  personal  associations  with  nothing  mysterious 
about  them,  and  some  even  seek  for  their  causes  in  the  most  com- 
monplace and  trivial  circumstances.  But  if  we  cause  them' to 
describe  their  way  of  hearing,  we  perceive  that  they  involuntarily 
attribute  to  these  associations  much  more  importance  than  they 
say  they  do.  It  appears  that  most  frequently  the  idea  of  color 
suggested  by  a  word  is  referred,  not  to  the  word  itself,  but  to  the 
external  object  designated  by  the  word.  There  results  from  this 
the  interesting  consequence  that  as  there  are  words  designating 
some  object  of  a  red  color  which,  on  the  other  hand,  provoke  by 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  COLORED   AUDITION.  819 

their  vowels  the  idea  of  a  different  color — for  example,  gray — the 
discord  appears  shocking,  and  the  subjects  do  not  hesitate  to  de- 
clare the  word  ill-formed.  A  doctor,  a  friend  of  ours,  to  whom  a 
(French)  is  red,  finds  also  that  the  word  feu  (French  for  fire)  is  in- 
correct, because  fire  is  red  and  the  word  feu  has  no  a.  A  corre- 
spondent to  whom  colored  audition  is  a  multicolored  palette  makes 
similar  remarks  on  the  contradictions  or  confirmations  which  he 
finds  between  words  and  their  colors.  To  him  a's  are  red,  as  to 
the  doctor ;  hence  he  finds  that  red  (rouge)  is  ill-named,  and  that 
the  word  fire  (feu)  is  "  that  which  is  dullest " ;  scarlet  (ecarlate)  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  quite  imitative.  J  is  black  and  o  is  white ; 
whence  it  results  that  the  word  noir  (black)  is  white  and  black ; 
to  pronounce  the  words  moire  rouge  is  to  think  of  a  contradiction. 
These  plays  with  words,  of  which  we  might  cite  numerous  ex- 
amples, seem  to  us  to  indicate  a  tendency  to  give  a  real  signifi- 
cance to  associations  of  sound  and  color,  as  if  they  expressed  a 
truth  to  which  language  ought  to  conform.  But  the  subjects  are 
too  intelligent  to  affirm  this ;  they  simply  yield  to  the  sway  of 
thought,  without  being  aware  of  it. 

There  are  other  persons  in  whom  the  same  tendency  is  mani- 
fested in  a  clearer  and  more  simple  way.  They  believe  in  good 
faith  that  certain  things  they  have  never  seen  have  precisely 
the  color  of  the  word  by  which  they  are  named.  We  have  men- 
tioned Bleuler,  for  example,  who  thought  the  ketones  were  yellow, 
because  of  the  o  in  the  name,  to  which  he  attributed  that  color. 
Observations  of  this  kind  need  not  be  enlarged  upon.  For  a  per- 
son to  believe  that  a  thing  is  red  because  there  are  red  vowels  in 
its  name,  he  must  not  be  acquainted  with  its  real  color,  and  must 
not  be  aware  of  his  faculty  of  coloring  the  vowels ;  for  the  illu- 
sion will  disappear  as  soon  as  he  perceives  that  the  supposed 
color  depends  on  the  word.  These  are  probably  the  conditions 
of  the  following  observation  of  which  I  have  been  informed  by 
M.  Claparede.  A  person  fifty-two  years  old  wrote  to  him:  "I 
still  remember  the  astonishment  I  felt  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years 
when  I  saw  sulphuric  acid  for  the  first  time.  I  had  previously 
read  an  account  of  that  substance  in  a  work  of  popular  science, 
and  had  fancied  it  an  opaque  liquid,  having  the  appearance  of 
tarnished  lead.  I  was  then  not  yet  conscious  of  my  colored  vision 
of  the  vowels.  Later  in  life  I  explained  my  fancy  as  related  to 
the  two  u's  in  the  word  sulphuric."  This  person  saw  i  as  black, 
and  u  as  a  lusterless  metallic  gray. 

The  same  tendency,  but  with  a  very  different  effect,  appears 
in  a  lady  observed  by  M.  Suarez  de  Mendoza,  who  attributes  a 
special  color  to  each  piece  of  music  and  each  score.  The  music 
of  Haydn  appears  to  her  of  a  disagreeable  green ;  that  of  Mozart, 
generally  blue;  Chopin's  is  distinguished  by  much  yellow; 


820  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Wagner's  gives  the  feeling  of  an  atmosphere  of  light,  changing 
its  colors  in  succession. 

Having  established  the  mental  nature  of  the  impressions  of 
color,  we  come  now  to  seek  the  cause  of  their  apparition.  We 
know  pretty  well  what  one  means  when  he  declares  that  a  is 
red ;  but  we  have  not  explained  how  the  idea  or  perception  of  a 
sound  can  awaken  the  idea  of  a  particular  color.  Our  ideas  have 
generally  a  logical  origin ;  we  are  at  least  in  the  habit  of  believ- 
ing this,  and  it  often  occurs,  in  analyzing  our  representations, 
that  we  find  the  cause  that  brings  them  out  and  connects  them. 
If  I  hear  a  bell,  and,  without  seeing  it,  conceive  its  roundish  form, 
its  clapper,  and  its  dark-green  color,  the  connection  of  ideas  is 
understood  to  be  natural,  useful,  and  true;  it  is  derived  from 
previous  experiences.  It  is  a  piece  of  the  outer  world  registered 
in  my  mind.  But  these  associations  of  colors  with  sounds  are 
factitious,  have  a  purely  individual  character,  and  correspond 
with  nothing  in  the  order  of  external  facts.  A  sound  is  a  sound, 
and  has  nothing  in  common  with  a  color.  The  human  voice  is 
grave  or  sharp,  and  is  not  yellow  or  green.  How  has  such  an 
association  been  created  and  developed  in  the  face  of  good  sense  ? 
It  is  evident  that  the  act  of  establishing  tenacious  associations 
between  impressions  that  have  nothing  in  common  is  the  sign  of 
some  intellectual  form  which  is  not  everybody's.  We  are  dis- 
posed to  attach  some  importance  to  the  quality  of  the  illusions 
evoked.  They  are  of  a  visual  character,  which  seems  to  indicate 
that  there  exists  in  colored  audition  an  intense  rush  of  visual 
images  and  a  tendency  to  think  as  well  as  to  feel  with  them ; 
in  short,  we  suppose  that  those  who  have  colored  audition  belong 
to  the  category  of  visuals,  or  persons  who,  according  to  the  classi- 
fication of  M.  Charcot  and  many  physiologists  following  him,  have 
visual  memories.  As  the  case  of  M.  Inaudi  enabled  us  to  study 
a  high  development  of  the  auditive  memory,  another  category  in 
this  classification,  colored  audition,  will  perhaps  permit  us  to  study 
visual  memory.  This  is  only  a  hypothesis ;  for  it  is  not  abso- 
lutely certain  that  colored  audition  always  agrees  with  the  type 
of  visual  memory,  and  that  there  is  a  causal  relation  between  the 
two  things,  but  we  do  not  advance  it  without  the  support  of  good 
reasons. 

First,  we  have  the  testimony  of  the  subjects  whom  we  have  had 
opportunities  to  question.  We  addressing  them  in  a  tone  of  in- 
difference and  without  trying  to  dictate  their  responses,  they  have 
remarked  that  colors  and  forms  are  the  things  they  remember 
most  easily.  A  young  woman  to  whom  I  sent  my  requests  in  writ- 
ing to  avoid  the  unconscious  suggestions  of  accent,  answered  me, 
"You  ask  me  if  I  more  easily  recollect  things  seen  or  things 
heard ;  things  seen.  When  I  recollect  a  conversation,  the  gestures 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  COLORED   AUDITION.  821 

and  the  attitudes  of  the  participants  recall  to  me  what  was  said. 
Successive  pictures  present  themselves  before  my  eyes,  and  those 
pictures  enable  me  to  call  back  what  I  heard."  That  is  a  real 
visual  type.  In  determining  the  type,  it  is  necessary  also  to 
take  account  of  the  tastes  of  persons,  their  aptitudes,  and  their 
favorite  occupations.  Most  of  those  whom  I  have  seen,  practice 
at  painting  or  water  colors,  and  some  are  painters  by  profession ; 
others  have  been  drawn  by  circumstances  into  different  careers, 
but  nearly  all  of  them  love  color  and  Nature  and  have  a  passion 
for  beautiful  hues.  Take  notice  also  of  their  language.  When- 
ever they  describe  their  mental  condition  they  have  a  marvelous 
abundance  of  picturesque  expressions.  Mr.  Galton  has  justly 
remarked  that  few  of  those  who  have  colored  audition  are  satis- 
fied with  laconically  naming  the  colors  of  the  vowels ;  they  must 
exactly  define  the  shade,  even  if  they  are  talking  of  white — a 
sensation  so  simple  and  apparently  so  easy  to  define  without  an 
epithet.  They  do  not  say,  "  O  is  white,"  but  rather  "  O  is  a  shade 
of  white,  the  color  of  white  plush,  or  of  the  under  side  of  a  fresh 
white  mushroon."  Another  will  say,  "  White  mingled  with  milky 
and  a  little  yellow" — or  silver  white,  chalky  white,  etc.  The 
use  of  these  expressions  informs  us  concerning  the  chromatic 
sense  of  these  persons.  They  are  colorists  without  doubt.  We 
who  have  dull  imaginations  have  the  same  words  at  our  disposal 
as  they,  but  we  are  unable  to  draw  the  same  effects  out  of  them. 
Words  are  like  the  colors  we  use  in  painting.  Give  two  identi- 
cal palettes  to  two  painters,  one  of  whom  is  a  colorist  like  De- 
lacroix and  the  other  a  draughtsman  like  Ingres ;  with  the  same 
colors  one  will  produce  a  brilliant  and  the  other  a  subdued  pic- 
ture. What  permits  us  to  give  color  to  the  canvas,  as  well  as 
in  the  expression  of  our  ideas,  is,  above  everything  else,  the  power 
of  mental  vision. 

Our  hypothesis  is  confirmed  by  some  facts  that  have  been 
brought  out  in  M.  Claparede's  investigation  of  "  visual  schemes  " 
or  such  figures  as  Mr.  Galton  has  found  some  persons  associat- 
ing with  their  groupings  of  numbers,  and  which  M.  Claparede 
has  found  may  be  associated  with  other  abstract  conceptions, 
like  the  months  and  the  days  of  the  week.  The  results  of  his 
inquiry  showed  a  frequent  coincidence  of  colored  audition  with 
the  faculty  of  forming  such  visual  schemes.  Without  employ- 
ing visual  schemes,  many  persons  represent  the  figures  mentally 
to  themselves  as  if  they  were  written  out — a  method  of  repre- 
sentation which  is  another  good  characteristic  of  their  type  of 
memory.  I  have  made  an  experiment  on  this  point,  instructive 
to  me,  which  repeated  upon  a  number  of  persons  has  always 
given  concordant  results.  I  pronounce  five  numbers  to  a  person 
and  ask  him  to  repeat  them;  then  six,  and  then  seven,  till  the 


822  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

number  pronounced  is  more  than  the  person  can  repeat  exactly. 
I  then  ask  him  abruptly  if  he  saw  the  numbers  or  heard  them 
in  his  memory.  Remark  that  this  experiment  appeals  by  its 
method  wholly  to  the  auditive  memory.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
taking  the  subjects  as  they  come,  they  will  answer  that  they 
heard  the  numbers  "in  their  ear,"  and  had  no  idea  of  seeing 
them ;  or,  if  they  saw  them,  it  was  by  a  confused,  indirect  mental 
vision.  But  those  persons  who  have  colored  audition  will  answer 
that  they  saw  the  numbers.  Although  their  auditive  memory 
was  excited  by  hearing,  they  transformed  the  auditive  image  of 
the  number  into  a  visual  one;  their  attention  was  fixed  on  the 
form,  the  color — an  excellent  example  of  that  tendency  to  trans- 
form everything  into  visions  which  seems  to  me  to  be  the  char- 
acteristic of  colored  audition. 

This  mental  organization  agrees  in  many  of  its  characteris- 
tics, with  that  of  the  painter,  the  mark  of  whose  vocation  may  be 
found,  as  M.  Arreat  has  indicated  in  his  La  Psychologie  du 
Peintre,  in  his  sensitive  eye  and  his  aptitude  in  appreciating,  ab- 
stracting, and  reproducing  the  brilliancy  of  colors  and  the  har- 
mony of  forms,  from  which  he  acquires  a  habit  of  thinking  with 
visual  images.  The  natural  gifts  of  the  painter  are,  however,  not 
all  that  is  required  for  colored  audition,  but  are  only  one  of  the 
psychological  conditions  of  the  phenomenon.  A  person  capable 
of  recollecting  colors  with  their  most  delicate  shadings  might,  by 
giving  free  course  to  his  poetic  imagination,  color  all  the  sounds 
that  vibrate  in  his  ear ;  but  he  would  only  arrive  at  intentional 
comparisons  which  he  can  make  and  unmake  at  will.  The  associa- 
tion in  colored  audition  is  very  different ;  it  is  not  sought  for  or 
selected ;  the  subject  does  not  invent  it,  he  finds  it  already  formed 
in  his  mind.  He  has  only  to  hear  a  voice  to  have  almost  instantly 
the  impression  that  that  voice  has  a  certain  shade  of  color.  Here 
we  touch  upon  the  fundamental  characteristic  of  colored  audition. 
Since  it  consists  of  an  artificial  and  insurmountable  association,  it 
can  not  be  regarded  as  a  strictly  physiological  condition ;  it  is  a 
deviation,  however  insignificant  we  may  suppose  it  to  be,  from  the 
usual  normal  course  of  thought.  Yet  it  generally  coincides,  ac- 
cording to  the  observations  of  the  best  authors,  with  a  perfect 
state  of  physical  and  moral  health,  with  perhaps  a  slight  pre- 
dominance of  the  nervous  temperament  in  the  majority  of  the  sub- 
jects. The  influence  of  heredity  has  been  noticed  several  times. 
There  have  been  as  many  as  four  or  five  cases  in  the  same  family, 
and  considerable  resemblance  between  the  colored  alphabets  of 
relatives. 

If  the  ultimate  fundamental  origin  of  colored  audition  is,  as  we 
beieve,  in  the  organization  of  the  individual,  it  remains  to  find 
the  occasional  cause  that  determines  it  and  establishes  a  precise 


TRAITS    OF  NORTHWESTERN  INDIANS.  823 

connection  between  each  kind  of  sound  and  a  color.  We  should 
not  suggest  the  problem  if  we  thought  it  impossible  to  solve  it  by 
some  direct  method,  and  we  have  a  firm  hope  that  well-conducted 
personal  investigations  will  at  length  discover  the  origin  of  the 
association.  It  may  be  that  some  importance  may  be  attached  to 
the  picture  reading  books  in  which  the  letters  are  colored  for  the 
pleasure  of  children.  Possibly,  too,  the  consonance  of  certain 
words  designating  colored  objects  has  been  detached,  by  a  kind  of 
abstraction,  from  the  word  itself,  and  has  carried  the  reflection  of 
its  color  to  other  words  in  which  it  is  found,  although  their  mean- 
ing is  entirely  different.  This  second  opinion  is  supported  by  an 
observation  cited  by  Mr.  Galton,  of  a  lady  who  gave  e  the  color  of 
red,  and  believed  it  was  because  there  is  an  e  in  the  English  word 
red. 

We  may  summarize  the  knowledge  we  have  concerning  the 
mechanism  of  colored  audition  as  follows :  It  is  certain  that  the 
impressions  of  color  suggested  by  certain  acoustic  sensations  are 
mental  images ;  it  is  probable  that  those  persons  who  experience 
these  impressions  belong  to  a  visual  type ;  and  it  is  possible  that 
the  bond  between  the  impressions  is  the  result  of  associated  per- 
ceptions.— Translated  for  The  Popular  Science  Monthly  from  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 


SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF   NORTHWESTERN 

INDIANS. 


Kootenay  Indians,  who  number  between  five  hundred  and 
a  thousand  persons,  inhabit  a  strip  of  country  between  the 
Rocky  and  the  Selkirk  Mountains,  partly  in  the  United  States 
and  partly  in  British  Columbia.  As  a  rule,  their  moral  character 
and  behavior  are  good,  and  they  are  honest,  kind,  and  hospitable  ; 
but  a  few  incidents  cited  by  Dr.  A.  F.  Chamberlain,  in  his  report 
concerning  them  to  the  British  Association,  indicate  that  they  are 
sometimes  moody  and  easily  offended,  especially  when  their  de- 
mands are  refused.  They  have  also  a  keen  sense  of  the  ludicrous, 
and  laugh  at  the  misfortunes  that  befall  their  fellows.  A  favorite 
Sunday  amusement  among  the  Lower  Kootenays  is  horse-run- 
ning. "  All  the  horses  are  assembled  in  a  large,  open  space  near 
the  camp,  and  the  Indians  form  a  large  circle  round  them,  and, 
provided  with  long  whips,  they  drive  the  horses  to  and  fro  for  an 
hour  or  so,  laughing  and  yelling  to  their  hearts'  content.  Even 
the  little  boys  take  part  in  this  sport.  They  also  take  great  de- 
light in  breaking  stubborn  horses,  and  the  whole  camp  looks  on 
until  the  young  man  has  succeeded  in  controlling  his  animal, 
guying  him  unmercifully  if  he  makes  mistakes."  Although  no 


824  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

picture-writing  upon  rocks  has  been  attributed  to  them,  they 
have  marked  artistic  ability,  and  exhibit  their  skill  in  ornamen- 
tation upon  articles  of  dress  and  the  implements  of  the  chase. 
Indians  who  had  had  no  instruction  in  drawing  from  the  whites, 
employed  by  Dr.  Chamberlain  to  make  a  series  of  drawings, 
drafted  very  good  maps  of  their  country,  and  seemed  to  have  well 
grasped  the  idea  of  their  work.  Some  of  them  were  also  able  to 
recognize  with  ease  the  various  physical  features  prominent  in 
the  printed  maps  of  the  Kootenay  district.  Their  drawings  of 
weapons,  implements,  etc.,  were  excellent,  and  those  of  one  of 
them  in  particular  would  never  be  suspected  of  being  the  product 
of  aboriginal  genius.  "Pictures  of  houses,  railway  trains,  etc., 
have  a  certain  conventionality  that  is  characteristic  of  savage 
races.  Several  of  the  Indians  were  able  to  draw  an  excellent  and 
easily  recognizable  picture  of  the  little  steamboat  that  plied  up 
and  down  the  Columbia  River.  In  their  drawings  of  human  be- 
ings, especial  stress  is  laid  upon  the  distinguishing  features,  and 
any  peculiarity  or  abnormity  is  brought  out  with  full  force. 
Thus,  a  Stony  Indian  woman  has  no  nose,  a  Chinaman  has  an  im- 
mense single  braid  of  hair,  a  white  man  an  enormous  beard,  a 
certain  Indian  a  colossal  nose,  and  the  like." 

They  have  fourteen  distinct  names  for  colors,  and  their  horses 
may  be  white,  black,  half  white  and  half  black,  roan,  "  buckskin," 
"  blue,"  sorrel,  or  mouse-colored. 

The  social  position  of  women  is  not  greatly  different  from 
that  among  the  other  surrounding  tribes.  Girls  may  be  mar- 
ried at  fifteen  and  young  men  at  twenty  years  of  age.  In  the 
olden  times  the  young  Indian  wishing  to  marry  "  went  at  night 
to  the  lodge  where  slept  the  object  of  his  affections,  and,  quietly 
lifting  up  the  blankets  to  make  sure,  lay  down  beside  her.  The 
girl's  people  soon  found  him  there,  and  threats  were  made.  The 
young  man's  father  meanwhile  inquired  where  his  son  was,  and, 
on  being  told  that  he  was  in  such-and-such  a  lodge,  went  thither 
with  his  friends  and  discovered  the  young  people  together.  The 
girl  then  left  and  went  with  her  husband  to  his  own  people.  He 
was  at  liberty  to  send  his  wife  back  to  her  relatives  within  a  year 
if  she  turned  out  to  be  bad  or  he  was  dissatisfied  with  her.  When 
guilty  of  adultery  she  was  punished  by  having  one  of  her  braids 
cut  off  by  her  husband."  Descent  seems  to  be  traced  through  the 
mother. 

Private  property  in  land  was  unknown,  the  country  belonging 
to  the  tribe  collectively ;  and  demands  for  money  are  still  made 
by  the  Lower  Kootenays  from  any  stranger  intruding  upon  their 
domain.  The  hunter  had  no  absolute  right  in  his  game,  and  it 
was  distributed  among  the  camp  in  order  that  all  might  have 
food.  Women  could  hold  property  as  well  as  men.  The  horses 


TRAITS   OF  NORTHWESTERN  INDIANS.  825 

were  the  property  of  the  grown-up  male  children,  as  well  as  of 
the  father,  and  could  be  gambled  away  by  any  one  of  them.  The 
lodge  seems  to  have  been  secured  to  the  widow  and  children  on 
the  death  of  the  father.  The  women  inherited  the  kettles  and 
other  utensils,  besides  their  saddles,  blankets,  "  parfleshes,"  etc. 
The  horses,  canoes,  weapons,  etc.,  went  to  the  male  children  if 
they  were  of  age.  In  early  times  the  dead  man's  relatives  would 
swoop  down  upon  the  lodge  soon  after  his  death  and  appropriate 
the  property  substantially  at  their  will.  If  the  dead  man  left  no 
relatives,  the  "strong  man"  of  the  tribe  took  possession  of  his 
property. 

The  Kootenays  paid  a  worship  to  the  sun,  and  they  believed 
in  the  existence  of  spirits  in  everything  animate  and  inanimate ; 
even  little  stones,  bits  of  rag,  shavings  of  wood,  have  their  spirits. 
These  spirits  can  go  anywhere,  through  glass,  wood,  or  any  sub- 
stance, as  through  air.  The  touch  of  them  causes  death  and  dis- 
ease. At  the  death  of  Indians  their  spirits  may  enter  into  fishes, 
bears,  trees,  etc.;  in  fact,  into  anything  animate  or  inanimate. 
When  a  man  is  alive  his  spirit  may  exist  in  the  form  of  a  tomtit, 
a  jay,  a  bear,  a  flower,  etc.  The  spirits  of  the  dead  can  return 
and  visit  their  friends.  In  olden  times  sacrifices  appear  to  have 
been  made  to  the  spirits  of  the  mountains  and  of  the  forests  to 
secure  success  in  hunting,  and  to  appease  them  when  they  were 
angered.  Their  language  is  supposed  to  differ  from  the  ordinary 
Kootenay.  A  great  or  strong  man  has  many  spirits.  The  spirits 
were  supposed  to  come  often  at  the  prayer  of  the  medicine  men, 
in  the  form  of  birds  or  the  like.  A  tree  is  pointed  out  in  the 
Kootenay  region,  in  northern  Idaho,  from  which  Indians  have 
jumped  off  on  two  successive  occasions,  in  obedience  to  the  prom- 
ise of  the  medicine  men  that  they  should  be  able  to  fly  like  birds 
if  they  did  so.  Certain  death,  of  course,  awaited  them.  The 
shamans  treated  the  sick  by  pressure  upon  various  parts  of  the 
body,  by  pinching,  etc. ;  practiced  bloodletting,  and  pretended  to 
extract  the  cause  of  the  malady  by  suction  with  the  mouth. 

In  the  astronomy  of  the  Kootenays  the  moon  is  regarded  as  a 
man  and  the  sun  as  a  woman.  There  was  no  sun  in  the  begin- 
ning, and,  after  the  Indians  had  vainly  endeavored  to  discover  it, 
the  coyote  was  successful  in  making  it  rise  above  the  mountains. 
Another  version  makes  the  chicken  hawk  cause  the  sun  to  rise. 
The  coyote,  getting  angry,  shoots  an  arrow  at  the  sun,  but  misses, 
sets  the  prairie  on  fire,  and  has  to  run  for  dear  life.  The  moon  is 
said  to  have  been  found  by  the  chicken  hawk.  A  legend  about 
the  man  in  the  moon  may  be  of  European  origin.  The  stars  are 
mostly  Indians,  who  from  time  to  time  have  got  up  into  the  sky. 
The  Great  Bear  was  an  Indian  woman,  who  sometimes  was  very 
angry ;  and  the  stars  in  her  tail  are  Indians  whom  she  has  seized. 


826  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  Milky  Way  is  the  dog's  trail.  The  thunder  is  caused  by  a 
great  bird  that  lives  far  up  in  the  sky.  The  lightning  is  made  by 
the  shooting  of  its  arrows.  At  first  there  were  no  clouds.  The 
daughter  of  the  coyote  married  the  thunder,  and  her  father  gave 
the  clouds  for  a  blanket.  The  Kootenays  believe  that  they  came 
from  the  East ;  and  one  of  their  myths  ascribes  to  them  an  origin 
from  a  hole  in  the  ground  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Another 
account  says  they  sprang  from  the  hairs  of  the  black  bear,  which 
fell  on  the  ground  after  he  came  out  of  the  belly  of  the  great  fish 
that  had  swallowed  him.  There  were  no  women  at  first.  By 
and  by  an  Indian  went  up  into  the  mountains,  and  from  a  spirit 
who  lived  there  received  the  first  Kootenay  woman.  The  origin 
of  horses  is  ascribed  to  a  medicine  man  who  made  a  stick  into  the 
shape  of  the  animal  and  then  threw  it  away,  whereupon  it  became 
a  horse.  The  belief  prevails  that  the  white  men  get  their  cattle 
from  the  sea.  It  is  said  that  they  go  every  year  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean  to  receive  the  cattle  which  come  out  of  the  waters.  Many 
of  the  animal  myths  remind  one  of  Uncle  Remus. 

Some  very  interesting  legends  are  related  by  Prof.  George  W. 
Dawson  as  communicated  to  him  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Mackay,  Indian 
agent  at  Kaniloops,  from  the  stock  of  the  Shuswap  Indians.  Like 
most  of  the  Indian  people  they  have  a  culture  or  creation  hero 
with  supernatural  attributes,  who  with  them  figures  as  a  coyote  or 
small  wolf,  and  is  named  Skil-ap.  In  the  old  times  the  salmon 
could  not  ascend  the  Fraser  River  011  account  of  a  dam  which 
two  old  witches  had  made  at  Hell-gate  Canon.  He  told  the  peo- 
ple he  would  go  down  the  river  and  break  the  dam,  so  that 
the  salmon  could  come  up,  and  instructed  them  that  he  would 
make  his  approach  known  by  a  great  smoke.  He  transformed 
himself  into  a  smooth,  flat  piece  of  board,  floated  down  to  the 
dam,  was  picked  up  by  the  women,  who  undertook  to  use  the 
board  as  a  plate,  emerged  from  it  as  a  child,  and  was  cared  for  by 
them,  till  one  day  when  they  were  absent  he  put  something  on 
his  head  that  made  him  invulnerable,  and  destroyed  the  dam, 
after  which  the  salmon  began  to  go  up  in  great  numbers.  Then 
he  followed  the  bank  of  the  river,  keeping  abreast  of  the  van- 
guard of  the  salmon,  and  making  a  great  smoke  by  setting  fire  to 
the  woods  as  he  proceeded,  so  that  the  people  knew  that  he  was 
coming.  Near  the  outlet  of  the  Kamloops  Lake  he  stopped  to  eat, 
and  made  a  fish  weir  at  a  spot  where  some  high  rocks  may  still 
be  seen.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Clearwater  he  completed  a  salmon 
dam  he  found  the  people  making ;  and  there  are  to  tfee  present 
day  steep  rocks  on  either  side  of  the  river,  and  above  them  a  large 
pool  or  basin  where  he  fished  with  his  scoop-net  and  which  is  still 
a  noted  salmon-fishing  place.  On  the  rocks  may  be  seen  the 
prints  of  his  feet  where  he  stood  to  fish.  Thus  the  salmon  were 


TRAITS    OF  NORTHWESTERN  INDIANS.  827 

enabled  to  ascend  into  all  the  rivers  of  the  Shuswap  country. 
Skil-ap  is  expected  to  return  at  some  distant  period  when  "  the 
world  turns  "  and  the  good  old  days  come  back. 

There  were  in  the  early  times  of  Skil-ap  other  supernatural 
beings  who  roamed  the  world,  the  most  important  of  whom  was 
named  Knil-i-elt ;  and  it  may  be,  Prof.  Dawson  suggests  as  a 
point  worthy  of  inquiry,  that  in  the  stories  related  of  Knil-i-elt  and 
Skil-ap  we  find  the  mingling  of  mythological  ideas  derived  from 
two  different  sources.  Knil-i-elt  had  no  recognized  father  or  any 
relative  but  his  mother,  and  was  the  offspring  of  the  union  of  the 
woman  with  a  root  which  is  eaten  by  the  Indians.  Learning  the 
mystery  of  his  birth  after  he  had  become  a  great  hunter,  he  re- 
proached his  mother  concerning  it,  and  said  he  would  go  away 
and  never  return  to  her.  She  then  told  him  of  all  the  evil  and 
malignant  monsters  living  in  the  country  farther  down  the  river, 
and  he  resolved  to  extirpate  them.  Among  his  exploits  was  a  trial 
of  strength  with  two  friends,  in  which  each  should  push  his  head 
against  a  rock  and  see  which  could  make  the  deepest  impression. 
Each  of  the  friends  made  a  shallow  indentation,  but  Knil-i-elt 
pressed  his  head  in  to  the  shoulders.  Impressions  in  the  rock  are 
still  shown  by  the  Indians,  and  Hat  Creek,  near  the  mouth  of 
which  they  were  made,  was  named  from  the  incident.  A 
conflict  with  the  eagle  monster  resulted  in  the  death  of  the  eagle 
and  the  capture  of  its  eaglets,  pulling  out  the  tail  feathers 
from  which,  Knil-i-elt  reduced  them  to  common  eagles,  able  to 
harm  no  man.  At  the  outlet  of  Kamloops  Lake  was  an  elk 
monster  that  lived  in  the  middle  of  the  river  and  killed  and  ate 
men.  Knil-i-elt,  having  made  a  raft,  embarked  and  floated  down 
the  stream,  when,  before  long,  the  elk  seized  and  swallowed  him. 
His  friends,  who  were  looking  on,  thought  they  had  seen  the  last 
of  him,  but  Knil-i-elt  stabbed  the  elk  to  the  heart  with  the  weap- 
on he  carried,  and  then  cut  his  way  out  of  its  belly  and  came  to 
shore,  bringing  the  elk  with  him,  and  invited  his  friends  to  eat 
some  of  the  meat.  He  then  reduced  the  elk  to  its  present  posi- 
tion, saying  to  it :  "You  will  no  longer  kill  men ;  they  will  in 
future  always  kill  you."  The  badger  was  also  in  this  early  time 
a  formidable  monster,  and  had  its  lodge  stored  with  dead  men, 
collected  for  food.  Knil-i-elt  caught  the  badger,  and  striking  him 
on  the  head  said,  "  Hereafter  you  will  be  nothing  but  a  common 
badger,  able  only  to  fight  with  dogs  when  they  attack  you."  He 
further  brought  to  life  again  all  the  people  whom  he  found  dead. 
Knil-i-elt  met  his  fate  from  four  witches,  whose  supernatural 
power  was  superior  to  his,  and  who  turned  him  and  the  two 
friends  who  had  accompanied  him  in  all  his  adventures  into  stone. 

On  the  trail  leading  from  Kamloops  toward  Trout  Lake  the 
scanty  remnant  of  an  old  stump  protrudes  from  among  a  few 


828  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

stones  which  are  piled  about  it,  in  passing  which  the  Indians  al- 
ways throw  some  little  offering  upon  it — such  as  matches,  a  frag- 
ment of  tobacco,  or  a  shred  of  clothing,  which  were  seen  by  the 
author.  The  story  attached  to  it  relates  that  a  lonely  woman 
called  Grizzly  Bear  made  of  pitch  the  figure  of  a  girl  to  be  a 
companion  to  her,  who  became  her  daughter.  She  warned  the 
girl  that  when  she  bathed  she  must  not  afterward  sit  or  lie  in  the 
sun  to  get  warm.  The  girl  tried  the  forbidden  experiment  after 
her  fourth  bath,  and  was  melted  away.  Grizzly  made  another 
daughter  of  clay,  and  told  her  that  she  must  not  rub  herself  when 
in  the  water.  This  girl  disobeyed  likewise  and  was  washed  away. 
The  old  woman  than  made  another  daughter  of  wood,  on  whom 
it  was  not  necessary  to  impose  restrictions.  This  girl,  after  a 
fourth  bath,  was  accosted  by  a  trout,  which  she  said  she  would 
like  for  a  husband.  On  repeating  her  wish  the  fourth  time  the 
trout  appeared  as  a  young  man,  became  her  husband,  and  took 
her  with  four  efforts,  the  first  three  of  which  were  balked,  to  his 
lower  country.  A  boy  and  a  girl  were  born  to  this  couple.  They 
were  taunted  about  having  no  grandmother,  and,  questioning 
their  mother  on  the  subject,  were  told  that  they  had  a  grand- 
mother living  in  the  upper  country.  They  might  go  up  there  and 
would  find  her  as  an  old  woman  digging  roots  on  the  hillside,  but 
must  not  speak  to  her,  though  they  might  go  to  her  house  and 
eat  whatever  food  they  might  find  there.  The  children  acting 
upon  these  instructions,  the  woman  missed  the  food,  and,  ob- 
serving the  footprints  of  the  children,  concluded  that  none  but 
her  daughter's  children  would  visit  her  house  in  that  way.  She 
therefore  prepared  some  potent  medicine,  and,  going  to  a  stump  in 
the  hillside  where  she  was  accustomed  to  work,  told  it  that  when 
the  children  appeared  it  must  move  and  seem  to  be  a  woman 
digging.  The  woman  then  concealed  herself  in  the  house,  while 
the  stump  acted  as  it  had  been  bidden.  The  children,  after  re- 
garding the  stump  for  a  time  with  some  doubt,  ventured  into  the 
house,  when  the  woman  threw  her  medicine  upon  them.  The 
medicine  fell  all  over  the  boy,  who  was  changed  to  an  ordinary 
human  being,  but  only  partly  over  the  girl,  and  she  became  a 
little  dog.  The  boy  and  the  dog,  in  whom  he  failed  to  recognize 
his  sister,  had  some  carious  adventures,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
learned  the  truth.  He  went  to  his  grandmother  and  questioned 
her  on  the  subject.  She  told  him  that  if,  when  shooting,  his 
arrow  should  lodge  in  a  tree,  or  anywhere  above  his  reach,  how- 
ever little,  he  must  not  climb  up  to  get  it.  Soon  afterward  he  lost 
three  arrows  in  this  way,  but  a  fourth  time  his  arrow  stuck  in  a 
tree  not  far  up,  and  he  climbed  on  a  branch  to  get  it ;  but  the 
arrow  continued  to  move  further  up  and  he  had  to  climb  after  it, 
and  though  he  thought  that  he  had  not  gone  very  far,  he  looked 


TRAITS    OF  NORTHWESTERN  INDIANS.  829 

down  after  a  time  and  found  that  he  could  not  even  see  the  earth. 
So  he  went  on  climbing  till  at  last  he  reached  another  country 
above,  which  was  very  pleasant  and  populous,  and  there  he  re- 
mained. The  old  stump  by  the  wayside  is  the  remnant  of  that 
tree. 

Another  curious  story  relates  to  a  mosquito  gorged  with 
blood,  which  flew  up  where  the  thunder  is.  The  thunder  asked 
the  mosquito  where  it  got  the  blood,  and  the  insect  falsely  replied 
that  it  was  sucked  from  the  buds  at  the  very  top  of  the  trees  be- 
low. Hence  the  reason  that  the  thunder  (or  lightning)  strikes  the 
tops  of  the  trees. 

Some  curious  myths  are  associated  with  particular  places.  The 
lakes  are  supposed  to  be  occupied  by  peculiar  beings  called  "  water 
people,"  who  are  alleged  to  have  remarkable  powers  and  to  use 
them  in  performing  strange  acts.  It  is  dangerous  for  canoes  to 
pass  Battle  Bluff,  on  Kamloops  Lake,  because  of  the  water  peo- 
ple, who  in  this  instance  are  described  as  of  human  shape,  but 
hairy  in  the  upper  half,  with  fishlike  tails  below.  It  is  also  told 
of  this  bluff  that  some  hostile  people,  once  coming  by  land  to 
attack  the  Kamloops  Indians,  looking  down  over  the  front  of  the 
bluff  as  they  passed,  saw  a  woman  or  witch  dancing  in  a  niche 
part  way  down  the  cliff.  They  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff 
to  watch  the  woman  dance  and  were  turned  to  stones.  "  Little 
men  "are  reported  to  exist  in  several  places,  to  hunt  with  bows 
and  arrows,  to  be  only  two  feet  high,  and  yet  able  to  carry  a  deer 
easily.  In  contrast  to  this,  when  a  squirrel  is  killed,  they  skin  it 
and  take  only  a  part,  as  the  whole  is  too  heavy  for  them.  The 
Indians  are  very  much  afraid  of  them.  The  Indians  aver  that 
unknown  beings  sometimes  throw  stones  at  them,  particularly  at 
night,  when  stones  may  be  noticed  occasionally  falling  into  the 
fire.  A  Kamloops  Indian,  long  since  dead,  once  saw  a  white  object 
following  him  by  night.  He  drew  back  from  the  trail  and  shot 
an  arrow  at  it  as  it  passed.  In  the  morning  he  returned  and  found 
his  arrow  buried  in  a  human  shoulder-blade.  It  is  believed  that 
burning  wood  from  a  tree  which  had  been  struck  by  lightning 
brings  on  cold  weather.  This  appears  to  be  based  on  the  fact 
that  cold  follows  a  thunderstorm.  Thus,  in  the  spring,  when  In- 
dians may  be  traveling  over  the  snow  on  high  ground,  splinters 
of  such  wood  are  thrown  on  the  fire  to  reduce  the  temperature,  in 
order  that  the  crust  may  remain  unmelted  on  the  snow.  A  small 
splinter  of  such  wood  wrapped  up  with  the  bullet  in  loading  a  gun 
is  supposed  to  increase  the  deadly  effect  of  the  bullet.  The  plant 
Parnassia  fimbriata,  worn  in  the  hat  or  rubbed  on  it  and  on  the 
soles  of  the  feet,  is  believed  to  make  it  certain  for  the  deer-hunter 
that  the  deer  will  be  seen  and  caught.  The  rattle  of  a  rattlesnake 
is  worn  as  a  preventive  against  headache. 


830  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

The  Pleiades  are  called  by  the  Shuswaps  "the  bunch/'  and 
also  "  people  roasting."  The  latter  name  is  given  from  a  story  of 
their  origin,  which  relates  that  a  number  of  women  who  were 
baking  roots  in  a  hole  in  the  ground  were  changed  into  this  group 
of  stars.  The  morning  star  has  the  names  "  coming  with  the  day- 
light "  and  "  one  with  hair  standing  out  round  his  head."  The 
four  stars  forming  the  bowl  of  the  Great  Dipper  are  known  as  the 
bear  stars,  and  the  three  following  large  stars  are  three  brothers 
in  pursuit  of  the  bear.  The  first  hunter  is  brave  and  near  the 
bear ;  the  second  leads  a  dog  (the  small  companion  star) ;  and  the 
third  is  afraid  and  hangs  far  back.  The  stars  of  Orion's  belt  are 
called  "  fishing,"  and  the  Milky  Way  is  the  road  or  path  of  the 
dead.  The  months,  beginning  about  March,  are  "  spring,"  "  grass 
month,"  "  root-digging  month,"  "  strawberry  month,"  "  berry 
month,"  "salmon  month,"  "month  when  the  salmon  get  bad," 
"month  when  the  deer  travel,"  "month  in  which  they  return 
from  hunting,"  "  midwinter  month,"  and  Pit-tshik-in-tin  "  (which 
is  not  translated). 

Several  native  roots  still  constitute  notable  items  in  the  food 
of  the  Shuswaps,  though  their  importance  has  diminished  since 
the  white  man's  preparations  were  introduced.  Roots  are  always 
dug  and  cooked  or  cured  by  the  women.  In  digging  the  roots 
a  pointed  stick,  about  four  feet  in  length,  with  a  crutch-shaped 
handle,  is  used.  The  lily,  Lilium  columbianum,  is  much  sought 
after,  and,  like  most  of  the  roots,  is  cooked  by  baking  in  the 
ground.  The  roots  of  balsamorhiza,  cinquef  oil,  claytonia  or  spring 
beauty,  dog-tooth  violet,  and  of  other  less  familiar  plants,  are  also 
eaten.  The  camass  is  abundant,  and  forms  an  important  article 
of  diet.  No  edible  thing  is  ignored,  and  few  edible  substances  of 
any  kind  are  passed  by ;  but  the  Indians  never  heard  of  any  one 
eating  a  mushroom.  The  cambium  layer  of  the  black  or  bull 
pine  (Pinus  murrayana)  is  eaten  when  it  is  soft  and  gelatinous, 
at  the  time  the  leaves  are  still  growing,  and  is  sometimes  dried 
and  kept.  The  cambium  of  the  subalpine  spruce  and  of  cotton- 
wood  is  also  sometimes  eaten.  The  sappy  arid  still  nearly  white 
parts  of  the  large  leaf-stalks  and  stems  of  the  Heradeum  lanatum 
are  eaten  in  the  spring,  and,  when  taken  at  the  right  stage,  are 
not  much  inferior  to  celery.  The  nutlets  in  the  cones  of  Pinus 
albicantes  are  gathered  in  large  quantities  and  eaten  from  the 
cones  after  having  been  roasted,  or  thrashed  out  and  prepared. 
They  have  a  rather  pleasant  taste,  flavored  with  turpentine,  and 
are  nearly  the  size  of  small  garden  peas.  Nutlets  of  yellow  pine 
and  Douglas  fir  are  also  collected  —  generally  by  robbing  the 
mice  and  squirrels  of  their  stores.  The  pith  or  inner  bark  of 
Epilobium  spicatum  is  eaten  while  still  young  and  sappy.  A 
black,  hairlike  lichen,  Alectoria  jubata,  is  eaten  roasted,  and  is 


SKETCH   OF  WERNER  VON  SIEMENS.  831 

said  to  taste  very  sweet.  A  yellow  lichen  furnishes  a  coloring 
matter,  and  the  root  of  a  certain  fern  (Asplenium  or  Aspidium) 
yields  a  black  dye.  The  leaves  of  the  syringa  (Philadelphus  lew- 
isii)  were  formerly  used  as  a  soap  in  washing  clothing.  The  fiber 
plants  are  an  Asclepias  or  milkweed,  and  the  common  nettle  of 
the  country. 

The  sweat-houses  of  all  the  Northwestern  Indians  are  very 
much  alike.  They  consist  of  a  dome-shaped  framework,  formed 
by  bending  willow  sticks  over  one  another,  covered  with  blankets 
or  skins  or  earth,  and  a  pile  of  hot  stones  in  the  center,  or  a  hole 
in  which  hot  stones  are  thrown.  The  Indian  takes  his  place  in 
the  booth,  and  water  is  thrown  upon  the  stones.  The  bathers  sit 
in  a  suffocating  temperature  till  they  have  had  enough  of  it,  and 
then  rush  out  and  plunge  into  the  water,  which  they  take  care  to 
have  always  near. 


SKETCH  OF  WERNER  VON  SIEMENS. 

"TTTITH  Werner  Siemens,  says  a  German  biographer,  died  a 
VV  prince  of  science,  a  pathbreaker  in  the  region  of  electro- 
technics,  a  man  whose  activity  extended  far  beyond  his  own 
narrow  district,  bearing  fruit  in  other  branches  of  human 
achievement;  one  of  the  greatest  industrial  characters,  not  of 
Germany  only,  but  of  the  whole  world ;  an  industrial  character, 
however,  to  whom  gain  was  never  an  object  in  itself,  but  who 
rather  found  in  it  the  incentive  to  new  scientific  studies. 

ERNST  WERNER  SIEMENS  was  born  at  Lenthe,  Hanover,  De- 
cember 13, 1816,  and  died  in  Berlin,  December  6, 1892.  He  came  of 
a  family  very  rich  in  offspring — while  he  was  the  eldest  son  among 
ten  children.  His  father,  Christian  Ferdinand  Siemens,  was  a 
tenant  farmer  and  forester,  who  had  qualified  himself  for  his 
profession  by  studying  at  the  school  at  Ilfeld  and  the  University 
of  Gottingen.  He  afterward  went  to  learn  practical  agriculture 
with  Councilor  Deichmann  at  Poggenhagen,  where  he  married 
the  councilor's  daughter,  Eleanora  Deichmann,  preparatory  to 
settling  upon  his  estate  at  Lenthe. 

The  English  think  they  have  a  kind  of  birthright  claim  upon 
Werner  Siemens,  because,  at  the  time  of  his  birth,  the  King  of 
England  was  Elector  of  Hanover.  The  connection  is  not  entirely 
nattering  to  them,  for  the  elder  Siemens  fared  hardly  at  the 
hands  of  King  George.  He  was  arrested  and  fined  for  detaining 
some  royal  deer  which  had  trespassed  upon  his  premises  while 
awaiting  the  answer  of  the  gamekeeper  to  his  inquiry  as  to  the 
disposition  he  should  make  of  them.  To  escape  such  unpleasant 
Incidents  the  elder  Siemens  removed,  in  1823,  to  Menzendorf  in 


832  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  Werner  Siemens's  earliest  recollection  of 
his  life  at  Lenthe  was  of  what  in  his  Reminiscences  he  calls  an  act 
of  heroism.  When  he  was  about  five  years  old  his  sister  came 
crying  into  his  father's  room  where  he  was  playing.  She  had 
been  sent  to  the  Pfarhaus  to  take  her  lesson,  but  found  her  way 
obstructed  at  the  gate  by  a  gander,  which  snapped  at  her  when- 
ever she  attempted  to  pass.  The  father  gave  Werner  his  staff 
and  told  him  to  go  with  his  sister  and  to  cudgel  the  gander  well 
when  it  appeared.  The  boy  did  so,  and  the  gander  ran  away  in 
panic.  "  It  is  remarkable,"  he  says,  "  how  deep  and  enduring  an 
impression  this  first  victory  made  on  my  childish  mind.  Even 
now,  after  nearly  seventy  years,  all  the  persons  and  scenes  con- 
nected with  this  important  event  stand  clearly  before  my  eyes. 
With  it  is  also  associated  my  only  recollection  of  the  appearance 
of  my  parents  in  their  younger  days ;  and  many  a  time,  in  later 
difficult  experiences,  has  the  victory  over  the  gander  unconscious- 
ly incited  me  not  to  shun  threatening  dangers  but  to  meet  them 
with  vigorous  resistance." 

The  Siemens  children  were  taught  by  their  grandmother 
Deichmann,  and  then  by  their  father,  whose  brilliant  and  original 
sketches  of  history  and  ethnology,  dictated  to  them,  formed  the 
foundation,  Siemens  says,  of  his  later  views.  He  was  next  sent 
to  •  the  BiirgerscJiule,  in  the  neighboring  town  of  Schonberg, 
whither  he  walked  when  the  roads  were  not  too  bad,  and  where 
he  seems  to  have  spent  a  year  of  battling  with  his  mates,  "  to  the 
hardening  of  his  powers,  but  with  only  the  most  insignificant 
results  in  knowledge."  Then  he  had  tutors  of  opposite  charac- 
ters, and  after  them  he  was  sent  to  the  gymnasium  at  Liibeck. 
Not  satisfied  with  the  progress  he  was  making  in  mathematics 
and  in  the  ancient  languages,  he  gave  his  attention  to  the  only 
technical  branch  taught  in  the  school — engineering.  To  prepare 
for  entrance  into  the  engineering  school  at  Berlin,  he  took  private 
lessons  in  mathematics  and  surveying.  Instead  of  entering  this 
school,  which  was  expensive,  his  teacher  advised  him  to  go  into 
the  Prussian  engineering  service,  where  he  would  be  taught  the 
same  things.  His  father  fell  in  with  this  plan,  and  prophetically 
gave  as  his  reason  that  the  pres'ent  conditions  could  not  last  in 
Germany,  that  in  time  everything  must  go  down.  The  only  firm 
point  in  Germany  was  the  state  of  Frederick  the  Great,  with  the 
Prussian  army ;  and  in  the  time  of  trouble  that  was  coming  it 
would  be  better  to  be  the  hammer  than  the  anvil.  Fortune 
favored  him  in  the  examinations,  for  which  his  preparation  had 
been  very  superficial,  and  in  the  fall  of  1835  he  was  admitted 
to  the  United  Artillery  and  Engineers'  School  in  Berlin.  His 
mother  dying  in  July,  1839,  and  his  father  six  months  later,  he 
became  the  guardian  of  his  younger  brothers  and  sisters.  Some 


SKETCH   OF  WERNER  VON  SIEMENS.  833 

experiments  lie  was  making  at  this  time  with  friction  fuses  ended 
in  an  explosion,  by  which  his  hearing  was  permanently  injured. 

While  Siemens  was  stationed,  in  1840,  at  Wittenberg,  he  be- 
came interested  in  the  discovery,  then  recently  made  by  Jacobi,  of 
the  precipitation  of  metallic  copper  from  the  .sulphate  by  means 
of  the  galvanic  current.  He  repeated  the  experiments  success- 
fully, and  applied  the  process — so  far  as  his  means  would  permit 
—to  other  metals.  His  studies  were  interrupted  by  his  arrest  and 
imprisonment  for  connection  as  second  with  a  duel  between  two 
of  his  brother-officers.  Not  relishing  the  idea  of  spending  an 
indefinite  period  in  idleness,  he  managed  on  his  way  to  the  cita- 
del to  make  arrangements  to  have  the  materials  required  in  his 
electroplating  researches  smuggled  in  to  him.  He  set  up  a  small 
laboratory  in  his  cell  and  made  himself  contented  there.  Recol- 
lecting, from  experiments  he  had  made  in  the  Daguerrean  process, 
that  hyposulphite  of  soda  would  dissolve  the  insoluble  salts  of 
gold  and  silver,  he  applied  the  principle  to  electrolysis  with  as- 
tonishing success  ;  and  he  believes,  he  says,  that  it  was  one  of  the 
greatest  joys  of  his  life  when  a  newly  silvered  teaspoon  which 
he  had  immersed  at  the  zinc  pole  of  a  Daniell  cell  into  a  cup  filled 
with  a  hyposulphite  gold  solution,  while  the  copper  pole  was  con- 
nected with  a  louis  d'or  as  an  anode, "  was  converted  in  a  few 
minutes  into  a  gilded  spoon  of  the  most  beautiful,  purest  golden 
luster."  Galvano-plating  was  then  new  in  Germany,  and  his  dis- 
covery made  much  talk.  A  jeweler  of  Magdeburg,  visiting  him 
in  prison  to  examine  into  its  merits,  he  sold  him  the  right  to  use 
it  for  forty  louis,  and  thus  obtained  means  for  continuing  his 
experiments.  He  counted  upon  enjoying  still  several  months  of 
captivity,  and  the  unmolested  prosecution  of  his  researches,  when 
the  unwelcome  message  came  to  him  of  a  royal  pardon,  and  he 
was  obliged  to  leave  the  citadel  at  once,  without  house  or  other 
spot  in  which  to  set  up  his  apparatus.  He  asked  leave  from  the 
commandant  to  stay  a  little  longer,  but  was  denied,  accused  of 
being  ungrateful  for  the  royal  clemency,  and  was  hurried  out  of 
his  quarters  at  midnight.  He  had  gained  by  his  experimenting 
the  reputation  of  not  being  well  qualified  for  practical  work,  and 
was  assigned  to  the  fireworks  factory  at  Spandau.  He  had  great 
success  in  making  pieces  of  unexampled  brilliancy  for  the  birth- 
day celebration  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  was  invited  to  com- 
pete in  a  sailboat  race  with  Prince  Frederick  Karl — and  beat  him. 
Then  he  was  ordered  to  Berlin,  to  serve  in  the  artillery  arsenal ; 
to  his  great  delight — for  this  commission  would  give  him  time 
and  opportunity  for  carrying  on  his  researches. 

Wilhelm  Siemens  having  completed  his  studies  and  con- 
structed a  steam  engine,  Werner  furnished  it  with  a  differential 
regulator.  He  made  a  profitable  contract  with  a  silver-ware 

VOL.    XLIII. — 60 


834  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

house  in  Berlin  for  the  use  of  his  plating  apparatus,  and  Wilhelm 
was  dispatched  to  England  to  introduce  the  inventions  there. 
Besides  the  galvano-plating  patent,  which  was  sold  to  Elkington 
&  Co.  for  £1,500,  there  were  processes  for  nickel-plating  and  for 
anastatic  printing,  etc.  A  journey  to  London  to  assist  Wilhelm 
in  some  financial  difficulty,  in  which  he  visited  Paris  and  Brussels 
on  his  return,  gave  him  new  and  higher  views  of  his  work,  while 
its  results  satisfied  him  that  the  road  to  wealth  did  not  lie 
through  speculation  in  inventions.  He  entered  upon  a  more 
thorough  course  of  study,  formed  associations  with  the  young 
naturalists  of  the  time,  some  of  whom  have  since  become  famous, 
joined  in  the  foundation  of  the  Physical  Society,  interested  him- 
self in  the  Polytechnic  Society,  and  sought  to  promote  the  tech- 
nical applications  of  science.  He  became  acquainted  with  manu- 
facturers, and  published  articles  in  the  scientific  journals  on  "The 
Application  of  Hot  Air  as  a  Motive  Power/'  in  which  he  accepted 
Mayer's  and  Helmholtz's  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  force ; 
describing  his  differential  regulator ;  and  "  On  the  Application  of 
the  Electric  Spark  to  the  Measurement  of  Velocity/' 

Werner  Siemens  became  warmly  interested  in  the  experiments 
which  Leonhardt  was  making,  at  the  instance  of  the  general  staff 
of  the  army,  in  the  substitution  of  an  electrical  apparatus  for  opti- 
cal telegraphy.  He  had  seen  a  model  of  Wheatstone's  telegraph 
in  the  house  of  one  of  his  comrades,  and  had  tried  to  establish  a 
communication  between  the  house  and  a  mineral-water  establish- 
ment across  the  garden.  He  devised  an  improvement  in  the  ap- 
paratus for  generating  and  controlling  the  current,  which  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  mechanician  Halske,  who  eventually 
gave  up  his  business  and  associated  himself  with  Siemens  in  teleg- 
raphy. 

Siemens's  plans  were  again  embarrassed  by  the  results  of  his 
and  his  companions'  inconsiderately  signing  a  paper  connected 
with  the  religious  movement  of  John  Ronge,  which  was  consid- 
ered seditious.  His  brigade,  to  punish  the  offenders,  was  ordered 
to  a  retired  post.  It  was  important  for  him  to  remain  in  Berlin 
to  prosecute  his  researches,  and  he  devised  a  means  to  induce  the 
Government  to  keep  him  there.  Schonbein  had  made  his  first 
discovery  of  gun-cotton,  but  the  material  he  produced  was  poor 
and  unreliable.  Siemens  spent  a  day  in  experimenting  upon  it ; 
added  treatment  with  sulphuric  acid,  and  obtained  a  certain  and 
really  practicable  explosive.  He  communicated  his  discovery  to 
the  Minister  of  War,  and  was  ordered  to  continue  his  experiments 
at  the  Spandau  Arsenal,  while  his  punishment  was  forgotten. 
Unfortunately,  Prof.  Otto,  of  Brunswick,  who  had  independently 
discovered  the  same  method,  anticipated  him  in  publication,  and 
thus  deprived  him  of  the  credit  of  priority. 


SKETCH   OF  WERNER  VON  SIEMENS.  835 

Having  communicated  with.  General  Oetzel,  the  chief  of  the 
military  telegraphic  service,  he  was  invited  to  assist  in  the  sub- 
stitution of  electric  for  optical  telegraphs.  He  gained  the  confi- 
dence of  the  general  and  of  his  son-in-law,  Prof.  Dove,  and  was 
commissioned  to  carry  out  his  own  plans.  The  lines  were  to  be 
put  underground,  and  there  was  difficulty  about  finding  satisfac- 
tory insulating  material.  Wilhelm  Siemens  had  sent  him  some 
specimens  of  gutta  percha  from  London  as  a  curiosity.  It  was 
found  eminently  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  an  insulator.  With  a 
press  supplied  by  Halske,  the  wires  were  successfully  covered, 
and  the  lines  were  established  with  Siemens's  instruments.  In  Oc- 
tober, 1847,  the  firm  of  Siemens  and  Halske  was  formed,  which, 
beginning  in  a  rear  building  with  a  modest  capital,  was  destined 
to  ramify  till  it  had  branches  in  several  of  the  capitals  of  Europe, 
and  became  prominent  in  the  construction  of  Continental  tele- 
graphs and  the  world's  cable  lines. 

The  revolutionary  movements  of  1848  brought  the  extension 
of  telegraphic  enterprises  to  a  temporary  halt.  The  Siemens- 
Halske  establishment,  nevertheless,  went  on  with  its  work,  though 
it  had  no  orders.  In  a  short  time  Siemens  was  commissioned  to 
lay  submarine  electric  batteries  in  the  harbor  of  Kiel  for  protec- 
tion against  an  apprehended  attack  by  Danish  vessels.  Having 
assured  the  perfect  working  of  his  mines  from  the  shore,  he  col- 
lected a  band  of  volunteers  in  the  city  and  surprised  the  post  of 
Friedrichsort,  at  the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  under  the  protection 
of  which,  it  being  held  by  the  Danes,  the  Danish  fleet  might  have 
approached  alarmingly  near  to  Kiel  without  being  molested.  As 
commandant  of  Friedrichsort,  he  built  the  fortifications  for  the 
protection  of  the  harbor  of  Eckernforde,  which  became  very 
famous  the  next  year  in  connection  with  the  rout  of  the  Danish 
squadron. 

Siemens  was  next  commissioned  to  lay  an  underground  tele- 
graph from  Berlin  to  Frankfort-on-the-Main  where  the  German 
National  Assembly  met.  The  transmission  of  the  result  of  an 
election  in  the  winter  of  1879  to  Berlin,  within  the  hour,  gave  the 
line  great  repute,  and  Siemens  was  employed  to  construct  another 
line  from  Berlin  to  Cologne  and  Verviers,  on  the  Prussian  front- 
ier. In  this  enterprise  he  had  the  assistance  of  William  Meyer, 
a  man  skilled  in  organization.  Many  difficulties  incident  to  the 
imperfections  of  an  art  still  in  a  crude  condition  are  described  as 
having  been  encountered  in  executing  these  works.  The  con- 
structors were  sorely  embarrassed,  in  crossing  the  Elbe  and  the 
.Rhine,  to  find  means  for  protecting  the  wires  against  dragging 
by  ships'  anchors.  The  wire  across  the  Rhine  was  inclosed  in  a 
wrought-iron  tube  so  well  that,  when  it  was  taken  up  several 
years  afterward,  a  number  of  anchors  were  found  hanging  from 


836  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

it  which,  having  been  caught  in  it,  the  shipmasters  had  been 
obliged  to  cast  away.  At  Verviers  the  line  was  connected  with 
an  overhead  line  to  Brussels.  One  Herr  Reuter,  who  had  been 
managing  a  carrier-pigeon  post  between  Cologne  and  Brussels, 
found  his  business  ruined  by  the  telegraph.  Frau  Reuter  com- 
plaining to  Siemens  of  this,  he  advised  the  pair  to  go  to  London 
and  establish  there  a  telegraphic  news  agency,  as  Herr  Wolff  had 
succeeded  in  doing  at  Berlin.  This  was  the  origin  of  "  Renter's." 
These  enterprises  had  been  carried  on  under  a  furlough  from 
army  service,  which'  was  about  to  expire,  and  Herr  Siemens,  in 
order  to  devote  himself  to  scientific  and  technical  work,  resigned 
his  position  in  the  army  in  June,  1849,  left  the  telegraphic  service 
shortly  afterward,  and  began  a  career  of  independent  scientific 
industry.  His  underground  system  was  generally  adopted  in 
Germany.  To  prevent  the  depredations  of  rats  on  the  gutta-per- 
cha coatings,  he  drew  the  wire  through  lead  pipes.  He  recog- 
nized the  excellences  of  the  Morse  telegraphic  instrument,  and 
sought  to  improve  it.  In  April,  1850,  he  presented  a  memoir  on 
his  experiments  in  telegraphy — Memoire  sur  la  Telegraphie  Elec- 
trique — before  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  received, 
upon  the  report  of  the  committee  to  which  it  was  referred,  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  Academy,  thus  fixing  the  stamp  of  that 
authority  upon  his  claims  for  originality  and  priority. 

While  Siemens's  system  was  being  extended  and  adopted  in 
foreign  countries,  particularly  in  Russia,  the  Prussian  lines,  under 
official  management,  constructed  in  a  slovenly  manner  and  care- 
lessly repaired,  deteriorated.  Siemens  published  a  pamphlet  crit- 
icising these  faults  and  pointing  out  the  remedies,  in  consequence 
of  which  unauthorized  comment  the  Government  discontinued 
all  connection  with  his  house  for  several  years.  The  loss  of  this 
business  was,  however,  more  than  compensated  for  by  that  which 
accrued  from  railroad  telegraphy,  still  free  from  official  domina- 
tion, and  by  contracts  coming  in  from  abroad. 

The  connection  of  Siemens  with  the  Russian  telegraph  lines 
began  in  1849,  when  his  instruments  were  adopted  for  the  line 
between  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow.  In  the  winter  of  1852  he 
went  to  Riga,  on  business  connected  with  the  construction  of  a 
line  to  that  point,  and  particularly  with  the  crossing  of  the  Dwina. 
Other  lines  calling  for  visits  to  Russia,  and  in  connection  with 
which  the  St.  Petersburg  branch  of  the  house  of  Siemens  and 
Halske  was  built  up,  were  those  to  Kronstadt — the  first  success- 
ful submarine  cable  line— and  Warsaw.  The  success  of  the  last 
line  determined  the  Russian  Government  to  cover  the  whole  em- 
pire with  a  telegraphic  network,  and  lines  were  built  in  succes- 
sion from  Moscow  to  Kiev,  Kiev  to  Odessa,  St.  Petersburg  to  Re- 
vel, from  Kovno  to  the  Prussian  borders,  and  from  St.  Peters- 


SKETCH   OF  WERNER  VON  SIEMENS.  837 

burg  to  Helsingfors.  Then  the  Crimean  War  came  on,  and  the 
firm  was  kept  busy  with  the  special  lines  demanded  for  its  prose- 
cution. 

After  two  failures  by  an  English  firm  in  trying  to  lay  a 
telegraphic  cable  between  the  island  of  Sardinia  and  Bona  in 
Algeria,  the  third  attempt  was  successfully  carried  out  in  Sep- 
tember, 1857,  with  material  furnished  by  Herr  Siemens's  house 
and  in  a  method  prescribed  by  him.  This  was  the  first  of  the 
deep-sea  cables,  or  of  those  which  were  laid  in  water  more  than 
one  thousand  fathoms  deep,  and  was  followed  by  the  laying  of 
many  longer  lines,  in  most  of  which  enterprises  Herr  Siemens 
had  a  part.  In  1859  he  was  shipwrecked  on  the  Alma  in  the  Red 
Sea;  in  1863  he  came  very  near  losing  his  life  while  trying,  with 
his  brother  Wilhelm,  to  lay  the  cable  between  Oran  and  Carta- 
gena. The  brothers  laid  the  line  from  Malta  to  Alexandria, 
and,  with  the  steamer  Faraday,  built  especially  for  the  purpose, 
they  laid  six  transatlantic  lines.  In  its  attempts  to  maintain 
telegraphic  communication  with  India  the  British  Government 
had  found  its  lines  through  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  Asia  Minor, 
and  Persia  too  liable  to  interruption  to  be  depended  upon.  To 
take  the  lines  through  safer  regions  they  would  have  to  be  car- 
ried partly  through  Russian  territory.  Herr  Siemens  was  applied 
to,  and  he,  through  the  good  will  he  had  won  by  his  constructions 
for  the  Russian  Government,  secured  a  concession  from  it  for 
building  a  line  through  Kiev,  Odessa,  Kertch,  and  the  Black  Sea 
to  Suchum  Kale.  The  business  of  this  line  led  him  severalftimes 
into  the  country  of  the  Caucasus,  concerning  which  and  the  pre- 
historic copper  mines  at  Kedabeg  and  the  German  colony  at  An- 
nenfeld  in  the  same  region  he  gives,  in  his  Reminiscences,  some 
very  pleasant  accounts. 

As  much  as  to  his  improvements  in  the  electric  telegraph,  the 
practical  applications  of  electricity  owe  to  Siemens's  invention  of 
the  dynamo-electric  machine  in  the  winter  of  1866,  which  opened 
to  them  entirely  new  fields  in  the  development  of  power  and  light. 
In  claiming  the  credit  due  to  himself  in  this  field,  he  does  not  for- 
get to  acknowledge  what  he  owes  to  the  predecessors  who  laid  the 
foundations  on  which  he  built. 

While  thus  busy  with  the  development  and  practical  applica- 
tion of  electrotechnics,  as  he  called  it,  Siemens  observed  and  par- 
ticipated in  the  advancement  of  other  branches  of  science ;  and 
we  find  him  now  busy  in  investigating  the  geological  structure  of 
the  earth ;  now  engaged,  with  his  brother  Wilhelm,  in  researches 
concerning  the  cause  of  the  sun's  heat  and  the  means  by  which  it 
is  maintained,  or  studying  with  his  brother  Friedrich  new  prob- 
lems of  heat;  now  plunged  in  the  most  abstruse  problems  of 
meteorology ;  now  sharply  criticising  the  bacillus  theories  of  Dr. 


838  THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 

Koch — all  with  the  knowledge  and  consideration  of  one  who  had 
made  deep  studies  of  the  subjects. 

Dr.  Siemens's  literary  efforts  were  limited,  he  tells  us,  chiefly  to 
expositions  of  his  scientific  and  technical  labors  and  descriptions 
of  his  mechanical  constructions.  He  had  sometimes  occasion  to 
answer  attacks  upon  his  firm  or  upon  himself  personally.  Besides 
those  of  which  we  have  already  spoken,  he  mentions  as  among  his 
principal  contributions  to  scientific  literature  a  paper  in  Poggen- 
dorfFs  Annals,  in  1857,  on  Electrostatic  Induction  and  the  Retar- 
dation of  the  Current  in  Conducting  Wires ;  a  communication 
made  conjointly  with  his  brother  Wilhelm  to  the  British  Associa- 
tion in  1860  (Sketch  of  the  Principles  and  of  Practical  Experi- 
ence in  the  Testing  of  Submarine  Telegraph  Lines  and  their  Con- 
ductivity) ;  his  lecture,  in  1879,  on  Electricity  in  the  Service  of 
Life ;  and  his  address  before  the  Society  of  German  Naturalists 
and  Physicians,  in  1886,  on  The  Scientific  Age ;  papers  On  the 
Light  of  a  Flame ;  On  the  Admissibility  of  the  Conception  of  an 
Electric  Sun-potential  and  its  Significance  in  Explanation  of  Ter- 
restrial Phenomena  (called  out  by  the  discussion  of  his  brother 
Wilhelm's  paper,  On  the  Conservation  of  the  Solar  Energy) ; 
Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Electromagnetism ;  On  the  Main- 
tenance of  Force  in  the  Atmosphere  of  the  Earth,  1881  and  1884  ; 
On  the  Question  of  Air  Currents,  1887 ;  On  the  General  Wind 
System  of  the  Earth,  1890 ;  and  On  the  Question  of  the  Cause  of 
Atmospheric  Currents,  1891. 

He  elaborated  the  plans,  and  saw  them  adopted  by  the  Prus- 
sian Government  and  Parliament,  of  the  Physical-technical  Im- 
perial Institute  at  Charlottenburg  for  scientific  research,  of 
which  Helmholtz  is  director.  In  1874  he  was  made  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Berlin.  He  received  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  honoris  causa,  from  the  University  of 
Berlin ;  was  made  a  Knight  of  the  Prussian  Order  for  Merit ;  and 
received  the  patent  of  nobility  in  1888.  He  was  also  a  member  of 
many  learned  societies. 


M.  J.  DYBOWSKI  has  transmitted  to  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  speci- 
mens of  a  condiment  prepared  by  the  peoples  living  on  the  banks  of  the  Oubangui 
River,  one  of  the  affluents  of  the  Congo.  It  is  obtained  by  the  incineration  of 
river  plants,  and  is  composed  chiefly  of  chloride  and  sulphate  of  potassium,  with 
very  little  carbonate  of  potassium  and  no  soda.  This  confirms  former  observa- 
tions of  the  scarcity  of  soda  in  land  plants.  These  usually  contain  considerable 
quantities  of  a  very  alkaline  carbonate  of  potassium,  not  suitable  as  a  condiment. 
The  natives  choose  for  incineration  certain  species  containing  only  slight  propor- 
tions of  the  carbonate.  Although  the  salts  of  potash  are  considered  unwholesome, 
these  natives  do  not  appear  to  suffer  from  using  them. 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


839 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


AIDS  TO  MISERY. 

AN"  extremely  instructive  article 
appears  in  the  Fortnightly  Re- 
view for  August,  under  the  title  of 
The  Poor  of  the  World.  The  author, 
Mr.  Samuel  A.  Barnett,  has  been  travel- 
ing round  the  world  in  order  to  inform 
himself  by  personal  observation  and  in- 
quiry as  to  the  condition  of  the  poor  in 
different  countries.  The  result,  so  far 
as  presented  in  this  article,  is  to  show 
that  everywhere  the  great  underlying 
cause  of  poverty  is  lack  of  individuality 
and  the  power  of  self-help,  and  that  the 
only  ultimate  remedy  is  the  creation 
through  education — understanding  the 
word  in  its  widest  sense — of  more  per- 
fect individuals.  This  is  the  doctrine 
which  Mr.  Spencer  has  been  preaching 
directly  and  indirectly  for  many  years 
past,  often  at  the  cost  of  much  contume- 
ly and,  in  general,  to  unbelieving  ears. 
The  reason  for  the  unpopularity  of  this 
view  is  not  far  to  seek.  Eager  reform- 
ers do  not  like  to  think  that  the  evils 
they  combat  are  deep-seated  and  can 
only  be  slowly  worked  out  of  human 
nature ;  they  cherish  the  hope  of  ac- 
complishing great  things  in  a  short  time 
and  seeing  the  fruit  of  their  labors  in 
a  striking  form.  Sentimental  persons, 
again,  always  want  to  cast  the  blame  of 
what  is  wrong  on  somebody;  and  if 
they  can  not  see  quite  clearly  who  in 
particular  is  to  blame,  they  denounce 
"  society."  It  is  pleasanter  to  feel  our- 
selves fighting  the  selfish,  the  indiffer- 
ent, the  grasping,  or  those  whom  we  are 
pleased  to  consider  such,  than  to  accept 
the  position  of  simply  trying  to  repair 
evils  inherent  in  the  condition  of  things 
as  molded  by  natural  forces.  All  with- 
in us  that  craves  for  the  quick,  the 
short,  the  easy,  the  sensational,  indis- 
poses us  to  accept  a  theory  that  opens 
up  a  vista  of  patient,  prolonged,  and 


carefully  revised  effort,  bringing  with 
it  little  of  glory  at  any  one  time,  and 
calling  for  the  exercise  of  no  small 
amount  of  scientific  faith. 

We  have  been  hearing  lately  of  the 
sanguinary  conflicts  of  Hindus  and  Mo- 
hammedans in  the  streets  of  Bombay. 
Different  as  the  creeds  may  be  which 
the  two  races  possess,  Mr.  Barnett  found 
that  the  temples  of  the  one  and  the 
mosques  of  the  other  were  equally 
centers  of  distribution  of  a  large  amount 
of  charity,  the  product  of  gifts  gathered 
from  the  rich,  and  that  the  effects  of 
this  charity  were  most  pernicious.  "  It 
ever,"  he  sajs,  "one  is  inclined  to  doubt 
the  danger  of  priestcraft,  a  visit  to  India 
ought  to  dispel  such  doubts.  He  will 
find  in  the  Brahinans  a  typical  priest- 
hood, and  he  will  see  how  their  un- 
questioned rule  has  degraded  the  peo- 
ple, until  they  seem  without  power  of 
clear  thinking  or  wide  feeling."  How 
charity  serves  the  priesthood  a  double 
turn  is  well  explained:  "The  pious 
give,  not  because  their  brothers  have 
need,  but  to  please  the  god ;  and  it  is 
nothing  to  them  if  their  gifts  are  con- 
sumed by  the  priests  or  wasted  on 
worthless  objects.  The  priests  give  as 
priests — either  to  attract  worshipers  to 
their  temple  or  to  deliver  their  own 
souls."  The  charity  thus  d'spensed,  far 
from  abating  poverty  increases  and 
extends  it.  In  Hyderabad,  where  the 
Mohammedans  are  in  the  ascendant,  ten 
per  cent  of  the  revenue,  in  addition  to 
large  private  gifts,  is  spent  on  keeping 
armies  of  beggars  who  are  descendants 
of  orthodox  families,  while  it  is  quite  a 
common  thing  for  wills  to  provide  for 
the  feeding  of  idle  multitudes  on  certain 
holy  days  of  the  year.  In  India,  more- 
over, an  obligation  is  laid  upon  all  the 
members  of  a  family  to  support  one 
another.  As  a  consequence,  "the  hard- 


840 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


working  and  successful  man  is  kept  low 
by  weak  and  very  often  idle  relatives." 
The  system,  to  quote  Mr.  Barnett  again, 
"checks  enterprise  and  tends  to  make 
a  dead  level  of  poverty  in  which  there 
are  no  richer  people  to  act  as  barriers 
against  the  flood  of  famine  or  bad 
times."  One  is  sometimes  touched,  he 
confesses,  by  the  way  in  which  the 
strong  hold  on  to  the  weak,  but  it  is 
impossible  not  to  notice  that  idlers 
abound.  Nowhere  is  there  so  little  in- 
dividuality, nowhere  such  feebleness  in 
prospect  or  in  presence  of  calamity. 

While  family  feeling  is  strong  in  In- 
dia, the  general  feeling  of  humanity  is 
weak.  The  reason,  our  author  says,  is 
"partly  because  the  people  think  too 
much  of  their  gods.  .  .  .  The  chief  duty 
of  man  seems  to  be  to  please  his  god ; 
and  when,  by  a  gift,  he  has  delivered 
himself  of  this  duty,  he  thinks  no  more 
of  his  brother  at  the  gate."  Among 
such  people  the  task  of  a  government 
seeking  to  effect  reforms  becomes  ex- 
tremely difficult.  "All  measures,"  Mr. 
Barnett  well  observes,  "must  be  inef- 
fectual "so  long  as  the  people  themselves 
are  deficient  in  life-preserving  qualities, 
such  as  confidence,  enterprise,  and  self- 
control."  Here  we  have  the  gist  of  the 
whole  matter.  There  are  certain  quali- 
ties, moral,  intellectual,  physical,  which 
are  life-preserving.  They  may  be  said 
to  qualify  for  life;  and  when  they  are 
absent  nothing  but  a  constant  strain 
upon  better  qualified  individuals  will  en- 
able the  defective  ones  to  survive.  By 
"  confidence,"  Mr.  Barnett  means  in  this 
place  confidence  in  others,  and  he  illus- 
trates his  remark  by  stating  that,  for 
want  of  confidence,  any  savings  the  poor 
can  make  in  India  "  are  not  invested  or 
even  intrusted  to  a  bank ;  they  are  turned 
into  jewelry  to  burden  the  women's  fin- 
gers, toes,  noses,  and  ears,  and  at  last 
sold  to  provide  a  marriage  feast."  He 
cites  the  fact  that  there  are  in  India  four 
hundred  thousand  jewelers  and  only  three 
hundred  thousand  smiths.  As  a  life-pre- 
serving quality,  however,  confidence  in 


self  is  at  least  as  important  as  confidence 
in  others ;  and  confidence  in  self,  or,  in 
other  words,  self-reliance,  is  just  the 
quality  at  which  so  much  of  the  charity 
of  our  day  strikes.  Charity  is  flowing 
in  an  ever-broadening  stream ;  but  it 
does  not  qualify  for  life  those  whom  it 
enables  to  live ;  on  the  contrary,  it  saps 
what  little  energy  they  have,  and  so 
hands  on  a  magnified  problem  to  be 
dealt  with  by  the  chanty  of  the  future. 
The  inhabitants  of  India  are  said  to 
be  the  most  docile  people  in  the  world, 
but  on  that  very  account  they  are  more 
difficult  to  govern,  because  their  weak- 
ness makes  them  look  to  the  Government 
for  everything.  As  Mr.  Barnett  forcibly 
remarks,  "It  is  perhaps  more  difficult 
to  keep  a  weak  man  on  his  feet  than  to 
prevent  a  strong  man  from  rising."  If 
you  have  the  strong  man  down  you  have 
gravitation  in  your  favor ;  but  in  trying 
to  keep  the  weak  man  up  you  have 
gravitation  against  you,  and  gravitation 
is  apt  to  win  in  the  long  run.  The  Gov- 
ernment of  India,  Mr.  Barnett  testifies, 
is  doing  a  great  deal  of  useful  work  in 
the  promotion  of  industries,  the  improve- 
ment of  the  soil  by  irrigation,  and  the 
enforcement,  as  far  as  possible  with  such 
a  population,  of  sanitary  measures.  But 
all  this  costs  money,  and  as  one  thing 
leads  to  another,  one  abuse  corrected 
revealing  a  dozen  others  that  need  cor- 
rection, the  expense  of  government  and 
the  burdens  which  the  people  have  to 
bear  in  the  way  of  taxation  are  con- 
stantly increasing.  "  Government,"  as 
Mr.  Barnett  puts  it,  "  does  much  to  re- 
lieve the  people,  but  the  conclusion  of 
the  whole  matter  leaves  one  doubtful  if 
it  would  not  be  more  helpful  if  it  did 
less  for  them  and  took  less  from  them." 
And  he  pithily  adds,  "  A  system  un- 
doubtedly good  may  be  so  costly  as  to 
be  bad."  Surely  there  is  much  in  all 
this  that  we  may  reflect  on  with  advan- 
tage here.  The  advantage  of  such  a 
comparative  study  as  Mr.  Barnett  is 
making  is  that  it  shows  various  evils  in 
their  fuller  development,  and  puts  com- 


EDITOR'S    TABLE. 


841 


munities  in  which  they  may  exist  only 
in  lesser  degree  on  their  guard. 

Mr.  Barnett  has  also  made  a  few  ob- 
servations in  this  country.  He  found  in 
San  Francisco  a  form  of  government "  so 
democratic  as  to  leave  hardly  a  griev- 
ance for  the  most  ardent  demagogue." 
And  yet  "the  poor  increase,  and  the 
talk  is  as  the  talk  of  East  London  about 
starvation  cases  and  the  inadequacy  of 
the  poorhouse;  the  demand  is  for  laws 
to  prevent  vagrancy,  to  reduce  rents 
and  limit  immigration."  There  is  abun- 
dant charity ;  the  officer  of  the  Associ- 
ated Charities,  we  are  told,  "confessed 
that  it  was  impossible  to  control  the 
impulses  of  the  rich  men  of  the  city ; 
and  if  he  complained  that  gifts  did  mis- 
chief, the  answer  was,  'What  is  that 
tome?'" 

In  Boston  there  is  a  very  perfect 
system  for  the  organization  of  charity ; 
but  when  Mr.  Barnett  inquired  whether 
the  clergy  and  philanthropic  persons 
made  use  of  the  records  kept  in  the  cen- 
tral office,  the  answer  was,  "  No."  Here, 
as  elsewhere,  "private  charity  is  way- 
ward and  willful;  gifts  go  as  passing 
emotion  directs,  institutions  are  created 
which  represent  the  fancy  rather  than 
the  sympathy  of  the  creators."  Then, 
when  gifts  are  found  to  be  of  no  avail, 
repressive  legislation  is  resorted  to — laws 
against  drinking  and  even  cigarette- 
smoking.  The  drink  must  be  taken  in 
a  perpendicular  position,  and  the  cigar- 
ette must  not  be  smoked  by  any  person 
under  a  certain  age.  Mr.  Barnett's  ar- 
ticle is  good  reading,  and  as  a  capital 
appendix  to  it  we  recommend  the  chap- 
ters on  Negative  and  Positive  Benefi- 
cence Mr.  Spencer's  last  volume.  The 
philosopher  is  justified  by  every  wide 
and  impartial  survey  of  the  facts. 


THE  AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION 
MEETING  AT  MADIbON. 

EXPERIENCE  shows  the  American  As- 
sociation that  it  can  have  a  large  at- 
tendance at  its  meetings  only  by  keep- 


ing to  the  main  highways  of  travel, 
and  by  choosing  large  cities.  With  the 
World's  Fair  as  a  magnet,  drawing  and 
holding  hundreds  of  its  members,  the 
association  was  fortunate  in  assembling 
as  many  as  it  did,  some  two  hundred 
and  ninety,  at  Madison.  Those  who 
attended  were  rewarded  by  good  papers 
and  stimulating  discussions,  and  if  the 
sectional  meetings  were  smaller  than 
usual,  they  were  uncommonly  earnest 
and  interesting  from  the  absence  of  the 
distractions  not  to  be  avoided  when  a 
multitude  gathers  together.  Hospital- 
ity was  hearty ;  the  people  of  Madison — 
a  city,  by  the  way,  of  singular  beauty — 
with  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  re- 
newed the  best  traditions  of  the  Asso- 
ciation in  manifold  opportunities  for 
bringing  old  friends  together,  for  pre- 
senting beginners  in  science  to  leaders 
grown  gray  in  the  service  of  truth. 

In  his  opening  remarks  President 
William  Harkness,  of  Washington, 
touched  on  a  practice  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences  of  France  well  worthy  of 
imitation  in  America — the  conferring 
membership  upon  those  of  its  friends 
who,  while  not  themselves  men  of  sci- 
ence, provide  financial  aid  for  research. 
At  Nice,  for  example,  an  observatory  of 
world-wide  repute  has  arisen  as  a  gift 
of  Mr.  Bischoffsheim,  a  banker,  whose 
name  is  rightfully  enrolled  beside  those 
of  the  astronomers  whose  labors  he  has 
lightened  and  promoted. 

Evolution  was  the  keynote  in  the 
addresses  of  the  vice-presidents  in  the 
Sections  of  Zoology,  Botany,  and  Eco- 
nomics. Prof.  H.  F.  Osborn,  in  sketch- 
ing the  Ascent  of  the  Mammalia,  traced 
the  succession  of  typical  species  plainly 
derived  one  from  another.  Exploration 
within  recent  years,  he  said,  has  but 
served  to  confirm  Prof.  O.  C.  Marsh's 
demonstration  of  the  horse't  genealogy 
through  forms  with  which  Prof.  Hux- 
ley in  his  American  lectures  has  made 
the  world  familiar. 

Prof.  Charles  E.  Bessey,  in  his  ad- 
dress on  Evolution  and  Classification, 


842 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


said  that  for  nearly  forty  years  the  sys- 
tem of  Linnaeus  stood  in  the  way  of  the 
better  system  of  Jussieu  and  De  Can- 
dolle ;  that  system  in  its  turn  has  for  a 
third  of  a  century  been  a  clog  and  a  hin- 
drance to  the  adoption  of  the  vivifying 
idea  that  genetic  ties  are  the  true  basis 
for  classification.  The  botanist  in  giv- 
ing this  new  and  illuminating  order  to 
plants  must  be  careful  to  discriminate 
between  primitively  simple  forms  and 
those  simple  by  derivation.  Parasites 
are  far  from  being  the  only  plants  that 
have  undergone  simplification  of  struc- 
ture; in  willows  and  poplars,  for  exam- 
ple, a  single  ovary  has  resulted  from  the 
union  of  two  or  three  ovaries.  For 
flowering  plants  Prof.  Bessey  presented 
in  detail  a  revised  arrangement  of  the 
Benthamian  series. 

The  Mutual  Relations  of  Science  and 
Stock-breeding  gave  Prof.  "W.  H.  Brew- 
er, in  his  address  to  the  Economic  Sec- 
tion, an  opportunity  of  showing  how  an 
art  is  broadened  and  bettered  when  it 
flowers  into  a  science.  Until  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species  was  published  stock- 
breeding  followed  the  rule  of  thumb, 
with  results  slow  and  uncertain ;  to- 
day, when  heredity  is  understood  as 
due  to  influences  largely  calculable  and 
controllable,  stock-breeding  almost  rises 
to  the  assuredness  of  a  plastic  art.  Prof. 
Brewer  spoke  of  a  sheep-breeder  of  his 
acquaintance  who  has  all  the  ideality  of 
the  true  artist,  who  figures  to  himself 
a  perfect  sheep  with  every  good  point 
at  its  best,  every  defect  eliminated ;  in 
striving  to  give  substance  to  that  form 
as  he  imagines  it,  this  man  is  as  devot- 
ed as  any  wielder  of  chisel  or  brush. 
Breeding,  said  Prof.  Brewer,  can  alone 
decide  whether  acquired  characteristics 
are  transmitted,  and  it  may  even  throw 
an  important  side  light  on  vexed  ques- 
tions of  education. 

Prof.  E.  L.  Nichols,  in  his  address  to 
the  physicists  on  Phenomena  of  the 
Time  Infinitesimal,  showed  a  bullet  in 
flight  photographed  in  an  interval  so 
brief  that  the  missile  seemed  at  rest. 


In  another  picture  the  bullet  was  shown 
in  the  act  of  shattering  a  pane  of  glass, 
with  all  the  incidental  perturbation  of 
the  surrounding  air.  In  giving  rapid 
motion  to  the  sensitive  plate  Prof.  Nich- 
ols pointed  out  how  its  availability  can 
be  vastly  extended.  In  this  field,  he 
maintained,  there  is  abundant  harvest 
for  the  investigator,  for  when  the  time 
interval  is  appreciable  we  do  not  get  a 
picture  really  instantaneous,  but  only 
a  composite  photograph  whose  elements 
we  have  to  guess  at.  As  to  what  hap- 
pens in  the  first  hundredths  of  a  second 
in  the  polarization  of  the  voltaic  cell,  in 
electrolysis,  nothing  is  known,  and  here 
possibilities  of  the  highest  interest  await 
the  suitable  application  of  the  camera. 

In  reviewing  twenty-five  years'  prog- 
ress in  analytical  chemistry  Prof.  Ed- 
ward Hart  brought  out  its  remarkable 
stimulus  from  the  exigencies  of  industry, 
and  the  no  less  remarkable  fashion  in 
which  the  debt  had  been  repaid.  In 
1868  the  determination  of  phosphorus 
in  steel  required  two  to  three  days;  to- 
day twelve  minutes  suffice.  At  the  fur- 
naces of  South  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  a  sample 
of  molten  metal  is  passed  upon  by  the 
analyst  while  the  iron  is  still  on  its  way 
to  the  converter  ;  the  manufacture  can 
thus  be  intelligently  directed  with  the 
utmost  promptness.  This  is  but  one  of 
the  important  Avays  in  which  the  chem- 
ist has  borne  a  part  in  cheapening  iron 
and  steel.  The  work  of  analysis,  in  this 
and  other  departments,  has  been  greatly 
quickened  by  developing  those  methods 
which  allow  the  chemist  to  determine 
in  a  single  specimen  one  constituent 
rapidly  and  accurately.  It  is  preferable 
to  determine  phosphorus  in  one  sample 
and  sulphur  in  another  than  to  deter- 
mine each  separately  in  the  same  sam- 
ple. In  closing  his  review  Prof.  Hart 
mentioned  the  honored  chemists  of 
America  who  have  notably  contributed 
to  the  world's  advance  in  their  science 
during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century — 
men  little  known  to  a  nation  richer, 
longer  lived,  and  happier  because  of  their 


EDITOR'S   TABLE. 


843 


unselfish  labor.  Prof.  S.  W.  Robinson, 
addressing  the  Mechanical  Section  on 
the  education  of  the  engineer,  made 
incidental  reference  to  invention  as  an 
aim  in  class  work.  Admitting  that  in- 
genuity of  the  highest  order  rests  upon 
an  incommunicable  somewhat,  he  ar- 
gued that  inventiveness  of  a  valuable 
kind  was  quite  within  the  scope  of 
teaching.  In  the  department  of  ma- 
chine design  he  believed  lay  a  field  for 
eliciting  the  originality  of  students  ;  the 
several  parts  of  a  machine  could  be 
studied  with  a  view  to  their  improve- 
ment, and  then  the  machine  as  a  whole 
could  be  redesigned.  Time  was  when 
it  was  considered  artistic  to  give  a  ma- 
chine or  engineering  structure  the  out- 
lines of  the  Greek  orders;  to-day  a 
design  which  is  seen  to  be  strong,  rigid, 
and  economical  is  found  to  lend  itself 
to  a  beauty  of  form  impossible  to  bor- 
rowed lines,  however  graceful  in  them- 
selves. 

Prof.  0.  A.  Walcott,  in  his  discourse 
on  geological  time  as  indicated  by  the 
sedimentary  rocks  of  North  America, 
prepared  the  hearer  for  the  address  of 
Prof.  Joseph  Le  Conte,  as  retiring  presi- 
dent, on  the  origin  of  mountain  ranges. 
This  address  in  matter  and  spirit  was 
a  master's  lesson  in  scientific  method. 
Without  the  waste  of  a  word  Prof.  Le 
Conte  lucidly  explained  the  theory  of 
mountain  birth  which  science  owes  to 
him  and  to  Prof.  J.  D.  Dana.  That  sea 
margins  have  everywhere  been  the  seat 
of  mountain  emergence  was  declared  to 
be  a  fact  of  observation ;  that  the  phys- 
ical cause  for  this  fact  is  mainly  the 
shrinking  of  a  cooling  and  practically 
viscous  planet,  seeking  equilibrium,  was 
argued  with  a  judicious  weighing  of  the 
objections  urged  by  T.  Mellard  Reade 
and  other  critics.  For  all  the  natural 
affection  that  a  thinker  must  bear  the 
child  of  his  brain,  Prof.  Le  Conte  claimed 
no  more  than  that  the  probabilities  were 
in  its  favor,  leaving  the  last  and  unap- 
pealable verdict  to  be  uttered  only  when 
all  the  evidence  has  been  discovered  and 


upon.  Contrasted  with  the  sci- 
entific erudition  of  this  address  was  Dr. 
D.  G.  Brinton's  popular  introduction  to 
The  Earliest  Men  on  the  following  even- 
ing at  the  public  session.  Choosing  apt 
and  simple  illustrations,  he  showed  how 
the  anthropologist,  from  remains  which 
seem  rather  scanty,  is  able  to  piece 
together  a  picture  of  primitive  men. 
That  they  had  compassion  and  skill 
enough  among  them  to  nurse  the  helpless 
for  months  together  was,  for  example, 
proved  by  adducing  the  bones  of  a  man 
who  had  suffered  a  compound,  commi- 
nuted fracture,  and  survived  the  mis- 
fortune several  years. 

One  of  the  liveliest  sectional  discus- 
sions arose  among  the  botanists  on  the 
reading  of  Prof.  C.  R.  Barnes's  paper  on 
The  Food  of  Green  Plants,  in  which  pa- 
per it  was  maintained  that  the  proto- 
plasm of  plants  and  animals  is  identical. 
Prof.  1ST.  L.  Britton  could  not  see  how 
the  profound  divergences  between  ani- 
mals and  plants,  in  their  highest  forms, 
could  have  arisen,  except  through  ele- 
mental differences  in  protoplasm.  Prof. 
C.  MacMillan  also  demurred  to  the  dic- 
tum of  Prof.  Barnes :  animals  are  ana- 
lytic, energy -producing ;  plants  are  syn- 
thetic, energy-absorbing;  that  plants 
have  a  certain  superiority  over  animals 
comes  out,  he  argued,  in  their  compara- 
tive superabundance.  In  this  section 
Prof.  C.  MacMillan  also  read  a  brief 
paper,  proving  how  seriously  botany  is 
neglected  as  a  study  in  American  col- 
leges and  universities,  many  biological 
laboratories  being  devoted  chiefly  to  in- 
struction in  zoology.  The  section  voted 
that  through  the  proper  official  channels 
the  Department  of  Agriculture,  at  Wash- 
ington, be  requested  to  print  and  circu- 
late Prof.  MacMi Han's  paper. 

To  the  chemists  Prof.  E.  W.  Morley 
detailed  the  refined  methods  by  which 
he  assigns  to  oxygen  a  specific  gravity 
of  15-882,  as  a  result  of  twenty  recent 
determinations.  An  apparatus  for  as- 
certaining expansions  was  exhibited  by 
Prof.  Morley,  its  inventor,  and  Prof. 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


W.  A.  Rogers,  its  builder,  with  which  a 
millionth  of  an  inch  can  be  easily  meas- 
ured, and  with  careful  adjustment  even 
one  twenty-millionth  of  an  inch.  In 
principle  the  apparatus  is  an  application 
of  Prof.  A.  A.  Michelson's  interferential 
refractometer,  the  interference  of  light- 
waves from  mirrors  attached  to  a 
standard  and  to  a  compared  metallic 
bar  enabling  the  observer  to  determine 
minute  movements  with  a  precision 
hitherto  impossible. 

An  inquiry  into  the  properties  of 
paraldehyde  and  metaldehyde  by  Profs. 
W.  E.  Orndorff  and  John  White  illus- 
trated the  inferences  whereby  the  chem- 
ist is  able  to  body  forth  the  respective 
positions  in  a  molecule  of  the  atoms 
which  compose  it.  In  the  Anthropo- 
logical Section  the  songs  of  sequence  of 
the  Navajoes  were  rendered  by  a  phono- 
graph, an  instrument  which  promises  to 
be  as  indispensable  as  the  camera  to  the 
serious  traveler.  A  discussion  of  the 
most  animated  kind  took  place  in  this 
section  between  Rev.  G.  F.  Wright  and 
Mr.  W  J  McGee  on  certain  evidences 
adduced  by  the  former  of  preglacial 
man,  Mr.  McGee  maintaining  that  the 
evidence  was  merely  probable  and  not 
conclusive.  

OUR  NEW  INDEX. 

HALF  a  century  ago  science  was  an 
affair  of  a  few  individuals,  and  a  labora- 
tory of  any  kind  was  to  most  people 
only  a  curiosity.  The  man  who  devot- 
ed himself  to  the  study  of  Nature  was 
looked  upon  as  a  visionary  having  nei- 
ther place  nor  function  among  the  con- 
tributors to  human  welfare;  scientific 
methods  in  the  arts  were  rarely  heard 
of;  natural  knowledge  had  no  part  or 
place  in  education ;  and,  besides  an  oc- 
casional learned  treatise,  two  or  three 
technical  periodicals  met  all  the  needs 
of  scientific  publication. 

But  all  this  has  now  been  changed. 
The  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
will  long  be  memorable  as  the  period 
during  which  science  achieved  a  promi- 


nent if  not  a  leading  place  in  nearly 
every  department  of  human  activity. 
The  wonderful  advance  of  discovery, 
closely  followed  as  it  has  been  by 
numerous  practical  applications,  has 
wrought  a  revolution  in  many  fields, 
until  in  the  arts,  in  commerce,  in  edu- 
cation, and  even  in  the  professions, 
science  may  justly  claim  to  exercise  a 
controlling  influence. 

With  all  this  there  has  come  an  enor- 
mous increase  in  the  volume  of  scientific 
literature.  Scores  of  scientific  periodi- 
cals are  engaged  in  the  work  of  dissemi- 
nating the  results  of  investigation  and 
books  by  the  hundred  are  published 
every  year  in  which  the  methods  and 
conclusions  of  science  are  given  more 
permanent  record.  The  accumulation  of 
material  from  this  ceaseless  and  ever- 
increasing  activity  is  already  so  great 
that  ready  means  of  access  to  it  be- 
comes an  urgent  need  of  the  hour. 

But  it  is  only  with  a  subdivision  of 
this  great  body  of  knowledge  that  we 
are  here  specially  concerned.  In  the 
early  days  of  the  scientific  awakening 
just  alluded  to,  it  was  only  natural  that 
the  results  obtained  by  workers  in  sci- 
ence should  for  the  most  part  remain 
the  possession  of  the  student  and  in- 
vestigator. That  science,  however,  had 
a  message  for  the  people  was  not  long 
in  being  perceived.  Side  by  side  with 
its  many  important  industrial  applica- 
tions there  had  grown  up  a  vast  body 
of  scientific  knowledge  only  needing 
suitable  interpretation  to  make  it  avail- 
able for  the  masses.  Under  the  stimu- 
lus supplied  by  a  few  enthusiastic  public 
teachers  there  gradually  arose  a  demand 
for  this  new  kind  of  knowledge  that 
would  brook  no  refusal.  In  obedience 
to  this  desire  of  the  public  we  have 
seen  issuing  from  the  press  during  the 
last  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  a  steadi- 
ly growing  stream  of  popular  scientific 
literature  embodying  the  ablest  thought 
of  the  time,  and  much  of  it  the  direct 
product  of  our  most  distinguished  scien- 
tific men. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


845 


To  this  class  of  literature  THE  POP- 
TJLAE  SCIENCE  MONTHLY  belongs.  Its 
special  work  has  been  to  spread  cur- 
rent scientific  thought  in  simplified 
form  among  the  people,  and  we  may 
confidently  claim  that  in  no  other  pub- 
lication can  there  be  found  a  more  useful, 
more  complete,  or  more  interesting  rec- 
ord of  the  science  of  the  last  twenty 
years  available  for  the  general  reader 
than  is  contained  in  the  forty  volumes 
to  which  our  new  Index  is  intended  as 
the  key. 

To  place  this  great  store  of  infor- 
mation at  the  command  of  the  intelli- 
gent reader  so  that  he  may  inform  him- 
self on  any  given  subject  with  the  least 
outlay  of  time  and  attention  this  Index 
has  been  planned  and  compiled.  It 
groups  the  articles  so  that  any  one  look- 
ing up,  for  instance,  Anthropology, 
Evolution,  Manual  Training,  Social  Sci- 
ence, Vivisection,  can  find  what  has  ap- 
peared in  the  MONTHLY  on  the  subject 
in  question  under  that  head.  Practical 
usefulness  has  been  put  before  mere 
logical  accuracy  in  classification.  As 
the  MONTHLY  is  a  popular  magazine, 
popular  names  have  been  preferred  to 
technical  ones  as  names  of  classes. 
Thus,  articles  about  Consumption  are 
put  under  that  head  with  a  cross-refer- 
ence from  Tuberculosis.  Cross-refer- 
ences from  other  synonyms  have  been 
liberally  used. 

Large  aggregations  of  titles  have 
been  avoided  by  dividing  subjects. 
Any  one  wishing  to  know  what  the 
magazine  has  contained  on  the  question 
"Are  the  Planets  inhabited?"  would 
be  more  likely  to  look  under  planets 
than  under  astronomy ;  accordingly,  all 
articles  dealing  exclusively  with  the 
planets,  sun,  moon,  stars,  or  nebulae  are 
put  under  those  respective  heads,  with 
a  cross-reference  under  astronomy. 

This  Index  contains  a  new  feature 
that  must  prove  of  great  value  to  users 
— that  is,  it  gives  the  number  of  pages 
and  illustrations  in  each  article  in  its 
subject  entry.  By  this  means  the  search- 


er can  see  which  are  the  most  extended 
and  instructive  articles  in  a  long  list. 

The  titles  of  all  books  noticed  in  the 
MONTHLY  have  been  entered  under  the 
subjects  of  which  they  treat,  these  en- 
tries being  distinguished  from  the  titles 
of  articles  by  Italics.  As  all  important 
books  of  a  popular  scientific  character 
published  in  the  past  twenty  years  have 
been  sent  to  this  magazine  for  review, 
a  valuable  classified  bibliography  of  pop- 
ular science  for  that  period  is  thus  fur- 
nished. 

Having  adopted  a  new  plan  for  the 
present  volume,  we  have  thought  best 
to  include  in  it  the  whole  contents  of 
the  magazine  from  its  first  number.  The 
Index  of  Volumes  I  to  XX  is  thus  super- 
seded. 

To  any  one  who  has  a  file  of  the 
MONTHLY  from  the  beginning,  this  In- 
dex will  be  like  a  key  to  a  treasure 
house.  To  any  one  who  has  not  a  file, 
but  who  depends  upon  a  public  library 
for  the  use  of  the  volumes  when  he  has 
occasion  to  read  up  a  scientific  subject, 
the  Index  will  be  an  even  more  valu- 
able possession,  for  it  will  enable  him 
to  call  for  the  volumes  he  wants  with- 
out loss  of  time. 

Finally,  we  wish  to  recognize  the 
ability  of  the  compiler,  Mr.  F.  A.  Fer- 
nald,  who,  bringing  to  the  work  a  large 
experience  in  indexing,  has  exercised 
the  utmost  care  to  secure  accuracy  and 
completeness,  and  has  also  suggested 
and  carried  out  several  improvements 
that  will  add  greatly  to  the  convenience 
of  readers. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 

HYPNOTISM,  MESMERISM,  AND  THE  NEW  WITCH- 
CRAFT.  By  ERNEST  HART,  formerly  Sur- 
geon to  the  West  London  Hospital. 
With  Twenty  Illustrations.  New  York : 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1893. 

THIS  little  volume  consists  of  papers 
that  have  recently  appeared  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  and  the  British  Medical  Jour- 
nal, and  it  has  been  published  to  meet  the 
wishes  of  those  desiring  the  latest  informa- 


846 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


tion  on  topics  that  are  of  current  interest. 
Mr.  Hart  frankly  states  that  he  hopes  the 
volume  will  serve  a  useful  purpose  in  dissi- 
pating some  popular  errors  and  a  good  deal 
of  pseudo-scientific  superstition,  superim- 
posed on  a  slender  basis  of  physiological 
and  pathological  phenomena. 

His  first  chapter  has  the  suggestive  title 
of  Hypnotism  and  Humbug,  and  in  it  he  re- 
fers to  the  fact  that  hypnotism  has  come 
down  to  us  through  the  ages,  the  lineal  de- 
scendant of  many  ancient  beliefs.  He  very 
truly  says  that  the  term  "animal  magnet- 
ism" applied  to  any  of  the  phenomena  of 
induced  sleep,  human  automatism,  hypnotic 
suggestions,  or  faith  cures  is  a  pure  misno- 
mer, being  an  example  of  that  tendency 
satirized  by  Voltaire  when  he  speaks  of  the 
custom  of  "  mystics  and  charlatans  to  conse- 
crate their  ignorance  and  to  impress  its  con- 
clusions upon  others  by  giving  a  name  that 
has  no  meaning  to  phenomena  that  they  do  not 
understand."  Briefly  and  lucidly  the  physio- 
logical explanation  of  that  more  or  less  com- 
plete suspension  of  the  will,  known  as  in- 
duced sleep,  is  portrayed;  and  reference  is 
made  to  the  various  phenomena  that  may  be 
displayed  by  an  individual  under  the  influ- 
ence of  suggestion.  But  Mr.  Hart  empha- 
sizes the  fact  that  the  allegation  that  an  in- 
dividual under  the  influence  of  suggestion 
has  powers  of  clairvoyance,  can  predict  fu- 
ture events,  has  insight  into  hidden  things, 
or,  in  a  few  words,  has  developed  new  pow- 
ers, is,  under  any  and  all  circumstances,  im- 
posture. 

The  second  chapter  briefly  refers  to  the 
ancient  employment  of  the  magnet  in  medi- 
cine, to  Mesmer  and  his  methods,  to  the 
"  possessed  "  and  the  "  demoniacs,"  and  Mr. 
Hart  shows  that  all  these  influences  are  the 
result  of  a  condition  of  disturbed  equilibrium 
of  the  nervous  system  and  brain  apparatus 
of  the  person  operated  on  or  affected  there- 
with. A  number  of  illustrations  of  postures 
and  facial  expressions  of  patients  in  the 
Salpetriere  Hospital  in  Paris  are  inserted 
and  lend  force  to  the  author's  thesis  that 
most  of  the  phenomena  characteristic  of  the 
extreme  degrees  of  hypnotization  and  sug- 
gestibility may  occur  in  that  condition  of 
disturbed  equilibrium  of  the  patient,  male  or 
female,  known  as  hysteria.  In  the  latter 
condition  there  is  often  an  auto-suggestion 


that,  like  the  hetero-suggestion  inducing  hyp- 
notism, abolishes  the  power  of  the  will ;  and 
the  brain  losing  its  restraining  and  control- 
ling powers,  emotions  may  be  excited,  feelings 
induced,  and  intellectual  operations  set  in 
motion,  independently  of  the  will  of  the  in- 
dividual as  well  as  without  individual  con- 
sciousness being  alive  to  what  is  going  on. 
As  to  the  treatment  of  disease  by  means  of 
what  has  been  termed  "  suggestive  therapeu- 
tics," Mr.  Hart  cites  Charcot,  Ricker,  Ba- 
binski,  and  Dejerine,  who  agree  that  for 
curative  purposes  hypnotism  is  very  rarely 
useful,  generally  entirely  useless,  and  often 
injurious. 

The  third  chapter  is  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting in  the  volume,  dealing  as  it  does 
with  Luys's  experiments  at  La  Charite  Hospi- 
tal in  Paris,  that  have  been  given  wide  pub- 
licity in  general  literature  and  that  have 
served  to  originate  many  misconceptions  re- 
garding the  phenomena  of  hypnotism. 

Dr.  Luys  defines  hypnotism  as  an  extra- 
physiological  experimental  state  of  the  nerv- 
ous system,  or  a  pseudo-sleep  which  is  im- 
posed and  during  which  the  subject  under 
experiment  loses  the  notion  of  his  or  her 
own  existence  and  of  the  external  Avorld. 
He  professes  to  create  experimentally  many 
of  the  disorders  of  mental  pathology  in 
certain  stages  of  hypnotism,  and  thus  to 
give  a  factitious  representation  of  some  of 
the  disorders  of  madness.  He  presented  for 
Mr.  Hart's  observation  five  patients  that 
were,  Mr.  Hart  states,  profoundly  neuro- 
pathic. These  patients  were  extremely  sen- 
sitive, when  hypnotized,  to  feeble  magnetic 
currents,  to  residual  magnetic  impressions, 
to  magnetic  effluvia,  to  the  perception  of  col- 
ored luminous  atmospheres  radiating  from 
and  playing  around  the  poles  of  a  magnet  or 
of  a  faradaic  machine,  and  to  flames  and  ef- 
fluvia of  like  character  proceeding  from  the 
features,  the  fingers,  and  the  hands  of  the 
human  subject.  These  subjects  would  caress 
with  various  manifestations  of  delight  the 
"north  pole"  of  the  magnet,  about  which 
they  saw  blue  flames  playing,  while  dread 
and  terror  were  produced  by  presenting  the 
"  south  pole,"  about  which  red  flames  played. 
Even  photograph  paper  having  an  impression 
of  the  "north"  or  "south"  pole  produced 
similar  phenomena  in  these  persons.  Around 
the  head  of  one  of  the  hypnotized  persons  a 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


847 


circlet  of  magnetized  iron  was  placed  that 
had  been  around  the  head  of  a  person  sub- 
ject to  hallucinations  of  persecution  and  of 
black  misery ;  the  patient's  features  became 
haggard,  his  expression  melancholic,  and  he 
struggled,  with  evident  horror  and  fright,  to 
escape  from  imaginary  persecutors ;  the  re- 
moval of  the  circlet  restored  him  to  calm- 
ness. These  ideas  had  remained  stored  in 
the  circlet,  as  Dr.  Luys  informed  his  audi- 
ence, for  six  months,  and  were  apparently 
by  no  means  exhausted  notwithstanding  fre- 
quent use.  Small  sealed  tubes  containing 
various  medicinal  substances  applied  to  the 
necks  of  these  hypnotized  individuals  pro- 
duced symptoms  similar  to  those  caused  by 
the  administration  of  the  substances  inter- 
nally. Another  series  of  phenomena  was 
produced  by  having  the  hypnotized  person 
hold  a  glass  of  water  or  a  wax  doll  in  the 
hands,  and  their  sensation  was  transferred 
to  the  object  held  so  that  if  the  glass  of 
water  or  the  doll  was  stroked,  pinched, 
pricked,  or  tortured  at  a  distance,  and  pre- 
sumably where  the  subject  could  not  see 
what  was  done,  the  sensation  was  transferred 
from  the  object  to  the  person,  who  would  ex- 
press emotions  conforming  to  what  was  done 
to  the  supposed  sensitized  object. 

Mr.  Hart  found  that  Dr.  Luys  was  un- 
willing to  allow  him  to  make  certain  tests 
that  would  control  these  experiments  and 
determine  whether  the  "  subject "  was  dis- 
sembling or  unconscious.  Accordingly,  he 
made  arrangements  to  have  Dr.  Luys's  "  sub- 
jects "  come  to  his  chambers,  where  he  had 
a  nonmagnetic  bar  resembling  the  magnet- 
ized bar  that  Luys  had  used,  a  demagnetized 
magnet,  a  set  of  needles  variously  and  in- 
versely magnetized,  sealed  tubes  containing 
the  medicinal  substances  used  by  Luys  as 
well  as  some  containing  water,  two  similar 
glasses  of  water  and  two  similar  wax  dolls. 
In  the  presence  of  a  number  of  credible  wit- 
nesses he  repeated  Luys's  experiments,  and 
the  "subjects"  were  delighted  with  the 
north  pole,  although  there  was  no  current 
turned  on,  and  false  phenomena  were  ob- 
tained with  all  the  magnets  employed.  The 
doll  or  glass  of  water  to  which  sensation 
had  been  transferred  from  a  "  subject " 
was  surreptitiously  exchanged  for  the  un- 
sensitized  glass  of  water  or  doll,  but  that 
made  no  difference  in  the  phenomena  elicited 


by  the  stroking,  pinching,  etc.  The  sealed 
glass  tubes  containing  water  produced  the 
tipsy  scenes  that  arose  when  Luys  applied  to 
the  neck  the  tube  containing  brandy,  while 
one  containing  the  latter  produced  any  symp- 
tom that  was  expected  to  be  obtained  from 
whatever  substance  was  mentioned.  In 
other  words  the  "  subjects  "  were  artful  and 
efficient  impostors  and  Dr.  Luys  was  their 
dupe,  as  one  of  the  "  subjects  "  herself  stated. 

We  believe  that  this  brief  review  of  the 
scope  of  the  experiments  justifies  Mr.  Hart's 
assertion  that  Luys's  experiments  were  con- 
ducted with  culpable  looseness  in  his  meth- 
ods, and  that  there  were  incredible  extrava- 
gance and  error  in  the  deductions  that  he 
allowed  himself  to  make  from  the  false  phe- 
nomena to  which  his  mode  of  experimenta- 
tion inevitably  led. 

Mr.  Hart  believes  that  the  alleged  advan- 
tages of  the  therapeutic  employment  of  hyp- 
notism in  certain  neuroses,  in  alcoholism,  and 
in  the  cases  of  backward  or  naughty  chil- 
dren, are  untenable,  and  that  the  effect  of  its 
employment  is  to  weaken  the  will  power  that 
it  is  desirable  to  strengthen.  In  fact,  com- 
pared with  the  hypnotist  faith-curer  of  the 
hospital  ward,  the  balance  is  in  favor  of  the 
faith-curer  of  the  chapel  and  the  grotto. 
The  latter  strengthens  the  weaker  individual- 
ity by  playing  upon  the  theme  of  auto-sug- 
gestion ;  the  patient  is  told  to  believe  that 
he  will  be  cured,  to  wish  it  fervently  and  he 
shall  be  cured.  And  his  cure  is  quite  as 
real  and  likely  to  be  quite  as  lasting  as  if  he 
had  become  the  puppet  of  a  hypnotizer. 

The  method  in  which  the  subject  is  pre- 
sented serves  to  convince  the  reader  that  the 
phenomena  of  hypnotism  do  not  transcend 
the  confines  of  explicable  fact,  and  that 
those  that  believe  that  it  contains  much  that 
is  occult  are  but  the  dupes  of  their  own 
credulity.  The  volume  is  written  in  a  style 
that  will  enable  the  lay  reader  to  understand 
the  topic,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  its  wide 
circulation  will  correct  many  of  the  popular 
impressions  regarding  the  possibilities  as 
well  as  the  facts  of  hypnotism. 


ELECTRICAL  EXPERIMENTS.  By  G.  E.  BON- 
NEY.  London :  Whittaker  £  Co.  Pp.  252. 
Price,  75  cents. 

THIS  book  has  been  prepared,  Mr.  Bon- 
ney  informs  us  in  his  preface,  for  the  in- 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


structive  amusement  of  young  people  in  the 
country  whose  time  hangs  heavily  on  their 
hands  in  the  winter  evenings.  It  consists  of 
a  collection  of  simple  experiments  in  mag- 
netism and  electricity,  requiring  only  such 
apparatus  as  the  experimenters  can  construct 
for  themselves.  The  first  class  of  experi- 
ments described  are  with  permanent  mag- 
nets. These  are  followed  with  a  number  of 
experiments  with  electro-magnets.  A  chap- 
ter is  devoted  to  experiments  with  induction 
coils,  in  which  various  forms  of  Geissler  tubes 
are  shown  and  described.  Most  of  the  sim- 
pler experiments  with  static  electricity  com- 
monly  described  in  the  text-books  are  given 
in  the  chapter  devoted  to  this  form  of  elec- 
tricity, and  the  electrolysis  of  water  and  oth- 
er liquids  and  the  method  of  electro-plating 
in  that  on  electrolytic  experiments.  Some 
miscellaneous  experiments  in  thermo-electri- 
city and  with  the  electric  light  complete  the 
book.  The  experiments  are,  on  the  whole, 
well  selected  to  illustrate  the  characteristic 
phenomena,  and  are  clearly  described  in  sim- 
ple terms  suitable  to  the  audience  to  whom 
the  book  is  addressed. 


How  TO  MAKE  INVENTIONS,  OR  INVENTING  AS 
A  SCIENCE  AND  AN  ART.  By  EDWARD  P. 
THOMPSON,  M.  E.  Second  edition,  re- 
vised and  enlarged.  New  York:  D. 
Van  Nostrand  Co.  Pp.  181.  Price,  $1. 

IN  his  preface  Mr.  Thompson  says  that 
his  object  is  "  to  establish  inventing  as  a 
science."  In  the  first  chapter  he  advances 
excellent  reasons  for  his  claim  that  this  may 
be  done,  but  he  does  not  carry  out  his  rea- 
soning logically.  For  instance,  in  the  four- 
teenth chapter  the  author  says  that  although 
"  Coster  was  the  first  to  conceive  the  idea  of 
replacing  handwriting  by  printing,"  his  dis- 
covery was  "  knowledge,  not  an  invention." 
Science  is  knowledge,  and  the  application  of 
it  to  a  hitherto  unknown  art  surely  might  be 
construed  an  invention.  Nevertheless,  Mr. 
Thompson  has  given  to  the  world  in  this 
book  a  fund  of  useful  and  interesting  infor- 
mation which  can  not  fail  to  be  of  benefit. 
It  contains  some  very  excellent  advice  to 
those  who  "  have  ideas,"  and  if  only  his  sug- 
gestions were  adopted  many  a  tyro  inventor 
would  be  saved  a  good  deal  of  both  worry 
and  useless  expense. 

The  chapter  entitled  Suggestive  Ideas  is 


full  of  valuable  promptings  and  advice.  So 
is  Chapter  VII.  In  the  latter  the  author 
lays  down  four  rules  which  should  be  ob- 
served by  inventors.  The  first  rule  says, 
"  Do  not  begin  with  intricate  problems." 
The  others  warn  inventors  against  confining 
themselves  to  single  devices,  and  exhorts 
them  to  "practice  medium  problems,"  and 
study  the  analysis  of  the  methods  by  which 
they  desire  to  accomplish  new  results. 

In  the  chapters  on  Principles  in  Chem- 
istry and  Electricity  "  for  making  scientific 
inventions  "  Mr.  Thompson  has  treated  the 
probabilities  of  invention  with  the  assistance 
of  these  great  factors,  besides  giving  a  large 
fund  of  useful  information  regarding  these 
elements  in  the  field  of  invention.  The 
major  part  of  the  volume  treats  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  invention  in  the  field  of  electricity, 
and  consists  for  the  most  part  of  selections 
from  the  author's  writings  upon  this  subject 
in  the  Electrical  Engineer  and  other  scienti- 
fic journals. 

MECHANICS  AND  HYDROSTATICS.  By  S.  L. 
LONEY.  Cambridge:  University  Press. 
1893.  Pp.  304.  Price,  $1.25. 

PROF.  LONEY  has  prepared  this  little 
manual  for  the  use  of  beginners,  and  pre- 
sumes on  only  a  limited  mathematical  knowl- 
edge by  the  pupil.  The  subject-matter  com- 
prises statics,  dynamics,  and  hydrostatics, 
which  are  treated  briefly  and  concisely,  the 
propositions  being  illustrated  by  appropriate 
examples.  A  number  of  selected  problems 
are  appended  to  each  chapter  for  the  student 
to  work  out,  the  answers  to  which  are  given 
at  the  end  of  the  book.  In  an  appendix  a 
sufficient  exposition  of  elementary  trigonome- 
try is  given  to  enable  the  student  to  follow 
the  text  when  the  mathematical  treatment 
calls  for  more  mathematical  knowledge  than 
elementary  geometry  and  algebra. 

THE  MINERAL  INDUSTRY:  ITS  STATISTICS, 
TECHNOLOGY,  AND  TRADE,  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES  AND  OTHER  COUNTRIES,  FROM  THE 
EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  THE  END  OF  1892. 
Vol.  I.  Edited  by  RICHARD  P.  ROTH- 
WELL.  Pp.  628.  New  York:  Scientific 
Publishing  Co.,  1893. 

THIS  volume  is  a  compilation  of  statistics, 
essays,  and  general  information  concerning 
the  mineral  industries  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  world,  which  will  be  gladly  wel- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


849 


corned  by  all  persons  interested  in  the  min- 
eral resources  of  this  country. 

It  is  the  most  comprehensive  work  of 
this  nature  which  has  ever  been  put  before 
the  public.  All  puzzling  measurements  of 
quantity,  etc.,  are  reduced  to  the  metric  sys- 
tem, and  the  student  can  readily  examine 
the  progress  of  the  different  industries,  from 
their  earliest  conception  to  the  present  time. 
The  articles  on  aluminum,  tin,  chronology  of 
the  gold  and  silver  industries,  and  the  plati- 
num group  of  metals  are  very  important  ad- 
ditions to  the  exhaustive  statistical  body  of 
the  work.  The  histories  of  the  progress  of 
metallurgy,  assaying,  etc.,  are  also  ably 
treated ;  and  in  the  various  papers  on  cop- 
per we  have  a  perfect  encyclopaedia  of  the 
history,  progress,  values,  and  modes  of  pro- 
ducing this  metal,  which  can  not  fail  to  be 
of  great  benefit  to  everybody  interested  in 
industrial  progress. 

Considering  the  ambitious  plan  of  the 
compilation  it  is  somewhat  unfortunate  that 
provision  was  not  made  for  articles  upon  the 
•unes  of  the  precious  and  other  metals,  with  a 
few  tables  showing  their  quantitative  appli- 
cations. Iron,  lead,  and  nickel  occupy  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  work,  and  a  won- 
derful amount  of  information  can  be  learned 
about  these  metals  and  the  progress  of  their 
production  from  the  exhaustive  tables  that 
accompany  the  text.  The  onyx  industry  is 
rather  summarily  treated;  but  it  appears 
that  a  difficulty  existed  in  obtaining  suffi- 
cient important  data  to  make  that  article 
more  interesting.  Mr.  Roth  well  is  to  be 
congratulated  upon  the  very  useful  volume 
which  he  and  his  assistants,  Messrs.  Bene- 
dict, Ingalls,  Church,  Hofman,  etc.,  have  pro- 
duced. 

OLD  AND  NEW  ASTRONOMY.  By  RICHARD  A. 
PROCTOR,  completed  by  A.  COWPER  RAN- 
YARD.  London  and  New  York:  Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.  Pp.  816.  Price,  $12. 

AT  the  time  of  the  author's  death,  in  1888, 
about  half  of  this  volume  had  been  published 
in  parts,  and  about  one  third  more  was  writ- 
ten, though  incompletely.  Mr.  Proctor  in- 
tended it  to  be  the  great  work  of  his  life,  and 
to  this  end  had  been  collecting  material  for 
more  than  twenty  years  before  he  began  its 
publication.  The  chapters  which  he  left  in 
manuscript  have  been  completed  by  Mr.  A.  I 
VOL.  XLIII. — 61 


Cowper  Ranyard,  Mr.  Proctor's  successor  as 
editor  of  Knowledge,  who  has  also  written 
the  part  on  the  stars,  needed  to  fill  out  the 
plan  of  the  work.  As  implied  in  its  title, 
"  Old  and  New,"  this  treatise  essays  to  give 
the  notions  of  ancient  astronomers  as  well  as 
the  present  state  of  the  science.  The  author 
has  made  a  practice  also  of  telling  when, 
where,  and  by  whom  important  discoveries 
and  advances  in  our  knowledge  of  the  heav- 
ens have  been  made,  and  in  this  way  has 
added  much  of  the  charm  of  narrative  to  his 
book.  The  large  type,  many  illustrations 
and  maps,  and  fine  paper  also  contribute  to 
make  the  volume  an  attractive  one.  The 
frontispiece  consists  of  three  views  of  pyra- 
mids, and  in  the  first  chapter,  devoted  to 
Ancient  and  Modern  Methods  of  Observing 
the  Heavenly  Bodies,  the  use  of  the  pyra- 
mids and  other  structures  of  masonry  for 
this  purpose  is  explained.  In  the  same  chap- 
ter are  described  the  quadrants  and  astro- 
labes of  the  middle  ages,  and  the  most  mod- 
ern transit  and  equatorial  instruments  as 
well.  The  shape  of  the  earth  is  the  first 
subject  taken  up  after  the  description  of 
instruments.  Under  this  head  the  various 
proofs  that  the  earth  is  round  are  given,  and 
the  processes  employed  for  measuring  its 
curve  are  set  forth.  The  third  chapter  is  de- 
voted to  Apparent  Motions  of  the  Sun,  Moon, 
and  Planets,  and  is  copiously  illustrated  with 
charts  and  diagrams.  The  author  next  de- 
scribes the  True  Mechanism  of  the  Solar 
System,  and  here  has  occasion  to  dip  quite 
deeply  into  history  in  order  to  give  the  suc- 
cessive approximations  to  the  truth  arrived 
at  by  the  early  astronomers.  He  follows 
this  account  with  a  statement  of  the  meth- 
ods that  have  been  devised  for  measuring 
and  weighing  the  solar  system.  The  sun,  the 
moon,  and  each  of  the  planets  are  fully  de- 
scribed, a  notably  interesting  chapter  being 
made  on  sun-spots  and  solar  prominences  un- 
der the  title  The  Sun's  Surroundings.  When 
his  labors  were  broken  off  by  his  unexpected 
death  Mr.  Proctor  had  written  nothing  on 
the  stars,  the  nebulae,  or  the  Milky  Way, 
though  it  was  known  that  he  intended  to 
make  these  sections  a  special  feature  of  the 
book.  It  was  in  this  department  of  astrono- 
my that  his  own  work  was  of  most  original 
and  lasting  character.  Mr.  Ranyard  has 
sought  to  follow  out  the  author's  general 


850 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


plan  in  the  stellar  section  of  this  treatise  by 
giving  as  complete  a  review  as  he  could  of 
the  various  theories  which  have  been  advo- 
cated with  regard  to  the  Milky  Way  and  the 
distribution  of  stars  and  nebulae.  A  feature 
of  the  book  is  the  explanatory  notes  at  the 
foot  of  nearly  every  page,  and  in  these  notes, 
throughout  Mr.  Proctor's  chapters,  are  often 
to  be  found  vigorous  criticisms  of  words, 
things,  and  men  which  are  notably  charac- 
teristic of  the  author.  The  volume  is  in- 
dexed, and  the  illustrations  comprise  31 
plates  and  472  wood- cuts. 

HANDBOOK  OP  GREEK  AND  LATIN  PALAEOGRA- 
PHY. By  EDWARD  MAUNDE  THOMPSON, 
D.  C.  L.,  etc.  The  International  Scientific 
Series,  Vol.  LXX.  New  York:  D.  Ap- 
pleton  &  Co.  Pp.  343.  Price,  $1.75. 

THE  general  reader  will  begin  to  have 
some  fellow-feeling  with  the  delver  among 
ancient  manuscripts  after  he  has  read  this 
book,  and  learned  something  about  the  ma- 
terials and  implements  used  by  scribes  of 
different  periods,  the  successive  changes  in 
the  forms  of  the  alphabetic  characters,  the 
various  styles  of  handwriting  characterizing 
different  times  and  localities,  and  the  numer- 
ous other  features  that  aid  in  deciphering, 
and  in  deciding  as  to  the  age  and  genuine- 
ness of  a  given  document.  The  author  de- 
scribes the  Greek  and  the  Latin  alphabets, 
and  gives  charts  showing  the  forms  of  script 
letters  at  different  periods,  and  how  the  Latin 
alphabet  was  derived  from  the  Egyptian 
hieroglyphs,  through  the  hieratic,  the  Phoe- 
nician, and  the  Greek.  Among  the  materials 
used  to  receive  writing  he  enumerates  leaves, 
bark,  linen,  clay,  metals,  both  plain  and  waxed 
wooden  tablets,  papyrus,  skins,  parchment, 
vellum,  and  finally  paper.  The  letters  were 
scratched  on  waxen  tablets  with  a  sharp- 
pointed  stylus  ;  on  papyrus  they  were  traced 
in  ink  with  a  reed.  The  old  form  of  a  book 
was  the  roll.  After  the  practice  of  hinging 
two  or  more  tablets  together  in  a  "  codex  " 
arose,  vellum  books  took  on  this  more  con- 
venient shape.  The  further  transition  to  the 
modern  bound  volume  Avas  easy.  Naturally 
the  ancient  scribes  sought  to  diminish  their 
toil  by  abbreviations  and  contractions  of 
words.  These  abbreviations  form  one  of  the 
chief  difficulties  that  a  person  meets  with 
when  he  begins  to  read  Latin  and  Greek 


manuscripts,  and  a  large  number  of  them  are 
explained  by  Mr.  Thompson.  In  describing 
the  several  styles  of  Greek  writing  Mr. 
Thompson  divides  manuscripts  written  on  pa- 
pyrus from  those  on  vellum.  He  considers 
first  the  book  hand  on  papyrus,  next  the  cur- 
sive hand  on  the  same  material,  then  the  un- 
cial hand  on  vellum,  and  lastly  the  mediaeval 
minuscule  writing.  A  similar  course  is  taken 
in  tracing  the  history  of  Latin  palaeography : 
The  two  branches  of  majuscule  writing — 
capitals  and  uncials — form  the  first  division, 
then  come  the  modified  uncial,  mixed  hands, 
and  the  half-uncial.  Roman  cursive  writing 
is  next  taken  up,  descriptions  of  the  national 
minuscule  hands  derived  from  it  follow,  and 
the  history  is  brought  down  to  include  Eng- 
lish charter  hands  of  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries.  In  these  chapters,  which 
constitute  two  thirds  of  the  work,  is  seen  a 
striking  instance  of  the  aid  which  physical 
science  is  giving  to  all  branches  of  research 
and  endeavor.  Photographic  engraving,  by 
means  of  which  the  author  puts  before  his 
readers  actual  facsimiles  of  a  large  number 
of  styles  of  ancient  writing,  alone  makes  pos- 
sible a  really  instructive  book  on  this  subject 
at  a  moderate  price.  These  facsimiles  en- 
able us  to  compare,  side  by  side,  specimens 
from  manuscripts  which  lie  scattered  in  the 
different  libraries  of  Europe,  and  which  could 
never  have  been  brought  together.  The  vol- 
ume has  an  index,  and  a  list  of  the  principal 
palaeographical  works  used  or  referred  to  by 
the  author  is  appended. 

POOLS  BROTHERS'  CELESTIAL  PLANISPHERE. 
Drawn  and  compiled  by  JULES  A.  COLAS. 
Price,  $3. — POOLE  BROTHERS'  CELESTIAL 
HANDBOOK.  Compiled  and  edited  by 
JULES  A.  COLAS.  Pp.  xiv+110.  Price', 
$2.  Chicago :  Poole  Brothers. 

THE  planisphere  published  by  Messrs. 
Poole  Brothers  consists  of  the  usual  map  of 
the  constellations  on  a  disk  nineteen  inches 
and  a  half  in  diameter,  revolving  under  a 
screen.  A  skeleton  screen  is  used,  so  that 
besides  the  constellations  visible  in  the  sky 
nearly  all  the  others  on  the  map  can  be  seen. 
Disk  and  screen  are  mounted  on  a  heavy 
sheet  of  cardboard,  which  slips  into  a  sub- 
stantial cardboard  case. 

The  Celestial  Handbook  is  intended  as  a 
companion  to  the  planisphere,  and  has  been 
compiled  especially  for  the  use  of  amateurs 


LITERARY   NOTICES. 


851 


in  the  study  of  astronomy.  An  introduction 
containing  explanations  and  definitions  is  fol- 
lowed by  systematically  arranged  data  con- 
cerning the  constellations.  The  data  are  ac- 
companied by  diagrams  and  illustrations,  and 
consist  of  a  short  history  of  each  constella- 
tion, a  catalogue  of  the  stars,  with  their  desig- 
nations, magnitudes,  and  positions,  and  notes 
on  the  principal  curiosities  contained  in  the 
constellations.  Following  this  portion  of  the 
book  are  tables  of  old  and  new  constellations, 
names  given  to  the  principal  stars,  etc. 
There  are  also  brief  chapters  on  shooting 
stars,  star  showers,  comets,  and  the  planets. 
The  text  is  illustrated  with  one  hundred  and 
forty  cuts. 

SOME  HINTS  ON  LEARNING  TO  DRAW.  By 
G.  W.  CALDWELL  HUTCHINSON.  London 
and  New  York  :  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp. 
199.  Price,  $2.25. 

THE  first  "  hints  "  given  in  this  book  re- 
late to  the  reasons  why  drawing  is  an  art 
that  every  one  should  desire  to  be  acquainted 
with.  There  is  the  story  of  James  Nasmyth, 
who,  being  in  Sweden,  where  the  party  of 
either  side  could  not  understand  the  lan- 
guage of  the  other,  secured  a  good  supper 
by  drawing  its  principal  features,  and  got  his 
other  wants  satisfied  in  a  like  way,  with  great 
admiration  on  the  part  of  his  hosts.  The 
"  graphic  "  language  is  thus  evidently  a  uni- 
versal one.  Drawing  is  of  first  importance 
to  architects,  in  teaching  them  to  see  artist- 
ically, without  which  they  can  not  build  artist- 
ically. It  is  a  momentous  aid  in  the  culti- 
vation of  the  observing  powers,  and  "  practi- 
cally the  first  step  in  drawing  is  to  learn  to 
see  accurately."  One  of  the  earliest  lessons 
to  be  learned  is  "how  very  untrustworthy 
is  the  testimony  of  the  untrained  eyesight ; 
when  this  is  realized,  the  importance  of  keen 
observation  becomes  apparent."  Erroneous 
conceptions,  which  are  among  the  great  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  good  drawing,  must  be 
got  rid  of,  for  which  purpose  the  student 
should  be  placed  face  to  face  with  the  object 
as  soon  as  possible.  Care  should  be  taken 
to  have  the  best  specimens  of  the  model 
obtainable.  Freehand  outline  copies  from 
the  flat  may,  with  advantage,  be  alternated 
every  now  and  then  with  outline  drawings 
from  objects,  so  that  we,  by  seeing  and 
working  from  good  copies,  may  have  a  high 


standard  before  us  to  show  what  our  own 
work  should  be  like.  From  the  drawing  of 
such  common  objects  we  may  pass  to  outline 
drawings  from  casts  of  leaves  or  fruit,  and 
thence  to  outlines  from  natural  leaves  and 
growing  plants  and  shells,  and  casts  from  the 
antique.  The  time  is  not  wasted  that  is 
spent  in  striving  to  do  everything  as  thor- 
oughly as  possible,  even  the  smallest  thing. 
It  follows  from  any  fair  consideration  of  the 
subject  that  there  is  no  simple  road,  no  one 
process  or  rule  by  which  success  may  be  ob- 
tained in  drawing.  Another  important  rea- 
son why  every  one  should  learn  to  draw  and 
so  learn  to  see,  is  in  order  that  our  taste  for 
what  is  really  good  may  be  improved.  The 
student  is  led  from  the  opening  story  and 
these  interesting  considerations  to  the  prac- 
tical maxims  and  their  application,  which 
are  given  in  a  plain  style,  and  are  illustrated 
by  numerous  diagrams  and  by  drawings  from 
a  group  of  living  artists  of  the  first  rank. 

REPORT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  NATIONAL 
MUSEUM.  For  the  Year  ending  June  30, 
1891.  Washington:  Government  Print- 
ing Office.  Pp.  869. 

THE  catalogued  collections  in  the  muse- 
um now  number  3,028,714  specimens,  having 
increased  about  nineteen  fold  during  the 
past  ten  years.  It  is  observed,  however, 
that  a  large  portion  of  the  material  cata- 
logued in  1884  and  in  later  years  has  been 
in  the  custody  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
for  several  years,  but  in  storage.  There  are 
now  thirty-three  organized  departments  and 
sections  in  the  museum,  under  the  care  of 
curators,  including  honorary  and  acting  cu- 
rators and  assistant  curators.  In  the  divi- 
sion of  anthropology  progress  in  the  ethno- 
logical department  has  been  satisfactory ;  the 
collection  hi  prehistoric  anthropology  has 
been  reclassitied  and  rearranged  according 
to  locality,  and  special  researches  have  been 
pursued  in  many  directions.  In  forestry  a 
systematic  display  of  the  more  important 
lumber  trees  by  means  of  maps  showing 
their  distribution,  photographs  of  typical 
trees,  and  photomicrographs,  has  been  begun. 
The  zoological,  botanical,  mineralogical,  and 
geological  collections  have  been  increased  in 
nearly  every  department.  The  largest  gift 
to  the  library  during  the  year  was  from  the 
Rev.  John  Crumbie  Brown,  of  Scotland,  of 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


the  professional  library  of  his  brother,  the 
late  Dr.  Samuel  Brown,  who  has  been  called 
"  the  last  of  the  alchemists,"  from  his  advo- 
cacy of  a  belief  in  the  transmutability  of  the 
elements.  The  work  of  issuing  the  publica- 
tions is  now  more  punctually  performed  than 
heretofore.  One  of  the  aims  of  the  museum 
— to  aid  students  and  others  engaged  in 
scientific  work  by  lending  them  material  to 
be  used  in  their  researches — has  been  carried 
out  in  a  number  of  loans ;  and  other  students 
have  availed  themselves  of  the  privilege  of 
examining  the  collections.  A  summary  is 
given  in  the  report  of  the  cases  of  co-opera- 
tion with  the  work  of  the  museum  by  various 
departments  and  bureaus  of  the  Government, 
from  which  many  valuable  results  have  ac- 
crued. The  papers  contributed  by  mem- 
bers of  the  museum  staff  describing  and 
illustrating  the  collections  include  The  Gene- 
sis of  the  National  Museum,  by  G.  Brown 
Goode ;  Ethnological  Collections  in  the  United 
States  National  Museum  from  Kilimandjaro, 
East  Africa,  by  Dr.  W.  L.  Abbott;  The 
Bernadon,  Allen,  and  Jouy  Korean  Collec- 
tions in  the  United  States  National  Museum, 
by  Walter  Hough ;  Shinto,  or  the  Mythology 
of  the  Japanese,  The  Ancient  Burial  Mounds 
of  Japan,  and  Some  Ancient  Relics  in  Japan, 
by  Romyn  Hitchcock ;  Prehistoric  Naval 
Architecture  of  the  North  of  Europe,  by 
George  H.  Boehmer;  and  First  Draft  of  a 
System  of  Classification  for  the  World's  Co- 
lumbian Exposition,  by  G.  Brown  Goode. 

LECTURES  ON  SANITARY  LAW.  By  A.  WYN- 
TER  BLYTH.  New  York:  Macmillan  & 
Co.  Pp.  287.  Price,  $2.50. 

THESE  twelve  lectures  were  delivered  by 
the  author  at  the  College  of  State  Medicine, 
as  part  of  the  usual  course  of  instruction  in 
sanitary  science.  They  are  republished  on 
account  of  their  possible  value  to  those  who 
desire  to  obtain,  in  a  small  compass,  a  gen- 
eral view  of  the  powers  and  duties  of  (Eng- 
lish; local  authorities  in  relation  to  the  pub- 
lic health.  Having  described  the  division 
into  sanitary  districts  and  the  functions  of 
authorities,  the  lectures  concern  Nuisance; 
Sewerage  and  Drainage;  Water;  Sanitary 
Appliances,  Regulations,  and  By-laws  ;  Statu- 
tory Provisions  with  Regard  to  the  Preven- 
tion of  Disease ;  the  Law  under  the  Infec- 
tious Diseases  Notification  and  Prevention 


Acts ;  Port  Sanitary  Law ;  the  Housing  of 
the  Working  Classes  Act,  1890 ;  Canal  Boats 
and  Metropolitan  Sanitary  Law.  In  the  ap- 
pendix are  given  examples  of  by-laws  relat- 
ing to  offensive  trades,  with  other  matters, 
and  the  statutes  specially  treating  of  the  in- 
spection and  examination  of  food. 

The  eighth  volume  of  the  Mineral  Re- 
sources of  the  United  States,  compiled  by 
David  T.  Day,  Chief  of  the  Division  of  Min- 
ing Statistics  and  Technology,  contains  63d 
pages  of  statistical  data  relative  to  the  prog- 
ress made  from  year  to  year  in  the  produc- 
tion of  minerals.  A  complete  statement  of 
the  mineral  products  of  1891,  with  compara- 
tive tables,  occupies  the  greater  portion  of 
the  volume,  the  remainder  being  devoted  to  a 
very  important  examination  of  the  new  dis- 
coveries of  mineral  deposits  and  explana- 
tions of  improved  technical  processes  by 
which  minerals  have  been  made  more  avail- 
able and  the  yield  increased,  etc.  The  sum- 
mary shows  an  increase  in  value  in  the  entire 
mineral  products  of  $9,501,139  over  1890, 
chiefly  in  silver,  copper,  lead,  and  coal,  the 
iron  and  steel  production  having  fallen  off 
nearly  one  million  tons  in  1891.  Washing- 
ton, 1893. 

In  Bulletin  No.  3  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  1893,  A.  K. 
Fisher,  M.  D.,  Assistant  Ornithologist,  con- 
tributes an  interesting  report  upon  the  ffaicks 
and  Owls  of  the  United  States.  From  an  ex- 
amination of  seventy-three  species  and  sub- 
species of  these  birds,  Dr.  Fisher  has  ar- 
rived at  the  conclusion  that  instead  of  their 
being  pests  or  enemies,  all  except  six  species 
of  the  hawks  and  owls  of  this  country  are 
really  among  the  farmer's  best  friends.  This 
conclusion  was  arrived  at  after  an  examina- 
tion of  the  stomachs  of  2,700  of  these  birds, 
when  it  was  found  that  the  principal  food  of 
sixty-seven  of  the  species  examined,  com- 
prising 2,212  birds,  consisted  of  "mice  and 
other  small  mammals  "  which  are  a  constant 
source  of  annoyance  and  loss  to  the  farmer. 
The  work,  which  is  illustrated  with  twenty- 
six  colored  plates,  is  a  valuable  contribution 
to  the  natural  history  literature  of  the  coun- 
try, and  can  not  fail  to  be  widely  appreciated 
by  ornithologists  and  lovers  of  the  feathered 
tribe.  The  color,  food,  locality,  and  habits 
of  each  of  the  seventy-three  species  are  de- 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


85.3 


scribed.  Pp.  210.  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, Washington. 

Mr.  Marsdcn  Manson,  C.  E.,  has  pub- 
lished an  interesting  little  book  entitled 
Geological  and  Solar  Climate*,  their  Causes 
and  Variations.  In  it  he  attacks  the  pub- 
lished opinions  of  some  of  the  most  eminent 
students  and  writers  of  geology,  and,  al- 
though he  admits  that  the  direct  cause  of 
the  Glacial  epoch  or  Ice  age  was  a  de- 
crease in  the  original  heat  of  the  globe,  he 
scores  those  scientists  whose  researches  es- 
tablished that  fact  because  they  failed  "  to 
account  for  all  the  phenomena  accompanying 
the  Ice  age,  or  to  account  for  the  disappear- 
ance of  that  age."  Mr.  Manson's  theory  is 
that  the  direct  cause  of  the  glaciation  was 
the  exclusion  of  solar  heat  from  those  re- 
gions where  the  ice  development  was  taking 
place,  and  that  the  disappearance  of  the  ice 
northward  and  southward  was  caused  by  the 
natural  earth  heat  breaking  through  the  ice 
crust,  after  which,  assisted  by  the  solar 
agencies,  it  began  to  gather  heat  and  dis- 
persed the  cold  toward  the  arctic  and  ant- 
arctic regions  relatively  as  the  land  area 
predominated.  The  book  is  for  sale  by  Wil- 
liam Doxey,  631  Market  Street,  San  Fran- 
cisco. Price,  75  cents. 

Volume  X  of  the  United  States  Fish 
Commission  Bulletin  is  an  important  con- 
tribution to  the  scientific  and  industrial  liter- 
ature of  the  fishes  and  fisheries  of  the 
country.  Besides  articles  on  The  Oyster  and 
Oyster-culture,  by  Bashf ord  Dean,  which  have 
already  been  noticed  in  these  pages,  it  con- 
tains a  valuable  paper  on  the  Fishing  Ves- 
sels and  Boats  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  by  Cap- 
tain J.  W.  Collins ;  a  report  on  the  fisheries 
of  the  New  England  States  ;  and  various  arti- 
cles and  reports  on  the  aquaria  of  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission  and  the  conditions 
of  the  fisheries  of  Kentucky,  Iowa,  Lake  On- 
tario, etc. 

In  the  article  on  the  Fishing  Craft  of  the 
Pacific  Coast,  besides  a  fund  of  useful  infor- 
mation and  suggestion,  Captain  Collins  de- 
scribes the  appearance,  construction,  and 
sea-going  qualities,  as  well  as  their  general 
adaptability  to  the  several  fisheries,  of  all 
kinds  of  boats  and  vessels,  from  the  Alaskan 
kaiak  (canoe)  to  the  perfectly  appointed 
whaler,  and  illustrates  the  text  by  thirteen 
plates  and  four  figures.  The  fisheries  of  the 


New  England  States  are  also  exhaustively 
treated,  the  report  chiefly  consisting  of  sta- 
tistical tables  of  their  condition,  with  an 
analysis  of  the  quantities  of  the  various 
fishes  captured,  the  number  of  men  and 
boats  engaged,  and  the  amount  of  capital 
invested. 

In  the  report  of  the  fisheries  of  Lake 
Ontario,  Hugh  M.  Smith,  M.D.,- gives  an 
interesting  account  of  his  investigations, 
which  were  made  with  a  view  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  fish-hatching  station  on  the 
lake.  The  volume  is  fully  illustrated  with 
ninety-four  full-page  plates  and  ten  figures 
in  the  text.  Pp.  436.  Washington,  1892. 

A  Concise  History  of  Religion  has  been 
prepared  by  F.  J.  Gould  for  the  issues  of  the 
Rationalist  Press  Committee  of  London.  In 
the  first  volume,  the  only  one  that  yet  ap- 
peared, are  given  brief  accounts  of  the  prin- 
cipal religions  of  the  world  except  Judaism, 
Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism,  preceded 
by  an  analysis  exhibiting  the  chief  phases 
of  primitive  worship,  and  the  main  lines  of 
religious  development.  The  list  of  religions 
treated  include  about  fifty.  The  author  pro- 
poses to  follow  this  volume  with  other  parts 
dealing  with  the  Bible,  Judaism,  Christianity 
(from  the  point  of  view  of  a  purely  human 
origin),  and  modern  Rationalism.  (London : 
Watts  &  Co.) 

The  book  Hermetic  Philosophy,  vol.  iii, 
"  A  comedy  founded  on  Plato's  Meno,  applied 
to  modern  discoveries  in  theosophy,  Chris- 
tian science,  magic,  etc.,  and  to  those  who 
are  seeking  these  discoveries,"  bearing  the 
signature  of  Styx,  and  published  by  the  J.  B. 
Lippincott  Co.,  Philadelphia,  discusses  the 
question,  "  Can  virtue  and  science  be  taught?" 
There  is  a  vein  of  levity  running  through  the 
whole,  yet  the  author's  purpose  appears  to 
be  serious.  He  has  taken  Plato  for  his  pat- 
tern and  applied  his  mode  of  illustration  to 
modern .  mental  phenomena — to  the  disi-u<- 
sion  of  "  the  merits  of  a  few  self-appointed 
leaders  among  the  thousands  of  those  who 
feel  that  there  is  a  call  in  the  mind  for  them 
to  begin  on  the  '  mighty  work.'  "  Among 
these  pretenders  are  named  u  Adepts,  Hon. 
Magi,  Mahatmas,  Children  of  the  Sun,  tht> 
Divinely  anointed,"  and  Christian  scientists. 
The  author's  point  of  view  is  indicated  t>y 
the  question,  "Is  not  the  man  who  present- 
himself  for  common  spectacle  as  one  pos- 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


sessing  gifts  direct  from  the  hand  of  God, 
for  which  he  is  a  specially  selected  and  or- 
dained recipient,  either  a  fool,  a  fanatic,  or 
a  rascal  ? " 

The  Religious  Herald  (Hartford,  Conn.) 
presents  to  its  subscribers  as  a  souvenir  of 
fifty  years'  publication  of  the  paper,  a  large 
and  profusely  illustrated  volume  entitled  Pic- 
turesque Chicago  and  Guide  to  the  World's 
Fair.  It  consists  of  descriptions  of  the  city, 
its  parks,  benevolences,  business  houses,  in- 
stitutions, and  other  peculiar  features,  illus- 
trated by  more  than  fifty  photographic  re- 
productions. The  mechanical  execution  is  of 
the  most  pleasing  character. 

A  view  of  what  some  socialistic  agitators 
might  do  if  they  had  opportunity  is  given  in 
a  little  book  entitled  Is  it  Right  to  rob  Rob- 
bers? by  Morrison  L.  Swift,  published  by 
the  Commonwealth  Society,  Boston.  The 
''robbers"  of  the  story  are  capitalist  em- 
ployers. A  plot  formed  by  a  few  clerks  to 
steal  regularly  from  the  moneys  of  their  con- 
cerns and  distribute  the  sums  among  the 
needy,  spreads  till  it  includes  nearly  all  the 
employed  and  vast  corporative  concerns  have 
been  built  up  out  of  the  proceeds,  "  labor  " 
has  found  its  level  as  high  as  capital,  and  all 
of  society — manufacturers,  the  legal  profes- 
sion, education,  and  what  not — are  affected 
by  the  conditions  developed.  Detection 
comes  at  last ;  capital  shows  its  cruel  hand 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  thieves,  now  num- 
bering many  thousands ;  convulsions  and  al- 
most revolution  follow,  till  at  last  insolent 
capital  is  forced  to  yield  and  share  in  the 
universal  partnership. 

No.  10  of  the  third  volume  of  Werner's 
Readings  and  Recitations,  compiled  and  ar- 
ranged by  Caroline  B.  Le  Row,  (quarterly, 
Edgar  S.  Werner,  28  West  Twenty-third 
Street,  New  York),  is  known  as  America's 
Recitation  Book,  and  includes  pieces,  by 
American  authors  only,  on  great  events  in 
the  history  of  our  country,  arranged  accord- 
ing to  the  chronology.  The  pieces  are  classi- 
fied as  relating  to  Discoveries,  Settlements, 
French  and  Indian  Wars,  Revolutionary  War 
and  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  War 
of  1812  and  the  Mexican  War,  and  the  Civil 
War  and  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

The  Conversations  on  some  of  the  Old 
Poets  were  published  by  Mr.  /.  R.  Lowell  in 
1845,  and  again  in  a  revised  edition  in  1846; 


and  were  reprinted  in  London  in  1845.  They 
were  afterward  allowed  to  pass  out  of  print. 
Mr.  Lowell  did  not  include  them  in  his  col- 
lected works,  regarding  them  as  in  a  measure 
superseded  by  his  later  and  more  mature 
writings  on  like  subjects.  They  have,  how- 
ever, a  value  and  interest  that  have  not  been 
lessened  by  time  or  by  the  author's  growth 
in  fame ;  and  although  a  self-restraint  with 
which  we  can  find  no  fault  may  have  pre- 
vented the  author  from  pressing  his  thoughts 
on  the  same  subjects  twice  upon  the  public, 
often  greatly  modified  the  second  time  and 
perhaps  contradictory  of  the  first  impression 
such  scruple  need  not  now  exist  to  exclude 
the  reading  public  from  what  is  really  a  very 
enjoyable  and  instructive  series  of  essays. 
The  conversational  form  was  adopted  partly 
because  the  essays  were  discursive,  and  part- 
ly to  enable  them  to  be  so  without  violation 
of  the  canons  of  literary  propriety.  They 
have  their  faults,  which  appertain  to  the 
youthfulness  of  the  author  at  the  time  he 
wrote  them ;  but,  as  the  present  publishers 
well  say,  Mr.  Lowell's  reputation  can  better 
afford  the  faults  than  our  literature  can 
afford  the  suppression  of  the  work.  The 
present  edition  is  published,  with  an  intro- 
duction by  Robert  Ellis  Thompson,  by  David 
McKay,  Philadelphia. 


PUBLICATIONS  RECEIVED. 

Agricultural  Experiment  Stations.  Bulletins: 
Michigan.  Potatoes,  by  P.  M.  Harwood.  Pp.  20.— 
Mass  chusetts.  Meteorological  Summary.  May 
and  June,  1892-1893.  Pp.  8.— Iowa.  Various  Arti- 
cles. Pp.  84. 

"A.  L.  A.11  Library.  Catalogue,  5,000  volumes 
for  a  Popular  Library.  Washington :  U.  S.  Bu- 
reau of  Education.  Pp.  260. 

The  Altruistic  Review.  Monthly.  Chicago. 
Pp.  45.  20  cents;  $2  a  year. 

American  Chemical  Society.  Journal.  March, 
1893.  Pp.  40.  $5  a  year. 

Arnold,  Matthew.  Sohrab  and  Rustum.  Amer- 
ican Book  Company.  Pp.  44.  20  cents. 

Beal,  Dr.  W.  J.  Report  of  the  Botanical  De 
partment,  etc.,  University  of  Michigan  Pp.  37. 

Bolton,  Henry  Carrington.  A  Select  Bibliogra- 
phy of  Chemistry,  1492-1892.  Washington : 
Smithsonian  Institution.  Pp.  1212. 

Bottome,  S.  R.  Electricity  and  Magnetism.  A 
Popular  Introduction.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  203. 
90  cents. 

Bradley,  F.  H.  Appearance  and  Reality.  Mac- 
millan &  Co.  Pp.  558.  $1.75. 

Clerke,  Agnes  M.  A  Popular  History  of  As- 
tronomy during  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Lon- 
don :  Adam  and  Charles  Black.  Pp.  573. 

Cleveland,  The  Duchess  of.  The  True  Story  of 
Kaspar  Hauser.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  112.  $1.50. 

Cummins,  W.  F.  Notes  on  the  Geology  of 
Northwest  Texas.  Austin  :  Geological  Survey  of 
Texas.  Pp.  60. 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


855 


Dean,  Bashford.  Report  on  the  European 
Methods  of  Oyster  Culture.  Washington  :  United 
States  Fish  Commission.  Pp.  48,  with  Plates. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  The  American  Scholar, 
Self-Reliance,  Compensation.  American  Book 
Company.  Pp.  108.  20  cents. 

Employer  and  Employed.  Quarterly.  Pp.  16. 
Boston:  George  H.  Ellis.  10  cents;  40  cents  a 
year. 

Fernow,  B.  E.  Report  of  the  Chief  of  the  Di- 
vision of  Forestry  for  1892.  Washington  ;  Gov- 
ernment Printing  Office.  Pp.  64. 

Fitting,  The  Principle  of.  By  a  Foreman  Pat- 
tern Maker.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  313.  $1.50. 

Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston.  Bulletin  of  Publications 
in  the  Modern  Languages. 

Graham,  Douglas.  Recent  Developments  in 
Massage.  Detroit,  Mich. :  George  S.  Davis.  Pp. 
128.  (Physicians1  Leisure  Library.  $2.50  a  year.) 

Grinnell,  George  Bird.  Pawnee  Mythology. 
Pp.  17. 

Harkness,  James,  and  Morley,  ~  rank.  Theory 
of  Functions.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  537. 

Harper,  W.  R.,  and  Castle,  C.  F.  Greek  Prose 
Composition.  American  Book  Company.  Pp. 
127.  75cents. 

Harrinerton,  C.  W.  Report  of  the  Chief  of  the 
Weather  Bureau  for  1892.  Washington:  Govern- 
ment Printing  Office.  Pp.  80. 

Harris,  W.  T.,  Commissioner.  Report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Education,  1889-'99.  Washing- 
ton: Government  Printing  Office.  2  vols.  Pp. 
1724. 

Hawkins,  C.  C.,  and  Wallis,  F.  The  Dynamo; 
its  Theory,  Design,  and  Manufacture.  Macmillan 
&  Co.  Pp.  520. 

Hayes,  M.  H.  The  Points  of  the  Horse.  Mac- 
millan &  Co.  Pp.  38.  $10  50. 

Himes,  Prof.  C.  F.  The  Scientific  Expert  in 
Forensic  Procedure.  Pp.  32. 

Hollick,  Arthur.  Contribution  on  Cretaceous 
Formation  of  Long  Island  and  Eastward.  Pp.  16, 
with  Plates.— Plant  Distribution  as  a  Factor  in 
the  Interpretation  of  Glacial  Phenomena.  Pp.  16. 

Horsford,  E.  N.  and  Cornelia.  Leif  s  House 
in  Vineland. — Graves  of  the  Northmen.  Boston: 
Damrell  &  Upham.  Pp.  40,  with  Plates. 

Imperial  University  of  Japan.  Journal  of  the 
College  of  Science  (Anatomy  of  the  Limproliacese, 
by  Sadahisa  Matsuda).  Pp.  36,  with  Plates. 

Johnston,  W.  J.  Elementary  Treatise  on  Ana- 
lytical Geometry.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  425. 

"  Land,  The,  shall  not  be  sold  forever."  Re- 
print from  Canadian  Methodist.  Quarterly.  Pp.  8. 

MacDonald,  Arthur.  Abnormal  Men.  Wash- 
ington: Bureau  of  Education.  Pp.  445. 

Mach,  Dr.  Ernst.  The  Science  of  Mechanics. 
Chicago  :  Open  Court  Publishing  Company.  Pp. 
534  |2.50. 

Magazine  and  Book  Reference.  Quarterly. 
New  York:  Society  of  Pedagogy.  Pp.8. 

Maginnis,  A.  J.  The  Atlantic  Ferry.  Mac- 
millan &  Co.  Pp.  208.  75  cents. 

Marlatt,  C.  L.  Report  on  Useful  and  Injurious 
Insects,  etc.  Pp.  32.— Report  on  Wine-making  in 
France.  Pp.  60. 

Martin,  H.  T.  Castorologia  (the  Canadian 
Beaver).  Montreal:  William  Drysdale  &  Co.  Pp. 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Bos- 
ton. Description.  Pp.  39.— Annual  Report.  Pp. 
81.— Annual  Catalogue.  Pp.  250. 

Maycock,  W.  P.  Electric  Lighting  and  Power 
Distribution,  Part  III.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp. 
148,  with  blanks.  75  cents. 

Morrow,  J.  T.,  and  Reid,  Thorburn.  Arith- 
metic of  Magnetism  and  Electricity.  Lynn,  Ma—  . 
Bubier  Publishing  Co.  Pp.  145.  $1. 


New  England  Weather  Service.  Bulletin  for 
June,  1893.  J.  W.  Smith,  Director. 

Newton,  Alfred,  and  Gadow,  Hans,  and  others. 
A  Dictionary  of  Birds.  Part  I,  A  to  G.  London : 
Adam  and  Charles  Black.  Pp.  304.  $2.60. 

North  Dakota  Weather  and  Crop  Service. 
June,  1893.  Bismarck.  Pp.  15,  with  Plate. 

Oaepe,  Selections  from.  Book  of  Cosmogony 
and  Prophecy.  Boston.  Pp.  23. 

Riley,  C.  V.  Report  of  the  Entomologist, 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  for  1892. 
Pp.  30,  with  Plates.— The  Yucca  Moth  and  Yucca 
Pollination.  Pp.  60,  with  Plates.— Parasitism  in 
Insects.  Pp.  35.— Various  Papers  on  Lachnosterna; 
A  New  Herbarium  Pest ;  Certain  Peculiar  Struc- 
tures of  Lepidoptera ;  The  Department  of  Agri- 
culture and  Apiculture  ;  The  Elm-leaf  Beetle ; 
Coleopterous  Larvae  ;  New  Species  of  Prodoxidse; 
On  the  Ox  Bot  in  the  United  States.  Pp.  4  to  16 
each. 

Ritchie,  David  G.  Darwin  and  Hegel,  etc. 
Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  285. 

Savage,  R.  H.  The  Passing  Show.  New  York 
and  Chicago  :  F.  Tennyson  Neely.  Pp.  326.  50 
cents. 

Society,  The,  for  Psychical  Research.  Trans- 
actions. June,  1893.  London.  Pp.  234.  3*.  M. 

Stowell,  C.  H.,  Editor.  Food.  Monthly.  New 
York  :  The  Clover  Publishing  Co.  Pp.  48.  20 
cents.  $2  a  year. 

Swinton,  William.  A  School  History  of  the 
United  States.  American  Book  Co.  Pp.  383.  90 
cents. 

Tebb,  William.  The  Recrudescence  of  Lep- 
rosy. London:  Swan,  Souuenschein  &  Co.  Pp 
412. 

Technical  Society  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  Trans- 
actions. San  Francisco.  Pp.  60. 

Thorpe,  F.  N.  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  Washington  :  Bu- 
reau of  Education.  Pp.  450,  with  Plates. 

Thorpe,  J.  E.  A  Dictionary  of  Applied  Chem- 
istry, Vol.  III.  New  York  :  Longmans,  Green  & 
Co  Pp.1038.  $20. 

Topinard,  Dr.  Paul.  L'Anthropologie  aux 
fitats  Unis  (Anthropology  in  the  United  States). 
Paris.  Pp.  48. 

United  States  Geological  Survey.  Report  for 
ISSO-'gO.  2  vols.  Pp.  757  and  395.— Lesquereux's 
Flora  of  the  Dakota  Group.  Pp.  397. — Papers  on 
the  Geology  of  New  Jersay,  by  R.  P.  Whitfield. 
Pp.  402.— Bulletins,  82  to  85,  and  90  to  96  (Correl- 
ative Papers  on  the  Cretaceous,  by  C.  A.  White  ; 
on  the  Eocene,  by  W.  B.  Clark  ;  on  the  Neocene, 
by  W.  H.  Dall  ;  on  the  Newark  System,  by  I.  C. 
Russell ;  Report  of  Work  done  in  Chemistry  and 
Physics,  by  W.  F.  Clarke;  Record  of  North 
American  Geology  for  1890,  by  N.  H.  Dayton  ;  the 
Compressibility  of  Liquids,  by  Carl  Bams  ;  Insects 
from  the  Tertiaries  of  Colorado  and  Utah,  by  S.  H. 
Scudder  ;  The  Mechanism  of  Solid  Viscosity,  by 
Carl  Barus  ;  Earthquakes  in  California  in  181)0 
and  1891,  by  E.  S.  Holden  ;  The  Volume  Thermo- 
dynamics of  Liquids,  by  Carl  Barus). 

United  States  National  Museum  Publications. 
A  New  Species  of  Cyprinoid  Hsb,  by  D.  S.  Jor- 
dan ;  Diatomacete  from  off  Delaware  Bay,  by 
Albert  Mann;  Throwing  Sticks  from  Mexico  and 
California,  by  O.  T.  Mason  ;  The  Gray  Shrike,  by 
Leonhard  Stejneger;  Erian  (Devonian)  Plants, 
etc.,  by  D.  P.  Penhallow;  Report  on  Actiniae,  by 
J.  P.  McMurrich  ;  Fossil  Plants  from  the  Fort 
Union  Group,  Montana,  by  F.  H.  Knowlton. 

United  States  Navy.  Catalogue  of  the  Exhib- 
its in  the  Museum  of  Hygiene,  Medical  Depart- 
ment. Compiled  by  P.  S.  Wales.  Pp.  138. 

Ward,  C.  J.,  Honorary  Commissioner.  Jamaica 
at  Chicago.  Pp.  95,  with  Map. 

Warden,  Florence.  A  Terrible  Family.  New 
York:  International  News  Company.  Pp.  311.  50 
cents. 


856 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


Weld,  L.  G.  A  Short  Course  in  the  Theory  of 
Determinants.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  238. 

Wickeraham,  James.  Tacoma,  Wash.  Is  it 
Mount  Tacoma,  or  Rainier  ?  Pp.  34. 

World's  Columbian  Exposition.  Department 
of  Engineering.  Official  Programme.  Pp.  3;i. 

Wright.  C.  H.,  and  Dewar,  O.,  Editors.  John- 
Hon's  Gardener's  Dictionary.  New  revised  edi- 
tion. Part  II.  Macmillan  &  Co.  Pp.  128.  40 
cents. 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 

Notes  from  the  Madison  Meeting  of 
the  American  Association. — At  the  Madison 
meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  the  pressing  neces- 
sity for  giving  availability  to  the  world's 
wealth  in  scientific  literature  was  discussed. 
In  the  Botanical  Section  was  suggested  the 
desirability  of  a  bibliography  for  botany  such 
as  that  compiled  for  chemistry  by  Prof.  H. 
Carrington  Bolton.  It  was  further  proposed 
that  the  bibliographical  volumes  be  supple- 
mented by  a  serial  index.  In  the  Mechan- 
ical Section  Mr.  C.  Wellman  Parkes,  of  Troy, 
N.  Y.,  outlined  a  weekly  index  to  periodicals 
which  he  promises  to  establish  in  New  York 
with  the  new  year.  During  each  quarter  the 
numbers  will  successively  recapitulate  all  the 
titles  from  the  beginning  of  the  quarter. 
At  the  end  of  the  sixth,  ninth,  and  twelfth 
months  special  numbers  will  recapitulate  all 
the  titles  from  the  beginning  of  the  year. 
The  reclassifications  needed  for  this  index 
are  to  be  rendered  easy  by  adopting  a  ma- 
chine casting  each  title  as  a  solid  line  of 
type  metal. 

Prof.  Bolton's  bibliography  of  chemistry 
is  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
At  the  recent  Congress  of  Librarians  in  Chi- 
cago it  was  stated  that  this  institution  may 
publish  other  similar  bibliographies  for 
which  manuscripts  may  be  prepared  by 
learned  societies.  As  a  good  many  of  these 
societies  have  moderate  funds  available  for 
the  purpose,  and  as  societies  still  more  nu- 
merous could  arrange  for  gratuitous  co-op- 
eration, on  the  plan  of  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  with  its  index  to  period- 
icals, the  impulse  to  organization  seems  to 
be  all  that  is  lacking  in  order  to  supply  a 
crying  need  of  the  times. 

Prof.  Edward  Hart,  of  Easton,  Pa.,  ad- 
verted to  the  importance  of  mechanical  aids 


in  analytical  chemistry.  Balances,  he  said, 
are  now  made  with  short  arms,  and  are  in 
consequence  more  rapid.  They  are  provided 
with  agate  knife  edges  to  resist  corrosion, 
with  aluminum  beams  for  lightness,  with 
better  weights,  with  improved  beam  and  pan 
arrests.  The  torsion  balance,  due  to  Dr. 
Alfred  Springer,  of  Cincinnati,  enables  a 
heavier  load  to  be  weighed  with  greater  sen- 
sitiveness. The  Gibb  ring-burner  much  im- 
proves the  Bunsen  lamp :  it  allows  the  upper 
part  of  a  crucible  to  be  heated  so  that 
liquids  boiling  at  high  temperatures  may  be 
evaporated  without  spattering. 

Prof.  T.  M.  Drown,  of  Lafayette  College, 
first  used,  in  1875  or  1876,  the  crucible  with 
perforated  bottom  which,  reinvented  in  1879 
by  Prof.  F.  A.  Gooch,  with  the  addition  of 
asbestos  felt,  is  invaluable  in  certain  analy- 
ses. Filters  of  paper,  when  unsatisfactory, 
can  be  replaced  by  Gibbs's  sand  filter,  Mun- 
roe's  clay  filter,  and  CarmichaePs  siphon 
filter.  The  chemist  with  recent  years  has 
added  two  metals  to  the  list  from  which  his 
vessels  are  drawn — nickel  and  aluminum. 
In  the  cheap  and  ready  supply  of  reagents, 
which  a  few  years  ago  were  troublesome  to 
make  and  costly  of  purchase,  industry  has 
done  an  important  service  to  research ;  to- 
day hydrogen  dioxid,  bromin,  and  potassium 
permanganate  are  articles  of  commerce  and 
bear  moderate  prices. 

Prof.  E.  L.  Nichols,  of  Cornell  Univer- 
sity, referring  to  the  phenomena  of"  alternat- 
ing currents,  said  that  their  complexity  had 
obliged  the  modern  electrician  to  be  both  a 
mathematician  and  a  physicist.  In  much 
the  same  way  a  generation  ago  the  new  and 
difficult  phenomena  of  cable  telegraphy 
served  to  train  the  men  who  stand  as  pio- 
neers and  chieftains  in  electrical  science. 

Prof.  W.  H.  Brewer,  of  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  speaking  of  stock-breeding,  said  that 
as  long  ago  as  1812  a  thousand  guineas  had 
been  paid  in  England  for  a  short-horn  bull. 
The  Short-horn  Herd-book,  published  in  1832, 
and  the  Stud-book,  yet  earlier,  had  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  science  of  heredity  in 
part  by  proving  that  cross-breeding  induced 
variability.  Within  the  modern  era  the  only 
additions  to  domesticated  animals  have  been 
the  canary  and  the  ostrich. 


POPULAR   MISCELLANY. 


857 


As  showing  how  far  mechanical  and 
chemical  economy  has  saved  labor  on  the 
farm,  Prof.  Brewer  cited  Johnson,  who  esti- 
mated fifty  years  ago  that  ninety  per  cent  of  j 
the  capital  of  the  United  States  was  invested 
in  farming;  to-day  the  proportion  has  fallen 
to  one  third. 

Anthropological  Material. — In  his  anni- 
versary address  as  President  of  the  Anthro- 
pological Institute  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, Prof.  E.  B.  Tylor  remarked  on  the  fear 
felt  by  some  that  one  of  the  main  topics  of 
anthropology  would  before  long  dwindle  or 
disappear.  When  the  savages  and  barbari- 
ans are  disposed  of  by  civilization  or  extir- 
pation, their  anthropological  material  is  more 
or  less  exhausted.  At  present,  however,  this 
is  so  far  from  having  happened  that  the  sup- 
ply is  on  the  whole  better  and  more  plenti- 
ful than  ever.  With  many  tribes,  indeed,  the 
record  is  closed,  as  with  the  Tasmanians, 
those  representatives  of  the  palaeolithic  age 
in  modern  times,  who  can  give  us  few  more 
details  of  the  lowest  known  stage  of  culture 
beyond  those  collected  by  Mr.  Ling  Roth. 
Not  to  give  a  whole  list  of  modern  works,  it 
is  enough  to  say  that  for  minutely  accurate 
accounts  of  uncultured  life,  none  excel  Cod- 
drington's  Melanesians  and  Kubari's  treatise 
on  the  Pelew  Islanders,  and  we  can  only 
regret  that  the  anthropologists  of  past  cen- 
turies were  not  alive  to  the  need  of  such 
minutely  careful  study  of  the  tribes  who 
were  then,  but  are  not  now,  in  a  state  to  be 
thus  studied.  One  class  of  anthropological 
material,  of  which  the  quantity  available  has 
only  lately  been  appreciated,  is  folk  lore. 
When,  fourteen  years  ago,  the  speaker  took 
part  in  founding  the  Folk-lore  Society,  for  the 
preservation  and  publication  of  popular  tradi- 
tions, legendary  ballads,  local  proverbial  say- 
ings, superstitions,  and  old  customs,  and  all 
subjects  relating  to  them,  he  as  little  as  others 
anticipated  how  many  volumes  of  such  matter 
it  would  produce,  or  of  how  great  value  they 
would  be,  as  to  the  main  purpose  of  tracing 
the  development  and  diffusion  of  popular 
tradition  and  fancy,  and  as  to  the  incident- 
al knowledge  of  man  which  is  preserved  in 
them.  Especially  to  students  of  the  develop- 
ment of  ethical  ideas,  folk-lore  studies  are 
exceptionally  valuable,  recording  as  they  do 
in  their  incidents  what  were  the  ideas  on 
VOL,  xuii. — 62 


good  and  bad  actions,  not  indeed  of  the  age 
in  which  the  stories  are  gathered,  but  of  a 
remote  past  kept  thus  in  memory.  Speaking 
of  the  reports  of  investigations  among  the 
Indians  of  Northwest  America,  Prof.  Tylor 
said  it  was  a  ground  of  satisfaction,  in  look- 
ing through  them,  to  feel  that  a  systematic 
account  of  the  anthropology  of  British  North- 
west America  is  to  a  great  extent  completed. 
"Not  that  everything  requiring  record  has 
been  recorded.  Observation  of  rapidly  chang- 
ing native  life  will  still  tax  to  the  extreme 
the  efforts  of  the  anthropologists  of  the 
Canadian  Dominion,  but  it  is  a  great  work  to 
have  the  framework  already  set  up  to  be 
filled  in  future  years." 

Officers  of  the  American  Association.— 

The  next  meeting  of  the  American  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science  is  to  be 
held  August  16  to  22,  1894,  probably  in 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  under  the  presidency  of 
Daniel  G.  Brinton,  of  Media,  Pa.  The  fol- 
lowing are  the  vice-presidents  and  secre- 
taries of  sections  and  general  officers  elect : 
Vice-Presidents :  (A)  Mathematics  and  As- 
tronomy— George  C.  Comstock,  Madison, 
Wis. ;  (B)  Physics— William  A.  Rogers, 
Waterville,  Me. ;  (C)  Chemistry — Thomas 
H.  Norton,  Cincinnati,  Ohio ;  (D)  Mechanic- 
al Science  and  Engineering — Mansfield  Mer- 
riman,  South  Bethlehem,  Pa.  ;  (E)  Geology 
and  Geography — Samuel  Calvin,  Iowa  City, 
Iowa ;  (F)  Zoology — Samuel  H.  Scudder, 
Cambridge,  Mass. ;  (G)  Botany — Lucien  M. 
Underwood,  Greencastle,  Ind.  ;  (H)  Anthro- 
pology— Franz  Boas,  Worcester,  Mass. ;  (I) 
Economic  Science  and  Statistics — Henry  Far- 
quhar,  Washington,  D.  C.  Permanent  Secre- 
tary: F.  W.  Putnam,  Cambridge  (office,  Sa- 
lem), Mass.  General  Secretary :  H.  L.  Fair- 
child,  Rochester,  N.  Y.  Secretary  of  the 
Council:  James  Lewis  Howe,  Louisville,  Ky. 
Secretaries  of  the  Sections  :  (A)  Mathematics 
and  Astronomy — Wooster  W.  Beman,  Ann 
Arbor,  Mich.;  (B)  Physics— Benjamin  W. 
Snow,  Madison,  Wis. ;  (C)  Chemistry— S.  M. 
Babcock,  Madison,  Wis.;  (D)  Mechanical 
Science  and  Engineering — John  H.  Kinealy, 
St.  Louis,  Mo. ;  (E)  Geology  and  Geography 
— William  Morris  Davis,  Cambridge,  Ma->.  , 
(F)  Zoology— William  Libbey,  Jr.,  Prince- 
ton, N.  J. ;  (G)  Botany — Charles  R.  Barnes, 
Madison,  Wis. ;  (H)  Anthropology — Alexan- 


858 


THE  POPULAR    SCIENCE   MONTHLY. 


der  F.  Chamberlain,  Worcester,  Mass. ;  (I) 
Economic  Science  and  Statistics  —  Manly 
Miles,  Lansing,  Mich.  Treasurer:  William 
Lilly,  Mauch  Chunk,  Pa. 

A  Correction. — Owing  to  some  defect,  the 
cut  on  page  459  of  the  August  number  of 
the  Monthly,  intended  to  illustrate  a  peculiar 
form  of  lightning  flash,  fails  to  show  the 


IMPULSIVE  KUSH  DISCHARGE,  SO-CALLED  DARK  FLASHES. 


characteristic  features  of  the  phenomenon 
as  brought  out  in  the  photograph.  We  pre- 
sent herewith  another  cut  which  is  an  excel- 
lent reproduction  of  the  photograph,  and 
with  it  an  explanation  of  the  peculiar  ap- 
pearances observed  in  the  picture. 

The  illustration  herewith  is  to  be  substi- 


tuted for  the  illustration  with  the  same  legend 
on  page  459  of  The  Popular  Science  Monthly 
for  August.  The  flash  was  photographed  by 
the  writer  at  Blue  Hill  Observatory,  and  was 
one  of  the  most  intense  flashes  he  has  ever 
seen.  To  the  eye  it  appeared  as  a  straight 
core  of  dazzling  light,  with  a  jacket  of  lumi- 
nous air  in  diameter  six  or  seven  times  that 
of  the  core.  The  name  "  impulsive  rush  "  is 
from  Dr.  Oliver  Lodge's  classifi- 
cation of  lightning  discharges. 
The  so-called  "  dark  flashes  "  can 
be  distinctly  seen  branching  out 
from  the  core.  Briefly,  these  may 
be  the  result  of  previous  expos- 
ure, and  the  flashes  altogether 
distinct  in  time  and  place ;  or,  a 
reversal  of  a  flash  brought  about 
by  the  glare  from  subsequent  illu- 
minations ;  or,  a  reflection  from 
the  lens  (although  a  plain  view 
lens  was  used),  or  an  absorption 
effect  connected  with  chemical 
change  in  the  gases  of  the  atmos- 
phere. It  is  needless  to  add  that 
the  negative  was  carefully  kept 
from  alteration  or  retouching  of 
any  kind. 

ALEXANDER  McAniE. 

Reasons   for    Emigration. — 

The  conclusion  of  an  inquiry  made 
under  the  direction  of  our  Com- 
missioners of  Immigration  upon 
the  causes  that  incite  immigra- 
tion to  the  United  States  is  that, 
except  in  Russia,  where  emigra- 
tion is  abnormal,  the  primary 
causes  are  the  superior  conditions 
of  living  in  the  United  States,  the 
fewer  hours  of  labor,  the  exemp- 
tion from  the  exactions  imposed 
by  foreign  governments  upon 
their  citizens,  and  the  general 
belief  that  the  United  States  pre- 
sents better  opportunities  for  ris- 
ing to  a  higher  level  than  are 
offered  at  home.  Information  on  these  points 
is  usually  furnished  by  friends  or  relatives 
who  have  preceded  the  intending  emigrants 
and  have  established  themselves  here.  It  is 
estimated  that  nearly  sixty  per  cent  of  the 
immigrants  who  land  in  our  country  come 
on  prepaid  tickets  or  money  sent  by  friends 


POPULAR  MISCELLANY. 


859 


already  here,  and  that  they  in  turn  influence 
a   considerable    percentage   of    immigration 
that  comes  on  tickets  purchased  directly  in 
the  Old  World.      The   prepaid   business   is 
largely  affected  and  increased  by  even  tern-  ; 
porary  improvement  in  our  conditions  here. 
So  far  as  this  class  of  immigrants  is  con-  | 
cerned,  it  argues  against  the  belief  that  exists 
in  the  minds  of  many  of  our  people  that  the 
quality  of  immigration,  as  to  character,  is  j 
inferior  to  that  of  former  years,  as  it  neces- 
sarily follows  that  the  class  who  are  prepaid, 
belonging  to  the  same  families  as  those  who  j 
prepay,  must  be  of  the  same  general  charac-  j 
ter.    This  information  as  to  our  conditions  is  j 
also  supplemented  by  the  large  number  of  j 
persons  who  return  to  their  native  lands  tern-  | 
porarily,   and    whose   improved  appearance,  j 
enhanced  prosperity,  and  statements  to  their 
old  friends  disseminate  the  knowledge  of  the  j 
better  conditions  in  this  country.     A  refer-  j 
ence  to  the  table  of  steerage  passengers  re- 
turning to  all   parts  of   Europe  during  the  j 
year  previous  to  the  making  of  the  report 
demonstrates  the  volume  of  this   business,  j 
Low  passage  rates,  sea  and  inland,  affect  the 
currents  both  coming  and  going.     Generally, 
wherever   the  manufacturing  industries  are 
active  emigration  is  sluggish ;  and  it  is  small 
wherever  the  wages  are  fairly  good  as  com- 
pared with  the  standard  of  wants  and  man- 
ner of  living  of  the  working  people.     In  ad- 
dition to  the  superior  conditions  prevailing 
here,  the  conditions  in  Europe  greatly  affect 
the  outflow.     Short  crops,  industrial  depres- 
sion, social  persecutions,  and  rumors  and  an- 
ticipations of  war  swell  the  tide. 

Prof.  N.  T.  Lnpton. — Nathaniel  Thomas 
Lupton,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Ala- 
bama Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College, 
a  pioneer  in  America  in  teaching  chemistry 
as  a  practical  science,  died  in  Auburn,  Ala., 
June  llth.  He  was  a  native  of  Virginia; 
studied  chemistry  under  Bunsen  at  Heidel- 
berg, worked  with  him  afterward,  and  made 
special  investigations  in  his  laboratory  after  ] 
his  own  fame  had  been  established  in  Amer- 
ica. He  was  engaged  during  a  large  portion 
of  his  life  in  original  research,  at  home,  in 
Mexico,  and  in  Europe ;  was  connected  with 
several  Southern  institutions  of  learning,  in- 
cluding ten  years  at  Vanderbilt  University, 
and  built  up  the  school  of  chemistry  at  Au- 


burn, Ala.  He  was  much  interested  in  other 
sciences  than  chemistry,  particularly  with 
ethnology,  and  contributed  largely  from  his 
Mexican,  Western,  and  Southwestern  re- 
searches to  the  Smithsonian  collection  of 
relics  of  the  Indians  and  mound-builders. 
His  own  collection  of  minerals  and  prehis- 
toric relics  is  extensive  and  interesting.  He 
was  twice  President  of  the  Chemical  Section 
of  the  American  Association,  was  President 
last  year  of  the  Association  of  Official  Chem- 
ists of  the  United  States,  and  was  a  member 
of  several  foreign  scientific  and  other  soci- 
eties. He  was  the  author  of  a  book  on  scien- 
tific agriculture,  and  a  frequent  and  valued 
contributor  to  the  scientific  publications  of 
this  country  and  Europe. 

Copper  Works  of  the  Aborigines.— The 

present  evidence  regarding  the  use  of  cop- 
per by  the  aborigines  of  this  country,  as  re- 
viewed by  R.  L.  Packard,  in  the  American 
Antiquarian,  appears  to  show  that  the  metal 
had  not  passed  its  ornamental  or  precious 
stage  on  the  seaboard  or  in  the  South  at  the 
time  this  continent  was  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  Europe.  It  was  not  part  of  the  na- 
tive equipment,  either,  for  war,  or  hunting, 
or  other  useful  purposes,  and  its  position  in 
the  native  economy  was  not  like  the  notice- 
able part  it  played  in  the  armament  of  the 
Mexicans  and  Central  Americans  of  the  same 
period.  In  the  absence  of  evidence  that  the 
Indians  of  the  United  States  had  any  knowl- 
edge of  smelting,  it  must  be  inferred  that  all 
the  copper  they  possessed  was  found  in  the 
metallic  or  native  state.  There  is  nothing  to 
show  that  they  were  aware  of  the  existence 
of  copper  ore  as  a  source  of  metal.  Xo  re- 
mains of  smelting  places,  or  slag,  or  other 
indications  of  metallurgical  operations  have 
yet  been  found.  The  quantity  of  copper 
which  the  North  American  Indians  possessed 
at  the  time  of  the  discovery,  although  the 
metal  was  diffused  over  a  very  wide  territory, 
was  very  small  as  compared  with  stone. 
This  is  shown  by  the  relatively  small  propor- 
tion of  copper  implements  in  the  principal 
collections,  as  at  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
and  the  Peabody  Museum.  The  larger  num- 
bers are  found  in  Wisconsin,  and  this  is  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  Wisconsin  is 
directly  south  of  the  Keweenaw  district  in 
Michigan  where  the  largest  beds  of  native 


86o 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


copper  occur.  In  these  beds  the  copper  is 
classed  as  stamp  rock,  in  which  the  metal 
is  contained  in  fine  particles  and  is  separated 
by  crushing ;  "  barrel  work,"  or  the  pieces 
of  copper  that  are  large  enough  to  be  de- 
tached from  the  rock  without  stamping,  which 
are  shipped  in  barrels  ;  and  mass  copper,  or 
the  very  large  pieces.  All  this  copper  shows 
as  such  in  the  rock,  and  the  ancient  miners 
had  only  to  follow  down  a  promising  outcrop 
showing  "  barrel  work  "  for  a  few  feet,  and 
hammer  away  the  rock  from  the  copper  to 
secure  the  latter.  When  they  came  upon 
mass  copper  they  were  compelled  to  abandon 
it  after  hammering  off  projecting  pieces,  be- 
cause they  had  no  tools  for  cutting  it  up  and 
removing  it.  Several  instances  of  this  sort 
have  been  found.  The  ancient  mines  were 
not  mines  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  be- 
cause they  were  not  underground  workings, 
but  merely  shallow  pits  or  trenches,  and 
sometimes  excavations  in  the  face  of  the 
cliffs.  At  the  time  modern  mining  began 
they  had  become  mere  depressions  in  the 
ground.  All  these  workings  when  examined 
contained  countless  stone  hammers  or  mauls, 
a  few  wooden  shovels,  remains  of  wooden 
bowls  for  baking,  birch-bark  baskets,  and 
some  spear  or  lance  heads,  and  other  articles 
of  copper.  Opinions  and  evidence  vary  as 
to  the  age  of  the  operations.  Modern  miners 
would  regard  the  whole  system  as  nothing 
more  than  prospecting  work,  and  not  min- 
ing proper,  as  there  were  no  shafts  or  tun- 
nels or  underground  workings. 

Feeding  Value  of  Tree  Leaves. — Exper- 
iments on  the  feeding  value  of  the  leaves  of 
trees,  made  by  M.  C.  H.  Girard,  point  to 
them  as  an  available  source  of  nutriment  for 
cattle,  particularly  in  times  when  hay  and 
grain  are  scarce.  The  author  has  determined 
the  content  of  nitrogenous  matters  in  a  con- 
siderable number  of  species.  It  ranges  from 
eight  per  cent  in  the  willow  and  alder  to 
from  three  to  four  per  cent  in  the  plane, 
birch,  and  pine.  Out  of  twenty-one  kinds 
of  leaves  studied,  nineteen  possessed  more 
nitrogenous  matter  than  meadow  hay,  and 
more  than  half  of  them  were  superior  to  the 
hay  of  the  best  leguminous  plants.  Some  are 
of  extraordinary  richness,  the  common  acacia, 
for  example.  M.  Girard  was  able,  from  his 
analyses  and  from  direct  experience  in  feed- 


ing sheep,  to  draw  the  conclusion  that  the 
leaves  have  a  feeding  value  comparable  to 
that  of  lucern.  They  are  also  superior  in 
the  proportion  of  fat  matters  and  other  car- 
bohydrate principles  to  that  of  water.  Leaves 
taken  from  various  heights  of  the  trees  and 
from  trees  of  various  ages  show  but  little 
variation  in  composition ;  and,  putting  aside 
the  periods  of  youth  and  of  extreme  old  age, 
the  richness  of  the  leaf  in  nutritive  value 
remains  almost  stationary.  Consequently, 
crops  can  be  gathered  during  the  three  sum- 
mer months  ;  and  in  September  the  wood  pro- 
duction of  the  trees  would  not  be  prejudiced. 

Gilbert  White's  Character.— The  Sel- 
borne  Society,  of  London,  celebrated  the 
centenary  of  the  death  of  Gilbert  White, 
June  24th,  by  making  a  pilgrimage  to  Sel- 
borne,  where  the  earl  of  that  ilk  spoke  to 
the  memory  of  White.  He  said  that  the 
impression  which  most  people  had  formed  of 
White  from  his  book  was  that  he  was  a  man 
of  excellent  natural  abilities,  strongly  culti- 
vated, and  of  wide  classical  attainments  and 
accomplishments.  He  was  not  only  an  ob- 
server of  Nature,  but  one  who  prepared  him- 
self for  observation  by  the  best  mental  culti- 
vation. No  one  could  read  his  book  without 
seeing  his  remarkable  faculty  of  observation, 
and  the  constant  aim  at  exactness  and  ac- 
curacy, together  with  a  good  deal  of  humor. 
Nor  could  any  one  help  being  struck  with  the 
modesty  and  simplicity  of  his  character.  His 
simplicity,  which  contributed  a  very  great 
charm  to  the  book,  every  now  and  then  pro- 
duced even  a  sense  of  amusement.  The 
speaker  was  visited,  in  1872,  by  Mr.  W.  M. 
Evarts,  who,  like  most  other  cultivated 
Americans,  was  acquainted  with  White's 
book,  and  had  a  great  regard  for  his  mem- 
ory. One  day,  when  driving,  the  Sussex 
downs  were  pointed  out  to  Mr.  Evarts,  who 
burst  into  laughter,  remembering  a  passage 
in  which  White  referred  to  the  downs  as  "  a 
vast  range  of  mountains."  His  shrewdness 
of  discernment  was  a  most  valuable  gift,  and 
he  loved  all  God's  creatures,  but  perhaps  es- 
pecially birds.  By  this  he  reminded  one  of 
two  great  men.  The  one,  mythical,  was 
Melacampus,  who  rescued  and  brought  up 
some  young  serpents.  One  day,  when  he 
slept,  the  serpents  nestled  round  his  head, 
and  when  he  woke  he  found  he  could  under- 


POPULAR   MISCELLANY. 


861 


stand  the  language  of  birds.     The  other  was  i 
Francis  of  Assisi,  who  was  in  some  measure 
the  forerunner  of  Gilbert  White.     There  was  ; 
a  legend  that  he  so  loved  the  birds  that  they 
flocked  around  him  while  he  preached  ser- 
mons to  them.     The  legend  at  least  showed 
his  love  for  those  creatures  and  his  power 
of  making  them  love  him.     These  character-  | 
istics   of  Gilbert  White  could  be  gathered  j 
from  his  book ;  but  the  picture  was  filled  up 
by  the  mass  of  family  correspondence  which 
had  just  come  to  light.     The  combination  of  i 
simplicity  and  refinement,  the  absence  of  os-  i 
tentation  and  self-consciousness  which  con- 
stituted the  great  charm  of  White's  book 
were  equally  conspicuous  in  his  family  corre- 
spondence and  in  his  every-day  habits.     The 
Earl  of  Stamford,  who  has  been  collecting 
reminiscences  and  unexplored  documents  con- 
nected with  his  great  relative,  White,  said 
that  years   ago   an   old   woman  was   asked 
what  she  remembered  of  him.     She  said  that 
he  used  to  walk  about  the  lanes  tap-tapping 
with  his  cane,  and  stopping  every  now  and 
then  to  brush  the  dust  off  his  shoes. 

Unexplored  .Mountain  Regions. — While 
many  of  the  mountain  districts  of  the  world, 
hitherto  unexplored,  have  been  reached  in  re- 
cent years  by  scientific  mountaineers,  yet, 
excepting  Switzerland  and  the  Pyrenees, 
which  have  been  entirely  explored  by  the 
different  Alpine  Clubs,  there  is  no  chain  of 
mountains,  as  Mr.  Edwin  Swift  Balch  shows 
in  his  essay  on  Mountain  Exploration,  which 
is  as  yet  thoroughly  known  or  perfectly 
mapped  out.  New  Zealand,  though  settled 
and  inhabited  by  Englishmen  for  many 
years,  had  to  wait  till  a  few  years  ago  for 
Mr.  Green  first  to  explore  its  Alps.  The 
Himalayas,  although  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment has  tried  to  map  and  explore  them,  are 
still  in  many  cases  keeping  their  secrets  un- 
til men  shall  come  along  who  know  the  sci- 
ence of  climbing.  Mr.  Graham's  trip  in  the 
Sikkim  ranges  in  1886  showed  conclusively 
how  little  was  known  about  the  Himalayas, 
as  he  has  now  left  us  in  doubt  as  to 
whether  the  two  peaks  which  he  saw  from 
the  top  of  Kabru  were  not  higher  than  Gau- 
risankar.  In  America  there  is  a  large  field 
left  for  mountain  exploration.  Of  the  Sel- 
kirks  we  know  but  little;  St.  Elias  has  not 
been  reached ;  the  Alaskan  ranges  and  Mount 


Fairweather  and  Mount  Cook  are  believed  to 
be  entirely  untouched.  The  Mount  Wrangel 
range  is  hardly  known,  even  by  name,  and 
though  it  is  said  to  have  been  measured  and 
to  be  over  twenty  thousand  feet  high,  we  know 
practically  nothing  about  it  or  its  surround- 
ings. On  the  map  of  the  northern  Rockies, 
north  of  the  Sol  kirks,  we  find  a  bunch  of 
peaks,  called  Mount  Brown  and  Mount  Mur- 
chison,  and  marked  as  being  over  sixteen 
thousand  feet  high.  Of  these  mountains  we 
again  are  in  almost  complete  ignorance, 
though  from  Mr.  Green's  explorations  we 
may  doubt  the  accuracy  of  their  supposed 
altitude.  In  South  America  the  Andes  of 
Pera  and  Chili  are  mostly  still  unascended, 
and  even  Ecuador  has  had  only  one  serious 
exploration,  by  Mr.  Whymper.  Here  is  un- 
explored mountain  country  enough  to  occupy 
our  clubs  several  years. 

Vegetation  of  imeriean  Deserts. — The 

true  sagebrush  of  the  Western  desert  (Arte- 
misia tridentata\  according  to  Prof.  C.  Hart 
Merriam,  begins  with  a  solid  front  along  the 
southern  border  of  the  upper  Sonoran  zone 
and  spreads  northward  over  the  Great  Basin 
like  a  monstrous  sheet,  covering  almost  with- 
out a  break  hundreds  of  thousands  of  square 
miles.  It  is  not  only  the  most  striking  and 
widely  diffused  plant  of  the  upper  Sonora  and 
transition  zones,  but  as  a  social  plant  has 
few  equals,  often  occupying  immense  areas 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  but  the  humblest  and 
least  conspicuous  forms.  Wherever  one 
travels  in  this  vast  region,  the  aromatic  odor 
of  the  sagebrush  is  always  present,  and  some- 
times, particularly  after  rains,  is  so  powerful 
as  to  cause  pain  in  the  nostrils.  In  addition 
to  the  sage,  many  of  the  desert  ranges  sup- 
port a  growth  of  shrubs  and  small  trees  rare- 
ly if  ever  found  in  the  intervening  deserts 
and  plains,  whatever  the  altitude.  The  so- 
called  cedar  (Juniperus  californica  utahensis) 
and  the  piilon  or  nut  pine  (Pimts  monophyttd) 
clothe  the  summits  and  higher  slopes  of 
many  of  the  ranges,  forming  stunted  open 
forests  of  much  beauty.  Mixed  with  these 
are  scattered  clumps  of  bushes  representing 
a  number  of  genera,  most  of  which  bear 
green  foliage  and  handsome  flowers.  Some 
of  the  desert  ranges,  as  the  Funeral  Moun- 
tains, are  too  excessively  hot  and  arid  to 
support  even  those  i'omis  of  vegetation ; 


862 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


others,  as  the  Charleston  Mountains,  push 
their  lofty  summits  into  so  cold  an  atmos- 
phere that  they  obtain  a  covering  of  the  bo- 
real pines  and  firs.  These  higher  mountains, 
when  rising  from  the  lower  Sonoran  deserts, 
present  in  succession  all  the  extratropical 
/ones  of  North  America,  which,  from  their 
close  juxtaposition,  may  be  here  studied  to 
unusual  advantage.  In  ascending  or  de- 
scending such  slopes  the  change  from  one 
zone  to  another  is  quickly  recognized,  and 
the  altitude  of  first  appearance  of  the  various 
new  species  encountered  may  be  recorded 
with  considerable  confidence.  Not  so,  how- 
ever with  the  species  lost,  for,  except  in  the 
case  of  trees  and  such  strikingly  conspicuous 
forms  as  the  yuccas,  some  of  the  cactuses,  the 
creosote  bush  (Larrea),  and  a  few  others,  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  to  detect  the  disappear- 
ance of  species  when  passing  out  of  their 
ranges. 

The  Rattlesnake's  Rattle. — The  idea  that 
the  rattles  of  a  rattlesnake  correspond  with 
its  years  is,  according  to  Dr.  Arthur  Strad- 
ling,  incorrect.  "When  the  little  Crotalus 
is  born,"  this  author  says,  "  its  tail  is  fur- 
nished with  a  single  tip  of  horn,  incapable  of 
producing  any  sound  by  the  violent  vibration 
which  its  owner  nevertheless  communicates 
to  it  when  excited.  In  some  near  relations 
of  the  rattlesnake,  such  as  the  purucncu  of 
Brazil,  this  horny  claw  or  nail  persists 
throughout  life  without  addition  thereto. 
But  in  the  rattlesnakes  proper — and  there 
are  many  species  of  them — two,  and  some- 
times three,  joints  appear  during  the  first 
few  months  of  the  creature's  life ;  then  and 
later  there  is  probably  no  definite  relation 
between  their  number  or  frequency  of  de- 
velopment and  its  age,  though  they  may  be 
proportionate  in  some  measure  to  its  rate  of 
growth.  Broods  of  young  serpents  belong- 
ing to  this  genus  which  I  have  reared  have 
exhibited  great  diversity  in  this  matter ;  so 
much  so,  that  it  has  been  impossible  to  base 
any  calculation  on  obsei'vations  of  the  phe- 
nomena presented  by  them.  The  overlap- 
ping 4  thimbles '  or  cones  of  which  the  rattle 
is  composed  are  thin,  dry,  and  exceedingly 
brittle,  and  in  consequence  the  instrument  is 
easily  broken  off  when  it  has  reached  the 
length  of  from  one  to  two  inches,  though 
longer  specimens  are  occasionally  seen; 


twenty  joints  make  an  exceptionally  big 
rattle.  This  shedding  of  the  rattle  is  in  all 
cases  accidental,  and  is  due  to  external 
causes,  not  a  constitutional  and  periodical 
function  like  the  casting  of  the  skin.  When 
it  breaks  off  at  the  root  or  in  the  middle, 
there  is  generally  no  trace  left  of  a  fracture 
having  taken  place,  as  the  thimbles  are 
all  alike,  and  any  one  forms  a  symmetrical 
termination  to  the  organ.  Whatever  pur- 
pose the  rattle  may  serve  in  the  snake's 
economy — and  its  use  is  still  involved  in 
some  obscurity — it  undoubtedly  does  not  rep- 
resent the  owner's  age,  nor  the  sum  total  of 
his  manslaughter." 

Energy  in  Organic  Evolution.— In  two 

papers,  Mr.  John  A.  Ryder  has  endeavored 
to  demonstrate  the  potency  of  energy  as  a 
factor  in  organic  evolution,  and  to  show  that 
the  form  of  the  hen's  egg  is  determined  by 
mechanical  means  while  the  egg  membranes 
and  shell  are  in  process  of  formation  within 
the  oviduct.  The  development  of  the  figure 
of  eggs  is  regarded  by  him  as  a  purely  dy- 
namical problem,  or  one  in  which  energy 
is  applied  in  a  definite  manner  to  a  mass 
in  statical  equilibrium  within  the  oviduct. 
The  moment  motion  is  set  up  to  propel  the 
egg  through  the  duct  the  forces  operative 
in  determining  the  figure  of  the  as  yet  un- 
formed shell  depend  upon  the  physiological 
activity  and  condition  of  tone  of  the  muscu- 
lar walls  of  the  oviduct. 

Cremation  of  Cholera-dead. — From  a  pa- 
per read  by  Dr.  Robert  Newman  before  the 
Northwestern  Medical  and  Surgical  Society 
of  New  York  in  favor  of  the  cremation  of 
persons  dying  of  cholera,  it  appears  that 
there  are  now  fifteen  crematories  in  this 
country,  and  that  two  thousand  and  seven- 
teen incinerations  took  place  between  188*7 
and  1892,  of  which  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight  were  at  New  York.  The  Earl  Memo- 
rial Crematory,  at  Troy,  is  the  most  costly. 
Thirty-two  active  cremation  societies  are 
scattered  over  the  country.  Nearly  all  those 
who  participated  in  the  discussion  of  the  pa- 
per agreed  with  the  author  as  to  the  impor- 
tance of  cremation  in  cholera.  In  respect 
to  the  objection — the  only  really  important 
and  valid  one  that  has  been  made — that  cre- 
mation facilitates  the  concealment  of  crimi- 


NOTES. 


863 


nal  poisoning,  the  observation  of  an  eminent 
but  unnamed  chemist  was  quoted,  that  al- 
kaloidal  poisons  are  destroyed  by  burial  as 
well   as   bv   cremation,  so  that  the  only  poi-  j 
son  that  would  not  be  discovered  after  crema-  j 
tion  and  which  might  be  detected  after  ordi-  j 
nary  burial  is  arsenic. 

Ecdurance  in  Animals.— The  tradition, 
says  an  English  writer,  which  assigns  to  cer- 
tain animals  a  daring  and  endurance  diffi- 
cult to  match  in  man,  is  so  old,  and  on  the  ; 
whole  so  consistent,  that  it  would  be  im-  j 
possible  to  disregard  it,  even  were  the  facts 
on  which  it  is  based  less  clearly  within  the 
limits  of  ordinary  observation  and  compre- 
hension than  they  are.  It  may  even  be 
doubted  whether  our  measurement  of  ani- 
mal courage  has  yet  been  sufficiently  extend- 
ed, for  there  appear  instances  in  which  the 
acts  of  daring  are  prompted  by  a  sense  of 
obedience,  of  discipline,  and  even  of  duty — 
something  similar  in  kind  to  that  which 
marks  and  distinguishes  the  highest  forms 
of  courage  in  man. 


NOTES. 

AN  English  edition  of  the  Reminiscences 
of  Werner  von  Siemens,  to  which  we  are  in- 
debted for  the  material  of  the  sketch  of  him 
published  in  this  number,  is  now  in  press  and 
shortly  to  be  published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
It  abounds  in  stirring  incidents  and  bright 
anecdotes. 

A  WORLD'S  CONGRESS  OF  EVOLUTIONISTS 
has  been  called  to  meet  in  the  Art  Building, 
Chicago,  September  27th,  28th,  and  29th. 
Morning,  afternoon,  and  evening  sessions 
will  be  held  each  day.  A  carefully  arranged 
programme  of  subjects  has  been  provided 
for  the  discussions.  The  first  subject,  set 
down  for  the  morning  session  of  September 
27th,  is  Constructive  Evolution.  Progress 
of  the  Doctrine  in  Forty  Years.  Its  Present 
Scientific  and  Popular  Status.  Its  Upbuilding 
and  Beneficent  Character.  Other  subjects, 
under  each  of  which  are  several  subheadings, 
furnishing  a  wide  and  varied  scope  for  ex- 
pression by  different  speakers  from  their  re- 
spective points  of  view,  are  Biology  as  re- 
lated to  Evolution  ;  The  Heroes  of  Evolution 
(Darwin,  Spencer,  Wallace,  Haeckel,  Gray, 
Youmans,  etc.) ;  Psychology  as  related  to 
Evolution ;  Sociology,  with  Evolution's  Prom- 
ise for  the  Settlement  of  Social  Problems  and 
the  True  Conservatism  of  Evolution;  Eco- 
nomics as  related  to  Evolution ;  Philosophy 
as  affected  by  Evolution;  Ethics,  the  Moral 


of  Evolution ;  and  the  final  series,  Religion  : 
how  it  is  affected  by  the  Doctrine  of  Evolu- 
tion, Spiritual  Implications  in  all  Progress, 
Materialistic  Speculations  Untenable,  The 
Immanent  and  Transcendent  Power  that 
makes  for  Beauty,  Order,  and  Righteous- 
ness. The  arrangements  for  the  congress  are 
under  the  guidance  of  Dr.  Lewis  G.  Janes, 
James  A.  Skilton,  and  other  persons  of  rep- 
resentative character.  All  friends  of  evolu- 
tion are  invited  to  attend. 

A  WRITER  in  the  London  Spectator  sug- 
gests that,  in  studying  the  intelligence  of 
animals  instead  of  ourselves,  we  should  com- 
pare them  with  men  who  are  more  or  less  in 
the  same  state  of  education  with  them.  He 
lives  in  Bolivia,  in  a  country  close  to  three 
tribes  of  Indians  who  are  more  or  less  sav- 
ages, although  engaged  in  agriculture  of  a 
desultory  kind;  and  he  has  had  it  forced 
upon  him  on  various  occasions  that  the  nobler  • 
animals — such  as  the  horse  and  the  dog — are 
quite  as  capable  of  "  reasoning  "  or  "  think- 
ing "  out  the  ordinary  problems  of  maintain- 
ing their  existence  as  those  savages.  "Of 
the  wild  animals,  many  put  whatever  brain 
power  they  possess  to  '  cunning.'  Again, 
what  is  '  cunning '  ?  Their  cunning  is  very 
similar  to  that  of  the  Indians  of  this  country, 
who  would  rank  high  among  savage  races." 

ACCORDING  to  an  observation  by  C.  Mar- 
gat,  of  the  University  of  Geneva,  when  alu- 
minum, previously  well  cleaned,  is  lightly 
rubbed  with  an  amalgam,  its  surface  becomes 
covered  with  an  arborescence  of  alumina, 
which  can  literally  be  seen  to  grow,  and  in 
the  course  of  half  an  hour  the  forest  may 
reach  the  height  of  a  centimetre.  The  growth 
ceases  on  the  application  of  heat,  to  be  re- 
sumed on  a  new  i-ubbing  with  the  amalgam. 
If  the  forest  growth  is  brushed  away,  the 
surface  of  the  metal  where  the  oxidation  was 
most  rapid  will  be  found  to  have  been  eaten, 
as  if  with  an  acid.  The  mercury  acts  in  some 
way  to  make  the  aluminum  more  amenable 
to  oxidation.  The  experiment  is  more  con- 
veniently performed  with  an  amalgam  than 
with  pure  mercury,  because  the  amalgam  can 
be  powdered  and  brought  into  more  imme- 
diate contact  with  the  aluminum. 

IN  the  investigation  of  the  purity  of  the 
I  ice  supplied  to  Paris,  Lac  Daumesnil  at  Vin- 
cennes,  whence  a  considerable  proportion  of 
the  natural  ice  comes,  has  been  found  to  be 
polluted  by  the  entrance  of  a  sewer  and  by 
an  artificial  stream  from  the  plateau  of  Gra- 
i  velle.     It   is   proposed   to  limit  the  use  of 
this  ice  to  applications,  in  which  it  is  not 
|  brought  into  direct  contact  with  the  artu-lrs 
I  to  be  cooled,  and  to  enforce  the  use  of  arti- 
ficial  ice  got  exclusively  from   spring  water 
I  or  from  river  water  sterili/ed  by  heat,  when 
such  contact  takes  place. 

LAKK  MKMHMIKMAGOU,  on  the  line  be- 
t\\crn  Vermont  and  Canada,  has  been  sub- 


864. 


THE  POPULAR   SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


jected  to  a  hydrographic  examination  by  Mr.  I 
A.  T.  Drummond.  It  is  a  deep-water  lake, 
giving  soundings  of  six  hundred  feet,  and  is 
found  by  Mr.  Drumniond  to  be  also  a  cold- 
water  lake,  giving  bottom  temperatures  in 
August  of  44-75°  Fahr.,  with  the  high  sur- 
face temperature  maintained  for  relatively 
only  a  few  feet ;  beneath  this  depth  the  mer- 
cury falls  rapidly  toward  the  lowest  reading. 

A  WRITER  in  the  Lancet  calls  attention  to 
our  still  persisting  lack  of  practical  knowl- 
edge on  the  hygiene  of  schools,  although  a 
complete  revolution  has  taken  place  during 
the  past  fifty  years  in  our  ideas  relating  to  the 
management  of  children  and  the  methods  to 
be  adopted  in  educating  the  young.  This 
position  of  affairs  seems  to  have  arisen,  not 
from  any  want  of  knowledge  in  sanitary  af- 
fairs, but  rather  from  lack  of  system  in  fol- 
lowing up  the  subject.  We  habitually  in- 
sist that  certain  conditions  shall  be  fulfilled 
before  a  dwelling  house  shall  be  considered 
habitable  or  a  hospital  fit  for  the  reception 
of  patients,  and  in  other  matters,  but  do  not 
as  firmly  stipulate  that  certain  rules  shall  be 
followed  in  the  building  of  schoolhouses. 

A  NUMBER  of  the  plates — so  many  of  them 
being  missing  as  to  preclude  the  formation  of 
couplete  sets — of  Audubon's  Birds  of  Amer- 
ica, are  offered  for  sale  by  Estes  and  Lauriat, 
Boston,  at  largely  reduced  prices.  Of  many 
of  the  plates  but  few  copies  are  in  store,  and, 
the  original  stones  having  been  destroyed,  it 
is  certain  that  no  more  copies  will  be  pub- 
lished. 

VOLUME  V,  No.  2,  of  Insect  Life  is  chiefly 
filled  with  proceedings  of  the  sixth  meeting 
of  the  Association  of  Economic  Entomolo- 
gists, which  was  held  in  connection  with  the 
meeting  of  the  American  Association  at 
Rochester  in  August,  1892. 

METALLURGY  is  tending  to  become  one  of 
the  most  efficient  producers  of  manures  in 
the  world.  Twenty  years  ago,  says  the  Annales 
industrielles,  twenty  thousands  tons  of  phos- 
phoric acid  were  as  poison  to  the  two  million 
tons  of  cast  iron  which  England  produced, 
while  English  ships  were  ransacking  the 
most  distant  regions  of  the  globe  for  phos- 
phoric acid  for  agriculture.  The  basic  pro- 
cess has  been  the  end  of  this  anomaly.  Ap- 
paratus attached  to  the  furnaces  in  Scotland 
for  the  recovery  of  the  ammonia  out  of  the 
furnace  gases  have  furnished  a  new  and  im- 
portant source  of  sulphate  of  ammonia  for 
agriculture. 

A  CURIOUS  method  of  anthropometrical 
measurement  for  the  determination  of  iden- 
tity is  described  by  the  French  Captain  Cu- 
pet  as  in  use  in  southern  Anam.     A  sliv 
of  bamboo  is  placed  between  the  middle  a 
fore  fingers  of  the  left  hand  of  the  person  i 
desired  to  identify,  and  on  it  notches  are  cut 
to  mark  the  base  of  the  nail  and  the  distance 
between  the  phalanges.     The  stick  is  kept, 


to  be  used  as  occasion  requires  when  the 
identity  of  the  person  in  question  is  to  be 
established. 

THE  emerald  mines  of  Muzo,  Colombia, 
are  situated  on  the  Minero  River,  about 
eighty  miles  northwest  of  Bogota,  and  are 
farmed  out  to  a  French  syndicate.  They  are 
situated  in  a  very  rough,  wild  country,  with 
nearly  impassable  roads,  and  are  worked  by 
open  cuts,  with  provision  for  washing  away 
the  debris.  The  rough  stones  are  for  the 
most  part  sent  to  Paris  to  be  cut.  About 
three  hundred  natives  are  employed  at  the 
works,  and  the  yield  is  about  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year. 

THE  advance  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
coal  fields  of  India,  promoted  by  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  of  the  country,  is  great.  The 
centers  of  production,  which  a  few  years 
ago  were  almost  confined  to  Bengal,  have 
been  extended  to  Assam,  the  Punjaub,  the 
central  provinces,  the  Nizam's  territory,  and 
Burmah.  The  survey  has  also  done  much  to 
determine  the  character  of  the  oil  resources 
of  the  country.  The  Government  is  anxious 
to  associate  natives  educated  in  the  country 
with  the  European  officers  in  the  work  of 
original  investigation  and  research ;  but  the 
attempt  has  had  to  be  abandoned  for  the 
present  in  consequence  of  the  difficulty  of 
finding  young  men  suitably  educated  for  such 


OBITUARY   NOTES. 

THE  Rev.  Charles  Pritchard,  D.  D.,  Savil- 
ian  Professor  of  Astronomy  in  the  Universi- 
ty of  Oxford,  whose  death  was  recently  an- 
nounced, was  in  his  earlier  life  a  teacher  in 
the  English  upper  middle-class  schools,  in 
which  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  efforts 
to  exhibit  an  improved  method  of'  education. 
After  thirty  years  of  this  occupation,  he  re- 
tired to  become  an  active  clergyman,  but  in 
1870  was  offered  and  accepted  the  professor- 
ship at  Oxford.  Here  he  secured  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  university  observatory ;  ap- 
plied photography,  before  the  gelatin  plate 
came  into  use,  to  the  moon  and  other  bright 
objects ;  devised  and  used  a  method  of  in- 
vestigating the  magnitude  of  the  brighter 
stars  through  a  process  of  extinction  by 
means  of  a  wedge  of  neutralized  glass ;  visit- 
ed Egypt  to  determine  the  amount  of  atmos- 
pheric absorption ;  studied  the  mutual  proper 
motions  of  the  stars  of  the  Pleiades ;  and 
began  the  investigation  of  the  parallax  of 
stars  of  the  second  magnitude. 

THE  •  aath,  on  August  16th,  is  announced 
°-f  "       an  Martin  Charcot,  of  the  Salpetriere, 
he  eminent  specialist  in  diseases  of 
•rvous  system.     He  was   most   distin- 
0^.     ed  for  his  researches  in  the  field  of  in- 
sanity, hysteria,  hypnotism,  and  of  all  those 
nervous  phenomena  which  have  been  asso- 
ciated by  many  with  magnetic  influences. 


D  EX. 


ARTICLES    MARKED    WITH    AN   ASTERISK    ARE    ILLUSTRATED. 

PAGE 

Aber,  William  M.  Oswego  State  Normal  School  * 51 

Africa,  East,  The  Masais  of.  (Misc.) 574 

African,  East,  Finery.  (Misc.) 574 

"  Pluck.  (Misc.) 138 

Agaves,  The.  (Misc.) 282 

Air,  Solid.  (Misc.) 428 

Alcohol,  The  Discovery  of,  and  Distillation.  P.  E.  M.  Berthelot 85 

Alger,  Miss  Abby  L.  Grandfather  Thunder 651 

American  Association  Meeting,  The,  at  Madison.  (Editor's  Table) 841 

"  u  Notes  from  the  Madison  Meeting  of  the.  (Misc.) 856 

"  "  Officers  of  the.  (Misc.) 857 

Andria,  Alcide  T.  M.  d'.  An  Ethnologic  Study  of  the  Ynruks  * 184 

Animal  Courage,  Paradoxes  of.  (Misc.) 430 

"  Speech,  Studies  of.  E.  P.  Evans 433 

Animals,  Endurance  in.  (Misc.) 863 

"         for  Pets.     (Misc.) ' 280 

"  How  Plants  and,  grow.  M.  Miles 503 

Anthropological  Material.  (Misc.) 857 

Anthropology  at  the  World's  Fair.*  F.  Starr 610 

Apple  Barrel,  Decay  in  the.*  B.  D.  Halsted 76 

Asteroids,  Origin  of  the.  (Misc.) 140 

Australasian  Association,  The.  (Misc.) 712 

Author's  Protest,  An.  (Corr.)  I.  E.  Clarke 410 

Backward  Movement,  A.     (Editor's  Table) 413 

Bacteriological  Processes  against  Disease.     (Misc.) 143 

Benjamin,  Marcus.    Sketch  of  Charles  A.  Joy 405 

Berthelot,  P.  E.  M.     The  Discovery  of  Alcohol  and  Distillation 85 

Binet,  Alfred.     The  Problem  of  Colored  Audition 812 

Boland,  Miss  M.  A.     Scientific  Cooking 653 

Bolton,  Henry  Carrington,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 688 

Books  noticed 125,  268,  415,  554,  702,  845 

Alexander,  James  B.    The  Dynamic  Theory     Ball,  Sir  Eobert  Stawell.    An  Atlas  of  As- 

of  Life  and  Mind,  423.  tronomy,  560. 

Alsop,  P.  C.     Practical  Electric-light  Bandelier,  A.  F.    Documentary  History  of 

ting,  559.  the  Zufli  Tribe,  418. 

Anderson,  Wlnslow.  M.  D.   Mineral  Sprin;        Barnes,  Mary  Sheldon.    Studies  in  Ameri- 

and  Health  Resorts  of  California,  274.  can  History,  277. 

Arkansas.     Geological  Survey.     Vol.  Ill,     Bates,  Henry  Walter.    The  Naturalist  on 

182.  the  River  Amazon,  558. 

VOL.  XLHI. — 63 


866 


INDEX. 


Books  noticed: 

Baye,  Baron  J.  De.  The  Industrial  Arts  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  270. 

Bedell,  Frederick,  and  Albert  Gushing  Cre- 
hore.  Alternating  Currents,  560. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward.    Bible  Studies,  557. 

Bernard,  Henry  Meyners.  The  Apodidse, 
277. 

Blackwell,  Antoinette  Brown.  The  Philos- 
ophy of  Individuality,  558. 

Blyth,  A.  Wynter.  Lectures  on  Sanitary 
Law,  852. 

Boies,  Henry  M.  Prisoners  and  Paupers, 
268. 

Bolles,  Frank.  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp 
Water,  568. 

Bonney,  G.  E.   Electrical  Experiments,  847. 

Booth.  Charles,  Editor.  Life  and  Labor  of 
the  People  in  London.  Vols.  Ill  and  IV, 
561. 

Bottone,  S.  R.  How  to  Manage  the  Dy- 
namo, 710. 

Bowker,  William.  The  Harvest  of  the  Sea, 
419. 

Boyd,  Nelson.    Coal  Pits  and  Pitmen,  132. 

Bradford,  E.  F.,  M.  D.,  and  Louis  Lewis, 
M.  D.  Handbook  of  Emergencies  and 
Common  Ailments,  561. 

Brooklyn  Ethical  Association.  Man  and 
the  State,  710. 

Brown,  A.  J.  Jukes.  The  Student's  Hand- 
book of  Physical  Geology,  275. 

Buckley,  J.  M.  Faith-healing,  Christian 
Science,  and  Kindred  Phenomena,  270. 

Burnz,Mrs.  E.  B.  The  Step-by-step  Primer. 
132. 

Calderwood,  Henry.  Evolution  and  Man's 
Place  in  Nature,  705. 

Carus,  Paul.    Truth  in  Fiction,  564. 

Cheal,  J.    Practical  Fruit  Culture,  134. 

Clarke,  Isaac  Edwards.  Education  in  the 
Industrial  and  Fine  Arts  in  the  United 
States,  181. 

Clercq,  F.  8.  A.  de,  and  J.  D.  E.  Schmeltz. 
Ethnographische  Beschrijving  van  de 
West  en  Noordkust  van  Nederlandsch 
Nieuw-Guinea,  272. 

Colas,  Jules  A.  Poole  Brothers'  Celestial 
Planisphere,  850. 

—Poole  Brothers'  Celestial  Handbook,  850. 

Cree,  Nathan.  Direct  Legislation  by  the 
People,  422. 

Dana,  Mrs.  William  Starr.  How  to  know 
the  Wild  Flowers,  708. 

Day,  David  T.  Mineral  Resources  of  the 
United  States,  852. 

Dean,  Bashford.  Physical  and  Biological 
Characteristic  of  the  Natural  Oyster 
Grounds  of  South  Carolina,  420. 

—A  Report  on  the  Present  Methods  of  Oys- 
ter Culture  in  France,  420. 

Delafield,  .Francis,  M.  D.,  and  T.  Mitchell 
Prudden,  M.  D.    A  Handbook  of  Patho- 
logical Anatomy  and  Histology,  125. 
Densmore,    Emmet,    M.  D.     How   Nature 
cures,  417. 


Dobbin,  Leonard,  and  Jamea  Walker.  Chem 
ical  Theory  for  Beginners,  133. 

Dreyspring,  Adolphe.  The  French  Reader 
on  the  Cumulative  Method,  564. 

Dumble,  Edwin  T.  Report  on  the  Brown 
Coal  and  Lignite  of  Texas,  420. 

Edwards,  William  Seymour.  Coals  and 
Cokes  in  West  Virginia,  421. 

Elliot,  Sydney  Barrington.    Ideology,  276. 

English  Classics  for  Schools,  276. 

Evans,  Elizabeth  E.,  422. 

Evermann,  Barton  W.  Fish-hatching  Sta- 
tions in  the  Rocky  Mountain  Region  and 
Gulf  States,  420. 

Fisher,  A.  K.  Hawks  and  Owls  of  the 
United  States,  852. 

Fouillee,  Alfred.  Education  from  a  Na- 
tional Standpoint,  415. 

Galton,  Francis.    Hereditary  Genius,  559. 

Gore,  J.  Ellard.    The  Visible  Universe,  127. 

Gould,  F.  J.  A  Concise  History  of  Re- 
ligion, 853. 

Hague,  Arnold.  Geology  of  the  Eureka 
District,  423. 

Hart,  Ernest.  Hypnotism,  Mesmerism,  and 
the  New  Witchcraft,  845. 

Havilaud,  Alfred,  M.  D.  Geographical  Dis- 
tribution of  Disease  in  Great  Britain,  423. 

Heaviside,  Oliver.    Electrical  Papers,  560. 

Henry,  A.  J.  Normal  Temperature  Charts, 
by  Decades,  for  the  United  States  and  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  564. 

Herrick,  C.  L.  Mammals  of  Minnesota, 
422. 

Hilgard,  E.  W.  Relations  of  Soil  to  Cli- 
mate, 419. 

Hilton,  John.    Rest  and  Pain,  130. 

Hoblyn,  Richard  D.  A  Dictionary  of  Terms 
used  in  Medicine  and  the  Collateral  Sci- 
ences, 272. 

Hobson,  E.  W.,  and  C.  M.  Jessop.  Ele- 
mentary Treatise  on  Trigonometry,  277. 

Hopkins,  W.  J.  Telephone  Lines  and  their 
Properties,  709. 

Hopkinson,  John.  Original  Papers  on  Dy- 
namo Machinery  and  Allied  Subjects, 
704. 

Houston,  Edwin  J.  Electrical  Measure- 
ments, 703. 

— Electricity  and  Magnetism,  703. 

Howard,  O.  O.    General  Taylor,  269. 

Hudson,  W.  H.  Idle  Days  in  Patagonia, 
704. 

Hutchinson,  G.  W.  Caldwell.  Some  Hints 
on  Learning  to  Draw,  851. 

Hutchinson,  H.  N.    Extinct  Monsters,  556. 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission.  Third 
Annual  Report  on  the  Statistics  of  Rail- 
ways in  the  United  States,  133. 

Jamieson,  Andrew,  An  Elementary  Man- 
ual on  Applied  Mechanics,  559. 

Keenan,  W.  J.,  and  James  Riley.  The 
Transmitted  Word,  710. 

Kirby,  W.  F.  Elementary  Text-book  of 
Entomology,  274. 


INDEX. 


867 


Books  noticed: 

Lea,  A.  Sheridan.  The  Chemical  Basis  of 
the  Animal  Body,  276. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.  The  Political  Value  of 
History,  706. 

Le  Row,  Caroline  B.  Werner's  Readings 
and  Recitations,  854. 

Lodge,  Oliver.    Pioneers  of  Science,  129. 

Loney,  S.  L.  Mechanics  and  Hydrostatics, 
848. 

Lowell,  J.  R.  Conversations  on  Some  of 
the  Old  Poets,  854. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John.  A  Contribution  to  our 
Knowledge  of  Seedlings,  416. 

Lydston,  G.  Frank.  Varicocele  and  its 
Treatment,  276. 

Mahan,  A.  T.    Admiral  Farrngut,  269. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry.    Speeches,  417. 

Manson,  Marsden.  Geological  and  Solar 
Climates,  853. 

Marine  Biological  Laboratory.  Fifth  An- 
nual Report,  419. 

Marshall,  A.  Milnes,  M.  D.  Vertebrate  Em- 
bryology, 702. 

Mason,  Otis  T.  The  Birth^of  Invention, 
562. 

Miles,  Manly.  The  Heredity  of  Acquired 
Characters,  277. 

Minot,  Charles  Sedgwick.  Human  Embry- 
ology, 128. 

Missouri.  Geological  Survey  Report.  Vols. 
II  and  m. 

—A  Report  on  the  HigginsvDle  Sheet,  La- 
fayette County,  564. 

New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira. 
Seventeenth  Year-book,  421. 

Newth,  G.  S.  Chemical  Lecture  Experi- 
ments, 131. 

Nuttall,  George  H.  F.,  M.  D.  Hygienic 
Measures  in  Relation  to  Infectious  Dis- 
eases, 130. 

Palmberg,  Albert.  A  Treatise  on  Public 
Health  .and  its  Applications  in  Different 
European  Countries,  558. 

Pancoast,  Henry  S.  Representative  Eng- 
lish Literature  from  Chaucer  to  Tenny- 
son, 557. 

Partou,  James.    General  Jackson,  269. 

Pattern-maker,  A  Foreman.  The  Principles 
of  Pattern-making,  133. 

Pearce,  Alfred  J.  Longmans'  School  Men- 
suration, 132. 

Peddle,  William.    Manual  of  Physics,  562. 

Peet,  Stephen  D.  The  Mound-builders: 
their  Works  and  Relics.  Vol.  I,  273. 

Pellew,  Charles  E.  A  Manual  of  Practi- 
cal Medical  and  Physiological  Chemistry, 
272. 

Picturesque  Chicago  and  Guide  to  the 
World's  Fair,  854. 

Poyser,  Arthur  William.  Magnetism  and 
Electricity,  559. 

Proctor,  Richard  A.  Old  and  New  Astron- 
omy, 849. 

Quatrefages,  A.  de.  Darwin  et  see  Precur- 
seurs  fran9ais,  556. 


Rafter,  George  W.    The  Microscopical  Ex- 
amination of  Potable  Wa.er,  133. 
Roberts,  R.  D.    The  Earth's  History,  275. 
RoLinson.    New  Primary  Arithmetic,  276. 
— New  Rudiments  of  Arithmetic,  276. 
—New  Practical  Arithmetic,  276. 
Rothwell,  Richard  P.    The  Mineral  Indus- 
try.   Vol.1,  848. 
Sayce,  A.  H.    The  Primitive  Home  of  the 

Aryans,  562. 
Seelye,  Elizabeth  Eggleston.    The  Story  of 

Columbus,  126. 
Shaler,  Nathaniel  S.    The  Interpretation  of 

Nature,  707. 
Song  Budget,  The,  134. 
—Century,  The,  134. 
—Patriot,  The,  134. 
Spencer,  Herbert.  The  Principles  of  Ethics. 

Vol.  II,  554. 
Stebbing,  Thomas  R.  R.      A   History   of 

Crustacea,  703. 

Styx.    Hermetic  Philosophy.   Vol.  Ill,  853. 
Swank,  James  M.    Twenty  Years  of  Prog- 
ress in  the  Manufacture  of  Iron  and  Steel 
in  the  United  States,  419. 
Swift,  Morrison  L.    Is  it  Right  to  rob  Rob- 
bers ?  854. 
Talmage,   James   E.      Domestic    Science, 

130. 
Taussig,  F.  W.    The  Silver  Situation  in  the 

United  States,  709. 
Texas  Geological  Survey.     Third  Annual 

Report,  421. 
Thompson,  Edward  Maunde.    Handbook  of 

Greek  and  Latin  Palaeography,  850. 
Thompson,  Edward  P.    How  to  make  In- 
ventions, 848. 
Thompson,  Herbert  M.    The   Theory   of 

Wages  and  its  Application,  416. 
United  States  Fish  Commission.    Bulletin, 

Vol.  X,  853. 
United  States  Geological  Survey.    United 

States  Relief  Map,  563. 
United  States  National  Museum.    Proceed- 
ings, 562. 
—Report,  851. 
Usher,  J.  E.,  M.  D.     Alcoholism  and  its 

Treatment,  422. 

Vogel.  E.    Practical  Pocketbook  of  Pho- 
tography, 274. 
Waltcn,  John.  Mollusca  of  Monroe  County, 

421. 

Whiting,  Charles  E.    The  Complete  Musi- 
cal Reader,  134. 

Who  ?  When  ?  and  What  ?  563. 
Williams,  Montague  S.  Monier,  Winter  R. 
Pidgeon,  and   Arthur   Dryden.     Figure 
Skating,  Simple  and  Combined,  133. 
Willink,  Arthur.    The  World  of  the  Un- 
seen, 422. 
Winchell,   Horace   V.    Iron   Ores   of   the 

Mesabi  Range,  419. 
Wright,  J.    Horticulture,  708. 
Ziehen,  Theodor.    Introduction  to  Physio- 
logical Psychology,  131. 


868  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Borneo,  North,  The  Jagir  Duseens  of.     (Misc.) 427 

Borodine,  N.     The  Ural  Cossacks  and  their  Fisheries* 767 

Brain,  Human,  Structural  Plan  of  the.*    0.  S.  Minot 372 

Branner,  John  0.     The  Lip  and  Ear  Ornaments  of  the  Botocudus* 753 

Breath  Figures.     (Misc.) 136 

Oattell,  James  McKeen.     The  Progress  of  Psychology 770 

Celluloid  Button,  The  Danger  of  the.     (Misc.) 283 

Ceremonial  Use,  The,  of  Tobacco.     J.  Hawkins 173 

Children  and  Flowers.    (Misc.) 137 

u         Cruelty  to.     (Misc.) 717 

Children's  Questions 238 

Chinese  Naval  College,  A.     (Misc.) ". 427 

"      Newspapers.     (Misc.) 571 

Cholera,  Origin  of.    (Misc.). . 285 

'•        The  Comma  Bacillus,  and  Sanitation.     (Misc.). 137 

"        The  Pilgrim  Path  of.*    E.  Hart 634 

Civic  Duty.     (Editor's  Table) 699 

Clarke,  Henry  L.     A  Characteristic  Southwestern  Plant  Group  * 786 

Clarke,  I.  Edwards.     An  Author's  Protest.     (Corr.) 410 

Claypole,  E.  W.     Major  Powell  on  "Are  there  Evidences  of  Man  in  the  Gla- 
cial Gravels?  "     (Corr.) 696 

Color  Changes,  The,  of  Frogs.*    C.  M.  Weed 490 

"     of  Birds,  Evolution  of  the.     (Misc.) 283 

Colored  Audition,  The  Problem  of.     A.  Binet 812 

Communities,  Exclusive.     (Misc.) 137 

Consumption  at  Davos  Platz.     (Misc.) , 572 

Conventionalities,  The  Reasons  of.     (Misc.) 570 

Cooking,  Scientific.     M.  A.  Boland 653 

Copper  in  the  United  States.     (Misc.) 425 

"       Works  of  the  Aborigines.     (Misc.) 859 

Correction,  A.*     (Misc.) 858 

Cremation  of  Cholera-dead.     (Misc.) 862 

Crime  increasing,  Is  ? 399 

Criminal  Festivals.     G.  Ferrero > . .  758 

"  Crocodile  Tears/'     (Misc.) 714 

Crystallization  of  Metallic  Oxides.     (Misc.) 574 

Customs,  East  Central  African.     J.  Macdonald 240 

"          Funeral,  of  the  Haida  Indians.     (Misc.) 568 

Davies,  N.  E.  Yorke.     Why  Grow  Old? 226 

Dead,  The  Company  of  the.     (Misc.) 566 

Death  in  Battle,  The  Phenomena  of.     G.  L.  Kilmer 196 

Delbceuf,  J.     The  Psychology  of  Lizards 682 

Deserts,  American  and  African.     (Misc.) 141 

"       Vegetation  of.     (Misc.) 861 

Dietary  for  the  Sick.    D.  Duckworth Ill 

Duckworth,  Sir  Dyce,  M.  D.     Dietary  for  the  Sick Ill 

Eastlake,  W.  Delano.     Japanese  Home  Life.* 1 

"  Moral  Life  of  the  Japanese* 327 


INDEX.  869 

PAGE 

Eaton,  Frank  IT.     The  Bay  of  Fundy  Tides  and  Marshes 250 

Economics,  Sound.     (Misc.) 428 

Education  and  Selection.     A.  Fouillee, 349 

"         Sound  Words  on.     (Editor's  Table) 121 

Electricity  at  the  World's  Fair.*    0.  M.  Lungren 721 

Practical,  Progress  in.     (Misc.) 286 

Emigration,  Reasons  for.     (Misc.) 858 

Energy  in  Organic  Evolution.     (Misc.) 862 

Ethnologic  Study,  An,  of  the  Yuruks.*     A.  T.  d'Andria 184 

Evans,  E.  P.     Modern  Miracles 192 

Studies  of  Animal  Speech 433 

Explosion  of  Kitchen  Boilers.     (Misc.) 712 

Fans,  Early.     (Misc.) f 140 

"      Manufacture  of.    (Misc.) 139 

Farmer,  The,  How  Science  is  helping.     C.  S.  ^lumb 100 

Fashions,  Origin  of.     (Misc.) 429 

Fauna,  Curious,  of  La  Plata.    (Misc.) 139 

Feeding  Value  of  Tree  Leaves.     (Misc.) 860 

Fernald,  Frederik  A.     Household  Arts  at  the  World's  Fair 803 

Ferrero,  Guillaume.     Criminal  Festivals . 758 

Fire,  The,  of  Incandescent  Lamps.     (Misc.) ' 571 

Fisheries,  The  Ural  Cossacks  and  their.*    N.  Borodine 767 

Floral  Festivals.     (Misc.) 426 

Folk  Lore  of  the  Kootenay  Indians.     (Misc.) 279 

"        Study  in  America.*    L.  J.  Vance 586 

Folsom,  J.  W.    Adaptations  of  Seeds  and  Fruits 218 

Fossil  Forests  of  the  Yellowstone.*    S.  E.  Tillman 301 

Fossils,  Preservation  of  Leaves  as.     (Misc.) 136 

Fouillee,  Alfred.     Education  and  Selection 349 

Fox,  William  J.     Some  Remarkable  Insects.* 527 

Game,  A  Whipping.     (Misc.) 430 

Game,  Large.     (Misc.) 566 

Geikie,  Sir  Archibald,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 257 

Geological  Exploration,  American,  Tribute  of  the  French  Academy  to 95 

Geology,  Unsolved  Problems  in.     (Misc.) 718 

Ghosts,  The  "  Savagery  "  of  believing  in.     (Editor's  Table) 415 

Glacial  Gravels,  Are  there  Evidences  of  Man  in  the?    J.  W.  Powell 316 

"        Major  Powell  on  "Are  there  Evidences  of  Man  in  the? 

(Corr.)     E.  W.  Claypole 696 

"      Man  in  Ohio,  Evidences  of.*    G.  F.  Wright 29 

"      Moraine,  the  Pennsylvania,  The  Tracing  of.     (Corr.)     Mrs.  J.  F. 

Lewis 411 

"      Periods,  Number  of.    (Misc.) 135 

Great  Work,  A,  concluded.     (Editor's  Table) 552 

Groff,  G.  G.     Honey  and  Hoaey  Plants 545 

Growth  of  Boys  and  Girls,  Facts  about.     (Misc.) 573 

Guthrie,  Frederick.     Teaching  Physics 388 

Gypsy  Moth,  Fighting  the.     (Misc.) 716 


8  7o  INDEX. 


Hair,  Cleansing  Function  of  the.    (Misc.)  ................................  431 

Halsted,  Byron  D.     Decay  in  the  Apple  Barrel  *  .........................  76 

Hart,  Ernest.     The  Pilgrim  Path  of  Cholera*  ............................  634 

"                The  Revival  of  Witchcraft  ...........................  206,  516 

Hawkins.  John.    The  Ceremonial  Use  of  Tobacco  ........................  173 

Heat  Phenomena  of  the  Diamond.     (Misc.)  ..............................  567 

Honey  and  Honey  Plants.     G.  G.  Groff  ................................  545 

"Hot  Waves,"  Origin  of.     (Misc.)  ......................................  139 

Household  Arts  at  the  World's  Fair.     F.  A.  Fernald  ......................  803 

Humane  Ideas  and  Feelings,  The  Cultivation  of.     W.  Mills  ................  46 

Hygienic  Value  of  the  Bicycle.     (Misc.)  .................................  714 

Ice,  Impurities  in.     (Misc.)  ............................................  138 

lies,  George.     Success  with  Scientific  and  other  Meetings  .................  463 

Index,  Our  New.     (Editor's  Table)  .....................................  844 

Indians,  Northwestern,  Some  Characteristics  of  ..........................  823 

Indo-Chma.    (Misc.)  .................................................  713 

Insane,  The  Duty  of  the  State  to  the.     A.  Macfarlane  .....................  741 

Insects,  Some  Remarkable.*    W.  J.  Fox  ..........  ................  !  .....  527 

Intellectual  Work,  Vitality  in.     (Misc.)  ................................  713 

Irrigation  in  the  Arid  States.*     C.  H.  Shinn  .............................  145 

Jackman,  Wilbur  S.     Food  of  the  Garter  Snake.     (Corr.)  .................  265 

Japanese  Home  Life.*    W.  D.  Eastlake  ..................................  1 

"       Moral  Life  of  the.*    W.  D.  Eastlake  ...........................  327 

Johnson,  Samuel  William,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait)  ....................  117 

Joy,  Charles  A.,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait).  .  ...........................  405 

Kilmer,  George  L.     The  Phenomena  of  Death  in  Battle  ...................  196 

Kropotkin,  Prince.     Recent  Science  ................................  391,  622 

Language,  The  Whistled,  of  the  Canary  Islands.     (Misc.)  ..................   142 

Lea,  Henry  Charles.     The  Spanish  Inquisition  as  an  Alienist  .............  289 

Learn  and  Search.     R.  Vircho  w  ........................................  440 

•Leaves  and  Roots,  Relations  of.     (Misc.)  ................................   279 

Letourneau,  Charles.     Origin  of  Literary  Forms  ..........................   673 

Lewis,  Mrs.  Julia  F.  The  Tracing  of  the  Pennsylvania  Glacial  Moraine. 

(Corr.)  ......................................................   411 

Life,  Hurry  and  the  Chance  of.     (Misc.)  .................................  567 

Lightning,  Protection  from.*     A.  McAdie  ...............................   453 

Literary  Forms,  Origin  of.      0.  Letourneau  ..............................   673 

Littlehales,  G.  W.  Growth  of  our  Knowledge  of  the  Deep  Sea  ............  89 

"  Why  a  Film  of  Oil  can  calm  the  Sea  *  .................  494 

Lizard,  Precautions  against  the.      (Misc.)  ...............................   284 

Lizards,  The  Psychology  of.     J.  Delbceuf  ......................  ..........   682 

Long,  J.  H.     Evil  Spirits  ..............................................   357 

Lungren,  Charles  M.     Electricity  at  the  World's  Fair  *  ...........    .......   72  1 

Lupton,  Prof.  K  T.     (Misc.)  ...........................................   859 

Lusk,  Graham.  The  Material  View  of  Life  and  its  Relation  to  the  Spiritual..  533 


INDEX.  871 

PAGE 

Me Adie,  Alexander.     Protection  from  Lightning  * : 453 

Macdonald,  James.      East  Central  African  Customs 240 

Macfarlane,  Andrew,  M.  D.     The  Duty  of  the  State  to  the  Insane 741 

Mantegazza,  Paolo,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 549 

Mars,  The  Channels  of.     (Misc.) 281 

Material  View,  The,  of  Life  and  its  Relation  to  the  Spiritual.     G.  Lusk 533 

Meetings,  Scientific  and  Other,  Success  with.     G.  lies  . . . .. 463 

Mercer,  H.  0.     Prehistoric  Jasper  Mines  in  the  Lehigh  Hills* 662 

Miles,  Manly.     How  Plants  and  Animals  grow 503 

Mills,  Wesley.     The  Cultivation  of  Humane  Ideas  and  Feelings 46 

Minot,  Charles  Sedgwick.     Structural  Plan  of  the  Human  Brain  * 372 

Miracles,  Modern.     E.  P.  Evans 192 

Misery,  Aids  to.     (Editor's  Table) 839 

Moral  Evolution.     (Editor's  Table)  ...    124 

Morocco,  Life  in.     (Misc.) 285 

Mountain  Regions,  Unexplored.     (Misc.) 861 

"         Scenery,  Contrasts  in.     (Misc.) 281 

"  Natural  Selection,"  The  Inadequacy  of.     H.  Spencer : 21,  162 

Obituary  Notes. — Axel  Wilhelmovitch  Gadolin,  Nikolai  Ivanovitch  Koksha- 

roff,  Francois  van  Rysselberghe,  Henry  F.  Blackford.  144 

F.  O.  Morris 288 

Ludwig  Lindenschmit,  Alphonse  Louis  Pierre  Pyramus  de 

Candolle 432 

•   T.  Wolle,  Giuseppe  Antonio  Pasquale,  Karl  Semper 720 

Charles  Pritchard,  Jean  Martin  Charcot 864 

Ocean,  Derelicts  on  the.     (Misc.) 713 

Oil,  Why  a  Film  of,  can  calm  the  Sea.*     G.  W.  Littlehales 494 

Old,  Why  Grow  ?     N.  E.  Yorke-Davies 226 

Orchards,  Protection  of*  against  Frost.      (Misc.) 138 

Ornaments,  The  Lip  and  Ear,  of  the  Botocudus.*     J.  C.  Branner. 753 

Oswego  State  Normal  School.*     W.  M.  Aber 51 

Parental  Discipline,  The  Limits  of.     (Misc.) 715 

Pasteur's  Seventieth  Birthday.     (Misc.) 140 

Perfumes,  Coal-tar.      (Misc.) 425 

Photographing  Savages.      (Misc.) 570 

Plant  Group,  A  Characteristic  Southwestern.*    H.  L.  Clarke 786 

Platinum  and  its  Sources.     (Misc.) 575 

Plumb,  Charles  S.     How  Science  is  helping  the  Farmer 100 

Poor,  Private  Relief  of  the.     H.  Spencer 307 

Powell,  J.  W.     Are  there  Evidences  of  Man  in  the  Glacial  Gravels? 316 

Prehistoric  Jasper  Mines  in  the  Lehigh  Hills.*      H.  C.  Mercer 662 

"          Jeweled  Teeth.     (Misc.) 569 

Prisons,  Reformatory,  and  Lornbroso's  Theories.     H.  Zimmern 598 

Psychology,  The  Progress  of.    J.  M.  Cattell 779 

Rattlesnake's  Rattle,  The.     (Misc.) 862 

River's  Character,  Factors  of  a.     (Misc.) 282 


872  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Schooling,  Excessive.     (Misc.) 429 

Schools,  Elementary,  Science  in.     (Misc.) 716 

"       Spinal  Curvature  in.     (Misc.) 280 

Science,  Recent.    Prince  Kropotkin 391,  622 

Scientific  Alliance,  The.     (Editor's  Table) 122 

a        Controversy,  Amenities  of.     (Misc.) 281 

"        Meetings,  The,  at  Madison,  Wis.      (Misc.) 565 

Sea,  The  Deep,  Growth  of  our  Knowledge  of.     G.  W.  Littlehales 39 

Sealing  in  the  Antarctic 530 

Seeds  and  Fruits,  Adaptations  of.     J.  W.  Folsom 218 

Self-purification.     (Misc.) 568 

Shinn,  Charles  Howard.     Irrigation  in  the  Arid  States* 145 

Siemens,  Werner  von,  Sketch  of.     (With  Portrait) 831 

Silver,  Why,  ceases  to  be  Money.     F.  W.  Taussig 577 

Sirius  and  its  Companion.      (Misc.) 285 

Slates,  Qualities  of.     (Misc.) 139 

Snake,  the  Garter,  Food  of.     (Corr.)     W.  S.  Jackman 265 

Snakes,  Young,  Behavior  of.     (Misc.) 284 

Social  Problems.     (Editor's  Table) 266 

Spanish  Inquisition,  The,  as  an  Alienist.     H.  C.  Lea 289 

Spencer,  Herbert.     The  Inadequacy  of  "  Natural  Selection  " 21,  162 

"  "  Private  Relief  of  the  Poor 307 

"  "  Professor  Weismann's  Theories 473 

Spirits,  Evil.    J.  H.  Long '. 357 

Starr,  Frederick.     Anthropology  at  the  World's  Fair  * 610 

"  "  Sketch  of  Paolo  Mantegazza  549 

Steamboats  on  Long  Island  Sound.    (Misc.) 717 

Steamer,  The  First  Transatlantic.     (Corr.)      F.  C.  Wurtele 265 

Superstitions  about  Snakes.     (Misc.) 717 

u  concerning  the  "  Black  Devil."     (Misc.) 426 

"  East  African.     (Misc.) 569 

Taussig,  F.  W.     Why  Silver  ceases  to  be  Money 577 

Teaching  Physics.     F.  Guthrie 388 

Telautograph,  The.     (Misc.) 278 

Telephotography.     (Misc.) 431 

Thunder,  Grandfather.     A.  L.  Alger 651 

Thunderstorm,  The  Critical  Point  in  a.     (Misc.) 282 

Tides  and  Marshes,  The  Bay  of  Fundy.     F.  H.  Eaton 250 

Tillman,  Samuel  E.    Fossil  Forests  of  the  Yellowstone  * 301 

Trees,  Willow,  Growth  of.     (Misc.) 427 

Yance,  Lee  J.     Folk-lore  Study  in  America  * 586 

Yarigny,  C.  de.     American  Woman,  The 383 

Virchow,  Rudolph.     Learn  and  Search 440 

Water,  a  Polluted,  What  constitutes  ?    (Misc.) 142 

Waterworks,  Mongol.     (Misc.) 713 

Weed,  Clarence  M.     The  Color  Changes  of  Frogs* 490 

Weismann's,  Prof.,  Theories.     H.  Spencer 473 


INDEX.  873 


PAGE 


Whirlpools,  The,  of  Charybdis  and  Scylla.     (Misc.) 572 

White's,  Gilbert,  Character.     (Misc.) 860 

Wind  Effects.     (Misc.) 141 

Witchcraft,  The  Revival  of.    E.  Hart 206,  516 

Witch  hazel,  Paradoxes  of  the.     (Misc.) 573 

Woman,  The  American.      0.  de  Varigny 383 

Words,  Psychology  of  Some.     (Misc.) 428 

Wright,  G.  Frederick.     Evidences  of  Glacial  Man  in  Ohio  * 29 

"       Prof.,  The  Attack  on.     (Editor's  Table) 412 

Wurtele,  F.  C.     First  Transatlantic  Steamer.     (Corr.) 265 

Zimmern,  Miss  Helen.     Reformatory  Prisons  and  Lombroso's  Theories 598 


END    OF    VOL.    XLIII. 


VOL.  XLIIL]  ESTABLISHED  BY  EDWARD  L.  YOUMANS.  [No.  6. 

POPULAR '*  SCIENCE 
MONTHLY.  (M,  ,b 

(Public  Lift 

OCTOBER,  1893. 

EDITED   BY  WILLIAM  JAY  YOUMANS. 

C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S  .  ,.AOE 

I.  Electricity  at  the  World's  Fair.    I.    By  C.  M.  LUNGREN.     (Illus.).  721 
II.  The  Duty  of  the  State  to  the  Insane.     By  Dr.  A.  MACFA.RLANE.  .   741 

III.  The  Lip  and   Ear  Ornaments  of  the  Botocudus.      By  JOHN   C. 

BRANNER,  Ph.  D 753 

IV.  Criminal  Festivals.     By  M.  GUILLAUME  FERRERO. 758 

V.  The  Ural  Cossacks  and  their  Fisheries.      By  Dr.  N.  BORODINE. 

(Illustrated.) 767 

VI.  The  Progress  of  Psychology.     By  Prof.  JAMES  McK.  CATTELL.  .  .  779 
VII.  A  Characteristic   Southwestern   Plant   Group.      By  HENRY  L. 

CLARKE.     (Illustrated.) 786 

VIII.  Household  Arts  at  the  World's  Fair.     By  F.  A.  FERNALD 803 

IX.  The  Problem  of  Colored  Audition.     By  M.  ALFRED  BINET 812 

X.  Some  Characteristics  of  Northwestern  Indians 823 

XL  Sketch  of  Werner  von  Siemens.     (With  Portrait.) 831 

XII.    Editor's   Table:    Aids  to  Misery.— The  American  Association  Meeting  at  Madi- 
son.— Our  New  Index •> 839 

XIII.  Literary  Notices 845 

XIV.  Popular  Miscellany 856 

XV.  Notes 863 

XVI.  Index  to  Vol.  XLIII..  .   865 


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LETTERS  FROM  THE  WORLD'S  GREATEST  PIANISTS, 
VON   BULOW.  D'ALBERT. 

They  BOTH  DECLARE  the  KN  A   BE  the  BE8T  Pianos  inAmerica- 


VON   BULOW'S   LETTER, 

AFTEE 
CONCERT    TOUR,   1890. 


To  WM.  KNABK,  Esq.,  Baltimore. 

Dear  Sir;  My  renewed  and  by  more  use- 
under  aggravating  circumstances,  as  bad  health 
and  tiresome  traveling— enlarged  experience  qf 
your  Pianos  this  (second  and  last  transatlantic) 
season  has  throughout  confirmed  myself  in  the 
opinion  I  expressed  la*t  year,  viz. :  That  sound 
and  touch  of  the  Knabe  Pianos  are  more  sympa- 
thetic to  my  ears  and  hands  than  sound  and 
touch  of  any  other  Pianos  in  the  United  States. 
As  I  met  with  frequent  opportunities  of  estab- 
lishing comparisons  between  the  Knabe  Pianos 
and  instruments  Qf  realizing  or  would-rivaliz- 
ing  producers,  I  dare  now  add  that  I  declare 
them  the  absolutely  best  in  America.  With  sin- 
cere regards, 

Yours  truly, 

DR.  HANS  VON  BULOW. 
Hamburg,  21th  May,  1890. 


EUGEN   D'ALBERT'S   LETTER 

TO 

WM.    KNABE    &    CO. 


(Translated  from  the  German.) 


During  my  sojoirn  here  1  had  frequent 
opportunities  to  make  myself  acquainted  with 
the  Knabe  Pianos,  and  from  fullest  conviction 
1  declare,  them  to  be  the  best  Instruments  of 
America.  Should  I  return  here  for  artistic  pur- 
poses— which  may  be  the  case  veiy  soon — I  shall 
most  certainly  use  the  pianos  of  this  celebrated 
make.  I  give  this  testimordal  with  pleasure, 
voluntarily,  and  entirely  unsolicited  for  by  the 
house  of  Knabe. 

EUGEN  D"  ALBERT. 
Fete  York,  May  16,  1890. 


OR  AND,  UPRIGHT 


PIANOS 


AND    SQUARE. 


BALTIMORE,  22-24  W.  Baltimore  St,  NEW  YORK,  148  Fifth  Ave. 

"WASHINGTON,  817  Pennsylvania  Avenue. 


"The 
Pearl 
of 
Purity." 

The   best 
sparkling   Table 
Water      in    the 
world.  T  be  only  water 
bottled   with   its    own 
natural  gas  just  as  it  Hows 
from  the  spring,  spouting  up 
through  Itt'i  feet  of  solid  rook. 


From  it  in 
all  its  purity 
and    without 
exposure  to  t  he  air. 


.M.V..  a  marvel  of  life  and 
delight  to  the  most  exacting 
taste.     It  beats  world  1 


ARE  YOU 
USING  IT? 


FORTY-EIGHTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF  THE 

NEW  YORK  LIFE  INS.  Co. 

Office:   346  &  348  Broadway,  New  York. 

JANUARY  i,  1893. 

This  is  the  only  Company  holding  an  Official  Certificate  of  Examination,  of  recent  date,  from 
the  State  Insurance  Department.  The  Assets,  Accounts,  and  Surplus  to  Policy-holders  have- 
been  certified  to  under  the  seal  of  the  State  by  the  Insurance  Superintendent. 

ASSETS. 

Real  Estate $12,531,016  75 

Stocks  and  Bonds 86,680,177  51 

Bonds  and  Mortgages 24,236,785  51 

Loans  secured  by  collaterals 3,916,000  oo 

Premium  Loans 1,096,850  03 

Cash  in  Office  and  in  Banks  and  Trust  Companies 4,201,283  63 

Interest  and  Rents  due  and  accrued 971,810  14 

Net  Amount  of  uncollected  and  deferred  Premiums 3,865,275  37 

TOTAL  ASSETS $137,499,198  99 

LIABILITIES. 

Reserve,  or  Value  of  outstanding  Policies $119,075,888  oo 

Other  Liabilities 1,618,362  89 

Total  Liabilities $120,694,250  89 

Surplus,  being  the  same  amount  which  will  be  shown  to  be 
the  Company's  Surplus  by  the  Annual  Report  of  the 
New  York  State  Insurance  Department  as  of  Decem- 
ber 31,  1892 $16,804,948  10 

INCOME. 

Total  Premium  Income $25,040,113  93 

Interest,  Rents,  etc.. , 5,896,476  90 


Total  Income $30,936,590  83 

DISBURSEMENTS. 

Losses  paid ,\ $7,896,589  29 

Endowments  paid 1,114,301  99 

Annuities,   Dividends,  Surrender  Values,  etc 4,984,12105 

Total  paid   Policy-holders $13,995,01233 

Commissions 4,178,316  60 

Agency  Expenses,   Physicians'  Fees,  Advertising  and  Printing 1,851,246  18 

Taxes,  Salaries,  and  other  Expenses '. 1,629,715  65 

Total   Disbursements $21,654,290  76 

Number  of  Policies  issued  during  1892,  66,259.  New  Insurance,  $173,605,070. 

Total  number  of  Policies  in  force  January  i,   1893,  224,008.  Amount  at  Risk,  $689,248,629. 

NOTE  AS  TO  STATEMENT.— The  above  Statement  corresponds  in  all  respects  with 
the  Official  Report  of  the  Company  as  it  will  be  published  by  the  State  Insurance  Depart- 
ment. No  Assets,  not  acceptable  under  the  law  of  the  State,  or  the  Regulations  of  the 
Department,  are  included,  and  the  SURPLUS  ($16,804,948  1O)  IS  THE  EXACT  SUM 
THAT  WILL  BE  SHOWN  BY  THE  SUPERINTENDENT'S  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


JOHN   A.  McCALL,  President. 

HENRY  TUCK,  Vice-President.  C.  C.  WHITNEY,  Secretary. 

A.  H.  WELCH,   Second  Vice-President.  T.   M.   BANTA,  Cashier. 

G.  W.  PERKINS,  Third  Vice-President.  J.  A.   BROWN,  Auditor. 

R.  W.  WEEKS,   Actuary.  D.   P.   K1NGSLEY,   Superintendent  of  Agencies. 

C.  N.  JONES,   Associate  Actuary.  A.   HUNTINGTON,   M.D.,   Medical  Director. 

H.  C.  RICHARDSON,  Assistant  Actuary.  S.   H.  CARNEY,  M.  D.,  Associate  Medical  Director. 

E.  N.  GIBBS,  Treasurer.  M.   L.  KING,   M.  D.,  Assistant  Medical  Director. 

H.  S.  THOMPSON,  Comptroller.  O.  H.  ROGERS,  M.  D.,  Assistant  Medical  Director. 

TRUSTEES. 

WILLIAM  H.  APPLETON,    JOHN  CLVFLIN,  WM.  B.  HORNBLOWER,  HENRY  C.  MORTIMER,  HIRAM  R.  STEELE, 

C.  C.  BALDWIN,  CHAS.  S.  FAlRrHILD,    WALTER  H.  LEWIS,  RICHARD  MUSER,  WM.  L.  STRONG, 

WILLIAM  A.  BOOTH,  E H WARD  N.  GIBBS,       WOODBURY  LANGDON,  AUGUSTUS  G.  PAINE,  HENRY  TUCK, 

WILLIAM  F.  BUCKLEY,       WILLIAM  R.  GRACE,     JOHN  A.  McCALL.  EDMUND  D.RANDOLPH,  A.  H.  WELCH, 

WILLIAM  C.  WHITNEY. 


nB  ,& 


18    *-: 

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